Stranger Danger

Ye Qing did the same thing and broke out of his shackles with sheer force and grabbed the two closest Sunset Hill disciples. Then, he threw them straight through the tunnel, perfectly showing off the greatest strength of a body-tempering warrior: strength.

Ye Qing moved very quickly. He was able to throw six people through the tunnel in the blink of an eye. However, his actions seemed to piss off the Thousand Buddhas Bodhisattva because its strange energy began spreading toward him.

Ye Qing stopped there and then. He was just putting on a show for Wang Yang after all, not because he actually wanted to save these people. Also, he only rescued those who were closest to him, and what did you know, Liu Fan wasn’t one of them. How unfortunate!

The moment the strange energy reached him, Ye Qing bent his knees and launched himself toward the tunnel. He pretended to lack fine control and left a massive pit where he kicked off the ground.

“Phew… that was dangerous.”

The strange energy and aura disappeared after he entered the tunnel. Ye Qing immediately let out a sigh of relief.

Wang Yang was about to rush back in to save Liu Fan, but Ye Qing held him back and said, “Don’t! Look.”

Wang Yang was enraged that Ye Qing would stop him from rescuing his subordinate, but when he turned around and looked, he noticed that the extinguished oil lamps were starting to light up as the Sunset Hill disciples continued to mutilate themselves. It wasn’t long before orange red flames filled the hall once more, and the Sunset Hill disciples abruptly stopped mutilating themselves.

While wearing peaceful and joyous smiles on their faces, they kowtowed and stepped their way toward the Thousand Buddhas Bodhisattva until they reached Ma Yuanshan. Then, they knelt beside him and prayed to the statue… for eternity.

Liu Fan was no exception.

“Shit! How did it turn out like this?”

Seeing that Liu Fan had followed in Ma Yuanshan’s footsteps and was virtually dead, Yang Xuan, who had just jolted back to reality, leaped to his feet and glared at Ye Qing hatefully, “It was you, wasn’t it? It has to be you, Ye Pingshan!”

“What are you talking about?” Ye Qing took two steps away from him and watched him warily. “What do you mean it has to be me?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about!” Yang Xuan uttered coldly and angrily, “You knew those oil lamps were dangerous, but you still told us to extinguish them! What were you planning!?”

“Oh, I know. You wanted to use us to bypass that hall. No wonder you didn’t touch any of them just now. What are you scheming, you bastard?”

“Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of consequences, bud.” Ye Qing’s expression turned cold as well. “I did warn you that the oil lamps were dangerous. You all knew that the oil lamps were dangerous. You even thought I was stupid for pointing out the obvious just now, so what the fuck are you talking about?”

“As for extinguishing the lamp, I never suggested you to extinguish the lamps. What I did say is that we should make it so that the light cannot shine on us, and there are plenty of ways to do that. For example, we could’ve dug a tunnel, used our clothes, branches and vines to make a thick curtain, or used a Strange Artifact to create a mist and so on. Never have I once suggested extinguishing the lamps.”

“Think, Yang Xuan, think. The one who made the suggestion was Yang Fan, which you agreed with, and the one who confirmed the operation was…”

Ye Qing shot Wang Yang a glance before continuing, “As for why I haven’t acted earlier, I’m a body-tempering warrior with shitty force control. Brother Wang himself said to avoid touching anything but the oil lamps to avoid unnecessary complications, which was why I decided to stay my hand.”

“Plus, you had more than enough people to extinguish the lamps. Why would I risk bringing trouble on us all when my help isn’t necessary?”

They were the ones who suggested and acted to extinguish the lamps. In other words, Ye Qing was saying that the blame lay wholly on them. I don’t know, I didn’t do anything, I’m innocent, and I ain’t taking this fall!

So, the one I should be hating is… myself?

When Yang Xuan realized he couldn’t actually refute Ye Qing, his embarrassment morphed into anger, and he yelled, “You… You… You are courting death!”

Yang Xuan aimed his sleeve at Ye Qing, and an emerald green snake the width of a thumb flew toward Ye Qing’s neck.

Seemingly [1] caught off guard, Ye Qing could only lean backward and catch the emerald snake with his hand. However, the emerald snake was a living thing, so it simply bent down and bit Ye Qing on the back of his hand.

To the snake’s surprise, not only did it fail to put a dent in Ye Qing’s skin, its fangs were the one that snapped into several pieces. At the sidelines, Wang Yang narrowed his eyes a little.

Although Ye Pingshan had taken out a few Strangers earlier, they weren’t anywhere strong enough to force him to unleash his true power. However, Yang Xuan had ambushed him just now and forced him to react on instinct. Despite this, he still didn’t use anything but his body. The fact that his body was so tough that even the Malice-class Stranger, Emerald Jade Snake couldn’t pierce his skin proved that he was telling the truth about him being a body-tempering warrior.

“What is the meaning of this, Yang Xuan? Are you venting because you know you’re the one who fucked up, or are you trying to silence me?” Ye Qing roared with a savage expression on his face. He looked like he had suffered the deepest humiliation.

While saying this, Ye Qing crushed the Emerald Jade Snake into bits.

“How dare you kill my Stranger! I’ll kill you!” Yang Xuan roared and threw himself at Ye Qing.

Ye Qing threw out a punch in response.

“Enough!”

It was at this moment Wang Yang growled and appeared between the two. He caught their fists with his bare hands.

Boom…

A terrific shockwave spread out from the trio and into their surroundings. Since they were in a cave, it caused a series of chain reactions that resulted in the destruction of a large number of walls, structures, and statues. They were lucky that the tunnel they were in hadn’t collapsed. The commotion didn’t stop until a long time later.

Their surroundings weren’t the only casualties of the clash. The Sunset Hill disciples Ye Qing rescued awoke to the commotion, but before they could even celebrate the fact that they had survived, the shockwave shattered their hearts and killed them.

There was no greater pain in life than to die, live, then die again!

When the dust settled, Ye Qing and Yang Xuan looked as pale as a sheet as if they couldn’t withstand Wang Yang’s power. They were trembling a little as well.

On the other hand, Wang Yang was perfectly fine despite having withstood both men’s attacks. The White Flame of Nothingness swirling around him also gave him an awe-inspiring appearance.

“Enough.”

Wang Yang withdrew his hands and looked at Ye Qing. “Yang Xuan was overeager and misunderstood you, Brother Ye. On behalf of him, I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to apologize for, Brother Wang. It has nothing to do with you,” Ye Qing relaxed a little and feigned a little awe and respect. Wang Yang was clearly very satisfied with his attitude.

In fact, Wang Yang had ordered Yang Xuan to attack Ye Pingshand. It was to sound out his strength.

Liu Fan had died, and most of the disciples he brought were dead or grievously injured. He and Yang Xuan were the only ones left, but they hadn’t fulfilled their objective yet. Therefore, Ye Pingshan was the only one left they could rely on to be their meat shield and laborer.

Of course, this plan would only work if Ye Pingshan was a controllable variable. If the guy turned out to be stronger than expected, then he was a time bomb they needed to dismantle as soon as possible.

Thankfully, the test proved that Ye Pingshan was, indeed, a body-tempering warrior, an early-stage body-tempering warrior to be exact. He hadn’t been concealing his strength either.

This meant that they could continue exploiting him to their advantage and use him as their vanguard.

As for whether Ye Pingshan had purposely killed his disciples, he didn’t care. Dead people held no value. It was as simple as that.

“Brother Ye, I hope that we can cooperate with each other in good faith starting now. After all, Thousand Buddhas Grotto only gets more dangerous the deeper we go. It’ll be very difficult for any one of us to reach the depths alone, so I hope you can forget all the unpleasantness from before and focus on the present.”

“You will cooperate with us, right? After all, we’ve already come all the way to this place. It’ll be a shame to give up halfway, right?”

Wang Yang’s tone turned threatening. He also released his aura to add to the pressure.

Ye Qing pretended to mull over the “suggestion” and act troubled yet tempted. A moment of hesitation later, he finally said, “Fine. Let’s cooperate in good faith.”

“Very good. Let’s go!” Wang Yang placed his hands behind his back and continued deeper into the grotto. He never spared the innocent Sunset Hill disciples who died for nothing a glance.

Sigh, I wasted my energy saving those disciples for nothing. Blame Wang Yang for caring nothing for your lives!

Ye Qing shook his head. He had to admit that Wang Yang was a formidable enemy though. He was ruthless and unfeeling, but smart, careful, and experienced. He was still young, but he could absolutely grow into a formidable villain in the future.

If his spirit wasn’t so strong that he managed to eavesdrop on Wang Yang and Yang Xuan’s sound transmission, if he hadn’t known that his enemies wanted to test him, he might actually have exposed himself.

But for now, he could play a mole for a little while longer.

Ye Qing was also curious as to Wang Yang’s objective. At first, he thought Wang Yang was here to give his disciples some hands-on experience. But clearly, he cared little for their lives. Despite having suffered horrific casualties, Wang Yang still insisted on venturing deeper into Thousand Buddhas Grotto.

He was almost certain that Wang Yang was gunning for some sort of treasure, and a treasure that could drive him, the scion of Sunset Hill and a late-stage Astral Refiner to this extent must be pretty incredible.

The deeper they ventured into the grotto, the more Strangers they encountered, though thankfully they hadn’t encountered anything else like the Thousand Hands Bodhisattva. Since Ye Qing wanted to check out the treasure that had Wang Yang acting like an infatuated lady as well, he stopped causing trouble for them. As a result, they were able to reach the inner area of the Thousand Buddhas Grotto.

Surprisingly, the number of Strangers they encountered actually decreased after they entered the inner areas. Instead, they were beset by gusts of strange winds.

The winds weren’t always the same. Some of them stank of rot and decay, some were colder than winter, and some were hot enough to burn the flesh off one’s bones. Ye Qing was pretty certain that they were the three winds Fang Xiaoman spoke of: the corrosive Wind of Six Desires, the freezing Wind of Seven Emotions, and the burning Wind of Seven Emotions.

The corrosive Wind of Five Poisons could corrode one’s flesh and blood. Vile and deadly, any flesh-and-blood being that made contact with it would rot into a pile of bones in just a short time.

The freezing Wind of Six Desires was chilly and unconventional. It wouldn’t damage the body on the outside whatsoever, but it would penetrate the flesh and freeze their internal organs and their blood vessels.

The Winds of Five Poison was the Burning Wind. Brutal and unconventional, it could boil not just the flesh and blood, but also burn the mind into dust.

It was impossible for any flesh-and-blood being to live here naturally. It was why the Thousand Buddhas Grotto was considered a forbidden zone for the living.

1. Seemingly, people. He’s just pretending. ☜