Way of the Devil

However, if Lu Sheng wanted to derive the next rank of the Infinity Technique, this amount of Mental Energy was far from enough. Back then, when he was trying to level up his Yin Flames into Death Blaze, he had invested hundreds of thousands of units, and this was not taking into account the special materials needed for this to happen.

The main function of Deep Blue was to act as an accelerator. Its ability to derive was also based on Lu Sheng’s own knowledge to push out the old and usher in the new.

As his tier increased, its consumption increased as well. His Mental Energy was also starting to become insufficient.

The nearly 100,000 units of Mental Energy would only be able to make a small splash at his current Infinity Technique’s rank.

‘The only way to improve now is to obtain a huge amount of Mental Energy. The second way is the Heavenly Devil’s Arrival to merge with my other spirit and enjoy a huge improvement.

‘I hope that I’ll be able to get something this time.’

Lu Sheng thought back to the scene where he’d first met Weapon Grandmaster Aurora Polaris. His feelings were slightly complicated.

********************

The East Sea. Gate of Illusion.

Among the mist-filled skies above the island, a white flying ship shot past.

The sides of the ship glimmered with golden symbols as it sped forward in the mist. In no time, it broke out of the mist and landed before a pure white Taoist palace on the eastern side of the island.

Atop the Taoist palace was a gigantic turtle that was 100 meters tall and close to 1,000 meters wide. As the giant turtle looked up at the flying ship, countless golden symbols flashed past its eyes. After it confirmed that there was no threat, it lowered its head slowly again.

After the flying ship slowed to a stop, a guard from the Taoist palace came up to open the ship’s door.

A bald, big, and tall muscular man with a red triangular mark in the middle of his forehead walked up to the ship.

“I can’t believe that the Blood Sun’s Divine Lord Wuxin has come to meet me. I’m flattered.” Lu Sheng wore short-sleeved clothes with the character for “Prime” embroidered on his chest. He strode down the flying ship quickly.

The person who came was impressively the Heartless Divine Lord who had met Lu Sheng with Weapon Grandmaster Aurora Polaris before this. This person’s main body was not a human, but a Rogue Divine Weapon. As one of the three great Divine Lords of the Blood Sun, their strength was the greatest among the Thousand Sun Sect. It was uncertain if he had already attained the Divine Intellect tier.

“Brother Lu, compared to before, you’ve improved a lot. By the way, just call me Heartless. The sect master is waiting for you inside. Go on in,” said Divine Lord Wuxin with a forced smile.

“Alright.” Lu Sheng did not tarry, either.

He followed Divine Lord Wuxin around, and sized up this island which had been under his charge before this. He could clearly see golden formation runes inscribed everywhere. Some of them buzzed with energy waves, and made even him slightly shocked.

The two of them walked into the Taoist palace in a single file. They went ahead along the ice-cold and long palace corridor.

“Come to think of it, after you left, there has been two disturbances at the Gate of Illusion. However, they had been forcibly suppressed by the sect master,” Divine Lord Wuxin remarked.

“Were there any casualties within the sect?”

“There were. The Blood Sun has lost two peak Weapon Masters and a hundred Earth Prime Formation Masters. The odds don’t look optimistic.” Divine Lord Wuxin sighed. “I hear that your son is engaged to the Three Sacred Door’s Divine Son’s daughter?”

“It’s just been decided recently.” Lu Sheng nodded slightly.

“The Three Sacred Gates had always taken an impartial stance. You should keep a good measure of yourself. It’s best not to rely on them too much.” Divine Lord Wuxin slid in a word of caution.

“Of course. I know what I’m doing,” said Lu Sheng with a smile.

The two of them walked past the garden filled with beautiful purples and brilliant reds. In the innermost chess room, they saw Weapon Grandmaster Aurora Polaris, who was having a go with another person.

Aurora Polaris’s long, blue hair fell down loosely. The little moustache atop his lips was slightly askew. He seemed to be lost in thought.

His opponent was the mysterious lady in white who was cold and heartless.

“Lu Sheng, you’ve come.” When he saw them, Aurora Polaris swept the chessboard away and stood up with a smile.

“You’re just in time. Unfortunately, it’s a game that I was almost winning. It’s alright, there’s always a next time.”

The lady’s expression remained unchanged, but a hint of helplessness showed through her eyes.

“Come and sit. Wuxin, Little Qiu, can you leave us for a while? I’d like to have a chat with Divine Lord Lu,” he ordered.

Divine Lord Wuxin nodded his head. He stood up with the lady in white and quickly left the chess room. The doors were closed, and their surroundings fell silent again.

“Tea?” Aurora Polaris sat down again. He and Lu Sheng were separated by the chessboard. He propped his feet up, acting just like an ordinary person; he did not put on any airs.

“No, thanks.” This was Lu Sheng’s first time seeing the Weapon Grandmaster being so friendly. There was no style. “Sect Master, the main reason for my current visit is—”

“I know what you mean. You’re not a direct subordinate of the Thousand Sun, and you can’t obtain all of the highest Thousand Sun’s inheritance. You can’t see your future cultivation path. That’s natural.” Aurora Polaris smiled and nodded.

When Lu Sheng saw this, he knew that Aurora Polaris knew what he meant. Although he had already touched the door of the Weapon Grandmaster, and he would be in another world if he opened it, what about his next step? The consumption of his Mental Energy would become greater, and it would be too wasteful to use it purely for deriving cultivation methods. Compared to derivations, he prefered to apply his Mental Energy to quickly increase his strength after Arriving in another world. It was clearly a better deal.

What about the future? Would he keep carrying out Arrivals to Other Worlds? What kind of problems would arise after his spirit reached a certain extent? How many branches would appear in his future progress? How should he lay down the most stable foundation? He knew none of the answers.

There were many kinds of problems that needed pointers from the seniors.

Although Lu Sheng could also derive it himself, he could still reduce waste of time and effort and avoid taking detours, and he would not end up in a dead end.

“Actually, at our stage, you should be able to touch the tier of the Origin Power. You’d be able to control Origin Power and slowly improve your mastery and quality of it. That’s the main problem of this stage,” Aurora Polaris said peacefully. “The Thousand Sun Sect naturally possesses the follow-up inheritance you need in the future, but… have you prepared yourself to pay the price?”

He stared Lu Sheng in the eyes seriously.

Lu Sheng fell silent. If a Divine Lord wanted to join the direct line, the price he would have to pay was not merely loyalty on the surface. He would still have to possess practical information that could be used against somebody.

The inheritance of a Weapon Grandmaster was no simple matter. An absolute guarantee of loyalty to the Thousand Sun Sect was needed for it to be passed down.

When Aurora Polaris saw Lu Sheng’s pose, he understood as well. He knew that Lu Sheng did not actually want to be controlled by the direct line’s special methods. He was gentle, and did not force him.

“However, now is the time where we can use more men. Lu Sheng, you’re now at a bottleneck, so I’ll give you this book for now. Don’t let this fall into another’s hands.” Aurora Polaris understood as well. If a sect did not have enough bargaining chips to entice an incarnated Divine Lord such as Lu Sheng who grew strong without relying too much on a sect, he would leave the sect sooner or later. That was why he produced this small item again. This would be regarded as the payment for Lu Sheng’s current trip.

Lu Sheng received the book and answered a few of Aurora Polaris’s questions before he retreated on his own.

He left the chess room, and Divine Lord Wuxin led him out of the Taoist palace.

Lu Sheng flipped the pages of the small book along the way. Little tricks that could be used to better merge his spirit and Divine Weapon were recorded on it. This would enable him to understand Origin Power more easily.

For a Divine Lord that did not understand Origin Power, this was a good thing indeed. It was practical, but it was useless for him.

He quickly walked out of the Taoist palace’s doors. The flying ship was still parked where it was. Lu Sheng was slightly disappointed. He prepared to board the ship.

“Brother Lu.” Divine Lord Wuxin suddenly voiced out.

Lu Sheng paused in his steps, and turned around to look at him.

“You have something to say, Divine Lord Wuxin?”

“The three Divine Lords of the royal family before this, they went missing at your place, right?” Divine Lord Wuxin asked peacefully.

Lu Sheng was silent for a moment. Then, he smiled.

“You’re right.”

“That Divine Son Li Shunxi, is he close to you?” Wuxin asked again.

“Somewhat.” Lu Sheng gave it some thought before answering seriously.

“Well, let me give you this.” Wuxin suddenly flipped his hand and tossed over a purplish-black jade.

Lu Sheng quickly caught it.

“As the master of a sect, it would not be appropriate for him to give this to you himself. This is his personal understanding which he gives you privately. Don’t leak this out,” Wuxin reminded him.

Lu Sheng squeezed the jade. He felt as if he was seeing light at the end of the tunnel already.

“Alright.” He only took a cursory glance just now, and was able to decipher from the surface information that this contained precious information about the future cultivation tier after the Weapon Grandmaster tier.

The rules of the sect could not be broken no matter what. Clearly, Weapon Grandmaster Aurora Polaris had worked his way around them, and gave him some pointers privately. This was not considered a violation of the rules.

“Have a safe journey,” Wuxin added finally.

“Mm-hm.” Lu Sheng nodded, and quickly stepped into the flying ship.

The flying ship leapt into the air and shot in the faraway direction. It plunged into the mist formation in the blink of an eye.

Lu Sheng had barely just left when the disciples before the Taoist palace’s gates bowed. Weapon Grandmaster Aurora Polaris walked out of the palace slowly and looked in the direction in which Lu Sheng left.

“Alas… I didn’t discover this child right away,” Aurora Polaris lamented.

“Why do you say that, Sect Master? Although Divine Master Lu has extraordinary talents, he’s still an incarnate. He’s not like the others,” Wuxin said with a slight frown.

“Putting this aside, give me 10 more sets of the Ninety-nine Flying Universe Formation. I’ll try to contact the sect master again this month.” Aurora Polaris lowered his head. His face paled for a second. “The Great Tribulation is upon us; expending blood, flesh, and lives is just a plan of convenience. The real key is the showdown of Origin Power…”

Wuxin lowered his head without saying anything.

“Are you blaming me for being too careless and leaking this great secret to a Divine Lord who’s not from the direct line?” Aurora Polaris smiled faintly.

“Wuxin wouldn’t dare.”

“You’ll understand eventually… Just think of it as making a friend for now.” Aurora Polaris sighed slightly and said no more.

….

Within the flying ship.

Lu Sheng slowly infused his spirit into the jade.

He quickly went past the surface information, and an ink and wash painting with black words on a white canvas unfolded before him.

“Nine Heads World. Yellow Springs Seventy-second Planet Transport Formation distributional map.”

‘Transport Formation?! Nine Heads World? Yellow Springs Planet?!’ A series of nouns instantly shocked Lu Sheng.

‘Could it be…’ He extended his spirit further.

The scene within the jade flickered. Then, the next scene appeared before him.

A clay-colored planet was slowly spinning in the pitch-black space. Clay-colored rings surrounded the planet. There were also a few moons of various sizes that orbited around it.

On the surface of the planet, four white spots of light and two red spots of light could be seen.

“White means passable. Red means destroyed.” A row of Great Yin characters was inscribed below.

Lu Sheng infused more of his spirit. He had a thought, and the planet was immediately enlarged accordingly as he proceeded toward one of the white spots.

For a time, he felt as if he had traversed a large distance. His field of vision had instantly shifted from the planet into a primordial forest where he was surrounded by towering trees.

In the center of his sight was a round rock formation. It resembled an altar surrounded by weeds.

Lu Sheng felt slightly shocked in his heart. However, he quickly made the connection.

‘When I met Ju Yan back then, he did mention that he had witnessed the great powers of other Heavenly Devils before, and he even obtained their cultivation methods. It was apparent from this that the Heavenly Devil World isn’t restricted to a single planet where the Great Yin and Great Song is on. This is but a proof of that fact.

‘However, this item that Aurora Polaris gave me, I’m afraid that the Thousand Sun Sect…’

Lu Sheng had his own guesses.

He looked toward the scene again, and saw a sentence under it. Southern Great Song, near Swift Town. The final part was a date. It displayed the time that the address was updated.

“Great Song, huh?”