At the end of Ku Rong Street lies a wealthy district.

The Lu manor is located here as one of the residences.

The carriage heads all the way to the end of Ku Rong Street, entering a garden-like area.

A huge oval enclosure surrounded by grayish-white walls.

The Lu residence sits on the left side of the entrance.

With black gates and red lanterns, white snow covering the two stone qilins at the front, the manor seems especially peaceful and quiet.

The carriage stops outside the Lu manor gates. As Lu Sheng steps down from the carriage, the gates have already opened, attendants waiting to welcome them inside.

Just as Lu Sheng and Xiao Qiao enter, they see a handsome scholar with sword-like brows and starry eyes standing together with a gentle, smiling beauty on a stone bridge to their right.

Lu Sheng's thoughts stall for a bit. Seeing them puts him in a slightly better mood and he goes over to greet them.

"Elder Cousin Xu, my cousin has missed you dearly. What made you come so late today?" He smiles, walking onto the bridge.

The man turns his head seeing Lu Sheng and laughs.

"If it isn't Young Master Sheng. I was away investigating a case under orders these days and have only just concluded it. Please don't blame me—no one can defy orders from above. What brings you here today?"

"A case? Has anything major happened in the city recently that required Cousin Xu to handle personally?" Lu Sheng knows this Elder Cousin Xu Daoran's position.

He is the county chief of Tong Zhi County below Jiu Lian City, in charge of overseeing all enforcement affairs.

The position of county chief is second only to the county magistrate. Essentially the chief of police of Tong Zhi County.

"Just a minor case at some fishing villages, already taken care of," Xu Daoran says gently smiling. "But little Sheng, when do plan to help your brother out? Didn't you promise to help oversee security affairs at Tong Zhi?"

Lu Sheng can't recall what this body promised in the past. He hurries to gloss over it and changes the subject.

"Fishing villages... Could it be the rumors of water ghosts making trouble?"

"No water ghosts whatsoever. Just a madman who lost it after trauma and vengeance. Killing indiscriminately everywhere. He has been executed on the scene," Xu Daoran shakes his head plainly. "Case closed, let's not spoil things with such unsavory talk. Little Sheng, do you still remember what I promised Yi Yi?"

"To visit the Red Lotus Temple and take a leisurely stroll?"

Lu Sheng quickly smiles back responsively.

"You remember clearly things of leisure and pleasure," Xu Daoran says helplessly. "You're almost twenty now. Time to find something proper to do. Can't spend your whole life idling like this."

Having watched Lu Sheng grow up since young, close ties between their families, Xu Daoran has always seen Lu Sheng as a younger brother, naturally concerned for him now.

But Lu Sheng just shakes his head smiling. "Elder Cousin, do you think I should take up office or go into business?"

"Naturally to take up office. That is also your father's wish. Your uncles, your elder cousins, they all hope you can go out to aid them sooner. After all, you are the Lu family's eldest son."

Xu Daoran advises.

"Let's not talk about this. No rush, no rush. I'm still young with plenty of time," Lu Sheng brushes it off nonchalantly with lame excuses.

Xu Daoran and Lu Yi Yi can only share a look, at a loss for what more to say.

Not wanting to continue on that topic of serving office, Lu Sheng takes initiative to change the subject and leads Xiao Qiao towards his own bedchambers.

Back in his rooms, he changes his clothes and takes the pebble, not going to greet his father but heads alone into the rear gardens instead.

Xu Daoran is from the prestigious Xu family, on par with the Lu family as one of the foremost households of Northern Jiu Lian City, extensive ties everywhere with members serving in various important posts around town.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Lu Sheng's impression of Xu Daoran is pretty good—a man of integrity without private schemes, genuinely caring for Cousin Yi Yi. He treats Lu Sheng amiably like an elder brother too.

But...

Twisting the pebble in hand, Lu Sheng recalls the bizarre scene from yesterday and the coincidental chatter at the city gates about the water ghost's death.

"Is there truly the supernatural in this world? Immortals...?"

He gazes at the snowy gardens, a nameless gloom weighing in his heart.

"Maybe it's just wild rumors, like Elder Cousin Xu said."

He shakes his head, still clinging to a shred of wishful thinking in the end.

Come evening, he returns to his rooms early to wash up and sleep, exhausted in both mind and body after the day's events with restless thoughts swirling nonstop.

He sleeps until daybreak the next morning.

Bang bang bang, bang bang bang!!

A sudden urgent knocking sounds at his door.

Lu Sheng's eyes shoot wide awake. He bolts upright in bed towards the door.

"Who!"

"It's terrible, Young Master!" It's Xiao Qiao's voice.

Lu Sheng quickly opens the door to see Xiao Qiao's face white as sheet without a trace of color.

The girl's normally chubby cheeks are violently quivering.

"Cousin Xu...Xu...."

Seeing her state, a bleak premonition surfaces in Lu Sheng's mind.

"What is it!? Slow down, compose yourself first!"

He reaches out to firmly pat her back.

Managing to catch her breath, Xiao Qiao chokes out between sobs:

"The Xu family... Elder Lord Xu's whole family, they're finished!!"

Lu Sheng is taken aback.

Xiao Qiao swiftly dresses Lu Sheng and they stride towards the outer manor without another word.

Master Lu Fang, Lu Sheng's father, stands solemnly outside the gates, an undercurrent of trembling in his stern expression.

Beside him are three black horse-drawn carriages.

Lu Sheng follows the other cousins of the manor in paying quick respects to Lu Fang. Everyone boards the carriages swiftly.

Seated together with his father Lu Fang, the carriages set off in silence without a word exchanged between the two.

Over sixty of age, Lu Fang sports a refined grace belying his identity more akin to a scholar than merchant.

The carriages speed ceaselessly before soon arriving outside the city gates.

Stepping down, the sight before Lu Sheng roots him dumbstruck.

Lying neatly arrayed on the left snow grounds by the carriage way are dozens of corpses outside the city gates.

From elderly to young, men and women.

Every single one dressed in the Xu family's tailored robes!

In the third row center lies Xu Daoran, face a deathly pallor, body rigid. Eyes shut tight, contorted with unimaginable horror as if witnessing something extremely terrifying.

Seeing the government runners maintaining order, Lu Fang standing wordless before an elderly corpse, fists clenched.

The county magistrate present, his complexion as white as the surrounding snow.

Lu Sheng takes a deep breath and steps slowly over to a runner's side.

"How did they die?"

The runner recognizes Lu Sheng's status and sighs telling him: "Strung up completely by water weeds hanging from roof beams back home somehow..."

"Cousin Yi Yi!! Yi Yi!!"

A shriek rises behind as Cousin Yi Yi has apparently fainted.

Lu Sheng inhales deeply. Xu Daoran told him just yesterday he had a wrapped up a case at the fishing villages...

Fishing villages...water ghosts...that bizarre pebble...

Many thoughts race through Lu Sheng's mind.

Truthfully having only come to this world a few days with no deep ties to Xu Daoran, Lu Sheng feels regret and shock but not the grief expected from everyone else present.

It's not that he hasn't seen dead people before. Just not this many dead people.

"Where is Red Ridge Daoist from the Xu family?" he hears Lu Fang ask the head runner.

"At another site...bodies mangled in pieces, parts already gnawed by beasts..." the head runner replies softly.

Silence descends. The Lu family members, the county magistrate, the common citizens looking on outside the gates.

"Red Ridge Daoist's sword skills surpass even Uncle Zhao's..." Lu Fang's voice trails off.

Uncle Zhao is the most formidable martial arts master hired by the Lu family. For even Red Ridge Daoist stronger than Uncle Zhao to die...

This case is no longer a simple homicide, but a monumental case threatening all present!

Everyone gingerly realizes few families here can proclaim to overshadow the Xu Family in might. Even the county magistrate dare not make such a claim.

Standing silently at the roadside, Lu Sheng had thought this new world a peaceful parallel of ancient China. Some minor oddities posed no real concern. But now...

He fingers the pebble in his sleeve pocket, scalding hot to the touch mysteriously.

Hesitating, he takes out the stone after all and lightly tosses it away. This thing might spell calamity.

That the Xus with foundations equally solid as the Lus could get massacred overnight leaves Lu Sheng extremely vexed.

Just then in a split second decision, he walks over to pick up the pebble again, when—

Swish.

Somehow his index finger nicks itself on a sharp blade of grass jutting from the snow unnoticed.

These special variant grass species have edges like knife blades. Lu Sheng's finger promptly gets sliced. A droplet of blood falls onto the pebble in hand.

"Young lord?" Xiao Qiao tails worriedly behind him. The cute round face that cried disconsolate from Xu Daoran's death. A heavy blow for her too.

But Lu Sheng's body seizes stiffly in place.

A bizarre syllable sequence abruptly surfaces in his mind.

"Welcome to Deep Blue Cheat Tool."

In a trice Lu Sheng's eyes turn vacant.

Some time passes before he regains his senses.

He stares at the faint blue semi-transparent box floating in his sight, clearly showing his name and listed skills.

"How...this looks identical to that silly cheating tool I coded for a mobile game in my past life!"

Lu Sheng feels on the verge of madness with more illusions bombarding him back to back.

Fine, transmigrated as some useless fop of a rich young master.

But now hallucinations on top of everything?

Back then out of boredom he had downloaded some RPG named Jian Xian Qun Xia Chuan. Finding the game too difficult, he wrote a simple cheat to modify martial arts skills, naming it Deep Blue Tool. Why, that voice from earlier was even his own prerecorded with a voice changer!

Unbelievable...

Hurriedly Lu Sheng examines the box interface closely. Extremely simple with rows of tiny grids.

On top written:

Lu Sheng Martial Arts: None