Stranger Danger

“You’re such a smart man, Brother Sun,” Huo Linglong breathed into Sun Xuanzhen’s ear while hugging his neck intimately. Somehow who didn’t know anything about the circumstances would have thought they were lovers.

Despite the warmth and softness pressing against his back, Sun Xuanzhen felt like he was submerged in a pool of ice. “It was a setup from the beginning.”

It wasn’t just fear that turned his blood ice cold. The nail Huo Linglong had stabbed into his neck was sealing his astral qi and spirit and scattering his strength. He was growing weaker by the second until it became impossibly difficult to move even a finger.

Right now, the only parts of his body that were still moving were his mouth and his heart.

The unnatural coldness afflicted upon him by the nail was nothing compared to the coldness in his heart, however. By now, he realized that they had been set up.

From the moment they were beset by an unlucky streak, the unknown man had begun weaving a massive trap for them. At the same time, his cohort Huo Linglong slowly but deftly led them into this trap.

He had always thought himself to be a wise man, but now, he realized that he was nothing more but a foolish prey.

“But why? Why are you doing this?”

There was one thing he didn’t understand, however. Why did Huo Linglong choose to cooperate with this unknown man and entrap them?

Was it for vengeance? No, that couldn’t be right. They didn’t even know each other until they entered the Earthly Sovereign’s Coffin, and as far as he could tell they shared no conflicts of interest with each other.

Was it for faction power? That couldn’t be right either. While the Earthfire Palace of Demons and the Sword King City were both major sects in the northern lands, they made sure to stay out of each other’s way. He hadn’t heard of any deaths or even conflicts between their people.

Was it for fame then? For self-interest?

He just couldn’t figure it out no matter what he tried.

“I did it for you, of course.” Huo Linglong giggled while caressing Sun Xuanzhen’s cheeks. She then looked at Yue Juejiang and shot him a wink. “And you as well, Brother Yue.”

A moment later, Sun Xuanzhen said, “I’m the sect leader’s direct disciple, and he left a mental imprint in me. If you kill me, none of you will be able to escape.”

“Y-Yes! I’m a descendant of the Earthly Sovereign Hall, and the Discipline Elder is my grandfather. Their bloodline secret art also runs in my veins. If you kill me, the Earthly Sovereign Hall will chase you to the ends of the earth!”

Yue Juejiang finally recalled his own patron and threatened, “You best release me now before it’s too late!”

“Hahaha... don’t be like this, dearies. You’re scaring me.” Huo Linglong said sweetly, “I never said I would kill you. I could never bear to part ways with cuties like you two.”

“What on earth are you planning?” Sun Xuanzhen’s unease only grew.

Huo Linglong giggled. “He wants the Profound Yellow Qi. As for me, I already told you what I want. I want the two of you.”

The woman was about to say more, but the unknown man interrupted curtly, “Cut the bullcrap and finish what you’re doing already, will you?”

The unknown man was Ye Qing, of course. He got impatient when he noticed that Huo Linglong was going to divulge the entirety of their plan like a comic book villain. Seriously, why do all villains have the bad habit of monologuing over their victims? Do they get a kick out of showing off to a bunch of defeated losers? Aren’t they afraid that the losers would exploit the information and turn the tables against her?

As he said this, Ye Qing hit the back of Yue Juejiang’s neck with his palm and shook his body once. Every joint in the young man’s body came apart, and he collapsed to the floor like a boneless pile of meat.

“What’s the hurry, dearie?” Huo Linglong complained with displeasure.

“Haven’t you heard that villains die because they talk too much?” Ye Qing rolled his eyes.

Huo Linglong: “...” No, I’ve never heard of that saying.

“You—” Sun Xuanzhen’s eyes bulged with fear when he saw what Ye Qing did to Yue Juejiang, but before he could say anything else, Ye Qing let out a cold, unfeeling grunt and said, “Silence.”

Sun Xuanzhen’s consciousness abruptly blurred and sank into an infinite pool of darkness. At the same time, blood spilled freely out of his orifices like a fountain. The same thing had happened to Yue Juejiang as well.

Huo Linglong panicked a little when she saw this, but Ye Qing assured her, “Relax. They’re still alive.”

After Huo Linglong checked the two men’s condition and confirmed that Ye Qing was telling the truth, she finally let out a sigh of relief. Even so, Sun Xuanzhen and Yue Juejiang’s injuries were anything but insignificant. Sun Xuanzhen was missing half of his body, and Yue Juejiang had a caved chest and an innumerable number of broken joints. Both their minds had received varying degrees of damage as well.

Their physical injuries were easy to fix despite their horrid appearance. With the right medicine, it was only a matter of time before they completely recovered. Their mental damage was a different story. It would take at least a year for them to recover in full, if not longer.

“You went a little too far, dearie,” Huo Linglong complained.

“Sorry, but I can’t exactly hold back when my life is on the line. I hope you won’t mind,” said Ye Qing with a placating smile on his face.

“That’s fair.” Huo Linglong smiled back, though she didn’t really believe him.

Huo Linglong was willing to give Ye Qing the benefit of the doubt for not being able to hold back during the ambush, but what he did after the two men were already incapacitated could only be described as too much. Moreover, she had a feeling that he had a hand in Yue Juejiang and Sun Xuanzhen’s unusually severe mental injuries, though she didn’t have the proof to accuse him of foul play.

That said, she knew exactly why he had done this. He was afraid that she would betray him as soon as she took control of Yue Juejiang and Sun Xuanzhen.

In fact, the idea had crossed her mind. She had wondered if she could kill Ye Qing or turn him into her incubator after taking control of Yue Juejiang and Sun Xuanzhen. As for Yi Pin, she could just kill him and be done with it. He might be her master’s benefactor, but he wasn’t her benefactor, was he? Even if he was her benefactor, she still would’ve killed him if he proved to be an obstacle.

Some people might call her treacherous, cruel and heartless. All she had to say to those people was this:

This is the jianghu, dearie.

That was before she saw Ye Qing punching Sun Xuanzhen’s sword qi barrier into shreds and cracking Yue Juejiang’s Profound Yellow Bronze Body with his first attack, and annihilating half of Sun Xuanzhen’s body and caving Yue Juejiang’s chest with his second attack though.

The three of them had clashed briefly during their first meeting, so she knew exactly how strong Sun Xuanzhen’s “Sword Qi Protects the Golden Palace” and Yue Juejiang’s “Profound Yellow Bronze Body” was. Despite this, Ye Qing had managed to destroy one of their strongest trump cards in one punch. As if that wasn’t enough, Ye Qing had defeated the two men with pure strength slone. He hadn’t used his Strange Artifacts, his Purple Sun Trueflame and more. That was all she needed to see to extinguish the thought completely.

Sure, someone might argue that he had caught them by surprise, but if she was in his position, she didn’t think she would’ve succeeded. Even if she did succeed, she would have been forced to reveal every trick in her book.

Power wasn’t the only thing Ye Qing possessed either. He was smart, cunning, and ruthless as well. After all, he had been stealing their Profound Yellow Qi under their nose for days, and not a single one of them had noticed his actions until she ruined it by pure coincidence.

The plan that he crafted to entrap Sun Xuanzhen and Yue Juejiang proved that it wasn’t a fluke as well. By now, she had learned that the item he used to give her, Sun Xuanzhen and Yue Juejiang bad luck was something called the Incense of Misfortune, and at the beginning, he was only using it to keep them in their rooms and steal their Profound Yellow Qi. But after he acquired her cooperation, he decided to turn it into a full-blown death trap.

How she should start the conversation, how she should make Sun Xuanzhen and Yue Juejiang notice that something was wrong without drawing their suspicion, how she should take control of the conversation so that the situation wouldn’t slip out of their grasp, when and where to spring their trap and so on, nearly every part of the plan had been crafted by his truly.

Ye Qing had given her one and only one job, and that was to act exactly as he ordered. That was all. Frankly, anyone could’ve performed her role if she wasn’t the only other person Sun Xuanzhen and Yue Juejiang trusted in this place.

The only way to kill someone so formidable was to catch him unawares and kill him in one fell swoop. If that was impossible, then it was better not to offend him in the first place. Otherwise, a world of misery and pain was sure to befall the attacker.

Forget that Sun Xuanzhen and Yue Juejiang were heavily injured right now, Huo Linglong wasn’t sure she could threaten Ye Qing even when the duo were perfectly unharmed. That was why she gave up on the idea completely.

Why would she make a terrifying enemy she couldn’t kill when she could choose not to?

Better yet, why would she not befriend such a formidable warrior when the option was available to her?

In fact, Huo Linglong was the one who should be worried that Ye Qing would turn on her. And she was. What were the chances she could make it out alive if Ye Qing really wanted to silence her?

She couldn’t bear to make the calculation.

“Say, dearie... you wouldn’t turn on your beloved partner, would you?” Huo Linglong asked after a moment of silence.

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