Way of the Devil

Panda Novel

Layer 71 of the abyss, Deep Red Mountains.

In the land covered by vegetation that resembled dark red blood, a light-yellow Transport Door tore open the dimension. Then, it swiftly enlarged and stabilized.

A troop of big and tall fierce-looking rabbits slowly walked out of the Transport Door.

Unlike ordinary rabbits, these rabbits wore red kasayas and had the fur on their heads shaved clean, with dots on their heads. They even carried Buddhist prayer beads with them.

1If it were not for the cruel and frenzied looks they had in their blood-red eyes, they could have passed off as erudite, learned monks.

1The leading rabbit shook his flabby belly and swept his gaze across the scene before him as he demanded in a loud voice, “Where are the people?! Where did they disappear to?! Show yourselves at once! Don’t you try my patience, I’ll bask this entire place in the Glorious Shine of Buddha’s Light if I have to!”

“Big… Big brother. This is the abyss… There are no humans here to begin with… We’re here to establish a stable transport point…” one of the rabbit monks carefully reminded him from behind.

“Abyss?” The leading rabbit monk stepped out of the Transport Door. He grabbed at the bloody soil. “The soil here is fertile. Grass will surely grow quickly here!”

Although he did not see any humans here, the discovery of the fertile blood soil satisfied the rabbit monk. This saved them the trouble of killing other creatures to water the ground with their blood.

“Big Brother, we should first look for creatures whom we could preach to… The buddha’s orders are more important…” the rabbit monk behind him reminded him in a soft voice.

“Mm-hm, you’re right, but there seems to be something suppressing us here. I don’t feel too comfortable here.” The leading rabbit monk looked around himself. Then, he looked up at the skies.

“Forget it. Let’s establish the transport point. We’ll wait for the corps leaders to find some living beings.”

“You’re so smart, Big Brother!” The group of rabbit monks showered him with flattery.

In no time, the rabbit monks began driving a large group of elven Sorcerers out of the door with nimble movements.

The elven Sorcerers began stabilizing the transport point helplessly. Their Tribe was controlled by the three Tribes. They were powerless to fight back. They had no option but to submit.

As if rubbing salt on their wounds, some of their more fanatic brethren even joined the Divine Grass Church of their own accord. They betrayed them.

Soon enough, a stabilized transport point was built in slightly more than an hour. It started glowing with a faint blue light.

“Pchht!”

A blue beam of light shot into the skies.

Lu Sheng hovered in midair and looked down at this blood-red land. A blue light beam shone. Shortly after, a second one followed, and a third.

When his advances in the main plane were temporarily foiled, he shifted his focus to the abyss.

There were many layers to the abyss, and it spanned a vast area. Most of the land could serve as suitable places for the three formidable Tribes to live in.

As for the abyssal will, Lu Sheng had devised a skill to counter it. He named the skill Glorious Shine of Buddha’s Light.

The abyssal consciousness could very well be the fruit of the collective wills of the countless abyssal creatures. However, the energy contained too much negative impurities, and was unbelievably chaotic. Hence, it had no natural enemy.

Glorious Shine of Buddha’s Light was a special skill Lu Sheng developed. He utilized his Heavenly Devil’s special attribute, Nature Deception; with Qianshen Undead Body as the core, countless bits of his flesh would be spread out, effectively setting the stage where many of his clones could be born.

When this skill was unleashed, the scattered flesh and blood would indiscriminately devour all nutritional substances. Some of the inorganic substance would also be absorbed as nutrients. Hence, a powerful might would be unleashed.

This was why the rabbit monk frequently used this as his final warning when he threatened the others.

The true core of this skill was Lu Sheng’s own cells, which completely inherited his main body’s terrifying undead property and devouring power.

Creatures below the legendary rank would just be throwing their lives away, no matter the numbers. They would all be devoured and become the nutrients Lu Sheng needed for his clones to grow.

The clones produced would naturally emit the Void Underworld cultivation method Qianshen Method’s Fertilizing Spiritual Light. The surrounding environment would swiftly be converted, creating conditions suitable for the growth of plants.

As he hovered in the air, Lu Sheng looked at the densely packed blue light shooting up swiftly. A sneer crept onto his lips.

“If the abyssal consciousness is the collection of the abyssal creatures, devouring their flesh, conjuring clones, and inserting them into the three Tribes might just weaken it. The problem might even be settled. If the abyssal consciousness is the land itself, the Fertilizing Spiritual Light emitted by my clones can perfectly convert this land into an ideal territory suitable for the three Tribes to live on. If the territory becomes mine, I don’t think there’ll be a way to form a consciousness.”

This 71st layer was his current experimental site.

Lu Sheng entered here personally to wait for the counterattack from the abyssal will.

Soon enough, a wind that reeked of blood started blowing.

The wind picked up speed and ferocity. It quickly formed a huge pitch-black tornado before Lu Sheng.

A powerful angry will lingered within the tornado.

The dimension around Lu Sheng bore down on him as well as if it wanted to drive Lu Sheng away.

“It’s useless.” Lu Sheng sneered. His current strength could no longer be compared to the past. The multitude of rabbits provided him with belief power which served as his formidable protection. Although the belief power was not converted to god power, under Lu Sheng’s control, it was completely directed into the rabbit buddha clone which he produced.

This was the method he came up with. He would create a clone to serve as a central deity that controlled the three Tribes.

He would also filter the impurities from the belief power with this clone of his. He would only absorb the bit of pure energy.

“My buddha is merciful.” Lu Sheng spread his arms. A giant white rabbit several hundred meters tall appeared behind him.

The white rabbit had a serene expression, with hands forming mudras. There was the faintest of smiles on its lips. The circle of buddha’s light behind it was like a huge sun which immediately illuminated an area of several thousand meters.

The golden buddha’s light was formed from belief power. The Godhood Lu Sheng inserted into the clone was the Gardening Godhood.

“You are all my flowers…” The rabbit buddha’s lips parted slightly, and its voice resonated throughout the layer.

With the spread of the buddha’s voice and the golden radiance of the buddha’s light, the nearby tornado roared wildly as it moved closer. It brought with it the abyssal will as it crushed everything in its way and moved closer to Lu Sheng.

However, the buddha’s light held the tornado in place. The tornado could not move.

“This should last for a few hours.” Lu Sheng was within the golden buddha’s light. He nodded with satisfaction.

There were billions in the Rabbit Tribe and billions from the Insect and Human Tribes[1. Not sure if Human Tribe from Rabbit World replaced Rat Tribe for abyss invasion or the author confused the two.]. Put together, the belief power supplied by the three Tribes surpassed that of the other gods in this world.

Moreover, most of the rabbits were genuine believers. Half of them were fanatics, even.

The belief power supplied by a single fanatic was the equivalent of 100 ordinary believers’ worth. The immensity of belief power supplied by the Rabbit Tribe was imaginable.

The terrifying part was that the Rabbit Tribe preached tirelessly about the mercy of the rabbit buddha to the humans and other creatures of this world.

They planted grasses and ate them. However, they gave away the grain stockpiled by the nobles to the poor. They even treated the Beast and Savage Tribes equally.

For the Beast and Savage Tribes, those who gave them food were their leaders. Hence, they easily turned most of the Beast Tribe into believers.

The total population of the main plane was only in the trillions. The fake believers and unbelievers aside, there were billions of believers.

These believers were split between the various god systems and 100 gods. In this sense, even the main gods did not enjoy half as much belief power as Lu Sheng had. It was no wonder that the four lesser gods turned toward Lu Sheng instantly.

The tornado was kept at bay, but the abyssal will showed no signs of giving up.

“Rumble!”

A purple arc of lightning suddenly streaked across the skies.

Countless black clouds gathered. Arcs of lightning flashed across the layers of clouds. Countless arcs of lightning merged together into larger and thicker lightning arcs. The lightning arcs then merged into a brilliant and glaring purple electric light.

“Crackle!”

The electric light sailed through the space and left dimensional cracks in its wake as it charged toward the golden rabbit buddha where Lu Sheng was.

“Heaven and earth are indifferent. All creatures are straw dogs.” The rabbit buddha reached out with a smile and grabbed at the lightning.

Lu Sheng almost spat out his saliva when he heard this. ‘Isn’t this a f*cking Taoist saying? Are you trying to be funny by saying that with your Buddhist identity?’

He was the one who’d made the rabbit buddha clone, but he did not exert any control over it for now. He merely allowed it to react to the threats from the outer world instinctively.

The buddha’s words were also a kind of art. It was capable of altering the environment with its sound waves. Naturally, different sayings had different effects.

The electric light collided with its hand, and only managed to incinerate some of its fur, which was swiftly replaced by new fur.

However, the abyssal consciousness did not give up. It continued gathering more lightning and hurled it over.

Amid the thunderous thunderclaps.

“I have millions of hairs. I am not inhibited by the mortal realm.” The rabbit buddha suddenly chanted. Then, the buddha’s light behind it shone brightly.

1The projections of pious praying rabbits surfaced around the buddha.

The belief power turned into buddha’s light which shone upon its surroundings. The rabbit buddha did not even use any art, yet the belief power was converted into Godhood and a protective buddha’s light. The lightning conjured up by the abyssal will could not penetrate its defenses. Irritated, all it could do was roar outside.

At seemingly the same time, the allied army of the three Tribes emerged from the beams of blue light.

The Rabbit Tribe served as tanks, while the Rat[2. So we do have Rat Tribe in the abyss… However, the Human Tribe had also survived in that world, so maybe they’ll appear.] and Insect Tribes took on supportive roles. They swiftly planted seedlings everywhere.

Lu Sheng spread tiny bits of his flesh and planted them into the abyssal land as well.

If he wanted to, he could regenerate his main body from any of those pieces at any time.

His main body’s flesh was extremely invasive, not to mention that it had the support of his Void Underworld-tier consciousness. On top of that, it had absorbed belief power and combined it with his Nature Deception.

It was almost too easy for him to deal with the abyssal will which resembled the natural will. He wrapped his main body’s flesh with his current body’s flesh so that it would be able to grow swiftly. This was Lu Sheng’s plan.

Heavenly Devils were most skilled at dealing with these colossal but impure natural consciousnesses.

Under the frenzied attacks of the abyssal will, the rabbit buddha remained unmoved like a mountain. It hovered midair in the 71st layer. The buddha’s light shone upon the land like a sun.

The allied army of the three Tribes began clearing away the devil allied army on the ground.

When they discovered the position of the devils, the devils themselves were locked in a bloody battle. However, even when both sides of the bloody battle were added together, they were not as many as the allied forces of the three invading Tribes.

Soon enough, under the threat of the three Tribes’ army which numbered in the thousands, the devils formed elite troops and let loose with maniacal laughter.

In the beginning, the powerful devils such as the flame devils did cause many casualties. However, this killing enraged the peak experts of the Rabbit Tribe.

The rabbit monks, who were akin to pastors, worked together and unleashed a shot of Glorious Shine of Buddha’s Light, Repent and be Saved.

Under the conversion of the buddha’s light (Lu Sheng’s flesh and blood), the devils became followers of the rabbit buddha. They raised their weapons and turned on their former comrades.

From the moment the abyssal consciousness was powerless against a Heavenly Devil’s Void Underworld-tier Nature Deception, the outcome of the battle had been determined.

This was the fundamental reason why many universes hated the Heavenly Devils with a passion.

Lu Sheng hovered in midair. He suddenly remembered the other dimensions enslaved by the Heavenly Devils in Great Yin. He was suddenly filled with emotion.

He had no intention of managing the three Tribes for long. The blood essence cultivation method and brute veins they cultivated could only be applied in a handful of worlds. Moreover, they were growing by contorting the universe.

If left unchecked, the three Tribes might become a threat to him. He might not even be able to control them in the future.

Hence, he planned to take away the firewood from under the cauldron after leaving this world. He intended to remove the source of the mutation from the three Tribes.