Way of the Devil

“How troublesome…” Lu Sheng lifted himself out of the bathtub, wiping himself dry with a towel, and put on the clothes he had prepared.

He touched the faint red marks on his chest.

He gained a new form lately, the True Qi Form.

It was a special form achieved by repressing his true power even further with the basics of Extreme Yin Form. The power of it was at about one or two Veins.

After that was his Extreme Yin Form, then his normal form, then his Extreme Yang Form, and finally the Destroyer form that burned everything in its way.

Lu Sheng named the True Qi form as his first form, Extreme Yin as the second, his normal form as the third, Extreme Yang as the fourth, and the final Destroyer form as the fifth.

A total of five forms, each one stronger than the previous. The final Destroyer form represented his horrifying top-tier Devil King level power.

With his True Qi as a catalyst, his Inner Qi and Devil Essence were showing signs of integration. Lu Sheng noticed that if his True Qi could reach a level equivalent to his Devil Essence, there would be significant improvement made to his body on a fundamental level.

He went back to his room to rest after his shower. Early next morning, Elder Zhang Shilong found Lu Sheng to tell him the results of his test.

Aside from him, Song Du from the Song Family and Ma Sangjiu passed as well. The other two candidates failed, and could only become a normal inner sect disciple for starters.

Meanwhile, he and the other two who passed would immediately become direct disciples, and then travel to the secret area for their final test.

This time, Zhang Shilong came with a pretty woman with purple hair. The woman’s face was dull, and she seemed like a quiet person. She explained what Lu Sheng should do once he entered the secret area as they were on their way.

Lu Sheng finally had an understanding of what kind of place this secret area was.

The carriage soon reached a dark purple, five-story high, wooden building that looked like neither an inn nor a restaurant.

The three of them entered the circular purple lobby on the first floor of the building. Song Du and Ma Sangjiu, as well as the two elders accompanying them, were already there. Each was talking quietly with the elder who had accompanied him.

All of them nodded toward Lu Sheng in a greeting.

Zhang Shilong smiled back, and dragged Lu Sheng to the center of the lobby.

A huge circular piece of bronze was embedded into the ground. Countless unevenly sized horses were carved into it, covering the whole surface densely in all possible positions. It was quite a sight.

“No need to waste any more time. Everyone’s here, let’s start,” the female elder behind Ma Sangjiu said in a low voice.

“Agreed.”

“Agreed.”

Zhang Shilong and the other elder both nodded. They started to arrange Lu Sheng and the other two candidates into a triangle in the middle of the bronze formation.

“Now, if all three of you would please close your eyes and jump at the same time, on count of three.” Zhang Shilong instructed.

Lu Sheng and the other two candidates closed their eyes.

‘One.’

‘Two.’

‘Three!’

The three of them abruptly jumped up. A light breeze blew onto their faces as if their bodies had passed through a thin bubble.

“Snap.”

All three landed. When they opened their eyes, everything had changed.

The three of them stood in a dark cave, with the bronze formation of ten thousand horses still below their feet. The faint smell of grass mixed with a trace of a floral smell and fresh air came from outside of the cave, clearing everyone’s heads.

“I will leave first…” Song Du let out a dry laugh as if he didn’t want to look at Lu Sheng. He hurried to run out of the cave, disappearing into the surrounding woods.

Ma Songjiu, on the other hand, looked toward Lu Sheng with a mild expression.

“Young Master Lu, this test in the secret area only requires you to stay here for a period of time. Many senior masters from the main sect live in seclusion here, so this is a great opportunity for us. Don’t miss out.”

“Thanks for the heads-up.” Lu Sheng nodded in response to her kind comment.

Ma Sangjiu nodded back, then quickly left the cave as well.

Only Lu Sheng was left.

He took a heavy breath and raised his head to look at the top of the cave like he could see past it and into the endless sky.

“The concentration of the Essence Qi here… how…”

He didn’t even think that this level of concentration of Essence Qi could be possible.

Any breath he took was equivalent to the total amount he normally absorbed in a month. His body was already swelling from just the short amount of time since he entered.

Vast amounts of Essence Qi flowed into him like an ocean, nourishing his body that was in a constant state of hunger.

“If I could stay here to cultivate, how much less time would I have to spend to reach Devil King level of True Qi cultivation…” Lu Sheng sighed, then slowly walked out of the cave.

The Essence Qi outside was even more concentrated.

A wave of white clouds slowly floated past him.

“Puff.”

Lu Sheng grabbed one abruptly.

“What?” The cloud suddenly turned around, and showed a poker face that seemed paralyzed.

A cloud with a paralyzed poker face, floating randomly mid air…

Lu Sheng’s expression stiffened, and he unconsciously released the cloud.

“Sorry.”

“No problem. Don’t be so dumb next time.” The cloud turned around and floated off into the distance.

Lu Sheng’s face was still stiff from that encounter. He walked forward a few steps and noticed that as long as he left the clouds alone, they wouldn’t bother him, either, and would eventually dissipate like normal clouds.

He walked in the woods for a while. He followed Elder Zhang Shilong’s instructions, and soon found a blue circular lake.

The water rippled in the wind. There were even deer and calves drinking water on the edge. Dragonflies and birds occasionally pecked the lake surface.

Lu Sheng didn’t hurry, either. Instead, he sat beside the lake, closing his eyes, and started to cultivate the Spring Sun Mind Fixing Mantra. This True Qi technique had only six tiers, and he had already reached the third, while his True Qi level had reached single vein of Bind level.

The bottleneck of Spring Sun Mind Fixing Mantra, at least for Lu Sheng, was the lack of Essence Qi.

But here, it was different. The concentration of Essence Qi in this secret area had reached a shocking level. Even the clouds and mist formed by this amount of Essence Qi gained sentience.

‘Show off your talent. If it’s enough, you will draw the attention of a senior master who lives there in seclusion.’ Lu Sheng thought back to the purple haired woman’s explanation.

He closed his eyes and concentrated his mind deep within him.

The whole point as to why he came to the Great Yin was not to cultivate like a normal person, but to gather vast amounts of resources and use the Cheat Device to reach the top.

“Deep blue.”

“Swish.”

The window of the Cheat Device appeared in front of him.

Lu Sheng’s gaze under his closed eyes quickly landed on the Spring Sun Mind Fixing Mantra window.

“Improve the Spring Sun Mind Fixing Mantra to the fourth tier.” He concentrated his mind onto the window and paused for a moment.

“Swish.”

The window blurred, then cleared. The contents also changed from third tier to fourth tier.

‘Spring Sun Mind Fixing Mantra: Tier four, special effect: Essence Qi absorption level four, mind strengthening level four, max True Qi storage permanently raised to level four.’

This thing was actually only a basic technique, where the only use for it was the permanent increase in max True Qi storage. The other two improvements seemed trivial.

As soon as the window cleared, Lu Sheng felt the surrounding Essence Qi become dense once again.

A golden wire started to appear above his head, absorbing the white Essence Qi around him at lightning speed.

The Essence Qi was too concentrated, to the point where the gold wire didn’t even need to actively absorb it—countless Essence Qi simply just rushed into it.

“Improve the Spring Sun Mind Fixing Mantra to tier five.” With a sufficient amount of Essence Qi, Lu Sheng wasn’t stingy, and improved his techniques as much as possible.

The window blurred with a hiss, and then cleared.

‘Spring Sun Mind Fixing Mantra: tier five, special effect: Essence Qi absorption level five, mind strengthening level five, max True Qi storage permanently increased to level five.’

The golden wire on top of Lu Sheng started to visibly become thicker and shinier.

A vast amount of Essence Qi surged into the golden wire, into this substance that seemed like an endless sink. The golden wire slowly turned into a dark gold color, while its length had increased substantially as well.

“Improve to tier six.” Lu Sheng still wasn’t satisfied. With the strength of his body, the scouring of Essence Qi wasn’t even a burden.

“Hiss!!”

A sliver of a Essence Qi pillar started to spin on top of his head. Vast amounts of Essence Qi continued to surge into the golden wire like an oceanic current.

***

Su Ningfei sat in a secret cave at the bottom of a lake.

The gray Essence Qi pillar spun slowly on her head. Vast amounts of Essence Qi were constantly being absorbed by a dark gold crescent moon above her.

Suddenly, the Essence Qi pillar shook a little.

“Someone is breaking through?” Su Ningfei slowly opened her eyes, and looked as if her sight could pierce through walls and see Lu Sheng absorbing Essence Qi on the surface.

“A little guy… great potential. Too bad…” Too bad he was here, during her daily Essence Qi absorption routine. Otherwise, the concentration of Essence Qi would be even higher.

‘I’ll compensate somewhat and give him some guidance,’ Su Ningfei thought.

She had cultivated here rigorously for nearly three hundreds years by now. Three hundreds years of sitting in the same cross-legged position was something few could accomplish even in the secret area.

“Whoosh.”

Suddenly, the Essence Qi pillar on top of her head shook again.

‘This much strength? Interesting.’ She was a little surprised. ‘That should attract the attention of some of the younger generation… maybe someone will come out and guide him.’

She had witnessed similar situations countless times already.

‘Not bad strength, but still far from enough.’ Su Ningfei saw the ripple in the pillar of Essence Qi smooth itself, then she closed her eyes again. What level was she at? And what level was that little guy at? The difference between the two was way too big, to the point where it couldn’t even be compared.

‘You should be proud of yourself for this.’ Su Ningfei smiled with some appreciation.

“Whoosh.”

Suddenly, another ripple came from afar. Her Essence Qi pillar started to shake again.

‘Again?’ Su Ningfei Shook her head. ‘What a stubborn little guy. When my master tried to snatch my Essence Qi at his age, I didn’t even—’

“Puff!”

The pillar of Essence Qi twisted and snapped in two, like it was dragged away by its waist by an invisible hand.

The time it took for the Essence Qi pillar to bend, snap, and then fly away took only about one breath. Then, it disappeared without a trace.

“…”

“Crack.”

Cracks split apart the bedrock.

Su Ningfei stood up expressionlessly.

‘Seems like people have forgotten the old pain while I was absent.’ She stepped forward, her lower body showing beheath her black dress. But, in place her legs were countless ferocious black roots.