Stranger Danger

“That’s hard to say. Perhaps a tiger has slipped into our ranks before we know it?”

Smiling, Huo Linglong slowly swept her gaze across the crowd. “If a tiger ate a man, its mouth would surely be covered in bloodstains. Why don’t you check everyone else’s Nature’s Shell as well? Who knows, you might find what you seek.”

Yue Juejiang looked at the crowd and ordered, “Show me your Nature’s Shells.”

Sun Xuanzhen wasn’t around, and Huo Linglong was the one who suggested Yue Juejiang to check their Nature’s Shell in the first place. Left with no choice, everyone opened their Nature’s Shell and allowed Yue Juejiang to inspect its contents.

Yue Juejiang’s expression only grew darker as he scanned each and every Nature’s Shell with his spirit. It was because he couldn’t detect the Profound Yellow Qi Calabash at all.

Not only that, since everyone’s door was wide open right now, he could see and feel everything inside the room. He found no traces of his Profound Yellow Qi Calabash, Han Meng’s body, or even signs that a fight had taken place. There were no clues for him to pursue at all.

“Who among you have seen Han Meng?” Yue Juejiang asked.

“I did... he left after collecting my Profound Yellow Qi.”

“Same here.”

“Me too.”

“It’s the same for the two of us. Han Meng left after collecting our Profound Yellow Qi.”

Everyone including Yi Pin and Ye Qing answered.

Suddenly, Yue Juejiang appeared in front of a man and grabbed his throat. He uttered, “You’re lying. I can sense the Profound Yellow Qi in you. Did you do it?”

The man he caught slowly turned beet red in the face. He tried to struggle, but he could barely draw breath. It was like a mountain was sitting on top of his chest. “I... I don’t understand what you mean!”

“I sensed the Profound Yellow Qi in you. It proves that you had just refined a wisp of Profound Yellow Qi. How is it possible for Han Meng to collect from you if it’s already gone?”

Yue Juejiang tightened his grip, and the man’s bones creaked ominously. The man’s face was starting to turn purple as he squeezed out, “I... did not... kill... Han Meng!”

Yue Juejiang loosened his grip a little, and the man coughed a couple of times to catch his breath. Once he was ready, he explained himself in a hurry, “The Faceless Buddha hurt me very badly today. If I didn’t refine the Profound Yellow Qi, I would’ve died. That is why I did it.”

“I didn’t kill Han Meng, nor did I steal your Profound Yellow Qi Calabash. I swear it.”

“If that’s the case, then why did you lie to me?” Yue Juejiang asked coldly.

“I... I just...”

Before the man could finish, Yue Juejiang interrupted, “There is nothing more I hate than liars.”

Crack!

There was a disturbing crack, and he ripped off the man’s head from his shoulders just like that. The poor man’s face slowly spread into an expression of shock and horror before it became frozen for eternity.

Everyone subconsciously took a step backward and stared at Yue Juejiang with fear. The young man slowly swept his gaze across the crowd while still clutching the man’s head, saying, “I don’t care who among you had stolen my item. Return it to me, and I shall let bygones be bygones. Otherwise, you will end up like this stupid bastard over here.”

“...”

“So, you will squander your last chance?”

A few seconds later, when no one stepped forward or said a thing, Yue Juejiang’s aura hit a new low. “Okay then. You can all die.”

Before he even finished talking, Yue Juejiang was already throwing his palm in their direction. A gigantic, dark yellow-colored hand appeared in the air, though the center of its palm was rugged like a mountain and sinuous like a river.

“Mountain River God Palm”

Terrible pressure enveloped the group, and everyone turned as white as a sheet. They felt like a literal mountain and river were crashing down on them.

The palm locked the surrounding space and forbade them from escaping to safety. As the palm force washed over them, some people began throwing up copious amounts of blood.

At a critical moment, Huo Linglong suddenly appeared in front of Yue Juejiang and brushed her hand across his wrist like she was playing a string instrument. His hand wobbled, and the giant palm in the air abruptly crumbled into nothing because it was cut off from its energy source.

“You’ve already searched them. Surely you don’t need to kill them as well?” Huo Linglong said gently. “Maybe they really didn’t take your Strange Artifact. The Earthly Sovereign’s Coffin is a dangerous and anomalous place. Perhaps it was one such danger that killed Han Meng and took your treasure? If that’s true, then you would’ve killed them for nothing.”

Yue Juejiang stared at Huo Linglong coldly, but the woman wasn’t afraid in the slightest. “It may be too late to retrieve your Profound Yellow Qi Calabash, but these people can still give us a hefty amount of Profound Yellow Qi. It would be a shame to kill them all, no? Surely you aren’t planning to suffer through the trials for a measly one qi per day?”

“Don’t you agree, dearie?”

Yue Juejiang was still quiet. Judging from his expression, he was either considering Huo Linglong’s words, scorning her reasoning, or both.

“Argh!”

The atmosphere was razor sharp with tension when suddenly, a bloodcurdling scream pierced the air. When they looked, they saw the man Yue Juejiang had just killed a while ago grabbing a woman from behind. Yes, the headless man was somehow moving despite not having a head. Even now, bright red blood was gushing out of the opening and drenching the woman from shoulder to toe.

After the woman had recovered her wits, she let loose a blast of astral qi and shook off the headless man. Surprisingly, the man exploded into a shower of gore like he was a water-filled balloon, not a human.

Caught off guard, some people were splashed by the blood and gore before they could get away. Naturally, the woman caught the worst of it.

“Phew, thank goodness.” The woman sighed in relief, but when she looked up, she noticed that everyone was staring at her in shock. She subconsciously took a step backward and asked, “Wha... what’s wrong?”

Realizing that they were staring at her body, she looked down and saw the blood wriggling like it was alive and taking the form of many tiny faces. The face belonged to the man who just died, of course.

“Where’s my head?”

“Where’s my head?’

“Where’s my head?”

The faces asked very seriously while looking left and right for their head.

The woman screamed and tried to blast the blood away with another surge of astral qi, but...

“Argh! It hurts!”

“It hurts so bad...”

“Ahhhhh...”

The faces were blasted into smithereens, but they reformed almost just as quickly. As they mumbled or groaned in pain, the blood slowly moved upward until it covered the woman’s face completely. Her terrified screams slowly turned more masculine, and her struggles grew weaker and weaker as well.

“Where is my head?”

“Where is my head?”

“Where is my head?”

The woman wasn’t the only one who was afflicted by this strange phenomenon. The blood on the two men who were caught in the blood shower earlier were turning into faces and crying, “Where is my head?” as well.

The next moment, every face suddenly homed in on Yue Juejiang and the head he was holding. Then, they let out a monstrous cry and charged him.

“Hmph. Foolish cur.”

Yue Juejiang remained calm despite the sudden situation. He clenched his fist, and the three victims abruptly exploded into showers of gore.

This time, everyone was ready for it. They backed away from the victims, dodged the scattering bits of flesh and blood, and surrounded their whole bodies in astral qi.

Yue Juejiang scoffed at their reaction, but before he could do anything else, the smatterings of gore on the floor writhed slowly joined together to form a ball of flesh. Many faces were appearing on the surface of the ball, and this time, it wasn’t just the face of the man he killed earlier. There was the poor woman and the two men as well.

Each and every face was crying savagely,

“Where is my head?”

“Why did no one save me?”

“Why did you kill me?”

Their cries weren’t harmless either. They combined to form some sort of chaotic, anomalous sound wave that was magnified many times by the confined space of the Earthly Sovereign’s Coffin. Some people clutched their heads and began wailing in pain.

“Get out of my sight!”

A steely glint flickered in Yue Juejiang’s eyes. Realizing that he couldn’t underestimate whatever the hell this thing was, he turned serious and brought down his palm again. The meatball was literally flattened into a meat cake.

Yue Juejiang was frowning, however. It was because his Mountain River God Palm had failed to crush the meatball into a meat paste. In fact, it was wriggling and screaming the entire time,

“It hurts...”

“It hurts so bad...”

“I’m hurting...”

The screams were shrill, terrible, and unholy. It pierced everyone’s mind like knives and caused them to bleed from every orifice.

Pang! Pang! Pang pang!

It was at this moment a new sound entered the fray.

This chapter is updat𝙚d by f(r)eewebn(o)vel.com