Way of the Devil

 The dispersing black mist shocked all the other shadows.

A deathly silence fell inside the candle-lit circle.

“Anyone else wants to talk?” After taking care of one, Lu Sheng swept his gaze across the other shadows. “Communication requires skills, and I like the most efficient kind.”

“You… you can’t do that…” The short shadow felt a dread in his heart. “No other Protector would dare come.”

“Doesn’t matter, you guys are enough.” Lu Sheng cracked a smile. He planned to experiment with these Protectors to see if he could create a permanent contract.

He knew the contents of the contract formed by the ceremony as well as the general meaning behind the patterns on the ground, like which symbols were responsible for the content of the contract and which ones were responsible for the actual creation of the contract.

That meant only slight adjustments needed to be made…

Lu Sheng knelt down, and pulled one of the line symbols on the carpet violently.

“Rip.”

The wool thread on the carpet was ripped out. The whole formation shook violently and nearly collapsed. But after a little bit, the ceremony continued as normal, and everything was once again lit by the light of the candle.

 ‘Works as expected… Looks like I’m right. The ceremony itself isn’t difficult at all, and is only a simple verbal promise. Now, I have to cut out the portion on the contract about a time limit.’

Lu Sheng crouched on the ground and pulled right and left. The candle light shook constantly, but never extinguished.

After an unknown amount of time, when the sound of roosters crowing came from outside, Lu Sheng finally stopped. He stood up, and looked at the dozen or so shadows in front of him, all of which were too afraid to move.

“What do you want?” a muscular shadow asked in a low voice. “True, we can’t beat you, but we will leave when the contract ends, and you can’t catch us. Why would you make us your enemy unless you are mad?”

Lu Sheng smiled. Even though he studied the ceremony thoroughly, he still worried something might go wrong. Luckily, nothing did during his first time.

Malicious plans like capturing Protectors would only work the first time; otherwise, if the news got out, no Protector would ever fall for it again. He needed to succeed on the first try, and since he only had one chance, he might as well go as far as he could.

It worked, though.

He swept his gaze over the multiple black shadows present, his hand abruptly starting to form strange signs one after another, like the Thousand Handed Guanyin in Buddhist temples, or a Daoist Qi cultivator.

Within a second, Lu Sheng had formed 12 different signs already, while his mouth screamed out dozens of syllables at the same time.

The shadows had no time to react.

“Puff!”

The candle light shook violently, then turned into a dark blue color, which lasted three seconds before the room fell into darkness.

The dozen or so Protectors felt the additional chain of formed contracts before they could react. It was like their previous contracts, and the chain indicated the time limit.

Usually, as time passed by, the chain would be cut short. This chain, however, showed no sign of moving nor shortening. Neither were there any signs of the requirements for completing the contract nor the time constraint…

“NO!!”

The shadows started to panic one by one. A few even madly dove toward Lu Sheng in their panic.

“What did you do?!”

“Are you mad?!”

“Kill him! Kill him and we can get back our freedom!” the short shadow yelled from the back.

“Bam!”

Soon, a shadow flew backward, slammed firmly into the wall, and stuck to it silently like a painting.

Then another slammed into a chair, and howled in pain on the ground.

Lu Sheng grabbed a shadow’s head, letting the rest of his body drag on the ground, and dragged him toward the short shadow step by step.

“You know you can’t resist, so why waste the effort to test me? If you have the time to throw a tantrum like that, might as well figure out how you can please me. Maybe I will let you go then.” Lu Sheng smiled, and casually threw the Protector in his hand on the ground.

“And according to the contract, before the requirement is met, no one from the Purple Smoke Villa may be harmed. Did you forget?”

The short shadow lowered his head. He was still in a daze over what happened—not only did he get forced into this baffling contract, he was also now meat in a butcher’s shop.

“Understood,” a black shadow to his side answered calmly.

Lu Sheng glanced at the Protector who just talked—a slim figure with long hair, and a female judging by the voice.

“Question, can you all move around during the day?”

“Of course. All you humans see are pitch black because your eyes can’t see the other lights and colors on our bodies,” the slim shadow replied seriously.

“What are you called?” Lu Sheng was quite appreciative of this collaborator. Not everyone had the ability to lower their head and adapt to a new environment.

“San Bu. San as in three and Bu as in sheet.”

“San Bu… I’ll remember you…” Lu Sheng nodded. “I have many other questions I want answers to, if you don’t mind.”

“Ask and I will answer. I won’t hide anything on purpose,” San Bu said flatly.

“You are alright.” Lu Sheng nodded.

“Thanks. Also, let me warn you that we have to stay near you after the ceremony because of the contract, and can’t wander too far,” San Bu quickly said.

“Is that so…” Lu Sheng thought about this. The candle light shook, and finally went out. But, the 10 or so Protectors couldn’t leave because contracts had been already established.

Though that didn’t mean they wanted to stay near Lu Sheng. Instantly, a large portion of the Protectors quickly flew through the wall and stayed as far away as possible from Lu Sheng.

The only one left was San Bu.

Lu Sheng, of course, sensed all that because of the contract.

“Does that not bother you?” he asked.

“No. I look down on them, and they don’t like you. A contract doesn’t stop that,” San Bu said flatly.

“What does a Protector use to fight an Evil Spirit? Could you tell me?” Lu Sheng was very much intrigued, and decided to sit on the ground to chat with San Bu.

“We rely on Spiritual Power. That is the power that flows within us, our blood and veins, our life’s support,” San Bu explained.

“Spiritual Power? Care to demonstrate?” Lu Sheng was instantly interested in this new system of power. Everything that could potentially make him stronger interested him.

“Of course.” San Bu was very cooperative.

She stretched her hand—a black tentacle of shadow straight like a tree branch. A flame-like shadow quickly popped off of it.

“This is my Spiritual Power. Its biggest use is to give inanimate objects life. At the same time, it is extremely effective against the deathly Evil Spirits,” San Bu said flatly.

“Oh? Give inanimate objects life? Could you show me?” Lu Sheng was even more intrigued.

“Unfortunately, my power is still too weak, and cannot reach that potential yet. But after a small amount of Spiritual Power injection, inanimate objects would become more lively. It might even become rare treasures in the eyes of you humans,” San Bu explained.

“Interesting… Any other effects?” Lu Sheng asked again.

“It could also… give vitality to a living organism… and make it stronger.” San Bu was not sure. “I have never tried, but that should be the case.”

“Then why would you establish contract with humans? What do you get out of it?” Lu Sheng asked another key question.

San Bu was quiet for a bit before answering. “Many objects in your world are extremely precious treasures for us. If we could obtain them and drain their essence, we could improve our power.”

“Is that so…” Lu Sheng fell quiet for a bit before asking several more questions.

San Bu answered them one by one cooperatively, and showed no signs of lying.

Lu Sheng asked another question. “Why are you so cooperative?”

“Because I see no point in resisting,” San Bu answered seriously.

“One last request.” Lu Sheng smiled and stood up. “Please inject Spiritual Power into my hand and let me feel it…”

San Bu shook her head. “It wouldn’t do anything. Others have asked me to do the same before, but no matter what, humans can’t touch Spiritual Power.”

Even though she didn’t think Lu Sheng was going to succeed, she still slowly extended her tentacle toward Lu Sheng’s palm, and started to inject Spiritual Power as ordered.

Lu Sheng calmly looked at his palm as it turned shinier and more lively. A thin film of white light started to surround it, making it look like a delicate, white jade carving.

He couldn’t sense the existence of the Spiritual Power at all. Even his Divine Lord level spirit showed no reaction.

But he still didn’t give up. He imagined the Spiritual Power in his hand flowing down the veins on his hand, all the way up to his shoulder, then down into his chest, and finally circulating across his body.

Even though he still didn’t sense the existence of Spiritual Power, after several dozen tries and an increase in San Bu’s injections, Lu Sheng finally clearly sensed that his body had expanded and became more active.

‘ Deep Blue, ‘ he called inwardly.

“Whoosh.”

A faint blue window appeared before his eyes.

The upper Lu Chong section originally only had two sections: Upper Forest Sword Forms and Unknown Essence Qi Technique.

But now, one more appeared at the bottom.

‘Unknown Spiritual Power Technique: Basic. (Additional Effects: level 1 activeness, level 1 longevity.)’

‘This Spiritual Power can extend lifespan!?” Lu Sheng was shocked. That changed everything.

“Alright, that’s enough, thank you.” Lu Sheng’s heart was still shaken, but he still sent the order to San Bu.

“What happened?” San Bu looked at Lu Sheng with anticipation. She had the feeling that this human was different from all the others.

Which was why she willingly cooperated.

“Nothing…”

Lu Sheng shook his head. “Could you tell me about the level of cultivating Spiritual Power?”