Stranger Danger

Chapter 329: Molten Hell

“Insolence!”

Huo Hao roared as the molten lava beneath his feet climbed up his feet and covered his whole body. He quickly transformed into a molten giant that was over four to five meters tall. The rapid flow of the lava caused the ground to sizzle ominously.

The next moment, Huo Hao exploded toward Ye Qing and threw out a mighty punch.

Ye Qing slipped Red Sleeve under his actual sleeve. Then, he clenched his right fist and met the Spirit Master head on.

Boom!

Two fists met, and the ground within sixty meters of the duo cracked like porcelain. Huo Hao’s fist and the molten lava surrounding it exploded into bits, and even his arm was popping and cracking disturbingly at places.

Huo Hao cried out in pain and staggered backward. Every time he took a step, large globs of molten lava would drip from his body.

His attempt to put some distance between himself and Ye Qing and gather himself was futile, however. Like a phantom, Ye Qing caught up to Huo Hao and threw a second, third, fourth and many, many more punches.

For a time, it sounded like the punches would never end. Each one was as loud as a bell strike.

Huo Hao kept retreating, and Ye Qing kept advancing. When Huo Hao’s back was pressed against the wall, Ye Qing landed his final punch.

BAAAANG!

A pit appeared on the solid wall behind Huo Hao’s back, and cracks spread out of the edges like a spider’s web. The molten lava covering his body had long since been blown apart by Ye Qing’s fist force, revealing his pale angry face.

“Graaah! How dare a bunch of ants attack the noble Kinnaras! Not a speck of you would be left by the time I’m done with you!”

Huo Hao could not believe that he was being pushed back by an early-stage Spirit Purifier. Eyes bloodshot, the fiery tattoos on his body burned brightly as he let out an unearthly howl. A terrific amount of energy washed out of his body, and the ground within hundreds of meters away from him began shaking and splitting apart like spider webs. The pungent stench of sulfur rose from the cracks as something terrible was hidden underneath.

“Molten Hell”

“Get back!”

Ye Qing had jumped back as soon as Huo Hao howled like a madman. He also reminded Lin Yuhuai and Chu Nianjiu to take evasive actions.

The trio had just retreated halfway when the ground beneath their feet abruptly exploded into pieces. Gigantic fountains of lava then shot out of the cracks all the way into the air. It was like countless volcanoes erupting at the same time.

The trio dodged all over the place. No one wanted to take a faceful of lava.

When the lava reached its highest point, it poured down on the trio like a capsized basin. In the process, the lava transformed into countless ghosts and homed in on the trio. Not only that, the thick, sulfuric smoke rising from the depths burned their eyes, choked their lungs, and made them feel like they were burning in hell. There were even malicious, anomalous, mournful wails blasting away at their ears in an attempt to bend their mind and spirit to the Spirit Master’s will.

Ye Qing shielded his mind with his demonic thought and punched away the ghosts flying toward him.

Chu Nianjiu surrounded himself in an icy qi that froze any and all ghosts who got within a certain range.

Lin Yuhuai threw out an innumerable number of talismans that merged into a talismanic dragon and crushed all of the ghosts into bits.

For a time, lava poured like rain, and the entire Vicious Tiger River had turned into a burning hell.

A dozen breaths later, the trio rushed out of the burning hell looking as black as soot. Such was Huo Hao’s ultimate attack that no one managed to escape unscathed.

“Where’s Huo Hao?” Chu Nianjiu looked back at the living purgatory with a sigh of relief and fear.

“He probably ran away.” Lin Yuhuai narrowed his eyes slightly.

“He most definitely had.” Ye Qing declared, “Huo Hao had never planned on fighting us to the death.”

“Tsk! The guy looked arrogant, irritable and stupid, but to think he’s a coward as well.”

“The Eight Legions of Devas and Nagas may be arrogant, but they’re definitely not stupid.” Lin Yuhuai smiled. “The guy had most likely planned out everything from the beginning. If his ultimate attack is enough to kill us, then all is well. If not, then he would run away. It’s a good plan.”

“That’s not my concern right now. My concern is that we’d be in deep shit if he manages to escape!” Chu Nianjiu sipped his wine and said lazily. Strangely, he didn’t look worried in the slightest even though the risks were very real.

“Can you track Huo Hao down, Yuhuai?”

A paper crane flew out of Lin Yuhuai’s sleeve and flew a circle around the trio. It shook its head when it landed back on his shoulder almost as if it had a mind of its own.

Lin Yuhuai put away the paper crane and shook his head as well. “Unfortunately, my paper crane cannot find Huo Hao.”

“It’s up to you then, Joyless.” Chu Nianjiu looked at Ye Qing.

Ye Qing smirked. “You seem very confident in my abilities.”

“Of course I am!” Chu Nianjiu sipped his wine before answering, “After all, you\'ll be the the Eight Legions’ first target if Huo Hao manages to escape.”

Ye Qing: “...” As expected of my brother-on-the-surface.

“Shouldn’t we get moving already?” Chu Nianjiu asked.

“It’s fine. We can afford to let him stew for a little longer.” Ye Qing smiled while staring at the molten hell in front of him.

......

Inside a forest, Huo Hao was running for his life. Large beads of sweat were rolling down his forehead, but they were bluish black in color. In fact, Huo Hao’s face was bluish black in color, and even the air he exhaled was bluish black as well. Death was slowly but surely creeping up on him.

Huo Hao grabbed a pill from his Nature’s Shell and threw it down his gullet. For an instant, vitality returned to his complexion before it was devoured by bluish black once more.

“Dammit! What the hell is this poison?” Huo Hao cursed under his breath. He could clearly sense his bodily functions declining by the second. The poison was ravaging his vigor, his organs, his muscles, and even his mind. His consciousness was starting to blur as well.

He carried some antidotes with him, but forget eliminating the poison, they couldn’t even suppress it for a short time.

That was why he was growing weaker and weaker. He wasn’t even sure if he could escape to safety, or if the poison could be removed after that.

Huo Hao’s fury and hatred burned even hotter when he thought until this point. He was so sure that this trip to Feng Yang would be a milk run, but not only did his carelessness lead to the death of his young master, he himself was teetering on death’s door right now.

The good news was that his young master was just a collateral relative of the Kinnara Royals. He could still atone for his sins if he completed the mission and bring that thing back to the Kinnaras.

He was going to take out the rats who attacked the Kinnaras before he left this place, but the rats had turned out to be newborn calves[1]. Not only that, these calves were smart and strong enough to threaten him, a tiger.

“Hmph! If they hadn’t exploited my blind spot and poisoned me, I could’ve crushed them as easily as ants!” Huo Hao growled. It was a mistake. Maybe it was because his display of anger accidentally triggered his wounds, but he couldn’t help but throw up a mouthful of fresh blood.

“It’s not good to get angry when you’re wounded, Captain Huo!”

A playful voice suddenly rang beside his ears.

“Huh?”

Shocked, Huo Hao turned his neck to look at the speaker. The instant he did this, he caught a glimpse of something crimson and smelled something fragrant.

“You—agh—ghk...”

The crimson flash vanished, and Ye Qing stood right in front of Huo Hao. The Spirit Master’s eyes bulged as he tried to speak, but he quickly discovered that he couldn’t say anything at all.

Huo Hao staggered two steps away from Ye Qing as he touched his own neck. But right before his fingers would make contact, a thin, red line appeared from the left and slowly spread toward the right. When it finally reached the end, Huo Hao’s head fell to the ground and rolled a circle like a ripened fruit.

“Red Sleeve is seriously a great saber.” Ye Qing commented as he stared at Huo Hao’s wide-eyed head. The saber slowly consumed the bloodstains covering its blade until it looked as good as new. It even gave off a whiff of something fragrant like an incorruptible beauty.

Just now, he had cut off Huo Hao’s head as soon as he appeared behind Huo Hao’s back. Since the blade was impossibly thin and razor sharp, the guy’s head actually remained on his neck for a short time until he jolted it out of position himself.

He was incredibly satisfied with Red Sleeve’s power to say the least.

Two or three breaths later, Chu Nianjiu and Lin Yuhuai arrived late. “Where did he go, Ye Qing?”

“Down here.” Ye Qing moved out of the way so they could catch a full view of the body.

“You killed him?” Chu Nianjiu exclaimed in surprise.

“Er, duh? Is there a reason I should keep him alive?” Ye Qing shrugged.

“You could’ve waited for us to catch up. None of us even landed a hit on the guy, you know?”

Chu Nianjiu and Lin Yuhuai exchanged a somewhat bitter look with each other. The three of them had departed together, but Ye Qing eventually sped out of view despite their best efforts. By the time they arrived, Huo Hao was already dead.

“It feels like we’ve been doing nothing. All we did is torture a few people and kill a few underlings.”

“It doesn’t feel like it, you have been doing nothing. Aren’t you ashamed of yourselves?” Ye Qing joked.

“Shameless bastard.” Chu Nianjiu rolled his eyes.

“Ah, shit.” Ye Qing suddenly slapped his own head in frustration.

“What’s wrong?” Lin Yuhuai asked.

Ye Qing sighed. “I completely forgot to ask Huo Hao why the Eight Legions had shown up at Feng Yang.”

“Oh, that?” Lin Yuhuai smiled uncaringly. “The Eight Legions of Devas and Nagas is a mysterious faction. Even if we found out what they were planning, dare we involve ourselves in it? For now at least, we’re better off not knowing.”

“Anyway, let’s deal with the corpse and resume our journey, shall we?”

“You’re right.” Ye Qing nodded in agreement.

1. In Chinese culture, a newborn calf is said to fear nothing, so he’s saying that what he thought were cowards were the opposite. ?