Stranger Danger

Chapter 308: The Mara Buddha’s Plot

“My lord, my lord!”

It was at this moment Zhou Xi barged into the courtyard with a panicked expression on his face.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?” Ye Qing asked while withdrawing his fist. Zhou Xi was one of the steadiest guys he had ever worked with. Something big must have happened for him to panic like this.

“My lord...” Zhou Xi took a second to catch his breath. “Chief Fang and his men just came back, but they were severely injured!”

“What? Do you know who is injured exactly? What happened?” Ye Qing waved for his subordinate to follow him and started toward the headquarters. “Are they at the headquarters right now? Tell me as we walk!”

“Chief Fang, Lord Chu and Lord Lin were covered in blood when they entered the city. Chief Fang threw up some blood and fainted right after that,” Zhou Xi replied succinctly.

Ye Qing was so shocked that he paused in his tracks for an instant. “What did you just say? Chief Fang’s the one who was severely injured? He even fainted at the entrance? How is that possible?”

Zhou Xi ran up to Ye Qing, panting. “That.... That’s what happened though. Even senior Xuanhuang was seriously injured.”

“Chief Fang had Xuanhuang with him, and he was still injured to this extent? Who could have done this? Stranger or human?”

Ye Qing frowned as a bad premonition hit him. “Never mind. You stay here. I’m going ahead to the headquarters.”

“My lord—” Zhou Xi was about to say something when he realized that the Ye Qing speaking to him was slowly crumbling into fragments of light. It was just an illusion. The real Ye Qing had been gone before he knew it.

“How is Chief Fang, deputy chief?”

As soon as Ye Qing barged into the room, he saw Gu Suitang sitting beside a bed and Fang Xiaoman lying on top of it. The Chief of Bureau’s eyes were tightly closed, and his complexion was as pale as a sheet. If he wasn’t breathing ever so slightly, Ye Qing could’ve believed that he was dead.

Besides Gu Suitang and Fang Xiaoman, Chu Nianjiu, Lin Yuhuai and Wei Yueshan were present in the room as well. They all looked deeply worried.

“His channels are broken, and his mind is damaged. It’s not good.” Gu Suitang rose to his feet with a dark frown on his face. “The good news is that he ate the Pill of Extraordinary Rejuvenation. He should be in no danger of dying, for now.”

“Yes. I fed Chief Fang a Pill of Extraordinary Rejuvenation after the battle,” Lin Yuhuai replied.

“It’s all our fault! Chief Fang wouldn’t have caught even a scratch on his person if he wasn’t trying to protect us!” Wei Yueshan growled and slammed the table next to him so hard that it crumbled to the floor. “Dammit!”

“Get out of the room if you want to vent. We have a patient here.” Gu Suitang grunted before looking at Chu Nianjiu and Lin Yuhuai. “What happened, Nianjiu, Yuhuai? Who are the bastards who hurt Xiaoman?”

Ye Qing subconsciously asked, “Bastards? Was Chief Fang attacked by humans?”

Gu Suitang nodded. “There are nine wounds on Xiaoman’s body. Four of them came from a sword, three from a saber, and one from a fist and another from a palm. The blade wounds are superficial though. The punch and the palm strike were the real attacks that put him in this state.”

“Anyway, what the hell happened?”

Lin Yuhuai answered, “Frankly, we have no idea why we were attacked later. On the way back to the city after we took out with the Strangers plaguing the surrounding villages, we were suddenly ambushed by an incredible number of powerful warriors. Each one of them was at least a late-stage Spirit Purifier or a Spirit Master, and the leader in particular was as strong as Chief Fang, if not stronger. It was he who severely injured Chief Fang while he was forced to protect us.”

“Those people were going to kill us all, but Chief Fang used a forbidden art that damaged Xuanhuang’s sentience and somehow broke out of the encirclement. However, it also worsened his injuries, and... you know the rest.”

Lin Yuhuai paused for a second before giving into his guilt and frustration. “If we weren’t there, Chief Fang could’ve easily escaped without too much trouble. We are the reason he’s in this state.”

“Now is not the time for self-blame. First things first, we need to identify the fucker who dared to attack the Pacification Bureau.” Gu Suitang pressed, “You\'ve fought with those people. Did you recognize any of them?”

Chu Nianjiu shook his head. “They were all wearing masks and black outfits. It’s impossible to tell who is who.”

“What about their martial arts?”

Chu Nianjiu considered this for a moment before shaking his head, “They used all forms of martial arts, and some I’ve never seen before. I’m sorry to say I cannot identify their origin.”

“It is as Chu Nianjiu says.” Both Lin Yuhuai and Wei Yueshan shook their heads as well.

Gu Suitang’s frown deepened. “I’m assuming that you know nothing about their motive either?”

Once again, everyone shook their heads.

“Perhaps it’s a powerful warrior of the Dark Ways returning to settle some old scores? Or did Chief Fang offend someone he shouldn’t have in the past?” Ye Qing tried.

“No, it doesn’t feel like it,” Lin Yuhuai replied while recalling the details of that battle. “I don’t sense any hatred or desire for vengeance from their eyes. They were just there to kill us. But of course, I could be wrong.”

Ye Qing didn’t agree. Sometimes, feelings were accurate.

“Okay, let’s take a step back. Did you offend anyone or encounter anything strange while you were clearing out the Strangers plaguing those villages?”

Lin Yuhuai muttered absentmindedly, “I don’t think so. We fought Strangers and only Strangers, and I don’t remember any one of us crossing anyone. Strangers are naturally strange, but... again, I don’t recall anything that particularly stood out to me.”

“No, there is one thing.” Chu Nianjiu suddenly spoke up, “Remember Rice Fragrance Village?”

“Oh yeah, you’re right! That was pretty strange!” Lin Yuhuai exclaimed in realization.

“Good. Tell us about it!” Ye Qing urged.

“Ahem...” Lin Yuhuai took a moment to clear his throat before starting, “It’s like this. One of the villages we tackled is called Rice Fragrance Village. It’s a good name, but it’s extremely secluded and rarely visited.”

“While we were dealing with the Stranger plaguing Rice Fragrance Village, we noticed that the villagers are all extremely thin, pale, and generally unhealthy. They’re also extremely superstitious, so much so that they neglected their fields. Seriously, every single one of them prayed to a Buddha statue both during the day and the night. It was very unusual.”

“When we informed Chief Fang about this phenomenon, he decided to pay the five or six villages surrounding Rice Fragrance Village a visit and discovered that they all worshiped the same religion as well. But despite our best efforts, we were unable to find anything useful. The villagers themselves aren’t sure what kind of Buddha they were worshiping, only that their Buddha would protect them from all disasters and misfortunes. As far as I can tell, their faith is absolute.”

“A Buddha statue?” Ye Qing’s heart skipped a beat. “Do you still remember what the Buddha statue looks like? Is there anything particular that caught your attention?”

Chu Nianjiu tried his best to recall the memory. “The statue itself is nothing special, but its appearance gave me an evil feeling for some reason. It’s like... like...”

“It’s like a demonic Buddha, isn’t it?” Ye Qing supplied.

“Yes! That’s exactly it!” Chu Nianjiu agreed.

“Do you happen to have a picture of the Buddha statue or something? Something like a portrait or a figurine or something?” Ye Qing narrowed his eyes.

Wei Yueshan produced a figurine and handed it to Ye Qing. “In fact, we did. It’s a strange-looking Buddha, but we’ve got no idea what it is. Chief Fang inspected it himself but found nothing special about it either.”

Ye Qing accepted the figurine. It was a seated Buddha holding a prithvi mudra and wearing a merciful smile on his face. However, the smile was just a little off and gave it an unsettling, devilish charm.

“I knew it.” Ye Qing sneered. He now knew exactly who was behind Fang Xiaoman’s attack. This must be what Wang Luori meant when he said Xue Beikun would see last night. It was all because of the Mara Buddha.

Another person might not notice anything, but as the owner of the Boundless Mara Buddha, he could clearly sense the aura of the Mara Buddha hidden within the Buddha figurine.

The Mara Buddha was a shrewd person who had hidden themselves so well that few people were aware of their existence. But this time, they had revealed themselves and even plotted the subversion of the chief and deputy chief of the Pacification Bureau. This clearly went against their normal behavior.

The Buddha statues erected across those villages explained everything though. Although he didn’t know what the statues were for, it could only be for something bad. The reason the Mara Buddha had chosen to promote his “religion” at those villages was because they were so remote that even the Pacification Bureau didn’t visit them frequently.

Logically speaking, the Mara Buddha could’ve built up his powerbase a little before he was discovered. However, the sudden appearance of the Demon’s Tomb had caused the Pacification Bureau to launch a patrol sooner than expected, and of all the people who could’ve stumbled upon this discovery, it just had to be the Chief of Bureau himself.

Knowing Fang Xiaoman, there was no way the Chief of Bureau was going to stop investigating this strange religion until he was absolutely certain that it was harmless. This meant that there was a high chance the Mara Buddha would be exposed.

That was why the Mara Buddha decided to take action. First, they dispatched a group of assassins to ambush Fang Xiaoman’s group. Then, they contacted Xue Beikun to set up a death trap for both Fang Xiaoman and Gu Suitang.

If the ambush was successful, then the Mara Buddha would’ve subverted and taken control of Fang Xiaoman. Gu Suitang would be all alone and powerless to change anything. There would be no need for Wang Luori to hold his so-called birthday feast. They could’ve controlled Gu Suitang’s every action through Fang Xiaoman and effectively taken control of the Pacification Bureau.

If Plan A failed, then the assassins were to assassinate or deal Fang Xiaoman a serious blow. Xue Beikun would hear the news and cooperate with them, and they would be weakening the Pacification Bureau as well. When the birthday feast took place, it would be simply a matter of defeating Gu Suitang.

Ye Qing had to admit that the plan was an incredible one. They would have killed two birds with one stone.

However, the Mara Buddha had unwittingly exposed the fact that combat wise, they weren’t too powerful. At the very least, they didn’t possess the strength to kill Fang Xiaoman and Gu Suitang without considerable sacrifice, or even the confidence to beat them when they were together. There would be no need to come up with such an elaborate plot otherwise.

“You knew, what?” Everyone was puzzled by Ye Qing’s reaction. From their perspective, it looked like he was having a stroke or something.

Ye Qing looked at Gu Suitang and asked, “Do you still remember the Mara Buddha, chief?”

“Mara Buddha?” Gu Suitang took a moment to search through his memories. “You mean that Mara Buddha that corrupted the Grandmaster monk, Jing Hui and created the Boundless Mara Buddha?”

“That’s right.” Ye Qing nodded.

“What does this have to do with them?” Gu Suitang asked.

Ye Qing sneered before declaring with absolute certainty, “The Mara Buddha is the one behind all this.”