Way of the Devil

A strong gust of wind blew past.

Lu Sheng took his time to descend from his high seat, taking each step steadily and calmly.

The small red shoe stepped in slowly, revealing a wine-red long skirt, followed by a butterfly-knotted string attached to a blood-red jadeite, and a delicately exquisite black belt.

Half of a woman’s body had crossed over the threshold.

Both of them were moving at the same time, neither hurriedly nor slowly; soon, they neared each other.

“KA-CHA!”

Yet another crisp crack rang out.

In an eccentric distorted position, the woman’s torso twisted and squeezed itself through the gap in the door.

“Crimson Whale Sect… none of you can dream of escaping…” a bizarre, sharp and shrill woman’s voice rang out.

The woman’s torso was completely in the hall now. A blood-red paper umbrella was hoisted up by one her hands.

However, the first sight that welcomed her after going through the doors was a pair of piercingly bright beast-like eyes, staring straight at her from an extremely close distance.

Lu Sheng was standing in front of the door, staring at the lady in red dress who had just entered through the doors. The corner of his lips on his originally impassive face curved upwards suddenly.

“Just you alone?” He asked.

The lady was caught by surprise. She had not expected that someone would ask her such a question. She could not even wrap her mind around the meaning behind that question.

“You…” she had just started when saw a smile cracking open on his face.

“BAM!!!”

In that very second, a rapidly expanding blur of a shadow rammed straight into her chest with irresistible force, accompanied by an intense roar!

“BOOM!”

The force seemed to have landed on what felt like both tough tree bark and wet sludge at the same time. A faint layer of translucent black membrane had emerged on the surface of her skin, stopping the advance of the palm strike dead in its tracks.

“Tch tch tch tch!”

The lady in red spun her umbrella. Its razor-sharp edges shot towards Lu Sheng’s forehead at high speed like a guillotine.

“DIE!”

But before the blade reached Lu Sheng, a scorching pulse of heat burst out from Lu Sheng’s palm.

“BOOM!!!”

Ultimate Crimson Nine Furies Skill exploded, emitting searing inner Qi which detonated like a bomb between the two of them.

An ear-piercing shriek escaped the lady’s lips as her entire body was sent slamming into the wall by the force of the tremor.

Lu Sheng leapt into the air. In midair, his body rapidly inflated and swelled in size till it had expanded to twice the size of the average person’s body. With terrifying explosive power and speed, he struck the lady mercilessly with his palm.

“KA-BOOM!!!”

The lady had only just gotten up when she was once again sent flying backwards by Lu Sheng’s palm strike. Together, both of them slammed on the doors, denting the door forcefully into a concave. At the dead center of the concave, the steel door was glowing red; Lu Sheng’s palm strike had seared it red hot instantly.

The lady stared wide-eyed as her opponent’s body had rapidly inflated like a balloon, transforming from the normal size of an average mortal into over two-meters tall body in the blink of an eye.

His massive frame was covered in terrifyingly thick bands of muscles, which twisted around his body like tree roots. With massive force, his body had slammed into hers, just like a mountain of meat colliding into a tiny earthworm.

She did not even have time to react before she was inflicted with intense pain in her chest.

Lu Sheng’s arm had penetrated her chest, slamming straight into the doors of the hall behind her, nailing her against them.

Scorching heat radiated from his arm; the surface of the door that was in contact with his skin rapidly sizzled, turning glowing red.

“AHHH!!!”

Only at this moment did the lady in red register what had happened. She began roaring and screaming pitifully and madly, her arms scratching at Lu Sheng in a frenzy.

“Tch tch tch tch!”

Inky black scratches streaked across Lu Sheng’s body continuously. But it was all in vain. Every other second, fierce sparks would fly from the surface of his body, as if her claws had scratched on steel.

Silence descended on the entire Crimson Whale hall. Incredulous stares were all fixed on Lu Sheng, who had nailed the female ghost to the door.

Or perhaps, it might be more accurate to call him a gigantic object, a massive mountain of meat.

The present Lu Sheng was nearing three meters tall. All the muscles heaped on him gave his upper body a bloated, exaggerated look, as if innumerable lumps of tumor were growing off his body.

Even the skin on his face had been distorted, pulled apart by his expanding muscles, just like a mask embedded in the middle of a chunk of flesh.

A black network of vein-like lines covered the skin all over his body. A crimson-red streak emerged on his back, covering the entire length of his spine completely.

“Aw…” Lu Sheng gazed in disappointment at the lady struggling on his arm, “Looks like it’s really just you alone…”

“You… what freak are you!!!” The lady screamed shrilly, a thick black smoke rapidly billowing out of the wound in her chest.

“Freak?” Lu Sheng cocked his head, his eyes bloodshot.

“I’m human! Human!” He lifted his arm, “There! Can’t you tell? I’m human!!”

He pushed his arm towards the lady’s mouth.

“Don’t you love to eat humans? There, eat!”

He began stuffing his arm into the lady’s mouth.

However, because he exerted too much force and the muscles on his forearm were too hard, cracking sounds were popping out from the woman’s head.

“You… no…” the lady attempted to wrestle free.

“Eat! Eat it! Don’t you like to eat humans?” Lu Sheng kept pressing his forearm into the lady’s head forcibly, a strange blood-red hue sparking in his eyes.

“Why aren’t you eating? Doesn’t it taste good?” He increased his strength and became more violent.

“BAM!!!”

Finally, the lady stopped struggling. In fact, her body no longer moved an inch because her head had been squashed flat by Lu Sheng’s forearm. A puddle of red and white matter trickled down the door to the ground.

In an instant, the lady’s entire corpse was lit aflame. In a few breaths, it had turned into countless specks of ash, dispersed in the air.

Lu Sheng pulled back his arm, disappointed. He had hardly used ten percent of his strength.

This lady was merely a ghost, albeit a ghost that was a hair’s breadth away from the realm of Bind. But that distance proved to make the difference between heaven and earth.

Faced with the present Lu Sheng, all supposed ghosts were as weak as earthworms; they were thoroughly useless for assessing the true extent of power he possessed in his current mode.

“Pathetic weakling,” Lu Sheng’s body quickly shrank to its original size. Such an opponent could hardly excite him.

Not only was it unable to force him to reveal the trump card he had specially prepared for today, it was inadequate even for testing the limits of his strength in his present Yang Extreme Mode.

Yang Extreme Mode—that’s the name he had given his own body after its expansion.

He had discovered that in such a mode, all secretion of Qi and blood in his body would be accelerated and intensified. His emotions and personality would turn cruel, violent, and extremely aggressive and hostile. Insane, even.

Especially when he activated both inner force and outer force simultaneously, he would reach a limit.

However, this mode was simply too inconvenient and ugly. Hence, he would rather live day to day in his normal body form.

He had thought that an Anomaly-level opponent would come. It was a pity that what had come was merely a ghost near that realm.

‘That’s alright… it doesn’t matter. Scarlet District wouldn’t just send such a small ghost. This should only be a probe,’ Lu Sheng turned around, baring his top. In order to adapt to his sudden physical expansion, he had put on extremely loose and elastic clothes. Unfortunately, his top was still ripped apart, leaving him only in his pants.

In the hall, all of the upper echelon of Crimson Whale Sect was staring at him dumbstruck, horror and fright written all over their faces, as if they were staring at some monstrous abomination.

“External Head Lu? Are you really… Lu Sheng?” Elder Wang was one of the first two people to discover Lu Sheng’s talents. Presently, he stood up slowly, thick fear and doubt seeping through in his voice.

“Of course. What would anyone get from impersonating me?” Lu Sheng smiled at him, scaring the wits out of Elder Wang who shook like a leaf in the wind as he jumped back, almost fainting.

Lu Sheng’s earlier transformation was truly too mind-blowing. Every single one of those present was stupefied and frozen in shock, their eyes as wide as saucers and their jaws dropped to the ground.

Only Hong Mingzi was knowledgeable enough to recognize the characteristics of full-mastery of hard body skills on Lu Sheng, hence regaining his composure. But it was a different story for the rest of them.

“Junior Apprentice Brother… you… you’ve cultivated Ultimate Crimson Skill to the highest Level Seven!?” His voice trembled.

“Senior Apprentice Brother is sharp-eyed indeed,” Lu Sheng smiled.

“Bear Wrestling Arm… and Golden Veil Skill… Dusk Dantian Inflating Skill… and that’s… Nine Lakes Steel Chains Skill!!?” The extremely knowledgeable and experienced Hong Mingzi recognized many telltale characteristics of particular hard body skills on Lu Sheng immediately.

For so many martial arts to be gathered in one body… it was simply too staggering for words. He was too astounded to describe Lu Sheng’s accomplishments with words.

Such talent in the Dao of martial arts was simply unprecedented. He had to be the most powerful prodigy of the way of martial arts in all history!

That was the only line that flashed across Hong Mingzi’s mind in that moment.

He glanced in Chen Ying’s direction. Indeed, Chen Ying too had recognized the characteristics of several skills on Lu Sheng’s body. He, too, was floored and at a loss for words.

In the hall, some less knowledgeable Elders had even taken Lu Sheng for some sort of monstrous freak that was as powerful as ghosts. Their faces were filled with horror.

Those muscles and that body form… it may remain humanoid, but it was simply too exaggerated.

“Oh yes, now that I’ve succeeded as Sect Master, it’s probably more appropriate for all of you to call me Sect Master Lu,” Lu Sheng said calmly.

“Next, Scarlet District will surely be unwilling to let the matter go. We’ve got to discuss how we should respond.”

“Indeed! The next crucial step for us is to decide how we will respond in the face of the upcoming assault. Once news of Zhen Family’s desertion spreads across Mountain-Edge City, and even the entire Northern Lands, our Crimson Whale Sect would become everyone’s target. Scarlet District is but one of many districts eyeing us. We’ve got to come up with a plan soon,” Chen Ying sucked in a deep breath of air, calmed himself down, and stepped forward.

Even he had thought that the ghost from earlier was an Anomaly; that lady ghost was a mere hair’s breadth away from becoming one. But even such a powerful ghost could not last a single round against the new Sect Master Lu Sheng.

His speed and strength were too overbearing. In just a single instant, Chen Ying saw the lady in red nailed to the door. All her efforts to resist were in vain.

The difference in strength far surpassed his wildest imaginations. Perhaps this time, Crimson Whale Sect truly had hope to survive this ordeal…

“With Sect Master Lu here, we’re sure to survive this ordeal!”

“Sect Master possesses might unparalleled!”

One by one, the Elders pinned their hopes on Lu Sheng. Hope was reignited in their eyes.

Lu Sheng’s gaze swept past everyone; they were ephemeral to him. He looked solely at old Sect Master Hong Mingzi.

Hong Mingzi stood quivering in his spot. Beside him, Chen Ying was supporting him. Neither of them was sure how they should perceive and regard the present Lu Sheng.

“Now, what do we do?” Chen Ying asked Lu Sheng, suppressing his shock.

“There’s more than just one ghost outside,” Lu Sheng stretched his body and headed out through the door.

“Come on, let’s go out and take a look.”

Grabbing the doors with both his hands, he shoved hard.

“Rumble…”

The steel doors were gradually shoved apart, revealing the wide grayish brown deck outside the hall.