Way of the Devil
chapter-179

"One's severely injured, her black membrane broken. The other's so weak that he's barely in the Snake realm. What will the two of you use to resist me?"

Lu Sheng strolled to the half-submerged Ye Moling.

With a splash of water, Ye Moling shot out of the water, hiding in it. His entire body was balled up as he pounced towards Lu Sheng.

Holding on to a saber with one hand, Lu Sheng slashed downwards without warning.

In that instant, all water was divided into two halves. But with a precise twist of his body, Ye Moling dodged the blade of the saber and drew near Lu Sheng.

"BOOM!!"

Ye Moling's palm struck straight on Lu Sheng's chest, but the force behind his palm was blocked by Lu Sheng's thick layer of armor. Before Ye Moling could even detect if he had managed to deal any damage, a sense of threat pressed in on him madly. Hurriedly, he dodged backwards.

"SWISH!" A silver gleam appeared out of nowhere and landed on the spot where he had been a second ago.

Blood splattered everywhere.

Although Ye Moling managed to dodge in time, he remained a beat too slow after all. His arms and neck had almost been cleaved into two halves and threads of blood emerged on them.

His face as pale as paper, he flashed backwards madly and dashed over ten meters away in the blink of an eye, till he stood firmly on the opposite shore. Once again, he turned round to look at Lu Sheng.

This terrifying monster was striding into the water, one step at a time.

Half his calves were submerged in the water. The spikes on his back were like flags and the sabers on his arms were covered in cracks, as if they might shatter anytime, but were held together by some invisible force which allowed them to retain their form.

"KILL!!" Scarlet District Mistress charged at him from his side like a cannonball, the translucent long saber in her hand slashing towards Lu Sheng with a scarlet glow.

The scarlet glow swept up a huge wave which stretched more than ten meters wide, forming a huge tidal-wave like force.

"SWISH!!!"

Massive amounts of water smashed into Lu Sheng.

"BAM!!"

Lu Sheng lifted up the saber in his right arm and blocked the saber blade, which was hidden in the wave, slashing towards him precisely.

"A meaningless struggle." With a flash of his saber, a terrifying force, pushed forward by an unimaginable and incomprehensible might, slammed straight into Scarlet District Mistress.

In just one strike, Scarlet District Mistress was struck as if by lightning, her body caving in and distorting under the gigantic impact. She crashed into the water.

Ye Moling knew that he could not afford rest. Once he allowed Lu Sheng to finish off Scarlet District Mistress, his own death would be around the corner.

Seeing that Lu Sheng had his saber raised, ready to slash down at any moment, he bellowed with all his might and charged at him again.

After catching her breath, Scarlet District Mistress likewise roared and dashed at him. Both of them knew that the battle had come to a head. Both of them combined could only barely hold their own against him. If either one of them were to be defeated beforehand, then the battle would have been over.

Lu Sheng had not expected Scarlet District Mistress to retain such a level of combat strength after suffering such mortal injuries.

Neither did he expect such a strong will to fight from Ye Moling.

Although neither of them posed much of a threat to him, they could heal rapidly from any injuries inflicted on them simply because of their extra strong self-healing abilities—unless up to seventy percent of their body was damaged at one go. And they could not be killed unless their entire body was destroyed thoroughly.

But then again, wasn't it better like this?

Unfathomably, excitement and exhilaration arose in Lu Sheng's heart.

It had been too long since he could rip and kill like this. For far too long he had been wary of this and cautious of that. Even though he had possessed mighty power, he had not dared to let himself go.

Opportunities to release his full might and kill, like the one before him right now, were too few and far in between. It was rare enough for him to cherish every single second of the present.

He felt as if he had been born to fight!

Fighting and killing was his blood. Pain was the embellishment on his dish. All his desires and cravings were satisfied in combat.

"CLANG!! BOOM!!"

Blocking Ye Moling's charge with his saber, Lu Sheng smacked him into the distance with his elbow and watched as he smashed into the cliff like a cannonball.

Rocks tumbled down into the river continuously, splashing up waves of water.

"A pity..." Lu Sheng blocked the two consecutive strikes by Scarlet District Mistress on his flank single-handedly. With his shoulder, he rammed into her face, then spun to deliver a roundhouse kick.

"BOOM!"

For the umpteenth time, Scarlet District Mistress crashed into the riverbed again. Unlike the previous times, however, she struggled hard to get up again this time.

Unfortunately, her injuries were too grave for her to even budge. Copious Ultimate Crimson Nine Furies inner Qi ravage her body, suppressing and containing her self-healing abilities and endlessly burning away at her muscles and organs which were desperately trying to regenerate.

Her organs had exploded; more than eighty percent of her blood was lost. Her muscles were torn in wide rifts and several crucial bones in her had been pulverized.

A blood-red crack had appeared even on her forehead and skull. Through the crack, her squirming brain matter was visible.

Given the extent of Scarlet District Mistress' injuries, had it been any ordinary mortal, he would have died several times over. But to a Snake realm expert, these were merely minor injuries that took some time to heal. The real pain in her neck was the bizarre scorching energy rampaging through her body.

Lu Sheng did not finish her off, however. Instead, he walked to Ye Moling, who was trapped and embedded inside the face of the cliff, unable to budge.

In his eyes, Ye Moling, the Manor Lord with a strength that was relatively intact, was the higher priority enemy to be dealt with. As for Scarlet District Mistress, she had been poisoned such that the longer it dragged on, the weaker she would get.

Lu Sheng walked to the front of Ye Moling and extended his arm.

"Smack."

Gripping his neck, he pulled Ye Moling out of the face of the cliff.

"If it weren't for the fact that my injuries have not recovered..." Ye Moling struggled to speak with a mouth filled with blood. Back then, when he had been exiled from the Northern Lands, the injuries left on him had severely impaired his strength. That was the true reason why he was weaker than the average Black Snake.

"If only my strength was complete, you'd be the one to lose... ARGH!!!!" Before he could finish, Ye Moling was burnt by the scorching Ultimate Crimson Nine Furies inner Qi. Invisible flames lit into life on his body.

Copious amounts of moisture and blood evaporated into steam through the top of his head.

Suspended in midair, he writhed like a prawn. Yet no matter how he struggled and wrestled, he was unable to break free from Lu Sheng's vise-like grip.

A Black Snake was powerful indeed. But no matter how strong one's recuperative abilities were, one needed time to heal. Without any time for regeneration and self-healing, a Black Snake was no different from the ordinary Bind expert.

If a bone was broken, it remained incapable of supporting the body. If a muscle was torn, it remained weak and powerless.

The time it would take for him to heal was already sufficient for Lu Sheng to kill him several times over.

The present Lu Sheng, with his body in Yang Extreme Dao mode, was bestowed with superior speed and strength to rip apart and destroy his opponent's body.

At the same time, his Yang-nature inner force, which was lethal to demons and ghosts, could inflict the greatest extent of damage on his opponent's body after he penetrated and broke apart his defense.

"Let him go!!" Scarlet District Mistress climbed to her feet again. She, too, had noticed the dire straits they were in. The translucent long saber cloaked in red glow in her hand was rapidly emitting a gleam that was getting brighter and brighter.

This was also the reason why Lu Sheng had left her for later. Her saber seemed to be on the edge of firing off.

Hence, he had decided to deal with all potential threats before coming back to handle her slowly.

Lu Sheng ignored her. In his grip, Ye Moling was screaming tragically. The blood all over Ye Moling's body was evaporating rapidly and his fleshly body was drying and burning up at a visible rate, turning into a dried corpse.

"Eh?" Suddenly, Lu Sheng sensed something amiss. He tried to lift up his other arm, only to realize abruptly that his body could not budge a single inch.

"INK LOCK!!" Without warning, Ye Moling's eyes burst open. Without warning, a stream of inky black smoke shot out from his mouth and wrapped itself around Lu Sheng's waist.

"HURRY, NOW!!" he bellowed.

Scarlet District Mistress struggled to straighten her saber. The red glow on her saber intensified to a brilliant climax in that moment.

"Phantom Spirit Five Slashes!!" Channelling all her power to the saber blade, she leapt into the air. The brilliance of the saber blade was as blinding as a miniature sun. In the blink of an eye, she traversed the distance of several dozen meters and landed on the frozen Lu Sheng.

"CLANG!!"

"BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!"

The surface of the river exploded in the shape of a fan behind Lu Sheng, sending several dozen white columns of foamy water, each over a dozen meter tall, shooting up into the sky.

Massive volume of water evaporated into white mist and fog which enveloped the area.

The fog grew thicker and thicker, till visibility was virtually nil.

Just then...

"BAM!!"

Scarlet District Mistress screamed tragically, then flew backwards out of the fog.

A tall, massive figure strode out of the thick fog. It was Lu Sheng, who carried Ye Moling's limp and silent body in his hand, and it wasn't known if the latter still lived or not.

"What a beautiful strike," Lu Sheng exclaimed, caressing the wound on the left part of his chest. A fine depressed crack, about a finger deep, had surfaced on the armor in that spot. That was the spot where Scarlet District Mistress had struck with all her power.

"It's a pity now that I've integrated Yin and Yang. Blood web has fused with Yin Crane Web flawlessly, both internally and externally. All that shockingly beautiful saber strike of yours could do was leave this mark. But this comedy ends here." Lu Sheng tossed Ye Moling to the ground like a piece of trash. "After I kill him, it'll be your turn."

His saber smashed down without warning.

With a deafening bam, Ye Moling's body was smashed into pulp. His body had already lost too much blood. Now that it was smashed into pulp, it was immediately consumed in flames like a human torch. Swiftly, his body contracted and curled up as it turned charred on the wet ground.

And thus silently ended the life of a Deputy Lord in the Black Snake realm in this god-forsaken wilderness. Apart from Scarlet District Mistress and umbrella girl, no one would live to learn of it.

After that strike, Scarlet District Mistress was at the end of her strength, completely spent and overtaxed. She collapsed on the surface of the river, allowing her body to bob up and down in the waves without the strength to move a single inch by herself.

Lu Sheng approached her and glanced at the dumbfounded umbrella girl. Then his gaze quickly fell on the saber in Scarlet District Mistress' hand.

The scarlet shard embedded in the saber hilt was irresistibly alluring and enchanting. One could lose oneself completely in that pure scarlet glow.

"This is the Scarlet Dragon Tribulation shard?" With Yingying as his mole, Lu Sheng naturally knew what it was. Out of curiosity, he grabbed the hilt of the saber.

"Are you truly willing to give up everything in exchange for power?"

"I am willing."

Suddenly, a deep low voice rang out beside him. He saw Scarlet District Mistress open her eyes all of a sudden. Two jumping balls of flame danced in her pupils.

An intense, indescribable scorching sensation swept towards him.

"KABOOM!!"

Lu Sheng's hulking frame was blasted away in the blink of an eye by the massive explosion. With a loud boom, he crashed into the cliff.

Under the shocking impact of the collision, the entire left cliff of the valley shook intensely. Large boulders fell into the river.

"ONLY I AM THE STRONGEST!!" Scarlet District Mistress found the strength to stand up again. All around her, scarlet flames raged, firing from within her body like a jet.

"STRONGEST!?" Lu Sheng pulled himself out from the face of the cliff. "NO, I AM THE STRONGEST! ONLY I AM THE STRONGEST!!"

"SWISH!!"

Almost in exactly the same moment, both of them disappeared into two streaks of blinding light which collided with each other.

There was no deafening blast. But a scarlet flame wrestled with a formless fire. Lu Sheng's match with Scarlet District Mistress had just escalated to a whole new level unmatched hitherto.