Chapter 40: The Demon Lu Sheng and the Secrets of the Ultimate Path

Under Su Yi’s relentless torture, Xie Lingyuan revealed a wealth of information.

Three hundred years ago, before the rise of Daxing, during the waning years of the Yin Dynasty, it was an era plagued by frequent natural disasters and ceaseless warfare. People suffered untold hardships, and in the northern frontier city, the sect leader of the Yuanmo Sect found an heir with exceptional talent.

This Yuanmo Sect leader, already in his twilight years and close to death, was obsessed with his ambition to expand the sect and unify the martial world. In a frenzy, he condensed all his essence into a demon seed and injected it into his chosen successor.

The Jade Demon Technique was a perilous method shared among all demonic sects in this world. The recipient would endure nine deadly tribulations, suffering torment beyond human endurance, thereby inheriting the essence of the practitioner. Over centuries of transmission, barely one in a hundred survived the ordeal, and those who did were invariably driven mad. Even among the demonic sects, this technique was feared and shunned.

The successor, named Lu Sheng, survived by a narrow margin, but his appearance and temperament changed drastically. Once a frail, elegant young man, he became a towering, muscular giant.

Lu Sheng left his homeland and ventured far afield. In that era of great upheaval, he forged a formidable reputation. The righteous path, wary of the Yuanmo Sect’s menace, sought to eliminate him. Yet he despised the actions of the other demonic sects and refused to associate with them, distancing himself even as he held the nominal title of sect leader. He couldn’t tolerate corrupt officials who exploited the people and would mete out justice upon them; military warlords who slaughtered innocents met their end at his hands, paying blood for blood.

In such a world where everyone was his enemy, he gradually became the unrivaled number one of his time. He had no kin, no friends, and stood alone. His enemies feared his ruthless methods and slandered him endlessly, while the demonic sects, in awe of his power and invincible bearing, called him the Heavenly Demon.

Single-handedly, he turned the martial world upside down. Some historians believed he hastened the end of that turbulent era. Many contemporaries considered his strength unrivaled in history, perhaps even touching the fabled, ethereal Tianyuan realm.

After decades of dominance, as he neared old age, he could no longer suppress the backlash of the Whale Swallowing Grand Technique. Though he survived innumerable dangers, his body's functions were severely damaged, and he shrank from a tall, robust man to a withered, diminutive elder.

From then on, the martial world saw no more of the invincible Heavenly Demon, only an old man who mockingly called himself "Lu Sheng the Remnant."

Knowing his days were numbered, Lu Sheng returned to his northern homeland, where he encountered his betrothed, Shen Lan, whom he had never married. This remarkable woman had waited for him all her life, never marrying anyone else, and in their twilight years finally fulfilled her lifelong wish.

In his final days, Lu Sheng devoted himself to studying the martial arts manuals he had collected over decades, hoping to find a way to mitigate the backlash of the Whale Swallowing Grand Technique and spend more years with his wife.

To his surprise, Shen Lan, with no martial arts background, began to study his manuals day and night to help her husband escape death. This ordinary elderly woman revealed a theoretical genius in martial arts that far surpassed Lu Sheng himself. After years of toil, combining their wisdom, they finally created a method called the True Solution of Whale Swallowing just before Lu Sheng’s life was about to end.

This method completely resolved the hidden dangers of the Whale Swallowing Grand Technique. Rejuvenated, Lu Sheng and Shen Lan set out from the north to travel the world, leaving behind legends over the next twenty-odd years.

After Shen Lan passed away, Lu Sheng secluded himself to pursue the ultimate martial realm. As his life drew to a close, reflecting on the reckless pursuit of breakthroughs by practitioners of the Whale Swallowing Grand Technique, he innovated upon the True Solution, creating a new supreme method called the Ultimate Tao Solution. This method emphasized gradual progress, was extremely easy to begin, but required ever-longer training as one advanced. As long as one persevered step by step, one could continually break through realms, perfectly resolving the difficulty of advancing in the later stages of the Whale Swallowing Grand Technique.

However, this most orthodox Yuanmo Sect leader believed that the Whale Swallowing Grand Technique, which so easily led people astray, should not exist in the world. If its practitioners obtained the Ultimate Tao Solution, it would only unleash more bloodshed upon the martial world.

Thus, in his last days, Lu Sheng embarked on a mad campaign to hunt down Yuanmo Sect disciples. Under the ruthless hand of the once-invincible Heavenly Demon, nearly all Yuanmo Sect disciples were slaughtered, with many other demonic sects caught in the crossfire.

Unfortunately, time was short, and Lu Sheng ultimately failed to erase the Yuanmo Sect entirely. The surviving disciples dispersed and disappeared without a trace. Lu Sheng could only lament the will of heaven. Before his death, he hid the Ultimate Tao Solution in a place known only to himself, awaiting a fated successor.

For centuries, there had been no news of the Ultimate Tao Solution’s emergence in the martial world, so much so that those aware of the secret suspected it was merely a legend that had grown distorted over time.

Until recently, through an inadvertent message from an undercover agent, the Yuanmo Sect learned that the meteoric former Grand Protector of the capital, Chi Lingxiao, was actually a distant successor of the Heavenly Demon Lu Sheng.

This thunderous revelation stirred up fierce undercurrents within the already fractious Yuanmo Sect. Ever since the previous sect leader was defeated and killed by the Sword Immortal of Pure Steel, reputedly the world’s greatest, atop Mount Taihua five years ago, the leadership had remained undecided. Now, with the chance to surpass their predecessors and advance their martial prowess, all eligible high-ranking members were unwilling to fall behind, sparking a brutal internal struggle.

In this ruthless conflict, Feng Fei, whose strength slightly eclipsed the other elders but who remained just shy of the innate realm, achieved a temporary victory, joining forces with the previous leader’s daughter to purge the others.

During this purge, four elders were killed, and one elder submitted to Feng Fei. Another elder, Danxia, saw the danger and withdrew completely. As for Elder Duan Yan, killed by Su Yi, his luck was particularly bad: after losing both legs and suffering grave injuries, he escaped, but, unwilling to give up on the Ultimate Tao Solution, hid outside Jiangting City at Mount Tu, only to be slain by Su Yi.

After learning all this, Su Yi felt he shared a certain kinship with the Heavenly Demon Lu Sheng of three centuries past. Both had mastered Yuanmo Sect techniques, only to turn around and become mortal enemies of its disciples.