Stranger Danger

“It doesn’t look like you’ve changed much though?” Ye Qing gave it a look-over to see if anything had changed about the vellum. It felt smoother and looked a little more mysterious than before, but that was it. On the surface, it still looked very much like an ordinary piece of vellum.

I’ll ask about it when I get back.

It would be nice if the Annon Sutra underwent an upgrade, but he wouldn’t mind even if it was the same as before. He folded the vellum into a square and slipped it against his heart. A gentle pat and another sigh of relief later, he looked into the sky. The night was still young, and the moon was bright. He then turned his attention to the ground.

It was finally time to eliminate the final Stranger.

Rumble!

Unfortunately, he had wasted a little too much time dealing with the brush Stranger. A fair distance away from Ye Qing, a patch of earth suddenly turned swollen as if something was pushing out of it. Then, a giant toad’s head burst out into the open.

The Stranger looked nowhere as imposing as it was at the beginning, however. Its silvery scales had melted into liquid, and the silver was mixed with a lot of red as well. It was obviously blood.

“Croak croak!”

As soon as Silver Toad climbed back to the surface, it immediately let out a deafening croak that collapsed a whole swathe of buildings.

“Bastard!”

Ye Qing narrowed his eyes dangerously. Although Eminence Street was a business area with more shops than houses, that hardly meant that the area was uninhabited. Heavens only know how many people the Stranger had killed or injured with its croak.

“Seal!”

Right before Ye Qing could throw himself into battle, a clear and sonorous voice suddenly caught his attention. He turned and saw a man standing on a rooftop and holding a golden brush. He was none other than Lin Yuhuai.

Clearly, the Pacification Bureau had finally picked up on the commotion and sent someone to help him.

Lin Yuhuai wrote the word at the same time he cried out the word, “Seal!” As soon as he finished the last stroke, golden light burst out of the word and transformed into chains the size of a human arm. They wrapped around Silver Toad and bound it in just the blink of an eye!

“Croak croak!”

Silver Toad kept croaking and discharged a devastating shockwave. However, it wasn’t enough to break through the formless, seemingly illusory chains.

“Suppress!”

Seeing that Silver Toad was still struggling, Lin Yuhuai calmly wrote the word “Suppress” and caused a massive stele to fall from the sky.

The stele looked weathered and ancient. One side of the stele was engraved with patterns of flowers, birds, fishes and dragons, and the other side was engraved with the two words, “Demon Subjugation”. Silver Toad abruptly stopped struggling, and it slowly shrank until it was only as big as a palm. Then, the stele vanished as if its work here was done.

“It is said that talismans are an expression of the laws of reality. I didn’t know Lin Yuhuai is a talisman master, and that he’s reached the level where he could inscribe on nothing and turn fiction to reality. I definitely should stay on his good side.”

“Inscribe on nothing” referred to the fact that Lin Yuhuai could write or draw a talisman without having to rely on conventional items such as a writing brush, cinnabar, yellow papers, ink and so on. He had reached the level where he could borrow the power of nature directly to create his talismans. “Turn fiction to reality” referred to the fact that he could bring physical objects into existence with his talismans. The stele was just one example. At a high enough level, he could also recreate rivers, mountains, stars, moons, suns and more. It was obvious that Lin Yuhuai’s attainment in the way of talismans was incredibly high.

“Are you alright, Joyless?” Lin YUhuai jumped down the roof and went over to Ye Qing after sealing Silver Toad.

Ye Qing shook his head and smiled. “Thank you for your concern, but I’m alright. It’ll take more than a handful of small fries to kill me.”

Lin Yuhuai was silent for a moment. Judging from the lingering auras on the battlefield, at least four Hatred-class Strangers had attacked Ye Qing at the same time. However, they were apparently just “small fries” to the Patrolman. Were the Strangers really that useless, or did Joyless allow his accomplishment to get into his head a little too much?

That said, Lin Yuhuai wasn’t in the habit of roasting someone, so he ignored the boasting and asked, “What on earth happened here?”

Jokes aside, Ye Qing immediately told Lin Yuhuai everything that had happened tonight except the little interaction between the Annon Sutra and the Writer.

For once, the normally genial man looked murderous when he heard Ye Qing’s story until the end. “How dare these Strangers attack a member of the Pacification Bureau openly. Hmph! I suppose it’s about time we do a thorough clean-up of Luo Shui.”

“By the way, you did really well to survive the ambush of four Hatred-class Strangers. Anyone else at your level would’ve perished a long time ago, but not only did you turn it around, you even managed to kill three of them. You really are an extraordinary warrior.”

Ye Qing smiled. “You flatter me, Brother Lin. Oh right! We should attend to our companions first! They’re not beyond saving, right?” Ye Qing pointed at the three Artifact Wielders.

Lin Yuhuai strode up to them and inspected them closely. He then gave Ye Qing the good news, “They’re fine. They are injured in body and mind, but they will recover.”

Lin Yuhuai waved his sleeves slightly and threw out a talisman. It transformed into a ball of green light and showered the Artifact Wielders with its light. Once the cold energy inside their bodies was expelled, the trio eventually regained their consciousness.

“My lords… are those Strangers…?”

As expected of professionals, all three Artifact Wielders eyed their surroundings warily as soon as they woke up.

Lin Yuhuai assured them, “Don’t worry. All four Strangers have been captured or killed.”

It was only then they let out a sigh of relief.

Ye Qing handed the bronze box holding the Miracle Doctor Calabash back to the three Artifact Wielders. Then, he looked at the frozen toad a short distance away from them and asked, “What do we do with this silver toad, Brother Lin?”

Lin Yuhuai answered, “Since it is an intelligent Stranger, I’m going to take it back to the Pacification Bureau and see if our interrogators can pry the locations of its fellow rats out of its mouth. It would be great if it gives us useful information, but if not we will simply throw it into prison.”

“You mean the Strange Prison? It’ll just be a waste of resources!” Ye Qing exclaimed in mock disbelief, “I’d rather you give it to me if you can’t find anything!”

The Strange Prison was, as its name might suggest, a prison for Strangers. Although most Strangers were hostile toward humans, some of them possessed special abilities that were incredibly useful. For example, some Strangers’ blood could be used to create medicine and draw powerful talismans, some Strangers’ flesh could be consumed to improve a warrior’s power, some Strangers’ hair served as excellent materials to create a Strange Artifact, so on and so forth.

Rather than killing them outright, the humans thought it was better to keep them in captivity and maximize their usefulness so to speak.

The Toads of Cornucopia—the rarer Silver Toad of Cornucopia no less—possessed the innate ability to draw luck and fortune to its owner. Although the Pacification Bureau was hardly lacking in either department, it just barely crossed the line of being more useful alive than dead.

“Do you have a use for it, Joyless?” Lin Yuhuai thought he knew what Ye Qing was aiming for. “Are you planning to start a business or something?”

Ye Qing shook his head. “What? Of course not! I just want to end its life with my own hands!”

Money? Why would he want its money when he could have its life? Specifically, the dragon-serpent runes its life would turn into?

“Oh… I understand now. You may do with the Silver Toad as you wish, Brother Ye,” Lin Yuhuai nodded agreeably.

Ye Qing had no idea what Lin Yuhuai “understood” from his reply—maybe he thought he wanted to take revenge for the ambush or something?—but as long as he got his dragon-serpent runes, then all was well.

Noticing that Ye Qing was looking a little tired, Lin Yuhuai offered, “You look like you can use some rest, Joyless. I’ll take over from here.”

Ye Qing didn’t turn him down. He saluted the talisman master and said, “Thanks, Brother Lin.”

“You’re welcome.”

And so Ye Qing and Lin Yuhuai bade goodbye, though they didn’t part ways until they had escorted the three Artifact Wielders back to the Pacification Bureau and returned the Miracle Doctor Calabash safely to the Tower of Secrets because it was on the way. Only then did Ye Qing finally return to his residence.

It was way past midnight by the time he got home. Wawa and Kung Fu Frog had gone to bed ages ago, though Faceless was still awake and waiting for him. As soon as he returned, he immediately served him a big bowl of thick noodles and a jar of Pear Blossom wine. The noodles were delicious, and the wine was intoxicating. The combination was so good that it wiped the day’s fatigue away.

“Now, if only there is a beautiful woman to finish the picture!” Ye Qing sighed as he lay down on a bench. Despite the fantastic supper and the beautiful moon outside the window, Ye Qing felt like he wasn’t quite satisfied yet. Faceless could take the form of a beautiful woman, but it wouldn’t change the fact that he was a boring man on the inside.

“Oh right, I should ask the Annon Sutra if it had gotten an upgrade after absorbing the Writer.”

Ye Qing made sure that the doors and windows were closed before pulling out the Annon Sutra. Then, he spat a mouthful of blood on the vellum and asked, “Did the Annon Sutra gain some new abilities after absorbing the brush Stranger [1]?”

The Annon Sutra didn’t react though. Thinking that it just needed more blood, Ye Qing spent the next few minutes throring up at least dozens of mouthfuls of blood. Still, the Annon Sutra didn’t react at all.

“Why isn’t it reacting? Was I mistaken after all?”

Ye Qing couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed. What a waste of my red hot passion, he thought [2]. Right before he was about to give up though, rows and rows of bloody text finally appeared on the vellum’s surface,

“The Annon Sutra devoured the Writer tonight, and it looked like it had undergone some changes.”

“After a careful examination, I discovered that the Annon Sutra had gained an ability that is similar to the Writer’s. To put it simply, it could influence the orbit of a person’s fate to a certain degree. Hence, I decided to name it the Orbit of Fate.”

Ye Qing rolled his eyes when he saw this. What do you mean I named it? You’re the one who named it, not me! The Orbit of Fate is a cool ability though.

He knew first hand just how potent the Writer’s ability was. It was unpredictable, unfathomable, and impossible to guard against. If he used this ability while fighting against any opponent, it would be like cursing them with an Incense of Misfortune. It would be an absolute nightmare for his enemy.

While Ye Qing was imagining all sorts of unspeakably monstrous ideas to screw over his enemies, the Annon Sutra continued,

“All things in existence have a cause, effect, and fate. The intersection of all three is what makes a being’s orbit of fate. By expending a corresponding amount of dragon-serpent runes, the Annon Sutra can, to a certain degree, alter the orbit of fate of everything including gods, demons, Strangers, humans, animals and more. Fortune or misfortune, life or death, the Annon Sutra can decide it all.”

“P.S. The more dragon-serpent runes you spend, the bigger the potency of the Orbit of Fate.”

“P.P.S. Do you know that I can secretly change your fate?”

“The Orbit of Fate! Holy shit!” Ye Qing burst out in uncontrollable excitement. To say that this ability was overpowered would be an understatement, but…

“Why does it need dragon-serpent runes to activate?” Ye Qing groaned. The dragon-serpent runes he earned wasn’t even enough for himself, and now he got a new ability that was obviously going to consume a ton of dragon-serpent runes. It’s like I’m back in university all over again!

The Annon Sutra had made it very clear that the potency of the Orbit of Fate was directly proportional to the amount of dragon-serpent runes that were spent. He was pretty sure that the cost would go way up if his target was exceptionally strong.

He could practically hear the Annon Sutra saying: Prepare your dragon-serpent runes, young man! I’m coming for it!

Fuck my life!

1. Author put the Writer here, but Ye Qing shouldn’t know the Writer’s name because he hadn’t checked with the Annon Sutra yet. It doesn’t look like he recognized the Writer either, only its abilities. ☜

2. No, the Annon Sutra is just squeezing you for all you’re worth. ☜