Way of the Devil
chapter-424

"Bam!"

The two clashed in midair. Lu Sheng's claws, surrounded by vast amount of Death Blaze, scorched Xu Qi's lightning fanatically.

Yet, the lightning of unknown quality was somehow even stronger than the Death Blaze! It even emitted a faint scent of arrogance and iciness, and had enough strength to strike back after steadily blocking the Death Blaze.

"Kill!!"

Both entered a frenzied state at almost the same time, and threw every available attack toward each other.

The immense sound of explosions rapidly rang out across the sky like a series of exploding bombs. The black flame twisted and clashed with the violet lightning, the two madly trying to cancel each other out.

Lu Sheng never forgot he was here to test his power. If Xu Qi was too weak, it wouldn't be as satisfying.

"Now, this is better!"

Above the ruins, Xu Qi and Lu Sheng turned into two rays of light, one black and one blue. They clashed and struck each other frantically.

Xu Qi's body was filled with spikes that could reflect most of Lu Sheng's power, while he himself possessed horrifying speed. His magnificent spear skill allowed him to attack as fiercely as a hurricane and as tightly as mercury sipping into the ground and at the same time defend like a wall of bronze and iron where not a single drop of water could pass through.

His martial art skill had also reached a peak level.

After all, aside from the various kinds of Core Laws, martial arts skills were another key factor in a battle.

Martial art skills were skills for fighting and killing. From a beginner's first understanding of various moves to the final stage where each basic movement incorporated the fundamentals of martial arts, martial arts would infuse a killer's instinct into one's whole being and their reflexes. This process was where an ordinary man who was sufficiently skilled in martial arts would gradually become a grandmaster.

No matter what kind of individual, what kind of life form, or what kind of power, aside from last resorts like Core Laws and other superpowers, the true star during a fight would always be martial arts skills.

That was how Lu Sheng climbed the ranks of martial arts to finally approach the level of a grandmaster. But Xu Qi controlled every movement of his body perfectly, and was a true grandmaster of martial arts.

That was the true reason why Lu Sheng was defeated when both possessed similar bodies and similar levels of True Essence.

Since the battle couldn't be won with similar bodies, then cheating was the only option. Lu Sheng decisively turned into his third mode: Extreme Yang Mode.

The body of Extreme Yang Mode was enormous, which meant his speed would be reduced further. Facing against a grandmaster like Xu Qi, who excelled at speed, he would actually fall into an even larger disadvantage.

Hence, Lu Sheng chose to just transform only certain part of his body and spring an ambush.

Like now.

"Hisss!!"

Lu Sheng moved to the side to dodge the spear surrounded by blue lightning. He slammed his blade forward with his right hand, while he raised his left hand at an insane speed.

"Puff, puff, puff, puff, puff!!"

Instantly, the five fingers on his left hand all turned into pitch-black spikes, which grew at an unfathomable pace, then ruthlessly stabbed into Xu Qi's waist.

"Clang, clang, clang."

After a series of rings, Xu Qi's face turned pale. The Core Law at his waist was nearly broken.

He was forced to pull back his spear to sweep away the five spikes.

Under the Yin Yang Integration Mode, Lu Sheng's speed, strength, and explosiveness all received a massive boost, probably becoming several times greater than normal.

It was hard to imagine he could receive a greater boost at that point.

Xu Qi was so surprised that he didn't adjust to the new situation, and instantly suffered a big loss.

Even if both were grandmasters, if one grandmaster only had two arms while the other had three, provided that both could control their instincts to fight perfectly, of course the one with three arms would win. After all, he would have an extra way to attack.

Grandmaster was only a level that represented the perfect control over one's body, where 'killing' was embedded deep inside one's instincts. But, if there was too much of a disparity between the two opponents' body structures, a higher level wouldn't help.

Like now.

Lu Sheng hadn't reached the grandmaster level yet. He could at most approach it after many years worth of accumulated martial arts experience. But with the support of his horrifying body, Xu Qi could only hold on for a few exchanges, and was falling back more and more as the fight drew on.

His spear started to focus on defense rather than offense. He had to deal with the spikes on the hand, an enormous tail, and even the horns on the head.

Lu Sheng simply had way too many means to attack.

After another exchange of dozens of attacks, Xu Qi finally couldn't keep up any longer. Lu Sheng saw an opening, and slammed his palm into his stomach.

"Boom!!"

Xu Qi slammed into the ground like a cannonball.

The already splintered ground shook violently once again.

"Wooo… Woooo… Woo…!!"

Xu Qi lay face-up in the crater, his body covered in blood. Blood also seeped out of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. The Black Membrane covering his body was regenerating rapidly, but it was far slower than before.

Using his Divine Weapon at full power combined with all his martial arts skills as well as the support of three different core laws, he was basically at a peak state that he had never experienced before.

He had borrowed the power of two Divine Lords, but even so, he still lost.

He raised his head to look toward the sky.

Lu Sheng's tail and arms were dripping with blood because of the wounds from Xu Qi's Reflect Core Law. Of course, with his Yin Yang Integration Mode, he had broken through the Reflect spikes by force already.

Even the Return to Truth Core Law that weakened Lu Sheng's special force field had been ripped apart by the Yin Yang Integration Mode.

"You could tell them to join the fight." Lu Sheng licked his lips. "I don't mind." At this point, he had used his full power already. The Infinity Technique's Yang Essence circulated rapidly in his body, sustaining his peak performance. However, even though it possessed immense power, the Yin Yang Integration Mode also exhausted a vast amount of resources.

He could at most last two hours before being forced back to Yin Extreme Mode to regenerate Yang Essence. However, two hours of a manifold increase in physical strength was enough to crush most opponents.

"No need… I didn't want to use this… Unfortunately…" Xu Qi slowly raised his hand, exposing a purple crystal bracelet.

Lu Sheng's eyes focused on it, and he could feel the vast amount of unstable energy within the bracelet.

He commanded a wave of mind confusion field from the Snake of Jealousy to approach Xu Qi below in a line.

But the confusion field instantly dissipated when it touched the horrifying lightning field surrounding Xu Qi.

'Just like how my Death Blaze's poison was completely useless… This lightning…' A sliver of caution flashed across Lu Sheng's mind.

"Take this: Thunder of Primal Destruction," Xu Qi said as he lightly, even a little weakly, threw the bracelet into the air.

Lu Sheng narrowed his eyes, and tightly squeezed the thing he had read. His gaze was focused tightly onto the bracelet below.

The bracelet first slowly flew in the air for a little distance, but then suddenly disappeared with a flash.

"Oh no!!" Lu Sheng felt a sudden shiver down his spine, and goosebumps rose all over his arms. He immediately shattered the thing he held in his palm without any hesitation.

"Boom!!!"

A ripple of brilliant purple lightning exploded outward centered around him, forming an enormous purple eye in the sky.

"Boom!!!"

A second explosion, and a second purple eye opened.

"BOOMM!!!"

A third explosion.

A blossom of purple flowers bloomed in the sky in a circle, almost covering several kilometers of the open sky.

Instantly, everyone above Earth Prime in the city nearby felt the horrifying wave of energy.

A wild and violent wind followed immediately after the explosion.

The two mysterious Divine Lords far away looked at each other in awe. The three consecutive explosions truly startled them.

Because of their powerful spirit, Divine Lords usually relied on highly concentrated attacks. By concentrating all of their destructive power into one single point, they were able to unleash horrifying attacks, which meant that the attacks that appeared grand and enormous were actually the weak ones.

But that rule obviously did not apply to those three explosions.

The two of them felt they couldn't even deal with the first explosion. The second and the third even surpassed their imagination. They were no longer at Jade Star, but Divine Intellect...

"Xu Qi… I didn't expect this guy to have so many tricks up his sleeves. The only one that could equal him was a Divine Intellect Divine Lord I once saw," the old Divine Lord with a walking stick exclaimed.

"He must not have much, either. Who doesn't have a few last resorts up their sleeves these days?" the female Divine Lord said mildly.

"That's true, but… us Divine Lords take hundreds or even a thousand years to level up, yet Xu Qi took so little time… How unfair this world is sometimes." The old Divine Lord shook his head.

"Whom was he fighting?" the female Divine Lord asked in a cold voice.

"Not sure. But according to him, he was a Thousand Sun Sect Divine Lord from a county capital far away. Otherwise, we wouldn't need be so discreet with our help," the old man replied. "To be honest, Xu Qi wouldn't have fought him in rage if the other party hadn't attacked his birth brother first."

"The unspoken rule is whoever wins the duo is the one in the right. We have interfered too much already," the woman continued after a moment of silence.

"Doesn't matter now. The Thunder of Primal Destruction is a Divine Intellect level attack. No one could block that. The gap between Divine Intellect and Jade Star is so vast it's hard to imagine," the old man said wearily.

The female Divine Lord nodded too.

"Hopefully he's not dead. Xu Qi might have gotten his revenge, but the aftermath would be quite troublesome."

Divine Lords weren't cabbage, and even the Great Yin only had a limited number of them. Every single one of them was the empire's greatest resource.

Even though the various powers of the Great Yin didn't have such a written law, the unspoken rule was that Divine Lords shouldn't fight to the death.

"Divine Intellect level Thunder of Primal Destruction… I'm afraid… Wait!!" The old Divine Lord's voice suddenly shook. His eyes had focused on where Lu Sheng was during the explosion.

"What is that!?" the female Holy Master also exclaimed in shock.

It was not only them. Even Xu Qi who unleashed the attack also stared at the sphere of golden flame in awe.

They weren't shocked by the flame, but by Lu Sheng, who stood in it, completely unharmed.

Like a fiery barrier, the golden flame completely surrounded Lu Sheng. Countless bolts of lightning clashed and weaved on the flame's surface, but soon dimmed and quieted, suppressed by the flame.