Chapter 186 – Version Update?

“Something’s wrong!”

Lu Yan dashed through a remote stretch of forested mountains, with over a dozen strange-looking True Law Martial Artists trailing behind him from several kilometers away.

Right after leaving the Northern Mang Forbidden Grounds, Lu Yan had immediately chosen to retreat beyond the human territory and conceal himself deep in the wilderness, intending to ride out the remaining 10% of the version update.

But unexpectedly, within just three days, the truth about the True Law he possessed had spread across the entire human race and was quickly confirmed by all major forces.

Though Lu Yan still had his identity as a Netherworld Envoy, and the might of the Netherworld Lord and various ghostly deities deterred many, that wasn’t enough in the Demon version.

After all, in the Demon version, it wasn’t just the thousand-year clans that held sway.

Countless sects, factions, and rogue cultivators didn’t give a damn about the Netherworld deities or the Netherworld Lord.

In the Demon version, powerhouses had shorter lifespans. The True Law within Lu Yan was an irresistible temptation to many nearing the end of their lifespans.

To them, Lu Yan was like a juicy piece of meat. Just taking a bite might give them a shot at reaching the peak of the Demon version.

And if they couldn’t take a bite? Well then, death was just part of the trade.

Who among those walking the path of a True Law Martial Artist was ever truly sane?

Madmen who willingly fused themselves with the Great Dao—if they feared some powerful background and dared not fight for a True Law, now that would be a real joke!

In this environment, bizarre secret arts and Great Dao Intents kept emerging. Previously, these techniques had no targets to be unleashed on. But after Lu Yan’s identity was exposed, there were no more constraints.

Even though Lu Yan wielded the Intent of Profound Harmony, he was still occasionally overwhelmed by the endless stream of techniques.

Whenever he failed to maintain Profound Harmony for a split second and revealed his position, he would be swarmed by powerhouses.

Sweeping his gaze past the many pursuers, Lu Yan sensed through the soul banner that the Giant Spirit God had already reached the Peak Foundation Establishment and begun divination.

Seconds later, Lu Yan halted beneath a towering tree and turned to face the eleven Soul-Burial Realm True Law Martial Artists that had stepped within three hundred meters.

The next moment, Lu Yan unleashed his Dao Intent with no reservations. A three-meter-tall violet Profound Womb Gate burst open, forming a massive vortex that locked onto every True Law present.

Three ghostly deities and eight hundred Yin Soldiers materialized within the Profound Womb’s domain.

Many of the Martial Artists instinctively tried to flee—but it was already too late.

The Yin Soldiers and two Peak Foundation ghost deities deployed their formation. Within the 300-meter area, it transformed into a netherworld inferno as soul-devouring fire erupted from the earth, engulfing the intruders.

Nether Inferno Formation!

A brand new underworld formation devised by the Giant Spirit God, drawing out the full power of Peak Foundation ghost deities.

Of the eleven Soul-Burial Realm Martial Artists, five in the early stage were obliterated instantly—soul and body erased. Only six remained.

By the third second, three mid-stage experts succumbed to the flames—bodies and souls disintegrated into the Dao.

By the seventh second, two late-stage powerhouses perished.

By the tenth second, the final peak-level Soul-Burial expert melted like snow.

In ten seconds, all eleven were wiped out.

Lu Yan flicked his finger, sending eleven plumes of Meritorious Flame upon the corpses to sever karmic ties.

The ghost deities and Yin Soldiers returned to the soul banner, and Lu Yan vanished as a streak of light beneath the veil of Profound Harmony.

Fights like this had already happened countless times during this period.

Against Soul-Burial enemies, Lu Yan was confident. He would bide his time and deploy Yin Soldier formations to obliterate them in one strike.

But if even a single Demon Lord realm expert joined the pursuit, Lu Yan would never fight them.

Though he had the qualifications to clash with such enemies using the soul banner and his numerous Great Dao Intents, Lu Yan wasn’t facing a lone opponent—he was facing an endless tide of True Law Martial Artists.

Any prolonged fight with a Demon Lord would risk more hunters locking onto him.

Worse yet, if Lu Yan failed to kill a Demon Lord after using the soul banner, he would expose the ghost deities hidden within.

That would shatter the carefully maintained prestige of the Netherworld, and the thousand-year clans might no longer hold back.

Fighting a Demon Lord was clearly high-risk with little reward.

If one ever got close, Lu Yan’s only response was to throw out a Threefold Slaughter Intent.

Although as an early Foundation Establishment cultivator, he couldn’t kill a Demon Lord, the triad of Heaven, Earth, and Man’s killing intent could at least stall them long enough for escape via Profound Harmony.

Of course, that was in the best-case scenario.

In recent days, Lu Yan had faced some exceptionally troublesome foes.

Some Soul-Burial cultivators were incredibly sensitive to danger and never stepped into the Profound Womb’s range.

Some Demon Lords possessed strange treasures that could resist the Threefold Slaughter Intent and nearly trapped Lu Yan in an encirclement.

Such opponents were growing more common with time. The relentless pursuit had lasted thirteen days now.

In those thirteen days, Lu Yan had been constantly on the run, so much so that he no longer knew where he had ended up.

After escaping another wave, Lu Yan used Profound Harmony to mask himself and flew across a mountain range, deliberately minimizing the residual trace of his light. It was a technique he’d refined during this chase.

Yet the moment he entered the forest, a wave of irresistible fear suddenly surged through him.

The air around him solidified. From an outside perspective, Lu Yan’s speed slowed dramatically—barely a few meters per second—like an insect trapped in amber.

His eyes bulged wide, even his thoughts seemed to crawl to a halt, yet the instinctual reaction honed over countless life-and-death battles allowed him to utter two words:

“Profound Womb!”

Boom!

The violet vortex opened once more, summoning the source of all laws and suppressing myriad Daos.

In that instant, Lu Yan’s frozen flight and thoughts resumed. Power from his Supreme Dao Foundation surged, blasting him free of the temporal quagmire.

The next second, the Profound Womb Gate shattered violently. Before Lu Yan could rejoice, backlash from the broken Dao Intent made him cough up blood.

Had it not been for his Supreme Foundation tempered soul, the backlash alone might have been fatal.

Lu Yan’s eyes glowed sharply as he spoke each word with force:

“Nether Abyss!”

The Profound Womb ranked at the top even among all Dao Intents—origin of myriad laws, foundation of all Daos.

Even a Demon Lord couldn’t instantly crush a three-meter Profound Womb Gate with realm alone.

Only a Nether Abyss-level Ancestor could manage that.

Such beings had become incarnations of the Dao itself—no longer wielding Dao Intents but acting as extensions of Heaven and Earth.

This was the third time in thirteen days Lu Yan had encountered such a foe.

In the mountains he had just passed, a man in tattered robes stood suspended midair.

Half his body had mutated—pale gray like a demon, with twisted veins crawling under the skin. The other half was fragmented, composed of shards of broken space, within which scenes from different realms flickered.

One eye shone like a silver moon; the other was a black vortex distorting reality itself.

A Nether Abyss Ancestor—and not just any, but one who had mastered the Dao of Space!

He calmly gazed toward Lu Yan. In an instant, the dozens of miles between them were folded.

With a single step, he appeared beside Lu Yan.

Fingers splayed, the amber of time-space reformed, sealing Lu Yan in place.

With the Profound Womb shattered, Lu Yan had no means to resist.

Soon, the massive amber shrank into a gemstone, which the man casually took in hand—seemingly ending everything.

But just as he turned to leave, something shifted in his expression. He looked at the gem.

Inside, Lu Yan’s figure faded like an illusion.

At that moment, thousands of miles away in a cavern, Lu Yan awoke from a dream.

Around him, faint traces of Dao Intent still lingered—Nameless Intent from the Nameless Dream Sutra of Heaven and Earth.

Nameless represents the Nameless Dao. Its intent could reflect myriad worlds in a single dream.

Though Lu Yan’s mastery was far from that level, it was sufficient to project a dream-form with full memory, karma, and even magic.

When the dream-body broke, Lu Yan would awaken.

It was this that had saved him twice before from Nether Abyss Ancestors.

But this time, he wasn’t sure even Nameless would be enough.

With Profound Harmony cloaking him again, and Meritorious Flames burning karma across the cavern, Lu Yan turned into a streak of light and fled.

Just a few breaths later, twisted space shattered the cave like glass, and that demonic figure stepped through.

Thousands of miles were meaningless to a space-wielding Nether Abyss.

The black vortex eye scanned the void, locked onto Lu Yan’s trail, and vanished once more.

Under the blazing sun, Lu Yan ran on fumes.

This was the first time since forming his Supreme Foundation that he had nearly exhausted his energy. The spatial killing intent left him unable to absorb ambient spiritual energy.

The chase had lasted an entire day. Against such a foe, every attempt to escape was laughably futile.

His spirit stones were gone. His storage bag was empty, save for the soul banner.

The Profound Womb had shattered multiple times to break spatial locks. Every Intent had been used—none worked.

Lu Yan had reached the end of his rope.

Yet he showed no fear.

In this endless pursuit, he had realized the enemy could have killed him at any point.

The gap between Foundation Establishment and a space-controlling Nether Abyss was unfathomable.

But this… this felt like a game. Like he had walked into a pre-arranged trap.

Suddenly, spatial ripples shredded Profound Harmony around him.

The half-man, half-demon being appeared again, eyes gleaming with mockery.

Profound Womb opened again—now only half its original size.

Threefold Slaughter Intent struck—but it vanished before even forming.

Before an incarnation of the Dao, even top-tier Intents were powerless.

The man’s hand reached across space to grasp Lu Yan.

The void crumbled. Reality and illusion blurred.

With nothing left, Lu Yan simply looked at his foe without fear, unfazed by the corruption spilling from the man’s form.

“No matter what you’re after… see you next version.”

As the words fell, time itself seemed to pause.

In his vision, the version progress bar finally ticked from 99.9% to 100%.

His enemy had a plan.

But so did Lu Yan.

He just had to stall until the version update.

Then he could choose a low-energy version.

No matter how powerful someone was in the Demon version—how much of that power could they carry over?

As an Unchanging One, Lu Yan would retain his realm and cultivation.

And that would be his counterattack!

[The Demon Version has ended. Version Variance Value: 4.44%]

“Wait… now they go to two decimal places?”

Lu Yan blinked.

The next moment, the familiar interface returned.

[Version progress complete. Choose one of the following versions to update to:]

Longevity Version: Young friend…

Longevity Version: …You’re still…

Longevity Version: …hesitating?

(End of Chapter)