Stranger Danger

Chapter 423: Nowhere To Run

“Wait… did that corpse just move?”

Suddenly, Ye Qing took two steps backward and stared intently at a particular corpse. He thought he saw its arm moving when he was glancing in that direction, but when he actually stared at it, it was completely motionless.

“Was my eyes playing tricks on me?”

Ye Qing licked his lips nervously and slowly approached the corpse, wanting to observe it at close range and confirm if it was dead or alive.

“!?”

The corpse’s eyes abruptly fluttered open when he was standing in front of it.

It wasn’t the only one. Every corpse had abruptly opened their eyes to stare straight at him.

“Motherf—!”

Every hair on Ye Qing’s body stood on end as he tried to withdraw. However, he had just taken two steps when he felt his back bumping into something soft. He turned around and saw a pile of corpses that was supposed to be several meters away from him pressed up against his back.

It didn’t need to be said just how horrifying it was to be stared at and squeezed by countless dead bodies from multiple directions. As if that wasn’t bad enough, more corpses were dogpiling toward him from all sides.

Without hesitation, Ye Qing leaped into the air in an attempt to avoid being piled on by the corpses. However, a bunch of bodies suddenly rained down from above right as his feet left the floor. The closest pile of corpses also collapsed on top of him before he could react.

There was just no room for maneuver or even time to react. Before he knew it, he was buried under hundreds and hundreds of bodies.

That wasn’t all. As if they were puppeteered by an invisible power, the bodies kept piling on top of Ye Qing while oozing bright red blood and disgusting corpse wax at the same time. This should be impossible considering that these corpses had been left to dry for heavens-know-how-many-years, but it was happening anyway. It would seem that they were trying to squeeze or suffocate Ye qing to death.

Boom!

The next moment, a terrific boom scattered the hill of corpses in every direction, revealing a blood-soaked Ye Qing who looked incredibly pissed off. As more corpses raced toward him to dogpile him again, Ye Qing charged forward and unleashed a violent, tyrannical burst of energy. It felt like the birth of a Chaos Demon Ape.

“Chaos Demon Ape Body Tempering Sutra”

Boom boom boom!

Every corpse pile that was foolish enough to block his way was crushed into bits. Flesh, blood and bones scattered everywhere. In just the span of a few breaths, Ye Qing was able to run through the corpses and cover ten meters of distance.

There was no turning back now that violence had been engaged. He was going to give everything he could to make it to the center of the chamber and locate the corpse behind it all.

Is that the coffin Longing and the others spoke of?!

After running through a couple more corpse piles, Ye Qing burst into a clearing and saw a wooden coffin directly in front of him. It was covered up, and an insane amount of fog was pouring out of it at all times.

Ye Qing slowed down and approached the coffin carefully. The closer he got, the more nervous and anxious he became. He couldn’t help but recall everything Longing, Hua Mei and Jue Yan had told him earlier.

He should’ve known this would happen, and it did. The coffin was only two or so meters away from him, but now matter how much he ran, he just couldn’t get close to it no matter what. That short distance felt like the chasm between heaven and earth.

“Heavenly Demon Captures The Soul”

“Destroy!”

Ye Qing yelled as he tapped the space in front of him. A wave of demonic thought washed out, and the space around him abruptly shattered like glass.

Not about to waste this golden opportunity, Ye Qing crossed the distance in one step and looked inside the coffin.

Buzz!

The moment he looked inside the coffin, a pair of pale, murky eyes opened amidst the fog. A terrible fear unlike anything he ever felt before enveloped Ye Qing in that instant. He felt like an ant facing off against the world, the moon, or even the sun itself. He felt like he would never be able to close the gap between himself at the corpse. Its presence alone was so powerful, terrible and vast that he felt like his body and mind were being crushed. His thoughts were stuttering to a halt, and the blood in his veins were frozen like ice.

His body began decaying bit by bit under the eyes’ watchful gaze. His flesh began falling off his bones, his blood began decaying at an accelerated rate, and even his mind was dying bit by bit.

He knew that he would die if this continued, but for some reason, he just couldn’t muster the courage to resist or escape. He felt like the land of the dead was where he truly belonged.

No! No! I don’t want to die! I refuse!

Ye Qing roared inside his head and circulated the “Paranirmitavaśavartin Heavenly Demon Sutra”. The demonic lotus that was so close from withering abruptly gained new life and unfurled its three petals. Slowly but surely, the unopposable fear and despair clutching his mind in a death grip were slowly absorbed by it.

The “Paranirmitavaśavartin Heavenly Demon Sutra” was a demonic art, and it fed on the Five Poisons, Six Desires, Seven Emotions, Eight Fears, Nine Terrors and more negative emotions to grow stronger. In other words, the fear and despair afflicting him right now was the perfect fodder for it.

Eventually, Ye Qing regained control of his body and tapped the space in front of him without hesitation.

Thud!

Space rippled, and it was like someone had tossed a rock into a calm lake. A massive amount of fog was pushed away just like that.

When the fog scattered, Ye Qing abruptly realized that there was no coffin in front of him. There were no eyes of death staring into his soul earlier. In fact, the coffin was still several meters away from him.

The fog inside the chamber grew ever thicker.

“It was all an illusion?!”

Ye Qing furrowed his brows deeply as he wiped the sweat on his forehead.

“That was terrifying, but still, at least I don’t have to deal with other Strangers.”

He really shouldn’t have said that. As soon as the words slipped out of his tongue, countless silhouettes suddenly emerged from the fog. He saw the spidermen he had fought earlier, a giant corpse Stranger that was made up of countless corpses, a giant skull that was sewn from countless skulls and more. He also sensed powerful, dangerous presences lurking deeper within the fog where he couldn’t see. To say that he was in deep shit would be an understatement.

“You fucking idiot! Why did you jinx yourself?” Ye Qing swore. That was all he managed to do before the Strangers rushed him.

Red Sleeve slipped into his hand as he slashed diagonally at the closest Strangers. The Red Lotus hellfire immediately immolated them and dissolved them into fog.

Before the Red Lotus hellfire could run its course, nine silhouettes descended on top of the gigantic, four-headed spiderman and beheaded him in the blink of an eye. Growling, Ye Qing pushed against the floor and detonated its body like a bomb. The violent outburst of force and astral qi slammed into several spidermen and bowled them over.

There was no time to catch a breath though. Already, the giant skull made of countless human skulls were descending on top of him like a waterfall.

Ye Qing sucked in a deep breath and shot up a full meter in height. Small clumps of black fur grew out of his exposed skin, and a violent, tyrannical aura filled the sky.

Ye Qing had reached the journeyman level in the “Chaos Demon Ape Body Tempering Sutra” and the Chaos Demon Ape Body some time ago. Although he couldn’t transform fully into the Chaos Demon Ape like Chen Ah Sheng had, a minor transformation was more than doable.

After transforming into the Chaos Demon Ape, Ye Qing let out a lung-bursting roar that scattered the thick fog surrounding him. Then, he punched up at the giant skull descending toward him.

“Divide”

There was a loud bang that sounded like a very, very loud gunshot, and Ye Qing’s fist punched right through the gigantic skull. Even the waterfall of human skulls streaming behind it were scattered and pushed back where they came from.

After defeating the giant skull, Ye Qing crossed his arms above his head like he was guarding the gate of heavens. The next moment, a gigantic arm smashed into his guard and elicited a dull grunt from him. Even in his current form, his knees bent a little as if the weight was too much.

This was just the beginning. The giant made of countless corpses punched him in his guard again.

Bang!

One of Ye Qing’s knees slammed into the floor like a thunderclap.

The corpse giant wasn’t going to let up its assault, of course. It pressed down with both arms like it was going to crush him to death.

Ye Qing’s face warped into a savage snarl as he let out an animalistic roar. His muscles and bones popped ominously, and his aura grew even stronger. Slowly but surely, he pushed back the corpse giant’s arms and climbed back to his feet.

“RAAAAAARGH!”

Ye Qing roared again as he pushed up with all he got, throwing the corpse giant’s arms upward and leaving him wide open. While the corpse giant was still catching its balance, Ye Qing took one step forward and slammed his elbow into its body.

It was like a giant knocking over the heavens so hard that the reverberations could be felt throughout the nine provinces.The corpse giant was sent flying just like that.

Ye Qing thought that the crisis was temporarily over, but he had just let out a sigh of relief when many, many more Strangers rushed out of the fog.

His face turned ugly. This was getting ridiculous.

“Wait, something’s wrong. There’s no way this chamber could hold this many Strangers, not to mention that some of them are so massive there’s no way they could’ve fit in the corridors. Are they illusions, or am I hallucinating?” Ye Qing suddenly realized something. Then, he shook his head and muttered to himself, “No, it’s possible. Supposedly, the corpse is located in the orlop deck. In reality, it really exists in its own created space. It wouldn’t be surprising for such a space to contain this many Strangers.”

“There’s no point fighting them though. It’ll take way too much time and effort. I should focus on the corpse and cut it at its roots!”

Having made up his mind, Ye Qing circulated the “Nine Impetus of Tai Chi” and dashed forward using the “Illusionist’s Grace”. For a time, he was able to slip past the Strangers as easily as he was playing in his own backyard. On the rare occasion the enemies managed to land a hit on him, the attack would be misdirected to another Stranger instead. The combination of the two arts was absolutely exquisite.

Ye Qing reached the coffin very quickly, and it looked like he needed only one step to get close to it. However, he just couldn’t close that final step no matter what he tried. He even used the “Heavenly Demon Captures The Soul” and the “Hellfire Red Lotus Saber Art” multiple times thinking that it was an illusion again to no avail.

Worse still, Strangers were still pouring out of the fog and attacking him from every direction. He had no choice but to fight off the Strangers while trying every way he could think of to get close to the coffin.

The number of Strangers kept growing, and Ye Qing inevitably received many wounds in the process. However, the distance between himself and the coffin only grew over time.

Eyes bloodshot, Ye Qing clenched his fingers and smashed the ground with his left first. The Netherflame immediately spread out like a tidal wave and burned countless Strangers into ash. The attack managed to clear out every Stranger within ten meters of him and bought himself some time.