Way of the Devil
chapter-725-30041322

Although Lu Sheng's wounds were serious, he was fortunate to have researched his Qianshen Undead Body for many years. He managed to assimilate some of it with his seven-colored dragon's body.

This was also why Lu Sheng was brave enough to face the abyss head-on with this dragon body.

However, his loss was slightly on the heavy side this time.

"I've lost a tenth of my mental will!" Lu Sheng inspected his main body's wounds. He would have been fine not knowing, yet he did check, and he got the shock of his life.

'Looks like I can't eat any abyssal feudal lords. Nobody can afford to provoke that b*tch abyss.' He quickly calmed down.

It was clear that his series of actions before this was already at the limits of the abyssal consciousness's patience.

Throughout that fight, he was sure that the abyss had lost more than he had. This was the equivalent of both sides suffering huge losses.

However, compared to his own, the abyssal consciousness's mental power was unimaginably vast. That was a terrifying consciousness formed from the collection of abyssal layers the size of countless planes.

If they were to fight a protracted war, 100 Lu Shengs would not be its match.

"Looks like I can't eat anything from the abyss anymore… I should try my luck with hell this time."

Lu Sheng heaved a long sigh out of helplessness. He looked up at Mystoca, who was immobile in the air.

That body of his had lost all its Divinity. It no longer possessed the abyssal feudal lord mark, which had served as its core. That core had been destroyed by the huge impact of the face-off.

'So, only a pure physical body is left…' Lu Sheng stroked his chin. 'It'll be a waste to eat it like this…' He suddenly had a good idea. Perhaps it was also good to leave him in this state.

If he had to steal regalia with high Mental Energy content, he would do it with this body. That was completely feasible!

Lu Sheng drew a dimensional formation in the air. He tossed this formidable physical body which had retained its activity into the subdimension of his Sorcerer Tower.

Then, he began his second summoning experiment.

"Door Number One, can you do it?" He eyed the Transport Door which shone with red light, feeling slightly worried. "Tell me if you can't take it anymore."

"My general condition is still alright. Don't worry, Boss. My main body is reinforced with the space-time distortion power. If they want to shatter me, they'll have to shatter the space and time around me. That's very difficult to do," the Transport Door replied in a straightforward voice.

"That's great. I'll be contacting hell this time. If you can't take it, I can fortify you as well."

Among his 88 arcane arts, his competency in space-time transport arts was already at great heights. Although he had only derived them to rank-6,000, his deep understanding of space-time and transportation had allowed him to wedge his own Transport Door in the space and time itself with perfection.

This way, if his opponent wanted to disrupt the transportation, he would have to break space and time. His opponent would also have to accomplish this while being under the suppression of the main plane and fighting against his main body. Even the abyssal consciousness could only break the space-time wall. This was a highly difficult feat.

"Alright, then. Let's reset the formation."

Lu Sheng looked around at his sealed chamber. It was a complete mess. The formation runes had already been smudged and blurred from all the commotion moments ago.

"Compared to the abyss, hell is much more orderly. We should be careful. If we're discovered by hell's great lord, we won't be able to capture many of them before we're forced to stop," Lu Sheng instructed.

"Don't worry, Big Brother. You know what I'm capable of, don't you?" the Transport Door replied, full of confidence.

Lu Sheng nodded. He began setting up the Transport Door to connect to hell.

Compared to the abyss, connecting to hell was much easier.

Hell was much closer compared to the abyss. Only the shadow plane lay between hell and the main plane. However, it was suppressed and sealed by the Positive Energy Faction a long time ago.

However, with Lu Sheng's capabilities, it was not difficult for him to contact the other side.

His method was to use two mirrors.

He would use one big mirror and one small mirror. Both mirrors had to be spotless.

In an environment with ample sunlight, he would place the small mirror before the big mirror. He had to align their centers.

Then, he would use some fresh evil blood and smudge it onto the center of the big mirror.

With this, the spot of blood on the mirror would be infinitely reflected by the mirrors until it reached the infinite depths of space and time.

With this, he would have effectively sent the evil fresh blood's aura into a secret slit in the dimensions.

In the depths of the infinitely reflecting mirrors, the slit toward hell could be displayed. It was said that hell had existed in the same world as the main plane before. However, for some unknown reasons, they were separated by the gods.

Hence, with such a simple setup and some runes which helped corresponding with hell, the two planes could be easily connected. The only thing he needed was to supply it with a huge amount of energy.

Lu Sheng spent 10 minutes to set up the mirrors and the fresh evil blood.

He spent another 10 minutes to connect Transport Door Number One to the back of the mirror via the formation.

With this, any hell creatures that responded to his summons would swiftly be transported by the Transport Door.

He made all the arrangements and stood beside the mirror. He looked at the mirror's surface.

The little mirror reflection his reflection in the big mirror. This process was repeated continuously. The layers of reflections in the mirrors seemed to diminish in size.

"Get ready."

"Okay, Boss."

***

The seventh layer of hell. Falling Abyss.

There was no ground here. The entire place was like an extremely huge cylinder. Sinful souls were thrown down from above, and they would be in an eternal state of falling. They would remain alone in midair until they lost their minds and waste away.

The feudal lord of this layer of hell was an eight-headed gecko named Quinnmani.

It stuck to the inner wall of hell's abyss. Its 16 glowing emerald eyes were constantly emitting illusionary powers that caused great pain and torment to all souls which fell into hell.

Its power was capable of making the souls lose themselves and forget about their own existence. Then, the souls would gradually dissipate and merge with this layer of hell, becoming a part of this place.

"It's been a long time since I've seen a fresh and high-grade soul here… Ever since the main plane was sealed off, all I've been getting are small creatures from the other planes… The flavor of their despair and hopes is like wax. They taste awful…"

Quinnmani swayed its head back and forth. It mumbled on unintelligibly as it looked up at the pitch-black darkness above. It waited for some newcomer to be thrown into the abyss.

It was a native of hell. It was a powerful monster which liked to devour sinful souls.

In truth, the feudal lords of the other eight layers of hell were similar creatures. The great lord of hell was even born of the sins of the gods since the beginning of time.

Hence, the more sinful the soul, the more it liked to eat it.

'This is boring. Life here is getting more boring by the moment… I should just take a nap.' This was what Quinnmani was thinking.

It blinked its 16 eyes. With two left open on alert, the other 14 eyes grew drowsy. It was ready to sleep for several centuries.

Suddenly, there was a faint crack in the air, just as if something had cracked open.

It also sounded nearby. For mere mortals, that distance might have been a few hours on foot. However, for the eight-headed gecko, it could easily make it with one leap.

"What's that noise?" Its sleepiness was instantly washed away. In its place was a thick sense of curiosity.

"Hiss."

"I smell the soul of a sinner." The eight-headed gecko started moving.

It climbed up the slippery wall for a short distance. It soon noticed a dim red spot of light in the air.

The red light was expanding stubbornly. From its visual judgement, the red light should expand from a fist-sized spot to the height of a person in less than 10 minutes.

"Oh? A Transport Door, one with summoning properties?" Quinnmani shook its head slightly. "Alas, there's nothing else here but me. There's nothing here that can be summoned."

If it were the other layers, perhaps the summoner could contact a devil of hell. However, besides itself, a feudal lord, there was nothing else in this later.

As the feudal lord, it did not like to leave hell casually, even if it meant sending its projection out.

However, although it did not wish to entertain the summoner, Quinnmani still observed it curiously. After all, interesting things happened too rarely in this layer.

The red light slowly expanded, and soon formed a complete Transport Door in the form of an arch.

The door shone with gorgeous red light. Faint traces of aura from the main plane wafted through it.

"Oh? The main plane?!" Quinnmani smelled fresh air and its eyes beamed slightly.

In its impression, the main plane was filled with tantalizing food and treats.

Countless vices were committed there every single second. Countless vices would taint countless sinful souls.

'Should I take a look? I won't have anything to do even by staying here.' Quinnmani sharply sensed that this Transport Door was tough. It could pass through smoothly and reach the main plane.

When it thought about all the good food in the main plane, it was filled with a bestial urge.

'Should I? Or shouldn't I?' It was in a dilemma. It did not notice a transparent spot of light slipping past the edge of the Transport Door into hell.

Suddenly, one of its heads said, "Why shouldn't we go? There's no reason for us to not go if there's that much good food there. As a feudal lord of hell, is there anything that we should be afraid of?"

"This isn't a matter of fear. I need to stay in charge of this place. Otherwise, some souls with formidable willpower would make a mess out of this place," replied the third head in a helpless tone.

"But staying here is just a waste of time. Even if I have 1,000,000 years to live, I shouldn't be spending it like this. We should relax while we're still young. We might not get this chance in the future." The fifth head was agreeing to the idea.

"But…" The first head was the main decision maker, though it was still hesitating. "We've promised the great lord that we'd manage this layer…"

"Have you ever thought about the person who actually opened up this Transport Door?" said the seventh head all of a sudden.

"Perhaps its someone with an ulterior motive whose scheme was foiled. Out of shame and anger, he paid the price with his life and unleashed a hell summon in an attempt to destroy everything?" the eighth head guessed.

"Since we have differing opinions, I say we have a vote," suggested the first head.

"Sure."

"Yeah." The other heads agreed.

Soon enough, the first head counted the votes. Of the eight heads, one head forfeited and four heads agreed, while the remaining three heads were against this.

"I see… I'll vote in favor of this as well." The first head looked at the results of five against three with one forfeited vote. It felt that something was off, but it could not quite put a finger on it.

"This way, we have two more votes in support of this. We should go." Quinnmani nodded. It crawled and moved its huge body closer to the red light of the Transport Door.

"I am a great feudal lord of hell, the lonely infector Quinnmani. I shall respond to your summons. Summoner, speak of your wish. I shall send your enemies into hell with your soul as the price," it recited the established script in a loud voice.

"Oh great Quinnmani! I am your summoner, the seven-colored dragon Omis! My tribe is being suppressed and hunted down at the moment. I hereby ask for your help, even if it means giving up my soul!"

A high-pitched and sad shout in the language of hell came from the other side of the Transport Door.

"Alright. I shall descend upon your world. Offer up your sacrifice and mark your enemies. I shall send them down into the most painful, lonesome abyss!" Quinnmani shouted.

"Well then, sign the contract!" It spread its right claws. A scroll filled with words of pitch-black blood immediately flew toward the Transport Door.

"I shall offer up my soul, offer up my everything, in the name of the Limitless Void, in the name of order and hell…" Several hundred words followed.

When Lu Sheng finished reciting the words, quite some time had passed.

"Now, sign it," reminded one of the heads, feeling impatient.

"Alright."

"I'll do it! I'll do it!" one of the heads shouted.

"Fine, do what you want!"

There was a blank space at the end of the scroll. The name of the soul to be offered had to be written. Quinnmani wrote its own name earnestly, Quinnmani.

"Done." It carefully passed the scroll into the Transport Door.

"I'll head over once you've signed your part."

"In a minute!" A reply came from the other side.

Quinnmani waited blankly beside the door. Although it had this growing feeling that something was not right, it could not quite point it out.

It turned to look at its other eight heads. They were discussing the things they should eat first in the main plane. Everyone looked excited. After all, it had been many years since they had a chance to go out. With this opportunity, it was only natural for them to feel happy.

'The eight heads look… Wait! Eight heads?!'

Quinnmani suddenly realized an extremely terrifying problem.

It remembered that it only had eight heads in total. However, if it counted itself right now, there would be nine heads!

Nine heads!

Where did the extra head come from?!

A look of extreme terror instantly registered in Quinnmani's eyes.