Stranger Danger

“Joyless… Joyless…”

Inside the Lampfire Palace, Ye Qing was hugging Feng Qingyou tightly while feeling like someone had turned his head inside out. Blood was pouring freely out of his orifices and pores, and his energies were churning about like a storm in the sea. He himself was completely drenched in blood as if he had just been scooped out of a blood pool.

He could vaguely hear someone crying out to him, but his consciousness was so muddled that it took him over ten breaths before he finally awakened.

Still caught within his embrace, Feng Qingyou asked urgently and with deep worry, “Joyless! Are you alright?”

“Cough! Cough… I’m fine, I’m fine. I just feel a little dizzy, that’s all.”

Ye Qing gave his throbbing head a shake before asking, “How do you feel, Qingyou? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. You protected me,” Feng Qingyou replied weakly after a quiet cough of her own.

“Good, good.”

Ye Qing let out a sigh of relief when he gave Feng Qingyou a lookover and confirmed that she was only a little paler than usual.

Then, he remembered something and asked with lingering fear and trepidation in his voice, “What… What the hell happened just now?”

A moment ago, he was still pondering a way to escape from his captors when suddenly, he felt a deadly energy unlike anything he ever felt. His first instinct was to grab Feng Qingyou and pull her into a protective embrace—and thank goodness he did, because the terrifying energy had invaded the Lampfire Palace right after he shielded her.

If the surge of power was the ocean, then he was a helpless boat just barely surviving the waves. Not even his powerful physique was able to resist the terrible power as his veins broke into several pieces, his internal organs ruptured here and there, and his true qi fell into chaos. His mind in particular felt like it had been cracked open by a sledgehammer and scorched by an inferno. It was painful to say the least.

The one silver lining was that the sudden attack appeared as quickly as it receded. He suffered injuries, but it wasn’t too severe overall.

Of course, that was only because he was who he was. The rest of the guests… Well, he could not imagine that too many of them had survived the attack.

As he spoke, dark yellow light began circulating throughout his body. It slowly healed his broken body and calmed down his chaotic true qi.

“That attack just now is the Weilong Divine Palm. I believe it was unleashed by the Dragonmount Duke himself,” Feng Qingyou answered.

“Weilong Divine Palm?”

Ye Qing’s first reaction upon hearing the name was: No way! Xiang Weilong’s Weilong Divine Palm was so ass it didn’t even amount to a tickle! Then, he heard the name “Dragonmount Duke” and retracted his previous thought instantly.

The Dragonmount Duke was a Half Sage. Of course his might far surpassed that of Xiang Weilong.

“Wait. Does this mean that the Dragonmount Duke is here?!”

Ye Qing’s heart abruptly leaped up to his throat. If Dragonmount Duke was coming, and they were unfortunate enough to be discovered…

Technically, they had nothing to be worried about. After all, Dragonmount Duke had never seen their current disguise before. However, this was a world where such optimistic thought was detrimental at best or deadly at worst.

“I don’t think so.”

But Feng Qingyou shook her head and explained, “If the Dragonmount Duke had shown up, then he wouldn’t have destroyed the Lampfire Palace.”

“That’s… true.” Ye Qing let out a sigh of relief, but his shock and astonishment only grew over time. If the Dragonmount Duke wasn’t here, then he must have unleashed his attack from far away. For his attack to possess such power even after all that distance… just how powerful was the man?

This confirmed that the Dragonmount Duke definitely wasn’t someone they could go up against directly right now.

“Time to leave,” Ye Qing said while lifting Feng Qingyou to her feet. Although the Dragonmount Duke wasn’t here, the warriors of the Seventy Two Water Land Alliance would surely show up very soon. Unless they wanted to be exposed, the sooner they were away from this place, the better.

“We will, but not now.”

But Feng Qingyou shook her head and glanced out of the window with a smile on her face. “Don’t you want the Animitta Heavenly Demon’s heart? Now is the best time to grab it, no?”

“Oh yeah!”

Ye Qing’s eyes lit up. While it was usually immoral to rob others, it was a completely different story if the victim was a villain. When you rob a villain, people call it serving justice!

Ye Qing’s breathing actually grew a tad heavier when he thought up to this point.

“In that case, you should go first.” Ye Qing said to Feng Qingyou, “I’ll come find you once I’m done.”

“Very well. Take care.” Feng Qingyou did not mince words. The space before her began rippling as if it was water. When she stepped through it, she was gone just like that.

The Lampfire Palace was severely damaged, and the restrictions that kept everyone from leaving before were gone. Naturally, she could now escape without any problems.

After Feng Qingyou was gone, Ye Qing disappeared and dashed toward the Nine-headed Snake Demon. The woman was still on the Lampfire Tower, and the Animitta Heavenly Demon’s heart was in her hands.

Right now, the Nine-headed Snake Demon looked nothing like the gorgeous demon she used to be. The nine serpent heads on her head were all shattered, her entire body was covered in blood, and every muscle and bone in her body was broken. She was currently lying on the floor like a pool of mud, her breathing so shallow she could be mistaken for dead.

As the Nine-headed Snake Demon was the current master of the Lampfire Palace, she was the first person to suffer huge damage when the Dragonmount Duke’s attack arrived. In fact, she had withstood almost all of the damage and suffered the worst injuries as a result. She was lucky she wasn’t dead.

Ye Qing paid her no attention. He got ready to leave after grabbing the jade box holding the Animitta Heavenly Demon’s heart.

As he turned around, a black snake suddenly crawled out of the Nine-headed Snake Demon’s body. The black snake had nine heads, each bearing a different color and crown. It was also surrounded by a black mist that gave it a noble yet dangerous appearance.

The next moment, the nine-headed black snake leaped into the air and bit Ye Qing at the back of his neck.

Crack!

Human astonishment flashed in the nine-headed black snake’s eyes. It could not seem to believe what just happened.

The nine-headed black snake was the Nine-headed Snake Demon’s yang god. Named the Nine-headed Nether Snake, each of its heads bore a different color and venom, and all of them were highly toxic. The venoms could not just destroy one’s body, but also pollute the mind. When combined, not even a Trueman could resist its effects, and not even a god would be able to save the victim.

The Nine-headed Snake Demon was confident that she could inject all nine venoms into the young man’s body the second she broke his skin. When that happened, he would die in less than an hour.

He only had himself to blame. Who gave him the gall to rob her?

Unfortunately, reality was a cruel mistress who did not discriminate between gender. When her teeth clamped around the young man’s neck, she felt like an ordinary human attempting to bite through cold, hard steel. Not only did her sharp teeth fail to break his skin, they snapped in half from the sheer force of her bite. It was surprising and unexpected to say the least.

The Nine-headed Snake Demon finally realized she fucked up. She immediately tried to escape.

Unfortunately, she was fast, but her opponent was faster. The second she dashed away, Ye Qing turned around and threw a punch like it was the most natural thing in the world.

A massive fire produced no smoke[1], a smooth water produced no sound. When one’s power had reached a certain milestone, it would be as if the wielder did not exist.

His punch was soundless, but the world quaked in its boots. The Nine-headed Snake Demon could tell that it would kill her as well. Not daring to test its might, her nine heads abruptly split away from the body and scattered in nine different directions, all of them escaping into the void.

The Seven Demons of Yandang were incredibly infamous monsters whom even the most heartless being would sooner see dead than alive. However, they were able to survive to this day. It was because they were strong, ruthless, and especially skilled at running away.

After all, only the living possessed the right to shape the future.

Splitting her yang god into nine—a Magia named the “Nine Headed Soul”—was one of the Nine-headed Snake Demon’s strongest life-saving trump cards. It was an innate Magia she inherited from her Stranger bloodline, the Nine-headed Nether Snake.

In times of danger, a lizard could leave behind its own tail to survive. In the Nine-headed Nether Snake’s case, it could detach its heads from its body and run away. So long as a single head survived, the Nine-headed Snake Demon would live to see another day and without suffering any sequela.

Unfortunately, the Nine-headed Snake Demon suddenly felt the world around her shattering inch by inch as if it was a mirror.

She could sense that it wasn’t just the tangible or intangible objects that were breaking. Time and space, sky and ground, yin and yang and more were falling apart.

1. Apparently smoke is the product of incomplete combustion, so theoretically a hot enough fire would produce no smoke. Like the sun I guess? ☜

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