Way of the Devil

“Let’s go with this.” Lu Sheng quickly found a room. “There’s a window here, the scenery should be great.”

He pushed the door open.

“Whoosh!”

A pitch-black tendril that was as thick as a person’s arm shot out from behind the door, flying right toward his face.

“Pooh.”

Lu Sheng grabbed the tendril and pulled. A blackish-purple monster that resembled a durian pineapple was pulled out of the room.

“Bam!”

He pinned the monster’s neck down. However, the monster had many tendrils, and flung them wildly as it struggled to break free.

“Father, help me hold down its feet! We’ll be having this for dinner!” Lu Sheng rode on the monster and started punching its head.

Luo Di was just about to get close when he saw one of the tendrils whipping on the frame of an iron wall lamp a few steps ahead of him.

The iron frame as thick as a person’s wrist instantly bent under the impact and fell.

He immediately stopped in his tracks.

“Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!”

Lu Sheng continued throwing punches until the monster hissed and shrieked. Very quickly, the purplish blood water that flowed out from the monster’s body increased in volume, and all of its tendrils suddenly stood up. Then, with a splatter, all of them dropped, and stayed immobile.

Lu Sheng rolled down with his face covered in blood. He grabbed the monster and jerked his arm. He immediately tore a huge piece of the monster’s skin. Only a blob of dark purple flesh was left on the floor.

“This thing is quite feisty. I’m sure it’ll be chewy when grilled.” He waved the fruits of his labor toward Luo Di and Esseinro.

“I’ve brought cumin, chili, and white pepper. We can make teppanyaki!” Lu Sheng grinned and showed his brilliant white teeth.

“Ah Sang…” Luo Di suddenly felt stifled. As he looked at his son’s cheerful expression, he suddenly felt as if all the hardship he’d endured for so long was for nothing.

“These monsters will turn into black water when they’re dead… I don’t think we can eat it…” Esseinro could not help but interject from the side with a peculiar expression.

“Black water? In that case, we’ll try and see if we can make soup out of it.” Lu Sheng placed the monster’s skin down with a rueful look. He looked at the monster’s corpse on the floor. As Esseinro had said, it was starting to melt away gradually.

“Oh well… But why didn’t the branches I cut away and kept with me melt?” Lu Sheng suddenly asked.

“Because…” Esseinro had only noticed the branches on Lu Sheng now. He appeared stunned as well.

“Never mind. In any case, let’s go in and have some rest,” said Lu Sheng as he waved his hand. He turned around first and walked into the room.

Luo Di and Esseinro went in behind him.

The room was not big. The walls’ coatings had fallen off considerably. In addition to the unique white spots, the entire room seemed to have been in ruin for countless years—abandoned, decrepit, and gloomy.

Thick curtains blocked half of the windows. Only a sliver of moonlight made it into the room.

Contrary to their expectations, the room was quiet. They could not hear the sounds of the raging waters.

At the center of the room was a huge semicircular bed. There was also a dressing table and a wardrobe on the side. They were all connected together.

Lu Sheng went over and inspected them.

“Although the objects here are old, they’re still usable.” He patted the bed. The muslin curtain draped over the bed was flung open, and a ghastly pale woman in a white dress with a face that had rotted away was revealed.

The woman was holding a pillow as she sat on the bed. Her eyes followed the movements of Lu Sheng’s swaying hand.

Luo Di and Esseinro saw the woman’s body. They tensed up, and wore grim expressions.

Lu Sheng sat on the edge of the bed, and tested his weight against the bouncy mattress.

“Luo Di, do you guys want to sleep here?”

“Ah Sang…” Luo Di managed a smile. He pointed toward the figure behind Lu Sheng.

Lu Sheng turned there and glanced at the woman. He suddenly smiled.

“What? Do you have a problem with me staying here?”

The woman stared at him blankly.

“Bam!”

Lu Sheng grabbed the woman’s hair and yanked her off the bed.

“Ah!”

The woman opened her mouth wide, and it stretched wider as it turned blacker. In no time, her entire face had turned into a pitch-black mouth.

A shrill scream erupted inside the room like a bomb.

“Shut up!” Lu Sheng was immediately angered.

10 minutes later…

The woman’s big mouth was stuffed with pieces of furniture. She was bound by layers of branches, which Lu Sheng had cut down before this. She swayed as she was suspended from the ceiling in a corner, and her body wriggled occasionally.

“Done. It’s all quiet now.” Lu Sheng pulled a chair from another room. He sat down and started eating some of the dried food he had packed.

Luo Di and Esseinro seemed to be sitting on pins and needles. They threw furtive glances at the peculiar woman.

“I’ll take a look on the situation outside.” Luo Di stood up and walked to the windows. He parted the curtains and looked out. However, with a single glance, he immediately fell silent.

“What’s wrong?” Esseinro limped to his side and looked out the window.

The height of four stories enabled them to clearly see the surroundings of the town.

Endless water.

The grayish water surrounded the entire town like an ocean. Their vision was only limited to several dozen meters outside the town. Beyond that, everything was covered in rolling thick mist.

It was as if the town had turned into a floating, isolated island overnight.

The two of them were silent for some time.

Lu Sheng walked over to take a look as well as he munched on a drumstick.

“Wow. There’s water everywhere. I wonder if it’ll subside by tomorrow.”

“We can only stay here for three hours,” Luo Di suddenly said.

“Why?” Lu Sheng questioned. “Although this place is old and dirty, the furniture is in good condition. It can even restore itself. It shouldn’t be a problem for us to stay one night, right?”

“Ah Sang. What if creatures like the ones you fought suddenly come at you in hordes, and there might even be creatures that were more powerful and terrifying among them? Do you think you can handle them?” Luo Di suddenly asked.

“I don’t know.” Lu Sheng shook his head. Indeed, he did not know. There was no way he could know just how mysterious and powerful this town was without experiencing anything.

“Three hours from now, it’s highly possible that we’ll be facing such a danger,” Luo Di said calmly.

“If that’s the case, it’ll be a problem.” Lu Sheng touched his chin.

“So, we must think of a way to escape from here.” Esseinro suddenly pointed to a house far away. “See that house?”

“What’s up?” Lu Sheng looked in the direction in which he pointed. He immediately saw a brown three-story house there. Dried black flowers lined the sills of the windows and door.

“That house is made of wood. We can use it to build a simple raft,” Esseinro explained.

“Alright…” Lu Sheng and Luo Di understood what he was getting at.

“But before that, we must first rest for a while,” Luo Di said in a tired tone as he exhaled.

The series of variables caused him to be on edge all this while. After maintaining his full alert for so long and dealing with the monsters at such high frequency, even he felt tired.

Lu Sheng glanced at Esseinro’s wound, and saw that blood was starting to seep out of it. He nodded as well.

“I’ll take the opportunity to check out this building. I’ll see if there are any problems, and will smoke them out as soon as possible.”

“Alright. Be careful.” Luo Di nodded.

“Don’t worry.” Lu Sheng stood up. He tore the suspended woman down from the corner and dragged her behind him as he went out of the room. “I’ll take care of this thing as well. I’ll be back soon.” He waved without turning back.

“Click.”

The door was closed.

The room fell silent.

Luo Di and Esseinro heaved long sighs despite themselves.

“We might just make it out of this alive…” Luo Di said softly.

“Maybe…” Esseinro had been in despair before this. When he thought about Luo Sang, he cheered up slightly.

“If my eyes didn’t deceive me, the tendrilled monster was a Pretender. Its strength is only second to the Executioner. As long as we can avoid bumping into the Executioner, there’s a high chance that we’ll be able to survive this,” Esseinro said carefully.

The Executioner was the most powerful among all monsters. Among all the known monsters up until now, the Executioner possessed unparalleled strength and an indestructible body. It was immortal and fearless. While its only shortfall was its slightly slow speed, it had the ability of teleporting after certain periods of time.

If he had enough preparations, Luo Di had complete confidence in dealing with an Executioner in an empty space.

However, in this town, there would surely be more than one Executioner.

“Also, from the looks of the Pretender just now, whether it’s its size or might, it’s much more powerful than the Pretenders we’ve encountered outside… I suspect that this place enhances the monsters…” Esseinro said in a grim tone. “So… we must be careful…”

Luo Di nodded seriously.

He had to give it his all just to deal with one Executioner. If he had to deal with another monster at the same time, there would only be one kind of result.

…

Lu Sheng slowly made his way through the small building. He walked along the third floor’s corridor and checked every room.

He quickly finished his inspection.

There was a total of three monsters that were in hiding. They were all dragged out and killed by him.

However, he was not satisfied with just this.

He did not come here just to put up an act. He wanted to search for the way to destroy this town.

This place possessed a powerful regenerating power. Merely destroying the buildings here seemed to have no effect on this place. Hence, he should think of another way.

He went down to the second floor. He tugged on the branch behind him, and glanced backward at the woman that he’d bound.

“Can you communicate?” he asked casually.

“Ah!” the woman screamed. She was still tossing her body about with all her might.

Lu Sheng shook his head. He suddenly looked up at the corridor’s ceiling.

On the ceiling right above him, a white-haired old woman with a spider’s body for her lower half hung upside down.

“Hihi…”

The old woman directed a sharp laugh at him.

Her belly was like a ripe peach—it had a tempting juicy appearance, and seemed like it would burst with just one touch. Contained within the folds of the wrinkles on her forehead and the sides of her eyes seemed to be blackish soil.

“What an ugly smile. Are you mocking me?” Lu Sheng was expressionless.

There was a flurry of movement, and the old spider woman suddenly opened her mouth facing Lu Sheng. Rows of her sharp teeth were revealed.

“Hiss…”

She suddenly pounced toward Lu Sheng. The entire floor shook with her pounding.

Almost at the same time, the carpet rose at a few spots. The carpet powder that had already turned grayish-black clumped together and formed an empty humanoid shell, which charged at Lu Sheng from behind.

“Pcchht!”

“Crack!”

Lightning streaked across the skies, and the scene in the corridor was lit up for an instant through the window.

The shadows on the wall revealed the current situation.

The sword in the human’s shadow pinned the spider-like monster firmly to the wall. Then, with a cruel downward cut, the monster was split into two, body and belly alike.

The other humanoid shadow at the back was split into several portions and fell to the ground.

Lu Sheng wielded the sword with a single hand. He shook off the remaining black juice on the blade.

“Rubbish that can only follow their instincts isn’t even valuable enough to be my food.

“Show yourself, you scoundrel who shows his head but hides his tail.” He suddenly pointed his sword at the blurry mist in the corridor behind him.

“Swoosh.”

The sound of chains suddenly resounded across the entire floor.

The Executioner’s big, tall, and powerful figure slowly walked out of the mist.