Way of the Devil

“Still want to run?” Lu Sheng carried Chen Yunxi to the front of the inner chamber door, and used his Qi to bring over a wide robe to cover the two.

He might have scales to cover himself, but Chen Yunxi didn’t. The robe was more for Chen Yunxi’s body.

“…No… I don’t…” Chen Yunxi seemingly only managed to squeeze out a sentence with all her strength. Tears were dripping when she said that.

That feeling like she was going to die was something she’d never experienced before, but had always desired. It was just too strong… to the point where her whole being was captured, collapsed, and fell into all sorts of strange joy.

Even now, her body was twitching, and her skin was so sensitive that any touch felt like a shock.

Lu Sheng laughed at Chen Yunxi’s meek reply. He pushed open the door, and carried her to her living quarters.

The news of Chen Yunxi receiving grace soon spread out through the whole Lu Family. As soon as Lu Sheng brought her back to her quarters, all sorts of relatives, including Lu Quanan, visited her.

In the next month Lu Sheng spent his time with his family. During this time, Chen Yunxi was bedridden most of the time, and even had to have food fed to her by her maids.

Soon, the doctor Lu Sheng hired found she was pregnant.

The whole Lu Family Mansion was overjoyed, and the Prime Devil Sect likewise had a celebration several days long. Lu Sheng checked personally multiple times after receiving the news, and ultimately confirmed that Chen Yunxi was truly pregnant. He, too, was overjoyed, and sent her a good amount of rare medicine to nourish her body, as well as a Divine Weapon he collected to hang in her room.

The Divine Weapon was specifically picked to adjust Chen Yunxi’s body, and was very obedient.

Lu Sheng only had three Divine Weapon left in his possession, all of them very obedient. The disobedient ones were very humanely destroyed (in his stomach).

The Divine Weapon now hanging on the wall specialized in controlling blood in the first place, and was greatly beneficial to supplementing one’s blood and Qi.

After he took care of the incident with Chen Yunxi, Lu Sheng returned once again to the World of Pain to complete another Divine Weapon collection mission assigned by Shizi Xing, and once again ate the leftover Golden Leaf Divine Weapon. As soon as he returned, he received an invitation to a meeting from one of the three noble families, the Mu Family.

***

Inside the meeting hall of the Prime Devil Sect.

The Prime Devil Sect headquarters, built just outside of the Autumn Moon County, was an enormous palace complex painted pitch-black. It was even bigger than the Thousand Sun Palace. The whole complex was divided in two—the Upper Palace above ground and Lower Palace below ground.

With the assistance of several Devil King level masters, the construction of the palace took very little effort.

At the moment, Lu Sheng happened to be receiving the Mu Family representative from the Four Lives Province in the Upper Palace.

“Mu Qingye of the Mu Family, along with her niece, Mu Jueqing, and her nephew, Mu Quening, respectfully greet Sect Master Lu.”

In the small hall, Lu Sheng sat at the head position. The two sides of the room were lined with black dragon sculptures with menacing claws, while dark red lamps hung on the walls, making the atmosphere gloomy and dark.

It was a necessity, actually. Lu Sheng planned to move the entire Prime Devil Sect, half of which were ghosts and the other half spirits, here. They wouldn’t like a bright environment at all, which was why the meeting hall was so dark—it was designed for ghosts in the first place.

Looking down from his seat on the steps, he saw the little girl from Mu Family, Mu Jueqing, whom he’d met while chasing Xu Qi. Beside her was her cousin, Mu Quening.

Mu Quening’s face was swollen, and the aura around him was unstable, obviously owing to some hidden injuries resulting from a beating.

“And you are visiting because…?” Lu Sheng was a little confused. As the sect master of the Prime Devil Sect, he wasn’t someone an ordinary man could see, even if he wasn’t in charge of the daily running of the sect. If it weren’t for the fame of the Mu Family, he wouldn’t have received the three of them at all.

Mu Qingye was a cold-faced woman who had a sharp, no-nonsense air around her, almost like a nun. She kept basic respect in her expression when facing Lu Sheng. When she heard his question, she slowly opened her mouth, and gradually explained their goal.

“Sect Master Lu is truly a prodigy from the heavens, possessing not only the mind of a great strategian, but also astonishing achievements in martial arts. Our Mu Family in the Four Lives Province very much admires and respects that, and my niece Mu Jueqing wants to become your disciple and learn the way of true martial arts under Sect Master.” The speech she gave seemed a little awkward and stiff.

Lu Sheng might be powerful, but he didn’t think that his fame had traveled to the Four Lives Province yet. Plus, with the existing connection between Xu Qi and the Mu Family, it was unlikely that they would come all this way to become his disciple.

It was not like Four Lives Province had a lack of Divine Lords.

After a moment of thought, Lu Sheng then looked toward Mu Jueqing, whose face was filled with anticipation and worry. She seemed to have noticed Lu Sheng’s gaze, and her face instantly turned red as she lowered her head. Mu Quening’s face, though, was pale, and his shrunken posture indicated he was scared.

Lu Sheng paused before answering casually, “I have no intention of accepting disciples at the moment. You should return now.”

“Does Sect Master worry about Qing’er’s talent? Qing’er has the legendary Wood Spirit Body, and cultivates all wood type techniques at double the normal efficiency and speed. By now, she has established a solid foundation, and could enter the third Vein level at any time.” Mu Qingye then took out a small scarlet seed, and displayed it in her palm.

“In addition, the Mu Family has also brought a gift for the potential master: one Soul Reaping Seed.”

“Oh?!” Lu Sheng saw the scarlet seed, and was immediately tempted. Soul Reaping Seeds were a strange creation of nature, rumored to originate from the Devil Abyss of the Devil World. Once planted, it could simulate and transform Essence Qi into the purest form of Devil Qi.

For a cultivator of Devil Essence, it was the best gift. The one seed was worth at least two Golden Leaf Divine Weapons, and it was only a theoretical price as there simply was not any on the market. It was so extremely rare, yet Divine Weapons fell yearly from the World of Pain.

‘ How generous of them! ‘ Lu Sheng’s thoughts started to race. They obviously knew what he needed, and the Prime Devil Sect indeed needed more masters to support it. With how many masters they had at the moment, the sect was at a limit.

Meanwhile, the Soul Reaping Seed could be the key in increasing the number of masters within the sect.

After a moment of hesitation, Lu Sheng looked at Mu Jueqing. Luckily, the Great Yin wasn’t prejudiced against Devil Technique cultivators. As long as you clearly stated that you were not working for the Devil World, the Great Yin could care less about what you cultivated. Also, Lu Sheng was finally understanding the difference between the Devil Essence and Devil Qi of Devil Techniques and the actual Devil Essence and Devil Qi of the Devil World.

The Great Yin had methods that could easily tell the two apart; therefore, they didn’t care at all.

“Wood Spirit Body?” He knocked on the handle of his chair, and fell into thought. At his level, it was impossible to advance in terms of power in a short period of time.

No matter how much Mental Energy he had, he couldn’t improve Death Blaze to Origin Power level at a fast pace.

Meanwhile, improving his Infinity Technique could at most improve the power of certain parts of Death Blaze. Anything further would also require deeper exploration of the nature of Death Blaze, or so Lu Sheng’s testing indicated.

He lacked the related data and information; hence, the next two evolutions yielded only minimal increases in power, which was not worth the amount of Mental Energy put in. He still needed to satisfy all sorts of prerequisites for further evolution.

Lu Sheng gave up after several tries, and instead focused on exploring the different Laws within Death Blaze.

Putting more Mental Energy in was definitely effective. He could clearly feel the used Mental Energy being put to rapidly analyze Death Blaze, but what he put in was nowhere near enough.

He had plenty of time to collect more Divine Weapons and gather more Mental Energy. After all this time, aside from expanding the influence of the Prime Devil Sect, it was truly time for him to leave the Prime Devil Sect, Crimson Sun Sect, and his family some protection for the future.

That way, if he had to travel far away in the future, someone could guard his establishments in his absence and train the next generation. The current members of the Prime Devil Sect did not have the potential for that.

Seeing that Lu Sheng was tempted, Mu Jueqing decided to speak herself.

“Maybe Master is not aware of my potential. My Wood Spirit Body is favored by all wood-type Divine Weapons, which means that I’m almost guaranteed to become a Weapon Master if I could break through to Bind level! Even in my family, this level of talent is rare.”

Lu Sheng was still not impressed. At his level, Weapon Masters could only guarantee their own safety. For someone to be able to protect his establishment, he or she needed to be at least a Divine Lord.

He looked at the little girl below him. Becoming a Divine Lord required a strong will, staunch to the point of cheating the world and interfering with reality.

He suddenly remembered that a Wood Spirit Body had an advantage over other Spirit Bodies, which was their longevity after binding with a wood-type Divine Weapon. They could extend their lifespan to as long as several millennia, longer even than Divine Lords.

 ‘Might be a worthy investment.’

Lu Sheng finally nodded slowly as he thought of that.

“I will consider this for some time. If you can pass my test, I will accept you as my disciple. If not, then never bring it up again.”

Joy filled Mu Jueqing’s face instantly. She hurriedly bowed toward Mu Qingye as thanks, then dragged her cousin up along with her.

“Rest assured, Master, nothing has stopped me before!” she said with a confident expression on her face.

“I hope you’ll keep your word.” Lu Sheng shook his head slightly, and looked at her with a laugh.

“Then, I will bid goodbye for now.” Mu Qingye released the Soul Reaping Seed, and let it float in front of Lu Sheng.

“Sect Master Lu, in truth, Qing’er privately begged me to bring her here. If she doesn’t pass the test…” Mu Qingye had a weary expression on her face.

“Aghh, why are you talking so much!!” Mu Jueqing hurriedly covered Mu Qingye’s mouth, but it was still too late.

Her family had originally planned to send her to become the disciple of a peak-level Divine Lord that was a good acquaintance of the Mu Family. He was famed for his kindness as a master, and had trained two Divine Lords before. However, Mu Jueqing simply refused it for some reason, and doggedly decided that she would become the disciple of the rising star Lu Sheng—no matter how hard her family tried to talk her out of it.

After several fights, Mu Juqing decided to leave along with her closest aunt, Mu Qingye, and Mu Quening, to Autumn Moon County.

A Wood Spirit Body was a proper and powerful Spirit Body, different from the Body of the Savage Moon, which Lu Sheng was once mistaken to possess. It was only a level weaker than the latter, and everyone possessing it was almost guaranteed to become an Earth Prime level Weapon Master.

Mu Jueqing was very much valued in the Mu Family, which didn’t go against her wishes after she seemingly made up her mind. After all, Lu Sheng was also a Divine Lord. He might not have been at the Divine Intellect level, but that didn’t really matter much for Mu Jueqing.