A powerful gust swept through the hall. Lu Sheng stepped down from his high seat at an unhurried pace, each footfall steady, composed.
From the narrow opening of the door, a small red shoe slid in, followed by the trailing hem of a wine-red skirt. A butterfly-knotted string swayed gently, its blood-red jadeite charm glinting faintly above a slender black belt.
Half of a woman’s body crossed the threshold.
Both of them moved toward each other, neither fast nor slow, drawing closer step by step.
KA-CHA!
Another sharp crack sliced through the silence.
In a grotesque, contorted motion, the woman’s torso twisted and forced its way through the narrow gap of the doorway.
“Crimson Whale Sect… none of you can dream of escaping…” a shrill, unnatural voice echoed.
Her torso finally slipped fully inside. One of her hands lifted a blood-red paper umbrella, its surface shimmering in the dim light.
But the first thing she saw upon entering were a pair of piercing, beast-like eyes staring at her from mere inches away.
Lu Sheng stood before the door, gazing at the woman in red. The once-calm corner of his lips lifted suddenly.
“Just you alone?” he asked.
The woman froze, taken aback. She had not expected such a question, nor could she grasp its intent.
“You…” she began—only to see a smile cracking wider across his face.
BAM!!!
In the next instant, a rapidly expanding shadow slammed into her chest with crushing force, the impact accompanied by a thunderous roar.
BOOM!
His palm struck something that felt like a cross between hardened bark and sodden flesh. A translucent black membrane shimmered over her skin, halting the blow in place.
Tch tch tch tch!
The woman spun her umbrella sharply. Its razor-edged rim sliced toward Lu Sheng’s forehead like a flying guillotine.
“DIE!”
But before the blade could touch him, scorching heat burst from Lu Sheng’s palm.
BOOM!!!
The Ultimate Crimson Nine Furies Skill erupted—blazing inner Qi detonating between them like an explosion.
An ear-splitting shriek tore from the woman’s lips as the shockwave hurled her across the hall, slamming her into the wall.
Lu Sheng leapt upward. In midair, his body expanded with terrifying speed—muscles bulging, frame swelling until he was twice the size of an ordinary man. With overwhelming force and blistering momentum, he brought his palm crashing down upon her.
KA-BOOM!!!
She had barely pushed herself upright when his strike hit again, sending her hurtling backward. Both their bodies smashed into the doors, warping the steel into a deep concave. At its center, the metal burned a glowing red where Lu Sheng’s palm had seared it instantly.
Wide-eyed, the woman stared as her opponent grew before her eyes—his once-human frame swelling like an inflating beast. In a heartbeat, he towered over two meters tall.
His colossal body was wrapped in thick cords of muscle, twisting like tangled tree roots beneath his skin. When he collided with her, the impact was like a mountain of flesh crushing a frail worm.
She had no time to react.
Agonizing pain tore through her chest. Lu Sheng’s arm had pierced straight through her torso and driven into the steel doors behind her, pinning her in place like a nailed specter.
Scorching heat radiated from his arm. The metal around it sizzled violently, glowing hotter and hotter by the second.
“AHHH!!!”
Only now did the woman in red understand what had happened. She shrieked and writhed, clawing at him in a wild, frenzied panic.
Tch tch tch tch!
Dark, ink-like scratches raced across his body one after another. But it was useless. Sparks erupted every few seconds from his skin—her claws scraping as if against solid steel.
Silence settled over the entire Crimson Whale Hall. Every gaze was locked in disbelief on Lu Sheng, who had pinned the female ghost to the door.
Or rather… on the monstrous figure he had become—a towering mountain of flesh.
Lu Sheng now stood nearly three meters tall. The masses of muscle layered across his frame made his upper body look bloated and monstrous, as if countless tumors were swelling beneath his skin. Even his face had been warped—features stretched and distorted as though a human mask had been pressed into a mound of flesh.
A network of black, vein-like lines crept across every inch of his skin. Along his spine, a vivid crimson streak ran from neck to waist, glowing faintly like a burning brand.
“Aw…” Lu Sheng looked at the woman impaled on his arm, disappointment flickering in his eyes. “Looks like it’s really just you alone…”
“You… what freak are you!!!” she screamed, black smoke billowing furiously from the gaping wound in her chest.
“Freak?” Lu Sheng tilted his head, bloodshot eyes narrowing. “I’m human! Human!” He raised his massive arm. “There! Can’t you tell? I’m human!!”
He shoved his arm toward her mouth.
“Don’t you love to eat humans? There, eat!”
With brutal force, he pushed his arm into her mouth. The muscles of his forearm were so dense and hard that cracking noises began popping from her skull.
“You… no…” the woman protested weakly, struggling to break free.
“Eat! Eat it! Don’t you like to eat humans?” Lu Sheng forced his arm in deeper, the blood-red gleam in his eyes growing more savage. “Why aren’t you eating? Doesn’t it taste good?”
His strength surged. His movements grew even more violent.
BAM!!!
Her struggle ended abruptly. Her body went limp—not out of surrender, but because her head had been crushed flat beneath the pressure of his forearm. A mixture of red and white matter dripped slowly down the door and pooled on the floor.
In the next moment, her corpse ignited. Flames devoured her from within, and within a few breaths she disintegrated into drifting ash.
Lu Sheng withdrew his arm, looking mildly disappointed. He hadn’t even used ten percent of his strength.
She had only been a ghost—one merely a hair’s breadth away from the realm of Bind. Yet even that final step made the difference between heaven and earth.
Faced with Lu Sheng as he was now, any so-called ghost might as well have been an earthworm. They were utterly useless for gauging the true depth of his power in this form.
“Pathetic weakling.” Lu Sheng’s enormous body shrank rapidly, muscles deflating as he returned to his ordinary size. An enemy like that couldn’t even stir his interest.
Not only had it failed to force out the trump card he had prepared for today, it was far from enough to test the boundaries of his strength while in Yang Extreme Mode.
Yang Extreme Mode—that was the name he had given his expanded form.
In that state, every secretion of Qi and blood surged at an accelerated pace. His emotions twisted, turning savage and violent. His temperament became hostile, brutally aggressive—bordering on madness. When he activated both inner force and outer force at once, he reached the very limit of that terrifying mode.
But the transformation was far too inconvenient… and far too hideous. He preferred to live his daily life in his ordinary shape.
He had expected an opponent at the Anomaly level. Yet all that appeared was a ghost brushing faintly against that realm.
A pity.
‘Still… it doesn’t matter,’ he thought. ‘The Scarlet District wouldn’t send only a petty ghost. This must be nothing more than a probe.’
Lu Sheng turned around, baring his upper body. To accommodate his sudden physical expansion, he had worn extremely loose, stretchable clothing. Even so, his shirt had been torn apart, leaving him clad in nothing but a pair of pants.
In the hall, the upper echelon of the Crimson Whale Sect stared at him in stunned silence. Horror and disbelief contorted their expressions as though they were looking at some unimaginable abomination.
“External Head Lu? Are you really… Lu Sheng?” Elder Wang—a man who had been among the first to recognize Lu Sheng’s talents—slowly rose to his feet. Fear and doubt quivered in his voice.
“Of course. What would anyone gain from impersonating me?” Lu Sheng replied with a smile.
The sight of that smile sent Elder Wang reeling, trembling like a leaf as he stumbled backward, nearly fainting.
Lu Sheng’s earlier transformation had shaken them all to their core. Every face in the hall was frozen in shock—eyes wide, jaws slack—as if reality itself had bent before them.
Only Hong Mingzi possessed the knowledge to recognize the unmistakable signs of hard body skills brought to full mastery on Lu Sheng’s body. That alone allowed him to regain his composure—something the others could not manage.
“Junior Apprentice Brother… you… you’ve cultivated the Ultimate Crimson Skill to the highest Level Seven!?” His voice shook uncontrollably.
“Senior Apprentice Brother is sharp-eyed indeed.” Lu Sheng smiled.
“Bear Wrestling Arm… Golden Veil Skill… Dusk Dantian Inflating Skill… and that—Nine Lakes Steel Chains Skill!!?” Hong Mingzi’s eyes darted over Lu Sheng’s frame, naming each technique the moment he spotted its physical signature.
So many martial arts—each profound, each formidable—concentrated in one body. The sight was staggering. Words failed him entirely. Such talent in the martial path was unheard of. In all of history, there had never been a prodigy of this level.
That single thought blazed through Hong Mingzi’s mind.
He cast a glance toward Chen Ying. The man’s expression said everything—he too had recognized several skill traits on Lu Sheng’s body. He too stood speechless.
Around the hall, many of the less knowledgeable Elders looked at Lu Sheng with naked horror. To them, he no longer resembled a man but some monstrous creature rivaling ghosts in power. His muscles, his physique—though still humanoid—were simply too exaggerated to comprehend.
“Oh yes, now that I’ve succeeded as Sect Master, it’s probably more appropriate for all of you to call me Sect Master Lu,” Lu Sheng said with calm finality. “Next, the Scarlet District will surely be unwilling to let this go. We need to discuss how we should respond.”
“Indeed! The next crucial step is deciding our stance in the face of the assault to come. Once word of the Zhen Family’s desertion spreads throughout Mountain-Edge City—and even the entire Northern Lands—our Crimson Whale Sect will become everyone’s target. The Scarlet District is only one among many with their eyes on us. We must form a plan quickly,” Chen Ying said, taking a deep breath to steady himself as he stepped forward.
Even Chen Ying had mistaken the ghost earlier for an Anomaly. The woman in red had been only a hair’s breadth away from reaching that realm—yet even a ghost that powerful hadn’t survived a single exchange with the new Sect Master, Lu Sheng.
His speed, his strength—both were overwhelmingly tyrannical. In the blink of an eye, Chen Ying had watched the woman in red get nailed to the door, her struggles meaningless.
The disparity in power was far beyond anything he could have imagined. For the first time, he felt a glimmer of true hope. Perhaps… the Crimson Whale Sect might survive this calamity after all.
“With Sect Master Lu here, we’re sure to survive this ordeal!”
“Sect Master possesses might unparalleled!”
One by one, the Elders placed their hopes upon him. Light returned to their once-dim eyes.
Lu Sheng swept his gaze across them; to him, their faces were fleeting, insignificant. His eyes fixed only on the former Sect Master, Hong Mingzi.
Hong Mingzi trembled where he stood, Chen Ying steadying him at his side. Neither man knew how to view this transformed Lu Sheng—nor what manner of existence now stood before them.
“Now, what do we do?” Chen Ying asked, trying to suppress the lingering shock in his voice.
“There’s more than just one ghost outside.” Lu Sheng stretched lazily and walked toward the entrance. “Come on, let’s go out and take a look.”
He grasped the doors with both hands and pushed.
“Rumble…”
The steel doors groaned as they slowly parted, revealing the wide, grayish-brown deck beyond the hall.
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