Way of the Devil

A huge amount of Mental Energy surged into Lu Sheng’s body like waves from the sea.

Lu Sheng felt as if his body was hit by a sledgehammer. He even found it difficult to breathe.

The ceaseless supply of Mental Energy disappeared as soon as it appeared.

When everything ended, Lu Sheng was stunned by the sheer volume of Mental Energy that surged into his body.

Deep Blue’s light blue interface clearly displayed the amount of his Mental Energy. 7,413,121 units.

“An addition of nearly 3,000,000 units in a few breaths…” Lu Sheng drew a deep breath. He exhaled and spat out Empress Wa’s essence.

‘This essence itself will only increase my competence by 100 years. But this is so much Mental Energy…’ Lu Sheng’s expression calmed down. He pinched this sliver of essence.

He’d initially intended to deal with the latent threat of the Indefinite Cult and leave this world. However, the way things looked, it seemed as if there was no hurry for now…

He closed his eyes and started to summon his other clones. There was a total of four clones, including the one imprisoned in the Indefinite Cult.

His three clones and the one in the Indefinite Cult formed a triangular formation with a point in the center.

Lu Sheng had initially intended to unleash his Heart World with that as the base and completely cover up the Indefinite Cult.

The reason why he made clones was to use them as central points to take down the Indefinite Cult in one go.

This was a probing exercise and a display of his own strength at the same time.

His Heart World could devour living beings instantly. It was capable of dealing all-encompassing damage to the middle to lower ranks of the Indefinite Cult in the blink of an eye.

However, he did not expect the master of the Indefinite Cult to suddenly appear and give him such a surprising suggestion.

‘Empress Wa’s true body…’

The pure white gemstone behind Lu Sheng shone with fluorescent light.

‘If Empress Wa’s true body is really as huge as the Indefinite Cult’s master said, then the benefits from this venture will be able to sustain me for many years… I can consider it. However, this cult master wasn’t infuriated in the slightest even after someone barged into his cult. I must guard against his temperament and his scheming mind.’

Lu Sheng knew that as a cultivator, the higher his tier was, the more he had to understand his own disposition. At the level of the cult master, he was not even dissatisfied with him trespassing into the headquarters.

There was only one possible explanation.

He must have had a greater use, and this use he would be of was enough to appease the anger the cult master felt after Lu Sheng had charged into the cult’s headquarters.

‘Whether he’s using me or there’s some other reason behind this… This amount of Mental Energy is…’ Lu Sheng’s expression was uncertain.

No matter what the other person intended to use him for, if he could escape in time after obtaining enough Mental Energy and have a good grip on the risks, he might not be in trouble, after all.

‘Oh well, the greater the risks, the greater the returns. If I’m not even willing to take any risks, I should just give up on obtaining more benefits.’ Lu Sheng calmed his emotions and expression.

Within Kongying Mountain’s dungeon.

“If all of Empress Wa’s essence is this potent, I’m in. What do I have to do?” he asked in a deep voice.

The smile on the Indefinite Cult master’s face broadened.

“Simple. Your spirit is the Heavenly Devil God which has the innate ability to corrode the dreamland power. Empress Wa is currently in her transformation phase, and her consciousness has slipped into a dream. As long as you’re able to enter her dream and buy some time, we can naturally extract more Essential Essence.”

“What assurance do I have that you won’t ditch me after you’ve extracted enough Essential Essence?” Lu Sheng smirked.

The Indefinite Cult master was not angered. Smiling, he said, “That’s simple. Empress Wa’s Essential Essence is one with her spirit. If we want to separate the Essential Essence from Empress Wa, we’ll have to separate it from her body while you obtain her soul. The combination of the soul and the body’s Spiritual Qi is the real identity of Empress Wa’s Essential Essence. As a Void Underworld Heavenly Devil, you should be able to tell the structure of Empress Wa’s Essential Essence.”

Lu Sheng narrowed his eyes. Naturally, he could not believe in his words alone for such a grand matter. However, the allure of the million Mental Energy units in the sliver of Essential Essence was too great.

After this venture, he might even earn enough Mental Energy to reach the peak of the Void Underworld realm.

“How can I trust you?”

The Indefinite Cult master shook his head. “You can only gamble.”

After a moment of silence, Lu Sheng suddenly came up with a question.

“How do I do it?”

The Indefinite Cult master was first stunned. Then, he displayed a delighted smile. After giving Lu Sheng detailed instructions, he told him everything else that he had to look out for as well. Then, the old man retreated from the dungeon.

He shot into the skies. A silver orb burning with black flames slowly appeared behind the Indefinite Cult master’s body.

“Looks like there’s no need to use another method.” A sinister voice of an old woman came from the orb.

“We should still make preparations, just in case.” The Indefinite Cult master gave it some thought, and flicked his finger with a smile. A spot of golden light shot from his fingertip and instantly vanished in the air.

“Come to think of it, the low-ranked Heavenly Devils aside, this is the fifth one of the Void Underworld tier. It’s been thousands of years. Let’s hope this one will give us some pleasant surprises,” said the voice from the silver orb.

“That’s alright. If this fails again, we can just kill him and guide another Heavenly Devil over. Accumulation takes time.” The Indefinite Cult master wore a smile.

“Otherwise, at least I didn’t distort the space-time vortex and increase the time flow in vain.”

**********

**********

In the thatched hut, Lu Sheng was thinking about the meeting with the Indefinite Cult master with a frown.

Suddenly, a golden spot flashed past behind him.

It went by silently. There were no energy wavelengths or any effects on the air flow. It did not leave any mark in the dimension.

The golden spot instantly plunged into his back and vanished.

Lu Sheng’s instincts told him that the Indefinite Cult master was only of the Master rank. Currently, he was a half Void Underworld being and a Heavenly Devil. If he focused all his energy to run away, the cult master might not be able to stop him.

However, for reasons unknown, Lu Sheng could not shake the feeling that he might be facing an extremely dangerous situation at any time.

“7,000,000 Mental Energy units…” In the blink of an eye, he had obtained that much Mental Energy. This was already enough for him to raise his strength greatly in an extremely short span of time.

He swiftly looked at Deep Blue’s interface.

“White Feather Mantra, Complete. Competence, 1,988 years.” What followed was a series of special traits such as enhancements in agility and explosive power.

‘The cultivation method remains the same as before I improved my tier. However, with the addition of the reincarnation heart, my strength in actual combat has increased greatly. Gaining insight into this tier is truly wonderful.’

Lu Sheng was slightly filled with emotion. Before he gained insight on his tier, he wandered everywhere without a place to call home, but he managed to raise his White Feather Mantra’s competence. However, after he settled down and stayed in a single place, he did not experience any improvements anymore.

He waited for a while. Four beams of black spiritual light suddenly shot toward him from the horizons. The black lights dived between his brows with a swoosh and completely vanished.

‘Recovery of clones complete. Now, it’s time to make preparations for what comes after. I won’t be able to derive my cultivation method for now. Only my competence was increased. I’ll need to gather more cultivation methods and mantras.’

All these years, Lu Sheng had lived in the secular world. In order to gain insight on his tier, he did not visit the various Taoist sects and collect their cultivation methods. Hence, his basis of understanding was the same as it was nearly 100 years ago.

“Since I’ll be working with the Indefinite Cult this time, I should be able to obtain more mantras and skill formulas.”

Lu Sheng acted the moment he had the thought. His body remained where he was. He merely split out some black light which shot out an instantly vanished in the horizons.

He looked on as the spiritual light flew away. He closed his eyes again and reentered his calm state.

‘Now, it’s time to make preparations for Empress Wa’s dreamland…’

**********

The turbulent times continued on for five more years before reaching a certain balance.

The Indefinite Cult suddenly recalled its forces, and resumed the stalemate with the Spring Autumn Sect. The Spring Autumn Sect, which was at an advantage before this, abruptly recalled its forces as well, much to the puzzlement of many others. The two enemies reached a truce.

The secular world which should have been wrapped in endless war and battles peculiarly welcomed an era of peace.

At the same time, something was happening in a pristine forest thousands of miles away from the West Cliff Dynasty’s borders.

Above the vast dark green sea of trees, three beams of white flowing light streaked across the skies. In the blink of an eye, they covered a distance of 1000 miles.

Within the three flowing lights were three impressive-looking old men of various stature.

If some Taoist elite saw this, he would be filled with shock and awe. The masters of the Indefinite Cult and the Spring Autumn Sect were moving together without any apparent sign of ill feelings.

The other white-haired old man beside them gave a vague feeling that he was capable of keeping abreast with them.

Perhaps none of the Taoists had seen the third white-haired old man before.

“We’re here!” The Spring Autumn Sect Master stopped suddenly and dropped down. Then, he stood steadily atop a huge vine that was 10 meters thick.

The Indefinite Cult Master and the other old man dropped down as well. They stood steadily on another vine.

Below them was a pitch-black sphere that seemed to beat like a heart.

The edges of the black sphere shone with fine colorful radiance like a metallic frame adorned with crystals. The core of the sphere was faintly devouring everything within this forest.

The soil, loose rocks, tree roots, leaves, everything turned into transparent spots of light, and was continuously being sucked into the black spheres.

“This is the entrance to Empress Wa’s dreamland.” The Spring Autumn Sect Master was an extremely fierce old woman with extremely long eyebrows. She wore clean white robes, and her head was covered with platinum accessories. She wielded a wooden staff in her hand.

She eyed the third old man coldly. “So? Can you get in?”

The third old man’s appearance was ordinary. If it were not for the white smoke that lingered around him, he would appear no different from an ordinary old man.

When he heard the question, he smiled. “I’ll try.”

“Fellow Taoist Lu, whether or not we’ll be able to gain something from this venture will be up to you. Compared to the few times before this, it’s much more dangerous, but the rewards are greater as well. Please be careful, though,” the Indefinite Cult Master reminded him drily from the side.

“Of course, I will.” The third old man was Lu Sheng. He met the two great sect masters using his old form.

His spirit possessed the ability Nature Deception which was unique to the Heavenly Devils. Combined with his other efforts of concealing his appearance, his disguise was almost flawless.

However, Lu Sheng had no way of telling if he could actually fool these two.

Still, Lu Sheng did not mind anyway.

“Please cover me.” Lu Sheng leapt and dived toward the black sphere.

The Indefinite Cult Master extended a hand, and blurry white mist instantly rose all around him. The mist covered up everything within 1000 miles.

At seemingly the same time, all living things in 1000 miles’ radius seemed to have fallen into a deep slumber, losing their consciousness.

If this move was unleashed on Earth, it would have been a terrifying Art that could cover the area of an entire nation. It was enough to destroy the heavens and the earth.

However, in this place called the Mystic World, it was only capable of covering a sea of trees which was not a wide area for the Mystic World.

Lu Sheng dropped softly before the black sphere. He extended his arm slowly and flicked some black Qi out.

The black Qi instantly passed through the black sphere, and emerged in the sea of trees to the north where it incinerated a small patch of grassland.