Stranger Danger

Chapter 376: Heartless Brain

The “Illusionist’s Grace” was just an Astral Refinement-stage movement art, and he had gotten it first before the “Saber of Spring Wind and Fine Rain” or the “Nine Impetus of Tai Chi”. Even before he entered the dream, he was close to grasping the essence of the martial art. After he entered Nanke and honed it repeatedly, he had fully mastered the movement art. He could now move about like a shadow, a dream, a demon, or a god. He could conjure a maximum of nine illusions that were near impossible to distinguish from the real thing.

As for the “Nine Impetus of Tai Chi”, it was a Trueman-stage martial art for a reason. Despite the long dream, he was only able to grasp the various forms of all nine impetuses and enter the journeyman level. He was still far, far away from being able to master the techniques and entering the adept level.

Besides his cultivation level, his combat experience, intuition and perception when battling against all sorts of enemies and in all sorts of environments had improved drastically. More importantly, his willpower and mental strength had become stronger and more tenacious than before.

In conclusion, this one dream had improved his strength in every way. He was at least twenty or thirty percent stronger than he was before he entered Nanke.

Twenty or thirty percent didn’t sound like much, but he was a Spirit Purifier. At this stage, even a small step forward was enough to make him seem like a new man.

At his current level, and adding in powerful Strange Artifacts such as the Blue Demon Hand and Boundless Mara Buddha into the picture, he was confident he could go up against Half-Step Spirit Masters and even weaker Spirit Masters.

Even if he assumed that he had overestimated himself, he was confident that he would be able to escape to safety.

Rumble!

Right after Ye Qing stepped out of the temple, a small breeze abruptly caused the entire building to crumble. Not only that, it transformed into fine dust almost as if they had been eroded by the passage of time.

It was because of the attack Ye Qing had accidentally unleashed when he woke up, of course. The saber qi had destroyed the whole place, and it was a miracle it had held up until now.

“Sorry, sorry. Didn’t mean to make life difficult for the travelers who would come after me.” Ye Qing shrugged as he watched the collapsed temple. It wasn’t on purpose.

Fog Demon couldn’t stand his smug face and criticized him, “Quit showing off, boy. There’s no one here to see it.”

This brat is growing way too quickly. At this rate, how am I going to make my escape?

“True. What’s the point of showing off to an artifact spirit?” Ye Qing nodded in agreement.

Fog Demon: “...” Ah, I feel very offended.

“Let’s go!”

Ye Qing had just taken two steps when suddenly, he sensed something. He withdrew Fog Demon back into the Mara Buddha and pulled out the Annon Sutra.

The Annon Sutra was leaking blood just like the last time. Ye Qing hurriedly unfolded it and laid it on the ground. More and more blood leaked out of the piece of vellum, but this time it didn’t spread out until it was the size of a lake. Instead, it formed rows and rows of text on its surface:

“My name is Ye Qing, moniker “Joyless”. If you see this, that means I’m in trouble.”

“Right now, the Heartless Brain is divining my name, background and location. If it succeeds, I’m not the only one who will be in danger. My friends and family will be in danger as well.”

“After all, the Ghost Tower wouldn’t attack me only.They would kill everyone I loved to set an example to all who might emulate me!”

“The Heartless Brain? It’s helping the Ghost Tower to divine my name, background and location?” Ye Qing didn’t know what the hell a Heartless Brain was, but there was no doubt that the Ghost Tower was behind it all.

“Dammit. I knew this was going to to happen.”

The Annon Sutra wasn’t done messaging, however.

“Thankfully, luck is on my side. While the Heartless Brain was performing its divination, it suddenly slipped on the corpse fluid it was standing on and broke its head. As a result, its brain fell into the deadly corpse fluid and died.”

While the Annon Sutra was manifesting the words, “and died”, it suddenly shook as it hit some sort of wall. The words disappeared, and a new line appeared:

“... and it only managed to divine my location.”

The moment this happened, the Annon Sutra began shaking again. The line kept surfacing and fading as if it was struggling to manifest.

It was at this moment a golden dragon-serpent rune suddenly crumbled into dust. A wave of anomalous energy washed out of the Annon Sutra, and the line of text solidified.

A horrified scream broke out, “My... My golden dragon-serpent rune! Damn you, Ghost Tower! Damn you, Greenlake!”

......

On the seventh floor of the Ghost Tower, a youngster was muttering something under his breath and walking about the room like a true diviner. As he walked, the walls began wriggling like it was alive, and all kinds of people appeared on the wall. As the images became clearer, small passages of text appeared beside them as well.

It was at this moment an accident happened. The youngster was walking past Corpse Child when he accidentally slipped on the corpse fluid pooling around the Stranger’s feet and fell backward. His head hit the floor so hard that it splattered into pieces, and the half-a-brain fell into the corpse fluid.

The images on the walls immediately became distorted as if its process had been disrupted. Only one person’s silhouette remained clearer than the others.

Corpse Child couldn’t be bothered to check out the information on the wall, however. He hurriedly picked up the brain from the corpse fluid.

At first, the brain was still pulsing rhythmically. But a few seconds later, it stopped completely as if its life was spent.

Corpse Child frowned and summoned another living human into the room. Then, he slapped the brain over the man’s skull and let it do its thing.

After the brain had taken over the body, Corpse Child asked, “What happened?”

“What happened? You happened! If it wasn’t for that stinking pool beneath your feet, I would never have slipped!” The man launched into a furious rant the second he came back to life. “What’s so cool about standing in a pool of stinking water anyway? If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought that you wet your pants! Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?”

Corpse Child paid his rant no heed, however. He simply asked, “Did you find him?”

“I did, but the information is deeply flawed.” The man looked at the clearer silhouette on the wall and said, “I could only divine his location.”

“And why’s that?” Corpse Child looked displeased.

“Are you seriously asking me that? I could’ve divined it all, but your fucking pool made me slip at the most critical moment!” The man grumbled.

“Can’t you just perform your divination again?” Corpse Child asked.

“What the fuck do you think divination is? I can’t just piss out the answer whenever I want!” The man scoffed disdainfully. “Still, you can find him now that you have his location. You can interrogate the information you need out of him yourself.”

“This isn’t worth ten thousand yin souls,” Corpse Child said expressionlessly.

“Excuse me? I did what you asked for, and you’re going back on your promise? Just how immoral can you get?” The man raged loudly, “Also, I could’ve performed my divination flawlessly, but someone

doesn’t know the meaning of hygiene! It’s your fault my divination failed partially, and now you’re blaming me for the consequences of your own actions?”

“Where is your fucking shame, dude? I thought that bitch was shameless enough, but you’re even more shameless than he is! Fucking shameless, despicable, nasty piece of...”

Corpse Child waited until Heartless Brain was done swearing. Then, he said, “Are you done? Then it’s my turn now. You divined the thief’s location, but they’re alive, not dead. They wouldn’t stay in one place. If we get there, and they’re already gone, then it would be a complete waste of time and energy, wouldn’t it?”

“So what? It’s not my fault!” The man argued.

“But it is.” Corpse Child said, “If you managed to divine their name and background, we could’ve tracked down their friends and family and used them as hostages even if they managed to elude us. However, not only did you fail to do that, the one clue you provided didn’t offer any real value either.”

“That is why it’s not worth ten thousand yin souls. It’s not worth even one yin soul.”

“Uwah... You’re too shameless Corpse Child! How can you bully an old man like this! This isn’t right, this isn’t right!” The man abruptly fell on his butt and started flailing his limbs about like a child whose candy was stolen. However, Corpse Child remained unperturbed no matter how loud a tantrum he threw.

After he got tired, he asked in an aggrieved voice, “You could’ve consoled me, you bastard.”

Corpse Child didn’t even react to him.

“Fine, fine, so boring.” The man climbed back to his feet and looked down on Corpse Child. “Tell me, what do I need to do to satisfy you?”

Corpse Child answered, “Find me the thief.”

The man replied slowly, “Let’s see. You know I can only use my ability once per month, so if you want me to divine his full information again, then you’ll have to wait another month.”

Corpse Child: “...” Everything would be over by then! I might as well stuff you back into your jar and do it myself!

The man savored Corpse Child’s expression until the Stranger was about to speak. Then, he interrupted, “Of course, it would be too late by then. The Ghost Tower’s reputation would be in tatters. That is why I offer you an alternative.”

“What is it?” Corpse Child asked.

The man answered, “It’s true I can’t divine anything relating to that thief until a month later, but since I did manage to divine their location, it means that there is now a bond of destiny between me and them, however weak it might be. So long as I’m within a certain range of that thief, I’d be able to sense their presence. Theoretically speaking, I can find them even if they escape to the ends of the earth.”

“So, you want me to bring you with me.” Corpse Child looked thoughtful.

“You can find them yourself if you want to. At worst, I’ll give up on that ten thousand yin souls.” The man crossed his arms, fearless.

Corpse Child narrowed his eyes. “This isn’t a ploy for you to make your escape, is it?” The man raged immediately, “Do I look like that type of person? Do you think everyone is as untrustworthy as you and that bitch?”

“Bring me if you want to, get lost if you don’t. You’ve bothered me enough, you piece of shit!”

Corpse Child fell silent for a moment. “Very well, I can bring you with me. But if you dare to escape, trust me when I say that I’ll leave you in your jar for eternity.”

“Hmph!” The man harrumphed loudly before saying, “Since you begged for my help so sincerely, I suppose I can lend you a hand. C’mon.”

But as soon as he finished, the corpse fluid on the ground abruptly formed a hand and stabbed into the man’s skull from behind. It ripped out the brain and shoved it back into the jar.

“Yes, but I think you’re better off inside the jar for now. I’ll let you out after we reached our location.”

Corpse Child grabbed the jar and took a few steps forward. Then, he sank into the pool of corpse fluid and disappeared.