Way of the Devil
chapter-160

"… Gold… Gold… Golden Phoenix Bell…" the umbrella girl stammered with her head bowed, not daring to make eye contact with Lu Sheng.

"What’s it good for?"

"For summoning… summoning ghost subordinates…"

"Alright. And how about this?" Lu Sheng picked up the second item—the rectangular wooden box.

"Ancient… Phantom Grass…"

"What’s it for?"

"Sis’ formation… core…"

Another item he had no use for. Lu Sheng frowned as he put it down and picked up the third one.

This time, without his asking, the umbrella girl answered in stammers, "This… is the treasure map… left behind… by… Headless Ghost King."

"Headless Ghost King?" Lu Sheng had never heard of this name before. Probably it was famous among ghosts, but unheard of among mortals.

He continued asking the umbrella girl and finally figured out who this Headless Ghost King was after a while.

According to legends. The Northern Lands was a swathe of deserted snow land. Only very few fishermen and hunters could stake out a living here.

Here, they encountered an extremely mysterious primitive tribe which hunted and fished for food.

In the process of interacting with them, they discovered that the tribe was worshipping a bizarre colorful statue without a head. The tribe called it Dong Lian and worshipped it with incense.

Slowly, those who migrated to join them also began to believe in the god Dong Lian

When a Nobleman came and discovered that the entire Northern Lands worshipped this Dong Lian god, he investigated it secretly. Apparently, an enormous conflict erupted at that time.

In the end, everything died down and fell into silence. All the worshippers of the god Dong Lian had been killed, leaving behind only a treasure map in circulation.

Nobody knew the specifics.

"It sounds like an evil god to me." Lu Sheng put down the treasure map. He hated these seemingly valuable but not immediately obtainable items the most. For the time being, he’d keep it and trade it off to someone else who wanted it in the future.

Although none of the three items were useful to him, he was unbothered. Just the Yin Qi absorbed this time alone was enough for him to recoup his losses.

He massacred over a hundred ghosts in Scarlet District. The Yin Qi he had absorbed was almost equivalent of that peculiar piece of metal previously; it was at least worth fifty units. That was his greatest gain.

Secondly, there was the umbrella girl—his lab rat. Coincidentally, he was starting to be very interested in these ghosts. It was rare to come by one who could communicate and respond to threats; he was now able to enquire about their habits.

Under Lu Sheng’s threats and promises, the umbrella girl stammered and sobbed as she answered each of his questions.

After nearly four hours, Lu Sheng finally understood how ghosts came about.

Bitterness.

The bitterness of the world was the seed by which ghosts were formed.

If one died with deep bitterness, there was a chance that one would become a weak Yin soul after death. Yin souls grew by absorbing people’s fear. The greater the fear, the stronger they become. Finally, after they reach a certain extent of power, they become ghosts.

Once they became ghosts, they would possess material bodies and would be able to touch objects. At this stage, they were now able to consume each other and the essence blood of mortals. They could also continue absorbing more fear. Ghosts would gradually become stronger as they aged, finally earning the chance to evolve into an Anomaly.

But this was just merely the route of evolution that the umbrella girl had seen herself. In actual fact, many other things existed that could induce changes in souls and ghosts. That was how all sorts of different Anomalies were formed.

Even the umbrella girl herself could not detail what the specific reasons behind these changes were. She was an Anomaly, but was unclear how she herself had become one.

Then when Lu Sheng began asking about her sister, the Scarlet District Mistress, she shut her mouth resolutely, refusing to speak even a word. Unlike previously, she seemed a lot more resolute about this.

Lu Sheng did not press her. After asking what he needed to, he reached out and pressed his palm on the umbrella girl’s forehead.

"Whatever you feel, tell me truthfully," he instructed. Then, slowly, he channeled a strand of Yin Yang Jade Crane Aquarius Qi into the umbrella girl’s forehead.

The umbrella girl seemed oblivious. She continued to stare at him wide-eyed, completely clueless about what was happening.

Lu Sheng’s will entered the umbrella girl’s body along with the strand of Aquarius Qi, then formed a small core in her chest naturally.

"It… feels really comfortable…" the umbrella girl stammered.

"Comfortable?" Lu Sheng clearly felt the trace of Yin-attribute inner Qi spreading across her body rapidly, gradually assimilating the Yin elements in her body and pulling them together.

Just like a seed planted into the ground and stretching its roots into it.

"Boom!!"

Suddenly, the seed exploded without warning, causing pure Aquarius Qi to erupt from the center of the umbrella girl’s chest.

The umbrella girl looked down in dazed shock at the bloodied fist-sized hole in her chest.

"AHHHHH!!"

She shrieked and pulled herself up from the ground and shot towards the outside of the cave.

Lu Sheng could not stop her in time. By reflex, his mighty Ultimate Crimson Nine Furies Skill activated as he grabbed at her.

The umbrella girl had barely made a distance of several meters before she was stopped by the blood web. Then, she was caught in the grip of Lu Sheng's giant hand, her body writhing and distorting vigorously in it.

She seemed in excruciating pain. Her soul body had been severely damaged and her eyes were rolling backwards. Writhing and trembling intensely, she struggled madly to pull away from Lu Sheng and dash out of the cave, even at the cost of having net-like lines scorched into her body by his blood web.

‘Shouldn't Yin-attribute inner Qi strengthen a Yin soul?’ Lu Sheng was baffled as he tried to recall what had gone amiss.

Initially, everything seemed fine when he had first injected his Aquarius Qi into the umbrella girl's body. Clearly, unlike Yang-attribute inner Qi which was antithetical to Yin souls, Yin-attribute inner Qi could co-exist with Yin souls.

Everything changed in the instant when it began to take root in her.

Lu Sheng pulled his hand back and shook the umbrella girl vigorously.

She was barely hanging onto her breath, with her soul body near transparent. It seemed like she wasn't going to make it.

‘Could it be some sort of rejection by her body?’ Lu Sheng suddenly thought of the rejection effect seen in organ transplantations.

‘If Yin souls were truly formed by pure bitterness and fear, then my inner Qi, being formed by meditation and food, naturally would be imprinted with my personal will. Perhaps the two wills clashed with each other…’

He contemplated as he slapped the umbrella girl's cheeks.

"Pah, pah."

"You still alive?"

The umbrella girl's had rolled from left to right under Lu Sheng's slaps. She woke up and immediately began bawling at the sight of Lu Sheng. Dashing into a corner of the cave, she balled herself up, hugged her umbrella and trembled in sobs.

Lu Sheng grabbed her and dragged her back to the center of the cave.

Come, come, come. Let's try this again."

"NO!... I don't want!!!"

"Don't move!!"

"Don't come near!!!"

"BAM!"

Lu Sheng struck the umbrella girl on her head and watched as her eyes rolled over and she was knocked unconscious.

"Oh, Anomalies can faint too?"

He looked at her in surprise, then quickly stuffed his concerns aside. Anyway, Anomalies would not die easily. He still needed to do more experiments to verify his findings.

The second strand of Aquarius Qi entered the umbrella girl's body through his palm. This time, the volume of Aquarius Qi was at least twice more than previously.

The increased volume made Lu Sheng feel distinctly that Aquarius Qi was rapidly consuming and assimilating some sort of cold Yin power in the umbrella girl's body.

Because there was sufficient Aquarius Qi this time, an even more solid spherical orb was quickly formed in her body.

The orb rapidly extended large amounts of tentacles, densely packed together, into every inch of the umbrella girl's body. That cold Yin power that had been in resistance was growing weaker and weaker, diminishing with each contact. Finally, it dissipated entirely.

"This feeling... it's like... Yin Crane Web!?" Suddenly, a eureka moment flashed across Lu Sheng's mind. Everything clicked.

He quickly compared the Aquarius Qi network in the umbrella girl's body with his own.

Indeed, as expected, it was exactly the same!!

Moreover…

He mentally moved the Yin Crane Web connected to the arm.

The umbrella girl's arm twitched in response. She was obviously knocked out, and yet her arm twitched in response.

‘So that's the real function of Yin Crane Web!’ It was basically making a real-life puppet out of others!

Lu Sheng was filled with joy.

The previous explosion must have been the umbrella girl's reflexive rejection and resistance of his inner Qi. But because her soul body had been severely damaged and was powerless to resist the second time, her body was forced to accept his inner Qi.

Lu Sheng released the umbrella girl. Even when he was several meters away from her, he could still clearly feel the Yin Crane Web in her body. Basically, he could now control her remotely.

Soon after, the umbrella girl came to her senses and stared at her in profound terror.

"Come," Lu Sheng instructed.

The umbrella girl shook her head, crawling away from him with her tears and mucus streaked across her face.

But before she could make much distance, an intense swollenness and pain spread out from within her body. She watched in terror as her own body rose to her feet and walked back to Lu Sheng uncontrollably.

"How obedient." Lu Sheng patted her on the head.

The umbrella girl could not help but cry again.

"Let's make a trip out and test it out on other ghosts."

High-spirited, Lu Sheng grabbed her and walked towards the mouth of the cave.

With the umbrella girl as a ghost detector, he was dragging an icy cold water ghost cloaked in seaweed out of a lake nearby before long.

The water ghost resembled a large ball of seaweed, writhing and crawling across the ground in the cave.

Like he did with the umbrella girl, Lu Sheng stretched his hand out and pressed it on the water ghost, then injected a trace of Aquarius Qi into him.

A smaller version of Yin Crane Web quickly formed deep in the water ghost's body.

"Go. Run if you wish to." Lu Sheng stared at the ball of water ghost with a wide grin.

The greenish black water ghost writhed as it quickly made a dash out of the cave. Before it could get far, however, Lu Sheng controlled his thoughts.

"Boom!!"

In a dull bang, the water ghost exploded like a bomb, turning into a large ball of dark green ink which evaporated into steam rapidly under the sun. No trace of it remained.

It died completely, just like that.

The umbrella girl watched on in horror beside Lu Sheng. She stared at Lu Sheng as if she was looking at the Great Devil King who had come to bring apocalypse.

‘Yin Crane Web can control the life and death of ghosts in a single thought. But I wonder if it has the same effect on Anomalies. After all, Anomalies cannot be killed via normal methods.’ Lu Sheng's gaze fell on the umbrella girl.

‘Forget it, I'll keep her for now. If she dies and doesn't come back to life again, I'd lose a lab rat. It's not easy to find an obedient Anomaly.’

He mentally shelved the ability of Yin Crane Web for the time being. Since he could control the umbrella girl's body at will, he was not worried that she would attempt escape. Moreover, with the mouth of the cave sealed with his blood web, all was as safe as could be.

He knocked out the umbrella girl again and packed up to prepare to return to the sect. He had reaped a large harvest this time and it was about time to go back to upgrade his strength.

At his current level, he could distinctly feel that the Yin and Yang in his inner Qi were beginning to merge. His body was in a state of incubation and transformation. Once the process was completed, his total strength would certainly enter a whole new level.

But the process of transformation was too slow. Before it completed, he would not see much change to his strength. All that differed was that his body was stronger and could take more hits after he had upgraded his Yang Extreme Dao.

He had no idea how long the process of transformation would take. But he had sufficient Yin Qi to try using it to hasten the process anyway.