The Demon with Holy Radiance

So, right before One-Eyed’s disbelieving gaze, Yang An casually ripped open his own chest and, with a smile on his face, shoved One-Eyed into the bloody, gaping cavity.

"What are you doing... No... Don’t..."

One-Eyed began to howl in terror, thinking Yang An was trying to kill him. His now-eyeless body began to struggle desperately.

Fortunately, the flesh Yang An had torn open healed in the next instant, and One-Eyed’s eye wasn’t harmed in any way.

But for some reason, when Yang An’s gaze fell upon its body, the eyeless form began to tremble violently, as if it had seen something terrifying.

"Hahahaha, he looks pretty tasty!"

The Bow Lady’s voice rang in Yang An’s ears, and One-Eyed’s body instantly stiffened.

"Alright, he’ll honestly answer anything you ask him now. He’ll obediently do whatever you tell him to," the Bow Lady added.

’It’s over that quickly?’

Yang An was a little surprised. He had no idea what method the Bow Lady had used for it to be so effective. ’How is she so powerful?’

"Speaking of which, Bow Lady, couldn’t you have just eaten him to get his memories?"

The moment the Bow Lady had spoken up, that was what Yang An had originally planned. Compared to One-Eyed, he naturally trusted the Bow Lady completely. He just hadn’t expected her to use a different method.

"I wouldn’t dare to just eat anything from this place."

The Bow Lady quickly replied.

In reality, she could devour souls without any scruples. But this was Lower Hu, the Deep World of the Xian Origin Land. Compared to reality, this place was far more bizarre.

’That’s true,’ Yang An thought. ’I was being careless.’

If his guess was correct, Lower Hu corresponded to a specific time and space in the Origin Realm’s past. The things here were an unsettling mix of real and fake. Besides, the Five Great Celestial Sects were here, and the threat of the Boundary Repairers hung over his head like a sword.

Who knew what would happen if the Bow Lady rashly devoured a soul from this place? Any unexpected and uncontrollable consequences would not be worth the risk.

His gaze fell on One-Eyed’s body, which seemed to have lost all consciousness. It was more accurate to call it a kind of shell for One-Eyed. Now, he could finally relax.

"What is an Insect Transformation Body?"

Yang An asked the question that One-Eyed hadn’t answered before and quickly received a response. He finally learned One-Eyed’s secret.

It turned out the creature was a remnant soul who had died long ago and was looking for someone to take its place—and it had chosen him.

But none of that was important. What he really wanted to know was how to enter the Core Land of the Forbidden Land and how to comprehend a Power of Rules suited to him.

"I know a safe shortcut into the Forbidden Land’s core. It only requires a bit of your blood, and it gives you a thirty percent chance of reaching the Core Land."

The creature even used honorifics as it revealed a piece of information that pleasantly surprised Yang An.

’Capturing this guy during my escape was definitely the right call. A remnant soul like him must have spent all its time wandering the Forbidden Land, gathering tons of information. And now, it’s all mine to use. Wonderful!’

But a mere thirty percent chance of reaching the Core Land seemed a bit too low.

"If I take this path, can I reach the Core Land?"

Yang An described to One-Eyed the relatively safe route he had memorized earlier. Now that One-Eyed was under the Bow Lady’s control, there was no need for secrecy.

"You can, but there’s a ninety percent chance you’ll die in the depths of the Forbidden Land. That is the most dangerous part of this entire place. The closer you get to the core, the stronger and more complete the Power of Rules becomes. Rumor has it that most outsiders die in the outer regions; most of those who remain die in the depths."

One-Eyed answered dutifully, its voice completely devoid of emotion, just like a puppet.

"I was one of them," it added at the end.

"..."

A thirty percent chance of reaching the Core Land versus a ninety percent chance of dying in its depths.

When put that way, a thirty percent chance seemed quite high. Besides, One-Eyed had also mentioned that if he faced a fatal crisis, its remnant soul could die in his place. That was like an extra layer of insurance.

So, without much hesitation, Yang An had One-Eyed lead the way. He would take the shortcut.

...

Dozens of miles away, a tiny ember drifted down from the sky, like the last wisp of ash from something that had just burned out.

When the ember landed on the wild grass, it instantly erupted into a raging inferno.

A figure in black clothes and a mask slowly walked out of the blaze.

On his mask was the pattern of a flame.

He raised his head, looking in the direction of the Forbidden Land. He had completely memorized Yang An’s aura and recognized what made the man so special.

’A World Body, unrecorded in the Daoist Sect’s registry, with a Cultivation Level of Zombie God, who can walk away from a heavenly calamity unscathed.

Interesting!’

As one of the Boundary Repairers of the Earth Immortal Dao Sect, he knew very well what these World Bodies represented.

The appearance of heavenly calamities signified that this world was beginning to perish. Even after the Five Great Celestial Sects had tried every method they could think of, they couldn’t stop the world’s inexorable corruption.

Therefore, the Earth Immortal Dao Sect gathered the power of the Five Great Celestial Sects, and its upper echelons began pursuing the ultimate goal: escaping this world.

The path to immortality was severed, and calamities rained down from the heavens. They could only seek another way.

The Five Great Celestial Sects found another world and guided it here, attempting to merge it with the Origin Realm. It was a plan to use another’s body to save their own souls—to take everything that was theirs and abandon this desolate land.

But in the end, they failed. Not only did the world they brought here collapse, but it also left their own world in an even more precarious state.

The failed merger even created a dead zone in the Origin Realm that repelled all energy, causing the world’s continents to fracture.

With the plan’s failure, it was terminated.

But amid the ruins of this failed plan, the Earth Immortal Dao Sect discovered a glimmer of hope. Keeping it secret from the other Four Great Celestial Sects, they found a few surviving World Bodies.

The so-called World Bodies were the natives of the world they had brought over.

After that world collapsed, this small number of natives had unexpectedly survived in the Origin Realm, their souls remaining stable.

This gave the upper echelons of the Earth Immortal Dao Sect hope.

If they could use the souls of these World Bodies to find a way to other worlds and escape the Origin Realm with their souls intact, this seemed like a viable path.

Thus, by a unified decision from the upper echelons of the Earth Immortal Dao Sect, various plans were born.

One group from the upper echelons became Boundary Repairers, responsible for carrying out the plan and secretly capturing World Bodies to bring back to the Earth Immortal Dao Sect.

Another group began preparing to leave the Origin Realm in advance. For example, they started by consolidating and transferring the legacies of the Earth Immortal Dao Sect, sealing them all within a special Stone Stele.

Yet another group was responsible for guiding the other Four Great Celestial Sects to continue pursuing the method of merging with a new world. In the eyes of the Four Great Celestial Sects, a single failure meant nothing.

A final, small group, joining forces with the Five Great Celestial Sects, began to research a way to resist the corruption. This method could supposedly suppress the polluted, mutated Spiritual Power within one’s body, allowing them to adapt to this changed world. The test subjects for this project were called Flesh Mushrooms.

But as far as He knew, this project, called Flesh Mushroom, did not seem to be going smoothly. Of the thousands of test subjects, only one had survived with a Zombie God Cultivation Level, but he too was considered a failed experiment.

The Five Great Celestial Sects wouldn’t put all their eggs in one basket. They would try any method they could conceive of, and only they, with power that stood above the world, could do so.

And the Earth Immortal Dao Sect stood above the other Four Great Celestial Sects. It was known as the Saint Sect.

As a Boundary Repairer for the Daoist Sect and a member of its upper echelon, He naturally had complete faith in the sect’s decisions. The World Bodies were perhaps the only hope of escaping this world.

But He was also a man of immense ambition. Until now, however, he had never shown any sign of it, always dutifully carrying out the Daoist Sect’s missions and his responsibilities as a Boundary Repairer.

But he knew very well that although he was part of the core plan, it didn’t mean he was guaranteed to be one of those chosen to leave this world.

Even if the plan ultimately succeeded, it didn’t mean everyone would get the chance to leave.

Only by seizing this chance for himself could he guarantee he wouldn’t be left behind.

’A Cultivator, in the end, pursues a lifespan as long as the heavens, not the fleeting passions of mortals!’

’For such a goal, any means are justified.’

He was even certain he wasn’t the only one who thought this way. It was just that, for the moment, the surface of the water remained deceptively still.