Return of the Nether Demon and Mastery of Demonic Arts

The evasion light advanced northeast through the thin spiritual energy.

After flying for roughly two hours, the terrain ahead shifted from a desolate gray rocky plain into a low forest of black stone. The stone pillars within rose several yards high, their surfaces covered in a layer of dark-purple moss that contained traces of demonic qi.

Deep within the stone forest, the Monster Trace Spirit Appraisal's passive perception caught several fluctuations of spirit power.

There were roughly a dozen fluctuations, with cultivation levels ranging from Foundation Establishment to Golden Core. All of them carried the characteristics of demonic qi.

Li Yuan slowed down, and his evasion light descended at the edge of the stone forest.

After proceeding inward through the gaps between the stone pillars for roughly a hundred yards, his view suddenly opened up.

A small marketplace stood in a clearing at the center of the stone forest.

The marketplace was not large. More than twenty stone storefronts enclosed a short street, with over a dozen open-air stalls set up along both sides. Fewer than thirty cultivators came and went, and the flow of people was sparse.

Every cultivator's aura contained demonic qi.

Some cultivators looked no different from humans, but the way their spirit power circulated followed an entirely demonic path. Several others possessed obvious nonhuman features: grayish-purple skin, vertical pupils, and long pointed ears.

Devil Race bloodline.

Li Yuan used the Dark Abyss Demonic Origin Art to completely transform the aura around his body into outwardly released demonic qi. He made slight adjustments to his face with Phantom Mask Disguise, then stepped into the marketplace.

No one gave him a second glance.

Transactions in the marketplace primarily used magic stones or barter. Magic stones were a mineral material that stored demonic qi, much like spirit stones stored