Way of the Devil

“I’ll talk! I’ll tell you!” Xiu’er’s pretty face was ghastly pale. She knew that she was facing a merciless guy. She genuinely submitted to her fate this time.

After a long while, Lu Sheng walked slowly out of the alley. Xiu’er followed behind him. The two of them walked right up to the nearest high-class inn.

Lu Sheng learned from Xiu’er that the Thieving Art she used was a special ability called Steal the Heavens. This ability of hers originated from a special group known as the Heaven Stealing Sect.

Rather than calling it a Thieving Art, it would be more apt to call it an extremely unique and peculiar ability.

Lu Sheng had Xiu’er demonstrate her Art in front of him twice. He noticed with shock that even when she was unleashing the Thieving Art Steal the Heavens in front of his very eyes, he could not even notice it.

Xiu’er told him that she did not need to carry out any movement with this Thieving Art. She merely had to chant a set of incantations, and she could complete the process. She could only use Steal the Heavens three times a day. The item she intended to steal could not surpass the value set by the Heaven Stealing Sect.

The price she had to pay was that she had to sacrifice her blood, essence, and hair to the Heaven Stealing Statue every month.

In simple terms, this Thieving Art, Steal the Heavens, was not something that was exceedingly rare. It was a special technique that was taught by the Heaven Stealing Sect.

Lu Sheng studied Steal the Heavens briefly. He was starting to get a rough idea about it.

However, it was clear that his Prime Devil Sect subordinates in the Yin Capital before this did not inform him of any information such as this. It was apparent that all sorts of bad elements were starting to manifest themselves in the current Yin Capital.

Through his observations, he discovered that this Thieving Art Steal the Heavens was basically reliant on the manipulation of Spiritual Essence. She had created a natural Spiritual Essence cyclone with the flow of Spiritual Essence, and silently fished the money pouch out from his pocket.

There were too many people in the Yin Capital, and the Spiritual Essence was too messed up. Even Lu Sheng did not expend his energy to take note of every person who passed him by. This gave the Thieving Art Steal the Heavens a perfect opportunity.

Everyone had their own Spiritual Essence. Steal the Heavens merely guided the Spiritual Essences of the others to form a natural cyclone. Then, this energy was used to steal the desired item without the victim noticing it.

Naturally, the limitation was that the user could not use this technique to steal objects with great supernatural powers.

After knowing the secret behind this, Lu Sheng learned of more powerful Thieving Arts of the Heaven Stealing Sect from Xiu’er. His interest was immediately piqued.

He was just wondering how he should go about obtaining information on the Weapon Grandmasters from the Three Sects. Now that he encountered someone from the Heaven Stealing Sect, he might just have a better plan than his original intent to just barge in and take what he wanted by force.

After all, at least two Weapon Grandmasters were in secluded cultivation in Yin Capital’s vicinity. He had no intention of alerting the two senior Weapon Grandmasters. Currently, he did not even know what the powerfulness of a Weapon Grandmaster was. If he went up against them, he would not be a match for them.

In the guest room, Lu Sheng looked at Xiu’er who was eyeing him with a shocked expression as he coldly said, “Alright, you can go now.”

“Are you really this kind, Senior? You’re really letting me go?” Xiu’er asked after a moment’s hesitation.

“I’d like to meet with the upper echelons of the Heaven Stealing Sect. Can you arrange it?” Lu Sheng asked her.

“Senior, do you have something that you want to steal?” Xiu’er’s beautiful eyes shone. She guessed his intention immediately.

Lu Sheng raised his brows, and asked, “Can you do it?” The girl before him had thin skin and supple flesh. It was highly probable that she was of noble birth. It would also be normal for her to have some connection to the upper echelons of the Heaven Stealing Sect.

“As long as the price is right.” The girl revealed her clean white teeth as she grinned brilliantly.

After an hour, Xiu’er brought a handsome young noble with a slightly pale face into Lu Sheng’s room.

“Crossdresser? Another girl?” Lu Sheng had a thought. “Don’t tell me that the Heaven Stealing Sect is comprised entirely of women?”

“Senior, it’s unbecoming of you to say that. What’s wrong with being a girl? What does gender matter if we’re making a living with our own skills?” The new girl carried a yellow sack with her. She entered the room and placed the sack on the table.

“I wonder what you’re intending to steal, Senior. The rule of our Heaven Stealing Sect is that the price you have to pay must be equivalent to the item you want to steal. There’s nothing in the world that we’re scared to steal.” This woman was beautiful. Although she was not as fair as Xiu’er, their facial features did share some similarities. Lu Sheng guessed that that they were somehow related by blood.

Her arrogance immediately reminded Lu Sheng of a certain eccentric senior of his…

“What’s the relationship of your sect master with the Three Sacred Gates?” He suddenly posed a question.

In an instant, the atmosphere in the room grew darker and froze.

White fluorescent light suddenly shone between the brows of the woman whom Xiu’er brought. It was emitting a certain unique pressure.

“It seems that you know inside information about our sect, Senior…” The woman’s tone was slightly sinister.

“Alright, alright.” All of a sudden, another voice came from behind the door.

A short-haired lady in a purple dress slowly pushed the door open and walked in. She smiled as she looked at Lu Sheng, who was standing by the window.

“I’ve sensed that my subordinates aren’t sensible enough and almost provoked you, Sect Master Lu. Fortunately, I’ve made it.” The smile on the lady’s face was gentle and genial. It was easy for the receiver to let down his defenses with a single glance.

She was not beautiful, but she had a certain friendliness to her.

“Sect master?!” Xiu’er and the new girl exclaimed with surprise right away. They immediately showed expressions of respect. It was apparent that they did not think that a sect master would personally come here.

“You are?” Lu Sheng squinted at the woman.

“I am Heaven Stealing Sect’s master, under the First Sacred King of the Three Sacred Gates. My name’s Ling Xiang,” the lady replied with a smile.

“First Sacred King…” Lu Sheng suddenly had a thought. The Three Sacred Kings of the Three Sacred Gates were not an organization; instead, they were three secret forces that were extremely immense. Li Shunxi was the sacred child of the Third Sacred King. However, he did not have too much of an association with the other two forces.

In theory, the First Sacred King was the most powerful person in the Three Sacred Gates. He was also the most mysterious one.

He did not expect to meet such an individual when he had just arrived in the Yin Capital. It could also be said that the Three Sacred Gates were recently starting to spread their influence in the Yin Capital.

“Do you know what I want?” Lu Sheng asked in a deep voice. His visitor was at most as powerful as a Weapon Master, however, the faintly discernible scent made it difficult for him to keep a tab on her. It was very peculiar.

He felt that it was not a problem for him to kill her. However, he reckoned that he would have to go through some trouble to do that. This woman’s main body did not seem to be here.

“We have all the information you need right here. There’s no need for you to infiltrate the Noble Families and the Three Sects to steal it,” Ling Xiang said with a smile. She mouthed the words “Weapon Grandmaster” and “Information”.

“So, what’s the price?” Lu Sheng would never believe that she would help him for no reason. As for the First Sacred King, his strength and force were above his. He did not think that the First Sacred King would offer free aid to him.

“The king is investigating a troublesome issue recently. Your son, Lu Ning, is also involved in this. We hope that you can cooperate with us secretly to carry out a detailed investigation on Lu Ning,” said Ling Xiang clearly.

“Ning’er?” Lu Sheng was stunned. He never would have thought that she would be targeting his own son.

In the eyes of the outsiders, he was an expert among the Divine Lords who was true to his name. In this current situation where there was a decline in the numbers of Divine Lords in Great Yi, the power and influence of a Divine Lord was much stronger than before.

Although a number of Divine Lords had lost their lives to the Evil Spirits, the remaining Divine Lords still rescued many civilians, noble families, great tribes, and sects.

When the Weapon Grandmasters stayed put, the Divine Lords were the most powerful individuals around.

However, at this moment, he was not even as important as his own son to this Sacred King?

This made Lu Sheng feel stunned.

“Can we talk further?” Ling Xiang’s expression suddenly grew solemn.

Lu Sheng was silent for a while. He swung his arm, and Devil Qi immediately cut off the entire room.

Xiu’er had never seen such a display of might before. She was so shocked that the color drained from her beautiful face. However, the purple-haired lady grasped her hand, and they were too afraid to move. Both of them knew that they nearly ran into trouble this time. They were both covered in cold sweat.

“It’s alright now. Are the two of them fine?” Lu Sheng looked at Xiu’er and the other lady.

Ling Xiang nodded slightly.

“It’s alright.”

“Pcchht!”

She lashed out like lightning. Her fingers landed precisely behind Xiu’er’s and the purple-haired lady’s neck.

The two of them dropped limply to the floor.

“Senior, if you fancy Xiu’er, I can let you have your way with these sisters. We have many subordinates like them. We’ve trained their subconscious mind well. They’ll naturally know how to serve you.”

“I’m not interested.” Lu Sheng was slightly impatient. He was never short of women. There was a long list of women who would willingly warm his bed at his beck and call.

The person he truly cared about now was his son Lu Ning.

“Alright…” Ling Xiang nodded and smiled. “We can give you the information, but the reason why we hope that you’ll cooperate with us in investigating your son is because the king senses some discordant spirit waves from your son.”

“Oh?” Lu Sheng narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean by that?”

Ling Xiang paused, and slowly said, “To put it more precisely, your son Lu Ning harbors a great secret in his body. The king doesn’t know what this secret actually is for now, but some clues and incidents before this has brought little Lu Ning to our attention.”

“What clues and incidents? Can you let me know?” Lu Sheng’s expression grew more solemn. Initially, he came to the Yin Capital to gather information only. He did not think that he would stumble upon such a great secret. Moreover, this secret was even connected to his own son.

“We just need you to cooperate. The details are here.” From her sleeve, Ling Xiang produced a roll of parchment which was warmed by her body temperature. She unrolled and placed it on the table in front of Lu Sheng. Then, she slowly returned to her spot.

“Please, have a look.”

Lu Sheng glanced at her. Then, he reached out for the parchment and scanned it.

“Crazed God Tonic, improved formula. The effect of the tonic is increased by 30%. Materials needed are reduced by half. Seller’s location, Tree Mountain County. Improver, Suo Fang.”

“Fundamental concoction method. The overall quality of the method is improved by 65% and efficiency increased by 90%. This is practically a new method of concocting the medicine. Improver, Zhong Ruhuo.”

There were also records of the enhancements of various formations, runes, medicine, and items from other fields. Even if Lu Sheng was only at the ordinary level, he could tell just how terrifyingly difficult these contents were.

These were practically powerful improvements that could usher in a new era. On the final part of the parchment, a row of words was clearly printed on them. “Based on the comparison and analysis of spirit wave, Suo Fang’s, Zhong Ruhuo’s, and Lu Ning’s spirits shared similarity of more than 80%. It’s suspected that they’re the same person.”

“You’re saying that my son Lu Ning had produced this many improved methods in such a short time, and each improvement he came up with was enough to usher in a new era?” Lu Sheng’s brows were immediately tightly knitted together.

“There’s one correction: these improvements were produced in an extremely short amount of time, and in different provinces. This puzzles us as well. However, the series of proof after this suggests that it’s highly possible for Zhong Ruhuo and Suo Fang to be Lu Ning in disguise. Height, body shape, and outer appearances can be faked, but a person’s spirit cannot. Even though the spirit has been disguised, it can’t fool our king whose eyes are as bright as a torch,” said Ling Xiang with a solemn look.

Lu Sheng muttered to himself and raised his head.

“How do you want me to cooperate?”