The Demon with Holy Radiance

The surface of the Blood Lake was visibly burning away, its water level dropping rapidly.

’It’s really working!’

Yang An watched in delight as the Blood Lake rapidly evaporated and the flames grew more intense. One-Eyed was stunned.

But the next moment, an earth-shattering roar erupted from within the Blood Lake. The water’s surface violently swelled, sending flames soaring into the air as a colossal creature shot out, its entire body engulfed in fire.

"Futan!"

Beside him, One-Eyed cried out in delight, having recognized the creature’s identity at a glance.

He hadn’t expected Futan to be the first one to be forced out.

Yang An’s gaze fell upon the massive creature that had leaped high out of the lake. It was fish-shaped, its body a mix of eerie green and deep red scales, and covered in vascular tendrils. Numerous partially decomposed corpses were attached to these tendrils, which appeared to be siphoning the flesh and blood from within them.

An abyssal maw took up a third of its body. Within it was a second, inner mouth filled with jagged fangs, and the massive jaws were caked with shredded flesh.

According to what One-Eyed had said earlier, one only had to enter the mouth of this Futan to dive with it to the bottom of the lake and reach the Forbidden Land Core.

One-Eyed watched from the side, thrilled. He assumed that since Yang An had forced Futan out, he would naturally retract the flames and seize this chance to enter the Forbidden Land Core.

But Yang An remained motionless, frowning as he watched the ugly, thrashing fish.

In a classic case of the servant being more anxious than the master, One-Eyed blurted out in desperation, "What are you waiting for?"

’The opportunity is right there!’

But Yang An still made no move. He raised a hand to cut him off, his gaze locked on the lake’s surface.

’Something’s not right!’

Although his perception was limited within Lower Hu, preventing him from sensing certain anomalies, he was the one who had conjured the flames. He could get a sense of what was happening within them.

The giant fish was indeed Futan, but its movements were too stiff. Especially under such intense flames, it moved more like a puppet, its massive maw gaping as if to lure him in. It completely lacked the fluid grace of a living creature.

The next moment, a Forbidden Artifact Fragment appeared in Yang An’s hand.

It was the Living Barrier, a Forbidden Artifact Fragment that held a portion of the Power of Rules for animating and controlling the dead.

One-Eyed watched, baffled, as Yang An activated the Forbidden Artifact Fragment. An invisible, giant hand seemed to form, violently yanking the struggling Futan from the lake’s surface.

WHOOSH—

As Futan was flung high into the air again, clear of the water, three thick tendrils of flesh were revealed. They were connected to the underside of the fish, plunging deep into its body.

The fleshy tendrils pulled taut. A massive disturbance churned the lake, whose water level was already dropping, and an even larger creature was forcibly dragged from the water.

It was a turtle-like Demon with a massive carapace woven from countless chunks of flesh. Its body was pitch-black, its face hideous, and its limbs were rotted.

The three thick tendrils of flesh connected to Futan extended from the turtle’s sharp beak. The so-called Futan was merely its lure.

Upon seeing the truth behind Futan, One-Eyed was utterly dumbfounded. He had never imagined this was the real situation.

"Sir... you have to believe me! I wasn’t lying, I would never deceive you!"

He immediately began to plead with Yang An for mercy, a seemingly subconscious reaction.

Yang An ignored him. The man was already under the Bow Lady’s control, so of course Yang An knew he was telling the truth.

Yang An looked at the giant turtle and Futan, having already pieced together what was going on.

If he wasn’t mistaken, Futan had indeed been a separate entity, just as One-Eyed had said. It hadn’t originally been the giant turtle’s trap.

The way the fleshy tendrils were forcibly plunged into Futan’s body showed that this was a recent development.

In other words, the giant turtle had killed Futan, fused it to itself, and was now using it for hunting.

It was a good thing he hadn’t tried to "fish" as One-Eyed suggested, nor had he rashly tried to use Futan to dive into the lake. Otherwise, he would have ended up in the giant turtle’s stomach.

’It seems evaporating this Blood Lake was the right choice after all!’

The flames continued to burn fiercely. The giant turtle possessed considerable Spiritual Wisdom and seemed not to have expected to be dragged from the water and exposed. It threw its head back and let out a tremendous roar.

It violently flung the massive Futan fish toward Yang An.

Yang An instantly activated Abyss Dragon Devouring Light, transforming into a colossal Lamp Dragon. He spewed a breath of brilliant light, reducing the incoming Futan to ash.

Then, his fearsome claws plunged into the lake. The sheer pressure of his presence forced the Blood Lake’s surface down, accelerating the evaporation.

The claw landed directly on the giant turtle’s head. A massive amount of light flooded into the turtle’s body. Even its thick, gory carapace was pierced in an instant, emitting a blinding glow.

Above the raging inferno, the great dragon looked as if it were snuffing out a massive, glowing star. The entire land trembled.

The giant turtle was soundlessly engulfed and annihilated by the light, forcibly evaporated along with the Blood Lake, and fell as a torrential rain of blood.

Two breaths later, Yang An dispelled the Technique and returned to normal. One-Eyed stood nearby, scared completely witless.

When he had tried to trick Yang An earlier, Yang An had used this same move, but it hadn’t been nearly as terrifying.

If Yang An had been like this from the start, he probably would’ve been killed long before he could enact the rest of his plan.

At this thought, a terrifying idea occurred to him. ’Could my own scheme have been part of Yang An’s plan all along?’

The moment that thought emerged, One-Eyed, who had just been capable of some rational thought, instantly became vacant. All his reactions seemed to reset, and he stood there, stupefied.

Yang An’s expression was grim. It wasn’t that the giant turtle had been difficult to deal with, but that he had now used three non-Fusion Forbidden Artifact Fragments in a row.

In addition to having a portion of his lifespan drained, he also had to bear their costs, which left him feeling awful.

The cost of the Life Rejuvenation Spell was a period of chaotic power perception and a loss of control. That was why, when facing the giant turtle, he had to unleash his full power, to avoid a miscalculation from his distorted senses that could have gotten him injured.

Similarly, the side effects of Night Fang’s spatial distortion and Living Barrier’s Heart Demon were also beginning to manifest, though they weren’t outwardly visible.

But to enter the Forbidden Land Core and obtain what he came for, he had no other choice.

Fortunately, the Demon in the lake had been eliminated. Now, he just needed to endure a while longer and wait for the Blood Lake to fully evaporate. Then he could head straight for the lakebed and enter the Forbidden Land Core.

Soon, the lake’s surface grew calm again. The flames continued to burn for quite some time, the water level dropping to a great depth.

Since there were no further disturbances, it meant that even if other Demons remained in the Blood Lake, they were nothing more than small fry and not worth his concern.

Yang An waited quietly by the shore, doing his best to endure the costs of using the non-Fusion Forbidden Artifact Fragments. His condition was unstable.

He noticed One-Eyed’s strange behavior, but the Bow Lady informed him that the man’s last shred of consciousness had been erased, leaving only an empty shell. Reassured, Yang An paid him no more mind.

After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the Blood Lake finally ran dry under the continuous fire. It revealed a massive pit, piled high with black ash, that looked like a bottomless abyss.

The viscous blood, the vast piles of corpses, the Demons that once lived in the Blood Lake—all had been annihilated by the scorching flames, reduced to nothing but ash.

Yang An took One-Eyed with him and leaped down into the lakebed.

A surge of Mana protected him from being stained by a single speck of ash. But to his surprise, just as he expected to land on solid ground, he felt as if he had stepped into a void. He began to fall endlessly as his vision abruptly went dark, plunging him into a dead, silent blackness.

An unknown amount of time passed before he finally landed on solid ground. When Yang An scanned his surroundings, he still couldn’t see the slightest thing. He was enveloped in an endless darkness.

But when he took a light step, the ground beneath him rippled like the surface of water.

...