Way of the Devil

The several people advanced with daggers. As they got closer, Lu Sheng could feel a similar effect on his body as what had happened to his palm. His skin started turning transparent.

‘Did I also get contaminated?’ He couldn’t be sure. He still hadn’t understood what sort of place the World of Pain was, but he was sure of one thing.

And that was that that place had to be extremely dangerous.

“Aah!!” Suddenly, Sima Xiu jumped at him.

Lu Sheng lifted his foot and kicked him to the ground. Then he flicked two accurate beams of True Qi and shot through his Black Membrane, shattering both his kneecaps and elbows.

Sima Xiu wriggled on the ground, unable to get up. Lu Sheng’s True Qi had locked his joints, preventing him from regrowing the flesh there and healing.

Lu Sheng did the exact same thing with the other two. But, he noticed that the True Qi he kept in their bodies was depleting faster and faster.

‘I need to destroy this door first.’ Calming his nerves, Lu sheng walked slowly toward the mirror that was sprouting gray smoke.

“Bang.”

Suddenly, his nose ran into an invisible barrier.

Lu Sheng’s nose had caused the barrier to cave in a little, but it still blocked his path forward.

“This is…?” Lu Sheng raised his finger. His Black Membrane made from True Qi appeared, then changed form into a spike and shot forward.

“Squelch.”

The invisible barrier broke, falling apart and disappearing. Mental Energy flowed into his body.

‘This should be enough?’ Lu Sheng looked around, and then walked forward again. He came to mirror and reached out to grab it.

“Bang!”

Suddenly, an arm shot through the mirror and grabbed Lu Sheng’s wrist.

It was a rotten, black-gray arm. It had sharp nails and white fur that covered its palm. The traditional [ED/N: Chinese characters basically come in two versions (with exceptions). One is traditional, old version, used in Taiwan, and another is a new, simplified version, introduced by PRC in the 2nd half of the 20th century. As the name suggests, simplified characters are much simpler and easier to learn, and that’s why they were introduced] character of “evil” was imprinted on the back of its hand.

When the hand grabbed Lu Sheng, a huge force flooded through, trying to pull him into the mirror.

“Stupid!” Lu Sheng chuckled. He couldn’t believe there were still people stupid enough to try to overpower him with strength.

“Slap.”

He grabbed onto that arm and pulled hard.

This time, he didn’t just use the strength of the Realm of Snake. He used the full strength of the Eight-Headed Devil Art.

With a squelch, the arm was pulled off like a strand of hay. The gray fog in the mirror started stirring fiercely, and he could hear faint screams of pain.

Lu Sheng swung his sword at the mirror.

“Bang!”

The mirror shattered. A huge gale started blowing, and a huge amount of Mental Energy flooded into his body. Even without counting, Lu Sheng could sense that he’d gained at least two hundred more units!

The fierce wind spread, ignoring all walls and barriers. The entire Fei Mansion was subject to the wind.

The fog above the Fei mansion slowly cleared, and the once dark sky also started turning bright.

The room shook for a second, and then all the fog disappeared. The glazed glass mirror was broken into pieces on the floor.

Large amounts of white powder blew up from the floor, turning faint and vanishing.

Only after a good ten minutes did all the strange things disappear. Lu Sheng bent down and picked up a piece of the mirror. It was the most common glazed glass with no weird things on it whatsoever.

The people in the collection room all collapsed onto the floor, losing consciousness.

Lu Sheng turned around and watched the daggers in their hands slowly disappear.

‘As I expected… even though I didn’t face an extremely strong enemy, these daggers were very powerful. They can deal huge damage. When ambushed, they can even injure me. I need to be more careful next time.’

He didn’t look at the people on the floor again. The Gate of Pain was closed now, but what really happened at the Fei Mansion needed further investigation.

But that wasn’t his business anymore.

Lu Sheng pulled out a firework signal from the Thousand Sun Sect, pulling the fuse and throwing it out the door. Immediately, a firework shot up into sky, forming a faint golden “sun” character.

Before long, Lu Sheng heard people arriving, so he pushed open the door for them.

Two people dressed in purple with their faces covered slowly landed. The words “Thousand Sun” were emblazoned on the left of their chests.

“Direct Disciple Lu.” One of them acknowledged Lu Sheng. “What is so important that you used an emergency flare?”

“I found a new Gate of Pain here. We need to immediately isolate the area and report it,” Lu Sheng said calmly.

“Gate of Pain?!” the two exclaimed quietly. Only their eyes were showing, but their expressions changed greatly.

“Please wait for a second,” one of them said respectfully. He pulled out a delicate round plate and started tinkering with it.

Lu Sheng nodded, and started inspecting the injuries of the few people in the room.

Fei Bailing actually wasn’t dead. In fact, most of her injuries had healed. But Lu Sheng hadn’t restrained himself when he kicked her. Most people would have broken into two, but all Fei Bailing had were broken bones. Everything else was fine. In fact, considering how she was almost perfectly fine, she definitely had some secret to her.

After some thought, Lu Sheng finally contained his desire to poke her all around. This woman was connected to the Gate of Pain. Meddling with her was probably too much, and might even bring out the upper sects.

This wasn’t the Great Song. Traces that he’d left might be discovered, and the trouble it brought would not be worth it.

He already got a lot out of this trip. Not only did he accomplish something big, he’d also received a good amount of Mental Energy. He’d also got to see what the legendary World of Pain looked like.

The three waited for a little longer. Soon, multiple figures descended from the sky and landed around the pond in the garden.

The sect master of the Thousand Sun Sect, Chen Jing, was also here. He had just settled the matter of Lu Sheng’s identity and was resting, but then received news of a Gate of Pain appearing. Greatly shocked, he hurried over to the site himself. He had to secure the perimeter and get all necessary information before the Yin Yang or Turquoise Conch Agencies arrived.

Besides him were the emergency troops of the Thousand Sun Sect, the Blood Suns.

Three people arrived from the Blood Suns. None of them had any expressions on their faces. They were all dressed in white robes with red edges, giving off a strong aura of the Realm of Snake or higher.

“Is this the place? Sect Master Chen?” one of the Blood Suns men asked.

“Yes. The person who’s discovered this is the second direct disciple of my branch of the sect, Lu Sheng. He happened to be cultivating near this mansion.” Chen Jing saw Lu Sheng walk out and nodded to him.

“We need to investigate this more. Direct Disciple Lu’s identity is different from others, so we have to treat it carefully. I hope Sect Master Chen understands,” the man from Blood Suns responded calmly.

“There shouldn’t be any trouble, right?” Chen Jing frowned. If it weren’t because this involved the Gate of Pain, he didn’t want any contact with the Blood Suns. These men killed without batting an eye. Most of them retired from the battlefield in war against the devils, and were extremely ruthless and cunning. Killing a person was nothing for them. Some of them enjoyed killing so much they murdered entire families at once. He didn’t like that.

“Don’t worry, Sect Master. If we confirm that it was indeed the Gate of Pain, it’ll mean that Direct Disciple Lu made a big achievement.” The Blood Suns man tried to smile to comfort Chen Jing.

“Then I’m assured.” Chen Jing beckoned toward Lu Sheng.

Lu Sheng had heard the conversation over where he was, and kind of understood the identity of the Blood Suns. He walked over.

“Greetings.” He pretended to be a young disciple, and smiled and bowed.

“No need for pleasantries, Direct Disciple Lu.” The leader of the Blood Suns gave a stiff smile. “Please tell us how you found the Gate of Pain. Don’t leave out anything.”

“No problem.” Lu Sheng nodded, and started explaining his entire discovery of the irregularity at the Fei Mansion.

He talked for more than ten minutes.

“So it is the Forgetting Technique.” The expression of the leader became serious. “No wonder even the Turquoise Conch Agency didn’t notice it. If we secure all evidence and bring it to the main sect, maybe we can close an opening to the Gate of Pain early. Direct Disciple Lu really accomplished something.”

“You’re flattering me. I was just lucky,” Lu Sheng said humbly.

“Luck will not prevent you from getting the Contamination of Pain…” The leader of the Blood Suns smiled and looked at Lu Sheng deeply.

Lu Sheng smiled, but didn’t respond.

“Right, Lu Sheng, you haven’t chosen a supplementary art from your branch yet?” Chen Jing suddenly asked. “I happen to be going back after settling matters here. Do you want to come along?”

Lu Sheng could tell that Chen Jing was trying to cover for him, so he immediately answered, “Thank you, Sect Master. I’ll be honored.”

“Then we won’t bother you two anymore.” The Blood Suns person nodded. “Please take your leave.”

Chen Jing nodded, and waved his hand. A manuscript shot out from his sleeve.

The white paper unrolled itself into a rectangle wider than five meters and longer than six meters. It floated in the air.

Chen Jing jumped lightly and landed on the paper cross-legged.

Lu Sheng copied him and also landed on the paper.

“Rise.”

Chen Jing raised his hand, and the paper flew toward the sky.

In just a few breaths, the two of them left the Fei Mansion. They were now at least fifty meters above Autumn Moon City.

All the air naturally split around the manuscript, so the two didn’t even feel a breeze.

White clouds passed below them at a great speed, and masses of gray buildings also shot backwards.

But Chen Jing didn’t look at the direction the manuscript was flying towards. Instead, he looked at Lu Sheng.

“Lu Sheng. Are you alright?”

Lu Sheng was first surprised, but then realized that the sect master was asking if he was wounded or had something that he wasn’t able to mention earlier.

He shook his head. “Everything’s fine.”

“That’s good. People from the Blood Suns are very persistent. They won’t let anything related to the World of Pain or the Devil Word go. You must be careful,” Chen Jing warned. “One of their three elders had completely wiped out two large forces in the Other Worlds just because of a small suspicion. Multiple Divine Weapons and Demon Blades were also destroyed. Although your master is That Person, those three elders are Crazy Divine Weapons. No one can tell what they are thinking. The reason the word “crazy” is in their name is because they don’t care about law at all.”

Lu Sheng was shocked.

“I understand. I promise there’s nothing wrong.”

“That’s good.” Chen Jing nodded. He didn’t ask how Lu Sheng avoided the Forgetting Technique and Contamination of Pain from the World of Pain. Every person had different skills and special opportunities. As long as he didn’t involve himself with the Devils or the World of Pain, the Blood Suns wouldn’t go after him.

“This branch sect is too small for you. It shouldn’t be long before you can transfer into the main sect. That’s where the real world is. All the elders, Divine Weapon Masters, Crazy Divine Weapons, Divine Lords, and their disciples can be seen there. You are very talented here, but you’ll just be normal over there.

“Master Qian Du is very powerful, but while you’re her disciple, you’re not her descendant. She has also never taken in a direct disciple before. So, you must be careful.” Chen Jing had to have had some background to know all this. He explained everything to Lu Sheng in detail.

“I understand.” Lu Sheng nodded.

“I’m telling you all this because the information about you has already attracted interest from the main sect. Autumn Moon City’s branch is under the Thousand Suns Sect in Moling Mansion, and they have already asked for a formal transfer for you. After you pick your supplementary art and we receive the transfer notice, you can start heading there,” Chen Jing explained. “Of course, you can also choose to stay here at Autumn Moon City. But this wouldn’t be a good choice. This place is too small and weak, and without a True Essence Tower, you won’t be able to grow as fast.”