Nightmare’s Call

After coming out from the club, Lin Sheng paced slowly on the night street.

Through a phone call, he had confirmed that his cousin, Wang Yue had already returned to her place, not his, but her own actual place.

It seemed like the matter was resolved once and for all.

However, to him, the incident caused him a realization—both clear and blurry—of the idiosyncrasies of human connection, influence, and the strength of a group in his heart.

His clear footsteps echoed in the empty streets.

Similarly, a series of thumping rang in his heart.

“The power of mere children with some background… when pooled together, could reach such heights…”

Lin Sheng looked up and swept his gaze across the pedestrians before him.

There were barely any pedestrians out and about as most of the shops had started to lower their shutters.

Vehicles passed by, both fast and slow along the street.

TAP!

Lin Sheng suddenly stopped.

“Sadly… this power is just too fickle…”

He had looked at his hand, the pair of hands that could easily murder everyone in the club, but could not resolve Wang Yue’s problem.

Lin Sheng could feel that a yearning for such power had started to well within him.

“This is the power of a collective, a power that is perfect and cannot be defeated. Face to face, nothing can overpower it, it is…”

“It is… really enticing…”

Lin Sheng clutched his fingers and suppressed the feeling in his mind.

“Sadly, this power is just too fickle. You may pile up sand into a sandcastle, but it would still be blown apart by wind or by waves.”

He continued walking back home as his mind went on overdrive.

“I’m not irreplaceable in the club, and this power is not mine. Perhaps someone would help me out of kindness, but will there be a next time?”

That clear and obvious fickleness of it had Lin Sheng thinking on how to solve this.

By the time he got home, it was already half-past nine.

Lin Zhounian was standing in the living room talking on the phone, while Gu Wanqiu held a newspaper in her hand, her face worried.

There was not much reaction when Lin Sheng got home.

All these while, Lin Sheng had been coming home around this time due to his sword practice, and they had taken it for normal, thinking that he had gone for supplementary classes.

“Chenchen, Yueyue’s matter was suddenly resolved and she had gone home now.” Lin Zhounian put down the phone and told Lin Sheng.

“Oh, it’s settled? That’s good.” Lin Sheng nodded as he pretended to just found out.

“No idea how that happened, I had asked Wang Yue, and even she was unsure. Perhaps some big boss had found their conscience under the sofa?” Lin Zhounian queried.

“It may be that. I had heard something like this before, a big boss had run into something and had totally changed his ways.”

Gu Wanqiu had that ‘that might be the case’ look on her.

Lin Sheng did not want to dwell on the matter, and he stood in the living room for a bit before he returned to his room.

Turning around the desk lamp, he pulled out his notebook from the drawer and placed it before him as he sat down.

Flipping the book open, he then took up his pen and wrote one word on the paper: Stability…

“Let me see, in so many pieces of ancient literature that I have translated, among the great kings there, did anyone managed to have a stable collective power?”

He tried to scan through his memory, but sadly, any kings that he had recalled all encountered the same problem.

The hearts of men were fickle and would change according to opportunity and surroundings. Even the most loyal of ministers would betray a king with the passing of time.

Then there was faith.

The power of faith was immense, and its ability to coalesce power is stunning as well, but yet, like the kings and monarchs, they faced an issue of stability.

“Plus, if I choose the power of a collective means spreading my strength and training all over, and slows down my own progress.

Lin Sheng closed the book.

“In the end, only your own strength is loyal to you, but an individual can never cover all bases, and needs the power of a collective to fill the gaps. Only then will he be safe on all angles, and will be undefeatable.

“Yet, the power of a collective is fickle, it may be lost, it may turn on you, or it may leave you for good; but compared to an individual, it is a much, much more complete form with fewer weaknesses.”

Lin Sheng got up as he went to brush up and change into his pajamas. Laying on the bed, he looked up at the light hanging from the ceiling.

“But a man’s time and energy are limited… You can only choose either one or else you will waste both and end up with nothing.”

Lin Sheng pondered more.

Thanks to the vast amount of translated literature that he had read, giving him a boatload of reference material; allowing him to refer to every situation, every part of history for him to refine his thought process.

As time passes by, his eyes grew brighter.

A perfect idea came to his mind.

He seemed to have found a possibility…

And based on that possibility, Lin Sheng’s mind roiled like a violent sea as he mapped out actionable methods with the possibility at its core.

He thought and thought, refined and refined as his brain ran into overdrive until late night. And he did not even realize when he had fallen asleep.

…

He slowly opened his eyes.

He found himself standing before the Valent Sanctum’s iron gate.

It was dead silence all over.

The dim, yellowish street light amplified the emptiness of the streets of Blackfeather City.

As he looked over, the long winding street was totally empty, as it snaked all the way to the edge of his vision.

“I’m finally in here again…” Lin Sheng looked at himself. His black sword was missing.

The only thing he had was his white pajamas.

“Did my items all dropped the last time I died?”

He looked up to the opposite side.

The old noble manor, under the shroud of night, was both mysterious and quiet.

He could see, through the iron gate, the stone plaque before the fountain still stood there.

Lin Sheng took a deep breath.

He had obtained the sacrificial ritual and the special ability called Sacred Blood from that place.

While that ability has some side effects, from the perspective of growth however, it was still a valuable item.

“I need to get to the bottom of that manor, I may find some other good stuff as well.”

Lin Sheng’s spirit burned as he thought of the ritual.

From Annie’s memory fragments, he had obtained knowledge about the ritual’s do’s and don’ts, knowledge of what he should keep an eye out for, and also the master of the manor, Kaarman Veste.

Sir Kaarman was one of the top alchemists in Blackfeather City and seemed to dabble in the occult as well.

But compared to the rest, Kaarman had already run into trouble long before the disaster befalling Blackfeather City.

From her memory, the old baronet had sensed that his days were numbered, and was trying to find special ways to extend his life.

And that Ritual of Sacrifice was one of the side-products of his research.

Plus, there were memories about Kaarman locking himself in his basement performing some unknown experiments.

Yet, due to Annie’s lowly status, or perhaps Lin Sheng had not collected sufficient memory fragments, the information was spotty and he had no idea what sort of ritual Kaarman was doing in his basement.

Regardless, Lin Sheng was determined to find out at all costs.