Way of the Devil

Lu Sheng took another sip of the wine. The faint sweetness of honey could be tasted as well as various flowers in the cold wine. He also tasted a strong sedative called the Drunken Gods, probably the work of Yin Yang Agency.

Since it was wine on Jing Hong’s table, he must have drunk it already.

Drunken Gods was a sedative specifically made for those with the formidable physique of a Weapon Master, and was especially effective on anyone whose body had not been specially strengthened.

Lu Sheng looked at Jing Hong and Liu Qingyuan again. Both had activated their bloodline powers from their Divine Weapon.

Twisted words invisible to ordinary eyes started to appear around Liu Qingyuan. Every single one of them looked extremely tough and sharp, and they all shot toward Jing Hong with great power and speed.

But, a strange force surrounded Jing Hong. All of the invisible words immediately exploded and disappeared as they shot into it.

“Power of negation?” Tong Yi was slightly surprised.

“Bam!”

Abruptly, the bench underneath Liu Qingyuan cracked. His face was so red it looked like blood was going to drip out, though it might have been hard to tell since his face was red to begin with.

But Lu Sheng clearly sensed that he lost.

Jing Hong didn’t take advantage of the situation, and still sat there, drinking the wine laced with Drunken Gods. Drunken Gods could put out most Weapon Masters, but he happened to be part of the small portion that had specially strengthened his body.

“Go back. You people shouldn’t be here.” Jing Hong stood up, slowly walked outside, and soon disappeared in the corner of the street.

Liu Qingyuan got up and wanted to follow him, but was stopped by Tong Yi.

“Don’t. You will lose.” Tong Yi shook his head. “He… doesn’t look to be a vicious criminal. We must investigate this further.”

“But, Master…” Liu Qingyuan was not happy. Losing so easily in front of his master, even if he hadn’t used his full power, was quite embarrassing.

“Lu Sheng, what do you make of this?” Tong Yi looked at Lu Sheng.

“You can’t judge a book by its cover, but I agree with Senior Tong Yi’s judgement.” Lu Sheng nodded with a smile.

He already informed the two other Evil Art Masters through the ‘Evil’ symbol on his palm.

Through the spirit procession technique, they could temporarily appear in this world for three days, more than enough for them to complete the mission.

They should’ve been making arrangements by now.

“Are they actors? What a performance. Little Sun, their acting is so much better than yours,” the junior apprentice sister among the other group said again.

The young man’s face sunk a little, but he didn’t talk back.

“If little junior apprentice sister is interested, we could hire some performers to come to the King’s Mansion just for you. You can watch as much as you want,” the white-clad woman on the side suggested, trying to please her.

“That would be wonderful! If they are bad, put the Seven Pins on them. They will have to try their hardest then!” The little junior apprentice sister clapped her hand in joy.

Seven Pins was the most common technique among the upper class families of the Great Yin. A person had seven crucial pressure points, and the so-called Seven Pins involved repeatedly puncturing all seven spots, but not severely enough to kill. People subjected to this torture suffered a pain worse than death, and lived their lives in fear and torment.

It was definitely one of the most evil punishments ever.

Yet this seemingly innocent and cute girl still spoke of something so vicious so casually. Her heart was clearly filled with cruelty.

Tong Yi stood up with the help of Liu Qingyuan, and turned toward Lu Sheng. “And that’s that. Allow this old man to leave first. Lu Sheng, do you want to come together?”

“Senior, you can leave first, I still have something I need to take care of. I will catch up later.” Lu Sheng smiled.

Tong Yi sighed. He had a feeling he knew what Lu Sheng wanted to do. “Be forgiving if you can, Lu Sheng, you…” He didn’t finish, and instead slowly got out of the door. An oxen carriage sent by the Yin Yang Agency was already waiting outside.

Lu Sheng sat at the table alone, and started to sip his wine again.

The group of people in white clothing left the restaurant after paying. Lu Sheng paid no attention to them. He wasn’t someone to be angered by mere talk.

He was waiting, waiting for news.

The people of the Yin Yang Agency also left one by one. Even the officials in charge of the operation left one by one after informing Lu Sheng.

After another half an hour, Lu Sheng suddenly stood up, and walked out.

The sun was shining high in the sky at that point. His feet were light, and each step he took covered as much distance as 10 normal steps. Soon, the streets and town were left behind. Lu Sheng left the main road at a shocking speed, heading toward the southwestern part of town. Strangely, no one paid any attention to his weird behavior, as if this was totally normal, or they simply didn’t notice at all.

After climbing over several hills, Lu Sheng stopped amid a maple forest. The blood-red maple leafs fell to the ground with the wind, and a large blanket of red had accumulated there already.

Other people would take care of the rest. The men Shizi Xing sent were more than enough to complete the mission.

The mission he and the other two Evil Art Masters had was to ambush the person behind. As soon as he showed himself, all three would attack at the same time, making sure he couldn’t escape.

Lu Sheng had arranged this with the two Evil Art Masters already.

Both Evil Art Masters held special Divine Weapons: the Thousand Chance Lock and Hundred Fortune Chain. The Hundred Fortune Chain could track down anything of equal level, while the Thousand Chance Lock could lock anything with a special connection to it in place for one hour.

Working together, the two could lock a target in place for one hour.

Lu Sheng waited quietly. The Tian’er Blade Xu Qi must’ve been very powerful. He had to be a Divine Lord as well if he could serve as Jing Hong’s backup. It was also rumoured that he ranked among the top three within Wasp.

Hence, it would take a lot to extract the Tian’er Blade.

Time passed slowly. After a while, Lu Sheng heard a faint sounds of shuffling steps drawing near.

Jing Hong needed to pass this road since it was the only way leading to his destination.

With a clamor of leaves, Jing Hong slowly walked out of the forest, noticed the person standing in front, and stopped with a surprised expression.

“You are…?” He frowned and looked at Lu Sheng, who looked unfamiliar. “One of the three from before?”

“Right.” Lu Sheng stood in place. Nowadays, his body was near perfect with his narrow back and slim waist. His upper body was like a slight inverted triangle in shape, while his legs were long and powerful. It was very impressive, and gave anyone a feeling of steel and power upon first glance.

“Today, I will bring you to justice for all the Weapon Masters you have hunted.” Lu Sheng’s face was calm, while his voice was solemn.

“Laughable.” Jing Hong’s face was cold. “Justice? What’s justice? Everyone I have ever killed deserved death for their own actions! What right do you have to bring up justice in front of me? Who do you think you are?”

Lu Sheng suddenly laughed, and said casually, “That was just an excuse. Just pretend like it’s real.”

“You!?” Jing Hong wanted to speak, but suddenly heard someone’s voice behind him.

“Here, here! Look, Junior Apprentice Sister, there are more here. I didn’t expect this place to have such a beautiful maple forest, how rare.” The voice of an innocent girl came from afar.

A group of people, all dressed in white, walked out from the side—the same ones from the restaurant.

They didn’t pay any attention to Lu Sheng, and instead focused their gaze on Jing Hong.

“Those strange men from before!” the girl spoke again.

Lu Sheng glanced at the people dressed in white, then focused his attention back onto Jing Hong.

But, surprisingly, Jing Hong’s expression changed a little. A hint of pity appeared in his eyes.

“Let’s find another place,” he spoke.

Lu Sheng found this very interesting. “Why? Because of those ordinary people over there? You didn’t seem to care before.”

“I have my own set of morals.” Jing Hong’s face turned solemn.

“Morals?” Lu Sheng smiled.

He raised his hand, and pointed his index finger toward the group of people in white.

“Like what?” A dot of golden light lit up on the tip of his finger.

“Power is not for abusing the innocent and taking out your anger on them!” Seeing this, Jing Hong’s face turned ugly.

“Really?” Lu Sheng smiled slightly. A faint golden halo started to surround his body.

“Puff!!”

The golden light abruptly shot out, flying straight toward the group of people.

“Bam!!”

But it was blocked steadily by a giant hand in black glove. The golden light exploded in its palm, turned into dust, and fell to the ground.

“Don’t abuse the weak at a whim, that is part of my morals!” Jing Hong turned slowly as he stood in front of the group of people in white.

“Laughable. What are these two doing? Why are they acting so grand with so little sign of True Qi? This countryside is truly filled with dumb people who haven’t seen the world. Little Qin, if you didn’t insist on finding some so-called family disciples, why would we come all the way here?” a young man dressed in white said unhappily.

“Sorry for the trouble. It’s my personal mission, but I still haven’t found anything after all these days. If I still can’t detect the wavelength this time, we can return,” a pretty girl with a slim body said wearily.

“Alright, alright, let’s leave first. We might be…” Suddenly, the soft-mannered girl that led the team paused, and abruptly looked at Lu Sheng.

“This wavelength… So dense… This bloodline, are you a Burning Son?!” They followed the ripple of bloodline waves here in the first place, but didn’t expect the Burning Son to be a young man that seemed older than people they were looking for.

“Burning Son?” Jing Hong blanked out, and stared suspiciously at Lu Sheng. “You are a Burning Son?!”

The soft girl quickly took out a crimson phoenix sculpture made out of crystal, and shook it at Lu Sheng.

“Whoosh!”

A delicate swirl of faint red flame started to burn on Lu Sheng’s left shoulder. It slowly expanded and twisted, while a red phoenix with an expanded wing started to appear in the middle of the flame.

“Caw!!”

Suddenly, the phoenix let out a sharp caw, and was about to fly out of the flame.

“Bam!”

A huge hand grabbed the phoenix’s neck, and the cawing immediately stopped.

“What is this crap?” Lu Sheng casually squeezed it until it exploded. He was releasing the golden light from Yang Essence; this random pile of stuff with a disgusting color suddenly appeared on his left shoulder, and still expected to just leave like that. What world did it think it was in?

He shattered it with his palm, and pressed it back into his shoulder without even looking.

The phoenix let out a scream of pain, and tried to escape from Lu Sheng’s hand. But it was useless. The suppressing effect of Yang Essence as well as Lu Sheng’s strong control over his body and bloodline were too powerful for it to escape.

Hence, the phoenix barely managed to poke its head out of the golden Yang Essence before being swallowed by a sea of gold.

“The power of the bloodline… Power… somehow… How…?!” The soft-looking woman and the people in white behind her all blanked out, and all felt a sense of dread creeping up from their hearts all the way to their heads.