410 Mission 1

The icy blue flames jumped around in the bowl.

In a medium-sized room, two people sat across from each other in the dusk light, both staring calmly at the bowl of water in front of them. 

A bowl of clean, boiled water was on the table. A swirl of moderately sized icy blue flames danced at the bottom.

"This is the Water of Trust?" the man on the left said.

"You can choose not to drink it," the person facing him said casually.

The man was silent for a while, but ultimately reached out and took the bowl. "My body and spirit have been separated for too long. You know I don't have a choice."

"Of course, you simply don't trust me," the person facing him said calmly. "I've brought you the water, and we are even. No more performances during this sacrifice. Let the heaven decide whether we pass or not."

The man knew what he meant.

He was silent for a while, then nodded.

"I know. If something goes wrong, I will assist you."

The person facing him raised her head, the faint light exposing her previously hidden face—one crawling with countless earthworms.

Large amounts of earthworms crawled out of her mouth, ears, and nose. The faint sound of slippery friction could occasionally be heard.

It was clear she had once been a beautiful woman. But no matter what she had been, that was in the past.

"After all these years of hiding, we still haven't discovered who the Head of the Black Society is. Is it worth it for you?"

The man bit his lip. "I'm doing this for revenge, whether it's 'worth it' or not is none of my concern. You?"

"Me…? Maybe." The woman shook her head. "The Five Weapon Grandmasters of the Great Yin, the Four Pillars of Devil World, the Black Society, and Three Sacred Gates are four groups that represent the pinnacle of power. 

"With the chaos within the Great Yin, they won't be able to do anything even if the word gets out. The Devil World has never meddled with our side before, and would probably only watch. Finally, if the Black Society wants to make a move, the only people available are those under the Three Secret Gates like you. This is our best chance."

"The Three Sages won't make a move." The man shook his head.

"Haha." The woman laughed. "You expect me to believe that?"

"Whether you trust me or not is not important. What is important is the fact the result will stay the same." The man swallowed the water in the bowl in one gulp.

"Bam. "

He slammed the bowl down on the table, stood up, and walked out of the wooden door.

***

Thousand Sun Palace, Autumn Moon Palace.

Lu Sheng's body floated in midair, while a swirl of pitch-black flame, with a faint touch of gold within, floated quietly in front of him.

The gold turned into countless golden wires, and constantly clashed with each other within the flame. During this process, the golden wires would, at an extremely slow pace, poke out of the black flame little by little, and form the shape of a golden feather.

The feather had only been as large as a nail at the start, but grew to be as large as a man's palm as more and more golden wires left the black flame.

After an immeasurable amount of time. 

Lu Sheng finally completely separated the Eight Headed Golden Flame from the Yin Flame, but only for this swirl. Countless amounts of Yin Flame were mixed in with Eight Headed Golden Flame within his body, and since Yin Flame was his core Law, being mixed in with Yin Flame was the same thing as being mixed in with Yang Essence all over Lu Sheng's body.

Though the Eight Headed Golden Flame was powerful, and could even increase the strength of Yang Essence, it also stopped Lu Sheng's progress as it made Lu Sheng's system too chaotic. At the moment, it was simply a boulder blocking his path.

'Unfortunate… Eight Headed Golden Flame was not a central Law Deep Blue created, or I could very well absorb the flame of Eight Headed Griffon to strengthen myself even further.' Lu Sheng felt that extracting the Eight Headed Golden Flame was a waste. 

But it was something he'd acquired completely by accident. No matter how powerful Deep Blue was and even though it could evolve any technique or Secret Art using Mental Energy, it could not evolve something like the Eight Headed Golden Flame that lacked even the most rudimentary concept. Who knew which system it was derived from?

Lu Sheng was forced to give it up.

After separating the Eight Headed Golden Flame from the swirl of Yang Essence, Lu Sheng pointed again.

The rest of the black Yin Flame roared and burned, starting to circulate according to the basic concept of the Eight-Headed Mind Technique.

"Done…" Instantly, the Infinity Technique's tab flashed. The Eight-Headed Mind Technique was temporarily separated as an improved version of Yin Flame, and received its own tab.

'It couldn't keep up when it reached the concept of Law. Let's see how far we can go this time.' Lu Sheng took a deep breath, and pressed down firmly on the Eight-Headed Mind Technique tab with his mind.

"Hiss."

Deep Blue shook, and the evolve button appeared. Lu Sheng concentrated, and pressed it without any hesitation.

Deep Blue started to tremble, while the swirl of black flame in front of Lu Sheng danced around even more violently.

Suddenly, the flame compressed itself into the size of a fingernail, while a dark red winged-snake symbol appeared in its middle.

Vast amounts of Mental Energy exploded within Lu Sheng's brain, then turned into a kind of shapeless energy to fuel the mysterious change of Yin Flame in its Eight-Headed Golden Flame form.

If Mental Energy was the flame, then the Yin Flame was the meat being roasted. Something seemed to be coming out of thin air around Lu Sheng as well, constantly being added to the Yin Flame. 

The black Yin Flame was like a pool of ink that constantly jumped while its temperature increased rapidly. The faint glow of the heat-insulating formation set up around the room started to darken gradually.

The horrifying heat even started to melt the floor and walls around him.

Fueled by the endless amount of Mental Energy, Deep Blue started to evolve Yin Flame to its next, improved level based on Lu Sheng's existing knowledge.

The Yin Flame constantly twisted around, and gradually formed a pitch-black whirlpool. The center of it was like a pitch-black tunnel that seemed to extend infinitely, leading to some unknown place.

White smoke started to rise out of Lu Sheng. Even his body was reaching its limit as the temperature reached at least 100,000 degrees, still increasing rapidly at that. [ED/N: Yes, it seems like it really is 100,000 degrees. Considering that the author previously was excited about that other flame having 1,000 degrees, which is actually less hot than a candle's flame (it's 1,400 to 1,600 degrees Celsius), it's possible that 1,000 degrees recently was a mistake.]

It was Yin Flame, after all, not an ordinary flame that could only burn enemies with heat. As for Yin Flame, heat was only part of its power. The most powerful part about it was its ability to burn spirits. As one of Lu Shang's first concepts, this strange fire had its roots in spirit to begin with, and was especially effective against ghosts or other anomalies. Physically burning other stuff was actually only a minor use.

Finally, after expending at least 20,000 units of Mental Energy, the change to Yin Flame finally stopped. Its color had turned from black to a dark purple, while the outline of a human face lomed within. A long black tail trailed behind it, similar to the whirlpool that appeared.

The swirl of Yin Flame looked similar to the special effects Lu Sheng's previous Devil Bodies possessed.

'Its power increased far more than before.' A hint of happiness appeared on Lu Sheng's face. He reached out with his hand, with white smoke coming out, and stroked the human-faced black flame.

The extreme heat of nearly 200,000 degrees immediately lessened as his skin came in contact with the flame. The human-faced Yin Flame quietly let Lu Sheng stroke it as it controlled its own heat like an intelligent being.

Lu Sheng could feel the special connection with the black whirlpool with a face in front of him.

'Too much Mental Energy was expended. I won't have enough to evolve the next Core Law. I should probably start by getting rid of the rest of the Eight-Headed Golden flame just to be safe.' He held the Man-Faced Yin Flame and moved his mind.

The swirl of black flame instantly dove into his palm, and flowed through his veins and nerves. A slight burning pain came from his veins in the wake of its movements as they were unable to bear the heat.

Lu Sheng clearly sensed his Mental Energy depleting, rapidly repairing his injuries. The evolution of Yin Flame wasn't finished. He had only evolved a small swirl of flame, which would then be used to modify his body, a crucial part of negating the influence of the Eight-Headed Golden Flame.

Every single ounce of Yang Essence was dyed pitch black as it was all scorched by the black flame.

The Yang Essence was noticeably weaker than the newly improved Human-Faced Black Flame. Lu Sheng was able to reshape all of his Yang Essence without much resistance.

"Open!" Lu Sheng roared abruptly. His body exploded in a ball of black flame, which then quickly dissipated.

As the fire cleared, he had transformed into the humanoid monster of his Yin Yang Integration Form.

Under the scorching heat of the black flame, Lu Sheng was forced into his Yin Yang Integration Form in order to combat the black flame's transformation process with the form's near-perfect regenerative ability.

As time passed slowly, Lu Sheng endured the intense pain while quietly suspended in midair. Every once in a while, a thin sliver of golden wire would drift out of his mouth.

These wires weaved together, and started to form a brilliant golden feather.

One hour, two hours…

Time flew. At last, the black flame finally completed its transformation process at midnight.

"Bam."

Lu Sheng's whole body slammed down, and he landed on one knee.

He could feel that the Yang Essence all over his body had been transformed into pitch-black flame, but because of the disguise of his Infinity Technique, it was quickly colored back to gold.

In his body, his various organs, muscles, and bones were all transformed on a fundamental level. After all, the Ultimate Eight-Head Devil Way was based on Yin Flame. After his Yin Flame evolved, everything related to Lu Sheng's body improved with it.

"Ha… Done… My body is stronger, and has gained greater fire resistance. There also seems to be a new organ…" Lu Sheng touched the sides of his throat: two cysts had grown there at some unknown time. 

A substance that even he himself felt was extremely dangerous churned inside.

The cysts weren't big, and were naturally covered when he lowered his head to a normal position.

"This newly evolved Yin Flame has far exceeded its original self. Though it came from Yin Flame, it could still produce horrifying heat comparable to ordinary bright flame's. This new black flame should be named Death Blaze."

Lu Sheng smiled as the Infinity Technique tab on Deep Blue quickly changed the name to Death Blaze.

After a bit of rest, he sat back up, and finally looked at the forced out Eight-Headed Golden flame.

A total of four golden feathers slowly floated in front of him. Including the one he'd extracted before the transformation, he now possessed a total of five Eight-Headed Golden Flames.

Horrifying heat dwelled within every single golden feather. Lu Sheng didn't know how powerful they were exactly, but since they came from the Eight-Headed Griffon, they shouldn't disappoint.