The Demon with Holy Radiance

A flash of light, and Yang An instantly appeared before Fu Ming, throwing another punch.

The shockwave from this punch, generated by the Drumming Technique, tore straight through Fu Ming’s torso. He didn’t even have time to react before his body disintegrated, unraveling like countless threads.

The murkiness in Fu Ming’s eyes trembled. A sliver of clarity returned to them under the intense impact, but it wasn’t enough.

"Junior... Brother..."

He managed to force out two words before his body collapsed, though they were disjointed.

SPLASH... The blood mist condensed into a rain that pattered onto the ground.

Yang An knew he had held back with that strike; Fu Ming shouldn’t have died from it.

Sure enough, as the bloody rain hit the ground, it quickly merged with the flesh and blood already seeping up from the earth.

To Yang An’s surprise, after the flesh and blood fused with the bloody water from Fu Ming’s disintegrated body, it all reformed into his appearance.

In the blink of an eye, more than ten versions of Fu Ming materialized around Yang An, all of them staring at him with sinister intent.

These new Fu Mings looked identical to the previous one, but the tendrils on their bodies were all linked together. A flicker of flame appeared on them and then abruptly swelled.

VMMMM—

Like a volcanic eruption, a terrifying pillar of flame shot into the sky, instantly enveloping Yang An. The intense heat incinerated everything, hot enough to completely melt a Zombie God.

Yang An stood at the center of the inferno. By the time he registered the temperature, his flesh had already begun to char.

And this was with his body having already been tempered.

’But this is as far as it goes.’

His figure appeared in mid-air. The eight Curse Seals around him merged into one beneath his feet, and he slammed a full-powered punch down upon it.

Yang An’s body was blasted a thousand meters upward, but the shockwave from his downward punch instantly suppressed the pillar of flame, forcing it down and out in all directions.

The flames, like an inverse tidal wave, mercilessly engulfed the Fu Mings. As their power was swept away, the world fell silent.

As the Fu Mings’ bodies disintegrated once more, the single remaining one was sent flying backward, crashing heavily against the mountain rock. A black light enveloped him as several shafts of Golden Radiance pierced his body.

Yang An, now back in his normal form, descended from the sky and landed in front of Fu Ming.

"Senior Brother, wake up."

At his call, the turbidity in Fu Ming’s eyes finally dissipated, replaced by lucidity and exhaustion.

"BLEGH—"

He spat out a mouthful of blood. The pool was incredibly dark; if Gray Scale had a color, this blood would be it.

Only after spitting out that mouthful of blood did Fu Ming’s expression fully recover. He couldn’t help but smile.

"It seems I’ve lost to you, Junior Brother. My thanks for sparing my life."

Yang An recalled the black light into his body, and the Golden Radiance dissipated. Fu Ming slumped to the ground.

Yang An had questions for him, so Fu Ming had appeared at just the right time.

But before Yang An could speak, Fu Ming’s face twisted in pain. It seemed the price for their fierce battle was beginning to manifest, so Yang An had no choice but to wait.

Countless long tendrils once again erupted from Fu Ming’s body, enveloping him in a fleshy cocoon taller than a man. Painful gasps soon came from within, but he made no other sound. He was likely used to it.

After nearly an hour, once Fu Ming had endured the price, the fleshy cocoon shattered. He returned to the bonfire as if nothing had happened.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Junior Brother."

"Senior Brother, where were you before this?"

Yang An didn’t want to waste time and got straight to the point.

"Lower Hu."

Fu Ming replied calmly.

"When I first arrived in Lower Hu, I saw you. Was that your doing?"

"It seems you took my words to heart, Junior Brother. It was indeed me."

Fu Ming smiled.

But just then, Yang An’s tone shifted abruptly.

"Senior Brother, are you really staying here just to wait for me? Or... did Life Crane entrust you with something?"

At Yang An’s sudden question, Fu Ming’s mouth twitched, and he fell silent.

He met Yang An’s gaze without flinching, his expression perfectly calm.

"Why would you ask that, Junior Brother? Didn’t you already kill Master?"

"The fact that I killed Life Crane and the instructions he might have given you don’t seem to conflict, do they? Or... is he actually still alive?"

’If Fu Ming hadn’t understood the implication and truly knew nothing, he wouldn’t have answered that way.’

But Fu Ming had brought up the fact that Yang An had killed Life Crane, which made Yang An realize something.

"No, Junior Brother, you’re overthinking things. Except for you and Wen Yin, the rest of us disciples are already dead men. I just value my life more than the others, which is why I’ve chosen to trust in your power."

Fu Ming didn’t answer Yang An’s question directly. Instead, he stated his own position, refusing to steer the conversation toward the supposedly dead Life Crane as Yang An had hoped.

But this only made Yang An more suspicious.

"Then, Senior Brother, have you seen Master here? Shouldn’t all of us who cultivate the *Mystic Path Decoded* appear in this place?"

Yang An pressed on. In the days after returning to his real-world stronghold, he had suddenly remembered a past point of suspicion.

When he had first joined forces with the Bow Lady, he had brought her back to the Life Crane Sect and met Life Crane in the Heavenly Respect Pavilion.

Afterward, the Bow Lady had told him she’d noticed something strange about Life Crane.

Back then, He Tou had appeared as an ugly, soulless thing in the Bow Lady’s eyes. But when it came to Life Crane, she couldn’t perceive the state of his soul at all.

Later, when Yang An used the Unidentified Arrow to Seal Life Crane, he had asked the Bow Lady to confirm the kill. Her reply was that Life Crane’s soul was gone, confirming his death.

Remembering this, Yang An had asked the Bow Lady to recall that moment again, but her answer only left him more uncertain.

The Bow Lady had been just as unable to see Life Crane’s soul aura or status back then. In other words, after Life Crane was Sealed by the Unidentified Arrow, the basis for her concluding he was dead was simply the fact that there was... nothing.

From beginning to end, she had never seen Life Crane’s soul. All she could confirm was that at the moment of his supposed death, he had left nothing behind.

This became the greatest point of suspicion. Combined with what he’d forced out of Beisuo True Master’s disciple, Yang An began to feel that something was deeply wrong.

This was why he was now practically interrogating Fu Ming.

Faced with Yang An’s persistence, Fu Ming’s expression remained unchanged, as placid as still water.

"Junior Brother, I haven’t seen Master. But as for whether he is truly dead, you should be the one who knows that best."

"After all, the Earth Spirit Stele is in your hands, and you’ve gained control of the Xian Origin Land, have you not?"

’That’s right!’

He had to admit Fu Ming was right. That was what Yang An couldn’t understand.

’If Life Crane wasn’t dead, how could the Earth Spirit Stele have fallen into my hands? And how could I have gained control of the Xian Origin Land?’