Stranger Danger

Woe is me!

“Why do you sound so surprised, Joyless? We told you how long the living could stay in the Strange Market.” Lin Yuhuai sounded curious. “Also, why do you feel different from before? It’s like… you’re harder to see through now.”

“Am I?” Ye Qing smirked. “Well, you’re completely correct.”

“What happened? Tell us,” Lin Yuhuai asked curiously.

Ye Qing didn’t hide his experience from his colleagues. He gave them a summary of how he came to enter Pawn Shop No. 8 and what happened there. Of course, he glossed over the fact that he had absorbed the soul power of tens of thousands of souls and focused mostly on the golden arrow that destroyed Umbra and the pawn shop.

“Pawn Shop No. 8 is destroyed? That’s wonderful!” Lin Yuhuai and Chu Nianjiu exclaimed in pleasant surprise before exchanging an odd look with one another. “Talk about a coincidence!”

“A coincidence? What do you mean?” Ye Qing asked when something caught his attention. “Wait a second. You guys know about Pawn Shop No. 8 too?”

“Tell him, Nianjiu,” Lin Yuhuai said.

Chu Nianjiu cleared his throat and did just that with undisguised delight, “We told you that we have something to do at the Strange Market, right? In fact, we were on a mission to locate Pawn Shop No. 8.”

“Really? But why?” The way Chu Nianjiu said it, they had had their eyes on Pawn Shop No. 8 for a very long time.

Chu Nianjiu sipped his wine gourd before launching into a lengthy explanation, “Three months ago, a series of strange events started happening all over Luo Shui. One man suddenly became unbelievably strong overnight, but he also became cruel, heartless, and bloodthirsty. In the end, he suffered a mental breakdown. Another became rich overnight, but he too lost his compassion and would do anything for money. However, not even his ruthlessness in making money could make up for his gambling addiction, and he eventually lost everything and committed suicide.”

“A gravely ill patient had suddenly healed from his sickness, but he aged rapidly in just a few days and passed of old age. A muddle-headed and incompetent official suddenly became unbelievably intelligent, solving many cases and shooting through the ranks rapidly. However, his personality also became increasingly bizarre until he suddenly went missing one day. There were also people who lost their sense of taste, touch, familial love and more.”

“Incidents like these were happening throughout Luo Shui, and I eventually found out that the victims had all come into contact with a mysterious badge and went to a mysterious place known as Pawn Shop No. 8. Supposedly, you could pawn anything on your person including intangible things such as your emotions, your gift, your soul and more to exchange for anything.”

Chu Nianjiu continued, “We decided to eliminate Pawn Shop No. 8, but we were unable to locate this pawn shop despite searching for it for a long time. In the end, we have no choice but to use the Earth-grade Strange Artifact No. 13, the Mask of Prophecy to divine its location. It’s how we figured out that it would appear in Pawn Shop No. 8 tonight.”

“Earth-grade Strange Artifact No. 13, the Mask of Prophecy? Sounds impressive. What does it do?” Ye Qing asked curiously.

“It is a Strange Artifact that can divine the location of anything so long as it actually exists in the world a day before. That’s not the main point though.”

Chu Nianjiu glossed over the subject, “After identifying Pawn Shop No. 8’s location, Chief Fang and us came up with a plan. Yuhuai and I would enter the Strange Market with the Star Locating Disc and locate Pawn Shop No. 8. Chief Fang would shoot his arrow and destroy the pawn shop and the Stranger behind it.”

“Unfortunately, the Strange Market turned out to be stranger than we thought. For whatever reason, all powerful artifacts are suppressed and misled in that place, so the Star Locating Disc wasn’t able to lead us to Pawn Shop No. 8 as we hoped. Just when we thought the mission would end in failure, you accidentally made your way into Pawn Shop No. 8 and even induced the Deer of Balance and the mastermind to wage war against one another. Chief Fang must have sensed the shockwaves of the battle and seized the opportunity to severely injure Umbra and Pawn Shop No. 8 in one strike.”

Lin Yuhuai smiled, “It’s a shame Umbra ultimately managed to escape, but we would not be seeing him for a while. Good job, Joyless. Your contribution in this mission is indispensable.”

“Like I said, it was a series of coincidences and misunderstandings, but I’m certainly not going to turn down your praise.” Ye Qing rubbed his nose before asking, “By the way, Chief Fang is the one who shot that arrow, right? What on earth is the Strange Artifact he used? It’s unbelievably powerful.”

He had joined the Pacification Bureau for some time now, but he had never met the true boss of the Luo Shui Pacification Bureau, Fang Xiaoman.

Although Fang Xiaoman was the Chief of Bureau, he was elusive, relatively anonymous, and difficult to track down. Even the veterans who had worked for the Pacification Bureau for years could count the number of times they met their boss on one hand. Normally, it was the Vice Chief of Bureau, Gu Suitang who handled everything.

Fang Xiaoman was a low-profile individual, so much so that most bureau members had never met him in their lives. However, no one would deny that Fang Xiaoman was strong. After all, he was one of the two only Spirit Masters in the bureau. How could he possibly be a weakling?

That said, no one knows exactly how strong Fang Xiaoman was. Fang Xiaoman wouldn’t go all out against a colleague, and those who deserved his full power were all dead!

Naturally, Ye Qing was very curious about his boss.

Chu Nianjiu answered, “The arrow was shot by Chief Fang, yes, and the Strange Artifact he used is probably the Xuanhuang Bow. It’s the only Strange Artifact we have that could grievously injure the master of Pawn Shop No. 8 in one hit.”

“Tell me more about the Xuanhuang Bow,” Ye Qing prodded.

Chu Nianjiu shrugged. “I don’t know how strong or even what class the Xuanhuang Bow is, only that it is an incredibly powerful Strange Artifact. The only ones who can give you a proper answer are the chief and the vice chief.”

Lin Yuhuai added, “This is just a guess, but Xuanhuang is at least a Soulstealer-class Strange Artifact, if not higher. That’s right, it could be a Phenomenon-class Strange Artifact. The reason I say this is because Xuanhuang is an intelligent, sentient Strange Artifact.”

“A sentient Strange Artifact? That’s incredible!” Ye Qing’s eyes lit up. In essence, a strange Artifact was a unique Stranger, and most Strangers didn’t possess one whit of intelligence. They could only act as their instincts dictated. The small portion of Strangers who possessed both intelligence and sentience were, in a sense, humans with a different form. A sentient Strange Artifact fell under this category as well because they also possessed a human’s sentience and intelligence.

Generally, all sentient Strange Artifacts were one-of-a-kind. It was because they were stronger than their non-sentient counterparts and more importantly, possessed the ability to grow just like humans.

That was why a sentient Strange Artifact was easily a hundred times more valuable than a generic Strange Artifact. Literally, there was a saying that one sentient Strange Artifact was worth a hundred Strange Artifacts.

“Where is Chief Fang right now?” Ye Qing asked, though he was really curious about the Xuanhuang Bow. He very much wanted to meet a sentient Strange Artifact.

Chu Nianjiu shrugged, “We don’t know. Chief Fang is extremely elusive, so heavens only know where he is right now. He could be eating roast meat at Drum Street, or wonton at Xiaoqing Market, or oil spill noodles at Aunt Hua’s place… he could be anywhere!”

“Roast meat? Wonton? Oil spill noodles?” Ye Qing rubbed his nose and quipped instinctively, “Is Chief Fang actually a glutton?”

“Hahaha! A glutton? That’s exactly what he is! You’ve pinpointed his true nature in a single word, boy! Xiaoman the Glutton, Xiaoman the Glutton! Yes, it fits him well!”

A ridiculing voice came from the entrance of the Pacification Bureau. When they turned around, they saw a down-to-earth, middle-aged man sitting at the entrance and eating a roujiamo [1]. When did he get there, and how did they not notice his presence until now?

“For heavens’ sake, Xiaoman! Can you stop eating already? You’re in the presence of your juniors right now, you glutton! I can feel their respect for me dropping by the second!”

“Om nom nom…”

“Did you hear me, you bastard! Eat, eat, eat! Is that the only thing you know? Argh, I would blow your head off if I could!”

The scathing remarks were coming from a golden bow propped against the door frame. The middle-aged man took another delicious, juicy bite from his roujiamo before garbling, “I fail to see how eating is shameful. Also, you’ve missed your last chance to blow my head off a long time ago for one very simple reason: I’m stronger than you now.”

Fuming as it was, the golden bow couldn’t mouth a retort. It was because he was telling the truth.

The middle-aged man and the golden bow were, of course, Fang Xiaoman and the Xuanhuang Bow.

That said, the golden bow was the type who couldn’t take things lying down for long, so it started running its mouth like a machine gun [2]. It might not be able to kick Xiaoman’s ass, but it could definitely drown him in spit. Xiaoman was so slow it could fire off ten sentences before Xiaoman could finish one.

“Strong? Strong my butt! You were so weak that you couldn’t even beat an old granny who’s missing her front tooth! If you hadn\'t run into me, you’d never have become a strong warrior, much less the Chief of Bureau of the Luo Shui Pacification Bureau! Nay, you would still be looking for scraps on the streets, you shameless fuck!”

Xuanhuang had exposed Fang Xiaoman’s dark past, but the Chief of Bureau didn’t get angry. He said slowly, “That is the truth, but it is also the truth that you can’t defeat me anymore.”

Xuanhuang: “...” Ah, I’m having a bad feeling about this conversation.

“That’s only temporary, Fang Xiaoman! I’ll ascend to a new level very soon! When the time comes, it’ll be my turn to beat the crap out of you!” Xuanhuang threatened.

Fang Xiaoman put the last piece of roujiamo into his mouth and chewed it slowly. When he was done swallowing, he replied, “Perhaps. But until then, you cannot defeat me.”

Xuanhuang: “...” Damn it all!

After Xuanhuang fell silent, Chu Nianjiu and Lin Yuhuai finally found the opportunity to greet the Chief of Bureau. Ye Qing followed suit as well. It was clear that the middle-aged man was Fang Xiaoman, and the golden bow was the sentient Strange Artifact, the Xuanhuang Bow.

Of course, his imagination of the legendary duo didn’t quite match the reality in front of him. In his head, the man who shot that arrow should have an impressive stature and a dignified appearance. In reality, he looked no different from a farmer who toiled the lands [3].

He also imagined that the sentient Xuanhuang was a cool, strong, arrogant bow who found it beneath him to speak to puny mortals. In reality, it probably couldn’t keep its mouth shut even if it tried.

As if to add insult to injury, the bow was a bronze-rank carper at best. It was nowhere close to becoming a challenger.

That said, the human and bow seemed to fit each other surprisingly well despite their drastically different personalities.

1. Chinese hamburger or sandwich kind of, but I can’t translate it as that because you know, there’s technically no Chinese in this world? ☜

2. I didn’t really want to use modern terms unless it’s from the MC’s mouth, but I couldn’t really think of an equivalent either, so machine gun it is. ☜

3. Raiden sneezes. ☜