Stranger Danger

Chapter 103: The Riddler

He did not get to finish his words because a shrill voice abruptly pierced through the air, deafening everyone’s eardrums and shaking the Mountain of Riddles itself. None suffered as much as Xiao Yang, however. He was bleeding out of every orifice and staring dazedly at the sky. His blank eyes seemed to say: Where am I? What am I doing? What happened?

“Poor thing! Why is he putting himself through all this suffering?” Ye Qing shook his head. He just could not understand where Xiao Yang was getting his confidence from. Maybe his brain was so tiny that he could not even weigh the pros and cons like a normal human being.

“Alright. The show’s over, and it’s almost time. Let’s get this over with!” Ye Qing muttered to himself and put on his Bronze Tiger Head. It wasn’t because he wanted to use the Strange Artifact, but because he wanted to hide his own face. Once he was ready, he called out, “Allow me!”

As soon as his image appeared in the sky, he said, “Grow long, grow long, continue to grow long; stand tall, stand tall, stand tall and never fall!”

Ink wash words immediately took shape in the sky and rose until all the way to second place. As expected, it failed to exceed the current first place, “Always growing, always growing, continually growing.” Ye Qing was more than okay with this result, however. Even if he wasn’t, he only needed to check out, “Get hard, get hard, getting hard as fuck” or “Shit hard, shit often, do not stop shitting” at rock bottom and let the schadenfreude wash away his displeasure. He was terrible like that, and he did not mind it one bit!

A tea time passed in the blink of an eye. When it was time, the ink wash seal script declared, “Time’s up!” The ranking list in the sky and the hundreds of couplets within it immediately flashed all sorts of colors as if it was alive. Then, the couplets abruptly transformed into various numbers—the couplet in the first place transformed into the number “10”, the couplet in the second place transformed into the number “8” and so on.

The two couplets sitting dead last on the ranking list were exceptions, however. Not only did the couplets join together to form a pair of big fat zeros, they were so black they looked purple from a distance. Obviously, it meant that the boorish man and Xiao Yang were awarded absolutely nothing at all. Life was like that sometimes.

I’m assuming that 8 means I get to progress eight steps? Ye Qing guessed while staring at his own number.

He waited for things to return to normal, but the ink-wash seal script remained floating in the sky. A bad feeling suddenly gripped Ye Qing, and it was proven true just a second later.

“All who didn’t answer the couplet challenge in time shall die!”

“Die?!” Ye Qing’s eyes bulged as if he could not believe his ears. “What the hell! You didn’t mention this in the rule earlier!”

The ink-wash seal script didn’t hear him, however. It simply flapped its wings and caused ink to rain from the sky. When the ink made contact with the rainbow fog, it melted away the fog and revealed a bunch of panicked-looking people. Some of them came from the Pacification Bureau, and some he did not recognize at all. They were those who hadn’t answered the couplet challenge earlier.

The victims did everything they could to avoid the falling ink. Some had even brought out their Strange Artifacts to buy more time for themselves. It was useless though. The ink passed right through their Strange Artifact as if it didn’t exist and hit them. Like ink being added into a glass of clear water, their bodies turned pitch black in just the blink of an eye. They also froze in their tracks as if someone had cast a petrification spell on them.

The victims weren’t dead yet, however. Their darting eyes and terrified expressions made it clear that they were still alive. However, there was nothing they could do except wait for death to claim them.

Plop! Plop!

The victims gradually melted into a puddle like blocks of ice under a hot sun. However, they were puddles of ink instead of water or blood. The ink then rose into the air and converged into a pool of ink. Finally, winged seal scripts flew out of the pool and disappeared into the fog. This would continue until not a drop of ink was left in the sky.

Heavens above! Is this how the ancient seal scripts are made? Is every seal script in this place a former human being? Ye Qing rubbed his nose with an ice cold expression. The punishment was even scarier than he thought!

After the punishment was over, the ink wash seal script flew back to the peak, and the rainbow fog covered up the mountain path once more. Everything had finally returned to normal, but Ye Qing had utterly lost the mood to climb the mountain at his leisure. It was because people had died, of course.

Death was rarely a joyous thing, not to mention that some of the people who died just now were his acquaintances. This incident also made him realize that this Strange Realm really was a Strange Realm. It might not be as dangerous as most Strange Realms, but it was still dangerous enough that death was a very real possibility.

Ye Qing turned serious and started climbing the mountain at full speed. Thanks to Wawa, he didn’t encounter any difficulty no matter what riddle or couplet the Mountain of Riddles threw his way. The journey wasn’t a peaceful one, however. He had seen a man completely losing his sense of self in the middle of a punishment and perishing as a result. He had seen a woman going insane and diving into the rainbow fog after witnessing this very scene.

He had even seen a pair of father and son turning on each other because the father refused to help the son, and the son ultimately killed his father by his own hands. Then, the son committed suicide after withstanding a punishment that pushed him completely over the brink. It would not be the first or the last of its kind. Heavens only know how many more tragedies were happening on this mountain path, and to say that Ye Qing’s heart was burdened by the things he saw would be an understatement.

When Ye Qing finally reached the peak, the rainbow fog abruptly vanished like it was never there. Green meadow, lush trees, beautiful flowers, cool streams and a perfectly clear sky greeted him cordially. It was like he had stepped into paradise.

An old man was sitting on the edge of a cliff. He was wearing a conical hat with his back facing toward him. When Ye Qing approached him, he discovered that he was holding a fishing rod with a fishing line that extended all the way into the sea of clouds below. His expression was concentrated and focused.

This is the first time I see someone fishing in an ocean of clouds. It certainly looks cool, even though I don’t think he’s gonna catch anything! Ye Qing thought to himself while rubbing his chin. He didn’t call out to the old man not just because he didn’t want to break his concentration, but also because he was curious if the old man could actually fish something out of the clouds.

A dozen or so breaths later, the old man broke the silence. “Aren’t you curious what I’m fishing for, young man?”

“Well met, Riddler!” Ye Qing greeted in a respectful tone. He had no doubt that the old man before him was the “Riddler” that the ink wash seal script had mentioned. “Since you’re holding a fishing rod, I’m assuming that you’re trying to catch a fish!”

The Riddler smiled. “Just because a fishing rod is called a fishing rod doesn’t mean that it can only be used to catch fishes. For example, it can be used to catch a treasured medicine—”

The Riddler reeled his fishing rod and caused a round pellet to fly out of the clouds. For a moment, the pellet shone like a golden sun before it fell out of view.

“A manual of the ages!”

The Riddler reeled his fishing rod again and pulled up an extraordinary-looking book with a golden cover and a terrifying aura.

“A Strange Artifact!”

A draconic cry rang from clouds, and a noble-looking, five-clawed golden dragon burst into the sky and stirred the clouds until they resembled a tide. In the end, the dragon transformed into a golden spear that looked both awe-inspiring and powerful.

“Or even mountains of gold, silver, and jewelry!”

The Riddler wasn’t kidding when he said the word “mountains”. He proceeded to reel in literal mountains of gold, silver, and precious stone all from the end of his fishing line.

The Riddler wasn’t done yet. He would continue to reel in all kinds of tempting treasures such as a powerful Stranger that could be used like a servant, treasure maps marking the locations of unimaginable treasures, precious herbs that could heal or strengthen the body like nothing he had ever seen and more. Hell, the old man had even reeled in a gorgeous lady once!

To this, Ye Qing could only think: Man, you sure know how to enjoy life, old man!

“Do you want them, young man?” The Riddler finally asked after he was done showing off.

Surprised, Ye Qing pointed a finger at himself and asked, “If I say yes, would you give them to me?”

The Riddler smiled. “Of course not!”

“...” Ye Qing’s expression crumbled. Why do you even make the offer then!?

As if he could hear Ye Qing’s thoughts, the Riddler corrected his misunderstanding with a friendly smile, “You can’t have it all, but you can pick one of them as a reward. Of course, you can also ask for something that I haven’t shown you, but be warned that you can only have one wish!”

Now we’re talking. “Can I make any wish?”

The Riddler shot him a look and countered, “What do you think?”

“Haha. It’s just a joke,” Ye Qing said with a shrug. The ink-wash seal script had stated at the beginning that the wish must be within reason.

“Haha. I can see that you’re a smart lad. You know when to push and when to concede!” The Riddler praised, but his next words chilled Ye Qing to the core. “Unlike some fools who dream so big they fail to recognize even the reality before them. Once, there was a guy who asked me to turn him into the strongest person in the world!”

“... What happened to him?”

“He died!”

“...”

What a simple yet bizarre tale it was.

“Mind you, I did fulfill his wish, but he was just an ordinary person with an ordinary body. The second my power entered his body, he immediately popped like a watermelon. Not one bit of him was left when all was said and done!”

“That reminds me, there was another guy who wished to become an emperor. Again I fulfilled his wish, but he turned into a retard because he was too weak to withstand the Will of the Empire; a burden that all emperors must bear.”

“Also, there was this fool who—”

For a time, the Riddler could not stop talking like a proper old man.

Long story short, everyone who made an “unreasonable” wish died one way or another! Ye Qing mentally shook his head. Whether or not the wishes were truly unreasonable remained to be seen—he was only hearing one side of the story after all—but one thing for certain, the Riddler wasn’t someone to be trifled with.

So, what constitutes a reasonable wish? According to Ye Qing’s own standards, it was something that met his needs and could be realized via his own capabilities given enough time and effort. It definitely wasn’t something unrealistic like, “Make me the strongest warrior in the world this instant!”

When the Riddler was finally done with his ramblings, he asked once again, “So, what do you want, young man?”

Ye Qing carefully mulled over his words before answering, “I would like an Astral Refinement-stage cultivation art that suits me and the release of everyone from the Mountain of Riddles.”

The Riddler tilted his head in puzzlement. “That’s two requests, no? I thought you were a smart lad. Are you going to make me eat my words so quickly?” His tone had taken on a tinge of displeasure as well.

.

Ye Qing rubbed his nose innocently. “I don’t understand. If you can fit it all in one sentence, then doesn’t that constitute a single wish?”

“...” I’m pretty sure that belies the meaning of “one wish”.

Ye Qing wrangled with his thoughts for a long time, but in the end he said seriously, “In that case, I wish… that you will release all the innocent people currently on the Mountain of Riddles right now.”

He wanted that Astral Refinement cultivation art like you wouldn’t believe, but he could not leave the Pacification Sentinels to their fates either. This was especially true since they had fought side by side just a few days ago. He could pretend that the strangers he encountered along the mountain path did not exist, but his comrades? He wouldn’t be able to face himself if he chose the Astral Refinement stage cultivation art over them.

Moreover, it wasn’t like he had no other alternatives. He could always find another Astral Refinement stage cultivation art using the Annon Sutra. However, you only have one life. That was why he ultimately chose to save their lives.

“As you wish!” The Riddler smiled and waved his sleeve. The next moment, every challenger in the mountain abruptly disappeared from the mountain.

There was one particular challenger that caught Ye Qing’s notice, however. Specifically, it was a familiar-looking man standing on the ninety-ninth step. Ye Qing couldn’t hear him, but he seemed to be laughing loudly with his arms around his waist. He was just about to step on the one-hundredth step when suddenly, poof! He was gone just like that.