Way of the Devil

Chapter 511: New Power (2)

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“Improve Gelailo Sword Skill,” Lu Sheng said to himself. As long as it was not derivations, he was now completely able to control Deep Blue to carry out simple modifications with his thoughts alone.

Deep Blue vibrated slightly. The entire interface blurred for a dozen breaths before it regained its clarity.

The point of Lu Sheng’s focus, the Gelailo Sword Skill, experienced some changes.

“Gelailo Sword Skill, Practiced Hand. (Special quality, strength increment, level one. Constitution increment, level one. Agility increment, level one.)”

‘I’ve spent some Mental Energy. As expected, my levels have increased.’ Lu Sheng could see that the lines of his arms’ muscles had slightly enlarged. His strength, energy, reflex, and other things were clearly improved.

The improvement was on a great scale.

‘This should be the level that the others would reach after taking the pills and training for several years.’ Lu Sheng felt the changes in his body. The improvements were quite obvious. He was satisfied.

The pills—which were difficult to digest and absorb before—had been completely absorbed by his body under Deep Blue’s boost.

‘My body needs one day to get used to this. After letting myself get used to this for a while, I should be able to consume two bottles tomorrow. The day afterward, I should be able to reach cheap father Luo Di’s level.’ Lu Sheng was quite satisfied, and flexed his fingers. When he felt that his body had experienced an overall improvement, his mood improved a lot.

After that, he practiced the various moves and techniques of the sword style on the empty ground. With his vision and tier that was near to a Great Master, mastering these skills was as easy as solving simple math problems for a university student. The moves were not the problem. The only shackle was the strength of his body.

When his practice was done, it was almost noon. The sun burned his skin. It was so hot that it made him feel dizzy.

Lu Sheng went back and took a shower. Then, he had his meal and took a nap. He used his spirit to nurse his body, and accelerated his recovery. He spent the entire afternoon lazily.

There were no great happenings in the manor. It was practically the most ordinary day.

Early next morning, Lu Sheng clearly felt that his body had almost fully recovered. It had already gotten used to the dramatic improvement of his body’s various aspects.

He took two bottles of pills and walked toward the empty space in the forest. Currently, the tones of his muscles were already obvious. He was slowly moving on from being an ordinarily built young man to a strong muscleman.

‘Ordinary people can only take one pill at a time, while I’m able to take them by bottles. Also, they’re not as efficient as I am with regard to absorbing the medicine and utilizing its effects, since I have the support of my spirit. This way, perhaps this body of mine has more potential than Luo Di.’ Lu Sheng was slowly getting used to this method of becoming stronger by taking pills.

A gentle breeze blew. He stood behind a great tree, and blocked a side of his body. He removed his sack and hung it on a branch.

Then, he started moving his body about.

‘Luo Di left nine bottles of pills behind. The entire bag seems big, but it’s actually not much. The only thing I’m not sure about is the level I’ll be at when I finish them all.’

After he stretched his muscles, Lu Sheng sat cross-legged on the ground. He did not mind the dirty ground, and took out the two bottles of pills again.

This time, he did not take the pills slowly. He removed the cork and emptied the contents of one bottle into his mouth directly.

After the first bottle was emptied, he followed up with the other one. In no time, the two bottles of pills were quickly emptied into his stomach. Shortly afterward, he started to stuff himself with food to replenish his body with nutrients.

“Deep Blue.” Lu Sheng summoned his modifier again. His gaze fell onto the sword skill’s frame.

“Improve Gelailo Sword Skill,” he spoke within his mind.

“Pcchht!”

The entire modifier blurred.

Lu Sheng spent two units of Mental Energy, and still had 16,932 units left. He had spent quite a lot in the previous world, and did not have the time to replenish it yet. Hence, he did not have much left.

Time passed by. He took a dozen breaths, but the modifier was still blurry. Lu Sheng was starting to feel the effects of the medicine fading.

‘The medicine seems to be slightly weak... It looks like I’ll need more of the pills for the Independent Hand tier than I imagined.’ Lu Sheng quickly took out another bottle of pills from his sack and swallowed them.

Finally, after a few breaths, the pills took effect. The modifier gradually became clearer, and the contents of the frame changed drastically.

“Gelailo Sword Skill, Independent Hand. (Special quality, double-edged sword, expert. Strength increment, level two. Constitution increment, level two. Speed increment, level two.)”

‘I’m finally at the tier of my cheap father.’ Lu Sheng heaved a sigh. He felt the changes in his body carefully. ‘Is this the level which Luo Di has attained after training hard for 20 years?’

He suddenly remembered that Luo Di had mentioned that his body was already at the Great Master tier.

“In that case, this body’s constitution should be slightly weaker than Luo Di’s. It’s not at the Great Master tier yet,” Lu Sheng muttered to himself. ‘When I reach the Great Master tier tomorrow, it’ll be the perfect opportunity for me to experience the process of improvement. Carefully understanding the improvement of strength seems to be helpful in my understanding of this world’s basic Laws.’

His body needed time to get used to the changes after ranking up. He would not be able to rank up in the meantime. Hence, Lu Sheng practiced the sword skills again before attempting to adjust his Yang Essence afterward.

He only returned to the manor at dusk. He took a comfortable hot shower, and prepared for the third day’s ranking up.

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

The thick fog spread out.

Luo Di was alone. He stuck close to the wall and sucked on a smoking pipe. The bright red glow seemed especially clear in the dark night.

“Hiss.”

He inhaled deeply, then exhaled slowly. He looked on as the smoke and mist mingled with each other, eventually becoming inseparable.

This was an isolated town close to the empire’s southern border. It was also the best battlefield of choice in which he would be facing the monsters that hunted him.

He had planned it out painstakingly here for many years. His ability to escape being killed for dozens of times was partly thanks to the setup here.

“Shriing... Shriing... Shriing...”

Suddenly, the sound of iron chains being dragged on the ground could be heard from a distance within the mist.

“It’s here.” Luo Di stood up straight. Initially, he’d been slightly flustered when this thick mist covered the area, but currently, he was very calm.

He removed the smoking pipe and put it out against the wall. With his free hand, he reached into his sack and produced a vial of light yellow medicine.

The medicine was contained in a crude glass vial. Thanks to the streetlights which vaguely shone through the mist, tiny black granules could be seen inside.

The sounds of clinking chains came closer and closer.

Luo Di gripped the vial tightly and removed the cork. All of his senses quickly heightened, and he looked in the direction of the sound. Then, he walked out of the alley unhurriedly and stood in an empty space.

From the mist far away, a big and tall figure covered in pitch-black armor came out slowly.

This person was completely covered in thick, heavy black metal armor, including the head. The strange thing was, normal armor would leave a gap in the helmet for the wearer to see and breathe freely, but this person’s helmet was completely sealed. There was only one opening on the top of the helmet, from which mist resembling thick smoke kept billowing out.

From afar, it seemed as if the inside of the helmet was burning.

“Executioner... We meet again.” Luo Di even had the thought of smiling at his opponent.

“Fuh!”

Suddenly, there was a deafening whistle. A thick chain swept toward Luo Di, aimed at his waist.

Luo Di dropped to the ground reflexively, and barely avoided the chain. Shortly afterward, he tossed out the vial in his hands and did a backward roll.

“Bam!”

The ground exploded where he stood moments ago, scattering rock fragments nearby.

Luo Di hastily stood up, and saw the tip of the chain which the Executioner had tugged from the ground and hurled at him.

“Over here!” He dashed forward and slid past the Executioner’s side with deft movements.

With a sharp zing, Luo Di unsheathed his sword, and slashed with all his might at the Executioner’s right knee.

However, save for some sparks, his heavy slash which should have been enough to split a grown man in two merely left a faint white mark on the Executioner’s armor. He was unable to break it.

“As expected.” Luo Di did not feel disheartened. He accelerated and quickly shot past the Executioner as he ran away from it.

The Executioner wanted to give chase, but it lost its footing slightly on the ground which was covered with slippery medicinal oil.

However, it quickly tossed out its chain and wrapped it around a big tree nearby. With a tug at the chain, it quickly stabilized its body. It quickly stepped out of the puddle of medicinal oil and chased after Luo Di.

It barely took a few steps when the ground gave way under its feet.

The Executioner fell down suddenly into a trap hole that was about eight meters deep. It started struggling immediately with its arms and feet in attempt to climb out of the hole. However, there was no use.

It even tossed its chain upward repeatedly in an attempt to wrap it around some object and pull itself upward.

However, Luo Di had picked this spot on purpose. Naturally, there would not be anything for it to wrap its chains around. Even the big tree before was a part of his calculations—it was the only thing that it could wrap its chain around.

Luo Di sighed heavily in relief from afar.

“According to the pattern, I can rest for a while.” He looked at the hole through the mist a dozen meters away. He could vaguely hear the constant banging sounds made by the Executioner.

Shortly after, around two minutes later.

“Five, four, three, two, one!” Luo Di suddenly started counting down. Then, he dropped to the ground.

“Swoosh!”

A thick chain suddenly charged out of the mist behind him, but it missed.

The Executioner charged out of the thick mist from behind him. It was striding toward Luo Di’s location.

“Boom!”

An intense glare erupted under the Executioner’s feet. That was Luo Di’s explosive medicine, whose explosion made the Executioner lose its balance. Although it was not harmed, it slowed down in its pursuit.

‘In a night, I remember that this guy will appear every three minutes. I hope everything goes according to plan.’ Luo Di quickly adjusted his position as he tossed the explosive medicines. He was highly focused.

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

‘My body should be used to it by now.’ Lu Sheng placed the bottles of pills before himself. There were five bottles in total—that was all he had left.

The skies were still dark; there was no sign of dawn yet. The forest was still moist and cold.

However, Lu Sheng did not mind. He sat cross-legged on the grass. The double-edged sword which he practiced with was stabbed into the ground beside him.

‘With these bottles of pills, I should be able to attain the peak limits of this so-called sword style.’ Lu Sheng drank some water to ease his throat. Then, he calmed down and focused his spirits. He took the first bottle and removed the cork.

“Let’s begin.” Lu Sheng brought the opening of the bottle to his mouth, and jerked his head upward.

The pills rolled down his throat as they were swallowed whole by him.

After finishing one bottle, his throat felt slightly dry. Lu Sheng took another gulp of water and continued. The second, third, fourth, and finally the fifth bottle.

All the pills were emptied into Lu Sheng’s stomach.

He closed his eyes.

“Deep Blue.”