Way of the Devil

White Bell City, South District.

There were a total of five big districts in White Bell City. Of them, the South District was the largest and busiest, with tons of stores, food courts, tailors, and horse merchants.

Around the South District lived a lot of ordinary citizens, keeping the place bustling and busy.

Li Shunxi walked slowly along the sidewalk in the South District, wearing a straw hat over his head. He looked around at the city that had changed so much recently.

“There’s no sign of tension at all. Did the letters that I sent out not make an impact, or…?” He sighed internally.

“Brother Li, are we really going to the South?” the girl behind him asked in a low voice. It was Ice Snake Silver.

“We don’t have a choice. There’s no way to protect ourselves here, and if anything happens…” Li Shunxi shook his head. “I’ve already tried my best, so the rest is up to them.”

Sun Meng coughed a few times and answered, “That’s true. If they don’t believe us, there’s nothing we can do.”

The three of them had packed their belongings immediately after leaving Wisdom Garden and were about to hire a carriage heading towards the South. But carriages going that direction were rare and all of them were unavailable at this time, so they had to wait a few days.

As a result, they had nothing to do and were bored, so the three strolled along the streets, discussing the situation.

“Also, it seems like it has already spread. Even if we wanted to, we can’t stop it anymore…” Li Shunxi said as he glanced at a drunk man on the side of the road.

This drunk was lying flat on the ground, the disgusting smell of alcohol coming off him. Dressed in gray robes, his hair was tied up simply with a piece of black cloth.

Although his chest was still moving and he was still breathing, Li Shunxi could detect a slight trace of a mysterious aura on him.

“That’s the one.” Suddenly, a troop of soldiers rushed over, and two people grabbed the drunk and skillfully tied him up with ropes.

“Take him away!” Killing intent appeared in the leader’s eyes.

No one wasted any time as they brought the drunk away. Not only was he taken away, but away in the distance, yet another person was arrested and captured by the city guards.

Li Shunxi’s heart turned cold.

He knew this was because the sects started taking action. The Devil Disaster was bound to happen here, so some nobilities might have already noticed the difference.

“We need to leave soon. If not, we might be involved,” Li Shunxi whispered.

The two people behind him understood perfectly. They knew what he said was correct. Be it devils or sects, both were larger than life to them. If they got into a conflict, just the shock waves were enough to destroy them.

“Too late, you guys are already involved, carrier of the Jade of Secrets.” Suddenly, a woman leading a young child stood in front of the three.

All pupils of all three of them contracted as they noticed the weirdness of the woman.

This woman’s face was very pale as if there wasn’t any blood in it. Her eyes were blank and without focus as if she wasn’t even looking at them.

But the child she was holding by hand was looking around curiously. Dressed in rags, he seemed to know nothing about what happened to his mother.

As a woman, Silver tended to be more observant, and she shockingly found that from the shadow of the child on the ground, a new head was slowly growing out of his back.

That head was the size of a watermelon, and it seemed to be smiling. Although it was just a mirrored image, they could see the head chuckling and watching them cruelly.

“Shadow Devil…” Li Shunxi saw that too and inhaled sharply. “Let’s… let’s go!”

He slowly backed away, then turned around and ran. The other two followed closely.

But the woman and the child had no intent to pursue at all. They just stood there, watching the three leave.

After all, they were already spotted by the Shadow Devil, so it wouldn’t be easy for them to escape.

***

“We found something!” Bai Xiu spoke to Blood Infant Huang Fu, who was reading a book, in a low voice as he walked into the study carrying a bunch of papers.

“Oh? Really? Just this morning I got over ten annoying cases, and even more were settled by others before they could even get to me. These are only the cases that passed through everyone and still couldn’t be solved.” Huang Fu set down his book tiredly.

“The previous serial murders and the recent disappearances all point to the same place,” Bai Xiu said solemnly.

“Where?” Seeing his best friend so serious, Huang Fu also took this seriously.

“The Cicada Sect of the City of a Thousand Sails, the largest underground organization around,” Bai Xiu explained. “The Cicada Sect had always been controlled by the Flying Feathers Sect; in fact, a lot of their leaders were disciples from the sect. I have already sent a letter to the Flying Feathers Sect to ask about it. We should get a reply soon.”

“Flying Feathers Sect…” Huang Fu frowned. “Is this the Flying Feathers Sect that’s ranked thirty-one, among the middle three grades??”

“Correct.” Bai Xiu nodded.

“All the strange things happening recently seem to point in the same direction. If they explain in person, it will be very helpful for the cases,” Huang Fu agreed. “Oh right, when did you send the letter?”

“Two days ago, when I was still outside. I sent it through a Bloody Swallow. One of my junior apprentice sisters knew their first seat, so the letter was sent privately,” Bai Xiu replied.

“How long is it till the banquet?” Huang Fu continued asking.

“Two more months.” Bai Xiu was about to say something else when something flashed at the door, and two young women dressed in tight white clothing walked in.

“Senior Apprentice Brother Bai, something is wrong,” the smaller, cuter girl said.

“Junior Apprentice Sister Qiao Xiu? What’s wrong?” Bai Xiu recognized the girl. She was the one who sent the letter to the first seat of the Flying Feathers Sect for him.

Qiao Xiu answered solemnly, “Senior Apprentice Brother Bai, to be honest, the first seat of the Flying Feathers Sect had been pursuing me. Usually, as soon as I send a letter, I would get a reply within half a day. From here to the Flying Feathers Sect, if I use a Bloody Swallow, it only takes around half a day. Which means, he would instantly reply every time he got my letter.

But it has already been a day… I felt like something was off, so I asked one of my close sisters to send a letter to her good friend in the Flying Feathers Sect and tell her to respond instantly, but it was like we had thrown a rock into the sea. There was no response at all.”

Hearing Qiao Xiu’s words, Bai Xiu and Huang Fu immediately became serious.

“Did something happen to the Flying Feathers Sect? That should be impossible? They have a divine weapon. Whatever happens, they can’t just die off in one night and have nobody hear about it.” Huang Fu frowned.

“There’s still a little bit of time until the banquet. Should we go and check?” Bai Xiu suggested.

“If something really happened, we won’t be able to solve it. I think we should report it to the upper levels first,” Huang Fu disagreed.

That was true. If something could happen to a sect in the middle three levels who held a divine weapon, then the seriousness of the problem was not something that just two first seats could take on.

“I’ll go see the sect master immediately and ask him to personally send a letter to the Flying Feathers Sect to see if something actually happened or not.” Huang Fu stood up.

“Alright! I’ll find someone to send letters to the disciples of the Flying Feathers Sect that are currently studying outside, and see if they can contact their own sect through their own means.” Bai Xiu nodded.

***

The Prime Devil Sect.

Liu Shanzi sat at the head seat while a lot of disciples sat below him, listening carefully to He Xiangzi explain the cultivation methods.

Lu Sheng was sitting to his left, at the same level. Right now, his eyes were closed—his mind was somewhere else.

The huge and heavy incense burner gave off a bronzed light, chopstick-thick threads of white smoke rising from the middle.

The whole hall was peaceful.

“Little Sheng, it’s almost time for the banquet that the West Infinity Court holds each year. I already received the invitation. Do you want to come with me?” Liu Shanzi asked as he watched the teaching.

Lu Sheng pulled back his thoughts. Before, he was secretly cultivating the beginning of the Elemental Sea Devil Body, the fourth type of Devil Body.

“Banquet? Your disciple probably won’t be able to go. Recently, I broke through again, so I might seclude myself to cultivate for a while.”

“Seclusion?” Liu Shanzi was at first surprised, then ecstatic. Usually, people only secluded themselves when they got stuck at the end of a level and couldn’t make progress anymore. That was when they would chose this extreme method of separating themselves from everything worldly and try to make a breakthrough.

So did this mean that Lu Sheng was about to break through to the Ghost Face Mantra?

He knew Lu Sheng had long broke through the Karmaless Skill and moved on to the Ghost Face Mantra, but he didn’t expect Lu Sheng to finish cultivating all four levels of Ghost Face Mantra in such a short time.

Most people needed at least a few years, but he only took a few months… Didn’t this mean he was the genius of geniuses?

Liu Shanzi was surprised and happy. Adding to the fact that Lu Sheng was born with great strength, his power would increase greatly.

“That’s right, that’s right, it’s just a little banquet. Although it’s held by the West Infinity Court, it’s not that important. Its purpose is just for people to converse, exchange assets, and build relationships. It’s okay if you don’t go. Instead, strength is more important. You can go to a banquet at any time.” He nodded quickly, a smile spreading over his face.

At this time, He Xiangzi had also finished teaching. She looked back at Liu Shanzi. It was time for the sect master to say a few words; this was the custom after every lesson.

Liu Shanzi didn’t decline; he took over and started explaining the important and hard parts of the cultivation.

Lu Sheng was sitting beside him, so naturally, he was forced to tell a few of his breakthrough experiences too.

After the lesson, everyone left.

Recently, the Prime Devil Sect had gotten more and more disciples, already reaching over a hundred people, and was looking pretty busy and well off again.

The sect rebuilt the cafeteria, the pond, the showers, the fighting arena, and a lot more living quarters. For instance, this lecture hall was built just a short while ago.

If it weren’t for the nights belonging to ghosts and devils and being extremely dangerous, the disciples even wanted to build some night clubs for food and play to make the place even more lively.

Outside of the Prime Devil Sect’s cave, a lot of small traders and peddlers had heard about of the bustling business and came and built a lot of stores and markets.

Clothing, food, housing—nothing was missing.

Most of these peddlers were relatives of the new Prime Devil Sect disciples and knew what was going on, so there wasn’t much to hide.

After the lesson, Lu Sheng walked out of the lecture hall, only to see Shangyang Linhui leaning against the wall outside, waiting for him.

Everyone else had left already. She was the only one waiting.

After what happened in the Wisdom Garden, and Shangyang Linhui’s entry into the Prime Devil Sect, Lu Sheng got the Umbrella Girl Yingying, Ning San, and Xu Chui to join as well.

But these three were super slow even at the most basic Three Yin Technique. Obviously due to the lack of a Bloodline, everything was really hard for them to cultivate.

However, finally getting a chance to officially learn one of the secret arts, even Hong Baifang didn’t dare slack off. Apart from eating and sleeping, all three of them spent all their time cultivating. No one could match the effort they put in.