Chapter Ninety-One: Evolution Island, Part Seventeen

The watcher from afar, Luo Hanya, froze for a moment. In his heart, a storm was already raging. Earlier, when the butcher’s blade had risen to its feet while grievously wounded, he had felt something faintly wrong, but he had not taken it seriously; he had assumed it was merely one of the blade’s abilities. Then the monster Harley had blurted out soul burning, and that was when Luo Hanya was completely stunned, because he could clearly sense it from the butcher’s blade.

What, in the end, were these things? Skills? Or a personal will that had broken through its limits?

Or perhaps an unknown game system? A system rooted in willpower?

Was this really just a game? Why did everything feel so real? Could a game even reach this degree?

Could it be—

Just as Luo Hanya was straining his mind, desperate to untangle the confusion in his heart, the outcome of the battle on the other side had already been decided. The Heaven Ghost had failed to devour Monster Harley, and Harley, still shaken, remained standing. Another figure, leaning on a ghost-head greatsword and barely keeping himself upright, also held firmly to his original stance.

At the very last instant before the Heaven Ghost was about to swallow Monster Harley, it dispersed. Utterly abrupt, without the slightest warning, yet somehow reasonable. How could it have died so easily? Mutual destruction and the like was far too strange, was it not? A player who had been crushed the entire time suddenly erupting with hidden power in the final moment to defeat the demon king—how could a plot like that, one found only in fiery comics, possibly happen?

"Heh, finally dead at last. How interesting. I’ve tasted the despair of being on the verge of death once more!" Monster Harley laughed eerily, as though he had gone mad, laughing until tears streamed down his face.

"You really are my lucky star. Thanks to you, I truly had no hope of evolving into a seventh-tier being." Monster Harley cast an enigmatic glance to the left and right. "The two of you still plan to keep hiding? If you don’t come out now, I’ll invite you out myself!"

"Oh? Quite arrogant, aren’t you? I’ve never been hiding at all. You simply couldn’t find me." A ripple suddenly appeared in midair, and a figure emerged out of nowhere. It was Ou Guyu. He looked at Monster Harley with disdain, cold and haughty, as though he were staring at a corpse.

"And where do you think you’re going, sir?" After appearing, Ou Guyu casually pointed toward the distance. Luo Hanya, who had been planning to slip away quietly, slammed into what felt like an invisible wall and could no longer move even an inch farther.

Luo Hanya forcefully punched at the air before him, then turned around helplessly and said, "Aha, um, my family’s sow has just given birth, and I’m in a rush to get back. You two can do whatever you like; I won’t interfere at all. Could you maybe make things a little easier for me?"

"A sow giving birth?" Ou Guyu replied with a bright smile, waving his hand. "Go on, then. Go on."

"Uh, then I’ll be going first?" Seeing that radiant smile, a chill rose in Luo Hanya’s heart. The hairs all over his body seemed to stand on end, as though some ancient beast had fixed its gaze upon him.

"As long as you can survive!" Ou Guyu still wore that brilliant smile, teasing Luo Hanya as if he were looking at a small, trapped animal.

Luo Hanya’s eyes flickered. Feeling the astonishing pressure coming from every direction, it seemed as though the void itself had frozen into solid matter, and he had been locked inside this tiny room with no road to heaven and no door to earth. Unexpectedly, Luo Hanya did not panic. Instead, he grinned. He waved eagerly at Ou Guyu and said, "Then I’m really going now? You two carry on."

No sooner had his words fallen than a streak of blue light pierced through time and space. Light and shadow flashed, and Luo Hanya vanished without a trace, as though he had been taken away by that mysterious blue radiance from nowhere.

Ou Guyu first paused, then smoothed the folds his earlier movement had wrinkled in his clothes. The smile on his face remained as bright as ever. He glanced into the distance and murmured, "What an interesting fellow. But since you’ve come here, we’ll meet again before long."

"All right, now it’s our turn."

At the same time, in the farthest north, a deep blue light flashed across the sky and brought down a pitifully disheveled figure. Though Luo Hanya’s clothes were still neat, his hair had been transformed into a complete mess, bristling and exploding in every direction.

"Pah, pah, pah! What kind of escape dagger is that? It’s a life-taking dagger! What a cursed thing—almost got me shaken to death. That was basically a roller coaster! Terrible review! Terrible review!" Luo Hanya lifted his middle finger high at the distant blue light, his nose nearly pointing skyward.

Having finished his rant, he was even more bewildered. His half-open mouth froze in place. Like a man possessed, he touched the ice right beside him, and his expression became wonderfully complicated.

"Heh heh, how interesting. You’ve sent me to a place like this." Luo Hanya forced himself to remain calm, though his chest kept heaving and his face had turned bright red; his mind had clearly already exploded. "I-I..." His teeth chattered uncontrollably, his tongue seeming unable to function properly, and then he began sneezing in a fit, utterly unable to stop.

Luo Hanya angrily activated his demonic transformation and faced the freezing winds of the polar region, shivering all over. He had absolutely no desire to remain in this damned place for even one more second.

"Are you cold?" A cold voice drifted through the wind and reached Luo Hanya’s ear.

"Nonsense! Of course I’m cold!" Luo Hanya snapped back irritably. Then his body stiffened, and he stared warily at a huge crystal of ice not far away. Enduring the discomfort brought on by the chill, he asked, "A gentleman does not lurk in the dark. Why not show yourself and speak with me?"

"Speak with you? No need. You should hurry and leave. Heh heh, don’t freeze to death here. That would be such a waste." The voice remained icy, even carrying a hint of mocking ridicule, as if it held Luo Hanya in the deepest contempt.

"So you’re the King of the Polar Lands, the ancient demon beast Lanze? Why are you cowering inside the ice like a turtle with its head tucked in? And you dare call yourself the King of the Polar Lands? Could your true form be some thousand-year-old tortoise?" Sensing that the visitor meant no good, Luo Hanya showed no fear at all and immediately blasted Lanze with a torrent of abuse.

"Say whatever you like. Perhaps you’ll end up looking like this too, who knows? Heh heh, trying to anger me so I’ll come out? You’d better honestly prepare to be buried here. Don’t even think about struggling." Lanze replied calmly.

Luo Hanya rolled his eyes, but in his heart he kept searching for a way out. Fighting in this polar land was far too disadvantageous for him, yet he could not leave so easily. There was a King of the Polar Lands lurking in the shadows, ready to ambush him at any moment. Who would dare depart in peace? He had originally wanted to provoke that thousand-year-old tortoise, but the fellow was so cautious and guarded that he never even showed his head, as though he had already taken Luo Hanya completely in hand.