Way of the Devil

“I see you’re recovering well.” Lu Sheng carefully observed the black tiger’s mental state. He recorded some data.

‘Next up is the making of the black membrane system. How should I incorporate the Heavenly Devils’ unique black membrane into it…’

Lu Sheng appeared to be thinking.

After getting his hands on the transplanting art, he swiftly mastered its essence. The transplanting art was also modified to the highest level, level five, by him. Even Tu Jin himself was only at level three.

The level-five transplanting art swiftly displayed its extremely terrifying effect. It was capable of merging the same organs of no more than three organisms together to a certain extent. The failure rate was only at 20%.

Although he had to use many spirit-prompting threads in the process, seeing the effect it had, Lu Sheng did not mind.

The crucial aspect Lu Sheng saw in the Tu Style Healing Art was the hope of breaking through his own body’s limits.

How should he go about making the weak accept organs from the strong without inducing a physical breakdown?

That was the key.

He did not seek the feeble balance the special entities had. He wanted true incorporation of the powerful organs into the body of the weaker being so that they would be nourished and strengthened.

‘Soon. When I’m done with this topic, it’ll be about time to test it out. Also, I’ll have to look for live human subjects. The number I had before this isn’t going to be enough.’ He had captured some criminals from the area and used them as his test subjects. However, as his experiments became more and more ambitious, even the mountain bandits around the area were running out. This made Lu Sheng slightly worried regarding his source of living humans.

After recording the data, Lu Sheng fed the black tiger before he turned around and left the room.

He quickly went back to the surface along the cave’s tunnel. As usual, Lu Sheng looked up at the sky. He touched the emerald jade certificate in his chest pocket.

Ever since he had this jade certificate, the indescribable terrifying vast aura in the skies stopped paying any attention to him.

Lu Sheng had tried some more dangerous actions to test this force. However, the force showed no reaction. It was as if it was some high and mighty heavenly force. It would not make any reaction no matter what you did.

Lu Sheng straightened out his clothes. He picked up his pace, going toward the Tu Family’s yard.

He passed through the dense forest and walked up to the slope of the Tu residence. From afar, he could hear voices coming from the courtyard. It also seemed like there was more than one of them.

Lu Sheng hastened his pace and walked out of the forest. He bumped into Tu Jin’s great disciple, Zhao Decheng, who was talking to two men in similar red robes.

Zhao Decheng was following a team led by his senior apprentice brother on a mission. Coincidentally, the objective of the mission was not far from his home. Hence, he brought his senior brothers here for lodgings.

He was an orphan taken in by his teacher, Tu Jin. Hence, although he was just an apprentice in appearance, in truth, he and Tu Jin treated each other as their own kin. They were having a father and son relationship.

“…dragons are myths. However, when Master Uncle Wang went to the north for the Boundless Three Pairs Sect’s heavenly taste feast, there was a huge guardian beast at the location, and it’s said that it has true dragon’s blood.”

“Have you seen what it looks like?”

“I haven’t. That was an exclusive event. Even for our Scarlet Cloud Sect, only the sect master and Uncle Master Wang had the qualifications to take part. Small fry like us won’t ever have the chance.”

“Aren’t there dragon-like beasts in the Inferior Worlds as well? Aren’t those dragons?” Zhao Decheng made his off-hand remark with a smile.

“…They call them dragons, but they’re actually just ferocious beasts. It’s just that they look like dragons. Real dragons are born with Capacities. They come in a whole range of sizes, are capable of rolling clouds and causing rain… Eh? Someone’s coming.” One of the senior apprentices noticed Lu Sheng who was walking toward them.

Zhao Decheng saw Lu Sheng walking out of the forest as well. He had received a letter a few months ago, and learned that his master had taken in a final disciple. The person was the unfamiliar young man whom the master had saved.

He even remembered that he saw this young man once before he left.

Now that it had been a while, when he took another look at him…

“Senior Apprentice Brother? When did you come back?” Lu Sheng greeted him from afar with a warm and gentle smile.

He wore light yellow robes and tied his hair up in a bun. He always wore a humble smile on his face. He was not handsome, but he had a certain charm to him that lasted long. Overall, he seemed like a friendly person who would be easy to get along with.

The senior apprentices of the Scarlet Cloud Sect were on good terms with Zhao Decheng. After simple introductions, and after they heard that he was Decheng’s master’s final disciple, they immediately greeted him warmly.

Zhao Decheng smiled as well. He asked Lu Sheng how the master was doing lately. However, though he concealed it well, and while he could not quite put his finger on it, this Lu Yue gave him an uneasy feeling in the depths of his heart the moment he appeared.

“Senior Apprentice Brothers, what are you talking about?” Chenchen came out of the house as well. After being away for a few months, she had gotten fatter… She could barely fit through the door now.

When she saw Decheng and the others talking outside, she hastily came out as well.

“Oh, it’s Little Yue!” She immediately saw Lu Sheng standing among them. She greeted them with a smile.

Lu Sheng smiled as well as he spoke to her. They appeared to have a close relationship with each other.

However, the more natural it seemed, the more uncomfortable Zhao Decheng felt.

It was not as if he was jealous. He was genuinely feeling uncomfortable, physiologically.

He had an affinity for nature since birth. He had a natural aura of harmony around him since he was little, and was liked by many small creatures.

The reason why he was selected by the Scarlet Cloud Sect was also because he had keen senses regarding this aspect. Hence, although his natural talents were ordinary, his senses had made up for his shortcomings to a large extent.

“What’s wrong, Senior Brother Decheng? You don’t look so well.” De Yun emerged later. He quickly came up and supported him.

Zhao Decheng shook his head and managed to smile.

“Perhaps I didn’t have as much rest as I should’ve when I was rushing here…” He casually thought of an excuse.

“You should go in and rest, then,” suggested De Yun.

“You’re right… I’ll lie down inside and wait for Master to come back.” Decheng nodded.

After informing his senior apprentice brothers outside, De Yun brought him to his own bed, and he lay down in his own room.

However, even though he had lain down, his consciousness remained groggy. He could not shake the feeling that there were faint cries of humans and animals in his ears.

Before he knew it, he fell asleep.

He had no idea how long he had been asleep for. Suddenly, an ice-cold breeze blew against his face. Decheng slowly woke up from his deep sleep.

When he opened his eyes, he was frightened to see another person standing beside his bed.

It was Lu Yue!

Lu Yue was looking at him with a concerned look and a smile. He was standing right beside his bed.

Decheng had goosebumps all over himself. He felt sick. His consciousness focused in an instant.

“Arghh… save me… save me… please let me go…”

For an instant, he seemed to have heard countless overlapping wails of pain from Lu Yue’s body. With his still blurry vision, Decheng seemed see the countless extremely thick blood swirling around Lu Yue.

Pained human hands even seemed to reach out from the bloody goo in attempts to break free.

“How are you feeling? Are you alright?” Lu Yue’s voice pulled him back to the present in an instant.

Decheng’s eyesight slowly recovered. He drew a deep breath and slowly straightened up.

“I’m fine… I’m fine now. Junior Brother, you should do what you have to. I’m sure there are many patients waiting to be looked at right now, right?” He glanced out the window; it was already dusk.

His master Tu Jin’s laughter could be heard from the outside. It had been a long time since he heard his own master laughed this freely.

“Should I help you out?”

“Good idea…”

Lu Sheng helped Decheng slowly out the room. They walked along the corridor into the medical hall.

They bumped into many patients along the way. They all greeted Lu Yue. Words of gratitude and praise came from their mouths.

The words grated Decheng’s ears.

When they reached the medical hall, Decheng was still groggy. He heard his teacher Tu Jin praising Lu Yue as well. Even his junior apprentice sister, Chenchen, did the same. They praised Lu Yue for having considered everything, for having great medical skills, and for finding a cure to her obesity[1. Didn’t the narrator say she got fatter earlier…? Maybe it was author’s typo previously, or she just got insta cured later.].

Decheng could only manage a faint smile in response.

He felt that everyone around him was praising Lu Yue. However, the thick and heavy smell of blood he sensed on Lu Yue, and the wails and spectral images that came in episodes, did not seem like they were fake.

Early next morning, he decided that he could not stand it any longer. Coincidentally, he had to go out for a mission. Hence, with his senior brothers in tow, they left the Tu Family, and almost seemed like they were running away as they headed toward the mountain valley where their mission brought them.

…..

The Tu residence.

After the day’s business, Tu Jin went into the room and organized the medicinal herbs, while Lu Sheng fetched water from the well in the yard.

Chenchen did not follow the group. Instead, she decided to stay at the last minute.

When she saw Lu Sheng fetching water in the yard, she silently made her way to him.

“Hey, Little Yue.”

“Yes?” Lately, Lu Sheng had discovered the key to the transplanting art. The final key was to learn the Three Limits secret art, which Tu Jin had kept as an absolute secret.

If the Tu Style Healing Art was akin to a set of extremely sharp mechanical arms, then the Three Limits was a profound skill that could bestow greater might to this set of mechanical arms.

The Three Limits could completely raise the Tu Style Healing Art to a whole new level, a whole new realm—a dangerous realm.

Tu Jin had only mentioned a little about it before. However, whenever Lu Sheng asked about it, he would act all secretive, and would behave as if he wanted to bring that secret to his grave.

Lu Sheng was also contemplating on how he should go about digging this most precious information out of Tu Jin.

Currently, Chenchen came looking for him. As he looked at Chenchen’s indescribably fat body[2. Okay, maybe the ‘cure’ was that she got fatter. Maybe it’ll be clear later.], he suddenly had a wonderful idea.

However, Chenchen had no inkling of what went on in Lu Sheng’s head. She was still puzzled about Decheng’s behavior.

“Did you notice that Senior Apprentice Brother has been acting a bit strange since he got back?”

“Looks like it.”

Lu Sheng shook his head slightly. He had already noticed Decheng’s abnormal behavior. He had the extremely rare natural gift of having an extremely powerful spirit sense.

On top of that, Lu Sheng had gone slightly overboard with his human experiments lately. That triggered some of the hatred and blood he had accumulated before this. He could not blame Decheng for being able to sense that.

After all, he had killed far too many living beings. Humans, devils, demons, Evil Spirits, and many other lifeforms in the various Worlds.

The sum of all these killings was not without their karma and grudges. However, he was a Heavenly Devil, and he could not care less.