Stranger Danger

Ye Qing dared not say that his plan was perfect, but he did believe that it was pretty secure.

The only shame about it was that Yi Pin only knew eight people.

Out of the eight people the old Taoist recognized, four of them were bad people. However, he only managed to obtain three wisps of Profound Yellow Qi because the last person he visited had actually fallen into an eternal slumber. He felt that his cunning ploy was wasted on such a paltry reward.

Moreover, he could only employ this method once. After all, there were only so many bad people in this place.

He had no qualms killing criminals who deserved to die a hundred times over for their sins, but he could never bring himself to kill an innocent.

Humans were humans because they had principles and lines they would never cross. If he defied his own principles and crossed his lines, then what was the difference between him and a Stranger; an animal?

“So, what are you going to do with our portion of the Profound Yellow Qi?” Yi Pin asked.

Ye Qing waved his hand and moved one of the Profound Yellow Qi into the Profound Yellow Qi Calabash. Then, he swallowed the other wisp before answering, “I’m keeping it for myself, of course.”

“And how are you going to explain its disappearance when Yue Juejiang, Sun Xuanzhen or Huo Linglong show up?” Yi Pin asked worriedly.

“It’s easy,” Ye Qing replied casually, “If Yue Juejiang came, then we’ll tell them that Sun Xuanzhen took it. If Sun Xuanzhen came, we’ll tell him that Yue Juejiang took it. If Huo Linglong came, then we’ll tell her that Yue Juejiang or Sun Xuanzhen took it.”

“Hah! It’s not a bad plan, but what if all three of them show up at the same time?” Yi Pin rolled his eyes at him.

Ye Qing answered, “I observed them yesterday, and I can confirm that the speed at which they refine the Profound Yellow Qi is different from each other. They will never show up in the same room at the same time, so don’t worry about it!”

“Heh... as long as you’re confident.” Yi Pin shook his head, but it wasn’t because he was worried that Ye Qing might screw up. No, he was simply pitying Yue Juejiang, Sun Xuanzhen and Huo Linglong for not realizing that their Profound Yellow Qi was already gone.

Ye Qing couldn’t read Yi Pin’s thoughts, nor did he care to. He was busy refining the wisp of Profound Yellow Qi he just absorbed.

Yesterday, he had refined four wisps of Profound Yellow Qi in total. Two of them were the reward he and Yi Pin received for surviving the Earthly Sovereign Coffin’s trial, and another two came from the Profound Yellow Qi Calabash. That was all it took to treat a small portion of his injuries. His damaged internal organs, meridians, and bodily points were almost fully restored, though the Black Sky Divine Palm force and Zhou Hengshan’s saber intent entrenched inside his body were as difficult to remove as ever.

That said, he had a sense that he only needed to refine another six or seven wisps of Profound Yellow Qi to grind away and eliminate the foreign energies completely. When that happened, he would return to full strength and become even stronger than before.

That was why there was no longer any need to take any risks. He should just focus on converting his current hoard of Profound Yellow Qi into his own power.

What happened next went exactly as Ye Qing predicted. Neither Yue Juejiang, Sun Xuanzhen nor Huo Linglong suspected that foul play was involved with the three warriors’ death. Not only that, because the trio’s refinement speed was different from each other, he also succeeded in fudging the truth regarding his Profound Yellow Qi when they came visiting. Once he confirmed that all three warriors had returned to their rooms, he immediately produced a wisp of Profound Yellow Qi and began the process anew.

On a related note, Yue Juejiang, Sun Xuanzhen and Huo Linglong always refined three wisps of Profound Yellow Qi at a time because it was more efficient, but Ye Qing only refined one because he needed to make sure he would always finish ahead of them. Otherwise, there was a chance they might catch him while he was still refining the Profound Yellow Qi.

Time passed slowly as Ye Qing played hide-and-seek with his enemies.

......

“Do you feel it, brother?”

At a certain point in time, Yi Pin suddenly asked.

“Yeah. It’s gotten hotter,” replied Ye Qing while opening his eyes.

Having learned from yesterday’s lesson, Ye Qing didn’t dare to let down his guard for even a second. Even when he was training, he made sure to keep a wisp of demonic thought out so he could detect any abnormalities at first notice.

“Indeed. The room temperature has been rising non-stop since a while ago.” Yi Pin placed a palm on the floor and said seriously, “The floor was cold, but now it’s warm.”

“In any case, get ready for anything.”

Ye Qing and Yi Pin rose to their feet and examined their surroundings cautiously as the room temperature continued to rise. Ye Qing was doing fine since he possessed a powerful body. Besides, he had been subjected to far worse temperatures when he was still practicing the “Nirvana Sutra of Burning Wind”. Heat resistance was his strong suit.

The same couldn’t be said for Yi Pin though. He was sweating like a dog, and white steam could be seen rising from his head.

In just a dozen breaths or so, the floor and the stone walls began turning red like heated steel. It was as if the entire room had turned into a furnace.

Despite the protection of the Mountain Mover Bell, it wasn’t long before Yi Pin’s clothes and shoes began smoking with fire. A scorched smell permeated the air as his hair curled like a clump of wilting grass, and his skin began cracking and reddening in response.

“Brother, I’m reaching my limit here! At this rate, I’m literally going to cook alive!”

In an attempt to wet his mouth, Yi Pin smacked his lips only for them to become plastered together. After wrestling through the pain and ripping his lips away from each other, he said, “That’s it! I’m getting out of this heavens forsaken place!”

Yi Pin turned toward the exit, but Ye Qing grabbed his arm and pulled him back to his side. “Calm down. The heat might be worse outside the room.”

Ye Qing raised his left hand and summoned the Netherflame. The temperature inside the room immediately nosedived. The Netherflame was a type of yin fire, so it was frigidly cold even though it could burn anything.

The temperature was still sky high, but at least it was no longer unbearable.

Unfortunately, this state of events didn’t last. Just a moment later, the Netherflame that could theoretically burn forever so long as there was something to burn gradually disappeared into nothing. Instead, it was replaced by some sort of purple flame that Ye Qing had never seen before.

Ye Qing gritted his teeth and reluctantly handed Yi Pin a bottle of Nature’s Water. “This is a bottle of Nature’s Water. If the heat gets unbearable, a single drop will restore you back to full health.”

“Thank you, brother!” Yi Pin didn’t hesitate to accept the gift. He immediately drank a drop of Nature’s Water and saw his burn wounds disappearing like they never were.

They weren’t the only ones who were struggling to withstand the ridiculous heat. Inside a different room, a woman finally lost it and pushed the door open, screaming, “Ahh! I can’t stand this any longer! I need to—”

However, the second she stepped out of her room, she abruptly froze in her tracks and stared at the space above her with widened eyes. A moth the size of a hawk was flying in the sky, and it was covered from head to toe in a strange, purple flame. The flame was dark on the inside but bright on the outside, and it was emitting a brilliant purple light. The moth’s wings were covered in blinding, mysterious runes, and what looked like the silhouette of a sun was floating above its head. Even more light was shining down from the false sun.

The burning moth flew under the burning sun like a graceful dancer. Like a king of flames, the creature looked beyond noble, elegant, and mysterious.

The woman’s shocked expression only lasted an instant. The next moment, her body and even her soul abruptly burst into flames and disintegrated into a pile of ashes.

“Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!”

Still flying freely in the air, the moth let out this long, whistling sound that sounded like the melodious chirp of a bird, but not really. More accurately, it sounded like the combined chirpings of hundreds of songbirds, and the end result could only be described as a heavenly, otherworldly tune.

Inside their rooms, Sun Xuanzhen heard the chirping, Huo Linglong heard the chirping, Yue Juejiang heard the chirping, Ye Qing and Yi Pin heard the chirping as well. Nearly everyone heard the chirping loud and clear, and they all looked enchanted by it.

They didn’t notice that their body and soul were burning up like a bunch of dry sticks, however. Some of them never did until they burned into a pile of ash.

Ye Qing’s headspace was currently engulfed by a sea of purple flames. While the flames were spreading, a silhouette within the demonic lotus abruptly opened his eyes and swept the area with a powerful wave of demonic thought. The purple flames immediately extinguished into nothing, and Ye Qing jolted back to reality.

As soon as his vision refocused, he noticed that Yi Pin had already burst into flames.

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