Stranger Danger

“So, how do you like my performance, Scion Zheng? Has it cured you of your boredom yet? If not, I can claim a couple more souls for your entertainment?”

Ye Qing held out his arm as if to show off the Blood Shadows swimming between his fingers. His eyes shone like red ambers, and he was shrouded by a veil of bloody radiance. When he smiled, it looked like they were staring into the face of a demon of hell.

“You’re a Vessel Augmentor…? You’re a Vessel Augmentor! But how is this possible?” Zheng Tianqi exclaimed in shock as he looked Ye Qing up and down. Terror was written all over his face.

“Run while I hold him back, young master!” the stout middle-aged man shouted while summoning a hand crossbow into one hand. He pulled the trigger and shot a bolt straight at Ye Qing.

Ye Qing flicked his fingers and sent a Blood Shadow straight into the crossbow bolt, shattering it into pieces. The impact had also scattered the Blood Shadow, but instead of fading into nothing it descended upon the stout man like a giant curtain.

Unwilling to get anywhere close to the Blood Shadow, the stout man dashed ten meters backward with supernatural grace—dodging the Blood Shadow’s attack as a result—and launched even more crossbow bolts at Ye Qing.

Each and every bolt was covered in some sort of strange, twisted pattern. Halfway toward Ye Qing, they actually caught on fire and became twice as deadly as before! This was no ordinary rain of bolts he was facing, this was a storm of fire!

Boom!

In response, Ye Qing punched the air and unleashed a dark red shockwave. Not only did the crossbow bolts shatter into a million pieces, the hand crossbow the stout man was holding had cracked in half as well!

The stout man’s eyes flashed with shock as he pushed off the ground with his right leg and spread his arms slightly. He looked like a swallow as he shot backward with the same supernatural speed from before. As if on cue, a bloody cloud gushed out of the ground and enveloped the space he was at just a second ago.

That was too close, thought the stout man while sailing through the air. If he hadn’t sensed something amiss and dashed away in time, he might have followed in the footsteps of Elder Chen and the bodyguards already!

The stout man wiped away the thick sheen of his forehead as he continued to run away. Every time he was about to hit the ground, he would tap the ground twice in rapid succession and jump into the air once more. His movement was so light that it didn’t even kick up the slightest dust. Fast as lightning, he resembled a swallow flying close to the water without causing a ripple.

Three short bursts later, he crossed nearly forty meters of distance and arrived next to Zheng Tianqi. He took a deep breath and voiced his shock, “We need to go fast, young master. We are no match for this guy!”

“You don’t say?” Zheng Tianqi replied contemptuously before sneering. “Don’t worry, I can deal with him once we reach August Hill Village!”

“That’s good to hear!” The stout man sighed in relief.

It was at this moment a mocking voice turned their blood into ice, “Why are you running? I’m not done playing with you yet!”

The two men subconsciously looked behind them and saw Ye Qing floating toward them like he was a celestial riding the wind. He looked like he should be moving slowly, but in reality he had crossed ten meters of distance and reached them in just the blink of an eye.

“Impossible!” The stout man cried out in shock and terror. Not only was his “Triple Flit Of The Swallow” among the best Qi Invocation stage movement arts out there, it was famed for its amazing speed. Like a swallow flitting across the waters, his speed was comparable to that of a loosed arrow. He rarely found someone who could match his speed, much less outdo him in this department.

Ye Qing did not wait for them to recover from their shock. He dropped his hand and sent a couple of Blood Shadows toward the duo.

Both Zheng Tianqi and the stout man reacted immediately. Zheng Tianqi summoned a doll that looked like it was sewn together using all sorts of rags. It was colorful, but the color combination was just off enough that it elicited a wrong, unsettling feeling instead.

Speaking of unsettling, the doll’s face looked like an amalgamation of everything that was wrong and twisted in this world. Neither a smile nor a cry, its expression was disgusting, dizzying, and chilling to look at.

Zheng Tianqi grabbed a silver needle out of nowhere and poked it into his own flesh. His face immediately warped as if he was enduring a tremendous amount of terrible pain.

The twisted doll’s lips abruptly curved into an odd smile as if it had come alive. Its mouth parted slightly, and—

Screech!

An impossibly loud and high-pitched shriek cut through the air, shredding both the air and the Blood Shadows approaching Zheng Tianqi in an instant.

On the other side, the stout man pulled out a shirt from his storage artifact. It took Ye Qing a second to realize that it was a burial shirt. As soon as he put it on, his complexion started withering at a visible rate, and his vitality vanished as if it did not exist. It was replaced by the thick aura of death instead.

Boom!

The stout man punched out and unleashed a shockwave of death energy, shattering the shapeless, formless Blood Shadows heading for him as well.

“Strange Artifact?” Ye Qing frowned and gathered his energy. The bloody aura surrounding his body shone brighter as a red ripple surged toward the duo with seemingly unstoppable power.

Both Zheng Tianqi and the stout man blanched when they sensed the terrifying power surging toward them. Gritting his teeth, he summoned three silver needles into his hand and poked himself in three different points. A wave of pain so excruciating that he nearly tripped over his feet immediately came over him.

The effects were immediate, however. The doll he was holding shivered, and the lines on its face grew increasingly twisted and evil. At the same time, it let out an evil cackle that formed invisible ripples and filled the air with an evil aura. It clashed against the red ripple and held it at bay.

The stout man simply threw another punch at the red ripple spreading in his direction. The explosion of death energy was just enough to tear it apart.

“Feng Xuan, kill him while I suppress him! It’s either him or us!” Zheng Tianqi shouted while grabbing another five needles and poking himself in five points. The young master immediately felt as if a giant hammer was pounding his body to bits again and again. Perhaps the worst part was that his body was actually fine, so each wave of pain felt just as excruciating as the last. This time, he couldn’t stop spasming even as he continued to run for his life.

“Die! Die! I curse you! DIE!” cursed Zheng Tianqi again and again. It wasn’t just excruciating pain that contorted his face into a horrifying visage. His eyes were filled with wrath and hatred.

“Kekekeke…”

The evil cackle filled Ye Qing with nausea and dizziness. He felt as if a million women were howling in rage, hatred and sorrow in his head at the same time. Not only, a cold, evil aura had spread throughout his body before he knew it and held him in place.

“Now, Feng Xuan! My curse won’t last for long, so do it now!” Zheng Tianqi shouted. He was relieved to see that his curse was successful in paralyzing Ye Qing.

The doll Zheng Tianqi was holding was called the Cursed Doll, a very special Strange Artifact. It was said that a shaman had sewn the doll using the skin of countless snakes, insects, mice, ants and more poisonous creatures and filled it to the brim with their innards. Then, it was submerged in the heart’s blood of forty-nine teenage girls for a total of forty-nine days.

According to the rumors, the shaman loved torturing women. He would torture them to death first using all kinds of unspeakable means before procuring their heart’s blood. It was why the blood-soaked Cursed Doll was possessed by a powerful curse, a curse that embodied the infinite hatred of these innocent, tortured women.

The Cursed Doll could be used to curse others in a wide variety of ways, but only if it was fueled by the wielder’s pain. The more terrible the pain, the greater the curse that was unleashed. That was why Zheng Tianqi had stabbed himself in his bodily points using another Strange Artifact known simply as the Torture Needle. The Torture Needle was a torture instrument used to interrogate and/or torture criminals. Stabbing someone in their points would enlarge their pain to the maximum capacity and prevent them from fainting, meaning that the victim could only endure the pain until the needles were removed.

This was why there was an infamous saying regarding the Torture Needle: “One needle to feel like death, three to feel worse than death, and five to meet Death Himself.” The ordinary person could only take one needle before breaking down completely, while a particularly stubborn one might be able to withstand three. But five needles was the point where anyone who wasn’t immune to pain would wish they were dead. If the torturer did not remove the needles, the person would literally die from sheer pain.

In the past, Zheng Tianqi only needed three Torture Needles to create a curse potent enough to kill his enemies. However, Ye Qing was so strong that the Cursed Doll emanated an unbelievable amount of fear and reluctance even after he used five Torture Needles on himself. This meant it was highly unlikely he would be able to curse Ye Qing to death. The best he could hope for was to suppress Ye Qing for a short time or deal him a serious blow. That was why he needed Feng Xuan to deal the finishing blow.

“O-oh. Sure!” Seemingly half a beat slower after putting on the burial shirt, he responded to Zheng Tianqi’s order only after the young master had finished his sentence. His voice was hoarse and dragged out as well.

Despite his slow reaction, his movements weren’t slow in the slightest. He took one step toward Ye Qing and unleashed a devastating, death-infused punch.

The punch was aimed at Ye Qing’s chest, but the young man was surrounded by a thin film of red light. The punch was strong enough to put a dent in the film, but not enough to shatter it completely.

“Aaaaahhh!” Feng Xuan let out a full-throated howl. Even more death energy gushed out of his body as the burial shirt glimmered ominously, and his body slowly shriveled over time.

Sizzle sizzle sizzle!

Sizzling noises rang in everyone’s ears as the death energy washed over the bloody film and tried to extinguish it. However, a closer look would reveal that the bloody film was consuming the grayish death energy like prey. It was clear the death energy was going to lose if the situation continued.

Seeing that his plan wasn’t working, Feng Xuan howled, “Kill!” before battering his fists against the film surrounding Ye Qing. He looked like he was going to shatter the young man and his protection via sheer brute force.

But although the bloody film flickered like a dying candle in the wind, it never yielded to the storm attempting to batter it into nothingness. It continued to burn with a kind of warmth and light that was unique to itself.

“Are you done?”

A dozen or so punches later, bloody light as bright as the sun itself abruptly exploded from his amber red pupils. The corner of his lips were slightly curled into a wicked smile.

Boom!

When his smile widened, the Cursed Doll suspended in the air abruptly shuddered and let out a bloodcurdling scream. The next thing Zheng Tianqi knew, his Strange Artifact had burst into flames.

In the flames, the souls of dozens of young women could be seen fading soundlessly into nothing. They were all smiling tearfully and gratefully at Ye Qing.

“No! My Cursed Doll!” Zheng Tianqi screamed at the sight of his destroyed Strange Artifact. He spat out a mouthful of blood even as his face became warped in horror and disbelief.

The next moment, a brilliant light exploded from Ye Qing’s body. Thick as a river of blood, the bloody radiance easily swept Feng Xuan into the sky, helpless and unable to get away. Then, thirty-six Blood Shadows emerged from the light and enveloped him entirely.𝒷ℯ𝒹𝓃𝓸𝓿ℯ𝓁.𝒸ℴ𝓶