The Demon with Holy Radiance

Then there was a good chance he was an Original Spirit, just like that woman.

He remembered the woman’s last words. She had wanted to go home.

’This "home"... could she have been referring to *that* place?’

Yang An’s mind wandered. It was a shame the woman had died so suddenly. If only she had left behind a little more information.

Things here weren’t static; one just had to be on a certain frequency of consciousness to perceive their more unusual aspects.

Time was limited, and Yang An didn’t want to run around aimlessly like last time.

He was going to try the method Fu Ming had mentioned. If that didn’t work, he’d figure something else out.

An incense stick’s time later, Yang An was soaring through the air, searching for living beings in Lower Hu on his current frequency of consciousness. Suddenly, it was as if he’d slammed into an invisible wall, his flight brought to an abrupt halt.

Drawing on her previous experience, the Bow Lady quickly began adjusting the output of pain to change Yang An’s frequency of consciousness.

But since it was impossible to tell whether these beings existed on a higher or lower frequency, she could only proceed by trial and error.

Three breaths later, Yang An was taken by surprise as a great mountain abruptly materialized before his eyes.

The great mountain was roughly ten thousand feet tall. It was draped with black banners and the skulls of various creatures, and pocked with a dense, honeycomb-like network of caves.

The moment the frequency of consciousness finally locked in, streams of black shadows poured out from the caves, all swarming toward Yang An.

From a great enough distance, the black shadows looked like hair sprouting from the mountain, or perhaps like a flurry of sharp steel needles. It was an incredibly bizarre sight.

If Yang An wanted to generate the feedback from slaughter, he couldn’t use Light Magic to kill these things.

Things killed by Light Magic left nothing behind.

For instance, the first time he entered Lower Hu, he had killed many members of the Golden Sword Sect. But because he’d used Light Magic, he couldn’t determine if the slaughter provided any effective feedback.

Therefore, Light Magic could be used as a tool to fight his enemies, but not to deliver the killing blow.

’He had no idea if these things were strong or weak.’ Still, Yang An decided to exercise maximum caution and unleash his Drumming Technique at full power.

Facing the seemingly endless tide of black shadows, the grotesque things were like evil souls poking their heads out of Hell. They bared hideous fangs as they lunged for Yang An. The eight Curse Seals of the Drumming Technique merged into one, followed by an earth-shattering punch.

The punch, carrying an incomparably terrifying force, slammed head-on into the black shadows. They were utterly unable to resist, shattering into pieces amid a series of strange, agonized shrieks.

The force of the punch obliterated all the shadows and struck the mountain itself. The entire peak trembled, and a massive crack spread across its face.

With his perception limited, Yang An had assumed that was the end of it—that he’d only been fighting small fry.

But from the crack spreading across the mountain, a monstrous black shadow suddenly erupted!

The sky in the entire Lower World was perpetually gloomy, with no distinction between day and night, nor a sun or moon.

Even so, the black shadow created a terrifying spectacle that blotted out what little light there was, a truly staggering sight.

Since embarking on the path of cultivation, Yang An had encountered his share of massive foes, but the sheer scale of the shadow before him was comparable only to Miao Ye from the Xiyue River Ancient Collection.

The instant the colossal shadow appeared, a powerful pressure radiated outward, plunging the entire sky into utter darkness.

RUMBLE—

Amid a deafening roar that shook the heavens, the ten-thousand-foot mountain abruptly lifted into the air. It connected with the black shadow, forming what looked like a gigantic hammer that came crashing down toward Yang An.

The sheer force of its descent felt cataclysmic, as if the heavens were falling and the earth was caving in.

Although he couldn’t sense the shadow’s aura, its aggressive momentum alone told him it was by no means weak.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Yang An activated the Light and Shadow Escape Technique, trying to get out of the mountain’s attack range.

He made two successive leaps. The mountain barely missed him as it slammed into the ground. All the trees and plants in the area collapsed as the earth shook violently, unleashing a massive shockwave.

The shockwave struck Yang An head-on, forcefully blasting him a thousand meters back before he could regain his footing.

’This thing is not to be trifled with!’

Coming to that conclusion in an instant, Yang An immediately decided to leave.

There was no need to waste time on such a powerful foe. If his goal was simply to test his theory about slaughter, he could find weaker targets, like the members of the Golden Sword Sect he’d encountered before.

Fight when you must, flee when you must. Yang An never agonized over such choices. He decided to leave at once.

But as he activated the Light and Shadow Escape Technique again to make his getaway, he hadn’t gotten far before countless black shadows appeared from nowhere and ensnared him.

It was only then that Yang An realized the colossal shadow that had emerged from the mountain had taken on a humanoid form.

Its right hand had been holding the entire mountain, while its left had dissolved into countless shadows that reached into the void—the very shadows now binding him.

A powerful force began to drag him back. Yang An instinctively prepared to unleash his Light Magic and obliterate the shadows.

But before he could act, his vision blurred. The world around him shifted, and in an instant, he found himself standing right in front of the colossal shadow.

He had been pulled back nearly ten thousand meters in a single moment!

Without a second thought, just as the shadow opened its massive mouth to swallow him whole, a brilliant light erupted from Yang An’s body. It instantly dissolved the shadowy restraints, freeing him.

An instant later, he reappeared several thousand meters away, having evaded the shadow’s attack.

’This thing’s methods are bizarre, but it’s slow. The Light and Shadow Escape Technique is more than enough to dodge it.’

Still unwilling to waste time fighting it, Yang An once again activated the Light and Shadow Escape Technique to flee. This time, he deployed the Spiritual Light Net, channeling his Magic Light into it.

If the creature tried that trick again, the black shadows wouldn’t be able to restrain him.

Seen from afar, Yang An was like a miniature sun, blinking across the sky. Each flicker covered a distance of several thousand meters.

But the colossal shadow behind him had no intention of letting him go. Its Spiritual Wisdom was not low; it seemed to know its previous tactic wouldn’t work again. With a furious roar, it discarded the mountain and dissolved into a countless swarm of black shadows that gave chase. Their speed was immense, even faster than his Light and Shadow Escape Technique.

Wherever the shadows passed, space itself showed faint signs of distortion.

They were locked in a chase, and in just a few breaths, the distance between them was rapidly shrinking.

’Damn it!’

Yang An frowned. The Light and Shadow Escape Technique was his fastest means of travel, yet he still couldn’t shake the shadow’s pursuit.

The gap between them continued to shrink until only a thousand meters remained.

Yang An came to an abrupt halt, fury burning within him.

’He hadn’t wanted to get tangled up with this thing, but if it was so determined to die, then he’d just have to see what it was made of.’

He activated the Drumming Immortal Technique once more. As the Curse Seals appeared, Yang An retracted the Spiritual Light Net. Golden Radiance flooded his body as he activated the Red Wheel Infinite Body, a technique he rarely used.

’If it dared to chase him, then it could have a taste of his fist.’

Yang An gritted his teeth. The Curse Seals merged, and he raised his hand, preparing to unleash a full-power punch.

But just then, a soft breeze stirred behind him. A bone-deep chill suddenly washed over him, and in that instant, the entire world seemed to slow to a crawl.

Even the pursuing swarm of black shadows seemed to have slowed a hundredfold.

In the next instant, a voice spoke by his ear, and his limbs instantly went rigid.

"Well, well! Finally found you!"

’This is...!!!’

’He’d heard this voice before!’

’The last time he entered Lower Hu and met that dying woman, it was this voice that had identified him as a World Body!’

Yang An slowly turned his head to the side. The simple motion felt impossibly difficult. His senses were sluggish, as if he were trapped in a thick bog.

Standing right beside him was a man in black robes, his face hidden by a mask. He looked utterly unremarkable, completely ordinary.

On the mask was a single, simple pattern resembling an eye. Though it was clearly just a design, it seemed like a real eye, staring intently at Yang An.

His mere presence, standing silently at Yang An’s side, was enough to make Yang An feel a suffocating pressure, as if a hand were clamped around his throat. His own energy felt completely locked down.

Suddenly, the man slowly turned his head to look at the countless pursuing shadows.

"Begone!"

With just a single, simple word, the overwhelming tide of black shadows vanished in an instant, leaving no trace and giving no warning.