Way of the Devil

The atmosphere inside the Purple Snow Garden stagnated.

Teams of powerful cultivators that came from afar all stared at the young man next to the stone monument. Broken limbs littered the ground and pavilion, while many men howled in pain as they struggled on the ground. Dents in the ground were filled with blood, and it looked like a sea of red from afar. It was quite a sight to behold.

Bai Jiuying felt like she’d miscalculated. She’d agreed to cooperate with these people to attack Lu Sheng as a way to test him and make up for her previous defeat, but now only regret filled her heart.

She felt like her skin was cut by sharp knives and stabbed by needles by merely being under Lu Sheng’s gaze. She could immediately tell his power far surpassed the limits of her imagination.

Bai Jiuying glanced at the crowd to the side. The few people working with her had now completed blended into the crowd. She couldn’t even tell if they were still there.

“You win, Young Master Lu.” She sighed wearily. Staring at Lu Sheng’s half-raised sword, ready to strike at any moment, she ultimately decided to admit defeat.

Lu Sheng was a moment away from activating his sword, and was mildly surprised by Bai Jiuying’s surrender. This encounter didn’t seem like an accident, but she still voluntarily retreated. In reality, Lu Sheng didn’t want to kill her, either. With who knew how many powerful people hidden among the crowd, the major sects were eventually going to find out if he killed one of their disciples.

Lu Sheng swept his gaze across everyone present, moving past a few so-called local masters.

“Since there doesn’t seem to be any objections, why are you people still here?” He started to sternly drive people away.

The surrounding crowd fell silent, then an unfriendly voice shouted, “With this many people and masters among us, including Senior Shen and Sect Master Zhu, there’s no way we can’t handle just a single person!”

“He’s right! We have many powerful men on our side too! Although this man may be strong, he must be tired after wounding and killing so many of our friends! This is our chance! Sky Blue Spear of the Huang Family Manor is the perfect candidate to face him directly. Why don’t we invite Manor Lord Huang to test his ability first?”

“Old Wu the Third, if you are so smart, why don’t you go up yourself?” Manor Lord Huang obviously didn’t agree.

The twenty-plus pairs of bloody hands and feet scattered on the ground were enough to show how ruthless and powerful this young man was.

Even Senior Shen didn’t speak, while the Sect Leader of the Divine Dragon Sect also quietly observed the situation unfold. Of course, no one else wanted to be the first to test the waters.

With the many true masters silent, the only ones left shouting were the weakest of small groups and sects among the underworld.

As the wind blew harder, more and more people gathered. The crowd, which was originally in the hundreds, got thicker.

All Lu Sheng could see from where he stood were heads, and everyone he saw appeared either ferocious or shrewd.

Lu Sheng looked in the direction of Shen Jianwang. The old man’s face was solemn, and he quietly stood there like he had entered a trance. Judging by the slight movement in his nose and his twitching eyelid, he did notice someone powerful observing him. Yet, he still stayed quiet.

Lu Sheng wanted to laugh. This little world’s overall power was very weak—even this old man who stood at the top couldn’t compete with Bai Jiuyin and her people, let alone him.

The crowd tightly surrounded him like a swarm of chickens surrounding an adult, completely unaware of the fact he could kill 90 percent of the people here with one swing of his sword.

“Zhao Chengxuan?!” a shocked voice suddenly shouted among the crowd.

Lu Sheng blanked out for a moment, then promptly remembered that this body belonged to that Zhao Chengxuan, and finally looked toward the voice.

Behind the crowd, three people surrounded by a squad of armored soldiers gazed at him from afar.

The three people were Zhao Chengye, Zhao Chengfeng, and the second uncle, Zhong Yuangui.

This Zhong Yuangui was the sworn brother of the three Zhao Siblings’ father. He was a master with the heavy cavalry spear, clumsy on the outside, but with a cunning mind. His name was known everywhere, from the army to the underworld.

Zhong Yuangui’s face changed, and he shouted sternly, “Chengxuan, why are you there? Come back now!”

He didn’t know how he was going to explaining to his eldest brother if he let his son be harmed.

Lu Sheng smiled, and didn’t answer. He held his sword and leaned on the stone monument, quietly waiting for an opportunity.

Zhong Yuangui and his companions were confused when they saw that he didn’t respond, and thought they got the wrong person. They said nothing else for a while.

The situation was a stalemate.

Shen Jianwang and the sect master of the Divine Dragon Sect started to gather the wounded, and soon began to clean up the wounded and scattered limbs around the stone monument. The only thing left were puddles of blood and a dark red floor.

The sky turned lighter. It was almost morning.

There was no way the Divine Weapon would emerge during daylight, which meant it was about to appear. As the time approached, Lu Sheng heightened his alertness. Not to protect himself from an ambush, but to prevent the Divine Weapon from escaping.

“Clang!”

A crisp sound abruptly came from inside the stone monument.

Lu Sheng immediately opened his eyes and grabbed at the stone monument.

“Boom!”

Before he could grab it, the stone monument exploded into pieces, and a bright red light shot out into the sky, trying to fly out to the west.

“It’s getting away!” Lu Sheng jumped up and flew out like an arrow.

Bai Jiuying and a couple other people all shot out as well, following tightly behind him.

They moved too fast, and even Shen Jianwang and Zhu Side only had the time to draw their weapons and run a few steps before the people and Divine Weapon they were chasing disappeared in the distance.

“This…. Wha… what!?”

Zhu Side looked at the stone monument and felt as if he’d lived all these years for nothing. These people that were quietly drawn out by the monument were somehow all stronger than him.

“What an unfathomable world…” Shen Jianwang walked to his side and sheathed the long sword on his back, shook his head wearily, and walked away.

The gathered masters were still recovering from what they’d just seen. How could humans fly out like birds just like that?

Zhao Chengye swallowed, then looked at her eldest brother and second uncle, who were both wearing the same stunned expression.

“There is no way that’s our third brother. It’s probably someone else that looked like him.”

“I’ve never thought someone could look so similar to him,” Zhao Chengfeng said with a shocked voice.

“Let’s go back. The Divine Weapon got out and there was no fight. There shouldn’t be any way the city falls into chaos now. We have accomplished our goal,” Zhong Yuangui said in a low voice.

“Of course.”

***

The red light shot through half of the sky and flew into the distance after breaking through countless clouds.

Lu Sheng followed tightly behind with formless True Qi gathering into stairs under his feet as support. Every time he jumped, he would shoot forward a huge distance.

He finally saw that a sharp red dart, about as big as a palm, was wrapped inside the red light as he got closer. A jade green orb was set in the dart, and grand and twisted symbols surrounded it.

“Senior Apprentice Brother Lu, why don’t we work together? We will try to cut it off in the front while you chase it from behind.” Bai Jiuling still wanted to try. “Don’t worry about us at all. The Divine Weapon is yours, we just want a good rating for the test.”

“Get away, damn it!” Lu Sheng was too lazy to respond. He knew full well what these people wanted. This kind of “cooperation” would only serve to give them an opportunity to steal his loot.

“Aren’t you being too unreasonable, Senior Apprentice Brother Lu?” Bai Jiuying frowned.

“Hiss!”

Lu Sheng suddenly turned around and swung his sword at the people behind him.

“Hiss, hiss, hiss, hiss!!!”

White air currents rippled in the air and formed sword shapes, then promptly slammed into their bodies.

His pursuers were surprised, and had black membrane quickly appear to block the currents. But they were in turn blocked by the immense force, and could no longer catch up after slowing down as much as they did.

Bai Jiuying even received “special” attention.

She’d barely dodged the sword strike and was still frightened. After finally steadying her body, still dizzy from the attack, she stared at Lu Sheng, who was quickly disappearing into the distance.

“Damn it!!”

“If it weren’t for the rule that forbade fighting among the teams, I would have ripped him apart today!!” a Spirit Bind Sect disciple with a fiery temper shouted impatiently.

“Rip him apart? You!?” Bai Jiuying angrily glanced at the person.

“What? You have a problem?” The person raised the knife in his hand.

“Dumbass.” Bai Jiuying didn’t even look at him, and instead flew toward the ground. Using True Qi as foothold consumed a lot of energy, and she couldn’t keep up for much longer.

“You!?” The person was about to chase after in rage.

“Puff!”

Instantly, a bloody wound opened on his chest and blood sprayed everywhere. His face visibly turned pale in an instant.

The rest of the people were startled by the attack. They hadn’t even seen Lu Sheng strike.

***

In a dark-green canyon far away.

“Clang.”

Lu Sheng grabbed the Maroon Dragon Spear with one hand and hurled it at the ground with raw strength, completely ignoring the red light on its surface.

“Mission accomplished.” He took out the handkerchief with his other hand and shook it slightly.

The handkerchief exploded outward with a snap and turned into a burst of white light, surrounding Lu Sheng.

His surroundings changed, and Lu Sheng was back in the stone house in the blink of an eye. A small red dart was in his hand.

“That’s it?” Zhang Shilong sensed the commotion and quickly darted into the room, and immediately saw the red dart Lu Sheng held.

“I was lucky enough to accomplish the task.” Lu Sheng slowly loosened his grip. He surrounded the dart with True Qi so that it couldn’t escape, then let it float in mid air like that.

Zhang Shilong marveled at the sight.

“This is the first time I have seen someone retrieving the mission target the second time they went into an Other World. There’s no need to check. You definitely have the highest rating this time. Very few people could compete with you even in the upper sect.”

“All we need to do now is finish this trip.” Lu Sheng smiled.

“Of course. If everything else goes well, we will reach the prefecture’s capital Moling.” Zhang Shilong was obviously in a good mood as well and laughed.

The two quickly packed their belongings. Zhang Shilong had caught two rabbit demons as tall as half a grown man. After skinning, roasting, and salting them, they became the most convenient rations for their journey.

Zhang Shilong thought Lu Sheng had completed the mission so quickly because of luck. Only Lu Sheng knew that the Maroon Dragon Spear’s speed had reached a sixth vein level. Even an ordinary sixth vein Bind level practitioner wouldn’t have caught it if they only relied on their Black Membrane and no other speed training.

Only him, with speed and strength equal to the upper limit of seventh vein level, could have retrieved it so fast.

This “Divine Weapon” was only an ordinary dart embedded with a piece of Divine Weapon or Devil Blade shard, but in a world like that, it was viewed as an absolutely godly and powerful weapon.