"Since everyone is here, we naturally have to go take a look. The Secret Gate is dangerous inside—this is a test for all of us, so we need to be careful," Nolan Nangong said.
The group then arrived beside the Emerald Gate. Evan Chu glanced at the gate and said, "Let's go. We'll talk once we're inside. Hopefully this time, everyone can come out with a full harvest."
This Secret Gate was extremely well hidden—if you didn’t use divine sense to inspect it carefully, you’d never see it. Even with direct divine sense, you wouldn’t notice anything; only after probing for several breaths could you detect a faint energy fluctuation. Without the inscription’s hint, everyone here might have missed the gate and its treasures entirely.
But that only applied to everyone else—for Evan Chu, things were different. With his Icefire Eye, he could have seen it easily; he just hadn’t paid attention to the spot earlier, since he’d been drawn to the Emerald Gate as soon as they arrived.
Evan took a closer look and found that the area in front of the Secret Gate was also covered in light element. These light particles acted as camouflage—ordinary people couldn’t see them at all, and if you touched them carelessly, you’d be attacked by the light molecules. This was actually a test to see if the seeker could command the light element.
Actually, Evan didn’t know that although the treasure key could open this entrance, it would trigger a different phenomenon. In that case, everyone would see the Secret Gate directly, not the Emerald Gate—the true Emerald Gate would become hidden as the secondary entrance.
Because they weren’t using the treasure key, they had to pass through the Light Barrier by force. Only two types of people could do that: those with overwhelming destructive power, or those who fully commanded light-element particles.
Those with immense strength could attack the barrier directly and break it open—but such people were as rare as phoenix feathers. Even Nolan Nangong couldn’t do it, which showed just how terrifying its defenses were. But if Evan unleashed Divine Cleave, he could easily shatter it.
The second type were people like Evan, who could simply disperse the light-element molecules and form a passage through. These were exactly the kind of successors the Emerald Immortal Fairy was seeking. Whether you used brute force or elemental mastery, the Emerald Gate would appear, along with a smooth stone wall—otherwise, the gate would never show itself.
Evan directly stripped away the light-element molecules from the Secret Gate, and its true form emerged—a finely carved stone door, decorated with a seven-clawed Golden Dragon and a beautiful fairy flying together in the sky.
When Evan Chu saw the carving, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the Emerald Immortal Empress must have had some connection to the Dragon Clan—otherwise, she wouldn’t have carved a dragon on the stone door, and not just any dragon, but a seven-clawed Golden Dragon.
The dragon’s eyes on the stone door had two sockets—clearly meant for Immortal Stones to activate the mechanism. But Evan didn’t rush to take out any stones. After all, Martial Spirit Dominion’s Grand Elder was much more skilled with mechanisms and restrictions than he was; with the elder here, there was nothing to worry about.
"The dragon’s eye sockets on this door are where you need to insert Immortal Stones. But only supreme-grade Immortal Stones will work—Domain Lord, try putting two in and see what happens," the Grand Elder said.
Nolan Nangong immediately took out two supreme-grade Immortal Stones and placed them into the dragon’s eye sockets. Everyone stepped back a few paces—who knew if triggering the door would set off some hidden mechanism? If a deadly trap went off, it would be impossible to guard against. Caution was the only way.
After several breaths, the stone door flashed with dazzling light and gave off a grinding sound, slowly rising to reveal a two-meter-high opening.
"Let’s head in. Looks like there aren’t any traps at the entrance—this stretch should be safe," the Grand Elder said.
Evan Chu led the way at the front. After all, the vanguard was the most dangerous position, and only he had the defense and strength for such a tough and honorable task.
Nolan Nangong followed behind Evan, then came the Grand Elder, Yvonne Xuan, Serena Frost, and Lara Luo. As soon as they entered the tunnel, the stone door slammed down, sealing the entrance tightly.
Suddenly, the entire tunnel went pitch black. "Everyone, be careful!" Nolan Nangong warned immediately.
But soon, a series of popping sounds echoed through the tunnel—lamps were suddenly lighting up, one after another. These lamps were ancient and unusual; in fact, they weren’t really lamps at all, since they had no flame. Instead, each contained a transparent Light Element Bead.