Prologue

""some of you may already know the original translation of The Great Demon King, but this isn't just a simple translation, it is an improved one.""

"Consider yourself lucky! apart from astronauts, you are the first person to set foot on the moon… And it didn't even cost you a penny!"

The one who was speaking to him was a strange old man with hooked facial features like an eagle's. He wore strange clothing that billowed sinisterly. The old man smiled ominously as he watched a young man encased in some kind of thin shell that seemed to be made of purple glass.

The young man must have been around twenties years old and was only wearing underpants printed with flowery designs. His physical build corresponded to that of a person accustomed to a sedentary life, although his calves had some muscle. The expression on his face reflected the deep contempt he felt for his interlocutor, while he watched with great anxiety inside his cage.

"I've had enough, you fucking geezer! What do you want?! Why did you bring me here?!"

Han Shuo was full of anger. Until a few moments ago he had been about to enjoy a cold and refreshing shower to relieve himself from the heat of a particularly hot summer day, but he had not even had time to fully undress when suddenly a white light flashed in front of his eyes and then this strange old man appeared out of nowhere. The intruder simply told him: "The dates match" and immediately grabbed Han Shuo by the neck with monstrous strength, and then jumped out of the tenth-floor window of the apartment building where he lived; greatly terrifying the young man who already did not stand out for his courage.

Han Shuo closed his eyes and shouted in a frantic manner, but instead of the inevitable impact against the pavement that he was expecting, he felt himself landing softly. When he finally dared to look around him, he discovered to his dismay that he found himself in a bleak, desolate, and barren place, the appearance of which did not change no matter where he looked. The entire land looked scarred, as if he had been the victim of severe burns.

It was then that the intruder informed him that he was on the Moon.

For some reason, Han Shuo and that strange man could communicate easily, possibly due to some mysterious property of the strange shell he was encased in. The strangest thing was that there was enough oxygen inside the cage for him to breathe easily and protect himself from the horrors of the vacuum in outer space.

"Listen carefully, I'm not going to repeat it. My name is Chu Cang Lan and in a few moments, I will face three individuals in a death match to fulfill my goal of destroying the laws that govern heaven and earth. This will allow me to ascend to the apex of the path of evil: the KINGDOM OF ONES. However, while individually those guys don't present a challenge, I'm not sure what will happen if they join forces against me."

The old man smiled before continuing "To ensure my survival I need the help of someone with the same date of birth as me and that's where you come in. If I am unfortunate enough to fall in battle, then I will summon one of the most powerful magic I know of and implant my consciousness within your soul. This way I can use your body to revive myself and save myself from death!"

Chu Cang Lan explained all of this to him with perfect calmness as he never averted his gaze from Han Shuo. But though his tone was meant to be gentle, there was a clear hint of danger that shimmered in his bloodshot eyes.

"Eh... when you talk about 'implanting' your conscience in my soul, then... what exactly will happen to me?" Han Shuo was extremely confused and had been unable to understand most of what Chu Cang Lan said, but he instinctively grasped a crucial detail and asked the most important question.

The old man paused and then laughed at the obvious answer "Your body will be mine and you will be dead of course!"

Han Shuo was so angry that he started insulting him vigorously, not even caring that he was completely at the mercy of this evil person. His array of curses referred to some eighteen generations of Chu Cang Lan's ancestors, especially remembering his immediate maternal family in different ways.

At first, Chu Cang Lan kept her composure while looking at Han Shuo's face with a smile. But his face began to darken after half an hour passed without his cursing stopping, in fact, his gaze became even nastier.

"Very good, then! Use this last chance and get everything out of your system, brat! Did you know? I had thought of sparing your life if I won the fight, but now I've decided that by virtue of your eloquence, even if I win I'm still going to send you to hell."

Those words abruptly stopped the avalanche of insults from Han Shuo, who after a moment started throwing his fists against one of the walls of his purple prison while wailing desperately "Hero, mighty lord... I was wrong, spare my life! Otherwise what you are doing is illegal, and the authorities will come looking for you. Technology is now very advanced, and even escaping to the moon won't do you any good!"

"Well, you should know that demonic magicians are quite simple and we never worry about the law. I, Chu Cang Lan, have wandered the earth for many years and have killed more people than you can imagine… And here I am still, perfectly fine!"

Chu Cang Lan said this last very calmly. Then something in his expression suddenly changed as he turned his gaze to his left and looked into the distance, then he murmured:

"Finally!"

Chu Cang Lan waved his right finger at him and Han Shuo along with the imprisoning purple shell soared together and flew a great distance. After bouncing a couple of times the shell came to rest in a shallow depression. Then Han Shuo noticed that he could no longer move and his lips did not make the slightest sound either. Other than being able to hear, blink, and think, he couldn't do anything else within the confines of the purple shell.

"All three are late. I hope you have brought your best weapons for our battle today. So all of you can die knowing that you gave everything!"

"Praise be Buddha."

"By the Will of Heaven."

****

Although Han Shuo could no longer move, he still heard some of what those newly arrived people were saying. None of his voices were familiar to him, although his words reminded him a little of the dialogues of Shaolin monks or Taoist priests that he had seen on television.

However, after a while, that ceased to matter to him and he could only think of Chu Cang Lan's words. It seemed like he was screwed no matter who won or lost the match.

Han Shuo was born in YZ City and managed to get into an ordinary university after finishing high school. But he hadn't looked for a job after his graduation like his classmates, instead, he was wasting time surfing the internet without a fixed purpose. He had created a website and opened small online stores, but he never made much money from it. He was an otaku through and through, he never cared about doing anything for another person and completely wasted whatever potential for the future he had.

As he spent more time online, his mind was filled with fantasies increasingly detached from reality and also one or another malevolent desire. He was also the type of person who blamed others for his failures, he firmly believed that he had the right to do what he wanted and that it was society's fault that he couldn't be happy. But, although he spent his days locked up at home, he had acquired the habit of researching various topics related to technology and he knew that any bad thing he did would end up on social networks sooner or later. He, therefore, had the slightest self-awareness of not trying to carry out any of his evil wishes. Not that his parents were billionaires or high-ranking officials either, so he had no way of breaking the law and getting away with it.

In short, he was a cranky thirty-something without any kind of notable achievement to date. His parents had even tried to introduce him to a girl, but she'd looked him over like a defective product as soon as he'd learned he didn't have a real job. Needless to say, that relationship had not worked.

He later succumbed to pressure from his parents and was preparing to submit his resume and find a real job. But who would have thought that this ridiculous death would surprise him before he had a chance to do anything?

Han Shuo's brain moved slowly as he pondered the idea that he was about to die. For the first time in his life, he became aware of how many opportunities he had wasted by wasting time on nonsense. His relationship with his relatives was almost non-existent, he had never done anything important, and damn it, he was still a virgin!

He sighed deeply and thought: "This is really having bad luck. And just when I was about to start again. Why am I denied the opportunity? If today I manage to survive, I swear that I will fight to fulfill all my wishes, the most sublime and the most perverse. I will never let anyone put me down again and I will never let fear stop me from acting. Never again…"

The only thing he could control now was his thoughts, so Han Shuo began to wish for a second chance with all his might. The more he reflected, the more he lamented and despaired.

He suddenly heard an earth-cracking explosion, accompanied by Chu Cang Lan's selfish laughter. But after a while, he heard him yelling "Damn traitors!" and everything was involved in another series of explosions that shook the shell that imprisoned him. Large tremors were beginning to threaten Han Shuo's position; it was as if the entire Moon was collapsing. The rumbles were followed by a loud euphoric cry "We've done it! This time you're dead, damn Chu Cang Lan!"

"Hey! Isn't that the demonic technique used to steal a body?! He is trying to escape death! There must be a demon seed nearby!"

"Praise be Buddha, for the sake of all who live under heaven, I will not let him succeed, even if it costs me my life. The void is not different from the form, the form is not different from the void... Song of Desolate Destruction!"

"Monk, noooo!..."

There was another series of violent explosions, and then a dark-colored bolt of lightning was quickly shot toward Han Shuo. It was as fast as a shooting star, but one could feel that it contained something unidentifiable writhing within it, like an unholy liquid.

"Praise him with high praises! Master Yuan Kong sacrificed himself to interrupt the demonic technique. Now we can rest easy. Chu Cang Lan will never again be able to threaten the world of justice..."

Right after Han Shuo heard that last sentence, black light entered the purple crystal shell, and something strange seemed to invade his brain. It was like a strong electrical current that caused him extreme pain, to the point where it seemed like all of his organs had exploded simultaneously.

And then he didn't know anything else.