Way of the Devil

Panda Novel

A strange and sharp cry came from Lu Sheng’s side.

The sound came and went. It was not loud, but it was persistent.

He slowly recovered from the grogginess of the Arrival. He collected his spirit, opened his eyes, and started taking in his surroundings.

He was in a damp, grayish-brown tree hollow with a grass bed under him. The brown dried grass was mixed with fresh green grass as it formed an oval bed.

There was some faint light shining in from the outside. The faint radiance shone on Lu Sheng’s two front paws.

“Where… am I?” Lu Sheng did not feel too comfortable with his eyesight. He felt that everything he saw was flat.

He flexed his body and turned around.

“Huhu…”

The sensation of him turning his own body around felt strange. It was as if he was wrapped in a thick, furry blanket. His movements were slightly clumsy.

‘This can’t be, right… Why do I feel like I have a tail on my butt?’

Lu Sheng suddenly noticed that something was wrong. He looked around him with his pinkish eyes.

He saw two rabbits.

Two big, furry gray rabbits. They were snuggled up to him and were sleeping soundly.

“Rabbits?!”

Lu Sheng fell silent as well.

He raised his arms. He saw two gray paws being instantly lifted up.

He touched his own chest.

It was all fur.

He opened his mouth.

“Skree!”

A short, sharp cry of a rabbit came from his own mouth.

“…”

Lu Sheng was speechless.

He stood up and wanted to straighten his legs and walk straight. However, it was obvious that this body had never straightened its legs before. He immediately fell to his side.

“I really have turned into a rabbit…” Lu Sheng’s feelings were terrible right now.

He had Arrived in many identities before this. However, this was his first time becoming an actual rabbit.

“Interesting.”

Lu Sheng got up and pushed the gray rabbit away with all four of his limbs. He walked out of the hollow.

The song of birds and scent of flowers filled the air outside the tree hollow. Strange gurgling sounds could also be heard in the dense forest filled with tall trees.

Lu Sheng strolled around the tree hollow and observed his surroundings before returning to the hollow.

The two rabbits were awake now. They were wriggling their bodies. They lifted their hind paws and licked them.

“…” Lu Sheng suddenly remembered that rabbits cleaned their fur and bodies with their own mouths.

‘Forget it. Let’s have a look at this rabbit’s wishes and karma.’ He slowly started recalling. In no time, the wish of this rabbit which he Arrived in slowly became clear.

‘I hope that there’ll be no more strife in the forest, and for there to be peace in the world. Let us all sit down happily and eat grass together.’

“Uh…”

This was the karma and wish Lu Sheng sensed.

“What f*cking karma is this?!” He felt as if he had overestimated the intellectual capabilities of rabbits.

‘Maybe… this karma can be divided into two?’ He suddenly had a thought.

The next thing he did was to organize the gray rabbit’s memories.

There was nothing but eating and defecating. Also, there was the faint distant memory of his parents being caught by wolves.

‘No! That’s too dangerous, I must grow stronger as quickly as possible! Otherwise, an ordinary beast or two will foil my current Arrival.’ Lu Sheng was starting to feel slightly anxious.

He started searching for strengthening methods that could even be applied by rabbits in his memories.

Lu Sheng leaned against the tree trunk and started organizing his thoughts.

‘Firstly, I can’t use anything related to Spiritual Essence or inner force. Next, I can’t use any cultivation methods that need special resources as well.

‘Looks like I can only use simple and crude methods that circulate vigor… Thank goodness I have Deep Blue with me.’ Lu Sheng glanced at the two other rabbits again. To his surprise, they were starting to mate right in front of him.

One of the rabbits spread itself on the other and started thrusting.

“Quick! Quick! Quick!”

“Oh! Oh! Oh!”

Lu Sheng could strangely understand their language.

“We must be quick! As quick as possible!” Lu Sheng saw one of the rabbits eyeing him with puzzlement. It was as if it was questioning his non-involvement.

Lu Sheng’s mouth twitched. In the gray rabbit’s memories, he seemed to remember that the three of them…

…were male.

Lu Sheng ignored the two and went to a corner in the tree hollow on his own.

He quickly found a most basic vigor-circulating cultivation method in his memories, Black Dragon Heart-crushing Mantra!

Its name was domineering, and so were its effects. However, this cultivation method actually had a greatest shortcoming.

The shortcoming was that it had to be cultivated with the eyes closed. This was because it was created by a blind assassin.

Lu Sheng had discovered this in a secret tome in the Prime Devil Sect’s armory.

This cultivation method also had the side effect of growing hair all over one’s body. That was the prime reason why Lu Sheng had never cultivated this.

However, it was perfect in his current condition.

Lu Sheng lowered his head and looked at the gray fur on his forepaws again. Then, he squatted in the corner and started to seriously recall the detailed method to cultivate the Black Dragon Heart-crushing Mantra.

The initiation of this cultivation method was easy, but it required a lot of vigor. Hence, after being initiated, he would have to replenish his body’s nutrients as quickly as possible.

However, before that, Lu Sheng had to learn to walk with two straight legs…

If he felt thirsty, he would go out and eat grass.

If he felt hungry, he would do the same thing.

Under his companions’ resentful gazes, Lu Sheng quickly devoured the grass around the tree hollow. To Lu Sheng’s surprise, some of the grasses actually tasted good. They were sweet and crunchy with a faint aroma.

After countless rounds of practice, Lu Sheng slowly mastered the key techniques to stand on two straight legs.

This continued for a few days.

He eventually could walk with two legs slowly. Shortly after, he started training with the cultivation method.

The first stage of the black Dragon Heart-crushing Mantra involved a movement which resembled guiding arts. He would contort his body and curl himself up, and then he would stretch himself out rapidly. Like a spring, he would continuously compress and relax his own body.

This was called the Loose Tight Path. It was the name of the cultivation method’s first stage.

Under the support of his powerful spirit, Lu Sheng basically mastered the basics of the Loose Tight Path in a day.

If he could practice the application of this cultivation method, he would be initiated at the first stage and usher in the era of modification.

However, an accident happened at this point.

“Gugugu!”

“Gugugugu!”

A gray rabbit pounced into the tree hollow with fright. Then, it hopped around wildly in circles. Its fur stood slightly on end.

Then, it leapt up to Lu Sheng. It started clicking its teeth and spreading its mouth. It flailed its ears around and clawed away at the ground with its forepaws.

“Gugugu!” (The snake! The snake is here!)

Lu Sheng immediately understood what it meant.

“Gu?” (Snake?) he asked for confirmation.

“Gu! Gugu!” (Yes! Big snake!)

Lu Sheng called this gray rabbit Incisor because his incisors were the longest. The other rabbit had no characteristics, and he did not bother to give it a name.

After muttering to himself for some time, Lu Sheng heard the faint slithering of a reptile from outside the tree hollow. It was weak and masked by the sounds of the rustling tree leaves.

He frowned. He flattened his ears onto his back. He found a tree bark and tied it to himself.

Then, he stood up.

“You stay here. I’ll go and check,” he ordered Incisor.

“No! You’ll die!” Incisor shouted. He was so anxious that he started pacing in circles.

“You’re overthinking.” Lu Sheng walked toward the tree hollow’s opening calmly.

After exiting the tree hollow, the first thing he saw was not the snake, but a row of squirrels atop a branch before him. These squirrels were squeaking as if they were telling the little animals in the area that the snake had arrived.

Shortly after, a triangular-headed green venomous serpent with yellow spots on its body slowly slithered out of the grass to the right of the tree hollow.

The snake was more than 10 times Lu Sheng’s current body length. At first glance, its huge head left no room for doubt that it could swallow Incisor whole as long as it unhinged its jaws.

The venomous snake’s ice-cold and hungry gaze locked on Lu Sheng. He moved slowly as he inched toward Lu Sheng. He raised his head while keeping his eyes on Lu Sheng.

“You’re a venomous snake?” Lu Sheng flexed his paws. He had not strengthened his body with Deep Blue yet, but this body was already used to the new changes.

The claws of a wild rabbit were not slow. They were sharp as well.

The venomous snake seemed to be puzzled. He had never seen a rabbit which stood on two legs before. He remembered that the hind legs of a rabbit were supposed to be bent…

Besides, where were its ears?

The venomous snake kept searching for Lu Sheng’s ears.

However, he quickly gave up. His hunger overcame him. He smelled the aroma of blood and flesh.

The venomous inched closer and closer.

“Pcchht!”

All of a sudden, a shadow struck. The venomous snake’s muscles flowed along his body, erupting with great strength as he lunged at Lu Sheng.

His hunger was boiling, his vigor was trembling. His eyes revealed that he was deeply elated.

After this meal, he would have more strength! To hunt for more prey! More food! Food!

“Pchht! Pcchht!”

Two cold beams of light shot past.

With a sidestep, Lu Sheng appeared on the right of the venomous snake with lightning speed. His claws were dripping with blood, but it was not his.

“Bam!”

The venomous snake’s head slammed into an old tree. Then, he rolled to the ground, and gave a few jerks before he started struggling wildly. He persisted in his struggle for quite some time before finally losing all signs of life.

For Lu Sheng, wild animals that could only rely on their natural instincts were no different from ordinary people who did not know any martial arts. They were powerless before him.

He looked on silently as blood kept oozing out from the two bloody holes on the venomous snake’s neck. His head was almost detached from his body.

Then, he turned around and entered the tree hollow without any expression.

Rabbits did not have organs or teeth to digest meat; hence, he could not consume the snake. He had no choice but to let it go to waste there.

In the moment just now, he merely used this body’s own agility and reaction speed to precisely create a one-hit-KO phenomenon. However, that was all the strength he had. The structure of a rabbit’s body determined that he could not fight the venomous snake for too long.

He was able to deal with a little venomous snake this time. However, if a leopard, or some other nimble animal with greater strength and agility, came around, his meager strength would not be enough to fend off one tackle.

After all, the difference between their body sizes was too great.

Lu Sheng returned to the tree hollow and saw Incisor who froze out of fear.

“Let’s go and find another place to stay. We can’t be here anymore,” he said directly.

A snake had died here. The smell of blood would certainly attract more ferocious beasts. Also, he had to clean his bloodstained claws as well.

Besides, if he wanted to fulfil this rabbit’s karma, he would have to find a suitable location. He started making formal arrangements.

Incisor was scared to death. In his daze, he was pulled away by Lu Sheng out of the tree hollow.

In the daylit forest, two gray rabbits walked alongside each other. One of them walked with two hind legs, while the other blindly followed the former out of the tree hollow.

After walking for dozens of meters, he saw a gray rabbit’s skin and some scattered, bloodstained bones under a long root.

It was the other gray rabbit. Lu Sheng recognized the scent.