Stranger Danger

“That’s today, isn’t it?”

As soon as the man was done speaking, the memorial hall fell as silent as death. A chill like nothing the warriors had ever felt before washed over their entire body.

The reason the year of the death dates was different was because they hailed from different countries and regions. They were essentially the same day.

“A-Also… 1.15 pm[1]… that’s right now, isn’t it?”

Someone stuttered and broke the silence. Everyone shivered and turned deathly pale when they heard that.

“W-We need to leave!”

Finally, someone could not bear the oppressive, terrifying atmosphere any longer and raced toward the exit. After all, what was a hoard of treasure compared to one’s own life?

The man had the right idea, but unfortunately, it was far too late. He had just reached the exit when his head suddenly exploded like an overripe watermelon.

The sudden death was so sudden and anomalous that no one in the memorial hall was able to react in time. Those who were standing close to the exit even got a full face of blood and brain matter for their troubles. Of course, they screamed.

That wasn’t the end of the horror, however. Where the man’s head was a moment ago, a memorial tablet was standing on top of his severed neck. No one knew how or when it had gotten there. It was almost as if the tablet had replaced the man’s head.

As if that wasn’t enough, the name, birth date and death date on the memorial tablet stated:

“Zhong Zhen, born at 3 pm on May 12th in the third year of Lingfeng, died at 1.15 pm on March 3 in the fifth year of Chunhua.”

“Impossible! That memorial tablet was on Fang Fu’s body! How did it appear in Zhong Zhen’s head?”

The man who lost his head was none other than Zhong Zhen. On a related note, the big man whose body was crawling with memorial tablets was called Fang Fu.

“It’s gone! Zhong Zhen’s memorial tablet is gone!”

The survivors immediately turned to look at the big man, but to their shock and terror, the memorial tablet that belonged to Zhong Zhen was nowhere to be found.

More accurately, the memorial tablet had somehow—in just an instant—left Fang Fu’s body and appeared inside Zhong Zhen’s head.

That wasn’t important though. The important question was: if Zhong Zhen’s memorial tablet could suddenly appear inside his head… Did this mean that every single one of them was currently facing the same fate as well?

Did this mean that their heads would explode just like Zhong Zhen?

The terror in their hearts grew tenfold when the realization struck them.

“A memorial tablet just disappeared! I saw it with my own eyes!”

A sudden cry pulled everyone back to reality. They hurriedly looked at the dead Fang Fu once more.

The crier was right. They saw Gong Xiangzhao’s memorial tablet slowly disappearing into nothing.

“That’s my…”

Gong Xiangzhao blanched a little when he saw this, but he quickly calmed down and met the others’ eyes. He puffed up his chest and declared confidently, “Let me tell you that I, Gong Xiangzhao, am not one to cower before death. I refuse to believe that—”

Before he could finish, his head exploded into a shower of blood and gore.

As his lifeless body dropped to the ground, everyone saw a memorial tablet sitting snugly on his neck.

Everyone in the memorial hall turned as white as a ghost.

At this point, they could no longer pretend that Zhong Zhen’s death was just a fluke. Gong Xiangzhao’s death had proven a pattern.

When the corresponding memorial tablet disappeared from Fang Fu’s body, it would reappear inside their head and kill them.

“Motherfucker! Let’s destroy these memorial tablets together, everyone! Otherwise, we’re all going to die!” Someone shouted.

If escape was impossible, then they might as well try to destroy the source. It might be their only way of surviving this.

No one dared to hold back as their lives were on the line here. They immediately launched their strongest attacks at Fang Fu.

Pssh! Boom! Crack!

Sword and saber qi skewered the big man from every direction. Just a moment later, he looked more like a beehive than a human.

There was just one problem, however. Their attacks had failed to damage the memorial tablets even a little.

The memorial tablets themselves weren’t particularly strong—or at least, they didn’t look like it. The reason their attacks failed to do any damage at all was because the memorial tablets seemed to be existing in a different space. This was proven by the fact that the sword and saber qi had passed through the memorial tablets harmlessly and hit Fang Fu instead.

“Argh!”

It was at this moment Fang Fu opened his eyes and let out a cry of pain. The big man should have been long dead, and yet, there was no denying that he was screaming right now.

“Argh!”

“Argh!”

Argh!”

His cry seemed to pierce all the way to the depths of their soul. At the same time, everyone in the memorial hall screamed in pain as if the sword and saber qi they just unleashed hadn’t just hit Fang Fu, but also themselves.

Physically, they were perfectly unharmed. There was no mistaking the pain, however.

It was at this moment two more memorial tablets disappeared. Not a moment too soon, they reappeared in the corresponding victims’ heads and killed them.

“We’re doomed. What do we do? We’re doomed!”

They could neither escape nor damage the memorial tablets. What else could they do under these circumstances? For a time, everyone had fallen into the pits of despair.

Pop! Pop!

The march of death was as unrelenting as it was gory. Another two warriors lost their heads and gained memorial tablets as replacement.

“Ahhhhhhh!!!”

“I don’t want to die… I don’t want to die!”

The two warriors’ deaths were the last straw. They all started racing toward the exit, caution be damned. However, as soon as they set foot outside the memorial hall, their heads immediately exploded one after another like water sacs and revealed the blood-soaked memorial tablets standing on top of their necks.

Even stranger, the warriors remained upright despite losing their heads and dying. It was almost as if the memorial tablets had become their new heads. It was terribly anomalous and evil to say the least.

This was the scene Ye Qing, Pedant Earth and Shangguan Hongjin saw when they arrived at the scene together. Their backs turned as cold as ice to put it mildly.

“What… What the hell happened here?”

They quickly checked out the headless bodies with memorial tablets standing on their necks and the big man whose entire body was covered in memorial tablets.

When they looked at Fang Fu, he slowly raised his head, looked out of the memorial hall, and stared straight at them.

That wasn’t all. The headless corpses littered inside the memorial hall and the exit too turned around and faced toward the exit.

The big man was obviously long dead. Even if he wasn’t, he should not be able to see anything as his eye sockets were completely overtaken by a pair of memorial tablets. As for the headless bodies, they didn’t even have a head, so how the hell could they be looking at anyone?

Ye Qing could feel their gazes as clear as day, however.

The big man was looking at them.

Every headless corpse in the memorial hall was looking at them as well!

“W-Warrior Ye… What the hell are these things?”

Pedant Earth swallowed and asked with fear and trepidation.

Ye Qing did not answer him. His eyes turning as black as ink, he stared intently at the tablet-covered big man and the headless corpses. His mouth felt a little dry.

He was afraid not just because of the tablet-covered big man or the headless corpses with memorial tablets standing on their necks, oh no.

It was because he could see that the memorial hall was jam-packed with people. Their bodies were transparent and wispy like yin souls, and they were all weeping blood and glaring at them with black hatred.

He saw a yin soul raising a blood-stained finger and wrote a person’s name, birth date, and death date on a blank memorial tablet on the big man’s body. Once done, the yin soul ripped out the memorial tablet—the big man actually cried out in pain even though he should be long dead—and teleported to a warrior standing outside the memorial hall. Then, the yin soul grabbed his head.

From the start until the end, the warrior never noticed anything. Not even until his head exploded like an overripe watermelon.

After the yin soul had crushed the warrior’s head, it planted the memorial tablet on the dead man’s now empty neck. It smiled.

Blood tears streaming down their cheeks, every yin soul in the memorial hall smiled as well.

1. Again, the raw 未时一刻 is not strictly 1.15 pm. It’s between 1 pm to 1.15pm. I suppose I could have translated this as One Quarter of Wei Hour and added a translator’s note in the end, but it reads weird, and there are already too many translator’s notes in the previous chapter, so. ☜