Stranger Danger

Chapter 570: Opening A Blue Sky

Mistress Ruyi sneered at Xiong Kuohai before disappearing in a puff of blue smoke. She seemed to have predicted that this would happen.

Xiong Kuohai didn’t give chase either. After all, his true objective wasn’t Mistress Ruyi, but the Five Qi Auspicious Cloud Altar. The only reason he attacked Mistress Ruyi was to misdirect his enemies. The next moment, his fist slammed into the Five Qi Auspicious Cloud Altar.

Suddenly, Xiong Kuohai was struck by a bad premonition. Before he could make sense of it, a baby wearing a red dudou flew out of the shattered remains of the Five Qi Auspicious Cloud Altar.

The baby’s skin was ashen green, and a wrinkly umbilical cord was sticking out of its stomach. Their eyes were lifeless, and their face was warped into a vicious snarl.

The baby puffed up their cheeks and spat out a strange fog that was neither black, green, red, gray or blue, yet all of them at the same time. After that, their savage expression slowly faded back into peace and calm.

Xiong Kuohai blanched when he saw the fog, but it was too late. It landed on his fist and slipped into his body.

As soon as the fog entered his body, Xiong Kuohai felt as if he was submerged into a ten-thousand-year-old frozen pond. His entire body felt as cold as ice, his blood had literally turned into ice, and a hateful, tainted energy was spreading rapidly inside his body. At the same time, his consciousness was assaulted by a myriad of terrifying and bizarre illusions.

He saw a pregnant woman strangled to death right as she was about to give birth.

He saw a bandit disemboweling a pregnant woman and cutting out her heart.

He saw a jealous lady poisoning a pregnant woman and causing her to lose her baby.

He saw a pregnant woman being beaten to death and died with her baby.

And finally, he saw a baby being drowned inside a wooden basin right after they were born.

“The Calamitous Qi of Five Lifetimes?”

Xiong Kuohai turned even whiter. When a person died, a puff of air would be stuck inside their throats. It was the air of resentment the person had collected for an entire lifetime. People called it the Calamitous Qi.

The Calamitous Qi was highly poisonous. It could kill a lesser life like a plant upon contact and corrode through tone like nothing. If a person made contact with it, they would suffer a terrible illness at best, or perish at worst.

The fog the baby spat out was none other than the Calamitous Qi, but it was no ordinary Calamitous Qi. It was five lifetimes worth of Calamitous Qi. According to his hallucinations, the baby’s mothers had been killed for one reason or another during their first four lifetimes. Naturally, the baby did not survive. During their fifth lifetime, when they finally managed to see the light of the world, someone had cruelly drowned them to death in a wooden basin.

All the resentment the baby had accumulated across five lifetimes became stuck inside their throat, never to fade no matter how many deaths they experienced. It did not need to be said how potent the Five Lifetimes Calamitous Qi was.

Xiong Kuohai was a Grandmaster, but even he could not shake off such a terrible qi like it was nothing. It had corrupted his mind in an instant and caused him to blank out for a brief moment.

The qi wasn’t what scared him, however. What scared him was the sudden realization that Mistress Ruyi’s resistance might not be a coincidence after all. It might be a premeditated, well thought out trap she had set up for none other than him.

Mistress Ruyi must have known that he would attack her Five Qi Auspicious Cloud Altar. That was why she had hidden a Calamitous Child bearing a Five Lifetimes Calamitous Qi inside it. Once he shattered the Five Qi Auspicious Cloud Altar, he would naturally make contact with the Calamitous Child and become infected with their Five Lifetimes Calamitous Qi!

There was no other explanation as to why she would hide such a cursed object inside her Five Qi Auspicious Cloud Altar.

Otherwise, why was Mistress Ruyi so calm when he attacked her by surprise? Why had she escaped without attempting to protect her precious Strange Artifact at all?

It was almost as if she knew that this would happen, and she did. Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action!

But how did Mistress Ruyi know that he would attack the Five Qi Auspicious Cloud Altar?

There was only one possibility. Mistress Ruyi must have known that the poison he used was the Burning Heart, and that its effects could be suppressed by medicine or items that produced a calming effect!

This would explain everything.

Mistress Ruyi must have known about the Burning Heart. That was why she hid the Calamitous Child inside the Five Qi Auspicious Cloud Altar and even left it out in the open so that he would discover it. The moment he attacked the Strange Artifact, he would be infected by the Five Lifetimes Calamitous Qi.

The trap was well thought out and wonderfully executed. Short of having foreknowledge, there was never any chance he could’ve avoided it.

But since when did she find out about the Burning Heart?

Did she recognize it after he revealed himself?

Was it after the Burning Heart activated?

Was it after she drank the Blissful Spring?

Or was it even earlier than that?

A ludicrous notion suddenly entered his mind.

Did Mistress Ruyi know about my plan from the start?

If she did, what about Joy Bodhisattva? What about Ji Donglei? Huo Ruyi?

Did they all know about this?!

The ludicrous notion quickly turned into full-blown terror. He could barely breathe at the thought of it.

If his assumption was correct, then... now would be the time his enemies unveiled their final trap, wouldn’t it?!

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, Xiong Kuohai stopped holding back completely. With a thought, he summoned four giants into existence. One of them was surrounded by a powerful cyclone, another was embroiled in flames, the third giant was roaring with thunder, and the fourth giant was wrapped in lightning.

“Four Symbols of Providence”

“Wind God’s Fury”

“Fire God’s Fury”

“Thunder God’s Fury”

“Lightning God’s Fury”

As soon as the four giants appeared, the illusions and resentment ripping away at his mind abruptly vanished into thin air. Having returned to reality, he opened his eyes...

... And saw something that caused every hair on his body to stand on end, and his soul to quake like a leaf.

Ji Donglei was running toward him while holding his sword in a reverse grip. Then, he executed an upward diagonal slash at Xiong Kuohai.

As the sword swung upward, Ji Donglei stumbled on his feet almost as if he was being pulled forward by the sword. A deepening straight line appeared on the floor, and it stretched all the way to the sky itself.

At that moment, the wind crumbled, the clouds scattered, and the blue sky was cut in half.

“Sword King Scripture: Opening A Blue Sky”

The “Sword King Scripture” was Sword King City’s ultimate martial art. A Grandmaster-stage martial art, it featured thirteen forms and was capable of both offense and defense. Not only that, it was said that those who successfully subsumed the thirteen forms and figured out the final fourteenth form would be able to cut through the gates of heaven and become a Sage, so one could even call the “Sword King Scripture” a Sage-stage martial art.

“Opening A Blue Sky” was the fastest, most powerful move of the thirteen forms of the “Sword King Scripture”. Its one flaw was that it took time to channel one’s energy and push one’s essence, qi, spirit; body, mind, and intent to the peak. Only then could “Opening A Blue Sky” unleash its greatest power.

Earlier, Xiong Kuohai had blanked out for a moment after being infected by the Five Lifetimes Calamitous Qi. Naturally, Ji Donglei wasn’t going to allow such an excellent opportunity to slip through his grasp.

The attack wasn’t just the most powerful attack he knew of, it also contained everything he had. He did not believe that Xiong Kuohai possessed the ability to dodge it.

He was right. When Xiong Kuohai opened his eyes, the sword qi was already right in front of him. There was no dodging this one.

Pupils contracting, Xiong Kuohai made a hand seal and summoned all four of his giants at the same time. They joined together to form a bigger, scarier giant wearing a thunderous crown and a fiery red robe.

Riding a cyclone and wielding a spear of thunder and lightning, the giant thrust its spear forward and met the sky opening slash head on.

“Four Symbols As One: Providence’s Fury”

Rumble!

An unspeakable explosion ensued, and the giant’s thunder and lightning abruptly vanished like they were never there. The giant himself froze for a moment before a line began appearing from his forehead. It slowly stretched downward until the giant split into two halves.

Xiong Kuohai himself was cut by a bone-deep wound that stretched from his forehead all the way to his stomach.

The Endless Sand leader staggered backward as he looked down at the terrible wound and the shattered Bagua Mirror pressed against his solar plexus, heart beating like a drum. If he hadn’t reacted quickly and correctly, if he didn’t have a Bagua Mirror on his person, he might have been split in half just like his giant already.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the sword qi had infiltrated his body and did a number to his insides. He was now seriously injured and not even a tenth as strong as he was before.

Before Xiong Kuohai could let out a sigh of relief, his hair stood on end once more.

He looked down and noticed that the ground had turned bright red. There were strange lines that vaguely made up the image of a vermillion bird.

“The Vermillion Bird Heaven Burning Art?!”

Xiong Kuohai’s eyes widened like saucers as he screamed in fear.