Way of the Devil

“Stay here!” shouted Shangyang Kanyun.

But Lu Sheng paid zero attention to him. He was just a Noble; Lu Sheng felt like even talking to him was a waste of time.

After completing the cultivation for his Enmity Fire Devil Body, he could clearly feel that his body had gotten stronger. The frightening temperature and flames told him that he had already surpassed his previous level, the Destruction level, and had stepped into a whole new realm.

And he had only finished cultivating one Devil Body. If he cultivated the other six, his strength would increase to an unimaginable level.

He looked forward to it.

Shangyang Peipei glanced at Kanyun and his friends pitifully. She had heard about Shangyang Ruo and Shangyang Kunyang. This young man from an indirect bloodline had liked Miss Shangyang Ruo for a long time, but had never expected that her grandfather, one of the resident elders, would think that he wasn’t good enough and choose Lu Sheng, who had much potential, over him.

Even though it was Shangyang Ruo herself who prevented the marriage from happening, the two men have now become enemies because of this incident.

What was unexpected, however, was that Lu Sheng didn’t even remember Shangyang Ruo. He had forgotten everything.

“Come back!!” Shangyang Kunyun was held back by his companions, and even though he kept screaming and yelling, he couldn’t overcome so many people at once. So Lu Sheng strolled out of the woods while Shangyang Kunyun finally quieted down behind him.

As he opened the bag he was holding, Lu Sheng saw a lot of packets and bottles in it, all of them labeled. Most of them were for enhancing men’s sexual functions, and the rest were for replenishing the body with nutrients.

Peipei chuckled.

“Too bad that Mister Lu didn’t get to try some of these drugs in the Red Pavilion…” She rubbed her chest against Lu Sheng’s arm. “How about, here, let Peipei help Mister Lu try out some of these pills?” Her voice was soft and attractive, her eyes pulling him in, her whole body touching him.

But Lu Sheng was not about to try something that came from nowhere. Unless he watched over the making process, he would never try this random medication just because he had a strong body.

“I’m good. Right, didn’t you say there was a small gathering?” Lu Sheng was not interested in women that were obviously very friendly and popular.

“Yeah… the spot for the small gathering is right outside woods, close to the tower, and there are…”

But Peipei didn’t finish. Her gaze was fixed on the direction of the Red Pavilion, a little unfocused.

Lu Sheng turned his head to look, and found that the originally peaceful area was on fire. The heat and dust from the large amount of flames were slowly spreading.

Also, they could hear faint crackling noises from the distance.

“A fire?” Lu Sheng asked confusedly.

***

Li Shunxi adjusted the bull mask on his face. Along with Sun Meng, who was known as Night Fire, they sneaked out the cave entrance to the Red Pavilion with the person they just rescued.

Coincidentally, the two high level guards were busy with other things and weren’t there. Nobody noticed the three of them walking out.

The dark night sky was painted red by the fire. Chaotic shouts trying to get people to put out the fire sounded in the distance.

Li Shunxi looked at the fire and let out a small sigh.

“At least Silver succeeded. This three-dimensional fire cannot be put out with regular water, and it’s hard to get such a big fire under control. But the Shangyang Family is one of the Nine Great Families and must have a lot of assets, so we can’t assume anything. Let’s get out of here as quick as possible.”

Sun Meng nodded. As a cold-blooded prodigy “kidnapped” by Li Shunxi from his family, he had lost all the savageness he had at the beginning, and looked just like a normal, introverted young man.

Even though he was really talented, he was willing to get into such trouble for Li Shunxi, who he truly saw as a friend.

Young and impulsive, both of them decided without hesitation to infiltrate the Shangyang Family’s Red Pavilion of the Wisdom Garden for a girl with a sad story they just met, Lianji.

Now that he thought about it, Li Shunxi could feel shivers going down his spine. If they hadn’t been careful and got caught inside the Red Pavilion instead… suffice it to say that the radiation from five Divine Weapon Pools was not to be taken lightly.

“At least we’re out. We need to leave immediately; I’ll let Silver know. Let’s go.”

“Brother Li, you… you guys could have left me… this is my life…” Lianji said painfully.

“But we’re friends. And if we’re friends, I’m not gonna watch you fall into the abyss and do nothing about it.”

Li Shunxi smiled at her. Using predictions from the Jade of Secrets, he led the two in avoiding the unending amount of Shangyang Family guards while making their escape.

Lianji was so moved she almost cried, unable to say anything. Sun Meng saw this and snickered.

This was how Li Shunxi had tricked him into being his friend too.

The three moved really fast, soon leaving the woods and entering the hilly area. After passing by numerous caves, they could finally see the figures of the many visitors that the Shangyang Family had invited. With Li Shunxi’s Jade of Secrets, hiding their aura and blending into the visitors couldn’t be easier. Once they were among the visitors, they would be much safer.

The three ran silently towards the buildings the visitors were in.

They got closer and closer.

“Bang!”

Suddenly, a white figure flew towards them through the air and landed on the ground in front of them with a thud.

It was a young girl, wearing a suit of white ice armor. But right now, the skin from both her arms was bloody and peeled off, and there was a ball-sized hole in her stomach, showing her squirming internal organs.

One could tell that the ice armor on her was once really fancy, but right now it was all broken and dirty. Only half of it was left, hanging over some non-important parts of her body. All the vital parts were either missing or shattered.

“Silver!!” Li Shunxi saw the figure and gasped. He rushed over and helped her up. “Are you okay, Silver?!!”

This was his other friend in the mission, Ice Snake Yue Yin. She was originally a solo fighter, having mastered a really powerful method of whips and a secret art for hiding her tracks. [1]

The girl coughed a few times and stood up with Li Shunxi’s help.

“Can’t… die yet.”

“You won’t die, but you’re not far from death, either.” Sun Meng sneered. He could never get along with her, but he still moved in front of her, looking around alertly.

“Grandson, do you really just want your grandmother to die so bad? Don’t you remember how nice I’ve been to you?” Silver retorted, her vicious words completely revealing her personality. [2]

Sun Meng fought down the urge to turn around and stomp her to death.

“If you don’t die this time, I’ll give you a lesson when we get back!”

“If I don’t die this time, when I get back, I’ll burn paper offerings for you, don’t worry.” Silver’s face was pale, but her mouth didn’t stop.

“You two, can’t you be serious for once!” Li Shunxi felt like swearing. “Everything can wait until we get out!”

“I’m very serious. It’s just that I think we won’t be able to make it out this time, so I want to say everything I wanted to say before I die,” Silver said coolly, pressing down on the wound in her stomach, making it heal quickly. But her real injury wasn’t this. It was the mysterious, powerful force blasted into her body—a force only the Shangyang Family had.

“Aren’t you usually really confident? Why so negative today?” Sun Meng couldn’t help looking back at her.

“That’s because she finally realized the gap between me and her—”

Just as Sun Meng turned his head, a white figure appeared in front of him from nowhere.

It seemed like this person had teleported over. All around them was open space with no hiding spots at all.

But this person appeared in front of them out of thin air.

It was a man dressed in white, wearing a triangular white cap. His expression looked kind of blank, and he had a scar on his left cheek as if some fierce animal had scratched him.

He was skinny, and he was holding a huge iron pen. It was more than half a meter long.

“A Painter of the Shangyang Family?!” Li Shunxi was shocked and took a step back. His face darkened.

Each of the Nine Great Families had their own fighting machines, such as the Swallow God of the Lin family or the Judge of the Shangyang family. But these top fighters wouldn’t come out for just some random small thing. They all had their own areas of control. They were leaders, and would not fight easily.

So in reality, the more heard of ones were one grade lower: the mobile forces of the Nine Great Families.

And in the Shangyang Family, commanders of regular forces were known as Painters.

Only strong people pass the sixth vein of the Bind could be considered as a Painter. The success rate of breaking through from the sixth vein to the realm of Snake was less than one percent. Most people were forever stuck at sixth or seventh vein, or would die of old age while cultivating in solitude.

There was no difference in this aspect between the Noble families and the sects.

So this resulted in a relatively larger number of Painters. Naturally, their fame was also superior to that of the Judges.

“As expected. I just wanted to let her escape for a bit to see if I could fish out some of her accomplices, and I actually got some,” the man clothed in white remarked.

Li Shunxi was fine, since he was wearing a mask and had hidden his aura. No one could detect that he was the holder of the Jade of Secrets.

But the others weren’t as lucky.

Especially when the Painter saw Lianji behind them.

“So repeated offenders with a special purpose…” The Painter chuckled coldly. “Looting a burning house, huh. But you guys looted the Shangyang Family.”

He held his iron pen and walked closer to the four.

“We’re in trouble…” Li Shunxi and his companions could only back up. Sun Meng was the strongest among them, but right now they were inside the Shangyang Family’s Wisdom Garden, not outside.

If something happened and they got delayed…

Sun Meng stepped out and shouted determinedly, “Leave this to me, so hurry and leave!”

“Leave? I’m here, and you’re trying to leave?” The Painter suddenly rushed forward, twisting his body and stabbing his pen from Sun Meng’s right.

Apart from all sorts of secret arts as their trump cards, usually the Noble families relied on basic martial arts. But their martial arts were different from those of regular humans as theirs always exploited their bloodline to the max. Their moves were often based on their bloodline, rendering them useless for anyone else.

And currently the Painter was using such a move.

He mysteriously bypassed Sun Meng’s defenses and tapped him gently with the iron pen.

“Bang!”

A ball of black, poisonous light burst, and Sun Meng immediately shifted his other palm to a yellow bronze color to block it.

“Clang!!”

The moment the two touched, a huge noise was produced.

Sun Meng’s expression instantly changed and he grunted. He could feel a dark, forceful power shooting from his palm to his heart.

Unable to hold back anymore, he spat out a mouthful of blood.

“Go!!”

Li Shunxi was shaking. He fought back the urge to rush forward, then grabbed Silver and Lianji and tried to run away from the other side.

“Foolish!” The Painter dashed through Sun Meng’s defenses once again and pointed his pen towards Li Shunxi.

“This old woman hasn’t died yet!! Get the f*ck away!!” Silver, who had been weak this whole time, suddenly exploded, her whip wrapping around the Painter’s legs in a flash of white light.

“This… ??!” The Painter lost his balance and had to do multiple flips on the ground with a single hand before landing on his feet.

But the whip was still tangled on his legs.

“I have hidden my skills for so long, just to wait for such an opportunity…” Silver stood up with a cold laugh. “Once you have been tangled by my Ice Seal Snake, even if you get rid of the whip, your strength would still be decreased to an unimaginable degree.”

She tightened her grip on her whip, her expression becoming cruel.

“Now, die!!” Silver and Sun Meng rushed towards the Painter at the same time.