Stranger Danger

Chapter 284: Coincidence?

“Hahaha! Give it up. You cannot break free, and don’t count on your companion to save you. No one will find out about your predicament.”

As if on cue, Shangguan Wuwo’s soul reappeared atop the sea of blood with a ridiculing expression.

Ye Qing put a hand to his forehead and visualized the “Emperor Fuxi Visualization Method”. The emperor’s dharma reappeared, and Shangguan Wuwo’s soul melted into a puddle once more. However, he reappeared as soon as the golden light was gone.

“I am immortal here, boy, but you will eventually run out of spiritual power no matter how strong you are. When the time comes, your body will still be mine.”

“So stop resisting already.”

“Stop resisting already.”

Shangguan Wuwo opened his arms wide like he was hugging the world. The sea of blood rose higher and higher behind him until it formed an all-encompassing tidal wave. Then, it crashed down on Ye Qing.

It was like the sky itself had collapsed.

Knowing that he could no longer afford to preserve his strength, Ye Qing used all of his spirit to visualize the “Emperor Fuxi Visualization Method”. The dharma grew almost solid, and it protected his mind from the relentless assault of the tidal wave of blood.

“Stubborn fool! Let’s see how long you can last!” Shangguan Wuwo roared in anger. He mustered his sea of blood to batter Ye Qing’s defenses again and again, while Ye Qing weathered it all like a boulder splitting the waves. They were locked in a stalemate.

However, the stalemate was only temporary, and Ye Qing knew that the situation was very much not in his favor. He must have crushed Shangguan Wuwo’s soul a hundred times with Emperor Fuxi’s dharma, but they showed no signs of weakness whatsoever. It was the same for the sea of blood.

On the other hand, he was losing spiritual power by the second due to the constant battering. Worse, the guy’s Children of Blood Demon could pollute the mind, which greatly hastened the rate he was depleting his spiritual power.

Worst of all, there was absolutely nothing he could do to help himself.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He could try to slay the enemy using the “Hellfire Red Lotus Saber Art”. However, it was a last resort. The saber art consumed a lot of spirit, and he could only execute it once or twice considering how much spirit he had already expended. If that wasn’t enough, then Shangguan Wuwo would win just like that.

That was why he didn’t want to take the risk, at least not yet. He wasn’t at the point where it was do-or-die yet, and more importantly, he wasn’t alone. He still had Chu Qingge, the Incense of Fortune, and the Annon Sutra. Despite Shangguan Wuwo’s claims, it was possible one of them might notice his predicament and act to save him.

......

Outside, Chu Qingge shot Ye Qing a glance after sensing a brief flare of spiritual power. She instinctively felt a little uneasy, but she soon calmed down when she noted that Ye Qing’s expression remained peaceful and at ease.

“Hmm? Why is the incense stick burning so quickly?”

It was at this moment she noticed something strange. The incense stick in front of the grave suddenly started burning at an accelerated rate. In fact, over half of it was gone in just a matter of seconds. Then, a thick, pungent puff of smoke started floating toward somewhere.

Strangely, the smoke didn’t dissipate like a normal smoke would. The fact that it was moving even though there was no wind was odd as well.

“Strange.” Chu Qingge frowned as her wariness stirred awake once more.

A while later, she suddenly heard a series of coughs from afar. It was accompanied by some angry yells,

“Cough! Cough! What the fuck! Why is there smoke here? Is someone burning some offerings or something?”

“Don’t be stupid. Just how stupid would you have to be to do that[1]?”

“Cough! Cough! Who knows? Stupidity is everywhere. Heavens, this smoke is terrible!”

“The smoke’s coming from this direction. Cough! Let’s go check it out.”

“Yeah. If I find out that this smoke is really caused by some idiot, I’m absolutely going to snap their necks!”

Chu Qingge squinted slightly as she listened to the conversation, but she didn’t move a muscle. A dozen or so breaths later, a group of men and women wearing blood red robes entered her view.

The men carried themselves with a cold, unfeeling air, whereas the women looked soft and seductive. They quickly spotted Ye Qing, Chu Qingge, and the incense stick that was almost burned out at this point.

“Were you and your companion the one who made that horrible smoke?” One man asked Chu Qingge in an unfriendly tone. He looked like the leader of the group.

She answered indifferently, “No. We are busy right now. Please leave.”

“Heh! You couldn’t come up with a better lie? It’s obvious that the smoke had come from the incense stick!”

The guy was about to say something more when suddenly, his companion cried out in shock and delight, “Senior brother, look, it’s the Blood Demon!”

“What Blood Demon?” The man looked very displeased at the interruption.

“It’s our founder, senior brother! Shangguan Wuwo!” The other guy explained.

“Our founder?” The man looked and saw that he was right. “It really is the founder’s grave! Hahahaha! Sometimes, good fortune really does fall into your lap for free! Praise be!”

“Senior brother, I think that boy over there is receiving our founder’s inheritance. What do we do?”

“What else? Shangguan Wuwo is our founder. How can we allow his inheritance to go to an outsider?”

“Yeah. We need to kill him now! The founder’s inheritance can only belong to us, the Blood Demon Sect!”

The group immediately acted to rush Ye Qing, but Chu Qingge blocked their way after they had just taken a few steps. She stared at the group with cold eyes as she asked, “Are you the remnants of the Blood Demon Sect?”

“Who are you calling a remnant?” The leader of the group said coldly, “Shangguan Wuwo is the founder of the Blood Demon Sect. His inheritance can only go to us. Now get out of our way, or we’ll kill you.”

“I don’t know, senior brother. It seems like a waste to just kill her. Why don’t you leave her to me? It so happens that I’m looking for an incubator.”

“What a coincidence! Me too!”

Everyone—even the women—started chuckling sinisterly. They were all looking at Chu Qingge with malicious eyes.

Chu Qingge didn’t seem to care about their implied threat, however. Acting as indifferent as she was facing a group of ants, she said, “Thank you for confirming my suspicions. The world has no need for the Blood Demon Sect, so die.”

As soon as she finished, Chu Qingge threw a punch that filled everyone’s ears with a draconic roar. A tyrannical fist force blew past the leader of the group and crushed two late-stage Astral Refiners into bits.

“How dare you kill our people! Die!” The leader uttered viciously as his right hand turned as red as blood and curled into a claw. He charged forward and took a swipe at Chu Qingge.

He wasn’t afraid of Chu Qingge because he was a Spirit Purifier just like her. Bloody energy ripped through the air and let out a dissonant cry that disrupted the mind.

“Divine Claw of Weeping Blood”

Chu Qingge didn’t dodge, however. She simply clenched her right hand and threw another punch. A golden dragon circled around her arm as the tyrannical fist force shattered the crimson claw and hit the guy’s palm, breaking his bones with insulting ease.

The man let out a muffled groan as the blood drained away from his face. He exclaimed in shock and anger, “The Stunning Dragon Fist? Who are you?”

Chu Qingge remained silent as she shifted to a finger technique. Stars suddenly fell out of the sky and skewered several people through the forehead before they could even react.

“Starfall Finger”

Not done yet, Chu Qingge shifted to a palm technique and unleashed a palm strike that caved in space itself. The Blood Demon Sect disciples who were caught in its range died having their hearts crushed.

“Heart Crushing Palm”

The battle had just begun, and the Blood Demon Sect group had already lost over half of their members. Only a handful of them were still alive.

“Run!”

Realizing that they were no match for her, the leader yelled for everyone to escape and took off to the distance.

The surviving members of the group also scattered in every direction.

Chu Qingge didn’t agree with the leader’s plan, however. Like a colorful phoenix, she swooped over to several disciples and fired several beams of sword qis from her fingers. They were skewered and killed in just the blink of an eye.

Then, Chu Qingge took another step—a phoenix’s cry broke out of her body as she did so—and blocked the leader’s way before he could go anywhere. She then threw out a mighty punch.

“Xue Feng wanted to escape, but Chu Qingge had no intentions of allowing him to go free. With the Rainbow Phoenix Step, she cut in front of the disciple and threw a mighty punch.”

“However, her foot slipped a little as she was throwing the punch. She was aiming for Xue Feng’s left chest, but the slip caused her to hit his right chest instead.”

“The attack caused Xue Feng to fly toward Shangguan Wuwo’s gravestone, and The Fog Demon did nothing to stop him for selfish reasons. As a result, Shangguan Wuwo’s gravestone was snapped in half.”

In Ye Qing’s shirt, lines and lines of blood red text were appearing on the Annon Sutra’s surface. When the words “snapped in half” were written, five silver dragon-serpent runes abruptly shattered, and an invisible power permeated the air.

On the other side, Chu Qingge accidentally stepped on a slippery stone as she was throwing a punch and hit the leader of the group on the right chest instead. The powerful fist force sent him flying straight toward Ye Qing’s location.

By the time Chu Qingge realized her mistake, it was already too late. She could only watch as the man crashed into Shangguan Wuwo’s gravestone and snapped it in half.

“Kekeke... the boy told me to protect him but not the gravestone, so he only has himself to blame!”

The Fog Demon could’ve easily intercepted the body if it wanted to, but it didn’t. After all, the stronger Ye Qing became, the lower the chance it might be able to break free from its shackles. If Chu Qingge wasn’t around, it would be clapping its hands in applause already!

For the first time, Chu Qingge’s expression turned embarrassed and confused. She was aiming for the guy’s heart, so how did she miss so badly and even send him flying over to Shangguan Wuwo’s gravestone?

Chu Qingge was so puzzled that she didn’t even bother to hunt down the remaining Blood Demon Sect disciples.

Back in Ye Qing’s headspace, Shangguan Wuwo laughed like a madman as he slowly but surely pushed back Ye Qing’s defenses. “I told you you wouldn’t be able to hold for long. Today is the day you die!”

Unfortunately, he didn’t even get to finish his laugh when his infinite sea of blood suddenly began to shrink rapidly as if its source was cut off. His own soul was weakening at a rapid rate.

“What the hell? What happened?”

Shangguan Wuwo was stunned and terrified by this sudden turn of events.

“This is my chance!”

Ye Qing didn’t know what was happening outside, but he knew that this was his chance to break out of his fatal predicament. He immediately focused his spirit into a saber and slashed at Shangguan Wuwo.

Demonic red lotuses began manifesting inside his headspace. As they rained from above, crimson flames that were shaped like lotuses started bursting from Shanguan Wuwo’s body as well.

At first, the flames were weak and dim. Then, they grew in both size and strength as if fueled by something.

Shangguan Wuwo wasn’t the only one who had caught on fire. The sea of blood had turned into a sea of inferno as well.

1. Personally, I find it stranger that no one brought anything to show their respect considering Chinese culture, and the fact that every grave here can be a potential death trap. ?