Stranger Danger

Chapter 706: The Unfortunate Pockface Bai

The branches were cutting and stabbing through the air like sharp swords.

The vines were jumping off the ground like vicious vipers.

The stones had come together to form tall, gnarly stone giants that possessed seemingly limitless strength.

The grass were dancing to the wind and coiling, cutting or stabbing their enemy like spirit snakes.

The flowers were shaking their petals and emitting clouds of colorful, poisonous pollen that turned their target’s skin red upon contact.

The mushrooms were exploding into spores that sank into the ground and grew into many small, colorful mushrooms that exploded once more.

The dandelions were floating around the six warriors and sinking into their flesh to grow more dandelions.

......

Right here and now, the entire forest had transformed into a deadly weapon.

Even if the six warriors were pretty strong, they were hardpressed to handle the relentless assault of an entire forest.

“Oh, it’s Pockface Bai! Tsk tsk... the pitiful bastard!”

Shangguan Hongjin snickered when she recognized some of the warriors who were defending themselves against the forest.

“You know then?” Ye Qing asked.

“Oh, I don’t just know them. We’ve been ‘acquaintances’ for a very long time.”

Shangguan Hongjin let out a cold chuckle. “Pockface Bai is—you see that ugly buffoon with pockmarks all over his face? That’s him.”

“Pockface Bai is a barefoot bandit who operates in Bei Mo. He is an unprincipled animal who abused his strength as a Half-Step Grandmaster and committed every crime there is under the sun.”

“That woman over there is Pockface Bai’s lover. If I remember correctly, her name is Yao Mei’er, and they call her the Temptress. A fickle woman who willfully slaughters the innocent, she too is an irredeemable villain who’s better off dead and alive.”

“I don’t recognize their four underlings, but it doesn’t matter.”

“I see! I’ve heard of Pockface Bai as well. No wonder he managed to hold out for so long,” Pedant Earth exclaimed in realization.

Pockface Bai was the thirty-seventh named warrior on the Human Champions Ranking, so it was unsurprising that he would be able to hold out against the forest’s relentless assault.

They were running out of steam though. Even as they spoke, one underling was sliced and diced by the leaves into a pile of minced meat, a second was skewered by several vines from behind and sucked dry, a third was screaming in pain as flowers grew all over his body, and he died only after the flowers had reached full bloom, and the last underling kept growing more and more swollen because of the pollen until he eventually exploded in a shower of blood and gore.

In less than a minute, four of the group of six had died, and only Pockface Bai and Yao Mei’er were still struggling.

“We need to go now, Mei’er! Together!” Pockface Bai yelled urgently after all four of his underlings met a horrific end.

The man was currently riddled with regret right now. The reason the forest was attacking them was because he had accidentally stepped and killed a flower when he was passing through the forest just now. It was a stroke of terrible luck to put it mildly.

Yao Mei’er returned an utterance of acknowledgement before the two ribbons she was holding suddenly transformed into two oddly-shaped boas. The boa had a snake’s body but a cow’s head, and it was over thirty meters long and as thick as a barrel.

As soon as the transformation was complete, the boas let out a bullish roar that rocked the entire place like an earthquake. Countless plants and rocks were annihilated by the eruption of yin thunder.

Having bought themselves a moment of respite, Yao Mei’er and Pockface Bai immediately raced toward the outskirts behind the two boas.

The two ribbons were obviously a high-grade Strange Artifact that could transform into Kui Snakes. A Kui Snake was a Soulstealer-class Stranger with an ox’s head but a snake’s body. When it mooed, its moos could transform into yin thunder that damaged the mind.

Unfortunately, Pockface Bai and Yao Mei’er didn’t manage to go too far before the ground abruptly split open like a maw. The insides of the earth were jam-packed in squirming roots that resembled sharp teeth.

Caught off guard, Pockface Bai, Yao Mei’er and her two Kui Snakes all fell inside. Not a moment too soon, the roots began pulling at the earth and closing the gap at a prodigious rate.

To Pockface Bai’s credit, his reaction speed was impeccable. The instant he fell into the gap, his eyes flickered with ruthlessness, and he pushed Yao Mei’er on the shoulder and pushed himself back to safety.

“Pockface Bai, you!”

Yao Mei’er screamed as she plunged into the abyss. A second later, the chasm closed completely, and the woman was squashed like a bug.

Pockface Bai just barely returned to the surface before the gap could crush him just like Yao Mei’er. Heart beating like a drum, Pockface Bai muttered, “Sorry, Mei’er.”

Despair was welling inside his heart though. He might have survived the near death encounter, but the outskirts were still far, far away, and his fodders were all dead. How on earth was he going to survive this?

“Tsk tsk... you’re in quite the predicament, aren’t you?”

It was at this moment Pockface Bai heard a derisive snort. When he looked up, he saw three people standing not far away from him. One of them was very familiar.

“Shangguan Hongjin?!”

As soon as Pockface Bai saw Shangguan Hongjin, he immediately cried for help like a drowning man on his last breath, “Miss Shangguan, save me!”

“Save you? Heavens, why would I ever do that?”

Shangguan Hongjin was crossing her arms and enjoying the show. “I’m only here to witness your death.”

“I’ll give you anything if you save me, Miss Shangguan!”

Pockface Bai wasn’t going to give up on his one chance to survive, of course. “I have a lot of money and treasures. If you save me—if any of you is willing to save me—I can give you everything! Everything!”

“Tsk tsk... how generous of you.” Shangguan Hongjin chuckled before asking a question, “What if you were lying?”

“I swear that I would die a horrible death if I’m lying to you!” Pockface Bai swore. While he was distracted, two vines leaped up from the ground like vipers and ripped a small chunk of flesh from his stomach.

“An oath? While an oath is usually a trustworthy gesture,” Shangguan Hongjin sneered, “but we literally just saw you sacrificing your decade-old lover to save yourself. Anyone who trusts your oath would have to be stupid or ignorant, don’t you think?”

“What do I need to do to convince you to save me, Miss Shangguan? Just give it to me straight?” Pockface Bai cried urgently.

“Oh, that’s a good question.” Shangguan Hongjin said leisurely, “Gimme some time to think, will ya?”

That was what she said, but it was clear that she wasn’t thinking at all. She just wanted to see him suffer for as long as possible before he died.

“Were Miss Shangguan and Pockface Bai enemies in the past?” Ye Qing asked while rubbing his nose. Anyone in their right mind would be able to tell that Shangguan Hongjin had no intentions of saving Pockface Bai at all. The only reason she even showed herself was to kick the man while he was down.

“I guess so. I think I heard Pockface Bai ignoring the code of outlaws and robbing from the Flying Red Scarfs before. He had even killed her men,” Pedant Earth said uncertainly. “Well, it doesn’t matter. Pockface Bai is the kind of bastard not even the most blackhearted man cares to rescue, so we should just stay at the sidelines and let Miss Shangguan have her fun.”

Ye Qing smirked and spectated the scene quietly as Pedant Earth suggested.

Meanwhile, Pockface Bai had gotten some new wounds on his body. Seeds were taking root and sprouting in the wounds.