Way of the Devil

The two of them had different but related thoughts.

They finally freed themselves of the village chief and villagers. When Du Guangchi and Yao Lian left, they did not return the way they came. Instead, they went in another direction, toward the depths of the mountain forest.

“If we follow that vile thing’s aura, it should be here.”

Yao Lian nodded. “Although the Thousand Li Light Chasing Disc given by the esteemed teacher can’t really track something as far as a thousand li away, it should still be able to track something within a hundred li. This small island isn’t that big. There shouldn’t be any problem in tracking down our target.”

“But, we must be careful of the Wicked Cultivators that might be on this island. It’s said that there are many Wicked Cultivators and peddlers of the Devil Path from the central plains in the overseas Cultivating World. Our Vital Energy Sect is large and has spread our ventures wide. We have a fair share of enemies. It’ll be troublesome if we bump into some of our old foes along the way,” said Du Guangchi with a stern expression.

“Agreed,” Yao Lian said.

The two of them took out light gray capes from their sacks and draped them over themselves. They covered most of their bodies; even their faces were concealed.

Then, the two walked through the mountain forest, toward the central regions of the island.

The island had lush greeneries. Coconut trees and maple trees with triangular leaves could be found everywhere. The green leaves mixed together with the red and yellow leaves. The sight was full of bright colors and beautiful in riotous profusion. It was mesmerizing.

There was a cliff in the shape of an inverted “L”. The two of them looked like ants as they proceeded along the cliff wall. They carved out purchases on the rock wall with their short swords and leapt up the cliff.

Then, they looked down from the edge of the cliff.

The skies were gloomy, and thunder rumbled. It seemed likely that a downpour would come at any moment.

Du Guangchi faced the wind and inspected the Thousand Li Light Chasing Disc in his hands. After he confirmed the bearings, he looked in a faraway direction.

As expected, he could faintly see a huge nest that was made up of branches, leaves, and white rocks.

The huge net was roundish with a diameter of more than ten meters. There were even many leaves which resembled banana leaves that were weaved together, forming a natural umbrella which provided shelter from wind and rain.

From afar, Du Guangchi could see the interior of the huge nest right away. A great black bear was sprawled on the floor, taking a nap.

The bear was sleeping soundly. Its body was more than three meters long and its width was almost two meters. It looked incredibly strong. It lay while it cushioned its head with its arms, and its body rose and fell rhythmically.

“That’s it. The Black Bear Demon the Rabbit Demon mentioned before it died. It makes sense. The weak Rabbit Demon Clan can’t even defeat a mortal with their weak demonic power. For it to be so bold as to devour the Spiritual Essence of strong men in the village… It’s clear now that they had a backer behind the scenes,” said Du Guangchi assertively.

“So, Big Brother Du, what do we do now?” Yao Lian was initially a decisive person. However, as she stood behind Du Guangchi, she somehow turned into a little girl who only knew to rely on him.

“Let’s head over straight. This demon can’t even transform, I reckon that it’s at the Foundation Building tier at best. With that said, we’ll still have to be wary about its rank,” said Du Guangchi confidently. He did not wait for a reply from Yao Lian as he proceeded in the direction of the nest and climbed down the cliff confidently.

He did not know that the black bear was actually a strong warrior who was under the White Bear Demon Iron Hammer’s command. He was the one in charge of guarding Third Island. However, he had received an order that he was to stay put. That was why he did not attack.

As for the Rabbit Demon Clan, he had never heard of any rabbits on this island. The Rabbit Demons’ origin was fishy, and he was in the middle of his investigation.

***

Wood Martial Abode.

Lu Sheng sat up straight in the deepest seclusion cave. Before him hung a huge parchment painted with the word “Silence”.

Wisps of deep blue mist lingered around his body. The entire cave was filled with ice-cold air of Yin Chill property.

The floor and the walls were covered in a thin layer of frost.

After some time, Lu Sheng suddenly heaved a long sigh. A silver ball rose and fell behind him. It was supported by the deep blue mist as it hovered in midair.

‘I’ve basically adjusted and gotten used to this body. There are some parts where the original Triad Brilliant Nether Collection could not strengthen or temper, and now they’re amply nourished as well. It’s almost time to start deducing the next step.’

Lu Sheng then called out in his heart, and Deep Blue’s light blue frame popped out, hovering before his eyes.

He immediately looked toward the second frame.

“Unknown cultivation method, early Foundation Building tier. Spiritual Power property, Yin Chill strengthened level two, Spiritual Volume strengthened level three.”

‘If it was Taoist Mu Yun’s Foundation Building tier’s Spiritual Power before this, I think that it would already be an achievement to attain Yin Chill strengthened level one.’ Lu Sheng made some reckonings in his heart, and was somewhat pleased.

‘Next step, Foundation Building stage six. I suppose I can think of this as a process where I proceed in stages. According to the collection’s train of thought, it’s a process where I continuously modify my own body and make it more and more compatible with Pure Qi I control, raise my resistance toward Yin Chill energy, and eventually improve my body’s quality. This is actually intended to lay a solid and complete foundation to form a core in the future. It’s just like the core furnace used to refine cores. If the core furnace isn’t good enough, it’ll be impossible to refine any high-quality cores.’

Lu Sheng understood. What this Triad Brilliant Nether Collection intended to do was to wildly increase the user’s body’s resistance toward Yin Chill energy and to increase the user’s affinity with the Water Attribute. This way, the body would be able to contain the Nether Water, which was of extreme Yin Chill quality.

What Lu Sheng sought was to surpass Mu Yun. Naturally, this meant that he had higher requirements.

‘Increase resistance. There are many things in my own knowledge that I can apply to this. Coincidentally, Mental Energy can mimic energy of various Attributes. It can completely satisfy any strict requirement regarding increasing one’s body’s resistance.’ Lu Sheng calmed down and consciously pressed the modify button.

Deep Blue’s interface quickly shook, but it returned to normal right away.

He again looked at the second frame, where the unknown cultivation method was. As expected, a deduce button appeared behind the cultivation method.

‘Let’s see how much Mental Energy can this Foundation Building tier consume.’ Lu Sheng focused his mind and held his breath as he pressed down hard on the deduce button.

“Pcchht!”

Huge amounts of Core Qi gushed out of his body. This time, the entirety of Mu Yun’s Core Qi which he had devoured before was released and surged into Lu Sheng’s body.

Without waiting for Core Qi to damage Lu Sheng’s meridian vessels, the 99 vortexes in his body acted like 99 huge mouths as they pulled on Core Qi wildly. They each tore off a piece to devour until nothing was left.

Mu Yun’s cultivation base from his Core-forming early stage was completely digested by Lu Sheng, who was only at the Foundation Building tier. Not a single drop of it was left.

When it sensed the extreme thirst and dissatisfaction of the 99 vortexes in Lu Sheng’s body, Deep Blue sent out huge amounts of pure Yin Chill Pure Qi converted from Mental Energy seamlessly. It surged into the 99 vortexes like waves breaking on the shore.

His Mental Energy was quickly being consumed.

One unit, two units, three units…

In the blink of an eye, ten units were used. The figures continued to climb, and only slowed down at the 25th unit.

Currently, in the space of a few meters around Lu Sheng’s body, a layer of clean, white, translucent ice was formed. It enveloped him until he resembled a massive block of ice a few meters tall. The cave was filled with biting cold air, and was extremely gloomy. The stone walls, desk, chair, and the parchment on the wall were covered in a peculiar light bluish hue.

The 99 vortexes finally calmed down after devouring immeasurable amounts of Yin Chill Pure Qi.

Lu Sheng opened his eyes, and looked at Deep Blue’s frame. As expected, the display was different.

“Unknown cultivation method, Foundation Building middle stage. Spiritual Power property, Yin Chill strengthened level five, Spiritual Volume strengthened level five.”

‘So it has increased. That went well. Continue.’ Lu Sheng felt that the constant pulling on and training from the 99 vortexes throughout the process of his extrapolation had improved his body’s strength and resistance.

The Yin Chill Pure Qi would temper his physical body, while his Yang Essence would also release some special energy that healed his body and hastened his recovery.

This was equivalent to him receiving the results for which other cultivators would have to cultivate for decades in just a few breaths.

Initially, such shocking improvements akin to achieving everything in one stroke would cause extreme harm to one’s body. However, Lu Sheng’s main body’s cultivation base was powerful now. Although he could not completely manifest himself in this world, it was still easy for him to make his Yang Essence turn into some pure energy that healed his body.

He continued tempering and breaking his body as he healed it. As long as his main body’s recovery could keep up with the pace of destruction, Deep Blue could keep on deducing and strengthening his body.

Lu Sheng rested for a while and pressed the deduce button behind the frame again.

“Pcchht!”

In an instant, the 99 vortexes started swirling at high speed. The speed of the rotation was many times faster than it was during his Foundation Building’s early stage.

Mental Energy was converted into huge amounts of Yin Chill Pure Qi, and surged into all the vortexes again. This time, the consumption was greater. As many as 30 units of Mental Energy were thrown in. Deep Blue vibrated for a dozen seconds before slowly calming down.

When everything returned to calmness, Lu Sheng clearly felt some abnormalities in his body.

It seemed as if his every action was slow and difficult, just as if his limbs were laden with five hundred kilograms of lead.

‘The body’s strengthening can’t keep up? No, I’ve absorbed too much Yin Chill Pure Qi. My nerves and blood vessels are all slowed down, so it’s only natural that my reflexes have slowed as well.’ Lu Sheng was undisturbed. This was also mentioned in the Triad Brilliant Nether Collection, and was one of the possible phenomena. It was not a complication, but more of a special condition. Many cultivators wanted to attain this state but could not. This was because the body could adapt to the Nether Water’s Yin Poison the fastest in this condition.

The method to overcome this was simple. The only thing he had to do was to nurture some pure Yang from the extreme Yin of the Yin Chill vortexes in his body.

The reason why the Triad Brilliant Nether Collection could only form a grade-one core was because its method of nurturing pure Yang was incomplete. Hence, the very nature of the Inner Core formed was impure. It was already a feat to make them stick together.

‘The Triad Brilliant Nether Collection’s method of condensing pure Yang can’t be used. It seems complicated and profound, but the gist of it is actually simple. It’s telling me to produce high pressure from the swiveling and compress the Yin Chill Pure Qi so that it attains its greatest density. Then, Nether Water will be introduced as a primer to induce a change in my body’s Pure Qi so that it’ll turn into a higher quality Pure Qi in a short amount of time. After that, I’ll have to prick the various vital meridian points in my body with Pure Qi following a complicated set of procedures to set off a chain reaction between my body and spirit. In the process of my body resisting and adapting to the Pure Qi, some pure Yang will be produced.’

Lu Sheng started to ponder. He had learned too many martial arts and cultivation methods. He already knew about the probable patterns and methods.

‘It seemed that as long as my body is strong enough and the secret technique I’m using to stimulate my body is good enough, the pure Yang produced in the end will be better. I’ll not indulge in these thoughts for now. First, I’ll deduce until Foundation Building Late stage and Complete. Then, I’ll have to face the Core Tribulation.’

Lu Sheng focused his mind and held his breath again. He pressed the deduce button for the third time.