Way of the Devil

 After Lu Sheng came out of the True Essence Tower, it was evening already. Lu Sheng had stayed three hours on the eighth floor, which translated to 24 hours on the outside.

Any ordinary Bind level person, provided their Black Membrane was still intact, could have recovered fully in that time, let alone Lu Sheng, who wasn’t even injured.

He went straight for his house after exiting and re-examined the slate in detail. The mark on there was definitely made by a knife, and not a sword.

Lu Sheng quietly put back the slate and sat on the ground. A sliver of confusion lingered in his heart.

If the slate Su Ningfei gave him was fake, then how did he break through to Devil Master?

Lu Sheng thought about it carefully on the ground, and suddenly remembered his best advantage: Deep Blue Cheating Device.

This cheat engine he’d once programed for his phone surprised even its creator with its sheer effectiveness.

‘The Devil Master level is more of a fundamental change on the mental level, and is achieved after the mind and spirit have been strengthened to a certain level. This much should be true.’ Lu Sheng thought back to Weapon Master and the model of Chaos Divine Weapon.

‘This world is wholly based on Divine Weapons and Devil Blades, while everything else is merely derived from them. The reason why Devil Masters can control Divine Weapons and Devil Blades, aside from their superior life form level, is the fundamental improvements made to their minds. Almost to the point where they could be materialized.

‘Only then could the savage and unstable Divine Weapons and Devil Blades be controlled.’

Lu Sheng’s eyes were closed, but ideas were constantly popping into his head.

‘I was able to break through to Devil Master firstly because Deep Blue evolved the Star Moving Knife Mantra to an unimaginable level, which in turn also elevated my mental state to an absurd level.

‘Then, secondly, the Star Moving Knife Mantra had very few tiers of its own, and hence even less of a limitation. It only has two very generic effects like speed and mind improvement, but it had a wide range of possibilities ahead of it precisely because of that.’

He finally understood.

‘If that was indeed what happened, then the simpler the technique, the higher I could evolve it.’ He suddenly had the urge to test this theory on a very basic technique, but, unfortunately, he had spent all his Mental Energy on the Star Moving Knife Mantra.

‘I must find a time to test this.’ Lu Sheng calmed down.

He didn’t even have the time to inspect his body in detail yet since his breakthrough. Back in the True Spirit Tower, he’d focused all his attention on understanding the principles behind it. Now that he finally had the time, he slowly focused his mind on his own body.

First came the dark red triangular pattern floating in a black void. The snake-like pattern shone with a faint golden light, constantly spinning around in the darkness.

This pitch-black void in his body technically didn’t exist there. Lu Sheng sensed around carefully before realizing this space was like a shadow that overlapped with his body. It existed in the middle of his body, yet had no physical manifestation; it was as if his body was linked to an unknown space.

‘Triangular symbol… seems like I really am getting closer to Divine Weapons and Devil Blades.’ He remembered that the grand elder from the Prime Devil Sect had once told him all Divine Weapons and Devil Blades were marked with a triangular symbol.

He reached out with his palm, which turned red and hot as he concentrated his mind. Its strength and temperature increased at a rapid rate. Under the effect of his mind, slivers of invisible currents followed a certain natural pattern and concentrated around his palm.

“Concentrate.” Lu Sheng’s eyes suddenly focused.

“Hisss…”

The air around concentrated in an instant, and a vast amount of white steam spun around the center of his palm. It was quickly compressed into a milky-white crystal prism and slowly floated in midair. A faint dark red snake-like triangular pattern appeared on its surface.

This was the Spirit Crystal Lu Sheng created by concentrating his spirit and mind. He felt tired after creating it. It also seemed like an unconscious act.

‘How terrifying… This little Spirit Crystal could at least make everything in a five-meter-radius extinct,’ Lu Sheng thought whole-heartedly. But that was all he could make at this time.

The part that surprised him the most was the fact that he didn’t control the process of creating it. It seemed to have formed naturally after he released enough spirit and mind energy.

He didn’t know if other Devil Masters experienced the same thing, but if he released too much of his Spirit Energy, it would automatically form into this crystal prism.

After playing with the crystal for a while, Lu Sheng lightly dissipated and reabsorbed it. In his current state, he could create at most one. More would be a detriment.

‘The multiple forms didn’t change, but seemed to have achieved a better affinity with each other, like they are slowly integrating into one.’ Lu Sheng wasn’t sure what kind of process it was, either, but he felt like it was bound to happen.

‘The strength of my Spirit improved and the strength of my body didn’t change. In terms of raw power, my Devil Essence and Inner Qi liquid were improved. In other words, I could unleash even more devastating attacks, but the body that serves as a container wasn’t strengthened.’ Lu Sheng understood the connections. ‘Forget it. I will go see Su Ningfei first.’

He closed his eyes and chanted Su Ningfei’s titles.

Soon, a wave of vague force pulled him at him. His shape sitting on the floor started to become blurry before eventually disappearing.

***

The secret area.

Lu Sheng slowly opened his eyes and immediately saw Su Ningfei, who was casually reading a book next to him.

She didn’t talk and simply leaned lazily on the rock wall. Roots came out from her skirt and supported her body.

She wore a black dress, while her long, slim jade-like white legs were the only bright colors in the otherwise dim cave.

Lu Sheng slowly walked up with the slate in his hand.

“Master…”

“You found the person?” Su Ningfei put down her book and glanced at him. Suddenly, her expression changed. “Huh? You broke through!?”

Her face was strange as if she wanted to say something but didn’t know how.

Lu Sheng pretended not to notice and respectfully offered the slate.

“All thanks to master’s gift. Please take back the slate, Master,” he said seriously.

Su Ningfei’s beautiful eyes narrowed slightly and stared silently at Lu Sheng.

“I didn’t plan to give you this slate on purpose. It was already too late when I realized. I wanted to give you the right one the next time you came in, but you somehow broke through?” A Devil Master meant nothing to her. Even the Thousand Sun Sect had many. She was just curious on how Lu Sheng did it.

“Master, you worry too much. If not for this slate, your disciple wouldn’t have made the breakthrough so quickly,” Lu Sheng answered calmly. “The ultimate way described here had opened your disciple’s eyes and allowed him to have a deeper understanding. After that, your disciple sailed smoothly, and finally broke through the limit after establishing a solid base.”

“The ultimate… way?” Su Ningfei’s eyes looked strange. She suspiciously reached and took the slate to inspect it in detail, yet didn’t notice anything special about it.

Her expression immediately turned strange.

“Your disciple would like to thank for master’s good intentions. I understand techniques such as this shouldn’t be taught lightly, and I appreciate the master’s guidance through this method. It is because of this that I was able to break through. I will remember this great favor and will pay the master back in the future,” Lu Sheng announced clearly with a face filled with sincerity.

“You think too much. Even as your master, I didn’t expect you to have such an opportunity.” Looking at the poor kid who was misguided a little too far by her, Su Ningfei felt a rare pang of guilt.

She hadn’t intended to guide him to the “ultimate way” at all. It was all a ruse to grab the attention of Lu Sheng so he could help her outside. Who would have expected him to actually break through?

“If you understood your master’s effort, you must also have realized that there are no tricks in cultivation. Everything must be done in a steady manner, and you must not attempt to find any shortcuts.

“Now that you have successfully qualified for the sect’s contest, why come here? What do you need?” Su Ningfei asked again.

“There is something. This is brand new territory for me and I am confused about many things. I hope master could inform me on some of the taboos, or benefits and unwritten rules of this level,” Lu Sheng asked truthfully. This was his intention all along.

Su Ningfei nodded. She still looked at Lu Sheng weirdly, but his achievements were still acceptable. After all, her backstory was even more mysterious. On top of that, she was at the upper limit of Weapon Master level the moment she entered the Great Yin and could step into the next level at any moment.

Even though this step stopped 90% of the Weapon Masters, there was nothing else to say since she did break through.

“Of course, since you have reached this level, I will explain to you the characteristic of the Holy Master tier and how you should treat people of the same level.” Su Ningfei felt she owed Lu Sheng, and wanted to make it up to him somehow. Hence, she didn’t try to trick him anymore and started to truthfully teach him on how to interact with other Holy Masters.

“I’m waiting for Master’s guidance.” Lu Sheng lowered his head in respect.

“Come and sit down. You have earned the right to sit down in front of me, no need to be formal anymore. This is only one of my clones, my actual body is tens of thousand of meters away and can’t move easily,” Su Ningfei said lightly.

“Thank you, Master.”

The two waked to the platform and sat across from each other.

“Devil Master and Holy Master both describe the same tier. The so-called Chaos Divine Weapon, or the Ferocious Weapon, are also the same thing.

“Below that are Weapon Masters, then Earth Level’s 9 tiers separated into upper, middle, and lower.

“For all intents and purposes, us Holy Masters are at the top of Human World. We are the strongest people aside from Weapon Masters. You’ve heard of that before, right?” Su Ningfei asked lightly.

“Yes.” Lu Sheng nodded.