Way of the Devil

“There’s something you don’t know about, Abode Master. The Vital Energy Sect has already sent Nascent Soul True Lords to the overseas region to see to this matter. You have killed Die Shazi and the old woman. Thus, you have incurred a debt of lives. Regardless of whether you release the Fated Child, there will be no coming out of this matter. I know that you have shocking strength, but if you’re not at the Nascent Soul tier, you’re but an insignificant insect. The might of a Nascent Soul True Lord isn’t something you can win against by relying on an abundance of Core Qi alone,” Chun Songzi said with a smile.

Lu Sheng kept his mouth shut. He only viewed the other person through squinted eyes. He wanted to wait and see just how much information he would share.

Chun Songzi smiled again, and said, “Hence, at this moment, the only ones who can save you, Abode Master, are we, the Earth King Hall. Or maybe, the only ones in the current world who can go up against the Vital Energy Sect and are brave enough to resist them are we from the Earth King Hall.”

Lu Sheng exhaled.

“So, where’s Godly Lord Peng Jun now?”

Chun Songzi shook his head slightly.

“Abode Master, you’ve got the wrong idea. The Godly Lord won’t be showing his true self here, but he’ll assist you from the shadows and help you escape from the clutches of the Vital Energy Sect’s True Lords. Naturally, there’s a price to pay for this assistance. You must hand over the Earth Lake Sword in your possession. Also, as an act of submission, you’ll have to kill that Du Guangchi with your own hands. After all, the Vital Energy Sect has already decided to kill you off once and for all. The outcome will be the same regardless of whether you kill Du Guangchi or not. There’s no need to worry about this, Abode Master.”

“What guarantee do I have that you guys will make your move after this?” Lu Sheng asked again.

When Chun Songzi heard this, he broke into laughter. “Abode Master, do you have any other choice now that things have progressed this far? The Vital Energy Sect won’t let you go no matter what. Their Nascent Soul True Lords are already on their way. I estimate that they’ll be here in a fortnight. When time comes, it’ll be too late even if you want to accept our proposal.”

“A fortnight, huh?” Lu Sheng made no further replies. Instead, he lowered his head and closed his eyes. He pondered about the possible scenario that could occur after this.

When Chun Songzi saw this, he knew that he could not push Lu Sheng too much.

“It seems that you’re quite hesitant, Abode Master. Tell you what, I’ll leave this matter here today, and pay you another visit in two days. That will be your real final chance. Think carefully, Abode Master. The options that are available to you are, frankly, not much.”

With his sharp laugh, Chun Songzi retreated slowly. His figure gradually turned semi-transparent, and he flew far away.

Everything fell silent once more. The sea’s surface was only filled with the intertwining sounds of waves and the wind.

Lu Sheng stood where he was and pondered.

“Ahhh!”

Suddenly, a scream came from far away. The scream stopped abruptly as if someone had pressed the pause button. It barely lasted for a second.

Lu Sheng’s thoughts were interrupted by the scream. He lowered his head and saw the seawater before him rolling. A familiar figure started to surface.

This person was the same person who had just left: Chun Songzi. On his forehead and everywhere else on his body were countless densely packed holes. His belly where his Inner Core had been was completely gouged out. Not only did his Inner Core disappear, even a large area of flesh was taken away.

“You… You…” Chun Songzi glared fiercely. He fixed his gaze on Lu Sheng as if he had something to say.

“Have you never thought,” Lu Sheng started with a calm expression, “that if I’m bold enough to kill someone from the Vital Energy Sect, I won’t even be bothered by a meager threat from the Earth King Hall?”

“That was… far… you…” Chun Songzi could not accept this. He continued to struggle. He was clearly far away from Lu Sheng, so how did he…

“The thinking of weaklings.” Lu Sheng had a thought, and the surrounding seawater quickly drowned Chun Songzi out.

“Nobody can leave safely after threatening me.” His expression was calm. He made a gesture with his hand, and a pitch-black egg-sized Inner Core shot out from the sea.

This was the Devil Path Inner Core which Chun Songzi had worked hard in cultivating for many years.

‘I must hurry. The Earth King Hall, Vital Energy Sect… The Treasure I sacrificially refine here is one with my body. Maybe I can bring it back and use it in Great Yin.’

Lu Sheng plunged and vanished beneath the sea’s surface in the blink of an eye. He dived straight into the depths.

As Lu Sheng controlled the seawater around him with his Core Qi, the speed at which he dived was not slower than a plane. He reached the terrifying depth of 8,000 meters in no time.

The consumption of his Core Qi was also at a worrying level for ordinary Core Formation cultivators.

However, it was nothing for Lu Sheng. It was just like picking a hair from nine oxen.

He was almost at the seabed. His surroundings were pitch black, without any trace of light. The seabed was bumpy with various rises and falls.

Following his own senses, Lu Sheng quickly found the vent of the volcano’s dikes, which was also the volcano’s mouth.

The mouth of the volcano was a patch of dark red. The temperature of the surrounding water was also higher than two hundred degrees Celsius. The entire mouth resembled uneven chips. In the center, golden magma flowed slowly and spread outward like a spiderweb amid the dark red surroundings.

Lu Sheng swam slowly to the top of the magma. The hot water flow and high pressure were negated by the Yin Chill Core Qi seawater around him.

‘This is the place.’

He pointed at the magma slowly. The golden magma cracks slowly expanded.

Lu Sheng did a nosedive into the magma itself. His Golden Core within him swirled wildly as it devoured and absorbed the huge amount of heat released from the magma.

The immense earth fire energy from the planet itself was endlessly extracted by Lu Sheng.

However, due to the lack of a cooperating skill formula, the heat from the magma was only canceled out by the immense Core Qi inside his Golden Core. They were currently in a state of negating each other.

“Deep Blue.” Lu Sheng did not hesitate, and quickly summoned the modifier.

The light blue frame surfaced before him. His gaze swiftly fell upon the second frame. He pressed on the general modifying button first, then quickly looked behind the frame.

‘As I expected, it worked!’ The derivation button which Lu Sheng was unable to see up until now had suddenly appeared.

He wondered if this was due to his enriched knowledge of cultivation methods, or due to the warm environment provided by the earth’s fire. Still, Lu Sheng did not hesitate in the least. He quickly pressed the derivation button behind the second frame.

“Boom!”

In that instant, his mind was greatly shaken. Countless information and cultivation method paths surged into his consciousness in rapid succession. This derived cultivation method based on the Triad Brilliant Nether Collection and other cultivation methods was finally evolving to the Nascent Soul tier.

The ways of nurturing life, the steps, methods, requirements, and conditions involved were all derived.

Then, they were fulfilled.

His Mental Energy was being consumed at a quick pace, declining at a pace of a hundred units per minute.

His huge amount of Core Qi compressed and condensed into a blue fluid, and filled Lu Sheng’s dantian.

These materials quickly condensed into a little blue man the size of a chestnut. The blue man sat within Lu Sheng’s belly.

This blue man breathed in and spewed out blue mist. His eyes were shut tight, but he looked very much alive. A hint of wonderful vitality was nurtured where his heart was.

It was clear that he was not alive just yet. However, once the vitality was nurtured, this body would one day become a second body which could serve as a replacement for Lu Sheng’s body.

At this moment, the content of the modifier’s frame was also experiencing some gradual but substantial change.

“Unknown cultivation method, Early-stage Nascent Soul. Special property, five thousand times Nascent Qi.”

There were no other flashy abilities or any other special abilities. After he attained his Nascent Soul, Lu Sheng’s sole difference with the other Nascent Soul True Lords would be his five thousand times greater Nascent Qi.

In simple terms, this meant that his Nascent Qi was five thousand times greater than other Nascent Soul True Lords’.

Lu Sheng spread out his limbs in the golden magma. His body flashed with a similarly dazzling blue radiance which fought against the golden glare of the magma. He sunk slowly, and his body slowly made its way to the depths of the magma.

His surroundings were a swathe of brilliant gold. Other than himself, there were no other solid objects here.

‘This is easy…’ Lu Sheng felt the rapidly changing Core Qi within himself. He felt neither joy nor sorrow.

He already had a Divine Lord’s spirit to begin with. He was already at the level of at least the Nascent Soul tier. When this current body of his had cultivated to a similar tier, it was nothing much to him.

“Next, I should sacrificially refine the Sea-overturning Orb.” He slowly took out the Sea-overturning Orb from his sleeve and tossed it in front of him.

“Rumble!”

The entire world of magma suddenly grew heavier.

This time, the might of the entire event surpassed even that when he formed his Core. The Sea-overturning Orb shot out of the volcano’s mouth, and a huge volume of seawater surged wildly into it under pressure.

With the support of ceaseless Nascent Qi, the speed at which the Sea-overturning Orb sucked in seawater had reached a thousand tons per second in half a minute. The speed was still increasing.

In the deep sea, with the Sea-overturning Orb as the center, the top part was ceaseless deep blue seawater that surged downward wildly, while the bottom part was the golden-dark red magma which spewed out of the volcano.

The blue and red formed a stark contrast with each other.

Maybe it was because the Sea-overturning Orb was sucking in the liquids at too quick a pace, but there seemed to be a small region of vacuum between the magma and seawater.

Lu Sheng flew lightly out of the magma. He stood nearby on the seabed and watched this strange phenomenon.

‘Suck… With my current supernatural power, let’s see how much seawater you can actually suck.’ In the darkness, Lu Sheng’s eyes glittered with dark blue light. He stayed silent and cold. His quiet surroundings formed a stark contrast with the raucous scene where the Sea-overturning Orb was nearby.

“Buzz…”

The seabed shook suddenly.

After being stimulated a few times, the volcano was finally at the brink of eruption. Dark red cracks started to appear slowly in the seabed around the mouth of the volcano.

‘Just as well. This’ll help me refine the Sea-overturning Orb.’ Lu Sheng made a series of hand gestures and tossed out a jade box.

The jade box opened by itself in the seawater. A trail of purple light flew out from it and entered the Sea-overturning Orb’s surface at high speed.

Suddenly, a distorted pitch-black flame ignited beside Lu Sheng all on its own. This flame had no temperature. It was strangely concealed, just as if it did not even exist.

However, Lu Sheng felt a stabbing pain all over his body when he touched it.

‘Earth Yin Flames? Has the Seventh Tribulation come already? If I can survive this, I’ll be able to completely affirm my Early-stage Nascent Soul tier. If I can’t, I can only take a step back and remain a Golden Core Seventh Tribulation cultivator.

‘Is this the Earth Yin Flame that specifically destroys souls?’ Lu Sheng lowered his head to look at his legs that were catching fire. His Heavenly Devil main body’s spirit[1. As you may realize, spirit = soul.] tricking has finally lost its effect now. It was clear that there was a price to pay for cheating, and there was also a time limit to it.

Lu Sheng closed his eyes and stayed silent for a while. When he opened his eyes again, the black flames all around him shook and vanished instantly.

He started to walk forward.

However, he had barely taken a few steps.

“Boom!”

More clumps of black flames ignited around him. He was not the only one—the area within a few hundred meters of him was also affected as it was enveloped in black flames.

A huge amount of black flames entangled him, and prevented him from making any moves. Countless transparent claws extended from the flames and latched onto Lu Sheng’s legs.

Faint moaning and wailing sounds came from behind the claws.

“Nothing can stop me.” Lu Sheng stretched out a hand. “Not even the Seventh Tribulation.”

He pressed down heavily with his palm.

“Boom!”

The seabed a few hundred meters around him sunk down a meter at the same time. The black flames exploded and scattered, and a powerful shock wave swiftly emanated outward with the volcano as the center.