Stranger Danger

They didn’t go far before the sky slowly turned dim. The red sun suspended high in the middle of the sky slowly sank into the western horizons, its dying rays looking as red as blood. Iridescent light painted both the sky and the ground in rainbow, dreamlike colors.

This was a scene straight out of a painting, but Ye Qing felt uncomfortable and stifled. His spirit revealed to him that what looked like demonic qi was slowly increasing. The clear qi was fading, and the murky air was rising. Then, he saw countless magnificent, divine and bizarre illusions appearing all across the landscape.

He saw Buddhas and celestials making pilgrimages to the Great Way;

He saw gods and demons battling each other until both sky and earth were torn asunder;

He saw auspicious beasts dancing in the sky and what looked like palaces peeking through the clouds;

He saw countless ghosts and demons parading through the night;

……

Well, this confirms that the Demon’s Tomb is most dangerous at night.

Ye Qing continued watching the illusions for a bit until a bloody tear flowed down his cheek, and his mind felt like a discombobulated mess. It wasn’t until he looked away that his symptoms improved.

“Are you alright, brother?” Yi Pin also noticed Ye Qing’s reaction and advised, “These things are mirages created from demonic qi and one’s desires. Just concentrate your mind and clear your heart, and you will be immune to their effects.”

“Thanks for the advice, brother,” Ye Qing saluted him. “Anyway, the night of the Demon’s Tomb is definitely unusual. We need to find a hiding spot as soon as possible.”

“Agreed.”

……

“Kekeke… There is no escape, children. Just give me your possessions, and I might yet consider letting you live.”

“We are disciples of Purity Sword, Demon of Unliving. Hurt us, and the consequences will be severe!”

“Yeah! Have you forgotten the lesson Elder Song taught you earlier already? Touch a single hair on our bodies, and Elder Song will chase you to the ends of the earth!”

“Kekeke… it is true that Song Xilai and especially Purity Sword are way, way out of my reach, but your elder isn’t here, and we are not at Purity Sword, are we? Who would know that I’m the one who killed you?”

“Speaking of which, Song Xilai humiliated me quite badly back at Luo Shui, and you guys are the perfect fodder to vent my frustrations on. If you must blame someone for your misfortune, blame Song Xilai, kekeke!”

Ye Qing, Yi Pin and Li Longxiang were still searching for a hiding spot when a series of strange cackles suddenly interrupted their search. When they looked, they saw a man wearing black robes and surrounded by demonic qi chasing down five people. They were a group of three men and two women, and they were all dressed in white. The collar of their shirt and their sleeves were embroidered with clouds and flowers. It was a simple yet elegant design.

The group looked miserable, however. Their clothes were in tatters and drenched in blood, and their energies were all over the place. They looked battered and exhausted.

It wasn’t like their group was made up of weaklings. The leader of the group was a Spirit Purifier, whereas everyone else was a late-stage Astral Refiner. It was simply because the black-robed man chasing after them was stronger than the five of them combined.

“That’s… Demon of Unliving! And he seems to be chasing after the disciples of Purity Sword!” Yi Pin took one look and blanched a little. “We need to leave, brother. And please don’t tell me that you’re planning to save them.”

“Of course not. I’m not crazy,” said Ye Qing while shaking his head. Demon of Unliving was obviously a bad guy, but his aura was so powerful it quashed any unnecessary thought Ye Qing might have had.

It was never a bad thing to help others in need, but only if it was within one’s ability to do so. Otherwise, it would be futile at best or detrimental at worst. In this case, it would be suicide.

Ye Qing was a man of action, so he immediately grabbed his companions and darted toward the distance like the wind. He made no sound when he kicked off the ground, and he was gone in just the blink of an eye.

“They’re pretty fast.”

The trio noticed Demon of Unliving, so of course the black-robed man noticed them as well. He was just going to squish the three ants when they abruptly darted out of his range.

“Still, you can’t escape. I’ll come for you as soon as I’m done with these small fries,” said Demon of Unliving with a cackle.

His voice wasn’t loud, but Ye Qing, Yi Pin and Li Longxiang all heard it loud and clear despite the fact that they were almost a hundred meters away from the black-robed man. Not only that, his voice seemed to possess some sort of mind-bending quality that screwed with their heads and made them hallucinate all sorts of things.

“Shit! I was hoping he’d be too busy to bother with us,” Ye Qing cursed. More importantly, the guy managed to affect his mind with a single cackle from a hundred meters away. This was bad. Very bad!

As Ye Qing forced himself to calm down and devoted even more strength into his legs, Yi Pin suddenly said, “You can stop now, brother. The cavalry’s here.”

“What? Who?” Ye Qing skidded to a stop.

“It’s the ‘Sword From The West’...” Yi Pin replied indifferently, “Song Xilai.”

……

“Kekeke… I’m in a hurry, so goodbye!”

On the other side, Demon of Unliving looked back at the five Purity Sword disciples and unleashed a palm strike. The surrounding demonic qi converged into a ghastly face and flew straight toward them. If no help arrived, then the five disciples would surely be devoured by it.

“You dare, Demon of Unliving!”

It was at this moment a furious cry reached them, and dazzling white light lit up the darkening sky. For a time, it almost felt like it was daytime once more.

The light was so bright and sharp that it shattered not just the darkness, but light as well. For a time, no one could see anything.

Shiing!

There was the metallic singing of a sword, and everyone’s skin pricked as if they were stabbed by countless needles. When the sound finally faded, and everyone’s vision had returned to normal, they discovered that Demon of Unliving was nowhere to be found. There was only a floor of holes and jagged marks, and the sword intent lingering in them were intimidating to say the least.

The five Purity Sword disciples were perfectly unharmed, however. Despite the devastation around them, not a hair on their person was harmed.

“What terrifying power! What exquisite control!” Ye Qing couldn’t help but exclaim in shock. Just now, Song Jianlai had unleashed such a terrific amount of sword qi that the entire sky was blotted from view. Despite this, the swordsman was able to control his power such that it would only harm Demon of Unliving and not his disciples. It was incredible to say the least.

“He’s called the ‘Sword From The West’ for a reason,” Yi Pin replied with a sigh, his gaze a kaleidoscope of emotions that couldn’t be deciphered.

“Cough! Cough! How are you here, Song Xilai? I thought you were—”

The two men were basking in their emotions when an angry, puzzled shout jolted them out of their ruminations. As it turned out, Demon of Unliving was still alive!

“You thought your compatriot managed to lure me away?” Song Xilai interrupted rudely and tossed a head into the air. Its face was frozen in shock, confusion, and terror.

Demon of Unliving exclaimed in shock and disbelief when recognition hit him, “You killed Old Ding? But how!?”

“With my sword, duh. What’s so strange about it?” Song Xilai sneered. “If you’re worried that he’s going to be lonely in the afterlife, don’t. You’ll be joining him very soon.”

Demon of Unliving tried to threaten the swordsman, “Push me, and I swear I’ll do everything in my power to make you regret this, Song Xilai!”

“You can try. Back at Luo Shui, you had tried to murder an entire commandery of people. You only survived my wrath because of Old Ding. Now, you’re trying to murder my disciples. I just cannot see any reason to let you live whatsoever!”

His sword descended, and a pillar of light severed the sky and the demonic qi surrounding Demon of Unliving in half. Knowing that there was no way he could talk his way out of this, the black-robed man let out a frustrated howl and scattered into countless silhouettes.

Despite his earlier threat, he didn’t dare to fight the swordsman at all.

“Really? You think you would succeed when even your compatriot failed to escape me?”

Song Xilai thrust his sword forward and unleashed a torrent of sword qis that shredded most of the silhouettes. However, Demon of Unliving was creating more silhouettes by the second, and he was commanding countless ghosts to attack Song Xilai as well.

“I’ll take you to the grave if it’s the last thing I do, Song Xilai! Graaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!”

Song Xilai’s sword could sever the sky, and his sword qis swam through the sky like rivers of heavens. However, Demon of Unliving’s martial arts were as unpredictable as they were demonic. Although the upper hand was firmly in Song Xilai’s grasp, he was having trouble ending the bastard’s life once and for all.

Such was their clash that the entire sky was dyed in black and white. The earth shook, and the wind howled. It felt like the apocalypse was upon them as the two colors vied for dominance.

“So this is the clash between Grandmasters? I still have a long, long way to go!” Ye Qing sighed with admiration as he watched the battle.

“Song Xilai is okay,” Yi Pin snorted, “but trust me when I say that Demon of Unliving doesn’t live up to his cultivation.”

“Is that so?” Ye Qing chuckled and shot Yi Pin a meaningful look.

Suddenly, Ye Qing caught sight of something and asked, “Hmm? What is that cloud doing over there?”

The clash between the two Grandmasters was such that everything and anything between and around them were annihilated down to the atoms. However, a fiery red cloud had somehow barged into the battlefield before he knew it.

The next moment, the cloud transformed into a woman clothed in iridescent light. When she lifted her hand and waved, the light grew much brighter and slowly spread to the surroundings.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAARGGHHHH!”

Demon of Unliving let out a bloodcurdling scream as both his body and his demonic qi slowly transformed into fiery red light. Try as he might, there was nothing he could do to resist. He eventually dissolved into the light completely.

It wasn’t just him either. Everything that was basked by the light—the flora, the fauna, the Strangers, and the landscape itself—all dissolved into fiery red light.

“Is that… the Lady of Iridescence?!” Ye Qing exclaimed in shock and horror.

“I think so…?” Yi Pin replied uncertainly.

“It doesn’t matter. We can’t let the light hit us.” Ye Qing grabbed Li Longxiang and ran all the way to the back of a hill, Yi Pin following closely behind them. Once they were safely tucked in, they peeked out and continued observing the battle.

“What is a Lady of Iridescence?” Li Longxiang asked while Yi Pin gulped beside him.

Ye Qing answered, “The Lady of Iridescence is a Disaster-class Stranger born from the essence of iridescent light. She normally appears when the sun is setting, and disappears after the sky has darkened completely. The equal of a human Grandmaster, everything within her light’s reach—relatively speaking, of course—would be corrupted and assimilated.”

“That’s terrifying!” Li Longxiang exclaimed in shock.

“Of course it’s terrifying! Demon of Unliving, a Half-Step Grandmaster wasn’t able to put up any sort of resistance at all!” Yi Pin slapped Li Longxiang on the back of his head as he said this.

“Do you think Song Xilai would be fine, brother?” Ye Qing asked curiously. It was because he couldn’t find the swordsman anywhere.

Yi Pin nodded his head firmly. “Oh, he’s going to be fine. Unlike Demon of Unliving, he’s a bonafide Grandmaster.”

As if on cue, a dazzling sword beam sliced the curtain of iridescent light in half and crushed the Lady of Iridescence to bits. However, the Stranger was a creature of iridescent light and clouds. So long as the two elements still existed, she would never die.

By now, the iridescent clouds and light had almost spread across the entire sky. It looked like the heavens were on fire.

“Over here!”

Realizing that their hiding spot wouldn’t be safe for long, Ye Qing punched a massive hole in the hillside and slipped in. Li Longxiang and Yi Pin were right behind him.

Outside, Song Xilai scoffed at the display of power. “Hmph! A mere Lady of Iridescence thinks she can slay me?”

Song Xilai flicked his blade, and a metallic ringing resounded throughout the sky. The next moment, an impossible span of sword qi manifested into existence and blotted out the iridescent light like lead gray clouds.