Stranger Danger

“You can’t run,” Xu Banren sneered and rushed forward. The moment he got close, the coffin behind his back suddenly creaked open, and a pair of arms covered in black hair and dark blue fingernails caught Black Pot in a vice grip.

Black Pot possessed monstrous strength despite its small size, but the strange arms proved to be even stronger. It was pulled into the coffin in just the blink of an eye.

Bang! The coffin closed not a moment too soon as something smashed against its lid. This would continue for a time as corpse qi leaked through the seams, and Black Pot tried to smash its way out.

Every time there was a bang, Xu Banren’s face would turn just a little paler. His complexion didn’t look like a human’s to begin with, and now he was the picture of a dead corpse. At this rate, he was going to die for real.

Xu Banren seemed completely unperturbed with the fact that he was inching toward true death, however. He simply kept a hand on the coffin lid to prevent Black Pot from escaping.

Eventually tBLack Pot’s struggles grew weakened until it was no more.

After the coffin had returned to calm, Xu Banren carried it on his back and slipped his hood back over his head once more. He was now the picture of a badass as well.

“I knew Xu Banren’s coffin is a Strange Artifact. It’s a pretty high level Strange Artifact too.”

Ye Qing was going to assist Xu Banren, but the man surprised him by killing Black Pot with a coffin-no-jutsu. As a result, he failed to land the last hit and missed out on a silver rune.

Besides that, the coffin gave him an incredibly dangerous feeling when it opened itself, and the arms reached out to grab Black Pot. It must be a Hatred-class Strange Artifact at least.

Xu Banren walked up to Ye Qing and saluted him, “I have performed my duty, Lord Ye!”

“And you have done very well, Lieutenant Xu,” Ye Qing nodded before ordering, “Please round up our dead and wounded and give them the treatment they deserve. I’m going to patrol the area one more time just in case.”

“As you command!”

After Xu Banren was gone, Ye Qing patrolled the area as he said he would but could not find any traces of other Strangers. This confirmed that the bloody shirt, the Bronze Toad of Cornucopia, Shadow and Black Pot were the only four Strangers entrenched in this residence. After confirming that the danger had passed, he knelt down in front of Bronze Toad and stared at its corpse with undisguised greed.

The body of a Bronze Toad of Cornucopia was a trove of treasure. Its bronze flesh could be used to forge Strange Artifacts, and its venom sac could be made into medicine or, of course, poison. However, Ye Qing’s real aim was a single coin embedded inside its mouth called the Bronze Coin of Cornucopia. Not only was the bronze coin the quintessence of the Stranger’s being, it was extremely lucky. Literally, wearing the coin would bestow the wearer great luck and especially luck of fortune. It was a rare and special Strange Artifact in and of itself.

Ye Qing glanced left and right to make sure that no one was looking. Then, he plunged his hand into the corpse’s mouth and dug out the Bronze Coin of Cornucopia.

Ye Qing examined the coin for a moment. It looked no different from the other coins except that it was glowing brightly. The other coins were glowing as well, but their light faded as soon as the Bronze Coin of Cornucopia was dug out. In fact, the entire corpse just dimmed as if it lost its final spark of life.

“The quality is great, and the engravings are all in place. It’s an excellent Bronze Coin of Cornucopia!” Ye Qing chuckled and put it away in his Nature’s Shell. While he was rising to his feet, he abruptly spread his legs and punched the right half of the corpse.

The Burning Wind howled as his force crushed it into bits and engulfed it all in dark red flames. Then—

“Croak!”

Something golden shot out of the Bronze Toad of Cornucopia’s body and escaped to the distance.

“Hmph! And here I thought you would be kind enough to go down peacefully.”

Ye Qing smirked and blocked the strange light’s way almost as if he knew it was there beforehand. Then, he spun his sleeves like the wind and trapped it in the middle.

He seized the golden light with his left hand after he landed on his feet. Inside the light was none other than the Bronze Toad of Cornucopia clutching a silver page between its arms and hopping all over the place in hopes of breaking out of its confines. It was translucent like a ghost.

“Stop wasting your energy, Bronze Toad,” Ye Qing chuckled. The strange light he was holding was the remnant of the Bronze Toad of Cornucopia’s soul. Clearly, it possessed the same ability as Old Grass and could keep a sliver of its soul alive even after its physical body was destroyed.

Ye Qing had sensed a weak flicker of energy when he was digging out the Bronze Coin of Cornucopia earlier. That was how he knew that Bronze Toad was still alive. It was an unbelievable mistake considering that its life was on the line, but the bronze coin contained the quintessence of its being. Losing it had probably triggered some sort of involuntary reaction.

Even so, the flicker of energy was so weak that most people would’ve missed it. Even he would’ve missed it if he wasn’t standing so close to Bronze Toad, and his spirit was far stronger than most. And thank goodness he was a greedy, selfish man, or Bronze Toad could’ve escaped with its quintessence and made a comeback.

All things considered, one could even say that Bronze Toad was destined to die today.

That said, this was a good reminder to never underestimate a Stranger. Heavens only know what might have happened had Bronze Toad managed to escape.

“You have earned our eternal hatred, human.”

Realizing that there was no escape, Bronze Toad abruptly stopped in its tracks and glared daggers at Ye Qing. Sensing that something was amiss, Ye Qing unleashed the Netherflame and attempted to burn its remnant soul into ash.

It was at this moment Bronze Toad let out a painful, hate-filled scream and turned as red as blood. The next second, it swelled like a balloon and exploded into a million pieces.

“Did it self-destruct? No, there’s something else…”

The Bronze Toad of Cornucopia was as dead as it could be after destroying its own soul, but Ye Qing quickly noticed that something was amiss. Something ominous and vengeful was clinging to his body like a curse, but it wasn’t doing any damage to him. He triple-checked himself to make sure of that. As far as he could tell, it was just a strange aura.

“What on earth is this thing?”

Ye Qing tried to remove it as a matter of course—the aura itself might be harmless, but whatever the Bronze Toad of Cornucopia had meant for him could not be good—but neither the Burning Wind nor his talismans could dispel it.

After trying every method he knew to no avail, Ye Qing finally gave up with a sigh, “Screw it. It might disappear on its own eventually.”

Next, he checked out the silver page Bronze Toad had been clutching during its final moments. It was cold to touch as if it was made from some sort of metal, and many strange, twisted symbols or letters were written on its surface. More importantly, it was resistant to his Netherflame, which was supposedly capable of burning everything.

Just staring at it for a moment made Ye Qing feel nauseous and dizzy. Pain and corruption were also assaulting his mind.

He looked away immediately. Even with his mental fortitude, it took him a few deep breaths to return to normal. “Bloody hell, what on earth is this thing?”

One thing for certain, it was as valuable and extraordinary. Even ignoring the fact that it could resist the Netherflame and bend his mind, Bronze Toad had not forgotten to take it with it even when it was on its last legs. This alone was proof that it was worth keeping.

“In you go!” Ye Qing hurriedly stuffed the silver page into his Nature’s Shell when he sensed someone coming his way. He would research it when he was safe and alone.

Xu Banren strode over and reported, “It’s done, Lord Ye. We are ready to leave.”

Ye Qing nodded. “Good. Let’s go!”

With that, they finally left the residence for real.

……

“Croak!”

“Croak…”

An unknown amount of time later, a pair of toads—one gold and one silver—leaped into Li Zhou’s courtyard at the same time. They searched around the residence for a bit before the silver toad uttered angrily and impatiently, “Bronze Toad is dead, sister!”

“Yes, he did. He died so thoroughly that not even his soul fragment managed to make it!” The golden toad answered as her abdomen inflated and deflated.

If the silver toad’s voice was clearly masculine, then the golden toad’s voice obviously belonged to that of a woman. Not only that, it was such a voice that it could easily steal the soul of a weak-willed man.

Considering that they had called Bronze Toad their brother, the two toads could only be the Silver Toad of Cornucopia and the Gold Toad of Cornucopia.

The silver toad’s voice turned shrill like screeching metal, “Who’s the fucker who killed our brother! I swear I will kill them all… croak!”

“Calm down, Silver,” the golden toad advised her younger brother and said, “Judging from the remnants of the battlefield, it was probably the Pacification Bureau who did him in.”

“Bronze was a cautious toad. It was probably Blood Shirt, that dumbass, who drew the Pacification Bureau’s attention and dragged Bronze and his cohort into the fight.”

Silver Toad’s eyes turned bloodshot. “I told him! I told him not to associate himself with a non-sentient idiot, but no, he insisted that ‘the most dangerous place is the safest place’. Now he’s no longer with us, that idiot! Idiot! Shit! Shit!”

Silver Toad asked after swearing for a bit, “What do we do now, sister?”

Gold Toad answered gently, “We take revenge on Bronze’s enemies, of course. More importantly, we must take back the silver page!”

“Revenge. Yes, we will take revenge for Bronze. I will rip the murderers from piece to piece and eat them alive! Ahhhh… [1]”

Silver Toad was hot-headed, but he wasn’t stupid. “There are a lot of people in the Pacification Bureau. How are we going to find the person who killed Bronze? We can’t just kill everyone we meet, right?”

“It’s the same for the silver page. How do we even find the person who took it?”

Gold Toad fell silent for a moment before answering, “Bronze is pretty strong, so his killer could only be a champion of the Pacification Bureau. That would narrow down our search considerably. Moreover, I sense a wisp of Dying Grudge in the area. Bronze must have cursed his killer before he died. So long as the aura exists, our enemy will not elude our grasp.”

“Also, I’m fairly certain that the killer is the same person who took the silver page.”

Silver Toad exclaimed in pleasant surprise, “Oh right! As long as the Dying Grudge doesn’t fade, it’s only a matter of time before we identify Bronze’s killer and reclaim the silver page!”

“When the time comes, I’m going to eat their flesh and drink their blood! Oh, I need to go get ready. See you in a bit, sister!”

“Please be careful, brother. If you find Bronze’s killer, do not try to attack them on your own and come to me immediately. It would not do to alert them about our presence,” Gold Toad warned.

Silver Toad chuckled darkly. “Relax, sister. I’m not Bronze. I won’t make the same mistakes he did.”

“Anyway, see you later, sister!”

After Silver Toad was gone, Gold Toad croaked to herself, “No one can take my silver page from me. No one…”

1. Just imagine one of the demons in Demon Slayer making disturbing moans. ☜