Chapter 175: Emissary from the Underworld?

Not long after Lu Yan left, he encountered several powerful demon auras rushing toward the desolate mountain—among them was even a demon comparable to the Golden Core Realm.

Fortunately, Lu Yan was using the Xuantong Dao Truth to conceal himself, along with actively suppressing his aura. The Golden Core demon didn’t notice anything unusual, making Lu Yan sigh in relief.

A Golden Core demon surely wielded a far more powerful Dao Truth. Coupled with the overwhelming suppression of its rank, even if Lu Yan used all his trump cards, it was uncertain whether he could survive such an encounter.

Even if he miraculously managed to win, the mountain was still crawling with demons. Escaping alive would be next to impossible.

Thus, relying on the Xuantong Dao Truth, Lu Yan traveled under concealment, spending two full days to finally exit the endless stretch of barren mountains.

The moment he left the mountains, he sought out the largest nearby human city.

While gathering intel, he also began to form a clearer understanding of the Demon Version of this world.

In this version, cultivators were called True Law Martial Artists. Tens of thousands of years ago, humans had been nothing more than food for demons. But once the gods and buddhas passed down the path of True Law, humans gradually gained the power to resist.

They built cities and drove the demons into the mountains, forming the power balance of today.

The cultivation system for both demons and martial artists consisted of four major realms: Mortal Shedding, Soul Burial, Mara, and Abyss.

Higher realms certainly existed, but those weren’t something small towns would have any knowledge of.

Starting from the Soul Burial Realm, both demons and humans could begin comprehending Dao Truths. The strength of a Dao Truth usually determined the potential ceiling for both sides.

So whether demon or martial artist, all pursued stronger and deeper Dao Truths—ranked by the Heaven and Earth True Law Rankings.

This ranking manifested from the very rules of the world after the gods passed down their teachings. It listed countless True Laws from throughout history.

Some of these were peak laws handed down by deities, others were methods self-created by masters who comprehended the Dao. There were even deadly techniques formed by warriors fusing demon traits into their own bodies after slaying them.

Regardless of their origin, if a law could resonate with the Dao of this world, it could be listed.

Once a True Law appeared in the world, its ranking determined the scope of the phenomenon it would manifest.

If it was ranked below the top ten thousand, it might only cause an anomaly in a single city.

Those ranked between a thousand and ten thousand could trigger changes across an entire province—hundreds of miles in radius.

Laws ranked from a hundred to a thousand would manifest across a whole nation and were considered first-class in the world.

But if a True Law ranked within the top hundred, its manifestation would spread across the world, drawing countless experts to its location.

Besides the ranking, there was another crucial factor for cultivating True Laws—the number of cultivators.

A True Law pointed directly at the Dao, meaning that all who cultivated the same law were walking the same path.

But the Dao is finite. The more people walking the same path, the less each could access.

Thus, the more crowded the path, the harder it was to progress.

On the other hand, if one could walk a Dao alone, they could harvest its essence freely. Their cultivation speed and comprehension of Dao Truths would vastly exceed their peers.

Because of this, there was no such thing as cooperation on the same Dao—only survival of the fittest.

Every True Law Martial Artist’s deepest desire was to eliminate all others walking their path.

As a result, in the Demon Version, there were no sects based on shared inheritance. Instead, bloodline clans held power—maintaining their dominance by keeping their Daos within the family.

Now that Lu Yan had gathered all this information, he realized just how massive his own opportunity was.

Seventeen of the top one hundred Dao Truths were in his hands. And each one was a unique path, one he didn’t have to share with anyone.

In the Demon Version, this was equivalent to possessing seventeen supreme inheritances, enough to form seventeen mighty clans lasting a thousand years.

One of them, 《Scripture of the Mysterious Female’s Teachings》, was even ranked third—a law spoken of only in legends.

It had been thousands of years since any of the top three True Laws had manifested. Now that they had reappeared with Lu Yan, it sent shockwaves through the human realms.

Countless martial artists were now searching for Lu Yan, eager to seize his unparalleled inheritance.

In just a single day in a remote city near the mountain range, Lu Yan saw five different martial groups scouring for the source of the True Law anomaly.

To put this in perspective, this border city had only tens of thousands of people—and a Soul Burial martial artist was already considered a top-tier expert.

Yet of the five groups Lu Yan observed, the weakest were all early Soul Burial—the Foundation Establishment equivalent. The strongest among them had already reached the Mara Realm, surpassing even Golden Core cultivators of the Xianxia Version.

As for those of even higher realms, perhaps some had already arrived undetected.

The response from the major human factions made one thing clear to Lu Yan:

He must not let anyone know that he possessed peerless Dao Truths.

He could only rely on the Mysterious Female Gate to continuously maintain the Xuantong concealment.

But even so, Lu Yan knew this was not a long-term solution.

The Demon Version was filled with hidden dangers. Xuantong wasn’t invincible—a powerful expert might still see through it at close range.

If that happened, Lu Yan would become the target of every force in the realm.

Moreover, while maintaining Xuantong, he couldn’t cultivate any True Laws. Carrying seventeen supreme Dao Truths and being unable to study them—this feeling made him miserable.

Lu Yan needed to find out how the demons had locked onto him in the first place, and discover a way to hide his Dao Truths.

Yet all the major cities of the human realm were now searching for clues related to Dao anomalies. As an outsider with no identity, poking around for concealment techniques would only raise suspicion.

Thus, Lu Yan would need to rely on local forces.

Fortunately, the Li family from the Urban Version, which he had previously set up through Li Hao, was perfect for this.

Inside a merchant convoy, Lu Yan sat in a carriage drawn by a scaled beast, slowly traveling toward Luocheng.

Human territories were teeming with experts. Without a legitimate identity, Lu Yan didn’t dare use spells casually, lest he attract attention.

Luckily, his body showed no signs of mutation or corruption. Pretending to be a normal human was no problem.

So he joined a caravan headed to Luocheng and caught a ride.

Inside the carriage, most of the passengers were dozing off—except for a young man beside Lu Yan, who was wide-eyed and brimming with excitement.

He was a True Law Martial Artist at roughly the third level of Qi Training—not yet able to fly, so he had to travel by cart.

Lu Yan noticed the young man’s face bore scattered scales—an obvious sign of post-cultivation mutation.

Noticing Lu Yan was still awake, the young man leaned over, brimming with enthusiasm.

“Brother, are you heading to Luocheng to visit the Li family?”

Lu Yan raised an eyebrow, a glint of surprise in his eyes.

“You know about the Li family?”

The young man laughed, “Who in Hezhou hasn’t heard of the Ghost God Li Family?”

He said with reverence:

“Six months ago, the Underworld reappeared in the mortal world. The war between the Underworld Ghost Gods and the spirits of Mount Beiwang rocked the entire human realm!”

“And the Li family was designated by the Ghost Gods themselves as a great clan. They may not look powerful now, but backed by the Underworld, they’ll surely become one of the thousand-year families!”

Lu Yan nodded slightly. Under the influence of cross-version events, the Li family behind Li Hao had indeed risen—just as he expected.

Before he could respond, the young man gave him a mysterious smile.

“So, you’re going to Luocheng to witness the grand spectacle too?”

“Grand spectacle?” Lu Yan frowned, puzzled.

“You haven’t heard?” The young man looked shocked.

“The Li family announced that an Emissary of the Underworld has arrived in Luocheng!”

“They’re hosting a grand banquet to honor the emissary and display the might of the Underworld!”

(End of Chapter)