Stranger Danger

“Huh?”

Ye Qing raised an eyebrow when his senses suddenly warned him of danger. He looked back just in time to see his own men loosing their bolts at him.

Did a Stranger slip into our midst?

Ye Qing figured out the truth immediately. He swung his sleeves like it was a sheet of steel and batted all the bolts away. Then, he brought down his right foot and attempted to crush the pot Stranger.

Since its cohort had already discovered them, there was no point in keeping it alive or staying hidden any longer.

Boom!

There was a loud explosion as the ground within ten meters of Ye Qing caved inward like tofu. However, he could tell that the clay pot hadn’t shattered completely. In fact, it slipped into the underground and was trying to escape.

“Did you think you could run?”

Ye Qing was going to give chase when the surrounding Pacification Sentinels drew their sabers and charged toward him.

“Have you guys gone mad?” Xu Banren growled and unleashed a devastating punch at his colleagues. His Heavenly Yin Corpse Qi would severely injure them at best or kill them at worst.

“Stop! They’re being controlled by a Stranger!”

Ye Qing took a step forward and threw out his own punch, burning Heavenly Yi Corpse Qi into nothing with his Burning Wind. Then, he swung his sleeves and sent all of the Pacification Sentinels flying. Not a single one of them was hurt despite the attack.

Unfortunately, this was but a temporary measure. The Pacification Sentinels immediately climbed back to their feet and charged them once more.

“Do you know what Stranger is behind this, Lord Ye?” Xu Banren asked. By now, the Lieutenant noticed that the Pacification Sentinels were definitely not acting as they should. However, he could not find anyone or anything who might be controlling them.

“Their shadows. Something’s wrong with their shadows!” Ye Qing’s eyes flicked with intelligence. When he sent the Pacification Sentinels flying just now, he noticed that their bodies and their shadows were out of sync. The shadows were moving a beat slower than it should’ve been. Moreover, the shadows remained as black as ink even when they were directly exposed to sunlight.

“The shadows?” Xu Banren looked and discovered the same oddities as Ye Qing did. Before he could react, Ye Qing threw a mighty punch at the shadows.

“Cloud Vaporization Style”

The Burning Wind blew across the ground with a loud whoosh. The next moment, the shadows actually burst into dark red flames. As soon as the unnatural shadows were wiped out, the Pacification Sentinels discovered that they could move their limbs once more.

No one noticed Ye Qing’s shadow twitching behind his back, however. It abruptly jumped to its feet, transformed its arm into a dagger, and brought it down on Ye Qing’s neck.

“Heh… I was waiting for you!”

Right before the dagger would’ve landed, Ye Qing abruptly reached out with his left hand and caught the shadow’s arm. No matter how hard the shadow pushed, it could not so much as touch Ye Qing’s skin.

Shadow was flabbergasted to say the least. Everything it did until this point was one, to rescue Black Pot from danger, and two, to assassinate Ye Qing while he was distracted.

His enemy was too strong to be controlled like the Pacification Sentinels, so this was its only option.

Its tactic was tried and true as it had killed countless humans with it. However, Ye Qing had somehow anticipated its movement and caught it hook, line and sinker.

He didn’t understand how Ye Qing had anticipated its movements, but it wasn’t going to wait around and ask. Its pitch black body writhed for an instant before dissolving into a black, viscous fog.

“Hmph.”

It wasn’t fast enough. Netherflame gushed out of the Blue Demon Hand and across its whole body. Screaming in pain, Shadow split into countless fragments and slipped into the shadows.

“Lightning Bolt”

Ye Qing opened his mouth and unleashed his Strange Artifact. The mini sword impaled the shadow Shadow had slipped into and unleashed a crackle of lightning.

The shadow writhed and emitted black smoke. The ink black shadow immediately grew faint like it might disappear at any moment.

“Argh!”

Ye Qing was going to end Shadow right there and then, but a scream suddenly drew his attention away. Black Pot had dug out of the ground before he knew it, and a pair of baby soft arms were stretching out of the pot. They grabbed a Pacification Sentinel’s legs while he wasn’t looking and pulled them unto itself.

The arms looked thin and weak, but they were monstrously strong. The poor guy was completely unable to resist as the arms pulled his whole body into the pot in just the blink of an eye. The sound of crushed flesh and bone were horrifying to put it mildly.

Blood bubbled out of the opening as Black Pot commented, “So juicy and crunchy. There really is no tastier flesh than humans!”

“Kill it!”

His companions’ eyes grew bloodshot when they saw this. They immediately fired their hand crossbows at the Stranger.

“Oh my, how terrifying!”

Black Pot teased and withdrew its arms. The bolts were specifically made to kill Strangers, and yet they failed to leave even the slightest mark on the clay pot.

“Too weak!” Black Pot sneered and slammed into a Pacification Sentinel’s chest before he could react. It punched right through his torso and splattered gore everywhere.

Black Pot wasn’t even done yet. It was heading straight toward another Pacification Sentinel who was standing behind his now dead colleague.

Right before another Pacification Sentinel would perish, an arm appeared from the side and smashed into the pot. Black Pot was sent flying as a cloud of corpse qi surrounded it.

“Get out of the way. I’ll deal with it.”

Xu Banren stepped out of the crowd while a copious amount of corpse qi rolled down his body. The coffin behind his back gleamed coldly and eerily in the light.

“A deadman? Your flesh stinks like hell, deadman! Heavens, it stinks so much!” Black Pot wobbled a little before a pair of arms suddenly stretched out from the sides, and legs from the bottom of the pot. It twirled twice on its feet before what looked like an infant’s head popped out of the clay pot’s opening. It had creamy white skin, red lips, and a vertical ponytail on top of its skull.

The next second, Black Pot drew a long saber made of talisman paper from itself and swung it twice. The paper saber actually made a whooshing noise that sounded just like a real blade.

Come fight me, deadman! I’m going to cut you into eighteen pieces!” Black Pot taunted.

That was a mistake though. Before it even finished its sentence, Xu Banren had appeared right in front of it and threw a punch at its face.

I, Xu Banren, always talk less and act more.

Black Pot blocked the punch with its saber, and metallic sparks flew off the point of impact even though it was a fist versus saber. Neither human nor Stranger moved as their force clashed, and the shockwave generated from the impact was enough to shake the earth itself. The Pacification Sentinels looked stunned as they staggered on their feet.

“Not bad, not bad! Again!” Black Pot gave its paper saber a wave before attacking Xu Banren once more.

Halfman Xu had nothing to fear from the clay pot Stranger. His arms turned ashen green as it punched at Black Pot again.

Although Black Pot was a Stranger, its saber technique was shockingly good. It could chain slashes, thrusts, feints, blocks, parries with perfect fluidity. It could alternate its strength between as gentle as a feather and as heavy as a mountain. Finally, it wasn’t a stickler for the forms and could modify its moves to meet a specific situation. It was without a doubt a master with the weapon.

On the other hand, Xu Banren’s fist style looked anything but masterful. All he could do with his stiff arms were simplistic punches, swings, blocks and the occasional elbow smash. But despite his terrible technique, his fists were overflowing with intent and force. Every time he threw a punch, it took everything Black Pot had to stop it or dodge out of the way. It was why the battle was currently locked in a stalemate.

The clay pot is surprisingly strong! Ye Qing thought in astonishment. Although he knew from the start that Black Pot was a Hatred-class Stranger, it had acted so cowardly he thought that its strength would be impaired by its weak personality. In reality, Black Pot was strong enough to fight Xu Banren to a standstill. Heavens only know how many humans it had killed just by acting weak and surprising them at an opportune moment.

Despite this, the situation was advantageous for them. As long as Xu Banren remained strong, he could focus all of his attention on the shadow Stranger.

Speaking of the shadow Stranger, he failed to kill it even though he landed a severe blow because it possessed the ability to pass through shadows. A moment’s distraction was all it needed to escape into a patch of shadow. Not only that, he was unable to detect the Stranger after it entered the shadows.

“Interesting!” Ye Qing smirked. So what if he couldn’t detect the Stranger? He raised his fist and punched the ground hard, triggering a mini earthquake and causing Burning Wind to burst out from the seams. Every earth and rock within tens of meters of him was turned red hot as well.

A shadow next to the well immediately jumped into the air. It was burning with dark red flames from the inside out.

“Heh. Found you!”

Ye Qing turned around and appeared right in front of the shadow Stranger. His left hand burst into flames as he made a grab for it.

Whoosh!

Once again, Shadow dissolved into an ink black fog and tried to escape, but Ye Qing abruptly clenched his hand into a fist and, pop! The air within several meters of him popped like a balloon and elicited a painful cry from the shadow Stranger.

A few wisps of shadow survived the sudden explosion and returned to its true body, but it was much fainter and weaker than before.

Honestly, Shadow’s ability wasn’t weak. It could slip into Shadows, control a weaker being’s shadow, and hide even from Ye Qing’s powerful spirit. It was perfectly suited for scouting, ambushes, and assassination duties.

Its only flaw was that it was somewhat lacking in direct combat. If the enemy managed to catch it off guard and land a few solid hits just like Ye Qing had, then it would be put on the back foot instantly.

Of course, Shadow was also unlucky to have Ye Qing as its opponent. The Patrolman’s powerful spirit, rich true qi and all-consuming Burning Wind was the bane of its ability.

So sorry that I’m too good for ya!

Suddenly, Black Pot let out a cackle. “Shadow is gonna die for you soon if you don’t show yourself, Bronze Toad!”

Xu Banren hmphed in disgust, “You dare be distracted while you’re fighting against me?”

Halfman Xu blocked Black Pot’s slash with his left fist and struck its body with his right. Black Pot was covered in cracks in the first place, but the solid blow and outburst of Heavenly Yin Corpse Qi instantly blew a hole in its sides that spewed disgusting, smelly pus.

“Aaaah! It hurts! I’m gonna die as well if you keep this up, Bronze Toad!” Black Pot let out an exaggerated scream.

Xu Banren ignored Black Pot’s attack and kept up his attack. Ye Qing, however, was feeling worried. Black Pot could be bluffing, but it was far more likely that there were more Strangers hiding inside the well. It was obvious now why the shadow Stranger had lured him to the well. It was planning to surprise him with the Stranger inside the well and kill him!

Ye Qing immediately punched the well entrance. It boomed as loud as the drumbeat of a celestial.

Rather than wait for his enemy to ambush him, he would rather take the fight to them first! The best defense was a good offense!