Way of the Devil

A medium-sized waterfall was at the bottom of the valley. The pond underneath it shone a faint turquoise light.

The light shone through the water and climbed several meters up along with the watery mist. The whole scene was cold and mysterious as if it was the home of an immortal.

When Lu Sheng and his followers arrived, the place was still deathly quiet, not affected by the commotion outside at all. No sounds could be heard at all.

The avatar of King of Shadows walked beside the pond and touched the surface.

He turned and confirmed, “It’s here.”

“Get ready to move.” Lu Sheng nodded. “No failure will be tolerated.”

This water-type Divine Weapon was the key reason why he targeted the Black Deer Tribe. They had their connections in the imperial court, so Lu Sheng wouldn’t have randomly attacked them otherwise.

Both Elder Stone and King of Shadows knew the truth about Lu Sheng. Even though they didn’t know why he needed Divine Weapons, they had to put in effort since they voluntarily joined the Prime Devil Sect and accepted Lu Sheng as their sect master.

Two Devil Kings, as well as an avatar, spread to three places and surrounded the pond in a triangular formation.

Lu Sheng himself walked in front of the pond.

“Whoosh.”

A faint golden light membrane immediately spread across his body. It was a True Qi Black Membrane he formed using the Thousand Sun Sect’s special golden True Qi.

Such was the rule of this world—no matter what energy or system you cultivated under, you would eventually start emulating Divine Weapons or Devil Blades.

Any energy, provided that it was powerful enough, could be formed into Black Membrane, which in turn would improve the body’s regenerative ability, strength, as well as speed.

That was the biggest difference between cultivators and ordinary mortals.

The golden True Qi surrounding Lu Sheng’s body seemed endless. Though it seemed like a faint layer of golden mist, it was abnormally concentrated and refused to dissipate, constantly circling through several meters of space around Lu Sheng.

He stepped down into the pond. A masterless Divine Weapon or Devil Blade, one that could very well be at Golden Leaf grade, would benefit him immensely. It was precisely what the Infinity Technique needed to reach the next phase. Hence, he would never allow it to escape.

The water was extremely icy and cold. The flowing golden True Qi Black Membrane immediately slowed down, and a thin layer of frost started to climb up the moment Lu Sheng entered the water.

“Ultimate Crimson.” Lu Sheng stayed calm. It was only the first battle, and he had no intention of using the power of his physical body, instead relying purely on the Yang Essence of his Infinity Technique.

He hadn’t had the time to test the power of the Infinity Technique yet.

As Lu Sheng spoke, a speck of golden light, Yang Essence, lit up on his fingertips and immediately started to turn red and heat up. In an instant, it turned into Ultimate Crimson Liquid Qi, and floated on top of his finger like a drop of red ink.

“Go.” He lightly threw out the red droplet.

It flew outward steadily and somehow forced back the pond water within a two-meter radius, forming an airtight bubble.

Lu Sheng slowly walked deeper into the pond inside of the bubble.

It got colder as he dove down deeper, and the turquoise color got more and more intense.

He dove down for several tens of meters, but still didn’t see the bottom.

He frowned in suspicion.

The scent of a Divine Weapon was clearly in the depths, like it was only an inch away.

“As long as it’s still here.” He calmed down, and continued going down.

After diving another ten or so meters, a slight noise, almost like a balloon leaking air, abruptly came from the surrounding water.

Lu Sheng looked toward the sound and saw a turquoise dragon, its body filled with white spikes of ice, sleeping coiled among the mud at the bottom of the pond. The noise was its breathing.

The green dragon was a couple tens of meters long, had five claws on its belly, two pairs of horns, and looked similar to any other dragon described in legends. But the strangest and also the most unique thing about it was its single eye.

It almost took up the majority of the space on the dragon’s head, and seemed to be natural rather than being some kind of mutation.

Lu Sheng looked around, and his gaze soon fell on the center of the green dragon’s body. A speck of green light was slowly flashing.

“Xuan Mist.” He sent out his voice, which instantly reached the green dragon through the water.

It slowly opened its single eye, and it felt like a small sun had risen inside the water. The temperature dropped even lower. Even the red droplet of liquid in front of Lu Sheng shrunk a bit, though it quickly stopped.

“Who are you?” The green dragon stared cautiously at Lu Sheng with its icy eye.

“You are Xuan Mist?” He sized up the green dragon curiously. This was technically the first time he talked to a whole, normal Golden Leaf grade Divine Weapon without a master.

“I assume you want to bond with me too? You know my requirement, right? At least 1,000 people as a sacrifice per year,” Xuan Mist said in a flat and cold tone.

“1,000 people?” Lu Sheng was speechless, and finally understood why no one in the Black Deer Tribe had bonded with this thing.

Logically speaking, A Divine Weapon or Devil Blade should require the least amount of sacrifice before bonding, then increase its requirement as it got stronger.

Meanwhile, this guy wanted to start with 1,000 people as its sacrifice. What about afterwards? 2,000? 3,000? Maybe even 10,000?

It was definitely not the first, though. Many rogue Divine Weapons and Devil Blades were destroyed because of their unreasonable demands that severely disrupted a Weapon Grandmaster’s rule.

Hence the reason why there were so many Divine Weapons or Devil Blades shards.

“Nice imagination you have.” Lu Sheng smiled. “Alright, I’m giving you two choices. One, surrender, come with me, and live happily ever after.

“Two, accept me as a master and bond with me. Forget about sacrifices. Maybe I’ll give you some when I’m in a good mood.”

Xuan Mist blanked out for a moment as he failed to process the situation. Was he mad? How dared he talk like that to a Divine Weapon!

A strong feeling of surrealism surrounded it, like the man was walking to another Divine Weapon, and not it.

But he was the only one within a five kilometer radius.

So he decided to attack after a moment of hesitation.

“Roar!!!”

He raised his head toward the sky and roared while the white icicles on his body shot everywhere. His serpentine body, several tens of meters long, flipped in the water like a python and dove toward Lu Sheng.

“DIE, BASTARD!!”

Lu Sheng didn’t panic. Instead, he stepped back and pointed with his finger.

A speck of a faint golden color started to shine. Because of the Infinity Technique, the golden True Qi could be converted from Yang Essence at any time. He might be at a Devil Master level, but his True Qi cultivation before the integration was not high, and the converted golden True Qi was at most at a novice Weapon Grandmaster level. Or, the equivalent of a Golden Leaf grade Divine Weapon.

Weapon Grandmasters could only unleash power equal to their power when wielding a Golden Leaf grade Divine Weapon. It was unlike Devil Masters or Holy Masters, who could unleash the full potential of a Golden Leaf Divine Weapon.

But even at that, it was more than enough to take care of a normal Divine Weapon. After all, it wasn’t a rogue Divine Weapon, which had developed its potential to the max.

Lu Sheng didn’t want to attract too much attention, because of the Turquoise Conch Agency and Yin Yang Agency. He still wanted a good standing with the three majors sects. They might have only had two Weapon Grandmasters behind them, but still had piles of ancient Holy Masters that could infinitely approach a Weapon Grandmaster.

He might be powerful, but he still wanted to stay low.

The golden True Qi was only an Earth Prime level True Qi to begin with, but had been forcibly improved to Weapon Master level by Lu Sheng’s Holy Master spirit.

“Hiss!”

The golden light shot forward and expanded into an oval-shaped formation that spun slowly around Lu Sheng. The triangular-winged snake pattern flashed across the center.

“Go.” Lu Sheng pointed at the formation again.

A ray of dark gold light abruptly shot out from the formation into Xuan Mist’s head.

“Bam!!”

The golden light seemed endless, and steadily blocked Xuan Mist’s charge like a wrestler.

Xuan Mist slammed into the walls with a boom after being hit with the immense force.

Instantly, mud turned and rocks splintered off, turning the whole depth chaotic.

Lu Sheng again pointed, and golden wires like roots surrounded it. It looked like a ball of golden yarn from the distance.

That was the traditional way the Thousand Sun Sect fought—utilizing golden True Qi to activate all kinds of expensive pre-prepared formations to attack, defend, and even scout.

With another point, a Yin-type current shot out from within the ball of golden yarn, and floated several tens of meters past him to probe for information.

“Bam!!”

The Xuan Mist’s dragon tail suddenly slammed into the surface of the formation with a boom. Lu Sheng felt a sharp decrease of golden True Qi.

“Mournful Spirit Sword.” Lu Sheng formed his hands into a sign.

The formation abruptly exploded and split into five pieces. A delicate golden longsword slowly formed in the middle, supported by the vast amount of golden True Qi Lu Sheng just released.

Crisp sounds constantly rang out from the sword.

“Sun Chasing Sword Mantra: Thunderous Roar.” Lu Sheng grabbed the hilt.

Instantly, brilliant light shone out of the sword before disappearing.

The sound of intense fighting immediately came from within the pond. The golden sword constantly clashed with the dragon’s scales, tail, and horns, making an immense clanging sound.

Every time they clashed, both sides’ energy storage would decrease.

Lu Sheng didn’t care at all. His physical body and Devil Body had been improved to a peak and could support this rate of consumption by merely breathing in Essence Qi. The fight could go on for years.

“Sun Chasing Sword Mantra, Bright City.” Seeing that one Mournful Spirit Sword couldn’t take care of Xuan Mist, he formed a second one, and released it into the fight.

Xuan Mist finally started to show signs of being overwhelmed.

Lu Sheng relied purely on the techniques of the Thousand Sun Sect, which were in turn based on the Wei River Sword bloodline.

The core of the golden True Qi was the special power of the Wei River Sword, like any other powers that had to rely on Divine Weapon or Devil Blades or shards similar to their bloodline.

Lu Sheng was the same.

Even a Minor Divine Weapon like the Wei River Sword could unleash power equal to a Weapon Master’s aftering he surrounded it with golden True Qi.

If this information got out, a majority of Thousand Sun Sect would probably go blind from jealousy.