Way of the Devil

“These three positions were typically occupied by the top three experts who lost in the bid to become Divine Weapon Master. Which of those qualified to contest for the Divine Weapon Master position was not a top-notched expert and genius of the Noble Family? Under the boost of the power of Divine Weapons, these geniuses aged slower than others. The oldest among them was even a few hundred years old. After that’s the Divine Weapon Master. And that’s just the Su Family.”

Zhan Kongning said helplessly, “The Central Plains is more than ten times bigger than the Northern Lands. And it’s also connected to the Southern Ocean down below, which occupies an even larger area. Just the power of the Su Family alone is sufficient to trample over the Northern Lands many times over. And its territory is unimaginably richer than the whole territory of the Northern Lands.”

“But there’s too many people here after all. Why don’t they go to some other area like the Northern Lands instead of cramping themselves here in the Central Plains?” Lu Sheng asked, puzzled.

“It’s for suppression.” At this point, Zhan Kongning’s face turned grave. “I learnt from my buddy that the Nine Great Families of the Central Plains did not earn their name by chance. Each of them carries the heavy responsibility of suppressing Rogue Divine Weapons and Rogue Devil Blades.”

“Rogue Divine Weapons and Rogue Devil Blades?” It was the first time Lu Sheng had heard of such terms.

“Yes.” Zhan Kongning nodded. “Actually, Senior Liu Shanzi would be clearer about these things. It’s just that you’ve never asked him, that’s why you don’t know, Brother Lu. Let me explain them simply to you.”

“Many thanks, Brother Zhan.” Lu Sheng nodded in thanks.

“Don’t mention it.” Zhan Kongning focused. “Speaking of suppressing Rogue Divine Weapons and Rogue Devil Blades, I’ve got to talk about a concept. Simply put, Divine Weapons and Devil Blades under the control of humanity through the Noble Families are called ‘Legitimate’. Those that are not under our control are called ‘Rogue’.

Just think about it, Brother Lu. What would a Divine Weapon or Devil Blade without a Weapon Master to support it with Ritual Offerings do in order to maintain its own power?”

Lu Sheng’s eyes narrowed.

“Conduct its own Ritual Offerings?”

“We call that a Blood Offering,” Zhan Kongning whispered. “Committing massacres everywhere without anyone able to stop it. Moreover, the power of Divine Weapons and Devil Blades is the power of Law. Even Snake realm family heads pale in comparison to such power, not to mention ordinary mortals. That’s not a power that can be resisted by humans.

The Nine Great Families of the Central Plains suppress nine weapon graves. Each of these graves contain more than one Divine Weapon or Devil Blade. While suppressing them, the Nine Families are also consuming other Divine Weapons by the power of their own Divine Weapon. But such consumption is far slower than the growth in power of some weapon graves.

That’s how the Divine Weapon shards come about,” Zhan Kongning explained. “After days, months, and years of consuming other Divine Weapons, the Divine Weapons that belong to the Nine Families have been perfected and enhanced beyond enhancements. This is also one of the reasons why the Nine Families’ places are firm and immovable.

That’s all I know. The rest are mere speculation and so not worth mentioning.”

“That’s plenty already.” Lu Sheng nodded. “Many thanks for clearing my doubts, Brother Zhan.”

“Don’t mention it. You can ask Senior Liu Shanzi about these things, Brother Lu. You may learn even more details from him,” Zhan Kongning said with a smile.

“So to sum up, the true upper echelon of the Nine Great Families of the Central Plains don’t even care about our Hundred Lineages. They just can’t be bothered with us.

Against them, we’re like small gangs in the pugilistic world versus the court’s great army. To put it nicely, we’re vigilantes. To put it more bluntly, we’re a useless mob. They’ve got better use for their time and energy.

“Come to think of it, it’s only recently that some of the younger generation among the Noblemen have been paying more attention to the Hundred Lineages in order to build up their own force. But it’s all temporary. The best examples among them would be Shangyang Fei and Lin Beikai.”

Zhan Kongning’s account gave Lu Sheng a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between the sects and the Noble Families for the first time.

With their Divine Weapon Masters, the Nine Great Families of the Central Plains were seated high above all others. In their eyes, the Hundred Lineages were of no consequence at all and could be wiped out as simply as a turn of their hands.

But contrary to Zhan Kongning’s view, Lu Sheng believed that the Hundred Lineages possessed some reason that prevented the Noble Families from wiping them out easily.

After the chat with Zhan Kongning, Lu Sheng shut his book and went to look for his teacher—Liu Shanzi. He wanted to discuss something with him.

And that was how to preserve the sect at the Hundred Lineages Meeting.

***

“In actual fact, it’s not hard to protect the Prime Devil Sect. Our true opponent is only the Nine Bells Sect. But according to the news I heard recently, the sect master of the Nine Bells Sect, Hong Qing, has gone missing all of a sudden. Even till date, his whereabouts are unknown. At first, they were going to be the ones to make things difficult for us. But now with Hong Qing gone, things shouldn’t go too badly at this Meeting,” Grand Elder said solemnly. “My chief worry is still those black-robed men. They call themselves Wandering Gods and seem to be driven by some powerful party. Since they struck against us once, it’s highly likely they’ll strike a second time.”

Lu Sheng sat cross-legged before him, feeling a sense of helplessness in him.

It was not ‘highly likely’. It was ‘absolutely’.

No party would give up easily after suffering a huge loss like losing three Snake realms and one Seven-Vein.

And a party that could muster such a great force against the Prime Devil Sect would not be small.

“But since they know our Prime Devil Sect’s under somebody’s protection, they probably won’t strike so soon after that last defeat.” Grand Elder seemed rather optimistic. “But that long halberd… I remember having seen it once in a certain sect of the lower three grades.”

“Teacher, what kind of level can command a Snake realm expert? Against such a sudden assault, does the Hundred Lineages have any defensive measures in place?” Lu Sheng asked directly.

“Yes, there are. But they’re not going to be very effective. Even among the sects, there’s a difference between the Leaf bloc and the Blood bloc. I suspect that those Wandering Gods were basically people from the Blood bloc sects,” Grand Elder whispered. “Once it’s a war between internal ideologies, it becomes as dangerous as a war with Devils.”

“Will the Nine Great Families of the Central Plains be pulled into this?” Lu Sheng asked thoughtfully.

“Perhaps.” Grand Elder fell into silence.

The gigantic Nine Great Families of the Central Plains were a taboo subject nobody was willing to talk about.

After a long while, Lu Sheng finally spoke, “Teacher, have you seen a Divine Weapon Master? How strong exactly are they?”

A faction that could command even Snake realm experts could very well possess a Divine Weapon Master. He needed to prepare in advance.

Grand Elder thought for a while.

“I don’t know how powerful Divine Weapon Masters are, but I know about Holy Weapons. The power of Holy Weapons is forged from imitations of the Laws used by Divine Weapon Masters. Its might is supposedly equivalent to one percent of the power of a Divine Weapon or Devil Blade.

And while our Prime Devil Sect no longer has a Holy Weapon, we’ve still got shards. I can show them to you. You’ll understand when you come into contact with it in person.”

“Holy Weapon shards?” Lu Sheng asked.

“They’re remnant pieces left behind after Prime Devil Sect’s Holy Weapon was shattered. There aren’t many of them, but they can at least give you a feel of how powerful the Holy Weapon used to be.” Grand Elder stood up slowly. “Let’s go. I’ll give you an experience.”

He had already completely regarded Lu Sheng as his core heir; there was nothing left to hide from him.

The two of them left the cave and entered yet another cave by the side of the stone wall. They followed along a tunnel in that small cave and were quickly greeted by a faint blue light radiating from in front of them.

The two of them arrived at a cave. Peering in through the mouth of the cave, they saw a spacious cavern.

“Hoo.”

Grand Elder took the lead and jumped forward. Lu Sheng followed close behind. The two of them landed lightly on a platform in the cavern.

“This is the spot,” Grand Elder said softly. He surveyed his surroundings. “I haven’t come here in a long time.”

Lu Sheng began to size up his surroundings too.

The cavern was large—several dozen meters tall. Blood-colored symbols had been carved into the black brownish rock walls. Some wind-dried corpses were even impaled on sharp rocks in some parts of the cavern.

An unknown source of pale blue light radiated from the top of the dark cave, lighting it up.

Right beneath it was a giant circular formation. An egg sat at the center of the formation.

It was a white giant egg about the height of a person.

Human-like limbs extended from the sides of the egg. Right now, those limbs hung limply beside it, making it hard to tell whether it was dead or asleep.

“It’s called ‘Pill’. It’s got extremely strong life force. I’m not sure where it came from, but it existed right from the time when my grand-teacher was young,” Grand Elder explained. “We mostly rely on its liquid to soak the Holy Weapon shards so as to prevent any accidents.”

Lu Sheng could not help but stare at that giant egg for a few seconds longer. He had seen many eggs, but this was the first time he was looking at an egg with arms and legs.

The surface of the egg looked clean, as if no dirt, dust, sand or stone were on it.

“Every now and them, it would clean itself. Don’t get too close,” Grand Elder instructed.

“Yes.” Lu Sheng nodded. Then, he followed Grand Elder to a small pond on the edge of the formation.

The pond was oval in shape and contained some transparent viscous liquid. Some metallic shards sat at the bottom of the pond like sapphires, releasing a pale blue glow.

Lu Sheng now figured out how the blue light at the top of the cave had come about.

The pool was small—only several meters long and wide. But the metallic pieces in it were packed densely together. There were several dozens of them altogether, of uneven sizes.

“If you want to experience the power of a Holy Weapon, you can get closer to it. But don’t touch the water. Take it slow.” Grand Elder stopped when he was five meters away from the pool.

“Mm.” Lu Sheng was overwhelmed with curiosity. He itched to know where he stood with his present strength against the power of Divine Weapons and their Masters.

This was a good experiment for him.

Calming his churning emotions, Lu Sheng steadied himself and stepped towards the pool slowly.

“The scope of the pool’s radiation is up to two steps away from the pool. You can put your hand in it to experience the power of Law.” Grand Elder’s voice rang out behind him.

Lu Sheng continued stepped towards the pool. One step, another step, yet another step…

All of a sudden, he stopped, right at the two-step mark away from the pool. It was not that he changed his mind, but rather than he felt his hair standing on ends.

An intense premonition filled him, as if he was about to walk into a volcano.

It was a numbing sensation on his scalp that one felt only at the edge of death. Lu Sheng clearly sensed the goosebumps popping up all over his body.

Right in front of him, where it seemed to be simply transparent formless air, an unimaginably terrifying power was flowing and circulating.

He swallowed hard. Lifting up his hand, he reached towards the air in front of him.

Ever so slowly, his index finger reached near it.

Given the strength of his physical body presently, even Yin Extreme Mode was in the realm of Snake. Not to mention that he had inner Qi covering his body. A normal Snake realm expert would not even be able to break through his tough protective skin, let alone injure him.