The Demon with Holy Radiance-Chapter 118 - 103: Encountering Loose Cultivators in the Wasteland, The Weakest Visceral Stone Realm

Chapter 118: Chapter 103: Encountering Loose Cultivators in the Wasteland, The Weakest Visceral Stone Realm

With the help of the Array Magical Artifact he obtained from Wuwei Peak, Yang An fully recovered his Mana in no time.

After stowing the Magical Artifact, Yang An casually chose a direction and flew away.

He planned to check for anyone nearby to figure out his current location.

But a single glance revealed that the surroundings were incredibly desolate. Even grass and trees were scarce. He would likely have to travel a great distance before finding any signs of civilization.

Fifteen minutes later, Yang An had traveled a considerable distance and even spotted a dirt road stretching across the wilderness, yet he still hadn’t seen a single soul.

’Did Elder Miao Ye send me to a place ravaged by Demon Fiends?’ Yang An wondered. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

He had a vague feeling that something was amiss. He had already traveled for dozens of miles without seeing a single person.

The presence of a dirt road suggested that people should be passing through here.

’Time to change direction,’ Yang An decided.

He set off again, heading in a different direction.

But just as Yang An had traveled several more miles, he abruptly came to a halt.

He had suddenly sensed the aura of Cultivators nearby, and they weren’t far.

’Running into Cultivators in a place like this is strange!’

Wary, Yang An had no intention of rashly approaching them. He changed direction once more, preparing to leave the area.

But just as he leaped into the air, covered a few hundred meters, and landed to launch himself again, the sound of something tearing through the air suddenly came from behind.

Even without activating his Light and Shadow Escape Technique, Yang An relied on his Body Technique to easily dodge the moment he sensed the disturbance behind him.

The object shot past him.

Yang An took a closer look and saw that it was a stone chip. It embedded itself in a large rock ahead, instantly shattering the waist-high boulder.

The next moment, several figures appeared, all standing atop a bizarrely shaped monster, which was rapidly charging toward Yang An.

The monster was ten feet long and looked like a rotten log, but it had human limbs and a head. It scuttled across the ground at an incredible speed, catching up to Yang An in a matter of breaths.

"Don’t even think about running!"

The figures on the monster shouted at Yang An as they drew alongside him.

Yang An frowned as he looked them over. There were five of them in total, all with the Cultivation Level of the Primordial Feeding Realm, and every one of them was bizarrely-shaped.

One of them, a dwarf, carried a large stone on his back. It was embedded so deeply into his flesh that it seemed to have fused with him.

The dwarf opened his mouth, and several stone chips shot out, letting out a sharp whistle as they flew toward Yang An.

Yang An easily dodged them but came to a stop, his path blocked by the group.

"Why are you blocking my path?"

Yang An asked with a frown, his eyes on the men and the monster at their feet.

"Hehehe! Since we’ve already caught you, are you still going to play dumb? To think you’d try to lure the tiger from the mountain and draw our leader away. You should have known we’d anticipate that move!"

"Now let’s see where you run!"

The dwarf with the stone on his back seemed to be their leader. His gaze was filled with scorn, as if he had seen through Yang An’s every ploy.

A flicker of confusion crossed Yang An’s eyes. He immediately realized they had the wrong person and had mistaken him for someone else.

"You have the wrong person. I’m just passing through this area by chance. I’m not who you think I am."

"Passing through by chance? Then why did you turn and run the moment you sensed us?"

A man with a flat head standing next to the dwarf immediately retorted.

"If I hadn’t run, but had charged toward you instead, wouldn’t that have caused an even bigger misunderstanding?"

"Second Brother, he kind of has a point."

The flat-headed man scratched his head and said to the dwarf.

The dwarf was also momentarily uncertain. He said to Yang An,

"If you’re just passing through, do you have anything to prove your identity?"

Yang An looked at them and casually took something out. He still hadn’t received the tenth disciple’s Gua Order, so he instead produced the eleventh disciple’s Gua Order, given to him by his Second Brother, Fu Ming.

It bore the unique Yin Crane aura of the Life Crane Sect. Anyone familiar with the Life Crane Sect would recognize his identity at a glance.

But when he presented the Gua Order, the men initially looked wary, but after a single glance, they just stared at each other in confusion.

"What is this?"

"I’m a disciple of the Life Crane Sect. This is my proof of identity."

Yang An was puzzled. ’These men don’t even recognize the Gua Order of the Life Crane Sect. Could they be nothing more than obscure Loose Cultivators?’

"Life Crane Sect? Never heard of it."

"..."

"Who cares what sect he’s from! He could be trying to fool us. Better to kill an innocent man than let an enemy go. Kill him!"

The men exchanged a glance and instantly made their decision.

But just as they turned back to Yang An, ready to attack, an arc of light suddenly flashed past, giving them no chance to react.

The next second, all five men, along with the ugly monster, exploded into a shower of gore. They were utterly annihilated.

The arc of light returned to a spot behind Yang An in an instant, forming a Light Wheel that gradually faded from sight. Yang An, however, was frowning deeply.

He hadn’t used his Illusion Technique at all since entering the Ancient Collection, as it would have been useless against that old fellow and Mother Divination True Master. This meant his Cultivation Level aura was completely unconcealed.

Yet despite this, these Primordial Feeding Realm cultivators had still dared to stop him.

His Cultivation Level was higher than theirs, but they had acted with such confidence, which meant they had some sort of backing.

Furthermore, based on their words, something was clearly happening in this area. They had a "leader" who had been lured away and had yet to show up.

He didn’t want to get entangled in unrelated trouble and decided to leave at once. Before he left, however, he looked at the scattered flesh and blood and decided to collect its essence.

He had completely used up his stored flesh-and-blood essence back in the Ancient Collection. This meant he couldn’t use Meat-Eating Life Nourishment, leaving him without one of his life-saving trump cards.

One could never be too careful when traveling.

After extracting the flesh-and-blood essence from their remains, Yang An left the area without a backward glance.

More than an hour later, he had covered a great distance, but there were still no signs of any ordinary people.

Just then, however, an aura began rapidly approaching him, and Yang An’s expression changed at once.

He couldn’t perceive the other party’s Cultivation Level. An existence even he couldn’t see through had to be at the Visceral Stone Realm or higher.

Once a Cultivator entered the Visceral Stone Realm, they could engage in prolonged Flying in the Sky, at speeds incomparable to those in the Primordial Feeding Realm.

In just a few breaths, two figures caught up to him from behind.

It was a man and a woman. The woman was slung over the man’s shoulder, her expression panicked. She was clearly restrained and unable to move.

Seeing that he had been caught with no hope of escape, Yang An simply stopped.

He was a middle-aged man in tattered, mud-caked clothes. His feet, however, were not human, but were instead like the talons of a bird.

Seeing Yang An stop, the man also came to a halt. He casually tossed the woman from his shoulder to the ground and then turned to Yang An with a grim expression.

"You killed them? You’re not from Black River Valley?"

Yang An knew he was obviously talking about the group of Cultivators from before.

"I was just passing by. They tried to kill me."

The man had come specifically for him. Now that he’d been caught, it meant the man had already seen the other Cultivators’ remains. Any further explanation was pointless.

Upon hearing Yang An’s reply, the man’s face filled with killing intent. He asked no more questions.

"Then you can die!"

With that, the man became a black shadow, appearing before Yang An in the blink of an eye. He thrust a hand straight for Yang An’s throat.

At the same time, Yang An struck out with his own palm, aiming for the man’s torso.

A flicker of disdain crossed the man’s eyes. He made no attempt to dodge, choosing to endure Yang An’s palm strike head-on as his own right hand plunged through Yang An’s throat.

’Die!’

A swarm of fine scales flew from his sleeve, surging toward Yang An’s pierced throat, intending to instantly disintegrate him into mincemeat.

But in that same moment, Yang An’s own attack landed. He drove his hand into the man’s torso and seized his spine.

It was the same move he had used against Pu Miao—a firm grip on the spine, making escape impossible.

The next moment, an endless light erupted from Yang An’s body as he activated all of his Light Magic at once.

A blood-curdling scream erupted in front of Yang An, lasting for only two breaths before it was abruptly cut short.

Another two breaths passed. The light faded, and Yang An turned over his hand, letting the ash drift away. He shook his head.

’So weak.’

This was, without a doubt, the weakest Visceral Stone Realm cultivator he had ever met. Never mind his fellow disciples or Mother Divination True Master—this man wasn’t even qualified to be compared to Pu Miao.

Yang An used to be afraid of letting other Cultivators get close to him, but ever since his fight with Pu Miao, he no longer seemed to fear it. On the contrary, he now hoped they would get as close as possible.

Of course, that was only because he possessed the ability of Flesh and Blood Rebirth.

Unless an opponent’s own Flesh and Blood Rebirth could outpace the annihilation rate of all his Techniques firing at once, they had no hope of survival as long as they couldn’t escape.

Unfortunately, the man was dead, and everything on him had turned to ash. There was no way to know if he had been carrying anything valuable.

Shaking his head, Yang An turned to look at the woman on the ground, who was trembling in terror.

The woman was also a Cultivator, but her Cultivation Level was only at the Middle Stage of the Fake Food Realm.

Yang An hesitated for a moment. He remained where he was, several meters away from the woman, then looked at her and asked,

"Where is this place?"

Hearing Yang An’s voice, the woman trembled and looked up at him fearfully.

"Th... This is the Black Mountain Plateau."

"Broadly speaking, are we in Han State or Dingzhou?" Yang An asked with a frown.

"N... no. This is Si State."

’Si State?’

Yang An’s heart sank. ’Why did Elder Miao Ye send me to Si State?’

Si State bordered both Dingzhou and Han State. Together, they were known as the Three-State Region.

"Then do you know which way to go to reach Han State?"

Yang An asked.

But the woman only shook her head.

Seeing her reaction, Yang An couldn’t be bothered to ask anymore and turned to leave.

But just as he did, the woman’s pleading voice came from behind him.

"Elder... Elder, wait! Please, save me! I can give you a map of Si State."

Yang An stopped in his tracks.