Stranger Danger

“Where are we now?”

Ye Qing asked.

Day and night didn’t exist in the Yin Yang Gap. There was only an endless line of horror shows. That was why it was incredibly easy to lose track of time and direction while traversing the Yin Yang Gap. However, this didn’t apply to the Night Walkers because they knew a system of methods that allowed them to keep track of time and direction without fail.

“We’re deep inside Carefree Mountain Range right now. It should take us another two to four hours at most to pass through the area completely,” the Night Walker answered.

“That fast?” Ye Qing exclaimed in astonishment.

Carefree Mountain Range spanned over fifty kilometers in width, not to mention that countless dangers resided within the mountains. Even if there was no danger, it should’ve taken them at least ten to fifteen days to pass through the mountain range. Generally speaking, it took around three to five months to cross over Carefree Mountain Range.

It had only been eight hours at most since they began their journey, and already they were almost through the region. It was miraculous to say the least.

“Have you ever heard of the saying: ‘When yin is long, yang is short. When yang is long, yin is short’, my lord?” The Night Walker asked.

“No.” Ye Qing shook his head.

“There is a story in ‘On Picking Up Strangers’ that goes something like this. Once upon a time, there was a scholar named Wang Sheng who was enjoying a night walk. However, something startled him and caused his soul to become separate from his body. In his delirious state, he somehow appeared hundreds and hundreds of kilometers away from his body.”

“Luckily for him, a kind Taoist who happened to be roaming the area with his Yin God noticed his soul and escorted him all the way back to his body. When Wang Sheng regained his consciousness, he realized what he did when he was a soul and asked the Taoist how on earth it was possible for his soul to travel hundreds of kilometers in a single night. The Taoist answered, ‘When yang is long, yin is short. When yin is long, yang is short. Such is the profoundness of our world.”

After he was done narrating the origin story of the saying, the Night Walker explained, “To put it in simple terms, the spacetime interval of the yang world and the yin world is different. Some places in the yang world are very far apart from each other, but in the yin world, they could be within walking distance of each other. The opposite is the same.”

“The Yin Yang Gap also has its own unique spacetime interval. We Night Walkers know a secret art that would allow us to determine the spacetime interval gap between the yang world and the Yin Yang Gap. We then exploit this knowledge to drastically reduce the amount of time we need to carry our customers from one location to the next. That is why we are almost through Carefree Mountain Range in such a short amount of time.”

“When yang is long, yin is short. When yin is long, yang is short, huh? It really is incredible,” Ye Qing exclaimed in realization.

Rumble rumble!

A loud rumble came from in front of the litter while they were chatting. Thinking that they had run into yet another natural disaster, Ye Qing looked through the gap between the curtains to see what it was. It wasn’t. What he saw stunned him so much that words failed him for a moment.

He saw nine massive Strangers in front of him. Each was one shaped differently from another. One had a dragon’s head but a snake’s body, another had a dragon’s head and a jackal’s body; the third Stranger was shaped like a lion, the fourth Stranger was shaped like a giant turtle and carrying a stele on its back, the fifth Stranger had a dragon’s head but a tiger’s body...

Each Stranger gave off an unbelievable amount of pressure. He knew at first glance that he could never defeat them as he was.

“Is that... the Dragon’s Nine Sons?”

Ye Qing’s eyes widened. Not only did he recognize the Nine Strangers, he actually knew them from his previous life. More accurately, they looked quite similar to the nine creatures depicted in the Legend of the Dragon’s Nine Sons: Qiuniu, Yazi, Chaofeng, Pulao, Suanni, Baxia, Bi’an, Fuxi, and Chiwen.

Qiuniu possessed a dragon’s head and a snake’s body. It loved music.

Yazi possessed a dragon’s head and a jackal’s body. It was aggressive and enjoyed fighting.

Chaofeng resembled a mix between a phoenix and a dragon. It was extremely fond of adventuring.

Pulao was shaped like a dragon, but smaller in size. It loved roaring a lot.

Suanni was shaped like a lion and was fond of smoke and fire.

Baxia was shaped like a turtle and loved to carry heavy objects.

Bi’an possessed a tiger’s head and a dragon’s body. He enjoyed litigation and upholding justice for others.

Fuxi was shaped like a long dragon and loved words.

And finally, Chiwen was shaped like a lizard without a tail. It enjoyed swallowing fire.

What stunned Ye Qing even more than witnessing the legendary creatures themselves was the fact that they were covered in chains and dragging a coffin behind them. Not only that, the coffin made him feel worse than even the nine sons of the dragon.

He took one glance at the coffin—just one—and suddenly, he found his mind shaking like a leaf, and blood pouring out of the corners of his eyes.

“What kind of coffin requires nine dragons to pull it?!”

Ye Qing hurriedly closed his eyes and tried to control his trembling. Inexplicable fear gripped every part of his body.

“We need to—”

He couldn’t finish before the Night Walker suddenly let out a bloodcurdling scream. His demonic thought told him that the man was clutching his face, and blood was pouring profusely down his eyes.

“Return to the yang world, now!”

Ye Qing soothed the man’s fear and panic with his demonic thought before yelling again.

The Night Walker’s terror abruptly disappeared like it was never there. Knowing that they were at a critical moment, he shouted as soon as he collected himself, “Wind and rain cannot block the path between yin and yang, gods and demons cannot stop the Night Walker!”

The Yin Yang Litter swerved upward and grew transparent. They were rapidly transitioning into the yang world.

When familiar darkness assaulted his senses, Ye Qing could barely stop himself from letting out a sigh of relief. They were back in the yang world.

That was a little too close.

To say that the coffin and the nine dragons had left him a deep impression would be an understatement. Just now, he felt like he had one foot in the grave. Even now, he almost felt like he could hear the metallic clinks of the chains binding the nine dragons and the coffin together.

Wait... it’s not a hallucination! I can really hear it!

The blood drained away from Ye Qing’s face as the nine dragons and the coffin appeared before his eyes once more. This time though, something was different. A man—or more accurately, a withered, pale-faced corpse—was sitting crosslegged atop the coffin, and despite his obviously dead state, Ye Qing couldn’t help but feel terrified. He felt like he was in the presence of something many, many times greater than he was.

Suddenly, the corpse slowly raised his head. Space began shivering lightly as if a titan was pushing the sky upward.

“When I bow my head, the sky is barely taller than me.”

“When I look up, the world can no longer fit me.”

Ye Qing’s eyes bulged, and his mind shuddered like a leaf.

He wanted to say something, but he couldn’t open his mouth.

He wanted to move, but his body was stiff all over.

Even his thoughts felt infinitely more sluggish than normal.

His scalp turned numb when he noticed that the corpse was looking straight at him.

Its eyes were empty and glassy. Paradoxically, it felt both distant and close at the same time. But one thing for certain, it was definitely staring at him.

For a moment, they were silently staring at each other. Then, the corners of the corpse’s lips slowly turned up.

A human’s smile was generally welcoming, but the smile of the dead could only be terrifying.

As soon as the corpse’s smile spread to full length, darkness abruptly overtook Ye Qing’s senses. He blacked out.

......

“Phew, that was too close, my lord?”

The Night Walker had temporarily stopped his vehicle to catch his breath and wipe the blood on his face. There was lingering fear and trepidation on his face and he said, “What on earth is that thing? It’s terrifying!”

He waited for a moment but heard no answer from Ye Qing. While his customer wasn’t the most talkative man, the Night Walker thought that anyone would speak up after experiencing whatever the hell that was.

“My lord? My lord?”

The Night Walker called out twice and still received no response from Ye Qing. He thought with increasing puzzlement, is he still in shock or something?

“Are you alright, my lord?”

The Night Walker slowly lifted the curtains. “My lord, what—”

His eyes bulged, and his mouth turned into an O-shape before he could finish.

It was because the Yin Yang Litter was completely empty.

Ye Qing was nowhere to be seen.

Where is he?

He couldn’t have disappeared without me noticing, right?

What the fuck?

......

“Who am I?”

“Where am I?”

“What the hell happened?”

His head felt heavy. Ye Qing massaged his forehead furiously as he opened his eyes and saw... darkness.

He jumped to his feet. Maybe it was because his movement was too abrupt, but multiple wounds split open on his body.

He paid them no attention, however. He was too busy examining the unfamiliar environment around him.

It looked like he was shut inside a small, narrow room. He could literally touch the walls and the ceiling from where he stood. Judging from the coldness and somewhat coarse texture brushing against his skin, the room was probably carved out of some sort of bluestone.

There was a door in front of him, but he didn’t open it immediately. Instead, he performed a thorough inspection on himself. A while later, he concluded that he hadn’t lost anything or gained some sort of new affliction while he was unconscious.

“I remember... I remember seeing nine dragons and a coffin...”

Ye Qing slowly recalled what happened prior to his black out. He remembered seeing nine dragons dragging a coffin behind them, a corpse suddenly appearing on top of the coffin, the corpse smiling at him and...

That was it.

The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr(e)𝒆novelkiss