Stranger Danger

Inside his room, Ye Qing thought to himself, Hmph! What a hussy. I’ll get you eventually.

He already knew this, but Huo Linglong definitely wasn’t someone he could afford to underestimate. A few breaths later, Sun Xuanzhen, Yue Juejiang and Huo Linglong stepped out of their respective rooms with the aura of the Profound Yellow Qi. They would repeat this a couple more times before finally returning to their rooms.

I thought this might be the case. Yesterday, they claimed three wisps of Profound Yellow Qi from their “livestock” before returning to their rooms as well. This confirms that three is their absolute limit.

Ye Qing narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. And judging from yesterday’s observation, it will take them between four to six hours to refine it all. Good. It’s my turn now.

Ye Qing looked behind his back and informed Yi Pin, “I’m heading out, brother. Be back in a jiffy.”

“Sure, whatever,” Yi Pin replied with a depressed look. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Ye Qing was plotting something, but there was nothing he could do about it. He could only turn a blind eye and pretend that everything would be fine.

The moment Ye Qing left the room, a thick fog washed out of his body and concealed his appearance. He looked left and right once before walking toward a room, smiling. “Let’s start with you.”

He pushed open the door and stepped inside the room before its resident could react. Then, he closed the door behind him.

“Who are you?” The resident of the room was an honest-looking, farmer-like middle-aged man. As soon as Ye Qing stepped in, he pressed himself against a corner of the wall with fear and panic.

On the surface, the farmer looked completely harmless. In reality, he was clenching every muscle in his body so he could react to any sudden movement at first notice.

Ye Qing didn’t seem to notice this. He simply asked with a genial smile on his face, “Are you the Heart Eater, one of the Eight Ghouls of the Mountain Mover Brigand?”

“Excuse me? I’ve never heard of those names before. Did you get the wrong person?” The farmer replied meekly and obsequiously.

The corners of Ye Qing’s lips turned up slightly. “No, I definitely got the right person.”

To be fair, Heart Eater’s acting was near perfect. If he hadn’t practiced the “Paranirmitava?avartin Heavenly Demon Sutra”, then he might’ve had second thoughts about this. However, he picked up a huge surge of malice and killing intent from the man when he exposed his identity, so he knew for certain that he was right.

As expected, the farmer abruptly pounced toward Ye Qing with his fingers curled like talons. In fact, cold, deadly metal had protruded from his fingers as he reached out for Ye Qing’s chest.

Ye Qing had no doubt that the attack would disembowel an ordinary person as easily as cutting air. But too bad for Heart Eater, he was neither ordinary nor suicidal. He tapped the air in front of him, and the warrior abruptly stopped in his tracks with a glazed look in his eyes.

The next moment, Ye Qing wiped a hand across Heart Eater’s face and kicked him behind the knee and caused him to fall to the ground. Due to his posture, it looked like the man was asleep.

“That’s one down.”

Ye Qing smirked and produced the Profound Yellow Qi Calabash. After he stored Heart Eater’s Profound Yellow Qi, he reopened the door and left the scene.

Next, Ye Qing arrived at another room and stepped inside unannounced just like before.

“Who are you?”

A man and a woman resided in the room. The man was incredibly handsome with red, inviting lips and perfect white teeth. In fact, he was even prettier than the woman that made his company.

The woman’s appearance was the complete opposite of the man’s. Her face was ugly, and her figure resembled an oval-shaped ball. However, her voice was sweeter than even the chirp of a black-naped oriole. Ye QIng knew this because she was the one who spoke just now.

“Are you the ‘Jade-faced Playboy’ Jun Dingchong, and the ‘Vile Witch’ Huang Yingying?” Ye Qing asked.

Jun Dingchong and Huang Yingying were husband and wife. It was obvious from their monikers alone that they were vile human beings.

Jun Dingchong was an infamous playboy who exploited his good looks to seduce innocent virgins and beautiful housewives alike into debauchery. He was also a disgusting rapist who had snuck into countless homes, raped many women and ruined their lives.

The ‘Vile Witch’ Huang Yingying was no better than her husband. While many people would argue that one shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, Huang Yingying was one of those people whose heart was exactly as ugly as her appearance. Vicious and overflowing with jealousy, her inability to keep her husband’s dick in his pants drove her to vent her frustration on other women. Anyone she thought was prettier than her and coveted Jun Dingchong would suffer the vilest torment. Ruining her victim’s face, spoiling her figure, and tainting her purity were just the beginning. There was nothing she couldn’t do in the name of vengeance, and each act was only viler than the last.

It shouldn’t need to be said, but the two warriors enjoyed a loathsome reputation in the jianghu. Unfortunately, it was far too easy to disguise oneself and sneak under the radar in this world, so they were still at large to this day.

“Yes, you are them,” Ye Qing continued without waiting for the duo to reply. Once again, he tapped the space in front of him.

Jun Dingchong and Huang Yingying were early-stage Spirit Purifiers, but they had spent most of their effort honing their art of disguise and escape. As a result, they blacked out before they could muster even a whimper of resistance.

Just like before, Ye Qing closed their eyes and adjusted their posture so that they looked like they were deep in slumber. He left after retrieving the two wisps of Profound Yellow Qi floating in the air.

Ye Qing would repeat the same thing for another two rooms before he finally went back to Yi Pin.

“You’re back,” Yi Pin greeted him after Ye Qing stepped through the door. He tried to restrain himself, but in the end his curiosity got the better of him. “What did you do, brother?”

Ye Qing answered nonchalantly, “Nothing much. Just did some good for the world and got a little wealthier in the process, that’s all.”

“What?” Yi Pin didn’t understand the young man’s cryptic words at first, but it wasn’t long before he puzzled out his meaning. “You killed them?!”

Ye Qing rolled his eyes. “Why did you have to put it that way? All I did was righting some wrongs and exterminating some vermin that should have been exterminated a long time ago.”

Yi Pin gulped and asked carefully, “You... you didn’t kill all of them, did you?”

He wasn’t referring Sun Xuanzhen, Huo Linglong and Yue Juejiang, of course.

“Of course not. Do I look like the type who would kill innocents for my own self-interest?” Ye Qing side-eyed Yi Pin and grinned. “Like I said, I only killed those who deserved it.”

“Is... Is that why you asked me about their background earlier?” Yi Pin asked.

“What else?” Ye Qing shrugged.

Yi Pin let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good then.”

By now, Yi Pin had mostly figured out Ye Qing’s plan. To put it simply, he was exploiting the rule that only the living would be rewarded with a wisp of Profound Yellow Qi to his own advantage. While Sun Xuanzhen, Huo Linglong and Yue Juejiang were busy refining their own Profound Yellow Qi, he snuck out, killed those who deserved to die, and stole their Profound Yellow Qi. When the trio checked on these people, they wouldn’t suspect a thing as it would appear as if they had died because they had failed to overcome the Earthly Sovereign Coffin’s trial.

In fact, Ye Qing wasn’t the first person to try this. However, those people were unable to conceal the aura of the Profound Yellow Qi perfectly, nor did they have a way to deal with Yue Juejiang’s Profound Yellow Qi Calabash[1]. A couple of murders later, no one dared to cheat the trio again.

However, the Profound Yellow Calabash was currently in Ye Qing’s hands, and he possessed the ability to conceal the aura of the Profound Yellow Qi perfectly. Therefore, he was able to pull what those people could not.

Meanwhile, Yi Pin was thankful that Ye Qing hadn’t killed everyone he pointed out to obtain the Profound Yellow Qi. There were several reasons. One, Yue Juejiang, Sun Xuanzhen and Huo Linglong were sure to become suspicious if too many people died in a trial. Second, it meant there was a real chance Ye Qing, having forsaken his conscience, might kill him to further his own self-interest.

Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. Ye Qing only killed those who deserved to die for their sins.

Suddenly, Yi Pin recalled something and reminded Ye Qing, “Oh right, are you sure you disguised their deaths properly? The Turtle of Sleep’s ability makes its victims fall into an eternal slumber.”

Ye Qing nodded. “Don’t worry. I know.”

As his cultivation grew stronger, his demonic thought became more powerful than ever before. Besides that, he had Nanke to drastically improve his understanding and mastery of the “Heavenly Demon Captures The Soul”. He could now wipe out a person’s soul from existence, capture their Three Heavenly Souls and Seven Earthly Souls, search their memories with a fine tooth comb, or simply pin them in place all with a single thought.

Just now, he had captured his victims’ Bright Spirit and Quiet Spirit—the two Heavenly Souls responsible for one’s dominant consciousness—and left behind only the Light of Fetus.

The three Heavenly Souls of a human were called the Light of Fetus, the Bright Spirit and the Quiet Spirit. To put it in very simple terms, the Light of Fetus represented a person’s life, the Bright Spirit represented their consciousness, and the Quiet Spirit represented their sentience.

By stealing his victims’ Bright Spirit and Quiet Spirit, he had basically eliminated their consciousness and their sentience. The body that was left behind was still alive thanks to the Light of Fetus, but they were no different from vegetables in their current state.

Only those who were experts of the mind and soul and in possession of a powerful spirit would notice what Ye Qing had done to these people.

The reason he did this was to make it look like they had fallen into an eternal slumber due to the Turtle of Sleep. Sun Xuanzhen, Huo Linglong and Yue Juejiang wouldn’t suspect a thing.

As for how he knew where these people were residing, it was very simple. He had memorized everyone’s rooms after Yue Juejiang called them out a second time to give them his impotent warning.

1. In case there are those who don’t understand why, this is because Yue Juejiang normally uses the Strange Artifact to collect all the Profound Yellow Qi at once before splitting it with Sun Xuanzhen and Huo Linglong. ☜

Updated from fr𝒆ewebnov𝒆l.(c)om