The Demon with Holy Radiance-Chapter 161 - 146: Forbidden Artifact Fragment? Jin Tong Enters the Dream Again

'The old guy?'

'Should I see him or not?'

Hearing Fu Ming's words, the very first thought that flashed through Yang An's mind was: Absolutely not!

In his current situation, if the old guy in this Secret Seal Space questioned him, he would have no way to explain himself.

"Thank you, Senior Brother. I'll head to the Heavenly Respect Pavilion to pay my respects to Master right now!"

Yang An nodded, and with that, he left Fu Ming's residence.

But once he was a fair distance away, Yang An immediately tried to use the Golden Secret Seal on his wrist to open an exit and escape.

'Everything that happens here will be reset the next time I come in, so I might as well make a run for it.'

But just as the Golden Secret Seal flew from his hand, before the spatial exit could even appear, the scenery around him changed in the blink of an eye!

Before Yang An could even react, he suddenly realized the surrounding scenery was very familiar.

'This is... the Heavenly Respect Pavilion!'

'I've been brought here by force!'

Yang An spun around and saw Elder Life Crane sitting expressionlessly on the main seat in the central hall, while He Tou gazed at him with a wide grin.

He Tou stretched its long neck, seemingly wanting to get closer to him.

Yang An's heart sank as he instantly had a premonition of what would happen next.

But before He Tou could even reach him, disaster struck again!

With Elder Life Crane at the center, everything in the surroundings suddenly froze, then countless cracks appeared.

The very instant Yang An laid eyes on Elder Life Crane, everything in the space shattered into dust.

Yang An was immediately plunged into darkness.

The sudden changes, all happening within a single breath, were almost too much for Yang An to process.

By the time he came to his senses, the exit created by the Six Golden Secret Seals had already appeared before him. He quickly left and returned to the real world.

The Secret Seal turned back into a bracelet on Yang An's wrist. Only after realizing he was safe did Yang An let out a long sigh of relief.

The moment he saw the old guy, he'd had a bad feeling, but he never expected something like this to happen.

"Bow Lady, you saw that too, right? What was that all about?"

Bow Lady, who had entered the Secret Seal Space with Yang An, was the only other witness, so Yang An decided to ask her.

"It's hard to say, but if you ask me, that space probably couldn't withstand your master's power. That's why that happened."

Bow Lady offered her take on it.

After hearing what Bow Lady said, Yang An had to agree it matched his own initial impression.

The moment he saw the old guy, everything vanished in an instant, even though it had all been perfectly fine just moments before.

The Secret Seal Space couldn't withstand the old guy's power. To be precise, it couldn't withstand the Elder Life Crane that Yang An saw with his own eyes.

He noticed that everyone else was fine; it was only the moment he laid eyes on Elder Life Crane that everything fell apart.

This was the only explanation that made sense.

The Bone Ring from Jiang Hechuan that he held had vanished along with everything else when the space shattered, and he hadn't been able to bring its contents out with him.

'What on earth is hidden in here that can create such an illusion?'

'It can reconstruct people and things from the past, but it can't reconstruct Cultivation and Technique, and it can't withstand the old guy's power. This implies there are certain Rules at play.'

'The old guy's Cultivation Level is definitely above the Zombie God Realm. This means that whatever is reconstructing this space possesses power no greater than, or equal to, a Zombie God...'

Yang An fell into deep thought. As his mind churned, a sudden idea flashed through his head.

'Wait!'

'Can't withstand the old guy's power... Zombie God... Rules...'

'It's a Forbidden Artifact Fragment?!'

As soon as this thought appeared, scenes from his experiences in the Secret Seal Space flashed through Yang An's mind.

'From this perspective, every time I enter the Secret Seal Space, everything inside is reset, but it's clearly not being formed from my own memories.'

'This seems like something only a specific kind of Rule could accomplish!'

He recalled the information he had obtained from the Workshop Master inside the Tree of Flesh and Blood: cultivators in the Zombie God Realm needed to fuse with enough Forbidden Artifact Fragments to raise their Cultivation Level. And after reaching the peak of the Zombie God Realm, they had to fuse with a complete Forbidden Artifact to enter the Insect Dao Realm.

'If a Forbidden Artifact is the embodiment of Rules, then what about a Forbidden Artifact Fragment?'

'Does a fragment represent only a portion of the Rules, or perhaps incomplete Rules?'

'It only reconstructs people and objects, but not real-world Cultivation Techniques and Techniques. Does this mean the Rules that created this space are incomplete?'

At this thought, Yang An's breathing suddenly grew ragged.

He was more and more certain: it had to be a Forbidden Artifact Fragment!

He had thought that obtaining three Light Magic techniques from his trip to the Jueyun Sect was his greatest reward, but he never expected an even greater prize was waiting!

It was an essential item for advancing past the Zombie God Realm, and now it was in his grasp.

No, he couldn't say he had it in his grasp. He had only witnessed the power of a Forbidden Artifact Fragment; he still hadn't seen what a real one looked like.

All he could say was that it was within reach, and perhaps there was a way to obtain it.

For now, however, obtaining the subsequent Cultivation Technique and breaking through the Corpse Transformation Realm was his top priority!

He had already probed the details of his Seventh Senior Brother, Jiang Hechuan, but his current condition wasn't optimal. He had used up half of the Celestial Gnomon Light in his body and needed to spend some time accumulating more.

In the Secret Seal Space, Jiang Hechuan's strength was frozen at the level it was when Yang An first joined the sect. But in reality, after killing Shi Hu, Jiang Hechuan had obtained a Late Stage of Visceral Stone Cultivation Technique, so his strength must have improved by now.

He had to be fully prepared before challenging Jiang Hechuan!

「Ten days passed in a flash.」

On this particular night, Yang An was still absorbing the Celestial Gnomon Light.

At night, however, the Celestial Gnomon Light was greatly diminished compared to the daytime, and his absorption efficiency was less than a tenth of what it was during the day.

But Yang An still didn't waste any opportunity to absorb the Celestial Gnomon Light. After all, his Mana had already reached the level of Perfection, so all he could do was absorb as much Celestial Gnomon Light as possible.

But as he was cultivating, he suddenly detected the sound of soft footsteps outside his residence.

Corpse Slaves were standing guard outside his residence, yet the visitor opened the gate with blatant ease and walked right up to his front door.

Yang An's eyes snapped open as he sensed the aura outside.

The visitor was an acquaintance: his Sixth Senior Brother, Jin Tong!

Almost instantly, Yang An realized that this guy had entered his dreams again.

He was clearly cultivating, not dreaming—he'd even given up the need for sleep like an ordinary person. He couldn't believe Jin Tong was still able to approach him so stealthily.

"Junior Brother!"

Jin Tong's voice sounded from outside the residence. He seemed to be in a normal state, not his usual crazy self, and his tone was completely flat.

"Sixth Senior Brother, what brings you here?"

Yang An slowly rose to his feet, his heart filled with vigilance. He didn't open the door and was even prepared to activate a Technique at a moment's notice.

Jin Tong, for his part, simply stood outside the door and made no move to come closer.

"The Monks from Great Virtue Temple are coming—in ten days at most! I've seen it in Master's dreams! Disaster is about to befall the Life Crane Sect!"

Jin Tong's voice drifted in from outside the door.

Hearing Jin Tong's words, Yang An couldn't help but frown.

Jin Tong had told him about this before, but to this day, he still didn't know what history there was between this Great Virtue Temple and the Life Crane Sect.

More importantly, he couldn't trust Jin Tong's words. The guy was just too unstable.

"Senior Brother, why are you telling me this? If the Great Virtue Temple is really coming, shouldn't Master be the one to give us orders?"

"No! I've told everyone about this, but not a single one of them believes me! They all trust Master!

They think that as long as Master is here, the Life Crane Sect will be safe! A bunch of brainless fools!"

As Jin Tong's voice carried on, his state of mind seemed to be deteriorating again, his emotions growing exceptionally agitated.

'Yeah, right. Who'd be crazy enough to believe you...'

Yang An cursed inwardly. He didn't trust Jin Tong either, but he obviously couldn't show it right now. If this lunatic suddenly attacked, he wasn't sure he could win.

To have secured the position of the sixth disciple in the Life Crane Sect, his strength had to be extraordinary, regardless of whether he was crazy or not.

'Still, this is a good opportunity to learn a little more.'

With this in mind, Yang An asked:

"Since the Great Virtue Temple is coming, does Senior Brother know why?"

"Hehehehe... Isn't it obvious? It's because of Master. He escaped from a certain place a long time ago. The Great Virtue Temple is definitely coming for him.

None of this has anything to do with us, but now he wants to drag us down with him."

Jin Tong seemed to be grinding his teeth as he spoke, his tone filled with resentment.

'Escaped from a certain place? What place?'

Yang An was taken aback. There was a lot of information packed into that statement. It seemed his Sixth Senior Brother really did know something.

"You must be very curious about where, right? Hehehehe..."

"..."

'Then fucking say it!'

Yang An was speechless.

"I don't know. I only know that all of Master's former sect brothers are dead. He's the only one left. He must be hiding some secret on him, a secret the Great Virtue Temple wants!"

Jin Tong seemed to be muttering to himself.

But Yang An suddenly recalled something his Second Senior Brother, Fu Ming, had warned him about when he first joined the Life Crane Sect.

There were two places in the sect he wasn't supposed to approach.

The first was the Heavenly Respect Pavilion, the old guy's private sanctum.

The second was an ancestral hall to the southeast of the valley, where memorial tablets for the old guy's former sect brothers and friends were enshrined.

Those had been Fu Ming's exact words.

'Could the old guy really be the sole survivor of some sect? Is the Great Virtue Temple really coming?'

Having heard this much, regardless of whether he believed it or not, a sense of imminent crisis began to grow in Yang An's heart.

'Better safe than sorry,' as the old saying goes. It's always better to be prepared than to do nothing.

"Junior Brother... run! Wait until Master is dead, wait until that bunch of ignorant fools are dead, then come back! Maybe you'll become the new Sect Leader of the Life Crane Sect! Hahahaha..."

"..."

Jin Tong's mental state had clearly taken a turn for the worse, and he seemed to have reverted to his usual madness.

But after saying this, his aura rapidly vanished from Yang An's senses. He was clearly gone.

A moment later, everything returned to normal. Yang An snapped out of his cultivation state and extended his senses. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

Outside the door, it was pitch black and silent. The Corpse Slaves were still guarding the gate, as if nothing had happened at all. But Jin Tong had indeed just entered his dream.

"Great Virtue Temple... ten days at most..."

A grave expression appeared on Yang An's face, and his brows furrowed deeply.

You can't discount even the smallest possibility of disaster. But how could he just run away now? He still hadn't obtained the follow-up Cultivation Technique for the Corpse Transformation Realm.

Regardless of whether this was real or not, he still had a little time. He had to speed up his progress and get that subsequent Cultivation Technique as soon as possible!

'Even if I have to run, I'll get the Cultivation Technique before I go!'