Evelyn, much like a kindly elder from next door, imparted the myriad mysteries of the Nihility Sea to them. Through his exposition, Shi Yan and Audrey finally gained a clear understanding of this domain.

The two learned just how vast and boundless the true Starry Sea was, realizing countless realms similar to their own existed, and grasped the wondrous nature of the "Nihility Sea." They discovered that the Primordial Beings were not limited to just Huang, Shi, and Hui, and acknowledged that their own cultivation in the realm of the Beginning God was, in fact, quite minuscule within the Nihility Sea.

"The Desolate Domain is a world created by the Primordial Being Huang. It is truly remarkable. Have any of the elders from your lineage ever truly met Huang and received the core inheritance from him?"

Evelyn suddenly posed this question. As the words left his mouth, the fleshy seam splitting his brow twitched, and a profound spiritual fluctuation pierced through his third eye, injecting itself directly into Audrey's gaze.

Audrey suddenly became disoriented, her eyes glazing over with confusion. At only the first heaven of the Beginning God realm, she was caught entirely off guard by Evelyn’s sudden maneuver. She instantly lost consciousness for a brief moment, murmuring dazedly, "What lineage elders? We were just tricking you..."

The instant those words were uttered, Shi Yan's temple throbbed violently; he knew things had taken a turn for the worse.

His expression instantly hardened to the extreme. Without a second thought, he yanked Audrey close to his side, channeling a thread of intense coldness from his palm into her body.

With a sharp shiver, Audrey snapped awake, her exquisitely beautiful face immediately overlaid with frost, her lovely eyes chilling to the bone.

Shi Yan cursed his own lack of caution inwardly. He had drastically underestimated the other party's cunning and insidious nature. Evelyn had maintained a benevolent smile throughout, meticulously explaining their questions, his amenable attitude having successfully eroded Shi Yan's guard. Shi Yan had actually believed the old man was genuinely concerned about the lie he’d spun and was reaching out to forge a connection.

He hadn't anticipated this old rogue would be so treacherous, spending so much effort to enlighten them merely to lull them into temporary complacency, before suddenly focusing on the lower-realm Audrey and unleashing a soul sorcery that instantly caught her, causing her to blurt out the truth.

"What an insidious old fiend!" Audrey retorted, her face cold, wisps of phantom energy swirling around her body. She ruthlessly excised a trace of lingering spiritual residue from her mind and spat out the accusation with icy disdain.

Upon extracting the truth from Audrey, Evelyn, Adams, and Mahisha—the three members of the Heavenly Eye Clan—fell into sudden, collective silence.

Mahisha merely knitted her brows, revealing an expression of strange melancholy, letting out a soft sigh as if pitying the fate that awaited the pair.

Evelyn and Adams, the two senior brothers, underwent an immediate transformation; their expressions turned sinister and icy cold. The gentle smiles they had worn vanished completely, revealing their true natures.

"Heh heh heh," Evelyn sneered chillingly, "They really are two ignorant little fools. Whatever is inside that meteorite must be a secret treasure of your lineage, right? It caused my soul such severe damage earlier, making me suspicious and causing me to waste so much time verifying the truth. Do you have any idea how much time you cost me?"

As he spoke, Evelyn moved like a stream of cold light, soaring away from the Fire Crystal Cloud Boat beneath them and instantly landing on the very meteorite where Shi Yan and Audrey stood.

He turned back, addressing Adams and Mahisha, "They are merely junior Beginning Gods; I can handle them easily. They won't be able to escape. There’s no need for either of you to waste your divine power."

Adams nodded, his voice grim. "Then we leave it to you, Senior Brother."

"Senior Brother, must you be so merciless?" Mahisha frowned slightly.

"In the Nihility Sea, there are no rules. Encountering us is simply their bad luck," Adams scoffed. "Besides, there should be valuable items inside the meteorite beneath them. You are new here, Mahisha, and don't know the dangers. If we ran into someone at the second heaven of the Immortal realm today, we might not meet a good end either. Do not show pity, or you will suffer greatly in the future!"

Hearing this, Mahisha sighed deeply, choosing not to press the matter further, knowing persuasion would be useless.

"Old man, your schemes run deep. You expended so much effort to meticulously explain the mysteries of the Nihility Sea to us. I only want to ask one thing: was anything you said before true?" Shi Yan's brow was tightly locked as he watched Evelyn approach leisurely, secretly mobilizing his divine power.

"Nothing I said before was false. To make you let down your guard, naturally, I couldn't expose any flaws. You lack experience; don't blame me for being ruthless." Evelyn’s face was now cold and grim, completely devoid of his former benevolent warmth. He walked directly toward Shi Yan. "I will kill you first, and then use your junior sister's soul to interrogate the secrets hidden within the meteorite."

"To destroy us completely just because your soul was injured—don't you think that is excessively cruel?" Shi Yan managed a wry smile.

"My soul suffered immense depletion; it has affected my breakthrough. You must pay with your lives!" Evelyn growled, his mass of chestnut curls shimmering with a dull gray luster. He raised both hands high, and his palms suddenly burst forth with brilliant golden light—divine power of the sharpest sharpness instantly condensed.

Suddenly, countless minute, glittering golden shards, like a torrential flood of billions of fine needles, rained down upon Shi Yan and Audrey.

Every single golden shard carried a trace of Evelyn's soul essence, as if he had perfectly fused his soul and divine power, granting the shards sentience that locked onto the soul signatures of Shi Yan and Audrey.

The torrential golden downpour descended. The phantom spirits within Audrey's altar shrieked; a chill swept over her body, and her beautiful eyes flickered with terror and unease.

She was, after all, only at the first heaven of the Beginning God realm, while Evelyn was at the first heaven of the Immortal realm. His cultivation of the Golden Absolute Profundity was profound, and the fluency with which he merged divine power and soul far surpassed most Golden Profundity wielders in the Desolate Domain. Their understanding of power, profundity, and the soul was clearly more exquisite.

"Blood Shield!"

Shi Yan’s expression was icy. He raised a hand and pointed; a sea of blood surged out from the Origin World within his brow, transforming into a Blood Shield as vast as the firmament. Within the shield, patterns of blood-colored clouds writhed, resembling an eerie, vibrant flower, managing to intercept all the golden shards.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

The golden shards struck the Blood Shield, causing streams of golden lightning to flare across its surface. The sharp, metallic force within the shards continued to batter the shield.

Blood burned within Shi Yan's body, and a ferocious aura erupted from the crown of his head, rising like an evil pillar of blood, connecting above the Blood Shield.

"Boom!"

A series of blood-red halos suddenly manifested on the surface of the Blood Shield. A deathly aura that annihilated living beings rapidly spread out like a rising tide.

"Oh!"

Evelyn's eyes brightened, and he let out a surprised, soft exclamation, shaken that Shi Yan could block his divine technique.

Behind him, Adams and Mahisha were also momentarily stunned, showing expressions of shock. Clearly, they had not anticipated that Shi Yan, at the third heaven of the Beginning God realm, could withstand their senior brother's initial assault.

Although they knew Evelyn surely hadn't used his full strength, given the vast disparity in their cultivation levels, Shi Yan surviving this attack was enough to prove he was no ordinary individual.

"Young man, your divine power is pure and immense. It’s no wonder you dared to wander the Nihility Sea without knowing anything. But alas, the first people you met were us!" Evelyn chuckled darkly.

Countless golden shards suddenly materialized in Evelyn’s palm, resembling golden fireflies floating in the void.

These golden lights instantly condensed, forming a ten-meter-long golden buzzsaw. A golden filament connected the buzzsaw to his left hand. He gave his left hand a shake; the golden buzzsaw flared with golden rainbow light, wielding the keen edge of the Golden Sharpness Profundity, and once again hacked ferociously down upon the Blood Shield!

"Crash!"

The Blood Shield erupted with millions of golden motes of light, its surface sinking inward dramatically. The bloody cloud patterns within also dimmed considerably.

"Crack! Crack! Crack!"

Shi Yan's body surface began to fracture like shattered jade. His flesh, normally hard as iron, cracked under the terrifying recoil, revealing the muscles and sinews beneath his skin.

Yet, not a single drop of blood splattered.

He shook his shoulders; an incredibly surging life force emanated from his internal Divine Body, and the ruptured skin and flesh instantly healed, glowing with a blood-red sheen.

"I know you possess the cultivation of the Immortal realm, but the thing I have excelled at since my debut is crushing the confidence and arrogance of those whose cultivation surpasses mine," Shi Yan grinned widely.

His Profundity abruptly shifted, and the fluctuations of a vast and profound starry sea surged forth from his entire being.

"Meteorite Dance!"

Starlight shot out from his ten fingers like chains, striking ten surrounding meteorites. These ten meteorites suddenly established a connection with him, as if they had become extensions of his limbs, turning into his secret treasure technique.

The ten colossal meteorites, dragged and spun by the starlight chains, suddenly broke free from the flow of debris and hurtled toward Evelyn one by one. Their terrifying momentum was magnitudes more ferocious than Evelyn’s billions of golden shards.

Evelyn’s expression changed abruptly.

Adams and Mahisha exchanged a glance, their expressions also growing solemn. They were gaining a new level of understanding regarding how difficult Shi Yan was to deal with. They were now somewhat regretful that Evelyn had been so rash, overreacting and escalating the situation unnecessarily.

Audrey, showing good sense, quietly retreated behind Shi Yan, allowing her phantom energies to swirl around her. She released her unique Profundity, using her soul signature to lock onto Evelyn’s every move, preventing him from suddenly invading Shi Yan's consciousness with soul power.

Generally speaking, cultivators of higher realms possessed far superior spiritual sense and soul power compared to those of lower ranks; sometimes, divine sense alone could force the will of a lower-realm cultivator to collapse, turning them into easy prey.

Audrey had just fallen victim to this exact tactic. If Shi Yan hadn't suddenly reached out to help her, she might still be lost in confusion.

Because of this, she feared Shi Yan would be targeted similarly, so she cautiously utilized the unique Profundity of the Nether Emperor Clan, using countless phantom spirits as a defensive barrier to ward off Evelyn's soul intrusion.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

The ten meteorites, like gigantic baseballs, slammed toward him. Evelyn dared not meet the impact head-on; he transformed into a cluster of golden cloud matter and immediately began to drift away.

The golden buzzsaw remained connected to him. As he maneuvered it, the golden buzzsaw fiercely hacked toward the Blood Shield once more.

"Not so easy," Shi Yan sneered. He flicked his left middle finger, and a meteorite shot forward, slamming directly into the golden buzzsaw.

A shower of golden light erupted, and the massive meteorite instantly exploded into fragments, scattering stone fragments like rain.

But Evelyn was also jolted violently; the golden cloud matter that formed his body dispersed, and he staggered, his face flushed deep red, with a trace of blood at the corner of his mouth—he had clearly suffered another injury.

This time, it was damage to his physical divine body.

...(To be continued)RQ