Way of the Devil

‘Previously, my meridians contained many different types of inner force, causing them to clash with each other when they crossed paths. This prevented me from becoming even stronger. But Yin Yang Jade Crane Aquarius Qi has formed its own highway that it can travel in alone…’ Lu Sheng was speechless.

Presently, he sensed the inner Qi in the Yin Crane Web. Indeed, it traveled extremely smoothly, without any obstructions, and was in fact much faster than Qi in his original meridians.

‘That’s understandable. The new meridian network doesn’t have any fleshly blockages… it’s unobstructed all the way through. Of course it’s much more efficient.’

Originally, Lu Sheng had almost forgotten his past on Earth. Who would have expected that this Yin-attribute inner force would take the concept of an overhead bridge from his memory’s knowledge bank and apply it creatively in martial arts?

‘Oh, and… I successfully attained this Yin Extreme Mode indeed…’

Lu Sheng breathed out at length, itching to try it out.

He had always been very excited about what powers Yin Extreme Mode would bring that would be different from Yang Extreme Mode. After all, Yang Extreme Mode gave him a terrifyingly strong fleshly body, which made him unstoppable in close quarters combat. Be it tanking blows, or tanking more blows, or tanking even more blows… he could tank through all of them without a flinch.

‘Yang Extreme Mode is my body’s most powerful mode.

In actual fact, my daily body is the result of contracting and containing my Yang Extreme Mode. To release Yang Extreme Mode is to remove the bonds on my body.

So what about Yin Extreme Mode?’

Lu Sheng remained seated where he was, falling into a moment of contemplation.

Suddenly, a bright glint flashed in both his eyes, as if there was some light-emitting material in his pupils. His body temperature dropped rapidly, and some changes began to occur on his body.

The first to change was his skin.

Originally, his skin had been made rough and coarse because of Ultimate Crimson Nine Furies Skill and his hard body skills. But presently, under some mysterious transformation, Lu Sheng’s skin all over his body began to recover its original luster, as if he were an ordinary young master who had never practiced martial arts.

In fact, he now looked fine and supple.

Then, it was the joints. Originally, they were enlarged by his hard body skills. After a series of distortions, they popped and cracked as they were hidden deep under his skin and muscles, no longer visible.

His muscles, bones and skin seemed to become denser, stronger, and filled with vitality.

Lu Sheng touched the crown of his head. A layer of thick short hair had grown out on it! It seemed different from his original hair in texture; it was firm and elastic.

“So this is Yin Extreme Mode?” Lu Sheng rose and put on his robes. Opening the stone doors slowly, he walked out of the sanctuary.

Crimson Whale Sect experts stood guard outside the door. Seeing that he had come out of his solitary confinement, they quickly greeted him.

“Greetings to Sect Master!”

Immediately, all the guards who were patrolling the courtyard knelt on one knee, leaving Lu Sheng the only one standing.

He noticed that there was no difference in the way they looked at him. Clearly, his physical appearance had not changed.

“Find me a mirror.”

Quickly, a disciple left and came back with a copper mirror in his hand within twenty breaths.

Lu Sheng took it and looked into the mirror.

Apart from a hint of roughness in his face, he was no different from how he had looked in the time before he had started practicing martial arts.

‘Could this be the legendary state of returning to the simplest form of the truth?’ Lu Sheng’s heart skipped a beat. He looked at the top of his head in the mirror. Indeed, a thick layer of short raven-black hair, about the length of a fingernail, had grown out of his head. It looked like he was finally going to grow some hair at last.

Subtly, he realized that, under this mode, the scorching sensation that Ultimate Crimson Nine Furies Skill had caused to his body and meridians was now virtually non-existent.

Massive volumes of inner Qi were constantly being expended to maintain his Yin Extreme Mode. In this mode, his five senses visibly improved.

At the same time as inner Qi was being expended, it was being replenished at an alarming rate as well! It was at least several folds faster than the rate of Qi replenishment in Yang Extreme Mode or normal mode!

‘My Yin Yang Jade Crane Aquarius Qi can be used for healing. So it seems that my accelerated Qi replenishment and healing abilities mainly rely on Yin Yang Jade Crane Aquarius Qi. In that case, my injuries will recover several times faster than before.’

Lu Sheng made a rough estimate of the upgrade brought by Yin Extreme Mode to his strength.

Qi replenishment and healing had been accelerated. Ultimate Crimson Nine Furies Skill’s negative side effects had been nearly entirely eradicated. The effect of suppressing Yin and Yang had also been displayed to the full.

He had not discovered its other functions, but it seemed like his whole body was being nourished instead of solely being filled with Yang and force.

‘And one more thing… Yin Extreme Mode seems to possess the additional ability of hiding my aura.’ Lu Sheng extended his hand and looked at his fair, supple palm, which might have as well belonged to an ordinary young master. Presently, even he himself could not quite detect the Ultimate Crimson Nine Furies inner Qi in him.

His overall aura was essentially like that of an ordinary person.

‘I’ve still got that last bit of Yin Qi left. It’s not enough to upgrade Ultimate Crimson Nine Furies Skill, but enough to upgrade Yin Yang Jade Crane Aquarius Qi again…’

Lu Sheng hesitated. But, then, he could feel that Ultimate Crimson Nine Furies Skill was circulating at high speed in him, as if it was on steroids. After forming Yin Extreme Mode, his body seemed better equipped to cope with Yang Extreme Mode’s side effects.

From this, he understood that upgrading Yin Extreme Mode could indirectly strengthen his Yang Extreme Mode.

‘Let’s upgrade it by one more level. Perhaps I can achieve Yin-attribute inner Qi liquefication… when that time comes, I’ll combine Yin and Yang into one and maybe unlock some unexpected transformation and boost!’

After some deliberation, Lu Sheng made up his mind.

He rested for awhile outside, then went back into the sanctuary and warmed himself up with a set of palm moves. Then, he finally sat down and entered meditation.

‘Deep Blue.’

Summoning the Modifier, Lu Sheng’s gaze fell on Yin Yang Jade Crane Aquarius Qi once again.

‘Extrapolate Yin Yang Jade Crane Aquarius Qi to Level Nine,’ he thought as he pressed the Modify button behind it.

Once again, massive volumes of icy cool tentacles gushed out from his heart and and poured into Lu Sheng’s body rapidly, travelling through the newly built Yin Crane Web.

No intricate changes or transformations occurred this time; only large amounts of pure Aquarius Qi were gushing into the Yin Crane Web. Inner Qi increased in quantity and density.

Gradually, Lu Sheng started to feel bloated—it was a feeling which he had not felt for some time. Understanding that this was the necessary path towards liquefying inner Qi, he did not panic. Stilling his mind, he continued observing the thick flow of Yin-attribute inner Qi.

As time continued to tick by, Aquarius Qi grew in such quantity and density that the entire Yin Crane Web started to feel swollen. Thankfully, the medicinal effects of the Grade Four Tiger Cloak Pill became the best nourishment to Yin Crane Web. Apart from some ache which could not be eliminated, he was fine.

Right from its creation, the Yin Crane Web was connected to the body’s nerves. Under the high pressure from the mass of Yin Qi, it began to swell in pain again, as if it was about to burst.

Lu Sheng sat cross-legged. Unlike his anxiety when he developed Yang Extreme Mode, he was now more experienced in liquefying inner Qi. He watched as the inner Qi continued to compress itself at the area where his heart was under the inducement of the Modifier. Gradually, a drop of milk-white liquid formed.

With the first drop, the second and third drops began congealing as well.

Like with Ultimate Crimson Nine Furies Skill, Lu Sheng possessed three drops of liquefied Qi by the end of the process. Perhaps there was some sort of interaction going on between his Yin and Yang.

He had three drops of both Yin liquefied Qi and Yang liquefied Qi.

By the time Lu Sheng opened his eyes again, the oil in the wall-mounted lamp had been mostly spent. An unknown amount of time had passed.

‘It’s succeeded…’

Lu Sheng stood up slowly and looked at his own body. It was as if half his width had vanished, and the contours of his muscles were barely visible.

This shocked even him. Quickly, he held up the copper mirror to himself.

In the mirror, his skin had turned much fairer and his facial features had been softened and made more handsome.

Even stranger was that his hair had reached his shoulders! It was thick, glossy, and raven-black. Lu Sheng tugged on it. Without expending great force, his hair would not snap.

If he were a muscular young master before, he was now a weak and meek young master through and through. One look at him gave others the impression that he wouldn’t last a round in a fight.

Even Lu Sheng himself could not detect any evidence of martial arts training on his own body.

But the meekness of his external appearance in no way meant a reduction of his strength. On the contrary, Lu Sheng felt that the might of his Yang Extreme Mode was becoming greater under the support of Yin Extreme Mode. Like an incubating egg, gradual yet astonishing changes were taking place in his body under the containment of Yin Crane Web.

Such a transformation would not finish in the short term. Rather, it was a prolonged, gradual, and radical reconstruction.

***

“WOOOOO….”

A moon-lit night.

The inky black dirt of the forest was covered in snow. Cold wind howled along with the wild wolves.

A blurry gray silhouette was walking deep in the forest.

A long gray robe was draped over the silhouette, and a hat covered its face. The long robe covered its body entirely and its face was not visible. One could only tell that it was tall and large in stature.

With every few steps the gray silhouette took, it would abruptly vanish and materialize somewhere ten meters away, as if it could teleport. It remained ramrod straight as it moved forward, as if it was inanimate.

“Have you failed too?” Suddenly, a sinister voice rang out in the forest.

It sounded like both the hissing of a python and the sound of something sharp scratching against wood. It was ear-piercing and provided no hint of its owner’s gender.

Immediately, the gray silhouette stopped.

“The Scarlet Dragon Tribulation isn’t there at all. Zhen Family split up into several directions. Weren’t you played as well?” the gray silhouette replied coldly. It was a low, hoarse, female voice.

“You were one of those nearest to Scarlet Dragon Tribulation back then. Who knows if you didn’t secretly hide the Divine Weapon shard and flee?” The voice in the forest chuckled.

They gray silhouette fell into silence. Then, it removed its hat, revealing a hardened, resolute, ugly, and hardly feminine woman’s face.

A long scar crawled from the left corner of her lips all the way to the corner of her eye like a centipede. The wound had long since formed a scab that peeled away, leaving only a dark red scar.

She cast the long robe aside as well, revealing a tall muscular body under it.

Gazing at her from afar, one had no way to tell that she was a woman save for the two rising curves on her chest. Just the muscles on her arm alone, which were as thick as an adult’s thigh, struck fear into others.

The most bizarre thing about her was that her skin was pale white, as if it had been immersed in water for a long time.

“In other words, you came to pick a fight with me?” The woman lifted her chin slightly, her brows locked in a frown. In the wind, her short white needle-like hair were blown sideways.

“What do you think, Scarlet District Mistress?”

Another silhouette, pitch-black all over and armed with a giant cudgel in its arms, appeared opposite her.