"I refuse to believe I can't take you down." Warren Wong retreated, fixing his gaze on Evan Yang and letting out a cold snort.
Evan Yang was curious what other cards Warren Wong had left to play. Suddenly, Warren's expression changed dramatically—his skin darkened, then flushed red and purple, and finally wings sprouted from his back and horns grew from his head.
"What is this?" Seeing Warren Wong like that, Evan Yang instantly recalled the Hundred-Vermin Sect he encountered in the mist forest—those people could grow wings and horns when controlled.
But Warren Wong remained clear-headed, not like someone under control. This left Evan Yang puzzled.
"Go die!" After transforming, Warren Wong shouted, then shot toward Evan Yang at incredible speed, his arm swinging with even more power.
Evan Yang aimed at the incoming strike and threw a punch. When their fists collided, he could clearly feel that the force was on a whole different level.
After pulling his fist back, Evan Yang glanced at his hand and saw a trace of blood on his knuckles. His body was already tough, but Warren Wong's transformed state had actually managed to draw blood—just imagine how fierce that punch was.
Warren Wong was stunned. He knew that after transforming, his fists were so strong he could shatter spirit-treasure-grade weapons with a single punch, yet Evan Yang seemed completely unharmed.
"How are you not hurt?" Warren Wong asked in shock.
"Did you expect me to be hurt?" Evan Yang was surprised, but it wasn't anything serious.
"You—I refuse to believe I can't handle you now!" Warren Wong was completely enraged. The wings behind him unfurled, and his speed increased even further.
Evan Yang's steps looked a bit strained, but with the help of his divine sense, he could predict Warren Wong's next landing spot and attack direction, then respond accordingly.
Just like that, the two fought fiercely again, and countless thin threads filled the space around them.
By the end, Evan Yang finally began to gain the upper hand thanks to his overwhelming spiritual power.
Warren Wong hadn't expected Evan Yang's spiritual power consumption to be so slow. After transforming, Warren's spiritual power was draining even faster than before, and he was starting to lose ground against Evan.
So he started to feel the urge to retreat, which only made Evan Yang's advantage even greater.
"Trying to run? Not a chance!" Seeing Warren Wong suddenly turn and flee, Evan Yang snorted coldly.
He immediately gave chase. Even though Warren Wong's spiritual power was nearly spent, his speed was still astonishing. Evan Yang couldn't understand how Warren managed it—he himself had Phantom Steps, but after transforming, Warren was so fast that even knowing his next direction, Evan simply couldn't keep up.
Very quickly, Evan Yang was left behind.
"Damn it!" Evan Yang cursed under his breath, frustrated at losing his target.
He looked around in all directions, not even knowing where he had ended up. The place was eerily quiet.
The silence was almost frightening, so Evan Yang moved with extra caution, afraid Warren Wong might suddenly spring out with some trick.
On the other side, Warren Wong quickly retreated, found a spot Evan Yang couldn't locate, and stopped. "How did that brat cultivate like this?"
He panted, thinking about what had just happened.
"Come in." Just as Warren Wong was recalling the recent events, a voice came from behind a wall.
Warren Wong pushed the wall open and walked in, seeing a mangled corpse lying on a rock. The corpse's mouth moved, saying, "What? Still haven't settled it?"
Warren Wong shook his head and told his master what had just happened.
After listening to Warren Wong, the man said, "Is he really that strong?"
"He really is." Warren Wong nodded.
"Strange. I've already boosted you so much, but if we keep going, even I won't have the ability to enhance you any further," the man muttered.
"Master, can't you boost my strength any further?" Wang Hong desperately wanted to deal with Yang Han himself, and he was so close—just one more step in power and he could take Yang Han down.
"No, especially now. There's only one year left until I can emerge, and this is my most dangerous time. No matter what, you must guard this place. If those people discover I'm here, the consequences would be unimaginable," the man replied.
"One year? Is that the Golden Silkworm Shedding?" Wang Hong knew the man before him had used the Golden Silkworm Shedding technique, so he wanted to know what had happened to the original body.
"That body is currently being watched by the strongest person on the continent. As soon as I move, he'll move too, so I haven't summoned it. Only after I recover and walk out can I call it over. Once my two bodies merge, even that Blue Clan expert won't be able to do anything to me," the man said with a smile.
"But a year feels a bit too long, especially since Yang Han has already killed so many of your cherished creatures," Wang Hong said after thinking for a moment.
"How many have died?" the man asked.
"Nearly two hundred late-stage Spirit-Wandering black insects have died, over a thousand mid-stage, and more than ten thousand early-stage ones," Wang Hong reported.
"What?" The man was shocked and furious when he heard those numbers.
"That's why we have to stop him. If this keeps up, even if you emerge later, without the insects' help, it'll be hard to unify the continent and make the humans outside submit," Wang Hong replied.
"Damn it! Wasn't he supposed to be fine outside? Why did he come here and stir up trouble?" The man's surprise at Yang Han's appearance was obvious, and after hearing how many backup forces Yang Han had killed, he really wanted to rush out and drain Yang Han dry.
"Ten years ago, he fell into a spatial crack. But when I discovered a swarm of insects had been slaughtered, I tried to find out why, and ended up seeing him." Warren Wong explained.
"Spatial crack? He got out? Impossible—even Immortals can't survive those cracks. How could he possibly withstand it?" The man clearly didn't believe it.
"Master, are there really Immortals?" Warren Wong asked curiously, seeing the man compare with Immortals.
"Immortals? Of course there are, and they're extremely powerful." The man seemed lost in thought.
"Really? Then how does one become an Immortal?" Warren Wong was drawn in by the idea.
"Become an Immortal? It's nearly impossible, especially since there are several realms above Spirit-Wandering. It's just that the humans here are ignorant—they think Spirit-Wandering is impressive." The man sneered.
There are realms above Spirit-Wandering? What could those be? Warren Wong was stunned. It was the first time he'd heard someone deny that Spirit-Wandering was the highest realm on the continent.
"I'll tell you about it after we unify the continent. You won't lose out." The man realized he'd said too much and quickly changed the subject.
Warren Wong calmed down and started thinking about Evan Yang. He desperately wanted Evan dead, but aside from his master, no one could deal with him.
The man lying on the blood-soaked stone bed knew he needed time to recover, and during this period, he couldn't be disturbed—otherwise, the consequences would be severe.
So Warren Wong could only be sent out to organize the insects, avoiding direct clashes with Evan Yang and preserving their strength until the man on the blood bed could settle accounts.
Evan Yang was originally in a quiet spot, until Warren Wong appeared again, chased him, and then vanished.
At first, Evan Yang didn't think much of it, but after several times, he realized Warren Wong was deliberately letting himself be seen—and every time Evan noticed him, Warren disappeared. Whenever Evan headed in a certain direction, Warren would reappear.
"Why is he trying to lead me away? Is there something ahead?" This suspicion made Evan Yang march down that path, ignoring Warren Wong.
Warren Wong saw that Evan Yang wasn't paying attention to him anymore—even if he appeared nearby, Evan wouldn't follow, but kept moving forward.
"Did he figure it out?" Warren Wong muttered, seeing Evan Yang keep heading in one direction.
This suspicion made Warren Wong extremely anxious, so he hurried off with all the insects to intercept Evan Yang.
Evan Yang, who had been making smooth progress, suddenly encountered a swarm of insects—dozens at a time.
"What's going on? It used to be one at a time, now they're coming in groups?" Evan Yang had fought late-stage Spirit-Wandering insects one-on-one before, but now there were ten or more at once. The pressure spiked, but Evan was even more certain there was something important ahead.
So no matter what, Evan Yang was determined to break through these insects.
These insects didn't care about numbers—they all charged forward, each unleashing explosive attacks at Evan Yang.
Evan Yang quickly retreated, avoiding direct confrontation, and switched to picking them off one by one. He even brought out daggers—controlling hundreds was easy with his six hundred strands of divine sense.
Daggers zipped through the air, slicing the insects' legs and arms, making them scream in pain—only for new limbs to grow back almost instantly.
"Damn, they can regenerate that fast?" Evan Yang was shocked.
Warren Wong stepped out. "Kid, I refuse to believe I can't bury you under sheer numbers!"
"I thought you were too scared to show up." Evan Yang laughed in surprise at seeing Warren Wong.
"Run? Hmph, you're the one running. Let's see who has to run now!" Warren Wong was irritated by Evan Yang's taunt. He snorted, and several giant late-stage Spirit-Wandering insects appeared behind him.
Evan Yang stared at Warren Wong. "How are you so close with these insects? Are you their parent or something?"
"You! You're the one who's their parent!" Warren Wong hated transforming—he ended up looking neither human nor insect, so Evan's words infuriated him.
Evan Yang didn't care whether Warren Wong was angry—he just launched an attack.
Feeling Evan Yang's powerful strike, Warren Wong hurriedly threw out a heavy punch to meet it. The surrounding insects also launched attacks at Evan.
There was no way Evan Yang could withstand so many attacks alone, so he quickly withdrew from Warren Wong's punch and went back to picking off enemies one by one.
Warren Wong didn't want Evan Yang to succeed, so he kept commanding the insects. The previously chaotic insect army became highly organized under Warren's direction.
This made things tough for Evan Yang, but thanks to his speed, only Warren Wong could keep up—the other insects struggled, making it easy for Evan to target one and attack.
"It's not hard—just let me have some spiritual power." The man, afraid Evan Yang would change his mind, pleaded as he struggled to dig.
Evan Yang smiled, then worked on him for a while before saying, "Alright, that's done."
The man spun in place and laughed, "Great, great!"
Just as Evan Yang was about to let him leave, a crowd appeared outside the tower. If Evan hadn't shrunk the tower to its smallest size and covered it with hardened earth, it would have been discovered by those people.