Way of the Devil

“Fuh… Fuh…”

Lu Sheng flapped his wings slowly. He flew along the shore for some distance. He did not run into any human settlements yet.

He decided to turn and fly toward the interior of the continent.

Young dragons did not fly fast. He unleashed Lighten on himself to reduce his own weight and increase his speed. He flew for more than two hours before he saw a huge white city wedged between two mountains in the distance. It was a grand and majestic sight.

Humans traveled on foot and on animals in and out of the sides of the city.

“This is it!” Lu Sheng was satisfied. This place looked as if it contained many resources.

‘I’ll build my nest somewhere around here. Then, I’ll have someone buy antiques rich in Mental Energy for me.’

He needed many materials to build his Sorcerer Tower. Naturally, it would be most convenient for him to stay close to a human city.

As for his identity as a seven-colored dragon, he decided to deal with a broker instead. He would not have to show his face.

Lu Sheng maintained his altitude and did not get too close to the city. Great cities such as this one would surely be under the protection of a Sorcerer Tower. It was not something he could hide from at his current level.

He flew a circle around the city and turned toward a barren mountain.

To the west of the city was a small mountain full of white rocks. Lu Sheng found a shaded place there.

He pointed a claw at the ground.

“Pchht!”

A yellow arch that was three meters tall slowly surfaced from the ground. A huge rock person nearly three meters tall walked out of the arch.

The rock person was completely made up of soil and rocks. He appeared strong and muscular.

“Nessmo, at your service, art user.” The rock person bowed toward Lu Sheng.

“Build me a concealed underground dragon nest,” Lu Sheng ordered.

This was an earth elemental he summoned from the earth elemental world. It was naturally gifted with 10 shots of an art which could turn soil into rocks. On top of that, with its ability to maneuver underground with ease, it was usually the best choice for the Sorcerers if they wanted to build anything.

Naturally, summoning the rock elemental[1. It seems like rock elementals are a kind of earth elementals.] was at least a rank-3 art. Only a rank-6 Sorcerer would be able to unleash it.

“Understood.” The rock elemental turned around and tunneled into the ground with a flurry.

The soil and rocks on the ground seemed to have taken on lives of their own. They parted into a path of their own accord.

Building the dragon cave took Lu Sheng three days. He summoned one rock elemental to serve as his builder every day. The efficiency was not bad.

Because of his strong mind power, the rock elementals he summoned were stronger than the ordinary rank-3 summoning arts. Hence, the rock elementals had 12 shots of the art which turned soil into rocks.

On top of that, he did not have high requirements for his underground cave. As long as it was strong, aired, and equipped with exits, it’d do.

Three days later, Lu Sheng began laying down art traps around his dragon cave.

Most of the traps he set were rank-1 damage traps. Once triggered, the target would be damaged by several different elements.

Time passed slowly. Another five days passed. Lu Sheng practically used up all the materials he had saved all this while as he set traps in dozens of spots.

Then, he laid down a large-area dense fog formation. After that, he began his preparations for his planned base.

The first thing on the list was to look for a spokesman.

***

“Let’s start with rabbits.”

He was most familiar with rabbits.

Lu Sheng stared at the dozen gray rabbits shivering in fright in the face of his dragon’s might.

He went out and easily caught 18 fat gray rabbits with his art.

He also caught two lynxes and a little gray bear.

He brought his captives into the dragon cave and bound them there with art Restrictions.

“First off, I need sufficient intelligence for the person to help me deal with the humans.” Lu Sheng glanced at the animals before him.

“The modification plan is to use my spirit-prompting threads and Civilization Transition. This world isn’t like the Rabbit World where intelligent breeds existed naturally.”

He walked slowly up to the group of rabbits.

He extended his claws, and a white beam of light shot out from his index finger.

The white beam of light instantly shot into the strongest gray rabbit and vanished.

“Gah!”

The rabbit wailed and began thrashing on the ground. Its fur quickly fell off, exposing its blood-red skin and blood vessels.

The rabbit’s body size swiftly grew as it wailed constantly.

Lu Sheng frowned. He slowly reached out and picked this rabbit out from the rest of the rabbits. He placed it on an empty spot on the ground.

‘That was only one spirit-prompting thread…’ He gave it some thought. He separated another spirit-prompting thread and controlled it with his spirit as he slowly inserted it into the rabbit’s body. He observed the various changes that were occurring.

To his surprise, the second spirit-prompting thread had barely been inserted when the rabbit exploded into a mess of flesh and blood.

‘The rabbits of this world seem to be slightly different…’ Lu Sheng frowned.

He began experimenting. The brains of this world’s rabbits and the Rabbit World’s rabbits seemed to be largely different.

Throughout the course of two years, Lu Sheng had experimented on a dozen rabbits. Finally, he succeeded with one.

After using up two spirit-prompting threads, the gray rabbit successfully grew into a rabbit-headed person close to two meters in height. With the effects of Civilization Transition, the rabbit man quickly grew smarter than before.

With the experience of the first success case, Lu Sheng swiftly created the second rabbit man, lynx men, and a bear man.

It was not rare for this world to have werebeasts. Although the werebeasts Lu Sheng created differed slightly in appearance, they were not so different to be seen as rare.

He created seven werebeasts in total. After a fortnight of careful training, they were finally capable of carrying out some simple tasks.

Lu Sheng captured some humans from a caravan that passed by. He used them as teachers to teach him and the werebeasts the language of men.

Learning a language was not something that could be accomplished in a short period of time. Lu Sheng ordered the humans to do business in the city while he continued his painstaking cultivation of the corresponding arts of a rank-7 Sorcerer.

Upon reaching rank-7, the requirements imposed upon an art user’s rank-3 arts were at a highly troublesome stage. It could be said that progress would be extremely slow if the art user planned to cultivate on his own without an elemental pool.

Although Lu Sheng was a seven-colored dragon with amazing natural endowments, it would still be best if he could improve his strength as quickly as possible.

However, he began drafting a plan as well. Throughout the years, he had collected several nice antiques and weapons from his teachers. This was a great opportunity for him to sell them for money.

As time passed, the wild beasts, who had their intelligences awakened, started to blend into the human society.

After everything was started on the right path, Lu Sheng began to relax as well. He allowed the merchants he had captured to be in charge of the business deals.

He let the merchants sell some art scrolls he had copied during his free time. Then, he had the merchants purchase various materials and the parchment paper needed for the art scrolls.

As a Formation Grandmaster, Lu Sheng did not even break a sweat while copying scrolls. After his cultivation sessions every day, he could produce a huge pile while he rested.

The making of art scrolls mainly involved a continuous release of the arts and sealing them into the scrolls. Ever since Lu Sheng converted the arts into a cultivation method, he no longer relied on the magic net to unleash his art. Hence, he was no longer limited by any quotas.

Lu Sheng’s plans went smoothly. He concealed his dragon body with illusion arts and officially set up base and cultivated on this barred mountain near Dawn City.

With his extremely powerful spirit as the base, his art-leashing rank improved by leaps and bounds.

***

On the shore.

Two elves with pointed ears in blue robes were squatting beside some marks left on the sandy beach. They studied it carefully.

It was clear that the mark had once been deep. However, with the passage of time and the washing of the waves, only a remnant of it was left. It would have been gone in no time.

“What do you think?” Another girl with golden curls and ice-cold eyes walked up to them. She wore form-fitting silver armor and carried a large dark crimson sword on her back. There was a faint and terrifying aura about her that would make any dragon despise her.

The older of the two elven Sorcerers stood up and nodded slowly.

“This should be a seven-colored dragon’s mark. The marks we placed on the entire dragon pack seemed to have been concealed by some arcane art barrier, but we can still pick up its general direction.”

“After the dragons were attacked by Sardine, they flew to the deep-sea regions, and it won’t be that easy capturing them now. Fortunately, we have this lone seven-colored dragon who got separated from the rest. At the very least, it seems that we’ll be able to accomplish our mission this year as well,” said the goldilocks with a frown.

“The higher-ups have given the order that we must get our hands on a set of seven-colored dragon eyeballs. Some big shot has ordered it. If we can’t procure it, we can kiss next year’s research funding goodbye,” she added.

“We know that as well. However, these vile dragons are exceptionally sly and secretive in their movements…”

“Those are all excuses. The higher-ups in the academy will only care about the results. It’s the same with the High Tower Council,” the girl interrupted them.

“Alright, it’s only a young dragon. We’ll head out to capture it first. If something unexpected happens, we’ll request reinforcements from His Highness Puge,” said the goldilocks as she gave the arrangements.

“There shouldn’t be a problem. Judging by the looks of the claw mark, this young dragon should be no older than 12. It’s a very young dragon,” the older elven Sorcerer explained.

“Let’s go, then. Follow the trail of its aura. We must capture it as soon as we can lest some unexpected change occurs.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” The two elven Sorcerer’s nodded respectfully.

It was only a young dragon. With Director Jolin, a rank-15 Arcane Knight, even an adult seven-colored dragon would not be a match for her.

Only a dragon of a legendary rank, such as the ancient dragons, could manage to suppress an Arcane Knight. Arcane Knights fought by incorporating arcane arts into their battle skills. They were otherwise peerless.

On top of that, the two of them were rank-11 Archimages. If they worked together, capturing a young dragon would not be a problem at all.

***

Near Dawn City. Inside the underground dragon cave.

Lu Sheng sat cross-legged deep within the cave. A small clear underground stream flowed near where he sat.

The sound of flowing water added some life and noise to this otherwise deathly still cave.

Two men in yellow clothes knelt reverently and fearfully before Lu Sheng. They were reporting the business deals over the past month.

In their eyes, the being entrenched before them was not a seven-colored dragon, but a middle-aged Archimage who was focusing on his books.

To serve under an Archimage was a glorious duty for any human. Although this Archimage was slightly eccentric and loved to stay underground, it was not unheard of for the great personas to have a peculiar habit or two.

“…fireball art scrolls and feather-dropping art scrolls are among the bestsellers because of their lower prices and comparative ease of use. They’re always the first ones to be sold out… Our profit margins for those two items are also the largest because the cost of the raw materials to produce these two arts aren’t expensive…”

The merchants did not stop in relaying the report.

Lu Sheng puffed some purple pure magic power mist from his mouth and nose.

It had been several years since he’d come to this place. He had successfully become a rank-7 Sorcerer.

However, he did not continue to pursue more breakthroughs.

Instead, he delved into studying the modules based on the arts he currently mastered, and derived them with Deep Blue at the same time.

The way he saw it, the higher-ranked arts were but extended and fortified versions of all rank-3 arts.