Chapter 14: Took care of it in advance

Continue reading 0n NovelSprout.com

The next day, Han Shuo was rudely awakened by a heavy trash bag being dumped on him.


He had been sweetly dreaming when he felt a heavy mountain toppling down on him. He alertly scrambled up from the bed, and rubbed his eyes to see that there was an extra heavy bag of trash on the bed. He immediately understood that someone must’ve thrown their trash in through the warehouse window.

He nagged and cursed randomly, kicking the bag of trash off the bed. The bag landed with a thump and rolled towards the door. Han Shuo was about to go back to sleep, when he realized that the time must’ve been late if someone had thrown a bag of trash in.

The sun had indeed risen high into the sky when Han Shuo pushed open the windows to take in the view. He sighed in turn, thinking that he had overexerted himself with training last night. He had definitely overslept today, and was about to hurry out the door, when he suddenly recalled last night’s dream. He seemed to remember that the little skeleton had gotten revenge on Fitch for him. Han Shuo’s heart leapt in fright when he remembered that last time he had a similar dream, the events had actually happened. His gaze quickly searched towards the wooden bucket.

He was greeted with the sight of the skeleton resting two bony, black hands on the sides of the bucket, and its left leg bone crossed on top of its right leg bone, swinging lazily to and fro, as if it was enjoying a sauna. It looked very comfortable and looked every bit a dapper rogue.

Han Shuo breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing it still in the wooden bucket and mused silently for a moment. He got up and shoved the bucket underneath the bed, and only left the warehouse to tackle his day’s duties after he’d grabbed a trash bag to plug the space underneath the bed.

“Hi Bryan, what took you so long today?” Jack was dusting off the statues as he greeted Han Shuo from afar with a smile.

Han Shuo glanced around him and knew that he was late because no students were passing by on this path. Classes must already be in session.

“Oh, my mind’s groggy after Fitch’s two taps yesterday. That’s why I overslept.”

“Heh heh!” Jack suddenly gave a light, gloating laugh and put his head confidentially next to Han Shuo’s. He said lowly, “Bryan, you don’t need to be mad. I heard the students talking on the way to class today. That the black, seven-winged skeleton, that appeared last time, beat Fitch up last night. His face is bruised and puffy!”

Han Shuo, “….”

So the dream really had taken place, with a few marked differences from what he’d imagined. This time, the little skeleton was noticeably much faster and had already finished executing its commands. No wonder the little skeleton had been lying in the bucket in a different position from the night when he checked the bucket this morning.

“Eh, Bryan. Why aren’t you saying anything? Are you too happy? Haha, that must be the case. That black skeleton is really something. When Fitch had been beaten awake, he only saw the flapping of the seven wings. The skeleton leapt straight down from the window and escaped that way. Oh! Fitch lives on the fourth floor. It’s amazing that the skeleton didn’t land in pieces of broken bones!”

Han Shuo gave two dry coughs and was feeling quite gratified. He glossed over the topic and said, “Well done! I wonder who summoned that little skeleton and got revenge for me. I’ve been so lucky lately!”

No more unlucky things happened to Han Shuo in the next few days, and no one came looking for him to practice magic. In these days, Han Shuo took advantage of the rare quiet to stand outside the necromancy classrooms early in the morning, and eavesdrop on Gene’s lectures with a broom in hand.

Maybe it was due to his beating at the hands of the skeleton, but Fitch didn’t show up to class in those few days. Han Shuo eavesdropped on Gene’s explanations of magical knowledge everyday, and was enlightened on many theories that he simply did not understand prior.

At night, Han Shuo practiced the “Mystical Glacial Spellfire”, and bit by bit, circulated the magical yuan towards his right palm and fingertips according to the spellfire’s prescribed method. It burned with pain each time, but over the course of these few days, Han Shuo had almost circulated the magical yuan to his wrist.

He continued to study “The Foundations of Necromancy”, and would mentally note the portions he didn’t understand to see if Gene, by chance, mentioned any of those topics when Han Shuo was eavesdropping on his classes.

Now that Han Shuo’s rations had increased and his body was receiving more nutrition, not to mention him training his magical yuan, Han Shuo’s originally delicate body unconsciously underwent some fundamental changes. He started to form muscles, and even seemed to grow a bit taller, while his temperament changed as well.

The necromancy students all relegated Han Shuo’s changes as the aftermath of him going crazy. Han Shuo basked in the ease of no one paying him much attention, and continued to work and covertly practice magic. He was happy to witness the changes in his body.

“Oh endless darkness, turn into destructive bone arrows, and destroy according to my will, bone arrows!” A length of cuttingly sharp bone arrow materialized out of thin air when the incantation was completed, and flew towards a straw figure in front of Han Shuo with a flick of his finger. However, it suddenly shuddered halfway through.

Pa!

The bone arrow suddenly exploded halfway to its target, and from the look of its direction, it had veered greatly off course. It wasn’t aimed towards the straw stuffed figure at all.

Han Shuo gave a low sigh as he shook his head, thinking that understanding theory was one matter, actually using it was another. Han Shuo had been practicing this lowest level bone arrow magic near the cemetery these days, and he’d never been able to successfully cast it. Either he wasn’t able to summon the arrow, or its direction was greatly off course and would explode mid-flight.

Han Shuo understood that repeated practice was necessary in order to successfully cast necromancy magic. Only through constant practice would he be able to fully grasp the particulars of a spell, and be able to successfully cast it without any errors or flaws.

These days, Han Shuo would always train his magical yuan for a while whenever night fell, then sneak over to the cemetery, where he had once been dumped as a corpse, to practice necromancy in the dead of night. The little skeleton would stand there unmoving once it had hauled over two bags of trash and thrown them away.

Just as Han Shuo was reflecting on the incantation and hand seals he had used just now, and was trying to figure out where he had gone wrong with employing his mental strength, he suddenly heard rushed footsteps in the distance. He started and quickly hid in the randomly scattered rock outcroppings next to the cemetery.

The cemetery was expansive and completely quiet at night. Few visited apart from Han Shuo stopping by to throw away discarded magical ingredients. He furtively practiced magic here because he didn’t want to be discovered, and naturally hid out of sight when he heard footsteps sound.

After a while, a tall, solidly built, blue-haired, middle aged man, with his clothes dyed crimson from blood and bloody froth at his mouth, came into Han Shuo’s line of sight. He wielded a broadsword and staggered forward with an anxious look. He stumbled directionless, and kept checking behind his back.

His body shuddered when he reached the area where Han Shuo had been practicing before, and his footsteps swayed as he fell to the ground. He fished out a grey handbag from an inner chest pocket, randomly pawed at the earth twice and stuck the bag into the dirt. He got up and continued running after he had smoothed over the earth.

“Dylan, where can you run to now!” A benevolent voice carried from afar as a black light flashed and materialized into a thin, frail, old man behind the middle aged man. He wore a compassionate smile on his face and his master’s robes were rimmed with gold. He carried an obviously precious staff that was embedded with a ruby, sapphire, and topaz.

A ball of dark green light swiftly flew in from afar after the frail, old kindly mage had appeared. When it reached the clearing, the dark green light abruptly disappeared and a strongly built, muscular looking swordsman equipped with a longsword appeared.

“Master Duke, how should we handle Dylan?” The swordsman stood politely next to the mage and asked humbly after he had arrived.

The compassionate old mage, Duke, wrinkled his sparse eyebrows and looked at the figure collapsed on the ground with blood coming out of his mouth. “Poor Dylan… he’s probably at the end of his tether. He should not suffer this kind of pain. Erick, send him on his way!”

“The master is too kind!” Swordsman Erick praised with an odd expression on his face, and suddenly flashed like lightning towards the still running Dylan. Han Shuo caught a fleeting glance of a ball of dark green light as blood splattered from Dylan’s back, and he finally fell to the ground, unmoving.

Erick sheathed his longsword and immediately bent down to search Dylan’s body. His facial expression became uglier and uglier, he finally stood up and said resignedly, “Master Duke, it isn’t on him!”

“How is that possible!” Duke was shocked and his expression shifted. He summoned Dylan’s corpse with a wave of his staff, chanted a wind magic incantation, and several sharp blades of wind appeared to shred the corpse’s clothing to pieces.

Han Shou clearly saw it all while hiding behind the outcrop of rock. The dark green light blossoming from Erick’s longsword indicated that he was a senior knight.

That such a senior knight was so respectful to that Duke meant that the identity, or ability of this person, was even higher. It was the first time that Han Shuo had seen a murder committed, and his heart pounded as it raced with panic.

“It really isn’t on him!” Duke muttered to himself and tossed Dylan’s naked body to the ground like trash with another wave of his staff.

Duke shook his staff again, and a strong pulse of mental strength gushed towards Han Shuo. Han Shuo’s body flew up against his will and landed in front of Duke.

“Eh? How did you know I was there?” Not only was Han Shuo panicking internally, but his mouth was panicking as well. He flailed around with his limbs in mid air and yelled with disbelief.

“Heh, what a cute, innocent little fellow! Judging from your clothes, you’re from the Babylon Academy of Magic and Force?” Duke gazed kindly upon Han Shuo and dumped him on the ground after delivering these lines.

“Yeah, I’m an errand boy from the Babylon Academy. I was here to throw away magical trash. I didn’t see anything just now. Eh, it’s getting late. You guys keep chatting, I’m going back now.”

Han Shuo stood up from the ground and responded with a face full of naivete. He took two measured steps towards the academy’s grounds, then increased his speed and ran away with all his might. These two weird guys might do something detrimental to me, best get away as soon as possible.

“Heh, this fellow is a bit shrewd. Erick, why don’t you send him on his way!” Duke spoke benevolently and laughed lightly behind Han Shuo’s back.

Han Shuo felt a strong current of air rapidly approach as soon as Duke had finished speaking.

TBC...
Source: Great Demon King - NovelSprout.com

Chapter 13: Mystical Glacial Spellfire

Continue reading 0n NovelSprout.com

Indeed, Fitch’s face twisted sinisterly as soon as Gene had finished speaking, almost as if someone had stepped on his face with a dirty shoe. He quickly glanced at the dumbly smiling Han Shuo, but proceeded to speak to Gene, “Master Gene, this outrageous errand slave dared to trip me. How can I not teach him a lesson?!”


Fitch rolled up his sleeves as he spoke, and hit Han Shuo on the head with his grey magic staff. Han Shuo actually breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Fitch wasn’t using magic, but merely his staff instead. Although Fitch was tall, he didn’t have much strength. Han Shuo saw that the blow was descending without too much force, and decided to ignore it entirely. He stood there and made no attempt to dodge, just continued to smile in a silly, honest way.

Pow!

Han Shuo suddenly experienced acute pain when the magic staff knocked against his forehead. He gave a bloodcurdling “aiyo!” and grimaced in pain from the magic staff in Fitch’s hands. Who would’ve thought that although the staff looked like it was made of wood, it had the heft and hardness of metal. Han Shuo could only feel that his brain was buzzing with agony, and that a huge lump had already formed on his forehead.

“Damnit, why is this magic staff so hard and so heavy? I’ve miscalculated this time!” Han Shuo thought as his forehead was bashed again, before his brain had had a chance to recover from the first hit. He felt his head grow heavy, and he stiffly fainted dead away onto the ground.

When Han Shuo came to, he found himself on a large, soft bed. Faint medicinal scents floated in the air. He noticed that the two big lumps on his head had already faded, and there seemed to be some type of ointment applied to them. It had a cooling effect and felt very comfortable.

“You’re awake?” A face suddenly came near him. Light purple, wavy, long hair, sparkling clear eyes, fresh white teeth, and sexy red lips blew out a breath of slight fragrance onto Han Shuo’s face.

“Eh, Fan… Master Fanny!” Han Shuo’s gave a soft gasp at the sight of the pretty face in front him, and his heart began pounding. He pulled himself up into a sitting position on the bed and glanced around, taking in his surroundings.

The room was 20 square meters, and a large upright drawer was nearby. It contained a variety of medicinal vials, as well as some bones from magical creatures on the side. The walls were filled with magical drawings and text. In the middle was a pedestal made of darkly colored rocks, with a simple magic matrix formed on top of it. One glance was enough to tell Han Shuo that this was Fanny’s laboratory.

As Han Shuo was observing his surroundings, Fanny was also scrutinizing him with a great deal of surprise. It wasn’t until Han Shuo’s sight had made a full circle and looked towards her, that Fanny extended a slender finger and lightly tapped his forehead. A small exclamation of bewilderment followed shortly thereafter, “Eh? The bumps went down so quickly? There wasn’t even any bleeding under such a heavy staff thumping… How is this possible?”

Han Shuo’s heart lurched when Fanny’s finger touched him, and his nose greedily took in a deep breath. His lips curved up slightly in satisfaction as a whiff of fragrance drifted towards him.

Fanny, on the other hand, was stunned by Han Shuo’s behavior. His actions just now bore a few obvious hints of wanton seduction, and was a marked difference from Bryan’s typical timid and cowardly behavior. This made her pause in incomprehension, but a low sigh of understanding followed thereafter. She murmured lightly, “I didn’t believe them before, but it does seem that Bryan has gone a little crazy. I can’t believe an Agony of the Soul has turned him into this, sigh!”

Although Fanny had murmured in an exceedingly low voice, Han Shuo clearly heard everything. He laughed wryly inside, and thought that here was yet another person who truly believed that he had gone mad.

Suddenly, an expression of heightened curiosity appeared on Fanny’s face and she said earnestly, “Bryan, the bruises and bumps on your forehead healed so quickly; there’s nothing there now. Is this an aftereffect of the Agony of the Soul? Aiya, this is really too incredible. I have something to research further again. Necromancy magic is truly wondrous indeed!”

Han Shuo could only smile wryly with some resignation, as he watched Fanny ‘pilipala’ rifle wildly through her things with great excitement. Han Shuo was just a crazy person to her right now. He naturally couldn’t explain that training magical yuan was the reason behind his body’s oddities.

Fanny was not wearing her glasses again today, and was exuberantly rummaging through magical items on all sides. After a while, she sashayed towards Han Shuo, holding a light green ball the size of her palm. The light green ball lit up with a soft, green glow, and after she abruptly said an incantation, she placed the ball on top of Han Shuo’s forehead.

Strong magical undulations rippled out from the ball. It was like a magnet, firmly glued to Han Shuo’s forehead as the light green ball sucked out the last bit of mental strength from his mind. The light green ball suddenly flickered like a broken green light bulb.

“Oh… this is too inconceivable! Bryan, you have mental strength in your mind! Oh my gosh, what’s going on? Can it be that the Agony of the Soul has the ability to bestow ordinary people with mental strength, after they have been baptized by magic? This is too unbelievable!” Fanny suddenly hollered, astonishment and fright written all over her face. It seemed that discovering that Han Shuo’s mind had mental strength was more than a small shock to her.

“I’ve decided, this will be my future research topic. If the Agony of the Soul doesn’t turn someone crazy and can leave traces mental strength within a body, then even an ordinary person can become a mage. Oh… this is too unimaginable!”

Gurgle.

It was at this moment that Han Shuo’s stomach protested with hunger. The excitement still had not receded from Fanny’s face as she breathlessly to Han Shuo. “It’s getting late today, go back and rest first. I’ll come find you often in the future. I’ll go discuss with the school authorities to lighten your workload appropriately and increase your rations, until I’ve finished studying this topic.”

Joy blossomed in Han Shuo’s heart as he heard Fanny’s words. Evil thoughts kept crossing his mind as he watched the glamorous Fanny. He thought that good luck was unstoppable when it came; not only did his workload suddenly lighten and food rations increase, but he had an excuse to get closer to Fanny. It looked like Fitch had actually helped him a great deal with this beating.

When he left Fanny’s lab, Han Shuo lifted his head and saw that it was dusk when he noticed the fading light in the sky. He rubbed his forehead and discovered that apart from a bit of light pain, there wasn’t much else wrong with him now.

He completed his afternoon duties with lightning speed, and bumped into Jack at the place where bread was given out. Jack was extremely surprised to see Han Shuo, and cast weird glances at him. He asked doubtfully, “Bryan, I heard that you had two huge bumps on your head and fainted because of Fitch’s magic staff? How come there isn’t a trace of that now?”

“Master Fanny smeared magical reagents on me, the bumps naturally faded away quite quickly. Heh heh, Master Fanny is beautiful and gentle!” Han Shuo laughed happily at Jack.

“Bryan, this is your food for the day!” A voice called out from the dining hall window. Han Shuo swiftly ran over and received a piece of white bread, a small cup of milk and a fried egg.

“Eh? Brother Gotha did you make a mistake? Bryan should get the same food as us, and even a smaller piece of bread than mine!” The boy who Han Shuo had beaten up last time — Carey, waved a piece of black bread in his hand and yelled loudly at the fatty who was in charge of dispensing errand boy rations — Gotha.

Gotha cast a cold glance at Carey and lightly snorted, “This is correct, it came straight from the school authorities. This will also be Bryan’s rations in the future. Go talk to the school authorities if you have opinions about it. Hmph. But you’re just a small errand boy, you’d be making life difficult for yourself if you said anything.”

Han Shuo gave a large shout of laughter as he saw Carey and Borg’s angry expressions while holding his white bread, milk, and egg. He purposely smacked his lips loudly when eating the bread, and kept up a long litany of praises. “Mm-mm, this white bread definitely tastes different from black bread. Ah, There’s even milk and eggs. Oh goodness, this is such a happy day.”

“Eh… Bryan, can I drink some milk? That milk looks so delicious!” Little fatty Jack licked his lips and looked enviously at Han Shuo.

“There’s still half a cup left, take it!” Han Shuo generously passed it to Jack and pulled him away, smiling merrily as the two walked away, leaving Carey and Borg behind casting disgruntled looks.

Han Shuo took a look at the small skeleton later that night, back at the warehouse. He noticed that the small skeleton was still laying in the wooden bucket, but that the seven swirls in the bucket had stopped moving. He understood with a glance that this was because the magical yuan had run out, and extended a hand to coalesce more magical yuan into the seven bone fragments. It was only when the seven swirls had reformed around the bone fragments that he stopped and went to bed.

The “Yin Magical Concentration Matrix” was just one method in refining demonic treasures. According to instructions, one infusion of magical yuan should have been enough to maintain the matrix for a full 36 days. However, this expected result hadn’t been achieved partially due to the weaknesses of Han Shuo’s magical yuan, and also because he had randomly scavenged various ingredients together.

Han Shuo felt that the magical yuan within his body had become much stronger after a bit of meditation and training on the bed. A sudden thought struck him, and he wondered if he could use the magical yuan to practice the combative magics that Chu Cang Lan had left behind in his mind.

Han Shuo’s eyebrows knit together in deep thought as he started down this path of thought. He could vaguely feel that there were numerous training methods in his mind, but that many of these secret demonic techniques were a bit fuzzy, as if a thin layer of opaque paper prevented clear understanding.

His brows furrowed as he slowly searched through his memories. He realized that the memories in his mind seemed to be in great disarray, and that he could not fully recall all of them. He could only fully remember three topics, one of which was the basics of training magical yuan, and the other was the “Yin Magical Concentration Matrix” for refining demonic treasures. Apart from this two, there was another cantrap called the “Mystical Glacial Spellfire”.

The “Mystical Glacial Spellfire” was a way of using magical yuan, and its power would increase according to the practitioner’s level. The practitioner would be able to create red and purple spellfire on his palm if he circulated his magical yuan in a particular fashion amongst the meridians. The red flame was searingly hot, and the purple glacially cold. If the magical yuan and practitioner level was high enough, then he would be able to coalesce his magical yuan into two huge red and purple spellfires on his palms. This attack would be both searingly hot and glacially cold.

It was as if Han Shuo had received a precious treasure after he had fully understood all this. He decided to ignore all the indeterminate, obstructed memories and started circulating his magical yuan according to the “Mystical Glacial Spellfire” method. He slowly concentrated his magical yuan into his right hand, but his right hand meridian felt like it was on fire as the magical yuan flowed through it during this process. His right arm became sore, numb and stiff as that thin, wispy meridian felt like it had been electrocuted.

The magical yuan would be able to easily and quickly flow to the hand if he hadn’t been circulating it according to the “Mystical Glacial Spellfire” method. But each time he circulated the magical yuan according to the spellfire’s instructions, it was as if the magical yuan had met significant obstacles. Each tiny bit of progress was accompanied by almost unbearable pain and discomfort. It wasn’t until midnight that Han Shuo was able to finally circulate some magical yuan from shoulder into wrist, but his entire arm prickled in pain and was useless.

He understood that only by guiding all the magical yuan into his palm and fingertips would he be able to truly make use of the “Mystical Glacial Spellfire” method. It hurt so much now because he was clearing miniscule meridians, acclimating them to magical yuan. Short term pain was inevitable, and it would all go away once all the meridians were cleared.

Han Shuo’s eyelids grew heavy, as he was uncommonly tired, and he decided to flop onto the bed and sleep when he thought about his duties tomorrow. He wouldn’t be able to finish magic training in one night either.

Han Shou had a strange dream that night, one in which the little skeleton obeyed his commands, and beat up that Fitch who had knocked him on his forehead, getting revenge for Han Shuo.

Chapter 12: Poking one’s nose into other people’s business

Continue reading 0n NovelSprout.com

“I…” Han Shuo opened his mouth, but didn’t have the time to get a word out before Lisa landed a pilipala wave of hits with her girly fists. She cursed as she hit him, “Damn you Bryan, how dare you kiss me. My first kiss was taken from me by a crazy person! Oh my gosh, this is too scary. I’m going to kill you!”


Han Shuo’s mind was also in a jumble in the heat of the moment, since he’d just kissed Lisa. It was Lisa’s first time, who’s to say it wasn’t also Han Shuo’s first time as well?

Fear showed on Lisa’s face, and her butt was injured, so there was no strength at all behind her girly fists. Han Shuo did not feel any pain, and wasn’t even tickled by her hits. He didn’t resist, and furiously racked his brain for a way to prevent Lisa from further pursuing this matter.

Lisa seemed to grow tired from hitting him after a while. Her eyes were a bit red and puffy, and she glared viciously at Han Shuo. After she’d stared at him for a moment, Lisa frowned and said coldly, “Bryan, I will let you go if you tell me just one thing.”

Momentarily stunned, Han Shuo asked dumbly, “Tell you what?”

“Why has your strength grown during this period? You couldn’t avoid even skeletal warriors before, but now, even zombie warriors can’t catch up to you. Even that idiot Bach suffered a beating at your hands last time. Claude’s fighting aura obviously entered your body this morning, but why didn’t you die immediately? Why is all this?” Lisa stared at Han Shuo closely during her interrogation.

Han Shuo inwardly thought, “uh oh” as his heart lurched. His body had indeed become stronger thanks to training his magical yuan, but who would’ve thought that Lisa would pick up on it so quickly.

He hurriedly considered a few options and then dumbly replied with a silly smile, “I, I don’t know… Just that I’ve eaten a few things recently that have made me feel stronger.”

Lisa’s eyes flashed noticeably after Han Shuo had finished speaking, and she put her face next to his with every bit of interest. She focused her eyes on him and said, “What did you eat? I won’t pursue the matters of today as long as you tell me.”

“Use magical reagents to mix lizard tail and aardwolf teeth… submerse it in warm water for a day and then drink both of them down. That will improve your strength.” Han Shuo contracted his eyebrows and thought deeply for a moment, then delivered those lines with a naive smile.

Lisa’s face wore a serious expression and concentrated wholly on Han Shuo’s words. She repeated his words and then murmured to herself. “Eh? These disgusting things have this effect when mixed together?”

Han Shuo did not respond and only looked at Lisa with a dumb smile.

“Hmph. I’ll let you go today, and will come grab you for magic practice next time.” Lisa thought for a moment, and picked herself up from the ground to leave, but then went “aiyo!” and cursed angrily, “Damned Bryan, your kick was too strong. Why am I always so unlucky around you?!”

Lisa left the training room madly cursing, with one hand rubbing her butt. Han Shuo swiftly followed as soon as she’d left, quickly making his getaway as well, before anyone noticed.

Later that evening, Han Shuo stealthily crept over to the trash dump in the middle of the night. He first tried to use mental strength to command the small skeleton to show itself, but couldn’t reach the skeleton again. He unwillingly bore the stench of trash and rifled through the entire trash dump, finally finding the skeleton at the bottom of all the trash.

The little skeleton had crumpled underneath the trash as if it was asleep, with no outward sign of life. Several bones were scattered from his rib cage, and he appeared to be heavily injured. Due to his connection with the skeleton, Han Shuo knew that the little skeleton had not been junked. Han Shuo felt a wave of pity and guilt looking at the skeleton’s condition, knowing that it had ended up this way because it had received his command to get revenge on Lisa.

“Claude, oh Claude, just you wait. I’ll get my revenge on you some day!”

He grabbed the skeleton and cradled it, once more sneaking back to the warehouse under the cover of night. The skeleton’s loose rib cage bones clattered against each other as he ran, making his heart wring in pity again.

Han Shuo carefully closed the door when they were back in the warehouse, and thought for a moment. He placed the little skeleton in the wooden bucket again and found seven pieces of broken bone after some scavenging. He stuck them in the bucket, and channeled his magical yuan into them, reforming the “Magical Yin Concentration Matrix”. He was attempting to fix the small skeleton’s body with the method used to repair demonic treasures.

In contrast to last time’s severe weakness, Han Shuo felt much better off this time after he had injected his magical yuan into the bucket. It would seem that the magical yuan had increased in amount after digesting Claude’s fighting aura that morning. This set off another line of reasoning in Han Shuo’s mind.

He securely put aside the skeleton and brought out “The Foundations of Magic” from beneath his bed for further study. He had maintained his nightly studies these days, and not even thunder or lightning could sway him from his reading.

Even though this was just a foundations book, and had no record of any major necromancy magics within its pages, for a complete magical rookie like Han Shuo, this book was still much too complex for him.

Tonight, he cross referenced “The Foundations of Magic” alongside the “A Magical Dictionary”, and gradually lost himself in the books. However, despite the aid of “A Magical Dictionary” in this process, he was still unable to understand some of the technical terms within their covers.

He gave a long sigh and put down the two books in his hand, thinking to himself that he’d only started building his understanding of magic over the past ten days. If he could fully comprehend all the material in the books, then there was no point in the continued existence of the Babylon Academy of Magic and Force. After some thought, he decided to take full advantage of the convenience of his position and eavesdrop on the necromancy classrooms that were currently in session.

Han Shuo settled back into meditation after he had calmed and cleared his mind. He wanted to make the best use of any scrap of spare time to meditate and increase his mental strength. Before he knew it, he had meditated well into the night and then went to sleep peacefully.

Han Shuo was full of vitality when he got up the next day at daybreak, as if his body was full of boundless energy. The little skeleton in the wooden tub next to his bed was still and showed no signs of life. There were seven small swirls next to the seven broken pieces of bone, with subtle hints of black light flowing in the water.

Upon closer inspection, he saw that unbeknownst to anyone, the scattered rib cage bones had reordered themselves. The skeleton’s two empty eye hollows also seemed to have black light sparkling in them and appeared quite eerie.

Han Shuo contacted the skeleton with his magical yuan and immediately sensed that the skeleton seemed to be delighting in its newfound life. Also feeling the same, Han Shuo gave a slight smile and said to himself, “Oh little skeleton, you’re extremely lucky to be following me. I can keep refining you as long as I have enough magical yuan, and you’ll become stronger as a result. One of these days, that Claude will get what’s coming to him.”

Because the little skeleton was still being refined in the wooden bucket, Han Shuo had to get up himself and dispose of yesterday’s trash. Once he had washed his face with briskly cold water, Han Shuo vigorously dusted off all the statues. He completed his duties afterwards, received a piece of black bread, and ran off towards the necromancy classrooms in high spirits, a broom in hand.

“In order to perfectly release magic, both incantations and hand seals are key. If the chant is incorrect, or the gesture incorrect, then you will be unable to perform magic. Magic is a mysterious power, the art of borrowing strength from the elements found on earth and in the heavens by employing mental strength, along with mysterious incantations. Magic then finds its target through hand seals…”

The necromancy students were either attentively or lackadaisically listening to Master Gene. A few windows down, Han Shuo listened with all his concentration and unconsciously waved the broom in his hand.

Gene was the same as Fanny, a necromancy adept mage, as well as a teacher for the major. Gene mainly instructed the basics and foundations of magic, and was in charge of helping students through the more difficult parts of the material. Fanny on the other hand, taught students how to supplement attacks with necromancy magics and led the students in experimenting with necromancy magic.

For all the other majors at the academy, not only did they have adept mages for teachers, but they also had even more knowledgeable, more powerful magi (plural of magus) holding down the fort. But due to the lack of students in the necromancy major, Gene and Fanny were the only two teachers, and only adept class at that. On one hand, it was true that there was no need to dedicate too many resources to the tiny necromancy major; but on the other, it was also due to the fact that necromancy had become unpopular, resulting in a corresponding decrease in the number of necromancy magi.

At the Babylon Academy of Magic and Force, students could graduate as long as they passed through a gauntlet of exams. Of course, if students wanted to continue their journey with the academy, they were free to stay and study within the school grounds. Many majors would separate students according to apprentice, novice, and journeyman classes, but because there were too few necromancy students, all the students were lumped into one class.

At this moment, Han Shuo was concentrating with all his might, and a trace of joyous glee could be seen in the smile on his lowered head. It had been just a few moments, but Han Shuo had already thought through some of the theories that had perplexed him endlessly, thanks to Gene’s explanations. His tepid, old-fashioned tone was the soothing music of angels to Han Shuo’s ears, and he lost himself in it.

Bam sounded out as a student, wearing magician’s robes, suddenly fell down in front of Han Shuo. His butt stuck up in the air as his face became intimately acquainted with the white marble floors. He grimaced in pain as he picked himself up, turned to glare at Han Shuo, and said angrily, “Bryan, how dare you trip me with the broom handle.”

“Ah… I was only sweeping!” Han Shuo immediately responded with a panicked, upraised voice when he saw that the person was Fitch.

Fitch was 176 cm tall and had light blue hair. His thin frame combined with a billowy magician’s robe, made him look like a wrapped up wooden stick. He was a journeyman mage in the necromancy major, and had long wanted to pass the tests to be promoted to adept mage. Unfortunately, he had failed multiple times, and rumor had it that he’d made another attempt. It would seem that he’d just returned.

Han Shuo had been enthralled by Gene’s lecture on foundational magic and had paid no heed to the broom in his hand. No wonder Fitch had been tripped.

“Eh? Fitch has come back. Heh heh, did you fail again? Looks like you need to try much harder if you want to become an adept mage. I welcome your return. Bryan must not have done it on purpose just now, don’t mind him!” Gene have a light laugh in the classroom, and spoke with concealed banter.

Han Shuo was not in the least grateful for Gene speaking up for him, but rather cursed him for poking his nose in other people’s business.

Fitch had a bad temper to begin with, but wasn’t really a bad sort. Even though he had failed on countless occasions to pass the adept mage exams, he still experimented tirelessly due to his great love for necromancy. Fitch was the leader of Bach and a few others, but normally wouldn’t pick on Bryan and other errand boys.

However, both Fitch and Gene had a crush on Fanny. Fitch tried so hard to advance to adept class in large part due to something Fanny had said before,“I will only consider you if you become an adept mage.”

Because of this, this teacher and student pair disliked each other intensely. If it wasn’t for Gene’s words, Han Shuo might have escaped further retribution, but now that Gene had spoken, it was bound to have the opposite effect.

TBC...
Source: Great Demon King - NovelSprout.com

Chapter 11: This time, it’s a club

Continue reading 0n NovelSprout.com

Lisa was fully concentrating on manipulating the zombie warrior at this moment, and was stunned into dumbly standing there when Han Shuo suddenly changed direction and directly charged at her. She shook off her inaction in a panic, and hastily ordered the zombie warrior to follow Han Shuo, while she exhaled lightly and dodged to the side.


Lisa couldn’t make out Han Shuo’s expression as he had lowered his head and arched his back, but an aura, as sharp as keen as a sword’s edge, emanated from him as he charged. This was completely unlike anything that Han Shuo had ever displayed before, and thus the source of Lisa’s consternation.

Because the zombie warrior had been a step behind, its speed could not catch up to Han Shuo and thus could not help Lisa in the short run. It was hard for Lisa to maintain her previous unflappable calm and she ran madly to and fro, terror written on her face.

And so, a strange scene appeared in the training room. The zombie warrior chased after Han Shuo, whilst wielding a wooden club, whereas the latter said not a word and charged towards Lisa with his head lowered, while Lisa ran a wild, avoidance pattern around the room. She even forgot to team up with the zombie warrior and fight Han Shuo together.

“Bryan, are you crazy? How dare you chase me?” Lisa yelled as she ran, alarm evident in her voice.

As the one doing the chasing, Han Shuo’s mind was foggy and not too clear at the moment. Only the voice of “a demon practitioner does as he wishes…” reverberated on and off in his mind.

Han Shuo knew that he had to avoid a confrontation with Lisa at all costs. Otherwise, not only would the academy punish him, but even Lisa’s family would be out for blood. No matter who it was, either one would be enough to make him suffer greatly, as he was only an errand boy.

However, reason was reason, and logic was logic. Even though he knew he shouldn’t, it was as if Han Shuo had taken the wrong medicine. He pursued Lisa relentlessly, the complete embodiment of “a demon practitioner does as he wishes”.

All at once, Lisa gave a quiet “Ah!” as she slipped while running and fell heavily. Han Shuo had already been close behind Lisa, and took advantage of this opportunity to close the distance in one giant step.

“Ah! Bryan, what are you doing? I’ll definitely kill you if you dare bully me!” Lisa saw that Han Shuo was already standing next to her before she was able to pull herself up. She frantically blurted out a threat when she saw that he was raising his left foot readied himself to kick her.

Han Shuo wore a very odd expression on his face at this time. He frowned fiercely, as if struggling with indecision. Reason wanted to prevent him from kicking Lisa, but after that sentence of “I’ll kill you”, a hint of cruelty appeared on his face. The hovering foot descended and made straight for Lisa’s pert, round butt.

Bam sounded at as the foot connected solidly with its target. Han Shuo felt like his left leg was kicking a smooth, rubber ball due to a feeling of soft buoyancy.

“Ah….”

Lisa gave an uncontrolled scream, like a pig being slaughtered, as she cursed vehemently.

At the same time, the magical yuan, that had been enclosing Claude’s pale-green fighting aura in Han Shuo’s chest, suddenly churned madly like a whirlpool. He could clearly feel that Claude’s fighting aura was being dissolved bit by bit into the whirlpool by the magical yuan’s high speed.

The pale-green fighting aura that had lingered in Han Shuo’s body for the greater part of the day had vanished without a trace in the span of a moment. The magical yuan in Han Shuo’s body felt noticeably stronger. He felt that the pale-green aura had been completely digested by the magical yuan.

And at that moment, the magical yuan in Han Shuo’s chest started circulating aimlessly throughout his body again, but he could feel the energy, that he had just expended, come back. Even his mental state was in the best shape, as if he had just taken some highly potent elixir.

It was then that Han Shuo fully understood the meaning of “a demon practitioner does as he wishes”. It appeared that the magical yuan would spin faster if he followed his internal desires, and could even absorb and transmute fighting aura to become nutrition for the magical yuan.

“A demon practitioner does as he wishes, and benefits himself at the expense of others. So even training should be done this way!” Han Shuo’s facial expressions flickered oddly as he thought to himself.

“Wah… that hurts so much! Damn you Bryan, I’m going to kill you. You hurt me!” Lisa clutched the butt, that was still under Han Shuo’s foot, as she loudly gave voice to threats. There were already hints of tears forming in her eyes. It would seem that Han Shuo had delivered quite a strong kick just now.

His thoughts interrupted, Han Shuo gave a silent cry of dismay inside when he looked at Lisa. He was well acquainted with Lisa’s temper. She was well known for getting revenge. She would not easily let him go after what he’d just done to her.

Particularly as Lisa had actually cried. It would seem that her butt had suffered more than a small injury. All would be over for Han Shuo if the school found out about this.

The club wielding zombie had arrived in front of Han Shuo at that moment, and brought its club crashing down on his head, according to Lisa’s orders.

Han Shuo’s heart gave a great leap as he turned around to see the club descending, but at the same time, he suddenly felt that the club was falling rather slowly. He picked up his feet, and somehow easily avoided the attack.

Han Shuo gave a light “eh?” as he was slightly astonished, and once again dodged easily when he saw the club descending a second time. It was then that he realized that it wasn’t the zombie warrior that had gotten slower, it was that his speed and reflexes that had improved.

“Hehe, still didn’t get me!” He gave a weird cackle as he laid his worries to rest. He continued to evade all of the zombie warrior’s attacks. As he moved, he could feel his body become more and more agile, and even had the spare time to verbally ridicule Lisa.

Lisa had wanted to use the zombie warrior to get revenge for her, but who knew that the damned Bryan would suddenly become as limber as a monkey. He avoided the zombie warrior’s club attacks with a hop here, and a jump there, and even catcalled shamelessly, as if mocking her incompetence.

“Damned Bryan, you’re not going to get off this easily!” Lisa grew a bit distracted thanks to the pain coming from her butt. Upon seeing that the zombie warrior not able to get a bead on Han Shuo, she made a shrill threat, and dismissed the zombie warrior back to another dimension.

She tried to get up from the floor at the same time, but her butt was in too much pain after Han Shuo’s kick, and she cried out “aiyo!” as her legs gave way and she collapsed into a sitting position on the floor again.

Han Shuo was under no more pressure now that the zombie warrior had disappeared, but rather smiled foolishly and made his way to Lisa’s side. He dumbly extended a malnourished hand and said, “Let me take you to the infirmary.”

“None of your business, you damned idiot.” Tear tracks still streaked her face as she replied viciously to Han Shuo. She could still feel the pain radiating from her butt.

Han Shuo seemed to be flabbergasted after hearing her words, and a mischievous, evil glint slowly blossomed in his eyes. He extended his left hand and made as if to touch Lisa’s smooth, pert butt and said dumbly, “Then, let me rub it for you!”

Although Lisa had a vile temper, she was still a beauty. Although her chest wasn’t fully rounded out, her butt was uncommonly perky. His heart lurched immediately when he touched her butt, it felt exceedingly tender, yet firm, and was a delightful handful.

“Ah, go to hell Bryan! Don’t come near me!” Tears still sparkling on Lisa’s face, she immediately lost her head and screamed loudly when she felt her butt being touched by Han Shuo. She found strength from somewhere and pilipala beat Han Shuo with both arms and legs.

One of her feet in particular connected solidly with Han Shuo’s ankle. He lost his balance and came crashing down on Lisa, with his left hand still on her butt.

A delicate fragrance from Lisa wafted into his nose, and his heart lurched again. Lisa’s body felt soft beneath him, and his left hand was still cushioned by her butt. He could clearly feel how soft it was.

It was as if a thunderbolt had struck Lisa in that moment, and she froze there dumbly, staring back at Han Shuo.

But it lasted only a moment, and she didn’t continue to scream, but rather lifted both hands and started chanting with a cold face, “Oh endless darkness, turn into destructive bone arrows, and destroy according to my will…”

Han Shuo was horrified and agitated as he knew that that was the beginning of the necromancy spell bone arrow chant. He would be completely unable to dodge if the bone arrows shot at him from such close quarters. Perhaps even some parts of his body would be impaled by the bone arrows. That would not be fun, to say the least. And given that Lisa’s expression was icily cold, it was obvious that she wasn’t kidding. She really did want to kill Han Shuo.

A thought flashed like lightning through his mind as he decided to not wait for Lisa to finish the chant. He abruptly shot out his arms, pinned down Lisa’s slender arms and held her tightly. He followed that up with moving his face closed to her, and frantically smashing his open mouth against her cherry red lips.

“Destroy the… mmph mmph…” Lisa’s incantation was thus halted and wasn’t completed.

The two mouths met and a smooth, wet feeling flowed into Han Shuo’s heart. His entire mind felt out of it, as if he had ascended to the clouds in a split second. His entire being was drifting away, and he had no idea what was going on.

Even before he had landed in Bryan’s body, Han Shuo had never kissed a girl before. The feeling of kissing a girl had only existed in his theoretical musings before. Now that it had happened, his immediate reaction was to be dazed with astoundment. He only thought, this feeling — was much more wondrous than he had imagined.

Lisa’s face blushed hotly red as her breath came out unevenly. Her eyes were a haze of confusion and she was just as dazed as Han Shuo. She had no realization that she was being violated by Han Shuo at that very moment.

Lisa forcefully pushed Han Shuo away after a while and suddenly pointed at him, her little face flaming red, “Stupid Bryan, why do you always carry a bunch of weird things in your pants. Last time it was rocks, this time it’s a club.”

Han Shuo, “….”

Chapter 10: A demon practitioner does as he wishes

Continue reading 0n NovelSprout.com

The students had gone to class, but Han Shuo and Jack had yet to begin tackling their duties for the day. After everyone had left, the two also separated to complete their respective work.

Han Shuo felt the heaviness in his chest dissipate when he’d finished cleaning the statues. He found a deserted corner and undid the top of his rough, linen shirt. He looked down at his chest and saw that there was an undercurrent of pale-green specks of light being expelled from his body. It seemed that Claude’s pale-green fighting aura was being handled in this manner under the influence of the magical yuan.

Breathing a small sigh of relief, Han Shuo laid his worries to rest and marvelled at how miraculous the magical yuan was. From the knowledge that he’d recently gained, knights were also divided into various levels. Their fighting auras would be different at each level, such as knight apprentice (pale-blue), companion-at-arms (dark blue), sergeant (pale-green), senior knight (dark green), earth rider (white), sky rider (silver), and divine knight (gold).

Claude’s fighting aura color was pale-green, indicating that he really did have the strength of a sergeant level knight. If a sergeant level knight gathered his fighting aura and attacked a normal person, it would have dealt a fatal blow to the target with no exceptions whatsoever. The fact that he had survived without major injury was a clear testament to the fact that he had been training his magical yuan.

Han Shuo breathed a sigh of relief upon feeling the magical yuan firmly enclose the pale-green fighting aura, but didn’t dare engage in more training. He was deathly afraid that if the magical yuan circulated to other parts of his body according to his wishes, then the pale-green aura would be free of its restraints and suddenly burst into action and injure his internal organs.

Thankfully, as time passed, the magical yuan was slowly expelling the aura in the form of specks of light. This helped Han Shuo breathe a bit easier.

Due to the fact that classes had already started, no one searched the trash heap that the little skeleton had taken refuge in, but this matter wasn’t about to blow over that easily. Seeing as it was broad daylight, Han Shuo didn’t dare command the skeleton to return to the warehouse, for fear of inopportune discovery.

Late afternoon, within the department of dark magic’s training field.

The Babylon Academy of Magic and Force had very extensive facilities. Each department had its own independent training field. The training fields were a place for students to test their magic. All sorts of mental testing rocks to test mental strength, and equipment to measure the strength of a magical blast could be found within.

The necromancy major also had a few spacious rooms reserved specially for students to conduct magic experiments. Han Shuo happened to have a mop in hand and was cleaning the necromancy training room floors when he suddenly saw a few necromancy students walk over.

One of them was someone who had not come looking for Han Shuo in quite some time — Bach. His face was mottled with bruises and he looked quite miserable. It would seem that Irene and Lisa had already found him and made him pay. Bach swiftly grew livid when he spotted Han Shuo mopping the floor. His already ugly face became even more twisted, until it was almost impossible to make out his original features.

Han Shuo was gleefully jumping up and down inside, but continued to plaster a dumb, silly smile on his face. He was even humming a few lighthearted folk songs as he clutched the mop in his hands, twirling it this way and that.

“You damned Bryan, when did you see that little black skeleton run out from my room?!” Bach’s face had twisted ferociously as he roared angrily at Han Shuo.

Han Shuo lifted a completely clueless face and glanced at Bach, giving him a dumb smile. He didn’t answer and rapidly walked off with the mop.

“Come back here, you’re not getting away today!”

“Bach, how many times have I told you not to bully Bryan. Do you ignore even my words now?” Fanny immediately stuck her hands on her waist and yelled sternly after she’d walked in through the door, and glimpsed Bach about to chase after Han Shuo.

“Master Fanny, look at my face! It’s all because Bryan started some rumors that Lisa and Irene beat me up. Bryan’s the bully here!”

“Oh, I’ve heard about what happened this morning. Maybe Bryan was confused and saw incorrectly. He’s already like this! Why are you creating more trouble for him? Hmph. With your magical ability, you really don’t have the ability to summon such a strange and strong skeleton.” Fanny started talking to herself after this point. “Who on earth summoned it? I am very curious as well. There are rumors flying that our necromancy major has had a major breakthrough, and has discovered a way to make our dark creatures immune to light magic attacks.”

Han Shuo had run to the corner of the room and was gazing upon the glamorous Fanny from afar. Fanny had tied her light purple hair up into a bun today, leaving only a few purple strands resting on her forehead. This added a striking charm to her looks, causing Han Shuo to silently sigh multiples times in wonder.

“Bryan, your Agony of the Soul should be over by now and can help me practice my zombies today. Come, go to training room three.” Lisa flicked her gaze to the figure in the corner and commanded arrogantly.

“Lisa, practice is fine and all, but you can’t do what you did last time and directly attack him with a ghoul.” Fanny rebuked gently, worried that something might happen to Han Shuo after hearing Lisa’s words.

“I know, Master Fanny!” Lisa tossed out a careless reply and walked towards training room three.

It was the duty of the errand servants to help students practice their magic. Han Shuo also wanted to take to chance and enact some revenge, so he docilely put down the mop and walked towards the training room.

Lisa closed the training room door with a loud clatter after Han Shuo had entered the area. This indicated that she wished to reserve the room for her own use today. She stood cockily in front of the door and stared Han Shuo down, “You can’t run away today.”

She immediately raised her hands and started chanting when she had finished speaking, “Zombie warriors of the fallen, heed the dark herald’s call and reveal your existence!”

A muscular zombie warrior with a dark green body, wielding a thick wooden club, materialized as soon as the incantation had finished.

Zombie warriors were a level higher than skeletal warriors. They weren’t necessarily rotting corpses, but rather had muscular and tough bodies.They moved faster than skeletal warriors and their strength was greater. Only novice mages were able to summon them, so therefore a mere apprentice, like Bach, would have been completely unable to do so.

Summoned dark creatures could attack enemies if the summoner gave a mental command. However, low level dark creatures usually possessed extremely low intelligence, and could only engage in the most basic attacks. A summoner would have to continuously exercise mental control if they wanted the dark creature to attack up to its full potential. Only then would the dark creature follow the summoner wishes and attack in a variety of complex ways.

However, repeated practice was needed in order to become proficient and adeptly control a dark creature’s attacks through mental strength. Therefore, the necromancy errand boys often became practice targets. Up until now, Lisa and co. had used skeletal warriors to practice on the errand boys. This time however, she had summoned a zombie warrior. It was plain to see that she was up to no good.

Han Shuo was dumbfounded when he saw that Lisa hadn’t summoned a skeletal warrior, but a stronger, higher level zombie warrior. He inwardly cursed Lisa’s name a couple dozen times and backed up, on high alert.

“Hehe, I see you’re running faster Bryan, and that your strength has grown. It seems to be a bit of an insult to practice skeletal warriors on you. So today, you have the honor of helping the future necromancer archmage, Lisa, learn how to better control zombie warriors.”

Lisa’s pretty cheeks were tinged with pink and an unholy glee shone in her eyes. Under her commands, the zombie warrior had already started running towards Han Shuo, while she talked.

The zombie warrior was wielding a thick wooden club and thundered towards Han Shuo, according to Lisa’s instructions. Its speed was quite fast, and closed the distance quickly. The club flew directly towards Han Shuo’s head.

This club was thicker than Han Shuo’s arms, and the zombie warrior possessed great strength. Even if he didn’t die, Han Shuo would be gravely injured if he was hit.

For reasons unknown, Han Shuo wasn’t afraid at all as he watched the club descend. In fact, he felt a kind of bloodthirsty excitement. It was a very odd feeling, as if his body and soul craved battle.

His eyes narrowed slightly as the dumb look vanished from his face, replaced with a sharp glint in his eyes. He tensed his left leg and sprang off it, shifting his body to the right by a meter.

Bam went the zombie warrior’s wooden club as it smacked solidly into the floor, where Han Shuo had just been standing.

“Ee?!” Lisa gave a shocked squeal from the sidelines, where she had been controlling the zombie warrior. For the briefest of moments, the feeling she normally received from Han Shuo drastically changed, causing her heart to stutter. She had never seen the expression and the look in his eyes before this moment, and so had emitted a startled sound of bewilderment.

She forgot to give the zombie warrior further commands after that moment, and rubbed her eyes nervously. She stared closely at Han Shuo again.

Strangely, Han Shuo was wearing a silly expression again, and seemed to be instinctively fearing the zombie warrior. He cowered and trembled as he backed up, giving off the very appearance of an idiot.

I must have seen incorrectly. That damn Bryan, how is it possible… how could he have… that kind of aura, that kind of gaze? Lisa thought silently and gave a cold snort. She started to gather her mental strength again and commanded the zombie warrior to chase Han Shuo.

Although Han Shuo was chased every which way by the zombie warrior, he did not reveal it second time, the aura and look that had surprised Lisa, but he always managed to avoid the zombie warrior’s club at very last second. This peaked Lisa’s curiosity and competitive spirit, and so she fully concentrated on manipulating the zombie warrior as she thought, “Bryan’s actually gotten a lot faster and stronger since he’s gone crazy.”

As the widely pursued target, Han Shuo started developing a strong desire for vengeance on Lisa at some point. Even though Han Shuo tried to reason that he couldn’t and shouldn’t pursue vengeance, and tried to stop the thought in its tracks, he just couldn’t turn it off entirely.

And as the zombie warrior became more and more agile, and chasing after him with greater speed, Han Shuo’s thirst for revenge became stronger as well. “A demon practitioner does as he wishes… A demon practitioner does as he wishes…” A memory suddenly resurfaced in Han Shuo’s mind. He seemed to spontaneously understand the true meaning behind demonic magic, and the sentence “a demon practitioner does as he wishes” seemed to coalesce into a voice that echoed endlessly in his mind.

Finally, Han Shuo gave a low roar as he bent his head and arched his body. He changed his body’s trajectory from avoidance and made straight for Lisa’s direction.

TBC...
Source: Great Demon King - NovelSprout.com

Chapter 9: He’s really screwed this time

Continue reading 0n NovelSprout.com

Irene’s shirt had been sliced open, revealing snow-white skin, and even a hint of the top curve of her right breast. She was embarrassed and panicked, and was squealing in fright. The white expanse drew the rapturous glances of all the surrounding male, light major students.

Irene was a finely featured girl to begin with. Her beauty was further enhanced by a subtle, regal bearing that projected an awe inspiring and inviolable feeling. The male, light major students standing closest to her happened to be going through the stage of life in which they were insatiably curious about girls, and thus forgot to put themselves forward to help her.

When everyone realized that the little skeleton was making a move again, it was too late to prevent it. The little skeleton had already raised the glowing, black, bone dagger towards Irene. No one dared to make a move for fear of hurting Irene with their light magic.

A feeling of despair and helplessness arose in Irene’s heart when she looked into the skeleton’s grey, hollow eye sockets. She seemed to be frozen in place with fright as she sat there, unmoving.

Irene watched the little skeleton close the distance with an upraised glowing dagger with a sad expression on her face. Who would have thought that her end would come at the hands of a despised, dark creature, and one of the weakest ones to boot! It was really quite pathetic.

Slash…

Irene felt a cool draft on her right waist and thought she had been stabbed, but as she looked down, she realized that she hadn’t been hurt. Rather, the magic robe had been slashed open from right waist to calf, revealing even more skin.

A firm and smooth waist, supple and glistening strong legs, were all revealed this time. Even the teensiest bit of light green, silk undergarments could be glimpsed through the cut. Irene could hear some of the surrounding male students swallow loudly, as well as chatter from the female students.

“Ah…”

Although it would be a terrible thing if the skeleton killed her with one strike, it was worse than death to be stripped of her clothes under the hungry eyes of her peers. A piercing scream rang out from Irene’s mouth as she scrambled away directionless, desperately trying to cover herself up.

“What’s… what’s wrong with this skeleton? Why is it focused on destroying Irene’s clothes?”

“Stop staring! Hurry up and destroy it!”

The light major students finally regained their senses in the midst of the crowd’s conversations and began to raise their arms, ready to chant spells to attack the little skeleton.

The skeleton stood there dumbly again after that attack, as if it required continuous commands from Han Shuo to know what to do. Han Shuo started to inwardly stress out as he saw the skeleton just standing there. He didn’t know what to do.

Lisa, standing to the side, had been about to say something, but said nothing after she hesitated upon seeing such a large portion of Irene’s robe destroyed.

“Damned dark creature, how dare you attack the beautiful miss Irene! Receive your punishment from me, the sergeant knight Claude!” It was at this moment that a figure ran in from afar. Because his speed was so fast, Claude had already appeared next to the little skeleton immediately after he finished speaking.

Claude shot agilely towards the little skeleton as soon as he had arrived. A beam of pale-green light shot out with his right fist and landed solidly on the unsuspecting skeleton. The skeleton flew up and out, landing with a clatter on the ground after taking this blow.

“Beautiful Miss Irene, you have suffered because I arrived late!” Claude spoke humbly and executed an urbane bow to Irene after he sent the skeleton flying.

Claude was 18 and had tied his silver hair into a ponytail, allowing it to drape carelessly on his back. He wore an all white training robe and was extraordinarily handsome. Many of the light major girls blushed upon seeing his appearance and started whispering amongst themselves.

“Wow! It’s Claude! He’s only 18, yet he’s a sergeant level knight already, and the youngest son of the Empire’s Gryphon Legion chief. He’s so amazing!”

“You’re so boycrazy, Claude likes Irene. You come from a small family and you’re not as beautiful as Irene, he’d never be interested in you.”

The light major girls started holding hushed conversations and sneaking sly glances at Claude, as if he was the man of their dreams, their prince on a white horse. On the other hand, the male students regarded him with looks that alternated between hate and fear.

As the surrounding crowd engaged in murmured conversations, the little skeleton that been sent flying stood up shakily, his rib cage trembling along with the rest of his body.

Irene was completely bedraggled and frantically protecting her upper and lower body, her face flushed bright with embarrassment. However, she heaved a sigh of relief when Claude appeared. She was about to reply to his greeting when she glanced beyond Claude’s shoulder and saw the skeleton slowly clambering back up. Her haughty face instantly changed into an expression filled with panic and disgust. Irene pointed behind Claude and hurriedly said, “Claude, I’ll consent to having a meal with you if you destroy that ugly, dark creature.”

Claude turned his head upon hearing Irene’s words, and gave a quiet, “eh?” of surprise. It would seem that he hadn’t thought the skeleton would still survive. He turned back, flashed a small, sunny smile and bowed, “I am honored to serve you.”

Claude’s demeanor changed abruptly when he turned away. The urbane grace he’d just displayed faded, replaced with a sharp look shooting out from his eyes. He punched out with his right fist again, and the pale-green light once again rapidly shot towards the little skeleton.

Who knew that a thin, frail body would suddenly rush in from the left just at this moment. It happened to stop right in front of the little skeleton. The pale-green light from Claude’s fist landed solidly on the frail body.

Bam! sounded out and the thin body stumbled a few steps backwards, throwing his head back and fell to the ground.

“Eh? Who’s this errand boy? Why did he suddenly rush out?” Surprised cries came from all directions.

“Damn it, Bryan are you crazy?” Jack was just was mystified and howled with a face full of tragic pain.

Lisa was also extremely taken aback as she looked at Han Shuo, who had suddenly dashed out and taken the blow for the skeleton.

What followed was an even more surprising turn of events. The pale-green light connected squarely with Han Shuo, but he didn’t cough up blood and immediately die on the spot. Rather, he too stood up shakily, like the skeleton, and wore a silly, naive expression.

As for the little skeleton, it suddenly about faced. It had been swaying back and forth, but then abruptly turned, bent its legs and and sprang off towards the necromancy major’s quarters before anyone could react.

As for Claude, the attacker, he tripped over his feet all of a sudden and sat on the ground for no apparent reason. He panted heavily a few times before standing up, as if he had overexerted himself just now, but after he stood up, his chiseled features wore an expression of disbelief and shock. He cast an odd glance towards Han Shuo, who was still out of his mind.

The person in question, Han Shuo, wasn’t completely putting on an act with the confusion flitting across his face. When Claude’s pale-green light had passed directly through his body into his chest, Han Shuo had felt a heart piercing pain. He almost thought he’d died.

Han Shuo’s mental strength had been possibly affected by the circumstances in that moment, and he successfully gave another command of ‘retreat with all haste’ to the little skeleton. To avoid detection, he told the skeleton to take cover in the academy’s garbage dump.

But what was most incredible to Han Shuo was that he’d felt his magical yuan surround and enclose the pale-green light when the latter had travelled into his body. The magical yuan completely immobilized the light, and prevented the light from wreaking havoc internally.

“Bryan, what are you doing here?” Lisa finally found her voice and yelled towards Han Shuo.

Han Shuo had no idea what was going on in his body at the moment. He only felt a bit of heaviness weighing down his chest as magical yuan had enclosed the pale-green light. After the initial pain he had felt earlier, his body hadn’t actually suffered much damage.

But in other people’s eyes, Han Shuo was completely crazy. He couldn’t even hear other people’s questions. The blank expression and naive smile on his face further cemented his identity as a crazy person.

“Oh, it’s the crazy errand slave from the necromancy major. No wonder he was such an idiot!”

“Yes indeed, only an idiot would have rushed out in front of Claude’s attack at that moment!”

Little fatty Jack’s legs were shaking like mad, but he eventually made his way towards Han Shuo and started dragging him away by the arm. He said, “Bryan, what are you doing here? It’s not fun here. Come on, let’s go back.”

“Just a second!” Claude suddenly spoke up at this moment, his eyes fixed on Han Shuo. Setting aside the fact that the little skeleton had run away for a second, he was wondering why he suddenly felt his fighting aura (TL note: mental strength equivalent for knights) disappear. What was going on? Was he mistaken?

He’d only used his fighting aura in one hit, by all means he shouldn’t have been tired. He’d even fallen, this really was too weird. Did this errand slave have some evil magic? No way, he was just an errand slave. That would be way too crazy beyond belief. He must be wrong.

“Noble and mighty knight Claude, you wouldn’t pick a fight with an errand slave, would you? Not to mention that this errand slave is crazy, this doesn’t seem to reconcile with your distinguished self?” Curiously enough, it was Lisa who was speaking up for Han Shuo.

Claude bowed to Lisa from a distance upon hearing her words, then gave Han Shuo a deep look. He nodded, “You may leave!”

“The two errand boys can leave, but Lisa, you summoned this dirty skeletal warrior and ruined my clothes. You owe me an explanation.” Irene had found a billowy white robe at some point and had flung it over herself. She’d recovered from her panic and shock by now and leveled a cold glance at Lisa.

“What does that have to do with me? I didn’t summon that weird black skeleton, otherwise why would I be unable able to control it? It snuck into my room at night and kicked me two times. I’m also the victim here.” Lisa gave a slight snort and also responded coldly.

“How is that possible? If not you, then who? It must be someone from your necromancy major. Whoever he is, I’ll find him and make him pay!” Irene flew into a rage.

“Hoo… ah… Bach, when…. when throw away trash, saw it run… run out from Bach’s room.” Han Shuo smiled vacantly and seemed to have trouble communicating as he stammered out a few words, but it was enough for the others to understand his meaning.

“Huh. So it was him. He must be trying to get revenge for when I beat him up!” Lisa’s face darkened and she bit off her words.

On the other side, Irene’s face also wore a livid expression as she audibly ground her teeth. Bells signaling the start of class rang, just as the two were about to track down Bach and make him pay. All of the assembled gave a start when they heard the bells, with light and necromancy majors running off to their respective areas.

Only Han Shuo and Jack remained, standing there dumbly. Han Shuo smiled “dumbly” and said to Jack, “Bach’s screwed.”

Jack nodded his head emphatically in complete agreement, “Yeah, he’s really screwed this time!”

Chapter 8: The Infallible Seven-Winged Skeleton

Continue reading 0n NovelSprout.com

The next day.

Han Shuo was still quite drowsy and not fully awake when the warehouse door exploded open. Little fatty Jack rushed in and started shaking Han Shuo awake, exclaiming in excitement, “Bryan get up! You have to see this!”

Han Shuo was bleary eyed. He’d just been dreaming about commanding the small skeleton to beat up Lisa. He’d been woken up before he could finish the dream, and complained with dissatisfaction, “What’s going on this early in the morning?”

Jack’s eyes were the size of yellow beans and excitement twinkled in them. He laughed heartily, “I’m not sure what Lisa did, but she summoned a weird skeleton that doesn’t obey her commands. No one know’s what going on, but pilipala sounds have been coming from her room all morning.

The little skeleton then ran off towards the department of light magic, with Lisa chasing it from behind. Oh! I swear, I’ve never seen a small skeleton run so fast in all my years in the necromancy department. Oh yeah, it also had seven bone spurs as wings!”

Han Shuo had been enjoying Jack’s story until that moment. His expression changed as he suddenly thought of something, and he abruptly jerked his head towards the wooden bucket. The violently colored water had changed to an inky black at some point, and the seven bone spurs had vanished, along with the skeleton.

No way. I started refining him only yesterday. He seemed to remember somewhat, through the fog of sleep, giving the skeleton a command to teach Lisa a lesson, but weren’t there still 36 more days before refining a demonic treasure would be complete? What’s going on? Was it because he had randomly used bone spurs instead of yin demons that had caused the magical yuan to prematurely run out?

Han Shuo felt a foreboding chill at this thought and hastily sat up. He even ignored his morning duties of cleaning the stone statues and dashed towards the department of light magic, pulling Jack along in his wake.

Han Shuo’s mind raced through his worries as he ran. He wasn’t a necromancy student and couldn’t find it within himself to be as indifferent to his summoned creatures as the students were. They didn’t care whether the creature lived or died. The little skeleton had picked up trash for Han Shuo and saved him a lot of effort during this time. He had unknowingly developed feelings for the skeleton, and naturally didn’t want anything to happen to it.

Apart from Han Shuo and Jack, the necromancy students were also rushing to the department of light magic. They had odd expressions of their faces as they chattered nonstop on the way there.

“It’s so weird. It was such a small skeleton, black and with seven bone spurs on its back. I wonder how Lisa summoned it?” Amy said as she speed walked.

“I know, and the weirdest thing is that the small skeleton runs so fast. Oh. Gosh. Is it because Lisa’s mental strength is stronger than ours that she can summon different skeletal warriors than we can?” Athena also wore an expression of extreme surprise, and carried a loud conversation with Amy as they hurried to the department of light magic.

The novice mage Bella creased her brow when she heard Athena say so. She snorted, “I’m also a novice mage and I’ve never summoned such a strange skeleton. The weirdest thing is that this skeleton doesn’t obey its summoner’s commands. It doesn’t make sense at all.”

…….

Han Shuo and Jack eavesdropped on conversations as they ran. From what they gleaned from the students, Han Shuo understood that his refined skeleton was quite unique indeed.

Inwardly fretting with worry, Han Shuo attempted to contact the skeleton with his mental strength. He found out that he could establish contact, but possibly due to the fact that it had been refined as if it was a demonic treasure, the skeleton didn’t seem to receive the commands he was giving. It was still running around helter skelter.

The department of light magic didn’t lack students like the necromancy major did. Light magic was a popular major at the academy, and had graduated many distinguished alumni. Light major students had always hated the dark major students, perhaps because light and dark magic directly opposed each other. Light majors hated necromancy majors the most, and light magic was an especially effective restraint against dark magic.

Many light magics were particularly destructive towards the dark creatures that necromancers summoned. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that light magic was the nemesis of necromancy. Han Shuo had gained quite a bit of knowledge after returning to the necromancy major, and understood the concepts that were common knowledge to necromancy students. However, knowing all this made his heart grow heavy with worry.

Han Shuo practically flew down the road as he dragged Jack along. His speed was such that his frail body even passed by a few necromancy students. The ones left in his wake gaped in surprise, thinking when did this idiot get so strong after he went crazy?

When Han Shuo had dragged Jack all the way to the department of light magic, Jack was utterly exhausted. He planted his butt firmly on the ground and panted heavily, complaining continuously, “Bryan, you run so fast. You almost dragged me to death, and you’re not even sweating.”

As Han Shuo’s attention was completely preoccupied by the little skeleton scampering up and down all over the department of light magic buildings, he completely ignored Jack’s complaints.

A short skeleton, with a body as black as ink, seven bone spurs stuck in its spine, and wielding a faintly glowing bone dagger was dashing to and fro in the middle of the courtyard.

The black skeleton emanated a faint glow thanks to Han Shuo’s refinement. The bone spurs had stuck on its back, melding completely with the spine, as if they had always belonged there. Two leg bones extended like springs when it moved, and the seven bone spurs would flap busily, aiding its movement. Although they weren’t enough to help it fly, they raised its speed so that the skeleton was very nimble. Even Lisa following in hot pursuit missed several necromancy spells.

Numerous light major students and stone pillars decorated with intricate reliefs stood in the courtyard. The little skeleton adroitly weaved in and out between students and pillars with an eerily agile body, leaving Lisa helpless.

Han Shuo was also dazed upon seeing the little skeleton’s speed, and then quickly gathered his concentration to order the skeleton back to the warehouse. Unfortunately, it seemed that the little skeleton was unable to receive his commands and continued to flash between students and pillars, making the light major students run around in utter disarray.

It was sheer pandemonium in the courtyard.

“Lisa, you necromancy students are becoming more and more presumptuous. How dare you loose this filthy dark creature into the midst of the department of light magic. Are you still smarting over last time’s loss against me and wanted to show off how good your skeletal warrior is?” Novice light mage Irene said coldly, staring at Lisa with provocation.

Irene was 17 and had a bob of light blue, slightly messy locks. She had beautiful bangs resting against her forehead, and sky blue eyes that were akin to two brilliant sapphires. She wore the hallowed robe of light magic and had set a diamond shaped sapphire in the collar. It sparkled with a misty-blue light that matched and brought out her eyes, making her appear even more beautiful.

Another young beauty, Han Shuo glanced at Irene and started mentally comparing her against Lisa. Irene matched up to Lisa in every way, and showed a burgeoning bosom, that was much fuller than Lisa’s.

“Irene, keep your nose out of my business. Don’t think I’m scared of you just because you come from the Kamplin family.” Lisa paused from chasing the little skeleton and sneered right back at Irene.

“Hmph! Filthy dark creatures are forbidden from sullying the department of light magic. If you’re unable to take it away and dismiss it, then let me give you a hand!” Irene raised her hands with a noble expression and slowly started chanting, “Razors of light, become a sword that purifies evil, cleave this pathetic life — Radiant Slash!”

A longsword, made entirely of blinding light, appeared after Irene had finished her incantation. It swiftly flew towards the skeleton under Irene’s command.

Han Shuo’s skeleton had been playing hide and seek, and stopped dumbly when Lisa had stopped. It didn’t seem to react when Irene’s light sword rushed towards it, and the sword stabbed solidly into its ribcage.

The softly glowing black skeleton suddenly flared faintly when the longsword connected, and the longsword disappeared. A bit of smoke rose from its chest as the skeleton swayed a bit from the hit. When it regained its footing, it clutched the dagger and glanced around, as if trying to see who had hit him.

“Hoo, that dark creature didn’t immediately fall to pieces when the holy light of light magic hit it!”

“Yeah! This is so weird! Light magic is the nemesis of dark creatures. Its frame should have turned to dust under the holy light, what is going on!”

“Ah… is it possible that the necromancy major has researched a way to make dark creatures immune to the holy light of light magic? How is that possible? If this is the case, then necromancy’s dark creatures will be ridiculously strong!”

…..

Han Shuo looked around and saw that the light major students around him all wore expressions of fright. They stared incredulously at the little skeleton that was peering around.

Necromancy’s dark creatures not only took normal damage from light magic, but additional injury would be inflicted as well. Higher level dark creatures would start to rot, but something as low levelled as a skeletal warrior should have turned into ashes immediately.

But the little skeleton that Han Shuo had refined, according to the rules of refining demonic treasures, upended the normal laws of magic, and proved an impossibly incredible thing to light and necromancy major students.

Exclamations of shock and bewilderment poured out of the light major students. Even Lisa stood there dumbly, unnerved by this infallible skeleton.

But just as everyone was reacting in surprise, the little skeleton had finally found out who had hit him after a few moments of looking around. It rushed towards Irene with its five bone fingers clutched firmly around the coldly glowing bone dagger, and the seven bone spurs flapped furiously to again give it speed beyond a normal skeletal warrior’s. It arrived in front of Irene, grasped the dagger in its palm, and fiercely stabbed towards the dismayed Irene.

Irene panicked and frantically threw herself to the left, as she knew she had no time to chant again seeing that the skeleton had already arrived in front of her. A tearing noise sounded as Irene squealed in fright.

The little skeleton didn’t successfully stab Irene thanks to her quick dodge. However, it had torn the robe from right shoulder down to her chest, revealing dewy, creamy skin. There was even a small piece of snow white undergarments dangling on the tip of the bone dagger. The skeleton stood there dumbly again and didn’t follow up on the attack.

Damn, well done! Slash you with a light sword huh! Slash all her clothes to ribbons in return! Han Shuo exalted inwardly.

Han Shuo suddenly felt his mental strength sharpen along with those thoughts. He saw the little skeleton snap to attention, grasp the dagger again and spring towards an embarrassed Irene desperately trying to cover herself up. It was obvious to see that it wanted to execute Han Shuo’s order — slash all her clothes to ribbons.

Hah, now it receives its commands, that lecherous skeleton!

TBC...
Source: Great Demon King - NovelSprout.com

Chapter 7: Using Methods Used to Refine Demonic Treasures to Refine Skeletons

Continue reading 0n NovelSprout.com

“Bryan, I didn’t believe them when they said you were crazy, but now, even I am a believer. You — are — seriously — crazy!” Jack twisted his fat neck, shook his head, and sighed as he saw Han Shuo wearing a zealous expression and declare his desire to get Fanny.

“Eh? Those are the snacks that Bach was using to fawn on Lisa. Haha, what a stroke of luck! I’ve never tried the delicacies that nobles always snack on!” Han Shuo spied the snacks that Bach had forgotten in his hurry to leave and immediately sprinted over. He picked up the intricately designed snack box without saying another word and started munching on the contents without even thinking twice.

He tutted in surprise as he ate, “Tsk tsk. These are delicious. That fight wasn’t for nothing. Here, I borrowed half a piece of bread earlier, and now I’m returning a box of exquisite snacks. You made out like a bandit!”

“But this is Bach’s? “I beat up that punk, so now it’s mine!”

Jack, “…”

Han Shuo also felt a bit odd about this development as well. He felt that since he’d arrived on the Profound Continent and started training his magical strength, his appetite had grown larger and his personality had also become bolder. He was doing things he hadn’t dared to do before, and his desires were actually growing as well.

“Bryan and Jack! You guys should be cleaning up the labs right now, but you haven’t even finished cleaning the statues! If you get us in trouble, you’re in for it as well!”

As Han Shuo and Jack were cooing over the wonderful taste of the exquisite snacks, two older errand boys walked up from behind them. The two of them were holding mops in their hands and began badgering Han Shuo and Jack, admonishing them to hurry to the labs and start cleaning.

These two errands boys were around twenty years old and were over 170 cm in height. They were called Borg and Carey, and had gotten into the habit of bullying Han Shuo and Jack in recent years because the older boys were stronger. They even went so far as to shift some of their own duties onto Bryan and Jack. Case in point? Cleaning up the labs.

“Not going!” Han Shou paid them no heed since he’d wanted to get out of that for the longest time. He felt stronger now and his confidence had skyrocketed since he hadn’t lost any ground in his fight with Bach. He was actually thinking that he felt a bit too full, and another fight was just the thing to aid digestion if the two kept this act up.

“Hah, not going? Bryan, you’ve really gone crazy, daring to talk back to me, the mighty Borg. Do you want me to beat some sense into you?” Borg clenched his right hand into a fist and gave a cold laugh while staring at Han Shuo.

“Ah, my head hurts!” Han Shuo’s body shook as he crouched on the ground, clutching his head. Jack had been about to head off to the labs to start cleaning, but paused and stood there unmoving when he saw Han Shuo pull the same trick again. He looked at Han Shuo expectantly.

“I don’t care if you’re real crazy or fake crazy, I’m going to beat you until you obey!” Carey had an even worse temper. He took three large steps forward and kicked in Han Shuo’s direction.

It was then that Han Shuo gave a great “Aiya!” as he suddenly jumped up, meeting Carey’s right foot with his chest. Han Shuo gave a great cry of pain and wrapped his hands around Carey’s foot, lifting it up and to the side. It was Carey’s turn to yell in pain as he stumbled to the side. His lips parted in a silent howl as he smashed into a statue.

Borg smiled faintly when he saw Carey rush towards Han Shuo, thinking Han Shuo was in for it now. Who knew that although Han Shuo had taken a foot to the chest, Carey seemed even worse for the wear.

“Yeah? How dare you fight back Bryan! Borg, let’s get him together, we’ll teach him a lesson today!” Carey climbed up, in quite some pain, as he rushed towards Han Shuo again, and called for Borg to join him.

Han Shuo continued to clutch his head and cry out in pain as he thought, I dared to hit even Bach, much less than you two idiots. He flailed his arms and legs around wildly, and even though he took a few hits, Carey and Borg weren’t much better off.

Han Shuo was already used to being beaten and had been improving his body by circulating the magical yuan according to the laws of the solid realm. He had no problem taking on Carey and Borg’s fists at all. On the other hand, Carey and Borg’s faces were already bruising up in some places. They looked worse off, in part due to Han Shuo’s improved strength.

The three errand boys were fighting fiercely and wildly on the side of the road. Carey and Borg’s bodies started to hurt more as the fight progressed, and their strength slowly waned, whereas Han Shuo only suffered from a minor bit of pain, and actually felt quite at ease. It was as if he had endless strength and he even started fighting more smoothly. In the end, it was Han Shuo who chased after Carey and Borg, pelting them with blows as they ran away with their tails between their legs.

“Hah! What a sweet fight! Jack, we’re not doing Carey and Borg’s duties anymore. Come tell me if they pick on you again, I’ll use them as a punching bag!”

Little fatty Jack was looking at Han Shuo in admiration as he tugged on Han Shuo’s arm. Jack laughed loudly and said, “Bryan, you’re amazing. You beat Carey and Borg by yourself, how did you do it?”

Han Shuo pointed to himself and said cockily, “I have a brave heart!”

Han Shuo’s head did not hurt even once in the next few days. For reasons unknown, Bach did not immediately seek revenge on Han Shuo either. Han Shuo and Jack refused to do Carey and Borg’s work, but the two had nothing to say as they couldn’t even win a fight, in which the numbers were in their favor. They silently completed the duties that they were supposed to do.

Now that the little skeleton was taking out the trash in the morning, and the lack of a need to pick up Carey and Borg’s duties, Han Shuo suddenly had a lot more free time on his hands. He didn’t ask Jack to “borrow” more books of magic during this time, but turned his attention to thoroughly studying “The Foundations of Necromancy” in order to build a firm base of knowledge.

Han Shuo came to understand that his mental power was quite weak after extended studying of “The Foundations of Necromancy”. He began to concentrate and meditate every night after he returned to the warehouse. The little skeleton was the weakest, dark creature from the other dimension, and its intelligence was so low, that it could only function according to the summoner’s commands. Han Shuo had given it the command to stay in the warehouse during the day and only dispose of trash late at night.

Han Shuo was just about to settle into his regular meditation that night when he suddenly recalled the memories that the old fart, Chu Can Lang, had left in his mind. There were some related to mysterious records of refining demonic treasures. Han Shuo thought that although the demon magic he was training in was from a different world than the necromancy he was learning now, they were both dark magics and seemed to have quite a lot in common. Would it be possible to fuse the two?

As Han Shuo furrowed his brow and started to seriously rummage through the memories, he discovered that although Chu Cang Lan had left behind a trove of memories, quite a few of them were misty and vague. It was like viewing things through a thin piece of marbled paper and not everything was clear.

After a while of recollection, he suddenly remembered a method to refine demonic treasures. Han Shuo could only summon a weak skeleton due to his short period of study in necromancy. Since that was the case, he decided to experiment on the little skeleton.

Refining materials were first needed for refining demonic treasure. Since he was just experimenting for fun, Han Shuo decided to use the little skeleton as the main ingredient. There was some worthless fresh blood from low level magic creatures in the warehouse, along with other trash, such as bone powder, salamander tails, etc. They all became auxiliary materials for the demonic treasure.

Some unique demonic treasures required very complex materials that necessitated arduous trials to obtain them. It wasn’t even a certain thing that they existed in this world. Han Shuo ignored all of that and instead grabbed random items to fulfill his sudden impulse. He returned to the lab to grab a small bucket that no one was using, as well as various necromancy ingredients that were leftover from student use. He had no idea what they were.

Han Shuo stealthily crept back to the warehouse under the cover of night and carefully closed the door. He first put the skeleton into the bucket, and then just randomly dumped in all the low level monster blood, bone powder, salamander tail, and other materials, following it up with a solid bucket of water. There was now an ugly riot of colors in a bucket filled with an assortment of… things. Only the skeleton’s head showed above the water level, it was completely unaware of what was happening.

Han Shuo thought for a moment as he closed his eyes and slowly ran through Chu Cang Lan’s knowledge of refining demonic treasure. Apart from requiring a variety of ingredients, refining demonic treasure required setting up a specialized matrix. The practitioner also needed to train his magical yuan according to special method for several days or months. Some particularly strong demonic treasures even required training for a few years.

Of course, the current Han Shuo could accomplish none of this. He identified the easiest refinement method and dug out seven starkly-white bone spurs from who-knew-what-kind-of magical creature. He stuck the spurs according to the instructions denoted by the “Magical Yin Concentration Matrix”.

The “Magical Yin Concentration Matrix” was a type of demon refining matrix in Chu Cang Lan’s memories. The proper method was to first refine seven natal “yin demons”, and to use the seven yin demons in forming the matrix. Once the refiner poured in his own magical yuan, the seven yin demons would concentrate the magical yuan in the matrix according to the matrix instructions. The refining ingredients would slowly dissolve and seep into the main ingredient. The demonic treasure would finally be complete after 36 days of refining with the magical yuan.

In order to refine a yin demon, one must first have a ghoul. A ghoul was an innocent who’d died wrongly and was subsequently buried in a forsaken piece of land. Only if the soul was unwilling to depart was there a possibility of a ghoul forming. Special methods were needed to refine ghouls into yin demons, and it was naturally something that Han Shuo could not accomplish at the moment.

He stuck the seven bone spurs into the bucket as a substitute for the yin demons, and then squatted beside the bucket to attempt circulating magical yuan to his right middle fingertip. He then swiftly stuck his finger in the middle of the seven erected bone spurs. Although the bone spurs were a poor substitute, they were arranged correctly and thus could absorb a bit of magical yuan.

After who knew how long, seven small swirls abruptly formed on the surface of the water, with the seven bone spurs as the center.

Han Shuo relaxed inwardly when he saw the seven swirls form. He knew that despite randomly mucking around, he had somehow succeeded. Although he couldn’t fathom what the little skeleton would ultimately turn into, he was at ease and drifted off into a deep sleep after a bit of meditation.

Chapter 6: I’ll Get Her One Day

Continue reading 0n NovelSprout.com

It was already midnight when Han Shuo woke up. The magical yuan was back to circulating in an irregular pattern, but there seemed to be something extra in his brain. Everything seemed much clearer now, compared to before, when he looked around.

A sudden thought struck Han Shuo and he resettled into meditation. He carefully extended his senses according to the instructions in “The Foundations of Necromancy”, and finally confirmed that because the magical yuan had traveled to his brain when the Agony of the Soul had hit, he had bafflingly trained some mental strength into existence.

“Hahaha… I am definitely a genius. I meditated and gained some mental strength in such a short amount of time. Heh heh, perhaps it’s time to try out the lowest level of necromancy magic. Let’s see if I can summon a skeletal warrior!”

He hastily hauled out “The Foundations of Necromancy” and flipped through the pages. He still couldn’t find the incantation to summon a skeletal warrior after searching for a while. It was only then that Han Shuo realized “The Foundations of Necromancy” was a reference for only basic necromancy knowledge, and didn’t contain any incantations or spells.

Han Shuo furrowed his brow in thought and recalled Lisa’s incantation with some effort. He immediately raised his hands up high, concentrated his mental strength, and started chanting, “Souls of the fallen soldiers, heed the dark herald’s call and reveal your existence!”

When he finished chanting, he felt the insubstantial amount of mental strength in his mind rapidly fade away. It seemed that he also perceived something in that moment, but then his head suddenly started to hurt and he sat wearily on the bed, panting heavily and completely drained.

When Han Shuo slumped over his bed, a black shadow flashed through his little warehouse, and a starkly-white skeleton, half the height of the one Lisa had summoned, appeared afterwards.

Han Shuo felt sheer elation when he saw the snow-white skeleton holding a bone dirk and staring back at him with two empty, hollowed out eye sockets. Despite the difference in size, this was still a skeleton and was proof that his necromancy spell had succeeded.

His body felt completely drained and his mind was woozy. Upon referring to “The Foundations of Necromancy”, Han Shuo surmised that his mental strength was too weak, and thus had his mental strength completely depleted when he had summoned the small skeleton.

Han Shuo felt a strange connection with the small skeleton standing in front of him, but his mental strength was so weak, that he couldn’t even issue an order, much less send it back to another dimension.

Thus, a human and skeleton stared blankly at each other for a while. No one would come to Han Shuo’s warehouse anyway, and it made no difference if the skeleton was here, since it wouldn’t do anything without his orders.

It was already well past midnight by the time Han Shuo was done with everything. He was exhausted beyond belief, and once the surprise had worn off, Han Shuo fell into a weary, befuddled sleep.

The next day, not yet daybreak.

Han Shuo had already woken up and was planning on clearing out the trash as usual before anyone else had gotten up. He was just about go through the same routine when his eyes landed on the small skeleton standing next to the trash heap.

His mental strength seemed to have recovered a bit after a night’s sleep, but it was still definitely not enough to send the little skeleton back to another dimension. However, it seemed to be enough to give it a single command — throw away the trash.

The little skeleton immediately stretched its legs out when the order was given, and slowly extended its five bone fingers to pick up the heap of trash next to it. It pushed the door open and walked outside.

“Heh heh, no wonder everyone wants to learn magic. Everything is so much easier with magic. In the future, this small skeleton can throw away trash for me early in the morning!”

Han Shuo noted that it was still quite early and flung himself back onto the little bed to resume chasing sheep. Over the past few days, this was the first morning he’d been able to sleep in.

When Han Shuo opened his eyes again after going back to sleep again, he discovered that the skeleton had returned and appeared to dispose of the trash according to his commands.

As Han Shou washed his face after getting up from bed, he noticed that the black and blue bruising had miraculously disappeared, and even some of the scars on his arms seemed to have faded away. Aside from feeling a bit lightheaded from expending all of his mental strength yesterday, his body seemed to be in fairly good shape.

The solid realm of demonic magic was a process of reforming the practitioner’s body. Ascension beyond the solid realm was marked by erasure of all the scars on the practitioner’s body and vastly increased bodily strength and resilience. Either Bach or Lisa would suffer a quick loss if they tried to beat up Han Shuo with skeletal warriors then.

Han Shuo remained deep in thought as he washed up and watched the necromancy students hurry to class again. He grabbed his tools as well before running to dust off the statues of Babylon Academy notables.

“Athena, I went to the restroom before the sun rose today and saw a small skeleton carrying two bags of trash. It was walking slowly towards the trash dump, what an odd sight!” Magic apprentice Amy chatted with Athena as they walked towards the department of dark magic’s classroom building.

“Weirdo, who would be so bored as to summon a skeleton to pick up trash. Doesn’t that half mad, half village idiot Bryan do all that?”

“It’s true, I really saw a very small skeleton carrying two garbage bags. And also, I feel so bad for Bryan. It was bad enough for him already, now he’s suffering from Lisa’s aftereffects and gets beaten up by Bach every day!”

“You must have been half asleep and saw incorrectly. Bryan is an errand boy, and a slave in fact. It’s good enough that he can survive. You’re way too kindhearted, worrying about Bryan!”

The two girls had walked far enough and Han Shuo could no longer hear their conversation. Jack swung back after a while and dusted the same statute with Han Shuo. After Jack had busily wiped for a while, he looked at Han Shuo a bit dazedly, “Han Shuo, I think you’ve gained a bit of weight. And didn’t Bach beat you up yesterday? Your face was still bruised yesterday, why does it look fine now?”

“Bach must have over exercised recently. You can see that dull look in his eyes and how weak he looks. He doesn’t have any strength! At this rate, he won’t be able to beat me up anymore!” Han Shuo felt that his stomach was particularly empty after that declaration and said to Jack, “My appetite is bigger these days, give me some more of that food that you’re hiding.”

“Eh? How did you know I was hiding bread on me?”

“The entire major’s errand boys know about your habit of hiding food. You’re the only one who thinks it’s still a secret. Quit wasting time and give me some bread. I’ll return it to you in the future!”

Jack reluctantly took out a piece of bread after listening to Han Shuo, took a careful look, and broke off a piece for Han Shuo.

As Han Shuo sat aside his work and hungrily devoured the bread, Jack suddenly said, “Sh… Bach’s coming, eh?! Lisa’s with him!”

Bach held two exquisite, white boxes in his hand and was following behind Lisa with a fawning smile on his face. He kept trying to win her over, “Lisa, these are special snacks from my family and they are fabulously delicious. You haven’t had breakfast yet, right? Please have some.”

When Bach was beating Han Shuo up yesterday, Bach’s face accidentally connected with the latter’s fist. Even now there was some bruising on his right cheek, with it spasming every time he tried to smile, turning the grin into a grimace.

“Humph. I’m not hungry. Don’t you try that act with me, I hate people like you – people who flatter me to my face and then talk trash about me behind my back!”

Lisa stalked off without even glancing at Bach. When she passed Bryan and Jack, she glared coldly at Bryan, “Bryan, I’ll come find you for target practice again in a month when the Agony of the Soul ends!”

It wasn’t until Lisa brought this up that Han Shuo remembered that he hadn’t suffered from the Agony of the Soul since this morning. He guessed that the magic from the Agony of the Soul had been cancelled out when he successfully cultivated mental strength last night, otherwise he should have suffered an attack by now.

Lisa was about to walk away, while Bach, on the other hand, exclaimed in surprise after he saw at Bryan, “Eh? How is that possible? I remember I pounded tons of bruises into your face yesterday, why is that there are none there today?”

Damnit, you remember that well. Han Shuo looked at Bach stupidly and then gave a mad giggle, “Hehe, I have a good skincare routine!”

Lisa gave a small splutter of laughter when she heard Han Shuo’s words and halted her footsteps, not in a hurry to leave anymore. Her beautiful eyes creased into half moons with her smile. It was quite adorable actually. That idiot Bryan had gotten much more interesting after he went mad, Lisa thought. He doesn’t just stand there in silence anymore.

Jack knew Han Shuo wasn’t crazy, and that he’d said that to make fun of Bach. He tried to hold in his laughter, but just couldn’t and gave a light, “Haha.” By the time he realized he did something wrong, it was already too late.

Bach was already pissed off, thinking the bruise on my right cheek hasn’t healed, but that idiot’s has already faded. He hadn’t dare say anything when Lisa laughed, but Jack’s laughter completely triggered Bach. He sprinted towards Jack and cussed loudly, “You pathetic servant, how dare you laugh at me! I’ll beat you to death!”

Jack knew things were bad, but he didn’t dare run away. He could only stand there limply as Bach rushed over and waited for a beating. It was then that Han Shuo suddenly clutched his head and yelled, “It hurts!” and lumbered over in front of Jack. When Bach saw that the person in front of him had changed to Han Shuo, he mentally shrugged as it didn’t make a difference to him who he beat up, and swung his fist straight towards Han Shuo’s face.

Don sounded out as Han Shuo took a fist to the face, but Bach’s fist didn’t seem to hurt as much as it had yesterday. Han Shuo even managed to keep his frail little body from swaying back and forth in response.

But he still continued to howl in pain, “That hurts!” and wildly flailed his arms in front of him as if he’d gone into a mad fit. Pilipala rang out as Bach took three hits in a row, and his left eye immediately blackened into a bruise. He clutched his stomach with both hands and jumped up and down, “Worthless slave, how dare you hit me! I’m going to kill you with necromancy today, even if that’s the last thing I do!”

“Bach, you’re picking on Bryan again. It’s class time, hurry up and go back to the classroom.”

Suddenly, a gentle voice admonished sweetly from afar as a tall, lithe beauty with a head full of light purple, wavy hair came sashaying into view.

She looked to be 24 or 25, had a firm nose, an oval face, and sexy red lips. Her lightly tanned skin looked very healthy, and she wore a slightly form fitting master’s robe trimmed with gold.

The tight master’s robe perfectly showed off her well rounded chest and long legs. She was talking to Bryan as she held several books of magic in her left hand and a stylish emerald staff in her right.

“Eh… Master Fanny, you forgot your glasses again. You’re pointing at Bryan!” Lisa’s lip curled and she spoke with some resignation.

“Glasses are the kiss of death for a beautiful woman, I’m not wearing those things everyday,” Fanny smiled in return and finally located Bach, using the staff in her right hand to make a motion as if she’d tapped him on the head. She said sternly, “Go back to class immediately, or you’ll face the consequences!”

After Fanny had spoken to Bach in a bit of a temper, a mellow smile found its way to her face again and she smiled at Lisa, “Lisa, you need to hurry to class too. Frequent tardiness does not a good student make. I need to prepare for today’s lesson, I’ll see you later!”

Fanny turned her head to glare at Bach once more, then glided forward with her lean legs, striding with a grace unmatched by thousands. Her full butt swayed as she walked, creating an alluring silhouette.

“Eh… Master Fanny, that’s not the classroom building, you’re walking in the wrong direction. Oh gosh, put your glasses on!”

Lisa called out lightly and paused when she was about to leave. She turned back and raked a cold gaze across Bach, sneering contemptuously, “What a worthless guy, you can’t even beat up an errand boy!” Lisa glanced at Han Shuo again and hurried off in pursuit of Fanny.

Bach was ablaze with anger and pointed venomously at Han Shuo and Jack, “Just you wait you pathetic wretches, you’ll get what’s coming to you!” It would seem that Fanny’s threat had a great effect on him as he ran off to class in a great hurry.

Han Shuo gazed lecherously in direction that Fanny had departed in, watching until she was out of sight. He paid no mind to Bach’s threat, and muttered to himself after she had completely disappeared, “That Master Fanny is something else alright. No wonder that silly kid Bryan had a crush on her. Bryan’s taste in girls is actually quite similar to mine!”

“Bryan, stop looking. I know you’ve liked Master Fanny for a long time, and she’s also stopped some students from bullying you, but, you’re only an errand boy, and she’s a highly ranked adept mage in the academy. Do you know how powerful adepts are? Although Master Fanny is nearsighted, there are way too many people who have a crush on her in the academy. Wake up already!”

Jack waved two plump hands in front of Han Shuo as he reminded the latter to wake up and face reality.

“I’m already drunk, I can’t wake up!” Han Shuo said with a leer. He paused and added, “I’ll get her one day!”

TBC...
Source: Great Demon King - NovelSprout.com

Chapter 5: How Is That Called Stealing?

Continue reading 0n NovelSprout.com

When Han Shuo woke up, he found himself lying on the small wooden bed in the warehouse, covered in ice cold water. In front of him, little fatty Jack had a wooden pail in one hand and was climbing onto a stool with great effort. He intended to dump the ice cold water right on top of Han Shuo.

Han Shuo was already freezing his butt off as it was a bit chilly that day. He gave a great yell as he saw Jack about to tip the pail over, “Jack, what are you doing?!”

Little fatty Jack was stepping onto a stool that had been trashed. It wasn’t the sturdiest to begin with, and his legs wobbled in surprise when he heard Han Shuo’s yell. His hand jerked, and all the contents of the pail came crashing down on Han Shuo’s head as the pail flew and smashed into Han Shuo’s chest.

“Ugh… I say Jack, are you trying to kill me?”

Han Shuo started shuddering uncontrollably after the second pail of ice cold water. Not only that, but it hurt like hell when the pail itself hit him. He immediately starting cursing loudly.

“Sorry Bryan, I thought the first pail wasn’t enough to wake you up. This stool of yours was wobbly to begin with, and I was surprised when you yelled, that’s why my hand slipped and I dumped the water all over you!”

Little fatty Jack was extremely apologetic and started wiping off Han Shuo’s neck with a random rag that he had found on the ground.

Who knew that it would provoke a scream from Han Shuo like a pig being slaughtered? He hastily scrambled away and said, “Uh Jack, that rag in your hand is covered in bone dust that metamorphosed during necromancy experiments. It feels like little needles are prickling me, are you trying to stab me to death?”

“Ah…. sorry Bryan, I didn’t mean to, I really didn’t mean to!”

Jack was dismayed as he quickly threw the rag far, far away. He was thankful that there was no bone dust on the side that he had been holding.

“Achoo… Achoo… ah forget it. Jack why am I here? Didn’t I get hit by Lisa’s Agony of the Soul because that dickhead Bach used me as a scapegoat?”

His neck breaking out in red patches, Han Shuo kept sneezing as he rushed to peel off his sopping wet clothes. He quickly groped for the black towel that Bryan used and dried himself off.

“Bryan, you have so many scars over your body!”

Han Shuo took a good look at his new body, for the first time, upon hearing Jack’s words. There wasn’t a single inch of unmarked skin on his body as far as his eyes could see. He heaved an inward sigh and once again felt pity for Bryan’s circumstances.

“Scars are a man’s memories and medals of honor, what the hell do you know about them. Hurry and tell me, what happened after I fainted?”

“Classes happened to start after you passed out from the Agony of the Soul. Lisa said a few words and ran off to class. I yelled for Uncle Saru and the two of us carried you back!”

“So Uncle Saru had been by… Oh yes, what did Lisa say before she left?”

Han Shuo nodded as he continued to wipe himself off. Uncle Saru was the necromancy major’s oldest errand runner, he was fifty some years old and quite kind to Bryan and Jack. When Bryan had arrived at the academy, Saru had already been an errand runner for more than ten years.

“Lisa said it was too bad for you. If the Agony of the Soul had landed on Bach, he would have been fine after suffering for three days since he’s a magic apprentice. But you’re not a necromancy student and have no mental strength at all. You’ll probably suffer for a month. She said you bothered her when she was sleeping last night, and hurt her foot because you put rocks in your pants, so she won’t dismiss the Agony of the Soul!”

“Damnit, how dare Lisa treat me this way! I’ll take care of her one day!”

Han Shuo’s face darkened as he listened to Jack’s words and started cussing. His actions startled Jack as the latter thought, this isn’t the first time Lisa’s been this way to you, I’ve never seen you do anything to get back at her.

When Han Shuo was done venting his spleen, he thought briefly, “Bach has mental strength because he’s a magic apprentice. He only has to suffer for three days, and I have to endure this for a month? Heh heh, my potential is great. If I learn some necromancy, maybe I can get better in three days.”

“Bryan, you’re an errand slave, how could you learn magic?”

“Then how do the students learn magic?”

“They first have to meditate and learn to sense the magical elements. When they’ve cultivated their mental strength, then they need to study the knowledge contained within the books of magic and practice the magic incantations. They ask the teacher if they have any questions!” Jack said matter of factly, after he thought for a short while.

“There we go, I can meditate. When I’ve cultivated mental strength, can’t I look within the books of magic to learn the incantations written there?”

“But you don’t have a book of magic?”

At this point in the conversation, Han Shuo had sidled around to Jack and suddenly threw a friendly arm around him, smiling winningly at him, “But I have you, don’t you clean the library?”

Jack was shocked and promptly created some space between the two of them. He said with a panicked expression, “Bryan, you want me to steal books for you?”

“How vulgar! How can that be stealing? I’m just asking you to borrow some books for me. You can put them back when I’m done with them. No one reads those foundational books anyways, who would know? Jack, I’m in dire straits today because I was trying to help you. Now shouldn’t you help me too?” Han Shuo said earnestly to little fatty Jack.

Jack wavered upon hearing Han Shuo’s words, but finally agreed to “borrow” magic books for Han Shuo after Han Shuo gave him a puppy-eyed look.

Later that night, Jack stealthily crept up to Han Shuo and took out copies of “The Foundations of Necromancy” and “A Magical Dictionary” to hand over to Han Shuo. He exhorted Han Shuo to be careful and cautious at all costs before finally surreptitiously sneaking away.

As an errand slave, Bryan had no right to learn how to read. However, as an errand slave, who had to do anything and everything in the course of his job, he had picked up quite a few words over the past six years. All of this knowledge had been left to Han Shuo, and he was able to read the words in the two books.

Han Shuo shut the warehouse door after Jack had left, flipped to the first yellowed page of “The Foundations of Magic”, and started reading with every bit of interest.

Magic was a method of communicating with the magical elements of the world by using mental strength. There were four ways to use magic, through incantations, magic scrolls (or objects), hand seals, and magic matrixes.

Necromancy had once been an extremely prosperous branch of magic. At the height of its popularity, all dark magic had been categorized under necromancy. It was a pity that after its fall from grace, necromancy had become a subcategory of dark magic instead.

Necromancy was a field of magic that had started by simply controlling souls and skeletons. As it progressed and forebearers continuously experimented, its repertoire of spells had continuously grown. It slowly formed into a school of thought and became the representative of dark magic.

Mental strength was the foundation of all magic. The only way to cultivate mental strength was to sense the magical elements, through meditation, that regular people could not perceive. One was only considered a magic apprentice if they cultivated mental strength through meditation.

Thus, the first thing Han Shuo did after studying “The Foundations of Necromancy” was to meditate and try to get a grasp on mental strength. However, he came up empty handed after meditating for seven days. There wasn’t a trace of mental strength to be found.

Han Shuo could only meditate at night during those seven days, he had to be the diligent and bumbling Bryan during the day. He had to continue to perform an errand boy’s daily chores of cleaning, sanitizing, bug killing, and trash dumping, otherwise he would have no place at the academy.

Thanks to the Agony of the Soul, Han Shuo’s brain would suddenly spasm with pain a few times every day. He fainted dead away the first two times, but possibly acclimated after that and managed to stay on his feet.

Han Shuo’s half mad, half village idiot reputation also spread during this time. However, although he looked like a blundering madman, he still finished his assigned duties everyday. Thus, Babylon Academy did not kick him out upon seeing that his work was still completed.

As for what the necromancy students thought about Han Shuo’s crazy eccentricities, they were of one mind. Han Shuo had formed a habit of running errands after working for six years. Although he was a bit crazy, some habits were difficult to break and thus he still finished his duties everyday.

Except for one thing. Han Shuo would always somehow have a “headache” whenever the students approached him for experiments these days. He became even more out of control when his head hurt, and sometimes completely wrecked the lab. There was nothing the students could do as they knew that he had been hit by Lisa’s Agony of the Soul, and had gone a bit mental.

Even now, no one knew why Lisa had given Bach such a beating, but Bach was depressed nonetheless. He often thrashed Han Shuo on the basis of a flimsy excuse. Bach was a magic apprentice and stronger than Han Shuo, so the latter always ended up in much worse shape, even when he pretended to be crazy and hit back.

Han Shuo would break out into loud curses every night when he returned to the warehouse. “Bach you scum, just you wait. One day I’ll beat you so bad that even your mom and dad won’t recognize you.”

He’d been thrashed by Bach again today, and the latter had a small skeleton as backup. Han Shuo was naturally not a match for the two, and even now was covered in black and blue bruises. The difference was, Han Shuo felt that his strength was growing stronger these days, along with his appetite. Whenever he was still hungry after his rations, he would ask Jack for some more food.

Although it hurt like no other every time Bach beat him up, Han Shou would train according to the principles of the solid realm when he returned to the warehouse. All his aches and pains would disappear during the night, and he would be in fine spirits the morning after. The next time he got into a fight with Bach, he noticed that Bach’s hits hurt less and less.

Han Shuo would immediately return to the warehouse after each beating and started training. That little bit of magical yuan within his body unknowingly grew bigger during this time as well.

It seemed that his body was slowly reforging itself after each cycle of beating and training, and the magical yuan slowly changed from the size of a thumbnail to the mass of a thumb.

This both excited and scared Han Shuo. He was excited that the magical yuan was growing stronger, and that his body and spirit were improving. He was scared that seemingly because of the magical yuan becoming stronger, he found it harder and harder to control his temper. Han Shuo would easily commit actions that he would later regret.

He retrieved “The Foundations of Necromancy” from underneath the small, wooden bed and started meditating habitually after a short perusal of the book. He circulated the magical yuan randomly throughout his body. Places that had aches and pains were greatly relieved after the magical yuan had travelled past them.

That sliver of magical yuan slowly traveled from his neck to his brain as Han Shuo was meditating. It was at this moment that a familiar pain started emanating from his brain. Han Shuo knew immediately that Lisa’s Agony of the Soul was about to strike again.

Suddenly, just as Han Shuo’s brain was hurting, the magical yuan slipped into the center of the pain. This was the first time that the magical yuan had moved into his brain when the Agony of the Soul was also flaring up. Han Shuo felt as if a cannon had gone off inside his brain, and fainted again after another round of intense pain.

Chapter 4: Chest as Flat as Bread

Continue reading 0n NovelSprout.com

On a whole, necromancy major students tended to wake up early in the morning and would rush to get ready, hurrying to the department of dark magic’s classroom building. Jack was about to lose it and was completely unwilling to participate, but his fears dissipated when he listened to Han Shuo’s plan. In the end, Jack finally agreed, as he remembered that Han Shuo was doing this for him. After all, was he less of a man than Bryan?

Many statues of Babylon Academy valedictorians and notables were erected on the sides of a path made of rocks. These faithfully reproduced statues were larger than life and were the pride of the academy.

One of Bryan’s tasks was to dust these statues everyday. He had been doing this since he was ten, and had to use a small ladder when he was shorter. Only after the completion of this arduous task was he allowed to take a break for food.

As they worked the dust out of the crevices of a bushy-mustached statue of an archmage, Han Shuo turned to Jack and said, “I say Jack, wouldn’t it be nice if our statues could be erected here some day?”

“Bryan, don’t be silly. We’re just errand boys! It’s enough that we get a full meal and not get beaten up everyday. How could we possibly become mages? Oh… Bryan, you are definitely different. You would never have had such crazy thoughts before and wouldn’t share such a bad idea!”

“Why not?”

“We have to have the potential and pay a lot of gold coins for tuition to a magic school in order to become a mage. We have to pass through countless levels of training and tests, even kids from noble families need to have lots of potential if they want to become a mage. This is impossible for us commoners. Oh, I forgot. You’re also a slave without freedom, that’s even worse, there’s no hope for you at all!”

“We’re at a magic school right now and don’t even have to pay tuition. Heh heh, this is a huge stroke of luck! If we don’t learn some magic now, in the future, how would we dare say that we’re from the Babylon Academy of Magic and Force!”

“Bryan, don’t act so confident. We’re not students, we’re only errand boys. Eh.. and at least I can leave the school in the future, but you — you can never leave!”

Jack was absentmindedly wiping the statue of archmage Claire, with none of his usual attention to detail and a face full of ambition. Little fatty Jack thought Bryan was being rather odd and thus spoke candidly.

“Hah, let’s not talk about that. Look, that witch Lisa is walking this way, let’s get back to work!” Han Shuo eyed Lisa limping towards them from afar, and thought that at least Bryan had something to show for his six year of running errands for the academy — he knew the daily routines of some of the people.

Lisa usually woke up later, and most of the time, slowly plodded to the classrooms alone. Today was no exception. She was dressed in a black wizard’s robe today, with her long, soft, blond hair strewn carelessly across her shoulders. It seemed that she hadn’t gotten much sleep the previous night, as she kept yawning as she walked.

Lisa was quite pretty, but maybe because she hadn’t completely finished developing yet. Since she was only 16, her chest area was not as well rounded. Rumor had it that Lisa was also very displeased with her flat chest and had recently been searching for solutions.

Han Shuo and Jack surreptitiously watched Lisa approach as they continued to dust off the statue of archmage Claire with all seriousness. They muttered to each other as they worked, seemingly oblivious to her presence.

“No way, Bryan you must have misheard. How could Bach have said that about Lisa?”

The two had been murmuring quietly when Jack suddenly raised his voice and exclaimed in surprise.

Lisa had been walking along absentmindedly when she heard someone mention her name. Her attention immediately zeroed in on that statement as she looked warily in front of her.

All girls wanted to know what people said about them behind their backs and Lisa was no exception. She even went so far as to hide behind another statue, so that the two wouldn’t see her and become too afraid to talk. Her ears perked up as she sneakily snuck glances at the two.

It was that half-crazy, half-idiot Bryan! Lisa was still mad and wanted to put him in his place, but first, she wanted to hear what Bach had said about her.

Han Shuo smiled vacantly and said, “No I didn’t mishear, on their way to class, Bach was telling the other students that Lisa’s chest was as flat as stomped bread!”

Jack had to hold back his laughter with all his might as soon as he heard this. His face grew red and his body kept shaking.

On the other side of the statue, Lisa’s face darkened with rage. Her pretty eyes shot out glares of wrath as her cute lips convulsed and her pearly teeth ground audibly. She trembled with rage for a few seconds and quickly stomped off in a huff towards the classroom building. She’d completely forgotten that she’d wanted to put Bryan in his place.

Jack could no longer hold in his laughter as he watched Lisa hurry off in the opposite direction, her face purple with anger and out for blood. “Hahahaha….” he expelled all his frustrations with an explosive bout of laughter. He laughed as he said, “Bryan, you’re too evil! Even us errand boys know that Bach likes Lisa and that Lisa hates people making fun of her chest. Looking at how she was just now, Bach is totally screwed!”

Han Shuo gave a sinister cackle as he immediately put his brushes away. “Forget about dusting off Claire! Let’s go watch the show!”

Little fatty Jack tucked his brushes, with a grand gesture, into the cloth bag at his waist as he took Han Shuo’s advice. He laughed, “Let’s go, I want to see Lisa beat Bach up. Serves him right for hitting me this morning!”

The two necromancy errand boys followed Lisa in high spirits, running swiftly to the classroom building. The students they passed along the way were puzzled by their behavior, thinking the two cowardly errand boys had woken up on the wrong side of bed that morning.

At the Babylon Academy of Magic and Force, the necromancy major was a subcategory of the department of dark magic. Necromancy students used the same classrooms as those majoring in dark magic, and studied everyday under the tutelage of the teachers.

One had to admire Lisa’s efficiency, by the time Han Shuo and Jack had gotten there, she had already vented her spleen and was giving Bach a beating.

“Lisa, even the major’s errand boys know how I feel about you, how could I have possibly said anything bad about you? Who did you hear this from?”

Bach already had a spectacular bruise around his left eye as he ducked a “bone arrow” attack. He took advantage of the respite to quickly protest his innocence and looked quite bedraggled indeed.

Bach had beaten Jack severely when the latter had bumped into him. Bryan had suffered even more at Bach’s hands.

Bach was the seventeen year old son of a small noble family, but he held the lowest rank of magic apprentice. He was outclassed against a higher ranked novice mage, not to mention that he was pulling his blows because he liked Lisa. No wonder he was quickly hit when facing a wrathful Lisa.

“Huh, that’s none of your business. They didn’t even mean for me to hear them, so it must be true. Since you are so mean, feel my wrath!”

Indeed, Han Shuo and Jack hadn’t “meant for” Lisa to hear them. Han Shuo was also half mad and half village idiot. There was no way someone like that could make up such a lie. He was also an errand slave, he wouldn’t dare to lie!

Since it had to do with one of Lisa’s taboos, she would never say what she overheard when other people were around. She brought her best efforts to teaching Bach a lesson so that no one would make fun of her again.

“Souls of the fallen soldiers, heed the dark herald’s call and reveal your existence!”

Lisa raised her slim, white arm towards the sky and chanted an incantation. When she was finished, two starkly-white, skeletal warriors wielding bone knives appeared in front of her. They creakily rushed at Bach with their knives held high when she pointed at him.

Han Shuo was gobsmacked as he watched on the sidelines. This was the first time he had seen the mysterious necromancy magic in play with his own eyes. His body about to burst in curiosity, he focused his eyes and attention on the action.

“Lisa’s focus isn’t that bad to be able to summon two skeletal warriors!”

“Huh, the necromancy major is weak as hell to begin with and its students are not united. No wonder necromancy is one of the weakest majors in the academy. What a stain on the department of dark magic!”

…

Students from the department of dark magic started chattering after Lisa had summoned the two skeletal warriors. From their conversations, Han Shuo learned that the same magic could be divided into five different levels based on the level of concentration. If a necromancer archmage with great focus used the chant to summon skeletons, he would be able to summon even more skeletal warriors.

Bach was extremely depressed and inwardly cursed the rumor starter a couple hundred times. If Bach had practiced dark magic incantations and had enough focus, then Han Shuo and Jack wouldn’t be able to enjoy the show they were currently watching.

The skeletal warriors chased him frantically all over the place. Bach finally had to use the same magic to summon a small skeleton. One man and one skeleton started fighting against the two other skeletons.

Other students from the department of dark magic laughed loudly when they saw Bach in such a mess. Bach was affected by the jeers and lost his focus, resulting in one of Lisa’s skeletal warriors stomping him in the gut. His face grew purple with pain and he slowly sank to the ground.

Lisa hurriedly stopped her skeletons when she saw that Bach had been hit and the skeleton was raising its knife to finish the job. She sent the skeletons back to another dimension.

After all, it wasn’t a fight to the death, and the academy prohibited such fights anyways. Lisa did not dare to really hurt Bach, and the bulk of her anger had been appeased by Bach’s injury.

Bach stood up and sent his skeleton back to another dimension. He swept his gaze around and saw that in front of him, Han Shuo and Jack were also laughing loudly at him. Bach was already feeling quite infuriated and so stomped over angrily, cursing, “You two low level errand servants dare to laugh at me?”

Bach didn’t dare to vent his anger on Lisa, and even less so on his seniors from the department of dark magic around him. He could only vent some of his wrath on the two errand boys, and the sight of them laughing at him only set him off even further.

Lisa had just about satisfied her anger when she saw Bach ignore her and focus on something else. This roused her rage all over again as she chanted coldly, “Oh eternal darkness, grant me the power of death, inflict the pain of the soul on his body. Agony of the Soul!”

A dark cloud of gas formed as Lisa finished and flew towards Bach. The gas kept shifting as it floated through the air and finally materialized as a pulsing black flame.

Bach’s expression shifted as he turned to see the magical flame from the “Agony of the Soul” shooting towards him after he heard Lisa chant the incantation. He then suddenly turned and ran towards Han Shuo and Jack as if he’d thought of something. Just as the “Agony of the Soul” was about to hit him, he ducked and rolled on the floor.

Bach’s plan worked. The merrily laughing and utterly defenseless Han Shuo watched as Bach suddenly tucked into a roll in front of him and the “Agony of the Soul” crashed onto Han Shuo’s body.

Han Shuo’s eyes rolled backwards as his head suddenly hurt, and he fell backwards straight to the ground.

TBC...
Source: Great Demon King - NovelSprout.com

Chapter 3: From Idiot to Crazy

Continue reading 0n NovelSprout.com

Han Shuo’s thoughts spun madly as the little witch, Lisa, beat him hysterically, adding to the aches and pains he already felt all over his body. Poor Han Shuo was already quite weak to begin with. That initial blow to his nose had caused tears to leak out, and the resulting fall from the tree made him dizzy with pain. He could only curl into a tight ball on the ground and present a vulnerable target for Lisa’s attentions — his butt.

Han Shuo realized something marvelous after a while. That little bit of magical yuan began to circulate past his butt and relieved some of the pain. When Lisa pulverized his butt, it didn’t hurt as much, thanks to the magical yuan.

In fact, any place that cried out in pain was greatly relieved after the magical yuan passed through it, and it actually felt a bit… comfortable.

Han Shuo was taken aback and inwardly thought, the solid realm in demonic magic is seriously masochistic! The magic yuan travelled to his right buttcheek as Lisa’s foot came smashing down and landed right where the magical yuan happened to be.

“Ah!” “Wah!”

A high pitched yell and a low grunt sounded from Han Shuo and Lisa respectively. Lisa suddenly felt that Han Shuo’s right buttcheek was harder than iron. Her foot cramped up immediately and she hopped around yelling.

On the other hand, Han Shuo felt that it had only not hurt when Lisa kicked him, but it felt exceedingly comfortable. This was in stark contrast to the pain that he was feeling all over and had led to his involuntary yell. Truth be old, his yell had sounded slightly obscene — as if…

“Bryan, did you put rocks in your pants, you idiot?”

Lisa complained loudly as she massaged her delicate foot. Several other necromancy major girls suddenly appeared around Han Shuo and Lisa, each staring at him with sleepy, cold eyes.

His nose had stopped hurting and his tears were finally under control. Han Shuo shook himself and sat up on the grass. When he looked around, he discovered the angry stares from apprentices Amy and Athena, as well as novice mage Bella and of course, Lisa.

The thrum of danger was in the air…

Amy, Athena, and Bella paled in comparison when they stood next to Lisa. They were all sixteen or seventeen years old, but were not very pretty. They were also in extremely bad moods as their beauty sleep had been interrupted.

“Idiot, what are you looking at! Why are there rocks in your pants! You gave my beautiful foot a huge bruise! Ooh ooh.. it hurts.”

Lisa put her hands on her hips and spoke arrogantly while staring coldly at Han Shuo. The effect was somewhat spoiled, as she had to hop around on her left foot.

“Idiot heh…” Han Shuo cackled inside and put on an innocent expression. He gave a dumb sounding “heh, heh” after he pulled himself up with some difficulty and said, “Nuh uh, I don’t have any rocks in my pants!”

He turned around so his butt was facing the four necromancy major girls and started undoing his pants as he spoke. Four panicked screams split the air before he’d pulled his pants down, and the frantic sound of running feet followed shortly thereafter.

“Bryan, you idiot! Pull your pants up immediately or I’m going to kill you!” Lisa yelled hurriedly, but one could hear a note of panic in her voice.

“Oh.” Han Shuo answered dumbly, but continued to chuckle sinisterly on the inside. A bunch of naive little daisies, see how I’m going to take care of you.

After he put his pants back on. Lisa took a close look at Han Shuo. As the four girls now stood in front of him again, she said fiercely, “I can forget the fact that you hid rocks in your pants, but what were you planning to do on the tree outside my window in the dead of night?”

“Heh heh,” came two dumb sounding laughs in response to her question. Han Shuo pointed at a ragged bag on one of the tree’s branches. “To get that down!”

“Why are you chasing after a trash bag in the middle – of – the – night?!” Lisa yelled angrily as she thought, about to pop from anger.

At the moment, novice mage Bella sighed lightly and said to Lisa, “Hey Lisa, can’t you see that Bryan has gone mad? Looks like instead of killing him, your ghoul drove him insane instead. What’s the point of getting mad at a crazy person?”

Athena seemed to be quite sleepy as she covered a yawn, “Oh… there’s still class tomorrow. I’m going back to bed, senior Lisa you can handle this!”

Amy appeared to pity Han Shuo as she minutely shook her head, sighing softly after staring at him briefly. She didn’t say much and turned to leave like Bella.

If Han Shuo hadn’t acted like the village idiot, he would’ve faced the wrath of these three girls, in addition to Lisa’s, but since he had “lost his mind”, the three girls naturally wouldn’t bother with a madman. Thus, they left him alone and returned to their warm beds.

When the three female students left, it was only Lisa and Han Shuo again. Lisa glared ferociously at Han Shuo and bit off her words, “Go back to your business, I’ll come find you in two days. I’m tired today; if you dare disturb my sleep again, I’ll drive you crazy with magic for a second time, not just beat you black and blue!”

Lisa delivered a final glare after she finished and left, walking a bit unnaturally. A soft exclamation of “Ouch, this hurts! I can’t believe that idiot put rocks in his pants, he was definitely driven crazy by my ghoul” floated out when she walked through the door.

Silence descended again as Lisa went in. Han Shuo felt a belated shiver of apprehension as he watched her walk in. Good thing this Lisa hadn’t used necromancy magic, otherwise with her rank as a novice mage, another ghoul would have actually driven him crazy.

The party was over and Han Shuo took his leave as well. He cursed under his breath as he tiredly dragged his frail, battered body back to the warehouse.

After he returned to his warehouse, he haphazardly swept all the trash off his bed and fell into a deep sleep.

The next day.

Han Shuo was sleeping soundly when the warehouse door was suddenly pushed open and a loud “Wah…” sounded.

Han Shuo opened his sleepy eyes and twisted his body to see a short fatty wearing an errand boy’s uniform . He had short blond hair, a dark green left eye, and was pointing at Han Shuo with an aghast expression, “You… You…” He couldn’t finish his sentences.

“Oh, it’s Jack. What are you doing in my room?”

Little fatty Jack was the same age as Bryan. Jack was one of the few people in the necromancy major that treated Bryan nicely, possibly due to a sense of shared misery. Little fatty Jack came from a destitute family and his dad had sent Jack to the Babylon Academy of Magical Force two years ago to earn a few silvers every month.

Although Jack was an errand boy like Bryan, he had not been sold to Babylon Academy. He was a free person, unlike Bryan, who had been sold to the school by slave dealers.

Although Jack was also an errand boy and victim of constant bullying, the necromancy students did not treat him like they treated Bryan, simply because Jack was not a slave. They might hit and yell at him, and even conduct some small experiments on him, but they would never torment him to death like they would a slave.

Bryan had actually always envied little fatty Jack because Jack could eat his fill at every meal and not be subject to inhumane bullying. As for little fatty Jack, it was only with Bryan that Jack was able to find that littlest bit of self confidence, so the two got along fabulously.

“Hoo… hoo… Scared me to death. Bryan, you’re not dead, that’s wonderful!”

“What bloody wonderful, I’m starving. Jack do you have anything to eat? Give it to me if you do, I’ll return it later!”

Han Shuo realized little fatty Jack did not respond after he’d stopped speaking, and was in fact staring at him dumbfoundedly. Two small, yellow, bean-like eyes stared out curiously from fleshy face. Han Shuo frowned and asked impatiently, “What, am I that good looking?”

Jack started and looked even more strangely at Han Shuo, “You’ve never asked me for food in all these years. You would only eat if I gave you food. You’ve also never talked to me like that. Bryan, you’re a little different!”

A bit startled, Han Shuo reflected that Lisa and co. had been unable to see what was different about him, but Jack, that silly fatty, had sussed it out with Han Shuo’s first sentence.

Han Shuo rummaged through Bryan’s memories after a while, and discovered that Bryan basically never spoke to the necromancy students. He did whatever people told him to do with no interaction whatsoever, but Bryan and Jack would occasionally talk to each other. Granted, most of the time it was Jack talking and Bryan listening. The two had spent a long time together, no wonder Jack had quickly discovered the differences.

Han Shuo glossed over the moment with a smile and said, “I was hit by Lisa’s ghoul and almost died. After that incident, I felt that the way I was living before was wrong and wanted to make a change.”

Jack breathed a sigh of relief at Han Shuo’s explanation and nodded, “I see. I thought the ghoul hit you and turned you into an idiot!”

Han Shuo, “…..”

“Here, this is some black bread that I’ve stashed away. Go ahead and eat it. It’s such a good thing that you didn’t die. When everyone thought you were dead, they gave me your tasks because we haven’t found a new errand boy yet. Because of that I’ve had to come here super early this morning. I was in a rush and accidentally bumped into Bach. He beat me up, I even have a bruise on my left eye!”

Little fatty Jack relayed happily as he passed a piece of gray bread to Han Shuo. It would seem that he was delighted to not have to do Bryan’s work.

Han Shuo violently bit off a piece of bread as he looked at the green bruise circling Jack’s left eye. He spoke furiously, “Bach hit you again. He’s too full of himself. Come, let’s go get revenge!”

Jack hurriedly jumped up in fright and restrained Han Shuo using his body weight. He exclaimed, “Bryan, are you crazy? Aren’t we used to this by now? Bach is an apprentice in necromancy! It’s not the first time we’ve been beat up, it’s good enough when he leaves us alone. What revenge can we get?”

Han Shuo laughed coldly, “Don’t worry, I’ve got my ways. Yes, I am crazy, by now all of the necromancy students know I’m crazy. Yeah I’m damn crazy, who am I afraid of!”

Han Shuo bellowed as he dragged Jack proudly out of the warehouse. The magical yuan within his body seemed to churn faster!

Chapter 2: The Uncultured are Scary

The Babylon Academy of Magic and Force owned the most land in Lancelot Empire, and held the highest reputation within the empire. It was also one of the most important training institutions for the empire’s mages and knights.

The academy was further divided into several departments, which consisted of light, dark, fire, water, wind, earth, thunder, summoning, and space. Each department had its own independent classroom building, library, laboratory, training field, and living district as if they were small cities.

Bryan was an errand slave for the necromancy major, which was a subcategory of the department of dark magic. Because necromancy majors had to work with skeletons, zombies, and the like, as well as the fact that this major had fallen off the radar for many years, it was not only the most unpopular major, but also the weakest. Even other department of dark magic students scoffed at the necromancy majors and didn’t deign to form teams with necromancy students.

Bryan had belonged to the weakest and most despised major in his six years of running errands for the academy. Adding onto that, his special tasks of transporting corpses and skeletons… he had been subjected to no end of eye rolls and cold shoulders. Every day was a living hell for him.

Han Shuo followed Bryan’s memories and arrived at a small path in the mountains located at the back of the academy. He entered through a small gate reserved especially for errand slaves returning in the dead of night.

Other students had long since gone to sleep, because it was midnight. Since Han Shuo was taking a secluded path, he didn’t meet anyone on his way back. He observed his surroundings along the way and noted that the architectural style of Babylon Academy was similar to some of the western European countries back on Earth.

He finally made his way back to the necromancy major’s designated area with some effort. Bryan lived in a warehouse, a place befitting his position.

The warehouse was filled with random items, with the majority being discarded crap or ingredients left over from experiments.

Most of these items awaited Bryan’s organization and disposal. Necromancy students would often toss their unwanteds in through the warehouse window for Bryan to take care of.

The warehouse was not very big to begin with. Excluding all the random crap, the only other thing present was a small wooden bed. Even this bed would sometimes covered by a mountain of trash, as the students never paid attention to where they chucked their unwanted items.

The first thing Bryan did whenever he finished his work late at the night was to clean up the trash that was on his bed. He would have to dispose of them before anyone woke up the next morning and then turned his attention to the others.

When Han Shuo took in his quarters, which resembled more of a garbage dump than anything, his eyes misted up and he felt deep pangs of sympathy for the unfortunate youth. How could he have survived those six years!

The air in the warehouse was foul beyond belief, even opening the windows had very little effect, as the smell was exuded by the mountain of trash. There were more items piled up on the small bed. It seemed that some had continued the habit of dumping trash here even after Bryan’s death.

As Han Shuo shuffled his feet, he felt that even taking a few steps was arduous task (the ground was covered with abandoned litter). He finally reached the bed and was about to clean it off, just like Bryan always did.

But, Han Shuo was not Bryan. When he was halfway through, Han Shuo felt a burst of rage. At first, this anger was only halfhearted, but the magical yuan within his body reacted to the anger and started moving rapidly, feeding his rage.

Finally, Han Shuo abruptly stopped his movements and fiercely denounced, “I’m not Bryan! I will not stand for this! Bryan oh Bryan, since I’ve occupied your body, let me help you punish that Lisa!”

Han Shuo was unaware that according to his original personality, he would never have impulsively acted on his thoughts, even if he’d wanted to. The him of yesteryear only had the will to think evil thoughts, but lacked the courage to take action.

He strode out from the warehouse and turned towards the female living quarters. In the silence of the night, he stealthily made his way towards the living district. Bryan had often cleaned here and was thus quite familiar with the area. Of course, he also knew where Lisa lived.

The necromancy major had much fewer students than the other majors, and thus every female student had her own room. Each room was spacious inside and had all the necessities they needed. This was heaven compared to Bryan’s house of trash.

Lisa lived on the second floor, and Han Shuo could not gain admittance at night. Good thing there was a large tree next to her window. He flattened his body and scampered up the trunk like a skinny monkey. He could peer into her window if he stood on his tiptoes.

Han Shuo was secretly delighted when he saw that the window was open. He propped himself up and peeked in. The little witch Lisa had decorated her room in pink and it actually looked quite cute, especially with the furry toys hanging on the wall above the table.

A faint perfumed scent wafted into Han Shuo’s nose, causing it to wrinkle. He had not anticipated that the cold hearted Lisa could decorate her room so cutely.

He couldn’t hope to best her in a fight, and he knew that. He took a closer look and noticed pink gauze bed curtains in one corner of the room – that should be Lisa’s bed.

He withdrew a small bottle from his bag and smeared some blood (typically used in experiments) around the edges of his eyes and mouth. He mussed up his brown hair after checking his face in a broken mirror (that Bryan had picked up). When he looked into the mirror again, a terrifying face covered with bloodstains looked back out.

“Heh heh, if I can’t beat you, then I’m going to scare the crap out of you!”

Han Shuo was quite satisfied with his current makeup and nodded with a low cackle. When everything was ready, he stepped on a branch and swung himself close to Lisa’s window, swaying back and forth with the branch. He reached out his bone thin hand and knocked on Lisa’s window.

Don… Don…

Lisa was fast asleep when she was woken up by the “don don” sounds coming from the window. She groggily opened the pink gauze curtains and walked out barefoot.

Little feet as white as jade padded over a carpet that was also pink. Under the peaceful rays of the moon, the five pink toes on each foot were actually quite adorable.

Lisa was a bit younger than Bryan, and was the young lady of a noble household. Disregarding what she had done to Bryan, Lisa was quite a beauty with a head full of long, soft, blond hair, a height of 162 cm that made her just a tad taller than Bryan, delicately arched eyebrows, an elegantly long nose, and endearing red lips.

Dressed in pink pajamas, Lisa didn’t seem fully awake. After she walked out from the pink bed, she instinctively looked over at the source of the sound.

A familiar face covered in blood, petrifying traces of blood dripping from the eyes and nose, and a thin body swaying back and forth at the window, stared emptily back at her with no sign of life.

“Wahhhhh….”

A horrorstruck scream filled the hallways of the female living district.

Han Shuo inwardly grinned evilly and thought, I’m going to scare you unconscious this time, if not scare you to death. His expression grew more and more chilling as his thoughts grew. After a while of staring emptily ahead, he rolled his eyes backwards and swayed even more strongly.

He could no longer see Lisa because he’d rolled his eyes back. There was a sudden lack of sound from Lisa after that initial horrorstruck scream and continued through Han Shuo’s gradual facial progression.

She probably fainted. Han Shuo thought as sounds of the other necromancy major girls’ cussing floated within hearing. Better to leave while he could, otherwise he’d be in for a world of hurt if he was caught.

An incredible pain spread from the bridge of his nose just as he was about to reverse his eye roll. Another intense pain appeared from the top of his head, which caused him to fall off the tree. The fall awoke all his aches and pains and made him see stars.

Attacks fell on him like rain shortly thereafter, with a voice yelling as the hits landed, “Bryan, looks like you finally grew a backbone! You escaped death last time, but your brain rotted instead! I major in necromancy and spend my days with skeletons and corpses. You idiot tried to scare me by pretending to be a corpse; I have to really give it to you. Would the future great mage Lisa be unable to determine if a body even has a soul?!”

Although his body hurt, his heart was in even greater pain. That dumb Bryan spent six years as an errand slave for the necromancy major, but hadn’t even picked up this bit of common sense. This was hardly the outcome he expected for the first time he’d gathered up his courage to do something bad.

Necromancy? This wondrous necromancy could determine even this? There was definitely some value in it. It looks like I have a lot to learn if I’m to survive in this world, otherwise the unfortunate events from today will most likely happen again.

As the agony on his body increased, Han Shuo continued to think rapidly while howling in pain. The magic of Chu Cang Lan’s dark path encompassed the word “demon”, whereas necromancy didn’t sound like a great path either. What if he were to train in both of these, would there be conflict between the two or would they – become stronger together?

TBC...
Source: Great Demon King - NovelSprout.com

“If I don’t die… I swear I will act on all my evil thoughts..”

Not exactly everyone’s typical thought when they’re about to die. What will a cowardly young man do when reincarnated with the evil powers to redefine his destiny? Can the natural kindness of human nature triumph over evil? Will he become the cold-blooded demon king of legend, or will he forge his own path and rain down another kind of terror?

-----------
Chapter 1: From the depths of the grave

Continue reading 0n NovelSprout.com

Han Shuo slowly opened his sore eyes after some time. His whole body ached, particularly his head. It felt as if he had a severe migraine and had had random things crammed into his brain.

Looking around, there were piles of eerily white bones messily scattered around the gloom. There was also strange black matter further inside the room that wafted a nauseous smell.

“Ah. So I’m really dead. This must be purgatory.”

Han Shuo’s heart turned to cold ashes when he realized he’d died at such a young age. Damn, he was unlucky! His past life had been a waste, better hurry and reincarnate to ensure his next life would turn out differently.

Han Shuo’s head started aching fiercely at the moment. After he clutched his head and wailed in pain for a while, he felt that he had learned many new things.

“Bryan… Bryan… Who is Bryan?”

Half an hour later…

Han Shuo was dumbfounded. He thought that reincarnation into another’s body was the stuff of movies and dramas; how could it have happened to himself? And to take it one step further, he had reincarnated into a foreigner’s body. Had that old fart Chu Cang Lan made a mistake with his magic?

Han Shuo’s eyes had slowly adjusted to the darkness by now. He loosened his limbs and brought his right arm in front of his eyes. The black mole near his wrist was gone, and in its place were long, ominous scars crawling like worms up his arms. He shuddered, a cold feeling gripping his insides.

This body really wasn’t his. A gobsmacked Han Shuo realized he had really taken over someone else’s body…

Although Bryan was already dead, Han Shuo knew Bryan’s past for some reason. Han Shuo even knew that he had not reincarnated to the US or England, or any of the western countries. He was in a strange world named the Profound Continent, in an unfamiliar country called the Lancelot Empire. This was a strange land with swords and sorcery, one in which alien races ran rampant.

Bryan’s parents had passed away when he was young, and he was only ten years old when his uncles had sold him to a slave dealer. The slave dealer had sold Bryan in turn to the Babylon Academy of Magic and Force, and his life had been dark ever since.

Bryan had died when he was sixteen. He had been assigned to the weakest department within the Babylon Academy – necromancy.

In those 6 years, Bryan’s job was to assist the students of the necromancy major, cleaning up the skeletons, corpses and other trash after a failed magical experiment. Aside from that, he was also in charge of random administrative tasks such as making tea, serving water, sweeping the floor and killing bugs.

And another thing, students majoring in necromancy would often use him as target practice to test the battle abilities of their latest experimental skeletons or wraiths, or try out necromancy magics directly on him.

The weak and cowardly Bryan had suffered through a living hell in the past six years. His body was covered with countless scars and bruises. Necromancy students would practice on Bryan whenever they lost a magic battle against the other majors, even if he was eating indigestible food or completing one of his endless tasks.

A 16 year old youth, six years of torment. How cruel was this for a child?

Bryan constantly thought of committing suicide. However, in his cowardice, he could not even find the courage to kill himself. And so he silently endured six years of torture.

Finally, on the previous day, a little witch called Lisa summoned a wraith and invaded his soul — killing him. Bryan felt no pain upon death, just the sad joy of release.

After moving corpses and broken skeleton bones for 6 years, another slave threw Bryan onto the same trash heap, the grave that he had constantly dumped trash into.

Han Shuo had felt his life was dark enough already, but when compared to Bryan, Han Shuo teared up a little. For the first time, he felt that he had lived a decent life.

Now that he understood what Bryan had gone through, Han Shuo’s voice choked up as he sighed, “How could such an insane, cowardly youth like you exist in this world? Bryan, what can I do for you now that I’ve occupied your body?”

Han Shuo suddenly sensed threads of what seemed like liquid in his body. His head ached at the same time as some memories abruptly surfaced. Threads of liquid slowly circulated his body as Han Shuo became lost in his train of thought. Much more knowledge had filled his mind, courtesy of that old fart Chu Cang Lan.

There were nine different levels in demonic magic, respectively known as the solid realm, the open passages realm, the molded spirit realm, the true demon realm, the bloodsucking realm, the separate demon realm, the carnal realm, the nine changes realm and the omen realm. Demonic practitioners could do as they wish and kill who they wanted, completely disregarding all morals and ethics in the pursuit of absolute power.

Once a practitioner became a demon, he would have the abilities to move mountains and see all.

After sitting a while longer, Han Shuo felt that he had learned many things which were previously unthinkable. Of one thing he was certain, something had gone wrong with Chu Cang Lan’s last piece of magic. His own soul had disappeared, but had left all his knowledge and memories of magic to Han Shuo.

The thread of liquid moving in his body was the fundamental and incredibly vital magical yuan – the foundation for training one’s magical force. According to Chu Cang Lan’s memories, a demonic practitioner would have to spend at least three to five years to successfully cultivate magical yuan. Han Shuo had done nothing and knew nothing, yet he had that sliver of magical yuan floating around his body. Although it was pitifully weak, he knew that it truly was magical yuan.

Han Shuo’s thoughts turned to the crazy old Chu Cang Lan. He’d wanted to use Han Shuo as a scapegoat, but had ended up sending him to a strange time and place instead. All that random knowledge of how to train one’s magical force must have been left behind by that Chu Cang Lan.

Although Han Shuo had learned a bit about this strange world thanks to Bryan, his knowledge was greatly limited, as Bryan was just Babylon Academy’s lowly drudge. Han Shuo’s thoughts started racing as he considered the life ahead of him.

Bryan was dead, and Han Shuo was occupying his body. Han Shuo was now Bryan, and Bryan had been sold to a magical force school – this was an eternal identity brand. This strange world had cruel and harsh punishments for runaway slaves, so Han Shuo could not run. It was possible that he would not make it out and regardless, he didn’t even have a single copper coin on him.

After careful consideration, Han Shuo decided to return to the academy. Only there could he change his position as a slave and do something for the pitiful Bryan.

Han Shuo ached all over (Bryan had had a lot of old injuries before his death). Pain shot through his body as he attempted to stand up, so he hastily sat down after crying out, “Ow!”

Han Shuo felt no goodwill towards the Chu Cang Lan, who had forcibly kidnapped him here. Han Shuo knew nothing of Chu Cang Lan’s life or world, just that through the latter’s memories, one could strengthen his own body by training his magical force. With some advancement, one could travel in a blink of an eye or move mountains and shift oceans.

Although Han Shuo thought Chu Cang Lan was a bit off his rocker, Han Shuo was convinced of the legitimacy of his memories due to the fact that Chu Chan Lan had flown the two of them directly to the moon.

Feeling that he had nothing to lose, Han Shuo recalled the complex incantations needed to train his magical force. He concentrated according to the solid realm’s first principle and sought to control that weak hint of magical yuan.

When he had built up his concentration and attempted to control the magical yuan according to solid realm’s laws, the magical yuan did exactly as it was told, just like Chu Cang Lan said.

Secretly delighted, Han Shuo thought that despite Chu Cang Lan’s eccentricities, the old man’s memories were useful. He started meditating again and began to cycle the magical yuan around his body according to the solid realm’s law.

Han Shuo only came to himself when his stomach started rumbling. He had no idea how long he’d meditated, just that his body’s pains had greatly receded and he had gained some new strength. He had seen results after only meditating for a short while. That old fart Chu Cang Lan had trained for who knew how long; no wonder he even dared to go to the moon. Han Shuo could only imagine how domineering the old fart had been when he was alive.

Han Shuo noticed something odd when he took a break from training – that sliver of magical yuan no longer orbited according to the solid realm’s law, but was actually circulating through the skin, muscles, bones and limbs of his entire body.

The aim of the solid realm was improvement of the physical body, an enhancement of muscles, skin and bone. Apart from slowly building up magical yuan in the solid realm, some fanatics would harm themselves in order to simultaneously build up their bodies and magical yuan. Simultaneous training yielded the fastest results.

“This method of training is basically a form of self-mutilation! Well, given that Bryan has always done similar things, maybe my progress in the solid realm will be faster when I return to the academy. Maybe it’s not so bad being this Bryan!”

Han Shuo reflected with appreciation and planned to immediately leave this place. He suddenly thought that it was really stupid of him to have stayed so long in the stink of the tomb; he could bear it no longer.

A faint light emitted from the top. According to Bryan’s memories, Han Shuo knew that there was a large cavern above him in which broken skeletons and corpses were thrown in. He ached all over when he stood up, covered with scars. Six years of torment had long since worn down Bryan’s body, not to mention his poor diet. As a result, he was malnourished and thin, and only one meter and sixty some centimeters.

Han Shuo stood on some moss and struggled to pull his weak body up. After a while and five or six falls, he finally emerged from the tomb. Han Shuo felt a deep joy to be alive again upon seeing the moon’s beams illuminating the earth and cascading across the cemetery.

Reassured by the magical yuan still circulating through his body, Han Shuo thought positively that what hadn’t killed him made him stronger. And it wasn’t like he was without a hidden card. That Chu Cang Lan had left behind secret methods of training that could prove of some use, and help Han Shuo achieve dreams that he had never dared to dream before.

However, Han Shuo had no idea that the magical yuan Chu Cang Lan had left him would not only help him train, but was also a seed. This seed would change his thoughts as it changed his body. His mind was filled with evil thoughts before, but he hadn’t dared act upon them. The seed could prove to be his undoing, as it would prod Han Shuo into losing control of his own self.

Chapter 2: Mechanic

Translator: MJ_ Editor: Millman97

The blood test results were compiled quickly.

Hila went over the data she had received from Lin Wei Xian with knitted brows.

“No abnormalities detected?”

“Valkyrie mainly affects the brain. We will need to open the head up for assessment.”

Open the head up? snapped Han Xiao inwardly. Open the head up‽

Hila waved a hand in dismissal of the idea.

“He is the only subject to have ever survived the experiment. We’ll leave that option out for now.”

Han Xiao’s eyes lit up as he realized that his current status was somewhat advantageous for him.

Lin Wei Xian was not pleased by Hila’s decision, but he made no fuss about it.

“In that case, we’ll observe him for the time being to see if anything has changed.”

“Proceed with the brainwashing,” ordered Hila suddenly.

Brainwashing?

Han Xiao’s heart sank. Brainwashing was a common method of subordination, and while in the game, a brainwashed character would simply become an ally of the faction, it was completely different now! Losing his sense of self was the worst-case scenario.

No way!

The good news was that memory altering technology available on the planet was still under-developed, so the organization’s methods were very primitive; they made use of sensory stimuli to re-calibrate the subject. A character with at least ten points in Intelligence would be immune to the effects of the brainwash.

Valkyrie had given Han Xiao a +1 boost to the growth potential of his Endurance. Growth potential was an innate stat that affected the growth rate of the affected stat. Different races had differing starting potentials in each stat, and in the entire world of Galaxy, humans generally had a mediocre growth rate. They did, however, boast the highest Intelligence potential. As they also possessed the lowest Health, this single point in Endurance growth potential was nice to have.

[Concentration] gave him a 10% increase in mastery and crafting speeds, also increasing their success rates.

[Low Level Willpower] gave him three points of Willpower, which substituted for three points of Intelligence, so he still lacked three more Intelligence to survive the brainwash.

Leveling the Civilian class will boost a random stat by one, and also give me one unassigned stat point… but the chance for Intelligence to be boosted is extremely low…

Han Xiao knew that he could not rely on luck. In fact, he had always suspected that he was cursed. If a god or goddess did smile upon him, it would have to be the goddess of disaster. Rather than rely on luck, finding some way to learn a new class was a more reliable idea.

Although Han Xiao was incapable of moving freely, there had to be a way! After all, it was a scenario, wasn’t it?

Suddenly, he thought of something.

If I’m an NPC… I should be protected by the system… right?

“Take him,” ordered Hila.

Han Xiao was yanked away once again and brought to another room.

Han Xiao noticed that there was a bookshelf in this room.

<<Tom’s Introduction to Machinery>>

<<A Theory on Human Genes and Lizard Genes>>

<<Randt’s Hypothesis>>

…

They were all reference books.

Hold on, there’s a class book there! rejoiced Han Xiao.

Han Xiao disregarded the two guards behind him as he stood up to walk towards the shelf.

His actions startled everyone, and instantly, the two guards were pointing guns at him.

However, Han Xiao steeled his nerves and continued to approach the bookshelf.

You’d better not fire! he prayed. I’m a valuable test subject!

“Hold your fire! Let’s see what he’s up to,” shouted Lin Wei Xian all of a sudden.

The two guards hesitantly lowered their guns.

Han Xiao heaved a sigh of relief. He had been banking everything on his status as the first successful subject.

<<Tom’s Introduction to Machinery>>

This was the book that had caught Han Xiao’s eye. He picked it out from the shelf and started flipping through.

Although the long paragraphs of texts and complex diagrams were hard for Han Xiao to comprehend, he patiently read on. After twenty seconds or so, the interface lit up.

_____________________

You have completed one session of self-learning in basic machinery knowledge!

[Basic Assembly] has progressed by 2.0% (based on your Intelligence).

(+0.2% from Concentration)

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

As I expected! Han Xiao rejoiced. Although he wasn’t able to understand the book’s contents on his own, the system’s automated mastery system had allowed him to directly absorb the knowledge.

Lin Wei Xian curiosity was piqued. The test subject seemed to be learning!

He allowed Han Xiao to continue in order to observe him more.

The entire room was now silent, except for the rustling of paper.

_____________________

[Basic Assembly]

Progress Rate:

15% (+1.5%)

…

29% (+2.9%)

…

48% (+4.8%)

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

Han Xiao’s reading speed increased with time. However, the pressure mounted on. Every second that passed could be his last.

When Hila arrived at the room, the sight of Han Xiao reading caused her to frown.

“What’s going on?”

Lin Wei Xian began to explain what had happened.

“You’re saying that his learning ability has been strengthened?”

“That is my initial conclusion. If you allow me to open his head up to perform a thorough assessment, I will be able to come up with a more complete answer.”

Han Xiao flinched. How much does this bastard love brains‽

Hila thought to herself, If his brain has been enhanced, he could prove to be more valuable than we initially thought…

“Is the brainwashing apparatus ready?” she asked.

“Preparations are complete.”

Damn it! I have to be faster! thought Han Xiao.

Suddenly, a notification accompanied with a sound popped up on the interface.

_____________________

[Basic Assembly]

Progress rate: 90% (+10%)

You have learned basic knowledge of Machinery, unlocking the Mechanic talent tree!

You have unlocked a new profession:

[Mechanic (Novice)]

STR +10, INT +1, END +1

You have gained 2 stat points.

You have gained 1 talent point.

You have acquired new skills:

[Mechanic (Novice)]

[Basic Maintenance]

[Basic Enhancement]

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

As warmth surged through Han Xiao’s body, he realized to his surprise that he could actually comprehend the contents of the book now!

I can gain actual knowledge from the game‽ Are you kidding me? Galaxy has been in service for over a decade! How come the Federation of Earth hasn’t conquered the Milky Way yet‽

Strange…

The ‘Character Information Interface’ had updated as well:

_____________________

Name: Han Xiao

Race: Human/Carbon-based (Yellow)

Model: NPC (countdown to Version 1.0 launch: 358 days 10 hours 11 minutes)

Level: 2

Experience: 0

Main Class: Engineer (Novice) – Lv. 1 (0/200)

Sub-class: Civilian – Lv. 1 (0/50)

Health: 43/50 (injured)

Stamina: 80/80

Attributes: 3 STR, 3 DEX, 5 END, 4 INT, 1 MYS , 2 CHA, 1 LUK

Unassigned Stats: 2

Energy: 10/10 [Lv. 1]

Lv. 1 (10) – [STR +1, DEX + 1, END + 1, MAX STAMINA + 20]

Energy Rank: 3~4

Grade: F (Mortal)

[You still lack the combat strength to take on 5 lowly thugs.]

Abilities:

– Concentration: +10% to mastery and crafting speeds

– Lesser Willpower: +3 to focus

Skills:

[Mechanic (Novice)]

Lv 1 (0/1000) – Increases mastery of engineering

[Basic Maintenance]

Lv 1 (0/400) – Able to perform simple maintenance

[Basic Enhancing]

Lv 1 (0/600) – Able to enhance machinery

Potential: 1

Class Talents:

– Arms: Basic Assembly Lv 1 [19 talents not learnt]

– Energy: [20 talents not learnt]

– Control: [20 talents not learnt]

Influence: 0

Legend: 0

Equipment: None

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

Regarding stats, Strength improved melee damage and was also a requirement for some heavy equipment.

Dexterity improved movement speed, attack speed, and evasion. It also gave a bonus to ranged attacks.

Endurance increased Health and Energy. 1 Endurance gave 10 HP and 10 Energy. Endurance also affected some abilities and skills and increased HP and Energy recovery rates.

All actions depleted Energy, be it attacking, blocking, walking, running, swimming, crafting, etc.

Endurance also affected physical defense. There were many formulas contributing to the calculation of defense. For example, even if two characters’ defense stats were equal, one of them might not be wearing metal armor, so they would take more damage from a bullet than the other character.

Other factors that affected damage taken included Energy, range, bullet type, racial characteristics, and equipment material. All of these factors were taken into consideration when calculated by the quantum computer that the servers were run on. It was impossible for players to accurately optimize defense, but this wasn’t that big of a deal, as having more defense could only be a good thing.

Intelligence affected growth rates and Willpower. A character with higher Intelligence could master their skills faster. It also increased mastery and crafting speeds, and it could affect the quality of any machinery crafted by a Mechanic, making it the most important stat for the class.

Mystery affected a character’s talent for supernatural powers, and it affected psychic powers and magic abilities, like how Strength or Dexterity affected physical abilities.

Charm was useful when improving relationships with different NPCs and Factions. It even enabled characters to enjoy discounts with certain sellers.

Luck affected judgement and item drop rates.

These were the seven main attributes that stat points could be added to.

Then, there was also Energy, a core component of the game that functions as ‘Mana’ for superpowers. It could only be increased through leveling or by acquiring certain skills, and it was described as ‘a manifestation of the dormant power that lies in living cells’. Energy was a requirement to unlocking superpowers, as well as latent awakening.

A character would also receive bonus stats based on their Energy level. Lv. 1 Energy was reached at 10 points, Lv. 2 at 50 points, and Lv. 3 at 100 points. Each Energy level would give random stats according to the character’s class, and a character with a higher level class would benefit more from this. This bonus worked retroactively.

Energy was also the mana for superpowers, and the additional stats received from Energy were lost when the amount of Energy remaining dropped below its tier.

For example, Lv. 1 stat bonuses would be lost when Energy dropped below 10 points; the character would become fatigued after exhausting power, and this affected their combat ability. This mechanic made micromanagement in combat important.

Energy recovered automatically but at a slow rate. However, Stamina could be used to recover Energy faster. Also, when using Superpowers without sufficient Energy, Stamina could be used as a substitute, and when there was both insufficient Energy and Stamina, Health could be used. Many players ended up dying carelessly by sucking themselves dry this way.

A character’s grade reflected their combat strength. Characters were ranked according to their grade. The standard unit of measurement for Energy was the Ona.

Superhumans were graded A, B, C, D, or E, based on their Ona levels.

An E-grade superhuman, such as the present-day Hila, possessed 100 Ouna.

A Celestial-class superhuman would fall under grade A. Grade A superhumans were capable of planetary-scale destruction.

Of course, grade A wasn’t the limit. Han Xiao knew this, having transcended grade A himself. However, then was then and now is now.

Having gained two unassigned stat points from unlocking the Mechanic class, Han Xiao still needed one more Intelligence in order to endure the brainwash.

Apart from leveling up, there did not seem to be a way for him to obtain it. How was he supposed to gain experience? He obviously couldn’t hunt monsters now or complete quests!

Damn it, is there no way?

Suddenly, an idea occurred to Han Xiao.

He abruptly tossed the book to a side and proceeded to stare at the gun on the guard’s waist with a blank expression.

Hila frowned but did not act. Everyone looked on to see what Han Xiao was up to.

Han Xiao walked rigidly towards the guard. As if to make his intentions extremely clear, he reached out exaggeratedly for the gun.

The guard instinctively drew his gun, and although Han Xiao did not seem to have any intention of snatching it, he tightened his grip.

As Han Xiao was moving extremely slowly, the guard did not see a need to fire.

“Unload the gun and let him have it,” ordered Hila.

She was keen to know Han Xiao’s motives.

The guard obliged and proceeded to do so.

Upon receiving the gun, some information popped up on Han Xiao’s interface.

_____________________

73-WASP (Small Caliber Handgun)

Grade: Grey

Damage: 28 -35

Fire Rate: 1.1/s

Power Output: 13

Key components: Spring, Slide, Firing pin, Magazine (missing)

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

[Basic Assembly] automatically gave Han Xiao knowledge about many types of machines, and the blueprints for a 73-WASP appeared in his mind.

Instantly, Han Xiao understood how to assemble it. While in the game he simply needed to ‘load’ the gun after ‘learning’ it, he now had to perform some more technical procedures.

Everything was truly far more immersive than it had been in the game, confirming his suspicion that he had transmigrated to an actual ‘reality’.

Han Xiao began to strip the handgun and reassemble it.

The skill icon for [Basic Assembly] lit up.

After 40 seconds, he finished the task.

To a specialist, 40 seconds was nothing. However, Han Xiao was a complete newbie!

He had only spent 10 minutes on a book!

Everyone was shocked.

Is this the effect of Valkyrie‽

Lin Wei Xian started speaking excitedly. “Such learning prowess! If I can analyze his brain, perhaps I can recreate…”

Go to hell! How much, exactly, are you obsessed with brains?

Han Xiao proceeded to repeat reassembling the handgun.

_____________________

You have succeeded at an Assembly (Basic)

69% perfection rate, 28 exp gained

You have succeeded at an Assembly (Basic)

73% perfection rate, 32 exp gained

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

There were many ways to gain experience in Galaxy. Apart from hunting monsters and completing quests, skills and crafting were two key sources of experience for Mechanics.

As Han Xiao repeated the task again and again, he gradually became faster and faster. He was soon able to complete the task in a mere 20 seconds.

“Proceed with brainwashing now,’ ordered Hila suddenly.

Fortunately for Han Xiao, it had been enough. He had accumulated a total of 200 experience points.

Use all experience to level up Class: [Mechanic]!

Ding!

_____________________

[Mechanic (Novice)] has leveled up.

Lv. 1 -> Lv. 2

Energy +10

Intelligence +1, Endurance +1

You have gained 2 stat points

You have gained 1 talent point

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

Han Xiao breathed a sigh of relief.

That was close.

TBC...
Source: The Legendary Mechanic - ExtraNovel.com

Chapter 1: Rebirth

Translator: MJ_ Editor: Millman97

“Test subject number 24. The subject lasted for two minutes and forty-five seconds after the administration of Valkyrie. Time of death: 4.22 AM.”

I should be the only one at home. Who’s talking?

Han Xiao opened his eyes, only to be blinded by light. The familiar hatch of his VR-capsule was no longer there—instead, he was facing a white ceiling. The walls that surrounded him were also white and reminiscent of cold, hard metal. They felt like something straight out of science fiction. The room resembled an intensive care unit, and Han Xiao lay atop a cold metal table, bare-chested and wired to all sorts of machines. His back was freezing.

Han Xiao noticed that there was a group of people in white coats surrounding him, and they were looking at him as though they had just seen a ghost.

I thought I just accepted a leveling request? Where am I?

Suddenly, Han Xiao felt as though a large amount of data was being transmitted into his mind, causing his head to throb painfully. The last thing he could remember was accepting a leveling assignment. He was in the midst of creating a new character in ‘Galaxy’ when he seemingly started to smell burnt eggs…

“Quickly, let Ms. Hila know! The test subject has come back to life!”

“Call the guards!”

As the researchers started a commotion, Han Xiao realized that he could understand them, even though they were speaking in a language he had never heard before. ‘Test subject’, ‘back to life’, and ‘guards’—these terms unnerved him. Soon, he could hear the sound of rushing footsteps coming from outside.

Should I make a run for it or just lie still? Han Xiao decided on the former in a split second; he was not the kind of person to just lie around waiting. He abruptly sprang up, ripping the wires off him, and made a clumsy beeline for the door. The researchers did not attempt to stop him, instead, they backed off hastily to avoid being knocked into.

Crash!

He pushed his way out into a white corridor, only to be greeted by a dozen or so guards suited in black and armed with electric batons advancing upon him from both sides.

Han Xiao gasped at the sight of the crest on their uniforms. It depicted half a plant.

The Germinal Organization from Planet Aquamarine back in version one? Weren’t they eliminated‽

Suddenly, a guard swung his electric baton at Han Xiao and Han Xiao unconsciously raised a hand to block it. The ensuing current caused his whole body to spasm in pain. It felt like his bones were about to split and his entire body turned numb.

Is the pain calibration at 100%‽

Galaxy’s pain calibration was restricted to a maximum of 40% because any higher setting could potentially cause nerve damage to players. The VR-capsule was also supposed to monitor the player’s vitals to prevent this, but it was currently malfunctioning.

It’s only been seven years and the capsule is having problems? Damn it! The repairman I paid $300 to a few days ago told me that it would still be good for another six months! I want a refund!

The guards yanked him up and took him to a small room where they locked him up alone in pitch black darkness.

Han Xiao grimaced in pain as he massaged his wrist. His head continued to throb as more information poured in.

It took Han Xiao a moment to reconcile the facts and make sense of what had happened to him.

I’ve… transmigrated into Galaxy?

His eyes widened with amazement.

Galaxy was a fully immersive virtual reality game that ran servers worldwide and boasted a peak concurrent player count of almost 60 million.

The game was set in a vast universe with a world map and landscapes that were procedurally generated using the latest generation of quantum computers. The scale of its world was massive, and it was said to be able to run smoothly even with a billion concurrent players. There existed many organizations and companies that specialized in farming gold and running dungeons, and the best pieces of gear could even go for ridiculous prices of up to a million US dollars.

Being an extremely popular game, good balance was of the utmost important. While big spenders did have certain advantages, it was not so unfair to the extent that it displeased the casual players. Maintaining competitiveness and improving skills were key factors towards game balance, and Galaxy did a good job in these areas, facilitating its strong allure as an e-sport.

Although Han Xiao did indeed make a living out of playing the game, the term ‘professional gamer’ didn’t fit him well. He was, instead, one of the despised power levelers and preferred to work solo.

Han Xiao had been playing the game since its very inception, and through the numerous patches, he had made a name for himself. In the last annual top 100 rankings, he placed 47th. He definitely had what it took to try his hand at going pro, but what he enjoyed most about the game was the leveling experience.

“The Germinal Organization originates from one of the beginner planets new characters were sent to back in Version 1 of Galaxy: Planet Aquamarine,” mumbled Han Xiao.

Before transmigrating, Galaxy had already been operating for over a decade. Version 1.0 was ancient history.

“Have I time traveled too?” Han Xiao’s expression darkened.

“Does that mean I won’t be getting my three hundred dollars back‽

“Am I stupid‽ That’s the least of my concerns!” Han Xiao slapped himself.

His memories were still jumbled up, and he could not recall anything about his original life—not even his name. All that he could recall were details regarding this world, such as its present era. He was currently in the year 687 of the Galaxy calendar, a year behind the updated timeline.

In Version 1, there were three universal powers that were upholding a peace that had lasted for ten thousand years, since the era of exploration. They were the Commonwealth of Light, the Crimson Dynasty, and the Arcane Church. The Silver Revolutionary Army had yet to be formed, the one responsible for the Supernatural Disaster was still fighting for dear life on some desolate planet, the World of Light had not come into existence, the civilization of the World Tree had not yet invaded from the beyond, and the Shattered Belt that contained Planet Aquamarine was still budding inconspicuously along the fringes of the explored universe.

In order to ensure that the game remained attractive, Galaxy borrowed and implemented ideas from its predecessors, such as ‘WoW’, where each version update revolved around a disaster or some major event. While Han Xiao enjoyed the game, now that he had transmigrated over…

“Get me out!”

While the Germinal Organization was small fry compared to the interstellar powers introduced in later updates, to the currently powerless Han Xiao, it was an entirely different story.

“Planet Aquamarine was modeled after Earth, and the Germinal Organization’s aim is to overthrow this planet’s government. If I’m not wrong, Valkyrie test subjects are brainwashed to serve as cannon fodder.”

The body he currently possessed had experienced a memory wipe. Apart from some general knowledge, all that remained were fragmented memories of captivity and experimentation.

It seemed to be roughly twenty years old and bore a slight semblance to his original self. However, its state of health was as yet uncertain. He had heard the researchers mention that he had been injected with Valkyrie, one of the Germinal’s gene altering drugs that was used to strengthen the brain. Valkyrie had a survival rate of only 30%, but this body had reacted positively to it.

Suddenly, a glowing line of blue text blue appeared before his eyes.

_____________________

You have been injected with Valkyrie!

+1 Endurance

You have learnt a new ability: Concentration

You have learnt a new ability: Low Level Willpower

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

“Virtual interface!” Han Xiao jumped for joy.

_____________________

Name: Han Xiao

Race: Human/Carbon-based (Yellow)

Model: NPC (Countdown to Version 1.0 launch: 358 days 11 hours 03 minutes)

Level: 1

Experience: 0

Main Class: N.A.

Sub-class: Civilian Lv. 1 (0/50)

Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Endurance 3, Intelligence 3, Mystery 1, Charm 2, Luck 1

Unassigned Stats: 0

Energy: 0 (Lv. 0)

Energy Rank: 1~2

Grade: F (Mortal)

[Piece of trash with a combat strength of 5; pick any NPC out from the streets and he will wipe the floor with you a hundred times! A hundred times!]

Health points: 23/30 (injured)

Stamina: 36/36

Abilities:

– Concentration: +10% to learning and crafting speeds

– Low Level Willpower: +3 Resistance

Skills: None

Talent points: 0

Class Talents: None

Influence: 0

Reputation: 0

Equipment: None

¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

“Thank god I still have the interface!”

Han Xiao was ecstatic but quickly discovered that there were several irregularities.

NPC, not a player? Countdown timer?

Han Xiao furrowed his brows as he organized his thoughts.

First of all, although he had no idea how the interface had transmigrated together with him, he had to treat this world as his new reality, meaning that if he died, he could not bank on being able to respawn like in a game.

Secondly, he could still access the system’s interface despite being classified as an NPC. This suggested that he could still level up like a player, which was good news.

Thirdly, if the countdown timer confirmed his suspicions that he had indeed traveled back in time to before the game’s launch, did it mean that ‘real’ players would soon appear?

Lastly, and most important of all, he was currently in grave danger!

Han Xiao felt indignant. Didn’t people who transmigrated normally receive perks such as resources, companions, or… at least an ex-girlfriend? At the very least, he should have started out in a safe location! The war hadn’t even begun, and he was already a lone hero deep behind enemy lines. A single slip could prove fatal; he could very well end up in the Hall of Heroes… if such a place existed.

Han Xiao only had one life here. If he died then that would be the end of it. It would be a pity.

Yes, Han Xiao only felt that it would be ‘a pity’. ‘I want to survive!’ would be a more normal line of thought. As for variations such as ‘My fate is not for the heavens to decide; if the heavens want to erase me, then I will erase the heavens!’ or ‘Swallow an aurous core to transcend life and death’, such ramblings were exclusive to people with second-grade syndrome.

“What the hell, why am I the only one SAO-ed?” Han Xiao lamented.

And while his senses confirmed that this was indeed reality, he started to wonder…

What exactly am I now? Am I an actual life-form, or am I just a bunch of data? Did my soul transmigrate, or is it something else entirely?

He sighed. I guess I’ll just have to make the best out of the situation and take it one step at a time.

The essential thing was to survive.

With a year to go before launch, he had enough time to get prepared; this was the sole glimmer of promise that he could cling on to.

Clank!

Suddenly, the door opened, and several people walked in. As he could only make out their silhouettes due to the light streaming in from outside, Han Xiao could not see their faces clearly. However, he could make out from their outlines that one of them was a woman with a fiery figure.

“The subject’s condition?”

Said woman spoke to her subordinate in a voice that was smooth, yet intertwined with an ever-so-faint rasp, reminiscent of a cup of rich coffee.

“It appears that the test subject has calmed down.”

The experiment leader, Lin Wei Xian, answered the woman as he stared at Han Xiao passionately, as though he were looking at a prized possession.

“Who are you people?” Han Xiao asked hoarsely.

“Hmm? Amnesia…?” The woman’s eye twitched.

“Valkyrie stimulates the brain, so memory loss is not unexpected,” replied Lin Wei Xian, squinting.

When Han Xiao’s eyes had finally adjusted to the light, he was stunned by the sight of the woman.

Boasting a headful of luscious, burgundy hair that concealed part of her face, the woman wore a tight-fitting, jet black bodysuit from which her curvaceous figure threatened to burst out at any time.

Her features were telling of her Western descent, but they were also composed of a certain softness that was characteristic of Eastern women; perhaps it was her mixed heritage that blessed her with such beauty and charm. In a different world, she could have been easily mistaken for a beautiful snake demoness.

If Da Ji had possessed such beauty, then King Zhou did not die in vain! 1 thought Han Xiao.

“I am Hila, the commander here,” said the red haired woman as she looked at Han Xiao. She waved a hand and ordered, “Conduct a blood test. I want to see the report ASAP.”

Two stone-faced guards walked forward to yank him away. Their massive bodies and the fact that they were carrying guns dispelled any notion that Han Xiao had of resisting.

He recognized the ‘Crimson Snake’, Hila, and that this was one of the playable scenarios on Planet Aquamarine, Valkyrie Experiment Lab, located in a key base of Germinal.

During Version 1, Hila was a boss who had caused beginners on Aquamarine much grief. She had many nicknames, one of which was the ‘Goddess of Death’. She would eventually attain ‘Celestial’ class strength and rise to prominence in the Cotton Cluster.

Han Xiao laughed bitterly on the inside. The situation was bleak!

I can no longer post this story, nairaland is marking the next episodes as spam. If you like this novel, please continue reading it at: Master of the End Times - ExtraNovel.com

Chapter 5: T3 Combat Uniform

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Qin Feng’s thoughts drifted back and remembered that he had quit the job so that he would have enough time to train after his awakening.

Only, he never told Zhou Hao about this.

Qin Feng and Chen Ming were both orphans where the latter’s parents had tragically died in a beast horde attack. Owing to that, he would receive a 500 yuan hero’s orphan subsidy every month.

4As for Qin Feng’s parents, on the other hand, no one knew what had happened to them. He was left outside the door or an orphanage.

3Because newborns were the hope of mankind, and humans could only administer the awakening injections at sixteen, raising orphans became a matter of extreme importance for the current Chinese Alliance.

9A caveat, however, was that it would be impossible if the orphans wanted extra money to enrichen their lives.

Qin Feng had to work to make any extra money he needed.

As a result, he did not have to make up excuses for Zhou Hao.

“I will at least have to inform the management. Don’t worry. It won’t delay anything. I have to go.” Qin Feng said, waving to his friend, making sure to take a different road.

Zhou Hao watched Qin Feng’s back, feeling that this friend of his had become much calmer and more practical as if he had suddenly grown up.

Undoubtedly, after today’s awakening injection, the rift, and the razor-fanged infants’ attack that almost took their lives, how could they not grow up?

Qin Feng was unaware of what Zhou Hao was thinking. If he had known, he would have surely laughed a bitter laugh. His experience spanned not just a single day but ten whole years.

When he was sure that Zhou Hao wasn’t trailing him, Qin Feng slowed his pace down.

The Chengbei new district colony was his birthplace. This was not within Chengyang but on the outskirt of the outskirts. It might have looked as if it was accessible from all directions, but even the tall buildings could not hide the fact that this was all but a slum, a terrible living environment.

There was not enough land here, and dangerous beasts overran the place, roaming around as they pleased. Far away from the main city of Chengyang, security was poor. To make matters worse, their most powerful ability user was only at E-tier.

Even their space stabilization device had been in disrepair for years.

That time after he was captured, he never returned to Chengyang causing his memories of the place to be a little blurry.

3After strolling down three streets, Qin Feng finally found the shop he was looking for—an outdoor combat supply store.

The store was huge—at least in this colony!

In particular, this store belonged to the Wanzhong Group franchise.

In the shop, a woman in her thirties sitting inside the shop sized up Qin Feng. The moment she realized the pathetic state he was in, she cast him a look of utter disgust.

“Little Sun, go serve the customer! Remember to clean the floor after!”

“Ah, yes, manager!” shouted a male clerk named Little Sun, who came over to attend to Qin Feng. As for the floor cleaning remark, it was clear that the manager felt that Qin Feng was going to soil the store.

Qin Feng shot the woman a frosty look. No one had treated him in such an uncivilized way for so many years. Having just being reborn, however, he was swamped with too many things for him to do anything about it.

1She was just a narrow-minded woman. Nothing worth fussing over about.

“Excuse me, mister. Are you here to buy or sell?” Little Sun asked politely, secretly perplexed.

Qin Feng was covered in wounds, which meant that he had most likely just returned from a battle. But he was not carrying any spoils with him. If that was the case, he was probably not here to sell materials. As for purchasing power…

Now how could someone not even wearing an ability user’s logo be able to afford the store’s merchandise?

It would seem that the lady manager was in fact, a good judge of character.

“Do you take these?” Qin Feng took out the four vials of the G-tier strengthening potion.

The potion was a pale red color, and the vials were only about the size of his pinky. One simply needed to examine the official stamp on the label to know whether or not it was the real deal.

Their shop did not trade with drugs, but the G-tier strengthening potion was an essential item.

One look was enough for Little Sun to tell that they were real.

This looked like a great business opportunity, too great to let slip just because of prejudice and innuendo.

Little Sun caught his breath. “We do! We do!”

He picked up one of the vials and examined it in the fashion of an expert. “Here in our store, we buy these at a 20% discount of the market price. That’ll be 32,000 yuan for four!”

3Once this purchase was completed, he could earn a commission of three hundred. What fortuitous fortune!

Qin Feng nodded, surveying the products the store had to offer.

“One T3 combat suit1, one dagger, a crossbow with thirty arrows, a combat bag pack, and an outdoor utensil set!”

There were so few elites in the entire colony that most of them ordinary folk who would never choose to purchase something of such high quality, such as the T3 combat suit.

“Alright. Please provide the size that you want!”

“…170!” Qin Feng looked at his scrawny body, managing to crack a bitter smile.

Right now, he was only 1.7 meters tall and painfully bony—it was so different from the one he had before rebirth.

4Once he was done with all these, it looked like the time was nigh to work hard and develop his body.

“Great!” Little Sun hurried around the shop, bringing a T3 combat suit for Qin Feng to try on, then picking up other things he had requested.

Qin Feng selected the items skillfully, snapping up everything up he needed, and refusing anything that Little Sun was trying to sell him that he did not need.

In the end, he spent 30,000 at the store, pocketing only the remaining 2,000 yuan, which he stuffed into his backpack.

“Sir, if you wish to come again, you’ll be treated as our regular. We can give you a discount for any transaction over 10,000 yuan. This is my communicator’s number. You can add me!” Little Sun said.

Qin Feng nodded happily. It would be very convenient to do business with familiar people.

After he asked the guy for his real name, Qin Feng added the salesperson named Sun Yu to his contacts.

There were very few contacts on his communicator, only about twenty or thirty people, with most of them his schoolmates. But it also kept things clean.

After that, Qin Feng turned off his communicator, changed into his new T3 combat suit, armed it with the dagger, and left the store with his brand new bow and arrow strapped to his back.

5Along the way, Qin Feng could sense the attention that his new suit was drawing.

On a hot day in June, just like today, the waterproof and fireproof combat suit could equalize the cold and heat. Even if he were completely wrapped up, it would engulf him with a cool, comfortable temperature, not too hot and airless.

The greyish-green camouflage of the suit was a protective color for the wilderness, which was exactly the thing that made him stand out like a sore thumb.

His young face might have looked unfledged, but the expression on his face was sangfroid; his sharp eyes darting about for the slightest sign of danger.

5The crossbow at his waist, the dagger in his boots, and the arrows hidden inside his combat backpack represented absolute power but, at the same time, was also a symbol of money.

3Qin Feng ignored the strange looks he was getting and flagged down a car. “Go to the wilderness’ dispatch site.”

The driver shot him a curious look, but when Qin Feng got into the car, he kept his gaze lowered and lips sealed, saying nothing. So, the driver kept quiet, driving silently to the destination.

Because of space rifts, the areas outside the colony were treacherous. But they needed people to go out there to hunt, kill, and protect the settlement, which was why the wilderness’ dispatch site was set up.

Over here, Qin Feng’s suit was not that conspicuous.

Because out here, in fact, everyone was dressed just like that.

Chapter 4: Profiteering Merchant At The Imperial Capital

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

A logo with the words ‘F1’ appeared above the medal on this person’s chest, which meant that this person’s strength was at least ten tiers above Qin Feng’s and Zhou Hao’s.

2Of course, he would not have counted for much when compared to the Qin Feng in the previous life.

One other thing was that, besides this F-tier logo, this person also had a medal of the patrol team’s vice-captain.

The patrol team had the highest authority in a colony. How could anyone blatantly disregard a high-ranking officer?

“No, no. This is all Qin Feng!” said Zhou Hao, not wanting to wait for the powerful people from the patrol team to start asking questions. Instead, he immediately attempted to set the record straight, not wanting to take any credit at all.

The officer, with all his experience, knew that it was all Qin Feng’s handiwork. The surveillance video had told him that already.

3“Not bad. Is your name Qin Feng? I’m Xue Xingfu, captain of Twelfth Street in the colony!”

1Qin Feng cocked his eyebrows when he heard the name.

Xue Xingfu?

This person would become a notoriously crooked businessman ten years later. Who knew that he was actually a vice-captain ten years ago.

“How are you?” Qin Feng nodded.

2Xue Xingfu grinned at Qin Feng, his eyes glistening and his voice gentle. “Thank you for your help.”

1In one sentence, he had reduced Qin Feng’s matter of life or death combat to mere help!

Whenever a rift appeared threatening the safety of the colony, those who extinguished the threat would receive a special reward. What more a dangerous thing like this.

Qin Feng had no intention of exposing the guy.

“We were just defending ourselves. Otherwise, we would’ve died as well!”

Xue Xingfu maintained his smile, but deep inside, he wondered why Qin Feng was so calm. Too calm, in fact.

“It’s like that—you can collect the fangs and heart’s blood of the razor-fanged infants and sell them for a nice price, but because considering you’re so young, if you sell them on your own, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t make a profit.”

Qin Feng smiled thoughtfully at that.

If it was Zhou Hao who was standing there, he might have fallen for Xue Xingfu’s trick.

Fangs and heart’s blood may not sell for much, but an entire body could be counted as a significant contribution. If he wanted to, Xue Xingfu could have actually claimed that he was the one that killed all of them.

These were all behind the scenes, under the counter dealings. In this world, the strong wielded the scepter. The ones who were powerful had a say in everything.

Qin Feng did not beat around the bush either and said, “Eight bodies for eight G-tier strengthening potions!”

Xue Xingfu’s smile froze, his gleamy pleasant demeanor replaced by one of seriousness.

1The price of G-tier strengthening potions was not too high. One tube only costs about 10,000 yuan, but in the colony, the average wage a month hovered around a very humble 1,000 yuan.

Eight tubes of that potion would cost 80,000!

As an official, however, Xue Xingfu could purchase them at an ‘insider’s price,’ saving himself half the cost.

40,000 yuan was the exact amount that Qin Feng had received as a reward for killing the razor-fanged infants.

If that was true, wasn’t that too much of a coincidence?

“Either way, you won’t make a loss!” Qin Feng added.

Xue Xingfu was about to probe him further, but his questions were already answered.

It appeared that this kid really did know things!

“Fine. You got it!”

“Then, thank you, Captain Xue!” Qin Feng answered in a happy, congratulatory tone.

“Hahaha, there’s no need to thank me. You’re not bad all, all. If you come across something good next time, you can come see me!” Xue Xingfu added Qin Feng to his communicator. He might have use of it in the future.

4If this boy could kill razor-fanged infants now, he might just be powerful enough in the future. He might just be useful in the time to come.

Xue Xingfu might not be a merchant now, but he already had the potential of a successful businessman!

…

Xin Feng gave half of the potions he had received to Zhou Hao. The latter merely stared at the thing that they never even dared imagine having.

2“Why did you ask for so many? Aren’t these things ridiculously costly?” Zhou Hao asked.

“Members of the patrol team get them for half-price.”

“Wow. Being part of the patrol team sounds great. Governments will always be governments. It’ll be great if we could make the team next time!”

“You can join if you want to, of course!” Qin Feng nodded in eagerness. Zhou Hao had died for him before. Now that Qin Feng was reborn, he would make sure to treat this brother well.

5As for that Chen Ming…

1Perhaps human hearts are fickle. Perhaps after losing a brother, Qin Feng wanted to have a friendship so bad that his eyes were blinded to the fact that he was, for all intents and purposes, a wretch!

“Wait, Qin Feng, take these two back. I don’t need so many. Also, I only killed two. If you hadn’t saved me, I would’ve died just now!”

Zhou Hao warmly pushed two vials into Qin Feng’s hands.

“You can earn it back once your abilities or ancient warrior talents have awakened!” Qin Feng gave them back. These potions were not very useful to him since his abilities had already been awakened. He did not just dump everything to his friend only to avoid raising Zhou Hao’s suspicion.

Qin Feng did not plan to tell anyone about his rebirth.

9“Alright, brother. Once, I’ve awakened, I would even buy you A-tier ones if you that’s what you want!” Zhou Hao said, thumping his own chest.

2Of course, it was just a young man’s irresponsible crowing, filled with hot air!

Only a few A-tier strengthening potions were issued every year.

As the pair chatted on, the ambulance finally arrived at the scene to help the injured. Because Qin Feng helped fight off the razor-fanged infants, he was given a hero’s treatment.

“It’s alright. I can do it myself. Go ahead and tend to the severely injured. I’m fine!” Qin Feng stopped the nurse tending to him and picked up a bit of gauze to bandage his wounds.

When the nurse saw how deft his movement was, she nodded and left to help others. They couldn’t afford to be distracted on the battlefield. For every extra minute saved was another minute that could be used to save someone’s life.

On top of that, special ability users in the colony were rough and tough. This surface wound was nothing.

No one knew that Qin Feng’s special ability allowed him to heal his wounds rapidly.

Since the hastily set up triage tent by the ambulance team was tight and cramped, Zhou Hao did not come along. He waited outside for Qin Feng, and when he saw his friend’s arm and calf wrapped in thick, bloodstained bandages, he could not help but feel sorry for him.

“Qin Feng! Surely, a miserable day for you!” Zhou Hao muttered. “You fell down and blacked out this morning, then you were bitten by the razor-fanged infants. Should you go find a light ability user and ask for a blessing or something?”

“Are they that easy to find?” Qin Feng chuckled.

He did not think that he was unlucky today. In fact, he felt extremely fortunate.

How many people in history could start afresh, respawning like in some video game after they had died?

12“Alright, I’m just saying, you know!” Zhou Hao smiled.

“Mm. Oh, right, I have something I need to do. You should go back to school first.” Qin Feng stopped suddenly.

“Qin Feng… are you still going to work? Don’t go yet! This is the best time for awakening. You don’t want to delay it.”

Zhou Hao’s statement caught Qin Feng by surprise. He pondered for a bit before remembering that he did indeed have a job ten years ago.

Zhou Hao’s parents were still around and healthy. He even had a brother. While they were considered of average status in the colony, they had jobs that paid them well enough to raise Zhou Hao comfortably, albeit, minus some comforts in life.

TBC...
Source: Master of the End Times - ExtraNovel.com

Chapter 3: Creatures From The Rift: Razor-Fanged Infants

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Qin Feng pushed Zhou Hao aside and swung a fist at the razor-fanged infant.

He was much slower than the monster, yet as if by coincidence, when he threw the punch, the razor-fanged infant came towards its head first.

Bam!

It sounded like the squishing of a grand, big, juicy watermelon. Red and greyish brain matter splattered everywhere.

1Qin Feng frowned at this—not because the scene was too gruesome but the flesh on his knuckles that had been ripped off by the force of that strike.

Too weak! Qin Feng could not remember the last time he possessed such a frail and puny body.

4But when he narrowed his eyes slightly, his tea-colored iris darkened as dark as night; an invisible strength came through the monster infant’s body into his.

2The wound on his hand quickly turned into a scab. It shed off, completely healing itself as if he had never been injured in the first place.

This was Qin Feng’s talent!

Absorption!

1Qin Feng’s expression was a mixture of surprise and excitement!

He recalled how in his past life, he thought that he was invincible as his abilities had been awakened. He had been so excited that he had announced it to the world. In the end, his talent had been robbed from him and was only left with the ability to absorb dead monsters’ self-strengthening abilities. That little bit of power had barely helped him to survive.

6Right now, his talent was not destroyed. Did that mean that he was much stronger?

Qin Feng could feel that after he absorbed the energy from the razor-fanged infant, his physical body had gotten a lot tougher. A total of ten razor-fanged infants could at least boost his physique to G2 tier.

If that was the case, what was he waiting for then?

2Qin Feng had not felt so excited in such a long time now!

When they saw their kind getting killed, the razor-fanged infants charged angrily towards the attacker from afar.

Two monsters flanked Qin Feng. One on the left and the other on the right.

Qin Feng shuffled backward, evading the attempt to close in on him.

He reached into his waist and pulled out a small dagger less than fifteen centimeters, and took a calculated slash at one of the razor-fanged infants.

Argh!!!

The monster’s throat was sliced open, and its tiny body dropped to the ground, its neck and head clinging to each other only by a layer of skin.

1Fresh, warm blood spilled all over the ground.

Qin Feng raised a leg and kicked the second razor-fanged baby, sending it sliding three meters backward.

5So, as to not waste this opportunity, Qin Feng threw himself at the creature and swished the dagger downwards, plunging it into the razor-fanged infant’s chest, not stopping until he could he feel the blade hit the hard ground!

3One of the razor-fanged infants let out a shrill cry that resembled a cat yowling. The noise, which also sounded a little bit like a baby crying, drew another group of infants toward Qin Feng.

The latter remained composed as he made some calculations on how to tackle the creatures sequentially.

1His rich experience in battling was more than enough to help him combat these unsightly abominations of nature.

The only thing was, his body could not catch up with his rhythm. All around him, the monsters were slowly closing on him, ready to tear him apart.

Then, it pounced without warning!

Crunch!!!

One of them sank their teeth into Qin Feng, sending a blinding shock in the thick soup of his brain.

4Paralyzing pain in his punctured calf seared through the entire leg.

But that was not the scariest part. At the same time, another one of the creatures jumped for his neck.

Danger was approaching. No. Here it was!

Qin Feng raised a hand in an attempt to shield his neck with his arm.

The infant’s razor-sharp fangs dug into the flesh of Qin Feng’s arm. At least his neck was protected.

“Die!” Qin Feng roared, slamming his arm onto the floor.

The infant let out a piercing cry, as bones and asphalt came crashing together in unholy matrimony. The beast on Qin Feng’s arm was squashed.

4Another one of the creatures saw the chance and leaped.

Its attack was surgical—the position it had chosen perfect. Its mouth opened so wide as if about to swallow Qin Feng’s head whole.

1Qin Feng’s pupils dilated.

Just then, a snow-white baseball came to the rescue, knocking down that razor-fangs infant.

Zhou Hao appeared in front of Qin Feng. Although his body was shaking violently, he did not stop, swinging around and striking the monster latched on his friend’s calf.

1“Let go, beast! Monster! Let go!”

6However, he controlled his exertion of force in fear of hurting Qin Feng.

After a few violent thumps and only after the razor-fanged infant’s head was finally smashed in, did Qin Feng shake off the monster.

The injuries were healing quickly, but, on the surface, Qin Feng was gravely injured.

Zhou Hao trembled uncontrollably, bursting with adrenaline, face flushed, and gulping in large mouthfuls of fresh air.

5Such intense, unstopping action was all too much to bear!

2When he turned around to look at the wounds on Qin Feng’s body, what he saw left him in shock.

“Qin Feng! Are you alright?”

“No problem!” Qin Feng shook his head.

The patrol team was finally here, dutifully dispersing the crowd and slowly retaking the entire street.

“Should we leave?” Zhou Hao did not know what to do in a situation like this.

“No need!” Qin Feng answered. “It’s just this one rift. Now that the patrol team is here, it should be a lot safer!”

Indeed, it was just one rift. But in the previous life, Qin Feng had not been around. The razor-fanged infants had spread out all over the place like a plague and killed swathes of people, Zhou Hao included.

Thank goodness, all of that was over!

The flames on the space stabilizer had been extinguished. All up and running, a silver ray exploded from it.

Then, before Qin Feng and Zhou Hao’s eyes, the rift began to grow smaller until it gradually disappeared.

This was the first time Zhou Hao had such a phenomenon, leaving his jaw hanging open in amazement.

Beep! Beep!

“Street number 12 is cleared. Head-count in progress!”

“Thirteen deaths in total! Still counting causalities!”

“Secured!”

The patrol team passed them by, grimly confirming the death toll. Qin Feng calmly watched all of them, not making a single move.

On the contrary, Zhou Hao’s initial excitement had disappeared, and his face had turned a ghostly white.

And just like that, the flame of life had been extinguished. In such a brief period, thirteen people had lost their lives.

If it had not been for Qin Feng, more people would have died.

A man wearing the patrol team’s medal over his chest walked up to Qin Feng.



COMMENT

The patrol team was the police in the colony. As humans were such destructive beings, whenever a fight broke out, it would, in all likeliness, lead to a one-sided slaughter where the strong killed the weak.

3That was how the patrol team emerged, maintaining law and order to protect the very core of the colony’s safety.

That being said, the colony was, at times, not a particularly safe place either.

“Did you kill these two razor-fanged infants? Not bad, not bad at all! That’s sure looked promising, young man!” The man smiled. He was not very tall, about 1.7 meters and a little mellow. But Qin Feng would never look down on him!

Chapter 2: Space Stabilizing Device

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

The space stabilizing device above their heads was a thing the people relied on to survive, the most powerful weapon protecting the colony.

But now that the machine had malfunctioned, the waves invisible to the naked eye that stabilized space was gradually disappearing.

Everyone who noticed this breakdown was alarmed at first before breaking out into a panicked frenzy!

“What is happening to the space stabilizing device?! Is it broken?” Zhou Hao asked, his voice trembling.

“Does that mean…” Before Chen Ming could even complete his sentence, an alarm on their wristwatches started blaring loudly.

[Warning! Warning! A space rift is opening in a hundred meters. Unidentified organisms are about to appear!]

A tear in space?!

This was the culprit! The thing responsible for the fall of mankind, the reason humankind had fallen from the dominant force of nature to the bottom tier on the food chain.

There was a set deepness in Qin Feng’s eyes. His skinny and frail back had now straightened up, and from head to toe, he was on guard, neither shocked nor alarmed.

That was because he had come prepared.

5In his previous life, the exact situation had happened at this exact time.

Since Qin Feng had been unconscious, Zhou Hao had decided to bring him inside for the injection. Once he had also received his dose, he had slumped Qin Feng over his shoulders and carried him out.

By the time he had left the research institution, he was already awake. However, now, the space stabilizing device was damaged, a rift had torn in space, the ferocious beast attacked, and Zhou Hao had died while saving Qin Feng.

3As for where Chen Ming was at that time…

Qin Feng was just trying to recall that information when, in reality, Chen Ming presented him with the answer.

“Run! Better run fast!” Chen Ming shouted before quickly disappearing.

They were all students who had undergone mid-tier education. Each one of them came with able bodies and respectable combat power. It only took Chen Ming two seconds to put about ten meters of distance between them.

Qin Feng’s expression grew cold.

If this was the previous experience, then he was a total joke back then!

Zhou Hao had died for him, and here was Chen Ming walking away so casually, downplaying the abandonment of his brothers.

4That wretch!

1Zhou Hao was also stunned for a moment. Then, propelled by Chen Ming’s reaction, he too decided it was best to run.

“Hurry! Let’s run!” he grabbed Qin Feng by the arm and pulled.

But Qin Feng did not budge.

Realizing his friend had become motionless, Zhou Hao turned around, his face crumpled in fear and distress, forehead lined with beads of cold sweat.

“Qin Feng, are you not feeling well? Can you still run? Hurry, we have to go! How about I carry you?!” Zhou Hao babbled, not waiting for Qin Feng’s answer, ready to flee!

And rightly so too, for they were brothers.

Qin Feng, on the other hand, felt sharp stabbing heat shoot down his chest like a volcanic eruption, causing a stinging pain in his heart.

“I’m alright. I’m good. I’m terrific, in fact! Thank goodness the gods gave me a second chance so that I can redeem all of this. I’ve lost a hypocrite, but at least I still have a true brother!

We can’t go there. We don’t know where the tear is exactly, so the safest place right now is the research institute!” Qin Feng reckoned.

2Zhou Hao was stunned for a moment but quickly regained his composure. “We have other classmates in there too, goddamnit! Hurry, let’s go back!”

The guy had always been like that. Warm and friendly, always looking out for other people.

This, to Qin Feng, who had suffered and struggled for a decade before his rebirth, was absolutely invaluable! You couldn’t put a price on those things.

“Let’s go!” Qin Feng started to run. Although the demeaning prospects of a weak and small body bothered him somewhat, it was brimming with vigor and energy.

6They turned around the corner of an alley and out into the main road. The drivers in the cars were honking at each other. Being so busy trying to get away, they rammed into each other in uncoordinated panic, causing traffic to come to a standstill.

Just then, in the sky three meters above the road, a tear gradually formed. Within it was pitch-black darkness, and surrounding it was a ring of silver light—the materialization of space elements.

“Rift!!!” Zhou Hao looked terrified.

No matter how many times they had learned about it in school, he was petrified, this being his first time seeing the actual thing. No one knew what kind of creatures were lurking behind the crack, waiting for the slightest opportunity to pounce out. It could be the devil himself, for all we knew, coming to destroy the world.

The rift was expanding ever so slowly. It was only about half a meter long and thirty centimeters wide, but the potent disorientation from something so alien in nature had the people on the road screaming their heads off, leaving their cars behind and running for their lives.

The tear did not stop expanding.

And then, all of a sudden, from the midst of the rift, a figure appeared.

It looked like a soft-skinned, and slightly bloated baby. Bathed in a strange yellow and green color, a terrible stench came out from its hair.

5The infant crawled with much difficulty out of the crack and then dropped down onto the ground.

Falling from such heights should have caused death, or at the very least, injuries. The baby’s arms and legs, however, were still mobile. Picking itself up, it raised its massive head, allowing people to see what the grotesque incarnation looked like.

1Alright, alright. That was not a baby. It was a monster, one with a pair of humongous semi-convexed scarlet eyeballs, disproportionately larger than its deformed head. Its unnaturally vast mouth resembling a demented clown stretched far to its ears, revealing a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth. And unlike a human, its teeth had the sharpness of a wolf, easily able to tear through the toughest of flesh.

They were man-eating creatures!

1“It’s a razor-fanged infant!!!” the crowd screamed in utter, unabashed horror.

A razor-fanged infant, according to the federal textbook, was the lowest category of G3 monsters, but it had a very special trait—it lived in a group!

So, as the first razor-fanged infant landed, the second, and third appeared right after. These razor-fanged infant’s crawl may look clumsy, but whenever a prey caught their large eyes, they would suddenly pick up speed and leap into the air, viciously tearing at their victim’s throats with their sharp teeth!

“Arghhh!!!” A man screamed. He swiftly drew the weapon strapped on his waist and pointed it at the infant abomination!

Bang!

The unmistakable sound of gunfire echoed in the streets. The already chaotic road had now turned into hell.

Four to five razor-fanged infants were killing people, freely devouring them on the streets like wolves among a flock of sheep.



COMMENT

One of them pounced on Zhou Hao.

Zhou Hao’s eyes widened, and his mind went completely blank as he scrambled to find a way to defend himself. Like it was in all textbooks, they were merely unsubstantial, general bullshit that gave its reader little to imagine what a real situation would be like. The grappling techniques they had learned were not fast enough to cope with the creature’s devilish speed and tiny stature.

Of course, this was also due to the constraints of strength. Even a sixteen-year-old teenager who had just awakened his abilities and force was only at G1 tier.

At that very moment, a pair of skinny yet strong hands shoved Zhou Hao aside hard!

Zhou Hao recognized that silhouette!

It was Qin Feng!!

TBC...
Source: Master of the End Times - ExtraNovel.com

Chapter 1: A Decade Before Rebirth

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Doctors in spotless white garbs darted in and out of the wards of a steel building with floors as clean and shiny as mirrors. This facility was at the colony’s research institutions in the new area outside of the Chengyang suburb.

Sitting anxiously outside the waiting room was a group of fresh-faced teenagers looking terrified and excited at the same time.

Ding! Ding! Dong!

“Number 2318, Qin Feng. Please head to injection area 3!”

“It’s my turn!” The young man got up quickly. He was so nervous that his legs were unsteady, and he tripped over himself, falling to the ground with a loud thud.

Anyone could tell just how bad that fall was.

“Ah! Qin Feng!” Zhou Hao shouted as he watched this horrifying spectacle unfold, hurrying over to help his friend.

To his surprise, Qin Feng was unconscious!

13“What the hell. What kind of joke is this, Qin Feng? How can you pass out at such an important time? Wake up! It’s your turn to get the awakening elixir injections!”

1In the year 2200, the world had undergone a drastic change—mankind, after 2000 years of reign, had now fallen the bottom of the food chain.

4But because sharp ability users and mighty ancient warriors as such existed among humankind, they were able to sustain lebensraum. It was also all about the premise of an awakened ability user or warrior getting the injection of awakening potion at the age of sixteen.

13This meant that, at the point in time where he was in the opportunity to experience a meteoric rise in his life, Qin Feng lost consciousness instead. Zhou Hao was in a flap.

Ding-Ding Dong!

The loudspeaker chimed again, and an echoey voice hollered, “Number 2318, Qin Feng. Please head to injection area 3!”

The reverberating noise would only add a splitting headache to Qin Feng’s already chaotic mind.

‘I’m not dead?’ A thought flashed in his mind. How was he alive? When he defeated that unidentified beast king, he had died with it.

1The voices in his ears were starting to sound more precise.

“Ah! You know what, Chen Ming, just come here and help me get Qin Feng there. He still has to get his injection even if he’s unconscious!” Zhou Hao lamented to the person next to him.

2This had Qin Feng taken aback.

Chen Ming?! How could it be? Why was Chen Ming here? Was he the one who had brought all these dangers here?

1But who was this other person fussing over him then? Why did it sound so familiar, so distinct as if it was there in his mind and yet, so far away?

Next to Qin Feng and Zhou Hao, Chen Ming’s eyes glinted.

Qin Feng, Chen Ming, and Zhou Hao were the top three students in mid-tier college.

The only thing was, Chen Ming knew that he was never going to be as good as Qin Feng or Zhou Hao.

His fists curled up momentarily. His palms were sweaty, and his eyes were gleaming.

1“Zhou Hao, I don’t think that’s a good idea. The doctor will blame us. Also, we should get someone to take a look at Qin Feng, just in case he’s really hurt.” Those were all words of concern, but in reality, he wanted Qin Feng to miss his injection.

“But, this injection is a big thing…” Zhou Hao was starting to panic and was a little out of his wits.

“Let’s bring him aside so he can rest!” Chen Ming walked over and knelt to pick Qin Feng up.

“No!” The young man said hoarsely, still a little hazy. No one knew what Qin Feng had experienced while he was unconscious.

Was it just a dream of grandeur, or was it reality?

All Qin Feng knew was that the emotions sustained from the additional past decade were all too clear in his memories.

He pushed himself off the ground. The innocence on his face had disappeared, becoming more profound. There was even a twinkle of sharpness in his gaze.

8Chen Ming froze as a chill ran down his spine, making him feel as if he was standing naked before Qin Feng, all his secrets exposed, and Qin Feng seeing through all that grime in his heart.

2But it was only a fleeting moment. Qin Feng looked away from Chen Ming and looked at Zhou Hao.

1There was a speck of red in his eyes.

In his memories, Zhou Hao, this guy who was like his own brother, had died because of him when they were sixteen. But here he was, standing in front of him, perfectly fine and guileless, looking like he was indeed sixteen.

Then suddenly, Qin Feng understood it all.

He was reborn—back to the time when he was sixteen—the day of the awakening elixir injection.

8Ding! Dong! Ding! Dong!

“Number 2318, Qin Feng. Please head to injection area 3!”

“I have to go!” Qin Feng nodded at Zhou Hao. This time, his footsteps were steady, not the hasty scuttle he had stumbled out earlier on, and there was even a domineering air about it.

Since the heavens had given him once more chance, he would not let the events in the previous life continue to happen.

2Qin Feng curled his hands into a fist and walked to the injection area.

A tube of turquoise substance was injected into his veins.

“The awakening elixir will awaken your abilities and strengthen your talents. The stronger the talent, the sooner the awakening. In one month, your perceptions of the surroundings, strength, and speed, would grow exponentially. Even without the extra abilities, you will at least have the lowest-level of a good physique. I advise you to increase training during this period!”

“Mm. Thank you, doctor!” Qin Feng took in a deep breath of air. He could already sense an unusual aura emerging from the depths of his body.

But he made no mention of it, even doing his best to conceal his aura to keep it from spreading. A smile crept across his face.

The stronger the talent, the faster its awakening!

It was only one minute after the injection, and his abilities were already emerging. What kind of talent was this?

Unfortunately, in his previous life, before he could even begin to enjoy this talent, he was persecuted, then put through a painful experiment that stripped him of his abilities before getting thrown into the shark-infested waters. While he managed to survive, he was incapable of confronting the enemy.

15He was practically useless then!

But now…

Perhaps he might not be able to go head to head against that organization for the time being, but their henchman, he would not let off the hook.

As he was pondering over that thought, Chen Ming appeared in front of him.

Qin Feng smiled knowingly at him, making him shudder!

1What was it? Then why was Qin Feng so strange today? Why did it feel so dangerous? Chen Ming couldn’t put the finger on those muddled feelings.

“So, how was it, Qin Feng? Were there any reactions?” Zhou Hao asked excitedly.

“No!” Qin Feng shook his head.

Zhou Hao looked disappointed. His shoulders were sagging inches lower as he sighed. “Whatever. If the three of us show no response, then others probably won’t either. Let’s go back and continue training.”

“Mm, let’s go!”

The three left the building.

Qin Feng had not been back here for many years.

This was just one of the large colonies in the outskirts of Chengyang, a sprawling cesspool of reinforced concrete buildings, so suffocating that even breathing within its cramped confines deemed a challenge. Hovering a few hundred meters in the skies above was a giant floating machine that bore a resemblance to a satellite.

The object in question turned out to be a space stabilization device—the only thing that guaranteed the safety of the colony.

‘It should be happening soon,’ Qin Feng thought.

And then, without warning, the piece of space equipment suddenly burst into flames!