Way of the Devil

Lu Sheng shook his head slightly. At best, the present Prime Devil Sect could only be described as having the seed of growing into a middle three grades sect. More time was needed for it to incubate before it could break out of its cocoon and fly.

He turned around and headed back into his room, where he cultivated his secret arts. When it was about time, he took all the materials he had gathered and continued to his cultivation spot.

Quickly, he got into his cultivation cave and revised the Devil Body cultivation secret arts in the cave.

He sat up straight in the cave.

“Boom!”

A ball of inky black Prime Devil Qi dispersed from his body and filled up every inch of space in the cave rapidly.

“Deep Blue,” Lu Sheng called out for his Modifier. The pale-blue screen emerged instantly.

With familiarity, he clicked the Modify button as his gaze landed on the new row.

‘Elemental Sea Devil Body: Level Three. Special Effect(s): Devil Aura Condensation Grade Three, Toxic Flame Intensification Grade Three, Elemental Pressure Strengthening Grade Three.’ [1]

‘This is just the result of completing the foundational stage. Next is the real beginning of mastering this Devil Body. Elemental Sea Devil Body focuses on strengthening the stomach and lungs… Let’s first convert Prime Devil Qi into Aquarius Qi to upgrade it.’

Lu Sheng quickly adjusted his physical condition. Aquarius Qi was channelled at top speed through the Yin Crane Web in him, then gushed to a mysterious zone in his chest cavity.

All Aquarius Qi which gushed to that spot would disappear mysteriously. Lu Sheng had only recently made that discovery. That seemed to be the spot where energy could be injected into the Modifier. Previously, he was not at a level high enough to notice that. but now he could isolate specific parts of his body.

‘Upgrade Elemental Sea Devil Body to Level Four.’ Lu Sheng clicked on the button behind the Elemental Sea Devil Body.

There were no booms or bams. The screen slowly blurred. His oral cavity, his throat and his lungs and stomach began coughing all together. It was as if someone was pressing a glowing hot iron brand on those areas.

“Szzz…”

Lu Sheng’s mouth, throat, neck and chest glowed red.

That was the result of compressing a long duration of cultivation into a single moment. Even for someone of Lu Sheng’s strength and powerful physical body, he still incurred such intense reaction.

Fortunately, this reaction lasted only a few breaths before fading away.

A new status display appeared on the screen.

‘Elemental Sea Devil Body: Level Four. Special Effect(s): Devil Aura Condensation Grade Four, Toxic Flame Intensification Grade Four, Elemental Pressure Strengthening Grade Four, Devil Dao Breathing Grade One.’

Lu Sheng took a shallow breath. He felt that his breathing was pretty much the same as before. Strangely, however, he felt as if he no longer needed to breathe.

‘According to the records regarding the Elemental Sea Devil Body, this secret art mimics a massive monster of the Devil race whose body was self-sufficient and needed no breathing or any external input to sustain itself. This monster did not even need to breathe to live,’ Lu Sheng recalled. He stopped breathing to test if breathing was now optional for him too.

Extraordinarily, he indeed felt no feeling of suffocation even when he stopped breathing. A great amount of energy was being supplied to him from within his own body.

“Let’s continue.” Lu Sheng began the next upgrade without hesitation after some slight inspection. During this period, he had been consuming Aquarius Qi in a frenzy to upgrade and cultivate Prime Devil Sect’s Devil Bodies. He was now used to acquiring new functions and abilities in his body. It was merely making breathing optional… many secret arts could achieve that same effect.

In Lu Sheng’s books, cultivating the Elemental Sea Devil Body was not difficult. He only took an afternoon to upgrade this Devil Body to full mastery at Level Eight. Furthermore, he successfully mastered the highest achievement of the Elemental Sea Devil Body—the power of destructive breath. This was a powerful innate ability that could be acquired only after mastering all eight levels of the Elemental Sea Devil Body. It was a primal instinct that belonged to the Devil Body.

After mastering his fourth Devil Body, Lu Sheng continued cultivating the fifth Devil Body without stopping.

Phantom Listening Devil Body was the foundation of all other Devil Bodies. It continually used its Yin Devils to devour the River of Poisoned Fog, extract its essence and feed it ceaselessly to Lu Sheng.

Moreover, Lu Sheng discovered by chance that his cultivation of Devil Bodies was getting easier and easier. It seemed to be because his body was exhibiting greater compatibility with the River of Poisoned Fog, which made the speed of cultivating Devil Bodies very short and resulted in lesser load on his body.

This was the reason why he could master the Elemental Sea Devil Body so quickly.

After cultivating four Devil Bodies, a dark-gold glow appeared on his chest, forming a circular loop with the original glowing spots. The fifth Devil Body was called Breath Silencing Devil Body. It was a powerful Devil Body specially designed to amplify strength and physical condition.

Lu Sheng spent a mere two days to master it. But the effects were disappointing. This Devil Body mainly relied on Devil Qi to stimulate one’s body in order to amplify its strength. But because Lu Sheng had been cultivating other Devil Bodies, his body had long since become acclimatized to the stimulation of Devil Qi. Hence, it did not achieve its tempering effect.

But the Breath Silencing Devil Body’s subsequent training to the heart did help Lu Sheng.

The Phantom Listening Devil Body, the Enmity Fire Devil Body, the Desolate Devil Body, the Elemental Sea Devil Body, and the Breath Silencing Devil Body. At this stage, Lu Sheng had fully mastered five out of the eight great Devil Bodies.

The three remaining Devil Bodies had pretty much the same effect as each other. Only the organs they specifically strengthened differed from each other.

Lu Sheng was cultivating faster and faster. On the seventh day after mastering the Breath Silencing Devil Body, he had completely mastered the remaining ones.

Ferocious Crocodile Devil Body, Yin State Devil Body, Moon-watching Dance Devil Body… these three final Devil Bodies increased strength, speed, and recuperative ability, respectively.

As for the combat skills that came in a package with each Devil Body, Lu Sheng could not be bothered with them. Any sort of combat technique that came with each Devil Body would only limit the development of his own power.

In actual fact, the result produced by fully mastering all eight Devil Bodies was less than he had imagined.

***

In the depths of Prime Devil Sect, beside the Holy Weapon pool, Lu Sheng gazed silently at the glittering blue pool of Holy Weapon shards in front of him. These shards were large and razor-sharp. Even the smallest among them was several meters wide and long, with a blue glow exuding from it.

Presently, he was able to enter the force field cast by the Holy Weapon at will unscathed. But this was not because his physical body had reached staggering heights. There was another reason.

Eight dark golden spots rotated and flashed on his chest. Like breathing, they spun in a circle, with the eight golden spots taking turns to light up.

This was the true reason why Lu Sheng could approach the Holy Weapon pool at such close proximity for a long time.

The strength of eight great Devil Bodies formed a circular loop within him, sharing the burden of resisting the radiation of the Holy Weapon. In that way, the power of the Holy Weapon radiation was divided by eight instantly, reducing it to a level within Lu Sheng’s toleration.

But that was all.

Lu Sheng’s face was impassive. His right hand slowly reached into the water and made contact with the nearest Divine Weapon shard.

“Szzz…”

The moment he made contact, great amounts of black cracks spread up his finger in the blink of an eye, as if it would rip his entire arm asunder.

Lu Sheng hurriedly pulled his finger back, but there was no way to save it. Large numbers of cracks covered it, like a shattered porcelain.

‘It still doesn’t work…. ordinary elemental power isn’t of the same league as the power of Law at all. I can only accumulate large quantities of elemental power to resist the corrosion of the power of Law for a short duration… Even resisting it is difficult, not to mention retaliating against it…’ Lu Sheng sighed.

Having gathered all eight Devil Bodies on himself, he had attained an unprecedented and unsurpassed state in the Prime Devil Sect. He had cultivated the secret arts of the path of the Devil to its pinnacle.

But even then, he remained unable to resist the power of a Holy Weapon. At best, he could endure its power for a short period of time…

‘This isn’t the result I want.’ Lu Sheng took a deep breath of air after a moment of silence.

‘Even mastering all eight Prime Devil Bodies is unable to produce the result I want. Very possibly, the problem lies with the nature of that strength. No matter how I cultivate and train the Devil Bodies, they use the Devil Qi of the River of Poisoned Fog as foundation. And Devil Qi converts it into Prime Devil Qi, which is merely ordinary elemental energy. There’s too vast a difference between that and the power of Law. That’s why no matter how I manipulate Prime Devil Qi, at the end of the day, I’m just playing with ordinary elemental energy. I can never attain the power of Law. So… based on this reasoning, I need to use the power of Law as the foundation of my cultivation in order to attain the power of Law,’ Lu Sheng speculated.

‘If it’s really as I guess, then Prime Devil Qi is the true key to everything.’ He suddenly thought of how he had liquefied his inner Qi.

‘Let’s try it. Anyway, I’ve got enough Mental Energy. I’ll just find more if I fail.’

Lu Sheng shut his eyes. Massive Aquarius Qi began condensing and channeling, ready to repair his physical body.

“Deep Blue.”

The pale-blue screen emerged.

Lu Sheng began recalling how Devil Qi was converted into Prime Devil Qi. This was the most foundational part of Prime Devil Sect. It was the component shared by all Devil Bodies.

The answer was Yin Flame.

From the initial Yin Flame produced from meditating on Three Yin Technique, to the toxic flames ignited afterwards, they were actually all the same object. They were the key step in burning Devil Qi and purifying it of impurities to extract Prime Devil Qi from it.

After tidying all his secret arts mentally, realization dawned on Lu Sheng. It turned out that Yin Flame was the true and most basic converter of Devil Qi in the Prime Devil Sect.

In fact, all Devil Bodies secret arts cultivation contained some secret art similar to Three Yin Technique.

‘In the past, the Prime Devil Sect was reputed to contain ninety-nine secret arts of the same level as Three Yin Technique. But whether it’s the many secret arts teacher imparted to me or the eight great Devil Bodies I obtained by chance, all of it was founded on Three Yin Technique and relied on it to convert Prime Devil Qi. So it seems that it’s the true foundation of the entire Prime Devil Sect.’

As Lu Sheng’s thoughts became clearer and clearer, his attention quickly fell on the row which appeared on the Modifier screen.

‘Three Yin Technique: Level Three. Special Effect(s): Three Yin Flame.’

This was the foundational skill he had once neglected. But now he regarded it seriously again.

Lu Sheng took a deep breath of air. It was time to test if his guess was correct.

With his mind, he quickly clicked on the Modify button on Deep Blue. The entire screen blurred and entered the modifiable state. Without wasting any time, he clicked on the extrapolate button behind Three Yin Technique.

Extrapolating new levels could only be done by using Mental Energy, not Aquarius Qi. But he now had more than eighty units of Mental Energy left. It should be enough to extrapolate a foundational skill.

Very soon, Three Yin Technique’s row blurred. Mental Energy began to be expended.

Several breaths later, the screen stabilized and new content appeared.

“Unknown secret art: Level Four. Special Effect(s): Three Yin Flame, Flame Intensification Grade One.”

“It works indeed!” Immediately after upgrading Three Yin Technique, Lu Sheng felt a wave of numbness sweep over his entire body. All his Prime Devil Qi began burning madly. Threads of purer Prime Devil Qi began emerging in his body as Yin Flame raged on within him. This converted Prime Devil Qi was much purer than before.

The moment such pure Prime Devil Qi appeared, all the cells in his body immediately fought to devour it, like thirsty travelers coming across water in a desert.

The newly produced Prime Devil Qi was immediately consumed completely. Not a trace of it was left.

“Again!” Only ten units of Mental Energy had been expended. Overjoyed, Lu Sheng continued upgrading.

He extended his hand. A small ball of green flames burst into life on his palm. This was Yin Flame—the foundation to all secret arts in Prime Devil Sect, and the key to converting Prime Devil Qi.