Way of the Devil

The trip to the Yellow Springs Planet made the three great sects of the Green Branch Sect see that the Mother of Pain must have had some unknown way of learning about their infiltration plan.

On another side, one of the Three Sacred Spiritual Gates’ Void Underworld expert had died, while a Void Underworld being from the Wind Transformation Sect had mysteriously disappeared.

In the end, if the Devil Emperor Shun Ying, Lu Sheng, had not killed Seven Soul Asura and activated his backup plan, they would not have been able to break free from the Mother of Pain.

Perhaps none of them could have made it back alive.

Green Branch Sect. Shun Ying Planet.

Lu Sheng named one of his own planets as Shun Ying. He planned to use it as a dwelling place for his subordinates.

He no longer had plans to return to the Yellow Springs Planet. However, he could sense that some of his cells left behind in the Anomaly Research Society were still alive.

It was clear that the other party did not notice this contingency plan he’d laid out. If he had the need for it in the future, he could enter Yellow Springs Planet at any time he wanted and carry out his missions without being noticed.

He settled Li Shunxi and the others down on Shun Ying Planet for now. At the moment, Li Shunxi was the only one in the research society. Thanks to his forceful tugs, Divine Lord Tong Yi and a ragtag team of others were brought out of the Yellow Springs Planet.

The others were also included as members of the research society.

After resting, Lu Sheng finally met Divine Lord Tong Yi again after a long time.

***

Tong Yi was almost disfigured by age. It had only been a century, yet he looked as if he had lived through an entire millennium. His hair was white, and wrinkles covered his forehead and face.

He was holding onto Li Shunxi. When Lu Sheng walked in, he was basking in the sunlight on the veranda and conversing with Li Shunxi.

“Divine Lord Tong Yi, how do you do?” Lu Sheng closed the door behind him. He wore a rare genuine smile.

Tong Yi turned around, gave Lu Sheng a glance, and smiled as well.

“I knew it was you! When Little Xi brought me over, I wasn’t sure if I should believe him. I believe him now…”

“Let’s sit for a bit.” Lu Sheng could see Tong Yi’s current condition.

He had lost all his strength. His body was filled with a peculiar power which sealed his own powers away completely. It was even chipping away at his current lifespan.

“What happened?” Lu Sheng frowned slightly.

“After you left, Divine Lord Tong Yi accidentally suffered grave wounds while fighting off the Evil Spirits. The power you sense within him is the Evil Spirit Night Emperor’s power. There’s no way to purge it…” said Li Shunxi helplessly.

“When I found him, he was already in this condition. The Night Emperor’s power is too formidable, I can’t do anything…”

“Night Emperor…” Lu Sheng had experienced that power before. It was as if it had a life of its own. It was extremely tricky to deal with.

However, at this moment, dealing with it was nothing difficult.

He pressed his hand against Divine Lord Tong Yi’s wrist. A spirit-prompting thread entered Tong Yi’s body.

Currently, his spirit-prompting threads contained the Soil Qi’s attributes and abilities. Once it entered Tong Yi’s body, it could kill anything, including gods. The semi-transparent Evil Spirit Night Emperor’s power was swiftly devoured and melted away.

A moment later, Lu Sheng removed his hand.

“Just rest well and recuperate. After all, you’ve been wounded for a very long time. You need to completely bring your body back into shape. That’s not an easy thing to do…” he said with a smile.

Tong Yi noticed, with surprise, that the power which had been troubling him from within had suddenly vanished.

He quickly circulated his Origin Power within his body to nourish his nearly withered and emaciated body.

The two of them stood there, bewildered. Then, Tong Yi quickly inspected his body. He discovered that he was healed!

“Thank you. If it weren’t for you, I might only be able to linger on for a couple of years more before I go to see my old friends,” Tong Yi exclaimed as he strongly suppressed the awe he felt within himself.

He could not imagine how this young man, who he had to guide under his wing back then, was now walking far ahead of him.

The power of a great Night Emperor was something he could easily deal with with a swipe of his hand.

When Tong Yi’s problem was dealt with, Li Shunxi could no longer refrain from asking, “Big Brother Lu, throughout all these years when you weren’t with the Thousand Sun Sect, where have you been?”

“It’s just as you’ve seen. I’ve left Yellow Springs Planet and joined the Green Branch Sect, which is a powerful organization on par with the Mother of Pain,” Lu Sheng introduced simply.

“But—”

“Let’s talk about me some other time. Little Brother, I want you to build a team in the research society here looking into the origin and nature of the Anomalies. I trust that you can handle it?” Lu Sheng cut him short.

“I think I can, but I’m a stranger here and I’ll need your approval for many things. It might not be very convenient,” said Li Shunxi as he nodded.

“I’ll give you an official reply after this, don’t worry. You’ll have an official status soon. Also, there’s no need to worry about the Yellow Springs Planet’s side for now. The Mother of Pain has suffered great losses as well. I’m sure they’re having their hands full salvaging the situation. We can recuperate for a while before planning our next course of action,” Lu Sheng added.

“On this side, I need you guys to come up with a basic framework on the Anomalies as soon as possible. I have some data we’ve collected before this. You can take a look at and share it with the others as well,” Lu Sheng explained.

“Then, you can live on Shun Ying Planet without worries. If there’s any problem, you can find me in the Green Branch Sect. I might need some time for my secluded cultivation,” he continued.

“I understand.” Li Shunxi nodded solemnly. “However, I have another presumptuous request to make…”

“What is it?” Lu Sheng smiled. He could guess what he wanted to say already.

“My teacher might have left Yellow Springs long ago, and his traces are faint at best. Nobody knows where he’s at right now. If you have the time, Big Brother, can you help me look for him?” Li Shunxi pleaded.

“That’s easy. Consider it done.”

“There’s also the Thousand Sun’s patriarch, little Sheng. I’ll remind you of this…” At the side, Divine Lord was also wearing a pleading expression. “There were many experts from various sects who left the Yellow Springs Planet long ago. Perhaps you should keep an eye on their whereabouts in case anything happens.”

“Mm-hmm, I’ll do that.” Lu Sheng nodded.

The reason he pulled Li Shunxi into the research society was so that he could make plans about the overall situation with the help of his Nefarious Jade. With him looking over the research society and serving as the core, he could reduce the likelihood of his members coming to harm.

After their discussion, Lu Sheng quickly memorized and compiled the data the research society had collected on the Anomalies into volumes of books. Then, he built an Anomaly News Block on Shun Ying Planet as well.

At the same time, he was controlling his clone on Yellow Springs Planet. He continued to control the research society in secret so that it made more progress and gathered more data on the Anomalies.

During the great battle before this, he had also protected the core members with his main body’s flesh so that they could flee the city.

He kept them alive for this.

He continued to make all the necessary arrangements. This probing battle had given the three sects and the Mother of Pain a deeper understanding of the strength of their respective adversaries.

Both sides had lost Void Underworld beings. This was a great loss.

On top of that, they had injured Void Underworld beings as well. None of them had the confidence to continue fighting for now. If they kept at it, the final outcome would be a victory which came at a great cost. In the end, the victor would only be easily devoured by a third party.

Due to his feat of killing yet another powerful Void Underworld being, Lu Sheng’s popularity rose again.

However, his official statement was that he had also suffered serious injuries when he killed that Void Underworld being, and he now had to seclude himself to tend to his wounds.

He had not actually suffered any grievous wounds. The reason Lu Sheng said that was because after witnessing the terrifying strength of the Mother of Pain and the power of an Underworld Net being, he was now determined to further derive his own tier!

***

A fortnight later…

Within a natural underground cave on Shun Ying Planet.

Lu Sheng was now in his three-faced, long-tailed perfect body of an Anomaly. This was also his main body’s real appearance.

His human form was only an appearance he assumed while suppressing his own strength. This giant form of his was the most powerful ultimate form which he naturally took on when he unleashed his Soil Qi completely.

The perfect body was his daily form in which he could move about freely.

Within the underground cave, Bansai and Toram Bach were checking the formation veins.

Lu Sheng floated at the side. Transparent, contorted force fields surrounded his body.

After spending more than 80,000,000 Mental Energy units, he successfully achieved the breakthrough to the third stage of the Void Wheel tier without much fanfare.

Some peculiar and minute optimization had occurred within his body. This optimization made him felt that he could unleash more formidable destructive power.

However, this optimization alone only gave him twice or thrice his original strength. He was still a far cry compared to the Mother of Pain. He could not even scratch her.

‘From the Void Wheel, to Materialization, and then to the Underworld Net. There are at least five stages between them. The different stages will be accompanied by their respective substantial changes. It’s still too early for me to go up against an Underworld Net being.’ Lu Sheng looked at the Arrival Formation which was being maintained right now. He was feeling slightly anxious.

He was not worried about the Mother of Pain, he was worried about the Empress Wa World. If the Mother of Pain was already this formidable, there was no way of telling how powerful the two old farts in the Empress Wa World, such as the Indefinite Cult Master, that mysterious and unpredictable old monster, were…

Lu Sheng was strongly attracted to Empress Wa’s stock of Mental Energy. However, the terrifying pressure from the two Underworld Net masters, the Indefinite Cult Master and the Spring Autumn Sect Master, gave him second thoughts.

‘If there’s no other way, perhaps I can transmigrate a few more times and see if I can land in a world with a huge store of Mental Energy such as the Empress Wa World.’

This was the reason he laid out the formation this time.

At this moment, the formation genius Bansai stood up as well. He gave a detailed report. “The checks are complete. There are no mistakes. The 16,210,000 runes, more than 700 mini formations, three comprehensive circulation systems, and three energy supply systems are all in working order!”

“What’s the time flow difference? What about the power rank?” Lu Sheng asked.

“According to your request, this time we’ve chosen a universe with power rank-5, which is the highest we can go for now. In such a universe, the greatest time flow difference is only 1 to 10. We can’t access universes with higher power ranks, as we’ll need a more powerful Arrival Formation to break through the universe’s membrane,” Bansai explained.

“1 to 10, huh… Well, I’m in no hurry,” Lu Sheng said drily. For a Void Underworld being, a few centuries only amounted to a nap. This was nothing new.

Besides, he had yet to receive new about Lu Ning and the others. He could only sense that they were still alive.

The space-time vortex had washed them away to some unknown universe. There was no way of contacting them.

“I just hope that by the time my tier’s improved, Ning’er and the others are found…” Lu Sheng could sense that they were still alive, and he was plenty grateful for that.

After such a long time, he no longer took it as hardly. His greatest relief was that his kin was still alive.

With Ning’er’s qualities, he firmly believed that they would one day meet again.