Chaos Guide

CG Chapter 149: World Devouring Serpent Sutra

A filthy star. Ancient watchers. A desperate life crumbling from the inside. And most of all, a door to an unknown haven…

Before leaving the abandoned alley, Aretius tapped his smoking pipe, and it flickered. In the next breath, the burning ashes drifted and settled on the clothes of the mutated body.

He turned away. He knew the spark would birth a fire that might swallow a couple of houses, even taking a life or two with it, yet he did not care so long as his tracks were buried with the remains.

…

Inside one of the rooms of the Warm Dragon's inn.

Under the flicker of a single bronze oil lamp that gave the old room a feeling of decay rather than life.

Aretius weighed the loot he had taken.

First, he tested the dagger's edge. As he swung it through the air, a subtle whisper of force sounded in the room, a sign of its quality.

He swung the dagger against the wooden table, only to be pleasantly surprised that the blade had sliced through the wooden table like butter.

Although it should be noted that the table itself wasn't that sturdy, the dagger was still much better than his current dagger, and it would add an additional trump card to his arsenal.

From these subtle cues, Aretius was able to judge that the blade's origin belonged to a soldier.

After a moment's thought, he placed that thought to the back of his mind, and with that, he set the dagger on the half-broken table.

Next, he held the book of the 'World Devouring Serpent Sutra' before sitting on the bed and carefully examining the contents.

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The first page read:

"May those who read me be broken.

May they be corrupted by life.

May they who come after become less than us.

For only when one breaks can he become more."

From the very first words, it was obvious to anyone reading this manual that it was anything but orthodox.

The first couple of pages of that book were all like that, talking about how one must fall before rising, and how only after breaking can one be healed.

This wouldn't make sense at first, but after reading through the whole book and understanding the different stages of the serpent transformation, it was clear why the first pages were so forceful in their wording.

For anyone desperate enough to practice the 'World Devouring Serpent Sutra', the practitioner must acquire the bile of a serpent. The higher the level of the serpent and the filthier the source, the easier it would be for the practitioner to advance in the technique.

From here, the practitioner would enter the elementary stages of the manual.

The martial artist swallows the bile, then guides its energy throughout his body, to every part, from skull to bone, from bone to toes.

To advance further into the second stage, swallowing a single dose of bile wouldn't be enough, as the practitioner would need to shift to something else:

'The hearts of those who know not. To corrupt the hearts of the pure. To defile oneself before sullying others.'

The final stage would require you to have devoured enough hearts, and to completely give yourself to the 'World Devouring Serpent' and become one with him, as you become a creature in between the two, not a man, not a serpent, trying to reach the level of world devouring.

There was also a warning in the manual.

Until the final transformation, the mind must remain as clear as the morning dew. The primordial instincts would gnaw and whisper, trying to pull the practitioner down. One must not transform early, or else lose oneself entirely in the abyss of decay, becoming lesser than.

Reading through the whole manual, Aretius closed it at the final page.

He was clearer on its full potential and limits than even Sun Tian, and from everything he read, the grand title was nothing more than a pig wearing a tiger's skin.

The manual had its merits, yet in the end, it was nothing more than a lesser path.

Even after reaching the final stage, one wouldn't be more than a lowly perverted creature, twisted by desires, with nothing but hunger in its mind.

Still, it had its value. The primary reason why Aretius grabbed the manual wasn't to practice, but to develop an understanding of the system of this world and expand his knowledge.

With all of this in mind, Aretius's initial thoughts became clearer, and his future path became more promising.

His next step would be to advance to a fourth-rate martial artist before going around the Jianghu and gathering the manuals of different sects, for the next step would be to become the filthy serpent.

However, to corrupt, one mustn't appear as a filthy creature, for only by displaying righteousness on the outside and hiding truth within lies can the serpent turn the whole world into his prey.

He was not only a serpent. The blood of the Crownless Thearch of Violet moved within him.

For a second, the illusion of Aretius's eyes flickering with a beastly light showed itself before they returned to their usual form.

…

Across mountains and rivers, across the lands of Wu, and away from the rising dragon in the south, a man wearing a pitch-black cap ran alone through the harsh lands at an astonishing speed.

The few peasants he crossed paths with would only see him coming for a second before he disappeared into the twilight the next moment.

These people thought they had encountered a celestial immortal or a supreme deity. However, the immortal's mind was much more broken than they would ever know.

For behind that giant back lay a heavy weight, heavier than the mountains they crossed or the rivers they swam.