Way of the Devil

 Many days later.

People finally figured out the general layout of the inner Black Seal Temple.

It was separated into three areas: the Buddha’s Wheel, the Voice, and the Light. The three areas surrounded the central Buddha sculpture as if they were guarding it.

The areas in between the major areas and the central Buddha sculpture were filled with a mess of buildings, mostly smaller Buddhist temple and halls.

After Lu Sheng fully understood the slate his master gave him, he took everyone around the Buddha’s Wheel area. The monsters they encountered could be split into three main categories.

Closed-eye monks, the blessed black wall with hands coming from it, as well as a little Buddhist hall with a monster hidden inside.

The blessed wall among them moved constantly and sometimes even entered into the open areas between the three major areas. Those were the things Lu Sheng encountered when he’d first entered, though most of them were trivial threats.

Of course, there were stronger creatures within the Buddha’s Wheel area. After the closed-eyed monks, there were also the closed-eyed Vajra, Dharmaraja, and Arhat.

At the same time, within a garden to the left of Buddha’s Wheel area.

“Bam!”

A tall pitch-black shape with six arms and dark golden body firmly slammed into a dried pond.

Gong Chi coughed violently, her face colored dark red. Slivers of blood came out from the corner of her eyes. Even though the wounds were healing already, it was still obvious that her eyes were damaged.

A few other people stood beside her: Xie Yuqiong and a handsome man with light blue hair. Both were also wounded and stood guard next to her.

“Senior Apprentice Sister Gong… it should be ok this time, right?” The man speaking, Xuan Zhu, was the strongest among the group they just rescued. After learning that this team was led by Gong Chi and Lu Sheng, he voluntarily joined.

Lu Sheng didn’t mind. He only wanted to find the person he was looking for, though that was only his original goal. Now, after fully comprehending the limit relating to his mind, his Ultimate Eight-Headed Devil Way experienced wild growth every second. His body was evolving toward an unfathomable level as if there was no limit.

After understanding the meaning behind the slate, he didn’t really have to find the person. Now all he wanted to do was to leave this place earlier and find Qian Du back in the secret area.

He needed a better understanding and placement of the Devil Master level. After all, he did just break through to a completely foreign level.

But he was also tempted by the fact that if he took first place, he would get a chance to talk to a Weapon Master.

Weapon Masters were in a higher tier compared to Devil Masters and Holy Masters, and had complete control over Divine Weapons or Devil Blades. Lu Sheng couldn’t imagine what that was like and wanted to experience it himself.

But meeting someone that far surpassed his level with an unknown attitude wasn’t a smart move. He might as well try to improve his place to receive the best reward that didn’t involving meeting a Weapon Master.

After all, even the second place reward far surpassed Lu Sheng’s imagination. It was 20,000 pieces of Devil Gold, plus an inferior Divine Weapon that could strengthen the physical body.

If utilized properly, these rewards were more than enough to elevate an ordinary disciple to a terrifying height like Weapon Master or even higher. After all, the three major sects did possess impossibly powerful artifacts like the True Essence Tower.

Hence, with that goal in mind, he decided to waste some time here. He brought the team around and hunted the monsters in the inner areas. Other than eliminating opponents, accumulating hunting score was also another method to achieve a high standing.

“The closed-eyed Vajras won’t be easy to deal with.” Gong Chi shook her head slightly. She glanced at Xie Yuqiong, whose neck had been snapped, and the wound that had punctured Xuan Zhu’s lower abdomen. She then looked at the bodies littered on the ground, and the only five or six disciples remaining from the chaos. She sighed.

“There was only one Vajra and three closed-eyed monks, yet all these people we had weren’t even enough to deal with them… I can’t imagine what kind of horrifying scenario Senior Apprentice Brother Lu is dealing with within the temple right now.”

“Hiss!”

A dark purple arm slowly retracted from the two meter tall Dharmaraja’s chest. Lu Sheng stood calmly at the center of the Buddhist hall. As he retracted his hand, the 13 Vajra around him fell one by one.

The closed-eyed Dharmaraja in front of him was the strongest monster within the temple, equivalent to someone at the third tier of Earth Level.

Of course, ordinary people viewed it as insanely powerful.

The Dharmaraja was impervious to most weapons, and anyone below the seventh Vein level couldn’t even break his skin, let alone kill him. Combined with his swift movement and shocking strength, it would have been hard for someone below Earth Level to keep themselves even alive.

“When facing terror or destruction, we shouldn’t panic, shouldn’t go mad.

“Give your hand to the light, explain your heart to the Buddha. As for your future, leave it to fate and give your power to death.”

A calm and solemn voice came from behind the hall.

Lu Sheng looked toward the voice. A dark-gold Dharmaraja wearing a big red kasaya slowly walked out from behind the Buddha statue.

The Dharmaraja appeared ancient. His body was surrounded by the special dark golden Buddha’s light of Dharmaraja. Yet, his skin was wrinkled and his body was as skinny as a twig. It felt as if the kasaya was hanging from a hanger.

“Guli!” A little monk ran out from behind and tightly hugged the ancient Dharmaraja’s leg.

“Guli! Ashalu! Ashalu!” The kid’s eyes were bleeding as well, but he still held onto the Dharmaraja like a normal little monk.

The ancient Dharmaraja lowered his head and chided the little monk sternly, and he finally released him while sobbing. “Sorry about that.” The ancient Dharmaraja smiled at Lu Sheng. Somehow he was speaking the official language of the Great Yin.

Lu Sheng’s cold and indifference finally changed slightly. He always thought the closed-eyed monks were just monsters within the inner Black Seal Temple, but now…

“Are you surprised?” The old Dharmaraja smiled. “It makes sense… I rigorously studied the Language of the Heavenly Devil for 139 years, and only truly learned the language after decoding the secret of the outer layer of language 10 years ago.”

“Language of the Heavenly Devil?” Lu Sheng was startled. “What does that mean?”

The ancient Dharmaraja blanked out too. “Of course. You are from what you call the holy realm of the Great Yin, while others are from the Scarlet Devil Clan. Maybe you have different names for it.”

Lu Sheng was silent. A startling theory was forming in his mind based on the ancient Dharmaraja’s words.

“Your people, you call us Heavenly Devils?” he asked again.

“That is correct. Your people enslave other lives, massacre entire worlds, and perform bloody rituals. Wasn’t this world ruined and reduced to this state because of your people?” the ancient Dharmaraja replied. “Of course, I can’t see any sign of greed or brutality in your eyes. Only peace and indifference. That is why I am willing to talk to you.”

Lu Sheng was silent for a moment, then slowly asked, “So what do you plan to do? What do you want to talk about?”

“Right… what do I want to say? What do I want to do?” The ancient Dharmaraja’s eyes suddenly lost focus. He lowered his head, like he was looking at the little monk through his closed eyes.

“Though I can’t speak for others, I personally only wanted to do one thing after all these years of study. Ask one question.”

Lu Sheng also looked at the little monk. The little guy wasn’t even tall enough to reach his knee. His delicate face that looked like it was carved from jade had a bald head atop, and would have looked even cuter without the blood coming out from his closed eyes.

“What do you want to ask?” he asked calmly.

The ancient Dharmaraja stroked the little monk’s bald head, his face filled with weariness, pain, and kindness.

“I only want to ask: why?”

“Why?” Lu Sheng repeated.

Why what? Why did you want to know why, why did your people invade my world and destroy everything, why did your people do this?

Lu Sheng got many meanings behind the monk’s question.

“You…” He finally broke his train of thought and again looked toward the ancient Dharmaraja. But he saw that he stood still, his hand still on the little monk’s bald head. He was leaning on the Buddha sculpture quietly, like he had fallen asleep.

“Hisss…”

A breeze blew past, and the ancient Dharmaraja’s body turned into black dust along with the little monk. They both passed away peacefully.

Lu Sheng stood in place and felt as if he had glimpsed the truth about this world for the first time.

If the ancient Dharmaraja saw them as the Heavenly Devil, what would they think of the Devil’s Calamity? What would they be?

Questions swarmed his head as he slowly walked out of the Buddhist hall. Gong Chi and the rest had finished the fighting outside. They suffered heavy casualties, and only less than 10 of of the nearly 20 people at the start remained.

Gong Chi walked up to him. “Senior Apprentice Brother Lu. You took care of the situation inside?”

Lu Sheng’s recovered from his encounter and said in a low voice, “Yes. Let’s go on. After all these days, there shouldn’t be that many left from Moling.”

“We could also gather more people from the Thousand Sun Sect and the Youyin Sect. That way, everyone’s overall score would improve, which would in turn benefit Moling’s ranking among the Great Yin, which then means everyone gets more rewards from the main sect,” Gong Chi cautiously suggested.

“Whatever you want. Also, if you see people from the Spirit Bind Sect, kill and eliminate them, don’t waste my time,” Lu Sheng said flatly.

He had unknowingly established his authority over the disciples of the two sects.

All because he had faced enemies head on many times and killed more monsters than everyone else combined.

Gong Chi was even happy to target the Spirit Bind Sect. Aside from both sects’ acquaintance with the Thousand Sun Sect, the competition between them was quite obvious. The support of the powerful master Lu Sheng from the Thousand Sun Sect gave them even more confidence.

“Aside from that, Senior Apprentice Brother Lu, we could also try to find Senior Apprentice Sister Zhangsun Lan and my Senior Apprentice Brother Li Mai from the Youyin Sect in other areas. If we could work together and finish all three areas, we would get a even higher score. Then, we could get first place. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

“A nice plan in theory. However, Senior Apprentice Sister Gong, the overall power of your Youyin Sect is stronger than my Thousand Sun. You are also familiar with our current situation; who would help my Senior Apprentice Brother Lu and Senior Apprentice Sister Zhangsun when the time to compete for the strongest assisting force among Moling comes?” Xie Yuqiong immediately refuted her proposal. Even though Gong Chi was far stronger than her, the Thousand Sun Sect didn’t need to be afraid with Lu Sheng there.