Way of the Devil

Panda Novel

“Fuh!”

Luo Sang sat up abruptly on the bed. He was drenched in sweat. His eyes were filled with fear, and his hands shook. He instinctively touched his own face.

“Sh*t! It’s that dream again!” He could not help but swear under his breath. Although he did not feel any emotional fluctuations in the dream, when he woke up, the extreme panic and fear he felt made him tremble despite himself.

He wiped his face with strong movements and pressed his own eyes, trying hard to calm down. However, his racing heart would not slow down no matter what. Cold sweat continued to condense on his forehead, and eventually soaked his clothes. The beads of sweat trickled along his face, chin, and neck and down onto his back.

“Medicine… My medicine…” He quickly clambered out of bed, his body still shaking. With a trembling hand, he fumbled for the medicine that would calm his racing heart in his bedside drawer.

His name was Luo Sang. He was an ordinary son of a manor lord. If there were no accidents, he would be able to inherit the manor of his father, Luo Di, and then continue to lead an uneventful life until his age finally caught up to him.

There were countless individuals living this kind of life in this peaceful country.

The Dong He Empire, which he lived in, was extremely vast. Although it was corrupted, it was as stable as Mount Tai. A great band of nobles and great merchants had an iron grip on the high-ranking authorities of the empire. However, they did not overly exploit those living under their rule. The empire was currently in its slow declining phase right after its peak.

Due to the stability, the upper echelons sought more materialistic enjoyment. This led to increased trade with another similarly vast empire in the east, conducted by a huge number of merchants. Newly developed manors started sprouting up on the border, while the combination of east and west gave rise to a unique civilization.

Twenty years ago, Luo Sang’s father, Luo Di, had opened up this manor which belonged to him.

Currently, this area had become a flourishing location known as the Sunset County.

Luo Sang finally found the thin-necked silver vial which contained the medicine he was looking for with shaking hands in the bedside drawer. Luo Sang gripped the vial tightly. He did not open and consume its contents immediately.

Lately, that nightmare had been haunting him with increasing frequency. He was already on the verge of breaking down.

‘This frightful nightmare repeats itself every night. Sometimes, I even have it when I’m taking a nap in the day… I’ve had enough of this!’

An unnamed rage suddenly surged up from the depths of his heart. Power filled his limbs, and he threw the silver vial in his hands.

“Bam!”

The silver vial rebounded after hitting the stone wall nearby, and made a few turns on the floor. The cork had been dislodged by the impact, so the light red medicine flowed out of the vial and seeped into the light yellow soil.

‘Death! I’m better off dead if I have to live my life like this. I won’t have any nightmares when I’m dead. I won’t feel fear if I’m dead. I won’t have to be pressured by Father anymore.’ A notion of giving up on himself kept welling up within him.

The ache in his heart grew stronger and heavier. His breathing grew ragged.

Luo Sang could not help but remember what happened the previous day.

His father Luo Di had been preparing for 20 years to exact revenge on that town. He had never given up on returning to that scary place.

He had made his preparations in secret, and intended on bearing the weight of the entire matter on his own. He did not tell his son what he wanted to do.

Luo Sang understood.

That town—that terrifying place—would definitely not let the two of them live. From his father’s penned words, he could tell that the evil and powerful devils had always been searching for the two of them.

His father Luo Di had been wracking his brains to try and conceal their whereabouts.

However, no matter how well they hid themselves, their location was bound to be exposed. Those evil fellows had various methods to search for the traces they’d left behind.

The notebook contained the simple framework which his father Luo Di used to battle with them using wit and courage. In order to avoid them, Luo Di had painstakingly created a dozen doubles, who were all dead already.

Now, it was their turn.

From the day he discovered the notebook, Luo Sang had confirmed, on a few occasions, that his father had truly been carrying out his plans in secret. Also, he started having nightmares with greater frequencies, and it had always been the same nightmare.

He understood that he would not be able to run away from this. They had hidden themselves for 20 years. In the end, they still had to face this fated outcome.

He could not imagine what kind of weapon his father prepared to fight against the evil town.

A bow? A torch? Poison? His father had already tried various methods throughout the years.

Fire would not kill them. If he wielded a blade, he would not even have the opportunity to get close. Even though poison did seem to be slightly effective, those monsters were too powerful. The poison that could kill a person was only capable of slowing their movements.

‘Maybe it’s not such a bad idea to die like this…’

Luo Sang fell to the ground from the bed. He pressed a palm to his heart. His consciousness was gradually slipping into calmness and extirpation.

If he had to choose, he would rather die of this heart attack than under the hands of those monsters.

Moonlight lit up the room through the square window. It cast Luo Sang’s face in a ghastly pale glow.

This emaciated young man should have been in fear and pain because of the sharp pain in his heart, but he was strangely displaying a peaceful expression.

“Hiss…”

Suddenly, a fine gray crack appeared behind Luo Sang. A red spot of light shot out of the crack, and slipped into the back of Luo Sang’s head.

Luo Sang’s closed eyes suddenly opened. His blue pupils retracted slightly before they dilated, and red wisps of blood started spreading from his pupils to the white of his eyes.

It did not spread too quickly. It only covered both eyes in a few minutes.

“Hew!”

His back arced downward abruptly and reverted back.

“Ugh…” Luo Sang blinked. He slowly removed his hand which he had pressed to his heart.

“This body… is slightly strange.” The current Luo Sang, or Lu Sheng, rubbed the skin where the heart was with a strange expression.

Waves of sharp pain immediately spread throughout his body from that spot.

‘Spasms of the heart muscles which led to temporary shock? Should be a problem with the nerves. It’ll be alright once I adjust it.’ Lu Sheng spread his spirit and slowly soothed the spasming heart muscles.

The sharp pain in his heart gradually faded and subsided.

For a Divine Lord’s spirit that was able to deceive reality, faking some nerve signals was nothing.

Lu Sheng straightened his body again. He closed his eyes, and started to absorb this persona’s memories.

“Luo Sang? Town? Avenger?” Peculiar scenes were replayed in his mind. As the flashbacks progressed, Lu Sheng’s expression grew stranger.

“Interesting… This place…” He could feel that his main body, which was curled up deep within the heart, was being suppressed by extremely complicated Laws. His main body could not leave this physical body.

As he traced this suppressive energy, he quickly discovered that the Laws here were completely different to those in Great Yin and the other worlds.

‘I’m being suppressed quite a lot… It doesn’t matter, I just need some time to get used to it. I’ll stick to my principle: I won’t use my main body unless it’s absolutely necessary. Let’s have a look at this Luo Sang’s karma…’ Lu Sheng closed his eyes again.

The room quieted down completely.

After a dozen seconds, he reopened his eyes.

‘You don’t want to let the tragedy repeat itself? Also, you want to destroy that town…’ These two karmas would be the main objectives of Lu Sheng’s current trip.

‘Let me wrap my mind around things…’ Lu Sheng stood up. He walked to the windows and pushed them open. The air outside was moist. Ice-cold air surged into the room.

The cold air on his face reinvigorated him.

‘Luo Sang and Luo Di, father and son, were persecuted and fled the town. Luo Sang’s mother had died in the town. His grandparents from both sides of the family had also died in the town. Even though this father and son duo successfully escaped, the influence of the town was still left within them to varying degrees. Every now and then, monsters from the mysterious town would catch up to them and attempt to kill them. All these years, it’s thanks to Luo Sang’s father, Luo Di, who dealt with and hid from the monsters through various methods that they survived. According to Luo Di’s notebook, which Luo Sang read, it seems as if nobody in this world could go up against the monsters from that town. The real question is, what are those monsters from the town?’

According to Luo Sang’s memories, this world was one where cold weapons were prevalent. The most powerful weapon known to the people here was crossbow, but such weapons were restricted items for the civilians. It was an offense punishable by death to use these weapons outside the military.

Luo Sang’s father Luo Di had gotten his hands on some twisting crossbows to fight against the monsters. If word of this went out, he would be beheaded.

Lu Sheng opened the wardrobe, and took out a hooded gray robe. It resembled a windbreaker. There was also a coarse cloth binding rope meant to serve as a belt.

After he dressed himself, he pulled the room’s doors open and walked out.

An empty wide, square courtyard was right outside his door. Two fleshy women with thick waists were peeling potatoes in the courtyard while they sat on wooden chairs. They chattered softly as they worked.

They wore large gray dresses, and each covered their heads with a white kerchief. Spittle flew from their mouths as they conversed. However, the small knives in their hands were still able to peel the potatoes deftly.

When Lu Sheng walked out, the two women waved at him.

“Little Ah Sang[1. Ah is a sort of endearment similar to ‘little’. Also think ‘dear’, but it sounds normal in Chinese.], you’re awake!”

“The buttered mashed potatoes are ready. They’re on the table in the living room. Help yourself.”

Lu Sheng nodded with a smile. Then, he walked toward the living room with his memory as his guide.

As he walked, he attempted to condense the Spirit Qi in the air. However, he got nothing. The air seemed to comprise of mere gas. There was no special energy in it.

Then, Lu Sheng switched and attempted to draw out his Essential Essence from within him. This was Great Yin’s Art.

This showed some effects, though they were not as obvious. He was still sluggish, and the efficiency of this method was not high as well.

His third attempt was to draw out Spirit Qi. Every being should contain spiritual properties. Lu Sheng attempted to extract some spiritual properties from the life force around him. It was effective as well, but its efficiency was a far cry from the Spiritual Power World. It was not even as good as Muyun’s world.

As he attempted these methods, Lu Sheng had subconsciously arrived in a courtyard filled with purplish flower-like grass.

This body’s father, Luo Di, was practicing basic swordplay in the middle of the courtyard, clad in form-fitting black combat attire.

He was wielding a silver chopper the length of his forearm. There was no trick to his swordplay; every single move was as it seemed. The moves were connected, forceful, and brutal. There even seemed to be hints of blood and cruelty in his swordplay.

The strong man quickly finished up his practice. After his closing form, he noticed Lu Sheng, who was standing at the side. He quickly greeted, “Ah Sang, you’re awake? It’s rare to see you up this early.”

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