Way of the Devil

Scarlet District Mistress, now on her feet again, had recovered her peak strength almost instantaneously. In fact, she seemed even stronger to boot.

Unlike previously, Lu Sheng was using all his arms and legs now, even the spikes on his elbows and knees.

His sabers had exploded in that collision a moment earlier.

“BAM!”

Struck by the saber, Lu Sheng smashed into the cliff once again.

Despite blocking the saber with both his arms, the massive force contained in the saber was still too great to defuse.

A giant boulder, about ten meters wide, fell down from above him.

Lu Sheng sucked in a deep breath of air, ignoring the cracks covering his armor. Suddenly, he pulled himself out of the cliff and climbed up the pencil-straight cliff like a lizard, stepping on the rock wall, and headed for the large recess in the face of the cliff.

SLASH!

A long saber covered in a scarlet glow slashed across the spot where he had been.

Scarlet District Mistress glared at Lu Sheng above her, scarlet tongues of flame rising up from her body. She leapt into the air and dashed after Lu Sheng.

SLASH SLASH SLASH SLASH!!

Large boulders and rocks kept tumbling down the cliffs around the two of them.

Even the entire cliff began trembling.

“Phantom Spirit Five Slashes!!” Scarlet District Mistress used her killing move again.

Presently, she seemed to be filled with endless strength. The scarlet glow about her rapidly compressed, then exploded outwards violently.

“KABOOM!!”

The saber missed, sliding dangerously close by Lu Sheng’s skin and gouging a huge hole out of the waist of the cliff.

Huge tumbling sounds rang out.

Finally having taken too much damage, half the cliff on the left began collapsing, sliding into the river and cutting the river into two halves.

The mist in the air thickened till it almost blotted out all visibility.

“Are you dead?” Scarlet District Mistress’ senses were cut off by the collapse of the cliff. The aura on her burned intensely. Her strength had not come from nowhere; she was exchanging this last burst of power from the Scarlet Dragon Tribulation shard at the cost of the burning of her entire self.

“Like I said… I’M THE STRONGEST!!” Two streaks of pale light, one red and the other blue, lit up from within the storm of falling rocks. A low but mad-sounding voice rang out from behind her.

Followed closely by that was a streak of light formed by the intermingling of the red and blue lights. Carrying an indomitable aura, it charged at her, smashing all boulders and rocks in its path.

“Yin Yang—DIVINE MIGHT!!”

“Phantom Spirit FIVE SLASHES!” Scarlet District Mistress hurriedly raised her saber and mustered all her power.

“BOOM!!!”

But she was still a tad too late. In the moment the massive force struck her, it riddled her with over a dozen fist-sized pits.

The two of them shot across the surface of the river and crash landed on the shore.

Everywhere, Nine Beauty Flower petals rained.

The two of them traded blows madly. Under the effects of Scarlet Dragon Tribulation, Scarlet District Mistress’ injuries did not hamper her combat strength.

This was the power that she had given her all in exchange for. How could she fall here!?

“I’M NOT DYING HERE! ABSOLUTELY NOT!!” In the flames, her countenance turned a shade more savage.

“DIE!!!”

Finally unable to endure the terrifying heat, the long saber burst apart. However, the Scarlet Dragon Tribulation shard immediately generated a longer, wider blade of flames out of thin air.

The saber made of flame, about seven to eight meters long, came crashing down towards Lu Sheng.

“Phantom Spirit—INFINITE SLASH!!!”

“HAHAHAH!!! THAT’S RIGHT, JUST LIKE THIS!!”

Lu Sheng laughed madly. One of his arms red while the other blue, he detonated the liquefied Qi for both Ultimate Crimson Nine Furies Skill and Yin Yang Jade Crane Aquarius Qi.

Red and blue fused, condensing into a small colorless orb in front of him.

“Yin and Yang becomes one: PRIME RAGE!!”

“KABOOM!!”

Before the saber made of flame and the orb made contact, they already exploded.

Flames distorted and mingled with waves of chaos, bursting into countless explosions and ripping rifts in the ground everywhere.

Power at the realm of the Black Snake was extremely compact and potent to begin with. The extent of collateral damage that resulted from their fight was catastrophic.

This meant that they were no longer using merely power that they had fully mastered, but also power that they had not yet been able to fully control.

The red flames lit the woods and sea of flowers around them ablaze. A raging fire roared and spread, producing thick black smoke which billowed into the air.

“Crack.”

By the raging fire, Lu Sheng stepped on a broken twig and stood before Scarlet District Mistress.

“Looks like I won in the end,. Lu Sheng stared at the Scarlet Dragon Tribulation shard in the saber hilt, now completely dim. He raised his arm slowly.

Scarlet District Mistress sat on the ground without an ounce of strength left in her, holding the broken saber in her hand. Wisps of black smoke wafted into the air from her body; they came out of her orifices.

“Is there a feud between us?” She lifted her eyes at Lu Sheng’s uplifted arm and asked suddenly.

Lu Sheng paused in surprise.

“No.”

“So it’s just for the shard?” Scarlet District Mistress seemed to come to some misunderstanding.

Lu Sheng fell into silence. Then, he laughed. “Yeah… it’s just for the shard.”

Without warning, his palm struck downwards.

“NO!!!”

A red shadow charged at him and came ramming towards him suddenly.

“BAM!!”

With a twist of his palm, Lu Sheng struck the umbrella girl who was flying towards him precisely.

But as he was presently still in detonated liquefied Qi and Yin Yang fusion mode, even a casual strike of the palm commanded might that was far beyond what umbrella girl could resist.

Just then, Scarlet District Mistress jumped in front of umbrella girl.

The two of them embraced each other right in front of Lu Sheng.

“BOOM!!”

The Yin and Yang inner Qi penetrated their bodies, ravaging through them.

“Bam!!!”

The two of them landed and tumbled on the ground.

“SIS!” Yingying rapidly crawled over and rushed to Scarlet District Mistress’ side, her tears falling like rain.

Scarlet District Mistress spat out a mouthful of black blood and grimaced as she looked at umbrella girl, a weak smile on her face.

“…This isn’t your fault… Yingying…” The black smoke emitting from Scarlet District Mistress was growing thicker.

The fusion of Yin Yang inner Qi brought with it terrifyingly penetrative power.

It was not just her—Yingying was riddled with fist-sized holes all over her body as well. That was the effect of Yin Yang inner Qi’s horrifying explosive power.

“That year, I shouldn’t have turned you into… a Prey Ghost…” [1]

Scarlet District Mistress’ pupils dilated. Thick black smoke streamed out of her. Some parts of her arms and legs were beginning to revert to their original form; astonishingly, they were turning into tiger paws covered in white fur!

At the sight of the scene, Lu Sheng’s excitement and frenzy began to die down. Although he was moved by Yingying and Scarlet District Mistress’ feelings for each other, that was no reason for him to let them go.

Yingying had murdered so many Crimson Whale Sect disciples and Scarlet District Mistress was even prepared to hurt Chen Yunxi. The conflict between them had come to an irremediable stage.

But Lu Sheng no longer needed to finish the job. Although Scarlet District Mistress had had taken that last blow for umbrella girl, the penetrative force had still struck the latter. Lu Sheng’s strength could not be overcome by a Three-Vein like her.

The huge fire slowly spread towards them. Lu Sheng stared at the two of them as they embraced each other. Umbrella girl sobbed as she held on to Scarlet District Mistress, who was no longer moving. Bit by bit, she dragged her away from him.

Unaware that she herself would not live much longer, she tried to get Scarlet District Mistress away from Lu Sheng.

Lu Sheng ignored her. Instead, he picked up the broken saber with the Scarlet Dragon Tribulation shard, then glanced at the other sites on which they fought.

His original intention in joining this fight was to get rid of all who knew about his power. And now, it was time for him to reap the spoils.

‘Let’s see what I can reap from the Wandering Heart Society’s lone-eyed titan, Ye Moling’s corpse, and Scarlet District Mistress. These are all Snake realm beings.’

Lu Sheng relaxed his body and quickly turned back into his default Yin Extreme Mode, which was under two meters tall.

This mode boasted the greatest recuperative abilities; it was the best mode for recovery and healing. After all, he too had sustained injuries in the fight with Scarlet District Mistress.

The might of Scarlet Dragon Tribulation had exceeded his estimation. Scarlet District Mistress had been gravely wounded, poisoned, assaulted off-guard, fought to the death with the lone-eyed titan Chao Hu and even had her Black Snake membrane broken.

Yet with such a broken body, she had been able to combust herself under the empowerment of the shard and utilize such terrifying power.

Now he finally understood slightly why Noblemen and demons and ghosts so desperately sought these Divine Weapon and Devil Blade shards.

After returning to his usual body size, Lu Sheng took a step forward and floated to the spot where Chao Hu had been slain.

The massive single-eyed titan was floating on the surface of the water. Blood continued to seep out of his body into the river. From top to toe, especially that single eye on his head, he was still coated in a layer of golden light.

Lu Sheng sensed carefully as he patted him down. Before long, he dug out a black pouch from him. The titan had hidden it on the back of his waist. To his pity, however, he found no Yin Qi on the corpse.

He searched Chao Hu from top to toe. Finally, his gaze landed on the lone eye on his head.

‘This thing shoots out golden beams. It’s quite powerful, it should be the essence of this titan’s body.’

Lu Sheng’s right hand quickly turned black and his fingers hardened. Razor-sharp black blades grew out of his fingertips.

He stuck out his index finger and thumb, then pierced them into Chao Hu’s eye socket accurately.

“Splat.”

Blood mixed with some yellow pus flowed out.

Lu Sheng gouged out the eyeball, with some blood-red vessels attached to it on its back. A diamond-shaped crystal floated within the eyeball.

‘I guess I’ll call this the Eye of the Titan. Maybe it’s good stuff.’ Ever since achieving full mastery of his hard body skills and continuously inducing transformations in his body, Lu Sheng could now sense intuitively that certain things would benefit his body.

It was just like how humans would crave for particular foods from time to time. When it got hot, they would want to eat something cold to cool down. When it got cold, they would crave for something warm to warm themselves up. When it was salty, they would want to drink water. When they got hungry, they would crave for rice.

Lu Sheng kept the eyeball in a piece of rag carefully, then opened the black pouch.

With a gentle shake, three dried light gray fruits fell out from the pouch, They were unknown fruits that looked like ginkgo.

Lu Sheng placed the eyeball together with the fruits in the black pouch, then walked over to check the other corpses.

None of the three corpses possessed much Yin Qi. Moreover, these titans did not seem to rely much on external objects; hence, there wasn’t much that he could find on them.

Lu Sheng gouged out all their eyeballs to keep in the black pouch.

There was also a lady with her face covered by a mask. The mask tore away to reveal a lone eye as well. But her height was that of an ordinary human.

‘This is a complete race.’ Lu Sheng judged.

Without much gains, he quickly came to Ye Moling.

He dragged Ye Moling’s corpse to the shore. His charred corpse had reverted to his original form—it was a black-haired, red-faced ape.

Lu Sheng found a book made of some special metal thread on him. A peculiar cultivation skill was recorded on it.

Despite being unable to read the language of the book, Lu Sheng could tell that it was a cultivation skill for demons, which had been created to exploit the potential of the demon body. As a human, it was of no use to Lu Sheng.

The composition of the human body was drastically different from that of a demon’s. No matter how good the cultivation technique was, it could not be practiced by a human.

‘But then again, aren’t human skills designed to tap on the full potential of the human body to improve it, just like demon skills?’ Lu Sheng mused. Feeling no Yin Qi in it as well, he kept it.

Then, he cut an ear off Ye Moling’s body as his trophy.

With a toss, he threw Ye Moling’s corpse together with the lone-eyed titan and burnt them to ashes. Only then did he return to look for umbrella girl and Scarlet District Mistress.

The corpses of the two women lay in a pile of ashes by the river. Only some black skin and bones were left on the ground, along with a pink love-knot.

From the shape of the ashes, Lu Sheng could roughly make out that Scarlet District Mistress was basically a white tiger of average size. Yingying, the umbrella girl, on the other hand, was of some humanoid species.

Like previously, Lu Sheng dug around the ashes and found a book in Scarlet District Mistress’ remains.

It was an extremely small and intricate black booklet, about the size of a fingernail.

‘This thing…’ Lu Sheng’s eyes narrowed and he quickly stuffed it into his black pouch.

This time, he did find Yin Qi on the book. And not just the usual level of density one would expect.