Stranger Danger

Wang Yang had just exited Thousand Buddhas Grotto and was getting ready to return to Sunset Hill when suddenly, he found himself surrounded by a group of angry people.

“What is the meaning of this, Vice Principal Cheng?” Wang Yang crossed his arms and frowned at the man standing directly in his way.

The Vice Principal Cheng he was addressing was named Cheng Nuo, and the rest of the group were all White Horse Academy disciples. Chéng Youlan and Mu Yuan were among them as well. Wang Yang couldn’t help but feel a bad feeling about this.

Cheng Nuo was in his fifties. He had a thin but spirited face and a long beard. Wearing a big hat and loose robes, he somewhat resembled a gentleman of the old. However, that image was currently tarnished by the gloominess and hostility in his eyes.

“You know exactly what this is about, Wang Yang!” Cheng Nuo uttered coldly, “That you are a cruel, impulsive and tyrannical man do not usually concern me, but you dare murder a disciple of the White Horse Academy? How dare you!”

Wang Yang scoffed as soon as he recovered from his surprise, “Vice Principal Cheng, freedom of speech does not mean freedom of consequences. Since when did I kill anyone from the White Horse Academy? I get it, you must be here to take revenge for that foolish nephew of yours, right?”

“Beat up the young, and the elder comes yelling. I thought that this tradition is only applicable to us Sunset Hills, but I guess not even White Horse Academy, the so-called successor of a sage, is immune to such customs. What an eye-opening experience this is turning out to be, hahaha!”

Wang Yang wasn’t afraid even though Cheng Nuo was the vice principal of White Horse Academy and a powerful late-stage Spirit Purifier. After all, his father was the lord and master of Sunset Hill itself. There were only a handful of people in Luo Shui he needed to tiptoe around, and Cheng Nuo obviously wasn’t one of them.

Moreover, he heard that Cheng Nuo’s cultivation was pure drugs and no martial arts. Forget his dad, even an early-stage Spirit Purifier from their sect could probably kick his ass with impunity. What did he have to fear from such a useless man?

Wang Yang’s taunt greatly angered Cheng Nuo. “It’s not enough that you killed my nephew, you would slander my White Horse Academy as well? So be it! Today is the day I slay you and rid the world of your loathsome presence!”

His hair started billowing on its own as his pressure washed out. Such was his presence that the White Horse Academy disciples couldn’t help but take two steps away from him.

Wang Yang was stunned when he sensed that Cheng Nuo actually intended to kill him. He thought that the old man was just planning to beat him up a little for his nephew, but killing him? That had far-reaching consequences to say the least. Also…

“Wait? You weren’t exaggerating earlier?” Wang Yang realized something and blurted, “Cheng Yi is actually dead?”

Cheng Nuo’s eyes were bloodshot with sorrow and fury. “How much longer will you feign ignorance, you knave!”

Cheng Nuo had no children to his name, which was why he raised Cheng Yi like a son even though he was technically his nephew. How could he not be angered by his death?

Wang Yang’s eyes flickered with uncertainty. “So Cheng Yi is dead. What does it have to do with me? He was perfectly fine when we parted ways.”

“You’re the one who killed senior brother!” Chéng Youlan took one step forward and glared at Wang Yang with reddened eyes, “Senior Brother Cheng was fine when we parted ways, but he died not long after that! You must have broken his insides when you struck his solar plexus, but did it in a way so that his injuries after we were far away to give yourself an alibi! You killed him because you were annoyed that he would challenge your authority!”

“Senior Brother Mu was present! He can prove that I am telling the truth!”

“It is as Junior Sister Youlan says,” Mu Yuan nodded with a pained look as well, “We did not encounter any other Stranger or unusual objects after we parted ways with you. Therefore, the only one who could’ve murdered Senior Brother Cheng was you.”

“Hmph! What a load of nonsense!” Wang Yang retorted when he finally realized that this wasn’t an extremely elaborate hoax, “All I did was teach Cheng Yi a lesson. There is no chance that a light pat to his chest would kill him. Speaking of Strangers, maybe you did encounter one when you were carrying him back to the surface, and Cheng Yi was killed as a result. Afraid of facing the consequences, you decided to pin the blame on me instead!”

“Yes, the more I think about it, the likelier that seems to be the case. Pinning the blame on others is practically a scholar’s modus operandi,” Wang Yang nodded seriously.

“You lie!”

“Lies!”

Both Chéng Youlan and Mu Yuan glared at him angrily.

Cheng Nuo stared at Wang Yang coldly, “It’s no use trying to talk yourself out of this, Wang Yang. I’d personally inspected Yi’er’s body, and I can confirm that there is no other injury on his person except the one you dealt him. Therefore, you must be the man who killed my nephew.”

“A blood debt must be paid in blood. Wang Luori could show up right now, and I will still kill you and take revenge for my Yi’er!”

Cheng Yi made a grab for Wang Yang after he was done talking. Astral wind blew as a massive palm took form in the air and descended on top of Wang Yang.

“Air of Greatness - Great Catch”

Wang Yang pushed off the ground and avoided the attack. Although Cheng Nuo’s cultivation was built on drugs, he was still a late-stage Spirit Purifier. He would be stupid to face his attack head on. Moreover, he was tired and severely injured from fighting the withered corpse, enduring the astral wind, and even taking a do-or-die punch from Ye Pingshan. There was just no way he was a match for Cheng Nuo right now. The only thing he could do was to escape this place.

Of course, he wasn’t afraid of what might happen to him even if he failed to escape. Cheng Nuo was all bark and no bite. The pretentious scholar claimed he wanted him dead, but he knew better than anyone what the consequences would be if he actually died. At the minimum, his father would march up to White Horse Academy to call for justice, and there would be a great battle between the two factions. It was a responsibility no one could bear.

Naturally, he had nothing to fear from Cheng Nuo.

Cheng Nuo was furious that Wang Yang managed to avoid his first move. He manifested an ink stone that manifested a tiny ink man holding a brush. The tiny ink man flicked his wet brush at Wang Yang, and the ink droplets actually transformed into a rain of swords that shot straight toward Wang Yang.

“Kill him!” Cheng Nuo declared. Effectiveness aside, the move certainly looked mighty impressive.

“Hmph!” Wang Yang grunted in annoyance as he felt the sword qis locking down the space around him. He felt like he was being sat on by a massive mountain, and his energies were either impeded or outright locked by the attack.

If escape was impossible, then it was better to stand one’s ground. Wang Yang summoned the Five Flames Seven Birds Fan once more and flapped it, summoning the five divine flames and seven divine birds. The ink swords quickly evaporated into thin air.

“Hmph! There is nowhere to run!”

Wang Yang did well to neutralize the attack, but Cheng Nuo was already standing behind him. Ink forming a sword at his fingertip, Cheng Nuo aimed to stab Wang Yang in the shoulder.

As expected, Cheng Nuo wasn’t aiming to kill Wang Yang. Although he wanted nothing more than to kill Wang Yang, he knew that the consequences were far too heavy for even the principal to bear, much less him. That was why he was only aiming to cripple Wang Yang, and stabbing the young man in the shoulder would ruin his arm.

Sure, he couldn’t kill Wang Yang, but surely his nephew was worth at least one arm?

Wang Yang wasn’t willing to submit, of course. Despite his awkward position, he did everything he could to dodge to the side.

It was at this moment Wang Yang accidentally stepped on a slippery rock and lost his footing. Instead of his shoulder, it was his head that was directly in the path of the ink sword.

If Wang Yang was stunned, then Cheng Nuo was flabbergasted. Worse, Cheng Nuo’s cultivation was built atop a pile of drugs, so he was unable to control his force as he pleased. By the time he reacted, his ink sword had already skewered through Wang Yang’s brain.

“Ug… ggh…”

Wang Yang’s eyes grew unfocused. His shock and puzzlement never faded even until the last moment. He raised his hand to try and grab Cheng Nuo, but his life left him before he could complete the motion.

“I… I…”

Cheng Nuo’s ink sword melted into ink as he staggered away from Wang Yang’s body in panic. To say that he was flabbergasted would be an understatement.

He just wanted to vent on the guy who murdered his nephew, and Wang Luori to pay White Horse Academy a visit and apologize for the murder after the fact. So how did it turn out this way?

He knew Wang Yang could’ve avoided the attack, but instead the young hill lord had chosen to put his head directly in harm’s way. What the hell just happened? Was he trying to give him a taste of his own medicine or something? With his own life?

Seriously, what the hell just happened?

In any case, Wang Yang was dead, and dead by his hands no less. The situation had just become extremely complicated.

No one would disagree that a blood debt must be repaid in blood, but it was also a fact that some people’s lives were more valuable than others. In this case, Wang Yang’s life was definitely more valuable than his nephew, and knowing Wang Luori, the Hill Lord would absolutely pay him a visit later.

Oh, no.

“Principal, you… you actually killed Wang Yang?”

Chéng Youlan, Mu Yuan, and the rest of the White Horse Academy disciples were staring at Cheng Nuo with flabbergasted expressions as well. Although they were extremely sheltered, they weren’t stupid. Of course they knew what the consequences of killing Wang Yang, the son of the Hill Lord of Sunset Hill was.

“I didn’t kill him, I…”

Cheng Nuo wanted to deny all responsibility. He wanted to say that Wang Yang was the one who suddenly turned suicidal and killed himself. But who on earth would believe him? He wouldn’t believe himself! It was like having yellow mud in one’s pants. Everyone would think he shat his pants even if he hadn’t!

“What… What should we do now, principal?” Chéng Youlan and the others asked in panic.

Ruthlessness flickered across his eyes as Cheng Nuo glanced at the disciples. However, he shook his head immediately after he took a step.

His first impulse had been to eliminate all the witnesses and destroy the evidence, but his exit had been anything but silent. There were a lot of people who knew that he was heading out to Thousand Buddhas Grotto to take revenge against Wang Yang. There was no concealing this fact even if he killed everyone here.

Also, White Horse Academy would never tolerate the wanton murder of their disciples. They would boot him out faster than he could say “please”, and how was he going to withstand Wang Luori’s anger without them?

All things considered, his only way out of this was to tell the truth and rely on White Horse Academy to survive this.

The one silver lining of this accident was that Wang Yang was the one who killed his nephew first, so he was in the right. Knowing White Horse Academy’s motto and belief, they would never surrender him to his wrongdoers. Therefore, relying on White Horse Academy was his only way to safeguard himself.

Cheng Nuo took only an instant to figure out his moves. After he had regained his calm, he ordered, “Take Wang Yang’s body. We’re returning to White Horse Academy right away.”

“At once!” Everyone answered, not knowing that they had been one impulse away from being silenced. They carried Wang Yang’s body and followed Cheng Nuo back to White Horse Academy.

The sky was rather cloudy today, so everyone’s shadow looked long and narrow like a crack in the sky.

And what does it mean if the sky is cracked?

Well, it means that it’s about to fall.