Stranger Danger

Purple flames covered Yi Pin from head to toe. The one silver lining about this situation was that he hadn’t burned into a pile of ash yet.

Ye Qing rushed forward and extinguished the flames eating away at the old Taoist’s body with the wave of his hand. At the same time, he tapped Yi Pin’s forehead in an attempt to extinguish the flames burning inside his headspace with his demonic thought.

Suddenly, Yi Pin opened his eyes and said, “Don’t—!”

Unfortunately, he was too late. Ye Qing’s demonic thought had already invaded Yi Pin’s headspace as smoothly and easily as the spring rain. What the young man saw next wasn’t what he expected at all.

Generally speaking, a warrior who hadn’t begun to temper their spirit and refine their mind possessed a headspace that looked mostly like a bunch of nonsense. It was similar to Primal Chaos where heaven and earth weren’t yet defined, and everything was blended together.

However, Yi Pin’s headspace looked like a vast, infinite universe. He saw countless stars and invisible threads floating inside it. The only problem was that the stars were dim and broken, and the invisible threads were either severed or bundled together in a chaotic fashion.

His headspace was also perfectly quiet and devoid of any semblance of life.

The purple flame he thought was ravaging Yi Pin’s headspace was also nowhere to be found.

Rumble!

Ye Qing was still trying to figure out what the hell was going on when a bolt of lightning pierced emerged from the darkness of Yi Pin’s headspace and shot straight toward his demonic thought. It was overflowing with such enormous, destructive power that stars crumbled into nothing, and the heavens shuddered like breaking steel.

Ye Qing’s demonic thought was annihilated before he could even react. He could vaguely hear the sound of thunder inside his own headspace as well. Blood immediately gushed out of his eyes, ears, nose and mouth, and his head hurt like it had been split open.

“What the...”

Ye Qing was unable to contain his shock even as he was rubbing his forehead and doing his best to calm his damaged mind. Never in a million years did he imagine that Yi Pin’s headspace would look like that, and what in the world was that lightning?

He knew a long time ago that Yi Pin wasn’t what he seemed, but it was only now he realized that he still grossly underestimated the old Taoist.

“Sorry, brother. I tried to warn you,” Yi Pin coughed and said with an innocent expression.

“Brother, your headspace...” Ye Qing asked tentatively.

“Sorry, but I’ll have to stop you right there.” Yi Pin shook his head with a forlorn, helpless expression. “All you need to know is this, brother. Once upon a time, I thought I stood at the peak of the world. But when I looked up, I realized that I was just a frog in a well.”

He put a hand on Ye Qing’s shoulder and said seriously, “Remember this, brother. Never think that you’re strong enough, for there will always be a sky above your head.”

Ye Qing didn’t say anything. He knew very well that he was nowhere strong enough to be arrogant or satisfied. As he was now, he was a slightly bigger ant at most. And as long as he stayed an ant, he could never topple the tree or overcome the heavens.

“Er, brother? I don’t want to interrupt your melancholy, but I can use another bottle of Nature’s Water. I’m about to be cooked alive here!”

Ye Qing was still thinking when Yi Pin interrupted his train of thoughts. When he looked up, he saw that Yi Pin was steaming all over and looking as red as a lobster. Not only that, the guy was giving off a smell that reminded him of roasted chicken[1]. The old man definitely wasn’t exaggerating his condition.

“You already used up the Nature’s Water I gave you?” Ye Qing exclaimed in disbelief.

“Of course I did! I’m not so thick-skinned that I can withstand the Purple Sun Trueflame of the Fire God Moth!” Yi Pin replied matter-of-factly.

It felt like Yi Pin was subtly insulting him, but Ye Qing ultimately handed the guy a bottle of Nature’s Water.

“Come on, brother. You’ve gotten a glimpse of my true identity, and you now know that I was a legendary warrior in the past. Shouldn’t you give me a dozen bottles of Nature’s Water to show your piety or something?” Yi Pin complained but didn’t hesitate to grab the bottle and poured a single drop of Nature’s Water into his mouth.

Ye Qing rolled his eyes. The old Taoist’s shamelessness was definitely legendary alright. Pretending that Yi Pin hadn’t said anything, he asked, “You mentioned something about a Fire God Moth just now. Care to explain?”

“Right. Remember that chirping noise that set us both on fire? That’s the chirp of a Fire God Moth.”

SexyMatureTaoist is online. “The Fire God Moth is a Disaster-class Stranger. Legend says that it possesses the Purple Sun Trueflame because it somehow acquired the bloodline of the ancient Sun Bird, and its chirps sound like the chirps of a hundred songbirds, beautiful and passionate.”

“The Fire God Moth usually resides at the tallest peaks, and its favorite hobby is chasing the sun. Every time it appears in our world, it would cause a massive inferno and a terrible famine that claims countless lives.”

“The Fire God Moth, the Purple Sun Trueflame...” Ye Qing licked his dry lips with a stunned expression. He had never heard of the Fire God Moth, but he had heard of the Purple Sun Trueflame before.

The purple qi rising from the east at the break of dawn was the Purple Sun Trueflame, the golden flame the sun gave off during the middle of noon was called the Supreme Sun Trueflame, and the gorgeous crimson that dyed the ground red when the sun sets at the horizon was known as the Crimson Sun Trueflame.

The Purple Sun Trueflame, Supreme Sun Trueflame and Crimson Sun Trueflame were some of the hottest, fiercest, and most potent flames of yang in the entire world. The Supreme Sun Trueflame in particular was nicknamed the Original Flame. It was said that a warrior who perfected their cultivation of the Supreme Sun Trueflame could even set heaven and earth ablaze with a snap of the finger.

Although the Purple Sun Trueflame was inferior to the Supreme Sun Trueflame, its power couldn’t be understated. After all, it was mentioned in the same sentence as the ultimate yang flame.

Thanks to the Profound Yellow Qi he absorbed, Ye Qing recovered just enough to be able to resist the Purple Sun Trueflame’s power, albeit just barely. Otherwise, he would be cooking in the furnace just like Yi Pin.

“Hmm. Brother, I have a suggestion for you.” A light bulb suddenly appeared on Yi Pin’s head. “The Purple Sun Trueflame is some of the fiercest yang flames in the world. Few evils could withstand its might. Since the Black Sky Divine Palm force and the saber intent of the Slaughterer of Ten Thousand are yin type energies, why not try and use the Purple Sun Trueflame to root them from your body?”

“You possess a tenacious body and powerful recovery treasures such as the Nature’s Water and the Profound Yellow Qi, so you should be able to survive the process without much trouble. The Purple Sun Trueflame is going to seep into your body one way or another, so you might as well use it to treat your ailments, right? I guarantee that it will work better than the Profound Yellow Qi.”

“Hmm? You knew?” Ye Qing narrowed his eyes a little. He didn’t know that Yi Pin had already figured out the source of his woes.

“I am a senior after all. I may have lost my powers, but not my insight,” Yi Pin declared arrogantly. He tried to stroke his beard to enhance the impression, but when his hand touched only thin air, he realized that his beard had burned into a crisp a long time ago.

Ye Qing didn’t mind that Yi Pin knew about the source of his injuries. “Are you sure it would work?”

Yi Pin replied in a tone of absolute certainty, “Am I sure? Are you sure you want to question my judgment? If you miss this opportunity, you won’t get another one!”

Ye Qing still wasn’t sure about this, or rather, Yi Pin being excessively confident actually made him wonder if the old Taoist was pulling the wool on him. That said, he had to admit that Yi Pin’s logic made a certain degree of sense, so a few seconds of hesitation later, he nodded. “Alright. I’ll give it a try.”

Worst case scenario, there was still the Nature’s Water and the Profound Yellow Qi. He should survive no matter what.

Having made his decision, Ye Qing sat down on the floor[2] despite its scorching heat and slowly opened his mouth. Then, he inhaled a single wisp of Purple Sun Trueflame into his mouth.

Ye Qing was well aware that the Purple Sun Trueflame was deadly. That was why he only inhaled a single wisp of it. Even so, he felt like he was an ordinary person attempting to swallow a block of red hot coal. His throat burned like it was being ripped apart, and he could smell his burned flesh from inside his mouth. He knew at that moment that his throat had turned into a black crisp.

While doing his best to endure the pain, Ye Qing continued to swallow until the Purple Sun Trueflame finally settled in his abdomen. As soon as this happened, every drop of water in his flesh and blood evaporated into nothing, his internal organs instantly charred into a crisp, and tiny flames could be seen seeping out of his pores. His hair caught on fire, his flesh began to wither, and his skin sagged at a visible rate.

In just a second, Ye Qing looked barely better than a charred corpse. It was like he had swallowed the sun itself—which wasn’t entirely inaccurate considering the origin of the Purple Sun Trueflame.

“Heavens above! He... he’s not dead, is he?” Yi Pin was stunned by Ye Qing’s transformation to say the least. “It’s not my fault if you die, okay brother? I was just trying to help you!”

Theoretically, his plan was viable. But of course, he had never tried to consume the Purple Sun Trueflame before, so he couldn’t possibly anticipate the degree of damage it might cause. Despite this, Yi Pin still urged Ye Qing to try because one, the faster Ye Qing regained his strength, the sooner he would be able to live these fearful days behind. Even if Ye Qing fucked up and got them exposed, they wouldn’t be completely exposed.

And two, Ye Qing absorbing the Purple Sun Trueflame into his body—even if it was just a sliver—would reduce the room temperature by a significant amount. He was an old man. If possible, of course he was going to pick the choice that resulted in less pain and suffering.

Sure, he couldn’t deny that his plan was born from selfish intent, but as long as the outcome was good, then it was fine, right?

On the off chance things ended poorly, at least his intentions were good, right? Surely Ye Qing’s ghost wouldn’t haunt him to the ends of the earth, right? Right?

1. The author only said that it was a delicious scent, but I distinctly remembered how my own eyeballs smelled like when my doctor was shooting lasers into it. Suffice to say, it left an impression to this day. ☜

2. Dear god... can you imagine the floor burning your butthole and your balls into coal? ☜

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