Way of the Devil

“Tap, tap, tap…”

A woman, her face covered in a black veil and her body surrounded by dense roots, slowly walked out of the shadows accompanied by crisp footsteps.

Most of her face was covered with the veil, with only her eyes exposed. Those eyes were like lightless black holes—no pupils or eyeballs, only the purest black.

“Master.” Lu Sheng bowed slightly out of respect. He respected the powerful, be it because of strength or intellect.

Su Ningfei nodded before her eyes silently fell on the weak-looking girl.

“Had enough time to play?”

The girl’s body trembled as big teardrops rolled down her face.

“Mother… I…”

Su Ningfei didn’t waste her time talking, and instead raised her hand. “These people waste too much of your time, to the point where you even seemed to have stopped caring about your mother. They deserve to die!”

A dark golden crescent moon gradually appeared on her forehead.

“No!!” The girl charged in front of her and spread her arms. “No! Mother, it wasn’t them!”

“Yuanyuan…” Qiong Shang lowered his head in shame. He wanted to charge out as well, but Li Shunxi tightly clamped his shoulder.

“Don’t go. Anything you do now would only anger her mother.” Lin Shunxi knew full well that no matter what, someone that could become the master of a monster like Lu Sheng was not going to be a kind person. Combined with what she just said, it was obvious killing was like cutting grass for her.

“Good… Yuanyuan… you even learned to disobey me… for these useless trash…” Su Ningfei’s chest rose and fell, obviously very emotional. “Do you see hope because that b*tch’s sister got out, and you want to find your father now!? Tell me! Am I right!!”

“No… I wouldn’t…” The girl shook her head in a frenzy.

“Do you not want me anymore? You are going to find your dad’s little b*tch! I knew it! I knew it!! That b*tch… Her daughter has made moves already, there is no way she would spare me, no way! Because I killed him, killed my husband… Tell me! You want to find her, don’t you!”

“I didn’t… Mother…” The girl sobbed.

“You did!!”

“Bam!”

Su Ningfei emotions ran wild, and she grabbed toward everyone behind the girl.

“Die you little b*tch!!!”

The immense, shapeless shock wave quickly shaped into countless sharp roots, went past the girl, and spiked toward everyone else like a wave.

Even stranger was the fact that everyone, including Li Shunxi, could only watch as the roots stabbed toward their heads, unable to resist at all as if their bodies had been restrained by some kind of invisible force.

“Bam!!”

Suddenly, a huge hand grabbed Su Ningfei’s wrist from the side. All the roots disappeared like they were never there.

“Master, calm down.” Lu Sheng had somehow moved beside Su Ningfei. If not for his intervention, everyone present aside from the girl would have died.

“Are you siding with the little b*tch too?!” Su Ningfei’s face twisted in rage. The roots that surrounded her endlessly poured out around her and startled Sage Tinhe so much he quickly flew back a couple hundred meters.

But Prince Wu Yuan and the man with soft voice weren’t that fortunate. Soon, they were easily wrapped tightly inside layers of roots, covering even their faces.

“Calm down, Master.” Lu Sheng right hand was like an iron clamp, steadily holding onto Su Ningfei’s arm. “That’s your daughter, not some random person. Do you want her to hate you for eternity by killing her friend like that?” Lu Sheng guessed the girl’s identity easily from their conversation.

He saw that Su Ningfei was about to lose control. Even though it was only a clone, he still didn’t want to fight a monster who had lived for who knew how long.

He only broke through to the Holy Master level not long ago, and only possessed a mere Golden Leaf Divine Weapon—one that wasn’t even fully contracted at that. He was at the bottom of Holy Master level.

Even if his situation was special, other Holy Masters couldn’t unleash their power without Divine Weapons, hence why many of them only climbed up to the Holy Master level after obtaining a Divine Weapon.

As for him, he became a Holy Master before getting a Divine Weapon.

But that didn’t mean he was arrogant enough to think he was on par with Su Ningfei.

After that, Su Ningfei took a deep breath, fell silent, and finally calmed down.

“Release me.” She glanced at Lu Sheng.

Lu Sheng slowly released her hand and stepped two steps back.

“Master, do me a favor and let these two live.” His expression was calm.

Su Ningfei narrowed her eyes and gave a deathly stare to Lu Sheng.

Lu Sheng returned the stare, and the two didn’t speak for a while. But the air around Lu Sheng started to turn scorching hot, while the ground around Su Ningfei started to frost.

Cold and hot, two totally different forces had started a natural chain reaction around them despite the fact that neither of them moved.

After a while, Su Ningfei let out a cold humph, grabbed her daughter, and disappeared into thin air. Judging by the ripple, she went back to the Secret Area.

Lu Sheng stood in place and poked around with his senses. He only turned toward Li Shunxi and his companions after making sure she truly left.

“What are you waiting for?” he urged.

Like they had just woken up from a nightmare, the two sprinted out the exit.

Sage Tianhe slowly landed and cupped his fists toward Lu Sheng.

“I am Tianhe. I respectfully greet Senior.”

“Your bloodline had reached its peak concentration. You could become a Weapon Master at any time. Why not…?” Lu Sheng stared at Sage Tianhe, confused.

“My family’s Divine Weapon shattered… I was only able to reach this point after absorbing all the Divine Weapon shards implanted in me. Because of the uniqueness of Divine Weapon bonds, it would be impossible for me to bond with a second one… I have given up on that long ago,” Sage Tianhe said respectfully.

“Go. Find a safe place to settle them. Make sure it’s well hidden,” Lu Sheng said flatly. “Tianhe, you can take care of it yourself. And remember to keep what happened today a secret.”

“Rest easy, Senior, I will make sure no one finds out…” He unconsciously glanced at the place where Prince Wu Yuan had stood. Not a scrap of cloth was left.

Su Ningfei’s brother was the Thousand Sun Sect’s only Weapon Master. Lu Sheng asked around and easily found about that piece of love story.

Sage Tianhe, as well as the two youths, left the plaza and soon arrived at the least used street of the inner sect.

A blockade had been formed long ago on the street. Special ribbons made by Thousand Sun Sect specially for this purpose hung on both sides.

Tianhe, however, wasn’t fazed at all, just as if he was used to it already.

He walked inside a small courtyard, moved aside some rockery, and exposed a silver trap door beneath. The three of them entered into an underground rock chamber through it.

Many purple-red oval-shaped gems were embedded into the walls, emitting a faint purple glow.

“The two of you could stay here for now,” Tianhe said carefully. “This is the most secure location on Thousand Sun Sect’s grounds. It was prepared for an old master who had passed away, and was abandoned thereafter. Nearly everyone has forgotten about this place already. I only remembered this by chance.”

“Sure.” Lu Sheng nodded and looked at Li Shunxi and Qiong Shang.

“Brother Sheng, you won’t be affected by this, right?” Li Shunxi said solemnly. “Qiong Shang was framed because he possesses a legendary Divine Weapon or Devil Blade that supposedly surpasses Divine Intellect grade. He fell from a prince of the Great Yin to this wretched state because of it.”

“Don’t worry.” Lu Sheng shook his head and smiled. “The notoriety of my master would turn away the majority of the trouble, but you shouldn’t stay here for too long. A Divine Weapon that surpasses the Divine Intellect Grade… It might very well attract the attention of Holy Masters.”

“We will leave as soon as things calm down!” Qiong Shang responded immediately. “If not for this master, we would all be….”

He paused.

“But rest assured, there will be someone here for us soon. Soon. We won’t bother you for long.”

Li Shunxi sighed, and sent his voice directly to Lu Sheng. “One of his royal brothers sent people for him already. He was the one that entrusted him with the Divine Weapon in the first place, but… someone leaked the information and caused this entire incident.”

He paused before going on, “Since I saw Brother Sheng here, I must warn you—the Great Yin isn’t a safe place anymore. The nobles and the imperial court all need a vast amount of resources. Even though they are extracting resources from Outer Worlds, they are exhausting far more than they are gaining. Hence, the Human World actually does need an expansive war to eliminate some of the middle to upper powers that have hoarded resources for too long… This inter-world war that serves to rebalance these powers is inevitable.”

This was the first time Lu Sheng heard the theory. A war to fight for resources, and also to eliminate world powers that had become too powerful.

“I understand. Rest well. I still have something to take care of, we will talk again later.” He glanced at Sage Tianhe. This one voluntarily helped Qiong Shang, proving he was indeed trustworthy.

“Let’s go. Time to deal with the three major sects.” Lu Sheng knew he’d exposed too much of his power, power that far surpassed Earth Prime level.

Hence, he needed to give the Thousand Sun Sect an explanation. Give Master Yuan Zheng an explanation. The True Spirit Tower was not a valid excuse. The best True Spirit Tower was within the inner Thousand Sun Sect, and that one could only slow down time by a factor of eight. Breaking through to Earth Prime in eight days? That was simply impossible.

“Senior… I think I will pass… Me residing in the Thousand Sun Sect is inconvenient as is. If I cause more trouble…” Sage Tianhe said wearily.

“That’s fine too.” Lu Sheng didn’t force him. He didn’t know what position Sage Tianhe held in the Thousand Sun Sect. But that didn’t matter, he had left a Holy Master level in his mind already.

It was only the triangular flying snake pattern, so small it was barely visible. They would be treated as under the radiation of a Divine Weapon once they were marked. It would be very hard to remove it, and would work as a last line of defense for Li Shunxi.

Lu Sheng wouldn’t want to become a “good guy” like him and start saving people all over the place, but he did admire this kind of person and appreciated talking to them. They always repaid the favors they received during their time of need.