Way of the Devil

“Red Lotus Hellfire? A Fire Tribulation?” Lu Sheng lowered his head to look at the flame, but he could not feel its temperature. The Inner Core he formed was clearly a high-grade Golden Core. Hence, the famous legendary Red Lotus Hellfire appeared as well.

‘This is the powerful legendary flame that’s said to be able to burn away life’s sins.’ Lu Sheng stretched out his hand and touched the scarlet flames. Unfortunately, these flame seemed to be merely an illusion to him. He could not sense its existence at all.

‘Maybe my sins aren’t even in this world to begin with. That’s why the Red Lotus Hellfire is meaningless to me,’ Lu Sheng thought in realization.

He had just formed his Golden Core, so the next step for him would be to fuse a treasure similar to Nether Water while he condensed his Core Qi.

Lu Sheng stood up and walked out of the abode quickly. He leapt and plunged into the sea again.

Since he could not find any good resources, he would make up for it with quantity.

What was the most abundant resource in the sea? It was seawater!

Lu Sheng suddenly plunged into the sea and quickly swam past the shallow seas. He quickly returned to where he’d sacrificially refined his Artifact.

Countless threads emanated from his body and spread in all directions like a spiderweb. 99 ice layer vortex discs were quickly formed.

His full-strength mode manifested again, and he started swallowing greedily. An endless supply of Yin Chill seawater surged into his Inner Core. At the same time, the silver metal ball started to wildly devour huge amounts of seawater as well.

With Lu Sheng’s terrifying capacity and vast Core Qi’s support, copious amounts of seawater were condensed by his Core Qi and sucked into his Golden Core and Artifact. If the seawater was purely condensed using physical methods, the amount of energy required would be terrifying.

However, after applying some special conversion method of the cultivation world, the seawater could be converted into semi-void state, and its volume could be dramatically reduced. Then, it could be fused into his Golden Core and Artifact.

Lu Sheng vaguely felt that there seemed to be some hidden higher truth of sheer impossibility behind these methods. However, he currently had no time to research these matters. Copious amounts of seawater were being condensed and shoved into a secretly opened space somewhere in his Inner Core.

This world’s cultivation collections were mysterious and profound. The main cultivation method aside, there were many more abstruse skill formulas with incomprehensible theories.

In truth, Lu Sheng could not even fully understand the contents of the Triad Brilliant Nether Collection. He had only understood the main body of the cultivation method—Yin deficiency skills, sacrificial refining methods, and explosive skills.

A collection contained a myriad of things. It contained Taoist Mu Yun’s efforts over several hundred years.

Lu Sheng had only extracted the main method of cultivating up to the Inner Core tier. He ignored the other methods for now.

However, he currently noticed something profound about this Inner Core. Lu Sheng made a mental note to organize the secondary skills contained within these two skill formulas and cultivate them. He might be in for a surprise.

Take the Sumeru Skill, for example. He could vaguely tell that this world’s spatial rules and secrets were hidden within it.

“Hiss…”

In the deep sea, a colossal ice serpent opened its jaws. It swallowed immeasurable amounts of seawater. Every suck of its mouth meant an addition of ten tons of seawater into Lu Sheng’s Golden Core.

Lu Sheng continued to devour the seawater wildly with increasing speed and haste. The region of the sea a few thousand meters around him was starting to show signs of being affected by his devouring as it gradually started to form a mid-sized deep-sea whirlpool.

***

On the azure sea surface.

A pure white flowing light flashed past the skies and shot straight toward Wood Martial Abode.

The flowing light came to an abrupt stop. It was a lean Taoist with white whiskers in white clothes.

The Taoist lowered his head and glanced at the whirlpool on the water’s surface with a frown. He could faintly feel a slight fluctuation of Core Qi under the sea.

“This aura… resembles the Dragon Blood Sea Clan’s line…” Practically most of the Dragon Blood Sea Clan consisted of great clans of the deep sea with shocking strength. Those that were able to form Cores were the mainstay of the clan. In addition to that, the deep-sea clans were not known for their good temper. They disliked land-dwellers.

The Taoist hesitated. In the end, he did not go over to investigate. He continued flying off in a predetermined direction.

He flew past the whirlpool underneath and accelerated again. In no time, he saw the black cliff of the Wood Martial Abode.

Groups of small demons could vaguely be seen going around the cliff. When some of the small demons saw him coming closer, they quickly sent out Demonic Qi to tell their brethren.

In no time, rings of alarm spread across the entire cliff. A big and tall white figure quickly dashed out of a cave near the cliff—it belonged to an impressive-looking white bear demon with a bear’s head and a human body.

“Who goes there?!” the white bear demon Iron Hammer bellowed. He gripped his Violet Gold Sledgehammers as he fixed his gaze upon the white-clothed Taoist flaying toward him.

“May I ask if Wood Martial Abode Master is here?” asked the Taoist with a smile. He stopped in midair.

“Abode Master is out and has yet to return. If the immortal master wants to meet him, you may wait a while in the abode.” When Iron Hammer saw the Taoist’s striking appearance and composed manner, it was clear that he was a person of great skill. Hence, he felt a sense of respect for him, and his tone softened.

“I’ll take you up on your offer.” The Taoist smiled and nodded. He dropped slowly to the ground and stood at the entrance to the Wood Martial Abode on the cliff.

Iron Hammer leapt up the cliff with a few jumps and landed in front of the entrance as well.

“Come with me. There are formations in this cave, it’s better not to go exploring it on your own.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t give you any trouble,” replied the Taoist with a smile.

The two of them entered the Wood Martial Abode in a file. Iron Hammer brought him to the parlor and had the children serve a pot of good tea and some fruits before he left.

These days, he stayed around to oversee the safety of the area. Yun Huan had gone on an errand to another island. He did not expect a special guest to actually show up.

Iron Hammer exited the abode and looked to his left and right. To his surprise, he could not see anyone else other than the Taoist. It was evident that this person was either too courageous with a few screws loose or was highly skilled and was not in the least afraid of being ganged up on in the Wood Martial Abode.

I should tell Master about this as soon as possible,’ he thought, and eventually fished out a blood-colored talisman and tore it lightly.

“Hiss.”

The talisman immediately burned and was reduced to ashes in the blink of an eye.

“Teacher, there’s a white-haired Taoist here, saying that he wants to see you. I wasn’t able to find out who he is, so it’s better for you to return and see him,” he said quickly. His voice barely faded when the ashes from the burnt talisman completely vanished.

***

Deep sea.

The Golden Core before Lu Sheng was currently in a light shade of peculiar blue. There seemed to have been immeasurable amounts of seawater surging into it, but Lu Sheng had been keeping count.

When he sacrificially refined his Artifact in the Foundation Building tier, he had absorbed roughly fifty tons of seawater into his Artifact, the metal ball. Now, his Golden Core had devoured a few thousand tons of seawater. It was almost at its limits.

As he was currently in the Core Formation tier, his Artifact, the silver metal ball, experienced some changes. It had absorbed at least tens of thousands of tons of seawater from the 99 whirlpool ice discs. Its speed was still accelerating.

A huge volume of seawater surged into the metal ball wildly. At the same time, this metal ball was gradually fused with his body and started to form a Treasure that resembled a Golden Core.

This was also the change in his Treasure after he reached the Core Formation tier. For the Taoist Masters in the Core Formation tier, a natal Treasure was equivalent to their second Inner Core. Some of them used it to store their supernatural powers or Core Qi, some treated it as a furnace within their bodies to sacrificially refine forged items, and some others created a storage space with it. There were as many ways to use it as there was sand on the beach.

Lu Sheng purely treated it as a weapon.

A huge volume of seawater surged into his Artifact quickly. The metal ball’s initially silver surface was gradually dyed bluish-golden of his Inner Core. The V-shaped pattern was increasing in clarity.

“Poof.”

Suddenly, a crisp sound came from behind Lu Sheng.

His expression twitched slightly. He allowed himself to be distracted slightly, reached into his robe’s pocket, and took out a burning red talisman.

“Iron Hammer’s blood talisman?”

When he pressed on the blood talisman, Iron Hammer’s voice immediately reached his ears. Lu Sheng squinted his eyes as he listened; he had already guessed at the identity of the visitor.

“It’s that Taoist again, Die Shazi…” It was precisely this person who came to meet Mu Yun on purpose and brought a warning for him to act according to the Vital Energy Sect’s arrangements. He did not expect him to make another visit after his last visit.

‘Maybe he’s worried that I’d lose control from humiliation and use my full strength in the heat of the moment.’ Lu Sheng sneered in his heart.

The Vital Energy Sect… The so-called greatest sect of the Righteous Path, and also Taoist Mu Yun’s greatest source of karma. If he wanted to completely assimilate Taoist Mu Yun’s spirit and body, Lu Sheng had to settle the grievances with the Vital Energy Sect.

After he finished listening to the message, Lu Sheng ignored it for now. Instead, he increased his supply of Core Qi and accelerated the process of absorbing seawater.

His Golden Core had stopped absorbing seawater for now. The metal ball, on the other hand, was still wildly devouring seawater at an increasingly quick pace.

Lu Sheng constantly circulated his Core Qi to assimilate the seawater and channeled it into the metal ball. After he formed his Core, his Core Qi was also hundreds of times more than Mu Yun’s. His Golden Core swallowed and spitted out Origin Qi of heaven and earth. The speed at which it achieved that struck fear into potential listeners. Although he did not possess any special Capacity, the sheer volume of his Core Qi was enough to leave ordinary cultivators dumbstruck.

The seawater surged into it at a quicker pace now.

Lu Sheng decided to go all out. After all, the metal ball was not his body. As long as he infused it with Core Qi to negate the seawater’s pressure, he could keep its structure intact.

He decided to divide his Core Qi into two parts: one for assimilating the seawater, the other for assimilating the metal ball.

With this sudden and intense act, the metal ball suddenly unleashed blue light. The ball shrunk at first, then expanded wildly.

“Boom!”

The surrounding seawater seemed to have collapsed as it entered the metal ball at high speed.

The rate was initially ten tons a second, and quickly rose to twenty tons a second. Then it was thirty tons, forty tons…

In the blink of an eye, the rate at which the seawater was infused increased to a hundred tons.

Lu Sheng’s Golden Core swirled smoothly. Its speed slowly accelerated as well, and the supply of his Core Qi was also orderly. It was clear that this was not his Golden Core’s limit.

Lu Sheng knew about his advantage very well.

The cultivation method which he cultivated was not powerful. It was at best an improved and perfected version of the Triad Brilliant Nether Collection with the elements of the Golden Clam Dragon Transformation Formula.

The might of the Golden Core formed was also mediocre. It was more powerful than Mu Yun’s, but compared to other cultivators, the might unleashed by the same amount of Core Qi was about the same.

In truth, the greatest advantage of the cultivation method Lu Sheng had derived was the total volume of supernatural power. His supernatural power and might was similar to others’, but his volume and recovery speed was a few hundred times greater than those of cultivators at the same tier!

The combination of his Mental Energy and Deep Blue’s derivations enabled him to lay the firmest foundation for every tier. When he reached the tier, he could quickly produce a huge amount of supernatural power to shove into Deep Blue and skip the part where he had to slowly accumulate Origin Qi over countless years.

Many other cultivators could not even accumulate supernatural power for such extended periods of time. When they reached the tier, they would just rise up one rank naturally.

This was the crucial reason why Lu Sheng’s supernatural power was so shocking.

In a mere few minutes, the speed at which the metal ball sucked seawater was already 600 tons per second.