402 Ace in the Hole 1

If one never saw the sea, they would be unable to imagine how vast it was. If one never saw the sky, they would be like a frog in a well, ignorantly thinking that it was only as big as the opening of the well.

Lu Sheng had originally thought the fire only had the few forms he knew, but after seeing the figure of the Eight-Headed Griffin, he realized that flames weren't just confined to those few basic forms.

For every single flame, its existence, heat, warmth, smoke, frequency of light... all of these were unique and part of its individuality. Every appearance had its connections. Once you understood one of them, you could subsequently figure out much of the rest.

By looking at the conditions and results, slowly, Lu Sheng achieved a deep understanding of the true nature and rules of some of the flames.

The golden flames burned out after a little while.

Water mixed with blood was dripping from Lu Sheng's eyes, but he seemed not to notice at all. He still stared at the huge figure in the universe that burned in the flames.

Only when the Yin flames completely died down and sublimed into a glowing deep golden feather did Lu Sheng close his eyes.

For a long time, he just sat in place. He seemed to have sunk into the special feeling he got when he communicated with the Eight-Headed Griffin.

'Above Divine Weapon Masters, people use Laws. Different from all sorts of different elements, the basic concept of a Law is that it is an upgraded concentration of elements. It is the special extract concentrated from large amounts of elements. If someone is fluent in Laws, then they have control over an entire different level of elements.'

With a new understanding in his mind, Lu Sheng picked up the feather and wiped away the blood at the corner of his eyes. Glancing at the Yin flames, which were dead and unmoving, he felt a strange sense of loss.

He then checked his Infinity Technique. The second level was now stable. The Collection tier was split into six levels, mirroring the three levels of a Divine Lord; every two levels were equal to one level in a Divine Lord.

Since he reached the second level, it meant he was at the top of the pyramid for the Golden Leaf stage in Divine Lords.

One after another, veins lit up within Lu Sheng's body. The faint golden hue made his whole body appear to have a golden tint.

This was his veins being completely restructured. Using Mental Energy, the next level of the Infinity Technique, and the water-based divine weapon, Lu Sheng's body was once again strengthened in an unknown way.

Originally, this improvement should have been in the direction of the next level of Divine Lords, Jade Star. But something unexpected happened.

The figure and flames of the Eight-Headed Griffin seriously twisted and messed up this evolution. This was also a built-in loophole in the Infinity Technique that Lu Sheng created himself.

By logic, Infinity Technique was being evolved in coordination with known systems of martial arts, and had no problem.

But Lu Sheng forgot one issue.

All these evolutions were evolutions based on Lu Sheng's knowledge of the world. But, his knowledge was finite, yet the outer world was infinite.

So the Infinity Technique he evolved had its own problems. Although it still worked, there was no knowing what effects it could have on everyone else.

Still sitting cross-legged on the floor, Lu Sheng carefully combed through this entire accident. It had already been more than an hour.

The strange appearances on his body had vanished, but he could still feel the burning heat within his marrow.

"What an… unexpected accident." He raised his hand, and his Divine Pattern appeared on his palm. Within a black triangle was a golden eye, and inside the golden eye was a deep crimson winged cobra with the feathers of an eagle.

This was currently the true nature of this Divine Pattern.

'Did my true nature also change after witnessing the Eight-Headed Griffin?'

Lu Sheng thought about it. This sort of change should have been negative, but because of the Mental Energy and the assistance of Deep Blue, all the side effects glanced off him. Only the useful parts were retained—parts that would not affect him negatively.

And these parts were the golden feathers that covered the winged cobra.

'Let me see the changes I underwent after reaching the second level.' Lu Sheng took a deep breath. The symbol in his palm dissipated, and a golden ball of light appeared in his hand. This was the Yang essence of the Infinite Technique.

"It looks the same as before." Lu Sheng looked closely at the Yang essence after evolving, but couldn't find anything different.

However, after a long time, Lu Sheng finally caught a sliver of difference.

This Yang essence seemed to have a trace of a burning that hadn't been there before. This burning was very subtle, and didn't appear on the surface. It seemed to affect the spirit rather than the body, just as if it could burn spirits.

'There isn't a lot of changes, but now I understand the direction I'm heading in.' Lu Sheng exhaled. He then looked at his Mental Energy, and was greatly surprised. Not only did he use up the entire five thousand units he had before, there were only three hundred units left from Han Tuo, too. He could see their skinny, faint outline from inside Deep Blue.

'This is very Mental Energy-draining. I must devour more Divine Weapons quickly.' He stood up slowly. 'But the biggest issue right now is to get out of this state.' Although he didn't know whether that tiny change in his Yang Essence was good or bad, he didn't have time to worry about it right now.

And last was the golden feather that appeared.

Lu Sheng suspended this feather in the air and checked it from top to bottom, from left to right. To him, this feather seemed like a terrifying bomb formed from the previous golden flames. It only needed one opportunity to explode and give him unknown power.

This was a special feather condensed from the Golden Lava he got after communicating with the Eight-Headed Griffin.

Lu Sheng touched the feather gently.

"Hiss…"

White smoke immediately came from his finger, the skin there being burned off a little.

'What a frightening temperature…' Even Lu Sheng was shocked. With his current resistance to high temperatures, he could stand uninjured in raging fires. Even flames over a thousand degrees couldn't damage him.

But, the flame inside this feather was able to easily harm him. He couldn't fathom the level of destruction if he exploded it.

'But this is understandable. When I first reached the level of the Eight-headed Divine Pearls, I used Mental Energy. I forced the flames to evolve and push my Yin flames to higher levels. I only got the Eight-Headed Divine Pearl level Yin flames after the essence in my flames morphed. The reason I obtained this flame is because I kept on pushing my flames even more.'

Floating the dark gold feather above his palm, Lu Sheng thought back to that huge, frightening monster.

'I cannot bear the temperature of this type of flame yet. Since it is from the Eight-headed Griffin, and it's golden, I will call it the Eight-Headed Golden Lava. It can be one of my hidden abilities. I will not use it unless I must.' Lu Sheng carefully wrapped the feather in layers of Yang Essence in case it touched his body. Then, he pulled out a piece of cloth and wrapped it again.

After doing all this, Lu Sheng walked to the door and tapped on it gently. The stone door slid to one side automatically.

There was a female disciple standing guard outside, napping. Hearing the door open, she jolted awake.

"Sect Master, you're awake!"

"Yup. How are things? Where is Jingzhi?" Lu Sheng asked in a deep voice.

"Sect Master Chen already left for Qianci Valley to the south for an emergency. Large amounts of Devil Armies suddenly appeared there, and were taking down nearby towns," the female disciple reported hurriedly. "Sect Master Chen has asked you to go to the Crimson River Valley once you are done. There are also a lot of Devils gathered there from Liyang City."

"I understand." Lu Sheng knew that things were at a precarious point now. If general Chen Jingzhi had to go fight himself, that meant the battle had to be terrible.

He said goodbye to the female disciple, then jumped up and flew up into the sky. He floated above the Buddhist temple for a bit, watching.

There were many disciples on all four sides of the temple, and there were groups of disciples running down every main road.

He flew down and landed beside one group.

"I am Lu Sheng. Someone come be my guide to the Crimson River Valley."

The entire group exploded. Every disciple was pushed back by the airflow, their expressions guarded. This noise appearing suddenly scared them.

The leader was a scholar who looked a little nerdy. He jumped at first, but after seeing who it was, he immediately tried to kneel down. However, Lu Sheng lifted his hands and prevented him from doing so. Hearing Lu Sheng's question, he quickly responded.

"Xiao Mengran, you know this area the best. Go guide Sect Master."

A chubby disciple took a step out, and answered clearly, "Yes! Sect Master, the Crimson River Valley is to the northwest."

Lu Sheng did not hesitate. He reached out and grabbed this little guy, and flew up into the air. The temple disappeared below them as Lu Sheng headed west.

***

Qiong Shang sliced the black devil with three arms in front of him in two.

Black devil blood splashed onto his face, giving off hissing corrosive sizzles.

But he didn't care anymore. These things happened too much, so much that he stopped caring. His face was already destroyed and burned off by devil blood.

Ever since the Thousand Sun Sect left the prefecture silently, he split from his friends to avoid capture. They melted into the ordinary citizens.

He did not want to think about the plots and conspiracies of the royal family anymore. The crown only existed in name now. If it weren't for the three major families supporting it from behind, with the crown crumbling, the Great Yin probably would already have become a mess of civil war and fighting. But, even so, the three major families suffered many losses from the Devil Army.

'Whatever. That has nothing to do with me. Whether it is good or bad, I'm just an ordinary citizen of the Great Yin. Things like that…' Qiong Shang forced his mind away from it and to slaughtering the devils in front of him. He was not strong, but he could still take on these basic devils pretty easily.

Killing aimlessly, he somehow made a bloody path through the dense area of devils in front of him.

"Is there anyone alive in the third squad?" A yell came from a hill not far away.

Qiong Shang looked back, then started killing the devils in front of him with a renewed vigor.

With the Devil Disaster descending so suddenly, the dynasty was not prepared, and lost almost half their forces in a few days. The rest was also slowly decaying.

With no other choice, the Yinfu army could only organize their battered soldiers and ask for help from the citizens to combat the Devil Disaster.

This was how Qiong Shang entered the fighting scene.