Stranger Danger

“That’s right!” one guy said with a sneer. He was well-groomed, but it did little to offset the fact he was an ugly, perverted-looking sonuvabitch. “Give it up, Ye Qing. Your subordinates are still at the foot of the mountain, aren\'t they? There is no way they’ll be able to arrive in time to save you.”

The speaker was the second strongest warrior of the seven, the “Powder-faced Fox” Zhong Chong.

“Are you sure you’d be able to kill me?” Ye Qing didn’t look afraid in the slightest despite the fact that he was outnumbered seven to one.

“Hmph! Do you fancy yourself invincible just because you killed a couple useless pieces of trash?”

The boss of the Seven Warriors of Laoshan, “Soaring Hawk” Li Yun scoffed. “We are all Astral Refiners. There is no way you can survive us even if you have three heads and six arms.”

The title “Seven Warriors of Laoshan” sounded pretty cool. But in reality they were just seven evil randos who had claimed this area of Laoshan as their own and did every evil under the sun for their own gains.

That said, they had the brawn to back up their misdeeds. Li Yun and Zhong Chong were late-stage Astral Refiners, and the rest of them were middle-stage or early-stage Astral Refiners as well. If Ye Qing was an ordinary late-stage Astral Refiner, then this situation would most likely end poorly for him.

“Heh. We’ll see, won’t we?” Ye Qing sneered and took one step forward. He abruptly split into seven silhouettes and charged toward the group of seven.

“Illusionist’s Grace”

It might sound like the Seven Warriors of Laoshan were underestimating Ye Qing, but in reality it was the opposite. There was a reason the Patrolman was famous throughout Luo Shui, and poor skill wasn’t one of them. Despite this, they were still caught off guard when Ye Qing abruptly split into seven people.

They were just trying to defend themselves when one of their numbers suddenly let out a bloodcurdling scream. When they looked, they saw their six, the “Cloudchasing Crane” Liu San clutching his bleeding neck and falling to the ground. Beside Liu San, Ye Qing was holding a crescent-shaped saber with a bead of blood slowly sliding down the blade. When it hit the ground, it scattered like a winter plum in full bloom.

“The ‘Sunchasing Crane’ Liu San is an early-stage Astral Refiner who’s an expert in movement arts and hidden weapons. He practices the ‘Crane Flip’ and the ‘Rain on Palm Leaf’.”

Liu San’s expertise was the reason Ye Qing decided to eliminate him first before everyone else. It would be annoying if the guy decided to hit him from range or run away because his colleagues were being slaughtered.

It wasn’t everyday he got to spring a trap on his enemies. Naturally, he should do his best to ensure that everything went smoothly.

“Six!”

“Six…”

The other six warriors screamed in shock and anger when they saw their brother falling to Ye Qing.

The fourth and fifth strongest warriors of the group, Huang Kang and Xu Ying were the closest people to Ye Qing, and they didn’t hesitate to attack him together. Huang Kang let out an angry roar and discharged what looked like a blood mist from his body. His vigor surged like a tidal wave, and his aura grew like crazy as he threw a punch at Ye Qing.

Xu Yingying was the only woman of the seven and wielded a soft sword. She tapped the air around her lightly like she was dancing, but ripples of dark green energy spread out from the tip of her sword and caused the air to sizzle. It was clear that it contained some sort of deadly poison.

Once again, their intel flickered across Ye Qing’s head:

“The ‘Mountain Flipping Panther’ Huang Kang is a middle-stage Astral Refiner and a fist practitioner. He practices the ‘Mountain Flipping Fist’ that could supposedly turn a mountain upside down like nothing. He also has a blood ignition art that greatly increases the potency of his fist art.”

“However, Huang Kang would descend into uncontrollable rage for a bit after using the blood ignition art. He would also be weakened for an extended period after the blood ignition art has ended.”

“The ‘Beauty Snake’ Xu Yingying is an early-stage Astral Refiner who is well known for her sword art and poison. Her sword art is called the ‘Pear Blossom Sword Art’, but it’s nothing to write home about. Her true threat lies in her unique poison, the ‘Beauty Rots Bones’.”

“‘Beauty Rots Bones’ is a deadly poison that could rot the flesh and melt the bones upon contact. Not only is it incredibly difficult to remove, it doesn’t inflict any pain on the victim. Some of her victims didn’t even know they were poisoned until they body gave out from under them like a man falling for the woman of their dreams. Hence the name.”

Ye Qing charged toward Huang Kang first and threw his own punch. It looked like he was planning to clash fists with Huang Kang.

“Die!” Huang Kang roared as his bloodshot eyes grew even redder. He looked like he would rip and tear Ye Qing into a million pieces. But right before the attack would connect, Ye Qing abruptly stepped sideways and dodged his fist. At the same time, he left behind an afterimage that looked just like him.

“Illusionist’s Grace” was a movement art that combined the essences of both the Taoist Way and the Dark Ways. It possessed both the profoundness of the Taoist and the unpredictability of the dark. That was why Ye Qing was able to dodge Huang Kang’s attack with just a few milimeters to spare. Otherwise, he couldn’t have done it with such minute precision and grace.

Huang Kang had lost his reason the moment he used his blood ignition art. He could barely tell friend from foe, much less control his fist force. As a result, his punch struck Xu Yingying’s sword instead of Ye Qing.

Xu Yingying was only an early-stage Astral Refiner, and the sword art she practiced was trash. As a result, Huang Kang’s fist easily punched through her sword and turned her into a fine mist of blood and gore.

At the same time, a saber flashed behind Huang Kang and sent his head flying. At least he wouldn’t have to deal with the shock and regret of killing his own brethren.

“Brother! Sister! Ahhhhh! I will rip you limb from limb, Ye Qing!”

Li Yun had just reached Ye Qing, and so got a front row view of Huang Kang and Xu Yingying’s horrifying deaths. Eyes bulging with infinite madness and hatred, he leaped into the air and swiped his hands at Ye Qing like a hawk. At the same time, a hawk’s cry pierced through the air, and a handsome red hawk appeared behind his back. A blood rain suddenly started falling as well.

“When the sky weeps blood, the blood hawk shall rise.”

“The Soaring Hawk Li Yun is a late-stage Astral Refiner and an expert in claw arts. He practices the ‘Blood Eagle Divine Claw’. It is a martial art that’s best used when attacking from an elevated position. The higher the starting position, and the more power the practitioner built up as he descends from the sky, the stronger the attack would become.”

The simplest and most effective way to dismantle the “Blood Eagle Divine Claw” was to kill Li Yun before he fully charged his attack, so Ye Qing pushed off the ground with an explosive jump and scattered the blood rain surrounding Li Yun in an instant.

He didn’t hit Li Yun from the bottom, however. Instead, he sucked in a deep breath to renew his energies, swerved around Li Yun’s attack, and took the high ground instead. Now he was the hawk, and Li Yun the prey. Then, he unleashed a devastating punch at Li Yun’s back.

Li Yun didn’t have Ye Qing’s ability to change his energies mid-jump, nor could he switch up his moves now because the “Blood Eagle Divine Claw” was a one-move technique intended to end the enemy’s life in one strike. As a result, he could only watch helplessly as Ye Qing’s punch broke his spine, shattered his innards, and sent him flying straight toward Zhong Chong.

Although Zhong Chong was a man, he practiced a lithe and graceful movement art. Thanks to that, he was able to dodge out of the way before Li Yun’s corpse could hit him. Unfortunately, he didn’t even have the time to thank his own good fortune when the alarm bells inside his head suddenly rang loudly. He immediately tried to jump away from Li Yun.

Unfortunately, it was too late. A man had been clinging to Li Yun’s corpse this whole time, and Zhong Chong failed to notice it until the last second because he had moved too quickly. It was, of course, Ye Qing.

Too late to dodge out of the way, Zhong Chong changed tactics and swung a flowery whip at Ye Qing instead. Suddenly, Ye Qing felt like he had been teleported into a different world, a world where the wind blew, the rain poured, and the stars and moon were falling straight toward him. He felt as helpless as an ant before the natural disasters.

“What an illusion!” Ye Qing sighed in admiration. The illusion was so perfect that it could fool one’s senses perfectly. Even he would’ve fallen for it if he hadn’t known that Powderfaced Fox was an expert in illusion arts.

Zhong Chong practiced an extremely rare type of illusion art called the “Heart Clouding Art”. It could interfere with one’s senses and create illusions out of nowhere. Moreover, his astral qi was the average grade astral qi, the Mirage Qi, and his Strange Artifact was the Malice-class Strange Artifact, the Illusion Whip. As a result, his illusions looked almost no different from the real thing.

That said, illusions were just illusions. No matter how real they looked, they were ultimately fake and so couldn’t do any damage to Ye Qing whatsoever. While there were warriors out there who could turn illusions into reality, Zhong Chong was not yet at that level.

So, Ye Qing ignored the horrific scene happening around him and threw a punch. So what if the illusions were real? He would still break it all with his fist.

“Break Through”

Like a knife, his fist severed the illusion in half and brought him back to the real world. It felt incredibly soothing as the wind, rain, and falling celestial objects abruptly disappeared, and the world was filled with light and warmth once more.

Zhong Chong was going to run away while Ye Qing was trapped in his illusion. When he looked down, he saw that a massive hole had appeared on his abdomen, and the wound was so smooth that not a drop of blood could be seen. It was because the Burning Wind had boiled all of his blood in an instant.

The next second, Zhong Chong hit the ground and shattered into several pieces like dry wood.

On paper, it looked like the battle had been ongoing for a few minutes at least. In reality, only a few breaths had passed. It was only now the “Mountain Tiger” Zhang An and the “Night Bat” Tu Sheng recovered their wits and realized that they were the only ones left.

Obviously, they had lost desire to fight Ye Qing. They immediately took off in different directions. Considering the circumstances, it was a victory if even one of them managed to escape.

“What makes you think you can outrun me?” Ye Qing chuckled and spat Lightning Bolt at Tu Sheng. Not even bothering to check his kill, he dashed after Zhang An like a ghost.

The reason Zhang An was nicknamed the “Mountain Tiger” was because of his explosive speed and strength. Out of the seven of them, no one could sprint faster than him.

Unfortunately for him, Ye Qing was even faster. One breath ago, both men had crossed over fifty meters of distance. One breath later, Ye Qing was already behind Zhang An’s back.

Zhang An did not look back or even react to Ye Qing’s presence, however. It was as if he couldn’t sense the young man and all. Another ten meters or so later, he abruptly dropped to the ground and died just like that. Ye Qing also stopped in his tracks and put away his curved saber.

“I told you you can’t outrun me!”

Ye Qing lifted Zhang An’s body over his shoulder and went back to his battlefield. Not far away, Tu Sheng was lying on the ground with a leek-sized hole on his forehead. The wound was also crawling with lightning.

“Phew! That’s seven bodies in a single day, and a total of thirty five in the past seven days. Why do they value their lives so little?” Ye Qing said with a sneer as he looted the bodies like he had done this a hundred times already. Which he had.

It had been seven days since he and Tang Shi had cooked up a devious plan, and during these seven days he had been attacked twenty three times. Each time, he would purposely create an opening so that these wannabe assassins would attack him, die, and donate him their valuables. It was a wonderful week.

All thirty five attackers were Astral Refiners, and fifteen of them were powerful late-stage Astral Refiners with a terrible reputation in their respective counties or commanderies. He had handpicked them himself after Tang Shi had provided him with a list. The reason he chose them was because they were weak, possess a narrow skillset, and have no background. It took him little to no difficulty to kill them all.

Unfortunately, he also noticed that the number of people who attacked him since yesterday or the day before had decreased drastically. This meant that the jianghu warriors were beginning to suspect foul play and even Tang Shi himself. Today could very well be the last day he reeled in easy prey before the real predators began to show their faces. Things would get dangerous then.

That was what he was hoping to happen though. These jianghu warriors would do anything for profit, sure, but most of them were bullies who only targeted the weak. When they realized that he wasn’t the small fry they thought he was, they would fear him, they would hesitate, and they would eventually leave him alone. When that happened, his enemies’ plan would fail, and his crisis would resolve on his own.

That was why he wasn’t lying to Tang Shi when he said he wanted to stop this farce permanently. Him making a killing in the process was just the side benefit.