Stranger Danger

Chapter 345: Five Imps of Wealth

“Where can I find it?” Ye Qing asked.

White Lord replied slowly, “That, is up to you...”

“... My lord.” Black Lord finished its sentence.

“We wish you good luck in your search.”

“Goodbye.”

That was all they said before they shrank back to the bronze door and turned into inanimate objects once more.

“I still have more questions to ask...”

Ye Qing was miffed, but he had no choice but to put Nanke away.

“Time to consult the Annon Sutra!”

If he was anyone else, then this might have been a troublesome matter. But for him, it was simply a matter of how many mouthfuls of blood. He had literally gotten used to it at this point.

Ye Qing asked after pulling out the Annon Sutra. “Where can I find a Duckweed Flower?”

A few mouthfuls of blood later, the Annon Sutra slowly gave its answer:

“The Yin Market”

Ye Qing was surprised to see this. He had just decided to enter the Yin Market today, and the two snakes asked for an item he could obtain at the Yin Market?

Was it a coincidence? If not, how did White Lord and Black Lord find out that he was going to enter the Yin Market?

Ye Qing was a bit worried, but the solution was right in front of him. He asked the Annon Sutra again, “Tell me about Nanke. What functions does it possess?”

He spat a mouthful of blood on the vellum as usual, but this time, he noticed that his blood wasn’t absorbed. Instead, it slid off its smooth surface and dripped on the floor.

“The Annon Sutra isn’t willing to answer the question?” Ye Qing muttered while narrowing his eyes. He knew from experience that the Annon Sutra would not absorb his blood if it wasn’t willing to answer a certain question. It showed how extraordinary and mysterious Nanke was.

“Oh well. I already made up my mind to use Nanke. Might as well see it through until the end.”

Ye Qing was able to accept his predicament fairly quickly. He carried plenty of dangerous and unusual items on him already. What was one more?

Besides, he already knew from Lin Yuhuai that Nanke was as mysterious as it was inauspicious. The Annon Sutra’s reaction—or rather lack thereof—was just additional evidence.

Chu Nianjiu was right in this case. As long as he kept growing stronger at a fast pace, then no misfortune could catch up to him. Not even Nanke.

Next, Ye Qing checked out the four golden dragon-serpent runes on the Annon Sutra. He felt much better the second he laid his eyes on them.

When Ye Qing brushed a finger across one of the runes, he immediately felt a pure stream of spiritual power flooding into his headspace. His demonic lotus bobbed up and down like it was floating on a lake or a sea. At the same time, the second petal began unfurling at a slow pace.

Not long after he obtained his first ever golden rune, he found out that it could restore his spiritual power. The gray rune filled him with vigor, the silver rune strengthened his true qi, and the golden rune improved his spiritual power.

Each rune targeted the three fundamental elements that constituted a human—qi, essence and spirit. To be weak in any one of these elements was to be an incomplete human. The body was the root of one’s essence, the qi was the source of one’s strength, and the spirit was the pathway to one’s destiny. Only by cultivating all of them could one truly transcend mortality.

In more practical terms, the three runes guaranteed that he would be able to enter the Spirit Master Realm without any difficulties whatsoever.

The first ever golden rune he obtained was when he killed tens of thousands of Vengeful Souls at Sky Gate Abyss. Knowing how precious a golden rune was, he didn’t use it for cultivation. Instead, he kept it as a trump card he might use to save his life at a critical moment. The other three came from killing the Soulstealer-class Strangers in the Demon’s Tomb.

From what he could tell, there were only two ways to gain a golden dragon-serpent rune: One, accumulate enough silver runes for them to merge into a golden run. That required killing a ton of ordinary Strangers. Two, he needed to kill Strangers who were Soulstealer-class or above.

Moreover, not every Soulstealer-class Stranger could yield a golden rune. That was a privilege belonging to the extraordinarily strong and special only.

That was why he was reluctant to use them—until now. They were going to enter the Yin Market tomorrow, and it was impossible to say what kind of danger they might encounter there. He needed to increase his strength now so he could deal with the unknown dangers better.

A golden dragon-serpent rune was precious, but it was also useless if he didn’t convert it into his own strength.

Ye Qing closed his eyes tightly and assumed a more serious meditative position; his palms, soles and his skull all facing toward the sky. Then, he channeled the “Paranirmitava?avartin Heavenly Demon Sutra” and began absorbing and refining the spiritual power in his headspace.

......

“I’m here, Old Hu.”

The moon was tall, round and bright in the sky tonight. Mank Ee was cloaked in its radiance and starlight as he stepped into Old Hu’s grocery store.

“Follow me.”

Old Hu seemed to be a night owl. He looked lazy and sleepy in the morning, but now, he looked more spirited than ever. His eyes were glowing a faint green as well.

Old Hu led Mank Ee into a small secret room underneath the back hall. At the center of the room was an altar table, and five bowls of rice were placed on the table besides the usual candles and offerings.

Hanging on the wall above the table was a painting with five imps. Their stature was thin and short, but their head was unnaturally big. They were carrying a massive ingot of silver each and grinning widely.

Old Hu looked at Mank Ee. “Have you brought the stuff?”

“Yep. It’s right here.” Mank Ee handed a folded handkerchief to Old Hu while staring at the strange painting with obvious greed in his eyes.

There was a single strand of hair in the handkerchief. When Old Hu saw this, he asked with a frown, “Is this all?”

Mank Ee complained, “Come now, that guy is a warrior and extremely cautious. It took me a lot of effort just to obtain this one strand of hair.”

“It would be better if you could obtain his flesh, blood, fingernails or birth date.” Old Hu sighed. “But a strand of hair works too, I guess.”

Old Hu walked up to the altar table and placed the hair on the third bowl. After placing the bowls in the east, south, west, north and center position, he walked around like he was drawing the Northern Dipper with his feet while chanting,

“The sky is big, the earth is vast. Where might the Five Imps be?

I ask Taigong to bring me the Imps of five directions.

The imps of wealth from the east,

The imps of wealth from the west,

The imps of wealth from the south,

The imps of wealth from the north,

And the imps of wealth from the center.”

“Imps are imps, magic overwhelming and power encompassing the five directions.

Masters of wealth and fortune, bring me wealth from the east, west, south, north and center.

Bring me riches every day, every month, every year.

Bring me riches from five directions and five ways.

Let them come, but never away.”

“Imp of wealth from the east, fulfill thy command or face thy retribution!”

Old Hu abruptly opened his eyes, bowed deeply to the bowl toward the east, and stomped his feet.

“Imp of wealth from the west, fulfill thy command or face thy retribution!”

“Imp of wealth from the north, fulfill thy command or face thy retribution!”

“Imp of wealth from the south, fulfill thy command or face thy retribution!”

The altar table shook all of a sudden, and the rice in all five bowls jumped into the air and buried the hair.

“Did it work?” Mank Ee asked nervously. This wasn’t the first time he witnessed this, but he was still a little nervous.

Old Hu let out a sigh of relief and grinned. “Phew... it worked. The Five Imps of Wealth have agreed to our request.”

Foo... foo...

A yin wind blew out of nowhere inside the secret room, causing Old Hu and Mank Ee’s hair to stand on end. They could also hear some strange giggles amidst the wind.Thankfully, it was gone just a second later, and everything seemed to return to normal.

The five imps in the painting were nowhere to be seen, however.

“Your ‘Five Imps of Wealth Summoning’ never fails to impress me, Old Hu.” Mank Ee clicked his tongue with envy.

Old Hu explained, “This is one of the Seventy Two Earthly Fiends’ techniques. It could steal a person’s wealth without opening doors, alarming people, or breaking cases. Of course it’s powerful.”

Old Hu was going to say more, but he suddenly let out a bloodcurdling scream and spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.

“Ahhhhh! Pwack!”

Mank Ee asked nervously, “What’s wrong, Old Hu?”

“My imps! My imps!”

Old Hu wasn’t looking at Mank Ee, however. He was looking at the painting on the wall. The massive silver ingots in the painting began disappearing bit by bit like they were being erased by someone, and so did Old Hu’s qi, essence and spirit. His skin began sagging and aging, his black hair began turning white, and his complexion turned deathly white.

“My painting! My precious painting! Who’s the bastard who did this?!” Old Hu glared at the perfectly blank canvas with unbridled fury and swore at the top of his lungs.

He had obtained the painting of a Five Imps of Wealth by accident. It had taken him countless days and nights of praying and offering to finally awaken a sliver of sentience. That was how he was able to command them to commit thievery.

He never imagined that he would lose it all until now.

“I have other business to attend to, Old Hu! I’ll see you another day!” Mank Ee realized he was in deep shit and immediately ran toward the exit.

“Give me back my painting, you bastard!”

Old Hu screeched like a banshee and gave chase. However, he had only taken a few steps when the painting abruptly floated into the air and grew bigger and bigger. Then, it fell right on top of Old Hu’s head.

A moment later, the painting flew back to the wall and returned to its original size.

Strangely, Old Hu was nowhere to be seen. Even stranger was the fact that a person had appeared inside the painting.

The person was none other than Old Hu.

“Old Hu? Old Hu? Are you alright?”

A moment later, someone called for the old man from outside the secret room. Inside the painting, Old Hu began turning bit by bit until his back was facing outward. It was as if he didn’t want anyone to see his face.

“Are you alright, Old Hu?”

When the person received no reply, he peeked his head through the entrance and looked around. He was none other than Mank Ee.

“Huh? Where is he?” Mank Ee scratched his head when he eralized that Old Hu was nowhere to be seen. “Strange.”

“Oh well. It wasn’t my fault.”

Right before Mank Ee would leave the place, he suddenly saw the painting on the wall.

“There’s a new person inside the painting! Are the Five Imps fine after all?! They just took their time to come back?”

Mank Ee grew incredibly excited. There was also a flash of greed in his eyes. He stepped forward and plucked the painting from the wall.

“You’ve made plenty of money in the past few decades, Old Hu. Excess greed is bad, so I’m doing you a favor here, hehe...”