Stranger Danger

Chapter 65: A Good Day To Kill

“Captain, the guy you told us to monitor just left the county!”

It was very early in the morning. Dawn had just broken, and the sky was still dark like a woman who was just opening her eyes to greet her first ray of sunlight. In a luxurious house, Tang Yi’an had just risen from bed when a soldier entered his bedroom and gave his report.

“Is it Ye Qing?!” Whatever sleepiness still clinging to Tang Yi’an’s consciousness was blown away immediately.

“That’s right!” The soldier answered.

“Good, good!” Tang Yi’an’s eyes shone brightly as he waved the soldiers away. His expression was riddled with anger and hatred as he uttered, “I may not be able to do anything to you inside the county, but outside? You only have yourself to blame, Ye Qing!”

Tang Yi’an summoned an aide to his side and handed him a letter. He said, “Take this to Yan Tieyi. He’ll know what to do!”

“At once!” His aide nodded and left the room.

Tang Yi’an turned to look at the increasingly blue sky outside the window as a sinister smile flitted across his features. “Looks like it’s going to be a sunny day today. It’s the perfect time to take a life, hahaha…”

…

“Looks like it's going to be a sunny day today. It’s the perfect time to farm some free experience, hahaha!”

Ye Qing was currently riding his donkey down a marked road in the outskirts of Anyang. He was sipping some wine and looking very pleased with today’s activities.

While the Stranger conspiracy was still sitting in his chest like a mountain, a man needed to know when to stop brooding over things they couldn’t change and focus on living the present. And if the matter proved to be more disturbing than expected, there was always alcohol to drink away one’s worries!

Plus, harvesting dragon-serpent runes and improving his strength would make his inevitable battle against Faceless and the other Strangers a lot easier. Should the worst happen, and he failed to stop the Strangers from destroying Anyang, he would be strong enough to keep himself alive at least.

In this world, the only way to live was to become strong, and the only way to become strong was to farm experience!

On a related note, Ye Qing had visited Qiao Six before leaving the county. He wanted to know if there were Bloodsucking Mosquitoes near Anyang. Unfortunately, the answer was no. There used to be a lot of Bloodsucking Mosquitoes around Anyang, but the Pacification Bureau had cleared them out due to how harmful they were. Therefore, Ye Qing had no choice but to set his sights on the Soundless Bugs of Soundless Gorge. They might not be his first choice, but lean meat was still meat. It wouldn’t satisfy him, but it would at least sate his urges!

Over two hours later, Ye Qing finally arrived at the Soundless Gorge. Just like the first time he was here, the narrow gap that looked like a line reaching toward the heavens was completely silent. He did not hesitate. He leaped off the donkey’s back and landed right in the middle of the gorge.

Thud!

He could’ve landed without a sound, but the point was to draw the Soundless Bugs toward him. It worked wonderfully. Not a second too soon, countless bugs crawled out from the rocks, the soil, the cracks and more and swarmed him from every direction.

“Come to daddy, my experience!”

Ye Qing grinned widely and charged toward them. Most warriors would’ve fled at the sight of the sea of Soundless Bugs, but Ye Qing cheerfully greeted them by stomping his right foot.

Rumble!

A white shockwave spread out from Ye Qing and washed over an entire area. Every Soundless Bug that was hit by the shockwave immediately exploded into a shower of blood and gore.

The shockwave took out over half of the tide just like that, but the noise and the blood only angered the Soundless Bugs even more. More Soundless Bugs crawled out from the sides and met up with their fellow Strangers before charging Ye Qing again.

“There were so many of you? Fantastic!” exclaimed Ye Qing in pleasant surprise. It would seem that his initial assumption was wrong. He thought that there were only a couple thousand Soundless Bugs in Soundless Gorge, but now, he realized that the main bulk was simply hiding somewhere out of view.

Pop!

He closed his right fist lightly and caused a small pop in the air, conjuring wisps of dark red Blood Shadows from his hand. The bug tide closest to him immediately exploded into blood and gore. The blood did not seep into the ground, however. Instead, they floated into the air and formed a literal river of blood.

Suddenly, an idea occurred to Ye Qing. Since my Blood Shadow Magic inherited my blood’s power to consume, absorb, and attract blood, it makes sense that I should be able to control these blood as well, right?

He decided to put his theory to the test immediately. He closed his fist again and caused the river of blood to writhe unnaturally. A few seconds later, it abruptly transformed into a giant blood hand that smashed down on the Soundless Bugs below and flattened them like pancakes. That wasn’t all. Ye Qing proceeded to extract some blood from the giant blood hand and conjured other things such as blood animals, blood weapons, blood mists and more. Regardless of the shape, the outcome was always the same: a massive amount of Soundless Bugs was crushed into bits, and their blood was subsumed by the blood he was controlling.

“It does work!”

Of course, he was really just controlling the blood using Blood Shadow Magic. In essence, it was Blood Shadow Magic. It looked intimidating, but it wasn’t all that useful in combat.

“What if I do it like this?”

He concentrated his mind, and countless Soundless Bugs suddenly exploded without warning, but this time it wasn’t because the Blood Shadows had infiltrated their bodies. He had simply infected the Soundless Bugs with his true qi, took control of their blood and exploded their bodies from within!

“Good, good!” Ye Qing said with deep satisfaction. The idea had occurred to him after combining his Blood Shadow Magic and his blood’s ability to devour. Now, he had a new way to handle his enemies.

A warrior’s body and vigor was the foundation of their martial arts. If either one of the two elements were affected, their ability to fight would be greatly impacted. Ideally, they wouldn’t be able to output even one-tenth of their usual strength.

This was why his newfound method of applying his Blood Shadow was fantastic. If he was fighting against a formidable foe, he could infect them with Blood Shadow Magic and disrupt their body and vigor, destabilizing their internal balance or even forcing a deadly rebound. It might only last a few seconds at best—a powerful warrior or Stranger could probably contain, expel or crush the Blood Shadows inside them very quickly—but that lull between their movements was something he could use to deal a severe blow to his enemy or kill them outright.

As for those who were weaker than him, he could cause a rebound with a single thought. He might even be able to destroy their blood vessels, points and even their bodies from within.

“This is wonderful!” Ye Qing declared with bright eyes before dispersing the Blood Shadows in the air. Without the invisible entities to hold them in place, the river of blood fell from the sky and splashed loudly on the ground. The reason he hadn’t just absorbed the Soundless Bugs’ blood was because he wasn’t sure if it was poisonous. Yesterday, it had taken him the whole night to subsume Faceless’ blood fully. While the benefits were considerable—both his vigor and his cultivation level had advanced tremendously after he was done—he wasn’t so conceited as to attempt this in the middle of a fight.

Ultimately, Stranger blood was very different from human blood. It would be folly to absorb them willy-nilly!

“It’s time to practice!”

Ye Qing immediately commanded Blood Shadows to infect the Soundless Bugs. Then, he closed his eyes a little. At that moment, he could clearly feel the blood flowing inside the Soundless Bugs’ bodies like his own. He could even manipulate them however he pleased with a single thought.

“Boom!” He said with a grin. An entire swathe of Soundless Bugs froze in their tracks and exploded just like that. It was like a firework of blood and gore!

……

“Phew…”

Half an incense stick later, Ye Qing stood alone in the middle of the meat grinder that was Soundless Gorge. Not one drop of blood had managed to stain his clothes despite the gruesome battle—no, massacre he just wrought. He let out a refreshing sigh while taking out the Annon Sutra to check his rewards.

“So, I’ve gotten six silver dragon-serpent runes and ten gray dragon-serpent runes from these bugs. Not bad at all!” He would save one or two silver dragon-serpent runes for emergencies, but the remainder was still enough to improve his strength considerably.

By now, he had figured out that one silver rune was worth a little over one thousand plus gray runes. Moreover, the stronger the Stranger he killed, the greater the quality and quantity of the runes he received.

Generally speaking, Mundane and Red-class Strangers only gave him gray dragon-serpent runes. However, Malice-class Strangers or higher might give him silver dragon-serpent runes. If the Stranger he killed was both rare and powerful, then he would receive even more dragon-serpent runes. The General of Punishment was one such example. The Annon Sutra had generously paid him three silver dragon-serpent runes for his efforts.

That said, he needed to kill more powerful Strangers to verify if his theory was true. After all, the General of Punishment was the only Malice-class Stranger he had ever killed. It was possible he was wrong even though he personally believed it to be very unlikely.

“It’s time to head back to the bookstore.”

He was done farming experience, but he still needed to convert those experience to actual power. There would be no point otherwise. And so Ye Qing left the Soundless Gorge and whistled. It wasn’t long before a gray donkey galloped over from a distance.

Something was off, however. His donkey was hee-hawing loudly and frantically as if it was in danger. It also carried some deep wounds on its torso.

“I told you we would find the boy as long as we follow the donkey!” An arrogant voice resounded.

“Good job, Scholar. You really are a clever man!”

Three men slowly emerged from the distance. The first person of the group carried a folding fan and looked to be in his thirties. However, his complexion was haggard, his body was thin and bones, and he looked so ill a gentle breeze might be enough to topple him over.

The second person of the group was tall, huge and muscular. His hands were as big as a dustpan, his face was as black as coal, and a thick, fiendish aura could be seen circling around his person. He also wore a vicious grin on his face.

The third and last person of the group was a short but muscular monk. He had three dots on his head, and he wore a monastic robe that covered only half of his body. His bronze skin looked healthy and extremely tough to penetrate. His vigor was strong, and the earth shook every time he took a step. He felt more like a brutish beast than a man.

Once the trio had reached Ye Qing, the one with a coal-like complexion barked harshly, “Are you Ye Qing?”

“It is I. What business do you have with me?” Ye Qing asked with a small frown. It was obvious that these men weren’t here for a friendly chat, but he was certain that he didn’t know them, much less antagonized them in the past. So why had they come all the way to kill him?

“It’s him alright!” The coal-faced man let out a sinister laugh. “My name is Shi Jiang, and people call me the Blackfaced God. His name is Tao Xian, and people call him the Sick Scholar. The monk’s Dharma name is Jie Chen [1], but he is known as the Rash Vajrapani in the jianghu!”

“As for why we’re here, we’ve come to kill you, of course!”

“You guys sure know how to choose a moniker. Anyone can tell that you are bad, bad people!” Ye Qing shrugged before voicing his doubts, “I don’t doubt that you’ve come to kill me, but why? I’m pretty sure I don’t know you people.”

“He’s got a silver tongue, doesn’t he? There’s nothing more I love than breaking mouthy idiots like you!” Shi Jiang cracked his knuckles and sneered.

“Why are you wasting words with a dead man? Let’s kill him and be done with it already. I have a jar of wine waiting for me back home!” Jie Chen said impatiently before throwing a punch straight at Ye Qing’s head!

Ye Qing narrowed his eyes and took a step forward. Tilting his body so the punch would miss him by mere millimeters, he brought his shoulder forward and slammed into the monk’s chest like a hammer.

Thunk!

There was a loud thunk that sounded like clashing metals. Right before Ye Qing’s shoulder would make contact with Jie Chen’s chest, a sheen of golden light abruptly appeared and blocked the attack. It was shaped like a golden bell!

1. meaning refrain from anger 👈