Stranger Danger

“Remember. Never head out when it’s nighttime.”

“As you command, elder,” said the Spirit Purifier with a salute. “We will take our leave now. Take care, elder.”

“I will be fine. Just keep your junior brothers and sisters safe,” Song Xilai replied indifferently.

“I will,” Xie Chengyun promised before taking off in the direction Song Xilai had pointed him to immediately.

“Phew… We should leave as well.” Yi Pin urged as he crawled out of the hole, “Song Xilai is strong, but even he cannot slay the Lady of Iridescence in short order. We need to be away from here while he’s still blocking the iridescent light with his sword qi.”

“Besides, you heard what Song Xilai said earlier. We now know for certain that the nights of Demon’s Tomb are dangerous. We’ve already been delayed by Demon of Unliving, we can’t afford to dilly-dally any longer.”

“Yeah,” Ye Qing agreed before looking at the five Purity Sword disciples. “We’re going to follow them.”

Song Xilai mentioned a temple just now. Since the swordsman was confident enough to instruct his disciples to hide inside the temple, that must mean that it was a safe place. At the very least, it would allow them to survive the night.

“Great idea, brother! It will save us a lot of trouble!” Yi Pin let out a vulgar chuckle before trailing behind the group of five.

Meanwhile, one of the male disciples glanced back at Ye Qing, Yi Pin and Li Longxiang with a frown on his face. “Senior brother, those three are following us.”

“Hmph! They must be planning to follow us to the temple,” another disciple said. “Should we chase them away, senior brother?”

Xie Chengyun replied coldly, “The sky’s about to turn dark. Don’t cause trouble.”

“But senior brother, they were going to leave us for dead just now. Instead of being ashamed of what they did, they’re going to enter our safe place uninvited! How is this acceptable?”

Xie Chengyun shot her a cold look. “And why should they help us? It is our own weakness that led to our situation, isn’t it?”

“As warriors, we practice martial arts and cultivate the heart. We ourselves should be enough to handle anything the world throws at us. If we were strong enough to defend ourselves against Demon of Undying, then their help would’ve been unnecessary. And if we were so weak then we were slain by the enemy, then it is the result of our own weakness, is it not? How do others factor in the equation?”

“Rather than bemoaning others, you should ruminate on what you could’ve done better and train harder.”

“Thank you for your guidance, senior brother.” The four disciples were disgruntled, but they didn’t show their true emotions on their faces in the slightest. It was because they feared Xie Chengyun deeply.

Meanwhile, a smiling Yi Pin moved closer to Ye Qing and said, “I think they noticed us.”

Ye Qing chuckled. “Heh. So what if they did? It’s not like they’re the ones who built this road or that temple. This is the Demon’s Tomb after all. They are in for a big surprise if they think they can oust us.”

They were following the group openly, so of course the five Purity Sword disciples noticed them. The reason they hadn’t tried to conceal themselves was because they didn’t want the group to misunderstand that they were plotting something.

An incense stick later, they arrived at a small, ancient-looking Taoist temple that was painted black and white. It was built atop a small hill and surrounded by a bunch of pine trees. Whoever chose this place to build the temple had chosen well because it looked rather impressive despite its current state and size.

Around ten to twenty people were gathered at the foot of the hill. They were separated into several groups, and they were all watching one another warily.

“Huh. There’s a surprising number of smart people around here,” Ye Qing exclaimed in surprise.

Yi Pin disagreed. “Not necessarily. I bet some of them simply came because they thought that the temple might contain a treasure or two.”

Ye Qing scratched his nose as the corner of his lips curled into a smirk. “To be fair, what is a Taoist temple doing inside the Demon’s Tomb?”

Yi Pin shrugged before voicing his puzzlement, “Why aren’t they entering the temple? They can’t be here to welcome us, can they?”

“Let’s find out.”

A number of gazes landed on Ye Qing’s group for a moment, but they quickly moved onto the five Purity Sword disciples. Compared to three nobodies, the five Purity Sword disciples obviously deserved more attention.

“They’re Purity Sword disciples…”

“Their leader… that’s Xie Chengyun the ‘Cloud Sword’...”

“Fuck! What is that fiend doing here? I’m starting to regret coming to this place…”

“Heh. You can leave if you want to!”

“And why aren’t you? There’s a high chance this temple is the resting place of a former champion. Like hell I’m going to give up on their inheritance or possessions!”

“You’re the one who said you regret coming to this place!”

Everyone was murmuring to one another while watching Xie Chengyun’s group warily. The swordsman himself paid them no heed and went over to a small path at the foot of the hill.

Xie Chengyun’s group didn’t understand why the band of warriors were lingering at the foot of the hill, but one male disciple thought that they were just cowards. He let out a disdainful chuckle before stepping onto the path.

“Wow. This guy’s an idiot, isn’t he?”

“This will be entertaining.”

Crackle!

The band of warriors cracked enigmatic, expectant grins on their faces, and what happened next did not betray their expectations. As soon as the disciple set his foot on the first step, he abruptly froze like a mountain had suddenly appeared on his back. The next moment, a bolt of lightning struck him squarely in the chest and threw him backward.

“Are you okay, Zhong Ming?” Xie Chengyun hurriedly caught the disciple and asked concernedly.

“I’m… fine… just… a… little… numb…” Zhong Ming stuttered as lightning rippled across his body. “In… fact… it feels… kinda comfortable[1]?”

Xie Chengyun: “...”

The swordsman trained his gaze on the nearby warriors—he had noticed their looks of schadenfreude, of course—and asked in a stern voice, “What’s going on here?”

“Ahem…” The unfortunate man who caught his gaze shivered and explained in a hurry, “It’s very simple, Brother Xie. This temple can only be entered during the night. Look.”

The man pointed at a broken stone slab with a few lines of blurry text etched on it. It stated:

“Enter during the night,

Or suffer a lightning bolt.

Offer a prayer before entering,

Or protection you shall not receive.”

The reason the group hadn’t noticed it before was because it was almost completely covered in grass.

“Hmph! If you knew this was here, then why didn’t you tell us sooner?” A Purity Sword disciple asked angrily while glaring at the warriors.

A man snorted loudly. “Heh! Did you ask us? No? Then why should we tell you anything? Even if we did, would you have believed us, you snob?”

“You—!”

“Enough!” Xie Chengyun stepped in and rebuked the disciple, “We are not here to stir up trouble.”

The swordsman’s reprimand sounded harsh, but it was nothing compared to the steely gaze he showered upon the outsiders. “We are here to rest for the night. Nothing more, nothing less. I hope we can co-exist in peace until tomorrow comes.”

“One more thing. The Demon’s Tomb is exceptionally dangerous during the night. I would advise you to stay the night inside the temple if you wish to live.”

His advice got varying responses from the group. Some people looked solemn, some looked suspicious, and some didn’t take his advice to heart at all. Xie Chengyun didn’t care about their reactions though. He was just doing what he thought was right. He returned to his group after saying that.

Some distance away, Yi Pin bumped Ye Qing on the shoulder and said in a soft voice, “Who would’ve thought that Xie Chengyun is a softie on the inside? Not that it’s a bad thing, of course.”

He is an elite disciple of a famous sect. It makes sense that he has a bigger heart than most,” Ye Qing replied just as softly. “This is good for us though. With Xie Chengyun keeping the peace, the night would be quieter than it could’ve been.”

“I sure hope so!” Yi Pin crossed his arms and chuckled.

Suddenly, someone looked up at the sky and muttered, “Hmm? It’s raining.”

“It rains inside the Demon’s Tomb?”

“Why not? This is the Demon’s Tomb we’re talking about. It could rain blades, and I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest.”

“True. This is the resting place of Rahu, the Progenitor Demon. Sigh. I wonder when we’re going to become an almighty power like him?”

“Are you stupid? We’re average warriors with only a modicum of talent and no background to speak of. We’ll never reach the heights he reached, man.”

“Yeah, it’s impossible. Just impossible.”

“Sigh… why wasn’t I born in a famous martial clan? Why wasn’t my mother or father a powerful warrior? Just why?”

“Sigh, it’s all because we’re too useless.”

“Sigh… I can’t believe how useless and miserable we are! Just unbelievable!”

As they chatted, a mood of melancholy and self-hatred slowly spread throughout the crowd like a disease. Slowly but surely, everyone started feeling sad and depressed.

“Sigh, I’m an old man already, but I’m still just a Vessel Augmentor. I wasn’t able to make a name for myself in the jianghu, nor was I able to revitalize my sect. I’m so useless, so useless! A dog could’ve lived my life better than I had! Ahhhhh, I’m so ashamed!” Yi Pin couldn’t hold back his tears any longer and started weeping openly.

“My life is terrible! I’m over fifty years old, and I still haven’t achieved anything! Why do I even live? I should die. I should die!”

A man was sobbing uncontrollably to himself when his sorrow and despair finally reached the limit. He abruptly hit himself in the head and killed himself.

“My life is worse! I was an orphan, and I never found a friend or a family to rely on. As if that isn’t bad enough, I have no fame or wealth to speak of. Heck, I didn’t even have a woman to warm my bed! Uuuu…”

The man abruptly slammed his head against a nearby rock and splattered his brain matter all over its surface after saying that.

“Uwaaaah! You thought your life was more miserable than mine? I was born a bringer of all things ill and disastrous. I indirectly killed my dad when I was three, my mother when I was five, and my older brother and his wife when I was seven. I had married thirteen wives and sowed twenty sons my whole life, but they all left me eventually. What a miserable life it was!”

Pssh!

The man cut open his neck and committed suicide as well.

“You think you have it worse than me? No one has it worse than me! When I was three, my brother and I peeked at my neighbor in her bath only to get discovered. My older brother managed to escape because he had longer legs, but I was caught and beaten up real bad.”

“When I was ten, my older sister and I played with fire and accidentally burned up our house. When I was fifteen, I joined the Mind Altar Sect and served them faithfully as a servant for a decade, but they threw me out in the end because my talent is trash. I risked my life trying to survive the jianghu and finally obtained a martial arts manual, but my best friend stole it and ditched me the next day. I married fifteen wives and had thirty children my whole life, but none of them is my seed. Uwaaaaaaah! No one has it worse than me!”

“We’re so miserable, so useless. Our mere existence is a waste of this realm’s resources. Every grain we eat is a waste; every breath of air we draw is a waste. We should just… die.”

“Yes, death is the refuge we deserve. It’s just too hard to keep living.”

Pssh! Squelch! Thud!

For a time, countless people lamented how miserable their lives were, and countless people committed suicide as a result of it.

1. Masochist no. 2 peeks his face. ☜