One Palm Strike Erased an Entire Game Route

"Blessed are those who follow the true faith, for the true faith is the only road to salvation; blessed are those who spread its word, for the angels sing of their righteous deeds; blessed are the faithful, for seats have already been reserved for them in heaven."

Seles spoke slowly and gently, with an indescribable warmth and kindness. The fanatic knights around him could not help being moved. One after another, they burst into tears and sobbed uncontrollably. Even the few Warlocks looked somewhat touched and lowered their heads in silence.

Amid that peaceful, comforting atmosphere, moving enough to bring tears to anyone's eyes, Pan Long grew more excited. He nodded again and again as he crawled forward, looking for all the world like a starstruck fan.

"Your loyalty will be rewarded," Seles said happily. He had noticed nothing; he, too, was basking in everyone's adoration. "Once we find the witch bearing traces of the evil god who calls herself the Moon Goddess and smash that evil god's statue, I'll leave some soldiers with you. You can oversee the spread of the true faith in Luna Village. You'll be the village's resident priest, guiding those who've taken the wrong path back onto the right one."

"Your will is my command," the young man replied from the ground. He crawled closer, as though he meant to reach Seles and kiss the earth beneath his feet.

Seles was happier still. Seeing someone believe in the One God Religion from the bottom of his heart always delighted him.

The One God did not actually exist. The faith of everyone who worshipped him was absorbed by shrines and altars scattered across the land, then used as currency for Seles's dealings with the Demon God.

Each new believer meant another source of income. Devout believers were especially valuable: they contributed far more power of faith than others, making them first-rate sources of wealth.

What could be more pleasing than a first-rate source of wealth delivering itself to his door?

So what if he had to leave a few people alive in Luna Village instead of killing them all? So what if he could not burn the village to the ground and flatten it?

Looting and massacring villages merely satisfied his rank-and-file soldiers. He permitted it partly because it was rather amusing, partly to intimidate heretics, and, most practically, to keep those soldiers satisfied.

The Holy Legion's rank and file were thugs, bandits, and the like, recruited from all over. They would not lift a finger without something to gain. Without sufficient reward, there was no hope of making them fight hard.

Seles's method of ruling that scum was simple. It came down to one word: kill.

Anyone who disobeyed his orders was killed. Those who remained were, naturally, obedient.

The world was vast, and scum could be found everywhere. A little searching would turn up crowds of them. He never worried about running short of men.

Even so, scum remained scum. Under threat of the knife, they would obey without a reward, but they would show no initiative.

Give them something to gain, though, and let them burn, kill, and plunder, and they would brim with fighting spirit. No threats were needed to make them charge bravely into battle.

And even when they seized valuables, Seles controlled where they sold them and where they spent the proceeds. Their loot became merchandise for trading houses under his control, bought at rock-bottom prices. The money they received went straight to casinos, brothels, and other places he controlled.

Some even borrowed from the loan sharks he controlled. Driven by debt, they fought all the harder.

That was how Seles brought the scum completely under his control and turned them into slaves who obeyed his every command.

And slaves needed to be struck now and then, made to feel a little pain, so their obedience could be cultivated and reinforced.

Hmm. This time, I'll only let them kill half the villagers.

Leave half alive, and the soldiers will have no trouble keeping them down.

As for spreading the faith... forcing people to believe at knifepoint isn't a bad method, either.

Seles smiled happily as he watched the young man crawl toward him inch by inch in the most abject posture. He was about to speak when a flicker of warning crossed his mind.

"You—"

Before he could finish, the young man who had crawled up to his mount sprang into the air. Like a tiger bursting from the grass, he let loose an earth-shaking roar.

The sound reached Seles before the man did.

That roar was no ordinary shout. It was a useful fighting technique called Tiger Roar.

Its essence was to shake an enemy's mind with the roar, cow everyone nearby, and clear space for the fight.

The technique was common in the Northlands. Almost every family that could afford to eat their fill knew it. Pan Long was no exception, and his Tiger Roar Technique had been refined by an expert, making it more powerful than the usual version.

A few months earlier, while hunting, he had roared a rabbit to death with the Tiger Roar Technique. He had shown off splendidly before Han Feng and his other friends, and even earned his father's praise.

At the time, he had been about ten paces from the rabbit.

Now, less than a single pace separated him from Seles!

ROAR! Heaven and earth seemed to shake.

Seles had never imagined that this pious, frail-looking believer was an assassin. Even with that faint warning, it had not occurred to him to guard against "John." Pan Long's Tiger Roar Technique hit him squarely at almost point-blank range. The blast of sound swept up dust from the ground and slammed into his face in a clearly visible ring.

His head snapped back. His crown tilted, and his whole upper body toppled backward. Blood spilled from his mouth and nose. His skull rang, his mind went hazy, and for a moment he could not react at all.

Pan Long did not waste that precious moment. As he leaped with the roar, his left hand seized Seles's magnificent robe and hauled him close. His right hand, charged with every ounce of strength he had, drove toward Seles's face.

Long ago, when Jing Ke had tried to assassinate the King of Qin, he had grabbed the king's sleeve with his left hand and drawn a short blade with his right, thrusting straight at him in one seamless motion. But luck had not been on his side. The king's sleeve tore, his stab missed, and the king had a chance to escape.

Since Pan Long had chosen to use the Self-Injury Stratagem to assassinate Seles, he would not repeat Jing Ke's mistake. He gripped both layers of Seles's clothing so tightly that he nearly caught his flesh as well.

If Seles could still tear himself free, then the thing facing Pan Long was no man, but a bear!

Seles was no bear. His clothes, moreover, were well made and did not fear a little pulling.

The yank dragged him from a backward lean into a forward pitch, bringing his head straight toward Pan Long's right palm.

THUD! The Iron Palm struck like a muffled thunderclap.

Pan Long had spent nearly half an hour acting to win this chance at a surprise attack. He held nothing back. He poured all his strength into the strike, leaving himself no way to respond if it failed.

Success or death. There was no other choice!

The palm strike flashed out faster than thunder could reach the ear, carrying enough force to split stone tablets and shatter boulders. Even the hardest granite would have broken into pieces beneath it, let alone a human being.

Not long before, while practicing Iron Palm, he had felled a tree as thick as a strong man's waist with a single blow. The experts watching had marveled at his strength.

He had used only eighty or ninety percent of his power then.

This time, he used every last bit. He even risked damaging his meridians, sending all his True Qi surging into the blow. Every shred of that vast force struck Seles square in the face.

And Seles had not managed even the slightest defense.

CRACK! Bone shattered. Everyone clearly saw Seles's ceremonial crown fly away, along with a spray of red and white matter... and a good portion of his skull.

Pan Long had smashed Seles's head apart with one palm strike!

The high priest of the One God Religion had been called "the man closest to God" by those who admired him and "a demon wearing human skin" by those who hated him. The emperor valued and feared him; demons lurking in the shadows prized and cultivated him. He was a man who had been destined to stir up storms and bring disaster to the entire world. Yet he fell without so much as a groan.

Blood gushed from the wound in his shattered head, drenching Pan Long scarlet. He looked like a devil that had burst out of hell.

In the story of Sword and Lament, if the protagonist succumbed to Seles's temptation and fell onto the evil path, he committed a series of monstrous acts under Seles's command: crushing uprisings, slaughtering civilians, seizing wealth, sacrificing living people, assassinating righteous generals... until he finally offered up the entire Imperial Capital as a sacrifice, opened a passage from the human world to the Demon Realm, and ushered the Demon God into the world.

On that evil route, Seles was the protagonist's "guiding light," tempting and directing him deeper into depravity. He pushed the protagonist into ever greater crimes until he had gone so far down the evil road that he could never turn back. He killed his teacher, closest friend, lover, and trusted followers one by one, then became a new Demon God.

As for Seles, the protagonist who had surpassed his teacher eventually caught him off guard. At the end of the evil route, Seles became the sacrifice that transformed the protagonist into a Demon God. He had only himself to blame; the cycle of cause and effect had come full circle.

Players had disliked that route intensely. Some had even denounced it outright: "Whoever designed the evil route definitely has strong criminal tendencies. I suggest they see a therapist!"

Later, word was that the scenario writer who had designed it really had committed a crime and landed in prison. When Pan Long crossed into this world, the man was apparently still behind bars, undergoing reform through labor...

But none of that could happen now.

Whether this world was real or an illusion, Seles was dead. No one would be there to tempt the protagonist onto the evil path, and none of those monstrous crimes would take place.

With one palm strike, Pan Long had erased the entire evil route.

(The end.)