Stranger Danger

The fog kept changing colors in regular intervals like it was a light show. Everything trapped within fog—the stone forest, the ground, the air and even the clouds—changed colors as well. It was colorful, dreamlike, and strange to put it mildly.

That wasn’t the full extent of its strangeness, however. Every time it happened, entire sections of the stone forest would weaken as if it had aged hundreds of thousands of years in an instant. Eventually, they crumbled away into dust completely!

This in and of itself was absolutely terrifying, but Chen Long’s transformation struck a deeper chord with the group because he was a fellow human. Every time the fog switched to another color, he would age decades in an instant. His face grew saggy and wrinkled, his hair whitened inch by inch, and his teeth grew looser and looser until they fell off his gums completely… It was like something was stealing Chen Long’s lifespan little by little.

Seven changes later, Chen Long died of old age and decayed into a pile of bones instantly. Not only that, the bones were still withering at a visible rate!

“Heavens…”

An indescribable chill shot up everyone’s spine and spread throughout their whole body!

A terrible cry escaped Yan Yufei’s throat, “That’s… that’s the Heptachromatic Fog of Aging! Make haste, men! We must get as far away from it as possible!”

Most of the time, Yan Yufei had acted like nothing in the world could possibly unsettle him. This was the first time most people saw him losing his composure so utterly. Naturally, they hastened to obey his order. Frankly, no one was crazy enough to dilly-dally after witnessing Chen Long’s bizarre demise with their own eyes.

Clop clop clop—“HEE HAW!”

They had just fled for a short distance when Ye Qing’s donkey blew past them with extraordinary speed. It should not be possible for it to outrun the horses considering that it was shorter and smaller than them in every way, but it did, and it was hee-hawing the entire time as if its stamina was inexhaustible.

Clop clop clop—“HEE HAW!”—clop clop clop—“HEE HAW!”—clop clop clop—“HEE HAW!”

Not only that, the donkey was looking back at them from time to time and shooting them a toothy grin. It was almost as if it was deriding them for how slow they were! The worst part was, they couldn’t prove it wrong! How frustrating was that?

Sigh. We’re okay with Ye Qing being stronger than us—or at least, his bodyguard is. But his mount too? Sometimes, life is just unfair!

“The fog is spreading! We need to move faster!” Yan Feng shouted on top of his lungs as he glanced back and forth between Ye Qing—who had almost vanished into the horizon, damn that donkey—and the fog all around them. He then whipped his own mount harder.

……

“Hah, hah, hah…”

A teatime later, the group was resting in the outskirts of Redstone Forest, panting like a dog and floored in every sense of the word. Some people were flushed like a tomato, and some looked as pale as death. They had done it though. They had successfully escaped the fog of death.

It was a close one though. Most of their horses had run out of steam about halfway to where they were, and the fog was still spreading in their direction. Left with no choice, they had to abandon their horses, dump everything they didn’t need, and run with their own two legs. It was a harrowing escape to put it mildly.

Well, it was a harrowing escape for all of them except one. A young man was standing by the road with a calm expression. He was the only one with perfectly tidy clothes and standing on his feet while everyone else had collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. There was no doubt that he was the smartest-looking human of the bunch right now. He was, of course, Ye Qing!

Ye Qing was currently observing the fog still spreading across the entire Redstone Forest with a deep frown on his face. He did not know what it was as the “Twelve Incense Sticks of Ghost and Gods” had not mentioned it. A long time later, he finally could hold his curiosity no longer and walked up to Yan Yufei, asking, “Lord Yan, I remember you addressing the fog as the Heptachromatic Fog of Aging, right? Can you tell me more about it?”

By now Yan Yufei had rested enough to regain some energy, so he joked, “There are things you don’t know, Joyless?”

Ye Qing rubbed his nose awkwardly. “Come now! Of course there are things I know nothing about! The pursuit for knowledge is endless, am I right?”

“Hahaha! You are!” Yan Yufei chuckled before launching into his explanation, “I happened to read a file about this fog before. The Heptachromatic Fog of Aging is a Phenomenon-class Stranger—”

Ye Qing was familiar with the term “Phenomenon-class Stranger” because he had read about it in the “Twelve Incense Sticks of Ghost and Gods”. Three of the incense sticks required a material that could only be procured from a Phenomenon-class Stranger.

Previously, Fang Nianshui had taught him that a Stranger could be classified as Mundane, Red, Malice or Hatred. They matched the four lowest cultivation levels of a warrior and were the most common kinds of Strangers out there. That said, Hatred wasn’t the end of the ladder. There were five more classes above Hatred, and they were Soulstealer, Phenomenon, Disaster, Ancient and Extinction.

A Phenomenon-class Stranger was exactly what it sounded like: a phenomenon. It was an observable event whose power, shape or form could not be measured by any quantifiable means. Not limited to just animate objects, it could be a rock, a piece of paper, a statue, or even a fog like the one that damn near annihilated their group just now. Its threat level, power level, deadliness, area of activity, patterns and more were all fluid and unpredictable. Hence, it was impossible to properly appraise a Stranger like this.

A Disaster-class Stranger was, as its class might suggest, akin to a natural disaster such as hurricanes, floods, landslides, earthquakes and so on.? Every time one showed up, it would cause massive, irreparable damage to both the environment and the unfortunate souls living in the area.

As for Ancient-class and Extinction-class, there were unfortunately—or fortunately—little to no description about them. Few humans had ever encountered Strangers at this level, and even fewer lived to tell the tale. Naturally, there were little to no meaningful records regarding such Strangers.

“—A strange fog that alternates between seven colors at regular intervals and possesses the mysterious power of time. No one knows how it came to be, where it comes from, or how to guard against. Once it appears, it would rapidly spread to its surrounding area. It can be as small as several kilometers in diameter, or as big as fifty kilometers or higher.”

“Its effect is as you've seen. Everything that the fog encompasses be it a mountain, a rock, a grass, a tree, a human, an animal, the wind or the clouds; everything and anything will be infected and assimilated by it. And every time it changes color, the affected things will age rapidly as if their time was stolen by the river of time itself. Things will crumble, animals will age, and humans will die. That is why the fog is called the Heptachromatic Fog of Aging!”

“The Heptachromatic Fog of Aging cannot be repelled, stopped, destroyed or exploited. Anyone and anything who is infected by it cannot be saved. It is why it is considered to be stronger and even more dangerous than some Disaster-class Strangers.”

Yan Yufei took a short break before continuing in a heavy tone, “Many years ago, there was an infamous incident revolving around the Heptachromatic Fog of Aging called the Longchuan Tragedy. The fog had manifested in the Longchuan commandery at midnight. You’ve seen how fast the fog spread, and since it was midnight few people noticed the fog, if at all. The next day, when someone finally realized what happened, the entire commandery had already crumbled away into bone and dust. Can you imagine? A sprawling city over fifty kilometers wide with tens of thousands of citizens in it, gone in a single night. How terrible.”

“Thankfully, the Heptachromatic Fog of Aging does not spread endlessly or exist for an indefinite amount of time. It’s not too damaging as long as it does not appear in a highly populated settlement. That is why it is classified as a Phenomenon-class Stranger and not a Disaster-class.”

“Heavens above! Now that’s a stay-the-fuck-away Stranger if I ever heard one!” Ye Qing was gaining an impression of the Heptachromatic Fog of Aging and Phenomenon-class Strangers in general after listening to Yan Yufei. Long story short—such power, much strong, stay the fuck away from or else!

As they spoke, Redstone Forest was crumbling away at an unbelievable rate. What was once a gorgeous rock formation that seemed like it would last a lifetime was crumbling away like rotten wood in a sandstorm. It was only a matter of time—literally—before one of the best attractions of Anyang was gone forever.

“This—this looks bad. We need to get back to Anyang and inform the citizens to stay away from Redstone Forest as soon as possible!” Yan Yufei abruptly rose to his feet and ordered, “Rouse the men, Yan Feng. We must reach Anyang before the sun falls completely into the mountains!”

“Yes, my lord!” Yan Feng answered and climbed to his feet as well. He slapped away the dust on his armor and commanded the men to get ready. It wasn’t long before the group resumed their journey once more.

Ye Qing hung back at the rear of the group. He continued to read his book and acted the role of a scholar.

After they passed through Redstone Forest, they followed the marked road for about an incense stick before they arrived at a steep, narrow gorge. The gorge looked like one big mountain range that had been split in half. Its walls were perfectly smooth and angled steeply. Even an experienced climber would find it difficult to scale such steep walls.

What was truly bizarre however, was the fact that the gorge was perfectly silent. There was no animal cry, no insect chirp, and not even the sound of the wind inside the gorge. The phrase “the silence is deafening” was literal in this case!

“The Soundless Gorge…” Ye Qing muttered as he squinted at the gorge in front of him.

Yan Feng dismounted and said in an unusually soft voice, “Dismount. Bridle your horses and wrap their hooves in cloth. I don’t want to hear even a bit of noise, understand?”

It was forbidden to make noise in the Soundless Gorge because it would attract the attention of a Red-class Stranger called the Soundless Bug. Individually the Soundless Bug wasn’t much of a threat, but it usually lived in a swarm numbering tens or even hundreds of thousands. No one wanted to face down thousands and thousands of Strangers unless absolutely necessary.

That said, the Soundless Bugs would not attack if there was no sound. Hence their preparations. 𝒃𝙚𝒅𝒏𝙤𝙫𝒆𝒍．𝙘𝒐𝙢

After everyone had dismounted and done as Yan Feng ordered, the group officially entered the Soundless Gorge.

Everyone was keeping as quiet as possible. They even controlled their breathing to avoid drawing the Soundless Bugs’ attention.

There was one notable exception, however. Ye Qing was staring at the sea of Soundless Bugs crawling up and down the sheer cliffs with bright eyes and seriously considering drawing them over with some noise.

Although he still had plenty of gray dragon-serpent runes, his silver dragon-serpent runes had dwindled to just two. He had spent most of them cultivating the “Blood Shadow Divine Art”. In fact, he was saving these two runes when he was in an emergency, so one could say that he was broke right now.

Long story short, he was in dire need of cultivation resources, and he desperately wanted to murder these weak Strangers whose only virtue was their great numbers!

Not far away, Yan Feng noticed Ye Qing’s fervent stare and felt a sudden wave of panic. Why did he feel like something bad was about to happen? Specifically, why did he feel like someone was about to make his job much, much harder than it should be?

As if sensing Yan Feng’s wary gaze, Ye Qing turned around and shot him a smile. In the end, he decided to abandon his plan. He and Kung Fu Frog had nothing to fear from the Soundless Bugs, but the same could not be said for Yan Feng’s group. He would feel bad if someone got hurt or even killed because of his greed.

I’m just too good of a person! Ye Qing shrugged to himself before letting out a soundless sigh. Well, it’s not like the Soundless Bugs are going to go anywhere, and from the looks of it they aren’t really that numerous—not as much as the Bloodsucking Mosquitoes at least… Yeah, I should wait until they increase their numbers. You don’t harvest wheat one block at a time after all. No, you reap them all in one go!

In the end, the group was able to pass through the Soundless Gorge without any accident, and everyone let out an audible sigh of relief when the danger was fully behind them. They even talked louder than normal as if to make up for the forced silence from before.

“You look kinda disappointed just now, Joyless. What’s the matter?” A smiling Yang Guan walked over to Ye Qing and asked.

Ye Qing sighed. “I am. Say, why are these Soundless Bugs such cowards? Why didn’t they take the initiative to attack us?”

Yang Guan: “...” Is it just me, or is there a screw loose in your head?

“Also, what’s with their abysmal numbers? There’s not even enough to make up a quarter of a swarm of Bloodsucking Mosquitoes!” Ye Qing continued to rant.

Everyone: “...”

We would rather that there are no Soundless Bugs in the Soundless Gorge at all, but you want the opposite?

Are you a demon?