Stranger Danger

“Was I mistaken?”

“No, the Annon Sutra and the Incense of Fortune can’t be wrong. Something must be obscuring my spirit!”

Ye Qing rubbed his nose in thought when he suddenly realized something. “Now that I think about it, the third room is pretty sus.”

Ye Qing walked back to the third room as he recalled what his spirit had sensed—or rather, the lack thereof. The third room was just an empty room with nothing in it whatsoever, but that in itself was very suspicious. The hold was where the Jasper Boat stored the large majority of their goods, and each room were more or less piled with random stuff. However, the third room was completely empty. Logically speaking, there should be no reason why the crew would leave such a valuable space unused.

Ye Qing furrowed his brow and concentrated his spirit onto the third room and third room alone. A rock could block a stream, but not a river. His spirit overwhelmed whatever was keeping him from sensing the room properly, and he finally saw it for what it was.

Kung Fu Frog was sitting at the end of the room. A noose was wrapped around his neck, and his eyes looked unfocused and lost.

Lying next to Kung Fu Frog was a book, and a bronze paperweight was sitting on top of it. It was none other than Wawa’s true body.

“Two Malice-class Strangers?! How cautious of you, Gold Toad!” Ye Qing let out a cold chuckle. The room had been camouflaged with an illusory array, and it was potent enough to fool even his spirit at the beginning. He would’ve missed Kung Fu Frog and Wawa if he hadn’t discovered the oddities of the room earlier.

Most schemers would be satisfied with just the illusory-type array, but Gold Toad had arranged not one, but two Malice-class Strangers to watch over her hostages as well.

The first Stranger was the noose wrapped around Kung Fu Frog’s neck. It looked like an ordinary rope at first glance, but Ye Qing could sense a gloomy, deathly aura rising from its body. It felt like countless Vengeful Souls were hiding inside the noose.

The second Stranger was the bronze paperweight sitting atop Wawa’s true body. Normally, a paperweight was long-shaped and inscribed with poems, epigrams, or tasteful images. However, this one only had six words on its surface, and it stated: “Kill Until You Become A Demon”. The words looked plenty evil, but black, filthy energies were leaking out of them and enveloping Wawa’s true body as well.

Clearly, the bronze paperweight was sealing Wawa and preventing her from manifesting her sprite form.

These preparations showed just how careful Gold Toad was. In fact, he would say she was a little too careful.

From what he remembered, Bronze Toad was simple, and Silver Toad was dumb. They might be intelligent Strangers, but it would be a stretch to call them intelligent. Gold Toad was the complete opposite, however. She had proven to be incredibly smart and careful. How was she so different from her siblings when they were all born from the same toad?

“Two Malice-class Strangers, huh?” Ye Qing smirked. “This would’ve been a problem, but the heavens are on my side today.”

He could annihilate these two Malice-class Strangers with one hand, but he was worried that the commotion would jolt the two men guarding outside the hold awake. It would be very troublesome if that happened.

Thankfully, the illusory array didn’t just mask light and aura, but also sound to a certain extent. It was probably a precautionary measure just in case Kung Fu Frog somehow woke up and caused a loud commotion. In this case, it worked to his advantage.

Ye Qing sucked in a short breath. Then, he opened the door, dashed in, and closed the door in one smooth and lightning fast motion.

The two Strangers in the room responded quickly. The second Ye Qing entered the room, bloodthirst and ripples of black energy immediately burst out from the ominous words on the paperweight Stranger’s body. It flew toward Ye Qing in an arc and attempted to bash his head in.

Instead of defending himself, Ye Qing charged toward the paperweight Stranger and caught it right before it would hit his head. Then, he crushed it into smithereens with his bare hand. Before the bronze fragments even hit the floor, he burned it all with the Blue Demon Hand’s Netherflame.

Ye Qing had just taken out the paperweight Stranger when suddenly, he felt an unnatural chill around his neck. Somehow, the noose Stranger had wrapped itself around his neck before he knew it. It released a tremendous amount of deathly energy and filled his head with macabre images of death and decay. He could hear countless Vengeful Souls screaming into his ears as well. At the same time, the noose Stranger rapidly tightened around his neck and attempted to squeeze his head right off his shoulders.

Ye Qing’s neck was perfectly fine, however. In fact, the neck Stranger was the one who used too much force and snapped itself into several pieces. It dissolved into yin qi and disappeared after that.

“Vengeful Souls. Interesting.”

Ye Qing looked up. The ceiling was empty before, but now it was hanging with countless nooses and corpses. The swaying bodies were all staring at him with their empty, soulless eyes.

His senses told him that the corpses were just Vengeful Souls, or more accurately, the Vengeful Souls that the noose had killed. If he made contact with them, the nooses would automatically appear around his neck and attempt to strangle him to death.

“So flashy, but where’s the substance?” Ye Qing sneered as the Burning Wind blew out of his body. The room immediately turned unbearably hot, and the invisible flames burned it all into nothingness.

While the Vengeful Souls were disappearing, Ye Qing reached out and caught the noose’s true body. It had been half a second away from escaping the room, but unfortunately for it, it just wasn’t fast enough. It burned down into ash between Ye Qing’s fingers.

The noose Stranger’s ability was actually quite unpredictable and strong. It was definitely one of the stronger Malice-class Strangers out there. It was just unfortunate that its opponent was him. The gap between their power was just too huge.

Ye Qing’s battle with the two Strangers sounded complicated, but in reality only a few breaths had passed. Thanks to the illusory array, the two men guarding outside the exit were still completely oblivious to what was happening inside.

“You finally came, friend! Uwaaaaah! Wawa was so scared, so scared.”

As soon as the paperweight Stranger and noose Stranger were killed, Wawa and Kung Fu Frog woke up from their enforced coma. Whe Wawa saw Ye Qing, she immediately flew over to his shoulder, grabbed his hair, and bawled like a baby. Her face was covered in streaks of tears.

“Don’t cry, Wawa. I’m here now,” Ye Qing consoled her while checking his companions’ bodies for injuries. He let out a sigh of relief when he noticed that there were none.

Ye Qing gave Wawa a few more seconds to collect her feelings before asking gently, “I’m sorry, Wawa, but I need you to stop crying now. There are still bad people outside. It would be bad if they heard your cries.”

Wawa immediately ceased her sobbing and covered her mouth with both hands. She looked paralyzed with fear and panic.

Ye Qing shook his head in amusement as he put Wawa’s true body back into his Nature’s Shell. Then, he looked at Kung Fu Frog and asked, “Are you alright, Brother Frog?”

Kung Fu Frog croaked twice and shook his head to indicate that he was alright, but his beady eyes were overflowing with anger and bloodthirst.

Ye Qing gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder and said, “Don’t worry. I swear I’ll take revenge for you both.”

A pair of paper dolls appeared in his hands. When Ye Qing blew at them gently, they landed on the form and transformed into a bound Kung Fu Frog and Wawa.

The Shapeshifting Paper Doll was one of the situational tools he had exchanged from the Tower of Secrets. The paper doll possessed one and only one ability, and that was to create an illusion based on one’s memories. Visually, it was indistinguishable from the real thing. However, if someone were to try and touch the illusion, then they would discover that it was fake. Not only that, the illusion would only last for an incense stick.

“Let’s go. Stay close, and don’t get caught!”

The trio escaped through the windows after finishing his preparations. It was to minimize the chances of them being spotted or caught. Before Ye Qing left, he purposely created some noise and jolted the two guards awake. It would be suspicious if someone happened to pass by the area and discover that both guards were dreaming after all.

Ye Qing didn’t know that a beautiful woman residing in the top floor of Jasper Boat suddenly had a bad feeling practically the minute after he escaped with Kung Fu Frog and Wawa. She took out a stone mirror, made a hand gesture, and slapped her hand on its surface.

The stone mirror flashed once before displaying the boat’s hold. First, the woman checked out her guards. Her eyebrows relaxed a little when she saw that both men were fine.

Then, the image shifted to the third room in the hold. In the mirror, Kung Fu Frog was still being tied by the noose Stranger, and Wawa was still being suppressed by the paperweight Stranger. Everything looked exactly as it should be.

“Everything’s fine. I’m just paranoid,” the woman shook her head and chuckled derisively at herself before putting away the stone mirror. The room returned to silence once more.

……

“Young master—Brother Frog! Wawa!”

A short distance away from White Horse Alley, Faceless was greeting Ye Qing and walking up to him when he saw Kung Fu Frog and Wawa behind him. The Stranger immediately exclaimed in delight, “You found them, young master! It’s wonderful!”

“You truly are a god among men, young master! This old slave wasn’t able to find even a trace of them despite all that time and effort, and yet you managed to find and rescue them the moment you came back!”

“The bootlicking can wait until later. Have you brought the men?” Ye Qing cut off Faceless before he could continue.

“I have. They’re just waiting at the entrance!” Faceless immediately dropped his obsequious smile as per Ye Qing’s command and asked, “By the way, what are we doing here?”

“To draw some blood, of course!” Ye Qing’s eyes flickered with killing intent as he ordered, “You can give me back my face now!”

Before he infiltrated Jasper Boat, he already messaged Faceless to bring everyone in the Inspection Department to White Horse Alley and stand by for orders. It was to take revenge against Gold Toad, of course. The Annon Sutra had stated that Gold Toad was hiding at White Horse Alley.

He alone was enough to deal with Gold Toad, but White Horse Alley was famous for being a wealthy people’s location. Not only did it enjoy a good amount of traffic, there were a lot of politicians, businessmen, and generally powerful people who lived in this place. That was why it was necessary to bring the men not just to keep the order, but also to prevent innocents from being harmed.

It was also to minimize the chances of some Strangers from being able to slip through his grasp. He was powerful, but he was still just one man. Of course he should do his best to ensure that there wouldn’t be any loose ends.

“My lord!”

“My lord.”

“My lord…”

Faceless followed Ye Qing to the entrance after he transformed back into himself. Xu Banren, Zhou Xi, Tang Yi and more saluted Ye Qing as soon as they saw him.

“Good evening, everyone!” Ye Qing greeted them before looking at Xu Banren, “Have you brought everyone, Lieutenant Xu?”

Xu Banren answered, “I have, but what is it we’re doing here tonight?”

Before Ye Qing could answer, a man muttered in a sarcastic tone, “What else could it be? A show, of course!”

The man had a muscular body but an ugly face. He looked like a monk with his monk’s robe and monastic scars on his head. The exposed half of his torso was tattooed with the image of a bull.

The bull had a pair of curved horns that made it looked like it was carrying a full moon. It was also surrounded by lightning.