Way of the Devil

“Human?” The giant face appeared slightly angry. “Damn them! To break the seals, they need to break all the seals of every altar. Are you sure that ALL of them have been broken?”

“I’m sure, very sure.” Carfe hurriedly nodded.

“Damn those humans!!!” the giant face roared.

The roar was so intense it violently stirred the cloud above them, forming a mass of dark clouds. Thunder rung and lightning flashed as the world got darker.

“Your Majesty, please be calm! Luckily, the Devil’s Abyss might not be completely destroyed—”

“Bam!!”

Carfe’s body was suddenly hit by an immense invisible force. His chest sunk as countless ribs snapped.

His whole body looked like he was slammed by a warhammer that dropped from the sky, forming an immense crater.

“What do you know!? TRASH!! USELESS TRASH!!” the face roared. “She must be free! That monster, that despicable and damned MONSTER!!”

Carfe spit out a mouthful of purple blood, his head still dizzy from the hit. He didn’t understand anything that the face had just said.

“Your Majesty…”

The face ignored him, and called out another name. “Divine Bell.”

Sand rose up and quickly formed the shape of a human. A pretty figure was exposed as the sand dispersed.

“Your Majesty, I await your command.” The figure kneeled on one knee, which made contact with her chest. Her black skirt armor fell to the side, revealing that her hips were covered only by a thin black gauze. Under the sun, her alluring curves emitted a dim reflection.

“You are the most familiar with the humans. Go and bring me the human that destroyed the Devil’s Abyss,” the face made out of sand said in a low voice.

“I will follow your command.” The shadow stood up and raised her head, exposing a pale face that was charming, pure, and delicate.

If anyone from the Shangyang Family was present, they would realize in horror that this face belonged to the number one prodigy of the family—Shangyang Fei!

Shangyang Fei’s upper body was covered by skin-tight leather armor, while her lower body was covered by a skirt that seemed to be made from many steel blades. Everything else from her feet to her thighs was wrapped in a material similar to black gauze, vaguely visible underneath her skirt.

But her feet were obviously no longer human. Both looked like they were clad in boots covered in ferocious spikes. On the back of each foot appeared a blood-red cross, which was flickering with a faint, red light.

The giant face slowly faded, leaving only the Ancient Devil Carfe and Shangyang Fei.

“Tell me everything you know.” Shangyang Fei stroked through her soft, shoulder-length, black hair as she spoke to Carfei flatly.

“A mere Devil General….” Carfei felt very annoyed. She was only a Devil General—not even a Devil King—while he was the best even among Devil Kings, an Ancient Devil! The king who guarded the Devil’s Abyss for thousands of years, Carfe!

In normal circumstances, if a mere Devil General dared to talk to him like that, they would have been swallowed already.

But there was a dangerous scent on Shangyang Fei, a scent from His Majesty that eliminated all thoughts of retaliation.

“His Majesty left a piece of his avatar on me. It will be activated at the right time. Master Carfe need not worry about this task.” Shangyang Fei smiled.

“Is that so? I can rest easy now.” Carfe waved his hand with a dark expression. A black leather scroll instantly flew toward Shangyang Fei.

“Wap.”

Shangyang Fei jumped and caught it, opening it slowly.

“Huh?” She instantly recognized the man in the drawing.

‘Isn’t this the northern barbarian working under Shangyang Jiuli?’

She gently touched the portrait with her finger, her mouth twisting into a smile. Clearly, she was interested.

“This is the man. He is very good at hiding his power! I don’t know what kind of Divine Weapon or Devil Blade he integrated with, but his power is at least equal to mine.” Carfe still felt like he only lost so swiftly because of his carelessness.

“Interesting….” Shangyang Fei rolled up the scroll. “Master Carfe, why would such a powerful man lower himself to hide in a crowd of weaklings? What secret does he hide? I’m very intrigued….”

Carfe was too lazy to guess the secret this Divine Bell hid within her, and thought he might as well tell her everything that he did.

“I left a sliver of my own Devil Essence on him. That man could absorb Devil Qi and turn it into his own, but there is no way he knew that my Devil Essence emits a pulse even His Majesty can’t clean. The Devil’s Abyss was covered in my Devil Essence, and he absorbed all of it. Because of that, if you can get within a 100 li radius of him, you should be able to sense his location.”

He peeled off a tiny piece of a dark-purple scale and threw it out lightly, landing in Shangyang Fei’s palm.

“Use it to track that man,” Carfe said coldly.

“Understood. Just wait for the good news, Master Carfe.” Shangyang Fei smiled.

Carfe’s face twitched, but he didn’t say anything. He messed up His Majesty’s grand plan. If it weren’t for the thousands of years that he had guarded the Devil’s Abyss, he would’ve suffered a fate worse than death.

“That man should be in the Great Yin Dynasty. That place belongs to His Majesty Wayla, are you sure you don’t need me?” He still wanted to make up for his mistake.

“Of course… not.” A blue lighting bolt appeared in the center of Shangyang Fei’s forehead. It also looked like a branch.

“With an avatar of His Majesty, even a Devil Master wouldn’t be able to escape. What do I need to worry about if I just use my human form as cover?”

***

The carriage slowly parked beside a building made of white stone. The building looked like a great cathedral. The outside was filled with long, rectangular, grey windows. On both sides of the door sat two statues of human-faced snake.

Lu Sheng and his companions walked out of the carriage and toward the two guards dressed in gray.

“We are the recommended candidates from Sleeping Moon County.” Yun Xiufei took out a document from his sleeves, and handed it to the guards.

Lu Sheng and Wang Yunlong also handed in documents of their own.

The guard inspected them, then stamped all three with a token on his waist.

“You three may enter, there will be servants to greet you inside.”

Yun Xiufei nodded, and walked into the building first. A bronze fountain spewing out a fragrant, light-green liquid sat inside the door.

Some men and women dressed in black were discussing something beside it.

Lu Sheng noticed that everyone was dressed in a close-fitting uniform that looked like it was from the army. On their shoulders hung silver and white chains like some sort of rank.

A woman clad in black walked up and nodded toward the three.

“Candidates from Sleeping Aging Moon County, please follow me. Your living quarters are ready. I must apologize in advance. All the countries this year used up all their recommendations. Living space might be tight, please forgive us.”

“Of course, we aren’t here for a vacation. Passing the test is the first priority,” Wang Yunlong answered calmly.

The woman smiled, and said nothing else.

Soon, the three were led to a ordinary-looking house in the back.

Five houses were neatly packed next to each other, forming a perfect square. A stark contrast in comparison to the cathedral right next door.

Everyone got their own room. Lu Sheng decided to explore after he unpacked his luggage.

The protective field above his head still endlessly absorbed Essence Qi. He also released a sliver of Essence Qi occasionally to appear normal.

Behind the buildings were three ten-story tall towers surrounding an empty field.

Lu Sheng circled around the field, and somewhat recognized the devices.

There were people on the field being tested already. All of them were young men like him—probably candidates from other counties.

But, unfortunately, many of the candidates didn’t even meet the basic requirements.

The man in black seemed slightly annoyed. With his hand in front of his chest, he surveyed the youths from the counties in front of him.

To the people from the County Capital, though there was the occasional candidate that exceeded expectations, those were few and far between. Most of them still lacked talent, and didn’t fit the education in the city at all.

Lu Sheng stood on the side to watch and get a basic understanding. Afterwards, he returned to his room to cultivate True Qi.

Because he didn’t have access to the node of this Essence Qi formation, his progress was significantly slower. But, even so, the Essence Qi he absorbed was about forty to sixty percent higher than in Sleeping Moon County.

He could feel the Essence Qi flowing into his body even when he just sat in place.

“So the candidate will be tested for speed, power, and the rate at which they absorb Essence Qi?” Lu Sheng just figured out the test.

He thought as he cultivated in the room.

To draw attention quickly and also appear shocking, he needed to show exceptional talent within a logical range.

Lu Sheng read in books that, speed- and strengthwise, since many people had different bloodlines, cases like him weren’t rare. He only appeared so exceptional in a small county. In other places, many people with special bloodlines also possessed similar talent. Abnormal strength was only one of them. In the County Capital, power like this was common. Bind level strength was quite common too, even some with demon blood or other very pure ones.

According to the records, cultivating True Qi to Human Prime level required special bloodlines. For ordinary humans, their body would reach a biological bottleneck where their body wouldn’t be able to improve anymore.

And the so-called Human Prime level was equivalent to Bind level.

“Ordinary mortals without bloodlines can only infinitely approach Bind. The Essence Qi they absorb can’t go past a certain limit. People with bloodlines, on the other hand, could use Essence Qi as fuel to stimulate their powerful bloodline and reach the Human Prime Level.”

Lu Sheng remembered this passage in the book, and finally understood why there was such a big gap between bloodline families and ordinary people in the Great Yin.

“On the surface, all of us who trained at nodes appear to have come from ordinary background. In reality, though, we all have some amount of Divine Weapon bloodline in us.” Lu Sheng finally discerned the key part of this whole situation.

Ordinary people could only become fertilizer, while the people with special bloodlines were the true masters. The Great Yin was basically an improved version of the Hundred Lineages. Or maybe the Hundred Lineages copied the system of Great Yin. Unfortunately, they didn’t get the key Essence Qi formation part.