Stranger Danger

Wang Luori and Xue Shiwu were white-faced with terror as they stared at Uncle Feng.

Uncle Feng chuckled. “Me? I’m just a servant. My name doesn’t deserve mention.”

“A servant?” Like hell we’ll believe that!

“I… I don’t know who you are, but my father is Xue Beikun and the commander of the Black Feather Guards. You can’t kill me!” Xue Shiwu gulped audibly while trembling like a leaf.

Uncle Feng shook his head and gave him a warm smile. “I don’t know any Xue Beikun or Black Feather Guards. All I know is that someone wants to kill Scion Ye, and my job is to kill them all.”

Wang Luori and Xue Shiwu booked it immediately. The old man had made it abundantly clear that there was no talking their way out of this. However, they soon realized that they were moving in reverse. No matter how hard they ran, they just kept getting closer and closer to Uncle Feng; to death.

“No! No! I don’t want to die!” Xue Shiwu finally lost his shit and howled on top of his lungs.

Wang Luori looked like he was in utter despair as well.

……

Some distance away, Xue Beikun noticed that his son was in danger and ordered, “Keep Gu Suitang busy!” Then, he drove Gu Suitang back with a palm strike and raced toward Uncle Feng.

“Hahaha! Do you think you can run, Xue Beikun?”

Gu Suitang wasn’t going to allow this, of course. Karma is such a bitch, isn’t she? Well, it’s my turn now!

Gu Suitang laughed boisterously as he sent Bai Xinhu, Jiang Huanjian and Song Yushu flying with a casual flick of his hand. Then, he caught up to Xue Beikun and aimed a devastating punch at his back.

Xue Beikun didn’t react, however. He allowed Gu Suitang’s punch to strike its target and used the momentum to push himself even faster toward Uncle Feng.

“Fuck! He got me!”

Gu Suitang cursed under his breath and got ready to give chase. However, the three Spirit Purifiers got in his way and caused him to miss his chance.

Meanwhile, countless bloody clouds were gathering above Xue Beikun. At the center of the clouds was a bloody star that looked like the epitome of slaughter and disaster, and entrenched above the star was a black wolf.

The black wolf was incredibly huge and had a horn on its forehead. Its eyes were crimson red, its fur was shiny black, and its limbs were muscular yet perfectly balanced. It looked both beautiful and strong.

Even scarier was the fact that it was covered in ominous-looking flames. They were overflowing violence and disaster.

When the black wolf let out an angry roar, an unspeakable aura filled the world in an instant. It was so grandiose and all-encompassing that it felt like the power of nature itself. All living beings within tens of meters of the Spirit Master abruptly prostrated themselves and trembled with fear.

Ye Qing, Wang Luori and Xue Shiwu were no exception. An unbelievable pressure and fear were pressing down on their bodies all the way to their souls. They felt like they were an ordinary human being who was suddenly tossed into a battlefield of the ages, and the only thing they wanted to do was to crawl under a mountain of corpses and hide. Resistance was near impossible.

“That’s the Greedy Wolf…”

Ye Qing forced down the unnatural fear in his soul and slowly raised his head to look at the black wolf in the sky. The black wolf was none other than the legendary Greedy Wolf, and it was a symbol of killing, disaster, and all that was ominous and bloody.

The Greedy Wolf in the sky wasn’t created from astral qi, but it wasn’t an illusion either. It was a Yin God.

A Yin God was the refined form of one’s mind. When a Spirit Purifier had sufficiently refined their mind, they would be able to create a Yin God and enter the Spirit Master Realm.

A Yin God could leave their mortal shell behind and explore the world freely like a ghost. So long as the Yin God still existed, the warrior would never die.

In fact, one must create a Yin God before they could be considered a master of the martial ways.

A Yin God didn’t necessarily need to be a humanoid shape. It could take any form and any power depending on the warrior’s martial arts and personality. In that sense, everything in the world could be a Yin God.

A Yin God was a “spirit that was perfectly compatible with heaven and earth” according to the ancient texts. Therefore, a warrior would be able to use their Yin God to cultivate dharma magic, perceive origin qi, and change the weather itself. They could literally summon rain and thunder upon their enemies if they wanted to.

This was why Spirit Masters were so, so much stronger than Spirit Purifiers. One could say that the gap between the two was like an adult and a baby.

A Spirit Master… Can Uncle Feng stop him?

“Kill!”

Xue Beikun summoned a spear into his hands and executed a downward thrust.

“Roar!”

The Greedy Wolf howled in response and also descended from above. It rode atop a star that was surrounded by thick, bloody clouds. It looked like a sky river from down below.

Even before the river or the Greedy Wolf could reach Uncle Feng, a bloody rain fell from the sky first. The wind howled, and the rain reeked of blood stench. It was also overflowing with an air of tyranny and balefulness. The ground was quickly dyed red as every plant in the vicinity withered and died.

Uncle Feng didn’t seem to notice the Greedy Wolf or the river of blood, however. Still wearing a warm smile on his face, he waited until the Greedy Wolf and the river were close before raising his thin right arm. He said, “The ‘Seven Killing Spears of Greedy Wolf’? What a coincidence. You know, I was the one who killed the Greedy Wolf.”

As soon as he waved his sleeve, both the Greedy Wolf and the river rapidly shrank and slipped into his sleeve. The ominous blood rain and smelly wind disappeared just like that, and the world returned to normal once more. It was like nothing had ever happened.

“Pwack!”

Xe Beikun couldn’t help but throw up a mouthful of blood after his Yin God took damage. The blood drained away from his face, and the light in his eyes grew dim.

“Gasp!”

The ember of hope that Xue Beikun had lit in Wang Luori and Xue Shiwu’s hearts extinguished just like that. Even Ye Qing couldn’t help but gasp in surprise.

He knew that Uncle Feng was very strong, but every time he increased his expectations, the old man surpassed it like it was nothing. What kind of warrior did it take to defeat a Spirit Master who had already grasped their dharma magic in one move?

Could Uncle Feng be a Grandmaster?

It would certainly explain how ridiculously powerful he was!

Man, when can I become a Grandmaster like Uncle Feng and looney-toon my enemy like that? I still have a long, long way to go.

Ye Qing’s eyes brimmed with envy and admiration.

“‘A world inside a sleeve, a sun inside a jar’… the World Sleeve?”

Xue Beikun groaned out in shock and pain when he recalled something, “You’re the World Sleeve Feng Liunian? I thought you were dead?”

“Am I? I guess so!” Uncle Feng hid his hands behind his sleeves and hunched down a little. Right here and now, he certainly didn’t look like the legend he was at all.

“Feng Liunian is long dead. There is only an old man called Uncle Feng now.”

“To think that the suave, dashing and bold World Sleeve would turn into this! How pitiful! How ironic!” Xue Beikun taunted before bolting away all of a sudden. The commander was actually leaving his son for dead!

“Don’t let him escape, Uncle Feng!” Ye Qing hurriedly shouted. He had to admit that Xue Beikun was more decisive than he thought. As soon as he realized that the situation was irredeemable, he immediately abandoned his son to save himself.

“He won’t escape!” Uncle Feng bared his yellow teeth and grinned from ear to ear. “Romance and freedom are but reflections in water. Ebb and flow is the true state of humanity. You don’t understand this, and you never will!”

Because you’re about to die.

Uncle Feng suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind Xue Beikun. Then, he made a grab for the man’s head. At the last moment, Xue Beikun dodged left and took the attack with his left shoulder instead.

Splat!

Xue Beikun’s left shoulder was ripped off just like that. Blood immediately rained from above.

Before the commander could react, Uncle Feng swung his sleeve and smashed Xue Beikun toward the ground.

Rumble!

As soon as Xue Beikun’s head hit the ground, the earth within several meters of him collapsed soundlessly to reveal a bottomless pit that seemed to reach all the way to the Nine Nethers itself.

Ye Qing’s jaw hit the floor when he saw this. This… is too much even for a Grandmaster, isn’t it? Is Xue Beikun’s head that hard? Is the ground actually made of tofu? Or is Uncle Feng even greater than Grandmaster!?

Ye Qing realized that wasn’t the case when he looked up though. It was because Uncle Feng was wearing the same stupefied expression as him.

While both of them were trying to figure out what was going on, the pit was still growing bigger and bigger. What looked like an infinite amount of demonic qi gushed into the surface and blotted out the moon and the stars. At the same time, one could vaguely see a giant standing in the sky, infinite and eternal.

“That’s…” Ye Qing’s eyes bled, and his mind shook unsteadily when he took one look at the giant. He quickly looked away. The silhouette in the sky could not be observed, but there was no denying that it existed.

“When the moon and stars lose their light, when the demon stands in the sky, when heaven and earth falls into darkness, the Demon’s Tomb shall appear.” Uncle Feng lost his smile and said seriously, “Be careful, Scion Ye. The Demon’s Tomb is about to appear in our world!”

“Demon’s Tomb?” Ye Qing blinked. “You dug out the Demon’s Tomb with one sleeve?”

No wonder he was called the World Sleeve! He’s too OP!

“Wait, the Demon’s Tomb? Did you mean that Demon’s Tomb?” Ye Qing finally recalled what Paper Taoist had told him earlier. “And here I thought that guy was lying.”

Paper Taoist once told him that the Demon’s Tomb would appear in Luo Shui within a month or two. He thought the Stranger was just spouting bullshit to save his own skin, but it turned out that it was the truth after all.

“Could that giant be the legendary Rahu then?”

According to Paper Taoist, the Demon’s Tomb was the resting place of the Progenitor Demon. It would explain how a mere projection could be so terrifying.

Suddenly, Uncle Feng called out to him, “Scion Ye! Watch out!”

“What?” Ye Qing had just returned to earth when his surroundings suddenly turned pitch black. He looked up and saw the giant swaying a little and seemingly looking down on the earth.

His skin turned ice cold, and every hair on his body stood on end. He felt like the giant was looking straight at him. His heart threatened to leap out of his chest.

Before Ye Qing could react, the giant—it was almost as if it was conscious—snapped his finger.

Buzz!

Space vibrated, and the ground where Ye Qing was standing abruptly dissolved into nothing.

“You sonuvabitch! What did I do to youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu…”

By the time Ye Qing realized what was happening, he had already disappeared into the bottomless pit below, his annoyed, helpless scream reverberating across the plain for a long time.

“What… What’s going on?” Uncle Feng scratched his head, puzzled. The giant had acted too quickly for him to act, though he doubted there was anything he could do even if he had reacted in time. It was obvious that he was completely unmatched.

“I’ve never heard that the demon’s projection has a mind of its own, so why did it do that? Did Scion Ye piss it off somehow?”