Way of the Devil

The Lin Family, The Bright Star Court.

Forever illuminated by a pale-blue glow, the Bright Star Court was Eternal Peace City’s largest and grandest auction hall for secret treasures.

Many Noble Families would send treasures or secret news they had obtained to the Bright Star Court and authorize them to put them on auction on their behalf.

That was for no other reason but that it was the strictest, fairest, and most transparent auction hall.

The Bright Star Court was a blue and white pagoda that was eight stories tall. Each story was guarded by Lin Family’s powerful Swallow God. Anyone who tried to steal or rob the place of its treasures would never make it out.

Presently, Lin Beikai tidied his robes and looked up at the blue and white pagoda before him. His face was solemn, and even carried a trace of grief.

“Everyone knows this is Lin Family’s Bright Star Court. But no one has ever realized that this is also our secret meeting chamber. We’ve been summoned this time because of Lin Huandao’s death, I’m sure,” he whispered.

On his left and right stood the black and white women. Both of them stood half a step behind him.

“Lin Huandao was killed by the Water Illusion Palace. He died of mortal wounds. No matter what, there’s no way we will be implicated,” the black woman said emotionlessly.

“That may not be what the Prime Elders think. They’ve already reported this to the Resident Elders. Let’s go and have a look at this legendary Family Court Hearing.” Lin Beikai strode into Bright Star Court.

A beautiful female general who stood guard at the door bowed at him slightly.

“Young Master Beikai, the Prime Elders’ Meeting has begun. They’re waiting for you.”

Lin Beikai nodded. “Is Marquess Sonorant present too?”

“He arrived very early. Marquess Sonorant had only come from the East when he heard the news. After hearing it, he rushed over to attend the meeting at the earliest timing without even having lunch,” the female general reminded softly.

Lin Beikai’s heart skipped a beat.

Marquess Sonorant was Lin Beikai’s own grandfather. Apart from the three Resident Elders in Lin Family, he was the true strongest expert.

In the Lin Family today, those whose strength were above Lin Beikai’s could be counted on two hands. One of them was Marquess Sonorant.

“Many thanks.” He nodded at the female general and strode into the court.

The Bright Star Court was closed for business today. The usually packed first story was now cold and deserted save for a few guards and young members of the family who chatted jovially on the wooden bench.

At the sight of Lin Beikai’s entrance, these Lin Family youths who were talking animatedly just a second ago fell silent immediately. Many who sat with their backs to Lin Beikai could not help but turn around to look at him with strange gazes.

Lin Beikai was the rising sun in the Lin Family. His reputation was stellar and his name was often used by many seniors as example for their children.

But when news that he was summoned to a court hearing by the Prime Elders Meeting came out, the younger generation of the Lin Family was shocked.

As the number one prodigy of Lin Family’s younger generation, he was the epitome of the outstanding and the elite. In fact, he had been appointed the reserve family head.

But now…

Ignoring the sneaky whispers and strange looks from these people, Lin Beikai went up to the second story as if nothing was amiss.

Likewise, some youths with higher cultivation were seated here.

Bright Star Court’s allocation depended on one’s cultivation. Without sufficient cultivation, one had no right to go to a higher level. One was not even allowed to look into it.

And after that was the third story, the fourth, the fifth…

Each story shrank in surface area compared to the one below it. And those found in each level had higher cultivation levels than those below it.

From Lin Family’s younger generation, to the middle management, to the heads of each branch of the family, to Swallow Gods and generals… etc. The representatives of each level of the Lin Family had arrived.

On the seventh level, Family Head Lin Songran, dressed in moon-white Confucian robes, looked at him worriedly.

“Don’t worry.” Lin Beikai smiled radiantly. “If that woman Shangyang Fei can do it, I can do it too! It’s nothing.”

Lin Songran had never kept a tight leash on his son in all his years of growing up. He had always allowed him to develop freely. But right now, an intense regret swelled up in him.

He understood his son all too well. Even if Lin Huandao had not been killed by him, he must have had a hand in it. Otherwise, he would not behave like this.

“I’ll be alright. You’ll be alright too.” Lin Beikai, who understood his own father as well as his father understood him, smiled.

“I…” Lin Songran opened his mouth but was at a loss of what to say. Subtly, he began to feel as if some big change was about to happen today. Whether it was good or bad, the Lin Family would be shaken.

***

“Burp!”

Lu Sheng burped.

He had eaten too much…

The water level in the lake filled with the River of Poisoned Fog was now only at his waist. Although it was constantly being replenished from other sources in the area, there was no way it would return to its original state in the near future.

A bulge appeared on his nearly six-meters-tall hulking frame. Devil Qi churned and rolled all around him. Prime Devil aura was so thick that it leaked out uncontrollably from his body.

He sensed that his blood, flesh, bones, organs, etc., were all soaked in Prime Devil Qi.

The last two Devil Will hearts were saturated to the point of bursting. They could take in no more. These two hearts were now much stronger than before. Now all that was left was to wait for them to hatch.

“Let’s go back first.” Lu Sheng was unable to suck in another drop of the water. He turned back and returned via the route he had taken when he came.

Along the way, he could see many holes of uneven sizes on the wall of the lake because the water level had dropped significantly. In these holes, he could see clay sculptures of women with many arms.

Most of the holes were shallow. One look into them showed one all that was in them. The walls of these caves had intricate, complicated patterns carved into them. Some of these carvings included half-completed women with multiple arms which stared forward with demonic, seductive eyes.

“These are…” Lu Sheng’s heart jumped. He drew nearer to examine them and saw that these sculptures were nude, revealing full bosoms and curvaceous figures. They looked very exotic.

But these clay sculptures had way too many arms.

“Some of them have got eighteen arms, others have got twenty-four..” Lu Sheng did a quick count. He walked to the front of a cave and reached in to touch a clay sculpture.

Unexpectedly, these clay sculptures were soft to the touch, as if he had touched a real person.

Lu Sheng suddenly recalled a past incident teacher Liu Shanzi had once recounted to him.

It was the story of how the Prime Devil Sect has been founded, which began with a Devil Disaster that happened a very, very long time ago.

Back then, there were no Hundred Lineages sects to speak of. Some Noble Families’ Divine Weapons and Devil Blades had been shattered, but they were unwilling to accept the fate of having their bloodlines go into decline generation by generation. Thus, they began searching for power in other directions.

Among them, the power of physical bodies and strength of Devils entered their view.

The Prime Devil Sect has been formed by people who had chosen to pursue the power of Devils. In the prime, the Prime Devil Sect had countless Devils locked under suppression.

Many of these Devils died as time passed. Some of them which were too powerful lurked in the dark, awaiting the time when they could break free of the seals that bound them. For instance, the one under that saber.

Regardless, as long as Prime Devil Sect’s red symbol pillar remained standing, nothing would ever go amiss.

Because of that, the innermost recesses of the Prime Devil Sect, where the Devils were locked up, became dangerous and bizarre because of the wicked Devil Qi released by these Devils.

Under the contamination of massive volumes of Devil Qi, many strange phenomena and dangers bred in the deep underground recesses of Prime Devil Sect.

“Ka-Cha…”

Suddenly, a clay sculpture sprung into movement. This naked demonic woman struggled to break free of the wall. Waving its dozen or so slender arms, it began writhing towards Lu Sheng.

The woman carried a bizarre smile on her face. Her movements were stiff and jerky like a clay puppet’s, making her look entirely harmless.

“Is this a Devil?” Before Lu Sheng’s six-meter-tall body, the clay woman who was just about one or two meters was like a chicken.

He reached into one of the caves and grabbed a clay sculpture, took it out and scrutinized it before his eyes.

‘Oh… it’s not a Devil. Devils shouldn’t be so fragile. I reckon it’s some creature born out of the pollution…’

“Hoo…”

Just then, the clay sculpture opened her mouth, spewing forth a ball of black gas into Lu Sheng’s face.

In that instant, his face changed. Not because the black gas carried lethal poison, but because…

“It stinks…!! It freaking stinks!!!” Lu Sheng hurriedly tossed the clay sculpture in his hand aside, took two steps back and covered his nose with his clean hand.

Such a feeling was like jumping down from a pleasant fragrant and clean place to an underground sever filled with filthy muck and disgusting grime.

It smelt like poo in the toilet, garbage from the bin, food and vegetables long rotten mixed together into pulp.

That foul odor instantly gave Lu Sheng a new understanding of what the word “stink” meant.

After tossing the clay woman aside, he resolutely took several steps backwards, not wanting to come near this place again.

Thinking of how he had been drinking the water of this River of Poisoned Fog in which this foul, mind-numbingly stinky stuff was soaked in, Lu Sheng’s mood turned foul and depressed. He hurriedly left this place and headed back to the cave he was in earlier.

But even after sitting down to rest in the cave, he still felt a queasy discomfort in his stomach. It was not poison. But rather, disgust.

After a long while, Lu Sheng finally recovered.

“It’s a good thing I sucked enough Devil Qi this time… Even if I had eighty or a hundred more Devil Will hearts, I’d have more than enough, not to mention that two more waiting to hatch.”

He inspected the two remaining Devil Will hearts again. He had thought that they could absorb much more Devil Qi. But now it seemed like absorbing twice or thrice that of the other hearts was their limit.

This seemed to be a limit of their natural structural capacity, something impossible to change.

With a mental command, the two Devil Will hearts emerged before him in midair at the same time, rotating and spinning in the air.

“Ka…”

Suddenly, a crack appeared on one of the hearts.

“No… there was a crack since earlier. This is the second crack!” Lu Sheng noticed that there was a crack on the heart that appeared earlier.

Before long, a wet, slippery grayish yellow eagle clambered out of the heart slowly.

The moment the eagle came out, its body began inflating rapidly from one meter to three meters.

“Hee~~~”

The eagle opened its beak and, astonishingly, sneered cunningly like a human.

There were no feathers on it, only goo-like yellow mud. When it spread its wings wide, large volumes of yellow goo dripped from them onto the ground, causing the latter to hiss in contact with a corrosive agent. At the same time, an unspeakably foul odor emanated off it.

“Eagle of Disgust…” Lu Sheng guessed what emotion this eagle represented.

It was none other than the intense disgust he’d experienced moments ago, which probably gave birth to this Eagle of Disgust.