Way of the Devil

The City of a Thousand Sails.

“Quick, Quick, Quick!”

Huang Fu led a team of the best sect masters through the street.

The city had descended into utter chaos: the crowd was scattered everywhere, with unending screams and cries. Everywhere, the ground was slowly cracking open, with a black-scaled arm that reached out, pulling everyone who went near under.

“Rumble…”

A white tower slowly cracked and fell down towards the direction of Huang Fu and his team.

Everyone in the group were elites and dodged the falling tower easily.

The tall tower smashed onto the street, crushing more than twenty shops on both sides of the street. Some of people hiding fainted from the extreme noise.

A trench tens of meters long appeared as the tower fell on the hard rock slate floor.

“Have we contacted the various sect masters yet??” Huang Fu shouted at his apprentice brother beside him.

“No! Not yet! Absolutely no replies. The various sect masters attending the Minor Sect Alliance haven’t replied yet. Over at Headquarters, they activated the great formation, so no messages are getting through!” his apprentice brother shouted back in grief. He had lost more than ten apprentice brothers and sisters to the devil army.

But up to this point, the most powerful sect masters hadn’t even shown up.

Even Huang Fu, as the most senior apprentice brother and the first seat of the West Infinity Court, couldn’t get any messages through to headquarters.

“AGHHHH!”

Suddenly, a heartbreaking scream came from the north. A regular human simply couldn’t let out such a drawn out and strange scream.

“Move! Now! The Northern Sector is about to fall!” Huang Fu felt anxious. Having battled the devil army for so long, he instantly recognized that voice.

After the great formation maintained by Shangyang Family’s painters fell and the devil army charged into the city, the Painter Division and residing Judges cooperated to resist the devils in the street. Huang Fu and his company volunteered to lead a small team of elite fighters to hunt down various devils.

But there were simply too many of them to kill. There was no way that normal disciples could resist these devils with at least Bind Level powers. Only a team of elite forces could finish the battle in a timely fashion.

And above those normal devils, there existed officers intelligent enough to speak human language, as well as various strange-looking but powerful monsters. Above those were devil generals, ranked from one star to five stars: even one star ones were at least Snake Level, while only people at the top of the Upper Three Tiers from a Noble Family stood a chance against the highest five star generals.

Hundreds of thousands of devil soldiers endlessly flooded into the city, turning it into a forge of blood and flesh, blending and tearing both sect and Noble Family disciples into mincemeat mixed with devil blood.

And the most powerful Judge, Shangyang Jun was recklessly fighting against a five star general in the middle of the city.

Huang Fu and his company hurriedly moved to the northern region. The whole region had been turned into ruins. Vast amounts of rubble piled up into little hills mixed with both blood and flesh.

There were some experts resisting the devil army with their lives, but were obviously at a disadvantage.

A flood of single-horned pitch-black giant humanoid devils with hunched backs holding spiked clubs frenziedly charged at every human that appeared in their view.

Huang Fu and his company were trying to go to help these powerful sect disciples as fast as possible.

Streak after streak of distress signals was sent in all directions from City of a Thousand Sails. All sects, as well as all of the Noble Families, started reacting. However, the closest sect masters had been locked inside the great formation of the West Infinity Court, while the sects further away couldn’t reach the city in time. A weird vacuum was formed as the various powers could only watch as City of a Thousand Sails fell into war.

Outside, the four armies of the sects were also in a frenzied battle with the devil armies. The whole fight was like a giant meat grinder.

In the sky, streak after streak of bright signals clashed with streaks of black smoke.

“Boom!!”

A monster tens of meters tall broke out of the ground, with silver Divine Weapon symbols covering its armor, and charged towards the devil army.

These monsters looks like mammoths, but also each had a long, thick tail behind them. They were warbeasts specifically bred by the Shangyang Family—Meng.

A total of five Meng broke out of the ground and charged towards the dwarfed devil army encampment.

But immediately multiple large monsters with four wings dived down. Their appearance was like giant eagles, but they had four jade-green eyes on their head, with feathers far stronger than steel.

These were warbeasts controlled by the devil army. As the two sides clashed, the beasts started to give off horrifying howls and roars powerful enough to shake the ground.

Behind the warbeasts, tiny shadows of humans and devils clashed together. Warcries, screams, and roars all mixed into one.

***

Meanwhile, deep underneath the Prime Devil Sect.

Behind a pitch-black seal, Lu Sheng sat there with crossed legs. There was only darkness all around him; multiple blurry shapes of Shadow Devils flowed around him slowly, ready to dispel any approaching danger.

Vast amounts of Devil Qi in the air were engulfed by Lu Sheng, maintaining the movement of the Shadow Devils.

Right now he was focusing on the Ultimate Eight-Headed Devil Way tab in Deep Blue. He had just absorbed 600 units of Mental Energy; with the previously absorbed 100 units, he had accumulated 700 or so units in total.

With that much Mental Energy, it simply didn’t make sense not to start improving Devil Bodies as fast as possible. Even better, the Devil Qi in this place was very abundant: cultivating here for a day was the same as doing the same for half a month outside.

Lu Sheng deftly pressed the modify button mentally. Deep Blue’s window shook, immediately transitioning into modification mode.

He then navigated swiftly to the Ultimate Eight-Headed Devil Way tab and saw a new evolve button as he’d expected.

‘Last time, I spent over 200 units of Mental Energy. Who knows how much this round of improvement will take.’ Lu Sheng had mentally prepared himself: though 700 units of Mental Energy looked like plenty, it would probably only improve his Ultimate Eight-Headed Devil Way one or two tiers higher.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Lu Sheng closed his eyes and pressed the evolve button mentally.

“Hiss…”

A light noise, and the Cheating Device started to blur.

One breath…

Two breaths…

Ten breaths…

A hundred breaths…

Countless amounts of black Qi started to repress and flow into Lu Sheng’s body.

The Devil Qi throughout his body started to circulate violently, and slowly compressed into drop after drop of black liquid, integrating into his bloodstream as it flowed through his body.

But Devil Qi was different from other substances: it was highly corrosive, especially the purple-black one Lu Sheng had currently. The liquid that this kind of Devil Qi condensed into far exceeded the damage of poison fire. Even though it wasn’t meant for damage, its innate property made it close to being an ultimate killing weapon. Hence, the energy required to regenerate from them was also immense.

As the Devil Liquid started to integrate into his bloodstream, corroded flesh started to appear throughout his body. His organs, flesh, muscles, and skin were all wounded to various degrees. But at the same time, they were also regenerating at an insane rate.

As time passed, a whirlpool of Devil Qi formed around Lu Sheng, absorbing every bit of Devil Qi into his body to the point where Devil Qi started to thin out in the air.

“What is wrong with this kid… Absorbing even more Devil Qi after already absorbing all of my Devil Essence? How much can he take?” thought King Shadow from the previous level helplessly.

His core form was flowing through the dark, sensing everything that was happening below carefully.

His core form was just a swirl of shadow with a face on it. That was his whole body.

“This smell… it’s Devil Qi compressing into liquid… this bastard… does he want to die?! This is power that only Devil Lords can harness. Without a strong enough body, he will explode in a few breaths!” King Shadow marveled as he was observing.

Devil Master was a level above Devil King and normal Divine Weapon Master. After liquefying Devil Qi, a Devil Master was among the most powerful within the devil race.

Now he was a hundred percent sure that this bastard that just absorbed all of his Devil Essence was not human, but instead a highborn devil.

“Tsk, tsk… He’s the first to attempt to break through to Devil Master right after reaching Devil King level. Why don’t you think of how humans have so many Divine Weapon Masters, yet not a single one can break through? Those who tried are all dead: let’s see how you die!” King Shadow gloated as he watched Lu Sheng.

Devil Master was an existence that surpassed Devil King and could even match Divine Weapons and Devil Blades.

Breaking through to such a level, of course, wouldn’t be easy.

***

‘Almost there… Almost there… after this breakthrough, I will be at the level of a Divine Weapon Master!!’ Lu Sheng harnessed the Devil Liquid that surpassed Divine Weapon Master with a cruel expression.

‘Only then will I have the power to protect myself!’ With a firm look in his eyes, Lu Sheng started to feel the mysterious changes happening to his body.

Without a reference, Lu Sheng had no clue that he had long surpassed Holy Weapon level and reached Divine Weapon Master Level, or Devil Master Level. To a normal person, he would just seem to be equal to a typical Divine Weapon Master.

His body, with the support of the Cheating Device, was also being changed to a more tenacious and stronger structure. His original DNA and cells were being obliterated in waves, replaced by new, slimmer cells that were many times smaller.

These cells were born from the blood mixed with Devil Liquid and seemed to have a mind of their own, spreading to every corner of Lu Sheng’s body in a frenzy.

They started to form a body based on both human and devil ones. In places that they absolutely couldn’t be merged, Devil Liquid filled the gap. In places lacking power, Devil Qi was burned to form purple-black devil fire to replenish power.

The devil flame, or poison fire, formed from burning Devil Qi brought no harm to the new cells. Just like how human bodies could withstand their own electrical current and internal hormones, withstanding extreme heat as well potent toxin were all like a breeze for the new cells.

A bit of time passed slowly.

Lu Sheng started to feel thirsty; his Devil Qi was running dry…

He just absorbed all of King Shadow’s saved up Devil Essence, then immediately evolved all eight of his devil bodies to a realm that even the founding masters of the Prime Devil Sect couldn’t even dream of.

Hence, he successfully broke through the Holy Weapon level and entered Divine Weapon Master level. However, this was his limit. The leftover Devil Qi was not enough to sustain advancing to Devil Master level.

That was a level that even King Shadow dreamed of too. Even during his prime, he was one step away from it.

But that one step was the difference between the sky and the ground, an unsurpassable gap.

But Lu Sheng didn’t know any of this.

He just had an instinctive feeling that there wasn’t enough Devil Qi.

Standing up, Lu Sheng stared at the altar unflinchingly—he could feel the vast amount of Devil Qi flowing out from a gap underneath the altar.