Way of the Devil

“You… are not bad.” Su Ningfei didn’t say anything else, and instead pointed with her right hand. A large amount of purple mist diffused out of her palm and slowly formed into a delicate, purple pebble.

“Take this. You may enter the secret area at your will in the future. If you have any questions, come find me.” Su Ningfei ultimately decided to give Lu Sheng her token. Not the token of her descendants, but hers.

Living in the secret area and enjoying the nourishment of the massive amount of Essence Qi provided by the Great Yin did come with certain responsibilities.

Selecting qualified disciples and giving them necessary guidance was something the hermits cultivating in seclusion were supposed to do.

They had to guide at least one disciple every one hundred years.

Su Ningfei happened not to have a chosen disciple yet in these past one hundred years, and then she saw Lu Sheng by chance. Though she could ignore this rule, she was truly interested in Lu Sheng.

Lu Sheng also understood the rules. His heart jumped in ecstasy as he hurriedly took the purple pebble.

“I am grateful for master’s guidance!”

“I’m not your master. You can call me Heining,” Su Ningfei said flatly.

“Of course, Master Heining,” Lu Sheng responded respectfully.

“Regarding True Qi techniques, I will teach you a new mantra. You can ignore the basic True Qi technique you are cultivating now, and transform your True Qi according to the mantra I give you,” Su Ningfei said simply, and taught Lu Sheng her special basic True Qi technique, just like she had done for the few people before Lu Sheng.

But unlike her previous students, she hesitated on whether or not to add an extra step at the end of the mantra.

She had never done this before.

According to the normal flow of things, hermits like her would usually choose a disciple and very systematically complete their requirement. But, this time, because of a feeling she couldn’t put her finger on, Su Ningfei decided to add the extra step. She even repeatedly made sure that Lu Sheng remembered it.

Three hours passed in the blink of an eye.

It was also about time for Lu Sheng to leave. All disciples who entered the secret area had a time limit. At their level of cultivation, staying in there for too long was not very beneficial.

“I am grateful for the master’s teachings, disciple will now leave.” Lu Sheng bowed toward Su Ningfei seriously.

She deserved it based on both her power and attitude.

He could vaguely guess Su Ningfei’s background from the profound explanation she made for him on True Qi techniques.

She was extremely familiar with most of the True Qi techniques in the Great Yin, just like every one of them was her own. Her breadth of knowledge far surpassed Lu Sheng’s imagination. Her research and understanding of True Qi techniques and the physical body had reached a very detailed and microscopic level.

It could be said the knowledge this Master Heining possessed certainly surpassed that of basically everyone in the Great Yin.

“Go. Don’t forget to cultivate the True Qi technique, and come to this secret area at least once a month. I want to check on your progress,” Su Ningfei reminded him.

“Disciple understands.” Lu Sheng lowered his head in respect, and retreated several steps. His body started to become clear and faded, completely disappearing from the edge of the lake a few breaths later.

Su Ningfei stood in place as she watched Lu Sheng disappear with narrowed eyes, not moving for a long time.

She’d originally planned to simply guide a random disciple for the sake of completing her task. But, this time, with this young man named Lu Sheng, she unexpedly added something extra at the end of her standard teachings.

“If he possess the Savage Moon Body like me…” Su Ningfei whispered under her breath. Her emotions, which had been undisturbed for too long, stirred a little.

“I will wait until my original body comes, and then think about this in detail. If he truly is…” She closed her eyes, and turned toward the direction where she came from.

“Hiss!” A beam of purple light shot out.

The breeze stirred up the fallen leaves, and the edge of the lake was empty in the blink of an eye, without a single human in sight.

***

A pillar of white light abruptly landed from the sky, landing on the bronze formation of ten thousand horses in the lobby silently.

Lu Sheng’s shape appeared out of the light. At the same time, a purple token dropped out in front of him.

“Sccracck!”

The token was at least half as tall as a grown man. It pierced into the the bronze formation violently, emitting a sound like a sharp blade cutting into metal.

Zhang Shilong was waiting there already with the guards next to the bronze formation. They quickly went up to greet him when they saw the pillar of light.

All eyes were focused on the purple token next to Lu Sheng.

“This is purple? There are a total of twenty-three masters in the secret area with purple tokens, and four of them are around the lake where Lu Sheng was… whose is it?” Zhang Shilong inspected the patterns on the token with great anticipation.

“This isn’t right… this is not the Purple Sun Sage’s token.” The master who was the most enthusiastic about guiding people and taking in disciple was the legendary Purple Sun Sage.

He possessed a great level of cultivation, and was famous for his mild temperament. The chance of him giving guidance and taking in a disciple was very high. This was why Zhang Shilong urged Lu Sheng to go near the lake to test his luck.

Not all candidates who entered the secret area would receive guidance and become the disciple of a hermit. The latter also had their own standards—if someone with low potential entered, they might not even show themselves, let alone give guidance.

But, luckily, Lu Sheng had an above-average potential. The hermits usually wouldn’t be stingy with their teaching with someone with a Scarlet Jade rating. Zhang Shilong just hoped that the master who guided Lu Sheng had a higher level of cultivation, and was preferably someone in the upper three tiers of Earth Prime. That way, he would hold a higher position and have greater influence within the sect in his future.

Oftentimes, those who managed to become a disciple of one of the masters would become the representative of their master outside, and would hold an unmatched position.

But this newly appeared dark-purple token made Zhang Shilong blank out.

He had never seen this kind of pattern before. The dense shapes and figures on it merely felt familiar to him, but he couldn’t remember where he’d seen it before to save his life.

It wasn’t just him, none of the guards next to the formation recognized this new purple token.

The white light covering Lu Sheng’s body finally disappeared as he reached out to touch the purple token.

“Hisss!”

The token instantly turned into a beam of light and disappeared into the center of his brow, forming a purple ‘V’ shape on it.

“Lu Sheng.” Zhang Shilong went up to greet him in a hurry. “Did you not meet the Purple Sun Sage?” he asked nervously.

Lu Sheng nodded. “I didn’t. I met a female hermit. Her body had many roots, her skin was very pale, and her lips were purple…”

“Purple lips?” Zhang Shilong frowned. “A lot of roots?” He seemed to have never heard of this hermit before.

Maybe it was some master who’d just entered the secret area? He wasn’t sure.

“Wait…. Wait, wait!!!” Suddenly, a shaking voice came from the side.

Lu Sheng turned and, surprisingly, saw Song Du.

He had arrived earlier, and came up to watch the commotion as Lu Sheng arrived, trying to see if Lu Sheng had found a master. He’d also happened to overhear their conversation.

“Purple lips… roots on her body… did she… did she also have a dark-gold crescent moon above her head??!!” Song Du’s expression was strange. It wasn’t even shock anymore, but rather seemed more like terror.

He seemed terrified!

Lu Sheng hesitated before answering, “That I didn’t notice. But when master struck, the clouds turned dark.”

“Dang!!!”

Before he could even finish, Song Du retreated backward for ten or so meters in a frenzy as if he had just seen a ghost.

Not only him, but even Zhang Shilong and the other guards flew away from Lu Sheng like he was some kind of ghost.

Suddenly, the lobby was absolutely silent. All that remained was the sound of a spinning bronze furnace that had been kicked off its stand ringing in the air.

“You… Elder??” Lu Sheng’s face was perplexed, not knowing what these people were trying to do.

Zhang Shilong’s mouth was trembling, and he was rubbing his hand unendingly—especially the one he’d just touched Lu Sheng with. His face turned purple, like he was remembering some horrifying incident in the past. His body was trembling like mad.

“Purple…. It’s her!! By the Heavens!!”

“HURRY! Hurry and inform the sect master!!!” a guard shouted as he charged out of the lobby.

“Ring the bell! Hurry, hurry, hurry!!! Emergency status! Everyone out! Form a quarantine!!!”

“Quarantine everything within a one-kilometer radius, everything!!!”

A few other guards charged out of the lobby like they were mad, releasing signals frantically in great numbers without sparing any efforts.

The golden signs exploding in the sky represented an issue of utmost urgency that required immediate attention.

“Dong…!”

“Dong…!”

“Dong…!”

Soon, before Lu Sheng could even react, he heard the low and extended sound of a massive bell.

The sound of troops of calvary surrounding the place came from outside.

“Hiss…”

A golden barrier blocked the entrance door as golden symbols swirled on its surface.

“Swash!”

Two shapes covered in silver armor landed from the sky and strode into the golden barrier. They looked around, and quickly focused their gaze on Lu Sheng. Or, more accurately, on the purple symbol on Lu Sheng’s forehead.

“Sect Master Wan, sorry for the trouble,” one of the armored men said to the other.

“Sect Master Chen is too kind. In the time of crisis, we must work together,” the other armored man said with a serious expression. A long, white beard could be seen under his helm—he was obviously an elderly man.

Lu Sheng was confused as hell. He just went into the secret area, was all this necessary?

“Hiss…”

A giant python as thick as a water barrel with two horns on its head covered in black and silver armor crawled outside the door. The Thousand Sun Sect even deployed the double-horned dragon war beast to quarantine the area.

“I’m done for… done for…”

Zhang Shilong checked his body bitterly, but didn’t find anything. All he could do was let out a weary laugh at Lu Sheng in the distance.

“Elder Zhang, the responsibility of communicating with Junior Apprentice Brother Lu falls on you.” One of the armored men held his fist out toward Zhang Shilong.

“Sect master… I…” Zhang Shilong wanted to cry, but he had no tears. He still couldn’t escape in the end, huh.

“What is the meaning of all this!?” If Lu Sheng hadn’t heard everything they said, he would have thought they’d discovered who he really was.

“That… is a long story,” Zhang Shilong said wearily.

“I will explain this myself,” Sect Master Chen said in a clear voice as he stepped up. The Sect Master Wan next to him had started to seal the entire area with chains that emitted a green light.

“If I’m correct, Lu Sheng’s master is the one who accidently joined the Thousand Sun Sect.”

“Which one?” Lu Sheng was speechless. Could they not speak in riddles like this?