Way of the Devil

Countless energy flows burst forth between them. Even the light was distorted.

“Weakling? You think that you’re an expert?” A black blade surfaced beside Mi Guangyin. It hovered in the air before slashing at Lu Sheng’s waist.

Shortly after, a second and third black blade appeared. While the two of them were evenly matched, the blades instantly slashed wildly against Lu Sheng’s body.

“Pchht!”

A faint black specter shot out from behind Lu Sheng. Four giant arms fell from the skies with a loud boom as they grabbed at Mi Guangyin.

The arms seemed to be sculpted out of diamond. They were extremely hard, and countless light green symbols glittered on them. They had barely descended, and they were already suppressing the black blades.

The black blades shattered in quick succession while making clinking sounds.

Mi Guangyin could not help but retreat swiftly. She avoided the black arms and instantly withdrew her black blades. Then, she charged forward suddenly. She erupted with greater speed and drew a black mark in the air.

The blade mark suddenly contorted in midair. It folded for dozens of times and behaved like a expanding rift. It avoided the black arms by branching out like branches and landed heavily on Lu Sheng.

“Bam!”

Lu Sheng reeled. A huge black shadow could be seen connected to his back as if it was a parasite in his body. The black shadow kept fending off the greatly destructive energy which surged into his body through the black blades.

In the instant he fell backward, a spike suddenly shot out from behind the black shadow and pierced through Mi Guangyin’s right shoulder.

The spike had been aimed at the center of her chest. However, she managed to dodge it at the final moment. That was why it missed slightly.

“Again!” Mi Guangyin was genuinely fired up. She shot out black blades from all of her limbs. With flicks of her fingers and toes, black blades emerged. A row of densely packed black blades appeared on her back like a dorsal fin as if she was a shark or a sword dragon.

“Endless Blades, Ninth Execution!”

Mi Guangyin’s body shook as the black blades detached from her body. They shot into the air and charged toward Lu Sheng as if they were wielded by invisible men.

“Dang! Dang! Dang! Dang!”

The sound of clanging metal resounded.

After a few breaths, the sound slowly died down. A hemispherical pit several hundred meters wide and dozens of meters deep had been carved out in the plains which Lu Sheng stood in.

The soil and rocks within the pit had vanished completely. The black blades seemed to possess some special destructive effect as they were capable of completely corroding and dissolving the objects they slashed.

“Final slash. Wonderful Star Snake Spirit—”

“Alright, that’s enough.” Suddenly, a great voice interrupted Mi Guangyin while she charged her power.

In the air above the pit, a huge black humanoid shadow propped Lu Sheng on its palm and hovered in midair.

Other than huge patches of grayish-white blade marks, Lu Sheng was unscathed. There was a look of satisfaction in his eyes as he stared at Mi Guangyin on the ground.

“It was just a simple test. Don’t tell me you were being serious?” His tone was casual.

Other than his slightly damaged clothes, Lu Sheng was unharmed.

Mi Guangyin was just about to unleash her greatest move. Suddenly, Lu Sheng looked like he had completely given up on fighting back. She immediately retracted her charging move forcibly. She touched the wound on her shoulder. She felt sullen, but she could not express it—not now.

“You little!!”

“Didn’t you invite me to join the Iron Flag Council? I’ve also joined the Red Moon Disciples before this. Will that affect anything?” Lu Sheng spoke directly without concealing anything.

“Red Moon Disciples?” Mi Guangyin’s attention was shifted. She slowly relaxed. “It’s alright. If there are less than 10 Master Red Moons, it won’t be too big of a problem.”

“Oh?” Lu Sheng raised his eyebrows. It sounded as if Master Red Moon was not a title, but a rank within the organization.

“I’m out of time. I can’t stay here for too long. I’ve used too much limit energy. I’ll have to return in less than an hour, so if you have any other questions, do hurry up.”

Mi Guangyin tossed an emerald green dagger irritably. “Catch this. This is the organization’s token. You have great potential, but if you want to gain any actual benefits from joining the organization, you’ll have to make your contributions. There’s an upper limit restriction on my strength in small worlds, hence I can’t test you. However, if you think that you’re strong enough, you can assist the other members in their cultivation, save them from their pursuers, or aid them in fighting against their enemies. If your strength is lacking, you can still earn enough contribution points with other skills. The Iron Flag Council needs other talents besides combat personnel.”

Lu Sheng caught the dagger. In the beginning, he had thought that the Red Moon Disciples were not a reliable bunch, but he had unintentionally seized a somewhat amazing opportunity.

He would have to see the Iron Flag Council and judge for himself after this.

“When you leave this world, hold the dagger. The guiding mark on it will trigger a force to pull you to our headquarters. As a Heavenly Devil, your main body might not be the same as the body you’ll Arrive in. So, remember to place the dagger at the most obvious place,” Mi Guangyin instructed. “You’ve saved me this time, I’ll remember that. I’ll return the favor in the future.”

“Alright.” Lu Sheng gladly accepted the offer.

Mi Guangyin pondered slightly before offering, “If there’s nothing else, you can follow me. That way, you’ll spare yourself expending energy to create a rift in the dimension.”

“That’s alright. I have some things to take care of here.” Lu Sheng turned her down with a shake of his head. He would be out of his mind if he did not make the most out of this similar time flow rate and reap all the benefits he could before leaving.

“Might as well… Be careful, though. This world is deeply connected to my enemy. Some crucial lands might even harbor great secrets. Even if you’re a Heavenly Devil, without your main body, it’s still possible for you to come to harm,” Mi Guangyin advised out of kindness. She only judged a person by his strength. Lu Sheng was capable of exchanging blows with her head on. Although the outcome was not decided, he had earned her recognition.

“Okay.” A chill crept into Lu Sheng’s heart. He nodded slightly.

“Well then, I’ll be off.” Mi Guangyin turned around and swiftly entered the God Clock.

Lu Sheng did not follow her. He slowly landed in the plains and stood still. He had some idea about Mi Guangyin’s strength. However, due to the upper limits of the world, she could not even defend herself. She kept holding back as she was restricted on many fronts.

He was different. He had the Limit Indestructible Body which he gained by ranking up in the aboriginal’s power system. He did not have to restrain himself from unleashing all his strength. He could even erupt with his main body’s strength temporarily under this body’s protection.

‘As expected, none of the beings capable of venturing to the Other Worlds are easy to deal with,’ Lu Sheng exclaimed inwardly. Up until today, of all the Arrivers on the Other Worlds, there were Heavenly Devils, experts of other systems, or beings from other tribes.

However, all of them had one thing in common: they were powerful.

‘Forget it. I should gather all the benefits I can and head back. The Iron Flag Council might be of some help to me. However, I’m not sure how much my strength can grow with them. I wonder if I can be a match for the Eight-Headed Griffons.’

After returning from the plains, Lu Sheng swiftly absorbed the Gesha Power from Du Qiu and Du Xia. As for the other Geshas, they were not a concern to him.

In the few short days that ensued, after placing several high-ranking federal officers under psychological guidance, Lu Sheng successfully spread the organization he established with Lin Shishi and the others at the helm throughout the entire federation.

Then, he became the special training officer for the Imperial Phoenix. He was in charge of training personnel and helping them overcome their various mental problems.

His psychological guidance art’s effects were outstanding. The trained personnel had great work drive and their bodies were better built.

After the personnel had undergone training, the organization benefited. After that, more and more organizations came to him to have their members trained as well.

However, Lu Sheng’s fame quickly spread. He started going on tours all over the world to give training workshops.

Under the correct guidance from his psychological guidance art, Lu Sheng’s fanbase grew. All his audience would completely become his loyal fans.

His muscles… no, his followers grew in numbers. He kept organizing talks with audience in the tens of thousands. Du Xiong’s name started circulating around the world.

Some referred to him as the Holy Disciple Fist Emperor. Some called him the Divine Flash. However, the majority of his fans preferred to refer to him reverently as the Sacred Note Monk.

The elites of the society were influenced by Lu Sheng’s psychological guidance art. They subconsciously became Lu Sheng’s eyes and ears. They spread themselves all over the world and contributed in helping Lu Sheng gather his Mental Energy.

Countless antiques were collected and sent to Flower Tree City.

The members of the Imperial Phoenix and Misty Corrosion set up nine great warehouses in Flower Tree City with the cooperation of the government. Antiques from all over the world were constantly sent there.

Lu Sheng would visit the warehouses every day. He would remove the items which became useless and exchanged them for something new.

After all, there were extremely few antiques with Mental Energy. Those items that contained Mental Energy would only have several hundreds or just dozens of units.

Lu Sheng had spent more than three days, and he merely gained more than 30,000 Mental Energy units, though he also finally assimilated Mi Shenglong’s Gesha Core with his spirit.

In other words, the Gesha Core finally belonged to him. He could easily utilize the Gesha Power contained within it.

Currently, the God Clock was slowly fading and disappearing as well. Geshas all over the world displayed rapid ageing signs of varying degrees. Other than the Geshas saved by Lu Sheng, the others simply faded and vanished in five short days.

Those were not simple disappearances. When they vanished, they left no traces. Their parents, classmates, friends, and everyone else forgot about them naturally.

The only person who was not affected was Lu Sheng.

After the Geshas disappeared, the Gesha Core in his body obtained an immense supply of Gesha Power in a short amount of time.

The might of this power was even comparable to Lu Sheng’s main body’s.

Certain unique signs seemed to have appeared in several corners in this world as well. They were starting to get agitated by the temptations from Lu Sheng’s Gesha Core.

It was then that Lu Sheng decided that it was time for him to return.

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

Flower Tree City.

Lu Sheng sat in a café by the street. He read the papers and took a sip from his cup.

Du Xia and Di Qiu sat opposite him. They were as obedient and cute as ever. Two strong-looking men stood guard with their hands behind their backs at the café’s door nearby. They stood there immobile, just like guardian deities.

The entire café had been booked. When Lu Sheng and his younger siblings came in, the other customers had been ushered out.

“I might have to go somewhere far away in the near future.” Lu Sheng put the newspapers down as he spoke to his younger siblings opposite him.

Ever since Du Xia and Du Qiu were rid of their Gesha Powers, they completely left that peculiar and mysterious world. They started leading completely ordinary lives.

Now that all the Geshas had lost their powers, the world seemed to have gone back to normal completely. It was no longer as distorted as before.

Du Qiu and Du Xia seemed to have turned into completely normal junior high school students. They went to school every day and came home to do their homework and revisions.

They had no idea what their big brother did after the incident.

“When will you be back?” Du Xia’s personality was still steady and calm. She asked the question like an adult.

“I don’t know.” Lu Sheng shook his head. “You guys can’t go where I’m going. There’s a great danger.”

Du Qiu and Du Xia exchanged glances.

“Can you not go?” Du Qiu asked.

“I can’t.” Lu Sheng shook his head slightly.

“Then I’ll go as well,” Du Xia said with finality.

“Me too.” Du Qiu did not want to be left out, either.