Stranger Danger

Five hundred years ago, the battle between two peak champions caused Sky Gate to be destroyed and sink into the underground. Hundreds of thousands had died as a result. At the same time, their battle opened a gap to the Nine Nethers and caused a small amount of demonic qi to leak into the surface.

Humans could be good or evil, and nature could be yin and yang. Naturally, there was a world of light and a world of darkness as well. The Nine Nethers was the place where the greatest darkness, yin energy, wickedness and evil were gathered. Humanity wasn’t meant to live here to put it mildly. Its demonic qi—or the Nine Nethers Demonic Qi in full—was the culmination of all that was dark and possessed incredible corruptive power. It could tempt someone to fall or indulge and give rise to all sorts of evil desires.

The people of Sky Gate were resentful to begin with as they had died an unjustified death. Throw in the Nine Nethers Demonic Qi into the mix, and their ghosts started transforming into Grudge Spirits en masse.

There was a silver lining, however. As the amount of Nine Nethers Demonic Qi leaking into the surface was limited and confined to the bottom of Sky Gate Abyss only, the Grudge Spirits it gave birth was unable to leave its range. That was why Cow Ghost Market and Luo Shui had remained safe for hundreds of years.

Somehow, the Way of Taiping found out about this place and decided to cooperate with the Strangers residing at the bottom of Sky Gate Abyss, namely Yin Governor, the Five Boys of Suffering, the ghost bride, and the ghost king they spoke of. Their plan was to widen this crack into a full opening so that the Nine Nethers Demonic Qi could manifest on the surface in full.

This way, the ghost king and his cohorts could descend upon the living, the Way of Taiping could seize the opportunity to promote their so-called faith and kickstart a rebellion.

Of course, the people were the ones who would suffer the most in this scenario. In fact, the people often suffered during times of crisis or prosperity.

“An insane person who’s strong can be locked behind bars, but an insane person who\'s smart? Dammit!” Ye Qing cursed under his breath. The Way of Taiping truly had no qualms when it came to promoting their religion. They were monsters worse than Strangers in every sense of the word.

According to Actor and Matchmaker, the horde, no, the army of Grudge Spirits he encountered earlier was a trap the Ghost King had laid for the Pacification Bureau. A lot of people could have died had they shown up without knowing what was waiting for them. It was a coincidence, but he had eliminated what was possibly the biggest threat to his fellow colleagues.

Okay, it totally wasn’t a coincidence. How could he overlook the Grudge Spirits when they were dangling right in front of him? How could he allow all this experience to go to waste?

Plus, it wasn’t completely his greed that drove him to take such a risky action. The first horde of Grudge Spirits he triggered was definitely an accident, but later, he decided he would use himself as bait.

The bottom of Sky Gate Abyss was just too huge. Trying to find the Way of Taiping in this fog was like trying to search for a needle in the ocean. That was why he decided to massacre the Grudge Spirits and bait them into coming to him instead. The plan was to capture them and interrogate the location of their main group, or tail them to their hideout.

Both plans were better than searching mindlessly in this foggy valley, and he would be killing two birds with one stone as well. What’s not to like?

While things hadn’t gone exactly as he planned, the outcome was ultimately positive.

After Actor and Matchmaker were gone, Ye Qing crawled out of the ruins and trailed after the duo carefully. Both warriors were late-stage Astral Refiners, so Ye Qing followed behind them from at least one hundred meters away. With his powerful spirit and the fog to act as a great cover, he wasn’t worried about losing the duo or being discovered.

Actor and Matchmaker had no idea that someone was tailing them in secret. They continued to make conversation with each other until they reached their hideout.

Their hideout was a huge basin, and surrounding the basin were twelve pillars engraved with mysterious runes. Sticking atop the pillars were banners sewn with all sorts of gods, demons, and strange beasts. Not only did they give off a powerful aura, they made this strange howl when they flapped in the wind.

The twelve pillars and twelve banners formed a mysterious array. At the center of the array was a thin crack about one meter in length and a finger wide.

It wasn’t until now that Ye Qing realized that the so-called crack was more like a mark left behind by a sword attack. The crack looked bottomless as far as he could tell, and pitch black air was seeping out of it. Despite his distance, he could still sense a powerful darkness and evil from the qi.

“That’s definitely the Nine Nethers Demonic Qi!”

Ye Qing used an Invisibility Talisman and hid behind a giant rock. His eyebrows were scrunched together in thought. There was something strange he noticed about the crack. Every time a wisp of demonic qi poured out of the crack, it would immediately turn so thin it was almost invisible. It was almost as if it was diluted or suppressed by some sort of power.

Curious, Ye Qing tried to extend his spirit over to the crack. However, he had just crossed a short distance when suddenly, he blanched in fear, “Shit! That’s—Pff!”

Blood burst out of his orifices despite his best attempt to control his reaction. His head pounded like someone was beating it with a jackhammer, and he would’ve been exposed if he hadn’t used the Invisibility Talisman.

“A sword intent. I’ve never sensed such a powerful sword intent in my life!”

It took Ye Qing a few deep breaths before he finally recovered. To say that he was shocked would be an understatement.

A sword intent unlike anything he had ever felt before was what was keeping the Nine Nethers Demonic Qi suppressed. When he tried to perceive it with his spirit, a massive, impossibly sharp sword had suddenly appeared in his head and attempted to sever his mind. He absolutely could’ve died if his mind wasn’t as strong as it was.

“This is the second time looking at the wrong things had almost cost me my life.”

Back in his world, saying the wrong things could potentially lead to death. But here? Taking one look at the wrong things could mean death. This fucking world.

Seeing as the sword intent was the reason the Nine Nethers Demonic Qi was suppressed, Ye Qing reckoned that the crack really was a mark left behind by a sword attack.

“Who on earth could have done such a thing? Not only did it pierce through the Nine Nethers, it left behind a sword intent that’s potent enough to suppress the Nine Nethers Demonic Qi… Wait… It couldn’t be…”

Suddenly, fear and disbelief overwrote Ye Qing’s expression. “Was it a remnant of the two peak champions who fought to the death five hundred years ago?”

“If that’s true, then just how strong were they? Five hundred years is enough time to erode countless things, but this sword intent is still so strong it almost killed me for taking a look at it. Getting close to it physically would probably kill me, wouldn’t it?”

Then again, their battle did result in the destruction of an entire city, so he supposed that it wasn’t too surprising?

“Boss! Is the Twelve Sky Gods and Demons Array ready yet?”

Meanwhile, Actor and Matchmaker was speaking to a boy at the periphery of the array. The boy wore a standing pigtail and looked to be twelve or thirteen years old at most.

“Hehehe. Almost. The array itself is ready to activate at any moment. When the Black Tide occurs half a teatime later, we’ll activate it and annihilate the sword intent stuck inside the crack in one go. The Nine Nethers Demonic Qi would spill out like a tidal wave then.”

The boy giggled. “Oh right. Did you two find anything? Was it a member of the Pacification Bureau?”

“We think not!” Actor shook his head before repeating his earlier deductions.

The boy smiled. “Well, it doesn’t matter even if it was them. It’s already too late.”

“The boss is right!”

“The boss is wise!”

A pair of women wearing colorful clothes piped in while gesticulating like they were dancing.

In fact, their monikers were Dancer 1 and Dancer 2. The woman who loved swinging her arms around was Dancer 1, and the one who loved to hop up and down was Dancer 2. They were twins as well.

Dancer 1 huffed, “If it wasn’t for that—”

“—damned sword qi!” Dancer 2 continued.

“Our plan would’ve succeeded—”

“—a long time ago!”

Matchmaker swung her handkerchief and bent down seductively. “Come now, that sword qi was left behind by Jun Wuyan, the man who was renowned for his ‘Fifteen Thousand Kilometers of Sword Intent’. Of course it would be potent even after five hundred years.”

“It’s been years since we started this project, and to this day we still couldn’t get within a meter of it!”

It was at this moment a paper crane flew out of the fog and landed in the boy’s palm. When he unfolded the crane and checked out its contents, he blanched. “Oh no. Paper Celestial just messaged me saying that Gu Suitang had shown up with the reinforcements. In fact, they’re already here at Sky Gate Abyss!”

“What? What’s going on? Why would Gu Suitang himself show up, and why would he come here?” Actor exclaimed in puzzlement as his make-up suddenly turned blue.

“No, no, we are literally moments away from succeeding. The plan mustn’t fail at the final step!”

“What should we do, boss?”

“The Black Tide will be appearing in less than half a teatime.” The boy thought for a moment before replying, “Inform Ghost King about this. We’re going to delay Gu Suitang for as long as possible!”

“Can we though? Gu Suitang is a Spirit Master!” Matchmaker voiced her worry.

The boy answered, “I’m not planning to kill Gu Suitang, I only want to delay him. We just need to lead them around for half a teatime or so, and not even three Gu Suitangs would be able to change the outcome.”

“Also, inform Paper Celestial and Dog King to wreak some havoc in Cow Ghost Market. The distraction may be able to buy us some time as well.”

“The boss is wise!” Dancer 1 and Dancer 2 chirped in unison.

“Let’s go!” The boy beckoned for everyone to join him, and they were gone in just a moment.

The basin quickly turned silent, disturbed only by the incessant noise of the flapping banners.

……

“Squeak squeak!”

A four-eared, palm-sized silver mouse was slowly making its way through the fog while followed by Gu Suitang, Lin Yuhuai, Chu Nianjiu and more. They numbered at least several hundred people.

“Chief, Joyless went this way judging from the signs he left behind.”

The silver mouse was called the Silver Tracker, and it was a tracking Stranger the Pacification Bureau specifically bred to track down certain signs. For starters, it could track down the unique scent of a special concoction all Pacification Bureau members were equipped with for various purposes.

Gu Suitang looked around the area while responding in an indifferent voice, “Joyless had definitely passed through here. There are signs of battles and leftover auras in this place.”

“Heh. Lord Ye is seriously amazing. I still can’t believe he found the Taiping cultist’s hideout of all things! He’s so getting a pay raise if we manage to uproot them all in Luo Shui!” Wei Yueshan said happily behind Gu Suitang.

Slap!

The Lieutenant had just finished talking when Gu Suitang wheeled around and slapped him in the face. The Deputy Chief of Bureau swore, “Amazing my ass! More like stupid beyond imagination!”

“He knew this was their main hideout, and he knew they were prepared for intruders, and he still came alone like he was a greenhorn! Did he really think he’s invincible under the heavens just because he had learned a few years of kung fu? I’m fucking bald at the center, and even I wouldn’t dare to make such a claim! Who the fuck does he think he is?”

“The rest of you kiddos better not emulate his example, you hear me? You only have one life. Why would you waste it like this when you can spend it on eating and drinking instead?”

Wei Yueshan rubbed the back of his head, chuckling. It looked like Gu Suitang was abusing them, but anyone could tell that he was just concerned for their safety.

Lin Yuhuai smiled. “You don’t have to worry too much, Chief. Joyless is not a reckless man, nor is he the type of person to treat his life like a joke. He must be fully confident in his abilities to come here alone. He will be fine.”

Gu Suitang harrumphed. “He best hope so! When we return, I’m going to beat up his arrogant ass so he won’t forget that there’s always a bigger heaven out there!”

“Chief!”

Suddenly, a Pacification Sentinel ran over and reported, “A riot is taking place at Cow Ghost Market right now. We believe it’s incited by the Taiping cultists.”