Way of the Devil

Lu Sheng’s identity was the sect master of the Thousand Sun Sect’s branch. He also had the backing of the formidable monster Su Ningfei, whose elder brother was the current sect master of the Thousand Sun Sect—Aurora Polaris.

With such a background, even the Yuanguang Family in its prime would not provoke him for a pureblood clansman, let alone now that its forces were in decline.

“Sect Master, can you propose a different request? This condition is slightly…” said the emissary helplessly.

“It’s not too much. With the support from my sect, although it’s not comparable to the Holy Heirs who inherited the Holy Sword of Dusk, since they have the support of top Divine Lords, I’m still confident that it’ll be helpful on your path to obtain the fifth Divine Weapon. Yuanguang Yuan should understand this as well. Moreover, isn’t she close with Yuanguang Milong now?”

Yuanguang Sulong’s mother was one of the two great elders of the Secret Selection Court’s inner court. She was extremely brutal and unreasonable.

The emissary fell silent, and eventually nodded his head. “Understood. I’ll pass this on to Lady Yuan. If she agrees, a messenger talisman will be sent from the Yin Capital.

“Mm. You’re dismissed.” Lu Sheng nodded. The Yuanguang Family was also his body’s blood family. He had thought of taking the time to visit them, but now was not the time.

Currently, he was still lacking in strength.

After the emissary left, Lu Sheng immersed himself in his formation research again. He quickly named this formation Returning to One.

The name meant fusing with a myriad versions of himself and realizing the ideal of returning to one.

After Lu Sheng assimilated a part of Lu Chong’s spirit and body, he clearly felt a huge increase in his long-stagnant cultivation base and spirit. In normal situation, he would have had to cultivate for at least a thousand years to achieve this.

However, he had attained a thousand years’ worth of cultivation base in such a short period of time.

This was also why the other Divine Lords were unable to catch up to the Weapon Grandmasters. It had to be known that even Weapon Grandmasters could only live for a few thousand years. If a Divine Lord could only improve so little after a thousand years of cultivation, not even being able to break through to the Divine Intellect level, it was a waste of time to even think of becoming a Weapon Grandmaster. If this was the case, how did the Weapon Grandmasters cultivate?

Some Weapon Grandmasters even achieved this great feat in only a thousand years.

Lu Sheng studied his formation, Returning to One, and instructed his disciple. When he was free, he would return to the manor and spend some time with Chen Yunxi and Lu Ning. Occasionally, he would visit his parents and casually handle the affairs of the Prime Devil Sect. Time passed slowly.

In the blink of an eye, it had been three months. Yuanguang Yuan’s messenger talisman arrived from the Yin Capital. At the same time, a dark-red hexagon-shaped piece of metal arrived with it.

When Lu Sheng received the metal piece, the first thing he did was go back to the Research Temple again as he left the affairs of the Prime Devil Sect to his deputy, Elder Stone. He started studying the metal piece’s contents, sometimes even forgoing meals and sleep.

In three days, he destroyed the metal piece and committed its contents to memory.

The metal piece contained the final volume of the Four Seasons Frozen Skies Tome branded with another person’s spirit. This volume recorded the cultivation process from a Divine Lord to a Weapon Grandmaster.

What pleased Lu Sheng was that the contents precisely stated the cultivation process in which the Divine Lords would travel to the Other Worlds, possess their own bodies in those worlds, and assimilate them.

However, the Four Seasons Frozen Skies Tome was safer. Through the process of crossing over to the Other World, it would transform into the toughest nine-segments rock ice.

The nine-segments rock ice was a type of ice. It was known for its toughness and resistance to energy corrosion. After the rock ice crossed over, the most dangerous step was up next.

The greatest danger toward a Divine Lord who entered an Other World was nothing but the different environment and Laws of the place.

In most of the worlds recorded in the Four Seasons Frozen Skies Tome, the energy systems were different compared to Great Yin’s. Some worlds even had different soul structure and composition. If one was careless, one would instantly disintegrate and die the instant one entered the Other World.

This was because the structure of a Great Yin’s Divine Lord’s spirit was completely at odds and conflicting with the one in that world.

At moments like this, Divine Lords would have to use various techniques and methods to deal with such dangers.

Lu Sheng studied the details of crossing over, finding his other self, and how to deal with the different dangers.

He completely understood that the conflict of the Laws was not the only danger which a Divine Lord faced after the crossover. There was also the rejection from the original inhabitants of the world itself.

They referred to the Divine Lord’s spirits as Devils and Foreign Heavenly Devils.

The Divine Lords of Great Yin would usually pick the time when their other self was the weakest to cross over. When they succeeded, they would always need a huge amount of living sacrifices for their Divine Weapon’s bloodline. Hence, this had contributed to the misunderstandings they often faced.

‘In all this, the greatest difficulty lies in the safety of the crossover process. The second greatest difficulty is facing the various conflicts of the Laws and the onslaught of the original inhabitants. Then, there’s the issue of the weakening of one’s strength,’ Lu Sheng concluded the contents of the volume in his own words.

‘The different power systems most probably caused a steep decline in the Divine Lords’ strength in a short amount of time because of the different power Laws, although the Divine Lords possess powerful strength. So, the best thing to do whenever one arrives in a new world is to blend in with the world’s power system. Unless it’s absolutely necessary, it’s best to not use one’s main body’s strength.’

When he understood that, Lu Sheng started adjusting his Returning to One Formation with the runes and formation patterns recorded in the Four Seasons Frozen Skies Tome.

According to the Four Seasons Frozen Skies Tome, there were not many Divine Lords who dared to cross over to the Other Worlds and achieve a breakthrough. This was because the crossover was an extremely dangerous feat in itself. If one was not careful, one would be forced to endure the unlucky fate of being stuck inside a weakling’s body, and then die an untimely death in an accident.

The Divine Lords had all cultivated for many years. Most of them were unwilling to bet all they had on some fleeting luck.

As for the Divine Lords who dared to pursue strength without caring for the price, they had probably died in a war after they possessed a person in an Other World.

The mortality rate in such an incident was extremely high. At the end of the Four Seasons Frozen Skies Tome, there was a long list of Divine Lords’ names from the Ice Business Sect—they had attempted to achieve a breakthrough.

The Ice Business Sect was the origin of the Four Seasons Frozen Skies Tome. It was a great sect that had once had a Weapon Grandmaster. After that, they transformed into a great aristocratic family because they no longer had a Weapon Grandmaster, though they did have Divine Lords. They were eventually killed off by the Yuanguang Family accidentally[1. Lol I wonder if yamen constables bought that story.].

‘Nineteen Divine Lords… Did none of them succeeded? Most of them died during the third crossover.’ Lu Sheng frowned as he scrutinized the records. Clearly, this list of names had been intentionally left here by the person who guarded this tome to alert anyone who thought about crossing over.

However, Lu Sheng did not think that he was weaker than these people. He was different from the other Divine Lords—he had Deep Blue. He merely needed a short period to acclimatize, and he would be able to swiftly utilize the stored Mental Energy within Deep Blue to blend in with the world’s power system. He would be able to improve quickly and adjust and modify his own strength to allow himself to blend into the different world better. He would eventually be able to reduce the rejection and completely understand his host’s karma.

‘The only thing I’m worried about is crossing over into a world with Laws that are overly different. However, that can still be adjusted and adapted to. I just have to tweak the formation like so.. and this…’ Lu Sheng immediately resumed adjusting his formation.

***

“Clang!”

Amid the intense clash of swords, a ball of reddish cloud suddenly erupted in midair. Two reddish figures flew out from each end of the cloud.

The two figures unleashed the same skills with the same True Essence and charged toward each other as they howled.

“Bam!”

Their swords clanged loudly. Blood sprayed out from Lu Shunxi’s orifices due to the impact of the powerful clash, and he fell to the ground.

“Weak! Too weak! You’re so weak, yet the esteemed teacher prefers you?! This is unbelievable!” The other man was big and tall. His dark red hair extended all the way to his heels. The end of his hair curved to the left like magatama. Thick muscle knots could be seen on his body. He exuded a dense, wild, and irascible aura.

“Li Shunxi, with a power like that, you’ll only embarrass the esteemed teacher if you go out of this valley. Instead of being humiliated and killed by someone else, why don’t I, Kong Cheng, put an end to you right here, right now?!”

A killing intent that seemed to have substance rose from the man’s body.

He was Kong Cheng, the most senior disciple of the esteemed teacher whom Li Shunxi had apprenticed himself to. He was a terrifying expert whom Li Shunxi was powerless to fight against even though the former had suppressed his own strength to Li Shunxi’s level.

Li Shunxi lay within a deep pit, facing upward. Blood and water kept flowing out from his mouth. It seemed as if he would die any moment.

This was not his first time being on the brink of death.

Kong Cheng was very, very powerful. He was so powerful that Li Shunxi could not even see his limits. He was just like the esteemed teacher. Li Shunxi had seen Kong Cheng repeatedly threatening the esteemed teacher to give him some secret tome, but he had been sternly rejected at every occasion.

The esteemed teacher was not in the best of health, but was still intimidating enough for Kong Cheng. Although they did not actually fight, there had been a few times when things became tense.

This was a usual sight here, and it continued on until recently, when the esteemed teacher accepted him as a disciple. Kong Cheng made a bet with the esteemed teacher. If Li Shunxi could defeat Kong Cheng within five years, under the condition that their level of strength was the same, the esteemed teacher would surrender the special secret tome to Kong Cheng[2. I know it’s confusing, but that’s more or less what seems to be the gist of it.].

After the incident, he spent his days being trampled on by the esteemed teacher, and then being trampled on by Kong Cheng.

He could sense that Kong Cheng had some conflicting thoughts within himself. Hence, even though Kong Cheng could have killed him many times, he did not go through with it.

Also, this senior apprentice brother of his was a proud person, and did not seem to be human. That was why he did not use any underhanded methods against him. Kong Cheng’s ceaseless trashing him was more a result of his intricate thoughts.

“I’ve lost again… Thank you… Senior Apprentice Brother… for showing mercy… keh!” He barely finished his sentence when he coughed up another mouthful of blood.

“Useless!” Kong Cheng snorted. He did not even glance at this good-for-nothing junior apprentice brother of his. He turned around, transformed into a scarlet shooting star, and vanished on the horizon.

Li Shunxi got up with difficulty. He looked at the scarlet streak at the horizon. He would be lying if he said he did not admire Kong Cheng. Other than the esteemed teacher, Kong Cheng was undeniably the most powerful expert among all the people he had ever met.

There was one time when Kong Cheng quarreled with the esteemed teacher. In a fit of rage, Long Cheng blasted a small, one-hundred-meter-tall mountain into a barren flat land with a flick of his hand.

“Keh, keh…” Li Shunxi coughed up another mouthful of blood. He slumped to the ground. His good friend Lu Sheng suddenly came to his mind.

“Maybe only an overlord expert such as Big Brother Lu has the right to be an opponent of Senior Apprentice Brother… I… am an average, ordinary person, after all…” He slowly got up to his feet helplessly. A spot of green light slowly lit up within him, and quickly healed the serious internal injuries he’d suffered. This was the effect of the Weapon Grandmaster’s power which the esteemed teacher left in him.

When Li Shunxi thought of Lu Sheng, he could not help but compare the latter to his senior apprentice brother, Kong Cheng. The conclusion he arrived at was that the two of them could not conceal their wild and domineering natures. They killed men like flies, trampling on a sea of blood and dried bones while being hailed as the greatest heroes of the world.

“Maybe, if I have an opportunity, I should introduce them to each other. Senior Apprentice Brother is just being difficult. Although he wants the secret tome badly, and I reckon that he’s already more powerful than the esteemed teacher, he’s still sticking to bickering without actually raising his hand.”

He wondered what kind of sparks would be created if these two met.

Li Shunxi entertained his fantasies. He was of the opinion that it would be an interesting scene. Without noticing it, he started to laugh.