The Demon with Holy Radiance

By the long-silent lakeside, the original Blood Lake had completely dried up, leaving only countless scorched, tainted marks.

And at a certain spot where the fire had almost been extinguished, scattered dark red flames flickered, needing only to evaporate the very last trace of blood before they would dissipate.

But just then, the flames suddenly surged, instantly flaring up from the size of a thumb as if doused in oil.

He, masked and clad in black, slowly walked out from the blazing flames, scanning his surroundings.

He noticed the flames that had led him here, and a flicker of curiosity arose within him.

With a raise of his hand, the flames collapsed, coalescing like a long serpent and flying into his palm.

The fire felt strangely familiar, as if it shared the same source as his own flames.

If they hadn’t shared the same source, he wouldn’t have been able to so easily pass through the many places where Rules manifested to arrive here.

But this only made him more puzzled.

This was a World Body he had never seen before, so why did it possess a fire seed from the same source as his?

’Could it be that this child is truly fated to be mine?’

The flames in his hand gradually died out. He looked down at the chasm beneath the dried-up lakebed, a seemingly bottomless abyss.

The Western Domain wasn’t the only place with Forbidden Lands capable of creating the Power of Rules; there were quite a few Forbidden Lands throughout the Five Domains.

Therefore, as a member of the Daoist Sect, He was also extremely familiar with the inner workings and principles of Forbidden Lands.

The Forbidden Land Core was usually located in the deepest part of the Forbidden Land. While it was the source of the entire land’s greatest opportunities, it was also the most dangerous place.

Cultivators often treated this place as a land of death and rebirth, desperate to obtain the powerful Power of Rules.

In reality, the Power of Rules gained through comprehension was not so easily obtained. The final fate for most was to become naught but withered bones beneath the Forbidden Land, turning into a pile of rotten muck.

So, if he wanted to capture this World Body, he had to do it before the man got himself killed.

Otherwise, if Yang An suffered a backlash while trying to comprehend the Power of Rules in the Forbidden Land Core and this World Body was lost, it was impossible to know how long it would be before he encountered such a peculiar individual again.

He didn’t think Yang An could successfully obtain the nascent Power of Rules from the Forbidden Land Core. Throughout history, the number of successes had been far too few.

Most people would settle for second best, breaking through to the unowned Power of Rules in the deepest parts of the periphery, just hoping to find a power that was the best possible fit for them.

Humans, as the Spirit of all things, are the creatures most capable of adapting and surviving. Even if the world were to collapse, humanity would have the best chance of being the last ones standing.

If you can’t get what you want, you seek what you can adapt to.

But while He wanted to capture Yang An, he had no desire to risk venturing into the Forbidden Land Core himself.

Once inside, even he would lose control of his own fate and have to directly face the greatest threat in the entire Forbidden Land.

So he chose a compromise: wait here at the former Blood Lake, keep an eye on any anomalies within the Forbidden Land Core, and make his move only when that fellow was in mortal danger.

This way, even if he had to face danger, it would only be for a brief moment. The more likely outcome was that he could retrieve Yang An before he was completely dead.

’One must grasp one’s own opportunities.’

...

Yang An watched the water-like ripples spreading beneath his feet, which shimmered with multicolored light and bloomed with a faint glow. He immediately looked toward One-Eyed, wanting to ask him for information about this place and whether it was the Forbidden Land Core.

But as he turned his head, One-Eyed, who had been right beside him—his twisted figure rapidly weathered away. In the blink of an eye, before he could even let out a scream, he disintegrated right before Yang An’s eyes.

Yang An was stunned, but he finally relaxed when the Bow Lady told him that an Insect Transformation Body could not enter the Forbidden Land Core.

’That guy clearly didn’t know this crucial piece of information about the Insect Transformation Body being unable to enter the Forbidden Land Core.’

One-Eyed’s eye was still there, still under the Bow Lady’s control. Only his physical shell had been erased.

It was a good thing Yang An had taken his eye; otherwise, the moment he stepped in here, nothing at all would have been left of him.

This was indeed the Forbidden Land Core, but even One-Eyed knew nothing about what was inside. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have died here.

In other words, from now on, Yang An was on his own.

In this boundless darkness, only the ripples spreading from his feet seemed to offer any sort of guidance.

With no other clues, Yang An didn’t dare rashly use a Technique for illumination. Instead, he tried walking around, causing ripples to spread continuously, and observed the strange phenomena until he soon discovered the key.

These ripples spread out like sonar pings. When they reached the edge of the darkness, they would reveal some kind of tangible obstacle in a faint glow.

As more and more ripples reached the edge, these obstacles seemed to form a channel, indicating a path forward.

Yang An followed the direction of the channel, walking slowly through the utter silence.

He walked for an unknown amount of time. Cautiously, Yang An sensed that he had reached the end. The ripples began to spread upward, revealing a huge, statue-like object.

As a ripple swept over the statue above, Yang An observed it meticulously. When the ripple passed over it and the full image of the statue appeared in his mind, a look of utter disbelief spread across his face.

’This...’

’It can’t be such a coincidence, can it?’

His mind immediately recalled something he had seen before, which was identical to the statue he was now seeing in the darkness.