Way of the Devil

The inspector looked at the giant ball behind him, and shook his head. Even he would be hard-pressed to escape if the monks surrounded him like that.

He turned around and walked into the distance. As for Lu Sheng’s life, he didn’t care at all, and it wasn’t his responsibility, either. Everything he’d said before was just to trick him.

“Puff!”

Suddenly, a dull voice came from behind him.

The inspector turned around to look.

A white crack slowly appeared on the ball made of monks.

“What…!?” He narrowed his eyes.

“Boom!!!”

The ball exploded suddenly with a bang. Several tens of monks flew out from the explosion, landing on the surrounding walls with loud thuds. Dust covered the area which was originally filled with gravel and paint that peeled off.

Massive amounts of white smoke from True Qi slowly dissipated. Lu Sheng held his knife with two hands, standing in the place of the ball. He slowly rose. His back was lowered, and his clothes were ripped. His ferocious, bulging muscles were crawling with dense blood-red veins, appearing strange and savage.

Before, Lu Sheng had the body of a normal human, but now he had grown about two meters tall. A mess of black hair similar to a lion’s mane drifted in the wind behind him.

After he cut through the ball, Lu Sheng once again looked at where the sapphire had been. Finally, he noticed the gem was gone.

This Outer World was filled with a strange and unfamiliar energy, which dulled his senses considerably. It was to the point where he didn’t even realize that the gem had been taken.

“Someone just took the gem,” the inspector said flatly.

“I found it first,” Lu Sheng replied calmly.

“I’m only an inspector. Who discovered the rock doesn’t concern me.” The inspector’s face was still calm. “I recommend that you leave immediately. Even if you are strong, the Midnight Bell-Ringer will be here soon.”

Lu Sheng silently stared at the man for a while.

“If I ever find out you are lying, I will rip you apart.” A horrifying swirl started to form deep inside his calm eyes.

The inspector was silent.

Lu Sheng turned in the direction of a different Mallet of Necromancy. He still needed to collect three gems and ring the Bell of Death so that he could leave this place.

“Try, if you can.” Suddenly, the low voice of the inspector came from behind him.

“Tap.”

Lu Sheng stopped his feet.

In an instant, he turned, unsheathed his knife, jumped, and cut toward the inspector vertically.

“HISSSS!!!”

The series of moves were completed in one breath, and a silver full moon exploded out midair. “DIE!!!!”

The inspector hurriedly put his arms in front of his body to block the attack.

“Ding!!!”

A gray shock wave exploded outward between them. A few pieces of white armor shattered and exploded outward, embedding themselves deep in the walls around them.

The ground within several meters of them cracked in the shape of a spider web with a snap.

Lu Sheng’s knife flashed consecutively, leaving behind several silver lines between the two. The horrifying power of raw strength combined with the drive of True Qi was a threat that even the inspector couldn’t ignore.

His actual power had reached three Veins, but against Lu Sheng’s attacks coming from all kinds of difficult angles as well as their insane speed, all he could do was dodge.

“Is this is all you amount to?” Lu Sheng violently struck out with his palm, slamming into the back of his own knife.

The knife shattered with a crisp snap. Countless pieces of the shaft exploded outward, all of them hitting the inspector with a puff.

“And you dare act so audacious in front of me??”

“Bam!”

His right foot slammed into the inspector’s waist like a whip.

Black membrane started to appear on the inspector’s body, and shook for a few moments before cracking with a puff. His whole body flew backward, slamming head-first into the nearby wall. His body was covered in blood.

“Die!” Lu Shen followed tightly behind, his palm aimed at the inspector’s head.

“Jade Peak Spike!” The inspector finally recovered from the combo. With a combination of shock and rage, he threw out three faint green spikes with his right hand, all three flying toward Lu Sheng.

At the same time, he twisted his waist and pulled out his belt, which straightened and turned into a longsword. He struck out ten times in an instant.

The flash of the sword in unison with the three green spikes were like a blooming flower, pure and beautiful.

“Boom!!”

A rock as tall as a grown man violently scattered the flower. The spikes shattered, and the flash of sword dispersed. The inspector spewed out a mouthful of blood as the spinning boulder slammed squarely into his face.

His nose and mouth covered by his mask had been crushed. A good portion of his face was crushed in, mashed together with the fragmented fabric of his mask.

The boulder carried the inspector all the way into the wall, and finally stopped after it flew through two walls with a bang.

Lu Sheng casually threw away the knife handle and stared at the inspector in the distance, ready to kill him with one last knife strike.

Suddenly, the paper in his hand flashed. He hesitated a moment, then turned and walked away.

The inspector barely managed to prop his head up and look toward the direction where Lu Sheng disappeared before finally losing consciousness.

‘F*ck, that was not worth it!’ That was his last thought before fainting. He’d accepted the Song Family’s bribe, but not only did he not take care of their candidate, he himself nearly…

“Bam.”

“Bam.”

“Bam.”

At this moment, the sound of heavy footsteps came from far behind him.

A green light appeared on the inspector’s forehead, and he suddenly opened his eyes. He looked in the direction where the voice came from expressionlessly as if he was a completely different person, then hurried to get out of the boulder, quickly disappearing into the distance with his broken body.

Just as he turned into an alleyway, a wave of heavy breathing came from the plaza.

***

Lu Sheng hurried forward. If a wall was in his way, he broke through it. If a house was in his way, he walked on its roof. And if there was a tall building in his way, he passed by it.

After crossing a large area of houses, he suddenly turned to look behind his back.

“Wooon.”

A muscular monster carrying a giant pillar was sweeping across the building. Any living beings inside were captured by him, and then stuffed into his mouth.

The monster was in the shape of a man, and was about five meters tall. His skin was covered in dense dark-red markings in the shape of a horse hoof. A giant piece of black fabric tied to his neck covered his head like a bag would.

Lu Sheng narrowed his eyes, and sensed the immense and overwhelming strange energy the monster emitted. It was at least Bind level, which he shouldn’t be able to deal with on the surface.

“Slowly forcing me somewhere?” He noticed the monster wasn’t fast.

As he sensed this, he quickly turned around, and ran toward the next Mallet of Necromancy.

After sprinting forward for a few minutes, he noticed a statue of a horse. A blue light shone from the horse’s mouth.

He walked up, then reached into it, and quickly snatched the sapphire. He didn’t even look at the smoke spewing out of the horse, and instead jumped on the roof toward the third Mallet of Necromancy with a stunning speed.

That was the right tactic—grab the gem and run, and not slowly kill everything. As he noticed this, Lu Sheng’s speed increased. Soon, he found the third Mallet of Necromancy.

A humanoid monster with three wolf heads clad in brown leather armor stood guard on the side with a flail in its hand.

With his lightning speed, Lu Sheng sped up a little using True Qi, and casually threw three rocks at the three wolf heads.

“ARROOOOO!”

All three heads of the monster were angered, and they began to look around for the culprit.

As the monster was distracted, Lu Sheng rushed up from the side and dug out the sapphire on the wall. After that, he promptly ran away.

The three-headed wolf monster reacted quickly and swung his flail, hitting Lu Sheng squarely in the back.

Unfortunately, although he possessed great strength, Lu Sheng’s body was even more horrifying. The Scarlet Jade tier he put up as a guise quickly used True Qi to protect his body. Then, the True Qi dispersed, and he took the hit with his body without any Devil Essence or Inner Qi. His skin only reddened a little before turning back to normal.

Scarlet Jade tier represented a horrifying body that could reach Bind level even without True Qi. When combined with True Qi to stimulate his body, the protection was not something that could be broken by a hurried slam from a flail.

Lu Sheng charged out with the help of the reactive force. He stepped on top of the wall, then shot up like a rocket and raised his head to look at the giant bell, which was as black as ink.

The bell quietly hanging above the field in the center of the temple was at least ten meters tall and eight meters wide. The pillars surrounding it had dark yellow runes hung all over them.

None of the other four candidates were there yet. The first one there, Lu Sheng charged toward the Bell of Death and threw the three sapphires in his hand at it with a violent force.

“Snap!”

Three bolts of lightning flashed abruptly.

“Dongg! Doongg! Donng!!”

The bell rang three times, its sound echoing across the whole Black Seal Temple.

“Hissss!”

A circle of light wrapped around Lu Sheng in mid-air, and he instantly disappeared.

Everything went quiet.

A moment later….

“This test shouldn’t be hard for you,” a voice said slowly.

Lu Sheng’s eyes were closed. He was surrounded by a blinding white light, and couldn’t open his eyes yet. He could only wait quietly and sense his surroundings.

“Not hard at all,” he answered.

The light slowly dissipated, and Lu Sheng opened his eyes to look around. He was still in the temple, the one in Autumn Moon County, in the main hall he’d first entered. All around him were monks reciting scriptures.

A tall man covered in white armor stood in front of him.

“Your results need to be reviewed a second time. You may go back and rest. After you pass, we will inform you,” the armored man told him.

“Understood.”

“Also, you will enter the Black Seal Temple again in the future. If you find unusual objects or anomalies in there, record it by informing one of the elders. That will help us a lot,” the armored man advised.

“What? Is Black Seal Temple not an Outer World that we’ve conquered?” Lu Sheng blanked out for a moment.

“No. To be accurate, it is one we are making progress in. The whole world is gray and hopeless, and in the middle of some kind of apocalypse. The Black Seal Temple is only a corner of it.

“Our investigation has been making slow progress. This was originally an exploration mission for the frontline, but the Devil Army has been making moves lately. The army in the frontline was forced to cease exploration and concentrate their force against the Devil Emperor,” the armored man explained patiently.

“I understand. Thank you, Brother.” Lu Sheng cupped his fists.

“No problem. Just save as many fellow countrymen as you can in the future,” the armored man said with a slightly tired and weary air.

“Of course.” Lu Sheng nodded.

“Go now, go relax. Wine, woman, gambling, fighting, anything you want. Don’t restrain yourself too much, or, as time passes, your mind will be more and more distorted,” the armored man warned.

“I understand…” Lu Sheng nodded. He suddenly realized where the focus of the Great Yin was. They didn’t even have enough resources to explore the Outer Worlds, not to mention the Devil Emperor. The military strength of the Great Yin was always deployed somewhere else, so of course they didn’t have the time to invade the other countries around it.