Way of the Devil

“Good afternoon, everyone. I’m the owner of Clear Spring Café. We sincerely apologize for our incompetence in handling the disturbance just now. Therefore, I hereby announce that all bills will enjoy a 50% discount.”

The girl bowed to all customers in apology.

Although there were not many customers, everyone raised their cup with a smile.

Lu Sheng raised his cup with a smile as well. This small matter was settled. However, when he got ready to leave after finishing his coffee, a waiter walked up to him and placed an invitation letter on his table.

“Dear sir, there’ll be a coffee tasting event here tomorrow. It’s customary for the boss to send out an invitation to all customers who insist on tasting the original taste of coffee. If you’re interested, you’re highly welcome to be here at the stated time. The boss will have her collection of rare coffee beans on display, and customers will be allowed to taste them. Do come if you’re interested.”

“Alright.” Lu Sheng accepted the invitation letter. Then, he stood up and exited the café.

He had been leading a quiet life for so long that he was starting to get uneasy.

Lu Sheng had moved out from the dragon cave a long time ago. He left the place to the organization he’d built. It was now used as a base where the subordinates were stationed.

He bought a mansion in Level City, near Dawn City. He usually stayed here.

There were many beggars in Level City. He heard that there had been a famine due to the poor harvest. The price of food skyrocketed, and the economy plummeted. Many of the common folk could not withstand the blow and resorted to begging.

On his way back to his mansion, Lu Sheng saw a handful of people lying on the roadside. They were starved to the point of dying.

There were several wild cats and dogs which similarly looked like bags of bones. The animals were waiting for the humans to breathe their last, and then they would pounce on the warm corpses and have a feast.

Lu Sheng even saw a person hugging a ghastly pale infant.

The infant was on its dying breath. There was no color on its face or lips due to starvation.

The horse carriages of the nobles would pass along the streets occasionally, splattering fine dots of soil on these pitiable beggars.

Everything seemed like a scene from a dirty and chaotic medieval famine.

Lu Sheng did not have the leisure to empathize and help them. Controlling his own powers so that these commoners would not be affected was his greatest show of mercy to the mortals.

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Lu Sheng made a customary turn at the end of the street. When he passed by a closed bookstore, he suddenly heard a hurried sound of wind shooting past the top of his head to the right.

Shortly after, several other sounds of the sonic barrier breaking could be heard. They seemed to be chasing the first sound.

A faint crying sound of an infant was carried through the air.

Lu Sheng stopped in his tracks. He sensed the five people on a chase swiftly leaving his vicinity. He ignored them and continued on toward his house.

Although occasions of such hunts were rare, this was not his first time witnessing it. Level City was not a peaceful city to begin with.

Lu Sheng continued walking along the road and reached the iron gates of his own mansion in no time.

Usually, he would take out his keys, enter through the iron gates, order his butler to prepare a hot meal, and then he would rest.

However, at this moment, Lu Sheng slowly stopped.

On the right side of the mansion’s iron gates, there was a compartment hidden in a dent in the rock column. The compartment was meant for an oil lamp.

However, at this moment, the oil lamp was no longer there. In its place was a huge pair of clear and bright eyes.

The eyes were pure and blank. They resembled the most brilliant starlight and gemstones.

An infant.

It was an infant the hunted person had been hugging tightly just moments ago. The infant had been left here.

If this infant had let out as much as a cry during the pursuit, it would have been impossible for it to survive for this long in hiding.

The peculiar thing was that the infant did not cry even when Lu Sheng walked up to the gates.

Lu Sheng and the infant exchanged glances in stunned silence.

“You’re just as fat as my son.” His gaze suddenly calmed down.

His surroundings were quiet. Lu Sheng calmed himself down for a while. He slowly reached out and held the infant.

He slid his hands under.

“It’s a girl. A good girl,” he praised. “Since you’re fated with me, you should just stay with me.”

The infant stared at him blankly. Her eyes were pure and clean. There was nothing in them.

When she heard him speak those words, her lips arced in a sweet smile.

***

15 years later…

“My name’s Lu Hongye. I’m the daughter of a simple merchant. My father runs a shop selling antiques and trinkets. My mother left us when I was very young. My father and I are the only ones in the house now. When I was 10, my father told me that he had picked me up from the streets and would toss me back into the streets if I’m naughty. My friends had similar experiences, their parents liked to educate them with this tactic as well. When I was 12, Father and I moved to Dawn City, hundreds of miles away. He continued running his antique business here. I kept telling Father to find another wife and not to waste his youth, but Father would always stay silent and change the topic of the conversation. Father loves me very much, but I don’t want this love to become a shackle for him. So… I’d like to ask, where can I repair my spectacles? I accidentally broke them in the morning, and I can’t seem to find a place that repairs them.”

“…”

Dawn City, Gerna Academy, Class 4-1.

The students stared blankly at Lu Hongye who was cracking a bad joke with a straight face.

The class teacher had asked them to introduce themselves since this was a newly formed special training class. But now…

“As humorless as always.” Lu Hongye walked off the dais, expressionless.

“Boring world, boring life.” She looked at the dazed faces before herself. Her expression was calm.

‘When Dad told me this joke, I laughed so hard that my tummy ached. These people… they have no sense of humor at all.’

After a moment of silence, the class teacher cleared her throat and told the next student to come up and introduce himself.

Lu Hongye sat through the dull classes, listening to the inconsequential contents taught until the school day ended.

The sun was setting. The streets and alleys were all cast in a red shade.

Lu Hongye kicked at the pebbles on the road as she carried her bag with a single hand. She did not mind her black-and-white checkered miniskirt school uniform.

Her golden hair sometimes fell onto her face. Annoyed, she pulled her hair back and tied it in a ponytail.

She kept strolling and wandering. 30 minutes later, she finally managed to complete the journey which should have only taken her 10 minutes.

She stood before a slightly old little mansion.

She fished out her keys with familiar movements and went in. The old butler was watering the plants in the garden.

“Hello, old man Hank.”

“Hello, my lady.” The old butler nodded with a smile. He carried on with his task.

Lu Hongye jogged all the way into the living room. Her father was sitting on the couch, enjoying his coffee while reading the papers. His toned muscles formed pronounced contours on his body. They looked like boulders.

“You’re back.” Her father put the papers down and frowned at the shabby clothes she was wearing. “Do you remember what I’ve told you before?”

Lu Hongye clearly saw an ice-cold gleam in her father’s eyes.

She shuddered. She suddenly realized that she had forgotten to tidy herself up before entering the door. She hastily tucked in her shirt and straightened the hem of her skirt.

Her father nodded slowly, and asked, “How was your day in school with your new classmates?”

“It was good. Everything was fine.” Lu Hongye laughed drily. She had a face that could be counted as pretty, but she had a set of sharp, pointed eyebrows. She had a gender-neutral beauty which looked sharp and heroic at the same time. However, her gender-neutral face was wearing a flattering smile now.

“Go freshen yourself up. Finish your homework for today,” her father continued.

“Alright…” Lu Hongye dragged the last syllable with a helpless tone.

Ever since she hugged a harp on a whim when she was eight years old, it was the beginning of her grueling journey of harp practice.

She had been practicing for seven years since she was eight. She had experienced many hardships and setbacks. She had thought of giving up many times, but with her cold and stern father here, any mention of giving up would earn her a good beating.

When such experiences became commonplace, Lu Hongye began resigning herself to her fate. She would have an hour of harp practice every single day without fail. Throughout the years, she gradually formed a habit.

She quickly went up the second floor and walked into her bedroom.

Lu Hongye parted the curtains to air her room. Then, she closed the door. She walked up to her wardrobe, about to open it.

“Help! Help!” Suddenly, a faint voice came from within her wardrobe.

Lu Hongye was stunned. She opened the wardrobe slightly.

With a tearing sound, a golden shadow instantly shot out of the slit.

“Help!” The shadow flew in a circle and suddenly landed on Lu Hongye’s shoulder as it panted.

“That was close. I nearly suffocated there!”

Lu Hongye blinked and stared at the little creature.

“A golden… lizard?”

“I’ve finally found you, Your Highness Shar!” the little lizard said in the tongue of men. It appeared as if it had endured countless trials and hardships.

“Shar? Your Highness?” Lu Hongye was stunned. “Who’re you? I’m sure you’ve gotten the wrong person.”

She had heard about the existence of magical and spiritual beasts, but those were from the novels.

“No! She’s not mistaken. Your Esteemed Highness Shar, at long last, we’ve found you…”

Before she knew it, a masked maiden with a slender build had appeared in her room. The maiden knelt with one knee on the floor. Short spears were crossed on her back. She emitted a faint but fierce aura.

Lu Hongye blinked blankly. She was currently at a loss.

“Your Highness, 14 years ago, I was hunted down and have placed you on the doorsteps of this house out of helplessness. That was how I managed to escape with my life. Now that the disaster has passed and the enemy is powerless to reach us, I finally had the time to come back for you,” said the masked maiden with a straight face.

A lizard that spoke the human language, a masked maiden with exceptional abilities, and a soul-stirring, legendary past that could be put into song.

Half an hour later, the clumsy Lu Hongye learned about her actual background from these two.

She was the youngest princess of the legendary Golden Dragon Tribe. Her father was betrayed and assassinated in the Golden Dragon King Tower.

Her mother had been poisoned and died during an internal feud. The only one left with the dragon king’s bloodline was her.

The Golden Dragon Tribe was currently facing an unprecedented crisis. Only the dragon king’s bloodline could activate the inheritance of the kings and bring the hope of salvation to the tribe.

Hence, the lizard and the masked maiden came here to implore Lu Hongye to lead the dragon king’s tribe to restore the Golden Dragon Tribe.

“…” Lu Hongye listened to the entire story in a daze. She looked at the lizard and the maiden blankly.

“Your Highness, you should make haste and return with us! Time is of the essence, we won’t make it in time if we dally any further!” said the girl in an anxious tone.

Lu Hongye pointed at herself, stunned, and said, “Are you telling me that I’m not an ordinary person since my birth? I’m some Golden Dragon King’s princess?”

“That’s right!”

Lu Hongye pointed at herself again, and continued, “You’re also telling me that I’m born with an extremely powerful royal bloodline, with boundless strength and shocking magic power?”

“You are correct, Your Highness!” The two of them hastily nodded.

“You’re also telling me that I have this inheritance of the kings, and my bloodline is the only thing—”

“Lu Hongye! Why aren’t you playing your harp yet!? Do you want to die!?”

Suddenly, a furious shout came from the door.

Lu Hongye’s hair stood on ends. She was so startled that she nearly jumped from the bed. The voice even sent tremors throughout the room.

She stammered as she responded, “I… I know! I’m… p-playing it now!”

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