The Demon with Holy Radiance-Chapter 94 - 86: Emptying the Cave Abode, the Bizarre and Sinister Statue

"Be careful. Don’t take too long sprinkling the seasoning and mixing it in. If you attract any Demon Fiends, none of you will escape either."

The man in the lead warned them again.

Soon, the group replaced the stone slab over the pit.

It was like a completely sealed space. Once covered, the aroma was cut off, with not a single wisp leaking out.

Yang An waited patiently in the shadows. He watched the group finish their work and start up the path to Wuwei Peak. Once they were a good distance away, he promptly followed.

There was only one path up the mountain. As the group ascended, the dense, dark woods of the forest became Yang An’s best cover.

His Cultivation Level was already higher than theirs, and with his aura concealed by the Illusion Technique, no one could sense his presence.

A light tap on a tree trunk sent him leaping dozens of feet into the air, completely silent.

Soon, following the men from Wuwei Peak, he arrived at a cave halfway up the mountain where they stopped.

The mouth of the cave was sealed by a metal prison door, leaving only a hole the size of a human head.

A stench wafted out from the cave. It smelled as if feces, urine, and excrement had all been mixed together and left to pile up for a long time. The reek was even laced with the decaying scent of corpses, so putrid it had turned sour.

It was like a rotten egg coated in viscous sewage, deep-fried, and then steeped in acidic brine—utterly nauseating.

Unlike with the pits at the foot of the mountain, these men from Wuwei Peak clearly couldn’t stand the smell; a few of them even threw up.

Just then, a noise came from inside the cave.

It was the sound of a crowd of people begging for mercy, screaming, and wailing, seemingly pleading with those outside to spare them.

The man in the lead remained unmoved, his expression cold. He pointed toward the cave and addressed the men behind him.

"This is all future pickled food, offerings for Lord Corpse Insect. You can’t let a single one escape, or you’ll be the ones locked in there."

"Every five days, you’re to grab one, wash them clean, and toss them into the pickling pit. Remember, don’t kill them. They must be pickled alive. Only by pickling them alive will they be fully seasoned!"

His subordinates all nodded, showing they understood. Only then did the man lead them further up the mountain.

In the darkness, Yang An’s gaze pierced through the only hole in the prison door, but he could see nothing inside.

The screams and wails lasted for only a short while. After the men outside had left, the sounds vanished without a trace, and an unnatural silence fell.

Yang An sighed softly to himself. ’If I hadn’t unexpectedly discovered my special ability, my fate probably wouldn’t have been any better than that of the people locked up in here.’

Soon, the group from Wuwei Peak had moved on, and Yang An continued to follow.

Before long, near the summit, he saw a stretch of cleared, flat land with wooden huts and caves.

This was where the disciples under Ding Chong Daoist usually rested and cultivated. It was even more desolate than the Life Crane Sect.

Yang An had thought Corpse Saliva Valley was dilapidated enough, but Wuwei Peak seemed even more primitive by comparison.

’This is what a minor Sect is like,’ he thought. ’If it weren’t for Ding Chong Daoist, probably no one would ever come here.’

The men from Wuwei Peak stopped here. The leader pointed to the true Core Land above and warned the others.

"Up there is the Master’s personal cave-dwelling. Without the Master’s express command, no one is to go up and disturb him. You are not to go up even if he isn’t here.

Remember, don’t look at what you’re not supposed to see, and don’t ask what you’re not supposed to ask. Otherwise, the pickling pits below will be your final resting place."

After warning them, he had everyone find a place to rest. The man himself entered one of the wooden huts and didn’t come back out.

Yang An watched the entire scene unfold and guessed that these were likely all new disciples recently accepted by Ding Chong Daoist.

He waited until all the disciples had settled into their own quarters. Deep in the night, Wuwei Peak gradually fell silent, until there was no movement at all.

Yang An immediately transformed into a black shadow. In the blink of an eye, he shot through the forest, silently arriving at the upper level of Wuwei Peak.

As a Late Stage of Primordial Feeding Realm Cultivator and the master of a Sect, Ding Chong Daoist surely had plenty of good things stashed away—far more than any Mortal Influence in Jinlong City could compare to.

This was precisely why Yang An had taken the opposite tack, coming to Wuwei Peak while Ding Chong Daoist was away in Jinlong City.

He had already looked through the Magic Scriptures collected by two other factions, and found very little of use. If this kept up, he feared it would take a very, very long time just to break through to the Middle Stage of Primordial Feeding. How would he ever obtain the subsequent Cultivation Techniques?

The longer it took, the more anxious Yang An became.

He was worried that after finally getting a chance to leave the Life Crane Sect, he would fail to find anything helpful for his Cultivation Level. When he returned to the sect, his Tenth Senior Brother would come for him before he could even go find him.

Such a scenario was an almost certain death sentence!

Now, Ding Chong Daoist’s cave-dwelling was his last hope. Yang An could only pray he would find what he was looking for here.

Soon, Yang An reached the very summit of Wuwei Peak.

Because of the high altitude, the wind howled around the peak. The sound was so loud it almost completely masked his footsteps, so he didn’t have to worry about being discovered.

But out of an abundance of caution, Yang An still did his best to suppress any sound he might make as he looked at the cave-dwelling before him.