Way of the Devil

Lu Sheng did not cultivate according to the collection. Instead, he started the second stage of Qi Cultivating according to his slightly modified collection.

This was one of his conjectures.

In no time, he had used up one unit of Mental Energy. In the frame of the modifier, the name of the Triad Brilliant Nether Collection slowly blurred. In its place was some unknown cultivation method.

This was due to his modification of the second stage. Although it was not a major change, for the inflexible modifier, this was no longer the Triad Brilliant Nether Collection, but another similar collection. Hence, its name had been changed to unknown cultivation method.

“So it is possible!” Lu Sheng was overjoyed. The stage two Qi Cultivating cultivation base swiftly compressed the Pure Qi within him. The Pure Qi was swiveled and condensed into slightly denser Yin Chill Pure Qi.

“Well then, let’s deduce the third stage.” Starting from this slightly modified stage two cultivation method, Lu Sheng could use the modifier to deduce the cultivation method.

Although he could deduce it on his own, he would not be as efficient as the Deep Blue Modifier whereby the deduced cultivation methods had guaranteed success.

In no time, there was a flash of blue light in the abode. A blue glow lingered on Lu Sheng’s skin, but it scattered quickly.

The Pure Qi within his body solidified slightly.

‘As expected, starting from the third stage, the Pure Qi’s properties are slightly different from the properties recorded in the original collection. The Yin Poison is stronger, and the aura is more neutral. It’s not as intense and ruthless as before. If the Pure Qi before this was akin to a wild horse that has broken free of its reins, this current Pure Qi is like a tamed wild beast.’ Lu Sheng nodded slightly with satisfaction. He merely expended one unit of Mental Energy to deduce the third stage.

For a person rich in Mental Energy such as himself, this was but picking a hair from nine cows.

His sharp senses told him that the third stage’s skill formula seemed to have been merged with his experience of cultivating Spiritual Power in the Spiritual Power World and part of the skills and basic cultivation methods of the Prime Devil Sect.

The sole purpose of Qi Cultivating was to increase the density of Pure Qi and to solidify it so that using it was as easy as the arm directing the finger. His techniques and experiences in taming other powers were only used to tame a mere Yin Chill Qi. Naturally, it was like putting fine timber to petty use. He could easily obtain the best effects.

“Again!”

Lu Sheng continued deducing with his Mental Energy. Maybe it was because he was merely perfecting an existing skill formula, but it consumed extremely small amounts of Mental Energy. Every stage seemed to have only consumed one or two units. It seemed that the amount of consumption was dependent on the extent of the modification.

For the entire afternoon, Lu Sheng met no one. He worked hard to cultivate in seclusion. He quickly achieved breakthroughs from the first until the ninth stage of Qi Cultivating.

Then, he came out of seclusion and rested. He took out some materials and medicine from the abode’s treasury and went back to work on his cultivation in seclusion.

He was about to begin Foundation Building. In the past, Mu Yun had been disadvantaged because of the scarcity of resources. Starting from Foundation Building, he could refine one Natal Artifact to be used as his greatest reliance in the future.

In this world, the enhancing effects of Treasures were extremely terrifying. A cultivator with a Treasure compared to a cultivator without a Treasure was like an ordinary person who was completely clad in armor with weapons in hand while the other ordinary person was empty-handed, wore thin clothes, and could only rely on his fists.

In this world, Spiritual Power was only a cultivation base, a tier with extremely limited might. It only contained a few basic powers.

Only by using Spiritual Power to refine various powerful Treasures or cultivate some mysterious and powerful Capacity to arm and protect himself could he escape the fate of dying in a fight.

Treasures came first, Capacities came next. Back then, Mu Yun could not find any resources. That was why he could only carry out Foundation Building and cultivate his Capacity, thereby missing the best opportunity to possess a Treasure.

However, things were different for Lu Sheng.

He took some cold iron, black steel, spider gold, and a few vials of dew essence. These were the most precious materials Mu Yun had amassed over the years.

However, these were only barely enough to forge a Treasure or an Artifact.

‘With these, I can’t forge a large Artifact…’ Lu Sheng evaluated the materials before him helplessly. These items would only be as large as a basketball. It would be extremely difficult for him to forge something out of them.

‘Also, my forging skills aren’t exactly top-notch. Instead of making detailed carvings, it’s better for me to be rough and direct.’ Lu Sheng extended his arms and wisps of semi-transparent deep blue mist suddenly flowed out from his palms.

This was his Yin Chill Pure Qi, which he obtained after reaching stage nine Qi Cultivating. Compared to the Yin Chill Pure Qi that he was supposed to end up with, the Pure Qi in his palms was at least twice as powerful as the one in Mu Yun’s memories.

With this small amount of Pure Qi, if he hurled it out directly, he could instantly freeze a big bucket of boiling water.

‘Actually, maybe I should just make it into a projectile by melting it into a ball. This way, I can try to go on that path…’ A thought flashed past Lu Sheng’s mind.

He calmed his mind and started to smelt these materials with his Pure Qi.

It was a peculiar scene. The Pure Qi he cultivated was clearly of utmost Yin Chill quality, but it was able to melt the various materials as if it was a flame.

In no time, Lu Sheng obtained a fist-sized silver metal ball.

He reached out and held it in his hands. The metal ball was heavy—it was at least fifty kilograms in weight. Lu Sheng continuously corroded the ball with his Pure Qi. This process originally required 49 days, and there could not be any pause, but he could not afford to wait that long.

His Divine Lord spirit suddenly spread out. Slowly and steadily, it flowed along Lu Sheng’s palm and entered the ball’s interior. It started analyzing its structural composition.

In a few minutes, the analysis was complete. For someone of Lu Sheng’s level, analyzing a simple and ordinary Artifact made out of a few materials would not take very long.

After the analysis was complete, his Pure Qi seeped into the ball with dramatically higher speed. The entire process was done as masterfully as a butcher dismembering an ox. It was evident that the pace of refining along his meridians was getting quicker and quicker.

Drops of unwanted black impurities were forced out of the ball. The metal ball grew lighter and smaller, but it was still 40-45 kilograms in weight.

The refining was finally completed after slightly more than two hours.

Lu Sheng evaluated the metal ball in his hand. This ball was completely silver in color. Its outer appearance was smooth and flawless like a mirror: it was brilliant enough to reflect one’s image.

‘Next up, Foundation Building.’ Lu Sheng grasped the ball with both hands and positioned it before his belly, directly on his skin.

“Deep Blue.”

The modifier’s frame instantly popped up.

There were only two frames. One of them was Infinity Technique, while the other one was unknown cultivation method.

Lu Sheng was driving a light carriage on a familiar road. He quickly pressed the deduce button behind the unknown cultivation method.

“Pcchht!”

The entire frame suddenly blurred. Three units of his Mental Energy were immediately burned off. His main body released the Core Qi which he had absorbed before this again. With Core Qi at his disposal, Lu Sheng did not have to waste his Mental Energy by converting it into Pure Qi.

Huge amounts of Pure Qi surged within him like waves crashing onto the shore. Lu Sheng focused his mind and held his breath. His immense Divine Lord-level spirit perfectly controlled the Pure Qi within his body and did not allow it to seep out from his pores.

Under the control of Deep Blue’s extrapolation, the Pure Qi increased in volume. 30 seconds later, his Pure Qi suddenly gave rise to 99 vortexes identical in size. They were scattered on the 99 meridian points in Lu Sheng’s body.

The vortexes shrunk at the same time with a hiss. Under Deep Blue’s control, Pure Qi was refined into 99 Qi meridian points that looked like stars.

‘This is… the Triad Brilliant Nether Collection’s Cold Star Dense Yin Bodies? There was only one record of a refined Cold Star in the collection, and it’s in the lower dantian. I didn’t expect that…’ Lu Sheng was shocked. He did not expect Deep Blue to deduce such a mind-blowing skill formula after combining all his knowledge.

Each of these 99 Cold Stars was the same as the sole Cold Star which Taoist Mu Yun had cultivated after going through many hardships before this.

Every Cold Star contained immense and succinct Yin Chill Pure Qi.

“This Foundation Building… It’s really…” Lu Sheng did not expect it to be as dramatic as this.

In other words, his supernatural power in his Foundation Building tier was 99 times better than Mu Yun’s before this! Also, his Yin Chill supernatural power’s substantial might was more than two times greater than Mu Yun’s.

‘I wonder what level of Foundation Building I’ve achieved from deducing. Originally, Foundation Building requires some special energy as a primer, but it’s being supplied by Mental Energy as well. This is terrific. As long as its pure energy, there’s a way for it to be supplied by Mental Energy. The only difference is in the amount consumed.’

Lu Sheng stood up and stretched his limbs. He familiarized his body with the condition thereof after completing his Foundation Building.

He picked up the metal ball again. A V-shaped deep blue pattern was now on the silver ball’s surface. The pattern seemed to be formed by many contorted basic seals from the Triad Brilliant Nether Collection. It looked exceptionally mysterious.

It was clear that during his Foundation Building, it had also absorbed some special mark aura. Now, it could already be regarded as Lu Sheng’s Natal Artifact. Of course, it was only an Artifact. Only the Natal Artifacts of the Core Path elites could be regarded as Treasures.

’99 times greater early Foundation Building supernatural power. This is a good start.’ Lu Sheng felt satisfied. Although the collection which was based on the Nether Water was slightly inferior, he would make up for quality with quantity.

He rested for a while and ordered the young boy and girl to come in. He inquired about several matters, had his meal, and continued to cultivate in seclusion.

This time, he wanted to break through the Foundation Building and restore his Core Path cultivation base.

***

Among the group of islands under the Wood Martial Abode’s command, there was an island called Third Island. It was not the third island, but its name was Third Island.

The island was not big. However, it had a coconut grove, small hills, lakes, and hot springs. There was everything one could have hoped for. The island was connected to an active volcano underwater. Hence, a small village with a few hundred villagers stayed around the central warm water lake as well.

Currently, the village chief was leading a large group of villagers to express their utmost gratitude to a young man and woman.

The two young people were in high spirits. They stood there with glistening eyes and straight backs. They each had a long, classic-looking sword slung across their backs. They kept waving their hands in dismissal at the village chief’s thanks. They turned down the good-natured offer of the villagers to stay longer as well.

These two were Du Guangchi and Yao Lian of the Vital Energy Sect, and were out here gaining experience. Initially, they had another companion, their senior apprentice sister from the same sect, Yue Cai. However, she was sneaked up upon by Devil Cultivators on her way here and suffered grave injuries. She was even afflicted by a Yin Poison known as Sapphire Mantis.

From their senior’s instruction, the two of them knew that the only way to draw the Sapphire Mantis out of their senior apprentice sister’s body was by using the Nether Orb with extreme Yin and Cold qualities.

Du Guangchi’s feelings toward his senior apprentice sister, Yue Cai, ran deep. He immediately went overseas and found this place as he followed the instructions given by the sect’s elites. Yao Lian, the woman beside him, was into Du Guangchi. That was why she was willing to accompany him on this treasure hunt to save Yue Cai.