Way of the Devil

Lu Sheng looked at the boy silently for a while.

“Ah Sang, what’re you doing here?” Luo Di’s voice suddenly reached him from behind.

His voice came abruptly. Lu Sheng did not even notice him getting near.

He started. Turning around, he saw that Luo Di was reaching out to pat his shoulder.

“I saw something in this classroom, and I came to take a look,” Lu Sheng replied casually. He pointed at the interior of the classroom behind him.

However, his voice barely faded when he turned back to look. The classroom before him was pitch-black and empty. There was no little boy, and no television. Even the battered, neatly arranged tables and chairs were scattered all about the floor. There was a thick layer of black dust on the floor.

Luo Di looked inside the classroom, perplexed. “Are you sure that you saw something? A little boy?” He did not believe that his own son would make such a mistake. For an elite who practiced the Gelailo Sword Skill, there was no way that there would be a problem with his eyes.

“I’m sure of it.” Lu Sheng nodded. He pointed at the tables and chairs in the classroom. “When I was looking at the classroom before this, the tables and chairs were neatly arranged.”

Luo Di wore a grim expression, and seemed to be pondering something.

“Let’s go. We should build that raft first.” He patted Lu Sheng’s shoulder.

Lu Sheng nodded.

He seemed to have understood this town’s crucial point. The key might very well have been this small building, this school.

‘No… Maybe Luo Di didn’t pick this place by chance at all…’

Lu Sheng took a final glance at this classroom. Then, he followed Luo Di up to the first floor.

In a classroom on the second floor, a group of people was gathered. When Fran saw Luo Di and Lu Sheng, she immediately stood up mid-yawn.

Mera’s gaze was focused on Lu Sheng as well. The other emaciated man was also looking at Lu Sheng.

It was clear that everyone had learned about Lu Sheng’s glorious feats.

“Since the wood is here, we must work together. We should build the raft in the shortest time possible and leave,” Esseinro reminded everyone.

Lu Sheng raised a hand, and said, “I’ll stand guard.”

“Where are we going to find thick ropes?”

“I’ve found some in the school’s drawers. They look sturdy,” Fran said loudly.

Then, they quickly went to work. The logs were swiftly arranged neatly, and the protrusions were shaved off with knives. Fortunately, the surface of the wood was quite rotten, and the bad parts were easily shaved off.

When they were building the raft, Lu Sheng started loitering around the small building again.

From the third floor to the second floor.

From the second floor to the first floor.

Down until the ground floor he went. He walked around in the cafeteria, and finally returned to the teaching area.

The wind kept blowing into the building through the broken windows. A peculiar whistle filled the small building.

“Pooh!”

Lu Sheng pushed open the door to a classroom. Thick black ashes fell down from the lintel. Fortunately, he had paused before the door. The ashes did not fall onto his head.

The classroom was wide and empty. Graffiti of unknown meaning drawn with black chalk covered the entire wall. Fragments of broken wooden tables and chairs were scattered across the floor. A gray rostrum that seemed dilapidated still stood before the blackboard.

‘There’s something strange about this place… These weren’t here when I passed by just now…’ Lu Sheng narrowed his eyes, and walked into the classroom.

The wind blew, and the classroom’s door was slowly blown shut. Lu Sheng walked to the center of the classroom and looked around himself.

“Flap!”

There was a sudden, crisp sound that came from outside the classroom. He quickly lifted his head to look in its direction.

“Swoosh!”

Without him noticing, a huge group of people was already gathered outside the windows.

These people dressed like teachers and students. Their faces were ghastly pale, and their eyes were fixed on Lu Sheng. They were quiet and peculiar.

Lu Sheng blinked. The outside of the classroom reverted to the pitch-black place where nobody stood.

“Clack…”

Another crisp sound came from behind him.

Lu Sheng turned around. He saw a woman with hair so long that it covered her face standing behind the rostrum.

The woman’s black hair was like a waterfall, long and packed. Her arms hung straight on her sides as she stood behind the rostrum. She seemed to be looking at Lu Sheng through her hair.

“What are you guys trying to say? You have the numbers?” Lu Sheng was expressionless.

His vision blurred, and the long-haired woman disappeared as well. It was as if she had been an illusion all along.

However, he knew full well that he was supported by his main body in his heart. As a Heavenly Devil, he himself was a peak elite in matters related to the spirit. Nobody could have possibly put him under an illusion without him noticing.

He walked in a circle in the classroom.

Lu Sheng did not notice anything.

“Istantine! Istantine! Sifrey! Kaman!”

Suddenly, a loud and neat shout came from outside the window. There seemed to be a number of men with healthy lungs shouting at the same time.

Lu Sheng immediately rushed toward the window to have a look. However, when he was halfway to the window, the ground gave way under his feet.

“Bam!”

His vision blurred. He was no longer in a classroom. He was lying down in a deep, pitch-black trap.

“Ugh…”

Lu Sheng sat up straight, feeling groggy. He touched the ground beside him.

The ice-cold ground was surrounded by some tiny and sharp objects. He reached around with his hand, and found out that they were spikes.

With a beam of moonlight which shone from above, he saw his surroundings clearly.

Sharp metal spikes seemed to have formed a miniature forest around him. They were densely packed as they stood upright all around.

Lu Sheng got to his feet slowly. A huge patch of spikes which had broken from his weight was underneath him.

‘Hmm… So there’s this trick as well? This isn’t an illusion. So, what is it?’ He was immediately intrigued.

It was clear that he had fallen into a trap. However, his body was too powerful, and the trap had been unintentionally broken by him.

He rummaged around in an attempt to find something, anything.

However, to his disappointment, other than some bones that were almost turning to dust, there was nothing else in this trap hole.

Lu Sheng grabbed a spike, and stomped on the ground.

“Bam!”

He shot up like a rocket in an attempt to leap out of the trap.

“Fuh!”

A spiked iron ball with a diameter of more than one meter suddenly crashed toward him.

“Boom!”

Lu Sheng swatted away the iron ball, and it crashed into the faraway wall with a dull thud.

Lu Sheng rode on the reaction force, and landed softly on the side of the trap.

It was only now that he realized that he was no longer in the classroom he’d been in just now. Instead, he was in a hidden chamber.

This hidden chamber was completely pitch-black, with a window above him. There was only a single door in front of him among the four walls of the chamber.

A little boy stood at the door. He was looking at him from the shadows of the moonlight.

When the little boy noticed that Lu Sheng had seen him, the little boy turned around and ran.

Lu Sheng quickly gave chase.

He dashed out of the room, and noticed that there was a pitch-black crevice whose depth he could not estimate.

Lu Sheng had wanted to halt when a huge force suddenly pushed him out from behind.

“Fuh…”

Without anything to hold on to, Lu Sheng dropped into a freefall.

The stone wall of the cliff shot past his eyes. The wind roared in his ears. The ice-cold, bone-piercing airflow kept assaulting him through the openings in his clothes.

He did not know how long he had been falling.

“Bam!”

Finally, Lu Sheng’s body touched the bottom. He crashed heavily into a hard boulder.

The boulder seemed to have been hit by a huge impact. It suddenly split open, and its pieces rolled to the sides.

Lu Sheng did a somersault. An ordinary person would have had their bones completely crushed from the fall. However, he was unscathed.

He got back up to his feet from the floor. Lu Sheng looked upward, but could see nothing above the cliff. He did not even know where he had fallen off from.

“This place…” Lu Sheng looked to his left and right. He was completely at a loss as to where he was right now.

Behind him was a vast, boundless grayish ocean. The only piece of land was the cliff before him.

Ice-cold, bone-chilling wind roared all around him.

“I should head back first.” He looked to his left and right. He held onto the protrusions on the cliff before him, and started climbing upward quickly.

A few minutes later, Lu Sheng was once again standing atop the cliff. It was then that he saw a wooden door before himself.

The wooden door was open. The scene behind it was the classroom, which he’d been in just moments ago.

He quickly walked toward the classroom’s door. This time, Lu Sheng was careful. He stood at the door and looked into the classroom carefully.

“You are all individuals gifted by God’s grace. You are all talented people. The ritual will increase your glory. It is the key to your ascension into heaven after the death that you’ve been waiting for.” A gentle and friendly female voice could be heard from the classroom.

“Come now… All you have to do is draw a blade lightly across your necks. Don’t be afraid. It’s the same as falling asleep. This is our right contribution for our God…”

…

“Come here, children. Do you see God’s image? Look at Its hand, look at Its eyes, look at Its… Ryan! What are you looking at?!”

The gentle female voice suddenly rose in pitch.

“Dammit, Ryan. You dare disrespect God. Men, dig his eyes out!”

“No! I won’t do it again! My lady, I won’t do it again!” The little boy’s cries were accompanied by the frightened panting of the other children until a sharp wail ended abruptly.

Lu Sheng’s vision blurred again. He had returned to the initial classroom.

The black-haired little boy stood near before him.

“Boom!”

The outside of the classroom suddenly burned. A great fire suddenly materialized, and ignited an entire floor of the small building.

Lu Sheng could hear the startled cries of Luo Di and the others as they hurried down the stairs.

However, he ignored them. He stayed where he was silently. He looked at the little boy before him.

The fire blazed and ignited the base of his trousers and his shoes. It started burning his feet, and Lu Sheng’s body was quickly engulfed in flames. He completely turned into a man of fire.

“Havva… itallié… Mion…” The little boy slowly opened his mouth. He was speaking in an alien language.

As he spoke, he started to take slow steps toward Lu Sheng.

He raised his right hand, and his fingers turned into five sharp black spikes.

“Pcchht!”

In an instant, the spikes thrust toward Lu Sheng’s chest. The sharp points of the spikes were shaking intensely. There were countless minute black spots moving about and shifting around them.

The air was shaking. The surrounding flames seemed to have cowered in fear. Under the advance of the spikes, the tongues of flames dispersed.

A blurry, giant and ferocious shadow appeared behind the little boy. It thrust forward with the little boy’s movements.

“Bam!”

The spikes suddenly stabbed into Lu Sheng’s chest.

They made no progress.

The little boy looked up, stunned. What he saw was the man of flames looking down at him.

“You poor child. You don’t even know what power is…”

“Bam!”

With a loud bang, the little boy’s chest caved in. His petite frame reeled like a cannonball, and he broke through the enclosing wall and flew out of the school. He crashed through several houses, and finally landed in a dump filled with black rubbish. He rolled along the ground, digging a deep ditch.