Stranger Danger

“I appreciate your concerns,” the young man saluted the crowd, “but do not worry. I promise that I am not walking toward my death.”

“Young man—”

“It’s just the Floating Dust Sea. It will take much more than that to threaten me.”

The old man: “...”

Everyone: “...”

It is just the Floating Dust Sea? Is he insane, or am I dreaming?

Should we piss on you and wake you from your daydream?

“Look! The Floating Dust Sea is coming to us!”

“Run!”

“Yuanyuan… Yuanyuan! Where are you…”

“Save my child, please, save my child…”

“RUN!!!”

Suddenly, a panicked clamor broke out from the distance. The panic quickly swept through the entire crowd like the plague.

They looked. For some reason, the Floating Dust Sea looked a lot more violent than before. Worse, it was coming straight toward them.

No one expected the Floating Dust Sea to act this way. After all, something like this had never happened before. Caught off guard, the panic quickly devolved into a stampede where people were bowled over, and even horses were pushed off their feet.

It was utter chaos. The weak, frail and young were quickly shoved to the back of the line or pushed to the ground. They quickly fell behind and could only watch as the tsunami of sand and dust slowly approached them, their hearts full of despair.

It was at this moment a young man suddenly appeared in front of the group in the blink of an eye.

The encroaching sand and dust was so vast that it blotted out the sun and sky itself.

Compared to it, the young man might as well be a speck of dust.

The young man wasn’t afraid, however. His face completely serene and calm, he sucked in a deep breath and surrounded himself in dark yellow light.

Then, he raised his hand and threw a punch.

Buzz…

The punch was soundless, but heaven and earth reverberated in response. There was a strange buzzing, and the rolling sand and dust abruptly fell down like a tree that suddenly lost its roots, or a pond that suddenly lost its source.

For a moment, it felt as if the Floating Dust Sea never happened. The wind was calm, the sand was gone, and the world was at peace.

A single punch had collapsed a sky of sand.

A single breath had seized back the blue sky back to humanity.

The panicking crowd fell silent and still. For a time, no one could say anything. No one even thought to move a muscle. They could only stare in confusion and disbelief.

They couldn’t believe it. They said that the Floating Dust Sea would never touch the ground, and someone actually stopped it? Someone actually fell it all from the sky?

How was this possible?

How was this humanly possible?

And yet, it was. They just saw it happen with their own eyes.

The brain could reject a lot of things, but not the reality that just took place right before their eyes.

The people who tried to stop the young man especially were utterly speechless. Before they knew it, a memory was replaying inside their heads over and over again:

“It’s just the Floating Dust Sea. It will take much more than that to threaten me.”

He wasn’t boasting after all!

They were the clowns this entire time!

“What else are you waiting for? Go already!”

It was at this moment the young man turned around and shot them a small smile.

“Thank you, hero!”

“Thank you!”

“Thank you for saving our lives!”

“We will never forget this for as long as we live, hero!”

The crowd finally jolted back to reality and thanked him profusely. Then, they began moving again.

Some time later, an old man looked back and saw that the collapsed sand and dust were rising into the air once more. It looked like the beginnings of a gargantuan tidal wave.

The Floating Dust Sea… was recovering.

The young man was still there, however. His hands clasped behind his back, he was looking at the reviving Floating Dust Sea with calm, indifferent eyes.

Seemingly sensing the old man’s gaze, the young man turned around and gave him a smile. It was a smile that felt as warm as the morning sun, and as soothing as the spring wind.

A nod later, the young man turned back to face the Floating Dust Sea. Then, he went inside.

Was it his imagination, the old man wondered. Right before the young man would set foot inside the Floating Dust Sea, he thought he saw the Anomaly splitting apart and opening up a path for him almost as if it was afraid.

In any case, the young man quickly vanished into the Floating Dust Sea, calm and collected. He was gone just like that.

“A divine being, he is!”

The old man murmured to himself with a stunned expression.

……

A day later, a tremendous explosion suddenly erupted from inside the Floating Dust Sea. The sand and dust churned violently as if enraged.

Two days later, the sand and dust of the Floating Dust Sea suddenly subsided again, and tranquility temporarily returned to the world.

Three days later, the Floating Dust Sea suddenly stopped moving forward. In fact, it was retreating as if afraid of something.

Four days later, the Floating Dust Sea split open to reveal a young man. He looked as confident as he was untouched.

As soon as the young man left the Floating Dust Sea, the Anomaly began moving in the opposite direction several times faster than normal. It looked like a prey desperately trying to escape the most horrifying predator it had ever encountered in its life.

Five days later, a young man appeared at Mirror Lake City and climbed up the Mirror Lake Inn. There, a woman greeted him with a warm smile on her face.

“Welcome back, Joyless.”

“I’m back.”

The sun was bright, and the air was calm. They smiled at each other, and all was well.

……

“This is the Endlessly Durable Water, and this is the Dustless Earth.”

Inside a room, Ye Qing produced two objects from his Nature’s Shell and placed them on a table.

The first item looked like a ball of water, but when it made contact with the table, it made a thunk as if it was a hard object.

The second item was a pouch of sand, one that was floating in the air even though there was no wind inside the room.

They were the Endlessly Durable Water and the Dustless Earth.

Ye Qing had procured the Endlessly Durable Water from the Mirror Lake, and the Dustless Earth from the Floating Dust Sea.

Without a doubt, Floating Dust Sea was far more dangerous than the Mirror Lake. Why? Because of its ever present sand and dust.

From the moment you entered the Floating Dust Sea, you would not be able to take a single gulp of breath. Otherwise, you would be inhaling sand and dust into your lungs. Usually, this would not be a problem. Otherwise, anyone who got caught in a sand storm would just die. The problem was that the sand and dust constantly invaded one’s body not just through breath, but also the pores like they were living parasites. They would block one’s meridian, damage one’s internal organs, and ultimately kill them via suffocation. They could not fully isolated even with astral qi and true qi.

On top of that, the world inside the Floating Dust Sea was almost pitch black. The combination of sand, dust, and the Anomaly’s anomalous power could turn even the sharpest warrior into a directionally challenged idiot. Unable to isolate the sand and dust nor escape its boundaries, it was only a matter of time before the victim was tortured to death.

It was worth mentioning that the Floating Dust Sea possessed a rudimentary level of consciousness—or perhaps it would be more accurate to call it instinct. It instinctively knew who it could kill and who it could not.

This was why the Floating Dust Sea was so dangerous—except to Ye Qing. Ye Qing possessed a tenacious body and a strong vigor. Unlike most warriors, he could fully prevent the sand and dust from invading his body. Second, he possessed the “Break Hammer”. “Break Hammer” was an all-powerful technique that could destroy anything and everything, returning it all into chaos. It was basically the bane of the Floating Dust Sea’s existence.

That was why he was able to sink the Anomaly in one punch.

Thanks to these advantages, it took him almost no effort to collect the Dustless Earth at the center of the Floating Dust Sea.

Feng Qingyou said quietly, “You’ve worked hard, Joyless.”

“It’s nothing.”

Ye Qing poured himself a cup of tea and took a sip. Then, he asked, “Now that you have the Finger Ring Metal, Lightning Struck Wood, Endlessly Durable Water, Thousand Frost Fire, and Dustless Earth, when are you planning to refine them?”

“Three days later, I think. I would like to nurture the five strange items first before conducting the ritual,” Feng Qingyou answered. “I’m sure you could use the rest as well.”

“You’re right.”

Ye Qing nodded. Even he was feeling fatigued after so many days of non-stop trekking.

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