The Demon with Holy Radiance

Yang An sped all the way back to the small Forbidden Land of the Golden Dipper Divine Sect in Chongwen State. This was the temporary hiding spot for the members of the Scripture Defector Association.

Although he didn’t know how the Golden Soul Sect had discovered his whereabouts, it revealed one thing: their hiding place was possibly on the verge of being exposed.

On top of that, killing the Third Elder sent by the Golden Soul Sect meant they were now in open opposition to the Sect.

A sense of urgency welled up inside Yang An.

The Golden Soul Sect couldn’t possibly be unaware of the death of an expert at the Insect Dao Realm.

It all depended on how fast the Golden Soul Sect reacted. Would they choose to accelerate the formation of their Array? Or would they decide to move against the Scripture Defector Association first?

Regardless, he needed to make preparations in advance.

He couldn’t increase his combat power by much in a short time, but if he could repair the Bow Lady during this period, having her by his side would allow him to unleash even greater strength.

Using his Illusion Technique, he slipped silently into the small Forbidden Land of the Golden Dipper Divine Sect. The one thing Yang An was certain of was that this minor Sect knew nothing about it.

The Sect had too few members and almost no powerful experts, so it would be very difficult for them to discover the intruders.

Even if he walked right under their noses, they might not be able to spot him.

Upon his return to the Forbidden Land, Yang An’s arrival was immediately noticed by the members of the Scripture Defector Association. At the same time, they brought Yang An some very bad news.

During the time Yang An was away from their hiding place and heading to Earth Demon Cliff, Sheep Horn of the Scripture Defector Association had gone out to gather information and learned that the "Heavenly Disaster" had already begun to affect the edge of the Outer Continent.

Sheep Horn was specially tasked with periodically going out to gather intelligence, mainly to ascertain the general movements of the Golden Soul Sect.

"I’m not sure about the other Three Domains, but I’ve heard that the border State Territories of the Fusheng Domain have already been struck by the Heavenly Disaster, and many people have gone missing.

All contact was lost with those people, their auras completely vanished. The people in the remaining State Territories have begun migrating toward the center on a large scale, which has also triggered massive Demon Fiend riots, indiscriminately attacking civilians and Cultivators."

Sheep Horn relayed all the information he had gathered to Yang An. The other members of the Scripture Defector Association had already learned of this before him.

Yang An’s expression immediately turned grim.

’It’s getting more and more chaotic!’

When a world’s order begins to collapse, it is a precursor to the world’s own collapse. This was now incredibly clear, and drawing ever closer.

Although he had never seen what this Heavenly Disaster truly was, when he recalled the one he’d witnessed in the Lower World, he feared this one would only be more terrifying.

After all, the current Heavenly Disaster had undergone a long evolution since ancient times. Even a Cultivator at the Insect Dao Realm would surely be unable to escape or survive if they were tainted by it.

But what worried Yang An even more was that the Heavenly Disaster was approaching too quickly!

Before leaving the Treasure Temple Domain, he had visited the Outer Continent. At that time, the Heavenly Disaster hadn’t yet reached Dingzhou, but now it had already arrived at the edge of the Outer Continent.

’How much time had passed? Not even half a year.’

’At this rate, the Heavenly Disaster will likely engulf the entire Outer Continent within a few years.’

He could realize this, and so could the top-tier experts and Great Powers. The situation had already reached a point where everyone was fending for themselves. Things would only get more chaotic from here, and the struggles between various factions would only intensify.

When the nest is overturned, no egg remains intact. But under the threat of a terrifying Heavenly Disaster, it was impossible to expect everyone in this world to cooperate.

Even Yang An himself had no intention of cooperating with those people.

’In this world, trust has always been the cheapest commodity. Unity? Impossible.’

If there was a place that could offer temporary shelter, everyone would fight to the death to claim it.

For now, there was nothing else Yang An could do. The most urgent task was to restore the Bow Lady, and then he could consider his next move regarding this matter.

And the only person he could make decisions with was the Workshop Master.

It wasn’t that Yang An didn’t trust the members of the Scripture Defector Association; in his eyes, they were simply too weak. The weak consider matters from their own perspective, and the things they worried about were on a completely different level.

Not to mention the vast information gap between Yang An and them. There were some things he simply couldn’t tell the members of the Scripture Defector Association.

After telling everyone to remain calm, Yang An first returned to his Quiet Chamber. He gave orders that no one was to disturb him and that everything would be discussed after he emerged. The members could only obey.

"Senior Brother, if you’ve run into any trouble, maybe you can talk to me about it. Although I’m still very weak right now, I’ll definitely do everything in my power to help you."

Before he entered the Quiet Chamber, Wen Yin found Yang An and seemed to have summoned all her courage to say those words.

Compared to the others in the Scripture Defector Association, and with the massive amount of resources plundered from a Golden Soul Sect branch, Wen Yin’s cultivation speed was not slow. She was now on the verge of advancing to the Corpse Transformation stage.

In her eyes—or rather, her eye sockets that had once been filled with what looked like blood vessels—many points of light had appeared, looking like countless tiny eyes.

He had seen Wen Yin alone less and less over the past few months. Yang An had brought her into the Scripture Defector Association to become one of its members, but there was ultimately a barrier, a sense of wariness, between Wen Yin and the others.

She was not, in essence, an Innate Flesh Mushroom, so the only person she could truly trust was Yang An. On a typical day, she had almost no contact with the other members.