Way of the Devil

Lu Sheng stood frowning before the corridor. He looked along the two rows of screens.

He calmed his breathing and lifted his foot toward the corridor. His feet stepped on solid black flagstones, which were slightly moist and cold to the touch. They seemed to be covered in a thin layer of moss as well, which made them slippery.

‘Pass through here in the shortest time possible…’ He narrowed his eyes and quickened his pace.

Other than the various gazes he was sensing from the two rows of screens, he did not find anything like a trap along the way. He was progressing so smoothly that he felt it strange.

“Tap, tap, tap…”

Crisp footsteps resounded constantly throughout the corridor.

“Hiss…”

Suddenly, a faint scorching sensation came from his shoulder. He stopped in his tracks and touched the part where the burning sensation originated.

“You’d better be quick. Although the examiner will alter the results for you, it’ll be a problem if you performed too badly.” The leaf man’s voice reminded him again.

“Mm-hm, I know.” Lu Sheng hurried on. However, the further he went, the more intense the scorching sensation became.

Suddenly, he stopped.

“What’s the matter?” asked the leaf man.

“Nothing.”

Lu Sheng maintained his expression. He could feel that something was off. There was no way that the examination of a great sect would be child’s play such as this. There was not even a single test.

Also, there was the scorching feeling on his shoulder…

Lu Sheng continued on without showing any signs of his suspicions. He carefully pulled his arm back into his sleeve, and released some aura waves from it.

The corridor grew darker. As he went further, the path was slowly turning left.

The aura wave in Lu Sheng’s sleeve weakened, and gradually vanished.

‘I hope that I won’t be using this…’ He looked at the darkening corridor before him. He felt a lull over his own heart.

“Do I keep going?” Lu Sheng asked out loud.

The leaf man made no reply. It was apparent that the leaf man could not follow him here.

Lu Sheng was silent for a moment before he continued on. He started to look for some blind spots.

….

At the end of the corridor.

A tall and a short emaciated old man hovered cross-legged in midair. They wore Taoist robes and were leisurely closing their eyes to rest. They were waiting for Lu Sheng’s arrival.

“Senior Apprentice Brother Mu Qing, I’m sure the reason for your return is that girl Mu Ruxue, right? At her age, it’s about time for her to settle down with a partner,” the short old man teased.

“Not really. If there wasn’t a sudden need for personnel here, I might already be on my way to finding a wife. How about you, Junior Apprentice Brother Nan Shushu? Your great disciple has stolen a flask of your Spirit Rejuvenation Pills. Has he been caught yet?” asked the tall old man in a lazy tone as he stroked his beard.

“It’s difficult… That disciple of mine has been taught by me for a few thousand years. His cultivation base isn’t that much inferior compared to mine. If he’s given the trigger, he can most probably break through the Army Raising realm and enter the Confusion Realm. In addition to that, he’s extremely familiar with my techniques and skills since I was his master. It’s difficult to apprehend him in the near future.” The short Nan Shushu shook his head helplessly.

“By the way, they’ve summoned us back here just to deal with an ordinary Army Raising rogue cultivator. Isn’t the sect overdoing this?” Mu Qing was slightly discontented with this.

“I heard that Ghost Borneo World’s Fifth Heavenly Devil King has a part in this. There’s nothing we can do. Our main mission is not to deal with that little fellow, but to interfere and prevent the Fifth Heavenly Devil King from meddling.”

Nan Shushu explained, “Since this little fellow has the attention of a Heavenly Devil King, it’s clear that he’s harboring some secret on himself, and it won’t be a minor one at that. Hence, our mission is also to obtain this secret that this little fellow possesses at the same time.”

At the Weapon Grandmaster rank and above, everything would boil down to a clash of Hearts. The strong would devour the weak. The two of them were of the Confusion Realm, and were counted among the most powerful in the Green Branch Sect. There was only a handful of individuals capable of suppressing them from above.

Hence, dealing with this would be a walk in the park for them.

After the small talk, Nan Shushu suddenly frowned slightly.

“Why isn’t he here yet? Could it be that the little fellow has picked up on something?”

“You want to go and have a look?” Mu Qing shared the same sentiments.

The two of them exchanged glances, and slowly stepped into the corridor. Their bodies vanished from sight with lightning speed.

…..

Zhuang Jiu sat atop a black spike-filled throne. Icy mist lingered about him. The black Yin spirit’s semi-transparent body sung softly in the air around him.

In the oil paintings on the palace’s wall, the bands played along with their gloomy and mysterious tunes.

“Reaching Army Raising in a dozen years. What a feat… It’s no wonder that the Void Underworld Mother of Pain is moved as well.”

Zhuang Jiu stroked his chin.

“When I gave him my contact back then, I had merely intended to pinpoint the world he’s in and see if I can add another planetary colony under my belt. I didn’t expect to receive such a huge surprise.”

As for the even splitting of the spoils agreed by the Green Branch Sect, only fools would believe in the agreement. All the Heavenly Devil Kings climbed to their respective peaks by trampling and stepping on the countless bones of others.

Being deceitful was the basic code of conduct for the Heavenly Devils.

Zhuang Jiu waved his arm, bored. He gestured for the Yin spirit band to leave. Then, he slowly got to his feet on the throne.

“It should be almost time. There’s nothing in this wretched place. If it weren’t for the guy’s spirit and secret treasure, I wouldn’t have had to send my own clone here. I’ll settle this quickly and return.”

Zhuang Jiu huffed. A ball of purplish air swiftly enlarged before him. Then, it condensed into an arched purple crystal door.

A light screen formed by countless clean white threads flickered behind it.

“Is this the Cloud Sky Pavilion’s automatic Defense Formation?” Zhuang Jiu had a smile. He took one step and plunged into the clean white threads.

In the blink of an eye, his surroundings changed.

He found himself on a wide pasture under blue skies with white clouds.

An enormous white cross-shaped palace towered in the faraway plains.

There were 100 floors to the palace. From afar, it resembled an exquisite man-made hill.

A huge shadow hung over the area before Zhuang Jiu, casting it in darkness.

“Cloud Sky Taoist Pagoda?” Zhuang Jiu narrowed his eyes and scanned the bottom of the palace. He noticed that the entire Taoist pagoda was suspended in the air.

The gap between the base of the pagoda and the ground was about a dozen meters.

‘The wave is here. Looks like Dried Leaves brought him up the Cloud Sky Pavilion from this spot. This means that the trial corridor must be here as well. That saves me a lot of trouble.’

Zhuang Jiu flicked his index finger. Unique black radiance filled with silver sand immediately appeared, lingering around him. The black radiance weaved and hung around him, condensing a unique black full-body armor with a trademark crescent moon.

“One Cloud Sky Taoist Pagoda can’t stand in my way.” Zhuang Jiu smiled. He flew toward the Taoist pagoda at high speed and vanished in the blink of an eye.

Within seconds of his departure, black figures materialized out of thin air where he stood moments ago.

“This is the place. Let’s move according the agreement we have with the Green Branch Sect.” The leading black figure slowly showed itself. It was a seductive woman in purple armor.

This woman’s purple armor was hollowed out so that it merely covered the three crucial spots on her body. Her slender legs, fine waist, and boastful majesties were exposed without restraint.

If one looked at her body alone, nobody would be able to tell that she came from the World of Pain. However, the long tail formed by purple bone joints which extended from her caudal vertebrae had completely exposed her identity.

One of the black figures walked up to her and asked in a soft voice, “Master Hong Yao, how do we go about it, exactly? Please give the orders.”

The woman wagged her long tail. She licked her lips with her red forked tongue.

“The Green Branch Sect had this planned out well. This place is the closest to their home, the Green Zen World. No matter what kind of tricks we might have up our sleeves, they’ll be able to send out reinforcements and turn the tide. However, who do they think they are? We’ll be sending our men here anyway.

“The Green Branch Sect wants to profit from this, yet they didn’t want to bear the bad name. There’s no such good thing under the heavens.” Hong Yao sneered.

“So, what should we do?” another black figure asked.

Hong Yao scoffed. “We’ll need his person. However, when and how should we make our move will depend on the situation… Zhuang Jiu is the famous Fifth Heavenly Devil King from the Ghost Borneo World. Even if he’s only sent a little clone here, his strength will still be incomparably terrifying. There’s no need for us to butt heads with him now. We should let the Green Branch Sect do that first. We should just wait for an opportunity and whisk him away.”

Hong Yao produced a palm-sized black sculpture.

It was a sculpture of a big and tall man in black robes. The man had only one eye on his head, and had countless tendril-like projections behind him which formed a sort of fan-shaped screen.

If one looked closely enough, one would notice that these tendrils were actually wriggling.

“Mother of Pain, grant me power…” Hong Yao held the sculpture before herself. She closed her eyes slowly and started praying.

“Mother of Pain, grant me power…” The other black figures started praying piously as well.

Wisps of transparent aura were released from the sculpture and covered the people gathered there evenly. In no time, the black figures, Hong Yao included, gradually became transparent. Their auras were completely concealed, and they vanished without a trace.

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

Somewhere along the corridor.

Lu Sheng stopped in his tracks. 100 Eight Head Mental Beads hovered above his palm in a dense patch.

These minute beads were purplish black, with a golden flame as their core.

The important point was that these beads were vibrating at a certain peculiar wavelength. It was as if they were breathing as they pulsed with their unique radiance.

‘Although it’s extremely dangerous, and the experiments weren’t all that stable, I don’t think I have any other choice now. Since you guys have acted heartlessly, don’t blame me for this injustice…’

He had noticed that something was wrong from the scorching sensation he felt from the Pain Mark on his body. The mark would only behave like that if a being from the World of Pain was approaching his location quickly.

Also, he had obtained an expansive Harmonizing Power from the Armor World. Although he could not use it to control everything around him with the same precision as with his spirit, when he assimilated it with his immense spirit, his senses could now cover a wider range in his surroundings.

The unique sensing method of Harmonizing Power had increased his senses’ range by 100%.

Currently, as a Weapon Grandmaster, his normal range was about 1,000 meters. However, after merging with Harmonizing Power, Lu Sheng could instantly sense various aura waves 3,000 meters around him with this unique sensing method [1. So not by 100%, but 200%. But what does a little me know. I’m leaving a note so you’ll be less confused in case the author changes his mind and it’s 2,000 meters later.].

Also, this method was covert.

Even though Harmonizing Power had no other use other than as a sensory tool, the ability to sense his enemy’s aura was already sufficient for Lu Sheng.