Way of the Devil

When Lu Sheng returned home, he found the house deserted. Nobody else was there. Zhuo Siqing sat alone on the couch, puffing on his cigarette. This did not seem to be his first cigarette.

Even when Lu Sheng closed the door, he ignored the sound.

“You seemed to be burning with anxiety when you called me. What’s the matter?” Lu Sheng walked up to the couch and sat down.

Zhuo Siqing glanced at him.

“It’s nothing. I missed you, that is all.”

“Hehe, I’ll be leaving, then,” Lu Sheng said. He felt speechless.

“You don’t have to know too much about this matter for now. I’ll take care of it. You should work hard in your university studies,” Zhuo Siqing added.

“Mm-hm, I know. The Marine University recruited a huge batch of students again. The numbers are almost twice compared to last year. That’s how universities are these days. They’re not as valuable as you thought,” Lu Sheng remarked casually.

“It’s alright. Just do your best in your studies.” Zhuo Siqing said no more. However, he stopped smoking as well. He stood up and crushed the cigarette butt. “I’ll cook something nice for you. Your journey must’ve been tough. You should eat up at home.”

“Alright. I want pickled vegetables with fish,” Lu Sheng said with a smile.

Zhuo Siqing went into the kitchen. Lu Sheng lay back on the couch and switched to a comfortable posture. He took out his phone, pressed a few buttons, and brought it to his ear.

Soon, a melodious female voice was projected.

“The investigation is complete. The Zhuo Family wants to bring Zhuo Siqing back to take over the family’s enterprise. They had been where you are right now just a few moments ago.”

Lu Sheng patiently asked several questions that seemed inconsequential. He quickly shoved the entire matter to the back of his mind.

This Zhuo Family was quite powerful. They would be more than welcome to bring this undependable father of his back.

If that happened, he would not even have to make up lies. He would just say that he was attending a university in another city.

After busying himself for a long time, a pickled vegetables with fish and other dishes were served before him.

“Eat up. I might be away in the next few days. If you can’t find me here, you can reach me with this number.” Zhuo Siqing passed Lu Sheng a note with a handwritten phone number.

Lu Sheng had no time for the trivial matters of the family. As long as they did not stand in his way, he couldn’t care less about what his father was going to do.

The two of them ate the lunch without much conversation. After Zhuo Siqing washed the plates, he went into his room and slept.

Lu Sheng inspected his current cultivation base. He had cultivated the East Park Autumn Dew Fertilizing Method to the second level.

Combined with his three crests, this skill formula was based on fertility, while it brought with it wonderful effects on fertilizing soil and the spirit.

Lu Sheng felt that no matter what he did, his spirit’s Heart World would still expand swiftly. Also, he gradually gained more authority over the dimension.

Large clusters of buildings were erected, and streets were formed.

Lu Sheng started bringing in livestock.

The Heart World could only absorb immaterial objects, save for a few exceptions. The livestock would be in their soul form.

Currently, Lu Sheng designed everything within his Heart World.

With the three crests formed on the radiant disc, when they were activated, Lu Sheng gained more powerful control over his Heart World.

Before this, he was only capable of bringing his own corpse around. Now, he could control the terrain to some extent.

He continued absorbing some insects, rabbits, and other animals into his Heart World. They were having the time of their lives in the Heart World. For the time being, they would not be facing any threats from their natural enemies.

Lu Sheng snapped back to the present, and glanced through Zhuo Family’s information. He did not notice anything problematic. After the meal, he left the house again in the afternoon.

The God’s Eye launched a grand extermination mission against the Silver Hand. Both sides suffered great losses.

He had to take control of the situation from the shadows.

Lu Sheng left the town and continued investing most of his attention into gathering insights on the rules. He organized another themed painting competition.

Currently, almost all of his 100 rules were close to perfection. However, since he had a huge and free workforce, he could not find any reason not to use it.

Hence, he continued to use the other rules which he could think of as themes. He wanted to see if he would be able to incorporate them into his Heart World.

If he wanted to break through the Confusion Realm, he needed nine cornerstone rules. However, Lu Sheng intended to condense as many rules as he could. He was curious to see how it would turn out.

In the blink of an eye, half a year passed.

Lu Sheng had now gained insights on more than 300 kinds of rules. He practically covered all the basic rules.

Basic physics, basic astronomy, basic biology, and others. He had gained insight on various subjects.

His entire Heart World grew more natural and complete.

The God’s Eye and the Silver Hand had fought fiercely several times, yet none could get the better of the other. In the end, the two organizations decided not to meddle in each other’s business as they went about organizing their own competitions.

To go against the God’s Eye, the Silver Hand came up with a Devil’s Tooth. The competitions progressed further along both extremes. Every year, countless painters would join the two grand international competitions just to win the prizes and benefits.

Everything went smoothly. Lu Sheng was almost done with gathering insights on his rules. The basic rules were also practically taken care of with the massive workforce he amassed. He began having people collect antiques or ancient objects again.

Now that his cultivation base was taken care of, he had to start stocking up on Mental Energy.

The days passed him by.

…

A drizzle pattered against a small umbrella on the streets.

Lu Sheng was standing at the center of a retro-looking town. He looked at the sparsely scattered townspeople who were sheltering themselves from the rain under the eaves.

This was his Heart World. Currently, the world was at least several hundred times larger than it once had been. Lu Sheng had created everything from nothing. He had also gained many living spirits.

These living spirits were of animals and humans. After Lu Sheng gained more control over his Heart World, they were given the ability not to be devoured by the Heart World.

Many of them were actually people on their deathbed. Some of them had contracted terminal illnesses. Some of their bodies were wasting away. However, their souls were still intact, and could live on for many years.

The Heart World could only contain minimal amounts of substance. Lu Sheng specifically pulled the souls of these people into his Heart World since it would not do him any harm.

After pulling in several hundred individuals, his Heart World started to flourish.

It did not appear like the barren and peculiar small world it had been before. It was more like a mysterious haven, a place where secluded cultivators gathered.

‘I’ve gained complete insight on the basic rules of light and warmth. However, I have yet to understand the nature of combustion. I can’t seem to understand it. Much is still lacking here.’ Lu Sheng looked up at the skies. The thick layers of dark clouds appeared like lead.

He could faintly feel the minute changes in the dimension.

“Isn’t that painting mended yet?” Lu Sheng asked softly. “It has to be done soon…” He had personally cultivated the devil painting. It was only natural for him to clearly sense its movements.

Currently, he could derive the nine cornerstones with Deep Blue any time he wanted to. Once the nine cornerstones were established, the entire world could officially form its own circulation. When that time came, the world’s nature would experience a great change.

It would eventually become a nurturing place with his own powers as the core.

This was how the Confusion Realm was formed. An Army Raising expert would receive constant nurturing and experience substantial changes during his slumber in the nurturing place, and eventually reach sublimation.

Then, the main body would be nourished by the Heart World. This was the crucial step in attaining the Confusion Realm.

‘I should attain a natural cycle first. Then, I’ll need time to speed up the derivations…’ With a thought, Lu Sheng instantly left the Heart World. He returned to reality.

In the real world, he was sitting alone in a mansion he bought in the federal capital.

In the study, there were two others with him.

These two individuals had their heads lowered as they knelt on the ground before him reverently. One of them was a middle-aged man with white hair. He dressed like an old gentleman. The other one was big and tall. His muscles bulged all over his body and he had a crew cut. He looked fierce.

“You’re still here?” Lu Sheng glanced at the two of them.

“You haven’t given us the word, Master. We dare not leave, Master.”

“We’ll follow your orders, Master.”

The two of them answered him in deep voices.

Lu Sheng smiled.

“There’s no reason why there can’t be another addition to the Silver Hand’s five grand painting saints. However, as the elders, the two of you have disappointed me.”

Beads of sweat were already forming on their foreheads. The beads of sweat kept sliding down their faces and dropped onto the floor, but they dared not raise their hands to wipe them away.

They were both among the most powerful peak painters of the current world. With their prowess, they had the right to be regarded among the second batch. They even established their own great organization called the Black Light Hand.

The Black Light Hand was a subsidiary of the Silver Hand. Their criteria for selection were not as strict as the Silver Hand. However, they had greater control over the secular forces.

These two in charge had been summoned here because of the serious conflicts with the God’s Eye. There were even signs suggesting that they had provoked the God’s Eye on purpose.

This led to a great fight between the two organizations. Special combat personnel trained by the organization, the bloody garment agents, led the vanguard. They even deployed two divisions of mechas. It nearly escalated to an international war.

With things at that scale, Lu Sheng had no choice but to swiftly suppress his own forces. He killed off the managing officers of the organization. With their heads rolling on the ground, nobody dared make another reckless move.

It should be known that there were originally 13 members among the upper echelons of the Black Light Hand. Currently, only these two were left.

“Society needs stability. The human heart needs peace. If the God’s Eye did not taunt us, there’s no reason for us to attack them,” Lu Sheng said drily. “You two should know what to do about the international alliance. Donate some money to the various governments and have our own council member speak up. Lock down as many public opinions as you can and manipulate those that you can’t. Three days. I want this entire affair to be ended in three days.”

“Understood!” The two of them hastily nodded their heads and voiced their understanding.

Lu Sheng felt sick just by looking at them.

After he strengthened the bodies of these painters with his spirit-prompting threads, he created a set of simple killing techniques which they could cultivate. It worked in tandem with the supernatural abilities the painters had while painting, and the product was a formidable and complete assassination technique.

Some painters started to turn their most powerful works into various patterns which they tattooed onto their bodies, clothes, weapons, and other items.

Their paintings could trigger the human heart, fool the five senses, and enrage the others. With all these properly used, the dark painters’ strength improved tremendously.

However, it was precisely because of this that the dark painters’ ambitions soared. Recently, even Lu Sheng found them difficult to suppress.

He could control the higher-ranked peak painting saints. However, it was impossible for him to personally attend to everything that went on with the middle ranks. There were too many middle- to low-ranked painters. Their ambitions were swiftly ballooning as well. When the higher-ups gave the orders, they would somehow take on a more radical meaning when they reached them.