Stranger Danger

Chapter 83: May Humanity

“There’s a third assassin? How?”

Old Grass didn’t fall even though half of his body was annihilated by Lightning Bolt. He simply flashed bright green again and regrew the missing half of his body. In fact, he looked more stunned than he was concerned with his own wounds.

Old Grass possessed an innate magic that allowed him to control the surrounding plants and feel what they feel to a certain degree. It was how he noticed Kung Fu Frog’s presence earlier and realized that something was amiss. Just now, his magic was still informing him that there were only two presences around him, and they were Faceless and the frog Stranger. Then, out of seemingly nowhere, a third presence had appeared and dealt him a serious blow. It was both extremely disturbing and worrying. More importantly…

“A human?!”

When Old Grass saw Ye Qing standing on a wall and looking down, he could not help but explode in outrage, “You colluded with a human, Faceless!?”

“Hehe. Collude? Oh no no, I’m on his side. It’s what I determined to be the best course of action after reviewing the circumstances.”

Still dodging Old Grass’ attacks, Faceless persuaded with a smile, “Old Grass, you and I are old acquaintances, so I’m going to give you some advice. Surrender now, and you may yet live to see another day with my help. Otherwise, tonight will be the last night you live.”

But Old Grass was relentless. He uttered in a dark, raspy voice, “You dare to collude with a human, Faceless? You deserve death!”

The withered grass in the courtyard grew even wilder. It looked like a tidal wave of grass was attempting to squash Faceless like a bug.

Of course, Ye Qing wasn’t exempted from Old Grass’ hatred. He shouted, “Die, human!” and stomped the ground. Every blade of grass in the courtyard abruptly snapped in half before floating toward the sky. Then, they fell down toward Ye Qing like a rain of swords.

“Pretty impressive!” Ye Qing raised his eyebrows and smiled. As he slowly raised his left hand, the air around him started shaking ominously. It almost looked like he was lifting a mountain. When the rain of grass swords was about one meter away from him, he thrust his left hand forward and conjured a sea of bluish black flames. It was mixed with the tyrannical force of the lightning as well.

“Blue Demon Hand”

“Boundless Lightning Palm”

The “Blood Shadow Divine Art” was one of the finest Vessel Augmentation Arts out there, allowing him to unlock all twelve Standard Meridians, eight Extraordinary Meridians, and three hundred and sixty points and achieving perfect augmentation. As a result, his true qi was far greater than the average late-stage Vessel Augmentor. Combined with the Boundless Lightning Palm, it was like he was unleashing a tsunami of pure power!

Boom!

The rain of grass swords crashed against the tsunami of fire, and as expected the bluish black flames easily burned them all into ashes. Ye Qing did not wait for the ashes to fall to the ground and appeared in front of Old Grass in just the blink of an eye. Before the Stranger could react, he slapped his sleeve right across his chest.

“Flowing Cloud, Flying Sleeve”

There was so much force behind the attack that his chest caved in, and his entire person sank into the ground, leaving a comically-shaped hole behind. However, Old Grass transformed into a bundle of withered grass just a second later.

“It’s a fake?”

Ye Qing frowned and mustered his energy. His spirit spread out in direction like a giant ripple, and his aura encompassed the entire area like a spider’s web. He was trying to find Old Grass by perceiving every minute change in his surroundings.

“Got you!”

Ye Qing’s eyes lit up, and he clenched his hand together. A Blood Shadow flickered toward a certain direction, and an empty spot in one corner of the ruined shop shivered unnaturally. Then, Old Grass abruptly popped into existence. As it turned out, the cunning Stranger had been hiding inside his ruined home this whole time.

As soon as Old Grass reappeared into view, countless Blood Shadows swooped down on him and lifted him into the air. His? body flashed green again and again as he attempted to break free to no avail.

“Surrender. You cannot escape.”

Ye Qing slowly approached the struggling Stranger and said, “I may allow you to live if you surrender now and tell me everything!”

“Surrender? Keep dreaming, human!” Old Grass growled. The green light immediately grew much brighter, and a terrible power began gushing out of his body.

“Watch out, young master! He’s about to detonate his own mind!” Faceless hurriedly warned.

“Hmph! Like that could happen on my watch!” Ye Qing sneered and grabbed Old Grass’ head with his left hand. He then squeezed until the Stranger’s head exploded and burned his body into ash with the Netherflame.

“What a shame!”

After Old Grass was dead, Ye Qing shot the ruin that was once a tofu shop a glance and shook his head. He said, “Old Grass is dead. Let’s go!” before dashing through the streets and disappearing into the night. Faceless and Kung Fu Frog followed closely behind him.

Silence and tranquility returned to the area after Ye Qing was gone. It was almost as if nothing had happened as a cool breeze blew across the courtyard of yellow grass.

About half an incense stick later, a patch of ground in the courtyard suddenly twitched once. Then, a clump of lush green grass burst into view. Unlike the ordinary grass around it, it looked like it was carved out of white jade and glowed an eerie green light. Then, a blurry, transparent silhouette appeared above the grass and whispered, “Since Faceless has betrayed us, there is a high chance our plot has been leaked to the enemy. I must inform Evergreen Ivy about this immediately.”

The silhouette was none other than Old Grass. Somehow, he was still alive even though his body was dust and ash at this point. He slowly floated into the air until he was fully detached from the unusual grass. As if on cue, the grass withered and died as if it had lost all of its vitality in an instant.

Like a ghost, Old Grass rode the wind and floated from Westward Alley. He flew straight toward the county center almost as if he had a specific destination in mind.

Eventually, he arrived at the county center and flew toward a certain building. His silhouette looked even blurrier and transparent than before, but the old Stranger was wearing a smile on his face. Once he got inside and informed Evergreen Ivy about what happened, he would be able to pass away without any regrets.

Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Right before he was about to fly into the building, a bluish black hand blocked right in front of his face. Before he knew it, bluish black flames had surrounded his whole body.

“It’s you!? But how—” Old Grass could hardly believe it when he realized who had intercepted him at the last moment. His expression morphed into madness and struggle, “No! Impossible! You cannot—”

“I’m sorry, old man, but this is where your life ends!” said a young man’s voice. A second later, Old Grass’ final wails dissipated into nothing, and not a trace of him was left behind. Pale moonlight shone down from the sky and illuminated half of the killer’s face. He was, of course, Ye Qing.

After Ye Qing had killed Old Grass, he looked at the towering building not far away from him and muttered in a disbelieving voice, “The Pacification Bureau… to think that this is where she’s hiding!”

That’s right. The place Old Grass tried so hard to reach before Ye Qing had intercepted him was the Anyang Pacification Bureau headquarters itself. A million thoughts raced across his mind as he stared at the towering building with dark eyes.

“Tsk tsk! Who would’ve thought that Evergreen Ivy is a member of the Pacification Bureau?”

It was at this moment Faceless poked his head out from behind Ye Qing. Although his tone was mocking and sarcastic, the way he was eyeing the Pacification Bureau betrayed the fact that he was terrified of the place. He quickly looked away before asking curiously, “How did you know that Old Grass knew where Evergreen Ivy is hiding, young master?”

“I guessed,” Ye Qing answered. “Old Grass is both your information gatherer and your eyes and ears in Anyang. Naturally, he must know a way to pass on a message or contact your leader, Evergreen Ivy. After all, what’s the point of gathering all this information if he couldn’t inform her about it in time?”

“I see! That’s why you purposely left Old Grass alive when you could’ve annihilated him utterly! Your wisdom knows no bounds, young master!” Faceless exclaimed in amazement.

Ye Qing ignored Faceless. Faceless had long since told him that Old Grass had a powerful survival technique that allowed him to sever a small portion of his mind and host it on a plant. In case of emergencies, he could abandon his body and be reborn from said plant.

Thanks to his powerful spirit, he had discovered the plant Old Grass had attached his mind to pretty much as soon as he destroyed his body. He chose not to eliminate him because he wanted to know if Old Grass would lead him to Evergreen Ivy’s hideout, which he did.

The answer turned out to be more shocking than he expected, however. He never imagined that Evergreen Ivy would be hiding in the Pacification Bureau headquarters of all things. She was most likely a member of the Pacification Bureau as well. How was this even possible?

“You left Old Grass’ mind alive because you want him to lead you to Evergreen Ivy’s hideout. In that case, why didn’t you take it a step further and let him lead you straight to Evergreen Ivy herself? Isn’t it a bit of a waste?” Faceless asked another question.

“That would’ve been one step too much!” Ye Qing shook his head. “As undermanned as they are, the Pacification Bureau is still tightly guarded and helmed by Chief Ling himself. Neither you nor I have been here before, so it’s more likely that we’re only going to trip some sort of alarm and expose ourselves. That would immediately alert Evergreen Ivy that something is amiss.”

“Also, did you actually think Old Grass was going to meet Evergreen Ivy in person? I can’t deny that it is a possibility, but he doesn’t need to see Evergreen Ivy to warn her that the plan has gone awry. All he needs to do is to cause a bit of commotion after he enters the Pacification Bureau, and Evergreen Ivy would automatically know that something is wrong. That is why killing him here and now is the best course of action.”

Ye Qing sighed quietly. “Knowing Evergreen Ivy is hiding in the Pacification Bureau is good enough. After that, it’s just a matter of carrying out a secret investigation and eliminating the suspects one by one.”

Ye Qing was extremely glad that he had warned Yan Yufei beforehand to tell no one but Ling Jianqiu about his plan. Otherwise, the Strangers might’ve found out about it and thrown everything into disarray. Just in case, he needed to head back and remind Yan Yufei one more time about the necessity for secrecy.

“Let’s go!”

His mind made up, Ye Qing immediately went to the county hall to inform Yan Yufei about Old Grass’ death and the possibility that Evergreen Ivy might be hiding in the Pacification Bureau headquarters itself. Naturally, the magistrate was both stunned and furious to hear this. Without hesitation, he took off to the Pacification Bureau to speak with Ling Jianqiu even though it was almost dawn at this point.

Although he already had a meeting with the Chief of Bureau this noon, the man hadn’t yet given him a response. This meant that Ling Jianqiu probably hadn’t done anything to alarm Evergreen Ivy just yet. Even so, he needed to inform the man about this as soon as possible and minimize the chances that something might go wrong.

Ye Qing did not linger in the county hall nor did he return to the bookstore after Yan Yufei was gone. Instead, he went to the Iron Shirt Gang’s headquarters and summoned Tao Xian. He left the man with some instructions and took the materials he had requested the man to gather for him earlier.

After the duo had exited the Iron Shirt Gang’s headquarters, Faceless feigned astonishment and exclaimed, “I had no idea that you’re the gang boss of the Iron Shirt Gang, young master! Does that mean that you’re the one who took out Yan Tieyi and Zheng Feng?”

Ye Qing shot him a look. “Quit pretending you haven’t figured it out a while ago.”

He had used the Lightning Bolt and the Blue Demon Hand in front of Faceless multiple times at this point. Only an idiot or a pretend-idiot would fail to put two and two together, and clearly Faceless belonged to the latter category.

“Hehehe, you are right. But every wise man needs a fool to portray their wisdom, and I am all too happy to play that role for you, young master!” Faceless replied without a shred of shame or embarrassment whatsoever. “So, where are we going now, young master?”

Ye Qing looked up. The morning bell rang, and a beam of light pierced through the sky like a holy sword that would cut through any darkness. As the world brightened, he said quietly, “We’re going to leave the county for a bit and make an incense stick.”

May humanity always triumph over hardships and welcome a good ending. May the light forever shine on us all.