Way of the Devil

“BAM!”

The wall was kicked flat by Lu Sheng. Large bricks and stones fell apart, exposing the entire bedroom to his view.

The bedroom was no different from ordinary bedrooms—save for a thick purple stone pillar in the middle. A book was placed on the pillar. The book was open and was flipping slowly by itself automatically.

“What’s this?” Smelling the scent of a treasure, Lu Sheng’s eyes lit up and he reached for the book.

“Yingying…” the umbrella girl kept crying.

Ignoring her, Lu Sheng grabbed at the book.

“BUZZ!!!”

Without warning, ribbons of white hexes appeared around the book. They were ribbons formed by large amounts of words, encircling and dancing around the book, stopping Lu Sheng’s hand.

“Oh, interesting.” Lu Sheng’s interest was piqued. The harder it was to obtain it, the more precious the treasure must be.

He pulled back his hand. Then, abruptly, he slammed his palm towards it.

Massive force and air pressure blew other items in the room away. His greenish gray hand landed on the layer of white barrier.

“BOOM!”

The entire Scarlet District Manor tremored. Lu Sheng felt as if his palm had struck against an immovable hill.

“This seems to be connected to the entire Scarlet District… oh, is this the kind of formation that appears in the legends?” Lu Sheng’s curiosity was piqued.

It also felt like he had struck a slippery bare egg on its shell. He pulled his palm back.

“BAM!”

With his second palm strike, he utilized all force his present mode could muster.

“BOOM!!”

As expected, the entire Scarlet District manor grounds began shaking intensely. The ribbon of light must have been connected to the entire base.

‘Can’t break through it,’ Lu Sheng stared at the book with pity. He had no choice but to loot other items.

Moving swiftly across the manor, it took only a few brief moments for Lu Sheng to have gone through all the rooms. In some, he ripped the door apart. In others, he tore away the roof. In still others, he bulldozed through the wall with a kick.

Some remnant ghosts who had gone into hiding were frightened out of their hiding places and fled outwards.

Lu Sheng could not bother with these mindless wandering ghosts. After looting the place and finding some items worth keeping, he returned to the central courtyard.

The central courtyard was covered in white ashes, which were the remains of the ghosts that he had burnt to death with Ultimate Crimson Nine Furies Skill. Lu Sheng squatted down and stabbed his hand into the heap of white ashes.

“Szzzzzzz….”

Immediately, a large volume of Yin Qi gushed into him from the white ashes. The Yin Qi in the white ashes was too weak and dispersed; he could absorb it directly without using blood.

The umbrella girl watched as he walked all over, stabbing his arm into the white ashes. She assumed that he was looking for a certain object, and so stared at him silently, biting her lip.

At first, she kept crying incessantly. After a while, however, she got too tired and just allowed herself to be lifted up in Lu Sheng’s hand and shaken here and there without a word.

After absorbing all Yin Qi completely about an hour later, Lu Sheng made another round around Scarlet District to make sure he did not leave behind any worthy trophy. Only then did he leave with the umbrella girl still in his hand.

Before leaving the place, he even lit up the place in flames. The entire Scarlet District was mostly built of wood. Hence, the spark of fire quickly grew into a large fire which spread rapidly across the entire manor.

Thick smoke billowed into the air as the tongues of flame leapt and licked. The yellow and red glow of the fire lit even some of the trees nearby ablaze.

A column of thick black smoke rose into the air, leaving a thick patch of black cloud in this part of the sky.

The rest of the night passed slowly. As the day dawned, black clouds continued to linger over the place, with flashes of lightning and the roar of thunder rumbling in them.

Within the short span of a night, the entire Scarlet District was reduced to ashes. Everywhere were charred remains; charred wood was mixed with stone. But, being both black, none could tell them apart.

Big drops of rain quickly fell. They began dispersed, but grew thicker and thicker as the smoke gathered.

“KA-CHA!”

A streak of lightning flashed across the sky, lighting up the world in a pathetic whiteness.

“Thud.”

A long black shoe embroidered with phoenix motifs stepped on the ruins of the entrance to the Scarlet District.

The Scarlet District Mistress was covered in blood. She was carrying her own arm in the other arm, and half the flesh on her face had disappeared, leaving a patch of bloodied mess.

Staring at the ruined Scarlet District, flames of anger, fury, and madness raged in her eyes.

She walked into the manor slowly. Everywhere, columns of smoke billowed in the air. All the rain could do was to put out the fire on the topmost surface. The burning coals still lay under the topmost layer of ruins.

“BAM!”

She punched a stretch of wall that still stood, causing it to explode and leaving a gaping hole in it.

“I don’t care who you are!! You destroyed my home, YOU’RE DEAD!!”

“Looks like I’ve come at a bad timing.” A middle-aged man dressed in rich man’s clothing strolled out of the forest beside the manor.

“Ye Moling?” Scarlet District Mistress turned her head. “You know who did this?”

Ye Moling had rushed over only after seeing the great fire and columns of smoke. Little did he expect to see such a sight.

“I only just arrived.” He shook his head. He had known Scarlet District Mistress for a long time, not because they were chummy friends, but because he was extremely wary of her when he was the Manor Lord of Mortal Sweeping Manor.

Everybody had forgotten Scarlet District Mistress’ original name. But apart from “Scarlet District Mistress”, some also called her the Red Devil. Others called her the Blood Demon.

She had almost single-handedly built up the powerful organization known as Scarlet District.

Scarlet District depended entirely on her deterrence. The only other experts in it were the umbrella girl and several supposed Ghost Generals. But the Ghost Generals had either died or fled during the war with Zhen Family. Now, only herself and the umbrella girl were left—two commanders with no army to command. The remainder of Scarlet District were newly recruited ghosts.

“Then what are you doing here? You want to snatch the Scarlet Tribulation Dragon shard?” Scarlet District Mistress asked icily.

“Scarlet Dragon Tribulation shattered?” Ye Moling was genuinely surprised. “Don’t misunderstand, I’m not your enemy. On the contrary, I’ve come to investigate the disappearance of the Officiator for Ashoka Manor. Speaking of which, the kind of ability needed to make an Ashoka Manor Officiator go missing without a sound… he or she might very well belong to the same force that destroyed your Scarlet District. Most likely, we’ve got a common enemy.”

“You should thank the gods that it ain’t you.” Without looking at him, Scarlet District Mistress headed straight for the largest bed chamber right in the deepest part of the Manor.

When she finally found the purple stone pillar and saw the book resting on it, she heaved a sigh of relief.

Ye Moling sighed in relief too as he followed her in. But at the sight of the book, he was stumped.

“Isn’t that… isn’t that…??!” His face was filled with shock. Retreating several steps, he stared dead at the book and opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

Why was Mortal Sweeping Manor destroyed back then? Wasn’t it all because he had attempted to manipulate the powerful female ghost he had suddenly discovered? And the origin of all of that was precisely this book.

This priceless book contained the recordings of the methods of cultivation for ghosts. The cultivation technique written in it was far superior than what they used. Had it not been for it, he would not have had placed all of Mortal Sweeping Manor’s power on to the bet of controlling the powerful female ghost, resulting in finally losing everything.

“You’ve guessed right. It is that book. ‘Nine Palaces of Chaos Divine’.” Scarlet District Mistress walked up to the book and reached out to caress the words on it. The words distorted and shifted, and were unlike any known language at all.

“That… that female ghost…?” Ye Moling tensed up.

“What else do you think happened, when it’s in my hand now?” Scarlet District Mistress scorned. “Speak. What have you come for? I’ve got no time for your crap!”

Ye Moling’s heart beat wildly. Although he already regarded Scarlet District Mistress’ strength very highly, the scene before him still shook him to the core.

Back then, he had exhausted all his energy but still failed to find a way to deal with the female ghost who destroyed Mortal Sweeping Manor. In the end, she barged into his headquarters and massacred everyone, thoroughly destroying the foundations of the entire Mortal Sweeping Manor.

Presently, at the sight of this book, he grew increasingly wary of Scarlet District Mistress. Fortunately, they were not foes.

“I have truly come as a representative of Ashoka Manor to strike an alliance with you. We have our intelligence network spread across all cities. We’ll be of great help to you in searching for the true culprit.”

“Let’s hope you’re not lying to me.” Scarlet District Mistress picked up the book and patted it gently. The book exploded into balls of purple light and vanished without a trace.

“In the entire Northern Lands, only a small handful possess the power to destroy Scarlet District. We can investigate them one by one,” Ye Moling said cautiously. Knowing how scary the female ghost who had destroyed Mortal Sweeping Manor was, Ye Moling was now even more afraid of Scarlet District Mistress who had killed the female ghost.

“You mean… Shangyang Jiuli and the League Master of Martial League?”

“That’s right,” Ye Moling said solemnly. “My Ashoka Manor’s Officiator disappeared suddenly after an encounter with Martial League. They must be connected somehow.”

“I can feel that Yingying’s not dead yet. Finding Yingying may lead us to the culprit,” Scarlet District Mistress said icily.

“As long as we have a lead!” Ye Moling was invigorated. Initially, he had thought that being sent to investigate this case in the Northern Lands would be a simple task. But now, from the fact that the mastermind would even dare to destroy Scarlet District, there seemed to be more than meets the eye to it. He was increasingly on his guard.

***

In a cave in the Eastern Mountain, about several dozen li’s away from Mountain-Edge City,

Lu Sheng sat down with umbrella girl still in his hand. The sun was cold outside. Snowflakes fell incessantly, accumulating around and blocking the mouth of the cave.

‘Yin Crane Web’s inner Qi belongs to the Yin attribute. While there are manuals for Yin-type inner Qi, nobody cultivates that alone.’ Lu Sheng was filled with anticipation.

‘Because of the appearance of ghosts and demons, nearly all martial arts experts have been cultivating Yang-attribute skills. Weak Yang-attribute skills can at least cause damage to ghosts, while strong Yang-attribute skills can even kill ghosts. How about Yin-attribute inner Qi then? What’s its effect on ghosts?’

The umbrella girl hugged her umbrella in terror. She balled herself up, not daring to budge an inch.

Lu Sheng’s inner Qi had formed a blood web which enveloped her. The slightest movement from her would cause herself to be incinerated and decimated.

Lu Sheng sat upright and began consolidating his gains from this trip.

A small bell, a black wooden rectangular box, and an ancient scroll that resembled some sort of treasure map.

All three items carried Yin Qi. That was Lu Sheng’s criteria for looting. Only these three items contained thick Yin Qi. He didn’t look closely at other items in his hurry; perhaps there were other items that carried Yin Qi, but none were as prominent as these three.

Lu Sheng picked up the first item—the small bell. “Tell me, what’s this?” He looked at the umbrella girl.