Stranger Danger

Ye Qing frowned and channeled the Burning Wind to cleanse away the unholy energies, but before he could do so, a terrible weight suddenly pressed down on his back. His feet abruptly sank into the ground as if he was carrying a million mountains, and a grayish fire started burning within thirty meters of him. Strangely, it was cold, lifeless, and completely devoid of temperature. It felt like a flame that should only exist during the Hundred Ghosts Parade, or the depths of hell.

This was just the beginning, however. While Ye Qing was struggling to break free from the powers afflicting him, a terrible onslaught of emotions suddenly assaulted his mind. He felt terribly lost and sorrowful as if he had just lost his loved ones. He felt as if nothing in life was meaningless and hopeless, and that there wasn’t even a soul he could rely on in this trying time. He was so sad, so lonely, so in despair that he thought he might as well die.

He should just… die.

As soon as the idea took root, it quickly spread throughout his heart and filled him with a sense of bleakness and despair. He actually stopped resisting and allowed the deathly fire to erode his flesh, his vigor and vitality to leak freely, and all sorts of illness to spread throughout his body.

I should die. I should die. I should—

“Amitabha…”

It was at this moment the Boundless Mara Buddha unleashed a halo of golden light. The deathly flames receded, the yin qi dissipated, and the chant resounded throughout Ye Qing’s mind and soul like a loud bell. It dispelled all of the negative emotions and restored Ye Qing’s mind to full clarity in an instant.

No evil might take root so long as the Boundless Mara Buddha was present.

“What the hell just happened to me?”

The moment Ye Qing returned to normal, he immediately noted that he was in trouble. His body felt weak in a way he had never felt since he reached the journeyman level of body-tempering. Not wanting to tempt fate, he immediately visualized the “Emperor Fuxi Visualization Method” to protect his mind from the emotional influence, and channeled the “Nirvana Sutra of Burning Wind” to circulate his astral qi in the most efficient way possible. His vigor pulsed, and his body turned as hot as a furnace. The evil energies afflicting his body were dissolved into nothing in just the blink of an eye.

As soon as he was cured, his powerful body began repairing itself. At the same time, he formed a shield around himself with his astral qi and encompassed himself in the light of the Mara Boundless Buddha to ensure that no more evil energies could enter his body. It was only he let out a sigh of relief and inspected the ghost boys.

“Aging, sickness, death, and parting? Could it be… the Five Boys of Suffering!” Ye Qing exclaimed in realization when a memory suddenly rose to the surface of his mind.

The Buddha stated that there were eight suffering in one’s life, and they were living, aging, sickness, death, love, hatred, greed for what one couldn’t have, and reluctance to relinquish what should be relinquished. So long as the eight sufferings existed, then it was only a matter of time before evil was born in one’s heart.

The Five Boys of Suffering were ghost boys who were born from the suffering caused by living, aging, sickness, death, and parting. In fact, the drawings on their faces showed exactly which boy commanded which suffering. The rising sun was a symbol of life, which was why the boy with the rising sun on his face was the Life Boy.

The Old Boy was the one with wrinkles on his face, the Ill Boy had eye circles and a tongue on his face, the Death Boy a pair of bones on his cheeks, and the Parting Boy had crescents on his face.

Obviously, their magic were as their names implied. The Life Boy commanded the magic of life and could heal his brothers and himself of injuries. The Old Boy commanded the magic of aging and could absorb a living being’s vigor and vitality to age them. The Ill Boy commanded the magic of ailments and could infect someone with all kinds of illnesses, the Death Boy commanded the magic of death and could turn fifty kilometers of land into a ghastly hell with the snap of a finger, and the Parting Boy commanded the power of separation and could afflict one with certain emotions to the point where they would rather die than continue living in this world.

Some of their magic was tangible, and some weren’t. Regardless, they were all incredibly strange and unpredictable.

The Five Boys of Suffering might appear to be five different entities, but in reality they were a five-in-one Stranger. Their minds were connected to each other, so they could cooperate perfectly and pose a greater threat against their enemies. It was why they were on par with some weak Soulstealer-class Strangers despite being classified as Hatred-class. At the very least, they were stronger than the Grudge Mother and Grudge Infants he fought before. The fact that he nearly died just now was proof of their strength.

Still, they had lost the element of surprise, so their ability to threaten him had decreased considerably.

Seeing that their attacks weren’t working, the Life Boy—he had been verbally cheering his brothers on this whole time—performed a backflip. The rising sun drawing on his head started floating above his head and poured down rays of sunlight.

The four ghost boys were a little tired after attacking for so long, but the presence of the rising sun immediately restored their strength and even strengthened their power.

“Huh… it can suppress my power too? How magical,” Ye Qing exclaimed in surprise. The sunrays couldn’t just replenish the ghost boys’ strength, they could suppress the power of his Boundless Mara Buddha and his astral qi as well. It was quite impressive.

The Five Boys of Suffering weren’t his only enemies, however. While the Hatred-class Stranger was keeping him pinned, the red veil covering the ghost bride’s face flew into the air and grew bigger and bigger, all the while spinning like a top. It wasn’t long before it had become as big as the sky itself. The way the fabric undulated somewhat resembled the waves of a sea.

The next moment, a literal sea of blood poured down from above like the flood from heaven.

Ye Qing’s senses told him that the sea of blood wasn’t actually blood, however. It was a manifestation of resentment and yin qi.

Besides that, he could vaguely hear music from the red sea. It sounded both like wedding music and funeral music. They mingled together to form a positively eerie tune.

She harbors within her an ocean of resentment, Ye Qing thought to himself. As if on cue, Yin Governor’s aura suddenly flared up in his perception.

Yin Governor had gone into hiding after the Five Boys of Suffering took over. When the ghost bride launched her attack, he decided that this was a good opportunity and emerged from his hiding spot. While riding a thick gust of yin wind, he grabbed his golden brush and wrote a sage’s essay in the air in one smooth motion.

A sage’s essay should be noble and glorious, but this one was brimming with yin qi and ghastly wails. Countless yin soldiers emerged from it and charged straight toward Ye Qing.

“How dare you wound me, rebel! I’m going to extract your soul and use it to fuel a sky lantern! You will wish that you were dead!”

“Perfect. I’d rather deal with all three of you at once than one by one anyway.”

Ye Qing smirked coolly despite the danger he was in. A crescent blade abruptly appeared in his hand, and he swung it horizontally in front of him. His movement was perfectly bland, but the red lotuses that suddenly bloomed all over the place weren’t. They looked as dreamy as they were demonic, and they seemed capable of reflecting the sin and desire hidden in the deepest part of one’s heart.

The red lotus reflected one’s sins and slayed both man and sin.

“Hellfire Red Lotus Saber Art”

When the red lotuses descended, all three Strangers abruptly froze in their tracks and blanked out. The next moment, dark red hellfire erupted all across their bodies, and no matter how hard they tried to struggle, they were unable to extinguish the flames eating away at their bodies. If anything, it was growing larger and larger.

The Red Lotus Hellfire was fueled by its victim’s sin. So long as there was sin to burn, the hellfire would never fade.

These three Strangers were born from infinite resentment, and they were as cruel as they were ruthless. They hadn’t been good people when they were alive, and even after they died they continued to haunt the world as evil spirits. Of course centuries of sin couldn’t be extinguished so easily.

As the hellfire grew into an inferno, the evil aura the three Strangers emanated grew thinner and thinner. Their expressions were growing increasingly peaceful as well. In the end, they dissolved into ashes in peace.

“Phew. That was harder than I thought,” Ye Qing sighed as he put away his saber. The light in his eyes was weak, and his complexion was as pale as a sheet.

The “Hellfire Red Lotus Saber Art” was powerful, but it was a Spirit Purification-stage saber art. Despite his outstanding spirit and ample amount of astral qi, it still strained him greatly to execute its technique. His spirit in particular was nearing the bottom of the barrel.

At his current level, he could only use the saber art as a final blow or a do-or-die move. If the enemy was still standing after the attack, then he would be very sorry.

The good news was that the “Hellfire Red Lotus Saber Art” was so powerful that practically anyone below the Spirit Purification stage was going to die in one strike, if not two. If even two strikes weren’t enough to slay the enemy, then… he could only book it with his tail between his legs.

Ye Qing sucked in a deep breath and popped two silver dragon-serpent runes to replenish his strength. Now wasn’t the time to be frugal.

“What? Why are there only fourteen silver runes??”

When Ye Qing glanced at the Annon Sutra, he was expecting it to be absolutely covered in silver runes. Instead, he counted only fourteen not including the two he just popped to restore his own strength. This made no sense considering how many Grudge Spirits he just killed.

He was just feeling miffed when suddenly, he caught a glimpse of gold amidst the silver runes. It was shaped like a dragon.

“Is this a… golden rune? Could it be…?”

Ye Qing’s eyes lit up. If a sufficient number of gray dragon-serpent runes could combine into a silver rune, it made sense then a sufficient number of silver dragon-serpent runes could combine into a gold rune as well.

“The gray runes could be used to replenish vigor, whereas the silver runes could be used to replenish true qi. I wonder what a golden dragon-serpent rune could do?”

Curiosity tickled at Ye Qing’s chest cavity, and he was just about to ask the Annon Sutra about its effects when suddenly, he heard a series of footsteps from somewhere. They seemed to be approaching his location.

Footsteps? The Way of Taiping! A glint flickered in Ye Qing’s eyes as he put away the Annon Sutra and ducked into a nearby rubble. He was almost certain it was the bastards because ghosts couldn’t produce footsteps.

As expected, a man and a woman stepped into the battlefield. Their attire was incredibly strange. The man was wearing a theater costume and make-up [1], which was… actually a pretty good fit with this eerie place. The woman was wearing a hibiscus on her head and theater makeup as well. She had a black mole on her left upper lip and carried a square handkerchief on her left hand and a maid’s fan on her right. It reminded Ye Qing of a matchmaker [2].

“So? Did the Pacification Bureau come, Actor?” The woman waved her handkerchief and spoke in a frivolous tone. She was definitely acting like a matchmaker.

The makeup on Actor’s face turned from blue to white. His eyes flickered with puzzlement and cunning as he answered, “It’s hard to say. I can only sense one human’s aura in the area, and they’re fairly powerful.”

“Is he alive or dead?” The woman giggled.

Actor shook his head. “I’m not sure, but I reckon that they were annihilated by the Ghost King’s three subordinates. They’re more than a match for most warriors.”

“That’s very true!” The woman nodded earnestly. “We really should’ve come sooner. If we could catch them alive, we could’ve interrogated them and found out if the Pacification Bureau had discovered us.”

Actor frowned as his makeup changed colors repeatedly as if to reflect his uncertain emotions. “I doubt it. First, Xing The Third is a veteran who has served our sect faithfully for many years. There is no way he would betray us. Second, the Pacification Bureau wouldn’t send a single person to scout out this place, much less one who would cause such a big commotion. It’s probably just a curious jianghu warrior or something.”

“Finally, didn’t the spies we plant at Cow Ghost Market just send word saying that the Pacification Bureau is still hanging out at Thaiping Grain Retailer? This proves that they haven’t discovered anything beyond that. There is nothing to worry about.”

“Haha… you are correct,” The woman said with a giggle. “Not that it would matter even if they did find this place. The Ghost King had deployed his three dogs and over ten thousand Grudge Spirits to guard this place. Those fools would just die if they dared to show their faces around here.”

“Besides that, we’re just a few hours away from completing our plan. When the boss finally finishes widening the crack leading to the Nine Nethers and draws out its demonic qi, the Grudge Spirits that had been trapped in Sky Gate for centuries would finally be released. When that happens, the entire city and even the commandery itself would become a living hell.”

“Both Luo Shui and the world would plunge into chaos, and our sect would rise from their ashes.”

“Waha! Wahaha!” Actor laughed, but it sounded like he was reciting a script.

“What will you do when the time comes, Matchmaker?”

“Me? Well, my dream is to open a ton of brothels…”

“Wahaha, so your dream is to become a pimp? Then why did you choose ‘Matchmaker’ as your moniker instead of ‘Pimp’ back then?”

“Well, both jobs require matching people together, so there isn’t really a difference, is there? Hahaha…”

1. Chinese ones to be exact. ☜

2. Try google 媒婆 and you’ll see what he means. ☜