Way of the Devil

Lu Sheng walked forward and put his hand against the door.

But at the final moment, he hesitated after all.

Truth be told, right from when he had first heard about the Hundred Lineages Meeting, he had decided not to attend it. The Prime Devil Sect’s destruction was inevitable. It was the law of nature, the survival of the fittest. Even if he were to prevent it from happening in the short term, he could not change things in the long run. Unless he decided to stay to reform the entire sect.

But Lu Sheng had no such intention.

He was but a mere guest. His agenda behind joining the Prime Devil Sect was not to learn its secret arts, but to learn about the Noble Families and understand the state of the world today.

After a pause, Lu Sheng sighed silently. With both hands, he pressed against the door and pushed it open.

:Rumble…:

The heavy and rusty metal door screamed as it scraped against the ground.

As the door slowly opened, the scene behind the door fell into Lu Sheng’s gaze.

“Oh? I didn’t think that someone would really come out through here?” Unexpectedly, a tall and wide silhouette cloaked in black robe was sitting in boredom on the ground outside the door.

A wide and dry underground cave lay behind the door. From here, one could see the light of day.

Yet the only exit that this path led to was presently blocked.

Lu Sheng fixed his gaze on this man but did not do anything.

“Eh? Scared witless, are you?” The tall figure slowly rose to his feet. A large cleaver was strapped to his back. “It’s normal. It’s understandable to be scared out of your wits at the sight of me, Lord Demon Bear.”

He pulled out the cleaver from his back with a backhanded grip and strode towards Lu Sheng.

“Remember. The one who killed you is the Wandering God—Bear!”

A circle of colorless air current burst out from him. His roughly two meters tall body covered Lu Sheng entirely in its shadow as he lifted up his giant cleaver slowly. The blade of the cleaver itself was already half the width of Lu Sheng’s body.

“DIE!”

Lifted high, the cleaver blade came slashing furiously down at Lu Sheng’s head.

Watching the approaching cleaver blade, a grin suddenly cracked open on Lu Sheng’s face, revealing a row of razor-sharp savage beast-like teeth.

Without warning, he lifted up his arm.

“CLANG!!!”

A loud clang reverberated across the entire cave, sending tremors across it as an intense stream of air burst out between them.

“YOU…!!?” Wandering Ghost Demon Bear focused his eyes as he stared at Lu Sheng, who had blocked his cleaver with his bare hands.

“Is this a saber? Or a toothpick?” Holding on to the cleaver blade, Lu Sheng’s eyes were dark. He pinched lightly.

“Ka-cha.”

The portion of the cleaver he had been holding shattered into smithereens instantly, sending countless shards falling to the ground.

“Oh, it shattered.” Lu Sheng looked at the shards in his hand in surprise, then tossed them aside with a casual flip of his hand. “I was planning to leave. But a pity… It’s not that I didn’t want to go. But rather…” He licked his lips. A murderous, dangerous glint flashed across his eyes.

“…I ****ING HATE TRASH LIKE YOU WHO JUST LOVE TO WAVE YOUR TOYS AROUND!!”

“KA-BOOM!!!”

Almost instantly, Lu Sheng’s entire body ballooned and inflated. In the blink of an eye, he was three meters tall. He slammed his palm on the Demon Bear’s waist.

Before he could register what had happened, the Demon Bear felt his whole world spinning. Like a cannonball, he was launched into the air and slammed into the rock wall.

“BOOM!”

Demon Bear’s gaping mouth was now meshed in the rock wall. His eyeballs almost ruptured in his sockets. Mucus and saliva streamed down his face and his entire body balled up like a shrimp.

Compared to the three-meter-tall Lu Sheng, Demon Bear, who was only slightly taller than two meters, was like a kid—unbearably weak.

“Ahh… it’s been a long time since I’ve last stretched. I’ve been holding my body in so tight that my bones feel like they’re going out of shape under compression…” Lu Sheng swung his arms and shoulders, visibly satisfied with his present form.

This three-meter-tall form was his body’s true form. That ordinary body size earlier was the result of him compressing his body forcibly so that he would not look too out of this world.

But in actual fact, that was like somebody walking with a hunched back all the time. It was bad for his body.

“BAM.”

Several stalactites the width of thighs were in the way of Lu Sheng’s arm movements. He smashed them all with a swing of his arm.

“YOU… YOU!! What on earth are you???” Stuck in the stone wall, Demon Bear’s eyes widened in terror.

Right now, blood was streaming all over his mouth, nose, ears…etc., flowing ceaselessly.

Lu Sheng’s strike might have seemed like an ordinary punch, but Ultimate Crimson Nine Furies Skill’s fire poison was more than a handful for Demon Bear. Add to that Aquarius Qi’s needle piercing effect, and his internal organs were instantly smashed into pulp. The fact that he remained alive and was able to speak already showed Demon Bear’s astonishing recuperative abilities.

“Me?” Lu Sheng walked over, clutched his neck and lifted him up. “I’m just here on vacation.”

He pulled Demon Bear’s face up to the side of his face.

“Why does every single one of you like to force me to do this? Is there any wrong in me taking a vacation after working so hard?”

“We… we… just…” Demon Bear seemed to have sensed something and turned agitated. Hurriedly, he opened his mouth, trying to say something.

“Anybody who disturbs my vacation must DIE!” Before Demon Bear could finish, Lu Sheng grabbed his head and twisted hard.

“SPLAT.”

Demon Bear’s entire head came free of his body.

“Boom!” His body began lighting up in flames instantly. In a few breaths, it turned to ashes.

Lu Sheng flicked the ashes off his hand.

He looked around him. Apart from Demon Bear, there did not seem to be anyone else here. Only then did he return to his previous size and form.

“It’s still early anyway. And I haven’t finished the books in the library. If I go now, wouldn’t it be a waste of all that work I did up till this point?”

Satisfied with the excuse he found himself, Lu Sheng glanced at the tightly-woven black robes which had been on his opponent earlier. Some parts of the black robes were torn and tattered. But it was at least better than the scraps he had on his body now.

Lu Sheng put it on.

‘Nice material. It’s stretchy and elastic. Looks like Nobleman often find themselves in such embarrassing moments. This material looks specially treated. I should get Shangyang Jiuli to make me a few pieces after this.’ Lu Sheng discovered to his surprise that the black robes were very stretchy and elastic.

He checked out the other items all over the ground.

This Demon Bear was only a minor character. That “Wandering God” he mentioned seemed to be the name of an organization. Since it was an organization, he must’ve had had partners.

‘Looks like teacher sent me away via this passageway because he saw the invasion coming. But he just didn’t expect that there’d be someone guarding this exit as well, even if he’s a weakling. Looks like somebody tipped them off about this secret passageway.’

Lu Sheng quickly tidied up the items on the ground.

Apart from some broken pieces from a waist tablet, only a torn money pouch was left. Some black coins here and there were left inside. There was also a white neckerchief, which looked like a scarf.

‘I’ll head back first.’ Lu Sheng stuffed them all in the pocket of his black robes. Then he turned around and retraced his steps.

Lu Sheng was very familiar with the route this time. He sped along very quickly. Ever since he had mastered the Light Void Force Step Skill, his explosive speed far surpassed his normal speed and he was generally more than twice as fast as before.

***

Secret arts hall.

“Secret Art—True Night!” Grand Elder’s right arm slashed in front of him like a saber as his leapt into the air. His legs first pulled up, then kicked down forcefully.

At the same time, thick inky black smoke erupted form within his body. It was the lethally toxic Devil Qi he had stored in his body for so many years.

But it did not help him.

With unhurried confidence, the two black-robed men evaded the saber slash and kick easily as they coordinated their movements with each other’s. They speed was too fast. Grand Elder’s secret art had only been half-activated when they had already changed their move in the blink of an eye.

Each one of them alone was no match for Grand Elder. They had only just barely made it into the realm of Snake.

But somehow, when coordinated with each other, the might they could produce together was a handful to handle even for a senior and experienced sect master who had achieved full-mastery of the lower three grades for a long time. And now, Grand Elder was increasingly at a disadvantage.

The black snake Yin Devil had been defeated and dispersed. Even the flaming lion Yin Devil which he had combined with his own body was burning out.

The three of them exchanged blows in the Courtyard of Punishment. Though they looked as if they were ordinary martial artists striking and evading, the lethalness and danger in their battle was unimaginable to martial artists.

But whenever they got hit, be it a broken bone or a flesh wound, they could easily heal and recover. Hence, the fight between the three of them became a battle of attrition.

In actual fact, that was how most fights between Noblemen went. Unless there was a wide difference in power, most fights took a long time.

“Who on earth are you!?” Another wound was inflicted on Grand Elder’s shoulder. The giant halberd blade slashed through his flesh and cracked his bone. Large amounts of black pollutants adhered on to the wound from the halberd, preventing it from healing.

One of the black-robed man pulled his halberd back and answered softly, “We’re the Wandering Gods.”

“Liu Shanzi, do you remember the black triangular letter you got in the past?” the other among them said. “If only you agreed then, you’d be one of us today. How would you possibly land up in this sorry state?”

Grand Elder paused. Immediately, a strange incident came to his mind.

At that time, he had received a letter out of the blue. It was an invitation to join a mysterious organization formed to protect and preserve the balance between the Hundred Lineages.

At that time, he had thought that someone was pulling his leg and so ignored it. In fact, he continued to ignore their subsequent contacts. Who would have expected that today…

He gouged out the flesh around the wound. Once again, new flesh and bones began forming around the wound at a visible rate.

The flaming lion Yin Devil brought him higher speed and destructive capabilities. Especially those black toxic flames. They were the flames of the poisoned fog—a unique feature of the Prime Devil Sect’s Phantom Listening Skill. They were a significant threat even against Noblemen.

But these two black-robed men were basically freaks. They did not bother about the threat of the poisonous flames. Their speed matched his as well and while they did not inflict as much damage, they were capable of unleashing terrifying force when they coordinated their moves with each other. At any time, they were able to block all of his offensive moves. Grand Elder felt as if he had struck against an iron wall.

“The two of you. Finish him quick. We can’t afford to be held up here for too long,” the short man in black hurried them.

“Fine then.” One of the black-robed man retreated suddenly. “It’s not a bad idea to end this early.” He lifted the halberd high above his head and begun spinning it. An blinding red light glowed at its tip.

Grand Elder was seized with the sense of an enormous threat. Staring at the black-robed man’s actions, color drained from his face as he suddenly recalled something.

“This trademark pose… could it be…!!?” His jaw hung loose. The black flames all over him swiftly gathered in front of him, forming a large ball in a bid to stop his opponent.