Way of the Devil

“The Mirage Water Palace, the Eastern Talent Sect… they’re all sects of the upper three grades. This level of loss is normal. As for the rest, we succeeded for the most part. Some sacrifices are inevitable. But why did we lose so many at the Prime Devil Sect and the Hundred Temperings Sect?” Lin Huandao frowned.

“We’ve lost so many people, and most of them were newly enlisted to our cause. Did you think they were the messed up cavern lords from the South? How many elites can the Hundred Lineages produce? Losing so many at one go… are you trying to expose us completely?” Lin Beikai said coldly.

“Calm down, Young Master. At the very worst, I’ll do it myself.” Lin Huandao regained his composure.

At those words, even Lin Beikai paused in surprise.

Although he was not on good terms with Lin Huandao, he knew the latter’s strength. He was an expert of the upper three grades publicly recognized among the Noble Families. Moreover, the secret art he cultivated was one of the most difficult secret arts in the family; its might was extraordinary.

Apart from himself and two others who could barely defeat him, none among the younger generation was his match.

The Lin Family was huge. Under the blessing of the power of the Divine Weapon, there were hundreds in the younger generation. To be capable of suppressing so many others, Lin Huandao was certainly powerful.

“If it’s you, then naturally I’ll feel assured.” Lin Beikai’s tone softened. “But you must at least expect trouble from Shangyang Fei. That woman’s not to be trifled with.”

The upper three grades in the realm of Snake in Nobleman lineage was of course a league stronger than the same level in the Hundred Lineages. With Lin Huandao striking in person, the only possible hiccup that could happen would be that he might swallow more than his share out of greed.

“It’s a good thing that Princess Bai’s reined in by that old fool, Duke Ashoka. Otherwise, if she were to discover what’s going on here, we’d be hard-pressed to provide an explanation,” Lin Beikai said.

Duke Ashoka, the famed Great Demon in the upper three grades of the realm of Snake, relied mostly on his connections with the Huang Family who stood behind the royal family. He was bosom buddies with a few elders in the Huang Family, having gone through thick and thin with them in a Devil Disaster in the past.

The reason why Princess Bai was acting with caution now was because of the Huang Family’s elders who stood behind Duke Ashoka.

Otherwise, as the chief helmswoman of the Huang Family and a top-notch expert several generations before Lin Beikai, why would she be held up by Duke Ashoka for so long?

“That’s Huang Family’s internal power wrestle. Before they’re done settling it, they shouldn’t have attention to spare elsewhere,” Lin Huandao remarked placidly.

“Listen. On the day the Hundred Lineages Meeting end, each sect’s representatives will return to their sects. On their way, I’ll wield a Holy Weapon, intercept them, and dispatch them.”

“Very well. In that case I wish you victory in advance.” Lin Beikai had regained his calm. This was the result he wanted.

Lin Huandao nodded, turned around and headed for the exit.

“Oh yes, Young Master Kai.”

“?” Lin Beikai looked at him, puzzled.

“Shangyang Fei has passed the Mountain Shepherding Brush’s test.” Lin Huandao’s abrupt words caused Lin Beikai’s originally cold face to distort in a grimace.

***

“Splash.”

Lu Sheng stepped into the water of the River of Poisoned Fog.

The inky black water carried a faint trace of purple within it. Endlessly, it attempted to seep through his skin into his flesh, feeding on everything, as if it was animate.

Presently, Lu Sheng was standing under the Devil’s Pool he had discovered, with his right foot in the River of Poisoned Fog. Massive volumes of Devil Qi were gushing into his body like a tidal wave, rapidly absorbed by the Karmaless Ghost Face Mantra.

Having dealt with the recent problems and rested enough, it was again time for training. The moment he had some peace and quiet, he crept here silently and resumed devouring thicker Devil liquid for his cultivation.

‘The Karmaless Ghost Face Mantra has stabilized at Level Two. It’s a pity that Aquarius Qi can no longer be used to upgrade this secret art at this level.’ Lu Sheng felt a sense of pity. As he went deeper in his cultivation along the lineage of the Phantom Listening Skill, he could sense his physical body being increasingly strengthened.

Unlike the previous sort of drastic, coarse strengthening, however, this was much more subtle, sustained, and continuous.

‘More than a hundred levels of Yin Qi left. I can continue to upgrade!’ Remaining standing in the River of Poisoned Fog, he absorbed large amounts of Devil liquid, which seeped into his body. The impurities within it were filtered out, and pure water evaporated as steam from his crown.

‘When martial arts are upgraded to their pinnacle, they can reach the unimaginable power capable of fighting against demons and ghosts. How about secret arts? Perhaps I can try that too.’ Lu Sheng calmed down and focused, intending to upgrade Phantom Listening Skill to its pinnacle before he tried something like that.

“Deep Blue.”

“Swish.”

The Modifier screen appeared before him in a blink.

With great familiarity, Lu Sheng’s gaze fell on the newest row.

Within the Prime Devil Sect, Grand Elder’s lineage started from the Three Yin Technique, then the Karmaless Skill, then the Ghost Face Mantra, then the Phantom Path Mantra, the Devil Heart Dao, and finally the Phantom Listening Skill. It was a complete system.

In actual fact, the Phantom Listening Skill was a type of secret art. It was an extremely profound and sophisticated technique.

Once the Devil Heart Dao had been mastered, it was like an inner force expert who had achieved full mastery of inner force. Only then could he muster the incomparably powerful Dragon Subduing Eighteen Palms. Likewise, one had the prerequisites to use the Phantom Listening Skill only after full mastery of the Devil Heart Dao.

The supposed Prime Devil Secret Art, in fact, built on the foundation of the Devil Heart Dao, developing into all sorts of complicated ways of application. It was considered an advanced secret art.

Lu Sheng intended to fully master the Devil Heart Dao in one stroke. Then, he would see if the Prime Devil Qi that he produced could be integrated with his inner Qi.

‘At first, I thought that this skill would develop my bloodline and cause a mutation in Devil Qi. But I haven’t got any bloodline. So probably all that I’m going to produce is the most primitive form of Prime Devil Qi.’

He stared at Karmaless Ghost Face Mantra’s row.

‘The Ghost Face Mantra’s got four levels in total. I should be able to upgrade it to the top in one sitting.’ Swiftly, he focused his attention on the button under the Modifier screen and lightly pressed on it.

Instantly, the entire Modifier shook. The ‘Modify’ button appeared at the end of most of the rows.

Lu Sheng quickly found Karmaless Ghost Face Skill, then pressed hard on the button at its end.

“Szzz…”

The screen blurred suddenly. Several breaths later, it regained focus. The display on it had changed.

‘Karmaless Ghost Face Mantra: Level Three. Special Effect(s): Intense Body Strengthening Grade Three, Devil Will Grade Three.’

At Lu Sheng’s mental command, the translucent Devil Will swam out from behind him all of a sudden. Lu Sheng gazed at it and observed as it clearly expanded.

Previously, it was only the thickness of an arm. But after upgrading the Karmaless Ghost Face Mantra to Level Three, the Devil Will was inflating at a visible rate. In a mere few breaths’ span, it had ballooned to twice its original size. Like a big ball of translucent jelly, it encircled Lu Sheng.

‘Again.’ He sensed that only nine units of Yin Qi had been expended. It was within his expectations. He still had over a hundred units left; it was enough.

‘Upgrade the Karmaless Ghost Face Mantra to the peak of Level Four.’

Lu Sheng pressed the button again.

“Szzzz…”

Another change was reflected on the screen.

‘Karmaless Ghost Face Mantra: Level Four. Special Effect(s): Intense Body Strengthening Grade Four, Devil Will Grade Four.’

‘This ‘Intense Body Strengthening’ doesn’t seem to have brought much change.’ Lu Sheng frowned. He felt no obvious changes to his body after two consecutive upgrades.

Lifting up his arm, it slowly thickened into Yang Extreme Mode.

Now Lu Sheng immediately saw the change with the transformation.

Since god-knows-when, black flames began burning on the surface of his skin.

‘Flames of the Poisoned Fog? Why do I have it so early?’ This was the Prime Devil Sect’s trademark Flames of the Poisoned Fog—or Poison Flames for short. It dealt a great deal of damage even to Noblemen.

Of course, when used against an opponent of the same level, Poison Flames did not help much. Not only were its effects slow to kick in, you needed a lot of them to poison the other party. It was not very practical.

Otherwise, Grand Elder would not have been whooped so badly by the two Snake realm men in black.

Lu Sheng scrutinized the flames on the skin on his arm.

The flames were weak and looked just like gray smoke. Lu Sheng had discovered it only because he had noticed the air distort above his skin.

‘It’s just the Flames of Poisoned Fog covering my body. There’s not much practical use to it.’ Lu Sheng shook his head in disappointment.

In the eyes of an expert like him who fought in close quarters with speed and strength, poison was least useful.

‘Perhaps because there’s not much strengthening of the body involved, I can handle the load on my body quite easily, no problem. Looks like I can continue.’

He had already reached the peak of the Ghost Face Mantra. Next up was the Phantom Path Mantra. There was only one level to it. Or perhaps, it might be more accurate to say that it was a single technique.

‘The Ghost Face Mantra absorbs Devil Qi and liquid from outside the body to stimulate and strengthen one’s body. From the records of the secret arts, the Phantom Path Mantra purifies the absorbed Devil Qi to raise its quality and convert it into true Prime Devil Qi.

Open the switch in the body, condense the source of conversion… in other words, the process of purifying Devil Qi… all these are simple to understand. In that case, let’s begin.’

It was just a technique. Controlling the Devil Qi within him, Lu Sheng began condensing the so-called door to the Phantom Path.

That was the key to the Phantom Path Mantra.

Manipulating Devil Qi was an incredible sensation.

It flowed within the blood, not the meridians. Together with inner Qi, they complemented each other without interfering.

Moreover, the greatest difference between Devil Qi and inner Qi was that it possessed extremely potent corrosive effects that would even affect Lu Sheng’s blood and physical body. It was altering the nature of his life on the most radical level.

Inner Qi, on the other hand, was built on the foundation of Lu Sheng’s original nature of life, then strengthened and upgraded.

‘I wonder what sort of changes would happen after this.’

The door to the Phantom Path was like a conch. He needed to form a bizarre mass of tissue by mixing Devil Qi with blood and flesh in the cavity in his chest. It was basically forming a new organ.

Lu Sheng tried it out. Given the precision of control he had as a master of the path of martial arts, it was piece of cake for him. Before long, he had a conch-shaped new organ formed in his chest cavity.

This process originally took years and months. But for Lu Sheng who was used to shifting his body tissues and muscles between Yin and Yang Extreme Modes, it was nearly second nature to him.

After all, what could be tougher than compressing a body more than three meters tall into a normal body size under two meters?

‘Wait a minute!’ Abruptly, something popped up in his mind. ‘So this is why I’ve been training the fine muscles in my body right from the beginning?’ So it seemed that the fine muscle training required by his cultivation from the very start was in preparation for this moment.

The flesh conch quickly formed.

Lu Sheng attempted activating Devil Qi and channeling them into it.

“Hoo…”

At that moment, the River of Poisoned Fog quaked violently. With him at the center, the river rippled outwards. But this was lost on him.

A deep, profound voice, as if stemming from the depths of the darkest seas, rang out from the conch in his body.