Way of the Devil
Chapter 645: Investigation 2

"Thud."

Lu Sheng slowly closed the thick book he was reading. His eyes felt sore.

"The Book of Darkness."

The four words were clearly printed on the cover. It was written in the Language of E.

Dark red fleshy material which resembled a heart protruded from the center of the cover. It rose and fell slowly as if it was breathing.

'I didn't expect that this library would allow me to refer to such taboo material. I reckon that anyone with slightly inferior strength would've had their spirit disintegrate and die with a single glance.'

Lu Sheng reached out and touched the book's cover. It felt like human skin. It was delicate and warm.

He got to his feet and picked up the book. He gently returned it to its spot on the book rack to his right. Then, he took the second Book of Darkness, returned to his seat, and continued reading.

He had kept at this for two consecutive days already. In these two days, Zhao Shengying did not bother him. He did not even hear from her.

According to the doctor who was with him, someone saw Zhao Shengying being sent away via a Transport Formation under the escort of the family.

After Lu Sheng duped Zhao Shengying the other day, he went back and increasingly found the situation strange the more he thought about it.

After the event, Lu Sheng visited the city's library at the first opportunity he got. After paying certain fees, he began researching on the original core.

What he did not expect was that information about this was classified as high taboo. He had to pay more.

Lu Sheng had spent more than 8,000 ice money on searching for it alone.

Time continued to move on with the flipping of pages. The Books of Darkness were flipped through. Although he could not find the original core, Lu Sheng gained a better understanding of the environment here.

"…the other worlds refer to this place as the Heavenly Devil Universe, Chaos World, Fanela, and use several other names. This place is the moniker for evil, destruction, confusion, and chaos. It's the source of all sadness, pain, anger, and jealousy. Among the countless worlds in the universe, this is the only place without a parallel universe. Time ends here. Everything will return to its final resting place here. The Nothing Root spreads its tendrils everywhere. They go around in the guises of the children of the original core…"

'Wait a minute!' Lu Sheng's fingers suddenly stopped. He fixed his eyes upon this sentence.

'It's right here, children of the original core!?'

He continued reading.

"…nobody knows where the children of the original core came from. Nobody knows what their objective is. There's only one thing that everyone's sure of. The children of the original core are difficult to approach. They're usually hiding in their own Heart Worlds, lying silently in wait. They will only show themselves when they need something or when they're planning to do something, and it's only then that they'll be discovered by others."

Lu Sheng scrutinized this sentence with a frown. There was no other information after this sentence. There was only a short paragraph on the children of the original core. However, it did not have much content.

There was only a mention of something called the Nothing Root.

He quickly referred to the following pages. They were descriptions of the three great starseas of the Heavenly Devil Universe.

The three starseas were each ruled over by three separate forces. This had been the status quo since time immemorial. This place belonged to the Jade Starsea Zone. It was a small system on the edge of the starsea.

The other Books of Darkness did not hold much information.

However, even with this, Lu Sheng's horizons had been much widened. He now had a complete understanding regarding the Yellow Springs Galaxy, the Mother of Pain, and the Green Branch Sect.

'The Yellow Springs Galaxy has existed for billions of years. However, the Mother of Pain and the Green Branch Sect were overlords that rose to prominence during the latter periods. They have existed for less than a million years. They are some of the few rising stars in this part of the galaxy.'

Lu Sheng shut the book and returned it to the bookshelf. He stood up and left the reading room.

He went over all information available here. He also read several other books. In the beginning, he thought about referring to information on skill formulas, but unfortunately, all of the skill formulas he was interested in were so expensive that he would not want to look at them a second time.

He left the library and went directly back to his own house. He activated the formation to seal his courtyard.

'Since I can't come up with a plan for the time being, the choices I have now are either to continue carrying out Arrivals or try my luck with the Iron Flag Council.' Lu Sheng considered his options in his mind.

'Now that my spirit has grown to its peak, the rules of the universe will no longer allow me to have more spirits. It'll be a waste of time for me to carry out Arrivals and settle karmas. The key now are cultivation methods and the improvements and substantial changes in tiers.

'Looks like I have no choice but to give the Iron Flag Council a try. Perhaps I can make some use of my medical art there.'

He acted as soon as he made the decision.

He quickly started setting up the Arrival Formation in his room. Among the formations he knew about, the Arrival Formation was the one with which a dimensional rift could be torn in space.

He had grown familiar with setting up the formation through his experiences. With ample materials, Lu Sheng added some controllable functions in case anything unforeseen were to occur.

Zhao Luoying did not need any further purging for the time being. She was now at the resting stage. The heavy planet pollutants had stopped their emissions as well.

He had at least two weeks until the next emission phase. It was more than enough for him to pay a visit to the Iron Flag Council.

The formation was quickly completed. Lu Sheng quickly went in and sat down. The Yang Essence in his body flowed like golden fluid as it spread into the formation veins on the floor.

The two embedded black crystals started vibrating slightly, and the formation around him began emitting dark red radiant mist.

"Pchht!"

This time was much easier than before. Lu Sheng's spirit was much more powerful than previously. He was now able to reduce the burden of the formation on himself by a mind-boggling degree.

"Pchht!"

The formation easily tore a gray rift in the dimension.

Lu Sheng exhaled and produced the emerald green dagger from his Sea-overturning Orb. He wielded it and morphed into black light as he shot into the rift and vanished.

...

A huge and vast silver orb slowly turned in a clockwise direction in the skies.

The orb was like the sun. Countless silver metal pipes extended from its surface, and their ends were each connected to small silver spheres of different sizes.

The small metallic spheres turned with the silver orb, calm and steady.

These small metallic spheres were connected to similar spheres of varying sizes, and this pattern continued on and on.

The small spheres on the outermost layer were connected to each other. The entire structure was like a polygon constructed by a round ball and wooden rods.

Within a little sphere near the center.

"Hiss."

A gray rift instantly opened up within the silver sphere's dimension.

A beam of black light shot out of the rift, and dropped to the ground. A big, tall, and strong-looking young man's figure appeared. It was the impressive-looking Lu Sheng, who had just activated his Arrival Formation.

He wore black robes and had a deadly grip on the emerald green dagger in his hands. Dark green chains of runes pulsed as they circled around him.

Crisp sounds of clapping hands were heard from a corner of the room. Lu Sheng looked in the direction from which the sound came.

A tall and lanky girl with shoulder-length black hair stood at the exit to the right of the room.

The girl had a complicated black Divine Vein in between her brows. She wore purple leather armor and rested one of her hands on the hilt of the blade on her waist. She cast her gaze in his direction.

"Welcome. Welcome to the Iron Flag Council. Since our parting in the small world, it seems like you've been having a good time." The girl was Mi Guangying, whom Lu Sheng had fought before.

Currently, she was exuding a dangerous aura that was difficult to describe using words. She appeared much more formidable compared to before.

"Mi Guangying?" Lu Sheng walked closer.

"Good. At least you remembered. If not for your killing my little brother, I'd still be stuck in that place for who knows how long." Mi Guangying removed her hand from the hilt. She took out a white origin stone from the pouch on her waist and tossed it to Lu Sheng.

"Take this. I've taken care of your registration. The Iron Flag Council needs talents with outstanding potential such as yourself. Take a good look; you can easily accept all kinds of missions here. If you're confident, you can quickly rake in contribution points." Mi Guangying extended her hand and produced her own white origin stone.

The origin stone was marked by a peculiar bright blue rune.

"Well then, I'll leave you to your own exploration. I'll be going off to finish my mission. For my revenge, I need more contribution points to hire some manpower. The time I've been waiting for has been enough rest for me."

Lu Sheng had more questions for her. However, before he could ask her, Mi Guangying tossed her white origin stone before herself.

With a spurting sound, the origin stone suddenly transformed into an oval door of blue light, and she took a step into it. The light door was instantly shut, and it vanished.

The entire room was silent once more.

"…"

Lu Sheng glanced at the pebble in his hand. He touched it lightly with his spirit.

"Boom!"

A plethora of information surged into his mind instantly.

Metal Interval. This was the name of this world.

There were no lands here. There were only the void and white clouds. Metallic spheres floated around here like islands.

The headquarters of the Iron Flag Council was established in the largest metallic sphere here.

They referred to this place as Silver Sea.

Silver Sea was the Iron Flag Council's core. All sorts of missions were issued and accomplished every day.

In this part of the world, contribution point was king. Those with strength could accept any kind of missions to earn contribution points.

Those without strength could still survive with money and resources. They could still earn contribution points by doing business with the other members who needed resources and money.

There was another group of individuals who could earn contribution points, the technical staff. They could also earn contribution points by carrying out technical tasks.

Contribution points could be exchanged for various resources and treasures at the headquarters' Origin Stone Chamber.

Lu Sheng closed his eyes as he remained on the spot. He quickly digested the information about this place. It took him quite a while before he was able to snap back to his senses.

'Contribution point is king? Interesting… I wonder which powerful being created this place for it to have such a grand setting…'

He picked up the origin stone and gripped it slightly. A complicated blue pattern immediately surfaced on the stone. The pattern glowed with blue radiance and swiftly formed a rectangular light screen before him.

In the beginning, there was a swirling mass of thick black fog in the light screen. The thick fog quickly dispersed, revealing a silver orb which took up half of the screen.

The silver orb turned slowly. Many straight and short rods were connected to its surface. Every short rod was connected to a small silver sphere.

These small silver spheres were each divided evenly into four wards by black lines. There were also words describing the wards.

The four wards were Employment, Skills, Market, and Miscellaneous.

Lu Sheng gave it some thought. With his will, he opened up the Skills column. The category expanded on the screen as densely packed lines appeared.

The entire list contained various kinds of skill formulas, secret tomes, mysterious crystals, and Divine Veins. They varied in might. The highest possible rank and price range of the respective items were listed as well.

Lu Sheng moved his spirit. The list was immediately sorted according to rank, from high to low.