Stranger Danger

Gu Suitang’s furious voice suddenly boomed out from the forest.

Gu Suitang was currently being attacked by four people wearing black outfits, though it would be more accurate to say that they were tying him up so he wouldn’t be able to rescue Ye Qing.

They were three late-stage Spirit Purifiers and one Spirit Master. The Spirit Master was the pivot of the group, and the three late-stage Spirit Purifiers their support.

Gu Suitang was extremely powerful. His fists were as heavy as a mountain, his intent was as tall as the sky itself, and every punch he threw seemed capable of rocking a mountain and tearing down an entire chunk of a city. However, the Spirit Master he was facing wasn’t weak either. They used a martial art that was the complete opposite of Gu Suitang’s fist art in that it was soft, transient, flexible and unpredictable. No matter how powerful Gui Suitang’s punches were, he could always render them harmless.

Perhaps Gu Suitang could’ve broken through by force if the Spirit Master wasn’t aided by three Spirit Purifiers, but they were, so he was unable to break free no matter what he tried.

“The Flowing Cloud Sanda[1]? You’re Xue Beikun?” Gu Suitang erupted in anger when he recognized the martial art.

The Spirit Master a.k.a Xue Beikun didn’t acknowledge Gu Suitang’s accusation, of course. Short of capturing or killing him, then there was nothing the Deputy Chief of Bureau could do about it.

To be honest, he didn’t want to show himself. It wasn’t time yet to go to war against the Pacification Bureau after all. However, his foolish son had fallen for Ye Qing’s bait hook, line and sinker. If he was caught by Gu Suitang, then the Black Feather Guards would have an all-out war in their hands.

Although Xue Shiwu’s identity was exposed, he wasn’t caught yet. As long as it remained that way, then everything was fine. The court was a “wonderful” place where nothing was certain unless you had every piece of evidence lined up. Sometimes, not even that was enough to secure what should be an open-and-shut case.

If Gu Suitang dared to accuse the Black Feather Guards colluding with Sunset Hill to assassinate Ye Qing without evidence, then he would dare to accuse the Pacification Bureau for slander due to personal bias.

His mouth was his anyway. He was free to say whatever the hell he wanted.

Besides that, Xue Shiwu was his only son. It would be terrible if he was killed by Gu Suitang. He didn’t want to suffer the same fate as Wang Luori and lose his only son long before his time was up. That was why he stepped up no matter how much he didn’t want to.

Meanwhile, Gu Suitang guessed that the Spirit Purifiers were Bai Xinhu of the Bai Clan, Song Yushu of the administrative division, and Jiang Huanjian of Blood Shadow Palace.

“Do you think I won’t figure out your identity just because you’re staying quiet, Xue Beikun? You were a member of the Flowing Cloud Villa before you joined the army, and the Flowing Cloud Sanda is their ultimate technique. Do you seriously think I wouldn’t know that?”

When Xue Beikun wordlessly rushed Gu Suitang again, the deputy chief yelled, “Are you really going to go to war with the Pacification Bureau, Xue Beikun?”

“And you three! I don’t care who you are, but I, Gu Suitang, will never forgive you for transgressing against the Pacification Bureau!”

The four men remained as silent as ever as they continued to stop him from reaching Ye Qing.

“Graaaaagh!”

Gu Suitang roared again and again, but he just couldn’t break through his enemies no matter what he tried.

……

“Gu Suitang is actually here…”

Wang Luori, Xue Shiwu, Pang Kun and the soldiers broke out in cold sweat when they heard Gu Suitang’s angry roars. They finally figured out the true extent of Ye Qing’s plans.

“I underestimated you, Ye Qing. To think that you were planning to deal with all of us in one go!” Wang Luori uttered with a low, angry growl.

He was plotting against Ye Qing, but Ye Qing was plotting against him as well. Or rather, he was plotting against everyone who harbored malicious designs toward him. If Xue Beikun hadn’t shown up, then there was a real chance he could have died here.

The best case scenario was already out of reach. Even if he managed to kill Ye Qing today, Gu Suitang already found out that it was him who masterminded everything. He might not have the evidence to take real action against him, but he absolutely could make his life a living hell after he returned to the Pacification Bureau.

It was too late for regrets though, and he wasn’t going to give up when his prize was right in front of his eyes. Worst case scenario, he could join Xue Beikun. The Pacification Bureau probably wouldn’t launch an all-out war against the Black Feather Guards over a dead man.

Ye Qing was a genius, sure, but a dead genius held no value. To some people, a dead genius might be worth less than even a pile of shit.

Finally, Gu Suitang might not necessarily be able to threaten after he entered the Spirit Master Realm. As a Spirit Master, he was confident that he would be able to fight the deputy chief to a standstill at least.

“Kill him now so we may leave, Brother Wang.” Pang Kun wore a dark look on his face as well. At this point, he knew that he had been tricked by Ye Qing. Xue Beikun was even forced to show himself to stop Gu Suitang from entering the scene and sending everything into the worst case scenario. It was already guaranteed that he was going to receive a stern punishment when he returned, the least he could do was to stop the situation from worsening any further than it already was.

Xue Shiwu’s complexion kept alternating between blue and white as all sorts of emotions flitted across his face. In the end, they all culminated into pure, unbridled anger and bloodthirst. He looked like he wanted to swallow Ye Qing alive.

“Heh. I knew it wasn’t safe to have only Old Gu as my safety net.”

Ye Qing shrugged as he listened to the clashes coming from the forest. When he noticed the killing intent in Wang Luori, Pang Kun and Xue Shiwu’s eyes, his grin grew wider and wider. “Hey, don’t look at me like that. You’re the one who did this to yourselves.”

“How much longer are you going to smile like that?” Ye Qing’s smile felt unbelievably offensive to Xue Shiwu. “Well, you won’t be smiling for much longer.”

Ye Qing shifted to a more comfortable position before replying, “Am I? I suppose that’s true. After all, you’re all going to die in a moment.”

“You don’t actually think that Old Gu is my only trump card, do you?”

“What do you mean by that?” A terrible sense of unease suddenly gripped all of them.

“What I’m trying to say is...” Ye Qing played up the tension until it reached a crescendo. Then, he let out a sigh and looked behind the trio. “You’ve come, Uncle Feng!”

“Are you serious? Like anyone would fall for such a simple—” Wang Luo scoffed. He thought that Ye Qing was trying to pull the good ol’ “What’s that behind you?” and try to escape, but suddenly, he noticed that Pang Kun and Xue Shiwu were staring behind themselves with a look of shock on their faces. As if on cue, an amiable greeting came from behind his back:

“Good evening, Scion Ye…”

“When did he—?” Wang Luori’s eyes widened. He never noticed the old man until he appeared behind his back.

Wang Luori immediately took action, but instead of attacking Uncle Feng, he chose to make a grab for Ye Qing.

Wang Luori’s reaction was definitely quick. He knew that this “Uncle Feng” was here to rescue Ye Qing, and he couldn’t tell how strong he was. In that case, the best course of action was to capture Ye Qing. As long as Ye Qing was in his hands, the advantage would be his no matter what.

I will never lose!

Wang Luori was only three meters away from Ye Qing, so it would only take him an instant to catch the young man. His hand was an inch away from Ye Qing’s skull when suddenly, he saw a shower of blood and his right arm flying into the air.

He cut my arm?! Wang Luori thought in shock before the pain hit him.

“Aaaaaaargh!” Wang Luori let out a bloodcurdling scream, but the pain also drove him to further violence. He pushed away the pain and continued to charge toward Ye Qing. The enemy was just too strong. Only by taking Ye Qing hostage would he stand a chance at surviving this.

“You’re too hasty, young man. You should learn to be patient.”

Wang Luori had just twitched a muscle when Uncle Feng’s voice rang behind him. It sounded so clear it was as if the old man was standing right behind his back. In fact, he was.

Wang Luori wasn’t looking, but Ye Qing could see Uncle Feng standing less than a third of a meter behind his back. In fact, there was an Uncle Feng standing behind Pang Kun, Xue Shiwu, and the eighteen personal guards each. They all looked identical to the real thing.

Ye Qing’s mouth fell open a little. Not even his spirit could tell him which one was the real Uncle Feng, and which wasn’t.

Wang Luori, Pang Kun, Xue Shiwu and the eighteen guards felt death breathing down their necks then. They tried to resist only to find an invisible power trapping them in place.

The next moment, Uncle Feng lifted a finger and caused a bloody line to appear on everyone’s necks.

Nineteen heads rolled to the ground then. Wang Luori and Xue Shiwu were the only ones who survived the attack. Wang Luori’s body rapidly turned transparent until it disappeared into nothing, and a wooden doll appeared where he used to be.

A cock suddenly appeared in front of Xue Shiwu and crowed loudly. Then, it laid a golden egg[2]. The bloody line that should’ve beheaded Xue Shiwu was somehow transferred to the golden egg and shattered it instead. Blood instead of yolk spilled out of its shell.

“In… Incredible!” Ye Qing gulped audibly with bulging eyes. He already had an inkling that Uncle Feng was strong, but his strength still exceeded his imagination. Uncle Feng had nearly killed everyone with a single move, and Wang Luori, a Half-Step Spirit Master was unable to resist at all.

Now he was certain that Uncle Feng was absolutely stronger than Gu Suitang. Wang Luori at least managed to put up a struggle before Gu Suitang, but he wasn’t able to do anything before Uncle Feng.

“A Golden Cock? Did your guardian give you that to protect your life?”

“Golden Cock?” Ye Qing jolted out of his shock and stared at the big cock still crowing on top of its lungs and running around without a care for the world. He had heard of the Golden Cock from Wawa before, but this was the first time he saw one with his own eyes.

The Golden Cock was a very special Stranger. Although it was only a Malice-class Stranger with little to no ability to defend itself, it possessed a very special ability. No, it wasn’t its ability to lay eggs and crow like a hen, though that in itself was certainly unusual. It was its ability to lay a golden egg that could block any and all disasters for its owner exactly once in its life.

The Golden Cock’s golden egg was even more useful than the Scapedoll because it could protect its owner from dangerous environments as well. Besides that, the golden egg was said to possess the ability to harmonize the yin and yang energy in one’s body. It was the reason the Golden Cock could lay eggs despite being male.

If someone were to consume the golden egg, then they would become a hermaphrodite. They would literally be able to give birth to life by themselves.

This was just a legend, of course. After all, no one had ever dared to verify it.

“Perfect. I heard that a Golden Crow’s flesh is sweet, juicy, and tender, and it could be simmer-fried, steamed or roasted. It’ll be a perfect complement for the wine you promised me, Scion Ye,” Uncle Feng said with a delighted smile while beckoning the Golden Crow to come to him.

“Cock-a-doodle!”

Unaware of the grim fate that awaited it, the Golden Crow crowed and ran up to Uncle Feng.

Ye Qing shook his head wryly. “He’s going to eat you, you fool. Well, that’s not a bad quality though. Just look at the smartasses. They’re just about ready to shit their pants.”

1. Sanda, formerly Sanshou, also known as Chinese boxing or Chinese kickboxing, is the official Chinese kickboxing full-contact combat sport. ☜

2. Yes, a cock laid an egg. It’ll be explained later. ☜