Way of the Devil

 Both were cousins from the same generation, and both were from a minor branch of the family. Fortunately, due to their immense potential, they cultivated the Hundred-Spirit Qi at an astounding speed. By this point, Zhang Mu, at the age of 84, and Zhang Chenshan, at the age of 90, had both achieved the highest level for Spiritual cultivators called “Supreme”. Naturally, they held great power within the Zhang Family.

The two of them were so tired of their mundane mortal lives they volunteered to guard the family’s most important place—Zhao Ling Mystical Land.

Though the name “Zhao Ling Mystical Land” was quite fancy, in truth, it was only a mid-sized basin. Within it there were rivers, mountains, trees and flowers, as well as the specially trained Scorching Sun Eagles that acted as scouts.

Aside from that, the Zhang Family permanently deployed 15 to 20 family members to guard the place, and rotated them on a four-month-cycle basis. Aside from the two powerful guardians, the rest would be switched out every once in a while.

“You are right, I can’t break this… Can’t break this…” The black-browed elder Zhang Chenshan wearily shook his head, and gave up trying to solve the problem.

“But even if I can’t solve this, my grandson might. Zhang Zhao, get over here now!” he abruptly shouted at the end.

On a grassy river bank not far away from the two, a handsome youth who was leisurely sleeping under the sun was so startled by the sudden shout his whole body trembled before nearly jumping off of the ground.

“Not again…” As the leader of the Zhang Family’s younger generation, his talent and savviness were both top-notch. This was even more so when it came to his affinity for Spiritual Formations, which was unmatched even in the entire family.

“Say, aren’t you two old men just bored? Am I your grandson or your slave… I want to play outside too…” Zhang Zhao said wearily. He stood up from the grass, slowly walked across the wooden bridge, and arrived in front of the two elderly men. With only a few glances at the Spirit Formation schematic on the stone table, he grabbed a pencil, and casually drew a few strokes on it.

“Alright, that’s solved.”

“You can solve it like this?!”

“Such an innovative solution?? Impressive! Impressive! As to be expected from the grandson of I, Zhang Chenshan! Ahahahahaha!!”

The two old men instantly started to fuss over the solution.

Zhang Zhao, who had a weary expression on his face, was about to go back to his nap.

Suddenly, he was startled by something.

“Someone’s here? Not one of our family members.”

“Oh? Could it be some other men of the Jianghu trying to find treasure here?” Zhang Mu’s attention quickly shifted.

“Didn’t we spread the rumor already? How come there are still people that dare come here? Is it because we didn’t set an example good enough?” Zhang Chenshan said slowly while stroking his chin.

“Don’t worry. Grandpa, Elder Mu, I’ll teach him a lesson. Wait… no, he’s holding our family members hostage!” Zhang Zhao suddenly detected something odd from the formation.

“Interesting. He dares kidnap members of our Zhang Family and even provoke us in our hidden grounds. Ring Touching Spirit Ground, activate!” Zhang Zhao’s hand rapidly formed a series of 10 seals.

In combination with the Spirit Words from his mouth, the entire Zhao Ling Mystical Land was covered by an invisible force, which started to tremble slightly at first before rapidly changing.

***

Staring at the basin covered in white mist, Lu Sheng felt a sliver of anticipation.

The two people he held in his hand, Zhang Hong and Bie Feihe, both threw up on the ground next to him. The horrifying speed had shaken them to their core.

Even though she was throwing up, Lu Sheng’s image in Bie Feihe’s eyes had transformed from that of an ordinary master of the Jianghu to one that could dominate it.

The powerful movement technique he’d just unleashed might not be able to accelerate someone to such an insane speed so easily unless used by a peak-level master.

Zhang Hong, on the other hand, though astonished by the fact that Lu Sheng’s physical body could go so fast, was not as astonished as by his previous display of his powerful Spiritual Power.

This kind of speed was not unheard of in the Zhang Family. It was just that Lu Sheng’s method was more crude and primitive.

“Is this the place?” Lu Sheng asked in a mild voice.

“Yes. There is a great formation that is active all-year-round. Even members of our family have to send out a spirit disk, and would only be allowed to enter after the formation master confirms their identity.

“Don’t even try to trick me into breaking in for you,” Zhang Hong said coldly.

“No problem. I want to see what purpose this Spirit Formation serves anyway.” Lu Sheng smiled as he strode into the heavy mist.

Bie Feihe wanted to follow, but was too slow. As soon as she stood in front of the white mist, something in her heart forced her to stop.

“Wise of you to stay out. This great illusion formation is not something an ordinary man could deal with. Usually those who enter can only starve to death.” Zhang Hong laughed coldly.

“You mean this is a formation? One of the formations that immortals use according to all the fantasy novels?” Bie Feihe felt like her worldview was suffering a great trauma.

This was the first time she saw what a so-called formation actually looked like.

They were clearly on Black Cotton Mountain behind Yin Mountain, yet all she could see in front of her was thick, white mist.

These giant swaths of mist were somehow all man-made. For the first time, Bie Feihe felt like maybe getting beat up was a good thing.

As the two of them were having thoughts of their own, Lu Sheng had slowly walked into the white mist.

As soon as he entered the mist, he stomped hard onto the ground. With a booming noise, the ground split open, while he flew straight up from the immense force.

“Hiss!”

Streaks of white, bone-chillingly cold spikes came out of the white mist, aiming directly at the back of Lu Sheng’s waist.

“Clang, clang!”

Lu Sheng easily flicked away the icicles with his fingers. But before he could react, a vast torrent of icicles poured out from the surrounding mist. The barrage was so dense it consisted of at least several hundred spikes, and all of them shot toward him from all directions.

“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!”

Instantly, a large wave of icicles fell and streaked toward Lu Sheng’s body.

Lu Sheng mentally commanded one of the fat Protectors among the ten to appear in front of him. It spread its arms in front of him, and shot out a jet of hot Spiritual Power from its chest.

“Whoosh…”

As the scorching hot Spiritual Power blew over, most of the icicles rapidly melted, then turned into steam.

The fat Protector slowly moved aside to let Lu Sheng pass.

“Very nice,” Lu Sheng praised with a smile.

He didn’t spend his time doing nothing all these days, and at least had some detailed conversations with his 10 or so Protectors.

Each Protector had its own power. Among the 10 Protectors, there were at least 6 forms.

This fat Protector, for example, was a Fire Spirit.

Fire Spirit followed Lu Sheng by his side, and guarded his advance. Soon, the two of them met a new opponent.

A giant white tiger whose body was only half clear.

The white tiger was about five meters long and at least two meters tall, while two half-clear wings jetted out of its waist.

“Roaaarrrr!!”

The white tiger roared at Lu Sheng, and unleashed a wave of powerful and savage Spiritual Pressure.

“This thing is formed by Spiritual Qi?” Lu Sheng asked curiously.

“Everything in this world has its own spirit. This Spirit Beast is formed by many spirits of tigers. This formation probably accumulated the spirits of the tigers it killed, and slowly created this,” Fire Spirit explained simply.

“You can handle him?” Lu Sheng looked at Fire Spirit.

“Of course. All Protectors who could enter your Purple Smoke Villa had to go through countless savage competitions. This is only a mere tiger spirit.”

Fire Spirit didn’t waste any more time talking, and instead dove forward. He swung his fist, which instantly caught on fire, and hit an empty spot slightly in front of the tiger’s head.

“Boom!!”

The air in that area straight up exploded. The explosion made a dent in the tiger’s head.

It roared as its tail whipped at the Fire Spirit with immense force, which shook the Fire Spirit, and made him dim considerably.

The two battled intensely; the battle was over in less than a minute. The tiger spirit collapsed, and the Fire Spirit only breathed slightly harder as it stepped back to Lu Sheng.

“Alright, let’s continue.” Lu Sheng smiled, and sped up.

“Whoosh.”

Suddenly, something brightened in front of his eyes, and everything opened up.

“We’re out— wait…!?” Lu Sheng’s smile disappeared as he made out the scene in front of him.

He somehow went back to where he started. Bie Feihe was sitting in front of him, and Zhang Hong had long since disappeared.

“Ma… Master…?” Bie Feihe called out in confusion as she saw Lu Sheng’s face turn cold.

“Let’s go back.” Lu Sheng turned and once again disappeared into the mist.

***

Within Zhao Ling Mystical Land.

Zhang Zhao lazily listened to Zhang Hong report the entire incident.

“…That’s everything that happened. I’m happy to accept any punishment from the Third Master!” Zhang Hong knelt on the ground with one knee, his face bitter.

Zhang Zhao stroked his chin, looking almost identical to his grandpa Zhang Chenshan. It had to be said this grandpa and grandson duo were quite similar, even down to their habits.

“Lu Family’s eldest heir? The most powerful Spiritual Apostle? That’s only for show. The Lu Family has three in their current generation, right? The strongest among three people? Is this bragging really that interesting?”

“If the Lu Family allowed this kid to travel outside and even specifically visit our Zhang Family, they must be really confident.” Zhang Mu was playing go with the black-browed elder, Zhang Chenshan.

“Doesn’t matter, he just entered the formation. Oh? Impressive speed, even the Icicle Formation couldn’t stop him. Try this, Spirit Tiger Formation!” Zhang Zhao closed his eyes and took direct control of the great formation, sensing its every change.

“He summoned his own Protector? Not bad… The tiger spirit I saved for decades is lost…. Agh, I have to go through all the trouble of saving up for a new one. Next is Disorientation Formation. Let’s see how you break out of the Great Ten-Thousand Faces Spirit Change Formation I personally perfected.” Zhang Zhao’s mouth curved into a smile that radiated absolute confidence.

It was because he was truly absolutely confident in his knowledge of formations.

He was a formation prodigy, the most powerful prodigy the Zhang Family had in several centuries! There was no second!

“So what if you defeated the tiger spirit? Get out!” Zhang Zhao controlled the change to the formation, and easily kicked out Lu Sheng and his Protector.

But Lu Sheng soon returned to the formation. After a series of similar events, he was again sent back to where he started.

Lu Sheng took another way, still charged into the formation as fast as possible, and attempted to bulldoze his way in by using sheer speed.

“Pointless struggle.” Zhang Zhao smiled. His mind moved and easily controlled the Hundred-Spirit Qi to alter the formation, once again sending Lu Sheng back to where he started.

Lu Sheng failed all his attempts, and still walked in circles.

“Why would you barge into our Zhang Family’s hidden grounds with this little power?” Zhang Zhao shook his head and laughed. He had been prepared to have some fun, yet he was met with this disappointing result.