After the meal, Lu Sheng brought the little umbrella girl to a newly constructed private sanctuary. The previous one had long since been rendered unusable, its surface cratered and broken by his own hands.
He laid out every trophy he had collected, arranging them neatly before her and waiting for her recognition. Picking up an intricate, palm-sized booklet, he held it up and waved it slowly in front of her face.
“This. What’s it?”
Yingying’s lips trembled. “This… only… sis… knows…”
Lu Sheng’s gaze sharpened. “Are you sure?” His voice dropped, heavy with menace. “You must understand that although I can’t kill you, I can keep you in the state of death forever. You know what I mean.”
A chill ran down the little umbrella girl’s spine. The fear in her eyes was unmistakable. She seemed especially terrified of that state of death. Swallowing hard, she stared at the small book again.
“This is… a set of mantra… that sis obtained… by chance…”
A mantra?
Lu Sheng’s interest was instantly stirred. He pressed on with his questions, gradually prying the details from her. The mantra was something used exclusively by demons and ghosts, completely impracticable for humans. The text itself was written in no human tongue, but in a language known as Spirit. Even Yingying could not read it. Only the Scarlet District Mistress possessed that ability.
Though it held little direct value for him, the book served another purpose. It supplemented his Yin Qi. He had already drained it dry, extracting roughly fifty units of Yin Qi in total. The timing could not have been better, as he had previously exhausted his reserves entirely.
At present, Lu Sheng possessed three distinct modes. The monstrous, hulking frame of Yang Extreme Mode. The gentle, fragile appearance of Yin Extreme Mode. And finally, the most formidable of them all, the integrated Yin Yang mode.
In truth, he had no concrete basis to measure the full extent of this final form’s strength. Even his most recent battle had only placed him against two experts of the Snake realm. There was no clear benchmark by which he could evaluate himself.
He gave this ultimate form a name: Destroyer Mode.
In this state, power, speed, explosiveness, and defense were all pushed to their absolute limits. It represented the peak of his strength, capable of obliterating every expert he had encountered thus far. The name “Destroyer” suited it perfectly.
Moreover, while in this mode, he could continue detonating liquefied Qi to further amplify his explosive force and destructive output. This was, without question, his strongest state.
“Then how about this?” Lu Sheng picked up the golden single eye he had taken from the titan Chao Hu’s corpse. “What does this do for me?”
The little umbrella girl had only just opened her mouth when an abrupt change swept through her pupils. The pale red faded, replaced by a faint wash of white.
“Humph!” She turned her head aside with a snort. “You think I’ll tell you?! Dream on!”
Lu Sheng laughed softly. “Oh, you’re Hongfang Bai now?” The regression of her body seemed to have dragged her intelligence down with it, leaving her temperament sharp and childish.
“So what if it’s me?” the little umbrella girl shot back coldly. “You think I’m that foolish Yingying, who’s so easy to bully?”
“How about a trade?” Lu Sheng reached out and lifted her effortlessly by the back of her collar with one hand.
“Let go!!” She kicked and struggled furiously, but her efforts were meaningless against the iron grip of his arm.
“No matter what, you lost to me in a fight, fair and square. Am I right?” Lu Sheng asked calmly.
“…” The little umbrella girl turned her face away in silence.
Lu Sheng leaned closer, his voice low and coaxing. “Don’t you want to recover your lost strength?”
“What do you want!?” She snapped her head back toward him and shouted.
Lu Sheng smiled faintly. “Think about it. We had no feud between us. You were the one who provoked me first. I merely retaliated, and that’s how things ended up this way. Whose fault is it?” He paused, then continued evenly. “I was never interested in either of you. If you hadn’t prepared to move against me, I wouldn’t have picked a fight at all.”
The little umbrella girl fell into deep thought. From beginning to end, Lu Sheng had never been the instigator. It was Yingying who had attacked the Crimson Whale Sect headquarters first, driven by the conflict with the Zhen Family. One clash had followed another, each worsening the situation, until it culminated in the tragedy in the valley.
“Cooperate with me, or remain in this state forever.” Lu Sheng set her down and resumed his seat, his tone indifferent. “Make your choice.”
The little umbrella girl stared at him, her expression icy. “Even if I regain my power, would you really let me go just like that?”
“To be honest, I don’t know either. But surely that’s better than having no hope at all. What do you think?” Lu Sheng smiled faintly.
The little umbrella girl fell silent. For a brief moment, she weighed every gain and loss in her mind. In the end, the desire to reclaim her strength outweighed everything else, and she made her decision.
“Alright. I promise to cooperate with you as much as I can and refrain from harming your faction and interests. But you must help me recover my strength whenever circumstances permit,” she said solemnly.
“Deal.” Lu Sheng nodded.
He picked up the lone eye once more.
“So tell me. How should I use this?”
The little umbrella girl studied the golden eye carefully.
“This is the Eye of the Titan, commonly known as the Golden Red Pupil, or the Golden Wave Pearl. If you don’t mind it, you can graft it into your own body and awaken an additional mutant ability.”
“Huh? Graft?” Lu Sheng was momentarily taken aback.
“Yes. After grafting, its power drops to about half of its original strength. Even so, it’s still quite formidable,” she explained. “The lone-eyed titan race was once hunted relentlessly because of this eye. A certain Devil Blade favored it and often used it to adorn its sacrificial altars.”
Lu Sheng shook his head lightly. “Only half its strength… forget it.” He did not bother asking about the grafting process. With the level of control he had over his own body, accepting or rejecting foreign objects was hardly an issue.
“And what about these corpses? What’s the best way to use them?” He produced Ye Moling’s corpse, along with the tangled remnants of Scarlet District Mistress and Yingying, still locked together.
“YOU!!” Rage exploded across the little umbrella girl’s face.
“Relax. I’m just recycling,” Lu Sheng replied indifferently.
“You’re humiliating me?!” she shrieked. In a sudden burst, she lunged at his face, only to be caught effortlessly and slammed to the ground beneath his grip.
“Alright. Stop fooling around.”
“RETURN MY REMAINS! YOU PERVERT! I’LL TRADE YOU FOR THEM! TRADE!!!” the little umbrella girl screamed hysterically, struggling wildly.
At last, reality settled in. She could not defeat him. She could not escape him. All she could do was accept her defeat.
“Alright. You said it.” Only then did Lu Sheng release her.
Hongfang Bai let out an angry grunt and dropped to the ground. She stared at the scattered remains on the floor, her expression twisted with frustration and helplessness.
“The method you used to control Yingying can also be applied to a puppet,” she said stiffly. “I know a special art that allows the creation of a substitute puppet body. Are you interested?”
“Oh?” Lu Sheng’s eyes brightened. For some time now, he had been keenly aware that while his own strength was overwhelming, his subordinates were far from sufficient. They could not guarantee the safety of his friends or family. A substitute puppet body… the idea itself carried considerable weight.
Hongfang Bai hurriedly added, “But creating such a substitute requires enormous materials and resources. It’s also extremely difficult. Even I’m only a novice. I’ll teach you the initiation method, and in return, you give me back my remains!”
“Deal!” Lu Sheng nodded without hesitation.
The two remained inside the sanctuary for several hours before finally emerging.
Yet the moment they stepped out, Lu Sheng sensed something amiss. The guards nearby were casting strange, lingering glances in his direction.
In particular, the visibly exhausted state of the little umbrella girl drew even more peculiar looks, making the atmosphere subtly awkward.
Fortunately, Lu Sheng maintained firm control over her through the Yin Crane Web, ensuring she could not utter a single word she should not.
This time, he obtained a secret art from her known as the Strings Manipulation Art, a technique used to control combat puppets through invisible strings.
No wonder he had never seen the Scarlet District Mistress employ it. The reliance on strings alone made the art impractical in most real combat situations.
That also explained why the Scarlet District Mistress had once given him a complete copy of the art without the slightest hesitation.
The two exited the private sanctuary with Hongfang Bai trailing behind Lu Sheng. She had to hop and skip every few steps just to barely keep pace with his stride.
She cast a furtive glance at the man before her.
Back then, she had wasted no less than a hundred years on this art, draining Scarlet District of its resources in the process. A bottomless pit. A cultivation black hole.
‘Study it. Study it well,’ Hongfang Bai sneered inwardly. ‘Just like I did. Sink into it for a hundred years without making a single step forward. When that happens… my chance will finally come.’
The two of them entered the study.
Lu Sheng pulled out a chair and sat down.
“You mentioned something earlier. ‘Secret arts’? ‘Mutant abilities’? What exactly are those?” he asked abruptly.
Hongfang Bai was caught off guard.
“Apart from our freakishly powerful bodies, demons and ghosts possess all kinds of abilities,” she replied after a pause. “That ability of yours, where your strength suddenly surges. Isn’t that a type of secret art? Why are you asking this? Don’t you already know?”
It took Lu Sheng a moment to realize she was referring to his liquefied Qi detonation.
He nodded faintly. In that case, secret arts were simply innate abilities possessed by demons and ghosts. Chao Hu’s golden beam from his lone eye. The Scarlet District Mistress’ phantom spirit body. All of them fit the description.
“Alright then.”
He leaned back and turned his attention to the stack of reports delivered by Jade Lotus. Ordinarily, Jade Lotus only submitted information of genuine importance.
Jade Lotus oversaw Mountain-Edge City, while the other regions were divided among several Elders. The Soaring Eagle Squad, led by Xu Chui, governed nearly thirty percent of the sect’s territory. Another thirty percent had been entrusted to Zhao Jiaojiao.
At the thought of Zhao Jiaojiao, Lu Sheng’s brows knit together. She was, quite simply, a martial arts fanatic. Though he had subdued her, her cultivation advanced with frightening speed. Originally a Divine Prime, she now possessed the bottleneck-less Yin Crane Web, allowing her growth to continue without restraint.
Despite having only recently taken charge, the regions under her authority saw the fewest supernatural incidents. On many occasions, rumors of ghosts had barely begun circulating before she arrived and erased them entirely.
Lu Sheng skimmed through the intelligence report she had submitted, then calmly set it aside and switched to the most recent report from another region governed by a different Elder.
“Eh?” Lu Sheng paused abruptly.
He picked up a sheet of paper. The date on it showed that it had been sent a month ago. As he read through its contents, his eyes gradually narrowed.
After finishing, he set the paper down gently on the table, his fingers tapping against the tabletop in a slow, measured rhythm.
Sunlight streamed in through the window, spilling across the desk and illuminating the yellowed page. One lone line of text stood starkly revealed beneath the light:
“Ring Pendant City’s branch leader Ye Hongnan—missing in action for thirteen days. Whereabouts unknown.”
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