Stranger Danger

Chapter 92: Shenwu

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“Young master?” Dark Eye and Rotten Crown automatically filtered most of Faceless’ boasting out of their mind except the important bit. Both Strangers wore a severe expression when they turned to look at Ye Qing.

Faceless might be beneath their notice, but the young man was a different story. He looked incredibly young, and his cultivation level seemed so-so at best. And yet, every cell in their body was screaming that he wasn’t someone to be trifled with. The fact that they lost their arms in the earlier exchange was proof of that.

Ye Qing wasn’t looking at them, however. Since the moment he entered the secret room, he only had eyes for the altar and the silhouette on top of it. He said, “Damn, Faceless! Were you hiding your strength this whole time? Now I feel sorry for stealing your limelight! Okay, you can play with the small fries. I’m going to focus on the altar!”

There was no time, and Dark Eye and Rotten Crown weren’t worth his attention. Since Faceless wanted to prove himself so badly, it was only right that he, the master, gave him the opportunity to do so, right?

Small Fry D and R: “...”

Small Fry F: “......”

Faceless was more shameless than most since he had no face, but this face-slapping onslaught? still felt as hard as a hurricane. If he knew this was going to happen, he would never have succumbed to the temptation. It was too late for regrets though. Even if he took back his words now, Ye Qing would not change his mind, and Rotten Crown and Dark Eye definitely wouldn’t overlook him!

“You won’t damage the altar, human!” Rotten Crown pounced toward Ye Qing when he took off toward the altar. As she ran, large clumps of rotten flesh fell off her head and exposed her bony white skull. They splattered on the ground with a disgusting squelch and spilled pools of yellowish liquid. Then, rotten arms, heads, tongue, teeth, hair and other unholy creatures crawled out of the pools and pounced toward Ye Qing as well.

“Get lost!”

Ye Qing didn’t even look at Rotten Crown, however. He simply swung his sleeve and sent a raging torrent of force in her direction. The force blast annihilated all the strange creatures she had created instantly, and his sleeve struck her squarely in the face. If Rotten Crown’s height was average, the sleeve would have put a hole in her stomach at most. However, she was an exceptionally short Stranger, so…

Bang!

Not only had Rotten Crown’s head exploded like a watermelon, she crashed into the wall at the far end so hard that the entire room shook, and a bit of dust fell down from the ceiling. The Stranger still wasn’t dead, however. Her empty shoulders wriggled a little before a pair of smaller heads about half the size of the original head grew out of them. The head on the left asked, “Are we still fighting, or?”

The head on the right yelled, “Are you stupid? He just beat us like it was nothing! We’d die for sure if we attacked him again!”

Enraged at being called stupid, the head on the left yelled back, “You’re stupid! Your whole family is born stupid!”

The head on the right screeched in outrage, “Who are you calling stupid! I dare you to say that again!”

Spittle flew everywhere as the head on the left taunted, “Stupid, stupid, you’re so stupid~”

As expected, the argument quickly devolved into a shouting match where absolutely no one was the winner. Neither head could get at each other physically because their heads were just a little too far apart, and their hands had fallen off during the crash earlier. Once words had proven insufficient to express their outrage and disdain, they even started spitting at each other’s faces like children. It would’ve been beyond hilarious if Anyang’s existence wasn’t on the line right now.

Meanwhile, Ye Qing had broken off into a run as soon as he incapacitated Rotten Crown, his aura growing increasingly powerful with every step he took. When he was about three meters away from the altar, he leaped into the air and brought down his crescent saber with all his might to unleash a powerful blast of energy at the altar.

Ye Qing had gone all out with the attack. Only a total idiot would try to save his strength at this time. Of course, he could’ve unleashed an even greater attack had he chosen to destroy the altar at melee range, but he was afraid that stepping on the evil structure would have dire consequences. The outcome was the same anyway. As long as the altar was destroyed, the summoning ritual would be disrupted, and the Nether Lord would not be able to descend on this plane.

As for the black hooded figure on the altar, he was pretty sure that she was Evergreen Ivy. If he could kill her with the same strike, then even better.

However, pale white flame surged out of the candles placed in the eight corners of the altar and formed a semicircular shield. Ye Qing’s attack crashed into the shield, and—

Boom!

The resulting explosion was so huge that the room wouldn’t stop shaking, and everyone would be breathing dust until they got out of the room. However, the attack had failed to shatter the seemingly fragile altar. The fiery shield protecting it looked untouched as well. Ye Qing was the one who was sent flying like a ragged doll, and even after he landed on the ground he was unable to catch himself until he was almost back at the entrance. There were multiple deep cracks on the ground where his feet had dug into it, and his saber broke off inch by inch like it was made of dust.

Ye Qing wasn’t done, however. As soon as he managed to arrest his momentum, he shot forward even faster than before and cracked the limestone floor beneath his feet like a spider web. An unbelievable amount of true qi poured out of his body as he swung his sleeves at the altar.

“Flowing Cloud, Flying Sleeve”

Rumble!

An even bigger explosion rocked the secret room like an earthquake, and this time the fiery shield wobbled like it had taken a solid blow. However, the bone altar within the shield was still untouched, much less Evergreen Ivy.

Thud thud thud!

Ye Qing was thrown back yet again, his sleeves scattering into countless pieces of fabric with every step he took.

After Ye Qing had caught himself for a second time, he wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his lips and muttered, “It’s seriously tough!”

He had literally given his 120% to unleash the saber attack and the sleeve attack. He dared to say that no one in the Vessel Augmentation stage would dare to take either one of his attacks head on. However, it still wasn’t enough to break through the fiery shield, and now, he had lost both of his weapons.

“Hahaha! It’s useless!” A ridiculing voice came from atop the altar. Ye Qing looked up and saw Evergreen Ivy shaking her head a little under her hood.

This shield can only be destroyed by an Astral Refiner. You are strong, but not even you can breach it! No one in Anyang can! So stop wasting your energy and submit to fate! No one can stop our lord from descending!”

At the far end of the wall, Rotten Crown’s two heads suddenly stopped arguing and started taunting at Ye Qing with surprising coordination,

“Hahaha… you’re out of ideas, aren’t you!”

“Hahaha! Hit the shield some more, stupid! What’s wrong? Are you out of stamina already?”

“Hehehe. He should’ve known he couldn’t break the shield, but he still wasted his energy anyway. What an idiot!”

“That’s right! He’s an idiot through and through!”

“Can’t I?” Ye Qing suddenly glanced at the two heads. They instantly shivered like they were licked by death and snapped their mouths shut.

Dark Eye had no such qualms, however. He suddenly burst into a fit of mad, uncontrollable laughter while saying, “Hahaha! You’ve failed, Faceless, human! You’ve failed! So what if you managed to find this place? You’re still going to die! Hahaha! Tremble in fear! Despair! DIE! AHAHAHAHAHA!”

Faceless looked deathly pale. Ye Qing looked like he was contemplating something.

……

Crack!

Meanwhile, light and darkness, hope and death, good and evil were still clashing in the skies of Anyang. For a time, they were the only colors of the entire world. Then, a crack caused everyone’s head to swivel in the same direction, and they realized in horror that it had come from the Heavens’ Eye itself. Cracks were forming on its surface, and it didn’t look like it was going to stop.

“Not good. The Heavens’ Eye is about to run out of power!” Ling Jianqiu and Yan Yufei exchanged grim looks with each other. Worse still, the arm was still as powerful as ever.

Rumble!

As if on cue, the darkness encompassing the sky pressed an inch closer toward the ground, and the light of the Heavens’ Eye dimmed even further. Everyone knew it was coming, but their hearts still sank to the bottom when the relic finally shattered into a million pieces.

The second the Heavens’ Eye vanished, the light resisting the darkness immediately started fading like water without a source; a plant without roots. In the end, all that was left was infinite darkness.

It wasn’t like their efforts were completely futile, however. Half of the flesh-and-blood door had been seared away by the light. It was also covered in holes and nowhere as pristine and ominous as it was at the beginning.

The arm was also missing everything beneath its elbow. The stump was dripping not blood, but a kind of dark energy that could only be described as evil, twisted, and strange.

Still, it wasn’t enough.

Buzz…

The half-a-door started shaking violently. It looked like someone was trying to force their way through. First, it was a shoulder. Then, it was half a head. A couple wriggles after that, the entity managed to squeeze through half of his body. When it finally managed to put a leg through the door, the air shook, space rippled, and a terrifying, seemingly omnipotent presence bore down from above.

At that moment, every human felt like an ant that was moments away from being crushed by the heavens. What could a mortal do against a god or a demon? Nothing. Nothing at all. Forget resisting, they couldn’t even muster the courage to look at the entity directly.

All hope was lost from the moment the Heavens’ Eye was destroyed. As fear and despair started spreading throughout Anyang like a plague, some people even curled up on the ground and started crying like a baby. At this rate, Anyang’s demise was all but set in stone.

“Did Joyless fail?” Yan Yufei muttered. His hair was loose and messy, and his clothes were disheveled. His eyes were calm and fearless unlike many others, but it wasn’t because his character was that indomitable. Some people calmed down instead of panicking when faced with absolute despair, and he was one of them.

“It looks like today is the day I die fighting demons and protecting the people of Anyang. I have no regrets.” Ling Jianqiu replied just as coolly as ever. “I only loathe the fact that I will not live long enough to slay every demon in this world!”

“Me too, Chief Ling, but the people of Anyang… they did not deserve this fate!” Yan Yufei sighed. No one else said a thing after that.

Right now, there were many people who regretted not doing better in life. There were even more people who were ridden with grief and unwillingness to succumb to their fate.

The entity in the sky seemed to deeply enjoy their despair, sorrow, fear and struggle. Its presence grew even more oppressive than before.

For a time, silence and despair hung over Anyang like a suffocating blanket when suddenly, a voice spoke up,

“Shenwu…”

The voice belonged to a Shenwu Defense Force soldier. He was covered in blood, and he looked so weak it was a miracle he managed to make a sound at all. But not only had he shattered the silence with his cry of defiance, he stood as tall and straight as the spear in his hand.

“Shenwu…”

A second voice spoke up. It belonged to another soldier who had lost his left foot. His disability did not stop him from propping himself up with his spear and standing just as straight as his comrade.

“Shenwu…”

A third voice responded. The soldier who said it had lost an arm, but it didn’t stop him from lifting a banner with a tiger-and-leopard symbol into the air with the other. His expression too was firm and unyielding.

“Shenwu…”

“Shenwu…”

Shenwu…”

More and more soldiers rose to their feet and chanted the word “Shenwu” like a mantra no matter what state they were in. At first, it was just a trickle that could barely be heard, but over time it grew louder and louder, until finally the entire Anyang was shaking with the battle cry!

They were soldiers who had sworn themselves to defend their people to the last. They were warriors who flirted with danger and death every day. So what if the battle was lost? So what if they were all going to die? They would still uphold their duty faithfully. They would never give in to fear or despair, and they most certainly weren’t going to pass to the other side like sniveling cowards!

Shenwu, Shenwu, Shenwu!

“Hahaha! Good! Good! Let it be known that there are no cowards in Chu!” Yan Yufei laughed energetically as the despair in his eyes vanished without a trace. “Let it be known that the people of Chu would rather die than submit to fate!”

“Death before dishonor!” Ling Jianqiu echoed in agreement before lifting his head high and staring at the entity without fear. “Death before dishonor!”

In the sky, the dark silhouette humphed as if annoyed by the puny humans’ show of defiance. Black energy poured out of its body faster than ever before and fell toward Anyang like a world-ending downpour.

The pressure bearing down on the humans suddenly increased many fold. Their bones started cracking ominously like they were carrying a mountain on their shoulders. But no one knelt, and no one was afraid. The next second might very well be their last, but they would at least die with their honor intact!

Death, before dishonor!

Buzz!

The flesh-and-blood door shook again, and more of the entity emerged into the world. Now, it was just one step away from descending upon this plane; one moment away from turning Anyang into a hellscape!