Chapter 185: Enshrouded by the Strange!

When Lu Yan read the words on the broken bamboo slip, his pupils shrank violently.

His heart trembled as if an invisible hand had seized his very soul. An indescribable pressure enveloped him from head to toe, choking his breath.

“This is…”

Lu Yan instantly knew something was wrong.

In every version he had experienced, information regarding Zhao Huowang had always been pivotal.

In the Immortal Cultivation version, it was the Treatise on the Heavenly Dao. In the Cyber version, it was the Heavenly Dao Code. Each time, Zhao Huowang’s legacy had helped Lu Yan survive deadly crises.

But never before—never in any version—had he experienced such a violent reaction just from reading Zhao Huowang’s relic.

It felt as though the entire world was pressing down on him, urging him—no, forcing him—to destroy the broken bamboo slip.

“No! I can’t!”

“This Demon World version is definitely wrong. The truth lies in that message on the bamboo slip!”

Lu Yan’s thoughts spun rapidly, but the mental and physical pressure only intensified, to the point where he could hardly control himself.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck.

Within his sea of consciousness, his divine sense surged and formed a blade of pure soul power.

That blade plunged into his Supreme Dao Foundation, carving the contents of the bamboo slip onto it.

As the inscription completed, Lu Yan’s mind blanked momentarily from the exertion. His right hand clenched involuntarily—crushing the bamboo slip into dust.

With the surge of mana, the already decayed slip disintegrated into ash. Not even divine powers could restore it.

Li Hao stood in front of him, watching with confusion.

After the banquet, Lu Yan had instructed him to locate a young man named He Dongsheng.

Li Hao had mobilized the full force of the Li Family for four months, combing through every corner of Hezhou—only to discover that He Dongsheng’s rented courtyard had been within Luocheng all along.

The entire matter radiated with an unsettling strangeness. After the banquet, the Li Family had reached unprecedented prestige. Recognized by the ancient clans, even the minor factions within Luocheng had submitted, not daring to defy them.

Under such circumstances, how had it taken four months to find a courtyard right under their noses?

Even stranger, Li Hao had enlisted True Dharma cultivators versed in Heavenly Machine Intent to divine He Dongsheng’s location, yet they had all come up empty-handed.

The mystery was too bizarre. So, upon finding the envelope, Li Hao had immediately delivered it to Lu Yan.

And now, seeing Lu Yan momentarily dazed and then destroying the bamboo slip without hesitation—it only proved the gravity of the situation.

“What exactly happened, to make the emissary lose composure like this?”

The powder of the bamboo slip drifted from Lu Yan’s hand. He slowly regained clarity.

Frowning, he looked back at the envelope.

“He Dongsheng said he found Zhao Huowang’s relic? Then why is there nothing inside?”

Lu Yan checked the envelope again. Aside from the letter, it was empty.

He turned toward Li Hao and asked:

“In that courtyard—was this envelope the only thing left behind? Nothing else?”

Li Hao instinctively began to answer, but then paused, frowning in confusion.

After sorting through his memories again, he slowly shook his head.

“Reporting to the emissary, I truly found nothing else.”

Lu Yan’s frown deepened.

“Forget it. You lead the way—I’ll search personally!”

Without delay, the two turned into streaks of light and flew to Luocheng.

At the courtyard mentioned by Li Hao, Lu Yan scoured every corner—above and below. He even dispatched several ghost soldiers to dig hundreds of meters beneath the earth.

Still, nothing.

No trace of He Dongsheng. No additional items.

Shaking his head, Lu Yan pondered silently:

“There are no Ten Great Sects in this version. He Dongsheng has vanished. Could there be a connection?”

“And what about Zhao Huowang’s relic mentioned in the letter? How do I explain that?”

With a mind full of unanswered questions, Lu Yan returned once again to the North Mang ruins, preparing to resume his secluded cultivation and Dao comprehension.

After reinforcing the courtyard with barriers, ghost mist, soldier formations, and the Gate of Mystic Female, it seemed to return to its usual calm.

But in the instant those layered protections were completed—Lu Yan’s expression suddenly changed.

“Something’s wrong.”

“Something’s very wrong.”

Ordinary people might not sense it, but Lu Yan had experienced too many version transitions. He had faced multiple incarnations of the Heavenly Dao. How could he not notice the anomaly?

Zhao Huowang’s relic was too important. Whether in the Immortal Cultivation version or the Cyber version, his messages had revealed the very truth of the world.

Only in the Urban version had Lu Yan failed to obtain anything from He Dongsheng. Even He Dongsheng had claimed he’d never met Zhao Huowang.

After speaking with Lu Yan in the Urban version, He Dongsheng had remembered this task. In this Demon World version, he left behind the letter.

Lu Yan knew the karma between He Dongsheng and Zhao Huowang—how it spanned multiple versions. There was absolutely no way He Dongsheng would leave a letter referencing the relic and not leave the relic itself.

Thinking of this, Lu Yan instinctively looked at his own right hand.

Though there was no memory of it, he knew—he had definitely touched Zhao Huowang’s relic.

“Zhao Huowang wasn’t a cultivator. The things he left behind were always information-based—like the Treatise on the Heavenly Dao or the Heavenly Dao Code.”

“If I touched one of his messages… and then something erased my memory… I must have hidden it somewhere even the Heavenly Dao couldn’t reach.”

“Somewhere… like the Supreme Dao Foundation!”

With that thought, Lu Yan closed his eyes. His divine sense dove into the towering jade-like Supreme Dao Foundation within him.

The highest-grade artifact in his possession—the very foundation where his ultimate divine powers took root. It had been forged through an offering of the version’s destiny. Even the Heavenly Dao struggled to interfere with it.

Sweeping his divine sense through it, Lu Yan quickly located the inscription he’d carved earlier.

[The Immortals took everyone. HE is coming!]

“What does it mean the Immortals ‘left’? Who is HE? How is HE coming?”

These haunting questions echoed in Lu Yan’s mind. He unconsciously looked up to the sky.

As an Unchanging One, Lu Yan possessed the pseudo-Heavenly Dao authority left behind by Man Replaces Heaven. Not even Abyss Profound Realm monsters could erase his memories.

Within this Demon World version, only one entity could erase memories like this—and have a reason to do so.

The Heavenly Dao itself.

From the moment he entered, Lu Yan had known this version’s Dao was strange.

The Dao here was completely open to all beings. Its contamination and pollution infected the entire world. Everyone followed a cycle of stealing from the Dao—and then being eaten by it.

It was a grotesque wheel of cause and effect.

Despite the Demon World possessing a spiritual energy density half that of the Immortal version—and birthing countless mystical Dao laws—its design capped its potential.

Outwardly, the Demon World appeared full of powerful experts, surpassing even the Immortal World. But it was a lie.

Even someone like Li Hao—merely at the peak of Foundation Establishment in the Immortal World—could enter the Demon World and transform into a peak Demon Fiend Realm expert.

If that was true… then what kind of power would the top ten orthodox sects of the Immortal World manifest here?

The Dao and rules of the Demon World were steeped in an unspeakable horror.

“I’ve already resolved the influence of the Heavenly Dao correction… and my identity as Underworld emissary protects me from being exposed… then why was I still affected by memory erasure?”

“Was it because the Everlasting Spring Art might change the version’s Dao? Or because Zhao Huowang’s message could affect the Dao itself?”

A deepening sense of unease wrapped around Lu Yan like a shroud.

Even inside his fortified courtyard, he felt that danger could descend at any moment.

He forcefully suppressed his fear and cultivated for another month, his growing dread driving him to extract Dao Intents more aggressively.

When the Gate of Mystic Female reached three meters in height—becoming the strongest of all his Dao Intents—Lu Yan’s rampant plundering finally triggered a backlash.

Even with the residual pseudo-authority of a pseudo-Heavenly Dao, there was a limit to how far he could fake it. The Mystic Female Dao refused to allow him to consume it endlessly.

The backlash severely wounded Lu Yan. It took him three days of recovery to stabilize.

It was now clear: the Gate of Mystic Female had reached its limit. Unless Lu Yan advanced his cultivation again, he could not suppress the Dao further. Three meters was the cap for Foundation Establishment.

Realizing this, Lu Yan made a decisive choice.

To flee the North Mang ruins in secret.

Whether it was Zhao Huowang’s final words, or the erased memories, they pointed to something deeply wrong.

Lu Yan was certain—once the version update progressed far enough, the crisis lurking behind all his unease would erupt.

When the update progress hit 90%, Lu Yan used Profound Unity Dao Intent to vanish from the North Mang ruins—leaving behind only a courtyard shrouded in ghost mist.

Three days later, a thunderous announcement spread across the human realm.

The emissary who had appeared in Luocheng was none other than the man who had monopolized seventeen of the strongest Dao True Dharmas!

The human race was in uproar.

Countless experts flocked to Luocheng’s North Mang Mountain—only to find an empty courtyard where no one remained.

(End of Chapter)