Way of the Devil

Lu Sheng touched the wound on his hand. He felt slight pain from the burn.

He took a look at his palm. Much of it was slightly charred now.

He looked in the direction from where the voice came. The current him did not have the ability to give chase unless the other person was willing to show up and fight it out with him.

‘I should head back. The time has not yet come…’

In the end, he spread his spirit out and probed his surroundings. Lu Sheng made sure that no one would appear again before he hurried toward his house.

“Click.”

His room’s door opened. When Lu Sheng went in, he saw that Du Xia planted herself right in front of the door. Her eyes were glued to her phone. She was neither going in or going out.

She seemed to have known that he would open the door. Hence, she waited here for him.

“Brother, it’s not too safe outside these days. You should be careful and not take isolated shortcuts.” Du Xia suddenly looked up and advised Lu Sheng.

“Mm-hm. I know.” Lu Sheng nodded. “Where’s Mum and Dad?”

“Mum is making dinner. Dad… is still at the crematorium…” Du Xia’s voice softened.

“Alright…” Lu Sheng ruffled Du Xia’s hair. “Don’t just stand here. Go and have some rest.”

“…Mm-hm.” Du Xia nodded. “By the way, Brother, did you encounter anything when you were on your way back?”

“No, I didn’t. What’s the matter?” Lu Sheng appeared lost. “Why do you ask?”

Du Xia lowered her head and softly explained, “It’s nothing… I’ve been listening to the news lately, it seems that our neighborhood isn’t too safe recently…”

A strange look flashed across her eyes.

“It’s alright. Don’t worry. Your brother is a professional.” Lu Sheng flexed his biceps.

“Come and help serve dinner!” Li Can called out to the siblings from the kitchen.

“Coming.”

“Okay.”

Lu Sheng and Du Xia hastily went over to help.

They said nothing for the entire night. The next day, Lu Sheng’s hand wound was almost healed. He prepared to rank up again.

Coincidentally, it was the weekend. He would have time to take part in the underground professional boxing competition and actually face this world’s elites.

Lu Sheng hurried over with anticipation in his heart. Along the way, he raised his Mixed Martial Art by several ranks until it was at rank-18.

His strength increased by 600 kilograms again. Correspondingly, his Inner Chain Qi was more obvious now. The dark green mark on his shoulder grew more obvious as well.

…

…

“Bam!”

Lu Sheng raised an arm to block his opponent’s punch. He moved his other hand with a movement as swift as a flicker and landed it softly on his opponent’s abdomen.

“Bam!”

The chest and abdominal muscles of his opponent rippled as if huge waves were undulating underneath his skin and they were compressed until they spread out in all directions. His opponent spat out a mouthful of fresh blood and reeled for more than two meters in the air before landing on the ground and never standing up again.

“Uohh!”

The underground stadium erupted in excited cheers.

Lu Sheng’s right arm was lifted high by the coach. With a fierce black ghost mask over his face, his expression was indiscernible.

“The winner, Silmann!” Even the coach’s loud voice could not overcome the audience’s excited cheers.

Contrary to what the others were feeling, Lu Sheng did not feel an ounce of joy.

‘They’re too weak. There isn’t even a single person who can make me feel like I want to be serious…’

The flashes of lights and the roar of cheers were starting to irritate him.

After they went backstage, the leader of the mixed combat boxing gym who brought him here was shaking all over. When he saw Lu Sheng getting down from the stage, he immediately went forward and struck up a conversation with him. He gave Lu Sheng a report of the revenue and popularity they received after joining the competition lately.

“Is there anyone more powerful?” Lu Sheng interrupted him.

The gym leader, Nick, had switched his profession to become Lu Sheng’s manager. When he heard this, he was stunned.

“All you have to do is beat up some amateurs and we can earn money! Isn’t this good enough? Is there really a need to take a risk and challenge more powerful opponents?”

With Lu Sheng’s experience of competitions, he could easily challenge a professional boxing king already. He won 13 matches in a row, and every round ended with just a single punch from him. Nick did not doubt Lu Sheng’s strength, but the professional boxing kings were no weaklings. What if he faced a powerful opponent and ended up injured or crippled?

“My objective in taking part in this competition is to challenge more powerful individuals. Fighting these weak chickens is a waste of my time. Do you understand?” Lu Sheng scanned the face of his manager with a fierce gaze. Even though Nick was the leader of a boxing gym and was fairly strong himself, his expression turned sour after being stared down in such a way.

Nick gritted his teeth and thought about it.

“With your results, I’ll arrange Libis as your next opponent. He’s a local boxing king from Flower Tree City.”

“Alright.”

A few days later, the boxing king Libis suffered internal hemorrhage from the competition. He only managed to hold onto his life after a whole day of emergency procedures in the hospital.

Over the course of the next few days, Lu Sheng took on the other boxing kings as his opponents. However, the results were the same as before. The boxing kings merely took a punch from him and everything ended.

Then, he continued to use the alias Silmann and joined boxing competitions in other regions.

In terms of strength, he was impeccable. However, in terms of technique, there were two professional boxing kings who gave him much inspiration.

Lu Sheng noticed with slight shock that his martial path tier which had been stagnant for a long time was starting to loosen.

It was progressing toward the flawless grandmaster tier.

Gradually, over two weeks, Lu Sheng won every single underground professional boxing competition in the federation and succeeded in obtaining the gold belt of the federal boxing king.

At the same time, he took on new aliases and challenged the dojos he could find.

He even went up to the great dojos where real martial path experts were said to reside. He got much inspiration from their techniques as well.

As Lu Sheng continued to challenge different professionals, his martial path’s tier was also slowly experiencing a transformation with the tempering from his matches.

***************

Border of the federation. Garrison of the Seventh Ward. South Road Desert.

“Boom!”

A loud explosion sound erupted. A white blast of air which had a diameter of dozens of meters formed a ring and quickly spread in all directions.

A sand dune was flattened by the explosion in the blink of an eye, and sand rained down on the surroundings.

The ground was littered with bloodstains and severed limbs. Scraps of military vehicles and tanks were also scattered all around.

The frames of several heavy-duty helicopters were burning intensely, sending into the air thick black plumes of smoke, which was quickly bent and scattered by the strong wind.

“It was only a normal Thousand-man Armor Master. Was there a need for me to do this personally?” Beside the sand dune, a girl with long red hair and a lollipop in her mouth cocked her head. She held a cellphone with her head and shoulder and was chatting casually.

“Mm-hm… I know. I didn’t leave any survivors. Don’t worry…

“I know what to do.

“What about Little Bai? Is he back yet?”

Xu Zhenzhen worked away at her laptop with familiar movements as she listened to the other person on the phone.

“What? He’s dead?!” She moved her head suddenly and her phone dropped onto the sand.

The person on the other end of the phone was still speaking.

“Bai Chaoan has been out for quite some time. His target is still alive and about. I’ve tried contacting Little Bai, but I couldn’t get a response. The higher-ups are guessing that he might have been noticed by that person…”

“So, he’s done?” Xu Zhenzhen pouted. She picked her phone up and blew the sand on it away.

“Little Yu wanted to make a move as well, but I stopped him. If that person noticed us, we won’t be able to get near him with the powers of Star Chasers alone.” The female voice in the phone was also troubled.

Xu Zhenzhen spat out the lollipop in her mouth and casually said, “Forget it. Let me handle this. She killed one of my men. This is a perfect opportunity to try and see just how powerful that legendary person is. How could she be mentioned in the same breath as the Yellow Springs Witch?”

“Alright then. If it’s you, you’d still be able to escape with your life even if you can’t defeat the target,” the other voice agreed.

Xu Zhenzhen ended the call and sighed. Although Bai Chaoan was a recently converted Star Chaser, she didn’t have any doubts about his loyalty to her.

“What… a pain!”

“Boom!”

A pillar of fire suddenly erupted nearby. A red flame pillar a dozen meters tall shot toward the skies and blew another huge crater on the face of the desert.

************

Late at night. Flower Tree City.

Lu Sheng sat cross-legged in his bedroom. He slowly made peculiar hand signs as he sat. This was a simple way to regulate his vigor.

He had completed adapting to his rank-18 Mixed Martial Art, and planned to have another breakthrough tonight.

The foundation of his body was already laid. This time, he should be able to rank up by a great margin.

‘Since the assassins have come for me, it’s even more likely that they’ll go after Du Xuning and Li Can. I must hurry and take care of this problem.’

His current strength might not be enough to fight against a Gesha.

Lu Sheng sat upright and adjusted his breathing.

“Deep Blue.”

“Swish.”

The light blue modifier surfaced.

Lu Sheng pushed the modify button. Then, he looked at the content of the last frame directly.

“Mixed Martial Art. 18th limit dan. (Special traits. Silent Fist. Limit-break Body, level-nine. Inner Chain Qi, level-nine. Earth Mother’s Favor.)”

“Rank up. Let me see what exactly is this Earth Mother’s Favor.” Lu Sheng pushed the derive button behind the frame.

Six units of Mental Energy instantly vanished.

His martial art was raised to the 19th limit dan. The others were merely improved stepwise. He could feel pulses of warmth spreading across his body. His muscles were stronger and more tenacious now, while his skin, internal organs, and bones were becoming harder as well.

“Continue.” Lu Sheng’s expression remained unchanged. He closed his eyes and pushed the derive button again.

The frame blurred and sharpened, sharpened and blurred.

Time passed slowly.

An hour.

Two hours.

Three hours.

Lu Sheng’s body size did not increase much. It was maintained at an extremely balanced and special state. The mark on his shoulder seemed to allow him to maintain his body size while experiencing enhancements in his strength.

As his dan rose from his derivation, the mark on Lu Sheng’s shoulder glowed brighter as well.

His room was quickly filled with a hazy layer of green light.

A silhouette of a beautiful lady appeared behind Lu Sheng from the green light. She extended her arms and leaned softly on Lu Sheng’s shoulders.

The lady opened her mouth slowly. Small red snakes slithered out of her mouth and quickly surged into the mark on Lu Sheng’s shoulder.

“Pcchht!”

Lu Sheng suddenly opened his eyes and grabbed at the lady’s neck.

“Bam!”

The silhouette erupted and the lady disappeared. Only a faint scream was left lingering in the air.