Way of the Devil

With slight regret, Lu Sheng gave it some thought. In the end, he did not head back.

According to his reckoning about the people pulling the strings, they would certainly not let this go.

He walked along the alley. When he was about to reach the house, Lu Sheng saw Du Xia leaning against the wall beside the residential building. She was sending a message with her pink cellphone.

When she saw him coming, Du Xia quickly put her phone down.

“Big Brother, you’re back.”

“Mm-hm. Why’re you outside?” Lu Sheng asked with a nod.

“I needed some fresh air.” Du Xia smiled naturally. She would never say that she had been standing here for more than half an hour just to make sure he got home safely.

“Let’s head in.” Lu Sheng ruffled her hair.

“Mm-hm.” Du Xia nodded heavily. She always had an ordinary personality. Even when she smiled, it was the faintest of smiles. If someone who did not know her saw her from afar, he would certainly feel that she was not an easy person to get along with.

However, she merely disliked talking, being the center of attention, and complications.

They entered the elevator. Lu Sheng glanced at Du Xia.

He saw her picking up the phone. She seemed to be answering a call.

Lu Sheng kept looking at her. When he confirmed that there was no problem from her expression, he walked into the living room.

His exhausted father Du Xuning was sitting at the table. He was looking at a document on the table.

His mother Li Can was chopping away in the kitchen, preparing dinner.

The aroma of fried eggs wafted out and filled the living room.

Lu Sheng found a chair and sat down. The pain from Du Qiu’s death still weighed heavily on his family’s hearts.

Du Xuning put the documents down, looked at Lu Sheng, and asked in a deep voice, “How’s school lately? Are you affected?”

“It’s manageable.” Lu Sheng had stopped caring about his studies lately. It was enough for him to visit school once per week and reaffirm his psychological guidance art.

As for the others, there would not be an issue with the help of the school principal and teachers.

“Pay more attention to your little sister. Her condition has been… abnormal lately.” Du Xining was still a top executive officer who supervised a huge team. His senses were not dull.

“Don’t worry.” Lu Sheng nodded calmly.

After finishing dinner, Du Xia was the first one to put her bowl down. She told everyone that she would be going over to a friend’s house and would return later. Then, she went on her way.

However, even after she left, Lu Sheng could still feel some formidable aura hiding around their house. It must have been personnel Du Xia arranged to protect them.

It appeared as if she still had some remaining strength.

Lu Sheng gave it some thought and decided not to follow her out. He merely spread his spirit out into the surroundings as a precautionary measure.

In the following days, Lu Sheng stabilized his cultivation base in piece. At the same time, through Andes’s connections, he had him collect various antiques that had special legends and back stories.

With Andes’s billion-bucks conglomerate, collecting several antiques was nothing.

In a few short days, he managed to collect a dozen kinds of antiques.

Lu Sheng arranged for a meetup with Andes. Some of the antiques he collected did contain some Mental Energy, but they did not amount to much. Each item merely contained several dozens to a hundred units.

In total, Lu Sheng merely gained slightly more than 1,000 units. This was an utterly inadequate measure for this current tier.

He thought about leaving this place quickly and testing the strength of a Gesha. He still had time now that Du Xia had assigned someone to protect the family in secret.

However, new trouble got near again.

On his way back home from a dojo, Lu Sheng slung his bag on his back. The sunlight pulled his shadow long. As he walked, the shadow on the ground swayed with his movements.

As usual, Lu Sheng kept walking along the alley. After the next bend, he would pass through a barren field and reach the back of his neighborhood.

At this moment, he was nearing the bend in the path.

“Creak.”

The door to a rental house on his right suddenly opened. A pale, freckled teenage boy walked out from it slowly.

The boy wore gray jerseys and his shoes were spot-clean white as if they were brand-new. He seemed to have taken them off the shelves just recently.

When he saw Lu Sheng take notice of him, the boy grinned. He reached into his pocket as if wanting to take something out of it.

Lu Sheng gave him a friendly smile as well. He walked past him.

Lu Sheng could sense the terrifying scent of blood emanating from the boy’s body. It was as if there was a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. He wondered how many lives this young fellow had taken to accumulate this scent.

Besides those, Lu Sheng could clearly sense that there was a hint of killing intent and scorn in the boy’s gaze. They were clearly directed at him.

‘Is he here to kill me too?’ Lu Sheng was feeling slightly excited. He feigned ignorance and continued walking toward the bend with his back toward the teen.

One step, two steps.

There was no movement.

Three steps, four steps.

Still no reaction.

Lu Sheng could not help but turn to look. The boy was still standing at the door with a smile. He was holding something in his hands with the posture he had taken just now. Nothing had changed.

‘He’s not here for me?’ Lu Sheng was slightly puzzled. However, he continued on the bend toward his house.

When the teen saw his target disappear around the bend, he felt like crying, but could not find the tears.

“I say, can you let me go? My elder brother will never pick a fight with you.” He turned to look into the house with helplessness.

Du Xia waved a shining silver curved blade casually. The blade whistled as it slit the air.

Wisps of dark golden flames danced around her. The flames seemed alive.

“The moment you came to my place, you should’ve known the consequences,” said Du Xia drily. “You knew the consequences, and yet you came. In other words, you were sure that I’ll let you go because of your brother’s name even if you get caught. That’s why you were so reckless.”

The teen managed a chuckle. His gaze was slightly stiff.

“I was only trying my luck. This is my mistake. I can make it up to you.”

“Make it up to me? Will you give me another elder brother? Or will you give me new parents?” Du Xia wore a look of scorn.

“The Imperial Phoenix has issued an order to have you killed. The Misty Erosion is also being held back by the north. You can only fight on your own.” The teen felt that things were not turning in his favor. He hastily started explaining, and tried to dissuade Du Xia from carrying out what was on her mind.

“No matter how powerful you are, are you sure that you can protect your family while facing off several elites of the same rank at the same time? If you let me go, my elder brother will have owed you a favor. When the time comes and there’s anything you need, you can—”

“Pccht.”

The curved blade in Du Xia’s hand stabbed into the teen’s chest. It was removed just as suddenly.

“You…” The teen staggered slightly. The wound on his chest shone with bright white radiance. It was as if he did not have any internal organs, flesh, and blood, and was made up of pure white radiance.

Du Xia did not even look at him. With her abilities, she did not need two moves to kill an ordinary Gesha.

The reason why she merely pressed the teen down before this was because she was slightly worried about his brother, which made her hesitate.

She looked on as the teen’s body slumped to the ground, slowly started burning, and was reduced to ashes. The curved blade in Du Xia’s hand suddenly morphed into golden flames and dissipated. The flames around her swiftly dissipated as well.

“Little Guang?”

In the corner, a golden-haired girl covered in blood raised her hand and responded, “Here…”

“Big Sister, you’re a step too late. You can only take care of my corpse now.”

“You’ve worked hard.” A hint of guilt flashed past Du Xia’s eyes. She walked toward the girl who was half-sitting on the floor.

“Big Sister… They’re increasing in numbers…” said the golden-haired girl helplessly. “I’ve just killed two of them, and I bumped into that fellow. Although Bai Lingshe wasn’t too powerful, I hadn’t recovered from my previous fight yet, and I was sneaked up on…”

“I know.” Du Xia nodded.

She had been investigating all this time. However, the more she investigated, the more she felt an extremely expansive dark net slowly creeping over her.

The crucial point was that the person behind the scenes seemed capable of clearly learning about her intentions and deployed countermeasures.

Although she had successfully intercepted Bai Lingshe this time, Du Xia felt that it was too easy. She even felt that this was a chance intentionally given to her by her enemy.

Her own little brother’s death flustered her recently. Her reckless investigations and provocations all over the place built up pressure on herself.

The organization was also clashing with another huge organization in the north.

Their leader, Zhou Quanwu, did not have the leisure to lend her a helping hand. The fight would determine the rise or fall of their organization. Zhou Quanwu could only spare her a dozen men to command as her own.

…

“It disappeared again…” Lu Sheng sighed heavily.

There was an instant of formidable energy aura just now. Then, the teen’s aura vanished.

‘Must’ve been Du Xia’s people. Or maybe she made the move herself.’

From the energy burst he sensed alone, Lu Sheng made some rough estimations and determined that the person was at the Weapon Grandmaster tier.

A tier such as that truly posed a great threat in the city. If the person lashed out completely, an instant death for tens of thousands of people was possible.

Lu Sheng pondered this in his mind. However, the energy aura he felt just now clearly retracted itself in an instant. There was great mastery in its control. It was clear that this was not the person’s maximum strength. However, he was also unsure which level of strength that burst of energy represented.

‘This is the second time. She won’t give me any chances… Looks like I’ll have to seek them out on my own.’ Lu Sheng stroked his chin. He felt that he could not sit around passively for his own ends.

He had to understand Geshas and the special characteristics of their powers as soon as possible.

Even the Geshas’ vassals, the Star Chasers, had the ability to teleport over short distances. The Geshas themselves would most probably be more powerful than that. Perhaps by eating them… no, killing them, he would obtain some Mental Energy.

‘Looks like I’ll have to strike out on my own…’

In the next few days, Lu Sheng encountered a few assassination attempts again. However, every time he was ready to fight back, his assassins would have disappeared mysteriously.

Du Xia’s forces were truly powerful.

After several failed attempts to fight back, Lu Sheng could bear it no longer. He immediately contacted Andes and had him search for locations where Gesha’s could possibly appear.

He could not mess with his sister’s forces. Hence, he decided to mess with the forces opposing her.

From the information he received from Andes, Lu Sheng learned that there were three great organizations in the world with their influence spread across the nations.

The one in the federation was known as the Imperial Phoenix.

There were two other great organizations overseas. One of them was known as Star Sand, while the other was Earth Star Pillar.

Besides them, there were other secret organizations of various scales as well. They were all formed by the Geshas. Their strength varied as well.

Andes had also explained that the reason why he was able to stay safe all this while was because his nephew was a Gesha and a member of Star Sand.

As for the organizations besides the Imperial Phoenix in the federation, Andes had no idea.

“Well then, do you know any organizations in Flower Tree City? Can you find out?” Lu Sheng asked him over the phone.

“That’s simple. There’s only one organization in Flower Tree City, it’s called the Misty Erosion. Their leader is the Yellow Springs Witch. She’s a terrorist that has a formidable reputation on the international stage,” Andes replied through their encrypted satellite phone connection.

“Misty Erosion? Yellow Springs Witch?” Lu Sheng was stunned. He had expected there to be more organizations in the city.

“I have a lot of information on the Yellow Springs Witch here. Do you need it?” After Andes underwent the guidance of the psychological guidance art, he would tell Lu Sheng everything he knew.

“Sure. Send it to my phone,” Lu Sheng replied with certainty.

He leaned back on the rail and spread his spirit to keep an eye on all living beings in the area. He did not want his phone to be intercepted.

In no time, an email reached his inbox.