Way of the Devil

The Moon Prince looked at the two women beside him with a sorry look.

Yuan Liuliu’s head was lowered, and she said nothing. She was scared of looking up and seeing the still-handsome Huang Jing with his clear eyes.

Currently, she had lost her past beauty. After her brother Yuan Jikong was found out colluding with the enemy, their father was assassinated, and Yuan Jikong himself had gone missing.

The Moon Prince did not punish them. Instead, he kept them beside him, and treated them as his own daughters.

Before this, the sisters had only taken care of the Moon Prince because of Huang Jing. However, after this incident, the sisters had willingly treated the Moon Prince as their own father, and did all they could to take care of him.

The years passed them by. The sisters’ hopes of Huang Jing’s return faded as well.

They had thought that they would die of old age just like that. However, they did not expect that…

He would be back.

“Actually, the two of you don’t have to be so…” Lu Sheng looked at the Yuan sisters and sighed.

“We want. Just take it as our atonement for our brother’s sins…” said Yuan Yuanyuan drily.

“Although I can’t prolong your lives for too long, I can still make it so that you can lead long lives.” Lu Sheng flicked his finger lightly.

Three slivers of White Feather Mantra Pure Qi suddenly shot out and thinned into white lines which plunged into the bodies of the Moon Prince and the Yuan sisters.

In no time, the three of them felt a warmth course through them from the bottom of their hearts.

The wrinkles on their faces swiftly faded and vanished. Their hunched backs gradually straightened. Their white hair swiftly darkened to black, and their skin regained the suppleness of youth.

In a few breaths, the three of them instantly became several decades younger to when they were in their thirties.

“This is the limit. Non-cultivators can’t go against the will of heaven,” Lu Sheng exclaimed with emotion.

Even after combining his Pure Qi with his Yang Essence, this was the most he could achieve.

He prolonged their lives so that they would live up to 200 years. At the same time, the rate at which they aged rapidly slowed.

“Tell me, where have you been all these years? What have you done? What have you obtained? What have you lost?”

The Moon Prince heaved a long sigh. He was not delighted with becoming younger.

At his age, he had experienced everything there was to experience in life. He had no ties anymore. The only thing he could not let go now was this only son of his who had always been mysterious.

Lu Sheng fell silent for a while before beginning to recount his experienced all these years.

He did not tell them everything about him living in seclusion. He merely told them bits about his wandering.

Time ticked by. By the time Lu Sheng went out from the Moon Prince’s courtyard, it was already late in the night.

Bai Songzi was still standing alone outside the courtyard, waiting for him.

“I’ve ordered the others to stand guard at the other places. My lord, the Indefinite Cult won’t let it rest at this. The death of an immortal is surely going to result in great repercussions!” Bai Songzi said with a stern expression.

“I know.” Lu Sheng’s expression was calm. “I’ll deal with this. In the meantime, I want all of you to make preparations to leave at a moment’s notice.”

“We’re leaving? The entire Moon Prince Mansion?” Bai Songzi was stunned.

“Yes, but only part of it,” said Lu Sheng calmly.

At this point, as long as he made sure the Moon Prince Mansion, Crane King Cave, and Clear Crane Sect were safe, he would be able to extract himself from this situation completely.

As for how he would go about achieving that, he would first have to bring them far away and let the Spring Autumn Sect and Indefinite Cult completely forget about that. The best would be for them to relocate to somewhere nobody could reach them.

That was not the difficult part.

This planet was huge. The West Cliff Dynasty was only a part of the entire land.

They had to leave now before the Indefinite Cult reacted and started investigating in their part of the world.

“You guys should make the arrangements first. I’ll buy some time from the Indefinite Cult,” said Lu Sheng softly.

“Understood…” Bai Songzi nodded solemnly. He turned around and swiftly melted into the darkness.

Lu Sheng tugged his feathers.

“12 immortals?”

With a thought, the scene before his eyes suddenly changed. In the blink of an eye, he was standing atop a tall, barren mountain.

There was a mended grayish-white rock altar on the mountain’s peak. A rock sign was erected beside the altar. On it was written the name of the mountain: Bingde Mountain.

Lu Sheng lifted his eyes and peered into the distance. The peak was surrounded by a vast and spacious plain. In the middle of the plain was a town with clamorous colors.

‘After gaining insight on the reincarnation spirit, my Heart World kept expanding… It’s now more than 10 times larger than what it once was… This is incredible,’ he exclaimed inwardly with emotion.

If his Heart World’s size before he Arrived in this world was that of a province, it was now the size of a dozen provinces pieced together. It was almost the size of Great Song on the Yellow Springs Planet.

‘What a spacious world. It’s a shame that it can’t contain any living beings, and could only accept souls…’ Lu Sheng was feeling that this was a pity.

Any soul that ended up in his Heart World without his approval would gradually lose itself within a few days before corroding, disintegrating, and vanishing into nutrients for this world.

Lu Sheng gave it some thought. With a quick move, he vanished from his spot. When he reappeared, he was standing outside a small wooden house.

A white-haired old man was closing his eyes for the last time in the little house.

At the same time, he clearly felt a new life force spring up within a faraway residential area, and it entered a mother’s womb to be nurtured.

‘The cycle of life and death. Every bite and every sip is preordained. Everything has its own destiny…’ Lu Sheng walked slowly away from the little house onto the streets.

The people with monstrous strength were becoming normal now. Their appearances were not as exaggerated as they once had been.

The wild animals were starting to look normal as well. They were not as huge as they had once been.

The people here were divided into several clans. Some of them led lives like the ancient Chinese, just like the people in Great Song and Great Yin; meanwhile, some of them led crude lives of the European Middle Ages.

Features of Earth’s fashion and architecture could be spotted everywhere as well.

The different towns gave rise to different and unique local cultures.

Lu Sheng carefully inspected his Heart World again.

The number of living spirits within the entire world was now achieving a certain equilibrium as opposed to the declining trend like before.

Between the past and the present, there was an incomparable and huge change.

What surprised him more was that the surface area of his Heart World was already at an exaggerating state.

It was a terrifying area that was on par with Great Song.

‘As long as the heart image exists, the Void Underworld being will not die. When I finally achieve that breakthrough, I’d like to see just how undead I can be!’ Lu Sheng was feeling excited. In the blink of an eye, he left his Heart World.

When he returned, it was still night.

Lu Sheng looked up at the skies. With a flurry of movements, he rose directly up into the air.

He morphed into a beam of white radiance as he shot into the black night skies like a sharp arrow. He instantly plunged into the gloomy cloud layers and vanished from sight.

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The Indefinite Cult. Huajin Garden.

Immortal Fei Guanghe was staring at the stone table before him.

A blackish-purple round runic disc was sitting silently on the stone table. The runic disc slightly resembled a compass, but it was not a compass. Unique runic scripts which not even the cultivators had seen were carved into its surface.

“I can’t help but feel that there’s something lacking with this natal chart… Have you noticed it?” Fei Guanghe placed the carving knife in his hand down. He looked up at the Clear Prince who sat opposite him.

“I’m not well accomplished in the art…” the Clear Prince answered respectfully from where he sat.

Fei Guanghe sighed, and said, “It’s only natural that you’re not accomplished in the art… I shouldn’t have let you enter the secular world back then. It’s been more than a century since then, yet the progress in your cultivation base is just… The karma and flourishing secular world have led you astray…”

“That’s what I feel as well. That’s why I’m here to ask that you help me sever my ties with the secular world, Esteemed Teacher. I’d like to settle down and seek the path.” The Clear Prince’s fat figure seemed to possess a certain disillusioned quality that was unseen before.

“Sever karma…” Fei Guanghe looked at the round disc on the table again.

“Your natal chart… It’s not difficult to sever it smoothly… As long as you understand that once you sever it now, if you want to endure a tribulation in the future, I’m afraid that… eh?”

Suddenly, he exclaimed with surprise. He leaned forward slightly and stared at the natal chart before himself while feeling slightly stunned.

The Clear Prince was stunned. He quickly asked anxiously, “What’s the matter, Esteemed Teacher?”

“There’s a change!” Fei Guanghe’s brows were tightly knit together without him noticing.

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Kongying Mountain.

This was Indefinite Cult’s land where the 13 immortals were based. It was also where the real headquarters of the Indefinite Cult was located as well.

There was a great river named Zhou River before Kongying Mountain. The river flowed rapidly throughout the year, and was fraught with submerged rocks. Legend had it that man-eating demons were also hidden in the river. It was not a river which could be crossed by ordinary mortals.

Lu Sheng sat on the deck of a double-decked wooden boat. He gazed at mysterious Kongying Mountain in the distance.

The huge mountain region was concealed behind thick layers of mist. The passing mortals could not even see past it.

This boat was a tour boat operated by a boatman based on the riverbank. It was said that the boatman had some mysterious method to appease the demons at the bottom of the river so that his boat would not be attacked.

Hence, the boatman was the only person who could safely bring a boat across the river.

A ponytailed girl with a white spear strapped to her back walked up to Lu Sheng from behind. When she saw Lu Sheng gazing at Kongying Mountain, she approached him without feeling awkward. “Are you going to Kongying Mountain as well?”

The girl’s name was Zhuang Yinxue. She was a pugilist who wandered to visit secluded cultivators and learn from them so that she could cultivate and become an immortal herself.

Ever since the fated battle of the dynasty, there were many pugilists such as herself. With the world in disarray and the people living in terrible times, the ones who could actually determine the life and death of the civilians were the high and mighty Taoist sects.

The girl had been born into a rich family. However, the events of the world were unpredictable. During an accident, her family members who did not cultivate the martial path died. She was the only one who survived because she loved to dabble in the martial path since she had been a little girl.

Since then, she vowed to cultivate the powerful arts in the world to exact her vengeance. She wanted to find a way to live in this troubled world.

“Yes… I’m going to Kongying Mountain.” Lu Sheng nodded.

He’d flown all the way from the Moon Prince Mansion. He’d only landed when the destination was in sight, and dressed up as an ordinary traveler who came to tour the famous mountains and great rivers.

“Legend has it that secluded immortals live there… Are you going to apprentice yourself to an immortal and learn about cultivation?” Zhuang Yinxue asked softly.

“You can say that…” Lu Sheng smiled.

“You might not know this, sir. This place is enshrouded in fog all year round. If you intend to get onto the mountain from here, you’ll soon lose your way and walk back out from where you went in. I’ve been here once before. I was sent in without knowing anything as well,” said Zhuang Yinxue with helplessness. “I wonder if any immortals actually live there…”

“Why do you want to consult the immortals about the path?” Lu Sheng suddenly asked.

Zhuang Yinxue fell silent for a while before saying, “My family has been killed by a villain. I merely want to have my revenge.”