Stranger Danger

“Is the Soul Collector alive or dead?” Ye Qing asked suddenly after a moment of silence.

“Of course he’s—”

Yi Pin wanted to say that the Soul Collector was dead since those days were long, long behind them. But then, he recalled the fact that warriors from those times were on a completely different level, so who was to say that some of them hadn’t transcended death itself?

In the end, Yi Pin shook his head and said, “I’m not sure.”

He could be alive or dead. Only the Soul Collector himself knew for sure.

For the two of them, the appearance of the Soul Collector was just a harmless scare. However, it reminded them that they were just guests of the Earthly Sovereign’s Coffin; ants that the entities of this place could crush like nothing if they really wanted to. So long as they were still in this place, they must never let their guard down.

That said, the appearance of the Soul Collector was a good thing for Ye Qing. It had stopped Yue Juejiang’s search and prevented him from pulling drastic measures to retrieve his Profound Yellow Qi Calabash.

This was proven when Yue Juejiang called everyone out again, but only fired off a few puny threats and collected a few wisps of Profound Yellow Qi. He left them alone after that.

“Phew. So glad that’s finally behind us.” Yi Pin let out a sigh of relief after they returned to their own rooms. He then looked at Ye Qing curiously and asked, “Weren’t you afraid when Yue Juejiang tried to kill us earlier? It would’ve been pretty bad if the Soul Collector hadn’t shown up.”

“Not at all,” Ye Qing replied calmly. “It was just an intimidation tactic, and even if it wasn’t, neither Huo Linglong nor Sun Xuanzhen would allow it.”

The reason the three warriors kept them alive was to use them to acquire more Profound Yellow Qi. Killing them would be like killing the goose for the golden egg. Even if Yue Juejiang managed to retrieve the Profound Yellow Qi Calabash, it would have been a net loss for him, not to mention Huo Linglong and Sun Xuanzhen. Those two would have lost an entire “crop” of Profound Yellow Qi for nothing.

Earlier, Yue Juejiang tried everything but still failed to locate the Profound Yellow Qi Calabash. He acted like his anger had gone to his head, and that he was going to make the thief pay by hook or by crook. In reality, he probably knew better than everyone that killing them wouldn’t help him retrieve his lost treasure. He was just trying to scare the thief into panicking and exposing themselves.

To be fair, it was a good plan. Most people wouldn’t be able to keep their cool in a life-or-death situation. Unfortunately for him, Ye Qing had experienced too much to be intimidated by a mere Half-Step Spirit Master. Besides, he knew exactly what Yue Juejiang was thinking, and he was certain that the young man wouldn’t kill them.

“Why are you asking me though? I’m sure you’ve already figured this out.” Ye Qing smirked at Yi Pin. If he could figure this out, then surely the cunning old Taoist would have arrived at the same conclusion as well.

“Hahaha! I have, but as you know, a person only grows more timid with age. Despite my knowledge, I was honestly afraid that that simple-minded mule would say damn the consequences and kill us all. Luckily, everything went as you predicted. I’m fairly sure Yue Juejiang now believe Huo Linglong’s claim that the mysterious powers of the Earthly Sovereign’s Coffin stole his Profound Yellow Qi Calabash, so you should be in the clear now.”

Yi Pin let out a chuckle before asking a question, “I'm really curious though. How on earth did you manage to stop Yue Juejiang from sensing his Strange Artifact? And where on earth did you hide it?”

This was what really confounded him.

“Like I said, it’s a secret.” Ye Qing smirked and politely refused to answer.

It wasn’t anything special, really. All he did was to wrap the Profound Yellow Qi Calabash inside the Annon Sutra. The Annon Sutra was a powerful, enigmatic existence. When it wasn’t using its power, not even the strongest, most anomalous existence could detect its presence, much less a mere human.

This wasn’t the first time he used the Annon Sutra to cover up an item’s presence, so he knew it would work. Of course, he was also lucky that the Profound Yellow Qi Calabash was small enough to be wrapped inside the piece of vellum. After that, he simply deposited the item inside Nine Heavens.

In his imagination, Yue Juejiang’s attention would be mostly on powerful warriors such as Huo Linglong and Sun Xuanzhen. He would never look through the Nature’s Shell of a “puny early-stage Spirit Purifier” like him too thoroughly no matter how much he wanted to retrieve his treasure. And he was right. The guy hadn’t even conducted a thorough inspection. He had simply brushed his spirit across their Nature’s Shells.

But of course, he still had to thank the Soul Collector for interrupting the search prematurely. Otherwise, there was no way Yue Juejiang would have let things go so easily.

“Guard me, brother.”

Now that it was safe, it was time to convert the Profound Yellow Qi into his strength. In order to prevent Yi Pin from detecting something or someone barging into their room suddenly and finding something amiss, Ye Qing surrounded himself inside the thick, spirit-isolating fog that was his Child of Blood Demon. But of course, he didn’t wrap Yi Pin inside his fog.

With that done, he summoned a wisp of Profound Yellow Qi from his Nine Heavens, swallowed it, and began his cultivation.

“Heh, he’s so careful that he doesn’t feel like a youngster. Then again, only careful people can live just a little longer in this world.”

Yi Pin chuckled and examined the fog permeating the room a little. Then, he leaned against the wall and sipped his wine without a care for the world.

......

Darkness and silence, mystery and fear seemed to be the permanent themes of the Earthly Sovereign’s Coffin. Darkness produced mystery, and silence elicited fear. Considering how dominant these themes were, it almost felt like light was the biggest taboo of this place.

That misconception was shattered when wisps of light suddenly chased away the eternal darkness that shrouded the coffin. In fact, the light looked colorful and dreamlike.

At the center of the penta-colored light were a bunch of flowers. They were shaped like orchids and had pure white petals. Their pistils were also penta-colored and swaying gently even though there was no wind inside the coffin. The light it emitted was as fanciful as a kaleidoscope.

The colorful, bright orchids slowly came closer to the rooms. At first, it looked like the orchids were floating in the middle of the darkness. But when they got closer, it became clear that they were attached to the back of a turtle[1].

The turtle was pitch black and about as big as a millstone. Its shell was absolutely covered in flowers. It was like a mini garden of sorts.

Every time the turtle took a step forward, the flowers would shake a little and spill more light into the surroundings. The fragrant scent of the flowers was a match for its phantasmal light and colors.

The beautiful, flower-covered turtle seemed to be the antithesis of the coffin’s darkness. It brought a sliver of liveliness, happiness, tranquility and auspiciousness into this place of death.

“Yawn...”

“Haap...”

“So sleepy...”

It was as if the tranquil and auspicious light was infectious. A wave of sleepiness washed over everyone before they knew it.

As if responding to their drowsiness, the flowers on the turtle’s back grew increasingly colorful and fragrant as well. From time to time, the turtle would turn back and consume the brightest, most colorful and fragrant flower of them all.

Those who were already asleep fell into a deeper slumber.

“Yawn...”

Ye Qing was meditating and yawning inside the room. He was so drowsy he nearly lost control of his energy circulation.

“What the heck? Why am I so sleepy...”

The world spun before his eyes as heavy waves of sleepiness assaulted his mind again and again. He kept nodding off like a chick no matter how much he tried to keep his posture straight, and his eyelids were so heavy that he was unable to open them no matter what.

“Snore... snore...”

Beside him, Yi Pin was already out like a light. His snores were loud, and there were saliva trickling down the corner of his lips. It looked like he was having a great dream.

The old Taoist’s snores only caused Ye Qing’s eyelids to grow heavier. His consciousness was starting to blur as well.

No... something’s not right about this...

Ye Qing shook his head strongly in an attempt to regain his clarity of mind. With his mental fortitude, he could go two weeks straight without sleep and still be more awake than this. Something was definitely wrong about the situation.

His head cleared up for a breath or so, but a new wave of drowsiness threatened to dye his vision black once more.

“I mustn’t fall asleep!

Determination flickered in Ye Qing’s eyes as he bit the tip of his tongue. The sudden outburst of pain immediately pushed away the wave of drowsiness and woke him up completely.

“Brother! Wake up! Brother!”

Ye Qing hurriedly walked up to Yi Pin and shook his shoulder persistently, but it was like someone had turned off the consciousness switch in his mind. No matter how hard he shook the old Taoist and cried out his name, he refused to wake up no matter what.

1. It’s a turtle. Explanation in the next chapter. ☜

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