Way of the Devil
chapter-425

Lu Sheng didn't make any other moves. Instead, he stared at Xu Qi, whose breathing had become faint, and said coldly, "You lost."

Though he had lost all means of resistance, Lu Sheng still didn't have a good way to kill him. The two Divine Lords standing nearby were witnesses. If he dared to strike the killing blow, those two would definitely report to the Thousand Sun Sect or the Great Yin Capital.

Xu Qi clenched his teeth, his eyes cold. "What do you really want!?"

"Give up the Tian'er Blade," Lu Sheng said readily. "Aside from that, I was tracking a wanted criminal, yet you suddenly showed up and saved him. On top of that, you even schemed to murder me to cover up the fact—"

"Stop! I will make it up!" Xu Qi interrupted him.

In reality, even if Jing Hong wasn't a suspect, he was still a wanted criminal. Though what Xu Qi did was morally correct, it was considered harboring a fugitive according to Great Yin laws.

"I want that spear of yours! Then I want the Tian'er Blade and two more Golden Leaf grade Divine Weapons!" Lu Sheng listed his price straightforwardly.

Xu Qi was part of the Jing Family and a Divine Lord belonging to the inner circle of one of the three major families, and as such must have accumulated great wealth. Though he couldn't kill him, blackmailing him for a big sum was definitely possible.

"The spear is not an option!" Xu Qi refused without any hesitation. That was his birth Divine Weapon, not something he would ever part with. "I could give you four Golden Leaf grade and one Jade Star grade. That is all I have; accept if you will, kill me otherwise. Your choice!"

He was quite resolute, and acted as if Lu Sheng's choice didn't concern him at all. Both knew Lu Sheng wouldn't kill, but it was easy for him to do something that would make recovery very, very hard.

Even for Divine Lords, there were complex wounds that would take forever to heal. Several hundred years were within reason.

Lu Sheng weighed his options.

"Deal."

Xu Qi let out a cold humph, and threw out five specks of light. That was a Divine Weapon compression technique—each of the five specks of light stored a true Divine Weapon within.

Four of them were Golden Leaf grade, and one was Jade Star grade.

Lu Sheng scanned it with his spirit, and instantly found out what items were inside.

Three blades, one wheel, one spear. Their aura and wavelength matched Xu Qi's promise. The Tian'er Blade was among the three blades, seemingly not special at all.

"Goodbye!" He took the specks, turned, and flew into the distance.

　 It was clear that the Tian'er Blade, although precious, was nothing special for Xu Qi. Even Lu Sheng didn't understand what use Xu Qi would have for it.

But at least the mission was finally complete. It was a pity he wasn't able to get the Divine Intellect grade spear, but he guessed that it was probably a gift from the Jing Family. If he actually got it, there would be a lot of trouble to follow...

With Divine Weapons in hand, he hurriedly returned to Nanli City, and met up with Duanmu Wan, who was waiting near the restaurant they stayed at.

Duanmu Wan was speaking with the girl before. She was very friendly, and by the time Lu Sheng got back, she and Duanmu Wan were calling each other sister.

"Master is back!" Duanmu Wan hurriedly stood up, and stood in the middle of the courtyard as she sensed Lu Sheng's aura from afar.

The girl Mu Jueqing's eyes also brightened, and followed behind. There was another middle-aged man in a red robe, who had a mature and calm air about him, there as well.

"Whoosh!"

Lu Sheng landed straight in the middle of the courtyard with a short breeze, then dissipated the golden light that surrounded him.

"You must be the esteemed Prefectural Sect Master Lu Sheng? I am Mu Donghe. Thank you for taking care of my daughter, this is a little gift that I hope you would accept."

The middle-aged man waved his hand, and a servant instantly stepped forward with a golden red plate filled with silver shards.

They were actually all Divine Weapon shards.

"From the Mu Family? Keep the gift, I still have things I must take care of." Lu Sheng didn't want to be involved with the three major families. He shot out a golden ray of light, which instantly surrounded Duanmu Wan, and left with her.

Both shot up into the sky, and flew toward the direction of Autumn Moon County.

He had accomplished his goal, which was to benchmark his actual power. If he unleashed his full power, he could be at the peak echelon of the Jade Star tier.

After all, Xu Qi was at that level and he barely won, which was quite indicative of his power.

That golden feathers made from the Eight-Headed Golden Flame were even more powerful. Even though Lu Sheng didn't know if they reached Divine Intellect level or not, he was 80% sure that the feathers could have blocked most of Xu Qi's attacks easily.

But the feathers were consumables, and thus very hard to come by. He only got them because he encountered the Eight-Headed Griffon by accident last time.

Lu Sheng also understood that he was extremely lucky to get something out of that encounter. Under normal circumstances, he would be grateful for surviving the horrifying pressure of the Eight-Headed Griffon without a scratch.

At least he found out how powerful the golden feathers were after this.

The other good news was that even though he didn't get any Divine Intellect grade Divine Weapon, he still got a total of five Divine Weapons. Aside from the Tian'er Blade, which he needed to submit, he still had four more he could take all for himself.

The two traveled straight back, but halfway through, slight pain came from Lu Sheng's palm. His face instantly turned cold.

"Go back first, follow the main road. You should be fine with the aura of my spirit." He immediately dropped Duanmu Wan and surrounded her with a force field, lightly putting her on the ground.

Duanmu Wan understood that Lu Sheng might have encountered an emergency, and didn't ask any questions, but instead sprinted along the road, soon disappearing between the hills.

The sky was the color of dusk, and the ground was quiet. Among the dark green hills, the only things that were moving were wild animals.

Lu Sheng landed straight on a field of grass, and said coldly, "Come out, stop being so secretive!"

Among the inky green grass, a few pink and yellow flowers swayed with the wind. Suddenly, one of the yellow flowers expanded and grew rapidly, its root and stem turning into a huge green humanoid shape while its petals formed a man's head.

"You?" Lu Sheng was slightly surprised. "You dare block me again?"

"How's your wound?" It was the Evil Art Master Lu Sheng had wounded before. He had obviously switched his body, which seemed to be a plant-based demon this time.

"What do you think?" Lu Sheng smiled.

The Evil Art Master licked his lips. His appearance right now was that of a yellow man wearing skin-tight green clothing. His hair was also bright yellow like the flower, looking extremely strange.

"Stop acting tough. Give us the Divine Weapons. We saw the fight. Must be hard to act so tough after being wounded so severely."

As he spoke, another gray shape wrapped in bandages slowly appeared behind Lu Sheng. He held a gray chain in his hand, half of which was almost clear as if it was connected to the void.

"I planned to work with you to complete the mission, but I never expected you to be so arrogant. How dare a recruit from an Outer World attack us?"

To ordinary ears, the voices of the two Evil Arts Master were mere howls of the wind or incomprehensible whispers, but Lu Sheng could clearly discern what they talked about.

"Seems like you want to take it by force?" Lu Sheng asked.

Both visibly shrunk.

The Evil Art Master wrapped in bandages said coldly, "If you give it up nicely, we could pretend like nothing happened."

"How…" Lu Sheng was quite angry. He was wounded, pretty badly actually. That special lightning lingered in his body and was extremely hard to expel. But, that didn't mean he was weakened.

Now, these mere Evil Art Masters who couldn't even beat a Divine Lord dared to blackmail him?

If it weren't for one of them being late and not cooperating with their Divine Weapon, he wouldn't need to track Xu Qi all the way here nor fight him to such a point! The mission would have been completed long ago.

Now that he finally got his reward, these two pieces of trash somehow had the face to come here to ask for a share?

"What gave you two the courage??" Lu Sheng lowered his palm, a blinding ray of golden light slowly appearing in his palm.

"What? You want to fight?" The Two Evil Art Masters' faces paled as they each retreated two steps.

Lu Sheng raised his head, his crimson lips cracking, exposing the dense rows of saw-like teeth. His split tongue licked his lips once again.

"I wouldn't dare… Fighting among allies is a punishable offense…" The golden light in his palm rapidly expanded into a short golden blade.

"I just want…"

Gripping the short blade, Lu Sheng slowly walked toward the Evil Art Masters.

"To have a taste of Evil Art Masters…!"

"Puff!!"

Lu Sheng's upper body dove forward in a flash, expanding and bulging like a snake, instantly turning into his Yin Yang Integration Mode as he took a bite at the Evil Art Masters' heads.

The Evil Art Master who possessed the plant demon raised his hand, and released gray Qi to resist, but was promptly bitten by Lu Sheng's python-like mouth.

"Snap!"

His entire upper body was bitten off with a crisp snap as countless bones and muscles shattered.

His Yin Yang Integration Mode wasn't very big in size, so Lu Sheng wasn't able to swallow him in one bite. He held the Evil Art Master in his mouth, the two glands on his chin rapidly releasing paralyzing poison, which was especially effective against spirits.

By moving the paralyzed and defenseless Evil Art Master up and down over and over, Lu Sheng slowly stuffed him into his stomach.

It was similar to how a python actually ate.

After a few breaths, the entire Evil Art Master had been stuffed into his stomach.

"You…. you…!?" The Evil Art Master wrapped in bandages retreated in horror. "You actually dare?!"

Lu Sheng retracted his upper body, which had expended to 10 or so meters, back to his normal form. "All kinds of accident could happen when you travel in the material world, it's dangerous even for Evil Art Masters. Bumbling around like that while ignoring my warnings, wouldn't it be normal if you died from some sort of accident?"

"You… NOOO!!!" The last Evil Art Master turned, and tried to escape frantically, his body rapidly turning into a gray mist.

"Whoosh!!"

A huge shadow flashed across him, and the gray mist, along with 10 or so meters of grassy field all around him, had disappeared, leaving behind only a huge crater several meters deep.

Lu Sheng licked his lips. That was to probe Shizi Xing. Even though the fall of two Evil Art Masters might have nothing to do with him, it was still weakening her power.