Way of the Devil - Chapter 328

Chapter 328: 328




The sky was gray when Lu Sheng walked out of the temple . Thunder roared in the distance, and occasionally, a purple arc of lightning flashed in the thick clouds .

Lu Sheng walked down the stairs in front of the temple, toward the carriage waiting for him in front .

He flipped onto the car, and then was greeted by the smiling face of Elder Zhang Shilong, who was sitting quietly with a cup of hot tea between his hands .

"How did it go? Everything went well?"

"Everything went well," Lu Sheng answered as he got on the car . "Aside from someone who called himself the inspector who seemed strange . Looked like some shady business to me . "

"Oh?" Zhang Shilong blanked out for a moment . "The inspector? The Song Family, wasn't it? That's their normal tactic . Just try to ignore it if you encounter them . "

"Why? Are they really powerful?" Lu Sheng raised his eyebrows .  

"The Song Family is one of the two most powerful families in our Autumn Moon County branch . You are a prodigy with a Scarlet Jade tier rating, so just try your best not to provoke them . You have no need to face them head on . You will move up to the upper sect eventually . " Zhang Shilong shook his head . "Almost one-fifth of this branch's disciples are from the Song Family . Sometimes, people in charge are forced to make certain accommodations . "

"Understood . " Lu Sheng nodded .

"That will be the best for your future . They are like an emperor who could only reign in this tiny countryside and nowhere else, while you have the potential to reach for the sky . Your strength lies in your future, no need to fight them head on right now . "

"I understand . " Lu Sheng nodded .

***

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Inside the temple, the staggering shape of the white-clad inspector appeared . He immediately fell forward—clearly exhausted—and exposed his blood-soaked back .  

He coughed violently, clearly severely injured .



"What happened?" said a man in a white robe, resting with his eyes closed to the side of the main temple . He opened his eyes and stared at the inspector strangely .

"I miscalculated . " The inspector managed to prop up his body with a cough .  

"What about the young master? Did he succeed?" The silver-robed man sensed that something was wrong .

"He should be fine . Someone nearly grabbed it before him, though," the inspector said with a low voice .

" . . . "The silver-robed man stood up slowly and frowned . "How much manpower did we put in to arrange this? Yet, we still nearly lost it to someone else?"

"I couldn't do anything . The candidate this time, that man named Lu Sheng, is monstrously powerful!" The inspector's eyes darkened as he thought back to their battle . "His body is extremely powerful, his strength is above average, and I couldn't even match his speed . He nearly stole the young master's gem . He was too fast—he maze didn't slow him down at all . "

"Lu Sheng… the prodigy who got a Scarlet Jade tier rating? I know him . " The silver-robed man frowned even deeper . "Zhang Shilong already took notice of him . Even the sect master is interested in this Scarlet Jade tier prodigy . Don't provoke him further, at least for now . This doesn't matter, anyway, as long as the young master passes the test successfully . " 

"But…" Hatred and regret flashed across the inspector's eyes .  

"There are no buts . Remember your place . You, too, understand what Scarlet Jade tier entails . The sect won't alienate someone who will eventually reach Earth Prime just for a man like you who has already nearly exhausted their potential," the silver-robed man said flatly . "I know you won't be happy about this, but there's nothing we could do . Go choose something from the family's B tier treasury . Sometimes, we are forced to endure things we despise in our life . "

The inspector held onto the wall and straightened his body, his chest rising and falling heavily . He nearly got killed, and how did the family that he had loyally served react? They threw away some trivial treasure, and tried to sweep the whole thing under a rug .

He served the family loyally and diligently for so many years, yet they wanted him to "endure" because of some Scarlet Jade tier?

A fire burned in the chest of the inspector, an unexplainable fire .

"You may leave now . Rest until your wounds heal . Regarding this incident, neither the sect nor the family will support you," the silver-robed man said in a low voice .

"I understand…" The inspector stayed silent for a few moments, then slowly walked out of the main temple . Soon, he disappeared from view .

The silver-robed man stood alone in the empty main temple, and again sat down quietly .

"Lingbo," he suddenly whispered .



"I'm here . " A woman wearing a similar robe appeared next to him with her head bowed low in respect .

"Go to Master Lu and express our Song Family's apology . Also, figure out his attitude toward the young master . Establish a good relation with him, if at all possible . "

"Yes, sir . " The silver-robed woman nodded and retreated, then disappeared in midair in the blink of an eye .

***

In a delicate courtyard at the center of the county capital .

Lu Sheng sat in his study room, reading a newly borrowed Great Yin history book .

"Young Master Lu, someone from the Song Family wishes to visit . "

"Song Family?" Lu Sheng immediately thought of Elder Zhang Shilong's talk about the inspector and Song Du . He hesitated a bit . "Let him in . "

"Yes, sir . " Although the servants were all arranged by Elder Zhang Shilong, the establishment was the private vacation home of another elder . Even the Song Family wouldn't try to invade another elder's home so disrespectfully .

The servant retreated, and quickly brought back a masked woman wearing black gauze .

Lu Sheng rose and opened the door to greet the woman .

"Allow me to introduce myself . My name is Song Lingbo, and I hope Master Lu could forgive us for our actions during the test . This is a little token of apology from us, please accept it . " The woman didn't waste time with small talk, and presented a little circular black box .

Lu Sheng was a little surprised . The Song Family somehow reacted to this whole incident with diligence, and even sent a gift despite being a massive family . With organization like that, it was not luck that brought them to the position they were at .

"Lady Lingbo is too kind . What happened today was just a misunderstanding . I'm happy to accept your gift . " Lu Sheng wasn't modest at all, on the other hand, and happily accepted the gift .

"Rest assured, Young Master Lu . The Song Family would like to cooperate with Young Master Lu in the future . The Black Seal Temple will no doubt provide many such opportunities . This incident was only an oversight . Random people with improper intentions are bound to be mixed with us in such a large family . "

Her face wasn't pretty, but had a soft quality to it . Her eyes were curved, which looked nice when she smiled . She didn't have the usual arrogance of someone from a powerful family . Instead, one could feel an affinity like the spring wind .

He voice was soft and light too, without a single trace of arrogance . With all of these traits, she almost always succeeded in her diplomatic endeavors .

Lu Sheng had a good impression of her as well . "If everyone from the Song Family has such a soft manner like Lady Lingbo, I am very much inclined to cooperate . "

"Young Master Lu is too kind . " Song Lingbo smiled upon confirming that his attitude wasn't too extreme, which was enough . That way, he could be befriended with benefits or other methods . Even if that failed, he at least wouldn't become an enemy .

"I will leave Young Master Lu to rest, then . "

"Have a safe journey, Lady Lingbo . "

Lu Sheng accompanied her to the gate and watched her leave . Then, he turned back to his room, and opened the little box .

He didn't even care about the servant, and directly opened the box .

"Puff…"

A bone-chilling air slowly flowed out from the box . In the middle of the box sat a deep purple pearl-like orb .

The orb was only about the size of a fingernail, but had a strange chill throughout its body . Lu Sheng's fingernail had frost appear on it as soon as he took it out .

"Ziying Orb?!" the servant waiting by the door exclaimed .  

"Ziying Orb?" Lu Sheng remembered this orb from a record . It was neither a special treasure nor a rare herb, but rather just common currency that was popular in the Great Yin . It was one of the many currencies that could be used for trade .  

One Ziying Orb could be exchanged for 10 Hongying Orb, which could in turn be exchanged for over a hundred ounces of Devil Gold in any bank .

Devil Gold was a currency exclusive to the Great Yin, popular among its noble families and upper classes as a special currency . It was completely different from normal gold and silver that ordinary mortals used, and couldn't be exchanged for normal gold or silver, either .

The most direct uses of Devil Gold were for buying Secret Arts, treasures, and even shards of Divine Weapons .

Lu Sheng read from a record that the Divine Weapon shards were separated into tiers . The top-tier ones were chips that fell directly from the original Divine Weapon and retained a majority of its power . The bigger the shard, the more it would cost .

The lowest tiers were the small shards that only had a sliver of power left in them . Those couldn't be made into Holy Weapons nor embedded into normal weapons . The only use they had was to embed it into a person's body to strengthen the user's bloodline with the tiny amount of radiation that they emitted .

As for Devil Gold, 1000 pieces of it could purchase the lowest tier and the smallest Divine Weapon shard .

"What a precious gift . " For someone with a bloodline, the more shards around, the better . No one was going to complain about having too many shards .

Lu Sheng understood how precious the gift was . He nearly robbed the gem they prepared, and almost killed someone working for them as well, yet he was the one to get a gift of apology .

He put away the Ziying Pearl, and ordered the servant to boil water . After getting his new clothes ready, he went in to take a hot bath .

He also started to assess his current situation while he was bathing .

He didn't plan to use Devil Essence, liquid Inner Qi, nor the strong body of the Ultimate Eight-Headed Devil Way at all, so he hid all of them . Those could very easily expose his identity .

The only thing he had access to was his Bind level single vein body and the True Qi he'd started cultivating not long ago .

If he utilized all his True Qi, his skin would be covered by blood-colored veins . His strength and speed would also be increased at the same time . If he further sped up the circulation of qi and blood, even his reaction speed would be increased .

'In reality, the Great Yin as a whole seems to be focused on True Qi techniques . Different True Qi techniques improve the body in different ways, while also having different special killing strikes . No one could account for every single one of them in their defenses . But these True Qi techniques start to develop bloodlines as its focus past the Bind level . This is basically an upgraded version of the Great Song's Hundred Lineages,' he thought with his hands on the side of the barrel .

'At this point, I have reached a bottleneck, and if I want to improve further, I need to start focusing on developing my bloodline . My bloodline is part of the Yuanguang Family's burning blood, not to mention that it's also extremely diluted and has very little potential . The amount of Essence Qi that I need to improve it probably unfathomable .

'So…' He remembered the Ziying Pearl he'd received . 'A better way to go might be to earn as much Devil Gold as possible to buy compatible Divine Weapon shards to implant into my body to receive a new bloodline . '

There was a big market for implanting new bloodlines in the Great Yin too . People doing this kind of business usually provided service to the family members of big families with low tier bloodlines . They had enough money and resources to trade for Divine Weapon shards, and the resulting bloodlines usually far exceeded those of ordinary people .

But using divine weapon shards to nourish bloodlines was an endless money sink . The money and resources needed were unfathomable to the ordinary people . The ordinary human body and regeneration speed weren't enough for implanting Divine Weapon shards, anyways . They had to reach a certain level of cultivation, and also possess a body suitable for bloodline, and even then use countless amounts of precious ingredient to strengthen and nourish their body .

After the shard was implanted, massive amounts of special resources would be required once again to negate the potential side effects . The horrifying amount of spending required meant that normal noble families could sustain one or two people at most, and they might even go broke even at that .