Strangely enough, the people in the city looked at Chen Sheng and his group not with curiosity or hostility, but with pity—as if they were already dead. There was no emotion, no welcome, no rejection. It was the kind of expression one would give someone doomed to share the same fate.
Chen Sheng frowned slightly, a sinking feeling growing in his heart. The atmosphere in Lushan City was far too heavy—oppressively heavy.
Something was wrong. Deeply wrong.
The city was crowded, yet lifeless.
Many people just sat idly against the walls, unmoving, their faces etched with hopelessness.
"Elder, may I ask why everyone in this city seems so lifeless? Is it because food has run out?" Chen Sheng frowned and stopped an old man who had just received a bowl of porridge from a communal pot.
"Young man, you shouldn't have entered this city. Now that you're inside Lushan City, you'll never leave alive," the old man said after drinking his porridge to the last drop. He looked at Chen Sheng and the people behind him with a sigh. "You're not the first. Many have come here from all directions. But once you enter... there's no going back. Didn't you notice that, once you got within four or five miles of Lushan, you weren't attacked by any beasts or monsters?"
"How did you know that?" one of the men behind Chen Sheng asked in surprise.
It was true—when they neared Lushan, the surrounding beasts mysteriously disappeared. They had chalked it up to luck. But now, it seemed that assumption had been gravely mistaken.
"That's because those beasts don't dare to approach Lushan City," the old man replied, shaking his head.
"Isn't that a good thing? Doesn't that mean the city is safe?" someone asked in confusion.
"You're thinking too simply. The reason those beasts won't come near is because something even more terrifying is here. Something that makes even monsters afraid to enter this area."
The old man's face was filled with fear, and even his voice trembled.
Chen Sheng's heart dropped. He immediately realized that this time, they might be in even greater danger than when they faced the Xiongnu military camp.
"What kind of monster is it? I mean, the city has tens of thousands of people. Surely it's not that bad?" someone asked skeptically.
Indeed, Lushan City was full of people—residents from before and refugees who had gathered here later. There were even people dressed in modern clothes with short hair, indistinguishable from city folk in the present day. These modern people, however, radiated the same intense despair and fear, perhaps even worse than the ancient folk.
Though many modern people believed themselves to be more advanced in thought, it was utterly useless here.
In this world, there was no electricity, no phones, no guns. You could have ambition and eloquence—but without strength, who would listen?
In this chaotic world, only the strong could rule. Ancient brutes, despite being less educated, easily outclassed modern office workers in physicality and survival.
Most of the modern people were fragile, weak, utterly unsuited for this world. And here in Lushan, they were caught in a living nightmare.
"There's no way to resist. That thing... it's a monster," the old man said with horror in his eyes. Just the thought of it made him tremble, his face turning ashen.
He had clearly lost all hope of escape.
"You might as well accept your fate. That monster has sealed off the entire city. If anyone tries to escape, it eats them. Every day, it selects people from the city to devour—dozens die daily. But as long as you don't try to escape and it's not feeding time, you're relatively safe. We still have grain stored. If we ration it, it'll last a while," the old man explained before walking to an empty corner, sitting by a wall, and staring blankly at the sky.
Chen Sheng and his companions were shaken, their expressions full of disbelief and fear.
They had been overjoyed to see a city, thinking they had found refuge. Now it felt like they had walked into death's waiting room, willingly delivering themselves to the monster's jaws.
"I don't believe it! It's all bullshit. I don't care how scary the monster is. We made it in safely, so why wouldn't we be able to leave? I'm going to see for myself if it'll stop me!"
A man who had followed Chen Sheng finally snapped, rage boiling over from days of beast attacks and near-death experiences. He stormed toward the broken city gate.
Shuaa!!
As he moved, every eye in the city turned to him.
To some, it was a rare spectacle. To others, perhaps a bit of hope—if newcomers died instead, they might survive another day.
The man slipped through the gap in the gate and stood boldly just outside.
Shuaa!!
The moment he set foot outside, the ground beneath him split open without warning, revealing a gaping black maw. Before he could react, he plunged into the abyss, only managing a final scream before the earth sealed up again as if nothing had happened.
The soil was untouched. The ground looked normal.
But a living man had simply vanished.
Hisss!!
Chen Sheng and the others gasped. It was terrifying. A person had been swallowed whole in an instant.
"Now you see. Once you enter, you can't leave. Step outside, and you die. No one even knows what the monster is—it just drags people underground, and they never come back," the old man said again with a sigh.
Even inside the city wasn't safe. At any moment, a hole could appear and someone would be swallowed up.
It had been like this for a long time.
"This monster is raising the people here like livestock—grabbing a few to eat when it's hungry, keeping the rest penned up."
Chen Sheng's face was grim.
He didn't want to die here. He had to escape or kill that monster. Killing it might be impossible... but waiting around to die wasn't an option either.
Yet to fight monsters... Chen Sheng had no confidence. Those creatures were simply too strong.
"If only there were a way to grow stronger. If there are beasts and monsters, why aren't there cultivators or experts in this world?" he thought bitterly.
As Chen Sheng brooded, lost in thought, a filthy old beggar suddenly shuffled toward him. Grinning through yellowed teeth, the beggar said, "Ah, young man... extraordinary, truly extraordinary."
"What do you mean, elder?" Chen Sheng asked, startled from his thoughts. He didn't shoo the beggar away.
"I can see it. Your potential is immense. Your fortune is so dense, it's taken form—like a mighty staff. Though it may be dirty now, it could rise into a heavenly dragon pillar with just a little polish. Your bones are strong—if you had the right technique, you'd soar to the heavens."
The beggar's eyes twinkled as he spoke.
"You picked the wrong person to beg from. We don't have even a grain of rice," someone behind Chen Sheng snapped.
"Hold on. Let's hear what he has to say," Chen Sheng interjected. "I do want to help the people, but the world is harsh, and high-grade cultivation techniques are impossible to find. How can one cultivate, how can one become strong?" he asked, his voice full of yearning.
"No need to worry, my boy," the old beggar chuckled. "Here—The Undying Sutra of a Hundred Calamities (百劫不死经). It'll solve all your problems. With this, you'll soar like a phoenix."
The beggar produced a scroll that glowed faintly with a radiant light—clearly not an ordinary manual.
"I have no money."
Chen Sheng's heart burned with desire. He wanted to snatch the scroll right then and there—but he restrained himself.
"What do you have? Show me," the beggar asked with a grin, eyeing Chen Sheng's chest.
"I only have this bead. I don't know what it does," Chen Sheng said, pulling out a glassy bead with two golden five-pointed stars embedded inside.