Way of the Devil

“Two of these abilities after hatching were different from the records. Let’s see what the seventh is…” Lu Sheng shut his eyes and probed inward within himself, sensing carefully or the seventh Devil Will heart.

“Splash… splash…”

The waves of the River of Poisoned Fog lapped against the stone wall without end, producing crisp sounds which echoed in the cave.

As time passed, the sound of lapping waves increased in volume gradually.

“Swish!”

Without warning, Lu Sheng’s eyes shot open. A black heart quickly emerged above his head, spinning rapidly.

With a ka-cha, a crack appeared down the middle of the head-sized heart. A bizarre-looking wild ox clambered out of it.

The wild ox was merely the size of a palm, having just come out. But the black smoke around it was being sucked into it at a frenzy. The Devil Will heart itself also turned into a black liquid and was devoured by it.

With that, the black wild ox rapidly grew in size and was soon three meters long and a meter tall.

“Moo…”

The wild ox stared at Lu Sheng. Its eyes were pits emitting black smoke. Numerous horns grew out of its head, packed closely together like bone spikes. Cold gleams glinted off their tips, deterring any who looked at them.

“The Ox of Pain.” Lu Sheng quickly understood the source of this wild ox. It was the pain at the most fundamental level of his being.

‘So its ability is to increase my strength, eh?’

That was a happy surprise.

Lu Sheng was strong enough on his own to begin with. And now, that strength would be amplified further by it.

‘…Just two more to go and I’d have hatched them all.’ Lu Sheng was holding his breath in anticipation. It seemed that towards the end, the Devil Will hearts were producing more and more powerful abilities. [1]

The Ox of Pain quickly turned into black smoke and adhered on Lu Sheng. Quickly, Lu Sheng felt a layer of membrane-like substance cloak the surface of his body.

According to the records, the Ox of Pain belonged to the type of ability that increased one’s original strength. Typically, such Yin Devils would produce a collagen-like substance which would mix with Devil Qi and cover the body.

This layer of substance was composed of some mysterious structure that could amplify the body’s physical strength. The ordinary amplification was between thirty to seventy percent.

Mustering a slight bit of strength, Lu Sheng pressed into the stone wall on his side.

“Boom.”

It was like pressing beancurd.

A deep palm print was indelibly imprinted into the stone wall.

‘Strength amplification has attained eighty percent, impressive!’ Lu Sheng was surprised with joy. He had been strong to begin with. In his three-meter-tall mode, his physical strength was approximately twice that of the middle three grades python demon. Moreover, that strength would be multiplied several folds once he entered his Yang Extreme Mode.

One could say that he had never met anyone physically stronger than himself till date.

And if this basic strength could be amplified up to eighty percent, even Lu Sheng himself would be excited to see what that would be like.

‘Perhaps previously I couldn’t be sure that my physical strength was in the upper three grades… but with this amplification now, I guess that’s pretty guaranteed?’ Because he had never witnessed for himself power within the upper three grades, Lu Sheng could not be fully certain, either.

Within the realm of Snake, a true radical difference existed between the upper three grades and the two classes below it.

What sort of difference exactly? No one had ever told him. Neither was there an upper three grades expert in Prime Devil Sect who could serve as a basis for comparison. It was all his own conjecture and estimate.

‘Compared to back when I fought Hongfang Bai at full strength, my current Yin Yang Integration mode is at least seven or eight times stronger. If this still doesn’t count as upper three grades, then I really have no idea how powerful that level is…’

With a mental command, the black smoke from the Ox of Pain dissipated along with the black smoke around Lu Sheng.

‘Now, it’s time to see how I should use my Mental Energy.’

“Deep Blue.”

“Swish.”

The Modifier emerged before Lu Sheng once again. The screen was packed with dozens of martial arts and secret arts, nearly filling up completely.

Lu Sheng swiftly located Devil Heart Dao’s row.

‘Devil Heart Dao no longer needs anymore Mental Energy. I just need to wait for the hearts to hatch,’ he thought.

‘Come to carefully think of it now, the highest achievement of Prime Devil Sect, the Prime Devil Secret Art, was actually created by imitating Devils. So when I master it fully to its pinnacle, Devil-like characteristics will appear on me. Just like the Prime Devil aura I absorbed from Fang Tan when I killed him.’

At the thought of the Prime Devil aura he had absorbed, another thought occurred to Lu Sheng.

‘In actual fact, if I look at it from another point of view, isn’t the supposed Prime Devil Secret Art another form of martial arts cultivation? It’s just that Prime Devil Secret Arts was created through Prime Devil Sect’s imitation of Devils specially for Noblemen with extremely diluted levels of Noblemen bloodline within them.

And the bloodlines within them are so diluted that they aren’t too different from mortals?’ Lu Sheng’s thoughts flowed like a river. ‘If we look at it as part of the path of martial arts…’

Lu Sheng rose to his feet and grabbed at the air around him with both hands.

“Buzz…”

In a deep boom, the stone walls of the cave started shattering around him. Large chunks of stone fell to the ground, smashing into smithereens.

After that, an invisible blood web expanded outwards from within Lu Sheng, pushing all the shattered stone out of the cave.

In just the mere span of a few breaths, the cave was enlarged significantly.

Lu Sheng surveyed his surroundings, then nodded in satisfaction.

He looked again at Devil Heart Dao’s row on the Modifier screen.

‘I’ve got to wait till I’ve attained full mastery of Devil Heart Dao before I use Mental Energy. In turn, Devil Heart Dao converts the absorbed River of Poisoned Fog into Prime Devil Qi to incubate and hatch those hearts.

Theoretically, the amount of Devil Qi I can store in my body decides how powerful the Yin Devils I produce are. I didn’t think of this back then. But now, I might as well give it a shot…’

Lu Sheng’s eyes narrowed. His body began rapidly expanding.

From his ordinary body size over a meter tall, he quickly turned into his three-meter-tall mode.

“Ooh…” He stretched his body. Being constantly in shrunken mode wore his bones and muscles out. Had it not been for Aquarius Qi which constantly healed him, he would not have had been able to maintain Yin Extreme Mode for so long.

“This strength… is not enough.” Lu Sheng swung his body, whacking his thick long tail against the wall several times, causing deep collision sounds to ring out.

“Again.”

“Hoo…”

He breathed out at length. The muscles all over his body quickly inflated and turned black. Layers of even thicker greenish-black armor covered his entire body. A new pair of thick horns grew out of his forehead, shielding his entire head.

The muscles on his back bulged and arched, spreading to both sides like wings. A bone-like structure grew on his chest like a breastplate.

Lu Sheng caressed his mouth. His row of sharp teeth had become more tightly packed. An additional row of smaller teeth had grown within his oral cavity.

‘Another change on my body… a new row of teeth… what’s the use? Am I expected to bite people with my teeth?’

He was beginning to feel cramped in the cave. Fortunately, he had expanded the size of the cave up to six meters tall and wide earlier.

‘My body seems to be growing. I was about five meters tall last time.’ Lu Sheng roughly calculated his present height. It was nearly six meters. The items he had placed on the ground earlier now looked puny.

This was Yang Extreme Mode. As of now, it was the mode that gave him the most powerful physical strength. It had pretty good defense as well. But its speed was greatly hampered by its massive size and so added little speed to him.

‘This mode can contain the greatest volume. It’s just what I need.’ It had been a long time since Lu Sheng had last turned into this mode. He moved about, getting used to the bigger body.

After a few breaths, he slowly walked out of the cave and gazed at the stone forest rising out from the black river beneath him. Then he leapt into the air.

“SPLASH!”

Large waves were sent flying all over. Even after activating Light Void Force Step Skill, Lu Sheng was unable to reduce the impact of collision significantly. His size was simply too massive, such that after he smashed into the river, the water level in the River of Poisoned Fog rose to cover nearly half the stone forest.

Fortunately, this place was far enough from Prime Devil Sect’s living quarters. Sound would not be carried that far.

He stabilized himself, took a deep breath of air, activated Devil Heart Dao and begun absorbing Devil Qi.

“Szzz…”

Large quantities of the black river and poisoned fog were sucked into his body at top speed. When viewed from afar in the dark, it was like a five-meter-tall titanic monster standing in the river, shrouded in cloud and fog.

The water in the River of Poisoned Fog started flowing faster and faster, forming a black whirlpool that spun clockwise with Lu Sheng at its center. Countless volumes of river water was being devoured by Lu Sheng’s massive body, like a sponge soaking up water.

Large volumes of Prime Devil aura was being produced after conversion and stored in his body, nourishing the two unhatched hearts.

Even then, however, Lu Sheng still felt dissatisfied.

“Hoo…”

He breathed out at length and cast his blood web out wide. A sea of black river water rose into the air and gushed into his mouth from all directions.

In that instant, all the water in the River of Poisoned Fog around him began trembling. Water from other branches of the river was channeled over to make up for the depletion, and then was continuously devoured by Lu Sheng.

Large volumes of fog rose from his upper body. This was the water of the River of Poisoned Fog after its essence had been extracted.

“Boom!”

Lu Sheng took a bold step forward towards the direction where most of the water was coming from.

Step by step, amidst the thundering footsteps, he passed through the stone forest till he came before a wall of caves.

At the bottom of the wall were plenty of holes like a beehive. The River of Poisoned Fog was flowing out from them.

Lu Sheng slammed his hand forward.

“BAM.”

The entire stone wall was slashed apart like beancurd, producing a huge cave sufficient for him to walk through.

Lu Sheng walked into the cave. Inside it was a small inky-black lake, with wisps of coldness rising up from it. The lake was composed entirely of the pitch-black water of the River of Poisoned Fog.

Lu Sheng strode into the lake and was soon completely submerged up to his eyes and nose.

Several black giant snakes with purple spikes on their backs began swimming towards him stealthily in the dark water. Maliciously, they pounced at Lu Sheng.

“Bam!!”

Before one of them could get near, Lu Sheng caught it in his hand and lifted it out of the water.

With a light squeeze, the seven or eight meter long giant snake exploded in its middle and was broken into two halves.

Black blood splattered all over the surface of the river. The rest of the giant snakes fled hurriedly, no longer daring to approach Lu Sheng.

He tossed away the giant snake causally and walked to the middle of the lake.

“Szzz…”

He began devouring the River of Poisoned Fog with all his might again.

A new giant whirlpool formed in the lake, sending large amounts of water into his body without end.

Even then, however, Lu Sheng found it too slow.

“This speed… it’s hardly enough at all!!” He surveyed his surroundings. With a deep growl, blood web sprung open again, lifting up the water and sending it gushing into his mouth in a frenzy.

“Slow slow slow!! TOO SLOW! WAY TOO SLOW!!”

Lu Sheng’s body inflated once again and he smashed his arms down without warning.

“Buzzz!!!”

This time, there were no loud booms. But all the water in the lake tremored, sending waves flying up after another. Blood web quickly wrapped itself around these waves, spinning them at top speed.

As it spun faster and faster, the sea of water turned into the shape of a tornado, blasting into Lu Sheng’s mouth.

The entire River of Poisoned Fog began trembling vigorously.

***

At the stone wall of caves…

Several disciples walking across the square suddenly felt the ground beneath them quaking. They turned their heads towards the direction the quaking came from, perplexed and alarmed.

Liu Shanzi hurried out of his cave and gazed into the distance. His brows were locked in a tight furrow and he looked no less alarmed.

“This quaking comes from the depths of the River of Poisoned Fog? Could the tide be rising higher than before this time?”

The River of Poisoned Fog contained lethal poison. Even he did not dare to get too near. Usually, it was considered a good day for him to absorb a few drops of the water from the river. Even he could not enter its deepest parts to reach the place where the founding ancestors of the sect had cultivated.

So all he could do now was to make guesses about what was happening.

“I hope nothing big goes wrong…” Liu Shanzi prayed with a face of solemnity.