The Demon with Holy Radiance

In just an instant, the aura had closed to within a thousand meters of Yang An. At the same time, he felt a sudden gaze lock onto him.

Yang An instinctively looked back toward the gaze. His eyes fell upon a woman dressed in black with a palm-sized Bronze Cauldron perched on her head like a coronet.

When he saw the Bronze Cauldron on the woman’s head, he noticed something invisible to everyone else: a flesh-and-blood cord, like an umbilical cord, connected to the bottom of the Bronze Cauldron. The other end ran down beneath her clothes, attaching to her stomach.

’So this is the Tripod Bodhisattva these people were talking about?’

With just a single glance, Yang An was certain she wasn’t from the Great Virtue Temple, as there were no female Buddhist Cultivators there.

However, when he saw the woman’s face, he had the feeling he’d seen her somewhere before.

A Cultivator’s memory becomes sharper as their Cultivation Level increases. They could easily recall things they had seen even hundreds of years ago.

Within the space of a single breath, Yang An suddenly remembered something.

He had indeed met this woman before, but it had only been a brief encounter.

Back when he was seeking the Golden Thread Sect Seal after the founding of the Mystic Path Sect, he had encountered a demon fiend catastrophe on the road and saved many people, including one particular woman.

At the time, that woman had wanted to take him as her master. But because she seemed to have some kind of master-killing constitution—the three masters she took on in succession had all died—he had decisively refused without a second thought and fled.

He never expected that the so-called Tripod Bodhisattva before him was actually the same woman from that brief encounter.

Thinking back, the woman had only survived the horde of Demon Fiends because she had a small cauldron, a Magical Artifact that shielded her aura.

To think that after such a short time, she had become the so-called Tripod Bodhisattva. It seemed this woman had also come across some significant opportunities.

But recognition was one thing; they had no real connection. Even though she wasn’t from the Great Virtue Temple, Yang An didn’t want to get involved. He immediately activated his Light and Shadow Escape Technique and vanished without a trace.

The woman, now revered as the Tripod Bodhisattva, watched as Yang An arrived with a group of people only to suddenly depart without a word. She blinked, thinking his figure seemed somewhat familiar, but she didn’t give it much thought.

But at that moment, thousands of meters away, Yang An, who had been about to leave for good, suddenly stopped in his tracks.

The Bow Lady, who was in the middle of digesting the soul from the Insect Dao, suddenly spoke, her voice filled with astonishment.

"You little bastard! Stop! I smell that old bald donkey’s aura!"

"Which old bald donkey?"

Hearing the Bow Lady’s words, Yang An halted and asked in confusion, simultaneously raising his guard.

’Only people from the Great Virtue Temple get called bald donkeys. I didn’t sense anyone from the Great Virtue Temple nearby, but the Bow Lady did? I didn’t expect her to become so powerful after devouring that Insect Dao soul.’

’But on second thought, that’s not right. If it were just some random person from the Great Virtue Temple, the Bow Lady wouldn’t be this worked up, nor would she have told me to stop.’

’Thinking back on the people from the Great Virtue Temple that the Bow Lady might know, there was only one person who could possibly provoke such a stress reaction from her.’

’Could it be...?’

"It’s that old bald donkey, Forbidden Calamity!"

Forbidden Calamity! It was Forbidden Calamity!

Yang An instantly thought of Forbidden Calamity as well—the very person he had made a deal with within the memories he experienced through the Bow Lady.

Forbidden Calamity had promised him the Seven-Colored Dust needed for the Cultivation of the Jade Kala Vajra Body, but Yang An had never received it and had eventually given up waiting.

"You’re saying Forbidden Calamity is nearby?"

Confirming Forbidden Calamity’s presence from the Bow Lady, Yang An’s first reaction wasn’t joy, but rather heightened vigilance.

’Who knew if Forbidden Calamity was even still a member of the Great Virtue Temple? What if he wasn’t here to deliver the Seven-Colored Dust, but had discovered my tracks and come to capture me?’

"It’s that woman from before! She has Forbidden Calamity’s aura on her. That old bald donkey has sensed me too, and he’s calling out to me!"

’That woman from before?’

Yang An suddenly understood why that woman had become the one the common people called the Tripod Bodhisattva. It seemed she was just a puppet on the stage, while the true mastermind behind the scenes was Forbidden Calamity.

"What is he calling to you about?"

"He’s telling us to go back. He wants to fulfill the deal!"

The deal? It undoubtedly referred to the Seven-Colored Dust promised to Yang An. Hearing this, Yang An breathed a sigh of relief. The fact that the man remembered their deal meant he was the same Forbidden Calamity that Yang An had met in the Bow Lady’s Consciousness Realm.

However, Yang An didn’t decide whether to return. Instead, he left the choice to the Bow Lady.

The Bow Lady had been trapped in the Eternal Prison for countless years; compared to him, she knew Forbidden Calamity far better. At the same time, Yang An trusted the Bow Lady completely. If she chose not to go back, he would turn and leave without hesitation.

’Compared to the Seven-Colored Dust, he cared more about his own safety. After all, what good was a treasure if you weren’t alive to use it?’

The Bow Lady was silent for a moment, seemingly receiving some kind of information. After a short while, she spoke again:

"Little bastard, let’s go back."

"Alright."

Since the Bow Lady had made her choice, Yang An asked no more questions. He immediately activated his Light and Shadow Escape Technique and returned to the spot he had just left.

The woman with the Bronze Cauldron on her head was leading the group of commoners Yang An had brought into Nirvana City. Yang An’s reappearance made her immediately turn to look at him.

Judging from the fact that Yang An had taken the initiative to deliver these commoners who had been ravaged by Demon Fiends, she could tell he wasn’t a bad person. Therefore, her initial reaction wasn’t hostility, but rather curiosity as to why this person had left only to return.