Stranger Danger

An invisible flame rippled out of Ye Qing and extinguished the Nine Nethers Demonic Qi surging in his direction. At the same time, he visualized the “Emperor Fuxi Visualization Method” to protect his mind.

The Nine Nethers Demonic Qi was infamous for its treacherous and corruptive quality. It could pollute a person’s mind and spirit without them noticing and tempt them toward degeneration, which was why he didn’t dare to be careless even with the Boundless Mara Buddha in hand.

Rumble rumble!

It felt like a tidal wave was rumbling under his feet as the ground shook. Thick puffs of Nine Nether Demonic Qi kept seeping out of the crack and into the air. Ye Qing backed further and further away from it.

“It’s not going to pour out of Sky Gate Abyss, is it?”

Ye Qing couldn’t help but be worried despite his success at dismantling the array. What if the Black Tide was potent enough to break through the sword intent even without the array to assist it? Or what if enough Nine Nethers Demonic Qi spilled out of the crack to leak out of the Sky Gate Abyss? Forget the Grudge Spirits, the demonic qi alone could cause an unimaginable amount of damage.

His worries quickly subsided, however. Looking at the state of the crack and the amount of Nine Nethers Demonic Qi it was gushing, it didn’t look like it was going to form a tide any time soon. If the Black Tide alone was enough to achieve what the Way of Taiping was trying to achieve, then they wouldn’t have to spend years trying to set everything up.

The rumbles were scary, but it only lasted dozens of breaths before subsiding in intensity. The Nine Nethers Demonic Qi grew weaker and weaker until it was the same as before.

The Black Tide was over, and the worst case scenario… ultimately didn’t happen.

“It’s over.”

It was only now Ye Qing let out a sigh of relief. A big one. The heavens were watching over Luo Shui after all.

If he hadn’t gone to Li Yuechun’s residence to kill Gold Toad, if Zhou San hadn’t outed himself out of greed, if he hadn’t made his way to Thaiping Grain Retailer, if he wasn’t strong enough to enter Sky Gate Abyss alone, if he hadn’t made the risky decision to cause a commotion and attract the Way of Taiping’s attention, and if he hadn’t followed Actor and Matchmaker to the location of the crack and find out the truth of the conspiracy… Luo Shui might be a hell on earth right now.

He probably would have perished as well. It would have been a disaster on the same scale as the Nether Lord manifesting in the human world.

Considering how many coincidences it took to lead up to this point, Ye Qing could only sum it all up as fate.

Ye Qing thought it was all over, but he did not notice a wisp of pitch black fog slithering across the floor and approaching him silently. His spirit should be powerful enough to detect anything within a certain radius, and yet he never even noticed it melting into his body until a sudden chill came over him.

“Huh?”

The Boundless Mara Buddha suddenly shook on its own. Buddhist chants and purifying light immediately filled the air.

“What the hell?” Ye Qing blurted. Realizing that something was wrong, he hurriedly concentrated his spirit and looked into himself. As expected, he saw a wisp of black qi slowly spreading across his blood vessels. However, the process was so smooth and traceless he literally couldn’t feel it even though it was happening right before his eyes.

Shocked, Ye Qing immediately channeled his astral qi and turned his body into a furnace. He thought that the Burning Wind would be able to extinguish the black qi for sure, but in reality, it continued to cling to his insides like a maggot!

Strange, distorted faces began appearing in the black qi. It let out an evil cackle and asked, “Do you know who I am, human? No? Hehehe.”

“I am the Fog Demon, the great and noble Fog Demon. You would be wise to submit to me while I’m still in a good mood.”

While the Fog Demon was cackling, Ye Qing realized in horror that the black qi was seeping into his mental space as well. The twisted, insidious power was attempting to corrupt his mind!

The second the power made contact with his mind, his physical body immediately started leaking black qi, and his face was contorted into a vicious snarl. He looked like an evil version of himself.

“Fog Demon? Doesn’t matter! Get the fuck out of my head!”

Ye Qing roared as he pulsed his spirit. The “Emperor Fuxi Visualization Method” pulsed a light so bright it was as if a sun had leaped out of the eastern sea and reached the highest point of the sky in an instant. Its heat swept across Ye Qing’s head like a blazing inferno. However…

“Oh my, what a pure soul and tough body! You are an even better host than I expected! It’s wonderful!”

Not only did the Fog Demon continue to stand in the middle of the blazing inferno as if it didn’t exist, it took Ye Qing’s appearance and grinned evilly at him. “Stop struggling and submit to the mighty Fog Demon. I promise I will lead you to the peak of your life.”

Ye Qing was shaken. This was the first time he encountered a Stranger who wasn’t afraid of the “Emperor Fuxi Visualization Method”. Even now, his spirit was slowly but surely being corrupted by its power.

What do I do?

If he didn’t come up with a plan soon, it wouldn’t be long before his mind and spirit were fully corrupted. When that happened, he would most likely transform into the Fog Demon’s puppet.

Fuck! I can’t believe the ‘Emperor Fuxi Visualization Method’ didn’t work! What do I do? What do I do?

Ye Qing’s mind raced for a solution.

“Just cease your struggling. Your spirit is strong, but you don’t know how to use it. There is no way you can ever defeat me,” The Fog Demon’s said scornfully. “It is your honor that I deem you worthy to be my host, so stop resisting and give me a smile, kay?”

I don’t know how to use it?

The Fog Demon didn’t realize it, but its casual remark had accidentally inspired Ye Qing. The “Emperor Fuxi Visualization Method”, while potent, was ultimately a spirit training technique, not an offensive technique. Effective against a weaker Stranger it might be, it made sense that it would falter before the Fog Demon.

However, he did have an offensive technique that attacked the spirit—the Hellfire Red Lotus Saber Art! In fact, it worked on both the physical body and the spirit.

Having made his decision, Ye Qing connected his mind to Jing Hui’s martial arts essence and transformed both his mind and his spirit into a blade. Then, he attacked the Fog Demon.

There was a soft whistle as his mental space shook slightly. Then, pure, demonic red lotuses bloomed into existence.

The Fog Demon abruptly ceased speaking and shuddered unnaturally. Then, it started screaming as hellfire seeped out of its body.

Not about to let the golden opportunity go to waste, Ye Qing unleashed the Hellfire Red Lotus Saber Art a second time with his spirit. The Fog Demon screamed even harder as the hellfire burned brighter.

“Argh!”

The Fog Demon struggled with all its might, but it just couldn’t extinguish the hellfire no matter what it tried. In the end, it transformed into a wisp of black light and disappeared from view.

The Fog Demon was back in the physical world when it reappeared again. It dissolved into a curtain of black fog and drew in the Nine Nethers Demonic Qi around it. The space around it abruptly turned pitch black as if it was a black hole that devoured all light, pure and unblemished. It was like the darkest night where no light could possibly exist—not even the Hellfire Red Lotus. It slowly vanished into nothing.

“Human, it is an honor to be chosen by me. Why do you resist? Why do you escape?”

After the hellfire was fully extinguished, the fog surged toward the escaping Ye Qing. “I don’t like this. Oh, I don’t like this at all.”

“It’s because you’re an ugly son of a fuck,” Ye Qing quipped back, but his face was looking a little pale. He was currently pushing “Blood Sea Fragrance” and running away as quickly as he could.

He had used up nearly all of his spirit after executing the Hellfire Red Lotus Saber Art twice, and his head was pounding like a bitch right now. However, not only was the Fog Demon still alive, it looked like it had healed back to full health. Considering the circumstances, escape was his only option!

“Ugly?” The Fog Demon exclaimed with mock hurt as it chased after Ye Qing with extreme speed. As it traveled, it pulled more and more Nine Nethers Demonic Qi into its body and grew stronger as a result. It took only a moment for its power to exceed the late-stage Astral Refinement Realm and enter the Spirit Purification Realm.

“How about this?”

The Fog Demon transformed into a person. It now looked exactly the same as Ye Qing, but black qi was rising from its body, and it was wearing a grin that could only be described as pure evil. Then, it appeared in front of Ye Qing in an instant and blocked his path.

“Am I still ugly?”

Ye Qing stopped in his tracks and let out a mental sigh. It was clear that he wouldn’t be able to escape from this Stranger. He could only fight with everything he got and pray that he could hold on until his colleagues showed up.

“You may transform into handsome ol’ me, but it will never change the fact that you’re an ugly son of a fuck.”

Ye Qing threw a punch as soon as he finished. The Burning Wind blew, and clouds dissolved into nothing.

The Fog Demon copied his movement and threw the exact same punch, but this one was filled with black, demonic qi. It was so powerful that the Burning Wind was blown away like nothing.

A frown came over Fog Demon’s face, however. Ye Qing’s punch was weaker than it appeared to be.

It was at this moment Ye Qing appeared behind the Fog Demon. His essence, qi and spirit all condensed into his fist, he struck the Stranger in the back with everything he got.

“Dragon Elephant strength”

“Cloud Vaporization Art”

Half of the Fog Demon’s body was crushed into bits just like that, but it simply grew an arm out of its back and repaid the favor with a punch to the chest.

Ye Qing flew back and slammed into the ground, hard. The ground shattered, and dust clouds were everywhere.

The next moment, Ye Qing leaped out of the pit and attempted to use the dust clouds as cover, but his feet had just left the ground when the Fog Demon appeared behind him—or perhaps it was there even before he got back to his feet—and struck him in the back once more.

Ye Qing crashed right back into the ground.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Again and again Ye Qing tried to escape, but again and again the Fog Demon knocked him back into the ground. There was literally nothing he could do to escape his situation.

“It’s too strong. Thank goodness I’m a tough guy.” Ye Qing spat out a bloody spittle while ignoring the dull pain in his chest.

Seriously, any other late-stage Astral Refiner in his position would be dead or half-dead already.

“What a disobedient child you are. I suppose that the only way to make you listen is to beat the disobedience out of you.”

The Fog Demon cackled as it stepped toward Ye Qing once more. “But don’t worry, I won’t pummel you overly much. That is my body after all.”

“Keep dreaming, demon.”

Ye Qing spat out another bloody spittle. I’m not out of trump cards yet, bud!

There was no room for hesitation. He made a mudra, and the chains surrounding the Boundless Mara Buddha slowly fell off. A terrifying amount of demonic qi immediately swept across the area.

A smiling Buddha appeared at the peak of the demonic qi. His left hand was holding the swastika mudra, and his right the exorcism mudra. Its body was covered in the Moko Boundless Chains. As the chains loosened, a sea of blood of corpses manifested into reality, and countless silhouettes kowtowed to the unholy Buddha with zealous expressions on their faces.

At that moment, a grandiose, formless, mighty voice resounded throughout the valley.

“Mara Buddha!”

“Mara Buddha!”

“Mara Buddha!”

The outburst of demonic qi was such that even the Fog Demon was sent flying. Then, the Boundless Bara Buddha brought down its left hand and reversed its swastika mudra. It would enlighten the living… via the demonic way.

The Nine Nethers Demonic Qi clinging to the Fog Demon suddenly left its body against its will and was absorbed into the reverse swastika mudra. It grew bigger and dense as a result.

Rumble!

The Fog Demon was crushed just like that.