Stranger Danger

Chapter 117: Deadly Evergreen Ivy Flower

“His true qi is…! He’s achieved perfect Vessel Augmentation!”

.

When Shen Xian finally managed to catch himself, he stared at the blood red true qi that had swatted him like a fly and engulfed everything within thirty meters of the young man. He was slack-jawed with shock when he fully perceived its power. The true qi was as heavy as a mountain and as spectacular as the sea. It was easily twice as immense as his own true qi. If this wasn’t perfect Vessel Augmentation, then nothing was.

Xiao Yang was just as astonished as Shen Xian was, but his reasons were far more profound. As an Astral Refiner and a disciple of Sunset Hill, he was much more worldly than Shen Xian was. Not only did he recognize that Ye Qing was a perfect Vessel Augmentor, he realized that Ye Qing was cultivating the Blood Shadow Castle's top-tier Vessel Augmentation cultivation art, the “Blood Shadow Divine Art”.

Xiao Yang was not unfamiliar with the Blood Shadow Castle. In fact, he had sparred with the disciples who had achieved perfect Vessel Augmentation. That was how he knew that Ye Qing’s true qi was way greater than even his peers. Heck, he had more true qi than even him, an Astral Refiner. Just how was this possible?

This guy isn’t normal. He mustn’t be allowed to live no matter what!

Xiao Yang grew even more determined to kill Ye Qing. The young man must die even if he didn’t have the “Emperor Fuxi Visualization Method”!

Meanwhile, Ye Qing was sucking in another deep breath after repelling Shen Xian. He sucked in every ounce of true qi around him until his stomach was as big as a pregnant woman’s. The Uncertain Chain immediately rattled from the sudden increase in size.

“Fooo….” Ye Qing exhaled some murky air, and his stomach grew smaller. The Uncertain Chain immediately shrank to adjust to its captive’s size, but it was definitely looser than before. It was at this moment Ye Qing growled and fought against his bindings with all his might. His arm muscles strained against the chain, and his feet sank into the ground. The Uncertain Chain let out a metallic screech that lasted for a few seconds before it finally snapped in half.

“Pwack!”

Shen Xian threw up a mouthful of blood and turned as white as a sheet when the Uncertain Chain was destroyed. It was because the Strange Artifact was tied to his heart’s blood. His shock triumphed over his pain, however. He never thought it was even possible to break the Uncertain Chain via brute force until Ye Qing.

The loss of his Strange Artifact was the final straw for the patriarch. Without hesitation, he turned tail and ran away like the mist. He knew that his departure would most likely cause the assassination attempt to end in failure, and that the young man was almost certainly going to take revenge against the Shen Clan if he survived, but so what? He was the heart and soul of the Shen Clan. If the Shen Clan was destroyed, he could always rebuild it another day. But if he died, then it was the end of the Shen Clan.

Also, what would be the point if he wouldn’t live to savor the fruits of his labor?

Shen Xian wasn’t stupid, and as the patriarch of a large clan it was practically his nature to figure out his priorities, weigh the pros and cons, and know what risks he could take and couldn’t. And right now, every cell on his body was screaming that his first and only priority was to keep himself alive!

Shen Xian’s instinct was correct. It was just too bad someone else had a different idea. He was literally a second away from removing himself from the battlefield when suddenly, two vines burst out of the shoreline and pierced his defenseless body faster than he could react. Then, it started growing white flowers on its stem. The patriarch tried to struggle, but it was useless. Every time a white flower grew out of the vine, Shen Xian’s aura would weaken a little more. The vines were literally sucking the life out of him. When Shen Xian finally perished, all that was left behind was a pair of vines that were covered in bright, beautiful flowers.

“Those plants… are evergreen ivy!” Ye Qing suddenly had a very bad feeling about all this. “Is Evergreen Ivy the one behind all this?!”

“It all makes sense now. I was wondering how an outsider like Xiao Yang managed to figure out the lay of the land and even recruit the aid of the Shen Clan and the Li Clan so quickly. But it wasn’t him. It was her!”

Ye Qing finally figured out everything. Last time, he had tricked Evergreen Ivy and ruined her grand plan. Tonight, it was her turn to ensnare him in a deadly assassination attempt. Karma really was a bitch.

Seriously, I’m just one person, and she mobilized over forty men to kill me. Am I really that scary?

“This is what you’ve been waiting for, isn’t it? Come out and fight me, Evergreen Ivy! Come and kill me!” Ye Qing shouted. Unfortunately, the cunning Stranger did not fall for the bait. He was unable to detect her presence even after extending his spirit as far away as he could. She was definitely here though, and he wasn’t just saying this because of the vines. Every plant in the area was swaying uniformly from side to side like a greeting.

There was a moment of silence when suddenly, countless vines burst out of the bushes, the trees, and the flowers all around Ye Qing. Some of them were as thick as a human’s arm, and some were as thin as a finger. Some were covered in thorns, and some were as smooth as glass. Regardless of their appearance, they all wanted Ye Qing dead.

“Not holding back, eh?!”

Having seen how Shen Xian was drained into a dry husk, Ye Qing didn’t dare to treat the vines lightly. He slashed at the incoming vines like lightning and cut every single one of them.

The vines weren’t very tough, and Ye Qing was able to make quick work of them, at least at the beginning. The problem was that the severed vines immediately dug into the ground and sprouted more vines, so their numbers were actually increasing instead of decreasing!

Thwack! Thud! Pssh!

There was no way Ye Qing could defend himself against so many vines, so he slowly but surely began to accumulate wounds. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the white flowers on the vines weakened him and slowed his movements. Specifically, it was sapping away his vitality, his vigor, his true qi and even his spirit, or his essence, qi and spirit for short!

He wasn’t afraid of losing his vigor or his true qi because he had the dragon-serpent runes. He could literally replenish them faster than Evergreen Ivy could absorb them. However, there was nothing he could do about his spirit. In fact, he would be long dead if his spirit wasn’t far stronger than your average warrior.

“Yeah, there’s no way I can win like this. Time to leave!” Ye Qing decided immediately. Although he had taken out Li Yuankang and Shen Xian, they had never been strong enough to constitute a real threat. From the start, the true threat had always been Xiao Yang and Evergreen Ivy.

Xiao Yang was severely injured, burned, and poisoned, but enough time had passed that he had probably removed the status conditions and recovered enough to fight again. Evergreen Ivy was in tip-top condition, and heavens only know how long she had been hiding and preparing for this fight. He had no intention to find out exactly how many traps she had laid for him.

No, it would be pure folly to fight this out even if he was at his best, which he wasn’t. Revenge wasn’t always best served cold, but he certainly didn’t mind waiting until he was an Astral Refiner before making his comeback!

Ye Qing hacked open a path and immediately tried to make his escape. However, he had just taken a few steps when the sea of vines blocked his path once more. It was like trying to punch through a prison with heaven knows how many layers in it!

Boom!

Ye Qing decided to switch tactics and lashed out with his sleeves instead. The vines blocking his way were immediately crushed into smithereens. Cutting the vines didn’t work, but there’s no way they can regrow after I’ve powdered—

Unfortunately, he didn’t even get to finish his thoughts before the powder landed on the earth and grew into more vines and white flowers.

Ye Qing: “...” Phuck!

The good news was that he wasn’t out of ideas yet. He reached out with his left hand and unleashed a torrent of bluish black flames. An entire swath of vines burned into ash in an instant.

Surely it’ll work this time!?

There were good news and bad news. The good news was that the ashes didn’t regrow into more vines. The bad news was that the surviving vines grew thicker and stronger when they came into contact with the ashes!

It’s because ash improves soil fertility and—now is not the time for a science class, brain!

The tactic wasn’t perfect, but it was effective, so Ye Qing did not hesitate to burn all the vines into ash and escape into the distance. For a short while, it seemed like he was finally out of the woods, but a terrible itchy sensation suddenly assaulted the back of his neck. It was unlike any itch he had ever felt before.

“What the hell?” Ye Qin muttered while reaching behind him and ripping something out of his neck. When he looked, he saw that it was a white evergreen ivy flower.

Ye Qing’s face immediately contorted into a grim snarl. It was because the roots of the flower were tied to a chunk of flesh and dripping with blood. It would’ve been okay if it was a one-time thing, but his hands, his elbows, his face, his stomach and other parts of his body suddenly started itching as well. It wasn’t long before more flowers burst out of his flesh and danced to the wind!

“When did she…?”

Ye Qing ripped out a flower growing on the back of his right hand, but it also ripped out an entire chunk of flesh. Clearly, the flowers were deeply rooted in his flesh and maybe even his bones. He would be killing himself slowly and painfully if he tried to rip them out by force.

I need to find another way to remove these flowers! Ye Qing thought as a surge of vitality healed the horrifying wound back to normal.

But first, I need to know when and how I contracted these flowers in the first place. Did I catch it when the vines cut me? Ye Qing mulled over this for a few seconds before shaking his head. No, it’s not the vines.

Although the vines did possess the ability to sap his essence, qi and spirit, he was sure he didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary when they hurt him.

What could it be?

Ye Qing’s gaze abruptly became transfixed to the flowers growing out of his body. It’s the flowers… or rather, the pollen they release!

He could see wisps of nigh invisible powder flying out of the flowers’ stamen and into the air. Every object that came into contact with it—the earth, the trees, the plants and more—would sprout into evergreen ivy flowers.

That was why the flowers had spread across all the farms surrounding Jade Spring Lake. It was a phantasmal sight he could’ve enjoyed if it wasn’t killing him slowly. The reason he hadn’t noticed until now was because the pollen were too tiny.

Now that he knew what the culprit was, it was easy to figure out how he might have contracted the pollen. He could’ve inhaled them into his body, or they could’ve invaded his body through his wounds.

Ye Qing dared not take Evergreen Ivy’s trump card lightly. First, he summoned his Blood Shadow true qi and formed a shield around himself. It was to prevent more pollen from entering his body. Then, he focused inward and strummed his true qi like a musician might play a zither. It sounded like thunder was roaring inside his veins as true qi washed through his blood vessels and bodily points!

His plan was to destroy the roots embedded inside his flesh and eliminate the pollen that hadn’t sprouted first. Removing the flowers would be easy then. But something unexpected happened. His flesh and blood suddenly exploded like a bomb had taken off inside his body. He went from a handsome young man to a bloody, barely intact skeleton in an instant!