Way of the Devil

Jorah looked at Lu Sheng, blinked, and suddenly remarked, “Seems like… we’re the same…”

“What’re you saying?” Lu Sheng maintained his expression. “We’re the same?”

“You must be the one His Majesty wants me to find.” Jorah suddenly remembered something. He appeared to be recalling some memory.

“Can you tell me what’s the purpose of you Evil Spirits coming here to our land? Are you here just to rob us of our resources?” Lu Sheng thought that it was rare to meet an Evil Spirit that was capable of peaceful communication. He was in no hurry to make a move.

Jorah spread his arms as well. “Initially, we had no intention of coming into contact with you. However, a previous accident has caused our Worlds to go into conflict when we were trying to advance toward the same Other World. When there’s conflict, there will be a clash. The truth is often that simple.”

“You’re saying that our Worlds have worked together before?” Lu Sheng quickly picked up the key point in Jorah’s speech.

“You can put it that way.” Jorah nodded. “Truth be told, if it could be helped, I didn’t want to fight you. Something about you makes me feel uncomfortable, though it won’t take much of my energy to kill you despite my thoughts. However, I’ve always been an advocate of peace.”

“Actually, I don’t want to fight, either,” said Lu Sheng with a straight face. “The reason why I’ve killed so many Evil Spirits before this was because they attacked me first. I was only rightfully defending myself. Power should only be used in self-defense, and not to be abused.”

“You think so too?” Jorah beamed. “You’re right. Once an individual became powerful, he would lose sight of himself due to the temptation of power,” he said in a mildly surprised tone. He then sighed. “Only when one truly restrains oneself can one be truly more powerful.”

“Looks like you have quite an understanding,” Lu Sheng said with a deep voice.

“Yes. However, even though I’m doing my best to suppress myself, there are still those who want to harm me on purpose because of various reasons.” Jorah looked forlorn.

“Same here,” Lu Sheng chimed in. “Often when I make a move, it’s to satiate some natural physical desire. Other than that, I’d never hurt others of my own accord.”

“I like you.” Jorah wore a faint smile.

“You’re not too bad yourself.” The corners of Lu Sheng’s lips curved upward slightly in an arc.

“If that’s the case, what say you that we act as if we’ve never seen each other?” Jorah confirmed again.

“Sure. Maybe we’ll meet again someday,” Lu Sheng agreed.

The two of them looked and smiled at each other. Then, they both left quickly in the direction where the other person came.

“Pcchht!”

In an instant, Jorah moved with blinding speed and suddenly appeared before Lu Sheng’s position, barring his way.

“Why… Why… Even you’ve touched me…” Jorah had suddenly appeared before Lu Sheng without warning. His gaze was forlorn.

“Since you’ve touched me, you must want to hurt me. Those who want to hurt me will…” Suddenly, Jorah paused mid-sentence. He noticed that there was only an empty space before himself. He could not see Lu Sheng anywhere.

He quickly lifted his head, but saw Lu Sheng standing where he stood before. Dozens of wolf heads were chewing on mouthfuls of clay and rubble.

“I didn’t do it on purpose… I’m just… hungry…” Lu Sheng relaxed his jaws resentfully and awkwardly.

Judging by his movements, if Jorah had not suddenly vanished back them, he would have already been devoured into countless large chunks by the dozens of wolf heads.

The two of them instantly quieted down.

“Looks like I’ve wrongly blamed you.” Jorah swept off the clay on his body.

Lu Sheng spat out the clay, and said seriously, “It was really just a spur of the moment. I actually have a good impression of you.”

“…”

“…”

The two of them looked at each other. For a time, neither knew what to say.

“You… like to eat?” Jorah suddenly asked.

“You don’t like to be touched by others?” Lu Sheng seemed to have posed his question at the exact same time.

Their voices blended together. They showed quite the tacit agreement.

Jorah fell silent for a while, smiled, and answered first. “I’ve been trying to avoid touching other people.”

Lu Sheng smiled as well. “Truth be told, it’s just that I have a huge appetite.”

The two of them fell silent again. They quickly realized that the other person was just talking nonsense.

“Well then, this is goodbye, I guess?” Jorah probed.

“Goodbye.” Lu Sheng nodded.

The two of them turned around again, and walked in the direction they wanted to.

This time, they did not make any moves. Jorah and Lu Sheng had no intention of fighting each other. The two of them faintly sensed that the other person was not easy to defeat.

Jorah only slowed to a stop when Lu Sheng’s silhouette completely disappeared on the horizon.

“Who would’ve known that His Majesty wants me to attack such a unique living soul. I like him very much… but His Majesty’s will cannot be ignored. Ahh… Why? Why must you force me…” Jorah stood gloomily on the spot as he was plunged into a dilemma.

Fortunately, he was the Evil Spirit King with the highest potential of becoming a Night Emperor among the Evil Spirits. He possessed extremely high power and status. The reason why he was able to Arrive in this World this early on in such a weak area was to rake up his achievements in this war.

Hence, even if he went against the Evil Spirit Night Emperor’s will, it would not be a big deal as long as he kept it a secret.

“I hope that we’ll meet again someday.” Jorah looked in the direction in which Lu Sheng left. Then, he turned around and left the place. Other than this Demon Wolf, he had other missions to attend to.

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

Lu Sheng slowed to a stop.

‘The tree root giant just now looks just like Teacher… There might be a possibility that they’re connected somehow on a fundamental level.’

‘Also, I can’t even pull him into the Heart Devil World. Looks like it really has a limit.’ He found a rock and sat on it to rest.

‘That fellow moves with extreme speed. If we actually fought, I’m sure it’d be no problem for me to defeat him. However, if he insists on running away, I won’t be able to stop him.’

Lu Sheng had to develop his Weapon Grandmaster Heart Devil World’s ability. He vaguely felt that he had not discovered the Heart Devil World’s true function yet.

With a thought, he re-entered the Heart Devil World.

He found himself within the dark residential building again. The horde of Evil Spirits he had tamed had already vanished.

Lu Sheng was slightly puzzled. He looked around in the surroundings, but could not find anything.

Finally, he stood on the balcony of one of the units. He stared at the two corpses that hung on the drying rack and was lost in deep thought.

‘I thought the bodies of all those that I’ve killed will end up here? If that’s not the case, what’s the criterion for choosing the bodies that do show up?’

He left the Heart Devil World again. Lu Sheng turned around and started to fly toward the Prime Devil Sect. He had practically cleared the surrounding area of Evil Spirits. The tree root giant had already gone past the borders of the Nine Bright Province. He was no longer within the jurisdiction zone of the Prime Devil Sect.

He probed and realized that he could not eat any more for the time being. Hence, he gave up on chasing the giant.

After returning to his main body’s form, Lu Sheng made a beeline for his sect. He had just walked into the study when he received an urgent message from the Thousand Sun Sect.

“Sect Master Aurora Polaris.”

The messenger was a black owl that had no ability of speech. It tossed a letter onto the desk and instantly exploded into black smoke, which dissipated quickly.

Lu Sheng took up the letter. The black paper appeared especially mysterious with its silver lining. It was even decorated with an exquisite frame.

Lu Sheng scanned the contents of the letter quickly. The gist of Weapon Grandmaster Aurora Polaris’s letter was that an eccentric Evil Spirit King with extremely powerful strength had recently appeared in the Nine Bright Province.

The Divine Lord Wuxin and the red-robed Divine Lord of the Blood Sun had suddenly disappeared. It was highly probable that they had met an undesirable fate. Aurora Polaris mentioned the Title of this Evil Spirit King.

“The hypocrite Jorah.”

“He’s a top Divine Lord-ranked Evil Spirit King who’s ranked in the top ten among the Evil Spirits. He had killed more than five Divine Lords up until now, and has dealt a great blow to their ranks.”

Lu Sheng finished reading the letter. He folded it back and burned it.

‘According to the contents of the letter, the fellow I’ve encountered just now must be this hypocrite.

‘It appears that this fellow is targeting the high-ranking individuals, and isn’t interested in the civilians. So, even the Divine Lords from the Blood Sun were killed by him… He’s dangerous, after all.’

After receiving the warning, Lu Sheng swiftly gathered the forces in the Nine Bright Province. Then, he picked off the remaining Evil Spirits that somehow remained. The demons and humans agreed not to let any Evil Spirit with a rank of Earth Prime and above live.

The other areas were also responding to the changes as well. Lu Sheng’s teacher, the Divine Lord Shifting Moth, known as the most powerful Divine Lord in the Thousand Sun Sect, had also single-handedly suppressed many Evil Spirit Kings in the province.

The strength of the Evil Spirit Kings was also completely displayed in front of the three sects. The most powerful Evil Spirits of this tier were infinitely close to a Weapon Grandmaster in terms of strength. The weakest among them were also at the Divine Intellect tier. Simply put, they were the equivalent of the Divine Intellect Divine Lords.

The outbreak of Evil Spirits this time had come too suddenly. However, after taking several countermeasures, the three sects and the different great families had finally managed to react accordingly, and they tasked themselves with wiping out the Evil Spirits.

The power of Great Yin was extremely terrifying. After the various forces lashed out, 99% of the Evil Spirits were wiped out.

However, the sudden appearance of this Evil Spirit King had dealt a great blow to the Divine Lords and Weapon Masters. Several Weapon Grandmasters were forced to come out of seclusion. It was only with their strength that they were able to keep the threat at bay.

Weapon Grandmaster Aurora Polaris had no choice but to return from the East Sea. He suppressed the Evil Spirit army that was starting to spread in all directions.

In a mere two months, the Evil Spirits quickly disappeared as if they had never appeared before. Perhaps they went into hiding, or had been only probing. In any case, the disturbance had completely calmed down.

The great forces in Great Yin sighed with relief.

Fortunately, it was said that the Devil World had also suffered great losses during the incident. However, before the other forces could react, another shocking news reached their ears.

One of the Four Pillars of Devil World, the second Devil Emperor, had appeared on Great Yin’s lands.

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

Devil World. Heaven-Reaching Crystal Pillar.

Two black figures, one tall and one short, stood before a giant black crystal pillar that seemed to rise into the heavens.

The tall one was a middle-aged gentleman who wore a black ceremonial robe. He appeared to be at least 50 years old. The sides of his head were freckled with white hair, and there were faint traces of wrinkles on his forehead and around the corners of his eyes.

“Anza Gerdemann.” The middle-aged gentleman tore his gaze away from the crystal pillar and looked at the petite girl beside him. “What are your true intentions?”

The girl wore a black cloak with a hood. Her long black hair flowed out from below her hood, which accentuated her pale, delicate, and beautiful face.

She appeared like a pure young girl who had just recovered from some great sickness. She was like a little flower who was tormented by the elements after a storm. It was as if a gust of wind would be sufficient to make her fall down.