Stranger Danger

A wisp of invisible flame burned away the goo of red and white in Ye Qing’s hands. He then tilted his head to one side and smiled evilly at his hidden watchers.

By now, he had figured out that this was a trap his dear bounty hunters had prepared for him.

“The arrogance of this brat. That said, there is no need to drag this out. Let’s attack him together and stop wasting time already.”

The cold snort came from Ye Qing’s left, but the attack actually came from the right. It was a sword force slithering silently yet quickly across the ground like a venomous viper while under the cover of the mist. At the same time, an erhu[1] started playing a bleak and sorrowful tune. It sang of the trials and tribulations of the long, long journey that was life.

More importantly, Ye Qing immediately resonated with the tune and became gripped by bleakness and sorrow as well. He found himself unable to focus on the very deadly situation he was facing.

While Ye Qing was distracted, the sword force abruptly pounced toward him and spread out like an umbrella. They actually transformed into hissing snakes and targeted each and every one of his vital spots.

Shing shing!

However, Ye Qing’s body turned out to be harder than expected. The sword force splashed uselessly against his skin almost like his body was made of metal, not flesh.

“‘Ghost Snake’ Cao Xiaoting!”

“The ‘Miserable Wind and Rain’ Shangguan Wuqing!”

Ye Qing identified his attackers immediately after he saw their attacks.

“You have a discerning eye, brat,” said the gloomy voice who requested his companion to attack Ye Qing earlier as two silhouettes stepped out into the open.

The first attacker looked haggard, thin, and sickly pale. His aura was as dark as his appearance suggested as well. However, he had red, vertical pupils that very much resembled a snake. He also carried three snake-like swords. Literally, the blade was the snake’s body, and the handle was the snake’s head. They were red, green and black in color each, and the snake’s head was hissing like it was alive.

The second attacker was a middle-aged man in his forties. He sat on a litter[2] that was being supported by four beautiful girls, though their eyes were glassy and lifeless.

The second attacker was quite handsome for his age, but his eyes were filled with melancholic sorrow. He was holding an erhu that played sad tunes on its own even though his hands weren’t moving, which made the atmosphere even bleaker and more desolate than before.

The swordsman was the ‘Ghost Snake’ Cao Xiaoting, and the bleak-looking man was the ‘Miserable Wind and Rain’ Shangguan Wuqing.

“So you’re the ones who laid this trap for me?” Ye Qing crossed his arms and tilted his head at his attackers. “I can tell that you guys are going all out!”

“But it’s one thing to kill me, and another to kill this many Pacification Bureau members. Are you sure you’ve carefully considered the consequences? Are you sure you want to put yourself on the Pacification Bureau’s hit list just for a handful of cultivation manuals, pills and whatever?”

“The Pacification Bureau will never let this go unanswered, you know. You can run to the ends of the earth, and they will still hunt you down like dogs. Is it really worth it?”

Shangguan Wuqing coughed. “We appreciate your concern, but we’re not that stupid. Your colleagues aren’t dead yet. They just ate Granny Xiong’s roasted chestnuts is all. Once you’re dead, they’ll return to normal.”

“Granny Xiong?” Ye Qing frowned. Not only did he recognize the name, it was quite the infamous name throughout the jianghu.

It was said that an old woman who sells roasted chestnuts would appear on the streets every midnight, and anyone who ate her food would die in all sorts of bizarre ways. Almost no one had seen her before because barring a handful of exceptions, everyone who had met her had died.

However, Granny Xiong’s base of operations was Chang Shan. He wasn’t expecting the woman to come all the way here just for the bounty. These jianghu warriors must be even poorer than he thought.

“Granny Xiong is here too? What an honor!” Ye Qing exclaimed with mock surprise before putting on a hesitant expression. “However, there are three of you, and the bounty is only big enough for one person. Surely you’re not planning to split them between you three?”

“If only the Taiping cultists aren’t so stingy, don’t you agree?”

“Do you actually think you can drive a wedge between us with such blatant deception, brat? Spare us the drama!” Cao Xiaoting sneered. “And don’t think we don’t know you’re trying to buy time either. This whole place is surrounded by an array. You can scream on top of your lungs, and no one is going to hear it and get help.”

Ye Qing sighed. Everyone’s brain is online, it seems. I knew that the web novels were lying to me. It was stupid of me to think I could incite my enemies to fight among themselves with just words.

“Let us begin then.”

As soon as he finished, Lightning Bolt shot out of Ye Qing’s mouth straight toward Cao Xiaoting. He then followed right behind his mini sword.

“Go!”

Cao Xiaoting’s swords flew out of their sheaths and unleashed their power. The red sword unleashed ripples of fire, the green sword released clouds of poisonous smoke, and the black sword hissed like it was a living snake.

The fire was a red flame that could char flesh and blood, the smoke was a deadly poison that could rot bones like nothing, and the hissing sound was a sound attack that could disorient the mind.

This was also why the three swords were named Blaze, Poison and Disorient.

The three swords swished and swerved past each other seemingly at random, when in reality it was the complete opposite. They followed a strict pattern that maximized their power and concealed the true threat amidst a flurry of bright, colorful lights.

They engulfed Lightning Bolt before it could even reach its target.

Ye Qing was far tougher than his hidden weapon, however. Channeling his strength and his willpower, he threw a forceful punch.

Break Through”

The fist force easily shredded the web of light and sent all three swords flying. The forceful disintegration of his power destabilized Chao Xiaoting’s vigor and caused him to let out a muffled groan. He stared at Ye Qing in disbelief.

Since they were plotting to kill Ye Qing, they had studied his information as a matter of course. They knew that he was an expert in fist arts and possessed a powerful physique, which meant that he was most likely a body-tempering warrior. Generally speaking, body-tempering warriors possessed a weak spirit and mind, which was why he used Disorient to disorient Ye Qing, and Poison to rot his internal organs from the inside.

But not only were his counters completely useless, Ye Qing had dismantled his attack in a single punch.

Ye Qing wasn’t going to give Cao Xiaoting the chance to stabilize his energies, of course. He rushed forward to end the swordsman’s life.

Suddenly, the sorrowful sound of an erhu filled the air. An unnatural sorrow immediately gripped his body and mind once more. However, Ye Qing was prepared this time. He immediately visualized the “Emperor Fuxi Visualization Method” to shield himself from the music’s effects and continued toward Cao Xiaoting.

Seeing that his sound attack was ineffective, Shangguan Wuqing abruptly changed his tactic and played a tune of chaos and turmoil. A pounding headache struck Ye Qing out of nowhere, and his vigor churned so much that his heart was beating twice as hard as before.

“HAH!!!”

Ye Qing sucked in a deep breath and let out a mighty roar, overwhelming the disruptive sound of the erhu. While the music was temporarily disrupted, Ye Qing changed targets and threw a punch at Shangguan Wuqing instead.

The Burning Wind claimed the stage while the wind and rain were taking a break.

The world plunged into a fiery hell all of a sudden, and it was hot enough to cook rivers and mountains. The stars flickered erratically as Ye Qing punched out with the audacity and ambition to give the sky itself a new makeup.

“Cloud Vaporization Style”

If his “Cloud Vaporization Style" only got the shape but not the essence in the past, then now it was truly complete in every way. With this punch, he would burn the world, challenge the sun and moon, and wipe the slate clean.

Buzz…

The desolate wind and rain that surrounded the whole area was annihilated by the punch just like that. It even cleared out the mist and revealed the sky once more.

Cao Xiaoting and Shangguan Wuqing were beyond shocked at this point. Ye Qing’s fist intent had forcefully locked them in place and forced them to bear the full brunt of his attack. It wasn’t even close yet, but already their astral qi was dissipating, their skin was cracking, their blood was boiling, their mind was flickering, and an unbelievable force was crushing every inch of their flesh bit by bit.

“Nine Swords of Dominance!” Cao Xiaoting growled as a puff of invisible flame escaped his throat. He did not hesitate to execute his ultimate technique because he knew it was do or die. Blaze, Poison and Disorient flew in front of him and unleashed three vertical slashes, three horizontal slashes, and three thrusts. That was nine attacks in total.

Everyone thought that the Ghost Snake was a sneak attacker who could only stab someone when they weren’t looking, when in reality his trump card was the complete opposite.

A sword was dominant, a man was dominant, and a man mastered the sword to become the best of both worlds.

The first six sword qis cut open a crisscrossing path between the fist force. It allowed the last three sword qis to punch through unhindered.

While Cao Xiaoting was unleashing his ultimate attack, Shangguan Wuqing also closed his eyes and slowly, very slowly, pulled his bow stick across the string.

Every time the bow moved an inch, the surrounding space would grow just a tad denser. When the string was fully drawn like a bow, and the erhu was screeching in pain, Shangguan Wuqing finally stopped his action.

By now, Shangguan Wuqing was deathly pale and sweating bullets. His arms were shaking as if they were withstanding a terrible weight because he was. An entire river lay between the strings.

Buzz!

When Shangguan Wuqing finally let go, the string rebounded back to its original position. The earth shuddered, and space shook as if it was straining under a terrible weight. Strangely, no sound could be heard whatsoever.

Then again, a powerful sound was inaudible.

Bang! Bang!

The only two strings on the erhu abruptly snapped at the same time, and it was like a dam had broken. The swords were opening the way, and behind the swords were a massive river that would crush it all and flood the world, leaving behind only desolation and misery.

“Now we’re talking.”

Ye Qing raised an eyebrow and took half a step forward. Crouching deeply, he punched the ground diagonally and sent the entire chunk into the air. It not only blocked the tidal wave of force, but also reflected it after a brief stalemate.

This gift is too big for me. You can have it back!

Rumble!

The unexpected counterattack caught Cao Xiaoting and Shangguan Wuqing completely off guard, and they were spent after unleashing their strongest attack. As the torrent of force sent them flying, Ye Qing appeared in the air and punched them both into the ground, hard.

Buzz…

It was only now that a certain pot arrived fashionably late. It flew into the air and stopped when it was directly above Ye Qing. Then, an old voice called out,

“Come into the pot!”

An unbelievable suction force suddenly locked the surrounding space and trapped Ye Qing in place. Even with his strength, he was unable to break free immediately.

At the same time, countless roasted chestnuts fell out of the pot.

The roasted chestnuts immediately rolled up to Ye Qing’s feet and broke their own shells. What crawled out of the shells weren’t chestnuts, but tiny, insect-like Strangers with humanoid arms and legs.

1. The erhu (Chinese: 二胡; pinyin: èrhú; [aɻ˥˩xu˧˥]) is a Chinese two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a Southern Fiddle, and is sometimes known in the Western world as the Chinese violin or a Chinese two-stringed fiddle. ☜

2. The litter is a class of wheelless vehicles, a type of human-powered transport, for the transport of people. Smaller litters may take the form of open chairs or beds carried by two or more carriers, some being enclosed for protection from the elements. ☜