Stranger Danger

As the yin wind continued to blow across the temple, the infant-shaped fruits on the tree suddenly began weeping blood. Then, ghastly infants began floating out of the fruits.

The infants were all smaller than what a newborn should look. They all looked plump and healthy, but their cheeks were covered in blood trails, their faces were pulled into a savage snarl, and their pitch black pupils were full of resentment and hatred. T

Their emotions were so potent that it could be felt throughout the temple. It was clear that they hated everyone and everything. Such was their hatred that even Ye Qing felt his mental defenses wobbling, and his spirit dyeing black bit by bit. If he wasn’t careful, he could easily lose himself in their sea of resentment and hatred.

“They’re Grudge Infants!”

Ye Qing hurriedly touched his forehead and visualized the “Emperor Fuxi Visualization Method” to preserve his clarity of mind. While doing so, he glared at the floating infants with shock and fury.

A Grudge Infant was born when a ten-month-old infant died before it could be born into this world. Infants at this age already possessed a certain level of consciousness, and so they were filled with love and hope toward the new life ahead of them. However, they died for one reason or another, and so their love soured into hatred, and they grew resentful of their parents, the people, and generally everyone and everything in the world.

However, most Grudge Infants never accumulated as much hatred and resentment as the ones before his eyes. They had to be stillborn for at least five or six incarnations in a row.

Luck was a fickle thing, and this world was a cruel place. So, it was actually quite common for a soul to be stillborn one or two incarnations in a row. However, it was rare for them to be stillborn three or four incarnations in a row. Five or six? That was statistically improbable.

Ye Qing counted at least dozens of Grudge Infants who had accumulated at least five incarnations worth of hatred before his eyes, and the chances that this could occur naturally was zero, so… it could only have been engineered.

This was why Ye Qing was furious. Life was fickle, and humanity possessed both light and darkness. However, an infant could only be innocent, much less one that wasn’t born yet!

Whoever created these Grudge Infants deserved his pure, unadulterated anger!

They deserved death!

Ye Qing spread his spirit like a net. It wasn’t long before he detected a mass of black hair floating just above the temple. They twisted and turned like streams, and he could vaguely make out the face of a woman.

The woman wore a kind, benevolent smile and brimmed with a motherly aura. However, a closer look would reveal that her stomach was as round and swollen as a pregnant lady. One could almost see the outline of an infant lying inside her stomach as well.

Although the infant was still inside the woman’s stomach, Ye Qing could sense a shocking level of resentment of hatred coming from it. It was even worse than the infants he was facing right now. The only reason he hadn’t detected it sooner—heck, hadn’t detected it long before he even got close to the temple—was because a strange energy was keeping it concealed.

“A Grudge Mother. I knew it.”

Ye Qing’s eyes flickered with bloodthirst as he glared daggers at the woman.

The Grudge Mother was a yin soul-type Stranger just like the Grudge Infant, and even the way they came to be were pretty similar. A Grudge Mother was a mother who was ten months pregnant, but she died because of the infant she was carrying. For example, it could be the bastard son of an influential family, and someone decided that both mother and child were better off dead; a daughter that earned the hatred of the entire family, a tragic death when she was in labor, so on and so on. In any case, the deep resentment she carried allowed her yin soul to live on despite the demise of her physical body. One thing led to another, and the yin soul eventually evolved into a Grudge Mother.

As the Grudge Mother had died an undeserved death because of her baby, she deeply resented everyone and everything. She especially hated pregnant women and unborn infants and liked nothing more than to torture the pregnant woman to death, sucking out the soul of the infant, and injecting it into another pregnant woman’s belly. Right before the infant was about to be born, she would kill the pregnant woman and repeat the process all over again, eventually creating an army of Grudge Infants for herself.

The Grudge Mother was easily one of the cruelest Strangers in the world. There were few humans in the world—even irredeemable monsters—who could tolerate the existence of a Grudge Mother.

Unfortunately, a Grudge Mother was incredibly powerful. She might just be a Hatred-class Strangers, but she could intimidate even Spirit Purifiers if she had assembled a large enough group of Grudge Infants. That was exactly the problem Ye Qing was facing right now.

Even so, there is no way I would allow a Stranger like you to continue existing in this world!

Ye Qing bent his legs slightly and lowered his spine. Then, he slowly raised his right fist like he was lifting an entire river. When his elbow was on the same height as his shoulder, he abruptly stood up straight—his feet literally sinking into the ground due the sheer amount of force—and he unleashed a mighty punch at the Grudge Mother.

A warrior who learned to fight should have the courage to challenge the heavens, the earth, and humanity. If someone told them to jump, they should ask, “How high?” If someone told them to dig into the earth, they should ask, “How deep?” And if someone asked them if they ever regretted their way of living, they should ask, “What regret?”

Today, Ye Qing discovered something he couldn’t possibly overlook, and he wasn’t entirely sure he could overcome it. How should he respond to this formidable challenge?

Bring. It. On!

His spine straightened like a dragon breaking free from its shackles and soaring into the heavens.

His fist shot up unerringly, never questioning if it could pierce the nine heavens, only when.

Rumble…

Space shuddered, and the image of a massive lake and winding rivers suddenly appeared in the sky. It seemed impossible to endanger them in any way, but the Burning Wind blew, and suddenly, they were no more. It was like the world itself was returning to zero, and all gods and demons bowed before such power.

“Cloud Vaporization Style”

The formless Grudge Infants blocking in front of Ye Qing dissipated into nothing without a sound. The Grudge Mother floating in the sky howled in rage as her stomach split open to unveil a Grudge Infant so black it almost looked tangible. The baby let out a soundless howl after it climbed out of the Grudge Mother’s stomach, and its infinite hatred poured down from the sky like a waterfall at the Yellow Spring.

However, not even the torrent of hatred worthy of the Yellow Spring was strong enough to withstand the Burning Wind’s heat. It all evaporated into clear, soothing air in just a matter of seconds.

Shocked and afraid, the Grudge Mother’s black hair abruptly spread far and wide like a drop of ink on a piece of white paper. The hair was actually created from her resentment. After it wrapped around the Grudge Mother in a protective cocoon, she sped toward the horizon in an attempt to escape.

Unfortunately, it was too late for her. The second she made a move, the wind and the clouds descended from the sky like snow and cleansed all of the ink blank surrounding the Grudge Mother, leaving behind only a patch of pale white. Inside the patch the Grudge Mother screamed in rage and bounced all over the place in an attempt to break out of her confinement, but her efforts only made her look like a headless fly trapped inside a glass.

Then, invisible fire began sprouting from all over her body. The flames were completely invisible, but they were hot enough to cook the surrounding space until they looked as blurry as a dream. Finally, the wind scattered the ashes until they were all gone.

Burn in hell and never come back.

Ye Qing withdrew his fist and clasped his hands behind his back. The next moment, the Taoist temple—one capable of withstanding fire, rain, wind and thunder despite its fragile material—burst into flames earnestly.

“Heh, what a good fire it is,” Ye Qing commented while smirking like that girl in the Disaster Girl meme. He had wanted to test out his “Cloud Vaporization Style” against this Taoist temple from the moment he set his eyes on it, and he had to admit that the results were pretty great.

“How dare you destroy my temple! I’ll never forgive you, Ye Qing!”

The second the paper temple burst into flames, countless paper dolls abruptly flew out of it and escaped in every direction. Paper Taoist’s voice was coming from them. His voice was laced with anger, frustration, and fear. In fact, his fear was easily the dominant emotion in his voice!

Didn’t they say that Ye Qing is only an early-stage Astral Refiner? If that’s true, then how the hell did he destroy the Grudge Mother in one punch?

This is the Grudge Mother we’re talking about, a powerful Hatred-class Stranger that surpasses even some Soulstealer-class Stranger at her full strength! How could an Astral Refiner possibly destroy her in one strike?

Have I gone crazy, or did the world change before I knew it?

Paper Taoist was pretty proud of his intelligence and even styled himself as the wiseman among his fellow Strangers. The initiative and the geographical conditions were all in his favor, and just in case Ye Qing proved to be more troublesome than expected, he even invited the Grudge Mother to secure the scene.

This particular Grudge Mother was on the same power level as a Soulstealer-class Stranger because she possessed an army of Grudge Infants. It was also why he was sure that everything would go his way. If Ye Qing accepted his terms, then all was well. If not, they could just kill him and take revenge on behalf of Gold Toad. No matter how he looked at it, there was no way this negotiation would end poorly for him.

However, Ye Qing had surprised him by refusing to play his game at all and launching an all-out attack. Not only that, he had annihilated his trump card in one punch! Just how was this possible?

The punch hadn’t just killed the Grudge Mother, it also vanquished Paper Taoist’s confidence and will to fight. So, the Stranger ran.

There was a silver lining though. He was an overly cautious Stranger who always considered the possibility of failure before he pondered on the fruits of success. As a result, he had a treasure trove of escape plans and escape tools in store.

Someone might call him a coward, but you only have one life. It was always better to be safe than sorry, and it was how he managed to survive to this day.

The thought of taking revenge against Ye Qing in the future never crossed his mind because he knew it was impossible. He had never witnessed an Astral Refiner who could annihilate a Hatred-class Stranger—one on par with some Soulstealer-class Strangers—in one punch, and he had no intentions of meeting him ever again.

But of course, he couldn’t withdraw without making a quip or two. It wasn’t like it would cost him anything, right?

“I will be back!” quipped Paper Taoist.

He didn’t know that the seemingly harmless remark would cost him the one thing he didn’t want to lose: his life.

……

Back to Ye Qing, the young man was going to kill Paper Taoist after killing the Grudge Mother—after all, it would be incredibly troublesome if he lived to send word back to Gold Toad—but while the Stranger was severely lacking in offense, his ability to conceal himself and escape were a different story.

From the moment he dealt Paper Taoist a severe blow, he was unable to detect his aura anymore. It was as if the Stranger had suddenly vanished into thin air.

Of course, he knew that Paper Taoist was still inside the temple. He was just concealing his aura somehow. That was why Ye Qing had burned the paper temple right after he annihilated the Grudge Mother in one punch. It was to force Paper Taoist out of his hidey-hole.

His plan succeeded, but Paper Taoist had more tricks up his sleeves. Instead of one Stranger, he found himself staring down an innumerable number of paper dolls, all escaping in every direction at top speed. As if that wasn’t bad enough, his senses told him that every paper doll was imbued with Paper Taoist’s aura. In other words, he could be any one of them. Not even his spirit was capable of identifying the real thing.

He was just about to take a gamble and chase after a random paper doll when suddenly, Paper Taoist threw him the classic villain quote.

His voice sounded like it was coming from the paper dolls, but his spirit picked up a faint, almost indiscernible fluctuation of energy. When he traced it, he was surprised to find that Paper Taoist’s true body wasn’t hiding among the scattering paper dolls at all. They were all smokescreens meant to lead him astray. The Stranger… was hiding in the underground!

Paper Taoist riding an oddly-shaped carriage about ten meters under the ground. The vehicle was box-shaped and seemingly made from bamboo. It also had four wooden wheels. What was strange was that the carriage wasn’t drawn by an animal. No, it was an ink wash painting of an old man.

Ink-like ripples spread out of the old man and wrapped around the entire carriage. It pushed away the soil and stone and allowed the carriage to cut through the underground like a boat on the sea.

Not only that, the old man was moving around like it was alive. Right now, he was glaring at Paper Taoist and huffing, “I thought you said that everything will be fine, you stinking Taoist? So how did your hideout get boiled into a crisp?”

“Also, what the hell was that while you were escaping earlier? Do you actually want the human to find you?”

“You might be suicidal, but I still have a lot to live for, you unlucky bastard!”

Completely unrelated to the chapter itself, but I just realized Neytirix\'s Pokemon horror fan arts are a perfect depiction of some of the horrors present in this book. So here you go!