Stranger Danger

“I can wait,” Joy Bodhisattva replied simply.

Ye Qing: “...” Why are you so obsessed with me, girl? Exactly what do you like about me? I can change![1]

“You don’t want to study the way of ultimate bliss with me, don’t you?” Joy Bodhisattva asked after waiting for a couple of seconds and receiving no response from Ye Qing.

“You misunderstand, householder. I just...”

Ye Qing struggled for a moment before giving up with a sigh. “It seems that you want me to speak plainly. Very well. Yes, I don’t wish to be together with you—”

Before the crowd’s gaze could burn Ye Qing into a crisp, he continued, “—because I’m gay.”

The world fell deathly silent, and for a moment, the crowd’s fury was replaced by utter shock and speechlessness. Yi Pin and the old man spat out their wine at each other’s faces, but neither man seemed to notice at all.

Ye Qing felt much better seeing the stupid expressions on everyone’s faces. How does my ultimate feel? You’re the ones who forced me to do this! Don’t blame me if it’s not to your liking!

Joy Bodhisattva didn’t say anything. She simply watched him quietly with pure, untainted eyes.

Normally, it was any man’s pleasure to be watched so intently by a beautiful woman. However, every hair on Ye Qing’s body was standing on end. It was because he felt like Joy Bodhisattva’s eyes contained some sort of power that laid bare all of his excuses and pretenses.

“Pftt.”

Just when Ye Qing felt like squirming under her gaze, Joy Bodhisattva abruptly broke into a smile. At that moment, it felt like a million flowers were blooming, and no color existed in the world except her.

Her smile was so beautiful that even Ye Qing was temporarily dazed by it. However, he quickly suppressed the unwanted twinge of emotion and regained his cool.

“You truly are an amazing person, benefactor. If one day you changed your mind, or if you suddenly grew fond of women one day, do know that my doors will always be open to you,” Joy Bodhisattva said smilingly.

With that said, she gave the old man and Yi Pin a nod before walking away.

Ye Qing rubbed his nose. It was clear that Joy Bodhisattva had seen through him. Or rather, she had been feigning ignorance and playing him from the start.

Then again, he should’ve known better. Joy Bodhisattva was the head of the Buddhist Hall of Joy and a titan that occupied one corner of Bei You. If she was a foolish, innocent woman who couldn’t understand something as simple as an excuse, then she would be a footnote in history a long time ago.

The fact that he was played left him feeling a little disgruntled, but his relief far outweighed that emotion. It felt good not to be at the center of everyone’s ire.

As Joy Bodhisattva was turning around and leaving, a muscle in Ye Qing’s forehead suddenly twitched once. Blanching, he cried out, “Watch out!”

It was too late. By the time he said the word “Watch”, several people had already dashed out of the crowd and charged toward Joy Bodhisattva.

The ambush was so sudden that even Ye Qing hadn’t noticed it until the last moment, but Joy Bodhisattva seemed to have anticipated it. She waved her arm, and white lotuses accompanied by celestial music began falling from the sky.

A mini Bodhisattva who was sitting or lying down on each lotus. Each Bodhisattva was wearing a different outfit, making a different pose, and wearing a different expression, but they were undoubtedly all Joy Bodhisattva herself.

There was a Buddhist quote that went something like this: A Bodhisattva possesses many forms equal to the number of sand in an eternal river; innumerable and uncountable.

Innumerable white lotuses and Bodhisattvas descended from the sky to enlighten the world. As soon as the nine ambushers made contact with them, they soundlessly exploded into showers of blood and gore.

The blend of white lotuses and red gore; pure white and bright scarlet were beautiful beyond words.

The ambushers were dead, but Joy Bodhisattva frowned for the first time since she revealed herself. Ye Qing was frowning as well.

The reason was simple. The crisis wasn’t over yet. Or rather, it was just beginning.

It was at this moment the flesh and blood still floating in the air abruptly joined together to form nine bloody chains covered in unknown, evil-looking runes. Blood was dripping off the chains like a mini rain, but it disappeared almost as soon as it left the chains. A thick blood stench permeated the area in no time at all.

The next moment, the nine bloody chains surged toward Joy Bodhisattva from every direction. Sensing danger, she furrowed her brow in concentration, pressed her palms together, and caused the Bodhisattvas sitting or lying on the white lotuses to fly into the air. They joined together and formed a Kingdom of Buddha in just the blink of an eye.

The nine bloody chains were completely unaffected by the power, however. They passed right through the Kingdom of Buddha and the Bodhisattvas almost as if they didn’t exist and wrapped around Joy Bodhisattva’s body before she could do anything else.

One end of the chains kept Joy Bodhisattva firmly trapped, while the other end spread out in nine different directions and slipped into the underground. It looked like an array of sorts.

At the center of the array, Joy Bodhisattva couldn’t move a muscle. Her eyes were also glazed over as if she had lost consciousness.

The Kingdom of Buddha, the Bodhisattvas and the white lotuses disappeared at the same time.

“The God Sealing Curse? Watch out!”

Yi Pin turned a little pale when he recognized the bloody chains wrapped around Joy Bodhisattva’s body. He quickly grabbed his new pal’s arm and looked like he might dash away at first notice.

Ye Qing was trying to figure out why Yi Pin was warning him when suddenly, he sensed something and sidestepped to the right. Not a moment too soon, a chain burst out of the ground next to him and attempted to bind him like a snake.

Ye Qing’s eyebrows knitted as he flicked a finger in the chain’s directions. It immediately shattered into pieces and evaporated into a cloud of blood vapor.

A pair of chains had burst out of the ground next to Yi Pin and the old man as well. However, the old man calmly smacked his smoking pipe on the chains and shattered them into vapor.

They weren’t the only ones who were attacked by the chains. The same thing was happening everywhere. The red chains sprouted out of the earth like vines and ripped through the mass of bodies like nothing. Some people were skewered like satay, some were wrapped as tightly as a zongzi, some were strangled to death and more.

At least dozens of people were sucked dry and turned into a dry husk as soon as they made contact with the chains. Just a moment later, only a handful of people were still alive.

These people were still alive and struggling because they were stronger than most, but it wouldn’t be long before they followed in their brethren’s footsteps. Having consumed so much flesh and blood, the chains’ colors were deepening, and its runes growing increasingly mysterious by the second. At the same time, strange arrange lines were beginning to manifest around Joy Bodhisattva.

“What is going on, brother?” Ye Qing asked while shattering a few bloody chains that were slithering toward him. As the number of survivors decreased, the bloody chains attacking him, Yi Pin and the old man steadily grew in numbers.

“It’s the God Sealing Curse. Someone’s trying to assassinate Joy Bodhisattva,” Yi Pin answered from behind the old man. “We need to leave. These chains wouldn’t stop attacking us otherwise.”

“It’s too late. The ones behind these chains are here.” The old man inhaled a deep puff of smoke before exhaling it all. The smoke quickly transformed into various birds and slammed into the chains in the sky, snapping them all into bits and turning them into bloody vapor. However, the chains simply reformed a second later.

As soon as the old man said this, three people stepped out of a shadowy alley. The chains avoided them as if they had a mind of their own.

They were two men and one woman. One of the men was in his forties and carried five swords on his back. His sword qi felt cold and biting, and his aura felt very powerful.

The other guy was a monk with an ugly face and a muscular body. His upper body was bare, and there were naked women tattoos on his body.

The woman was in her thirties and wearing the exact same attire as Joy Bodhisattva. However, her appearance was far closer to that of a succubus than a holy woman, and she oozed sexiness instead of nobility. She could probably steal a man’s heart with a single look.

“It’s the arhat and the protector!”

“Please save us!”

The few Buddhist Hall of Joy disciples who were still hanging on looked burst out in joy and relief when they saw the monk and the woman. They hurriedly made a beeline toward them.

As soon as they came within a certain range, the monk let out a savage laugh and thrust his palm in the disciples’ direction. They froze for an instant before their heads exploded into pieces.

1. Heh. ☜

The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel