Way of the Devil

 The statue only had one exit. Zhangsun Lan and another middle-aged woman stood there, chatting. Zhangsun Lan’s face lit up as she saw Lu Sheng walking toward them, and went up to greet him.

“Senior Apprentice Brother Lu came out?”

“Senior Apprentice Sister Lan, this is…?” Lu Sheng looked at the other woman with uncertainty.

“I am Yun Qingnu.” The woman’s face was flirtatious; she looked similar to Yun Wanfei from the Autumn Moon County. She seemed to also be a member of the Yun Family. “Brother Lu must have seen my niece, Feifei, already? I’m her second sister. Call me Yun Er[1. ED/N: Literally “Second Yun”, and yes, Yun is her surname here. You can apparently sometimes see or hear brothers or sisters calling themselves with one name (surname) to which they attach numbers like 1, 2 in order of their seniority, though I’ve seen only stuff like Old One, Old Two, etc., used among brothers or rather friends as close as brothers].”

“Young Lady Yun Er.” Lu Sheng held out his fist.

Yun Qingnu laughed lightly. Not only her, but Zhangsun also Lan laughed as well.

“Brother Lu sure is a sweet talker. I am 230 years old already… not at all a young lady anymore. You might as well call me Family Head Yun as I have some sizeable businesses in Moling. I’m in charge of all the family business here as well.”

Lu Sheng’s face was strange. This was the first time someone called him a sweet talker.

“That will do.”

“I’m here for Lan’er this time, but it is fortunate I’ve met such an outstanding person like Brother Lu. You are an old friend of Feifei as well, so we should get closer in the future.” Yun Qingnu smiled.

“Of course,” Lu Sheng responded politely.

Yun Qingnu talked a bit more with Zhangsun Lan and left.

“Let’s go, you haven’t been in the True Essence Tower before,” Zhangsun Lan said enthusiastically. “My grandfather made sure to tell me to ensure you rest up well.”

“That won’t be necessary, I can go myself.” Lu Sheng shook his head.

“That works too. Don’t forget the time.” Zhangsun Lan wasn’t pushy, either. Lu Sheng finally brought honor to the Thousand Sun Sect and her grandfather during the contest. She needed to go back and spread the news.

Lu Sheng watched Zhangsun Lan leave.

Lu Sheng stood beneath the foot of the statue for a while and flew toward the True Essence Tower after sensing the right direction.

He left the plaza, and after crossing a few ranches training savage beasts for mounts and a rapidly flowing underground river emitting poisonous smoke, he finally reached one of the Thousand Sun Sect’s core structures, the True Essence Tower.

The True Spirit Tower wasn’t tall, only about eight stories high. It was dark red like an ordinary steepled tower, and had countless jade bells hung outside. They emitted fine, delicate sounds every time a breeze blew past.

The only thing different about it was that dense dark-golden patterns in the shape of Bagua[1. ED/N: Basically octagon. Google bagua, it’s an important Chinese symbol.] were engraved on every eave. All of them were slowly spinning around the True Spirit Tower.

Spacious square walls surrounded the bottom of the wall. A flag one meter or so long was inserted into the wall every few segments, emitting a soft blue light.

All the flags combined formed into four giant blue screens of light that totally surrounded the entire True Essence Tower.

The only way into the light barrier was through the three uneven sized holes in front of Lu Sheng.

People constantly came in and out of the holes. Most of them were inner sect disciples; occasionally, an exhausted elder would walk out.

Lu Sheng walked up quickly. No one was guarding the door, but everyone had to go through a door made of blue light as they entered.

He crossed the door made out of light, strode across the courtyard, and entered the first level of the True Essence Tower.

The inside of the tower looked like any other lobby. A few people sat on the yellow dirt floor. No one took notice of Lu Sheng’s arrival—cultivating in the True Essence Tower was costly, and no one wanted to waste time.

Lu Sheng saw the words engraved on the wall: “1 to 2”.

‘That must mean that for every two days spent in here, only one passes outside.’

He also acutely felt a centrifugal force pulling him left, though it was too weak—weak to the point where he almost couldn’t feel it.

“I could go up further.” Lu Sheng walked up a narrow staircase to the left. He crossed another blue light screen and entered the second level.

Like the first floor, the lobby of the second floor was also a faint yellow. Ten or so people were cultivating rigorously and appeared to be trying to understand something. The wall at the end had “1 to 4” engraved on it.

‘The pressure on the body has increased, but is still weak to the point where I could ignore it.’ Lu Sheng felt nothing, and swept his gaze across the people there. Their faces were red, like they were only barely managing to hold on. Even the one or two that looked at ease didn’t act as careless as he was.

‘This kind of pressure could actually be used to exercise my body,’ Lu Sheng thought as he walked toward the third floor.

There was still nothing on the third floor, nor the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh….

He went all the way to the eighth floor.

Lu Sheng finally felt that the pressure falling on his body was strong enough.

There were only two “men” sitting on the floor of the eighth floor. One had the head of a bear, while the other had the head of an eagle. They were demons.

As they heard the sound of his arrival, both slowly opened their eyes and stared curiously toward Lu Sheng, who was standing at the stairs.

“You are…?” the eagle head asked. His voice was dry and stiff as if he hadn’t talked in forever.

“I am Lu Sheng, a new disciple of the Thousand Sun Sect.” Lu Sheng could tell both demons were extraordinary. Even with the strength of his body, he could feel the pressure here, yet these two stayed in here for who knew how long? It was obvious their bodies were absurdly strong as well.

“Do you… not feel uncomfortable?” the bear-headed one asked with a shocked expression.

“Very uncomfortable.” Lu Sheng nodded. “But I was born with the natural ability to stay alert under any kind of circumstances until I get knocked down.” He started once again to make up blatant lies.

Even though the eighth floor had great pressure, he could still stay there for ten days to half a month without a problem.

“Like now, I could stay at most a little bit more before embarrassing myself,” Lu Sheng said seriously.

The eagle-headed man and the bear-headed man looked at each other, and both found surprise in the other’s eyes.

“You body is strong. Even so, you should be proud,” the bear head continued. Even he himself needed to focus all his energy on utilizing True Qi techniques to sustain his cultivation here, let alone the eagle head, whose body was weaker than his.

They could cultivate here for at most an hour at a time and needed to immediately leave and rest afterwards. Otherwise, it would no longer be an exercise, but rather suicide.

“Who is your master?” The eagle head asked.

“It is Qiandu Su Ningfei, Senior,” Lu Sheng responded respectfully.

“The Holy Master of Eternal Slumber?” The two demons were surprised.

“Indeed.” Lu Sheng nodded.

“No wonder…. You must be leaving for the main sect soon. With your potential, Moling is too small of a stage for you,” the eagle head said in a low voice. “Us two aren’t disciples of the Thousand Sun Sect and only came here to borrow the True Essence Tower. I am Tong Ying, and he is Bai Zheng. We are the elders of the Bear and Eagle Clan, respectively. Little brother appears to be full of potential and must be destined for great things, how should we call you?”

“I am Lu Sheng, last name Lu, given name Sheng,” Lu Sheng introduced himself.

“A good name.”

The two demons chatted with Lu Sheng about the current situation in the Great Yin, and as time passed, all three gradually shifted the topic onto Lu Sheng’s cheap master, Su Ningfei.

“Speaking of which, with how strong your body is, Brother Lu must also have had the opportunity to view that slate of Holy Master Eternal Slumber, right?” the bear-headed Bai Zheng asked casually.

Lu Sheng was instantly intrigued, and questioned back, “Slate? You mean the one with a cut in the middle?”

Although these two were definitely not weak, and in fact both had reached the Weapon Master level, they still acted humble and were even willing to chat with a ‘prodigy disciple’ like him, clearly showing their natural friendliness. Hence, as they chatted on, Lu Sheng started calling Bai Zheng “Brother Bai”, and the eagle head “Brother Tong”.

“Correct. That is actually part of our demon race’s ultimate holy technique for tempering the body. Unfortunately, it was split into five. One piece disappeared, one is owned by your master—the Holy Master of Eternal Slumber, one is owned by the imperial court of the Great Yin, while the others, luckily, still belong to us,” the bear head Bai Zheng said with regret.

“It is actually the holy technique of demons? For tempering the body? That slate can do that? Why didn’t I feel anything?” Lu Sheng was a little perplexed. The slate he saw only contained the set of Star Moving Knife Mantra—where did body tempering came from?

“Of course, it’s just hidden very deeply within. Maybe you’ve seen the slate before, but didn’t truly understand its essence.” Bai Zheng shook his head.

“Then, has Brother Bai thought of taking the slate back?” Lu Sheng asked again.

“We were the one who gave it out in the first place, why take it back?” Bai Zheng started laughing. Tong Ying to the side started laughing with him.

Lu Sheng finally understood the general situation. It seemed the demons in the Great Yin had a great relationship with the three major sects and the imperial court, which must have cost a lot. The slate was probably only a part of it.

“We exchanged a total of 79 different forms of True Qi technique, and 36 with the imperial court. The Slate of Holy Sword was only one of them,” Tong Ying explained with a smile.

“Slate of Holy Sword?” Lu Sheng blanked. “The mark on there was clearly made by a knife, though?”

“Knife? Are you sure? It’s a sword mark, definitely not a knife mark. I once tried to decode its meaning for thirty years, so there’s no way I saw the wrong thing.” Bai Zheng waved his hand. “If you don’t believe me, tell your master to let you observe it in detail and you’ll know.”

“Brother Bai, are you sure?” Lu Sheng’s expression didn’t change, but his heart slowly sank.

“Of course,” Bai Zheng said with a hint of annoyance. “All the slates are the same and each contains a sword mark, so where would the knife mark came from?”

Lu Sheng closed his eyes. Bai Zheng and Tong Ying continued talking, but he wasn’t listening.

He had a violent urge to immediately go into the secret area and question Su Ningfei on why she gave him a fake slate.

Maybe he should ask for compensation?

Or come up with a new contract?

That would be impossible.

He had decided that if Su Ningfei didn’t give him a good explanation, he would use some cruel strategy. Even though he couldn’t beat her at the moment, he’d have plenty of time in the future to deal with this.

Giving out the wrong technique was basically the same as killing him or his family. If he actually cultivated the wrong technique, the result would be unimaginable. Being crippled or having his cultivation damaged was the least of his worries. Death by self-destruction or going mad was more common.

Unconsciously, the killing intent in Lu Sheng’s eyes deepened.