Stranger Danger

Chapter 188: Self-Mutilation to Atone For One’s Sins

“Interesting!” Ye Qing rubbed his nose and smiled. First it was the Gravevine, and now the Phosphorus Flame Centipede. This more or less confirmed that Yang Xuan could control Strangers to an extent. Thank goodness he found out about this now, or the Astral Refiner absolutely could’ve caught him by surprise.

Yang Xuan commanded the centipede to go forward, and it did. However, it suddenly grew restless when it reached the periphery of the lamps’ range. No matter what he did, the centipede plainly refused to go further. It was clear that the Stranger recognized the danger.

Unfortunately, Wang Yang didn’t give him the command to stop, so Yang Xuan had no choice but to force the Phosphorus Flame Centipede to move forward.

As soon as the Phosphorus Flame Centipede made contact with the light, its phosphorus abruptly extinguished. It also started smoking black qi and melting at an incredible rate.

Yang Xuan appeared right next to it and cut the Phosphorus Flame Centipede in half before the reaction could spread further. Then, he grabbed the untouched half of the centipede and hurried back to the group.

The part of the centipede that was touched by the light dissolved into ash as well.

Yang Xuan felt like someone had gouged his heart out as he examined his weakened, severed pet. He had fed this Phosphorus Flame Centipede with his heart’s blood for several years to give it its current strength and intelligence. Now, it was right back to where it started. Of course he was distressed with this outcome. At least it was still alive. He optimistically hoped that it would recover in a year or two.

Meanwhile, Ma Yuanshan had made it to the Thousand Hands Bodhisattva and knelt next to the White Horse Academy disciples. Then, he maintained his posture and stayed there just like the others.

It was like he had turned into a statue.

Suddenly, Ye Qing took a few steps forward and said seriously, “Brother Wang… I’ve made a major discovery!”

“Oh? What did you discover, Brother Ye?” Wang Yang’s eyes lit up when he heard this. The others were looking at Ye Qing curiously and urgently as well.

While rubbing his chin, Ye Qing paced back and forth a little and said, “According to my observation, something’s wrong with the light.”

Wang Yang: “...”

Yang Xuan: “...”

Everyone: “...”

Imagine that you had taken off your pants and were seconds away from having the time of your life with a sexy lady, and suddenly, she said, “I have AIDS.” That was how more or less everyone was feeling right now.

We know that, you bloody joker! Do you think we’re stupid!

“Calm, brothers. I haven’t finished yet!” Ye Qing smiled and ignored the daggers that were being stared at his direction. “If I’m not mistaken, the light these oil lamps give off possess the power to influence one’s mind and take control of them. That is why these people are acting like this. Besides that, this light is quite deadly against Strangers and especially against yin type Strangers.”

“Brother Yang has proven this with his demonstration.”

Yang Xuan: “...” Can you not rub salt in my wound, brother?

“What is the commonality between all humans and Strangers? They are all alive, even if some Strangers exist in a form we do not understand. Assuming that the light is only effective against living things, then non-living things should be safe from the light. I say this because Brother Wang attacked that White Horse Academy disciple earlier using his astral qi. Your force was perfectly unaffected by the light, no?”

Ye Qing kicked a rock into the light then. As expected, nothing happened to it.

“See?”

“You are correct!” Wang Yang nodded but frowned, “But what use is this information, pray tell?”

So what if non-living things were immune to the light’s effect? They, the living, were the ones who needed to pass through the area.

Ye Qing smiled. “Of course there is. Now that we know how the light works, there are two ways to circumvent it. One, we find another path and walk around this Thousand Hands Bodhisattva. Two, we make it so that the light cannot shine on us.”

The first method seemed to be the safest method, but Thousand Buddhas Grotto was infamous for its myriad cracks, crevices and caves. While there were surely more than one way to reach the inner depths of the grotto, none of them were as straightforward and direct as the main path. It would be difficult to navigate through the twists and turns, and heavens only know how many dead ends were there. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the strata of this place was hardly stable due to the existence of an underground river and cracks. It was entirely possible for a cave-in to happen without warning, and that was before mentioning the many Strangers that roamed these depths.

The second method sounded harder, but it was far more realistic than the first method.

“How can we make it so that the light can't shine on us?”

As expected, Wang Yang chose the second method after a quick thought. There was no harm in listening to Ye Qing’s suggestion first. If it sounded unviable, he could always consider other ways.

The hint of a smile flickered across Ye Qing’s face. “Where did the light come from? The oil lamps the Thousand Hands Bodhisattva is holding, of course. In other words, the oil lamps are the root cause of all our problems.”

“Also, it’s been more than a century since Thousand Buddhas Grotto was abandoned. Where did the oil lamps come from? How are they still burning?”

“As I said, the oil lamps are the cause behind all our troubles. If we deal with the lamps, then the light won’t be an issue anymore.”

“That is a good idea! If we take out the lamps, then we can walk past this area just like all the others!” Liu Fan clapped once. It sounded especially in this silent, confined space.

“It’s not just a good idea, it’s quite doable as well.”

Yang Xuan fell silent for a moment before suggesting,”Brother Ye proved that non-living objects would not be affected by the light. In other words, we can simply extinguish the lamps using rocks or our astral qis.”

Wang Yang mulled over the suggestion for a moment, “There’s no need to take out all the lamps. We just need to extinguish half of it so that the light can't reach us.”

“Let’s get to it then. But be careful. Focus on extinguishing the lamps and nothing else.”

“Yes, senior brother.”

A chorus of yeses later, the group stood outside the light’s range and began extinguishing the lamps on the left side of the Thousand Hands Bodhisattva. Although they couldn’t get close, this bit of distance meant little to warriors like them and especially Yang Xuan and Liu Fan. An astral qi-filled punch and a palm strike was all they needed to extinguish a good number of oil lamps. However, the statue itself was perfectly unharmed because they could control their astral qi down to the finest detail. As for the Vessel Augmentors, they didn’t possess the Astral Refiners’ tremendous true qi nor fine control, so instead they threw stones to eliminate the oil lamps one by one.

Most of the lamps on the left side of the Thousand Hands Bodhisattva were extinguished just like that. The lighting in the grotto was much darker as a result.

There was something crucial that no one noticed, however. As more and more lamps were extinguished, the people kneeling in front of the statue be it the living or the dead began weeping bright red blood.The way it slid down those peaceful-looking faces looked beyond eerie.

“It’s done, senior brother.”

It wasn’t long before all the lamps on the left were extinguished. As a result, the left side of the hall turned dark and sinister.

“Let’s go. Be sure to stick to the walls,” Wang Yang instructed before ordering another disciple to test the waters first. As expected, nothing dangerous happened. The others quickly moved him and stepped into the darkness.

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!”

They were still walking toward the other side when suddenly, a Sunset Hill disciple let out a terrified scream.

“What is it!?”

“What the hell, man. Don’t scare us!”

A cacophony of complaints broke out from the group.

The Sunset Hill disciple stuttered, “Those… those heads… they’re looking at us! They’re looking at us!”

“What? What heads?”

“Speak sense, man! What do you mean they…”

Confused and annoyed, the group followed his gaze toward the right. Every hair on their body immediately stood on end.

As it turned out, the crowd kneeling in front of the Thousand Hands Bodhisattva wasn’t looking at the statue anymore. No, they were staring straight at them. Every single one of them was weeping blood, and their expressions weren’t as kind and peaceful as they were before. Instead, they were either smiling, weeping, or glaring at them. It sent a chill up everyone’s spine.

As they continued to watch the crowd, some people suddenly started bleeding from their eyes. Their expressions also contorted unnaturally almost as if they were slowly transforming into those people who were kneeling in front of the Thousand Hands Bodhisattva.

Then, it happened. Everyone who was weeping blood suddenly cut off their arm with their saber, or dug out their heart with their bare hands, or dug out their eyeballs from their eye sockets, or cut off their own tongue and more.

The stench of blood filled the air instantly, and yet the people mutilating themselves couldn’t seem to feel any pain or even realize what they were doing. They just kept mutilating themselves…

Not even Yang Xuan and Liu Fan were an exception to the rule. They were able to maintain their sanity at the beginning, but they had just taken two steps when blood started pouring out of their eyes, their bodies stiffened like someone had put a spell on them, and their eyes slowly grew out of focus.

“What on earth…”

Ye Qing’s spirit was strong, so he could tell that a strange, evil power was permeating around them. His Warding Pendant was shining brightly as well. Strangely though, the power didn’t influence him to mutilate himself like the others. It only pinned him in place.

There was one more person who was mentally unaffected just like him. It was Wang Yang.

It became clear that the power was attacking all those who had extinguished the oil lamps. More accurately, it was attacking all those who had blasphemed the Thousand Hands Bodhisattva.

All who blaspheme against the Buddha must mutilate themselves to atone for their sins!

Ye Qing breathed a sigh of relief in his head. Holy shit. Thank fuck I hadn’t succumbed to my impulse and joined the others.

The evil power was incredibly potent, so potent that he wasn’t sure if he could handle it had push come to shove.

In fact, he knew from the start that extinguishing the oil lamps was an effective but extremely risky action. If it was that easy, there would have been significantly less bodies in this hall. No one in this jianghu was an idiot after all.

Earlier, he had purposely misled Wang Yang and the others into thinking that extinguishing the oil lamps would allow them to safely pass through this hall. He was a mole after all. What kind of mole didn’t dig a pitfall or two for his enemies?

Originally, he wanted to join the others and extinguish a couple of lamps himself. It would make Wang Yang less suspicious of his intentions, and he was fairly confident that he would be able to handle whatever the Thousand Hands Bodhisattva threw at him.

In the end though, his self-preservation instinct won out, and what a wise decision that had turned out to be. Had he blasphemed the Buddha just like the others, he would probably be struggling for his life right now.

Technically, he was the one who brought up the idea of extinguishing the lamps, but clearly the Thousand Hands Bodhisattva didn’t consider that an act of blasphemy. If it had, he would most likely have to reveal his Burning Wind and expose the fact that he was Ye Qing, Wang Luori’s sworn enemy.

He wouldn’t die though. He would never.

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