Way of the Devil

After taking down the Yellow Sand Sword School, the Prime Devil Sect has been officially recognized by the other top sects. They thought that Lu Sheng himself had the ability to go head-to-head with their entire sect teams.

Nobody wanted to admit that they weren’t as strong as the Prime Devil Sect, but nobody wanted to stand out, either. They were afraid that they’d have to fight against the Prime Devil Sect.

After taking down the Yellow Sand Sword School’s team, Lu Sheng took He Xiangzi back to the garden to wait for the result.

In the afternoon, he got bored staying inside the garden. He killed a wild goose with a rock, then pulled out its feathers and started to boil some water, then stewed it in a large pot. He used a lot of the potions that he had with him as spices and began to cook.

Delicious goose meat continued to tumble in the pot, and a milky white soup formed. He Xiangzi couldn’t help but sniff the wonderful aroma from the soup.

She wasn’t a person who liked to eat, but this pot of wild geese appeared delicious—the smell alone made her eager to eat it.

“This pot of meat will protect your kidneys and liver, but the only problem is that the effect is too strong; normal people can’t tolerate it.” Lu Sheng started to chat with He Xiangzi while he adjusted the strength of the fire.

“Um… Junior Apprentice Brother… as for the outside… can we really just ignore it?” He Xiangzi swallowed as she quickly glanced outside. Sounds of fighting came from outside the Grace Garden. Neither of them had any idea who was fighting whom.

“It doesn’t matter, we can leave after they are done fighting,” Lu Sheng said lazily.

“Quite some confidence!” From outside of the gate of the Grace Garden, a shadow slowly dropped down towards them.

“That smells soooooooooooooooo good! Enjoying delicious food on your own in secret here without care for fame and fortune, this is indeed the greatest happiness that you can experience, my little friend!”

After the shadow stood up after landing, it finally became clear what the person looked like. Standing there was a kind, white-haired old Taoist.

The Taoist robe of his was dirty, with many patches on it. His pair of grass shoes had two holes, and his big toes showed through.

“I was wondering why I suddenly lost one of my wild geese. Turns out, it was because it was hit by you, my young friend!” He blinked as he approached and smiled.

“How do you know that this wild goose in my pot was raised by you, old mister?” Lu Sheng asked in response.

“Err… there is a sign left by me, and there are two moles on its butt!” the old man said, pointing at the goose butt that had rolled out of the pot.

“….”

“….”

Lu Sheng and He Xiangzi were speechless.

The meat was already almost boiled, and the skin was wet and pulpy. Nothing could be clearly seen. Two moles? Even if there were three or four moles, it still wouldn’t be possible to see it. The soup already turned white due to the spices, and the messy skin and meat had become a pale milky white in color as well.

Seeing that Lu Sheng and He Xiangzi were speechless, the old Taoist was pleased.

“Hehe, there is an easy solution for you if you don’t want this old Taoist to tell anyone. Just give me half of the dish!”

“Didn’t you say that this goose was yours?” He Xiangzi couldn’t help but ask.

“Emm…” The old man quickly covered his mouth.

“If you want to eat, then just join us,” Lu Sheng said, laughing.

“That’s great!” The old man rushed over goofily and sat near the fire.

Because there had been no fire here, Lu Sheng looked for firewood himself and set up the fire on a flat part of the ground inside the Grace Garden.

Each of the three brought over a big bowl and filled it up to try out the dish.

The old Taoist took the soup bowl and sniffed it carefully, instantly getting intoxicated with it. After a few sniffs, he slowly put his mouth to the edge of the bowl and gently drank.

The fresh, delicious soup with condensed scent of herbs ran into his mouth; it very well could have been the most delicious meal in this whole world.

He did not hesitate anymore, and quickly swallowed most of the soup in a few moments.

“Can I have another bowl of… HUH???” The old Taoist turned his head and was shocked to see that Lu Sheng had already finished the entire pot.

“It’s all gone!?!!?” He looked desperate. His hand holding the bowl couldn’t stop trembling.

Lu Sheng glanced at him strangely, poured the last bit of the broth out and drank it. “What did you just say?”

“…” The old Taoist was speechless.

He Xiangzi giggled on the side.

She knew the appetite Lu Sheng had, and that he could eat ten times faster than a normal person. This was not something that an ordinary person could imagine.

“He said he still wanted another bowl,” He Xiangzi whispered to Lu Sheng.

“Oh, old man, you are too slow. How about next time? I’ll leave you something next time.” Lu Sheng put the half-man-tall cauldron aside and rubbed his stomach.

The old Taoist looked at his unsatisfied belly and gave a long sigh.

“I thought I was experienced, but today, after meeting this young lad, I found that there are still many people more remarkable than me in the universe.”

“Nah, you’re exaggerating, old man. This is no skill, my appetite is just a bit bigger than that of others.” Lu Sheng laughed.

“Having great appetite is still a skill,” the old Taoist said seriously. “Never mind. Thank you for the goose soup, little friend. I will see you again.” He sat up and sighed.

“Oh, then take care, old man.” Lu Sheng waved casually.

The old Taoist nodded, turned, took two steps, leapt into the air, and flew out of the Grace Garden, quickly disappearing.

“This old Taoist should belong to the Heaven Lotus Sect. I mean, this is the Jasper Palace,” He Xiangzi guessed. “Maybe he’s a senior of the Heaven Lotus Sect.”

“Maybe so.” Lu Sheng looked at the pot in front of his eyes. “Prepare yourself, someone is coming. If it goes well, we should be able to end the first stage of the internal conflict today and walk out of the district.”

“Huh?” He Xiangzi didn’t understand, but immediately, a heavy but not harsh knock came from the courtyard.

Lu Sheng got up, ready to open the door, but He Xiangzi rushed over and opened the door first. “You are the first seat, Junior Apprentice Brother, you should have the dignity that a first seat has.”

“Err… this doesn’t really matter,” Lu Sheng said without a care.

“This is about the impression of the sect. You can’t just not care about this,” He Xiangzi insisted. As she said that, she slowly opened the door.

Outside of the door stood a sturdy, tall man with a spiked hammer in his hand.

“I am Huang Sicheng from the Sun Genesis Sect, here to learn about the Prime Devil Sect’s secret techniques.”

Behind Huang Sicheng, there were lots of students from the Ice Valley and the Alternate Cave Sect. Following them were their first seats, who were Li Xiuying and another cold woman, both of which looked towards him expectantly.

Maybe they wanted to get a chance after Lu Sheng and Huang Sicheng were both damaged by a fight.

Huang Sicheng was better than Li Xiuying, and also managed to beat the first seat of the Alternate Cave Sect. After all, he was reluctant to give up the position of the top fighter without trying, so he came to challenge the Prime Devil Sect.

Between Lu Sheng’s victory and lunch time, rumors of the emergence of an expert in the Prime Devil Sect have spread.

Many lower three grades sects have already begun to collect information on Lu Sheng. There were also some sects that didn’t care too much about it. There were only two people in the Prime Devil Sect, and the two of them could just be repeatedly forced to fight to tire them out.

But no matter what other sects thought, Huang Sicheng still wanted to win this game. Otherwise, the first rank of this region was most likely to be the opponent’s.

After all, including him, all other sects lost matches. His Sun Genesis Sect lost two but won nine, which was the best result.

The Ice Valley won seven matches.

The Yellow Sand Sword School won five matches.

The Alternate Cave Sect won three matches.

Theoretically, the disciples of each sect could qualify for five matches, and because of the limited number of people, almost all of the sects took advantage of this rule and carried out siege strategies.

Making a large number of disciples challenge one person at the same time, they thus formed a siege pattern.

In turn, the challenged side would also send a corresponding number of people to cope with this situation. As such, the situation would become a big mess.

The party with fewer people would suffer a big loss. Therefore, there was a limit on the number of participants in the league, which was a maximum of 20 participants for each sect.

In other words, although some sects seemed to have a large amount of people, in reality, a lot of them were there to “cover”, or for backup. This would make who would be participating in the matches unclear, and would also function as a way to conceal information in case there was a spy.

However, the existence of the Prime Devil Sect made Huang Sicheng helpless.

He also thought about using a lot of people. But when he thought about the speed and the strength Lu Sheng had, he didn’t think it was a good idea.

Bringing so many people could just result in most of them getting in the way, so he chose three people, all of which countered the type that Lu Sheng was, and had them to cooperate with him.

“Brother Lu, is it only you who’s representing the Prime Devil Sect, or is He Xiangzi in too?” Huang Sicheng asked after he coughed a few times although he already knew the answer.

He Xiangzi was seriously injured. It was obvious that she wouldn’t be able to fight, and he did this on purpose to let him feel better.

After all, a 4 v 1 against Lu Sheng would look bad for the Sun Genesis Sect.

“I’m fighting alone.” Lu Sheng stood up. “You guys determined who won already?”

“Yes, only the Prime Devil Sect is left now.” Huang Sicheng was a little embarrassed. “Brother Lu, please show mercy and gives me some advice.”

“All good, all good.” Lusheng smiled. “So you are challenging me, right?”

Huang Sicheng nodded, the three behind him were the strongest of the remaining brothers who had the strength to fight. If they couldn’t beat Lu Sheng this time, although it wouldn’t affect the end result much, their reputation would suffer quite a bit.

The Prime Devil Sect was strong, but he could only issue five challenges. If everyone purposefully did not challenge them, at most, they would win 10 games. Compared to the rest of the sects, 10 matches was not a lot.

However, Huang Sicheng didn’t want this; rather, he wanted a fair victory, and to be known as the best out of all the first seats.

He looked up at Lu Sheng and took a deep breath.

“Our Sun Genesis Sect has a secret art that can consume marrow and drink blood. This can kill a man without a trace. If you can survive this art, we will give up.”

“Oh, ok.” Lu Sheng stood at a distance about 10 steps away from Huang Sicheng and held still.

“In this case, we shall be impolite.” Huang Sicheng waved his hand, and suddenly, the three behind him sprinted out and started walking swiftly around Lu Sheng.

He followed them immediately. Although his footwork was not fast, its frequency was extremely high. He started murmuring words, and faint golden light dots started coming out of his body, some of them dissipating.

The light spots on the four people’s bodies quickly became denser and denser, and started to fly towards Lu Sheng.

This secret technique, called Feiming, was the strongest move in the Sun Genesis Sect’s small-scale formation techniques. The same secret art could be used by several disciples at the same time, making the damage stack together; it was quite terrifying.