Stranger Danger

Ye Qing smacked his own head as if he just recalled something and fished out a bottle from his Nine Heavens. “The Qi of Ultimate Purity? I toooooooootally would’ve forgotten about it if you didn’t bring it up. It just so happens that I have a couple with me—they’re the ones you gave me back at the Demon’s Tomb, remember?”

Yi Pin had given him six wisps of Qi of Ultimate Purity in total, but now there were only four since he had to use two back on the Boat of Longing.

Yi Pin also exclaimed with feigned realization, “Oh, you’re right! I can’t believe I forgot about it myself! Are you sure you want to give it to me though? They’re quite valuable, you know?”

“What are you talking about? It could be the most valuable treasure in the world, and it still wouldn’t be worth your life!” Ye Qing feigned a look of shock and horror. “Besides, I know you’re a generous soul! You’ll make it worth my trouble, won’t you?”

Yi Pin laughed drily. “Hahaha... Thank you, brother. Assuming I manage to get out of this place alive, I’ll be sure to reward you handsomely.”

“Hahaha! You’re too kind. We’re brothers, aren’t we?” Ye Qing grinned widely. “But of course, I shan’t turn down a gift from you. I’ll be fine with just eight or ten wisps of Qi of Ultimate Purity. Anymore than that, and I’ll take it as an insult, okay?”

“Hahaha, what a good brother you are!” Yi Pin deadpanned. If I didn’t mention that I still have a lot of Qi of Ultimate Purity with me, there is no way this brat would’ve agreed to help me so easily. Truly, he is the best of brothers!

Despite his scorn, Yi Pin was confident that Ye Qing would use the Qi of Ultimate Purity to save him if he was moments of dying—and not a moment earlier. That was why he promised the young man a reward. He was way, way, way too old to choose self-mutilation, fear, and all that nonsense when the option to be freed from his suffering this instant existed.

“Of course I am.” Ye Qing held the bottle in front of Yi Pin’s face and urged him, “No time to waste. Inhale now.”

Yi Pin bent down and inhaled a wisp of Qi of Ultimate Purity. As soon as the qi entered his abdomen, a surge of pure energy rushed into his head, and the drowsiness sinking its talons into his mind was expelled in an instant. For the first time in a long while, he felt completely conscious and in control of himself. No longer could the Turtle of Sleep’s evil influence touch him.

Yi Pin thought that Ye Qing was going to inhale a wisp of Qi of Ultimate Purity as well, but he didn’t. Instead, he put the bottle away.

The old Taoist furrowed his brows in confusion. “Why aren’t you using it, brother?”

Ye Qing answered honestly, “It’s too wasteful.”

Yi Pin: “...” Well, at least he’s honest this time.

The reason Ye Qing didn’t use the Qi of Ultimate Purity was because of several reasons. One, the “Paranirmitava?avartin Heavenly Demon Sutra” was a profound martial art that could resist the Turtle of Sleep’s influence to a certain extent. He was nowhere close to hitting his limit, so he saw no reason to use the Qi of Ultimate Purity so soon. In fact, he saw this as an opportunity to temper his demonic thought and create his Yin God.

Two, he really wasn’t willing to waste the Qi of Ultimate Purity like this. It was a priceless treasure with many incredible uses. In some cases, it could even make the difference between life and death. Rather than using it now even though he didn’t really need it, he would rather save it for the future.

Now that he was protected by the Qi of Ultimate Purity, Yi Pin was no longer afraid. He even began humming a little tune.

As for Ye Qing, he began tempering his demonic thought and Yin God while resisting the Turtle of Sleep’s hypnotic influence.

......

Inside a room, Sun Xuanzhen was sitting crosslegged on the floor with his fingers pressed together. Whenever he felt like he was about to succumb to the unnatural sleepiness, he would tap himself in the forehead, the solar plexus and the bellybutton. His whole body would shake like he was convulsing, large beads of sweat would appear on his forehead, and the blood would drain away from his face.

His eyes gleamed as sharp as a sword and as bright as stars, however. Sun Xuanzhen was using a Sword King City secret art known as the Three Swords of Punishment. The first strike severed one’s blood flow, the second strike sealed one’s meridians, and the third strike threw one’s qi flow into disarray. It was a terrifying secret art that was often employed in punishments and interrogations.

The first and second strike combined could seal away one’s vigor, rob them of their strength, and prevent them from using their astral qi. If all three strikes were applied, they could reverse one’s vigor and qi flow and throw their force into disarray. The pain that resulted from it was worse than death itself.

That was what he was doing to himself. He was inflicting the full might of the Three Swords of Punishment upon himself and keeping the sleepiness at bay with terrible pain.

......

“Yawn. I really don’t want to eat this. What should I do?”

A scantily-dressed Huo Linglong was currently lying down on a bed with a frown on her face. She was staring at a flower pot on the floor.

The flower pot was perfectly ordinary, but its contents were a different story. Instead of soil, it was filled with rotten flesh and a vibrant green vine.

The vine looked extremely lush and healthy, but the fruits growing out of its thick body were rotten, moldy, dry, and covered in white hair. It was horrifying to say the least.

“Yawn...”

A moment later, Huo Linglong yawned and felt herself hitting the limits of her endurance. Left with no choice, she reached out and plucked a molding fruit from the vine.

As soon as the fruit was removed, the vine withered at a visible rate. Yellow spots began appearing on its body.

Huo Linglong hesitated for a second before consuming the fruit. Her dainty face immediately scrunched up in a grimace.

“Heavens, it’s so disgusting!”

The fruit she just consumed was called the Rotten Fruit, and as its name implied, it was a fruit grown from the rotten flesh of a Stranger.

The Rotten Fruit was rotten and absolutely disgusting to eat, but it possessed the strange power to clear one’s mind and maintain one’s consciousness. It was quite the rare and valuable spirit fruit despite its horrible taste.

The Rotten Fruit Huo Linglong was eating was nurtured from the rotten flesh of a Phenomenon-class Stranger, so it was even more potent than your average Rotten Fruit. It could definitely keep her awake until the Turtle of Sleep had passed.

She just had to stop herself from throwing up...

......

Compared to Sun Xuanzhen and Huo Linglong, Yue Juejiang was far more composed. He was sitting crosslegged on the floor and staying so still it was almost like he was dead.

A stone mirror was floating above his head, and inside the mirror was another Yue Juejiang. The mirror Yue Juejiang was also sitting crosslegged on the floor, but unlike the physical Yue Juejiang, this one had his eyes open and were looking about curiously. It was almost as if the Yue Juejiang outside the mirror was a fake, and the one inside the mirror was the real thing.

The mirror was called the Soul Displaying Mirror, a Soulstealer-class Strange Artifact. Forged from the Soul Illuminating Stone and the bones of a Soulstealer-class Stranger called the Soul Beckoner, the Soul Displaying Mirror could suck the Three Heavenly Souls and Seven Earthly Souls of any living being it was pointed at unto itself. Hence the name.

The Strange Artifact was meant to be used against one’s enemies, but this time Yue Juejiang used it on himself. Since his Three Heavenly Souls and Seven Earthly Souls currently existed in a different reality, the hypnotic influence permeating the outside world couldn’t affect him one bit. He simply needed to wait until the Turtle of Sleep was gone before returning to his body.

But of course, this method had a huge flaw. The connection between his body and his soul was currently severed, so if someone happened to barge it at this very moment, they could easily destroy his body or the Soul Displaying Mirror to kill him.

Luckily for him, no one knew that he possessed a Soul Displaying Mirror, and no one dared to enter his room.

......

Right now, everyone in the Earthly Sovereign’s Coffin was using all sorts of methods to fend off the unnatural sleepiness threatening to put them into an eternal slumber.

Some of them were succeeding, and some of them fell unconscious before they knew it. It wasn’t guaranteed that their slumber was permanent—after all, the Turtle of Sleep only consumed one flower at a time, and only the person in the deepest sleep would be affected by this—but their chances were grim as a matter of course.

About six hours later, the unnatural sleepiness permeating the Earthly Sovereign’s Coffin finally faded slowly.

“Is that all?” Ye Qing opened his eyes with a reluctant look on his face. Considering the circumstances, Yi Pin couldn’t help but roll his eyes at him.

What’s with that slight tinge of disappointment in your voice, man? Are you crazy?

He had to admit he was impressed, however. He knew firsthand just how powerful the Turtle of sleep’s hypnotic powers were. Even a Grandmaster could succumb to its influence if they were careless. At first, he thought that Ye Qing would be able to stay awake for one or two incense sticks at most before he was forced to use the Qi of Ultimate Purity. However, six hours came and went, and Ye Qing was still awake.

What was truly impressive about this feat was that Ye Qing had not used a Strange Artifact or item to keep himself awake. He had done it through sheer willpower.

At the beginning, Ye Qing bit his tongue from time to time to keep himself awake. When his body had adapted to the pain, he began breaking his fingers one by one, reconnecting them after he ran out of fingers, then breaking them all over again. When even the pain of broken fingers wasn’t enough to keep the sleepiness at bay, he began crushing his finger bones.

The second-hand pain alone was enough to turn Yi Pin’s face white, but Ye Qing looked completely unperturbed. In the end, he seemed to have adapted to the Turtle of Sleep’s power and no longer needed to mutilate himself to keep himself awake. He was able to resist it through willpower and only willpower.

Follow current novels on (f)reew𝒆bnovel