The Demon with Holy Radiance

RIIIP—

In an instant, a massive amount of hair was pulled up from deep underground. It had already spread out in all directions beneath the earth, churning the soil.

The strands of hair wrapped around his hand burrowed into his arm, fusing with his body and becoming even more powerful.

Before everyone’s eyes, a sphere wrapped in countless black hairs was pulled out from the ground.

The hair disintegrated in a flash. A black, thumb-sized beetle with three white stripes was held firmly in Pi Fa’s grasp, who then offered it to Yang An.

The moment the insect was pulled out by Pi Fa, streaks of white frost suddenly materialized on the ground.

No, to be precise, it wasn’t frost. It looked more like some kind of white secretion oozing from the ground, forming a massive pattern that covered more than half of the barren mountain.

Everyone looked at the scene before them, immediately realizing what the pattern represented.

It was an Array, no doubt about it!

This also meant that the insect in Pi Fa’s hand was indeed the core of the Array.

The Array was originally hidden, but moving the core had caused it to reveal itself.

Yang An took the insect from Pi Fa’s hand.

He was unable to use his Identification Ability on manifestations like Techniques and Arrays directly.

But he could use the Array’s core to obtain partial information about the Array—information that even those who set it up didn’t possess in their memories.

The striped black beetle was still alive in his hand, struggling frantically. Its several barbed legs tried to pry open Yang An’s grip, but they couldn’t budge it in the slightest.

Holding it felt like gripping a hard stone, yet he could feel the insect’s soft abdomen. As he rubbed it, he could even sense the fine, tiny hairs on its belly.

An information box appeared before Yang An’s eyes.

"[White Juice Insect]: Created by the Grand Elder of the Golden Soul Sect. Using this insect as the Array’s primary nexus allows the Array to remain hidden and grow in secret, reaching completion in one hundred days. A Moving Talisman is carved into this insect’s body; it must shed its shell after one hundred days to connect with the main Array.

"Cost of Use: Every thirty-three days, it must be irrigated with the Essence Blood of one hundred people to facilitate its growth. Without a supply of Essence Blood, it cannot sustain the Array’s expansion or its connection to the main Array. Because a Moving Talisman is inscribed on this insect, a blood sacrifice is required on the day the Array is completed in order to activate it.

"Status: Can be Purified!"

Seeing the contents of the information box, Yang An smiled in satisfaction.

’A Moving Talisman?’

’This means the Array the Golden Soul Sect set up here is a type of teleportation array.’

’It’s just as I suspected, related to the information White Bird mentioned before.’

But to his disappointment, this was only one of the Arrays the Golden Soul Sect had arranged here; it wasn’t the main Array.

This White Juice Insect would only connect to the main Array after growing and shedding its shell in one hundred days.

’The Golden Soul Sect’s plan is for a hundred days from now!’

’A hundred days...’ This made it even harder for him to guess what the Golden Soul Sect’s ultimate goal was.

If they were assisting either side in the Treasure Temple Domain, that would make sense. Even though the Golden Thread Pavilion and Great Virtue Temple had officially started their war, it wasn’t something that would end overnight.

If they were just planning to enter Broken Armor to explore, that wouldn’t be unreasonable either.

Looking at the beetle in his hand, Yang An quickly made a decision.

He relayed the information he had obtained to the members of the Scripture Defector Association, but in a different way.

In their eyes, he simply happened to know the object’s purpose and recognize the type of array inscribed on it.

"This is only one part of the Array. Destroying it would be pointless. It won’t affect the Golden Soul Sect’s plans and would instead risk exposing us. It seems we need to think about this long-term."

he said to the group, handing the insect back to Pi Fa and telling him to return it exactly as he found it.

To foil the Golden Soul Sect’s plan within three months, their only choice was to find the location of the main Array. They would have to wait.

This was a perfect opportunity to build up their strength in secret and stir up some other trouble in the meantime.

No one had any objections to Yang An’s decision.

Now that they had obtained such crucial intelligence and confirmed that the Golden Soul Sect was planning something big, this in itself was the greatest gain for the Scripture Defector Association.

"Let’s go."

Pi Fa quickly returned the insect to its original spot. The white substance that had secreted from the ground seeped back into the earth and vanished.

But just as they were about to leave, a dozen or so auras rushed toward them from the distance. In the blink of an eye, figures appeared in their line of sight, several hundred meters away.

"One Zombie God... and some small fry."

The Scripture Defector Association instantly went into a battle-ready state. The enemy had arrived so quickly; it was clear they wouldn’t be able to leave easily.

Yang An, however, had already gauged the approximate strength of the newcomers based on his perception.

Of course, the "small fry" he mentioned were also Corpse Transformations.

The only people who would appear here at this time were from the Golden Soul Sect.

And for someone to arrive in such a short time, their identity was self-evident. In all likelihood, it was the State Lord of Chongwen State.

’The Golden Soul Sect really did have other arrangements nearby.’ Yang An and his group hadn’t been here for long before the others arrived. It was obvious they had been detected the moment they got here.

"You all go first. I’ll be right behind you."

Yang An said to the members of the Scripture Defector Association, his gaze fixed on the Zombie God.

"He Tou, can you handle it?"

The one who asked was Zhi Ying, an infant held in the arms of a masked woman. The infant’s face also wore an identical mask.