Way of the Devil

Lu Sheng glanced at the two people and respectfully smiled at Zhou Yongtan in response to his friendly warning. He then focused his attention back onto the auction.

The chubby auctioneer was on his fourth Divine Weapon already.

It was a hourglass with fine red sand slowly dripping down inside. The upper half was always full, while the bottom half remained empty as if the dripping sand would never fill it.

“Hourglass of Equality, which might be the most unfavorable deal for us in this auction. It has the ability to equalize an opponent whose True Qi storage is at most 2 times more than the user’s to the same amount as the user’s for a full three breaths of time.

“This Divine Weapon is a treasure we acquired from an Outer World, and cost many precious materials as well as the lives of many powerful masters, yet it still took three years to finally fix. Starting bid: 390,000!” the auctioneer yelled.

“I assume there is a limit to this hourglass? Don’t tell me it works even on Weapon Masters?” a slim woman asked.

Minor Divine Weapons were far weaker than a proper Divine Weapon. Even if their full power was unleashed, they would still be beaten by the lowest Gold Leaf tier Weapon Master.

Hence, everyone laughed the moment they heard the woman’s question.

The chubby auctioneer didn’t get annoyed, and let out a exaggerated smile instead.

“The esteemed guest is right. I happened to have missed that detail. The Equality Hourglass is only able to equalize people up to the seven Veins level… There doesn’t seem to be a numerical limit provided the user has enough True Qi…”

Before the auctioneer could even finish talking, shouting voices started to place bids.

“400,000!”

“450,000!”

“500,000!”

“600,000!”

“700,000! The kid from the Huang Family, how dare you fight with me??!”

“Who do you think you are, you old bastard? 900,000!”

Absurdly high bids were called out one after another, shocking even Lu Sheng. It was as if everyone was trying to buy the Equality Hourglass with their family fortune.

“Everyone is trying to prepare their sons and daughters… If used in the battle against the Devil Army, this Divine Weapon would be priceless…” Zhou Yongtan sighed on the side.

Lu Sheng instantly understood.

In reality, aside from the battle between Weapon Masters, the fight against the Devil Army was dominated by fights between Bind level soldiers. Used properly, the Equality Hourglass could create a team targeting the elite soldiers within the Devil Army.

Or, it could be used with long-range Secret Arts involving things like crossbows since it was not limited by numbers.

There were so many uses for this Divine Weapon on the battlefield.

Finally, after a whole incense worth of time, a fat man who masked his face left the auction happily. After spending one million Devil Gold, he finally won the auction.

It also finally showed Lu Sheng the absurd amount of financial resources the rich families of Moling possessed.

“That’s the head of the Zhong Family. With a small Outer World of their own, the riches they have are unfathomable for an ordinary person.” Zhou Yongtan shook his head and sighed.

“Or you could stop being jealous and apply to settle in an Outer World yourself. No one’s stopping you,” the chubby woman spoke again.

“No sh*t. If my family had a Weapon Master ancestor that was still alive, why would I be jealous?” Zhou Yongtan replied begrudgingly.

At that point, the auction also reached its climax. The next few Divine Weapons attracted little attention, and were quickly sold to people who only offered a slight increase to the starting bid. Soon, it was time for the Wei River Sword Lu Sheng had his eyes on.

Only one or two people were bidding with him, but both stopped after 200,000 because of their previous expenditures.

Lu Sheng got the Wei River Sword for a price that was only slightly higher than the starting bid.

He only had 700,000 Devil Gold in total, which might be an astronomical amount for an ordinary person, but to the big families here, it was nothing extraordinary.

Lu Sheng finally let out a sigh of relief after he won the auction as he finally achieved his goal. He didn’t even want to stay for the rest of the auctions. One Divine Weapon was enough—he had no use for more.

After getting the special plaque from the chubby auctioneer, Lu Sheng bid farewell to Zhou Yongtan before leaving for the special storage reserved for Divine Weapons to receive his Wei River Sword.

Soon, after paying in a Devil Gold check, Lu Sheng received a long ornate box. He opened it in front of the storekeepers and saw the slim white blade that lay within.

The two words “Wei River” were engraved in the center of the blade. The patterns and even the tassel attached to the end of the handle were pure white. Not a single impurity could be found throughout the entire blade—it had a generally appealing appearance.

Lu Sheng closed the box and strode out of the auction house. As he walked out of the main entrance, he happened to notice Zhou Yongtan, who chatted with him not long ago, standing by the far corner and talking to a handsome young man.

The two seemed to be good friends since Zhou Yongtan went on and on about something beside the young man, occasionally using exaggerated gestures and expressions. He was handsome to begin with, and had a respectable demeanor. At the moment, he talked excitedly while playing with a black short knife in his hand.

The other youth, though, was quiet. There was an unrecoverable air of nobility about him despite the fact that he obviously blurred his face to hide his identity.

It was a strange duo. Even though the youth was younger, it looked as if he was the senior among the two.

Lu Sheng glanced at the two, and then quickly left.

He closed his doors to visitors after returning to the inner area of the Thousand Sun Sect. He had to attend the main sect contest soon, and wanted to test the Wei River Sword first. Divine Weapons named after an actual place should be somewhat famous, and, according to Lu Sheng’s theory, should have a high chance of containing Mental Energy.

It was yet another reason why he chose the Wei River sword.

After closing his door and making sure no one was around, he released his True Qi and covered the entire room, occasionally absorbing slivers of golden Essence Qi from above to act as if he was cultivating.

After checking his room again, he lightly took out the Wei River Sword from its box.

A small piece of paper was inside, detailing the process of how to inherit the Wei River Sword.

Lu Sheng read the piece of paper.

“Blood Ritual, Ceremonial Ritual, Mind Ritual, a total of three steps. After that, you may fully control this seven star Divine Weapon.”

Below, the steps of the three rituals were recorded.

Even though Minor Divine Weapons might not be as strong as Golden Leaf Divine Weapons, the user was still required to infuse their blood, mind, and True Qi into it and form a special contract with the Divine Weapon.

“Each Divine Weapon has its own spirit. Since this one was born and nourished in the Wei River, it is naturally prone to changes and instability. Its successor must possess an extremely stable mind in order to communicate with it and earn its approval.”

Those were the descriptions on the paper.

Lu Sheng lightly raised the Wei River Sword and slowly unsheathed it.

“Hisss…”

The edge of the blade shined with a silver cold light, and wave-like patterns were rippling across the metal surface. It all looked surreal and intangible.

‘Kill kill kill kill! Drown everything! Destroy everything! Suffocate everything!!! ‘ A dominant thought spread across the room.

It was as if the voice was truly roaring and echoing in Lu Sheng’s ears. Air tightened as if the room was inside a bag, and the room almost went airtight in an instant.

A vast amount of white steam rose out of the Wei River Sword and slowly surrounded Lu Sheng.

The cold light from the Wei River Sword spilled everywhere as if it were water.

“I am Wei River, alternative name Bie Li[1. It’s a tricky name. It’s basically two verbs meaning “leave”. Together, they can also form another word, “leave”, “separation”. However, the first one can also mean “don’t”… since the author doesn’t like straightforward names very much, for now we’ll use pinyin.]. Little guy, would you like to use my power? This power will change you and allow you to shake off any irresistible destiny.

“But, you must pay first.”

“I know the price,” Lu Sheng answered. “According to the steps… first… Blood Ritual.” He earnestly placed the Wei River Sword on his knee and forced out a drop of blood from his index finger.

The dark-red blood dropped onto the Wei River Sword with a tap.

“Seems you are prepared. Good. Although the power of the Wei River might not be complete, I will need your help to gather all the shards of Wei River sword. In exchange, I will only need half of your essence blood and True— WOW!!! What the f*ck is this blood!!!”

Lu Sheng stared at the steaming Wei River Sword on his knee, confused.

“Hisss…”

The drop of blood spread across the blade like an octopus, and made the sound of acid eating away at metal. Lu Sheng saw the originally smooth edge become rolled.

“Help… help me!! Hurry! Hurry…” The Wei River Sword’s voice was weakening at an absurd rate. In a few breaths, it turned from the sound of a healthy elderly to that of a bedridden, half-crippled old man who could die at any moment.

Lu Sheng hurriedly shook off the drop of blood and let it re-enter his skin. He stared at the black dent in the middle of the Wei River Sword and didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“Whoo…”

The blade of the Wei River Sword shook a few times, evaporated the remaining trace of blood, and finally straightened abruptly. It stopped moving, and then the voice of a gasping old man came from within.

“Does this mean the Blood Ritual is done?” Lu Sheng asked with his mind.

The Wei River Sword was silent for a while.

“I’ll… I’ll count it as complete…” the elderly voice said wearily. But how could a human compete with a Divine Weapon? Maybe he was just not used to his bloodline—it would get better as his blood changed from the radiation.

“Next comes Ceremonial Ritual. All you need to do is infuse True Qi into my blade. Half is enough.” The Wei River Sword warned.

“Right.” Lu Sheng thought he was trying to disguise himself with a random Divine Weapon anyway, and this Wei River Sword seemed to be old and had a lot of experience, which would help him a lot. He truly wanted to establish the connection with him.

After all, he was at the Holy Master level, the same as Divine Weapons and Devil Blade. Not like he could lose control.

Lu Sheng gripped the hilt and slowly infused his True Qi into the blade. This time he was careful, afraid he would accidently break the Wei River Sword. He did spend 200,000 Devil Gold on it, and it would be a big loss if he broke it.