Way of the Devil

To have a solid base in the Great Yin after relocating a family and two forces—the Prime Devil Sect and the Crimson Sun Sect—Lu Sheng needed the people to accept them. Not only that, but also to give them a piece of cake. So, he needed to make sure that when they showed their fangs, they wouldn’t cross the baseline of the locals here.

So, after clearing the path, Lu Sheng made his way straight to the Great Yin, and prepared to continue clearing the road for the main group and create a place for themselves.

He had heard about the most powerful sect in this area, the Spring Sun Sect, from the hunters. Many wealthy and powerful families nearby wanted to send their children to the Spring Sun Sect. Within the nearest hundred li, getting into the Spring Sun Sect would provide the best future possible.

So, when Lu Sheng saw the people with the same tokens, he immediately thought of the Spring Sun Sect.

He stood up, stretching out his wrists and ankles, then started climbing the stone steps up the mountain.

After about an hour of walking on the stone steps, Lu Sheng unhurriedly came to the large temple. It was at the top of the mountain, old and simple.

There was a board across the temple, with three neat characters on it that Lu Sheng didn’t recognize.

Lu Sheng instantly saw the couple of people that just walked up. The congregated to the right of the temple doors, talking with a young Buddhist apprentice.

The sun was setting, and it was getting dark.

Lu Sheng walked to an isolated corner, and stopped under a tree, watching the rest of the people.

Soon, the temple opened its doors. The temples were weird, considering how they only opened at night.

People walked inside in order, donating money as the young apprentice indicated. Soon, it was the turn of the group that Lu Sheng had his eyes on.

“… Benefactor ¹ Wen, I haven’t seen you in a while…” From far away, Lu Sheng heard a welcoming priest greet that group of people respectfully.

A woman smiled, and said quietly, “I got bogged down by some matters in the sect. See, I came as soon as I could.”

The group of people entered the temple. They stayed inside for about ten minutes, then walked out.

The leader of the group was the woman who’d just spoken, but what was surprising was that the head priest walked them out.

Lu Sheng squinted as his sharp senses captured the conversation between the few people present.

“… Our Spring Sun Sect is very strict about not coming to the temple at night. If it weren’t for Senior Apprentice Brother Mu specifying that he wanted the blessed bronze coins from this place, we wouldn’t even have to travel this far,” a girl said in a low voice.

“Shh, lower your voice in case someone hears you.” The woman in the lead sighed. “Senior Apprentice Brother Mu has his reasons. The head priest here has strength in his stride and doesn’t seem like a false person to me, so he must have some sort of skill. Even if his blessing didn’t work, it wouldn’t be too far from a real one.”

“Sister Qingsu, you believe people too easily, it’s easy to get tricked that way,” the other girl added.

The head priest was standing right beside the two, but wasn’t mad when he heard the two woman call him useless. He just smiled.

“Okay, if so, we’ll be taking our leave.” The woman with Wen as her last name cupped her fists and led the rest down the mountain.

Suddenly, a sharp noise exploded.

“Whoosh!” A set of silver-blue steel needles shot into the ground in front of her, forming a straight line.

But the woman with the last name Wen had already jumped back, avoiding the steel needles. She turned around forcefully and threw something toward a corner.

“Whoosh!”

A silver-white light flashed.

An irritated handsome man walked out from the corner slowly. He was holding a short black sword that blocked all the sliver-white light with a silver-blue light.

“Wen Qingsu, it’s been a year since we last met. Do you know how I passed this year?” Underneath the man’s black jacket were layers and layers of white bandages.

“Devil’s Hand Scholar, you did appear after all…” Wen Qingsu responded coldly. “Brother Wen Ruo, you can come out now.”

Before she finished speaking, a tall jacked man walked out from the people slowly. His hair was graying, and he looked old.

“I will make you stay this time! Devil’s Hand Scholar!” The man snorted, and rushed up to attack.

The three started fighting in chaos. Lu Sheng watched from the side.

‘These three are mostly using a type of energy similar to Inner Qi. They can control it perfectly, so it must be some sort of complete art.’

As he was thinking, one of the three started the real fight. Wen Qingsu waved her hand, and large quantities of fine silver-white sand shot out in all directions.

But, the Devil’s Hand Scholar just laughed. A light blue halo appeared around him, blocking all of the sand. Then, he rushed up and punched Wen Qingsu hard in the stomach, his hand moving so fast that it left shadow fragments.

The other bulky man also landed a fist on the Devil’s Hand Scholar’s back, but the strong power didn’t seem to do anything. Instead, the Devil’s Hand Scholar converted the force into his punch on Wen Qingsu.

‘The winner has been decided.’ Watching to point, Lu Sheng got a grasp of how the Great Yin Dynasty fought. ‘Their martial arts don’t look like martial arts, yet their secret arts don’t look like secret arts, either. Instead, it looks like fancier martial arts. They don’t have any energy other than Inner Qi,’ Lu Sheng concluded. Watching Wen Qingsu cough up blood, a thought formed in his heart, and he melted into the shadows.

After winning, the Devil’s Hand Scholar laughed and then leapt up, disappearing into the forest.

Just because no one else could catch up to him didn’t mean Lu Sheng couldn’t. Moving his feet slightly, the force field from the blood net flew him toward the Devil’s Hand Scholar. He wasn’t sensing him through his senses, but instead, through the powerful Inner Qi in the other person’s body.

After turning making many turns through the forest, Lu Sheng soon caught up to the Devil’s Hand Scholar, who was panting slightly and taking a break.

From what Lu Sheng saw, although this Devil’s Hand Scholar seemed powerful, he was barely in the Realm of Snake. But, he had good techniques, and was able to use the strength from his opponent to greatly injure the enemy. Just from that, he had much talent and skill.

Lu Sheng squinted. If the Great Song people used their black membranes as brute force, then this Devil’s Hand Scholar broke open his black membrane and combined it to create a greater force and protection.

So, even though he was only level one in the Realm of Snake, he could deal out the same damage and defense as a level three person.

“Hi.” Lu Sheng spread out his arms to indicate that he didn’t want trouble and walked out from his hiding place. “I won’t hurt you, don’t worry. Can we talk?” He attempted a stiff smile.

The Devil’s Hand Scholar had just sat down cross-legged, and was about to mediate. Hearing the voice from behind him, he jumped and almost let his Inner Qi take a wrong path and go crazy.

After gasping for air and calming his jumpy heart, he turned around to look at Lu Sheng.

“You are?” He couldn’t sense this person even with his senses. That scared him.

“I’m just an ordinary person passing by, and I don’t know much about this place. Can you explain everything to me?” Lu Sheng walked in front of the Devil’s Hand Scholar.

“Ordinary… person?” The Devil’s Hand Scholar felt like he was lied to, but because the other person didn’t do anything, he couldn’t do anything, either. “What do you want to ask?” He could feel the frightening aura coming off of the other person. It was so strong and forceful, he had a hard time breathing.

Lu Sheng paused, then asked all the general questions about the geography and power and everything.

At first, the Devil’s Hand Scholar thought Lu Sheng was testing him, so he answered everything honestly because Lu Sheng was too powerful. Only after a while did he realize that Lu Sheng was seriously asking these questions.

He hurriedly answered each one, sometimes even explaining the details further.

“Sir… can I leave?” After finishing, the Devil’s Hand Scholar asked, cautiously.

“Of course.” Lu Sheng only stopped him to ask questions, and didn’t want to kill him.

From the Devil’s Hand Scholar, Lu Sheng found out that the most powerful sect around here was the Spring Sun Sect. There were even Elemental level people in some of their branches.

As for Elemental Level.

Most strong people were categorized into ordinary strong people, those who were famous in a small area, and those who were famous even across several cities.

And then, there were the ones that were so powerful that everyone in the nation would have heard of them.

To be honest, Elemental Level was the same thing as the Realm of Snake, but just in the Great Yin. They were the same as the people in the third category as they were powerful enough to rule over a city.

After hearing everything, Lu Sheng discovered that the Spring Sun Sect was actually a branch of a large sect that was everywhere across the nation. The sect here was only the branch of a branch.

In the Great Yin, all of the sects held tightly onto their territories. There were three large sects that covered everything; their branches were everywhere.

After letting the Devil’s Hand Scholar go, Lu Sheng sorted through all the information he got. If they wanted to completely merge into the Great Yin, they needed to work on these three large sects.

The Devil’s Hand Scholar knew the Spring Sun Sect very well as he was one of their wanted criminals. Originally, he was here to sabotage the annual Rising Sun Festival, where the Spring Sun Sect accepted new disciples.

However, he accidentally ran into Wen Qingsu, one of the main disciples. So, he bravely attacked her, wanting to take her down, but to no avail. Finally, he ran into Lu Sheng.

‘I still know the customs of neither the institutions nor the martial arts. Maybe I should infiltrate first and see.’

Lu Sheng wanted to learn the things here systematically, especially the martial arts over here.

“Rising Sun Festival… this is a chance.” The rules of the Rising Sun Festival were that you had to be under thirty and have talent and determination. Then, you might be accepted into the sect.

From every angle, Lu Sheng was only 23 years old. Perfect.

“I’m only 23…” Thinking about his age, Lu Sheng felt a bit surreal. 23… but if he added his years from his previous life, he would be over 50. He didn’t have the spirit that a 23 year old should have had.

“Okay. Since the Spring Sun Sect is a large sect, famous across the entire nation, I’ll join it and see.”

After getting near the Devil’s Hand Scholar and sensing his strength, Lu Sheng felt that the system here wasn’t the Inner Qi people in the Great Song used. Instead, it was a different type of Inner Qi, a purer and stronger form of energy.

He couldn’t increase his martial arts anymore, so this new situation here in the Great Yin could be perfect for him to get past this bottleneck.

Lu Sheng was a man of action. He left Sleeping Moon Mountain during the night, and after asking people and getting “friendly” directions from two mountain villages, he quickly found the place where the Rising Sun Festival would be held: Three Fruits Lake. He was soon on his way.

Following the main path, Lu Sheng saw a good amount of young people also hurrying toward Three Fruits Lake.

Even night trips couldn’t stop the passion burning in these young people’s hearts.

There were also carts full of children pulled by oxen. It looked like they also wanted to join the Spring Sun Sect.

From the Devil’s Hand Scholar, Lu Sheng knew this was very common in the Great Yin. Everyone worshipped martial arts. Even farmers and old guys would know some type of martial art, and a strong, untrained young man might not even be able to take down an elderly man.

Because of this, the three big sects weren’t just normal sects in the Great Yin. They were sacred places for learning.