Stranger Danger

Rumble rumble rumble!

As he punched the ground like a drum, the earth rippled again and again like the sea waves until finally, Xue Hanshan was spat out like a gum into the air.

The second he appeared, Ye Qing bent his knees slightly—the earth crumbling beneath his feet as he did this—and appeared in front of Xue Hanshan suddenly. Then, he launched a palm strike straight at his head.

It looked like the old man was dead when suddenly, every hair on Ye Qing’s body suddenly stood on end. Danger!

As if on cue, the child-like Stranger on top of Xue Hanshan suddenly raised its head and glared at him. Its beard extracted itself from the old man’s head and flew straight toward him.

It looked just like an ordinary beard, but all of Ye Qing’s senses were screaming danger. He didn’t hesitate to jump away from the hair and summoned a cascade of multilayered force in front of him with a diagonal punch.

“Divide”

He flinched when he landed on the ground, however. He looked down and saw two strands of facial hair wrapped around his wrist. Not only that, he felt them slowly absorbing some sort of profound and mysterious power from his body.

“Is it... absorbing my lifespan?!” Ye Qing frowned as he discerned the power he was losing.

Unwilling to treat this lightly as a matter of course, Ye Qing clenched his fist and attempted to snap the two strands of facial hair with sheer strength. However, they only wobbled in place and showed no signs of breaking whatsoever.

Frown deepening, he ignited the Netherflame next and attempted to burn the hair into ash. Unfortunately, the flames went right through the hair almost as if they didn’t exist.

“It’s no use!”

Ye Qing’s expression grew even more severe. In just a matter of breaths, the facial hair had consumed yet another glob of lifespan. However, two of his greatest strengths were unable to make contact with the hair almost as if they didn’t exist in reality.

Meanwhile, Tiger and Hawk had finally recovered from the shockwaves of Ye Qing and Xue Hanshan’s battle and saw Ye Qing making strange and pointless gestures like he was a mental patient. Although they couldn’t figure out what the guy was doing, they figured that attacking Ye Qing while he was distracted was their best chance of landing a hit on him. So, they charged at the same time.

Tiger crouched on all fours and transformed into a ferocious tiger.

Hawk jumped to the highest point in the sky, pointed his sword at Ye Qing and descended on top of him like a meteor.

It was futile. Without even bothering to look at them, Ye Qing bent a finger and made a knocking gesture.

“Heavenly Demon Captures The Soul”

Tiger immediately froze in place, and Hawk lost momentum and fell from the sky. Both men’s eyes were glazed over as if their minds were millions of kilometers away.

Ye Qing could have killed them, but he didn’t. It was because he was afraid that the act would trigger a reaction from the child-like Strangers crouching on their shoulders just like Xue Hanshan.

One was already trouble. Three would be an absolute riot where he was the one being stampeded on.

Meanwhile, more strands of facial hair were flying toward him from Xue Hanshan. Knowing that he couldn’t afford to hold back, Ye Qing lifted an eyebrow and spat purple fire from his mouth.

The second the purple flames appeared, space distorted, and the surrounding temperature shot up like crazy. In less than a second, the area had suddenly transformed into a molten hell.

“Purple Sun Trueflame”

It worked. When the illusory facial hair in the sky made contact with the Purple Sun Trueflame, they suddenly burst into flames and writhed wildly like they were alive.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!!!”

The child-like Stranger’s face became distorted with pain as it let out a bloodcurdling scream. At the same time, Xue Hanshan started aging at a visible rate. His body grew increasingly thin, the age spots on his face grew increasingly dense, and his nonenal odor became so strong it was almost putrid. If before Xue Hanshan still gave the impression that he was alive despite his age, now he felt no different from the dead.

Ye Qing’s expression didn’t relax, however. Although the Purple Sun Trueflame was effective against the child-like Stranger, it had also pissed it off. Ye Qing could feel its aura getting deeper and terrible as countless white hair slithered in and out of its body. The way they stretched all the way to the sky and flailed like an alien god from a certain horror fiction from his old world was beyond scary as well.

A Disaster-class Stranger?!

Ye Qing was astonished to say the least. The aura the child-like Stranger was giving off was on par with the Old Man of the Mountain he encountered some days ago. The child-like Stranger attached to Xue Hanshan was the only one who was attacking him. Neither Tiger nor Hawk’s was interfering with the battle. This seemed to suggest that the child-like Stranger wouldn’t attack him so long as he didn’t try to attack their host with the intention to kill.

Maybe it was because the child-like Stranger was wary of the Purple Sun Trueflame’s power, but it didn’t launch a counterattack immediately. After pondering for a moment, Ye Qing inhaled the Purple Sun Trueflame back into his abdomen and appeared next to Yi Pin. He grabbed the old Taoist’s shoulder and dashed off into the distance.

Although the child-like Stranger on top of Xue Hanshan was glaring at Ye Qing’s back hatefully, it didn’t give chase. A few breaths later, the swarm of white hair retracted back into its body, and it laid lazily on top of Xue Hanshan’s shoulders as if it was tired. Its beard wriggled and slithered back into the old man’s head once more.

“What happened?”

Xue Hanshan stared at Tiger and Hawk in confusion. The last thing he remembered was being spat out of the earth by a terrific force and seeing that terrifying young man charging toward him. After that... he couldn’t remember anything.

The young man had the chance to kill him. Why did he let him go in the end?

Besides that, his body was obviously older than it was a moment ago. What the hell happened to him?

Was he crazy, or was the whole world crazy?

He didn’t know.

Tiger and Hawk snapped out of their daze and exchanged a glance with each other. Then, they shook their heads at the same time and said, “We don’t know either, my lord.”

“Useless!” Xue Hanshan rebuked them. Compared to the mysterious young man, he was far more concerned and afraid of his sudden aging.

Suddenly, Xue Hanshan noticed something. “Where is Yi Pin?”

The old Taoist was nowhere to be found.

“That man probably took him,” Hawk replied gravely.

“Should we give chase, my lord?” Tiger asked tentatively when Xue Hanshan didn’t say anything for a few seconds.

“Are you stupid or suicidal?” Xue Hanshan shot Tiger a disgusted look. The brawny man smiled awkwardly and zipped his own mouth.

“What do we do now, my lord?” Hawk asked.

Xue Hanshan considered his options for a moment before answering, “Unearthing the secrets of Longevity Village is more important than confronting those two.”

“As you command!”

Both Tiger and Hawk hid a sigh of relief when they heard this. Had Xue Hanshan ordered them to give chase, their only realistic options were to try and change his mind or start a mutiny...

......

“You’re finally here, brother! I miss you so much!”

Outside Mu Qing’s house, as soon as Ye Qing dropped Yi Pin on the ground, the old Taoist immediately jumped to his feet and tried to give Ye Qing a loving embrace.

Ye Qing took a step away from the old Taoist and grimaced at Yi Pin’s patently false smile. “At least try and squeeze out a few drops of tears before you say that. I can’t even pretend that you’re being sincere right now.”

“Pay no attention to such trivial details, brother!” Yi Pin quipped without a shred of shame whatsoever. “Oh right, you were going to kill Xue Hanshan just now, right? Why did you change your mind at the last second? Is something wrong?”

He did not think for a second that Ye Qing had changed his mind because he was feeling merciful. His strange gestures, his use of the Purple Sun Trueflame, and his sudden decision to grab him and escape like hell all indicated that something was very wrong about the situation.

Ye Qing glanced at the child-like Stranger on top of Yi Pin and asked, “Would you believe me if I say that a Stranger is crouching on your shoulders right now, brother?”

“D-Don’t scare me, brother! You know I’m too old for this shit!” Yi Pin exclaimed with worry while waving his hands back and forth across his shoulders. Of course, he couldn’t feel anything at all.

Ye Qing said seriously, “You’ve known me for a while, brother. Have I ever lied to you?”

Yi Pin nodded just as seriously. “You have, and more than once.”

Ye Qing: “...” Talk about unnecessary truth.

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