Way of the Devil

Within the hidden chamber.

Colorful balls of light kept floating out of Lu Sheng’s body.

These balls of light were like soap bubbles. Their surface shone with different scenes which showed Lu Sheng’s experiences across the different worlds. The essence of the worlds which Lu Sheng obtained were these balls of light of different sizes.

‘My radiant disc’s foundation is power. So, some of the cores should be built around power. I’ll use the other essences as fuel and leave only the parts of pure power.’

With Lu Sheng’s thought, the balls of light before him immediately shrunk and changed colors. The colorful lights dimmed, and eventually shone with a monotonous gray.

Lu Sheng opened his mouth and sucked the gray balls of light. The flew into Lu Sheng’s mouth without making a sound.

He could clearly feel his physical and main body’s strength increase rapidly. In no time, the final ball of light vanished within his mouth.

Lu Sheng flexed his limbs again. He felt as if his body’s surface had expanded and enlarged. His skin glinted with blurry, colorful radiance.

‘My pure strength has increased about threefold. My resistance to cold and poison has also been increased. My agility has been raised by slightly more than half… Are these all that I’ve gained throughout my Arrivals?’

He sighed. Although he felt that several of the essences were wasted, at this stage, separating the chaff from the wheat was a choice that he had to make.

At this moment, he glanced at the modifier’s interface again. The scattered frames of the different cultivation methods had vanished. This meant that the plethora of powers within his body had mostly been digested.

Only a simple frame was left: the East Park Autumn Dew Fertilizing Method.

Soil Qi was the only thing circulating slowly within his body. Even his Devil Qi was completely removed.

The Eight-Headed Devil Art was the core art which he had always relied upon.

Although it had been assimilated into the Infinity Technique before this, it still retained some of its original features, such as Devil Qi and Yin Flames. However, it could no longer keep up with the progress in his condition. Helpless, he could only merge it into the Infinity Technique.

Fortunately, although the Eight-Headed Devil Art was absorbed, its strengthening effects on his body remained, though he was slightly weaker without the support of Devil Qi than he once had been.

However, he had the amplified enhancements he received after he digested the essences. So, Lu Sheng’s body increased in strength instead.

He had already gained insight on Yin Flame’s nature a long time ago. He even grew special structures that helped him manipulate Yin Flames. His spirit had even transformed into a unique state which was similar to Yin Flames. It would not vanish alongside the disintegration of his Devil Body.

‘Well then, now’s the time to pile all my Mental Energy onto the East Park Autumn Dew Fertilizing Method and see if it can be improved.’

Lu Sheng focused his mind.

A pure white diamond-shaped gemstone slowly appeared behind him. Countless black tendrils extended from the gemstone and stabbed into the empty space around them as if they were sucking on something.

“East Park Autumn Dew Fertilizing Method, rank-9. (Special traits. All-nourishing effect. Fertile Radiance. Civilization Transition.)”

After taking care of the impurities within his body, Lu Sheng glanced at the modifier again. He immediately saw the derive button behind the frame.

After a slight pause, Lu Sheng moved his consciousness and pushed the derive button softly.

“Derive the East Park Autumn Dew Fertilizing Method by one rank.”

“Hiss…”

The frame instantly blurred. Mental Energy gushed forth like a spring. Lu Sheng could not remember how many Mental Energy units he had used for his last rank-up. However, he was certain that it was at least 1,000,000 units.

He reckoned that it would be more than that this time.

He stared at his rapidly dwindling Mental Energy units calmly.

A huge amount of Mental Energy was converted into Soil Qi before his chest. The Soil Qi filled up the fertilizing method while his Mental Energy silently seeped into the air around him and nourished his Heart World.

1,000,000… 2,000,000… 3,000,000…

The rate at which his Mental Energy was depleted made his eyes jump. However, he could not bring himself to look away.

Time flew past quickly. In the blink of an eye, it had been two hours.

The frame finally clarified. The reduction of his Mental Energy also slowed to a stop. He had expended slightly more than 9,000,000 Mental Energy units. He was left with more than 8,000,000 units.

The new frame bore no semblance to its predecessor.

“Unknown cultivation method (former East Park Autumn Dew Fertilizing Method), rank-10. (Special traits. Qianshen Immortal Body. All-nourishing effect. Fertile Radiance. Civilization Transition.)”

Lu Sheng clearly felt the Soil Qi within himself improving by leaps and bounds. Also, there was the addition of an ability called the Qianshen Immortal Body among its special traits.

Qianshen was the reincarnation heart image which he’d formed after Arriving in the Mystic World and gaining insight on his latest tier. This was a huge creature formed purely by the guidance of his spirit on the world. It was also the manifestation of his real spirit.

“Qianshen Immortal Body… This should be the result of a merging between it and my White Feather Mantra’s undead properties,” Lu Sheng guessed.

He did not have enough Mental Energy units even if he wanted to continue deriving. The amount he had to spend by deriving would far surpass that if he ranked it up directly.

This was especially true the more he advanced. The consumption of his Mental Energy was at mind-blowing levels right now. This recent derivation had taken up 9,000,000 Mental Energy units.

Lu Sheng stood up slowly. Although the derivation was complete, he still felt an ache in his heart. He cold only hope to earn more during his next trip to the Mystic World.

‘Although I have no reference to compare against, my Void Underworld tier should be much more stable now… Originally, it should only be able fortified by absorbing reincarnation power, but I didn’t expect that Mental Energy can even replace the reincarnation spirit… I wonder what kind of energy this is…’

Lu Sheng drew his arm across the air. There were still remnants of energy left in the hidden chamber. They were instantly cleared away by a mass of dark yellow mist.

This dark yellow mist was the Soil Qi which he now controlled.

‘The current East Park Autumn Dew Fertilizing Method cannot be called with that name anymore. The Qianshen Immortal Body alone is enough to make it look like an entirely new thing. Let’s call it Qianshen Method from now on.’ Lu Sheng casually came up with a name.

Lu Sheng stood up, and his body shrunk into a ball of yellow light. He flew out of the little hole in the hidden chamber and reappeared in the yard.

‘I’ll keep Empress Wa’s essence for now. This thing isn’t of much use for me right now. It can only be converted into original competence to fortify the foundation of my cultivation base.’

Lu Sheng sat on the rock bench in his backyard. He took a sip of the juice prepared for him.

‘I can use it to trade for something else. Compared to ranking up my competence and cultivation base using Empress Wa’s essence, Mental Energy does a better job. Also, at this stage, I should start planning for my future…’

He heaved a long sigh. When he just Arrived in the Heavenly Devil World, he was forced by the circumstances to struggle every step of the way and kill to survive.

Lu Sheng hit many bumps throughout his journey, which had been extremely difficult. He experienced countless trials and setbacks, but he overcame them all.

Now, after he entered Libra City, Lu Sheng suddenly felt that he was starting to have peace. He had difficulty getting used to this.

Toram Bach filled up the cup with more juice. Then, she stood there silently without moving a muscle.

Lu Sheng emptied the glass and looked at Toram Bach.

“Toram, why do people keep on living?” When Lu Sheng asked this question, he suddenly remembered Xu Zijun.

For a woman who lived her entire life for someone else, she had no regrets.

She initially lived with no complaints or regrets, but she lost her way in the end.

Toram Bach was stunned. It seemed that this was her first time being asked such a question.

She gave it some thought before answering, “To… live better, I guess…”

“To live better?”

“Yes,” Toram Bach said drily. “Living in this world is like steering a boat against the current. If we’re not moving forward, we’ll naturally fall backward. Nobody has the time to figure out what meaning life holds. To be able to live itself is already a source of happiness for them.”

Her speech seemed to have been inspired by her emotions. It was rare for her to say this much.

Lu Sheng nodded in agreement.

“Yes… If we’re not moving forward, we’ll be overtaken by the people behind us. In natural selection, it’s the survival of the fittest… Nobody can run away from that…”

He knew that the reason why nobody had noticed his abnormal increase in power was because of the war.

There were those who thought that he had gone to some other world with different time flow to cultivate. There were also those who thought that he was a divine immortal who was reincarnated into the present life.

Up until now, he was safe because nobody had investigated him thoroughly.

However, once someone noticed his unique case of achieving the heights of the Void Underworld tier which ordinary people could not even imagine about in less than 200 years, and if word of this got out, the repercussions it would bring were certainly not something that he could withstand for now.

However, Lu Sheng was not feeling happy with this current situation. It was true that he had relied on Deep Blue many times, but he felt that his painstaking cultivation and hard work was what made him this powerful.

Most of the time, if he did not work hard and remain fearless in the face of dangers and obstacles, Deep Blue could not have had such a profound effect on him.

If one entertained the thought of Deep Blue having another host, the person would be resting on his laurels back in Great Song, too lazy to make a single move.

In truth, Deep Blue was only a primer. Everything he had now was the fruit of his hard work, accumulation, efforts, and painstaking cultivation.

Lu Sheng had always thought that Deep Blue did not play too huge of a role, and that he had always relied more on himself.

‘After bringing my people here, I’ll settle down and start cultivating.’ Lu Sheng sighed inwardly.

With this thought, there seemed to be a flame rising up within him. The flame was slowly burning and scorching his heart.

He asked himself. Would he truly be willing to spend his days peacefully cultivating in a place for thousands and thousands of years?

The answer was…

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Yellow Springs Planet #3.

A pitch-black fish-shaped flying ship passed through the atmospheric layer slowly and shot past one of the openings in the Black Measure Web.

The flying ship flew under the planet’s shadow. Combined with its own camouflaging method, it quickly flew away from the Yellow Springs Galaxy.

Mi Guangying stood inside the flying ship’s main control room alongside Anza and a white-haired old gentleman. They looked at the shrinking Yellow Springs Planet in the distance through the crystal window panes.

“We’ve successfully passed through the first line of defense. As long as we break through the second line of defense, the Black Swimming Fish Web, we should be reaching the rendezvous point safely,” Mi Guangying spoke softly.

“We’ll leave everything up to you, Lady Mi Guangying,” the gentleman spoke softly, smiling. He did not appear this old before this. However, ever since a failed joint operation with Anza, his condition quickly deteriorated.

“Don’t worry. My uncle has just given me a signal. As long as we break through the second line of defense, we’ll be able to reach the rendezvous point soon,” Mi Guangying said this with a smile.