Way of the Devil - Chapter 216

Chapter 216: Consecutive Breakthrough (2)
'Better absorb the Yin Qi first before anything else . It's not mine until it's in me . ' Lu Sheng had always been a firm pragmatist . Whatever it was, his first priority was to make any benefits his .



Pinching the ring in his hand, he first absorbed the Yin Qi on it .

Yin Qi gushed from the ring, through his fingers and into his body .

One unit, two units . . . five, ten, twelve!

'To think that there're twelve units of Yin Qi in here! Not bad!' Lu Sheng was by now able to estimate the volume of Yin Qi .

Then, it was the copper mirror .

He picked up the broken copper mirror and placed his palm flat across its surface to maximize the contact area . Immediately, like a broken dam, a wave of Yin Qi gushed into him .

Ten units, twenty units . . . thirty . . . thirty-five . . .

'Add to that the Yin Qi I had left . . . and I've got forty-odd units of Yin Qi . ' Lu Sheng put down the mirror and a satisfied smile appeared on his face .

This was entirely an unexpected surprise . Although a few dozen units of Yin Qi was not much to him now, it was just the right amount to upgrade the Karmaless Skill .

'Alright . Now it's time to release Devil Qi and receive stimulation . ' He sat down cross-legged and tossed the ring and copper mirror aside . Gradually, the muscles and skin all over his body began relaxing, opening the pores that had been sealed by Karmaless Skill .

"Szzz!"

Slowly, wisps of toxic fog began gathering rapidly towards him .

The thickness of the poisoned fog made Lu Sheng experience the pain he had undergone when he had first made contact with Devil Qi once again .

Like soaked in acid, his body was being dissolved and corroded, sending stabbing pain and numbness all across his body . Aquarius Qi activated quickly, healing the corroded body tissues and organs .

'Let's begin . Let's see what changes this secret art will cause to me after upgrading . It's so exciting . . . ' Lu Sheng slowly shut his eyes . 'Deep Blue . '

The light blue Modifier screen appeared before him .



Lightly, he pressed the 'Modify' button and his gaze landed straight on the Karmaless Skill's row . Without hesitation, he clicked the 'Upgrade' button behind it .

"Szzz . . . "

The entire screen shook as Yin Qi was consumed . In about several breaths, it came back into focus again .

As Lu Sheng expected, the description on the screen was now refreshed .

'Karmaless Skill: Level Eight . Special Effect(s): Level Eight Body Strengthening, Level Five Devil Intent . '

'Didn't take much to break through . Not much consumption either . . . Just five units of Yin Qi . ' Lu Sheng released all the pores on his body once again .

Devil Qi flooded towards him, growing in density as it was attracted to him by his body . It was almost liquefying .

Countless beads of black water emerged on Lu Sheng's skin, and then were rapidly absorbed into his body . Compared to the fog, the toxicity of this liquid was higher by leaps and bounds .

But to the present Lu Sheng who had mastered Level Eight Karmaless Skill and now possessed a stronger resistance to poison, the stimulation caused by the poisoned fog was once again reduced .

'But if I'm outside, without the stimulation of Devil Qi, I might not have been able to achieve the breakthrough so easily,' Lu Sheng pondered .

To a large extent, the cultivation of the Karmaless Skill depended on the stimulation of Devil Qi . Apart from such external stimulation, not even Yin Qi alone could upgrade Karmaless Skill .

Or perhaps, even if it was able to, it would certainly require much, much more consumption of Yin Qi than otherwise .

'Since I've found such a gem of a place, I've got enough Yin Qi, and Grand Elder has also explained the details and important points of the subsequent levels in Karmaless Skill, I might as well try to break though all levels at one go and fully master the Karmaless Skill . ' Seeing that the expenditure of Yin Qi was so low, Lu Sheng began to form such a thought in his mind .

The Karmaless Skill was merely one of the many foundational skill in Prime Devil Sect . It was not even considered a middle-tier secret art . The subsequent secret arts were all linked together as a family . Only after one mastered a secret art would one be qualified to cultivate the next secret art .

Previously in the sect, even the strongest disciple, Fei Huangzi, had only just broken through the Karmaless Skill and barely begun training the next secret art .

If one had to talk about a first seat in the Prime Devil Sect, only Fei Huangzi could fit the bill . And yet that lad Fei Huangzi was at most below Five-Vein Level . That just went to show how much weaker Prime Devil Sect's secret arts were compared to those of other sects .

For a first seat of such standard to think about fighting for a ranked spot at the Hundred Lineages Meeting, it was a pipe dream .



'Strike while the iron is hot . Again!' Lu Sheng stared at the thickening Devil Qi around him and decided to upgrade Karmaless Skill yet another level .

'Upgrade again to Level Nine!' With his mind, he pressed hard on the 'Modify' button behind Karmaless Skill .

"Buzz!"

Originally, Lu Sheng had thought that this upgrade would be a piece of cake too . But little did he expect that the consumption of Yin Qi accelerated this time .

But along with Yin Qi, the Devil Qi fog around him was also depleting fast!

The sea of Devil Qi had formed a giant whirlpool, drawing into itself all the Devil Qi within a ten meter radius around it . By the time the Devil Qi reached Lu Sheng's body, it had congealed into liquid form, forming dew drops that covered Lu Sheng's skin before being absorbed into his body swiftly .

The entire cave tremored . Gusts of Devil Qi howled as they flew about around Lu Sheng .

Lu Sheng now felt no pain . It was a completely different experience from before . Faintly, Lu Sheng felt as if his soul was being split from his body . His soul was floating an inch above his crown, looking down and gazing at the sea of black fog gushing into his body . Then, as he watched his own body, he noticed an extraordinary transformation happening to it .

A layer of faint black membrane was growing out of the surface of his skin .

"THIS IS . . . ??!" As Lu Sheng gazed intently at it, he began to find that stuff incredibly familiar .

As the layer of black membrane grew till it covered his entire body, Lu Sheng began to feel as if his consciousness was being pulled back into his body .

He looked at the Modifier screen again .

The newly appeared content on the screen left him gaping dumbly .

'Karmaless Skill: Level Nine . Special Effect(s): Black Membrane—Single Vein, Devil Intent—Embryonic Form . '

"It's actually black membrane!!?"

Lu Sheng was dumbfounded .

He had met many Noblemen as well as demons and ghosts of the Bind realm . All of them, without exception, possessed the well-known black membrane .

This was the fundamental reason behind the power of Bind realm beings—the watershed between them and mortals .

No matter what, mortals could never penetrate the black membrane of Bind realm . This was a law . An iron law . Moreover, black membrane originated from Divine Weapons and Devil Blades . They were formed by the light of Divine Weapons and Devil Blades illuminating the bloodlines of Noble Families, causing them to evolve, and then passed down through the generations .

In Noble Families, everyone knew that they were all born with black membrane . As long as the Noble Family's bloodline flowing in one's veins was thick enough, one would be born with black membrane . But nobody knew how on earth black membrane had started .

But now, Lu Sheng had witnessed the birth of black membrane with his own eyes .

'So condensing massive volumes of Devil Qi, and add to that a secret art that tempers and stimulates the physical body like the Karmaless Skill cultivated to its pinnacle . . . this would produce black membrane . . . ?'

Lu Sheng found it incredible .

'No . This isn't black membrane, strictly speaking . It merely looks very much like it in form and aura . This is a protective layer formed by Devil Qi and Karmaless Skill!'

All of a sudden, he discovered the difference between them .

Black membrane was an invisible power that originated from deep within the bloodline that flowed in and out of the bodies of Noblemen . But this supposed 'black membrane' merely appeared on the surface of the skin . It was not integrated into the depths of his bones and bloodline . It merely looked alike on the surface .

Once he realized this, Lu Sheng heaved a sigh of relief . Or perhaps it was disappointment . . . he was not sure .

'But it works as well for me . I can easily use this stuff to pass myself off as a Nobleman . This way, I won't have to worry about getting my identity exposed in the future . At least, it looks like the real deal . . . even its aura feels like the real deal . '

Lu Sheng went on to look at the second special effect . Because he had attained the pinnacle mastery of Karmaless Skill—Level Nine, it was inevitable for another special effect to appear .

'Devil Intent—Embryonic Form . '

Lu Sheng gazed at this special effect for a moment . Suddenly, he exerted his will .

"Swish!!"

Without warning, a blurry translucent stream of Qi was congealed out of the black fog around him .

Like a fish, the arm-wide stream of Qi swam at high speed around Lu Sheng, emitting a faint eccentric howl every now and then, as if somebody was whispering and mumbling softly beside the ear . Subconsciously, it threw one into a state of confusion and frustration, filling one with the urge to turn aggressive and violent .

'So this is the embryonic form of Devil Intent when it's congealed together . . . ' Lu Sheng scrutinized this stream of Qi encircling him . Faintly, he spotted a human face at the top of the stream of Qi—his face .

It made it look like a translucent fish with his face on it . A bizarre sight indeed .

'According to Grand Elder, this Devil Intent is not really a stream of Qi . Rather, it's one's worldly thoughts and desires cut away from oneself and congealed into matter . They could only be either released or kept, not controlled .

Any mortal who lay sight on it would be contaminated . Worldly thoughts and intentions would be induced within his mind, causing him to lose his mind . When used against an opponent of the same league, it was a weapon which could disrupt his or her emotions and judgment . At the same time, it was an essential method that would be used in a subsequent skill . '

Information about it appeared in Lu Sheng's mind .

'After Devil Intent has been congealed into its embryonic form, the next breakthrough would be to cultivate the subsequent Ghost Face Mantra,' Lu Sheng thought .

During this period of time, Grand Elder had been filling his mind with many mantras and formulae like filling a sack . He did not care if he understood them, he only cared that he memorized them .

Perhaps he too knew that Lu Sheng would be unable to understand the secret arts that he had memorized, but time was running short . The Hundred Lineages Meeting was nearly upon them . He had no choice but to do this in order to prevent the sect's inheritance from breaking .

But Grand Elder did not simply hand Lu Sheng all these mantras on a platter . With the important contents relating to the most profound secret arts, Grand Elder had messed up their order and sequence using a particular pattern before making Lu Sheng memorize them .

But against Lu Sheng who had specialized in coding in his previous life, such a basic form of encryption was of no use at all . It was like a lad pretending he had put on his pants when he had merely covered his butt with a piece of paper .

Without breaking into sweat, Lu Sheng easily unlocked the encryption and reorganized the secret arts into their original forms .

But because Ghost Face Mantra was the immediate subsequent skill after Karmaless Skill, Grand Elder did not encrypt it; he had imparted it to Lu Sheng as it was .

In the heydays of the Prime Devil Sect, when one mastered the pinnacle point of the Karmaless Skill, one could choose between several different branches which led to different end points .

But now, only the supposed weakest lineage which Grand Elder belonged to had been passed down . All other routes had been broken and left incomplete .

Hence, Lu Sheng had no alternatives . He had to cultivate Ghost Face Mantra .

'I've still got Yin Qi . I can continue to upgrade . ' Lu Sheng sensed the situation in his body . The strength of his body had been increased by at least twenty to thirty percent . Even his inner force seemed to have been affected; the flow of inner force in his body was now impeded . But each time it completed a full cycle, the inner Qi that was produced was much thicker than before . Its color was also turning black—clearly an effect of Devil Qi .