Way of the Devil

“Sister Lian.”

In a valley behind the Wood Martial Abode, a group of demons stood guard. The captives were held before a wooden hut beside a snow-white waterfall.

Du Guangchi embraced Yao Lian lightly. He looked at the raging white waterfall. There was no sadness or joy within him. His heart was calm.

“Brother Chi…” Yao Lian leaned into him. She stuck close to him with her soft body. It was as if she was trying to knead her entire body into his.

“Ever since we came out of the sect, this is the first time we’ve led our lives peacefully without any disturbances.” Du Guangchi felt slightly emotional. He knew Yao Lian’s background. Her bloodline was half-human, half-demon. It was fine if she wanted to become an ordinary disciple, but if she wanted to marry him, it was out of the question.

Their feelings for each other had no place in the sect of the Righteous Path, more so in the head of the Righteous Path, the Vital Energy Sect.

As the Seventh Peak’s main disciple, it was impossible for him to have any relationship with Yao Lian. Even so, the two of them could not fight against their feelings and still fell deeply in love.

“Yeah…” Yao Lian squinted her eyes like a lazy cat. “Come to think of it, we should thank this Wood Martial Abode’s master. If it weren’t for him, we might’ve been carrying out the sect’s missions still, investigating the clues…”

Du Guangchi laughed bitterly. When they were captured, they had heard that someone had come to rescue them. There seemed to be seniors from the sect who were protecting them from the shadows. However, they still did not know the fate of those seniors.

At this moment, a fish-headed little demon surfaced from the waterfall’s pond far away. He waved his three-pronged pitchfork as he shouted at the two of them. “Du Guangchi, Yao Lian, Abode Master summons you!”

The two of them livened up. They had been confined for many days, and this was the first time they received any news.

Du Guangchi helped Yao Lian to her feet, and they followed the little demon along a small path in the valley. They walked into a rock cave to their right and went past several vast and crude caverns. They soon saw the person who had defeated and confined them for a few days—Lu Sheng.

Lu Sheng was still wearing his dark blue long robe. His face was handsome, but his expression was cold. Surprisingly, another person sat before him.

Du Guangchi felt nothing in particular, but when Yao Lian saw that person, she could not help but exclaim softly in shock.

When Du Guangchi heard her, he quickly looked at the person in greater detail.

This person had a broad back, bushy eyebrows, and big eyes. Red whiskers covered his face, but his most prominent feature was the two thick black ox horns on his head.

“Lian’er, your father has instructed me to bring you home.” When this big man saw Yao Lian, his expression turned cold. When he saw that she was leaning on Du Guangchi, he could not help but snort.

“What a great disciple of the Vital Energy Sect’s Seventh Peak. To think that you’ve made my niece go head over heels for you.”

Yao Lian hastily explained, “Second Uncle… This has nothing to do with Mister Du. It’s me—”

“Enough. You can explain back home.” Lu Sheng voiced out drily and cut her short.

He was just about to head out in search for a live volcano to cultivate and break through. He did not expect a cultivator to knock on his door at that moment, and it was a demon cultivator with powerful strength at that.

The visitor was from the inland’s Ox Demon Clan—a Golden Core great demon, Niu Kun. If his visitor did not have powerful strength, Lu Sheng would not give him face and allow him to retrieve his niece.

Naturally, this was not free.

“I’m grateful for Abode Master’s understanding. This niece of mine has been quite reckless since her youth. I’m sure that she must’ve been duped by the Vital Energy Sect to come here. Truth be told, we from the Ox Demon Clan do not like the Vital Energy Sect’s way of doing things. However, this little girl has been rebellious since young. She wants to decide everything for herself. We previously thought that she’d return very soon when she left the house, but we didn’t expect her to join the Vital Energy Sect. This is really…” Niu Kun explained helplessly.

“It’s alright. As long as the materials are prepared, I don’t mind. The Vital Energy Sect exploits others when they’re vulnerable, I truly despise them,” Lu Sheng responded drily and casually.

If his visitor had not brought the materials that he needed, he would not have spent his time entertaining this bunch. Currently, they were trading a person with goods, this was purely consensual.

“Don’t worry, Abode Master. I’ve brought the items here, you can inspect them whenever you like. The Ox Demon Clan won’t mind offering these resources. However, I wonder if you know, Abode Master, just how great a stir you’ve caused by claiming possession of one of the Vital Energy Sect’s Divine Weapon, the Earth Lake Sword. You should be prepared,” Niu Kun reminded him softly.

Lu Sheng’s brows twitched slightly. He knew that his visitor was being kind. He nodded. “Thank you, Brother Kun.”

“You’re welcome. Well then, I shall take my leave with my niece.”

“As you wish.” Lu Sheng nodded.

Niu Kun stood up. He allowed Yao Lian and Du Guangchi to have some final words for each other before he brought Yao Lian out of the stone hall.

Soon, only Du Guangchi was left within the stone hall.

Although Du Guangchi was reluctant to part with his lover who was brought away by her family, he did not appear flustered, just slightly downcast.

When he came back to his senses, the first thing he did was to direct a question at Lu Sheng. “You’ve said that you’ll let us go, I wonder when will that happen?”

“There’s no rush. I won’t keep you here forever, don’t worry,” Lu Sheng replied casually. “However, you’re an important person. The Vital Energy Sect will surely send someone over for you. In the meantime, I won’t let you leave.”

When Du Guangchi heard this, he gave up on hope, and asked about the reasons for his captivity and the sorts. When he could not solicit any replies from Lu Sheng, he returned to the hut helplessly.

Currently, Lu Sheng was the only person left inside the stone hall.

He sat up straight in his seat. After he killed Die Shazi, Mu Yun’s body and spirit had already partially merged with his main body.

He had achieved half of what he came to this world for, and Mu Yun’s wishes had been fulfilled by half.

The other half could be summed up with two points.

The first point was his hatred toward the Vital Energy Sect.

Mu Yun had been oppressed by the Vital Energy Sect for many years. In the end, he was even forced to give up on his Abstruse Orb which he had cultivated for three lifetimes. The hatred in his heart could not be vented easily. It eventually formed a karma.

The second point was Mu Yun’s blood relatives left in the central plains.

When Taoist Mu Yun was hunted down and fled overseas, he did not settle anything in his home in his haste. He had lost track of his blood relatives from his previous two lifetimes throughout the flow of time.

However, his final lifetime was different. In his final lifetime, he was the only man who continued the family’s business. When he ran away, he had no idea what had become of his family.

These two karmas had to be settled by Lu Sheng.

‘After assimilating half of him, my main body has become stronger… If I keep this up and completely assimilate Mu Yun, the most I’d have to do is to assimilate his spirit once more, and my own spirit will be strengthened by leaps and bounds. The pace of this cultivation is truly shocking.’

The stronger his spirit was, the sooner he could understand Death Blaze, and the stronger his pure strength would be.

‘The time in this world is definitely flowing at a much quicker pace than in the Great Yin. Perhaps I can stay on for some time to study the Death Blaze’s properties after I settle Mu Yun’s karma and complete the Jade Star tier.’ With his mind still working, Lu Sheng stood up and exited the stone hall. He went to the treasure cave.

The gifts of resources and materials which the ox demon had brought were lying in the treasury.

‘The Ox Demon Clan’s Will-o’-the-Wisp Grass, the Mist Clam Clan’s Black Cloud Pearl, the Nine Spirits Four-Clawed Bug the other cultivators joining our ranks offered. These are all good materials of Yin Chill attribute. Just as well. I’ll see if I can sacrificially refine the Sea-overturning Orb again with these materials as I attempt to attain the Nascent Soul tier.’

Lu Sheng swung his arm and procured three white jade boxes of different shapes from the wooden shelves on the treasury’s walls. Then, he carried the jade boxes and went swiftly out of the Wood Martial Abode. He headed in the direction of the sea far away.

The elites he had just recruited would naturally be able to deal with subduing the entire cultivators’ realm of the North Sea. He would only be notified if there were any tough opponents, and he would personally see to the matter then.

He flew toward the deep sea regions where he had cultivated in seclusion before. Lu Sheng was just about to dive in when two dark red beams of light shot toward him from the sides.

“Who’s there?!” Lu Sheng’s Core Qi reacted reflexively.

With two muffled poofs, the two beams of red light dissipated and erupted in front of Lu Sheng, forming spots of red light.

With a great splash, two huge black orcas leapt toward him from his flanks. The two orcas had eyes that shone with blinding red light. It was apparent that those were the source of the beams of red light just now.

Each orca was more than ten meters in length. As they pounced, it was as if two dark clouds had suddenly descended upon him. With a weight of a dozen tons each, they crashed heavily toward Lu Sheng.

“Buzz!”

In that instant, the two orcas’ huge bodies hung motionless in midair. Then, they exploded with a boom.

The two orcas turned into ashes above Lu Sheng’s head. Blood rained down on him, and the surrounding seawater was instantly dyed red by the huge blood rain.

Lu Sheng’s expression remained unchanged. He stood silently on the sea’s surface and looked to his right.

“Come out!” he suddenly shouted thunderously. His voice was projected outward with his Core Qi.

It was a simple sentence. The Core Qi he had circulated was equivalent to an Early-stage Core Formation Taoist Master’s total Core Qi volume.

The explosion of such a huge volume of Core Qi was compressed into such a short sentence. There was no need to doubt its might.

“Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!”

The surface of the sea on the right side before Lu Sheng erupted with a series of sprays, which formed a line and spread quickly in a distant direction.

However, the shapeless sound wave had just been projected when it was stopped by a hand of a semi-transparent, blurry figure.

“Splash!”

The spray dissipated. The Core Qi contained within the sound wave collided with another strangely violent and unique force, and they quickly cancelled each other out.

“As expected of Taoist Master Mu Yun who has stayed hidden for decades and is accomplished in cultivation. Now that I’m here, it’s truly much better to personally witness your might than to hear about it.”

The person revealed his figure slowly, and his body gradually turned solid. He was a slender masked man in black robes.

Between this person’s exposed eyes, there was a fierce slanting sword scar. Paired with his sharp purple eyes, he gave off an unexplainable fierce and cold feeling.

“My name’s Chun Songzi. I heard that Abode Master has captured the Vital Energy Sect’s Fated Child, Du Guangchi, and the Earth Lake Sword of the Three Divine Swords. I’m here representing the Earth King Hall to seek cooperation with Abode Master.” This person’s voice was neither masculine nor feminine, and he spoke slowly and in an unperturbed manner. He clearly had a man’s voice, but the tone of his voice was eccentric.

“Earth King Hall?” Lu Sheng immediately understood the visitor’s background.

In the current world, the Vital Energy Sect had outshone the others, and was regarded as the greatest sect of the Righteous Path. Although the Demonic Path was being suppressed, they still had their symbolic leading force in the shadows.

This leading force was the Earth King Hall.

It was said that they had always been the main force and the vanguard against the Vital Energy Sect. Now that Lu Sheng had surprisingly obtained the Earth Lake Sword, they seized the opportunity at the first moment and came forward to seek cooperation. This was all understandable.

“Cooperation? Was that the way you guys were trying to cooperate with me?” Lu Sheng meant the sneak attack of the two demonized orcas.

If it were an ordinary Core Formation Taoist Master, or if he was the original Taoist Master Mu Yun, then even if he managed to avoid injury, he would be occupied here by the orcas for quite some time.

The two orcas were no ordinary animals: they were Foundation Building demon cultivators whose Demon Cores had been catalyzed. They were captured and controlled by men, and had their very life force converted into explosive combat strength.

The strength they erupted with in such a short period of time would even strike fear in the hearts of ordinary Early-stage Core Formation cultivators.

“Don’t get the wrong idea.” Chun Songzi smiled indifferently. “Firstly, the two orcas were meant as a small test to see if you’re the real Abode Master.”

“Secondly, the Earth King Hall is very sincere in our current offer. The third Godly Lord Peng Jun has personally come to discuss matters with you, Abode Master.”

“Godly Lord?” Lu Sheng was slightly surprised. The Earth King Hall’s Godly Lord referred to a Nascent Soul True Lord of theirs. He did not expect that this organization would move this quickly. The Vital Energy Sect was not even here yet, and they were already here to meet him.

After giving it some thought, he asked, “How do you intend to cooperate with me?”