Volume 1: Painting Talismans 01 - True Devil Palace

  Zhenmo Palace is one of the top ten demon gates, and its power is in no way inferior to that of Tianfeng Sect. Apart from the Supreme Elder, Zhenmo Palace also has a palace master and ten deputy masters. Among these ten deputy masters, the tenth-ranked Lu Wuyou is absolutely a stunning talent.

  Lu Wu You is only in his early forties, but he has already reached the middle stage of Golden Elixir cultivation. This kind of cultivation speed is extremely rare in the entire Xianxia world. He is also the designated next Palace Master of Zhenmo Palace.

  At this time, in the Worry-Free Palace, Lu Wu You was closed off from the world, cultivating the True Demon Heart Sutra. His entire body was shrouded in a swirling aura of demonic energy, which was as black as pure darkness, making it impossible to discern any details. These dark demonic energies coalesced into a massive Heavenly Demon statue, ten zhang tall, with eight bone spurs on its back that pierced through the darkness like sharp blades. The demon wore a suit of dull armor that had not yet fully solidified. On the face of this Heavenly Demon, three eyes faintly appeared, seemingly there and yet not quite there.

  This is the most profound and supreme true demon condensation method in the True Demon Heart Sutra. Once this supreme true demon condensation is successful, the scales of the demon image will be clear, and the three eyes on its face will emit various divine powers.

  Lu Wu You, who was concentrating on refining the Supreme True Devil, suddenly felt a strong sense of unease, as if something unfortunate had happened.

  Lu Wu You stopped, dispersing the magic image and withdrawing the demonic energy into his dantian. In the center of his dantian, a pitch-black golden elixir about the size of a dragon's eye floated motionless. The so-called Golden Elixir was not referring to the color of the elixir being gold, but rather that it was as unbreakable as the hardest metal.

  These demonic auras were all absorbed into Lu Wu You's dantian, and immediately absorbed by the Golden Elixir. The Golden Elixir, having absorbed these demonic auras, emitted a black and shiny glow, which illuminated the dantian, causing it to begin expanding imperceptibly.

  "Someone come, go to the Gui Cang Hall and take a look at the Ben Ming Pai of the young master." Lu Wu You ordered.

  Lu Renjia is Lu Wuyou's only son and his Achilles' heel. Everyone in the Zhenmo Palace knows that Master Lu has a good temper, but if anyone dares to bully his precious son, they will have to face his wrath.

  A moment later, a monk who was guarding the nameplate of Lu Renjia came running over, crying out: "Master, it's terrible! Young Master's nameplate has been shattered!"

  "Shattered! How could this be? The Linglong Pendant I gave him wasn't even activated!" Lu Wu You suddenly stood up, his whole body trembling, a fierce and violent aura bursting out from within him.

  His originally pale face suddenly twisted, a thread of terrifying blue veins rose from his face, and the anger in his eyes was like a substance rising. He stretched out his hand and grabbed the monk's neck.

  "You say that Linglong Pei wasn't triggered, so why would his lifebound card shatter?" Lu Wuyou's eyes narrowed as he glared at the person.

  The monk who was caught by him was also a monk in the foundation period, but under Lu Wu's pressure, his hands and feet were soft all over, and he couldn't speak.

  "Unless... unless you go and take another look, Palace Master, maybe it was just a mistake on our part."

  "Hmph, what use are you!" Lu Wu You reached out with a large hand and grabbed the person to death, then strode into the Gui Cang Hall.

  A moment later, a mournful cry came from the Worry-Free Hall to the Return-to-Storage Hall.

  Within a day, all eleven halls of the Zhenmo Palace knew that Lu Gongzhu had lost his beloved son. Although Lu Renjia was usually unlearned and extremely annoying, in Lu Gongzhu's eyes, he was the greatest treasure under heaven. Everyone kept their distance from the Worry-Free Hall, lest they have bad luck and be blamed by Lu Gongzhu.

  "Everyone in the Worry-Free Palace, get out and search for me. Investigate carefully and find out who the Young Master has met and what he's done. Bring back anyone with information, I want to interrogate them one by one."

  Lu Wu Yao suppressed his anger and gave the order. Upon hearing this command, all the monks in the Worry-Free Temple let out a sigh of relief. Although they would have to stir up a bloody storm this time, as long as others died instead of themselves, there was nothing more to be said.

  Just as everyone in the Zhenmo Palace was leaving, Lu Wuyou once again entered a meditative state and began to sense the presence of the Linglong Pendant. This pendant was something he had refined himself, containing his three vital energies. When the wearer's life was threatened, each of these vital energies could transform into one of Lu Wuyou's attacks.

  When Lu Renjia went out to play, Lu Wuyou gave him an order, telling him that he must wear the Linglong Pendant. Now that the Linglong Pendant has not been activated, he can still sense the direction of the Linglong Pendant.

  "It's right there." A moment later, Lu Wu You suddenly opened his eyes and in the direction he sensed, he really discovered Ling Long Pei's existence.

  Along the direction of Lu Wuyou's gaze, three women were strolling along the street. It was actually Zheng Xinyu, Zhu Xiaojing and Zhang Qingqing. On Zheng Xinyu's waist, there was a jade pendant emitting a faint glow. This was originally Lu Renjia's Linglong Pendant, which was now hanging on Zheng Xinyu's waist.

  "New Rain, what do you think will be the outcome of this battle?" asked Zhu Xiaojiao.

  "What else can we do? How could those few people be a match for Tianlang Xing? His four subordinates are all Foundation Stage cultivators, do you know how formidable a Foundation Stage cultivator is?" Zheng Xinyu sighed.

  "How fierce?"

  "A hundred fierce oxen's strength! Even the lowest Foundation Establishment cultivators possess a hundred fierce oxen's strength, you say how formidable." Zheng Xinyu exclaimed. Mortal world warriors, although occasionally intersecting with cultivators, only intersect with Qi Refining stage cultivators at most, and won't have any intersection with Foundation Establishment cultivators. Zheng Xinyu knew the power of Foundation Establishment cultivators due to Lu Renjia's boastful display.

  "Master, can you really be that powerful? Then what's the use of us martial artists trying harder?" Zhu Xiaqing sighed, her mood sinking.

  "Xiaoqiong, don't be discouraged. We're all waiting for an opportunity now. Once this opportunity comes, we martial artists can also possess power that's not inferior to that of the cultivators!" Zheng Xinyu comforted.

  "Really? What chance?"

  "This will be understood later, just hope that White Tiger doesn't get into trouble this time. In case White Tiger gets into trouble..." Zheng Xinyu let out a barely audible sigh, her gaze looking towards the distance, where the headquarters of the Shun Tian Alliance was located.

  Lu Wu You suddenly stood up and was about to follow the feeling of Ling Long's pendant when a calm voice came from outside his temple:

  "Don't worry."

  Upon hearing this voice, Lu Wu's anger was immediately extinguished, and he slightly bowed his body, saying: "Wu pays respects to the Palace Master."

  This voice is actually the Palace Master of the True Devil Palace!

  The true demon palace master has extremely great power, and even for the top ten deputy palaces, he has the power of life and death. Lu Wu You is even more so cultivated by the current true demon palace master, with a very heavy heart of reverence for this palace master.

  "If you leave again, your Worry-Free Palace will become a completely empty palace. What kind of dignity is that?" The True Devil Palace Master said.

  Lu Wu's heart skipped a beat and he hastily said, "I dare not."

  "That's good, after your disciples return, you can leave then."

  "Yes, I will carefully follow the instructions of the palace owner." Lu Wu said.

  "Alas..." The true demon palace's master sighed, and his voice disappeared.

  Lu Wu You's divine thoughts swept across the entire Worry-Free Hall, only to discover that in a short moment, everyone in the Worry-Free Hall had disappeared without a trace, even the cleaning servants had vanished.

  "These trash!" Lu Wu You finally burst into rage, the demonic energy suddenly exploded out, everything in the entire great hall was destroyed by the demonic energy.

  Lu Wu You stood among the ruins for a long time, suddenly bursting into laughter, as if hiding all his anger and sorrow. Lu Wu You sat down again, his demonic aura surging, and an even clearer and more solid True Demon image appeared before him.

  "After all, you are the one I chose, and indeed a rare talent in cultivation. If you can cut off your emotions, the True Devil Palace will make even greater progress under your leadership." In the void, a pair of huge eyes watched everything in the Worry-Free Hall, and only when they saw that Lu Wuyou's mood had not been affected by anger did they disappear with satisfaction.

  In Jianghe where they once stopped to buy a map, two monks descended from the sky. They were precisely Gao Renxia and Gao Quanzhong.

  "Third brother, the place I sensed earlier is here. Let's split up and search with our divine sense." Gaoren Xi said, Gaoren Quan nodded and left. A moment later, the two reunited again.

  "There is no sign of Xiaoyuan within tens of miles, he should have left." Gaoren said.

  "Not bad, try to exert your blood energy again and sense the existence of Xiao Yuan." Gaoren Xi said.

  The two once again took out the silver plate, this time it was Gao Ren's turn to fully display his skills. The Gao family's ancestral bloodline resonance technique could not be used without restrictions, and one person could only use it once a month.

  On the exquisite silver plate, the blood gas pointed again in the direction of the highland, and the two men looked at each other. Gao Ren was delighted: "The place where we felt the fluctuation of law before is just in that direction. Did we miss him?"

  "It should be. However, the distance between us has narrowed a lot, and within two days, we should be able to catch up." Gaoren said.

  "Alright then, let's hurry up."