Way of the Devil

“Bang!”

A teacup was thrown onto a wooden table ferociously by a palace bodyguard of the Autumn Moon County.

A muscular man with a cross-shaped scar on his face stared at the branches swaying in the wind outside the windows with a cold expression.

“What the hell do the people from the sects want this time? Trying to assassinate people right off the street?! Before, they’d even gather their elite forces hastily all the time. Have they forgotten the laws of the emperor??” the man said while suppressing his anger, but this “anger” felt vaguely fake, as if he was just making a show.

Another man was sitting in the living room—an elderly man with a white beard. He held a steaming cup of tea in his hands and was sipping it slowly.

“No need to be angry, Brother Wang. I have sent a letter to the Thousand Sun Sect as I saw fit. All this was only a misunderstanding. The assassination even more so. No one wants to stir up a fight for no reason.” He casually took another sip of tea.

“I’m not overreacting. The population of the county capital is at least in the tens of millions, and any major incident must be treated carefully. Not to mention, the incident happened in the busiest part of the city, which reflects really badly on our bad part,” the muscular man said grudgingly. He, of course, knew that the elderly man was heavily involved in the three major sects. But he represented the government—the three noble families. Incidents in the busiest part of the capital not only disrupted the lives of ordinary citizens, but also harmed the noble families. As such, he had to make his attitude clear.

The elderly man smiled.

“I, of course, understand. I will talk to the three major sects. I guarantee there will be no further incidents like this, so you can rest assured.

“I’ll let this pass, Old Zhao, since you’ve just promised.” The muscular man nodded. “Then let us go back to the topic we were discussing beforehand.”

“Of course… The source of the strange scent in the city. We must find it soon.” Speaking of this, the elderly man’s mild and smiling face turned serious.

“I have checked seventy percent of the streets and sewers. Still nothing. The rest might be difficult. Those are all the properties of powerful officials and families.” The muscular man frowned. “I can’t deploy the Yangming Force for this, and could only tell the Yinfu Force to keep an eye on it. The Turquoise Conch Agency hasn’t responded yet, either.”

“The Turquoise Conch is an entirely separate agency; only they themselves know if there’s any news.” Old Zhao shook his head. “The three sects are better suited for this sort of stuff than the government. I’ll invite some of my acquaintances to discuss it, and hopefully can give you a response soon.”

“As long as you are on it!” The man nodded.

***

Lu Sheng sat in his courtyard with his legs crossed. The moonlight shone onto his body and the surrounding walls and slates, making the quiet place even spookier.

Occasionally, the sound of rippling water would come from inside the well in the middle of the courtyard.

Suddenly, a sudden flurry of whispers could be heard from Lu Sheng. He sat there with his legs crossed, and two streams of white steam slowly floating out of his nose. The streams of steam slowly floated behind him like ropes, then disappeared.

The steam endlessly appeared and disappeared. The whole process was tedious and dull, but Lu Sheng wasn’t bored at all.

Time slowly passed, and an hour flew by before noticing.

“Whoosh.”

Finally, the white steam flowing out of Lu Sheng’s nose started to dissipate, and a sliver of golden light abruptly appeared behind him.

Lu Sheng slowly opened his eyes, and then let out a huge sigh of relief.

“This Light of the Great Sun Technique is truly remarkable. I’ve just barely gotten started after all that time of cultivation.” Similar to the Inner Technique, True Qi Technique required Lu Sheng to have a sliver of Qi sense and be started with the cultivation process before the Cheating Device could be used to evolve and improve it.

“Deep Blue.” Lu Sheng summoned the Cheating Device.

After so many years with Lu Sheng, the appearance of the Cheating Device had changed slightly. The colors on the windows had disappeared, and were now a less fancy half-clear gray color.

Lu Sheng scrolled down the windows one by one, and soon found the one for Light of the Great Sun Technique.

‘Light of the Great Sun Technique: beginner, (total of five tiers), special effect: Pure Gold True Qi beginner level. Mind stabilization.’

“Pure Gold True Qi….” Lu Sheng clearly felt the True Qi inside of him turning to a faint gold color as if there were golden sand mixed in once he started with the Light of the Great Sun Technique.

He reached out with his hand, and a thin layer of fine, light-gold sand gradually seeped out from his hand.

“This is the so-called Pure Gold True Qi? The foundation of Light of the Great Sun Technique? ” Lu Sheng frowned. This was the first time he didn’t understand something, namely how this True Qi from Light of the Great Sun Technique was created.

‘ According to records, people with bloodlines possess three more pressure points, and those are outside of the body rather than inside.

‘One of them, an inch away from the center of abdomen, is required for the Light of the Great Sun Technique. The Essence Qi, or other True Qi, in the body will be converted by the circulation of special bloodlines inside one’s body, and then spread outside of the body by the way of liver and heart. It will then be able to be infused into this pressure point, and finally be converted to Pure Gold True Qi through the support of spoken spells .’ Lu Sheng recalled the whole cultivation process.

The cultivation process for True Qi technique was far more complicated than that of the Inner Qi techniques and Devil Essence. It involved blood vessels, organs, pressure points outside of the human body, and even spells.

Every single one of the steps needed to be followed rigorously, and according to the records, one mistake could drastically change the end result.

Lu Sheng squeezed the light-gold True Qi in his hand, then casually spread it on the ground.

The little amount of True Qi from his hours of rigorous cultivation instantly floated lightly to the ground like grains of sand.

Soon, Lu Sheng observed that the ground and slates touched by the True Qi started to turn red, heat up, and emit waves of heat. The grass and lichen dried and curled up, soon burnt black. Some of the night dew even evaporated.

‘ Another move that uses high temperature to deal damage ?’ Lu Sheng thought.

The many Inner Qi techniques he cultivated—and even the Ultimate Eight-Headed Devil Way from the Prime Devil Sect—were all related to heat.

He didn’t expect that even after disguising himself in the Great Yin, he’d still cultivate high temperature related True Qi.

“Now that I got it started, should I just improve it in one breath, or…” Lu Sheng still had to take into account the attention he might draw if he advanced abnormally quickly.

He hesitated, then took out a brand-new red and yellow notebook, and wrote a mess of keywords that no one but him could discern.

All of these were the techniques he got from his Master Heining, which, unlike the Light of the Great Sun Technique, focused on a completely different pressure point. Both could be cultivated at the same time.

The little notebook was just in case he forgot something. He intentionally only wrote down a few keywords, so only he could understand them.

“Way of the Hollow Spirit… what a magnificent name. Time to find out how effective it actually is, though.” Lu Sheng knew that the mode of cultivation for the Thousand Sun Sect was to focus on one main technique and whatever side techniques that he liked. As long as you had enough potential, you could cultivate as many side techniques as you wanted.

“Boom, boom, boom.”

Suddenly, a light knock came from outside the gate.

“Who is it?” Lu Sheng turned his focus in the direction of the gate. It was not yet deep into the night, only about eight or nine PM. For the people of the Autumn Moon County Capital, their night lives had just started.

Even in the courtyard, Lu Sheng could vaguely hear the sound of dancing, drinking, and singing in the air.

“Junior Apprentice Brother Lu, I am Yang Xu. Is Elder Zhang Shilong with you?” A man’s powerful yet mild voice came from outside the gate.

“Yang Xu?” Lu Sheng stood up quickly and waved toward the gate.

“Creak…”

The gate opened. A man with a slim, balanced body and a square face cupped his fists, then walked inside.

If it weren’t for the thick aura of Pure Gold True Qi surrounding this man, he could be mistaken for an ordinary story-teller.

Judging from his face and demeanor, his manner didn’t seem to fit the image of a direct disciple of the Thousand Sun Sect.

But Lu Sheng knew that this Yang Xu was the number one direct disciple within the Autumn Moon County Capital. The sect had basically chosen him to be the future sect master of the capital branch of the Autumn Moon County.

“If it isn’t Senior Apprentice Brother Yang Xu. I have admired you for a long time. My apologies for my disrespect.” Lu Sheng greeted him with a smile.

“You are too kind. I’m the one who should be admiring you, Junior Apprentice Brother.” Yang Xu laughed wearily. “I just wanted to inform Junior Apprentice Brother of your assigned track-and-destroy mission. Usually, Elders Chen and Yan would be responsible for this, but I was drinking wine nearby, and was about to come drink with Elder Zhang, so I thought I might inform you since I’d be coming along anyways.”

“How casual of Senior Apprentice Brother.” Lu Sheng smiled. “Why not have a few drinks inside?”

“Umm… I’m going to pass. To be honest, with how notorious Junior Apprentice Brother’s master is, I’m a little scared of even talking so closely; if I had to drink…” Yang Xu waved his hand with a weary laugh. “You probably haven’t heard, but your predecessor had accidently killed two digits worth of fellow apprentice brothers and sisters with just drinking alone…”

“Huhhh…” At this point, Lu Sheng finally understood where the notoriety of his cheap Master Heining came from.

“This is the mission handbook, do remember to burn it after you read it.” Yang Xu handed Lu Sheng the little pack he had over his back. After Lu Sheng accepted it, he rubbed his hand. “Alright, that’s that. I’m going to go back now. Junior Apprentice Brother Lu is truly hardworking, still cultivating at this hour.”

Lu Sheng made some modest response, and the two didn’t talk for much longer before parting.

Yang Xu turned, then left the courtyard, and promptly got on a normal-looking carriage. Lu Sheng could see people laughing and talking inside it.

“Brother Yang, you done yet? Hurry! We are all waiting for you. What were we talking about again?” someone shouted.

Lu Sheng glanced at the men inside the carriage, and surprisingly noticed they were all ordinary people. Not a single trace of any special aura.

Yang Xu, on the other hand, waved his hand as he climbed back on. He started playing drinking games with the party as they slowly left along the street.

Lu Sheng closed the gate. Originally, he had doubts as to whether to improve his techniques so quickly, but after seeing Yang Xu, his hesitation subsided. Even as the first direct disciple, Yang Xu was still keeping this low of a profile.

‘ I have endured for so long, so I can’t fail on this step .’

He returned to his original spot, then closed his eyes, and sat down again to continue the cultivation of the Light of the Great Sun Technique. Vast amounts of Essence Qi started to be absorbed, surging down into his head. The golden wire amidst the Essence Qi slowly floated around.

Unlike the Great Song, the Great Yin didn’t lack prodigies at all. As long as his progress was stable, hidden, and not too unbelievable, he should be fine.

He quickly focused on the Light of the Great Sun Technique.

“Improve to tier one.” Lu Sheng stared at the window.

A moment later.

“Hiss…”

The window for Light of the Great Sun Technique started to blur, and cleared up again after a few breaths. A golden light flashed on top of Lu Sheng.