After some hassle, Duanmu Wan changed into Lu Sheng’s clothes. They both sat down in the study and Lu Sheng brought her some food and tea.

They started to talk as they ate.

“I’m so lucky to have met you. Honestly, I didn’t think I would be able to stay alive.” Duanmu Wan was holding a cup of fruit tea, letting the warm liquid soothe her throat.

“I’m not going to ask you what happened. What plans do you have for the future?” Lu Sheng looked at her calmly.

“I owe you the Devil Gold. I’ll pay you back. But there’s no way to get rid of the matrix in my head. They took out part of my brain and substituted it with the matrix. If you take away the Mind-Controlling Needle, my life will be in danger,” Duanmu Wan spoke calmly.

“You don’t seem worried at all,” Lu Sheng observed strangely.

“Why should I worry? You are one of the best people the needle could have landed with. From my knowledge of you, you don’t seem like one of those who will take advantage of others when they are in trouble.” Duanmu Wan smiled.

“That’s true.” Li Sheng nodded.

“Now I can’t leave you. However, you look like you’re doing fine, so I’ll just stick with you.” Duanmu Wan was very open-minded.

But neither of them spoke the truth. It didn’t matter what Duanmu Wan’s relationship with Lu Sheng was—because of the existence of the Mind-Controlling Needle, she could only rely on him.

The Mind-Controlling Needle in Lu Sheng’s hand could be seen as a controlling device, but it was also a way to protect her.

“Come to think about it, why did you suddenly come to the Great Yin?” Duanmu Wan continued. “They fight with the Devil World constantly here. It’s not safe. Compared to the Great Song, it’s completely on a different level. Even my father doesn’t want to interfere with things here.”

“Your father?”

“In the Great Song, a lot of people know him as the Ice Fox King.” When Duanmu Wan mentioned this name, her gaze was cold. It was as if she was talking about a complete stranger.

“I’ve heard of him…” Lu Sheng didn’t expect Duanmu Wan to be the daughter of the Ice Fox King.

“He has a total of 365 daughters. I’m only one of them. So, his name is only a name to me. It has no meaning, so you don’t have to worry about hurting my feelings,” Duanmu Wan said calmly.

“Okay. I came to the Great Yin because I wanted to search for a way to improve myself even more and to avoid the Devil Disaster in the Great Song. It doesn’t look too good over there. But the Great Yin seems fine,” Lu Sheng answered truthfully.

“Okay, I understand. I don’t know too much about this area, but I have a few brothers and sisters who have stayed here before. You must be careful. Things go deeper here than you think.” Duanmu Wan frowned. “The Weapon Masters usually don’t show their faces, so the leaders of the main forces are all Divine Lords.”

“Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.” Lu Sheng smiled.

“Don’t… be too careless. When you’re not strong enough, hide underground, and then make a scene when you finally make it. It’s not an embarrassing thing.” Duanmu Wan thought Lu Sheng was still just an ordinary practitioner in the Realm of Snake. She had heard about Lu Sheng in the North and knew he was at least in six veins stage, but in the Great Yin, such a level was only average.

“I know.” Lu Sheng nodded. “My family and servants and still moving over from the Great Song. Soon, I need to go to the main sect to cultivate, so I need someone here to look over everything. You…”

“I will do my part. Please give me the list of people I need to wait or look out for,” Duanmu Wan said calmly.

“Relax.” Lu Sheng smiled. “No one is going to hurt you here.” He didn’t ask how Duanmu Wan got into such a state. But since she was completely dependent on him now, he was just going to let bygones be bygones.

“I… understand. I will try my best to recover some of my power so that it’ll be easier to take care of things.” Duanmu Wan nodded. Different from Shangyang Jiuli, and as the previous Spring Autumn Princess, who was known for having three thousand male concubines, even though she lost, Duanmu Wan didn’t lose her mind or personality. Only her strength was a bit low. But that was temporary too. With her previous background, getting her strength back in a short amount of time was not impossible.

“Do you have any plans for the Great Song?” Lu Sheng asked.

“I still have some connections, and can gather a pretty formidable force if needed, but I can’t affect anything here. Sorry to disappoint you.” Duanmu Wan switched into the role of a servant naturally.

“It’s okay, that’s to be expected.” Lu Sheng shook his head. “Okay, just see how things go and manage everything. There are books in the study for you to look up information. Can you read the language of the Great Yin?”

“Yes, we’ve learned it during training.” When she thought back to her training, Duanmu Wan couldn’t help but blush. That training did not treat them like humans at all, but more like tools for the pleasure of their master. If Lu Sheng really ordered her to do so, then…

She didn’t dare think further. Pride, self-respect, dignity… all these were shattered during her training.

And now her life depended on Lu Sheng. She couldn’t help but think of scenes where this would happen.

Although she knew Lu Sheng most likely wouldn’t do something like this, but…

“Okay, I’m going to cultivate in solitude for a period of time. After you familiarize yourself with everything, go out and get accustomed to the surroundings. This is my badge.” Lu Sheng threw her his direct disciple badge. “Take this and get our neighbor, Elder Zhang Shilong, to help you get a servant’s badge.”

“I understand. Master, go cultivate in peace. I will take care of everything.” Duanmu Wan nodded solemnly.

“Okay.” Lu Sheng understood why she changed how she addressed him. This meant that their relationship had completely changed from one of friends to that of master and servant. Because they were friends, Lu Sheng would never be too harsh on her, but master-servant was master-servant. It would be better to set the tone now than try to get used to it later.

“If I make any mistakes, I don’t want Master to pity or have mercy on me. No matter what the punishment, I will take it.” Duanmu Wan lowered her head solemnly and bowed.

“I will.” Lu Sheng nodded.

After eating, Duanmu Wan had completely embraced her new role and started cleaning the room. She also started to get familiar with the house and yard.

Lu Sheng gave her a bit of gold, then walked into the room specially for cultivation. He closed the door and started contacting the Secret Area.

After entering the Secret Area once, one could continuously enter by getting permission of the recluses inside. The way to contact them was to silently chant the recluse’s name and cycle one’s True Qi. Once the other person responded, the Secret Area would guide the disciple directly.

After chanting his teacher’s name for the fifteenth time…

…Finally, he felt a huge magnetic force from the air in front of him. At first it was like bubbles, coming in waves. Then it suddenly grew stronger and bigger, and started having an order.

He noticed his body started to turn transparent as this force grew larger.

***

“Hiss…!”

Lu Sheng’s vision blurred, and then everything around him changed. It went back to the dense forest filled with fog.

“You’re late.” A cold, female voice sounded behind him.

“I’m sorry, Master, recently a few things…” Lu Sheng turned around. But before he could finish, he saw a pure black spear, aimed at his head, shooting toward him at the speed of lightning.

Lu Sheng hurriedly started circulating his True Qi. Strength equal to the Realm of Snake flooded out, ready to block this attack.

But once he touched it, he felt something weird. The strength on the spear was way higher than his current level. It was at the top of the seventh vein in the Realm of Snake!

“Bang!!!”

Lu Sheng barely raised his arms before being struck by the spear. His whole body flew back, tumbling more than ten times in the air before he got back onto his feet.

“Master!?” He gasped, looking towards the sky.

Qian Du was floating in mid-air. Dressed in black armor, she spun the spear, then suddenly slashed forward.

“Hiss!”

A black crescent dropped down from the sky, falling right toward Lu Sheng, who wasn’t fast enough to avoid it.

“Chasing Sun!” Lu Sheng pulled out his sword and tried to block it with his newly learned sword move. He put all his True Qi into it.

“Clang!”

The crescent hit on the blade perfectly, and the sword exploded with a bang. Lu Sheng stumbled backward while coughing, but before he could get himself together, he felt Qian Du appear behind him.

“Sky Hammer.”

A black-purple palm slammed into Lu Sheng’s back.

“Poof!”

Lu Sheng’s expression changed. Qian Du increased her strength even more. This palm was fully at Earth level! She wasn’t holding back at all.

Lu Sheng didn’t think any further. He knew if he kept hiding his true strength, he would die right here and now.

Instantly, he brought out his Eight-Headed Devil Art. Black scales instantly covered his body as he went into Yin Extreme Mode.

As of now, except for having scales, his Yin Extreme Form looked just like a normal human. But his strength greatly increased. Now it was in the upper levels of the Realm of Snake.

With a bang, he grabbed Qian Du’s palm and said hurriedly, “Master, what are you doing?”

“Die!” Qian Du’s expression was cold; she pulled away and kicked Lu Sheng on the side of his neck.

“Boom!”

A ball of white smoke burst between the two. Lu Sheng flew out like a bullet, knocking over ten trees in the forest before managing to steady himself and land.

“Master!!?” Lu Sheng was both shocked and angry. He lifted his head, but realized there was nothing in front of him.

“Black Lotus, Move One Hundred Seventy-One.”

Lu Sheng shivered abruptly. He looked toward the sky.

In the air, a huge object was falling toward him at an alarming rate. It was his master, Qian Du, holding a spear more than twenty meters long!

In just a few moves, Qian Du increased her strength all the way to a Divine Weapon Master! Was she trying to kill him??

Shocked and furious, all the hair on Lu Sheng’s body was standing on end as his body frantically tried to warn him of the danger.

“Boom!!!”

The huge spear knocked over an entire area of the forest, forming a long furrow in the sea of trees. Large amounts of dirt and bark flew everywhere.

In the midst of flocks of birds screeching and flying into the sky, Lu Sheng had completely changed.

He blocked the spear with one hand. His whole body was covered in black scales and there were horns on his head. He was now almost five meters tall, and had a huge, deadly tail swinging behind him. He had transformed into his third body state.

To be honest, this was his true form if he didn’t force himself to look different. Both the Yin Extreme Mode and the True Qi Mode were disguises.

He had forced his muscles and bones to change and move, and then compressed them all into a weird form. Both those two forms hindered him. He couldn’t use his true strength in those two forms.

But now it was different.

Without using any Devil Aura, liquid Qi, or Eight-Headed Devil Art, his body alone was at the level of a Devil King and at the Divine Weapon Master level, even it were a lower end Devil King.