Way of the Devil

“No need… I… I’m way worse than you now. Little Sheng, if you were the sect master of the Prime Devil Sect, what would you do?” Liu Shanzi asked after some thought.

“Relocate it!” Lu Sheng responded firmly. “The safest bet right now is to move to somewhere that hasn’t been affected by the Devil Disaster.”

A Devil Disaster was a catastrophe that could cause millions of deaths and an extensive amount of damage; under such numbers, even he couldn’t be sure that he’d make it out if he got caught up in it. After all, he was just one person, not a group.

“Relocating might be a good idea, but personally, I don’t think there’s a need to yet. Right now, we’re not the main target, and with you here, we should be fine. Also, the thick Devil Qi is beneficial to our training. Furthermore, both Happy Clouds City and Eagle Hunting City have sent us invites, asking us to go visit,” Liu Shanzi said in a low voice.

“The Scarlet Boiling Palace at Happy Clouds City? And I thought Eagle Hunting City was the headquarters of the Shangyang Family. Master, you want to go?” Lu Sheng asked emotionlessly.

“It’s not that I want to go, but your master’s wife…” Liu Shanzi blushed and coughed slightly.

“Okay. Then let’s first go to the Scarlet Boiling Palace, then to Eagle Hunting City. Does that work?” Lu Sheng suggested.

“The Scarlet Boiling Palace? It’s up to you. I was planning to pass the sect master position to you soon, anyways. By now, I no longer have any credentials to lead the Prime Devil Sect. No one is satisfied with my strength…” Although Liu Shanzi was in the Realm of the Snake, all he could do now was sigh.

Lu Sheng was the most talented prodigy in the history of the Hundred Lineages. His gifts and talents were indescribable. Even though Liu Shanzi didn’t know which Divine Weapon he merged with, but just the fact that he was able to make it to the Realm of Snake in such a short period of time showed how vast his potential was.

Only under the leadership of Lu Sheng would the Prime Devil Sect come to grow stronger and stronger.

After Lu Sheng and Liu Shanzi talked for a bit, he left and went down to converse with a few of the other disciples, then gathered Xu Chui and the others to see if it was possible to teach them the Eight-Headed Devil Strength.

He led them to an isolated place. First, he tried combining all eight Devil Spirits into one skill by eliminating the overlapping parts and forming a different, extremely powerful skill for the cultivation of Devil Spirits.

But after combining all of them… not just Xu Chui and the others, even Lu Sheng himself was pretty taken aback.

Even after eliminating all the unnecessary and overlapping parts, the powerful skill still had seventy-two levels.

For this skill set, if one started cultivating from the first level, and taking into account the fact that each level would take more time than the previous… Based on Xu Chui and the others’ skills, the first level would probably only take them a year before they finish cultivating it and reach Strength Proficiency. But from the second level on, there was a slight problem.

From the novels Lu Sheng had read before, for famous skill sets like this, each level took twice as long to cultivate as the previous one.

This Eight-Headed Devil Strength had the same qualities. The first level would take a year, the second, two, and the third, over three…

Based on this, even if they didn’t have any bottlenecks in cultivation and moved through each level smoothly under perfect conditions, seventy-two levels would still take them 2628 years… to reach his current level.

And the strength they would possess would be the flames before evolving into Yin Flames.

Without the Yin Flames from the Eight-Headed Divine Pearl, the power of the Eight-Headed Devil Strength would decrease by multiple levels, at most reaching the upper three grades in the Realm of the Snake. It would be a far cry even when compared to a Divine Weapon Master, much less a Devil Lord. If it were like this, a single secret art from one of the Noble Families would be much better.

The costs of cultivating the Eight-Headed Devil Strength outweighed the benefits, so Lu Sheng advised them against it. However, using the Devil Qi from the Eight-Headed Divine Pearl to reconstruct their bodies and increase their strength was doable.

He filled up both Xu Chui and Ning San’s bodies with Devil Qi at once, and sent the two back to digest it and cultivate. But he himself ran into Zhan Hongsheng.

On the dark and damp practice field, as soon as Xu Chui and Ning San left, Zhan Hongsheng walked in. She was so nervous that she was shaking.

The whole practice field was about as big as a soccer field. It was a place Lu Sheng broke open causally, and one could still see all the burnt and melted rocks on the sides.

Lu Sheng was about to get up and leave, but seeing Zhan Hongsheng, he sat down again to see what she was up to.

Zhang Hongsheng was wearing a suit of tight black clothing, showcasing her tiny waist and big breasts to perfection. Her long legs were also tight and slender.

This was not the North; in the Central Plains, long and slender legs were considered beautiful. Zhan Hongsheng’s outfit was pretty out there; one could even see the shape of the part between her legs due to the tight clothing.

From this, Lu Sheng could also tell the openness that the Central Plains had towards gender and sexuality.

It made sense. No matter whether you looked at the Nine Great Families of the Plains or the culture around them due to constant battles, both the Noble Families and ordinary people valued childbirth very much.

Because of all the disasters and catastrophes, if the birth rate wasn’t high enough, the population would start to go down. So, it made sense for people to be more liberal here.

“Why are you here?” Lu Sheng asked.

In the dark, damp cave, Lu Sheng was sitting cross-legged in the deepest part against the wall, giving off an aura of coldness and distance. Bulges of strong, hard muscles could be faintly seen underneath his black robe. Although the robe was soft and loose, it looked like heavy-duty armor on him.

Zhan Hongsheng jumped at the question, and shivered. She glanced up at Lu Sheng.

“I… I… I also want to become strong!”

Lu Sheng looked at her a bit incredulously.

“You should go find your brother or Grandmother Qingkong.” He wasn’t her dad; why did she come looking for him?

“They’re… They’re not as good as you!” Zhang Hongsheng blurted out, and her face flushed, while her breathing was uneven. She lowered her head again.

Lu Sheng looked quietly at this young girl for a while.

He could pretty much tell now that Zhan Hongsheng was one of the people who worshipped power. Her previous boyfriend or whatever was stronger than her, so he easily subdued her. But now, he was the strongest, so she dressed up in such a sexy form in hopes that he would help her.

But this was useless against him.

He didn’t even dare sleep with his wife back home in fear of accidentally killing her. Now that he finished cultivating all the Devil Spirits and brought the Eight-Headed Devil Strength to the highest level, his body had changed drastically; of course, his abilities on this side also improved, but too much improvement was also a problem… He didn’t even dare touch normal women anymore.

Additionally, if it weren’t for him forcefully subduing the mind-damaging force field he naturally gave off, this girl would have been dead long before getting this close to him.

To him, Zhan Hongsheng was the same as a paper lantern. Maybe even that was too good for her.

She couldn’t even stand his one breath.

“You’re too weak,” Lu Sheng said calmly and honestly. “Even with the Yin Crane Net, you’re still too weak. Right now, what you need the most is not my pointers, but your master’s and your brother’s help. That suits your level much better.”

“But I—” Zhan Hongsheng still wanted to say something else, but a huge invisible force pushed her away. Before she could realize what happened, her body was already ten meters back, at the edge of the cave.

“Go,” Lu Sheng said quietly, his voice sounding as if he was standing just in front of her.

A sliver of resistance appeared on Zhan Hongshen’s face, and she tried to walk forward again. But as soon as she took a step forward, there seemed to be an invisible air wall in front of her, blocking her way to Lu Sheng.

With no other choice, she stomped her feet, and turned around and left.

Lu Sheng sat in the same spot for a little while longer, adjusting his body. As of now, he no longer needed to cultivate, but had to focus on solidifying his skills and searching for more Devil Qi to absorb.

Even after absorbing all of the Devil Qi from the Grand Marshall, Lu Sheng only got around one tenth of the total amount he needed. He still needed a lot to fill the gap.

So, right now, he was trying to get used to his new strength and power.

Jumping from the Realm of Snake to the higher levels of a Divine Weapon Master was a lot. It was like moving up multiple levels at once. And because of this, his control over his body had decreased to a very annoying state.

Otherwise, when he fought the Devil Commander and Devil Lord earlier, there wouldn’t be as much noise or damage. His strength would be more focused, but more powerful.

After about two hours, a few more people appeared at the edge of the cave.

Lu Sheng, who had his eyes closed, slowly opened them, and looked towards the woman in white at the front in surprise.

The woman was wearing a white head covering, with her white dress dotted with blood. She was holding an axe with both hands.

“You’re… Senior Apprentice Sister White Face?” Lu Sheng had a pretty deep impression of this weird senior apprentice sister he’d first met her when he joined the sect.

“Miss Mi and I are here to beg you to give a special training to this kid.” Senior apprentice sister White Face was only a ghost that was alive at night in the Prime Devil Sect, so it was really unexpected that she would come to contact Lu Sheng.

Honestly, Lu Sheng was still curious about both her and Miss Mi, who was a serpent with one horn.

They were only ghosts—people who had lived a long long time ago. They probably had a much deeper and clearer understanding of the Prime Devil Sect than He Xiangzi.

He never contacted them as he never had time, but now, they were at his door.

“Kid…” He moved his vision towards the small boy following behind White Face.

It was an ordinary boy less than a meter in height, but his face was pale blue—he was obviously not human. He was either a corpse or a ghost, but they wanted him to teach a creature of the other side?

Realizing that Lu Sheng was looking at him, the boy took a step forward, his face emotionless and his eyes staring straight at Lu Sheng.

“My name is Du Ye. Greetings, Senior Apprentice Brother!”

Lu Sheng moved his line of sight again, this time to the people following behind the boy. To his surprise, it was Li Shunxi and the three others who used to be captives of the Devil Army.

Li Shunxi, Sun Meng, Lian Xi, and Silver. All four of them were here. However, all of them were also wrapped in bandages here and there, ruining some of the joy at the reunion.

“Brother Li, I hope everything is going well…” Lu Sheng smiled at Li Shunxi. After all, they were friends. Although Li Shunxi was a bit weak, the friendship was still there.

“Don’t, don’t call me Brother Li. I’m here to ask for your advice. If possible, I would ask you to be master…” Li Shunxi hurriedly waved his hands and smiled bitterly. He then pointed towards the three other people besides him and the little ghost Du Ye.

“All of us have fallen victims to the Devil Disaster, so we hoped that you could give us some quick training. Of course, it would even better if you could take us on as disciples.”

Lu Sheng shook his head wordlessly.

“Disciples… I need to think about that. But as for special training…” His gaze swept over the four humans and one ghost.

It was always quiet at night in the Prime Devil Sect. Obviously, this was due to White Face and Miss Mi. Even the Devil Army didn’t dare attack the Prime Devil Sect at night—most likely because of these two characters.

Also, no matter what, White Face was still his Senior Apprentice Sister, so he still had to respect that.

Li Shunxi probably had other motives for yelling out the real culprit despite a threat of death, but in the end, he still helped him. In addition to their old friendship, helping him wasn’t a problem.

“What type of training do you guys want?” Lu Sheng asked.

“What’s the best training that can help us increase our strength the fastest?” Sun Meng, who was always shy and quiet, was instead the one who got straight to the point.

“Real-life battles,” Lu Sheng responded. “Real life experiences will help you guys the most.”

“That works!”

“Then let’s start right here.” He relaxed his grip on the mind-confusing force field a tiny bit.

The pressure immediately spread out towards the four people and one ghost. All of them instantly fainted.

Lu Sheng’s expression didn’t change as he looked towards White Face.

“The worst enemy of man is himself. Don’t worry.” That was why he put the slight pressure with the mind-confusing force field on those few. Along with the multitude of secret arts from the Prime Devil Sect, he only needed to guide them a little bit to help them enter a dream-like state where they could battle him.

It was honestly very simple.