“Rumble… rumble… rumble…”
A deep, continuous rumbling echoed from within Lu Sheng’s body.
His stomach seemed like a bottomless pit. Vegetables, braised meat, and rice vanished into his mouth in great mouthfuls, swallowed after only a few perfunctory chews.
Lu Sheng sat alone in the dining hall, guards standing in a tight formation around him. Yet the sight of his eating made them swallow unconsciously. Simply watching him felt enough to leave one bloated.
“News! The Head of Transformation Clan has arrived!” a guard shouted from outside the doors.
Lu Sheng set down the oversized bowl in his hands and wiped his mouth.
“Bring him over.”
In this era, with Crimson Whale Sect reigning supreme over all sects in the Northern Lands, his words carried the weight of a royal decree. No one dared to defy them.
It was late autumn. Pale sunlight slanted through the open doors and spilled into the dining hall. It lacked warmth, yet it softened the chill in the air.
That faint mercy did nothing for the man who stepped inside.
The Head of Transformation Clan felt a bone-deep cold crawl down his spine the moment he crossed the threshold.
Kong Yi. The newly appointed Clan Head, in power for less than three months. His predecessor had died suddenly of illness at home, forcing Kong Yi, then the Deputy Head, to assume the position in haste.
Once a pickpocket by trade, Kong Yi was tall, lanky, and thin to the point of fragility. Even draped in a loose velvet robe, he looked like a monkey dressed in human garments.
“Kong Yi greets Sect Master Lu.”
He stopped at the center of the hall and cupped his fists toward Lu Sheng.
Lu Sheng reached for a pig’s trotter and dipped it leisurely into soy sauce.
“Rip!”
Without warning, his mouth opened, stretching to nearly twice its original size. Razor-sharp teeth clamped down, crushing flesh and bone alike in a single bite.
A violent shiver ran through Kong Yi.
How could a man’s mouth open so wide? And those teeth… how could human teeth be that sharp? Could this Sect Master Lu not be human at all? A demon?
Lu Sheng chewed calmly, then spoke in an even tone.
“Clan Head Kong, you’ve worked hard to safeguard the peace of my Northern Lands all these years. I’ve been paying attention.”
At a loss as to where this was headed, Kong Yi could only force a smile and nod along.
“Yes, yes, yes… it is all thanks to Sect Master Lu’s wise guidance.”
Lu Sheng gave him a brief glance. There was nothing remarkable about Kong Yi’s appearance, yet his inner Qi cultivation was fairly solid.
Moments earlier, news had reached Lu Sheng that the Scarlet District Mistress had visited Lu Manor. Though he knew the umbrella girl would try to stop her, the realization that his family could be thrown into danger at any moment finally hardened his resolve.
The Northern Lands could no longer remain divided.
It was time for all sects and factions to fall under a single rule.
With that thought, he immediately ordered every nearby sect to come and meet him, one by one. As the Sect Master of the number one sect in the Northern Lands, and with power and prestige now surpassing even Hong Mingzi, none dared to refuse.
Kong Yi was the first to arrive.
The Transformation Clan was an organization made up mostly of swindlers, thieves, craftsmen, fortune-tellers, and other such trades. They possessed little actual fighting strength. It was only natural that they would be the first to respond to Lu Sheng’s summons.
Lu Sheng continued eating, not even sparing him a glance.
“I’ve called you here to gift you an opportunity.”
“Sect Master Lu… th-this… may I know what kind of opportunity this is?”
An instinctive unease crept into Kong Yi’s heart.
Lu Sheng set the pig trotter aside, rose to his feet, and walked toward him at an unhurried pace.
“An opportunity to vastly improve your cultivation base.”
Kong Yi’s scalp went numb.
“Sect Master Lu… this… Kong Yi does not deserve such fortune. Perhaps you… you might want to—”
Boom!
A blaring alarm erupted in his mind. Before he could finish his sentence, his eyes rolled back and his body convulsed. He lowered his head in shock, staring at the fair palm pressed firmly against his chest.
“You…!!?”
“Szzzz…”
A frigid torrent of Yin Qi surged into his body at terrifying speed. Kong Yi’s entire frame shook violently, trembling as if seized by an unseen force.
Moments later, the doors of the dining hall swung open. Kong Yi stepped out calmly, escorted by several subordinates, and departed at an unhurried pace.
Lu Sheng remained seated, never shifting from his place, and continued eating.
He had not absorbed Kong Yi’s inner Qi. Thirty years of cultivation in Dark Cloud Skill was respectable, enough to place Kong Yi among Spirit Focus experts, but that had never been Lu Sheng’s objective.
What he needed was manpower. More subordinates. Stronger experts. People capable of protecting what he intended to protect.
Thus, he had merely implanted a Yin Crane Web within Kong Yi.
The Yin Crane Web forged an entirely new network of meridians inside Kong Yi’s body, one without bottlenecks. From that moment on, there would be no limits to the growth of his inner Qi. As long as his physical body could endure it, his inner Qi could continue to increase without restraint.
Ordinarily, the accumulation of inner Qi was painfully slow, a process measured in years. Yet the Yin Crane Web accelerated it severalfold and even allowed one to break through long-standing meridian bottlenecks. It was easy to foresee Kong Yi’s inner force surging in the days ahead. With sufficient pills and rare herbs, he might even amass a hundred years of cultivation within a mere decade.
Lu Sheng set the tub of rice aside and wiped his mouth.
“Next set of dishes.”
It was time to wait for the next chief, head, or leader.
After draining the inner force experts in the dungeon, his Yin Yang Jade Crane Aquarius Qi alone had astonishingly condensed into seven drops of liquefied Qi.
Converted into years, that was a staggering seven hundred years of inner force. And this did not even account for the three hundred years accumulated in the Ultimate Crimson Nine Furies Skill.
Altogether, he now possessed a millennium’s worth of inner force.
The conversion between Yin and Yang took time. Several days were required to transform Yin Yang Jade Crane Aquarius Qi into Ultimate Crimson Nine Furies Skill. If he balanced the two, then his Ultimate Crimson Nine Furies Skill would also reach five hundred years of inner force.
Lu Sheng ran the numbers in his mind, weighing whether five hundred years of inner force would be enough to contend with Ye Moling.
The answer was clear.
Practically impossible.
The pressure Ye Moling exerted was many times greater than what he had felt from Bai Jiang of the Six-Vein level. Five hundred years of Ultimate Crimson Nine Furies inner force simply would not suffice.
He needed more. Far more.
He did not know exactly how powerful the Snake realm truly was. Yet from Li Shunxi’s earlier descriptions, it was evident that no amount of Bind-realm experts could bring down a single Snake-realm cultivator.
That realm belonged to an entirely different league of existence. Only figures such as Manor Lords and great Family Heads were qualified to step into it.
Just as servants and maids arrived with fresh dishes and newly refilled tubs of rice, a sharp, shrill voice rang out once more.
“You’re worried? Afraid?”
Lu Sheng’s heart skipped a beat.
“Wandering Heart Society?”
“Scarlet District Mistress is getting anxious. She’s getting scared… and we’re about to make our move.”
The voice abruptly dropped to a lower pitch.
Lu Sheng’s eyes narrowed.
“Leave. All of you.”
At once, the subordinates, guards, servants, and maids withdrew in silence, retreating swiftly from the dining hall.
Before long, Lu Sheng was the only one left.
“Speak. What is your agenda?”
His voice was calm, nearly a whisper. Given the other party’s capabilities, he was certain they could hear him.
“This is proof of our sincerity.”
As the words faded, a small, round white box appeared before Lu Sheng’s eyes.
He had no idea how it had been delivered. In the blink of an eye, it was simply there, hovering at the edge of his vision.
His vigilance deepened.
Not long ago, after his rapid rise in strength, the sense of urgency and looming threat had begun to fade. Yet this encounter with the Wandering Heart Society jolted him fully awake.
The danger and strangeness of this world far exceeded what he had imagined.
“Can I trade it for the kind of pill you gave me previously? I happen to be lacking materials to groom my subordinates.”
Lu Sheng did not need to open the box. He already knew what lay inside. It was the precious material promised earlier, something capable of pushing the black membrane to its next level.
Since he possessed no black membrane at all, the item was meaningless to him. Trading it for pills was the obvious choice.
“Trade it for the pill?”
The voice sounded momentarily stunned, clearly unprepared for such a request.
“Very well, you can. But that pill can only be consumed three times by any individual. After that, it loses all effect. Its value cannot be compared to this item at all… are you certain?”
“Absolutely. Of course, if you have better pills that promote inner Qi growth, those would be even better.” Lu Sheng smiled faintly.
“That already is the best. It produces the greatest effect among all long-aged yet rarely used medicinal herbs.”
The white box faded from his sight.
In its place, a black rectangular box appeared before his eyes.
Lu Sheng watched closely as it vanished and reappeared, yet again unable to perceive how it had been taken away or delivered.
With a light flick of his finger, the lid popped open. Two pearl-like pills lay quietly inside.
Cloud Snake Rolling Heart Pills. The same as before.
Lu Sheng closed the box.
“Tell me what you have planned. I don’t accept unmerited favors.”
His tone was cautious. The other party was a powerful, enigmatic faction capable of hunting even the Scarlet District Mistress. Even with the Shangyang Family at his back, he could not afford to lower his guard.
“Hehehe… how refreshingly straightforward!”
The voice chuckled softly.
“Our Deputy Society Head, Chao Hu, has already set out in person. Within half a month, he will arrive here.”
The voice paused briefly before continuing.
“We know you have a mole close to the Scarlet District Mistress. Her most trusted confidante, in fact. We hope you can have that person secretly place this on her.”
A black jade pendant materialized on the desk before Lu Sheng.
Most jade pendants were ring-shaped, with an opening for fastening them to one’s garments. That opening was often carved into decorative patterns or auspicious symbols. This pendant was different.
Lu Sheng lifted it into his palm.
The gap in the black jade was shaped like the gaping maw of a ferocious beast, its fangs bared as if mid-devour.
“She only needs to keep this within thirty-three meters of the Scarlet District Mistress. It will poison her and weaken her without her ever realizing it,” the voice explained.
Lu Sheng turned the pendant over in his fingers. He could not tell what material it was made from, nor did it appear to emit any unusual aura.
After a moment of thought, he spoke in a low, serious tone.
“Fine. When do you plan to strike?”
The voice burst into laughter.
“Why? Even you wish to witness the ferocity and might of our Society Head?” It chuckled before continuing. “Very well, there’s no harm in telling you. The day our Society Head makes a move is the day the Nine Beauty Flower blooms. Half a month from now.”
“The day the Nine Beauty Flower blooms?”
Lu Sheng repeated the words softly.
Silence followed.
He pinched the black jade pendant lightly, then shifted his gaze to the two Cloud Snake Rolling Heart Pills resting nearby.
Danger was closing in.
At such a critical juncture, why was the Scarlet District Mistress still searching for the one who had destroyed Scarlet District, instead of entering seclusion to prepare for the coming confrontation? It made no sense.
Unless she was not searching for a person at all.
Perhaps the hunt was merely a pretext. Perhaps she was looking for something else.
Or perhaps something vital had gone missing from Scarlet District after its destruction, and that was why she had been scouring the lands without rest.
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