421 Exchange 2

Yuanguang Yuan blanked out for a second. Lu Sheng's questions were clearly a show of respect. But, she quickly smiled bitterly—her parents were all ordinary parts of the family. Both were only second or third Vein level because of their limited potential. 

No one directly related to her could match her power, let alone a Weapon Master. She was the biggest pride of her immediate family. 

"No… No Weapon Master…" Yuanguang Yuan knew that she'd just missed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but she didn't want to lie. "But Sister Qin's father is a Weapon Master."

"Seems you are having some problems in your life." Lu Sheng didn't really care about a mere Weapon Master, and only thought this Yuanguang Yuan had a good heart. 

He waved his hand to signal that everyone else could leave. But, he still had things to say to Yuanguang Yuan.

Yuanguang Yuan nodded. She was silent and had her eyes lowered. Though everyone in the group came from a major family, only Yuanguang Qin held an important position—her father was a directing elder, and was in charge of a large part of business within the Great Yin Capital. Thus, while Yuanguang Qin acted spoiled and arrogant most of the time, no one dared to lecture her. 

She only listened to the Senior Apprentice Brother Yuan, whom she had a crush on. 

"You can come to Autumn Moon County and go to Prime Devil Sect for help. Even though I'm not part of the Yuanguang Family, I can still take care of some minor things as the sect master of the Prime Devil Sect. Of course, in exchange…" Lu Sheng paused before he continued to send his voice. "As you gain more power, you must try your best to influence your family to invest resources into the Prime Devil Sect."

Due to his concern regarding their guardian Divine Weapon, Lu Sheng didn't plan to return to the family at all, but that didn't mean he wouldn't work with anyone in the family. 

This Yuanguang Yuan was an ideal first candidate.

She was young and in her prime, and needed resources in order to improve. If an outside force could support her at this time outside of her family, it would benefit her immensely both in terms of cultivation and her power within the family. 

The three major families weren't charity, and the competition within the families was ruthless, even more so than in the three major sects. Every month, they received a mission that had to be completed outside of the family, a prime time to test the younger generation's outside power.

Yuanguang Qin was popular for this exact reason—she had a father who was in charge of the family's exterior business. 

"Why me…?" Yuanguang Yuan lowered her head slightly. 

"Because you have the need, and because we met by chance. Also, because you are not complete trash," Lu Sheng answered casually. 

Yuanguang Yuan was stunned.

Not trash… That immediately singled her out among her group. In other words, the rest of them were indeed complete trash. 

I've just established… my outside power?

She had heard of similar stories told by elder brothers and sisters within the family, but because of her lack of position, she didn't have any outside power she could lean on. 

It was purely because there wasn't much about her that was valuable. There were way too many better choices within the family.

But everything changed at that moment. 

Yuanguang Yuan raised her head, and stared into Lu Sheng's eyes. 

This man was dangerous. It wasn't obvious because of his tough appearance, but there was also a special aura about him. An aura she had only sensed around the first elder of her family. 

Everyone in the Court of Elders was extremely old and powerful, and their temperaments were all similar to that of this man in front of her. 

"I agree." Even though it was only a verbal agreement, it might be a life-changing opportunity for Yuanguang Yuan. 

"There might not be much I can give you." She sent her voice. 

"No matter, I don't need much."

Lu Sheng didn't talk to anyone else. They couldn't even talk without stuttering, clearly lacking the courage and determination. Yuanguang Yuan, on the other hand, had the courage to take responsibility when faced by a threat. No wonder she was their leader. 

After exchanging methods of communication with Yuanguang Yuan, Lu Sheng didn't make the group's lives difficult, and let them go. 

Then, he turned to look at the wildfire spreading through the forest. 

It had spread outside of the maple forest, and turned into a wild forest fire. 

Lu Sheng looked up to the sky covered in black smoke and frowned. He was about to take care of this fire. 

Suddenly, a whooshing sound came from the distance. It seemed like someone had arrived. 

He looked toward the source of the sound, and saw many shapes dressed in black sprinting toward the hill. Each and every one of them was agile and fast, and they occasionally shot out flares that emitted sharp whistles. 

They all had the Autumn Moon County Youyin Sect symbol on them, and judging by their uniform, they were part of the Yin Yang Agency. 

The one in the lead saw Lu Sheng from afar, and hurriedly flew in front of him. 

"Thousand Sun Sect Prefectural Sect Master Lu." His name was Xu Jinsong, a sixth Vein from the Yin Yang Agency. He had received news of a forest fire as well as a possible fight between powerful people from the Turquoise Conch Agency, and immediately brought some men to check it. 

As he saw Lu Sheng in the distance, he was basically sure this was related to Prefectural Sect Master Lu of the Thousand Sun Sect. 

After all, he was an influential figure in Autumn Moon County, even the Moling Prefecture, nowadays. 

Even though this Prefectural Sect Master Lu didn't really like leaving the County Capital or interacting with other powers, him merely sitting in the Thousand Sun Palace was enough to scare off any unwanted attention. 

Especially after he recently personally beat back the Devil Army and stabilized the situation. After that battle, Perfectural Sect Master Lu Sheng's fame had spread across the whole Moling Prefecture. 

Lu Sheng of Moling, according to people with too much time on their hands, could rank among the top 10 most powerful in Moling. 

Xu Jinsong knew better, though. Prefectural Sect Master Lu Sheng's true power might even surpass the rumors. 

"You work for the local Autumn Moon County Yin Yang Agency?" Lu Sheng asked. 

"Yes, I am Xu Jinsong, the current vice captain of the Earth Task Force, here to investigate the forest fire," Xu Jinsong replied respectfully. 

"I caused this fire during my battle, I will take care of it. No need to worry," Lu Sheng said casually. "Also, powerful Devils from the Devil World appeared nearby recently. Please clean up their traces after I take care of the fire, and make sure no clues remain."

Did he just use us as janitors?

Xu Jinsong laughed wearily, but still had to accept it. 

"The three major sects work with the Imperial Court to push back the Devil Army, this is part of our job, part of our job…" Everyone behind him looked helpless too. 

Lu Sheng of course didn't care about their thoughts, and instead turned to look at the spreading fire. 

He took the Wei River Sword from his back. 

"With this much area to cover… I might not be able to help," the Wei River Sword said wearily. 

After serving Lu Sheng for so long, he had a vague understanding of his attitude. Hence, he was the most cooperative and most intelligent among his Divine Weapons. The rest were either drowsy and acted based on their instincts or refused to cooperate at all. 

The Wei River Sword didn't know what happened to those Divine Weapons, but he saw Lu Sheng sending them all into the building, and none of them ever came back out. 

"No matter. You don't need to do anything," Lu Sheng said casually. The Divine Weapon was really only a disguise for his power. 

Lu Sheng never did, and never would need the power of a Divine Weapon.

Holding the sword straight, the dark red symbol of a triangular winged snake appeared on Lu Sheng's brow. 

The entire Wei River Sword started to shine with a blue light, which quickly turned brighter and brighter. Within a few breaths it had became a blinding light. 

"Snap."

Lu Sheng held the hilt, and moved the sword to his right. 

"Morning Moon!"

"Whoosh!"

The blade shattered quietly, turning into countless deep blue dots, and scattered into the fire at an insane speed. 

The dots of light were accompanied by an enormous shadow expanding slowly beneath Lu Sheng's feet. 

The shadow of an enormous dragon crawled into the fire like a snake, its speed almost matching that of the blue dots of light.

"That's not right, is this… Is this!?" the Wei River Sword suddenly exclaimed in disbelief. 

Lu Sheng was surprised too. He only wanted to use the Wei River Sword's water-type property to extinguish the fire. But, since it had spread to at least a thousand meters' radius, he injected a little Yang Essence into the move. 

If a Divine Lord's power was spread out evenly, it would be enough to extinguish a fire within tens of thousands meters, let alone a thousand. It would be even more powerful if it were someone that specialized in area of effect skills. 

Back in the Great Song, a single powerful Divine Weapon could put an entire province in chaos. Even though that incident was also influenced by an outside force, it was undeniable that a Divine Lord that was stronger than ordinary Divine Weapons would be unbelievably powerful. 

But Lu Sheng didn't expect that using the Wei River Sword would draw out the mark of Nie Xing. 

As the Divine Weapon left by the Wei River God, it was impossible that it didn't have any connection with Nie Xing, the ancient Wei River God. 

But Lu Sheng didn't understand why it chose to appear at this moment. 

Aided by the shadow of Nie Xing, the blue dots charged into the flames. Soon, the fire diminished. 

In merely ten breaths, the whole forest fire was extinguished, leaving behind only a scorched wreckage, while the ground was covered in steam.

Countless blue dots of light returned to Lu Sheng, and formed the blade of Wei River Sword again, which floated in front of him. 

Lu Sheng stared at the blade, but didn't reach out for it immediately. His gaze fell on the Wei River Sword's hilt. It had originally been only an ordinary pattern, but was now replaced by a savage-looking black dragon head. 

"Nie Xing was activated by your power essence," the Wei River Sword spoke again. "And it recognizes my part as the main part of the Wei River Sword. The rest of the shards are only supports."

"Interesting. An ordinary Divine Weapon that's not afraid of me…" Lu Sheng finally grabbed the hilt, and sheathed the sword on his back. 

The flame was extinguished within ten breaths. 

Lu Sheng turned to look at Xu Jinsong and his followers, who all had awestruck expressions on their faces. 

"You can take care of the rest, I will leave for now."

"Prefectural Sect Master could go as he pleases, go as he pleases," Xu Jinsong hurriedly said. Even though Lu Sheng wasn't an official, and was technically only a free man of the Jianghu, the connections and influence he had as a prefectural sect master of one of the three major sects were enough to crush someone like him like an ant. 

Lu Sheng didn't waste more time, and jumped up. Golden light exploded beneath his feet as he shot into the sky, disappearing into the distance. 

Tracking down the Tian'er Blade, then capturing it to complete the mission was his main priority right now. [1. Basically the martial artists' underground society, existing within but independent of the country. I feel like I've explained that already recently, but could be for another novel I edit. Nowadays refers to criminal underground.]