Way of the Devil

Chapter 287: Flame (4)

Translator: Xintuz Editor: Kurisu

“This thing…”Lu Sheng held the crystal in his hands; he was not quite sure what it was made of.

Scratching the surface of the crystal lightly, a soft sensation ran through Lu Sheng’s finger.

Strings of pure Devil Essence flowed into his body endlessly. This thing was like a perpetual motion machine, evenly releasing both Devil Qi and Devil Essence.

This pure Devil Essence was purer than the purest of Devil Qi, with a density that, once converted into Prime Devil Qi, could be liquified at any time.

“Such an abundance of Devil Essence, and it’s even the kind that holds its own when compared to converted Devil Qi… If it can keep up its output, this one crystal is equal to half of all the Devil Essence that I’ve absorbed before.” Lu Sheng estimated how much Essence there was and was quite shocked by the result.

The crystal contained the purest and most concentrated Devil Essence. All he needed to do was to convert it slightly using the Eight-Headed Divine Pearl, and it could be absorbed straight away, without any compression required.

After observing the crystal for a moment, Lu Sheng noticed with shock that the crystal was shrinking as Devil Essence flowed out.

After some time of observation and calculations, he found that at this output rate, this crystal would last him about a month or so at most.

‘This crystal must be the Ancient Devil Snake-Leopard’s essence. These Devil Qi and Devil Essence were more than enough to provide the Devil Qi that I lack. The rest I can use with leftover Mind Energy to improve my Ultimate Eight-Headed Devil Way one more time,’ Lu Sheng thought, making plans in his head.

At this level, Lu Sheng was mainly relying on the strength of Devil Body and all kinds of innate Secret Arts. The stronger his Devil Body was, the greater his strength.

This was quite unlike a human Noble Family, which relied on the Black Membrane created from their Divine Weapon Bloodline. Instead, Devils relied on their bodily strength.

Lu Sheng’s Black Membrane was only at Snake level’s lower three grades, but his body had reached the standard Devil King level, equivalent to that of Divine Weapon Masters.

And it was comparable to the middle or even the upper tier of Divine Masters. So, in fact, he had long since reached the level of a Divine Weapon Master—he just didn’t realize it.

‘I still lack any kind of fatal Secret Art, which should be quite obvious from the last fight. If it weren’t for my sudden increase in strength from my transformation that surprised the Snake Leopard, it would have been a long battle.’ Lu Sheng fully understood that the Snake Leopard still had some aces up its sleeve, it was just that it died before it could even use them.

His body shrunk rapidly, turning into his basic Extreme Yin Form and masking his power aura.

‘Then what Secret Art have I learned so far that can unleash my full potential and decide a battle in a single strike?’

He did receive a vast amount of the Prime Devil’s Sect’s Secret Arts as its first seat, as well as a bunch of others that Liu Shanzi transferred directly into his brain. Before, between both how strong he was and how weak his enemies were, he’d never thought that he would need an ace in the hole to decide battles.

But after this battle with the Snake Leopard, Lu Sheng finally realized that he needed an ultimate move that could utilize his full potential.

‘Just release my Eight-Headed Divine Pearl? That would be too low level of a skill. My full power isn’t limited to just my Eight-Headed Divine Pearl.

‘Activate my Yin Yang Integration Destroyer Mode while having my Devil Body active? But that’s only a form. It’s still possible to use Secret Arts on top of that, so that wouldn’t be enough.

‘Then… a Martial art move? A Prime Devil Secret Art?’ Lu Sheng thought carefully. No secret art fitted his horrifying level of Devil Body. Only a small portion of his speed, strength, explosiveness, and Devil Qi could be utilized.

‘Seems like the only option is to create one myself. My way is the way of immense inner strength combined with a Devil Body—a way which no one has treaded before. My body is the strongest weapon, so I have no need for any extra weapons. With this in mind, I could draw inspiration from fist, palm, and leg forms. I could also benefit from examining the various force-controlling techniques and runes of various Secret Arts.’

Standing in the dark, Lu Sheng thought carefully for a while. Time slowly ticked by. After a long pause, he finally stopped thinking.

‘I can’t figure this any time soon, but I can definitely use the Cheating Device to evolve other skills! I just need more mental energy.’

Upon having that thought, Lu Sheng immediately summoned Deep Blue, inspecting all his close-quarter-combat skills in detail.

The skills that didn’t involve the flow of inner qi were mostly very basic skills like Heart-Shattering Palm, Double-Horned Blade, Precious Eight Steps, Crimson Whale Saber Technique, One Cross Hollow Steel Palm, Nine Palace Short Knife Forms, and others of the sort.

These martial art moves were the lowest level of ordinary skills that weren’t even at the level of Strength Circulation. Lu Sheng learned them way back when he was the sect leader of the Crimson Whale Sect, scouring the Northern Territories for martial arts moves.

‘The Strength Circulation 1 level enables the body to concentrate all of its inner qi and strength into one path. The Intent Proficiency level, at one level higher, can sharpen minds to understand the true meaning of martial arts. That goes along perfectly with my Devil Body. If so, I should select a strong enough True Purpose of Martial Art as reference, then evolve it into an ultimate killing move perfect for my Devil Body.’

Lu Sheng finally understood. After coming full circle, who would have thought that the most practical skills were the martial arts of mortals, of all things?

Simple and lacking any kind of inner Qi flow, and also containing only close quarter fighting moves… the idea behind them fitted Lu Sheng’s needs perfectly.

“Combine all power… ultimate killing strike… full potential” Lu Sheng continuously searched among all the martial arts he had ever encountered.

Soon, a knife form that he thought would be extremely well-suited for him came to his mind.

It was one of the strongest moves in the Crimson Whale Martial Arts Library. The one that his senior apprentice from the Crimson Sun Sect taught him to use against supernaturals.

Changing the Heavens In Seven Days Saber Technique.

This was a move that solely utilized inner Qi combined with physical strength and speed to maximize its efficiency. It had only one purpose: killing.

‘Changing the Heaven In Seven Days Saber Technique’s damage increases proportionally with speed and strength. I remember that I even used it a few times when I was burning liquid flame, and the damage was still very formidable. It’s definitely worthy, worthy for me to focus on leveling it up over others.

‘What about the Martial Art Truth? What kind should I choose that would fit my current power?’ Lu Sheng frowned.

He once again used the Cheating Device to evolve the skill. As long as he could imagine it, the Cheating Device could evolve it into an ultimate killing skill.

Suddenly, he recalled a scene that left a deep impression for him. It was a documentary about the explosion of solar systems that he watched in his past life on Earth.

The dream-like pitch-black void of space, filled with pink and blue hallow… so beautiful, yet so mysterious. Back when he watched that for the first time, he was shocked by that scene.

The horrifying image of a solar system with a supermassive black hole at its center, exploding in an instant.

According to the data collected, the black hole at the center of the explosion covered the volume of at least 3 billion stars, destroying the entire solar system.

The simulation supposedly replicated the explosion with 80% accuracy, perfectly utilizing the collected data. Even if it was just a rough model, it was more than enough to be the basis of Lu Sheng’s imagination.

“This anticipation… With this level of a Martial Art Truth, what kind of ultimate killing skill will come from it?” Lu Sheng’s expression turned eager.

Once he decided, Lu Sheng slowly walked towards the entrance to the next level while pressing the evolve button on the Cheating Device.

The Cheating Device’s window shook but stabilized swiftly.

Lu Sheng quickly found the Changing the Heaven in Seven Days Knife Form and pressed the evolve button under it.

“Hisss…”

Changing the Heaven in Seven Days Knife Form’s window blurred for a moment, and after spending about 30 units of Mental Energy, it finally cleared again.

“Changing the Heaven in Seven Days Knife Form: Unnamed third form. Special effect: concussion, extreme pressure, atmospheric rupture.”

All kinds of marvelous techniques began to unendingly pour into Lu Sheng’s mind. The evolution was, of course, based on his image of the exploding solar system.

Even the explosion of a supernova paled in comparison to this.

“From the third form on, Changing the Heaven in Seven Days Knife Form has reached a new level. It has incorporated many Prime Devil Secret Arts, and has even automatically changed its name to Seven Days Heavenly Devil Knife Form… Since the third form is based on the explosion of a solar system, might as well name it Death of Stars…”

Lu Sheng reached out with his right hand like he had done this a countless amount of times before. His arm suddenly transformed into a giant, three meter long black blade covered in countless amounts of shimmering blue starlight.

“Boom!!”

The knife violently slammed down.

The pitch-black cavern him all around fell silent.

“Boom!!”

A deafening explosion rang all around the cavern. The air turned white and a circle of gray radiated outward.

Rocks turned to powder, walls collapsed, and the ground splintered. Everything was shattered and torn apart. White remnants of the shock wave were everywhere, and everything seemed to be vibrating.

Dust, rocks, moss, and even unnamed contaminants, everything was broken into the finest particles and shaken up into the air.

Suddenly, the chasm split open in the ground, and a fountain of purple lava exploded out.

“Boom! Boom boom boom boom!!”

The entire cavern started to shake violently. The walls collapsed and the ground sunk. The cavern, thousands of meters in diameter, fell into an inferno. The altar at the center tilted and fell through the lava filled cracks, slowly sinking.

Lu Sheng knelt in place, the black knife still stabbed into the ground. Even he was shocked by what he just saw.

With just one knife strike, the entire cavern fell into a sea of purple flame.

These purple flames were the purest product of his Eight-Headed Divine Pearl, potent in both destructiveness and toxicity. It was a root level flame that could endanger even the Ancient Devil Snake Leopard.

But now, this purple flame somehow filled the whole cavern.

Time flew by, and only after a few breaths…

The walls of the cavern had disappeared… in its place were rivers of purple lava.

In the middle of the lava river, Lu Sheng rose slowly and surveyed his surroundings.

“This is the Death of Stars… The power of my full potential?!” With just one knife strike, the thousand meters of cavern all around him turned into a world of lava, burning and destroying everything!

Lu Sheng shocked even himself. He almost couldn’t believe that he could make such a knife strike.

He lifted up his palm. The black knife had faded away after the knife strike, but at the center of his palm still lingered strands of purple-black Devil Qi.

“Such strength…” He tapped his foot on the ground and floated up into the air.

“Hiss!”

A streak of black light flew flew into his hand.

“Hiss… Hiss, hiss, hisss…”

Then a second, third, and fourth.

Streak after streak of black lines flew from the lava all around him, all landing in the center of his right palm.

The lines converged, and soon gathered into a pitch-black Prime Devil Essence ball.

Purple smoke floated around the ball, surrounding it.

This was the Devil Essence from the devils killed by Lu Sheng’s knife. The Eight-Headed Devil Way converted all devils killed by it into Devil Essence. It was only obvious today since there were so many devils killed at once.

Hundreds and thousands of black lines streaked into Lu Sheng’s palm.

Above the purple lava, dense black lines that could cover the sky converged onto Lu Sheng like rivers flowing into the ocean, gathering in his right palm.

Almost as if he was in control of everything… like a god!