Way of the Devil

“Bastard!!” Xuan Mist could no longer keep up nor escape the two golden swords after several rounds of exchanges. Bloody wounds filled his body. Without sacrifices and without a Weapon Master to provide power, the only thing it could rely on were the resources it had saved all these years.

Unfortunately, those resources were nothing compared to the amount Lu Sheng had. A mere half hour was enough to exhaust Xuan Mist.

“You are leaving me no choice!” Xuan Mist spent all his effort to force back the two swords. He was experienced in fighting through his long life, especially when it came to life or death situations. He simply didn’t have enough power.

Xuan Mist coiled his body, and a blinding green light started to shine in his single eye. A crisp green longsword slowly rose out of it.

The blade looked ancient and simple, and had a blue hue to it. Strange curved symbols were engraved on the hilt, while gems similar to emeralds were embedded into the handguard on both sides.

That was the true form of the Xuan Mist Divine Weapon.

“DIE! Dark Mist!!” Xuan Mist abruptly roared. The dragon shattered, and countless green specks of light from the explosion quickly gathered onto his true form, the sword.

At the same time, dark turquoise mist radiated in a frenzy in all directions, starting from the edge of the sword.

“Seven Levels Formation of Qiyang.” Lu Sheng waved his hand, the golden True Qi within him fully unleashed to start one of the most powerful attacks he learned from the Thousand Sun Sect.

Seven differently shaped golden formation paintings appeared rapidly around him and started to spin slowly. Within the formations, vast amounts of tiny dots of dark gold light started to form.

They slowly expanded to the size of eggs, then quickly hatched strange birds of different colors one after another.

Aside from their brilliant colors, they looked no different from ordinary birds. The most eye-catching part of them was their eyes that were filled with golden light.

“Go.” Lu Sheng happened to be curious about how powerful the Thousand Sun Sect’s items were.

The Seven Levels Formation of Qiyang shook. Golden light exploded out of all seven as a swarm of different-colored birds shot out, then somehow turned into rainbow-colored blade one after another, and stabbed at Xuan Mist like a torrential rain.

But, all of the rainbow swords were hindered by the mist surrounding Xuan Mist as they approached. Golden and rainbow light instantly clashed madly with the dark turquoise mist.

Lu Sheng clearly felt a vast amount of Yang Essence converting into golden True Qi to support the formation. How could he not have the advantage yet?

Lu Sheng glanced at the Xuan Mist Divine Weapon strangely, a little surprised. He felt like he was utilizing the power of an equal-leveled Thousand Sun Sect Weapon Master when facing an enemy.

As he sensed around more closely, Lu Sheng even realized that Xuan Mist was exhausting less than he was. It wouldn’t have been a problem due to fundamental difference between forms of energies. The golden True Qi shouldn’t be weaker than the black mist while under his control.

That meant there was a difference in forms of attack.

His formation was weaker than Xuan Mist’s. Why else would one of the two equally powerful attacks powered by an equal amount of energy exhaust more?

Lu Sheng frowned, and once again pointed in front of him. Three dots of light appeared in front of him. Another formation started to appear.

This time, the formation was a technique that came with a True Qi technique.

“Triple Stars Talismans Formation: Total Attack Mode.” Lu Sheng’s hands formed a series of gestures. With that, the Infinity Technique started to stimulate the circulation of Yang Essence to rapidly convert it into new golden True Qi to support the new formation.

“Caw!!!”

Instantly, the rectangular-shaped golden formation expanded, and an immense golden bird covered in flame shot out from within.

The icy pond water started to heat up the moment the fiery bird dove out. Everywhere it went, countless bubbles rose up due to the boiling heat. The muddy water also cleared every time the fiery bird dove past with the flap of its wings.

The Triple Stars Talismans Formation was an attack the Thousand Sun Sect created by combining three different talismans. Not only could it attack with scouring heat, it also had a cleansing property.

As Lu Shen released it from the Triple Stars Talismans Formation, the fiery bird dove toward Xuan Mist with the sharp caw of a bird as if it was a phoenix.

The bottom of the pond was not spacious to begin with. With both a dragon and a giant fiery bird filling the space, everything was instantly filled with a fiery golden light. Ordinary people would have been blinded already.

But Lu Sheng’s body was too strong to be affected. His eyes even seemed to be developing a new ability to see through certain things. Normal coverage couldn’t even stop him anymore.

He frowned again. The fiery bird had just joined the two golden swords to battle Xuan Mist.

The amount of power he used at that point was equivalent to the combined effort of three ordinary Weapon Masters from the Thousand Sun Sect, yet he still couldn’t defeat Xuan Mist?

Xuan Mist dodged left and right in the pond, its medium-sized blade somehow managing to dodge all kinds of attacks. It was obviously using some kind of technique. Despite his experience from battles, Lu Sheng still needed to admit that he could learn something from Xuan Mist.

“You despicable bastard! Why don’t you fight me one on one!” Xuan Mist shouted in anger as he fought. He was enraged too—he had spent a major part of his energy stored for thousands of years, yet still couldn’t force Lu Sheng back. All he could do was feel the rapid decrease in his energy storage.

“One on one?” Lu Sheng shook his head. He knew that Xuan Mist mistook his attacks for different people’s because of the muddy water.

“You despicable humans, tricks and ambushes are the only things you are good at!!” Xuan Mist cursed again, but couldn’t find any more insults, and could only recycle what he just said.

Lu Sheng hesitated, then formed a series of ten gestures with his hands.

“Puff!!”

Another formation lit up, and a golden halberd slowly appeared.

“Go.” He pointed at Xuan Mist. Instantly, the halberd spun around and shot toward Xuan Mist.

“Clang!!”

Unlike the other weapons formed by golden True Qi, this time, Lu Sheng used the most lethal formation of the Thousand Sun Sect—the General Slaying Halberd of Dragon Spine. It was one of the most powerful attack formations in the entire Thousand Sun Sect’s standard system.

A normal master from the Thousand Sun Sect would reserve it as their ace in the hole, but Lu Sheng had plenty of Yang Essence anyway, and thought he might as well use it.

If one formation wasn’t enough, he could just release more since he had plenty of Yang Essence. There were three sources of Yang Essence—food, Essence Qi, and conversion by Devil Body. The last of the three was also the most mysterious. Even Lu Sheng himself didn’t understand how or where his Ultimate Eight-Headed Devil Way got the Devil Essence needed for conversion.

The halberd dove down with an immense and steady force. Its power and weight were several times more than the golden swords’, and instantly forced Xuan Mist into a desperate situation.

But Xuan Mist was truly something else, and somehow managed to even the fight and maintain the stalemate. Clearly, there was a reason why he managed to survive independently for so long without bonding with anyone.

Time flew by, and the two had unknowingly kept the fight going for an hour already.

The golden formations were still shining brightly, showing no sign of diminishing. Xuan Mist was still cursing energetically, his blade still shiny and showing no signs of exhaustion.

Lu Sheng hesitated for a moment. He refused to believe that he couldn’t take care of a mere Golden Leaf grade Divine Weapon when the amount of Yang Essence he had was basically limitless to a Weapon Master.

He quickly recalled the various different lethal formations he learned in the Thousand Sun Sect.

Then, by stimulating golden True Qi, one after another formations started to appear around him. All sorts of attacks shot out from them.

Suddenly, rays of golden light flashed across the depth of the pond. Binding formations, slowing formations, weapon formations, summoning formations, poison formations, spike formations, ballista formations, pulling formations, and even teleportation formations, were all unleashed by Lu Sheng.

Every move that the Thousand Sun Sect had to offer was used in the depth of the pond.

Xuan Mist still somehow managed to stay undefeated, and soon recovered from the distraction of these formations with grand names but little practical powers.

No matter how many different weapons surrounded him, he still managed to keep even.

Lu Sheng’s expression sunk further as he unleased more attacks.

Ray after ray of golden light bloomed out of his hand, then turned into various attacks of the Thousand Sun Sect. But the result….

“Is that all humans have? How pathetic.” Xuan Mist laughed.

“Supreme Mist Formation.” A puff of dark gold smoke shot out. After being momentarily surrounded by it, Xuan Mist retreated back, slashed open the mist, and resumed his battle with the various golden weapons.

“Jichen Aurora Formation.” Something similar to a willow branch shot out. It slammed ruthlessly into the side of Xuan Mist’s blade, but aside from the sound, nothing came from it.

“Dashing Red Formation of Pingyu.” A scarlet glow with gold mixed in shot out…

“Bammm!”

Lu Sheng ripped apart the golden glow in front of him with an ugly expression on his face.

“Enough. I’ll take care of this myself.” He stepped up.

The test had ended. He had lost all hope in the attacks of the Thousand Sun Sect. Lu Sheng concluded they were powerful only in name.

Facing the Xuan Mist Divine Weapon, who was laughing maniacally, Lu Sheng tightened his body. Vast amounts of golden True Qi were reabsorbed by him.

“Finally out of tricks?” The Xuan Mist laughed coldly. The faint turquoise light shining from its blade was at least one foot long, and started to spin slowly in the water.

“Once, 13 Weapon Masters trapped me. I was faced with 13 attacks of various forms, be it Secret Arts or formations. I have seen everything. If I didn’t stumble upon this place by chance and received sacrifices from the Black Deer Tribe, any party of less than five Weapon Masters wouldn’t even have the right to see me. Yet you, by your pitiful self, dared to dream of… dream of…” His voice was loud at the start, but gradually decreased in volume as he spoke.

Lu Sheng’s body was epxanding bit by bit in front of him at a rapid rate. His muscles started to bulge and twist, and he quickly turned into a black muscled giant seven or eight meters tall. The growth didn’t show any sign of stopping, either.

In a few breaths, Xuan Mist could only watch Lu Sheng’s body grow even taller. By then, he was at least 15 meters tall. The immense body had shocked Xuan Mist speechless.

“Dream of…” Xuan Mist returned to its turquoise dragon form, and stared at Lu Sheng, whose mere shadow nearly covered him, in disbelief. He suddenly forgot what he was about to say.

“Hisss.”

Lu Sheng slowly opened his giant mouth, his three rows of shark teeth dense and sharp. Sparks of black smoke and embers occasionally came out of his ears and mouth.

He flailed his giant tail around a little and lowered his head to stare at the tiny, little green snake.

It had been a long time since he was able to assume his Extreme Yang Form. Even though this was only a half transformation, it was more than enough to take care of an arrogant little thing.

“Go on.” He flexed his hand, ready to shatter him the moment this bastard dared to curse at him again.