I'll Slaughter My Way to Immortality on the Bones of Betrayers - Chapter 22:

Chapter 22: You Got Beaten Again?

By the time Mo Hu left, the sun had already set. The little fox dawdled for a long while before reluctantly departing. After sending her off, Lu Hengge returned to his wooden hut and shoved all the heavenly materials and rare herbs on the table into his storage ring. Originally, Lu Hengge hadn’t planned to accept them. One demon race’s heart was enough for him. But Mo Hu didn’t care for them either—after all, anything she wanted could be found in the demon race’s treasure vault.

“With the demon race’s heart in hand, I can finally attempt cultivation again,” Lu Hengge’s eyes flickered with intensity.

The demon race’s heart had many uses. In his previous life, Lu Hengge had pushed Ye Feng into a desperate corner more than once, but Ye Feng always managed to escape thanks to the favor of Heaven and the demon race’s heart. The favor of Heaven was beyond his reach. As the protagonist, Ye Feng had luck on his side and the favor of Heaven itself. Even if Lu Hengge wanted to seize that overwhelming fate, there was nothing he could do—not unless one day, he could slay the Heavenly Dao.

However, the demon race’s heart was a foreign object. Lu Hengge examined the dark heart in his palm. His calm gaze gradually filled with madness. Now that the heart had been taken away from Ye Feng, he wanted to see how Ye Feng would progress in his cultivation. He intended to toy with Ye Feng slowly.

To Lu Hengge, Ye Feng was a perfect stepping stone. Of course, there was another reason. Lu Hengge needed Ye Feng to get close to the Heavenly Dao of this world. If one wished to truly become immortal, they had to kill the Heavenly Dao. This was a truth Lu Hengge only realized at the moment of his death in his past life. The world was like a cultivated field created solely for Ye Feng by the Heavenly Dao. Every living being and object in this world ultimately existed to serve Ye Feng’s ascension—Lu Hengge included.

The truly terrifying entity wasn’t Ye Feng. Without luck or the system, Lu Hengge could crush Ye Feng with a single hand. What was terrifying was the Heavenly Dao. If the Heavenly Dao did not die, the path to immortality was but a dream.

Lu Hengge felt a pressing sense of urgency. He didn’t know why he had reincarnated or whether the Heavenly Dao of this world was aware of it. So, he had to move faster.

“Demonic Qi infusion.”

The black heart pulsed. The medicinal primer required to activate the demon race’s heart was demonic Qi. But currently, Lu Hengge had no trace of spiritual Qi or demonic Qi in his body.

Suddenly, the heavens trembled.

The sound of the Great Dao resonated softly. The compassion of the Confucian path, the joyless serenity of Buddhism, the natural flow of Daoism, the carefree heart of the sword cultivator, the harmony between alchemist and medicine—

What are the Three Thousand Paths?

Three thousand was not a fixed number, but a figurative one. To Lu Hengge, all paths of the Three Thousand Dao were embedded in his heart. Aside from a few ancestors of the Three Thousand Dao Sect, Lu Hengge was the most talented genius in terms of insight and understanding.

This was terrifying talent.

Even without spiritual or demonic Qi, Lu Hengge could, through his comprehension of the Great Dao, trigger a resonance with the world and use that to activate the demon race’s heart.

Just this alone was something Ye Feng could never compare to.

Under the resonance of the Dao, invisible waves began to ripple through the wooden hut. The heartbeat of the demon race’s heart grew stronger and stronger.

Lu Hengge frowned.

He currently had no cultivation, and guards arranged by Lin Xing were watching from outside. If he didn’t suppress the heartbeat and the Dao fluctuations, they might be discovered.

The Dao fluctuations were a minor issue. Everyone in the Three Thousand Dao Sect knew about Lu Hengge’s deep comprehension of the Great Dao. But the demon race’s heart was a different matter. If discovered, it would bring significant trouble.

After thinking for a moment, Lu Hengge rummaged through his storage ring. Among the Three Thousand Paths was also the path of talismans. Although Lu Hengge hadn’t delved deeply into it, he had dabbled out of curiosity, creating simple talismans like invisibility and gathering Qi charms.

“I think I made a soundproofing charm before,” Lu Hengge recalled.

The next moment, he slapped his forehead.

“I already threw my original storage ring back to Lu Sheng. All the toys I made were in there.”

The current storage ring was given by Elder Yao. Aside from herbs and his own refined pills, there was nothing else.

With that, Lu Hengge put away the demon race’s heart.

Now wasn’t the time for cultivation—at least not in front of the guards outside.

He tidied up the hut briefly and then filled the room with a strong medicinal fragrance before pushing the door open.

Again, he didn’t lock the door. The safest place in the Three Thousand Dao Sect was the Pill Hall. Moreover, the alchemy room there had natural isolation effects. Once inside, no one outside would notice anything.

From the shadows, the guards watching Lu Hengge’s hut were puzzled. The Holy Son, now just a mortal, seemed to go out frequently. What could a powerless man be doing out every day?

“Old Wang, let’s go! Off to the Drunken Dream House!” one of the guards called.

Their job was to protect Lu Hengge. But within the sect, what danger could possibly threaten him? Rather than waste time guarding, it was better to enjoy themselves. Besides, they never had to pay anyway. As disciples of the Three Thousand Dao Sect, they always got free services at brothels.

“I’m not going! The rouge scent from yesterday still hasn’t worn off,” Old Wang waved his hand.

Women were made of water. But the ones at the brothel seemed made of oceans. Despite having spiritual Qi nourishment and a robust body, he still found those little foxes from the Drunken Dream House exhausting.

“You’re weak!” sneered his companion.

Old Wang was instantly furious, “Nonsense!”

His companion leaned in and whispered, “I heard they got a fresh batch of maidens today—all claim to be performers, not escorts. Not interested?”

Old Wang hesitated. One side was his kidney; the other, temptation.

“I guess it doesn’t hurt to take a look,” Old Wang chuckled.

The two exchanged a sleazy grin and left, shoulder to shoulder. The idea of a “pure performer” meant nothing to cultivators. The moment those brothel women learned their identities, they would throw themselves at them.

……

Inside the Scripture Repository Pavilion, Lu Sheng looked at the swollen, pig-headed face of Qiu Liu in confusion.

“Liu’er, what happened to you?” Lu Sheng put down the ancient scroll in her hand.

She had just recovered from the beating by Lin Xing days ago with the help of heavenly materials and treasures, yet now she looked like this again.

The next second, Qiu Liu burst into tears, “Master, I was beaten again!”

Lu Sheng sighed helplessly. She wasn’t blind—obviously, Qiu Liu had been beaten. But the person who did it had truly gone all out. Her face was so swollen, even familiar people wouldn’t recognize her.

Luckily, the elder guarding the Scripture Pavilion recognized her aura. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have even been allowed inside.