Chance Encounter: Part 1

There was a ritual matrix diagram on the list, and beneath the diagram was a chant in Ancient Rehn.

At the very bottom, there was another small row of words.

"Annie, your spiritual powers can only increase once at the most. Remember, restrain your greed."

"Annie? Ritual sacrifice?" Lin Sheng was astounded, and as he focused on the last line of words, his instincts told him that he may have chanced upon a treasure trove!

All of the items listed were not things that he had not heard of before.

"If I could use this ritual in the real world…"

Before he could react, strands of black smoke appeared from the corpse and formed into a black line that stabbed into his chest.

Lin Sheng's head shook as a huge surge of the swordswoman's memory roiled in his head.

Image after image flashed past his eyes.

"Annie, do you love me?"

"Annie, you shouldn't hold a sword that way. You need to move your wrist like that."

"This ritual needs a living sacrifice. It can awaken the blood within your body using an evil power as a conduit… If your will is weak, do not use it."

"Ugh…"

Lin Sheng grabbed his head because it felt like it would explode at any time.

He put his hand on the wall and tried to catch a breather.

A sudden bone-biting gust blew, and goosebumps appeared all over his body.

He tried to roll to the left to dodge, but he was still too slow.

The headache had dulled his reaction.

*Ufff!*

A massive black war ax brutally cleaved into his neck and tore his body into a Y shape.

*Uhh… Uhh...*

As blood spurted out, Lin Sheng's vision blackened. The last thing he saw was a powerful figure about two meters tall...

And the figure was slowly pulling the bloodied ax out of his body.

...

Lin Sheng jumped out of bed, his body cold, and his face pale.

"Bloody hell, ambushing me while I was absorbing the memories!" Aside from preventing his body from being hacked into two, the Ashen Seal had no other effect because the power of the dark shadow was just too strong.

"But I remember the details… ingredients, matrix… and manner of the ritual in the fragmented memories."

Lin Sheng got off his bed and turned on the table lamp as he pulled his notebook out of the drawer. He jotted down the details of the ritual sacrifice.

What surprised him was that the ritual required him to use some kind of tonal rhythm, which originated from an unknown language, as an initiating phrase.

It was not Ancient Rehn or any other language he knew, rather it was like a meaningless note that was cobbled together.

The memory fragments showed that the girl called Annie had recited it many times over to memorize it, and that made it easy for him.

"Human blood, deer blood, sequoia, silver powder… I could probably secure all these items. It's just the blood from the whole body of three adults… I'm not sure if the hospital sells them or not..." Lin Sheng wondered.

It was a new experience for him after all.

If he could use the knowledge from the ritual in the real world, that would help him immensely.

He had tested it out; no matter what kind of injury he received in the dream, his body would not be affected when he returned to reality.

Similarly, no matter what kind of training he underwent in the dream, it would be non-effective by the time he woke up.

He had trained his muscles hard in the dream realm, but when he woke up and trained again, it was sore once more due to lack of training.

"That means that what happens in the dream won't be reflected in reality. And that means the only thing I can get from there is information and knowledge; stuff like the Ashen Seal, like this ritual..."

Lin Sheng now understood.

He would focus on such items from then on.

Taking a glance at the clock, it was only a quarter past four in the morning.

Lin Sheng lay on his bed again and turned off the light as he tried to get some sleep. But after gaining knowledge of the ritual, his hands were itching to try it out.

That feeling left him sleepless.

After rolling around on the bed until five, he still could not sleep, and he was getting increasingly excited about it.

"Blergh, let's go for a walk instead."

Lin Sheng got up immediately and put on his clothes. Then he grabbed his sword case and left the house.

As he left the Huilian area, Lin Sheng walked on slowly along the street.

The clouds were moving slowly in the sky while a golden ray was slowly appearing in the east, dying the clouds gold.

Not many shops were open at that hour in the morning.

Lin Sheng ran all the way to the bridge about three kilometers away from his house before he slowed down.

Beneath the bridge were a few homeless vagrants curling up in their dirty blankets, fast asleep.

Lin Sheng turned his vision away from the vagrants as a car sped across the bridge.

He walked down the staircase by the side of the bridge toward the path above the tunnel, which was under the bridge.

It was the only pathway across the bridge.

A few beautiful girls with long hair appeared on the opposite end.

They were probably in their twenties. Their faces were adorned with light makeup, and they had long legs long as well as slim waists. Additionally, they were all wearing long woolen skirts and thick silk stockings, chatting playfully while walking.

"Probably models." Lin Sheng noticed a bespectacled girl with a camera behind them.

As the girls closed in and saw the black box on Lin Sheng's back, they gave him a curious glance.

It did not seem like a violin case, probably a case for a long flute or something.

"Lin Sheng?"

A guttural male voice suddenly boomed up from the top side.

Lin Sheng paused for a moment before he looked up.

Over at the edge of the bridge was a dark-skinned man wearing a fitting black singlet.

The man looked down with a black leather jacket draped over his back. There was also a silver cross hanging in front of his chest.

Lin Sheng squinted as he loosened his grip, letting the black box fall into his hand.

"What's up?"

The girls by the side were drawn by the commotion too, and they slowly turned their faces as they looked on.

"Are they shooting a scene?"

"Not sure. That guy up there sounds so clear even when he's so far away. Is there a speaker or something?"

The man stepped onto the railing as his massive frame somehow squeezed through the rails.

He took off his coat and displayed the perfect muscles on his back. But more importantly, he pulled out a black handgun from his waist.

The gun spun about in his hand for a bit before it was held tightly.

"Times are different now," the man calmly said. "We will end up being forgotten, but before that, even if people take us for a fool, I shall persist."

He then placed the gun on the railing.

"Let's duke this out!"

He took a step and leaped down from the top of the bridge, his figure blocking the sun.

Lin Shen narrowed his eyes and immediately stepped back. He then played his box in a straight layout and blasted it open.

A sword thrust, as quick as lightning, darted straight toward the man.

*Clang!*

The two of them collided violently.

God knew when the man had put on a pair of black metal gauntlets, and his fists parried Lin Sheng's thrusting form.

The powerful shock wave hit Lin Sheng and sent him back.

Lin Sheng instantly stepped to the side and spun his blade, his strike aimed at the man's chest.