Way of the Devil

Lu Sheng waited on the spot for about 10 minutes. Then, he saw a flashy golden flowing light flying toward himself.

The imam Men Fa’s breathing was slightly ragged. When he saw Lu Sheng’s condition, his expression changed drastically.

“The audacity! To think that someone is bold enough to harm a Red Moon Disciple on this Wangshan Planet! They’re asking for death, they are!”

Naturally, he could tell that Lu Sheng’s wounds were only superficial. However, injuring a disciple was a grave crime.

They were rich, yet they harmed his subordinate when his subordinate clearly declared that he was from the Red Moon Cult. He could not accept that.

When the imam arrived, he immediately asked Lu Sheng some questions.

“You’ve worked hard. Rest well and tend to your wounds when you get back. The red moon knows about your contribution for sure. Also, are you sure that they have mystery crystals in there?”

“Uh… I might be mistaken, but I think that even if they don’t have mystery crystals, they must have other valuable objects in there. The formation around this fort alone will at least cost several hundred thousand ice money to operate!” Lu Sheng knew a thing or two about formations. He made a rough estimation of cost.

“Several hundred thousand?” The imam’s breathing grew heavier again.

“Alright… That’s enough… You’re done here, go back and tend to your wounds.” He glanced at Lu Sheng impatiently and waved his hand.

“Understood. I’ll return now. Please be careful, Imam!” Lu Sheng displayed a look of reluctance on his face. However, when he saw the imam Men Fa casting him a cold and threatening gaze, he had no choice but to turn and leave the place.

Before he went far, he heard a deafening explosion behind him.

He turned around to look. He saw a white mushroom cloud emerge from where the fort was. The plumes scattered everywhere and emitted light blue fluorescent glows.

“That was fast.” Lu Sheng narrowed his eyes. He wrapped the Scarlet River Seed on his arm with his Yang Essence. After sealing it off from detection, he turned around and shot toward the fort.

Before long, he saw the imam flying back with a satisfied expression. He seemed to be wielding a silver cube in his hand.

The fort was nowhere to be seen.

Lu Sheng hid at the side for a while and waited for the imam to pass him by. Then, he swiftly dashed out and searched around the location where the fort was.

There was nothing among the grayish-white ruins. There were only fleshy gelatin-like substances.

There were a few scattered limbs in his surroundings. There was also a huge black symbol which seemed to be the cult’s emblem. It had been damaged; only half of it was left lying on the ground.

Lu Sheng went around the place and found nothing. He returned his attention to the black mark.

‘The other valuable items have been taken away. Looks like this is the only thing left…’ He could sense the boiling and surging wails of countless wronged souls from it.

Although the fluctuations were weak, it was better than nothing.

Lu Sheng gave it some thought. He quickly walked up to the mark and pressed a palm against it.

“Hiss…”

The Mental Energy surged greatly into his body like a liquified swarm of bees.

1000, 2000, 3000…

In a few short minutes, tens of thousands of Mental Energy units have surged into his body. However, that was all. The mark seemed to have been damaged. That was all the Mental Energy he could absorb from it.

He felt slightly dissatisfied. He took a risk and summoned the imam here, yet this was all he got. He was now of the opinion that he should not have called the imam.

After sifting through the ruins, he suddenly heard a soft voice from one of the corners.

“Keh keh, keh keh…” Someone was coughing.

Lu Sheng swiftly identified the direction the sound came from. He looked around him, and his gaze rested on a pile of rubble to his right.

He swung an arm. An invisible force pushed the rubble away.

Underneath the rubble lay a white-haired girl whose body had grayish spots. The girl seemed to be in a daze. Her pale blue eyes had nothing but confusion in them.

The girl raised her head and looked at Lu Sheng, who was coming closer, as she asked, “Who… are you?”

Lu Sheng looked around him. There was nobody in the surroundings. He did not pick up any signals from life forms with his spirit’s scan. However, this girl was right before him, yet he could not sense her at all. If he had not seen her, he would have thought that there was nobody here.

‘Should I kill her?’ He hesitated. He was a kind person[1. ED/N: Let’s just say, kind as opposed to evil… and that not by much.], after all. He had his own bottom line.

“Let’s go.” Black Qi emanated from Lu Sheng’s body which enveloped the girl. He leapt into the air, and the two of them were far away in the blink of an eye.

**********

A scarlet bonfire danced and burned in the cave at night.

Lu Sheng, who squatted beside the fire, carefully roasted a juicy ghost crab pincer. The flesh of this huge pincer was heavenly. Just a simple roast over the fire brought out its exceptionally sweet aroma.

“Tell me, who are you? Why were you there in the fort?” Lu Sheng’s instincts told him that this girl was not ordinary.

The girl hugged her knees as she stared blankly at the dancing flames.

“I’m a Silverblood. My name’s Toram Bach.”

“A Silverblood!?” Lu Sheng’s heart skipped a beat.

Silverbloods were legendary real poison people who could not be cured. The potent poison within their bodies was the most powerful of known toxins. There was no antidote for that.

Silverbloods were extremely rare. They were mutants. Hence, they were only beings of legends, for the most part. Nobody had ever laid eyes on one yet.

Lu Sheng did not expect that he would be able to capture a member of a legendary rare tribe.

“Where’s your home?” he asked, trying to strike up a conversation.

“I don’t know… I’m an Anomaly. You should know, after an Anomaly dies several times, their memories fade. I don’t even know what I looked like before,” said the girl drily.

“But you remembered your name.”

“That’s the name they gave me.”

“They?”

“A woman by the name of Lu Rong.”

Lu Sheng kept asking questions casually. If this girl was truly an Anomaly, then she could not be killed. She would just respawn after a certain period of time, just like Yinyin.

On top of that, she was a rare Silverblood. With this, it was possible to obtain an endless supply of blood.

The people of the Natash Merchant Alliance must have treated her as a ceaseless source of wealth as they kept extracting the extremely poisonous silver blood.

“You want some blood? If you bleed me dry, I’ll need a week to recover.” Toram Bach raised her arm and looked at Lu Sheng.

“No, I’m not that kind of person.” Lu Sheng shook his head. “Is there anywhere you’d like to go to?”

“No.”

“Follow me, then. It just so happens that I need someone to help me.” Lu Sheng gave it some thought. There was an advantage to being an Anomaly: they could not die.

Once they appeared, they could continue existing for many, many years. Their lifespans were much longer than normal humans’.

He could not think of a way to find a place for Toram Bach for now. Lu Sheng decided to bring her along as he rendezvoused with the other Red Moon Disciples. They followed the imam Men Fa and continued looting the area.

After looting a dozen spots, and after Lu Sheng gained more than 300,000 Mental Energy units, there was practically nothing left here.

The wanted criminal of the Veron Clan was also dealt with by Men Fa. The entire mission went smoothly.

The only difference from when they came was that Lu Sheng now had a Silverblood, Toram Bach, in tow.

The others thought that Toram Bach was a servant girl he bought from the slave market.

Lu Sheng decided to use her as a maid. He had her clean the yard and take on simple tasks like cleaning formations.

After reaching the Confusion Realm, Lu Sheng constantly sat silently to cultivate his spirit. He wanted to stabilize his mental and spiritual fluctuations after the rank-up.

Then, he accepted a dozen missions as a Red Moon Disciple. He finished off assisted hunting missions for over a dozen years in one go.

Because of his hardworking performance and high success rates, Lu Sheng was swiftly promoted to an imam after two months.

He was also starting to get used to his various improved abilities after he attained the Confusion Realm.

Although Lu Sheng merely displayed his strength as a Weapon Grandmaster, the three great factions within Libra City’s Red Moon Disciples contacted him on separate occasions. They each wanted to have him on their side.

A Weapon Grandmaster was considered a small-time elite in Libra City.

Moreover, Lu Sheng was a Heavenly Devil. This information was not concealed in Libra City’s information system. Heavenly Devils needed to carry out Arrivals every once in a while. The fluctuations from the formation could not possibly be contained.

Lu Sheng was in no hurry. Now that his strength was slightly stabilized, he started to build up his accumulation. Due to his promotion to an imam, he gradually started to form his own little circle. More aptly put, it was a little circle which belonged to imams.

…….

Lu Sheng sat in his yard. He drank hot tea from a cup. He had just finished a bounty mission, and came back from the place of another imam.

Recently, because of Lu Sheng’s wonderful medical art, he started having some simple connections with several Red Moon imams who lived nearby.

Among the imams was Men Fa. This imam had enjoyed great benefits last time. Lu Sheng’s promotion was in part due to Men Fa returning the favor.

‘An imam’s authority is something else. I can even obtain all skill formulas of the Weapon Grandmaster tier and below for free. Also, I can enjoy a 20% discount on anything sold within the cult. The rewards of the missions are much higher as well.’ Lu Sheng sat on the rock bench while organizing his thoughts.

‘I’ve progressed through two fundamental tiers of the Confusion Realm. I’m now close to mastery. The next step I should be taking is to prepare myself to rank up to the Void Underworld tier.’

“Void Underworld, huh…” Lu Sheng sighed.

The East Park Autumn Dew Fertilizing Method was comprehensive enough. It contained the method to attain the weakest level of the Void Underworld tier.

The most important part of the Void Underworld tier was to establish the cycle of his own body’s energy, the alternation between corporeal and incorporeal.

In the Heavenly Devil’s system, this was equivalent to establishing a reincarnation cycle in his Heart World.

‘To establish the incarnation cycle, I’ll have to gather insight into the reincarnation heart. After I’ve gathered insight on the reincarnation heart, I’ll be able to work on reincarnation spiritual power.’

Lu Sheng recalled the fertilizing method in his mind. The assortment of fertilizing special effects aside, this skill formula’s main structure was actually good.

The reincarnation heart required him to have an understanding and experience of a complete reincarnation cycle of life. Then, he would have to gain insight on the nature of the cycle of life.

For the Confusion Realm beings who had lived for tens of thousands of years, this amount of knowledge naturally meant nothing. The only thing they needed to do was to recall their own memories carefully and search for inspirations and insights.

However, Lu Sheng was different. Although he was a traveler, he had never had a complete experience of the cycle of life from birth to old age and then death.

‘I’ve experienced being reborn after dying. However, when I died last time, I was a strong, young man. I’m also nowhere near my old age right now.’

After weighing his options, Lu Sheng knew that the key was for him to gain more from carrying out Arrivals.