Way of the Devil

“You’ve gotten used to your role pretty quickly,” Lu Sheng praised.

“Thank you for your compliment.” Duanmu Wan slightly curtsied.

“If, I’m saying if, I suddenly leave or have some emergency, what would you do?” Lu Sheng asked casually.

Duanmu Wan smiled sweetly. “Is this a test?”

“Maybe.” Lu Sheng also smiled.

“I… will bring all the valuables and go look for help. If I can’t find any assistance, I will go into hiding and observe how things go,” Duanmu Wan answered after a little thought.

“Good. that’s what I want.” Lu Sheng crossed the yard and walked out the gate, running right into Elder Zhang Shilong.

“The transfer notice is here, Lu Sheng.” Zhang Shilong waved a piece of white silk in his hand. “We leave in seven days.”

“Perfect…” Lu Sheng took the silk and unfolded it

The words inside surprised him.

“Leave within seven days. Task: using this silk as a marker, enter the Other World and find the Violet Snow Garden and collect the required items. Finish building the Transfer Matrix and a working frontier. Time limit: one month.”

“This is?” He didn’t expect for there to be a test before entering the main sect.

“You can choose not to finish it, but if you choose so, when you get to the Moling Mansion, you would just be the most ordinary disciple. This task is to separate people into levels,” Zhang Shilong explained.

“Is everyone’s task the same?”

“No. There are multiple Other Worlds, and most of these tasks are set in a random low-level Other World. There will be a little danger, but not enough to threaten someone’s life,” Zhang Shilong explained.

“Okay, I understand. So in other words, this is my first time completing a task in an Other World.” Lu Sheng smiled in interest.

“That’s true. Last time, it was only your shadow. This time, you’ll have to make much more thorough preparations. Artifacts to summon slaves, wards to search for auras, etc. You’ll need a bit of everything.” Zhang Shilong frowned.

“I can prepare all that. If Elder Zhang doesn’t mind, can I borrow some Devil Gold?” Lu Sheng smiled.

“How much?”

“A thousand.”

“No problem.”

After getting a thousand pieces of Devil Gold from Elder Zhang, Lu Sheng hurried back to the Buddhist Temple of the branch sect, choosing his path from memory.

He soon found the talisman shop within the sect. Most of the items here were talismans that elders made and discarded.

After carefully buying everything he needed, he bought a backpack to carry all his stuff. The backpack was specially made for carrying on person and wasn’t eye-catching, but it could hold a surprising amount of luggage.

He used up all of the coins, mostly on one simple artifact.

Although it was the simplest slave-summoning artifact, it cost a whole freaking eight hundred pieces of Devil Gold. And he was only able to get that price because the store owner saw his direct disciple identification and gave him a discount. It was also one of the lowest level ones.

After preparing everything, Lu Sheng returned to Autumn Moon City and visited Sect Master Cheng Jingzhi. Then he packed his belongings, notified Duanmu Wan, drew out his travel route on the map, and started his trip.

To get to Moling City as fast as possible, he didn’t hire any carriage, and decided to go on his own.

Autumn Moon City was over three thousand li from where he was, so even if he ran at full speed, it would take him at least four hours. And that was if he went in a straight line. If he took his time, it could even take a month or two.

That didn’t account for the dangers he might possibly face, either. Although the Great Yin was safer than the Great Song, there was no way for it to be completely safe. It was a long trip, and the route passed through mountains and rural areas. It would be normal if something did happen.

What surprised Lu Sheng was that Wang Yunlong came to look for him. He also got recommended by the sect branch and was heading to the capital. Wang Yunlong joined a large combined group of the three sects—all the talented disciples were heading to the city in a group for safety. Each sect also sent out a elder to protect them.

Only Lu Sheng rejected the offer to travel together—he wanted to get there faster. Because he was That Person’s disciple, no one dared to say anything. They probably assumed his master was taking him or he had other plans.

Lu Sheng always felt that Wang Yunlong, the other prodigy from his branch of the Sprint Sun Sect, was a little strange. He actually got recommended by the sect in such a short amount of time, just like him. That showed his talent.

But at the same time, all that he displayed was ordinary, normal, and in no way flashy.

That made him think.

Three days later, because he couldn’t think of any excuses to decline, Lu Sheng finally started off towards the capital, Moling City, accompanied by Zhang Shilong, carrying enough food and water for the trip.

The reason he didn’t completely reject Zhang Shilong was because the strength he currently displayed would not be enough to keep him safe on this long trip if there wasn’t an elder with him. Although he could reach Moling City really fast if he traveled alone, he didn’t want to expose himself this early. So, he decided to hide longer and wait.

Thus, rather than exposing himself, traveling with an elder would be much faster than following the big group, giving him the advantage of speed in a normal range that wouldn’t raise suspicions.

It also took care of preventing accidentally getting lost and wasting time.

After leaving Autumn Moon City, Lu Sheng followed Zhang Shilong. They each rented a horse and raced into the grassy plains in the early morning, heading towards the closest Black Bell Valley. The Black Bell Valley was the first large area they had to pass through to get to the capital. The Thousand Sun Sect had a branch there, specially created for disciples passing through to have a spot to rest.

***

“Clop, clop, clop…”

The crisp sounds of hooves sounded on the road.

Wearing gray-green capes, Lu Sheng and Zhang Shilong rode low on their horses as they sped forward. A tiny flash of gold light occasionally gleamed on the horses’ hooves.

Those were horseshoes that were specially altered to decrease the horse’s weight and strengthen their hooves, lengthening the time they could run.

The white and green road wound across twisting hills and valleys, disappearing in the depths of various forests.

After hurrying for a long time, Lu Sheng and Zhang Shilong slowed their horses when they saw that it was getting dark. They looked for a spot in the woods to make camp.

“It should be right about here. Before, when I was traveling along, I built a little cabin here.” Zhang Shilong looked around. As an elder, he had occasionally traveled to the capital before. Elders traveled way more frequently than disciples, and had higher strength and defense, so of course they had different resting spots.

“Is that it?” Lu Sheng pointed in front of them.

In front of the two, to their right, a few gray stone house covered by roots and vines could be seen in the forest.

“That’s it!” Zhang Shilong raised his voice. “Come on, let’s go and rest. I left a few commonplace things in there.” After traveling for a whole day, he was a little tired as well. Not physically, but mentally. After seeing hills and grass for an entire day, he needed a change of pace.

“Okay.” Lu Sheng nodded.

The two rode closer.

The roof of the little house was a deep shade of yellow. It was covered in moss, just as if it had been here for a long time.

There were a few ancient trees surrounding the house, each wider than what a man could embrace with his arms. The roots twisted the crawled everywhere as if they were serpents.

Zhang Shilong jumped off his horse and tied it to a tree. He strode toward the stone house.

Lu Sheng followed suit.

With a creak, Zhang Shilong pushed open the wooden door and glanced inside. “Good, no snakes or poisonous bugs. Is it okay if we make do here for a night?” He looked towards Lu Sheng.

“No problem.” Lu Sheng nodded.

“The time limit the main sect gave was a month. When do you want to finish it?” Zhang Shilong pulled out a stone stool and sat down. After getting to know him, this old man was pretty outgoing. Although his beard was white and he had started balding, his personality was that of a young man.

“I’ll do it whenever I have time. How long does it usually take?” Lu Sheng responded with a question. He glanced around, then sat down on the stone bed.

“Technically, the sooner you enter and build your base, the better. But since it’s you, it’s whatever. You can definitely complete it. It’ll just depend on how well you complete it.” Zhang Shilong was very confident in Lu Sheng.

“Okay, I’ll go in tonight and check. If I haven’t woken up by tomorrow morning, don’t care about me. Just protect me.” After thinking, Lu Sheng decided.

“No problem. I’ll go look around and see if I can find a few specters[1. ED/N: Now this is a tricky one. After some research on Chinese wiki, the creature here turns out to be something similar to Japanese youkai, but in Chinese (which is likely the original) version. Basically, if animals or inanimate objects exist long enough, they gain spirituality (as well as longevity, sometimes immortality, or can train to be immortal) and can turn into (adult) human form, which can only be seen through using a magic mirror. A famous example is Daji, a fox spirit known in both China and Japan. Only, our author is somewhat vague here, so it’s hard to tell if he means those creatures at large or only their particular kind made up of (most likely) energy.] to make soup. By now, all the mature specters have basically gone extinct. All the ones that are left are only a few hundred years old. I haven’t been here in a long time, though, so I might be able to find something.” Zhang Shilong smiled.

He was a man of his word. After eating dinner, Zhang Shilong ran out and disappeared into the forest. Lu Sheng closed the door and stuck a watchman talisman on the door, then sat down cross-legged on the bed and took out the silk.

The words on it changed. New information appeared.

“Find the Violent Snow Garden and retrieve the Maroon Dragon Spear.”

“Maroon Dragon Spear?” Lu Sheng frowned slightly. He spread out the silk in front of him, placed his right palm on it, then slowly infused True Qi into it.

Right now, his True Qi had hit level seven in the Realm of Snake. Once he broke through to Earth level, he would be awarded an elder position. Most of the other disciples in Autumn Moon City were around the third or fourth level, and would need a huge jump before they could reach level seven. It would take them a lot of years—if they could even reach level seven. Some didn’t have sufficiently pure bloodlines, and would stop improving a long way before that.

The Scarlet Jade rating Lu Sheng got meant that he could at least reach Earth level. This was also the reason he was treated specially. But no one thought that he could reach level seven this fast.

True Qi flowed slowly into the white silk. Soon, when he infused about thirty percent of True Qi into the silk, a white glow suddenly surrounded the silk.

Instantly, the white light surrounded Lu Sheng and tightened into a ball of light about the size of a fist.

“Poof.”

The ball of light exploded, turning into innumerous light dots that slowly faded and vanished.