Stranger Danger

“This place is pretty good!”

Ye Qing smiled and curled his fingers like he was holding a lotus. Then, he lowered his hand and caused a towering silhouette to appear in the sky.

The silhouette wore a tall crown and a loose robe. Dark yellow energy surrounded his person, and a strange mark flickered on his forehead, noble and mysterious.

When the silhouette lowered his hand, what felt like an infinite amount of demonic thought flooded the Sword Tomb. What was a hidden corner of paradise instantly plunged into red dust.

In just an instant, everyone in Swordsgrave lost their consciousness. Everyone below Trueman stage was turned into his Heavenly Demon Dependent. Only a handful of people possessing priceless artifacts, an unbreakable will, a powerful cultivation, or all of the above managed to regain their consciousness.

“Who goes there?!”

An angry roar erupted as a pair of silhouettes soared into the sky, sword qi billowing.

They were an old man and a young woman.

The old man looked to be in his seventies, his hair completely white and his face gaunt as it could be.

Despite their contrasting appearances, they shared one thing in common: an overwhelming amount of sword qi and killing intent.

“Calm down, people! I don’t want you damaging my Sword Tomb!”

Ye Qing smirked when he saw the duo. He knew from the memories of his dependents that the man was called “Withered Sword”, and the young woman “Old Child”. They were both Trueman stage warriors and the Hallmaster and Vice Hallmaster of Sword Tomb.

“What?”

For an instant, Withered Sword and Old Child were caught off guard by Ye Qing’s remark. Did the intruder just stake his claim on the “Sword Tomb”? Just how brazen could he be?

“You are courting death!”

Enraged, Withered Sword ran his hand across his blade. His white hair fluttering menacingly in the air, he manifested a sword that was overflowing with cold, desolate sword qi and decaying, withering sword intent.

Even before he unleashed the technique, the entire Sword Tomb had become lightless and desolate. The plants began withering earnestly, the waters looked corrupted and filthy, and death and decay were everywhere. ȑＡ𐌽ȫ₿Еș

“Sigh…”

It was at this moment a long sigh appeared in Withered Sword’s heart. Stunned, Withered Sword tried to unleash his attack only to find that his target—he was a hundred meters away from him—had disappeared.

The next moment, a pair of fingers appeared right in front of him and caught his blade firmly.

“Didn’t I tell you? Don’t damage my Sword Tomb.”

Ye Qing squeezed, and the blade snapped in half without a sound. At the same time, a tremendous power washed out and wiped out every speck of decay plaguing the city.

Withered Sword’s eyes widened in disbelief. He practiced one of the thirty six sword arts of Swordsgrave, the “Sword Art of Withering and Decay”. A highly offensive sword art focused on withering and decay, it could sap all life from his target and his surroundings. It was a highly potent and evil sword art.

That wasn’t all. In order to increase its power further, he turned himself a medium and refined his hair into swords. That’s right. Each strand of hair on his head was a sword, and every sword was a wisp of withering sword intent.

It might look like he was unleashing just one sword earlier, but it was really thousands and thousands of swords.

However, his foe had snapped all of his swords with just a pair of fingers and crushed his sword intents in an instant.

How could he not be surprised? How could he not be afraid?

Luckily, there was a silver lining. The man seemed to have forgotten that he wasn’t fighting against one person.

Not far away, Old Child’s sword left its sheath. Old Child might boast the appearance of a cute, gentle girl, but the sword art she practiced was the most violent and brutal sword art of the thirty six sword arts of Swordsgrave. Its name was the “Sun Shatterer Sword Art”.

As its name implied, the “Sun Shatterer Sword Art” could shatter even the sun, much less a human. That was why the sun abruptly winked out, the land collapsed, and the world plunged into darkness as soon as the technique appeared.

Then, something even more unbelievable happened. Withered Sword saw Ye Qing raising his hand and throwing one punch.

A punch accompanied by wind and thunder should open the gates of heaven and earth. The punch pierced through the lightless sky, scattered the immense sword qi that could shatter the sun and break mountains and rivers, and struck Old Child squarely in the forehead.

There was a loud crunch as a muffled groan escaped Old Child’s lips. Her energies scattered, and she bled from every orifice as she flew through the air.

At this point, Withered Sword’s shock had reached its peak, and his fighting spirit the bottom. An aura of decay gushed out of his body as he began aging and decaying at a visible rate. The next moment, the aura of decay tried to slip into the void with Withered Sword in it.

Unfortunately, Ye Qing was faster. The instant Withered Sword would have slipped into the void, a hand grabbed his throat and dragged him back to reality.

“Urk!”

Withered Sword struggled with all his might, his sword qi shooting wildly in an attempt to get Ye Qing to break his hold. However, the sword qi that could easily split rivers and crush mountains failed to cut even a piece of fabric from Ye Qing’s shirt. It was all dissolved by a sheen of dark yellow energy floating three inches away from Ye Qing’s person.

Realizing that escape was impossible, Withered Sword tried to abandon his physical body and escape with his yang god. Unfortunately, the thought had just occurred to him when a demonic lotus bloomed inside his mind.

It spun once, and Withered Sword’s mind plunged into eternal chaos.

“Hmm?”

The moment Ye Qing landed on his feet, he suddenly felt a burst of pain from his lungs. His immediately felt breathless.

“Lung Mangler?” Ye Qing turned around and faced toward a nearby building, his eyebrows raised slightly.

“Cough cough… you seem like a smart one. No wonder you dare to wreak havoc in my Sword Tomb.”

A man covering his mouth with a handkerchief and coughing non-stop slowly walked out of the building.

He was Cheng Qishang of course.

“You’re wrong. I’m not here to wreak havoc.” Ye Qing dropped Withered Sword on the ground and replied smilingly, “I’m here to kill.”

Ye Qing was wearing a casual smile on his face, but he was as serious and alert as he could get on the inside. He knew that Cheng Qishang was here from his dependents’ memories, and he knew that the man was very, very powerful. That was why he was on his guard from the very beginning.

Despite this, it turned out that he still underestimated Cheng Qishang. He never noticed how he took the hit from the start until the end. Not only that, his physique was unable to fully eliminate the afflictions.

The Lung Mangler was one of the “Seven Wounds Sword Art”’s techniques. Specifically targeting the lungs, the technique could have crushed a weaker Trueman or Grandmaster’s lungs and suffocate them to death.

On top of that, Ye Qing could tell that his internal workings were growing increasingly dysfunctional every time Cheng Qishang coughed. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to stop the affliction from taking hold. It was quite eerie.

“Oh? Seems like you have a specific target in mind. Who is it, pray tell?” Cheng Qishang asked curiously.

“Chen Cang!” Ye Qing replied, “Or should I say, Sword Ghoul.”

“Sword Ghoul?” Cheng Qishang raised his eyebrows. “You must be the Dragonmount Duke’s subordinate then.”

He immediately refuted himself after, however. “Wait, that’s not right. I would’ve remembered a character like you if you were serving the Seventy Two Water Land Alliance. Hmm, let me guess. Are you the one who caused Sword Ghoul to be hunted all over the place like a rat; the nemesis he wished to kill like no other, Ye Qing?”

“Congratulations. That is correct.” Ye Qing grinned.

“Tsk tsk. I was going to seek you out myself in a few days. I wasn’t expecting you to deliver yourself to my doorsteps.” A sick grin appeared on Cheng Qishang’s face. “You sure saved me a lot of trouble.”

“Is that so?” Ye Qing smirked. “I too was planning to take you all out in one go. It is amazing how great minds think alike, isn’t it?”

As soon as he was done talking, the silhouette in the sky launched a palm strike at Cheng Qishang.

The Paranirmita Vasavartin Heaven descended, spurring red dust and heart demons.

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