Stranger Danger

“The plan isn’t the worst plan ever, but the cost is too high!” Ye Qing said while shaking his head. It was true that killing the Bleakwind Bandits repeatedly until they ran out of energy was a viable plan, but it was easily the worst one of them all. Not only was it exhausting, there was a real chance they might suffer casualties. At that point, it would be a pyrrhic victory even if they did manage to defeat the Bleakwind Bandits.

As predicted, Yan Feng’s group started taking damage over time. A few guards were forced to withdraw from the battle after using too much true qi and taking injuries as a result. Although the Bleakwind Bandits were also weakening, their numbers hadn’t decreased in the slightest. It wasn’t long before the scales started tilting in the Strangers’ favor!

“Oh well, I suppose I can lend them a hand!” Ye Qing smiled and vanished from view without warning.

In the middle of a forest, a cyclone made up of yin wind was spinning on a clearing. It almost looked like an eye in the sky from below. At the center of the cyclone was a silhouette that looked vaguely humanoid.

“Yep. This is the source!”

Ye Qing reappeared next to the cyclone and gave it a quick look. After his suspicion was confirmed, he calmly stepped into the cyclone. The howling wind tried to attack him as a matter of course, but it was easily shredded by the faint red aura surrounding his body. He looked so steady it was as if the cyclone didn’t exist at all.

Woooooooo…

As soon as he reached the eye of the cyclone, a bone spear suddenly appeared out of nowhere and stabbed at Ye Qing’s head. The weapon hadn’t made the slightest noise, and even if it had it would’ve been masked by the howling wind around it. However, Ye Qing still dodged it by millimeters as if he saw it coming. Not wasting a second, he stepped forward and struck the bone spear with a finger.

Bang!

The bone spear splintered inch by inch as if it was hit by lightning, not a finger. The next moment, a thousand spears made of yin wind appeared all around him and stabbed at him. Not afraid in the slightest, Ye Qing threw a punch that scattered his Blood Shadows and true qi in every direction and shattered the spears. After the spears were gone, and the yin wind had dissipated, a tall, brawny Bleakwind Bandit was revealed in front of Ye Qing.

Not only was this Bleakwind Bandit bigger and fiercer than the ones still attacking Yan Feng’s group, his wind-made body looked dense enough to be solid. He was clad in armor and carrying a spear. A pair of fist-sized soulfires burning with ruthlessness and madness resided within his eye sockets.

“You’re definitely the Bleakwind Bandit Leader. Good. Once you’re dead, this matter will be resolved!” Ye Qing declared while recalling the way to kill the Bleakwind Bandits as stated in the “Twelve Incense Sticks of Ghost and Gods”.

Killing the Bleakwind Bandits again and again and depleting their energy and soulfires was one way to end them once and for all. It was also the dumbest method. According to the book, all subjects were ruled by a king, and all bandits were ruled by a bandit leader. The Bleakwind Bandits were no exception. The Bleakwind Bandit Leader was both the leader and the strongest fighter of the Bleakwind Bandits. It was he who controlled them to attack the travelers with his soulfire. As the saying went, one should cut off the head to kill a snake. The Bleakwind Bandits would disintegrate on their own if the Bleakwind Bandit Leader was killed.

Of course, the Bleakwind Bandit Leader was the only one with a soulfire. While each Bleakwind Bandits seemed to carry a soulfire as well, it was really a piece of the Bleakwind Bandit Leader’s soulfire and his method of controlling them. To put it simply, those soulfires didn’t count any more than a person’s skin counted as their heart.

It so happened that the soulfire of a Bleakwind Bandit was one of the main ingredients to create the Incense of Misfortune. Naturally, Ye Qing wasn’t about to allow such an excellent opportunity to slip through his grasp.

The Bleakwind Bandit Leader roared and threw a punch at Ye Qing when he saw him. Innumerable streams of yin wind immediately gathered around his fist and converged into a river of pure power that seemed capable of crushing anything and everything.

“Croak!”

Instead of dodging, Ye Qing executed the Toad Force and waved at the Bleakwind Bandit Leader. A blood red, lifelike toad immediately manifested in front of him before letting out a loud, devastating croak. It easily shredded the river of yin wind and slammed into the Bleakwind Bandit Leader’s body, exploding his torso and dissolving it into wind.

“Looks like the combination of the Toad Force’s explosive power and the Blood Shadow Divine Art’s control over true qi is pretty great!” Ye Qing commented with a wide grin. As soon as the Bleakwind Bandit Leader had reformed its body, a web made of innumerable red threads appeared out of nowhere and caught the Stranger like a fish.

The Bleakwind Bandit Leader howled in fury, but he was unable to free itself from his bindings despite its fragile appearance. While it was held in place, Ye Qing produced a small porcelain bottle from his Nature’s Shell and extended his hand toward the Bleakwind Bandit Leader’s head. As if sensing his impending doom, the Stranger started struggling and howling with all his might. At the same time, the surrounding yin wind surged toward Ye Qing from every direction like a tidal wave.

Ye Qing paid them no heed, however. He simply sped up a little, grabbed the Bleakwind Bandit Leader’s skull, and crushed it with just a sliver of force. After curling his fingers and binding the two soulfires with countless blood threads, he slowly pulled them away from the Stranger’s body.

The farther the soulfires strayed from their original position, the weaker the Bleakwind Bandit Leader’s struggles became. When the soulfires were fully removed from his body, the Bleakwind Bandit Leader abruptly ceased struggling and crumbled into nothing. The howling wind in the air had stopped as well.

Everything returned to stillness and tranquility in just the blink of an eye. It was almost as if nothing had happened.

Ye Qing wasn’t surprised by the drastic change. The soulfire was the essence of the Bleakwind Bandit Leader. So long as its soulfire was still intact, the Bleakwind Bandit Leader would never die. On the other hand, destroying or removing its soulfire would destroy it instantly.

“What a strange energy!” commented Ye Qing while playing with the Bleakwind Bandit Leader’s soulfires for a bit. Later, he stored them in his porcelain bottle and smiled in satisfaction.

“It’s time to go back!”

……

Back on the marked road, a wounded, tired Yan Feng watched incredulously as the Bleakwind Bandits attacking his men abruptly disappeared into nothingness. It took him a good few seconds to process that the battle was over. 𝚋𝚎𝚍𝚗𝚘𝚟ｅｌ．𝚌ｏ𝚖

“What just happened?” A guard voiced his confusion while wiping away the blood on his face. “Do you know anything, brother Yan?”

“Of course I don’t!” Yan Feng rolled his eyes at his subordinate before muttering, “Maybe we were so strong that they decided to run and fight another day?”

That was what he said, but he highly doubted that was the case.

“What’s the situation, Yan? Feng?” a voice came behind him. The curtains on the window of the horse-drawn carriage were lifted to reveal a scholarly man in his fifties. Despite his thin appearance, his spirit was strong, and he carried himself with authoritative weight and dignity. He seemed calm and collected despite facing a life-and-death crisis just a moment ago.

“We’re safe now, my lord!” Yan Feng rushed over to his lord’s side and answered. He hesitated for a moment before adding, “We haven’t actually beaten the Bleakwind Bandits, but they suddenly disappeared all at once for some reason!”

The scholarly man thought for a moment before saying, “It doesn’t matter as long as we’re safe. This world is full of strange and inexplicable things after all. Let us be off before more danger besets us, Yan Feng. I would like to reach Anyang by the day after tomorrow at the latest!”

“As you command!” Yan Feng responded with a salute. Although everyone was injured to a certain degree, none of them were hurt so bad that they were incapacitated. They set off again after taking a short moment to rest and reorganize.

Before they took off, Yan Feng looked behind him but could not spot the young man or his donkey anywhere. The light in his eyes dimmed as he let out a mournful sigh. The situation just now was so critical that they simply could not afford to lend the young man a hand. He hadn’t actually seen him going down, but Yan Feng was almost certain that the young man was dead.

“Let’s go!” Yan Feng pushed his stray thoughts to the back of his mind before ordering his men to leave.

However, not long after they resumed their journey, Yan Feng suddenly heard the plodding clop of hooves not far behind them. He instinctively looked back and was shocked to find the young man and his donkey once more. The young man was reading his book, and the strange frog was sitting on the donkey’s head just like before!

“He’s still alive?!” Yan Feng was stunned to put it mildly. As if sensing his gaze, the young man looked up from his book and shot him a smile. Then, he returned to his book once more.

Could he be a hidden master? Yan Feng responded with a stiff nod while thinking, No, it can’t be. There’s no way a master can be this young. He probably just got lucky and avoided the worst of the assault.

……

“We’ll camp here tonight!”

As the sunset fell, and night approached, Yan Feng’s group decided to set up camp at a clearing next to a stream. It wasn’t long before the tents were pitched, the campfires were lit, and the delicious smell of food permeated in the air.

It had been a long day, one that had ended in a harrowing skirmish no less. The group could not help but relax as they basked in the warmth and scents.

After the broth was ready, Yan Feng glanced at the young man who had set up camp just beyond their campsite. He was sitting on a rock and still reading his book by his fire. Yan Feng then turned to one of his subordinates—a young man in his twenties—and ordered, “Yang Guan, fill a bowl of broth and deliver it to that young man!”

“Whuh? Whai?” Yang Guan asked unclearly. He had snatched a piece of meat from his companion’s hands and stuffed it into his mouth.

“Because there is no harm in showing a traveler who’s headed in the same direction as us a bit of good will, and because I told you so! Just do as I say!” Yan Feng furrowed his brow into a stern frown nearing the end of his sentence.

Yang Guan was reluctant, and it showed in both his expression and his movements. When Yan Feng noticed that he was taking his time to fill the bowl with more meat, he chided Yang Guan with a wry shake of the head, “If you’re fast, you can still make it back in time and enjoy some meat! Otherwise, there won’t be anything left for you!”

“Oh yeah!” Yang Guan’s eyes lit up and got up to his feet immediately. Before he left, he shoved two more pieces of meat into his mouth and warned everyone, “I’m the one who cooked this broth, so you bastards better leave some for me, you hear? Don’t be an ingrate!”

“Of course—not! Now go fucking do your job already! Haha!”

“Cunt!”

Yang Guan finally ran off while his colleagues continued to battle each other to claim the most meat. Despite his incredible speed, his hand was as steady as a rock, and not a single drop of broth dripped out of the bowl. He reached Ye Qing in just a matter of seconds.

“Hey dude! Brother Yan told me to give you this!” Yang Guan handed Ye Qing the bowl of broth and said in a light tone, “It’s cold and humid tonight. A bowl of soup will keep you warm until the next day.”

“Thank you!” Ye Qing did not decline the offer. After blowing the soup once and taking a small sip, he replied smilingly, “Wow! It’s fresh and tasty. Thank you for your generosity!”

“You have a discerning tongue, my dude!” The praise blew away what little resentment Yang Guan felt toward Ye Qing for causing him to miss out on his precious meat as he puffed up his chest. “I’m the one who cooked it, you know? It’s a family recipe that no one besides those in my squad got to enjoy!”

“Oh, but where are my manners? My name is Yang Guan. What’s your name? Where are you going, and why are you out alone in the wilderness?”