Artifact Chapter 2: The Past

Chapter 2: The Past

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

Twenty-first century. China. A drama set shooting site.

A young man with handsome eyebrows and a slender body was currently wearing a crescent white ancient costume. His long black hair was tied at the back with a dark green hairband. He was holding a script in his hand, his ink-like eyebrows slightly knitted, his chin resting in the palm of one hand, as if he was thinking about something.

“Lu-ge, have you found the feeling?” Xiao Li, the assistant standing at the side, asked in a low voice.

Lu Ming raised his head and shook his head slightly, his brows still furrowed, and only after a long time did he sigh, “Let’s try it first.”

The assistant nodded and shouted at the director across the room, “Director Wang, he’s ready!”

Director Wang stood up, waved his hand at the crowd, and shouted, “Take your places…!”

===

Lu Ming came out of the wooden house leisurely, the Qing Li Shen sword stained with blood. The blood was dripping from the saber tip on the ground, his eyes red, the corners of his mouth hooked up a cold smile. He stretched out a finger slightly, instantly, a fire engulfed the entire wooden house.

He looked coldly at the scene in front of him, not moved in the slightest. A young man before him was dressed as a scholar, he kneeled on one knee, cupped his fist and said, “Demon King, this traitor still has 18 blood Sect relatives at home, and is now fleeing to the west. Should we send people to chase him?”

Lu Ming smiled faintly, a trace of viciousness flashed in his eyes, before he coldly ordered, “Cut the grass and eliminate the roots. ¹If there is one missed, you do not have to come to see me again.”

The young man trembled and slowly stood up, looking at the man who disappeared in front of him, a trace of fear crossed his eyes.

====

“Cut!” The director’s voice suddenly sounded.

Lu Ming frowned slightly, stopped in his tracks and looked at director Wang with some confusion.

“It doesn’t feel right! The aura isn’t right! The whole person is not right!” The director rubbed his sore temples and walked towards Lu Ming with a somewhat flimsy pace, his face looking bitter. He laughed bitterly and said, “Lu-ge, no, Master Lu! You’ve shot this scene dozens of times, but it still hasn’t captured Sang Wusheng’s soul! You have to put yourself in Sang Wusheng’s shoes, because he foresaw the future, knew in advance the tragedy that was about to happen, but in the end, he was unable to stop it. He was destroyed by He Qingci, his reluctance and powerlessness, pain and contradictions, constantly destroying his fragile heart, which gave him an urge to destroy the world…”

Lu Ming gave Director Wang a strange look and interrupted, “Why does his own pain have to be inflicted on others?”

Director Wang looked at Lu Ming with a frustrated face and sighed, “Film Emperor Lu, this is a novel, not the real world. I think you should read the original, to understand Sang Wusheng’s inner world better. Otherwise this is not the way to go on. We are all tired today, so let’s disperse.”

Lu Ming only nodded, spoke to the crowd with some apologies, walked to the nanny car ² and left the set.

Lu Ming sat in the back seat and closed his eyes to recuperate. Assistant Li glanced at Lu Ming in the rearview mirror and said, “Lu-ge, just take some time to read this novel. I’ve read it before and it’s really well written, especially the final battle between Sang Wusheng and He Qingci, it’s so enjoyable!”

Lu Ming gave a distracted muffled sound and spoke somewhat wearily, “Didn’t Lu You come back from abroad today? Why did he come so late?”

Xiao Li replied with some displeasure, “I guess he called his group of friends to go out and fool around again, so he wouldn’t have time to call.”

Lu Ming didn’t answer, he had a headache when he thought of his younger brother. Their parents died in a car accident when he was fifteen, leaving only his younger brother Lu You to live with him.

Lu Ming entered the entertainment industry at the age of eighteen. In the early years, in order to earn money to support the two of them, he worked very hard, and he would do anything for money, any dirty work. He was always on the go, and he was a bit negligent in disciplining his younger brother, which is why Lu You developed his unbeatable and arrogant personality. 

Lu Ming returned home at 1:00 p.m. and dialed his brother twice, but he only got his voicemail. He was a little uneasy to dial his brother again, but he seemed to be on the other line. Lu Ming had no choice but to take a shower, open the computer, and search the Internet for the novel that was so popular that it became a movie.

The novel was called “Immortal Emperor Demon King”, a typical stallion novel, ³ Lu Ming starred in the role of the main character Sang Wusheng in the film adapted from this novel.

The novel’s protagonist had a gold arm that wildly opened everything, along with the acceptance of all kinds of girls, and finally Ascended into the Immortal world. It was an old plot. However, this novel was slightly different because the author’s protagonist takes the dark route towards destruction.

The main character, Sang Wusheng, was originally a positive and optimistic teenager, but if we talk about why he changed and became a dark system Boss, the reason for this was that Sang Wusheng had found an Artifact Refining book when he was a teenager by coincidence.

This book not only recorded the method of cultivation and refining Artifacts, but also carried many long-lost Artifact Refining drawings, among which there was an object – the ancient God Artifact named “Heavenly Province.”

This object was very magical, and one only needed to inject spiritual power into it. It could change size according to personal spiritual power value, and showed different degrees of foresight to their own future.

Driven by curiosity, Sang Wusheng spent a whole year to refine the God Artifact. When he poured his spiritual power into the God Artifact with excitement, it made him see the tragic scene of his mother’s death, his friend’s betrayal, and his lover’s tragic death years later. Although he later became powerful and was surrounded by women and girls, he felt guilty and even lived his whole life in self-blame.

The root cause of all this nightmare was his Shixiong, ⁴ He Qingci, who he had always regarded as a good brother.

Since then, Sang Wusheng became a new person. He went from the path of righteousness to being completely blackened into a murderous, ruthless dark devil. He went towards the road of destruction, and his three views ⁵ were completely destroyed, his dao broken, simply to the point of unbearable to look at.

Lu Ming took a deep breath and closed the computer with a snap, hooking up the corners of his mouth with a cold smile. But in his heart, he had already made up his mind. Tomorrow, he would apply to the company to push the role of Sang Wusheng to someone else.

At this time, the phone on the table suddenly rang. Lu Ming reached out to pick it up and saw that it was a call from his brother, Lu You. Lu Ming pressed the answer button, and the voice on the other end of the line was indeed that of Lu You.

“Brother… can you come and pick me up? I can’t get a car.” The voice of Lu You sounded a little shaky for some reason.

Lu Ming’s heart was a little confused, this was the result of the early morning weather and he had caught a little cold. He asked, “Where are you? I’m driving over to pick you up.”

Lu You hesitated for a moment before speaking, “Nanqin Garden.”

Lu Ming gave a hint, then said, “I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

Lu You’s voice suddenly became a bit flustered, he hurriedly spoke, “Forget it brother, you’d better not come, I’ll have a friend pick me up.”

Lu Ming frowned and said, “You stay well, I’ll be right over, I’m not sure about your group of friends.”

After saying that, Lu Ming hung up the phone, took the car keys and went to the garage.

At 5:30 a.m., the sky was just getting lighter, and the streets were cold, with only three or two people running for exercise and the sanitation workers sweeping the streets. Lu Ming hadn’t slept all night, but he was wide awake, having adapted to staying up all night after a long period of reversal of work and rest.

At that moment, a truck with high beams suddenly came into Lu Ming’s sight. The truck was moving at an unusually fast speed, and soon came to the road just a few dozen meters away from Lu Ming.

Lu Ming, for some reason, was suddenly a little uneasy at the bottom of his heart. As if animal-like intuition let him make a quick judgment, he jerked the steering wheel and drove fast to the side of the road.

The truck was obviously prepared, just as Lu Ming turned onto the road to take a shortcut to the direction of Nanqin Park, at that very moment, the truck suddenly accelerated, and in a flash it slammed into Lu Ming.

Lu Ming’s pupils tightened and his brain went blank for a moment. When he reacted, the entire car had been swept away by the tremendous force, emitting a sharp sound that only came from violent friction. Before he could even feel the pain, he lost consciousness.

However, just at the moment he closed his eyes, he seemed to see the unusually familiar face sitting on the passenger seat with little rabbit-like panicked eyes.

◆◆◆◆

When Lu Ming woke up again, it was already dusk.

He opened his blurry eyes and looked out through the broken window. The leaves were swept by the cool wind and there was a well next to a dead tree. The room was furnished with a small square table, two wooden stools on either side, and a bed with two holes in the quilt, which still smelled of mold.

Lu Ming frowned slightly, puzzled in his heart. He only remembered that he seemed to have been hit by a truck and woke up here. But what exactly was this place?

While Lu Ming was pondering, the door suddenly creaked open. A young girl with a double bun and a pretty face tiptoed in with a slightly panicked expression. She looked outside the room for a moment, then sighed in relief and gently closed the door, holding two steamed buns that were steaming hot.

When the girl saw Lu Ming awake, a trace of surprise flashed in her eyes, and she quickly walked up to him. She put the steamed buns into his arms, and excitedly said, “Young master, you are finally awake.”

Lu Ming frowned and asked, “Are you…”

Before the words were finished, Lu Ming was about to blurt out the words and suddenly stopped.

He clearly heard a young teenage voice coming from his own throat. He was already twenty-eight years old, so why did he sound like a strange teenager?

Lu Ming was silent and did not speak, his eyes were dark and inexplicable. He raised his hands to look, his two arms were actually covered with crisscrossing blood marks, from a leather whip that beat him.

The young girl saw Lu Ming hesitate to say anything, so she said timidly, “Young master, you… should not be angry with the first lady again, now the whole He family is under her decision. You can no longer resist, it is useless. In addition… “

Lu Ming raised his head, eyebrows slightly raised, indicating that the young girl should continue to speak. The young girl had the courage to continue with some irritation, “Moreover, the second madam always fears the first madam. You were locked in this woodshed for several days, and she dared not come to see you, this is not the way to be a mother!”

The more the young lady said, the more excited she became, and finally began to speak out of turn. Her eyes were slightly red, brought the steamed buns to Lu Ming’s hand, and then said, “Young master, do not be too sad. Although your spiritual root is destroyed, the good thing is that you can still practice Immortal arts. In a few days, the Daoist from Kunlai Mountain will come to the He family to accept disciples. You must not be neglected. If you are lucky enough to be chosen, you may be able to get to the Immortal Ascension level and achieve the Dao one day. Then you must bully the group of people who bullied you back!”

Although Lu Ming is a little confused about the current situation, he also knew that the girl was genuinely being good to him. He reached out and patted her shoulder to show comfort. When he thought of himself being hit by a truck, and saw that the person in the passenger seat of the truck was clearly his own beloved brother, Lu You, Lu Ming’s bright eyes were also a bit gloomy at the moment.

If he was just being held hostage for ransom, why would he be put to death? He didn’t want it to be a deliberate murder. But he couldn’t figure out why.

 

 

 

 

 

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