Stranger Danger

Chapter 349: The Wolf Cries Wolf

“What Qi Eater? Get out of my way, Taoist!”

“Yeah, get lost!”

“Out, out! I’ll kick your ass if you stay here any longer!”

“You guys...” Qi Xuanyun froze in place when the people he was trying to save turned on him instead. He didn’t know what he should do to convince the people that he meant well.

“Just because I’m a ghost doesn’t mean I’m a bad person!” The Qi Eater hurriedly fanned the flames. “Don’t listen to his bullshit, people! It’s clear this young Taoist just wants to claim the gold for himself! Chase him away!”

Qi Xuanyun had never encountered something like this. He truly wanted to save these people from the bottom of his heart, but not only did they not listen, they were turning on him.

Slowly, a sheen of purple colored over his eyes. His aura turned cold and murderous.

“He’s still too young and immature!” Ye Qing shook his head at this. “I’ll do it!”

He could tell that Qi Xuanyun wanted to smite these fools with a Palm Thunder. He had no qualms with that, but he was definitely going to draw the yin guards’ attention if he did that. He had to step up before the worst case scenario happened.

Ye Qing stepped forward and said loudly, “Yeah, shut up, you Taoist! Don’t get in our way, you greedy, selfish prick! Get out get out get out!”

The moment Qi Xuanyun heard Ye Qing’s voice, most of his anger disappeared like it was never there. His shock was another story though. Slack-jawed, he stared at Ye Qing and tried to understand what the Spirit Purifier was doing.

“What’s Joyless doing?” Even Chu Nianjiu was a little confused by this opening. “Did he betray us?”

Ye Qing’s companions weren’t the only ones who were confused by this. He had stolen the aggressive crowd and the delighted Qi Eater’s wind from their sails as well.

Ye Qing paid them no attention though. He Jojo-walked his way to Qi Xuanyun and shoved him away mercilessly. “The fuck ya looking at? Look at me again, and I’ll beat you up!”

He then turned toward the Qi Eater and declared imperiously, “I want to use your bottle.”

“Hey! I came—”

The guy who was supposed to go first complained, but Ye Qing tilted his head and glared at him. “Excuse me? What were you saying again?”

A powerful aura full of the promise of violence washed over the man. His words immediately died in his throat.

This guy is stronger than me. Abort, abort!

Ye Qing waited a moment just in case some other idiot wanted to challenge him. When no one spoke, he beckoned the Qi Eater with a hand and said, “What are you waiting for? Give me the bottle already.”

“Of course, my lord!”

Although the burial clothes Ye Qing was wearing had covered up his yang qi, the Qi Eater could still sense it because it was his nature. Not only was it one of the most refined yang qi it had ever felt, Ye Qing was a virgin too. Yang qi that had never been vented was exceptionally nutritious for a Qi Eater.

From the ghost’s perspective, Ye Qing was the definition of a big fish. Of course it was excited by this unexpected boon.

“Alright! Watch me.”

The corners of Ye Qing’s lips curled into a devilish smirk as he stared at the massive bottle. All of a sudden, the Qi Eater felt a bad premonition. Before it could figure out where its source, Ye Qing sucked in a deep breath and blew into the bottle.

This time, every hair on the Qi Eate’s body stood on end. Although Ye Qing wasn’t targeting it, it was one hundred percent certain that the puff of yang qi was more than potent enough to kill it.

Before the Qi Eater could recover from its shock, an ominous series of cracks entered its ears. It looked just in time to see its bottle exploding into smithereens with a bang.

“Ahhhh! My bottle!”

The Qi Eater let out a horrified scream as its body turned transparent, and its qi weakened drastically all of a sudden. The surrounding crowd was stupefied as well. Most of them had seen this magic trick before, but the Qi Eater’s bottle was huge and hardly ordinary.

“Ahhhh! My gold!” Right after the Qi Eater was done screaming, Ye Qing screamed in the exact same tone.

Before the Qi Eater could say anything, Ye Qing shouted furiously, “Didn’t you say that I would get a block of gold if I blow into your bottle, ghost? Well? Where is it? Where is my fucking gold!?”

“Give me back my gold, you swindler!”

The Qi Eater: “...”

“Everyone: “...”

The wolf was crying wolf.

“You... it was you who blew up my bottle! You’re the one who should compensate me!” The Qi Eater was so angry it nearly transcended on the spot. Its savage, contorted expression made one wonder if it was actually possible to anger a ghost so much to death.

“And why the fuck should I compensate you anything?” Ye Qing harrumphed imperiously and put his hands on his waist. “How could I have known that your shitty bottle is less sturdy than a bloody balloon? No, it’s clear that you were trying to scam me!” There’s no way a bottle that big could explode in a single puff, could it?”

“Also, you promised me that I could get a big ass block of gold as long as I blow into the bottle. So? Where is my gold? Where is my gold, you scammer?”

“You better give me my gold, you bastard! Otherwise, I’ll take you to the bloody court, you hear me?”

“You... You...” The Qi Eater had never encountered something like this. Such was its fury that his yin qi was simmering like a kettle of boiling water. Even the surrounding crowd was speechless. It was bad enough that he literally blew up the Qi Eater’s bottle, now he was demanding that it compensate him for his “loss” as well. Just how shameless could you be?

“What are you guys doing? We don’t tolerate problems in the Yin Market!”

It was at this moment a yin guard carrying a mourning staff and a long chain wrapped around his waist stepped over with a cold look. The crowd instinctively gave way when his cold, eerie yin qi brushed against their skin.

The Qi Eater lit up when it heard the yin guard’s voice. It immediately ran up to him and wailed at the top of its lungs, “You must help me, my lord! You must!”

“Fuck off.” The yin guard kicked away the Qi Eater who clung to his leg before asking, “What the hell happened? Speak!”

The Qi Eater explained in a hurry, “It’s like this. This guy purposely blew up my bottle, the one thing I rely on to make a living. How can I possibly live without it? You must help me, my lord!”

“Hmph! You’re using your shitty bottle to scam people again?” The yin guard scoffed and glanced at the crowd.

Someone exclaimed in shock, “What? Was the Taoist actually telling the truth?”

The yin guard hadn’t tried to keep his voice low or something when he insulted the Qi Eater, so everyone heard his words loud and clear.

“Wait, I remember now! The Qi Eater! He’s the Qi Eater! The gold we’re carrying is real, but it’s also permission for the Qi Eater to suck our yang qi dry!” Someone cried.

“Seriously?”

“I was wondering if it’s possible for anyone to be this altruistic. It was aiming to kill us this whole time?”

“How dare you trick us!”

The crowd’s ire was immediately targeted at the Qi Eater.

The ghost wasn’t afraid, however. It said sarcastically, “Trick you? How could you say that? It’s true that I laid out the lure, but you’re the one who fell for it. I never tried to coerce you into accepting the gold. You’re the ones who’re too greedy to see the obvious, hehehe...”

“Bastard!” One guy allowed his fury to overcome his good senses and attacked the Qi Eater with his sword.

“You dare!”

He was fast, but the yin guard was faster. The second the guy unsheathed his weapon, the yin guard appeared in front of him and smacked him with his mourning staff.

The man immediately froze in place, eyes glassy and unfocused. At the same time, a semi-transparent silhouette left his body. The yin guard had smacked his soul out of his body in one strike.

After that, the yin guard eyed the surrounding crowd and said frigidly, “This is the Yin Market and the Fengdu. We don’t give second warnings.”

“Besides, the Yin Market is a place of fair trade. You got what you paid for, did you not? It’s not anyone’s fault you’re too dumb to recognize that the price of the good is your life.”

The victims’ faces were ugly, but they didn’t dare to mouth a retort. For one, the yin guard was incredibly strong. Two, this was the ghost’s home turf. And three, what he said made sense. They were the ones who were too stupid to recognize the Qi Eater’s trick.

The yin guard hmphed one more time before turning his icy gaze on the Qi Eater. Of course he knew that the Qi Eater had inflamed the crowd on purpose.

“Er...” The Qi Eater shivered when it felt the gaze. It immediately put on a crying face again and wailed, “I have always been an honest and law-abiding ghost, my lord! You gotta defend me, my lord!”

“Hmph.”

Although the yin guard found the Qi Eater’s actions despicable, it was also true that it wasn’t illegal. This was how the Yin Market functioned. Just like the yang fault, you only had yourself to blame if you were tricked. Sure, the price of getting tricked in the Yin Market could very well be one’s life, but so what? A human’s death would only benefit Fengdu.

No, they weren’t stupid enough to encourage such behavior. That was one way to promote the destruction of Fengdu. But the higher-ups certainly saw no reason to forbid it either.

The yin guard looked at Ye Qing next and ordered, “You look like a malicious human. Show me your Yin Token.”

And finally, the yin guard was a ghost and a member of Fengdu. He might be a neutral party in this case, but he was biased in favor of his kind as a matter of course.

You can tell I’m a “malicious” person even though I’m wearing a mask? Why don’t you flap your wings and ascend to the heavens then?

Knowing better than to antagonize someone who was already biased against him, Ye Qing obediently bided his time while producing his Yin Token. “Over here, my lord.”

At first, the yin guard regarded Ye Qing just like any other human. But when he saw the Yin Token Ye Qing handed him, his eyes flickered with a hint of astonishment, gravity, and envy. He immediately shoved his bias and arrogance to the back of his mind and asked respectfully, “What do you have to say for yourself?”

“All I ask you to see justice through, my lord. This clearly isn’t my fault,” Ye Qing said while mulling over the flickers of emotions he sensed from the yin guard. It would seem that his Yin Token really was an extraordinary item.

Now was not the time to be distracted, however. Ye Qing gathered his mind and continued, “He said that anyone can blow into his bottle and receive a block of gold, so I did. But not only did the bottle shatter, I didn’t even receive my share of gold. Now, he’s demanding compensation for me? How is that fair?”

“Everyone here is a witness, my lord. You can ask them if you don’t believe me.”

The yin guard frowned and looked at the Qi Eater. “Is he telling the truth?”

“Of course not! You know that my bottle is my innate magic! How can anyone blow it up like a balloon? He obviously did something to my bottle I couldn’t see. You can’t fall for his sophistry, my lord!” The Qi Eater complained.

“And what do you have to say to that?” The yin guard looked at Ye Qing again.

“What do you even want me to say? It claims that I did something to his bottle, but it didn’t have any evidence to support it. But I have scores of witnesses who can prove that all I did was blow into the bottle. Surely someone would notice something if I really tried to pull a trick under their noses?”

Ye Qing sneered. “Also, this bastard got it all wrong. I’m the one who’s demanding compensation here, not it.”

“What do you mean?” The yin guard raised an eyebrow.

Ye Qing explained, “First, all I did was blow into the bottle, and the damn thing suddenly shattered on its own. It said it itself that the bottle is its innate magic. How could I possibly blow it up with my breath alone? It’s obvious that the bastard’s trying to scam me.”

“Second, it promised that anyone who blew into the bottle would be rewarded with a block of gold. I did, but it didn’t give me the gold it promised. Don’t you agree that it owes me a block of gold, my lord?”

“You want the gold?” The yin guard narrowed his eyes. I bet you want to be the King of Hell too, don’t you?

“Of course I do! You’re the one who said that this is a place of fair trade, isn’t it? I already paid it my breath, but where is my gold?” Ye Qing shrugged. “Also, this gold is very important to me. It’s the key to world peace, you know?”

“The key... to world peace?” The yin guard’s tone turned incredulously. Is he crazy, or am I crazy?

“Yep! Everyone needs money to build a family, don’t they?” Ye Qing scratched his head embarrassedly.

“And how does that relate to world peace?”

The yin guard wasn’t the only one who was completely thrown off by Ye Qing’s insane logic. They were all wondering where the hell Ye Qing was going with this.