Stranger Danger

Chapter 98: On Second Thought

“Hope, huh? If hope is all it takes to change fate, then the world would’ve been a much better place!” Qing Kui said mockingly.

The mask he was wearing was called the “Bronze Tiger Head”, a bonafide Malice-class Strange Artifact. Legends said that it belonged to a fearsome war general whose name was lost to time. Imbued with a terrible amount of power, it could summon the general’s soul fragment and have him fight on behalf of its wielder.

The crescent of death was the general’s ultimate attack, and it was about as potent as a late-stage Astral Refiner’s attack. It was why Qing Kui’s ridiculing comment wasn’t unreasonable. The fact was that Ye Qing was slowing down and growing pale over time. The crescent of death was slowly but surely shrinking his room for maneuver as well.

“Die!”

Qing Kui sneered coldly. From the moment he used the Bronze Tiger Head, he had given up on the idea of capturing Ye Qing alive. After all, the painting had to be on Ye Qing’s person or somewhere in the headquarters. It would take a while, but he would find the painting eventually.

Qing Kui failed to notice something critical, however. It was true that Ye Qing was losing room for maneuver, but he was also getting closer and closer to Qing Kui. When he was mere meters away from the Astral Refiner, he abruptly jabbed a finger at him.

It looked like the act of a petulant child who was moments away from losing their game, but Qing Kui felt a chill running down his spine for some reason. The next moment, he felt his blood suddenly going out of control like someone had added a drop of water into a pot of boiling oil. It slammed against the walls of his blood vessels repeatedly as if it was trying to escape.

Qi and blood were key components of one’s vigor. If either one of them was disrupted, it would be impossible for the person to function normally. Naturally, Qing Kui was immediately assaulted by a wave of dizziness, and his vital signs were going haywire as well.

“What’s happening?” Qing Kui pressed a hand to his chest and looked inward. To his shock, he noticed invisible, dust-sized tendrils that almost looked like shadows of blood swimming inside his body. He would never have noticed them if not for the sudden deterioration of his health. They were Ye Qing’s Blood Shadows and the reason for sudden disruption of his vigor, of course.

“When did this…?” Qing Kui muttered in confusion and disbelief even as he mustered his true qi and attempted to expel the Blood Shadows. However, they were unusually difficult to remove even for an Astral Refiner like him.

Suddenly, Qing Kui felt a tiny burst of pain behind his neck. A thin wound then appeared out of seemingly nowhere. When he focused his eyes and stared at his surroundings, he finally noticed the nigh invisible Blood Shadows swimming all around him like ghosts.

“This is… the Blood Shadow Magic?” Qing Kui’s eyes bulged when he realized what he was seeing. “How did you know the Blood Shadow Castle’s magic art? Are you a disciple of Blood Shadow Castle?”

However, he quickly refuted his own assumption, “No, no, I must be mistaken. The real Blood Shadow Magic could never affect my vigor! Who are you?”

More wounds appeared on Qing Kui’s body as he was speaking. They were so tiny that they couldn’t even threaten an ordinary person’s life, but for some reason Qing Kui had a bad, bad feeling about this.

“Haha! You came to kill me, and you don’t even know who I am?” Ye Qing replied while still darting about in the sky. Thanks to the Blood Shadows affecting the flow of Qing Kui’s vigor, the crescent of death chasing after him had become a lot weaker than before. It still wasn’t enough though. He had snuck the Blood Shadows into Qing Kui’s body almost as soon as they started fighting, but the assassin was an Astral Refiner. He quickly found out that he was unable to control the Blood Shadows enough to affect Qing Kui’s vigor unless he was within a few meters of him. As for killing him outright with the Blood Shadows like he had done with the Soundless Bugs, that was downright impossible without sufficient preparation.

So he prepared. While Qing Kui was still struggling to control his vigor or his astral qi, he landed hit after hit with his Blood Shadows until the guy was bleeding all over the place. Eventually, Qing Kui grew frustrated enough to shout, “I don’t care who the fuck you are, but you’ll never kill me with such petty tricks!”

As soon as he finished, the Astral Refiner forcefully mustered a ball of astral qi in his dantian and discharged it across his whole body. This time, he was able to destroy the Blood Shadows lurking within his vigor.

“Well done, friend. Unfortunately, you’re just a little too late!” Ye Qing said suddenly. Before Qing Kui could make sense of his words, blood abruptly squirted out of his wounds like water out of an open valve!

It happened so fast. One second ago, Qing Kui was still rejoicing over the annihilation of the Blood Shadows and getting ready to end Ye Qing once and for all. The next, fountains of blood shot out of his wounds like fireworks, and then all that was left was a pile of skins and bones. Qing Kui never even reacted to it until it was too late.

This was what Ye Qing had been planning from the beginning. Although his Blood Shadow Magic could absorb and affect another person’s blood, there was only so much he could do against people whose cultivation level was higher than him. To give an example, a weaker cultivator was like a small, inferior quality water bag. One tiny hole was all he needed to drain them of their blood. However, a stronger cultivator was a bigger, tougher water bag. Not only did it take much more effort to put a hole in their body, he needed multiple holes to drain their blood completely.

So that was what he did. He put as many holes in Qing Kui’s body as possible before draining him. Not even an Astral Refiner could withstand losing most of their blood in one go!

How does it feel to be sucked dry, bitch?

However, Qing Kui still wasn’t dead despite losing the heavy injury. He shouted, “Save me, junior brother!” before jumping to his feet and running toward the exit. Of course, he could no longer use the Bronze Tiger Head in this state, so the war general behind his back and the crescent of death chasing after Ye Qing abruptly shattered into a million pieces and vanished.

He’s still alive? Ye Qing squinted at the escaping Astral Refiner. Then, he reappeared behind Qing Kui and beheaded him in one smooth motion.

Qing Kui’s head drew a long arc across the air. While it was passing by a rooftop, a silhouette just so happened to appear on the rooftop and caught sight of the head. Its cheeks were sunken, and its eyes were bulging like the eyeballs might fall off their sockets at any moment. It looked like a skull wearing human skin, and it was beyond ugly to put it mildly.

“Heavens, that’s the ugliest head I’ve ever seen in my life,” the silhouette commented. Then, he realized something and exclaimed in shock, “Wait… is that Qing Kui’s head?”

After the head fell out of sight, he shrugged. “He’s still ugly though.”

The silhouette was Xiao Yang, of course. While looking down on Ye Qing from the rooftop, he whispered seemingly to himself, “My senior brother may be a little arrogant, violent, loathsome and ugly, and although I totally would’ve killed him myself because I didn’t want to share the painting with anyone, he was my senior brother and a member of my Sunset Hill. As the saying goes, blood is thicker than water—wait that’s not right, he’s my senior brother, not my actual brother. Er…”

Xiao Yang thought for a long time but could not come up with a proper idiom, so he resumed his monologue, “Anyway, because something something and yada yada, it is only right that I take revenge for him.”

Xiao Yang got ready to meet Ye Qing in battle after he finally finished his inane mumbling, but right before he could do so Ye Qing abruptly raised his hand and made a fist. All the blood in the area immediately floated into the air and converged into a globe in front of him. Then, he swallowed the globe and returned to full strength in an instant!

“... On second thought, never mind…”

Xiao Yang was going to attack the young man just now because he looked tired, but now? The young man looked like he was up for another showdown, and heavens know that Xiao Yang never fought fairly if he could help it. Qing Kui wasn’t just any disciple, he was a genius disciple who had a good chance of becoming a pillar of Sunset Hill in the future. Sure, his senior brother was no match for him, but even he couldn’t have killed the Astral Refiner and walked away unscathed. In fact, the best outcome he could hope for was a close victory.

On the other hand, the young man had killed Qing Kui with seemingly no effort whatsoever. He couldn’t spot a scratch on his body even after his senior brother had used his trump card, the Bronze Tiger Head, meaning that he was definitely more formidable than Qing Kui. As if that wasn’t enough, the guy had seemingly recovered his strength in just the blink of an eye! What the hell was even that technique? Was that why Qing Kui had died looking like the victim of a forbidden voodoo ritual? Who in their right mind would engage such a powerful and unpredictable opponent if they could help it?

He wasn’t just any man, he was an extraordinarily handsome man [1]. He had no intentions of fighting a battle he could have avoided, losing, and being sucked in a dry, ugly husk. The thought that he might deprive every woman in the world of a national treasure like himself was enough to douse his fighting spirit like an ice bucket.

So no, he wasn’t going to fight the young man, at least not now. Revenge was a dish best served cold, and the painting could afford to wait a bit before returning to its rightful owner.

His mind made up, Xiao Yang turned around and suddenly started fading as if his body was made of mist. It wasn’t long before he was completely gone.

It was at this moment Tao Xian, Jie Chen and the others finally showed up in typical late cavalry fashion. “Boss! We’re here, boss! Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine. It’s just a small fry. It’s nothing to worry about,” Ye Qing replied casually while waving his hand.

Tao Xian and Jie Chen stared at the collapsed walls, ruined buildings, and tattered courtyard around them. Then, they felt the terrifying aura still permeating the air. Finally, they exchanged a quick glance with each other before looking away.

If this is what the boss considers a small fry, then what are we? The dirt on the ground?

Tao Xian stared at the beheaded “small fry” on the ground and praised from the bottom of his heart, “Long live the boss!”

“Long live the boss!” Everyone else dropped to one knee and echoed in heartfelt agreement.

“Mm. Everything’s fine now, so you may take your leave!” Ye Qing waved for the others to leave before adding, “Tao Xian, stay with me.”

After the others were gone, Tao Xian saluted him respectfully and asked, “What are your orders, boss?”

Ye Qing answered, “I want you to find out everything about this assassin. Who is he? Where did he come from? What did he—”

He abruptly cut himself off. It was only now he noticed that the assassin had been sucked into a dry husk, so whatever defining features it had before was either unrecognizable or distorted. His shrunken head also resembled a Stranger more than a human being. How was Tao Xian supposed to find anything like this?

“Never mind. Just clean up the place when tomorrow comes.”

“As you command!” Tao Xian saluted before leaving his boss to his devices.

After Tao Xian was gone, Ye Qing searched Qing Kui’s corpse for loot but could not find anything.

“Penniless bastard. How is he so poor that he doesn’t have a Nature’s Shell?” Ye Qing muttered irritably but relaxed when he glanced at the bronze mask lying not far away from Qing Kui’s head. “At least there’s still the mask. This Strange Artifact alone is worth ruining a night or two!”

Ye Qing could still remember the fear he felt when the terrifying war general unleashed that devastating attack that almost killed him. He also felt a little excited.

The bronze mask was obviously an incredibly powerful Strange Artifact. It wasn’t just a match for his Blue Demon Hand. It had exceeded it.

After he put the bronze mask safely into his Nature’s Shell, Ye Qing unleashed the Netherflame and burned Qing Kui into a pile of ashes. While doing so, he said,

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. You may have tried to kill me, brother, but I won’t hold a grudge against you and feed your body to the Strangers since I’m a broad-minded man. That said, I’m too busy a man to dig a grave for you, so cremation is the way to go. It’s environmentally friendly, saves space, and beneficial to the realm. What’s not to like, am I right?”

After that, he turned around and walked toward the Flowing Cloud Hall.

Just a few seconds after Ye Qing took off, a silhouette abruptly appeared on another rooftop and stared at Ye Qing’s departing back. A short while later, he rubbed his chin and mumbled regretfully, “My word, he really took no damage from that fight? Oh well. There is always another chance!”

The silhouette was none other than Xiao Yang!

“This brat has a lot of good stuff on him. What’s yours is mine, and what’s mine is still mine. Keep them safe for me, kiddo. One day, I will return and take back what’s mine!”

Xiao Yang disappeared once more, and this time, he did not come back.

“Fuck… they finally left!”

At the door, Ye Qing let out a huge sigh of relief after the deadly aura his spirit had been sensing was finally gone. As if on cue, he abruptly covered his mouth and started coughing like he was coughing up a lung, blood trickling from between his fingers even as he tried to control his reaction.

1. this is Xiao Yang’s subjective opinion 👈