Way of the Devil

“Join the sect? Just to give it a shot?” Lu Sheng was surprised. He gave a second, long look at Shangyang Linghui.

Apart from her good looks, she had no talent at all. Most likely, she wouldn’t even be able to beat He Xiangzi in a fight. If he let her join the Prime Devil Sect, most likely, all that would do would be to comfort Shangyang Jiuli’s worries. Otherwise, she would probably keep setting up blind dates for him.

Upon realizing this point, Lu Sheng could feel himself getting a headache.

“Okay, how about this, I’ll get someone to settle you down, and you can join our Prime Devil Sect. It’ll be easier to take care of each other this way too.”

“Mm, thank you, Brother Lu.” Shangyang Linghui took up the opportunity to change how she addressed Lu Sheng.

“Okay, you can sit down. I need to leave for bit and check on my friends.” Lu Sheng stood up and left the hall as if Shangyang Linghui’s issue no longer involved him.

Leaving the building and music behind, he followed the path to the entrance of the Grace Garden.

A lantern was lit inside of a carriage next to the building, and Li Shunxi and his companions were lying on the ground, receiving medical care.

The carriage was for the two girls, so Li Shunxi and his other friend had to lie on wooden stretchers outside.

Seeing Lu Sheng walking over, the doctors and nurses hurriedly lowered their heads and greeted him.

Lu Sheng gave an absent-minded reply and told all of them to leave. He then looked towards Li Shunxi, who was struggling to sit up.

“What happened?”

Li Shunxi smiled bitterly.

“Did you receive the letter?”

“Yeah,” Lu Sheng said in a moment of understanding. So he did write that letter.

“Then start preparing. There isn’t much time.” Li Shunxi shook his head.

“Are you sure??” Lu Sheng asked in response.

“I can only see a little bit! Faintly! Because huge events like this take a really large toll.”

Both men fell silent and didn’t say anything for a while.

A short while later.

“Why did you come back and choose to rescue someone from the Red Pavilion? Don’t you know the background of that place?” After all, Lu Sheng was friends with Li Shunxi, so he went straight to the point when he asked his question.

“I didn’t have a choice. But don’t underestimate me, if it were really a life or death situation, I could still escape,” Li Shunxi said resignedly.

“I hope so. Okay, leave after your injuries are bandaged before anyone recognizes you,” Lu Sheng warned. “If you need help, go the Prime Devil Sect. I’m usually there.”

“Sure! I’m indebted to you again.” Li Shunxi laughed bitterly.

“Then just take your time returning the favor.” Lu Sheng didn’t want to waste time. Now that he had made sure that the news about the Devil Disaster did come from Li Shunxi, its factuality had become interesting.

“There’s not much time left, so I’m gonna leave for today. If fate allows, we’ll meet later. I’ll take my leave,” he said to Li Shunxi and turned around and left.

“Okay.” Li Shunxi watched as his retreating figure disappeared into the night and let out a long sigh. “Can you guys still move? If you can, let’s go. I’m afraid we won’t be able to leave if we stay any longer.”

“I’m not dead yet…” Ice Snake’s voice came out weakly through the carriage door.

“I can walk,” Sun Meng said with some effort.

“Then bring Lianji along. We’re leaving,” Li Shunxi said solemnly.

***

After attending the conference, Lu Sheng finally confirmed the possibility of a Devil Disaster.

He trusted Li Shunxi, and he trusted the Jade of Secrets.

To avoid a massacre, Li Shunxi even sent letters to the Shangyang Family that was in charge of the area’s safety. But it was only treated as a joke, and didn’t even get past the middle level before being thrown away.

In the blink of an eye, a month had passed.

Apart from a new girl called Linghui appearing in the Prime Devil Sect, nothing else had changed.

Lu Sheng kept collecting all kinds of poisonous medicinal herbs. In this regard, Shangyang Jiuli helped a lot. She introduced him to methods that the Shangyang Family would use to obtain medicine and let him purchase what he needed himself.

Originally, the time required to collect everything he needed would be months or even years. But with Shangyang Jiuli’s help, Lu Sheng found everything within half a month. So he spent the next half of the month cultivating the Desolate Devil Body. [see TL thoughts]

As expected, his progress shot forward. His Desolate Devil Body went from beginner to advanced in a very short period of time. After finish cultivating all the basics, Lu Sheng finally got to the part where he needed to absorb poison and start the cultivation of the Devil Body.

“Squelch!!”

Lu Sheng stuck one of his hands into the wall. The stone wall was as soft as tofu, and after pushing a few times, a rock wall to the side slowly turned and revealed a cave entrance.

Inside the entrance was a cold and empty light blue cave.

Pulling out his hand, Lu Sheng walked in without hesitation.

After passing by the altar, Lu Sheng soon saw Pill. This huge egg with human arms and legs was sitting quietly in the center of the magic formation, unmoving.

The Divine Weapon Pool still gave off a light blue soft glow, shining to the top of the cave and then reflecting down, becoming the only light source in here.

“Buzz…”

The cave entrance closed slowly behind Lu Sheng’s back.

He made his way around the alter, around Pill, and walked towards the Diving Weapon Pool.

Grand Elder Liu Shanzi happened to be visiting other sects, so Lu Sheng wanted to come here and test his current strength.

All around the Divine Weapon Pool was a savage radiation of the Divine Weapon’s power. This was the Origin power, much stronger than the white powder from before.

But here, Lu Sheng could adjust his own distance to control how strong this power was. Perfect for testing the difference between him and a Divine Weapon.

“Pat, pat, pat…”

Lu Sheng walked step by step towards the Divine Weapon Pool. As he got closer, the blue water started rippling as if a gust of wind was blowing at it.

When he was only two steps away, Lu Sheng stopped.

“Last time, my finger corroded here.” He stretched out his right finger again.

“This time, let’s try it again…”

This time he had both the Enmity Fire Devil Body and the Phantom Listening Devil Body. With the two of them strengthening his body, he was much stronger than before.

“Whoosh!”

A sticky, black flame appeared on Lu Sheng’s forefinger. His whole finger, from inside out, was submerged in the black flames. Faint groans and moans of pain could be heard.

This was the strongest flame from the Enmity Fire Devil Body—the Enmity Fire.

The Fire of Enmity. Every time an enemy got burned by the fire, it would bring out the deepest jealousy, hatred, discontentment, and other negative feelings in them. At the same time, this flame had a much higher temperature than normal Poison Flames. And these attributes were the reason why the Enmity Fire Devil Body could become one of the most lethal and deadly Devil Bodies in the sect.

Lu Sheng looked warily at the Enmity Fire on his finger. Even though there was only a tiny bit, it could easily destroy any creature not yet in the Snake Realm.

“Whoosh!”

His forefinger suddenly grew sharper and larger, becoming unlike a human finger, but more like the claw of some huge animal.

Lu Sheng slowly moved his forefinger into the area two steps within the Divine Weapon Pool.

“Hiss…”

Large amounts of black smoke drifted off from his finger.

One breath… the Enmity Fire was put out.

Two breaths… his skin turned black and dry.

Three breaths… his flesh withered, his bones and marrow frozen…

“Rip.”

Lu Sheng abruptly cut off his finger with a slice of his palm. If he didn’t react fast enough, he wouldn’t even be able to keep his hand.

“But this was worth it. The first time, I had to pull my hand back the second I put it in.

“But this time, I lasted for three seconds. Not bad progress.” Lu Sheng felt the huge yet meticulous force field in front of him.

Three breaths…

He was silent for a while. He looked down at his finger. His broken finger had turned completely into black dust and was scattered by the wind, and a new finger had grown in its place.

“I still have a long way to go…”

Lu Sheng kept silent. He glanced at the Divine Weapon one last time, then backed out and left the cave.

He had just walked out when his heart trembled. He felt someone faintly calling him.

Although they didn’t call out any names, he could feel that they were calling for him.

“…Come here…”

“…Come here…” Call after call, the strange voice continued faintly.

After hesitating for a brief moment, Lu Sheng walked quickly in the direction of the voice.

Passing through an empty house after an empty house, Lu Sheng soon arrived at the door of the Secret Art Temple. There were two sect disciples standing guard.

“Did you guys hear anything just now?” Lu Sheng asked.

One of the disciples guarding the door took a step forward and answered, “Senior Apprentice Brother Lu, we didn’t hear anything.”

As he walked past the two disciples, Lu Sheng could feel the calling get more and more worried, clearer and clearer.

Click. After passing through all the traps, Lu Sheng finally came to the Room of Seals.

By now, he knew that it was probably that devil calling him. But humans and devils were different, and he had nothing to say to them. As for the Devil Disaster, if it actually happened, the Prime Devil Sect was one of the furthest of all the cities within the Song nation.

When that happened, the Noble families and other sects would take care of it. And he didn’t even know if there would actually be a Devil Disaster.

After all, the Jade of Secrets only gives out a possibility. If they took the right precautions, the Devil Disaster might not happen at all.

So although Lu Sheng stood outside the door to the Room of Seals, he never went in. He hadn’t finished cultivating his Desolate Devil Body yet, and he didn’t have time to waste here.

***

West Infinity Court, Mystical Flower Main Temple.

The sect master of the West Infinity Court, Zhao Zhi, was sitting majestically on the highest seat in the hall, smiling and looking at all the strong people within his court.

Blood Infant Huang Fu was sitting to his right, and the vice sect master Zhou Zhicheng sat to his left.

“Did you send out all the invitations?” Zhao Zhi asked the vice sect master quietly.

“Yes, I gave it to the sect masters of all nineteen sects nearby by hand. I didn’t miss anyone.” Zhou Zhicheng nodded.

“Okay, then this meeting we will mainly focus on discussing how to host the Mystical Flower Banquet.”

“The Mystical Flower Banquet is known as the gathering of the year, and all the nearby sect masters will come to attend. When the time comes, it will be another party for all the sects. Our West Infinity Court, as the host, must make sure everything is prepared…”

To be honest, vice sect master Zhou Zhicheng didn’t understand why the sect master would host the Mystical Flower Banquet a month earlier.

But since the sect master had said so, he could only follow the orders.

Zhao Zhi listened with a smile as the vice sect master repeated his decision. Seeing that no one below opposed it, instead of feeling happy, he sighed internally.

He had hidden for so long, but it was time to reveal everything. Honestly, compared with living with his tribe, he liked living with humans more. It was more quiet and peaceful.

But… these days were only a dream.

He only needed to get the nineteen sect masters and all the visitors from the Noble families to gather together at the Mystical Flower Banquet so that the Devil Spirit could kill all of them himself. Then his mission would be accomplished.

When that happened, all of the main forces that could oppose them would be completely broken down. The Devil army would come down forcefully, and no one would be able to defend against them.

And they’d be able to finish building the Gate of Blood and Flesh before any other powerful human might arrive.

Although the plan was simple, speed was the key. As long as they were fast enough, there wouldn’t be any loopholes.