Way of the Devil

When he got to the gate, Lu Sheng glanced down at the ground. Clear shoe prints dotted the thick snow alongside the tire marks of carriages.

Obviously, the people who lived here traveled often; otherwise, it would be impossible to leave such clear footprints in such weather.

Lu Sheng walked up, and knocked on the door gently.

“Knock, knock, knock.”

“Is anyone home?” Lu Sheng’s voice wasn’t loud, but it was clear enough for everyone inside to hear him.

Soon, a series of footsteps hurried toward the door.

With a creak, the door opened. A delicate, pale face appeared. It was a young girl of about eighteen or nineteen years old.

“You are?” the girl asked in a small. She was using a Northern accent.

“I’m a passerby, and I’m looking for lodging for the night. I don’t know whether or not it is convenient, but I’m willing to pay.” Lu Sheng took out a piece of silver and handed it over.

Although he didn’t know the exact customs here, but one piece of silver for a night should’ve been enough.

Dressed in a white fox fur coat, the girl didn’t accept the money, but opened the door wider and looked around instead.

“Even the closest town is easily over a couple tens of kilometers away. Are you by yourself? Come on in, it’s so cold outside. Another blizzard is coming. For those traveling outside, as long we can be of help, we’ll help them. Fate must have led you to us in this icy freezing weather.”

“Little girl, you have a sweet tongue.” Lu Sheng chuckled.

“Of course, I learned it from my mother. When she was younger, she was first chair in the orchestra in Hill Bird City.” The little girl seemed to take pride in that. “Come, follow me. My father and mother are both inside, and we’re eating right now. If you don’t mind, you can also come and join us.”

“Sorry to be a bother.” Lu Sheng smiled. He closed the gate behind him, and then followed the young girl through the empty yard and into the main building.

In the hall, a beautiful lady and a tall, handsome scholar were sitting together, dining. Both were smiling, and the lady cracked a joke every now and then. The atmosphere was very comfortable.

“If you don’t mind, come sit down with us and eat.” The beautiful lady was wearing a long, white dress with a low neckline. From above, one could see the deep, sexy slit between her pale, smooth breasts.

The scholar didn’t look over. He seemed to be well dressed, but when taking a closer look, one could see that his gaze was dazed, and that he only picked out of one bowl while eating.

“My husband, unfortunately, fell and hurt the back of his head. After that, he never had a clear mind and forgot everything. Half of his body is rigid and can’t move… I apologize.” The beautiful lady’s face fell a bit when she spoke.

“Don’t be. For a head injury, you could try curing it through an open-head surgery.” Lu Sheng pointed out.

“Open-head surgery? That’s too dangerous.”

The young girl brought a bowl of rice to him and sat back in her own seat.

“We only have some simple dishes, please forgive us,” the beautiful lady said softly.

“This is already really good!” Lu Sheng answered hurriedly. The three dishes and one bowl of soup in front of him were in very large quantities, enough for four or five people to eat and still have extras.

He brought the bowl to his mouth and started downing the food.

While eating, the beautiful lady set down her chopsticks, fixing her gaze on Lu Sheng.

The young girl was still talking about interesting things, but she also turned her head to stare at Lu Sheng. Although her mouth was still moving and telling her mother about what happened today, her neck was twisted at a very frightening angle.

Lastly, that scholar also slowly lifted his head to stare at Lu Sheng, who was still gobbling down the food.

The faces of all three people were frighteningly pale. The room became completely quiet.

“Fall… fall… fall…”

A slight smile appeared on their faces as they stared at Lu Sheng like they were staring at a piece of delicious meat.

“Fall… why isn’t he…”

“Is there more food?” Suddenly, a wooden bowl was brought to in front of the beautiful lady.

Lu Sheng had finished his fifth bowl. He glanced at the empty rice bowl next to him.

“Is there more?” He grabbed the rice bowl and passed it to the beautiful lady, poking it forward.

‘Um…’

The beautiful lady blanked for a second, then immediately came to realization.

“Hiss!” Sharp, black nails like spikes grew out of her fingers as she stabbed towards Lu Sheng.

“Bang!”

A huge force slammed into the beautiful lady, and she flew back into the wall behind her, making a loud noise.

Before she could realize what happened, another force pulled her back fiercely and suspended her in front of Lu Sheng.

“Do you know how to make lion’s head meatballs ¹ ? I want to eat lion’s head meatballs, with the meat cooked medium well. Don’t forget to add peppers.” Lu Sheng stuffed the rice bowl into the beautiful lady’s arms.

“And remember to make more rice. That wasn’t even enough to fill my mouth.”

“You…!!” The beautiful lady stretched out her nails and tried to rush up to Lu Sheng.

“Whoosh!!”

A huge force slammed into her chest, and a burning flame she didn’t recognize flowed into her body instantly.

“Poof!”

The lady coughed up a mouthful of black blood.

“Okay, go. Remember to add peppers.” Lu Sheng set the person outside, then turned around to continue eating the rest of the dishes.

The scholar and the young girl stared at him, not knowing whether to retract the black nails on their fingers or not.

“We… we’re Anomalies! You want us to cook??!” the young girl screamed in disbelief.

“So what if you’re an Anomaly? Can Anomalies not cook?” Lu Sheng got impatient. “Go, go! This is the first time I’ve had something good to eat after traveling for so long. Hurry!”

The three stared at each other. The young girl still wanted to resist, but one glare from Lu Sheng made all of her skin start burning and put her in extreme pain. Screaming and rolling on the floor, she finally realized that in many cases, death was the better option.

Lu Sheng controlled the severity perfectly, letting her experience pain, but not get injured too badly. Actually, let alone death, this wouldn’t even leave a scar.

So, under Lu Sheng’s terrorizing reign, the three Anomalies had to obediently cook for Lu Sheng and prepare his room.

After eating, Lu Sheng finally got sort of full. The only downside was that there was too much poison in the food, affecting its taste. Otherwise, he would be happier.

After taking a nice, hot bath in the mountain village and changing his clothes, he made the three prepare enough dry grain for him before strolling out leisurely and flying toward his previous direction.

The three anomalies looked at their empty storage barn, wanting to cry. All they got was one piece of silver. Only now did they understand that this person knew they that were strange from the start, but he just wasn’t afraid and didn’t care.

***

Great Yin Dynasty, border, Sleeping Moon Mountain.

“The sun drops down the tall peaks and into the plains, the even river and morning fog light up the clouds.”

It was sunset. In the deep forest, among the fog, a few scholars with swords strapped to their waists were leading two girls up some stone steps.

One of the middle-aged scholars made up this very average line of poetry while staring at the beautiful scenery in the mountains.

“Brother Mu Chen really is talented. When it comes to poetry and writing, us laymen have to back down.” Another skinny man smiled.

“What are you talking about, coming up with that was just luck, luck!” the middle-aged scholar said humbly.

Everyone showered Mu Chen with praise. Even the two girls, who were on the pretty side, applauded him greatly.

The group of people walked up the stone steps, soon disappearing into the forest.

On the side of the steps.

Every once in a while, there would be stone tables and chairs in the clearings for people to rest on. Currently, beside one of the tables sat a fit, young man in tight, black clothing.

The young man didn’t carry anything on him. His long black hair was tied in a high ponytail, and although he wasn’t handsome, he was decent and good-looking. He had a steady, dark aura about him, and his eyes were calm and deep, as if they were the bottomless sea.

Different from most of the people from the Great Yin, the man’s skin was extra pale, and his bones were larger than normal, signaling his origin—the colder areas.

Of course, this person was Lu Sheng, who crossed all the mountains at once.

The distance between the Great Yin and the Great Song really was huge. Even without stopping, it took Lu Sheng five days and nights at full speed to reach the Great Yin border and find the marking.

Then, he spent another half a month learning the Great Yin language with a strong dialect accent from the hunters who lived near the border.

Only after all this did he come to Sleeping Moon Mountain. He wanted to get an understanding of the area and settle down before the rest of the big group arrived.

“Sleeping Moon Mountain… if what the hunters said was correct, then this should be a popular place around here for praying. Sometimes, even people from the neighboring towns and cities would also come to light incense and pray. I might be able to find someone to learn about this place.”

Because he had just arrived in the Great Yin, Lu Sheng didn’t know anything. All he knew was that there didn’t seem to be a difference between normal humans and Noble Families. Most of the time, they were just all generalized together. Here, strong people came and went, and all sorts of secret arts and skills were everywhere. Divine and Devil Weapons still had their power, but a lot of people possessed the same strength.

Here, Divine and Devil Weapons had only one name: Deadly Weapons.

The hunters had only heard about Deadly Weapons from legends and rumors, and knew nothing about the details. All they knew was that the Great Yin wasn’t ruled by Noble Families, but instead by sects and groups. In other terms, theunderworld ² .

“The underworld… now this is looking like the novels I read back on earth.” Lu Sheng absent-mindedly slid his fingers across the stone table surface.

As he was deep in thought, another group of people came walking up the steps toward the temple at the top of the hill. This one seemed pretty fancy—mostly girls, but they were surrounded by guards with knives.

Sitting here, Lu Sheng had already seen quite a few of these. Most of the time, these were people with some sort of reputation in the city. Some were rich tradesmen, others were government officials.

Of course, most were just those with a little bit of money, but wanted to dress up prettier and nicer. These families couldn’t afford actual bodyguards, but had enough to try to pursue a higher level of quality and comfort.

Lu Sheng saw the most of these. His target was also mostly on this level or ones above.

Lu Sheng’s gaze moved towards this group of people. At once, he noticed that all these people were wearing the same symbol on their waists.

It was a strange character, shaped like a wriggling worm. The character was emblazoned in black with sharp edges.

Lu Sheng couldn’t read this character. He only learned basic conversational language from the hunters and couldn’t completely blend in yet.

The Great Yin was way more powerful than the Great Song. Before, Lu Sheng had seen a few descriptions in old manuscripts. If Devil Lords and King Strength beings existed in the Great Song, then there were definitely more King Strength levels in the Great Yin.