Way of the Devil

“It’s alright, I’ve added something to soothe your throat,” said one Lu Sheng with a smile.

“This is a once in a lifetime chance! It’s not easy to find a weak lesser god that’s easy to catch,” Lu Sheng’s main body said while he shook his head.

“Alright, that’s enough. Get ready, everyone.”

The Lu Shengs gathered around the giant crane Qianshen. They fixed their eyes on the Sacrifice God Nation above them.

Although the god nation was close to the main plane, it was still located within the void. It was merely connected to a slit in the main plane’s dimension.

The gang had been ready for some time. Suddenly, the god nation above them, which resembled a chicken egg, gave a slight shake.

“It’s coming!”

The giant crane Qianshen quickly opened its mouth wide while adjusting its own position. It stared at the Sacrifice God Nation that was starting to move.

“Bzzt…”

A faint buzzing sound came from above their heads.

The platinum-colored Sacrifice God Nation turned slowly. Then, like a falling comet, it dropped down slowly.

“Puh!”

With a loud thud, the god nation dropped into the giant crane Qianshen’s mouth.

The powerful tugging force and impact force crashed into Qianshen’s body.

Qianshen flapped its wings in a frenzy. It put all its strength behind them as it tried to stay afloat. The other Lu Shengs pitched in as well.

Thick arcane art ropes supported Qianshen from all directions. All of the Lu Shengs exerted force at the same time as they pulled the giant crane upward.

“Almost there! It’s almost in!” Lu Sheng’s main body shouted.

A few Lu Shengs moved in and gave the god nation a kick. They attempted to force it down Qianshen’s throat.

After an unknown period of time.

“Gulp!”

With a crisp sound, the god nation was swallowed whole into Qianshen’s stomach.

Qianshen burped. The Lu Shengs around it swiftly merged with the main body. Lu Sheng became one again.

“I need time to digest this. I’ll need around three days. However, anything that’s entered my stomach won’t be able to send any waves out,” Qianshen explained.

“Alright. Leave the rest to me.” Lu Sheng’s main body nodded.

***

Sacrifice God Nation.

“Feel that? Feels like something bad has happened.” The gloominess on Lu Sheng’s face instantly went away. In its place was his initial calmness and a smile.

Within the god nation’s temple, the God of Sacrifice stared blankly at his own god nation’s core. The glaring white radiance was now covered in a layer of blurred gray.

“You… You!!” His voice was trembling. It was clear that his entire god nation had been pulled into a completely alien dimension by some unknown and terrifying power.

“Alright, since that was successful, this is a goodbye.” Lu Sheng smiled and waved at the entrance to the god nation in the Offering Hall. He turned around and left.

On the entrance to the platinum-colored god nation behind him, a thick layer of gray started creeping all over it. The gray matter was the dimensional separator within Qianshen’s main body.

Lu Sheng walked out of the hall and instantly melted into a mass of flesh the size of a person’s head. It shot up into the dark night sky.

No matter how the God of Sacrifice struggled, it was too late for him to think of escaping now that he was inside Qianshen’s stomach. As for the passage to the Star World, since he was inside Qianshen’s stomach, there was no need to mention it. It had been directly cut off.

High above in the night skies, Lu Sheng flew to an altitude of 1,000 meters. He could faintly hear the buzzing sounds from the temple below him.

He looked down and saw that the temple was slowly being enveloped in a layer of gray. The outer walls and the roof of the temple started crumbling and falling down.

The building melted into gray liquid and seeped through the ground.

‘A part of this temple belonged to the god nation. Is it being digested now?’ Lu Sheng guessed in his mind. He picked up his pace to get away from the temple. He passed by mountains, streams, and rivers.

Eventually, he found his main body on a cliff 100 miles away from Dawn City. Then, he nosedived.

With a piercing sound, he plunged into the main body’s arm.

Lu Sheng was gazing at Dawn City from the distance. A female assassin in black muslin and black armor followed behind him.

“Charmes, are there any grand movements from the great churches?” Lu Sheng did not even look back as he casually put forth the question. Devouring the God of Sacrifice was only one of the tasks he’d delegated to his clones.

At the same time, he had sent out the Abominations and his clones to three separate locations to take down the weak gods.

The three gods were the God of Sacrifice, the God of Gardening, and the God of Jealousy.

The God of Sacrifice was the most difficult to deal with. This deity had even resorted to anchoring his own god nation onto the bottom of the Star World. Lu Sheng did not know where he learned about the method and technique. When he was ready to end his own life with Lu Sheng, he was completely caught in Lu Sheng’s trap.

Otherwise, it might very well have ended the way he intended to—Lu Sheng would die with him.

“There are no movements. However, the Shadow Church has sent out more scouts. Also, the Golden Dragon Tribe and the Black Dragon Tribe are having a minor quarrel again. The golden dragons are secretly liaising with the young lady as they wanted to use her bloodline to activate the royal inheritance,” replied the female assassin Charmes softly.

Lu Sheng nodded with satisfaction.

Charmes was the leader of an assassin organization he chanced upon. Her assassination skills were masterful. She was also a peak expert of the legendary rank. As a person who valued talents, Lu Sheng retained her as his chief of information.

Currently, Lu Sheng was liking this arrangement very much.

Lu Sheng paused slightly before asking, “Also, have you found the locations of the other regalia? I want ancient regalia.”

“We’ve found them. Besides the two most powerful god systems, the ones closest to us are the Ocean Soul Spear and the Sword of Lars,” replied Charmes quickly.

“Ocean Soul Spear… the ocean gods, huh… Just as well. We can also take care of the Seven-colored Dragon Tribe as well.” Lu Sheng had gotten a rough estimation of the seven-colored dragons’ whereabouts during the past few days. Although he did not have a precise location, it was much better than not knowing anything.

“Have Barnes follow Hongye. The rest of you should rest and regroup. Five days from now, we’ll depart for the West Sea.”

“Understood!” Charmes knelt with one knee on the ground. After accepting the order, she instantly disintegrated into black smoke and vanished.

Lu Sheng took a final glance at Dawn City far away behind him. This was a stronghold of the Cain Kingdom. Currently, it had become his land.

The movements of the churches and any large organizations never escaped his notice.

He leapt into the air and took a step forward. A dimension door appeared before him. Lu Sheng stepped into it calmly.

When he reappeared, he was already standing inside the rock hall opposite the experiment room under the cursed land.

Lu Sheng walked out of the rock hall and opened a rock door to his left. It was the entrance to a narrow and long black tunnel inscribed with protective runes.

Lu Sheng passed through the tunnel, and found a bronze-colored rock door at the end. A monster with countless viper heads and the body of a dog was sprawled before the door.

This monster was completely dark golden in color. There were 101 black vipers sprouting from its neck. When it saw Lu Sheng, the monster got to its feet. When it registered that it was Lu Sheng, it immediately whimpered.

Lu Sheng ignored it. He looked toward the symbol on the bronze rock door. This was a self-looping formation rune lock. At fixed intervals, the lock on the door would switch on its own.

He quickly figured out the combination for today, and drew certain strokes on the door with his finger. In no time, the rock door slowly parted to the sides.

It was a rock hall that was neither big nor small.

Lu Sheng walked quickly into the space. The rock door behind him was sealed shut with a dull thud.

He was indifferent to it. He turned left and quickly entered a secret passage, then quickly went through the secret passage, and emerged in a semicircular cavern at the end of the passage.

A simple pitch-black altar with purple radiance was erected on the floor of the cavern.

Three colorful crystals with spikes hovered above the altar. The three crystals were accompanied by faint songs of hymns with different styles.

“Three Godhoods…” Lu Sheng sighed with relief. He looked at his harvest before himself.

The God of Sacrifice, the God of Gardening, and the God of Jealousy. These were their Godhoods.

Lu Sheng narrowed his eyes and reached out. He held the Gardening Godhood.

‘Godhood, a type of hypostasis. It’s a position of authority granted by this universe to rule over some of the natural laws. If the universe was akin to a huge kingdom, the Godhoods would be the natural offices granted by the universe. I have not much use for them.’

He did not intend to stay in this universe for long. Hence, the Godhoods would not be of much use to him. After all, these powers and positions would be useless in the other universes.

‘However, it should be useful for gaining insight on the workings and rules of the universe.’

He grabbed the Gardening Godhood and slowly closed his eyes. He plunged his spirit into it and gathered insight about the rules related to gardening.

At the same time, within his Heart Image World.

The withered plants of gardens in the town seemed to be revitalized. They became lush again.

Many other plants in the surrounding environments also slowly gained a sense of liveliness.

The Gardening Godhood contained ranking systems of the management of plants. This was the equivalent of an office which oversaw everything related to gardening.

Lu Sheng merely tested his hand in this. He immediately learned unbelievably vast amounts of gardening-related rules and common knowledge from the workings of this world.

The related blank spaces in his Heart Image World were also swiftly filled up. His entire Heart Image World increased in authenticity.

Lu Sheng gathered insight from the Gardening Godhood for four days. However, he had yet to completely absorb the information and knowledge he obtained from the working of the world.

If he wanted to completely digest what he had gained, Lu Sheng felt that he at least needed several years to manage it.

Feeling helpless, he could only hide the three Godhoods within Qianshen’s stomach again.

He felt that if he could completely digest the benefits brought about by the three Godhoods, his Heart Image World would certainly improve and rise to a higher rank.

The most fundamental information originating from the working of the world could greatly help in patching up the flaws of Lu Sheng’s Heart Image World.

After that, he would only have to absorb a certain amount of reincarnation power to stabilize his Void Underworld tier and move on to the next tier.

After putting the Godhoods away, Lu Sheng went to another corner of the cavern. On a stone table, many bronze tablets were laid out. The bronze tablets were inscribed with the latest information on the seven-colored dragons.

The Light Church and the Shadow Church were warring before this. Under the cover of the chaos, Lu Sheng busied himself with hunting down gods.

It was during this time that he received news about the Seven-colored Dragon Tribe.

“The sacred land of the red dragons, the Scarlet Blood Mountains, had sent out a hunting troop. They are cooperating with the demigod Sardine to hunt down the Seven-colored Dragon Tribe. As of this report, they have already killed two seven-colored dragons.”