The Demon with Holy Radiance

His flesh and blood, though clearly still alive, was rapidly decomposing and decaying, as if it had endured the passage of a long, long time.

Yang An froze. He watched as his hands and body disintegrated as if weathered away. Several spots of decay erupted across his body at once, spreading rapidly.

In less than the blink of an eye, more than half of his body had decayed.

His skin and flesh corroded, aged, and then broke down into an ash-like substance, revealing the bones beneath. The bones also began to calcify.

His organs spilled out from the ruptured openings in his body. Yang An’s expression changed the moment he saw the Moon Talisman tucked within his chest cavity, and he immediately retreated.

He’d been wondering why his body was decaying so suddenly, but then he saw the Moon Talisman that housed the Bow Lady become exposed. ’This can’t happen.’

But at the same time he saw the Moon Talisman, he also saw a somewhat ethereal arm.

A fleeting glimpse of a slender, delicate hand.

Back by the campfire, the decay vanished instantly, and his body began to recover rapidly.

That hand was still gripping his Heart tightly. He didn’t know where it came from, but its fingers were already buried deep within his Heart.

In just an instant, Yang An’s body returned to normal, and he came back to his senses.

’The speed of decay even surpassed the recovery speed of my Immortality. What was that? Was it the Power of Rules?’

Accidentally stepping into a place could bring such dire consequences. This Deep World called Lower Hu seemed fraught with danger at every turn.

But he couldn’t just stay here and not leave. His time was limited, too.

After a moment of thought, Yang An stepped forward, heading back in the same direction.

He tentatively stretched his hand forward. After just a few steps, his fingertips began to change. The decay was visible to the naked eye, revealing the bones of his finger.

’So the area that can rot flesh is right in front of me?!’

He didn’t sense any aura of the Power of Rules. Something was wrong.

Everything in the world has an aura; it’s just a matter of whether one has the ability to perceive it.

Although his senses were greatly restricted in this Deep World of the Xian Origin Land, he should have been able to perceive at least a trace of an aura from something he could touch.

Not only that, but Yang An’s own Identification Ability wasn’t reacting at all.

’This doesn’t seem like a manifestation of the Power of Rules.’

The finger bone eventually disappeared along with the decay. A section of Yang An’s finger had vanished abruptly, yet despite losing a part of his finger, Yang An felt no pain.

Under the pain created by the Bow Lady, his consciousness was currently lost, so this bit of pain had been diluted to an infinitesimal degree.

But strangely, the decaying power began to spread. What had originally been just a knuckle of one finger suddenly spread to his entire palm.

At the same time, Yang An suddenly felt a stir like a gentle breeze, as if his hand had passed through the wind and was decaying because of it.

’This power can spread!’

Yang An subconsciously pulled his hand back.

’No aura of the Power of Rules, no manifestation of a Magical Ability, and I can’t see anything. What could this invisible presence be?’

Yang An backed away. He decided to try other directions. Maybe not every direction caused this decay; perhaps others were safe.

But just as he retreated back to the campfire, a chill suddenly ran down his spine. He instinctively activated his Light and Shadow Escape Technique, dodging at the last possible second in response to the sudden premonition of danger.

A light breeze blew past the campfire, causing the flames to flicker more intensely. It was as if nothing had happened—just a gust of wind.

"Bow Lady!"

Yang An immediately sensed that something was wrong. A thought struck him, and he instantly decided to verify his suspicion.

"Harder!"

Perhaps the pain wasn’t enough. His consciousness hadn’t yet entered a more bewildered state, so there were some things he couldn’t see.

’If it isn’t the Power of Rules and not the manifestation of a Magical Ability, then maybe there’s some unknown entity in the place I can’t see.’

’It could be a monster, or maybe even a person. That gust of wind was definitely not as simple as it looked.’

The Bow Lady obediently increased the torment she was inflicting on Yang An’s body. The sensation of pain, which had been diluted, surged and intensified in an instant.

Pain shot through Yang An’s brain, and he felt even more dizzy.

But amid this dizziness, he seemed to see a huge black shadow flash past before his eyes, only a hair’s breadth away.

’Still can’t see it. Harder!’

The pain was like a switch that adjusted some kind of brainwave, needing to be tuned to a specific channel.

As the pain intensified, Yang An felt his body growing lighter and lighter, as if he might float away at any moment.

At the same time, the black shadow he had glimpsed earlier grew more solid. As the pain increased, it rapidly transformed from ethereal to blurry.

Finally, everything before his eyes became clear, and he saw what it was that caused the decay.

It was like a giant glob of sludge floating silently in mid-air, or like a low-flying black cloud. It scraped along the ground as it slowly moved toward him, its presence blanketing a thousand-meter radius.

This massive sludge was covered with countless eyes, and they were not all of one kind.

Some looked like human eyes, while others were perfectly round. Some were huge, and some were tiny.