Way of the Devil

After an unknown period of time, Lu Sheng gradually opened his eyes.

Before his eyes was the cool ground of the sanctuary, covered in holes. There were even the scars from his previous martial arts cultivation left on the black metal floorboards.

“Water…” instinctively, he felt that his entire body was parched dry and his throat seemed like it was on fire.

It was deathly silent inside the sanctuary. Unfortunately, he was alone and there was no one else around to help him out.

Lu Sheng used his hand to prop himself up as he attempted to rise.

“Bam!”

All strength left his arms, sending him flopping back down on the ground.

“Water…” he whimpered.

There was no reply. The soundproofing in this sanctuary had actually been designed by none other than himself. Behind the metal boards were stone boards that had been filled with cotton-like material. It was shockingly expensive to construct, but highly effective for soundproofing.

Moreover, he had instructed previously that unless there was a matter of great importance, no one was to disturb his seclusion at all costs. No matter what sounds the guards outside heard coming from within, they were not to disturb him.

Therefore, even if he were to howl and scream madly inside, there might not be any response from the outside.

Lu Sheng continued to struggle, but was still unable to get up. Left with no choice, he could only lie back down to rest and recover his strength.

Intense, acute pain pierced his thigh, back, and arms. Turning his head around to take a look, he saw that a fine layer of white hair had actually begun to grown from the gaping wound at his thigh.

‘Damn it! Just what sort of demon is that Lord Officiator? His poison is actually so strong!’ Lu Sheng’s heart thumped. Yin-Yang Jade Crane Skill accelerated within him and circulated rapidly as it began to stimulate his body’s immune system.

After lying down for a while, he finally recovered some of his strength. Only then was he able to slowly prop himself up and drag himself little by little to the shelf in the sanctuary where the food was kept. He took out the water bag and began to gulp down large mouthfuls of water.

The concealed shelf was a hole that had been dug into the wall, where not only food, but also some basic medicinal creams and powders, as well as some bandages and the like, were stored.

Lu Sheng picked a white paper sachet of medicinal powder from among them. He opened it carefully and downed it in a mouthful of water.

‘Hope this works. This is the poison antidote powder that resulted from senior apprentice brother’s research,’ he knew that these medicinal powders were only effective at dispelling common poisons, and had almost zero effect against the highly toxic poison above the realm of Bind. However, Lu Sheng stuffed one after another of such antidotes into his mouth haphazardly and washed them down with water.

After eating some dried meat and snacks absent-mindedly, he finally recovered some of his strength. Bearing with the pain, he began to treat the wounds on his body.

First, it was his thigh.

A chunk of bloodied flesh, the size of a fist, had been gorged out from his thigh, stripping away even the connective tissue beneath it. It was a grievous wound that nearly shattered even his bones.

More horrifyingly, a layer of white fur had grown from the bloodied flesh at the wound!

Gritting his teeth against the pain, Lu Sheng took out a small knife from the concealed shelf and sliced viciously at the wound.

“AHH!!”

He howled and shuddered all over. Instantly, blood flowed profusely from his thigh as he sliced off the layer of white fur along with a thin layer of muscles beneath it.

Swiftly, Lu Sheng held his palm against the side of the wound and applied pressure to stop the blood flow forcefully. Then, with his other hand, he reached for the cloth and cotton bandages in the concealed shelf. After hastily slathering on some medicinal powder, he pressed the bandages firmly to his wound. Additionally, he constricted his muscles tightly with his hard body skill to restrict blood flow to the area. Finally, he was able to put the situation under control.

After settling the wound on his thigh in such a manner, he very quickly and simply bandaged the rest of the wounds on his body

Only after finishing all these did he sit down cross-legged to begin examining the internal state of his body.

He closed his eyes for just a split-second then quickly reopened them again. A bitter smile appeared on his face.

‘Shit… things look dire this time. My injuries are much more severe than the other time with Black Fury Skill, and I don’t have sufficient self-healing abilities. But, thankfully I’ve gotten rid of the Officiator. With him out of the picture, I’m safe for now. I’ve proven to be capable of defending myself. As long as there isn’t any concrete evidence of my involvement, with Shangyang Family backing me, I’m sure I won’t be sacrificed.”

Inside of his body was a complete mess. Ultimate Crimson Nine-Furies Skill was nearly exhausted with practically nothing—other than a few thin threads of it circulating around inside him—left. If it had been a river before, it was but a small water pipe now.

Yin-Yang Jade Crane Skill had also been expended a great deal. The moment a thread of inner Qi was generated in him, it was immediately diverted and expended to treat the wounds. Be it suppressing the poison or self-healing, each of them required a massive amount of Yin-Yang Jade Crane Skill for nourishment.

The only piece of good news was that because his hard body skills were extremely tough, his external wounds weren’t much of a problem. Rather, his internal wounds were the crux of the matter.

It was mainly the two-time detonation of his liquefied Qi that seriously damaged his body’s meridians, impeding his inner Qi replenishment significantly. Consequently, the replenishment of both Ultimate Crimson Nine-Furies Skill and Yin-Yang Jade Crane Skill was barely ten percent of the usual speed.

Lu Sheng sat quietly in the sanctuary to cultivate. After taking more pills to recover his inner Qi, Lu Sheng stayed in seclusion for half a day before exiting.

Although he had been able to finish off the Lord Officiator on this trip, he himself had not escaped unscathed and was hanging on by a thread. Continuing his seclusion would do him no good in the situation. He needed to find some skills and medicine for the specific purpose of treating his injuries.

Outside the sanctuary, Jade Lotus and another Elder stood respectfully and waited for Lu Sheng. Upon seeing the latter exiting, the duo hurried forward in greeting,

“Reporting to Sect Master, Xiao Manor has sent someone to invite you to tonight’s banquet.”

“I’m not going. Say that I’m in seclusion, training martial arts. Ask them to send a letter if there’s anything important,” naturally, Lu Sheng wouldn’t court trouble by heading over to Xiao Manor at this time.

He had just killed four Emissaries of Ashoka Manor, as well as an Officiator. Wouldn’t he be courting death if he showed up and was exposed?

Jade Lotus nodded and noted down his response.

“Another thing. Sect Master Chen Ying has returned from Wind Twin City. He brought back a little boy, who’s apparently a lucky survivor of a family who had suffered a tragedy. Looks like he wants to adopt him into the sect.”

“Just get someone to register him, that will do. Check out that child’s background. If there’s nothing amiss, then don’t bother with it anymore,” Lu Sheng didn’t have the spare energy to concern himself with these mundane matters. “Oh, right. What about those External Affairs Emissaries who had been dispatched on missions? Aren’t they back yet?”

“Oh… one of them is back. There’s been no news of the others yet,” Jade Lotus replied softly.

It had been quite a number of days, and yet there was still no news. Lu Sheng could feel a headache coming on. The fatality rate for External Affairs Emissaries was extremely high, and hence the higher echelons of the sect rotated among themselves for the position. Presently, it happened to be Internal Affairs Emissary Wang and Elder Ouyang—who knew what situation they were in.

Unfortunately, he was now seriously injured. Even if he were up against an ordinary Single-Vein, there was no guarantee that he would emerge the victor in his present state. If an enemy were to attack them now…

Lu Sheng shuddered inwardly. On the surface, he appeared cool and composed as he promptly dismissed the duo including Jade Lotus while he made his way straight to the Sect’s Martial Proclamation Court.

The old librarian at the first story counter was presently sound asleep. Besides a few others on the first and second floors, the other floors of the Martial Proclamation Court were stark empty.

Lu Sheng headed straight for the fourth story where the recuperation and healing inner force skills were stored.

Before long, he returned with a few Strength Proficiency mantras. The Intent Proficiency secret manual that he had tasked an elder to bring back was also kept on the fourth floor alongside other high level skills. Presently, he brought all of them down.

“Senior Librarian, do you know which inner force skill is exceptionally useful for recuperating from injuries?” Lu Sheng’s breath was extremely unstable. Moreover, he had lost a large amount of blood. It was obvious at first glance from his deathly pale face that he was injured.

Not bothering to cover it up, he took the opportunity to consult the old librarian.

The old man looked up groggily from the counter. After taking a single glance at Lu Sheng—just that one glance—the expression on his face changed dramatically.

“You exchanged blows with a Zombie!?” [1]

Lu Sheng was stumped.

“A Zombie?!”

“And not an ordinary one at that. It was at least at the level of a Red-Scaled Zombie General!” the old librarian’s face soon turned grim. “Sect Master, there’s a tinge of black in your irises, and your eyelids have begun to turn mildly purplish-red. There are even pale-gray spots that have appeared on your neck. Tell me honestly, has a layer of white fur also grown on your wound!?”

Lu Sheng hadn’t expected in the least that this court elder would be so discerning. Just one glance was all it took for him to diagnose his state of injuries. Without trying to keep it under wraps, he nodded frankly, “Indeed, that’s what happened. Senior Librarian, do you know of any way to dispel the poison and treat the wound?”

The old librarian was quiet for a moment.

“The only possible way out would be to soak and bathe in a massive amount of Nine Villages Lotus Cores. At the same time, consume Heat Dispelling Powder four times a day to fight against the inflammation! Take the medicine for at least a year. As for the results, that would depend on the rate of Sect Master’s recovery. However, you best prepare yourself for the worst. The poison of a Red-Scaled Zombie is very hard to dispel.”

Lu Sheng was in low spirits as he exited the Martial Proclamation Court. He had not anticipated that the Officiator’s poison would actually be this potent, or this obvious.

Without further ado, he ordered someone to fetch some Nine Villages Lotus Cores and immediately began to soak in it. After the bath, he could indeed feel a comfortable sensation throughout his entire body, as if he had detoxed quite a bit of polluted toxins from inside his body.

Although his meridians didn’t recover much, he clearly felt that his wound didn’t burn as much as before.

After returning to the sanctuary, he took out that piece of metal that he had obtained from the Officiator once again and examined it in detail.

Under the dim yellow candlelight, the surface of the metal reflected a faint, dark yellow glint. The embossed patterns on its surface were like many small snakes, alive and writhing about. A large amount of extremely thick Yin Qi could be felt within it.

‘Seems like I’ve got no choice but to make use of Yin Qi if I want to recover from these injuries,’ Lu Sheng’s eyes narrowed slightly as he stared at the piece of dull yellow metal in front of him.

He wiped a little bit of blood from his wound and rubbed it lightly over the surface of the metal.

“Szzz…” a large quantity of white smoke billowed from the surface of the gold. Like a flood, sea of Yin Qi rushed madly into his body.

The freezing cool Yin Qi caused a groan to escape from Lu Sheng’s lips, but he grit his teeth and bore with the pain.

‘Right now, the only thing that will work is to rapidly upgrade recuperating force skills like Yin-Yang Jade Crane Skill to nurse my wounds! It’s a good thing that I laid my hands on this much Yin Qi this time round, or I’d really be sorely disadvantaged,’ Lu Sheng sighed inwardly and waited silently for the Yin Qi to finish flooding into him.

Time passed by in minutes and seconds. In a flash, a span of twenty breaths had already passed, and yet Yin Qi was still continuing to gush into him without end. Lu Sheng clearly estimated that about twenty units of Yin Qi had already entered his body, but the Yin Qi from the piece of metal continued to flood into him ceaselessly.

This was something he had never experienced before.

Suddenly, Lu Sheng recalled the Divine Weapon shard that Zhang Peng had mentioned previously.

‘Don’t tell me this is that so-called Divine Weapon shard??’ he exclaimed inwardly in surprise.

Yin Qi continued to flow into him for a full fifty breaths of time before it slowly grew weaker and thinner, until it finally disappeared.

‘At least fifty units!!’ Lu Sheng had been calculating carefully and was elated. This was really a surprising gain.

‘Deep Blue!’

He had to extrapolate and upgrade Yin-Yang Jade Crane Skill at the first opportunity and treat his wounds. Otherwise, once others found out that he was in such a weak state, given his position, the umbrella girl would be the first among others to exploit this rare opportunity.

The Scarlet District did not see eye to eye with the Noble Families to begin with, so they had no love for Shangyang Family. Moreover, Shangyang Family was stationed here in name only; they would never dispatch more than a few experts to the Northern Lands. The fact that a genius like Shangyang Jiuli was here was nothing but a coincidence.

With a swish, the pale blue frame of the Modifier emerged before Lu Sheng’s eyes.

His gaze quickly landed onto Yin-Yang Jade Crane Skill.

Looking at it now, he was surprised to find that his Yin-Yang Jade Crane Skill was only at Level Four. Up till now, his Ultimate Crimson Nine-Furies Skill had already been liquefied and reached the Ninth Level. Yet, this amalgamated life-force skill that he relied so heavily on initially was now only at Level Four.