The Demon with Holy Radiance

Seeing Yang An fall silent for a moment, Wen Yin immediately realized she must have caused trouble. He’d just been saying they were waiting for someone here, but now he suddenly brought up leaving. She connected it to the people who had been chasing her earlier.

"Senior Brother..."

"You don’t have to say anything. It isn’t your fault. To be on the safe side, it’s best we leave here first."

Yang An naturally knew what she was thinking and offered a few words of comfort.

If Wen Yin had actually seen something, it would have been understandable for those people to be after her. But the crucial point was that she hadn’t seen a thing, which made the whole situation so unfair.

"Yes..."

Wen Yin could only nod. She said no more, ready to follow her Senior Brother’s lead.

Yang An quickly collected all the Array Flags he had previously set up. He then set the mountain forest ablaze to erase any trace of his presence. To prevent any lingering aura after their departure, fire was the best method.

Through the Tree of Flesh and Blood, Yang An announced a change of meeting location to the members of the Scripture Defector Association, moving it from Chongwen State to Yuan’an City in the neighboring Ten Soldiers State. Without waiting for a response from the Association members, he and Wen Yin departed at once.

「One day later.」

The two arrived smoothly in Ten Soldiers State, where they found another unclaimed mountain peak and settled in for the time being.

On the evening of the second day, two figures came speeding in from due north. Yang An detected them immediately.

The mountain where he was staying was called Shepherd Dragon Mountain, a detail he had already shared through the Tree of Flesh and Blood.

Anyone arriving at this time was almost certainly a member of the Scripture Defector Association.

The two figures stopped at the foot of the mountain, and Yang An instantly appeared before them.

The newcomers were two men.

Among the known members of the Scripture Defector Association, only White Bird and Zhi Ying were female, so these two had to be from the rest of the group.

Upon seeing Yang An, the two exchanged a glance. Without a word, they each took out a mask.

The first man’s mask was etched with ugly hair, resembling a piece of scalp.

The second man’s mask depicted a heart that seemed to be faintly beating.

"Pi Fa! Heart!"

Seeing them present their masks, Yang An confirmed their identities. He then took out his own mask, a mutual confirmation to establish trust.

Pi Fa didn’t look very old, perhaps fifteen or sixteen. He was incredibly thin, as if chronically malnourished, with deeply sunken cheekbones.

Heart appeared ordinary and unremarkable, but a large tumor grew on his chest where his heart should be. A faint purple light pulsed from within the tumor, as if it were breathing.

Both of their Cultivation Levels were only at the Early Stage of Corpse Transformation. Their auras seemed somewhat unstable, having broken through to Corpse Transformation with the Workshop Master’s help.

This was their true appearance. Although they had completed missions before via container transport, they had always been in disguise.

Yang An led the two men into the Array in the mountain forest and continued to wait for the others.

Another five days passed quickly, and the remaining members of the Scripture Defector Association, with the exception of White Bird, arrived one after another.

Following Heart and Pi Fa were Black Egg and Sheep Horn, who arrived one after the other.

Black Egg was a man with pitch-black skin. The first time Yang An saw him, he nearly drew his gun... his bow, that is.

Sheep Horn, on the other hand, was easy to identify. He was powerfully built, and a pair of keratin growths that looked just like sheep’s horns protruded from his head, giving him an unusual appearance.

After them, Zhi Ying arrived.

Zhi Ying was a woman holding a wailing, hungry infant in her arms.

It was only when Yang An met and spoke with her for the first time that he discovered the infant *was* Zhi Ying’s true body; the woman holding it was merely a human shell.

Their auras were so perfectly intertwined that they felt like a single entity, which was why Yang An’s initial perception had been mistaken.

All of these later arrivals, without exception, had Cultivation Levels of only the Early Stage of Corpse Transformation.

It wasn’t until Broken Hand arrived that Yang An finally felt a sense of relief.

Compared to the others, Broken Hand’s cultivation speed was remarkably fast. He was already at the Middle Stage of Corpse Transformation, and his aura was even approaching the Late Stage—far stronger than the others.

Broken Hand lived up to his name; he had only one arm. And from his left shoulder stump grew... a tree.

It was a small, delicate tree, already covered in leaves and bearing fruit. The fruits were green, resembling unripe jujubes.

No one knew what the fruit tasted like, but it was certain that no one had any desire to find out.

Compared to the others, Yang An’s impression of Broken Hand was not particularly good.

After their first meeting via container transport, following the completion of the Jueyun Sect mission, it was Broken Hand who had led the others in voicing their dissatisfaction with him.

Even though that was long in the past, a first impression is not so easily changed.

Everyone in the Scripture Defector Association except for White Bird had now gathered. It was another two days before White Bird finally made her belated appearance.

Seeing White Bird in person for the first time left Yang An stunned by her beauty.

She wore a long white dress through which her smooth, long legs were faintly visible. Her long black hair cascaded down like a waterfall, and her figure was graceful. She was an absolute beauty.

Moreover, White Bird possessed an ethereal quality that set her starkly apart from the other members of the Scripture Defector Association.

If the other members of the Scripture Defector Association were all Evil Demons and Outsiders, then White Bird seemed more like a lofty and aloof Fairy.

It was, however, only a stunning first impression. After a moment, the feeling passed.