Way of the Devil
chapter-653

"Have you found the source?" Osiris asked.

"We don't know yet. It's said that the first Silver Hand member is the Ghost's Head, Jelian. We weren't able to dig up anything else," the girl replied softly.

"What terrifying power…" Osiris was silently staring at the painting on the floor.

There were many empty patches that were not filled. However, these empty spaces could not be simply filled in. The painter had to follow a certain rhythm to complete the cycle of the wheel shape.

"Have you tried?" Osiris suddenly asked.

The platinum-haired girl paused. She was slightly hesitant.

"I've tried… I've mended it slightly, but it's still too little overall. If it were you…"

"I won't mend it. This is clearly a grand scheme someone thought of. Although I don't know what objectives the person behind the scenes has, I won't do as he wishes," said Osiris with a calm expression.

"Understood," the girl replied as she lowered her head.

******************

Heart World.

Lu Sheng slowly landed on the ground strewn with rubble and tiles.

His entire Heart World had expanded compared to before. It was now several times larger than it once had been.

Lu Sheng waved his arm lightly. A scarlet wheel immediately appeared before Lu Sheng. There were three silver crests on the wheel. They appeared to be three entrenched winged serpents.

This was the radiant disc he materialized by using the East Park Autumn Dew Fertilizing Method. He used it to display the numbers of rules which he had already gained insight into within his Heart World.

The three silver crests on the wheel represented the three rules which were completely functioning in his Heart World.

They were also the three rules which Lu Sheng had gained insight on and assimilated into his Heart World.

"Poison, Yin Flame, and Mystic Water."

The three crests represented the three kinds of powers Lu Sheng had mastered. They represented his poison body, his mastery over Yin Flame's origin power, and his understanding and insight of Mystic Water.

'The Heart World mainly holds the spirits of living beings. It's half-void and half-real. It's not a true perfect world.' Lu Sheng came to this understanding. 'I'll need nine different kinds of crests to structure the most basic world circulation system. Although I've mastered many rules, only three of them could form crests.'

Currently, he'd established the Silver Hand organization. He used his spirit-prompting threads as rewards to strengthen the bodies of the painters under him.

When their bodies were invigorated, their spirits would be charged up as well. The mind, Qi, and spirits of painters were exceptionally vigorous. The inspirations they obtained greatly increased as well. Their heads grew steadier as they painted. Naturally, this translated into huge improvements in their strength.

Lu Sheng complemented that with the toxins available in his body, which he infused into the painters' body through his spirit-prompting threads. This way, he would have absolute control over them.

He had a wide range of toxins within his body. Although he could not use most of them because of the difference in the rules of the world, he could still use some of them.

Lu Sheng used the small selection to produce a cocktail to control the experts.

The Silver Hand had a magical method to swiftly raise its members' strength and potent toxins which put a tight rein over its experts, so it was only natural for them to meet with success in their every endeavor. Lu Sheng successfully united the powers of the painters.

'This time, I've transformed the energy structure of my Heart World into a devil painting and placed it in the outside world. I hope that someone will help me improve the circulation system so that I'll be able to use it as my Heart World's foundation in the future.'

The main reason Lu Sheng released the devil painting was to use the strength of others to improve the basic structure of his Heart World.

He included the several dozens of rules he had mastered in the devil painting which he wanted other painters to help him complete.

These rules were converted into patterns with different colors and lines. He wanted to use the painters as tools to help him fill in the blanks.

He hoped to gain a more perfect combination. In truth, Deep Blue had only one direction—it would derive and perfect the current combination.

However, by doing this, the direction of his future progress would be limited.

'Let's hope that things will go smoothly…' Lu Sheng waved his arm again. The radiant disc disappeared. Lines that represented the rules appeared in the air. Ever since he saw the First Divine King use this skill, he began to mull over it. Now, he was finally able to recreate this move.

After all, it was not some complicated technique.

The black lines represented Devil Qi, and they hovered in midair in huge swathes. However, though the Devil Qi lines were numerous, their nature did not run deep. Hence, they were not displayed on the radiant disc.

The light green lines represented his Yin Flames. There were also flesh-colored lines which represented his hard body skill, blackish-blue lines which represented Mystic Water, and others.

'In any case, I should incorporate the medical art rules into the radiant disc for now.' Lu Sheng suddenly had an idea.

"Deep Blue."

The light blue frame popped up instantly.

"Let's start with the Tu Style Healing Art…"

Lu Sheng sat cross-legged in midair. He slowly closed his eyes and started meditating. He did not forcibly derive it with his Mental Energy. Instead, he attempted to do it on his own.

The radiant disc needed nine rules to meet its standards. Currently, there were only three rules. He was six rules short, but he wanted to save his Mental Energy for something else.

Although his Mental Energy units were sufficient, since it was now more than 5,000,000, Lu Sheng could not predict how much he would need in the future.

When he'd ranked up the last time, he finished off half of his Mental Energy.

This time, his objective in coming into this world was that he needed a lot of time to gather insights and cultivate.

The time flow in this world was 400 times slower than the Heavenly Devil World. In addition to that, his Heart World also had the effect of slowing time down.

With these two factors working in tandem, the time flow was slowed down to an extremely outrageous degree.

In the Painter World, time shot past like an arrow.

Five years had passed in the blink of an eye.

The Silver Hand's influence spread across the entire world. It was now the greatest dark force which opposed the God's Eye.

They controlled an incomparable amount of wealth and forces. They also possessed terrifying influence on the national level.

The tendrils of their forces seeped through every crack from the nobles to the peasants. The Silver Hand's network could truly be regarded as a net which covered the skies and the ground.

The God's Eye was even seemingly at a disadvantage against them. Even then, they felt that the Silver Hand had some resources to spare even while going against them.

In five years, Lu Sheng grew from an ordinary brat who went to school to a young and strong young adult.

With going to college as a pretext, he completely left Zhuo Siqing, and stayed in the shadows to control the Silver Hand.

On the surface, everyone thought that the Silver Hand was controlled by its five grand painters.

However, Lu Sheng was actually the one who controlled everything behind the scenes.

The title of grand painter was an honorific used by the people here to refer to the powerful peak painters who mastered the painting soul and painting heart.

The works of these painters could easily sway a person's heart, emotions, and even senses.

With this, they could create the powerful effect of passing off fake imitations as genuine.

The grand painters who had been strengthened by Lu Sheng's spirit-prompting threads possessed might that was several times greater.

The most powerful among them was Ghost Head Jelian. In a head-on confrontation with the current God's Eye, he was only at a slight disadvantage.

With regard to the powers of the higher ranks, the Silver Hand was still inferior to the God's Eye. However, for the middle ranks, the powers of the Silver Hand surpassed the God's Eye's.

Lu Sheng kept giving away his spirit-prompting threads as if they cost him nothing. He spread out hundreds of thousands of threads, and created hundreds of thousands of painters.

Most of the hundreds of thousands of middle-ranked painters had mastered the painting soul. Their spirits were cultivated to a tier that was indefinitely close to a Weapon Master.

They were the true backbone of the Silver Hand.

Throughout the five years, Lu Sheng had used these painters in the competitions he organized.

He gave them problems that he himself was facing, and had the painters help him derive solutions.

The powerful collective imaginative and composing powers of countless painters helped Lu Sheng swiftly perfect his barren Heart World.

Naturally, the nine cornerstone rules were the most important. However, Lu Sheng also wanted to complete his other rules.

With the paintings of these painters, he could absorb their insight and understanding of the natural rules here in the shortest time possible.

After he announced the theme of one rule, the painters would tackle the theme from various angles and at various depths as they went far and wide to collect local cultural materials, delve deep in thought, gather insights, and have a burst of creativity.

In a mere five years, Lu Sheng had three rules that were close to having their crests formed.

Five years later, he had up to 100 rules at that same level.

This was the fruit of the collective hard work of countless painters.

These painters did not cultivate their bodies. Instead, they focused all their energies into cultivating their spirits. They were the equivalent of countless, free, super-weakened versions of Deep Blue. They could also be akin to a think tank with a huge force.

Lu Sheng initially thought that time would just pass uneventfully. He would continue gathering insights on his rules while the Silver hand, and the God's Eye would continue organizing various competitions.

However, a phone call from his father Zhuo Siqing completely disrupted his calm and steady rhythm of life.

After the phone call, Lu Sheng hurried back home to deal with the sudden change.

***************

On the couch in the spacious living room, a white-haired, strong-looking old man with staff in hand sat opposite Zhuo Siqing.

The old man's appearance was very much alike Zhuo Siqing's. He was practically an aged version of Zhuo Siqing.

The two of them were surrounded by five burly men with shades. They wore black combat singlets, making no effort to conceal their bulging muscles on their bodies. They seemed to be the old man's bodyguards.

"Zhuo Siqing, are you still thinking of running away at this stage?" The old man's sharp gaze was fixed on his gloomy son who sat on the couch.

"You've run away for so many years. You think that you've escaped the family, and you can live a carefree life?

"Perhaps you thought that by living with that bastard and hiding your identity, you'll be able to escape from the responsibilities and blood ties to the family!?

"Don't fool yourself!" The old man's voice reverberated across the entire living room, forceful and sonorous.

"What do you want us to do?" Nobody had ever seen Zhuo Siqing behaving this stern and gloomy.

He had always been a cheerful person who always goofed around and laughed happily. He was a trickster who would relish in painting objects that were shameful for others.

That was why he was not able to progress past the district level even though he had the skills.

The old man looked at Zhuo Siqing. His tone gradually grew gentle.

"Your big brother has succumbed to his illness. Come back. I need you. The family needs you."

"I still have Little Yu…"

"What about Xixi? Is she not your daughter?" the old man spoke in his cold tone once again. "Back then, you weren't happy about the marriage the family arranged for you, and you left the family. However, have you thought about the life of the child you've left behind? You're able to live your free and unfettered life with that bastard. What about your daughter? She grew up without a father, and was often the subject of the other families' ridicule…"

"Enough!" Zhuo Siqing suddenly shouted. "Little Yu is my son. I won't give up on him! If you want me back, he's coming with me!"

The old man fell silent.

"If you insist, alright, I'll grant you that. However, Zhuo Zhenyu must forfeit his claim on the inheritance of the Zhuo Family. You can treat him as your son, but his ties with the Zhuo Family must be legally severed!

"Otherwise, you know about my methods. You know that I have the means to make your lives a living hell. Also, he's only a bastard. Nobody will know even if he died in some corner of the streets."

Zhuo Siqing lowered his head and closed his eyes. He brought his hands to his face.

"Alright, I agree. Little Yu will not have any relations to the Zhuo Family, but he'll forever be my son."