Stranger Danger

Chapter 93: Cheers to Humanity

On the bone altar, Evergreen Ivy sneered from within her hood, “The Nether Lord would descend any second now. Anyang is finished, and so are you!”

Faceless looked deathly pale, but Ye Qing asked a sudden question, “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Evergreen Ivy said in a mocking tone, “Oh, you mean your fellow humans’ final cries of sorrow and despair? I’ll admit, they sound pretty melodious!”

Ye Qing shook his head firmly. “Despair? You couldn’t have gotten it more wrong. It’s the sound of defiance, resolve, and hope!”

“Hope? Is this a joke?” Evergreen Ivy snorted. “Who can possibly turn this around, pray tell? You? Ling Jianqiu? Yan Yufei?”

“No wonder you’re the leader of this little group! That’s right! I am the one who will turn this around!” Ye Qing declared confidently before producing an incense stick out of seemingly nowhere. He then ignited it and prayed solemnly to the heavens.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing? Don’t you think it’s a little too late for prayers?” Dark Eye said mockingly when he saw this.

Ye Qing ignored him until he had bowed three times in a row. Only then did he look at the Stranger and said, “I remember someone saying something very similar to me in the past.”

“And?” Dark Eye didn’t understand where he was going with this.

“And he died.”

“...” Dark Eye thought that Ye Qing was spewing nonsense, but he wisely kept his mouth shut to avoid provoking the young man and losing his head as a result.

Meanwhile, Evergreen Ivy was suddenly struck by an inexplicable sense of unease as she watched Ye Qing. “What on earth are you planning?”

Ye Qing shot her a look before sighing. “Fine, I suppose it doesn’t matter. Your Nether Lord will be showing up very soon, right? That’s why I’m praying to the heavens and wishing him a safe journey!”

“What?” If Evergreen Ivy’s face could transform into a question mark, it would. She just could not figure out what was going on in the young man’s mind.

Logically speaking, she had absolutely nothing to worry about. The Nether Lord was literally seconds away from fully manifesting in this plane, and there should be nothing Ye Qing could do to change this at all. Therefore, all she needed to do was to wait for the Nether Lord to appear and squash the annoying gnat in front of her like a bug.

However, Evergreen Ivy just could not feel at ease for some reason. Her restlessness just kept growing and growing until finally, she lost her cool and shouted, “Dark Eye, extinguish that goddamn incense stick right now!”

Maybe it was because she shouted a little too loudly, or but the puff of air was just enough to blow out a candle in one corner of the altar.

Evergreen Ivy: “...”

Dark Eye: “...” Faceless: “...”

For a moment, the secret room was engulfed in awkward silence. The candle flames were the shield’s sole source of power, so blowing out even one of them was enough to weaken it considerably. This was proven when the fiery shield abruptly dimmed in brightness.

“Dammit!” It took Evergreen Ivy a couple of seconds to recover from her shock, but when she did she immediately summoned a wisp of flame and flicked it toward the extinguished candle—or at last, she tried to. Right before the flame would escape her fingertip, her nose was suddenly assaulted by an itchy sensation. It was so uncomfortable that she let out a powerful sneeze and discharged a smear of something straight at the wick of another candle. Outraged, the red candle extinguished itself in an instant.

It was an understandable reaction. The red candle might just be a candle, but it wasn't without its pride. No way it would stand for this humiliation!

That wasn’t all. Because of the sneeze, Evergreen Ivy’s flame went flying toward an evil-looking talisman instead of the candle she intended to reignite. It was a tiny flame, but the talisman generously burst into flames anyway. If she wanted it to burn, then it shall burn!

The problem was that the talisman was one of the keys to summon the Nether Lord. If it was burned into a crisp, then the summoning ritual would fail immediately. Horrified, Evergreen Ivy immediately rushed over to the talisman and slapped her hand over the fire.

The good news was that the fire had extinguished instantly. The bad news was that she had accidentally slapped the statue behind the talisman and sent it flying through the air. Her eyes bugged out as she tried to catch the statue, but it was far too late. It drew a beautiful arc across the air and landed right in front of Ye Qing’s foot.

“...”

Ye Qing subconsciously looked up and met Evergreen Ivy’s stunned, dazed, and disbelieving eyes. He could practically hear her thinking: What the fuck just happened? All I did was bark an order and sneeze, so how…

Ironically, this was beyond even Ye Qing’s expectations. When he ignited the Incense of Misfortune, his plan had been to induce Evergreen Ivy into making an “unfortunate” mistake and exploit the opening to destroy the altar. Instead, the poor girl had dismantled her own altar like she was possessed by the god of misfortune himself! He would shed a tear for her if she wasn’t trying to destroy Anyang and everyone in it!

A wicked smirk slowly spread across Ye Qing’s face as he gave Evergreen Ivy a wink. Then, he planted his foot on the statue.

“You dare!?” Evergreen Ivy let out a maniacal screech and raised her hand as if she could somehow command him to stop. The next moment, Ye Qing shuddered and crushed the statue beneath his foot.

While everyone was staring at him in shock, Ye Qing looked up at Evergreen Ivy again and shrugged innocently. “Sorry. I startle easily!”

Back on the surface, the entity was literally one foot away from manifesting in Anyang when suddenly, the flesh-and-blood door abruptly slammed shut and trapped his foot. Like a man whose foot was caught in a mass of metals after a major car accident, he was unable to pull free no matter how hard he pulled. The turn of events was so sudden and unexpected that even the soldiers abruptly stopped chanting and stared as the Nether Lord performed a one-footed dance for them in the sky.

As it turned out, it wasn’t a good idea to force your way through an already half-broken door via brute force. One particularly forceful pull later, the flesh-and-blood door abruptly shattered into pieces and engulfed that corner of the sky in a massive cloud of black qi. Then, the entity started dissipating bit by bit as it was consumed by the black qi.

“Nooooooooooooooooooooo…”

The Nether Lord struggled with all his might, but the ritual had failed, and he could not remain in this plane no matter how much he wanted to. He ended his performance with a magnificent, full-throated, anger-charged roar that would reverberate throughout Anyang for at least a few minutes before finally disappearing into nothing. When he was gone, the black energy in the air too dissipated into nothing it never was.

“This… It has to be Joyless! Joyless found those rats after all!” Yan Yufei exclaimed with mixed emotions. It wasn’t that he wasn’t happy, but just a moment ago he was fully prepared to prove his manhood and die a patriotic death. Then, the Nether Lord had disappeared in a positively comical fashion. It was no wonder that a somewhat traditional man like him was having trouble processing his emotions.

“It would seem that that is the case.” Ling Jianqiu nodded with a rare look of surprise and delight on his face as well. “He actually did it.”

“Ha, haha, hahahahaha! I knew Joyless could do it! I knew it!” Yan Yufei suddenly guffawed on top of his lungs. It was an utterly undignified laugh that did not befit a magistrate in the slightest, but no one cared. It was because the others were all absorbed in their own shock and elation.

“We won!”

“We won!”

“Shenwu!”

“Shenwu!”

“SHENWU!”

The chant erupted throughout Anyang once more, but this time it wasn’t filled with solemnity or grave determination. Instead, it was filled with joy and excitement. It was a cheer to the living, Anyang, and humanity!

……

“Nooooooooooooooooooooo…”

In stark contrast to the joyous cheers happening on the surface, a Stranger was howling in sorrow and despair as if he had lost both of his parents at the same time. It was, of course, Dark Eye.

“Bloody hell, shut up! If you miss your daddy that much, then I’ll send you over to him right now!” Ye Qing rubbed his ear annoyedly while extinguishing the Incense of Misfortune.

Evergreen Ivy didn’t lose her cool like Dark Eye did, however. In fact, she said in a surprisingly calm voice, “You may have won this time, Ye Qing, but the last laugh will belong to me. One day, I will kill you with my own hands!”

Ye Qing did not like the fact that she was acting so calm. He immediately dashed toward the altar and attempted to hit her with a palm strike, but—

Boom!

The altar abruptly exploded and forced him to dodge out of the way. As Evergreen Ivy slowly disappeared like a mirage, she left him one final message:

“See you soon, Ye Qing! Remember to watch your back!”

“Dammit!” Ye Qing’s forehead pulsed as he unleashed his spirit and scanned the entire area. However, he was unable to sense Evergreen Ivy anywhere. She must’ve prepared an escape route for herself even though she was fully confident that the ritual would succeed. It was a good habit, but he hated it when it belonged to his enemies.

Not about to make the same mistake twice, he turned around and stared at Dark Eye and Rotten Crown. “Oh? Are we saying goodbye already? Okay! Allow me to send you on your way!”

The two Strangers had been tiptoeing toward the entrance since Evergreen Ivy made her escape, but Ye Qing had noticed their movements as a matter of course. Evergreen Ivy managed to elude him because she was both lucky and prepared, but these two? He felt insulted that they even thought that they could escape from right under his nose!

Ye Qing disappeared and reappeared right behind Dark Eye. Then, he made a grab for the Stranger’s skull with his left hand. Sensing that he was in grave danger, Dark Eye immediately grew pitch black eyeballs all over the back of his head and shot a myriad of invisible beams at Ye Qing. At the same time, countless eyeballs appeared above Dark Eye and stared down on him as well.

As it turned out, the eyeballs exuded the exact same qualities as the Servant of Fear’s corrupting influence. It attacked the mind and spirit and attempted to transform him into something he wasn’t.

“This again? Too bad you don’t have enough eyeballs though! Your appearance is also way too human for this tactic!” Ye Qing said mockingly. Frankly, the Servant of Fear would’ve found it insulting to be compared to Dark Eye if they were still alive!

Ye Qing sped up and caught Dark Eye’s skull before the Stranger could try anything else. A whoosh of bluish black flames later, Dark Eye managed another two steps due to momentum before disintegrating into a pile of gray ash.

“So scary! We must run!”

“So brutal! We must flee!”

Rotten Crown paled and tried to flee after Dark Eye had died in front of them, but it turned out that two heads sharing one body was a terrible idea. At first, Rotten Crown ran in circles three times in a clockwise direction. Then, she turned around and ran in circles three times in an anti-clockwise direction. This kept going on and on as the two heads argued with each other incessantly,

“To the left, idiot!”

“No! We should go to the right!”

It was impossible to tell if they were really trying to flee or just fooling around. The Stranger had turned into pure comedy relief since they lost their main head.

“I almost feel bad for them, but eh, there’s no future for them anyway!” Ye Qing shrugged before dashing over and landing a “Boundless Lightning Palm”. One thunderous boom later, Rotten Crown’s body exploded into smithereens.

“Idiot! You just killed yourself!”

“Stupid! You’re going to die as well!”

“Ptooey! You’re the stupid, your whole family’s stupid!”

“Ptooey ptooey! You’re the stupid, your whole lineage is stupid!”

“Ptooey ptooey ptooey!”

“Ptooey ptooey ptooey ptooey!”

The two heads would not stop yelling and spitting at each other’s faces even as their voices faded over time. Eventually, they fell completely still.

“Why didn’t you keep them alive for interrogation, young master? They might know a thing or two about Evergreen Ivy’s identity,” Faceless asked after Ye Qing had slain Dark Eye and Rotten Crown. It wasn’t because he felt sympathy for his fellow Strangers though. In fact, he wanted Evergreen Ivy dead as soon as possible. After all, the woman knew that he was the traitor, and his life was in danger so long as she was still alive.

“There’s no point!” Ye Qing replied while looking around the secret room for a bit. He felt disappointed when he found nothing valuable. “Evergreen is an incredibly careful Stranger. There is little chance she would have leaked her identity to Dark Eye or Rotten Crown, so it would’ve just been a waste of time!”

“Wise words, young master!” Faceless nodded in agreement. He was of the same opinion, frankly.

“Oh right, what is that incense stick you used just now, young master? Is it the one you made outside the county the other day?” Faceless asked another question.

“Yep. It’s called the Incense of Misfortune!”

“The Incense of Misfortune? No wonder!” Faceless nodded with trepidation when he recalled just how unlucky Evergreen Ivy had been during those final moments. “Does this mean you can literally pray your enemies to death now, young master? That’s incredible! It’s a million times more effective than sticking nails in a voodoo doll!”

“...”