Way of the Devil

Wisps of smoke kept swirling in Lu Sheng’s palm.

He took a deep breath and sucked the smoke into his nostrils. Then, he decided to close his eyes and meditate here.

Time passed by slowly.

Suddenly, his eyes snapped open. He looked toward the bottom of Deep Blue’s final frame. A blurred frame had appeared in that spot.

‘I’ll name it Smoke Soul Path.’ He came up with a name without giving it much thought. As he gathered insight on the cultivation method where the souls were attached to the smoke, his Mental Energy began to drop as he started to derive it.

One unit, two units, three units…

His Mental Energy surged out constantly like threads and disintegrated into some special and transparent energy. The energy was converted several times and eventually seeped out of Lu Sheng’s body. Then, it condensed into a blurry humanoid figure made of smoke.

The “Smoke Soul Path” was derived by several hundred ranks in the blink of an eye. Lu Sheng had only gathered insight and understanding on the smoke for several hours, yet he had already attained unprecedented heights.

The soul smoke which continued floating out of the volcano’s mouth held no more secrets in his eyes.

He had attained great heights both in tier and rank. Before Deep Blue, the so-called competence and cultivation base were but entities that Mental Energy could be easily converted into.

“Let’s begin… Let me see what the nature of this Heart World is!” Lu Sheng spread his right hand.

Thick white smoke spread from behind him. It formed a small white vortex above his head.

The vortex wailed as it spun with increasing speed and intensity. It began to absorb the scattered smoke in its vicinity.

The smoke souls which floated out of the volcano’s mouth seemed to have been pulled into the vortex the moment they emerged.

The white vortex grew larger.

The volcano’s control over the smoke souls was slowly losing to the tugging force from Lu Sheng’s side.

On the surface, countless roots had started spreading from the island toward the seawater.

“Rumble!”

There was a thunderclap from the clouds. The skies gradually darkened.

Lu Sheng supported the huge vortex with a single hand, and he looked at the ghastly pale core at the center of the vortex.

‘I see… Artificial reincarnation, huh? The method’s not bad. However, this is no match for a natural cycle of life and death.’ He immediately understood that this Void Underworld expert before himself was not the Mother of Pain.

The four-winged lady’s Void Underworld tier was not profound. Her own reincarnation power showed great signs of artificial guidance.

When Lu Sheng gathered insight on the smoke soul’s path of reincarnation, he clearly sensed the disharmony within it.

There were clearly parts which would simply progress into completely different natural systems if it were derived logically. There was no way that a complete reincarnation cycle would have been formed.

However, the system here was truly more complete compared to a world that was derived naturally.

‘Looks like this should be one of the two great deputy cult masters under the Mother of Pain.’ He gained some understanding in his mind.

‘That makes sense. If the core leader moves about casually during times of war, it will have great effect on the entire battlefield and the general situation.’ Lu Sheng had a villainous smirk.

“Oh well. I’ll teach you a lesson about the consequences of your actions by showing you the outcome of this deputy cult master…

“Deep Blue!”

The light blue interface popped out again.

“Derive the Smoke Soul Path!”

His store of Mental Energy was instantly depleted by nearly 100,000 units. The Smoke Soul Path was swiftly boosted to the terrifying tier of 1,000th rank.

The huge white vortex spun at high speed above Lu Sheng’s head. A giant keyhole which resembled that in a door was gradually formed.

The gale tore at Lu Sheng’s robes, which flapped loudly. The humanoid soul smoke appeared behind him again.

The humanoid smoke warped into a silver-white key.

The key’s surface was covered in countless complicated patterns, with a sword-shaped openwork in the center. It was unleashing shock waves which traveled in ripples in all directions.

“Lock facing the skies, origin of the heart image!” Lu Sheng turned around suddenly and grabbed the key behind him. He tossed it upward.

“Swoosh!”

The silver-white key as tall as a person instantly shot toward the high skies. With a spurt, it entered the keyhole in the center of the vortex.

“Click.”

The key turned clockwise.

“Pchht! Pchht! Pchht! Pchht! Pchht!”

Beams of golden radiance erupted from the keyhole. Faint black cracks appeared in the dimensional space.

Lu Sheng laughed and leapt. He morphed into a beam of yellow light and shot into one of the vein-like cracks. He vanished in the blink of an eye.

***

West Sutra Planet.

A huge body and a small body were facing off in the outer space.

The Lu Sheng-turned giant crane Qianshen was as huge as 10,000 meters, whereas the four-winged lady was 3,000 meters tall. Her size paled greatly in comparison.

However, the might the two of them unleashed was about the same.

“Looks like they have both been pulled into the other person’s Heart World. I didn’t expect things to have escalated this quickly.”

In the distant void, the purple and red shadows were still looking on at this scene.

The purple moon observed them carefully. Her voice was slightly deep.

“Things do not look good for that deputy cult master of the Mother of Pain…”

“In that case, isn’t this your win? Why don’t you look happy?” asked the red shadow helplessly.

“It’ll be troublesome if I won. You should know that the fellow came here from my Libra City…” The purple moon was feeling more helpless now.

“Have you found out who he is?”

“Somewhat, but there are many parts that remain unclear. If we follow the previous records, this Void Underworld being who had been concealing his powers should be a young man called Lu Sheng. He’s a young Taoist who’s not even 300 years old,” the purple moon said with a serious expression.

“300 years old? Are you kidding me?” The red shadow was stunned as well.

“You’ve heard it right. 300 years old. We’ve sampled his soul wave and analyzed it. We determined that the experience his soul did not exceed 300 years. If we sampled the scattered traces of his energy, we can even decipher if he’s been to the Other Worlds with faster time flows to cultivate,” the purple moon explained.

“If he’s younger than 300 years… That’s too shocking. Even some of the fellows who reincarnated could not reach the Void Underworld tier in such a short time.”

“Yeah… That’s why I came here to see it with my own eyes…” said the purple moon in a deep voice.

The two of them stopped talking for a time. They put more of their focus on the battle between the two huge beings far away.

If that person was truly a monster who’d reached the Void Underworld tier in less than 300 years, the outcome of this battle was but decided.

No great Void Underworld being would not covet the secrets hidden in the body of this monster.

This included the two observers.

It was true that the Void Underworld beings of other races would have a hard time actually killing a Void Underworld Heavenly Devil. As long as the Heavenly Devil did not unleash his Heart World, he would be undefeatable for a short period of time. However, even if they could not be killed, this did not mean that there was no way to deal with them.

Seals were specially made to deal with Heavenly Devils.

The two of them were already harboring thoughts of making their move.

***

In the space, Lu Sheng opened his eyes slowly. Through Qianshen’s body, he could see the four-winged lady before him who was still in a daze.

It was clear that she had yet to break free from his Heart World.

“Farewell…” He mouthed the words without making a sound.

In the blink of an eye, black radiance burst forth. Qianshen spread its left wing. Countless black feathers flew out like raindrops. The feathers turned into black light arrows and shot toward the four-winged lady’s body as they sailed in an arc like raindrops.

“Pchht! Pchht! Pchht! Pchht!”

Countless black light penetrated the lady’s body, which reclined gradually from the impact.

The black light seemed to possess a certain peculiar ability to burn. It was attached with Lu Sheng’s unique Yin Flames. Every time an arrow pierced the four-winged lady’s body, the scene of the countless soul smokes in her Heart World would appear behind her.

However, the raging seas, erupting volcano, the skies, the island, and the seawater in the scenes were dyed a dark greenish hue from the flames.

“You’re still trying to flee after I’ve determined your Heart World’s coordinates?” Lu Sheng parted his mouth, revealing his rows of sharp teeth.

The Heart World was where the Void Underworld Heavenly Devil was at his strongest and weakest at the same time.

Once the Heart World’s coordinates were determined by the opponent and the owner could no longer escape, the only outcome would be for the owner to suffer consecutive formidable blows.

Once the Heart World was damaged, it was the same as the Void Underworld Heavenly Devil’s main body’s spirit being damaged.

Moreover, the four-winged lady was still trapped within Lu Sheng’s Heart World, and she could not extract herself from it. She had no means of effectively fending off the attacks.

In a few breaths, her colossal body became riddled with wounds. The Heart World behind her had been plunged into thick, dark green flames.

As the Yin Flames burned, the four-winged lady’s tattered body swiftly shrunk as well.

“It’s over…” Lu Sheng took a step forward out of Qianshen’s body.

He opened his mouth. His jaw parted wider and wider until it spanned 1,000 meters in the blink of an eye. Then, he clenched his jaws.

“Pchht!”

A huge bite was taken out of the four-winged lady alongside the white smoke around her.

“Do it!”

Suddenly, a beam of red light shot directly toward Lu Sheng from the back. Something crashed heavily into the back of his waist.

“Boom!”

The red light exploded into countless black vines and branches. They were about to wrap around Lu Sheng firmly.

“Trying to catch me?” Lu Sheng smiled. He turned to look at the red shadow that flew toward him.

“Do you think that this is meaningful?” he asked with a smile.

“I won’t utter any pompous words. If you tell me your secret of attaining the Void Underworld tier in such a short time, I’ll spare your life and even settle the conflict you have with the Mother of Pain,” said the red shadow when it got closer. “How about it? Will you give it some thought?”

“Secret? I, Lu Sheng, have attained my current tier by overcoming countless difficulties and trials. I’ve obtained what I have today through my own hard work and effort. There’s no way that there are any secrets,” Lu Sheng said with a smile.

“No, that can’t be right. If there’s a secret, then it must be because I’m too much of a genius,” he said with utmost confidence.

“…”

‘You should tell this to a f*cking ghost, maybe it’ll believe you,’ the red shadow cursed inwardly.

“Can we not waste precious time with meaningless words? Let’s be frank. Do not force my hand.”

“Frank?” Lu Sheng raised his eyebrows. “I, Lu Sheng, have never tasted defeat in the thousands of battlefields I’ve experienced since I was born! You can’t seriously think that you’ve managed to suppress me with this?”

“You do not fear death, but what about a sealing art? I can seal your body so that you won’t be able to move a single muscle. You won’t be able to leave or utilize any form of energy. You can’t even kill yourself. I’ll keep you sealed away like this for 100,000 years.” The red shadow chuckled. “Will you be afraid of that?”