Stranger Danger

Chapter 1042: Save Me, Joyless

“Do you have to handle so much work every day? It must be tiring!”

Ye Qing finally walked up to Feng Qingyou and poured her a cup of hot tea.

“It’s fine.” Feng Qingyou accepted the offer and took a sip. She said smilingly, “It’s always like this at the beginning. There will be less work once things have gotten on track.”

“Oh right, I almost forgot. Congratulations on taking another step in the martial way and becoming a Great Grandmaster, Joyless.”

“Thanks!” Ye Qing smiled back.

“Who is he?” Feng Qingyou asked curiously while looking behind Ye Qing where Wan Dusheng was standing.

“He’s Wan Dusheng,” Ye Qing answered. “His strength is passable. You’re lacking in manpower, aren’t you? That’s why I brought him over.”

“The King of All Poisons? It looks like your seclusion wasn’t completely peaceful after all!” Feng Qingyou chuckled.

“It’s just some small fries, so it’s nothing big.” Ye Qing proceeded to tell Feng Qingyou about his encounter with Wan Dusheng and the Joy Envoy.

“Do you think your plans will be impacted by the Sky Mending Palace’s presence?”

“Yes, but it will be fine.” Feng Qingyou smiled. “The age of chaos is nigh, and not even the Sky Mending Palace can survive alone. They will need allies.”

“An alliance with the Sky Mending Palace? Is that possible?” Ye Qing raised his eyebrows.

“Given enough interest, anything is possible,” Feng Qingyou replied indifferently. “We would have sought them out eventually even if you didn’t meet them today.”

“I don’t know. It feels like asking a tiger for its hide to me,” Ye Qing voiced his worry. The basis for any alliance or cooperation was equal strength. If the gap between the two factions was too big, then the inferior side would surely suffer from the arrangement.

“Anything is possible if you put your mind into it,” Feng Qingyou declared confidently.

“True.”

Ye Qing smiled back and changed the topic. If Feng Qingyou was this confident, then there was nothing to worry about. “So, what happened to the world while I was away?”

“Oh, it was quite lively...” Feng Qingyou briefly explained everything that had happened during the past three months before ending with, “You’ll know once you head back outside.”

The two would continue to chat for a bit when Ye Qing took note of Feng Qingyou’s fatigue and said, “You’ve been busy the whole day, Qingyou. Go catch some rest.”

“You too. Tomorrow, I’ll take you on a tour around the King Yan Valley,” Feng Qingyou said smilingly.

With that, Feng Qingyou bade him goodbye and ordered a guard to take Ye Qing to his accommodation.

Ye Qing had been practicing for three months. Although he was feeling pretty excited since he just became a Great Grandmaster, he couldn't help but feel a bit of fatigue himself. That was why he fell unconscious as soon as he was done freshening himself, and his head hit the pillow.

Moonlight passed through the window frame and spilled across the wooden floor, dyeing it in a sheen of silver.

However, the sheen of silver soon wriggled unnaturally before turning into the silhouette of a man.

The silhouette was covered in blood as it wobbled its way toward the sleeping Ye Qing.

“Save me...”

“Save me...”

Every time the silhouette took a step, he would leave behind a small pool of blood. It quickly overshadowed the moonlight on the floor.

The silhouette would cry out, “Save me!” every time it took a step. Its voice was dark and eerie like a malevolent ghost who had escaped from Fengdu. It also sounded like the angry roar of a cornered animal.

The silhouette reached Ye Qing’s bed in just the blink of an eye. It slowly looked down on the slumbering Ye Qing and opened its mouth, “Save me, Joyless...”

“Save me, Joyless...”

“Save me, Joyless...”

The silhouette’s voice grew increasingly urgent and dark when it received no response from Ye Qing. Its mutilated, blood-covered face was just inches away from Ye Qing’s.

“Save me. Save me. Joyless!”

The silhouette roared and spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. It instantly engulfed Ye Qing in the blink of an eye.

“Yi Pin!”

On the bed, Ye Qing abruptly opened his eyes and sat up. He looked around, but there was no silhouette crying for help, no flood of blood, nothing. There was only moonlight still spilling through the window and painting the floor in peaceful silver.

“Phew... it’s just a nightmare!”

Ye Qing let out a sigh of relief, but he frowned almost as soon as the words tumbled out of his mouth. At his current level, it was impossible for him to dream without good reason, much less Yi Pin.

That’s right. The blood-soaked man he dreamed of earlier was none other than Yi Pin. It was quite unusual to say the least.

“What the—?”

Ye Qing rubbed his nose and got up on his feet. He was going to pour himself a cup of tea when he noticed something that caused his pupils to contract into pinheads.

Just outside his room, there were two bloody words on the floor:

“Kunlun Ruins”

The words were huge and bright red as if someone had written it using all the blood inside their body. It was full of terror and despair.

“It’s not a nightmare?”

Ye Qing appeared in front of the three words with his eyebrows knitted together tightly. “Did something happen to Yi Pin?”

His demonic thought could not sense any unusual energy inside or outside his room. It was as if the three words had appeared out of thin air.

He thought for a moment longer before producing the Annon Sutra and asking:

“Did something happen to Yi Pin?”

Ever since he became a Grandmaster, the number of times Ye Qing used the Annon Sutra had dwindled considerably. It was because of two reasons. One, the Annon Sutra’s dragon-serpent runes were almost useless to him at this point. And two, he had never stopped being respectful and wary of the Strange Artifact. That was why he kept his usage of it to a minimum.

There were times where he must use it though. In some situations, the Annon Sutra was still the most time-saving and energy-conserving method.

As Ye Qing fed the Annon Sutra his blood, rows of bloody text slowly appeared on the Annon Sutra.

“My name is Yi Pin. If you see this message, then I am about to die.”

“It is because I have foolishly entered the Kunlun Ruins, one of the most dangerous places in the entire world. No one has ever walked out of the Kunlun Ruins alive, and I am no exception.”

“I’m going to die...”

“Going to die...”

“To die...”

“Die...”

That was the end of the Annon Sutra’s message. The words of blood slowly sank into the Annon Sutra’s vellum and disappeared.

“Looks like Yi Pin really is in danger.”

Ye Qing’s expression was stern and grave. But what were the Kunlun Ruins, exactly? He had never heard of this location before.

“What are the Kunlun Ruins?” Ye Qing asked another question, but this time, his blood slid right off the Annon Sutra’s surface. It wasn’t going to answer this question.

“Where are the Kunlun Ruins?” Ye Qing changed his question.

This time, it took half a teatime of blood before the Annon Sutra finally responded with a simple, “Kunlun Mountain.”

“Kunlun Mountain?” Ye Qing frowned. He was aware of Kunlun Mountain as a matter of course. Kunlun Mountain was the sovereign of all mountains and the origin of the dragon veins. Since ancient times, it was called the celestial mountain. The number of anomalies and legends it boasted was countless, and many powerful warriors and factions still resided in Kunlun Mountain to this day. The West Kunlun of the Nine Dark Ways or the Ling Xiao City of the Five Profound Sects were two such examples.

“So, I must travel to the Kunlun Mountain first before I can head to the Kunlun Ruins.”

Ye Qing thought for a moment before putting away the Annon Sutra. Then, he went to Feng Qingyou’s room.

Before he even arrived at her room, the windows suddenly lit up with candle flame.

By the time he reached the door, he heard Feng Qingyou calling out to him, “Come in, Joyless.”

“Apologies for disturbing your rest,” Ye Qing apologized after stepping inside.

“It’s fine. Do you have something urgent you need to speak to me about?” Feng Qingyou asked.

“Yes. It’s like this...”

Ye Qing proceeded to tell Feng Qingyou about his dream and the bloody words outside his doorsteps.