With his divine sense restricted, Evan Yang walked through a world shrouded in endless white, almost like an ordinary person. One careless step could mean death.
After a day, Evan felt as if he'd entered a white void. There were no people, no creatures—only yellow earth, some mixed with crystal ore. If he dug a little, he'd see the crystals beneath the surface.
Aside from these discoveries, Evan noticed that inside the Death Crystal Field’s formation, there was no night—only day. Even after a full day and night, it was still bright, with no sign of darkness.
“Why isn’t there a single person around?” Evan muttered as he walked along, unable to hold back his frustration.
The Death Crystal Field was unimaginably vast, and only daring Spirit-Wandering experts would even enter. So, it was easy to guess that not many people were here at this moment.
Half a day passed, and Evan still didn’t see a single soul. Helpless, he wondered if he’d gotten lost.
But with his divine sense restricted, even checking if he was lost was difficult. Besides, the space here kept shifting—according to Vice Alliance Master Grant, the next step out of the Death Crystal Field could happen at any moment.
Given Evan’s current situation, all he could do was keep walking. He couldn’t fly, and running risked stumbling into sudden danger, so he had to carefully explore on foot.
It wasn’t until the fifth day that Evan sensed a change in the spiritual energy around him.
“Finally, the spiritual energy density is changing,” Evan took a deep breath, then prepared to find a suitable spot to cultivate.
After about half an hour, Evan found a hollow that looked like a cave. He went inside and set up a formation to boost spiritual energy. With the concentration here, Evan could absorb far more spiritual energy than an ordinary person in a short time.
Just as he finished setting up and was about to close his eyes, two people appeared before him.
He watched as the two immediately started fighting.
“Wait, can’t they see me?” Evan could see them clearly, but it was as if they couldn’t see him at all, fighting just a short distance from his formation.
As they fought, the two eventually stopped and started chatting and laughing together.
“So they’re just two friends cultivating here,” Evan realized from their conversation, watching them with curiosity.
Both were mid-stage Spirit-Wandering cultivators. With his powerful divine sense, Evan could see their exact cultivation levels, but he was curious why they couldn’t see him, even though he was right there.
Listening to their conversation, Evan gradually understood.
“Brother Lin, after half a year of cultivation, you’ve improved a lot,” one said with a smile.
“Brother Tian, aren’t you the same?” the other replied with a laugh.
“Yeah, after half a year here, we’ve gotten this far. If we could go deeper, the spiritual energy would be even denser and our cultivation would be much faster,” said Tianlong, the one called Brother Tian.
Lin Xiong, the one called Brother Lin, agreed, “Exactly. But there are late-stage Spirit-Wandering experts deeper in. If we accidentally intrude on their cultivation zones, we could end up dead.”
“Sigh, it’s all because divine sense is restricted here. If we could reach late-stage Spirit-Wandering, then when those experts’ divine sense found us, we’d be able to escape in time,” Tianlong complained.
“Yeah, only those with stronger cultivation and divine sense can see farther here. The weaker you are, the weaker your divine sense, and you’re just a blind target for the strong—maybe even wiped out,” Lin Xiong said helplessly.
“Let’s just keep cultivating, then. If we reach late-stage Spirit-Wandering, we can go deeper,” Tianlong said, loving and hating this place at the same time.
“Alright, let’s go,” Lin Xiong replied with a smile.
Tianlong smiled back and was about to find a place to cultivate when Lin Xiong suddenly saw a black thread appear before him. His face changed in alarm, "Not good, our fighting just now caused a spatial fissure to appear."
"Where?" Tianlong, who hadn’t noticed yet, exclaimed in shock.
Lin Xiong pointed out the black thread to Tianlong. The two looked at each other and could only slowly circle around it to leave.
Once they’d gone, Evan stepped out of the hollow, looked around, and muttered to himself, "So that’s how it works. No wonder I can see them but they can’t see me—my divine sense is stronger than theirs."
Now, Evan truly appreciated the advantage of having stronger divine sense. He didn’t slow down, heading straight for the spatial fissure the two had pointed out.
“Is this a spatial fissure?” Evan muttered, seeing several black threads in the air. He picked up a rock from the ground and tossed it toward them.
With a sizzle and a bang, the rock was sliced clean in two and both halves fell in the direction Evan had thrown.
“So sharp!” Evan was shocked by how terrifying the spatial fissure was. He could hardly imagine—if a cultivator ran through here without noticing, they’d be cut to pieces.
Feeling lucky he hadn’t been running, Evan patted his chest and looked closely. There were five fissures in total—all caused by their earlier fight.
“Looks like the space here is fragile—a strong enough attack can easily create a fissure.” Evan analyzed, then carefully left the area. He made a mental note: from now on, he’d always use five strands of divine sense to scout ahead before moving.
This was the first strange thing Evan encountered in the Death Crystal Field. He was grateful he’d met those two, or he wouldn’t have known about the fissures—or that divine sense restriction varied by person.
Those with stronger divine sense could see farther and naturally had the advantage.
The deeper in, the denser the spiritual energy. Evan packed up his formation and headed deeper, now knowing his divine sense would be a huge asset here.
But things were never that easy. As soon as Evan entered, he was swept into a vortex.
“Since when did Spirit-Wandering experts become so common?” Evan wondered, seeing more than twenty of them at a glance.
Most were late-stage Spirit-Wandering, though some were mid-stage.
It was the first time Evan had ever seen so many Spirit-Wandering experts together, and he couldn’t help but be a little surprised. He stood at a distance, watching them.
Luckily, they didn’t seem to notice Evan, so he muttered to himself, "Just how strong is my divine sense?"
Evan had no clear idea how much his divine sense had strengthened. He stayed off to the side, activating Thousand-Mile Sound to listen in and find out why these people had gathered.
It seemed he’d arrived just in time. As Evan calmed himself, he heard a man, apparently one of the stronger ones, introduce himself: "I am Daoist Tianling. You all should know my name, right?"
Sure enough, the others’ expressions changed. Someone whispered, "Isn’t he the one who’s half a step into peak Spirit-Wandering, Daoist Tianling?"
"That’s me," Daoist Tianling replied with a smile.
"Then you have to stand up for us and take back that place," someone chimed in.
"We’ll definitely take back the place, but there are a lot of people there. And I’ve heard the top expert from the Eastern Continent, someone from the Huang family, is in that camp," Daoist Tianling said, frowning.
"What?" Hearing 'top expert from the Eastern Continent,' everyone deflated like popped balloons. They all knew that person was the second strongest on the continent—taking anything from him was impossible. None of them had the strength to challenge him, not even Daoist Tianling, who was still short of peak Spirit-Wandering.
Evan was shocked and suspicious, "Him?" He remembered how the Huang family nearly killed him in the Southern Sea—just thinking about it made Evan hate him and wish he could crush him underfoot someday.
Seeing everyone’s mood, Daoist Tianling thought for a moment and said, "Don’t lose heart. There’s still a way—we can negotiate, maybe get them to give us a portion of the area."
"Will they? That’s the densest area here—cultivating there is twice as effective as anywhere else," someone sighed, doubtful.
Evan finally understood what they were after—it was all about territory. He learned more about the Death Crystal Field: outside, Spirit-Wandering experts were revered, but here, they were just like ordinary people, still subject to oppression.
Reflecting on this, Evan realized: in relative strength, whether your cultivation is low or high, as long as you’re at the top of your stage, you become the one everyone admires. Cultivation never really has an endpoint.
What comes after Spirit-Wandering? Evan was eager to break through and discover the next realm.
As Evan was lost in thought, Daoist Tianling spoke again: “That Huang family expert—we can negotiate with him. But if he refuses, we won’t go easy on the Huang family. If we can’t fight him directly, we’ll just target his descendants and anyone connected to him.”
The meaning was clear: if we can’t beat you, we won’t fight you head-on—but your descendants and anyone related to you will never have peace.
“Sigh, another hypocrite,” Evan thought, hearing someone threaten innocent people for personal gain. He gained a new perspective on Spirit-Wandering experts.
Some thought it made sense and decided to go with Daoist Tianling, while others hesitated. After a quarter hour, everyone agreed—they’d go with Daoist Tianling and give it a try.
Seeing everyone agree, Daoist Tianling led the group off in another direction.
Evan had promised Old Clam he’d teach that person a lesson. He couldn’t take him on yet, but it was worth learning more—so he followed the group, wanting to learn more about the Eastern Continent’s top expert.
Daoist Tianling and the others had no idea someone was tailing them. They were focused on finding someone to negotiate with.
Soon, Evan and the group arrived at a small mountain.
The mountain was entirely green.
Seeing its quality, Evan was stunned—every piece was top-grade crystal ore. He remembered how his feud with the Wang family had started over a single crystal ore, and now he was seeing a whole mountain of the stuff. He began to mutter to himself.
The group of twenty or so people stopped as well.