Way of the Devil

Seven Tribulations. Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Yin, and Yang.

They were actually tribulations that were categorized into the seven attributes which were known to men. In truth, it was nature’s final method of cleaning up the cultivators.

Lu Sheng knew full well that this world’s cultivators opposed the will of the heavens. They robbed the world of its Spiritual Essence and fortune to enrich themselves.

That was why they were subjected to such tribulations. This was nature and the universe’s way of preventing cultivators’ attempts to achieve the Nascent Soul tier and become accomplished in their cultivation bases.

The black flames continued burning.

Lu Sheng spread his arms beside him, and spread out the Nascent Soul which had just taken form inside him. A huge volume of Nascent Qi brought with it extreme cold as it instantly suppressed the black flames in all directions.

“A Fire Tribulation of this level is nowhere near enough.” Lu Sheng stepped forward slowly. He walked toward the Sea-overturning Orb that was slowly descending.

With him as the center, the black flames all around him started to weaken, and were finally extinguished. In the blink of an eye, the bottom of the sea was restored to its original appearance.

“Fuh…”

The flames were just extinguished when a formless gust of wind started blowing out of nowhere and wrapped itself around Lu Sheng.

‘There’s wind at the bottom of the sea?’ Lu Sheng paused. He stretched out a hand. He could clearly feel a fine, constant flow of air over his fingertips.

However, this flow of air was becoming sharper and rougher by the second. It was as if countless fine grains of sand were mixed with it.

Lu sheng even started to feel slight pangs of pain on his skin. His Nascent Qi started to protect his body instinctively and insulated him from this wind.

The whistle of the wind grew stronger and stronger.

A great wing started blowing from nowhere and circled around Lu Sheng continuously. If ordinary people touched this wind, they would instantly be reduced into minced meat.

“Wind Tribulation, huh?” Lu Sheng stopped in his tracks. The Nascent Qi on his body shook.

“Boom!”

The air flow around him suddenly exploded in a grand manner. After his expending another small portion of Nascent Qi, the Wind Tribulation was completely dealt away with.

Then, the seabed started wriggling, and a strong and huge hand made of soil rose. It attempted to pull Lu Sheng down into the quagmire.

This was the Earth Tribulation. Lu Sheng expended his Nascent Qi to deal with it. The huge hand of soil was frozen in place.

Then, the Water, Earth, Metal Tribulations and the remaining Tribulations followed. Lu Sheng dealt with each of them smoothly with his immense volume of supernatural power. The Seven Tribulations were nothing to his terrifying volume of Nascent Qi.

Lu Sheng took seven steps forward. Seven different hues of radiance flickered on his body, and he had dealt with the different tribulations.

At this moment, the Sea-overturning Orb was already slowing down its rotation. It also slowed down in sucking the seawater. Even Lu Sheng was unsure how much seawater was contained within it. He could only give a rough estimate.

“Break.” With that command, the suction force released by the Sea-overturning Orb around itself suddenly dissipated. The entire orb floated toward Lu Sheng slowly. It looked no different from a random orb which was colored blue.

Lu Sheng reached out and tapped the Sea-overturning Orb lightly.

“Poof.”

All of a sudden, an unexplainable guiding force erupted and tugged strongly on the Sea-overturning Orb. It seemed as if it wanted to free the orb from Lu Sheng’s grasp.

“You want to run away?” Lu Sheng circulated the Nascent Qi within him and fixed the struggling Sea-overturning Orb in its place.

This orb was controlled by a powerful force, and would possibly be blasted away at any moment. As Lu Sheng held onto it, he felt as if he was grabbing an undercurrent at the bottom of the sea

A huge volume of Nascent Qi surged wildly into the Sea-overturning Orb. Lu Sheng carefully calculated the capacity of his Sea-overturning Orb and the guiding force.

The orb seemed to have got a life of its own. It was pulled on by some unexplainable force and attempted to break free. However, it was forcibly held in place by Lu Sheng’s Nascent Qi.

This situation was maintained for several hours. When the Sea-overturning Orb was completely filled with Nascent Qi by Lu Sheng and forced out the Wind Tribulation energy that had somehow slipped into it, the tugging force disappeared.

After that, he carefully refined the orb several times with the skill formulas. He sacrificially refined the Sea-overturning Orb which had been disturbed by tribulations again, and he filled it with a huge amount of his Nascent Qi.

With the new materials he assimilated into his Sea-overturning Orb and the adaptation of the orb itself toward them, the entire orb slowly returned under Lu Sheng’s complete control.

‘After such a long time, the Sea-overturning Orb must’ve absorbed tens of million tons of seawater by now, maybe even more.’

At this moment, the disturbance of the underwater volcano started to weaken. The red light started dying down as well. The area around it remained dark.

Lu Sheng stood beside the volcano’s mouth, and caressed the Sea-overturning Orb lightly. He started to have a rough idea of the Sea-overturning Orb’s internal capacity from his infusion of it with his Nascent Qi.

‘Seems like it’s almost there.’

Lu Sheng took a look around him. He looked around at the underwater scene which had completely fallen silent around him.

‘The derived skill formula which I’m cultivating now has no flashy point to it, in truth. It’s just a product of derivations from the time I formed my Golden Core with the Triad Brilliant Nether Collection as the main framework. So, the properties of my Nascent Qi are also ordinary. The only difference is just that its greater in quantity. In other aspects, it’s not much different from the Early-stage Nascent Soul cultivators who achieved this breakthrough through ordinary means.’

Lu Sheng parsed his own condition at the moment. As long as he did not expose his immense Nascent Qi volume, it would be easy for him to pose as an ordinary Nascent Soul True Lord.

‘I’ve finally attained the Nascent Soul tier. Now, I’d like to see just how great of a difference lies between Nascent Qi and Core Qi.’

Lu Sheng was also curious about this world’s power system. Currently, he had followed Deep Blue’s derivations, and completely broken through to the Nascent Soul tier. He was looking forward to experiencing the power of Nascent Qi.

He stretched his hand out further.

“Pcchht!”

A wisp of bluish-black thread-like smoke shot out from his fingertips.

This smoke contorted and circled around Lu Sheng for a while before it suddenly shot to the side. It drew a sharp and long crack in the seabed.

‘It can turn hollow and solid at any moment. This Nascent Qi must be something that exists between the state of hollow and solid.’ Lu Sheng allowed his Nascent Qi to dance slowly around him as he observed its pattern and property with his Divine Lord spirit.

‘When it’s solid, it’s extremely hard and tensile. When it’s hollow, it behaves like mist, completely untouchable. It can only be canceled out by an energy of the same property.’

Lu Sheng gave this some thought, and slowly pulled out a slender blade from its black-spotted sheath on his back.

The character “Earth” was clearly inscribed in the center of the blade. This was precisely the Earth Lake Sword which he had just recently obtained.

‘When I wanted to completely suppress the Earth Lake Sword back then to maintain its ordinary condition, I needed about three units of Core Qi. What about now?’ Lu Sheng numerated his Core Qi’s volume according to Taoist Mu Yun’s standards.

A unit of Core Qi represented the entire Core Qi that could be unleashed by one Taoist Mu Yun.

Three units meant that if he wanted to suppress the Earth Lake Sword’s eruption, he needed three Taoist Mu Yuns in order to be completely successful. Also, what he meant by suppressing the Earth Lake Sword’s eruption was completely suppressing its hidden powers as well, and not the meager might unleashed by Du Guangchi.

‘I’ve needed three units of Core Qi before this, and now…’ Lu Sheng sent his thought and removed the remaining Core Qi on the Earth Lake Sword which suppressed it. He merged it back into his current Nascent Qi.

Then, without waiting for the Earth Lake Sword to shine with golden radiance and completely erupt, he instantly infused it with brand-new Nascent Qi.

He merely infused it with one-tenth of unit of Nascent Qi, which, according to Lu Sheng’s estimation, was one-tenth of an ordinary Nascent Soul True Lord’s total Nascent Qi volume. Still, the Earth Lake Sword was already behaving as if it was sealed with countless Restrictions. It had wanted to struggle and shine with golden light, but its radiance quickly dimmed.

‘To think that it needs one-tenth of unit of Nascent Qi. Seems like the Nascent Qi which I obtained from the forced breakthrough isn’t of too good a quality. Even among the ordinary Nascent Soul True Lords, I’m afraid I’m just at the bottom of the food chain.’ Lu Sheng had many a thought in his heart.

‘The difference between a Nascent Soul True Lord and a Core Formation cultivator should’ve been greater than this. However, the only heaven and earth treasure that I’ve infused my Golden Core with is seawater from the deep sea. Hence, the special might it gave to my Nascent Qi is extremely weak. Compared to other cultivators, the difference is too great. I think that the real difference lies in this.’

Lu Sheng quickly found out the reason behind the difference.

He sheathed the Earth Lake Sword. This sword was not a Divine Weapon or Devil Blade, and he did not have a terrifying physical body such as his main body. Hence, he had no way of testing it out.

‘I’ve achieved Nascent Soul, and the sacrificial refining of my Sea-overturning Orb is completed as well. However, as a True Lord, I can’t just know of two skills. I’d have to cultivate some ordinary techniques to deal with ordinary circumstances.’

Up until now, Lu Sheng had only cultivated basic cultivation base and supernatural power. He did not touch anything on the Art.

In truth, he only knew about two techniques. The first technique was called Boundless Supernatural Power—it was basically the continuous unleashing of his supernatural power until his opponent was eventually overwhelmed.

The second technique was Subdue by Force.

This technique involved tossing the Sea-overturning Orb which had an extremely terrifying weight as a ball. When he sneaked up on the Vital Energy Sect’s cultivator back then, he had used this technique as an opening. It showed great results.