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It's one day before the ritual and Shen Yue had learned a lot, well at least enough to play the role of a servant boy due to his aptitude.  The sun hasn't bothered him as much as of late and he found a tree with a leaf that felt good on his arse but having to do a thorough clean of himself was still troublesome.

While serving for a few days, he learned that typically only the older ones would serve the adults and would receive training for that.

While children at his age would learn how to clean, play music, cook, and a little basic medical knowledge to treat people with injuries from the client.  He felt disgusted at the things he saw and he would never forget them, although poor in his previous life growing up he lived in a country that gave him a chance to roll the dice and fight madly.

But he pushed this to the back of his mind and turned his attention to the Dizi that was right beside him.

The groaning noises that happened all day and night were extremely annoying especially when trying to rest or meditate, so he picked up the dizi which was the equivalent of the flute in his past life, and played some anime songs from his previous life.

He sang to himself alone in the break room, hoping to find some cathartic release in music but unless he was on stage the Dizi did little to mitigate the constant groans of the males and females.  He was to perform in one day, which was the day of the ritual with an original song to attract more guests.

The food would be free but they must buy at least one drink, his song would be danced to by the establishment's prostitutes allowing the men to have a good show before everyone's death.

With  His skill with instruments, accompanied by his great voice he managed to entertain a few guests while they ate food during the general practice sessions.

But he wasn't completely relaxed during this time and he had managed to convince Lan Dun to help him destroy the ritual.

A day ago he visited Lan Dun alone in his room during the Night, he was confident in protecting himself but still took a knife with him just in case.

Lan dun's room had no candles with the only light coming from the moon shining above.

But despite that, his vision was still clear at night thanks to the wheel inside his soul currently spinning and grinding the cold energy produced from his brain.

There he stood  against the wall, staring at Lan Dun's bed as he laid "asleep."

He did a pitiful attempt at faking compared to Shen Yue's years of practice of not letting his parents find out he was staying up past curfew playing video games.

"Lan dun, I've come to talk." Spoke Shen Yue in a serious tone confident that Ln Dun was awake.

"What do you mean by that brat? I'm not interested in men." Spoke Lan dun as he rose from the bed his mind sent spinning a bit.

"Let's work together.

We are both aware of that monster, and it is aware that I'm not a normal person yet it still took me in anyways.

The most I have done here is play music and cook food whereas the customers simultaneously began to rapidly dwindle.

This is a trap no?" Asked Shen Yue

"Like I said ki-" But before Lan Dun could finish Shen Yue interrupted.

"But you already know you can't escape, the creature is hunting his prey. So you can only continue to provide sacrifices to delay getting eaten yourself." Shen Yue said, having paid attention to what the monster said about Lan Dun ending up on his plate.

At this point, the man was speechless and completely still not knowing after responding as this was the second time he was ever confronted like this.

But thinking about it there were a few obvious points in his behavior but what could he do? He is stuck here and the other workers are dying one by one and even a few kids he saved have disappeared.

Lan dun first came here as a young boy along with his cousin Xu Dun, and at that time the monster was a middle-aged decrepit man; who took advantage of children by buying and selling them.

But as one of the few who could fight Lan Dun was spared and instead became a bartender serving at the front end of the business alongside his cousin Xu dun who left.

Not confident in leaving a clean trail after killing the old man with many connections, he waited for him to die but 3 days before his death bed the old monster and Xu Dun his cousin performed a ritual, it was very haphazard and due to the old monster's greed he became a real monster.

Thankfully the old man still couldn't cultivate but the next one should fix that and his appearance according to his cousin who gave him instructions to prepare both rituals.

`Let's hear this kid out at worst we will both die and be sacrificed which is going to happen soon anyways so anything is welcomed at this point.

But I doubt he could get any outside help.

If it wasn't for those noble bastards who look down upon everything like their gods we wouldn't have needed to suffer dammit!` Lan dun thought in his mind as the image of a little girl and boy popped into his mind before he started speaking once more.

"No one can stop him, the forces in glory city would never bother to help a few commoners, issues like these can only be handled by ourselves but it's too strong." Lan dun said

"So give me permission to show my strength and tell me if this is enough to kill it and if so you follow me and help me out with my plans." Responded Shen Yue with a cold determination. Although he didn't like to think about it much, he felt disgusted at what was going to happen to the kids if he wasn't sent on this mission.

"I see so that's how it is, well then kid I'm not easy to beat give it your all."

`Overlord.` Shen Yue said in his mind as his ability activated from his mental trigger. A rush of cold energy entered his brain and he could process much more than last time as it flowed through the rest of his body.

He felt an increase in physical strength compared to last time, it wasn't much but this made him excited about his potential.  He used as much strength as he could control, and leaped from his position to the side of Lan Dun drawing a knife from his pocket and pointing at Lan dun's back.

"Is this enough?"

"For now, if Xu Dun stays the same then you could kill him but the old monster can't be taken down until the start of the ritual.

But for Xu dun, we need to kill him before the ritual. If we didn't there would be nothing we could do but lie down and die." Lan Dun was much more confident now, and despite the doubts about pulling this off, this was the only option they could currently think of.

"How about this, I will strike in two days during the night. That's when the ritual will gather everyone together in the hall, which includes the guest, all the servants, and the guards.  I want to be slated to perform during that time. We both come together and get rid of Xu Dun and then we fight that monster."  Shen Yue suggested.

"It sounds good to me." These were the last words spoken by Lan dun before Shen Yue left his room.  Shortly after that,  Shen Yue called his pet crow and had him pick up more weapons that he Yue later poisoned and hid away in some clothing before the big day.