Stranger Danger

Chapter 292: Living Pieces

“Heh. We’re using a world as the board, and living beings as the pieces of our game. What makes this game so interesting is that the world itself can change, and the living beings can adapt to their circumstances. The victor of a duel between jianghu elites is never set in stone, and the side with greater numbers may not always triumph over the smaller. After all, it is the same with our world. There were plenty of examples where the weak triumph over the strong, and the smaller numbers triumph over the greater numbers!”

“Fickleness and unpredictability are the true nature of our world. If we’re going to use the world as our board and living beings as our pieces, then it is only right that we submit to the world’s principles as well. It is far more interesting when everything is unknown, uncertain, unclear and undecided until it is, isn’t it?”

“If we’re going to stick to the exact same rules as the normal xiangqi, then we might as well play using normal wooden pieces. What’s the point of using living beings if we’re not going to allow them to show off their individuality and ingenuity?”

The devilishly handsome man shrugged. “Also, the pieces might be the ones fighting inside the world, but it is we players who selected them and played them outside the world. I won every time because I’m a discerning man who chose the stronger pieces every time. You lost every time because you’re a blind fuck who couldn’t tell left from right.”

“Oh, my apologies. I forgot that you’re blind a second there. It’s been too long since you lost your eyeballs to me. Speaking of which, you’ve lost your heart, your liver, your spleen, your lungs, your kidneys and your ears to me as well. What will you give me when you lose this time? Your head?”

“Kekeke. We can talk about that after I lose. You’re not worried that I might renege on the bet, are you?” Xiangqi Demon replied with a cackle. A cackle it might be, it sounded like the sound of a million insects crawling over a human’s body; grating and uncomfortable.

The devilishly handsome man let out a chuckle of his own. “No, I’m not. We have sworn an Oath of Rahu after all. I’m just worried that your last wisp of consciousness would crumble if you keep losing like this.”

“What, you miss me?” Xiangqi Demon tilted his head to one side.

The devilishly handsome man admitted, “But of course! I doubt I’ll ever find another shitty player like you again.”

“Keke. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, shall we?” Xiangqi Demon scoffed. “I’m the one who has the upper hand this time. Don’t you see that my Soldier has crossed the river?”

“Heh. Your shamelessness is exactly why I’m going to miss you.” The devilishly handsome man chuckled and dropped a Chariot on the Soldier.

......

Inside the xiangqi board that was a world in itself, Ye Qing was wearing a deep frown on his face. Where am I? What can I do to escape this situation? Who can save me?

It was at this moment a loud rumble disturbed his thoughts. When he spun toward the direction of the noise where a forest lay, he saw a rising cloud of dust and massive trees toppling one after another as if some giant beast was brutishly destroying everything in its path. More importantly, it was headed straight toward him.

Fear and panic gripped Ye Qing, though the emotions were quickly replaced by steely determination. The next moment, a deformed giant finally burst through the foliage.

The Stranger had a human’s upper body, but it was covered in stitches as if it had been stitched together from countless body parts. It had two faces, four eyes, and four arms. It wielded a saber, a spear, a stick and a mace.

Its lower half was even stranger. Instead of a human’s or an animal’s legs, it had a pair of chariot wheels. The reason he said this was because the wheels were covered in painful-looking spikes and burning a dark red flame. He could hear the vengeful screams of countless ghosts from the wheels.

“A Ghost Chariot!?” Ye Qing blurted. A Ghost Chariot was a Soustealer-class Stranger that was born in places with great resentment such as the battlefield. More specifically, it was a vengeful ghost who, unwilling to pass away peacefully, stitched itself an upper body using the corpses on the battlefield, and a soul using the vengeful souls around it. The flaming wheels were the manifestation of the souls it collected.

A Ghost Chariot was violent and bloodthirsty by nature. There was nothing more it enjoyed than feeding on raw flesh and human souls.

The Ghost Chariot before him was far stronger than the standard Ghost Chariot. Ye Qing reckoned that it was more or less at the level of a Phenomenon-class Stranger. As soon as it spotted him, it immediately charged him with such speed that the ground split in half, and dark red flames burned on the trail it left behind.

Ye Qing would’ve loved to see the imagery in an art book, but not so much in reality and especially not when he was in harm’s way. He growled, “Fog Demon!”

A shining Buddha with his hands joined together in a prayer appeared in the sky and shone its cleansing light on the Ghost Chariot. The Stranger immediately howled in pain as its dark red flames abruptly grew much dimmer, and filthy yin qi leaked out of its body. Its aura kept weakening as if the cleansing light of the Buddha was too much for it to bear.

In fact, it was. The Ghost Chariot was created from a plethora of vengeful souls and ghosts. One might say that it was a creature of absolute yin and filth. On the other hand, the Buddha’s light was one of the strongest yang powers out there and the bane of all things yin and filthy. On top of that, the Boundless Mara Buddha was created from the remnant of Jing Hui, a Grandmaster Buddhist monk. Even in death, his Buddhist power was so pure and immense that the Ghost Chariot was hardpressed to resist it.

As the Boundless Mara Buddha shone like the sun, cracks and craters started appearing all over the Ghost Chariot’s body. Large chunks of rotten flesh were falling off its body by the second, and its aura had dropped from Phenomenon to Soulstealer. Despite this, it didn’t let up on its attack. It was going to run Ye Qing over if it was the last thing it did.

It would never get the chance. As soon as the timing was right, Ye Qing took one step forward and unloaded his full force against the Ghost Chariot. A raging river of pure power slammed into its body.

“Break Through”

“Five Dragon Elephant Strength”

There was a massive explosion as the Ghost Chariot was engulfed in a blast of white hot light, heat and wind. The ground itself rippled like sea waves as a result of it.

“Die!”

Ye Qing withdrew his right hand exactly half an inch before throwing another punch. His feet sank deep into the ground, and a raging torrent of fist force sent the towering giant flying into the sky.

While the Ghost Chariot was spinning uncontrollably through the air, Ye Qing appeared beside it like an illusion and threw a third punch. The Burning Wind rushed in from every direction and burned the Stranger, and the “Cloud Vaporization Style” surrounded it from every direction and made sure that it wouldn’t go anywhere. It was as if the Stranger was trapped within a furnace of force and fire.

Finally, Ye Qing leaped over the Ghost Chariot’s head[1] and struck it squarely on the top of its skull. There was a brain-shaking boom, and the Ghost Chariot’s head exploded like a pinata. Countless vengeful ghosts and souls spilled out into the open and dissolved into ash as soon as they made contact with the Burning Wind. The Ghost Chariot itself was smashed deep into the ground.

“Kraaaaah!”

The Ghost Chariot let out a death-defying roar and attempted to get back on its feet. It was probably plotting to make one last attempt to defeat its opponent. Unfortunately, wisps of invisible flames leaked out its body and robbed it off its last strength, and its roar was quickly replaced by painful screams. Eventually, it completely dissolved into ash.

Ye Qing let out a deep sigh of relief when he confirmed that the Ghost Chariot was truly dead. He was seriously lucky that his power and Strange Artifacts countered the Ghost Chariot in nearly every way possible.

The Ghost Chariot was undeniably powerful. After all, it was a Soulstealer-class Stranger that was boosted to Phenomenon-class by a mysterious power. However, it also had two clear weaknesses. One, it was afraid of yang energy. Two, its head was its weak point.

First, Ye Qing had used the Boundless Mara Buddha to severely damage the Ghost Chariot. While it was hurt and incapacitated, he seized the opportunity to crush its head and release all the vengeful ghosts and souls trapped within it. Its head was what kept its unholy body together, so without it, the Stranger would disappear naturally.

Besides that, the Ghost Chariot had little to no intelligence. Despite its immense strength, it was an amalgamation of countless vengeful ghosts that only knew slaughter. I was so stupid it didn’t even know to dodge or retreat when taking massive damage from the Boundless Mara Buddha. That was the true reason he was able to slay it with ease.

If the Ghost Chariot was an intelligent Stranger, he would’ve been hardpressed to defeat it. At best, his chance of defeating the Ghost Chariot was fifty-fifty. Power was power after all, just like how the bosses in an RPG would absolutely annihilate the main character’s party if they were sentient or controlled by another player.

......

“Hahaha! How’s this, Xiao Feng? Surely you agree that I picked my pieces well this time!”

Inside the old pavilion, Xiangqi Demon was laughing uproariously after witnessing Ye Qing defying the odds and killing the Ghost Chariot. Such was his laughter that the cloud of demonic qi above their heads were scattered.

“You picked one good piece, sure.” The devilishly handsome man remained unperturbed, however. “Who hasn’t gotten stupidly lucky at least once or twice in their lives?”

“Say whatever you want, Xiao Feng! This game is mine!” Xiangqi Demon laughed and moved a piece. “C two plus four (The Cannon piece on the second line moves four steps forward).”

In the board, a massive, black-colored Cannon Board flew over the river and crushed a red soldier into bits.

“When will you learn that there is no such thing as a certain victory until the last move is played?” The devilishly handsome man replied easily. “H two plus three (The Horse piece on the second line moves three steps forward).”

“C1+1”

“R4=5”[2]

“H2-3”

“S5=6”[3]

“S4+1”

“G6+1”

“G5+1”

Slowly but surely, the two xiangqi players were moving their pieces faster and faster. It was almost as if they had already played out the scenario in their heads, and they were just going through the motions.

Outside the game board, neither player gave an inch to each other.

And inside the game board, it was like the apocalypse was happening.

A giant split a mountain in half with their axe,

An elephant turned a patch of land into a lake with a single step;

Soldiers were clashing blades with each other,

Horses were threatening camps and dyeing the yellow sand in blood;

Chariots moved up and down, left and right,

And Advisors summoned the wind and rain, storm and lightning.

It was war.

......

Inside the game board, violence and bloodshed were happening everywhere. The mountains shattered, the rivers were dried, the earth was sundered, smoke filled the sky, and enemies were everywhere.

Ye Qing was completely drenched in blood, and not all of them belonged to his enemies. Stacked before him were many, many bodies of both humans and Strangers. In the sky, the Boundless Mara Buddha was fully unsealed and filling up the world with demonic qi.

He wanted to hide his strength, but he couldn’t. It was because he was forced to fight more than a handful of Soulstealer-class Strangers and Spirit Purifiers since he was dragged into this mess. It had taken him everything he had to defeat his opponents.

He had a couple things going for him, chief among them the Annon Sutra. It might not be able to answer his questions right now, but he could still pop a dragon-serpent rune or two. So long as he hadn’t run out of dragon-serpent runes, he would be able to replenish his strength and health. Combined with his assortment of powerful Strange Artifacts, he just barely managed to survive the ordeal.

“The Cannon Bird, the Ghost Chariot, the Hell Horse, the Wildebeest, the Mountain Moving Elephants, the Advisor Spirits and soldiers like me...”

“The Cannon Bird and Ghost Chariot only move in straight lines, the Hell Horse and Wildebeest only move diagonally, soldiers like me can only move one space forward until they crossed the river, and the Mountain Moving Elephants and Advisor Spirits could only move on their side of the river...”

Ye Qing wiped away the blood on his face and murmured, “Assuming that the Cannon Bird is the Cannon, the Ghost Chariot is the Chariot, the Mountain Moving Elephant is the Elephant, and the Advisor Spirits is the Advisor...”

“Am I on a xiangqi board? Am I a piece? Am I a Soldier, the most invisible and expendable piece of them all?”

“That has to be it.”

Ye Qing frowned long and hard before looking up at the sky. “I’m inside a xiangqi board, and I’m a xiangqi piece!”

1. It’s a double jump! ?

2. The Chariot piece on the fourth line moves five steps horizontally. ?

3. The Soldier piece on the fifth line moves six steps horizontally. ?