Stranger Danger

Chapter 334: Yellow Bull Root Carving

“In fact, this nightmare had claimed the lives of many in my hometown,” Qi Xuanyun’s expression turned sorrowful when he said this. “Since then, I swore I would find the one behind this incident no matter what. After many years of investigation, I finally discovered that every single one of these victims had eaten at the same restaurants. Specifically, they had eaten the restaurants’ beef.”

“A little more digging later, I found out that these restaurants had bought their cattle from the same inn. That inn is none other than All Cattle Inn.”

“This one?” Ye Qing asked for clarification.

“This one,” Qi Xuanyun confirmed. “The inn itself is abnormal though. It would appear at a location for several days before disappearing for a time. Then, it would appear somewhere else.”

“I’ve been chasing for a very long time. Finally, I found it.”

Ye Qing fell silent for a moment. “Based on what you told us, I believe I’ve more or less figured out the whole case.”

“Assuming I’m not mistaken, the innkeepers use the Cattle Transformation Grass to transform everyone who eats in their inn into cattle. Then, the cattle are sold to nearby restaurants.”

“The cattle were formerly humans who ate the Cattle Transformation Grass, so it makes sense that the people who ate them would experience strange, debilitating nightmares and act like cattle.”

“That is most likely the truth.” Qi Xuanyun said coldly, “Tonight is the night I kill these evildoers and end their crimes once and for all.”

“Go wild. I’m here to help.” Ye Qing clapped Qi Xuanyun’s shoulder.

Chu Nianjiu and Lin Yuhuai exchanged smiles with each other before declaring, “We too see no reason to allow this despicable inn to exist any longer.”

“The innkeeper’s coming. Do as you see fit,” Ye Qing instructed before putting all the dishes on the table—the Cattle Transformation Grass—into his Nature’s Shell.

“Your vegetables have arrived, young Reverend,” Mrs. Jiao’s sweet voice arrived before her person.

When she saw that the table was empty once again, her eyes widened. “Did you guys... finish everything again?”

“Yep. It is as you see.” Ye Qing shrugged. “Your beef is so delicious we cannot help but eat the plates... again.”

“And now, we’re gonna eat you!” Chu Nianjiu sipped his wine and added.

Ye Qing: “...”

Lin Yuhuai: “...”

Bro, there’s an underaged boy right here! Control yourself!

At this point, even the dimmest bulb in the world would’ve noticed that something was amiss. Mrs. Jiao’s smile stiffened as she exclaimed in realization, “You didn’t eat the beef?”

“HUBBY!”

Mrs. Jiao screeched and tossed her tray at the group. Then, she sprinted toward the kitchen at full speed.

At the same time, countless ropes slithered out of the floor, and each one had a strap on it. They attempted to catch the group by the neck.

However, the second the rope emerged from the floor, Ye Qing had already closed the distance and reached out with his left hand to grab Mrs. Jiao’s skull.

Right before he would grab her, Mrs. Jiao abruptly twisted like a snake and dodged the attack by a hair’s breadth.

Not pausing for even a moment, Ye Qing clenched his hand into a fist and thrust in an inch forward. Fire burned, rivers evaporated, and the space around them turned into a scorching hot furnace.

“Cloud Vaporization Style”

The others weren’t idle, of course. Qi Xuanyun was already shooting a Palm Thunder at Mrs. Jiao, and Chu Nianjiu and Lin Yuhuai were launching their respective attacks as well.

In response, Mrs. Jiao let out a cute whimper and summoned her bull carving. She slapped her hand over the bull’s head and forced the disgruntled bull to turn the mill backward.

As the millstone turned, an anomalous energy rippled out of it. The scorching hot furnace that was Ye Qing’s fist force shrank back into his fist, Qi Xuanyun’s Palm Thunder shrank back into the giant palm in the sky, and everyone else’s attacks moved in reverse until they were no more.

It was like someone was turning the wheel of time in reverse. Everything had returned to what it was before.

With that done, the bull carving stopped in its tracks and began turning the mill normally. The millstone released a new ripple of energy that attempted to corrupt their mind and spirit.

Chu Nianjiu and Lin Yuhuai’s mind and spirit were the weakest of the four of them. Bull fur began growing on their skin.

Purple lightning shot out of Qi Xuanyun’s body and burned away the bull fur as soon as they exited his pores.

Ye Qing was the only one who wasn’t impressed by the attack. The evil, twisting energy was absorbed and neutralized by his demonic lotus as soon as it entered his mind. Scoffing, he tapped the space in front of him with his fingers and stunned Mrs. Jiao.

As soon as her eyes grew unfocused, Ye Qing turned on his feet, kicked off the floor, and shot toward Mrs. Jiao like a loose arrow. At the same time, Red Sleeve slipped out of his sleeve and released a curtain of light that looked like a drizzle in spring—soft, pleasant, and perfectly deadly.

At the last possible moment, Mrs. Jiao regained her consciousness and used her Strange Artifact. The bull carving abruptly sprinted around the millstone and caused its light to shine brighter than ever before. It annihilated the saber forces before it could carve her up like sushi.

This was just the beginning though. A flash of crimson appeared right after the curtain of light disappeared. There was a crack, and the root carving abruptly split into two.

“Pwack!”

Mrs. Jiao turned death pale and coughed up a mouthful of blood. Ye Qing was about to press the advantage and kill her when suddenly, he heard a tiger’s roar and caught a whiff of something horrible. It smelled like the mouth of a bloodthirsty beast. Without hesitation, he activated the “Nine Impetus of Tai Chi”—a white fish and a black fish appeared and swam in a circle around him to form a tai chi symbol—and neutralized the tremendous force slamming into his back. He turned around to find a massive tiger being flung toward a wall.

“Roar!”

His enemy wasn’t relying on a single Stranger to kill him though. A lion that was covered in flames jumped toward him from his blind spot, and the tiger had gotten back on its feet and was rushing him as well.

Ye Qing reversed his grip on Red Sleeve and did a quick twirl. The saber drew a full moon and sliced both Strangers in two.

Strangely, they turned into grass when they hit the ground.

“Go, dear! I’ll catch up to you in a moment!” The hunch-backed man rushed out of the kitchen while weaving all sorts of Strangers with grass. Every time he finished weaving, the Stranger would come to life and rush Ye Qing. There were tigers, lions, wolves and even dragons.

“You guys deal with Mrs. Jiao!” Ye Qing yelled and thrust his left hand forward. The Burning Wind blew, and the Netherflame burned brightly. Like day and night intertwined into a beam of pure power, they disintegrated the grass-made Strangers like nothing and shot toward the hunch-backed man.

The hunch-backed man blanched when he felt the unbelievable heat contained within the black-and-white flames. He hastily jumped away from the all-consuming flames—or at least, he tried to.

Snap!

Someone snapped their fingers, and he blanked out as if someone had slapped a lock around his mind. When he regained consciousness, he saw a flash of crimson followed by overwhelming light and darkness. After that, there was only eternal darkness.

On the other side, Mrs. Jiao had been smashed into smithereens by Qi Xuanyun’s lightning as well. Without her root carving, there was just no way she could fend off Chu Nianjiu, Lin Yuhuai and Qi Xuanyun at the same time.

One thing Ye Qing noted after the fight was that Mrs. Jiao and her husband’s spiritual power was on the same level as him even though they were just early-stage Spirit Purifiers, and ordinary ones at that. He knew this because they had both snapped free from his “Heavenly Demon Captures The Soul”. It might have something to do with what they were doing, though he would never learn the answer now that they were both dead.

“You’re incredible, Brother Ye!” Qi Xuanyun stared at Ye Qing in shock after killing Mrs. Jiao. He knew from the start that the trio were strong, and Ye Qing in particular gave him the heebie-jeebies. Despite this, he was sure that Ye Qing was on Feng Yang Gentleman’s level at most and no match for him.

But after what he just saw, he was starting to think that Ye Qing might actually be stronger than him. Considering that he was just an early-stage Spirit Purifier, this was unbelievable.

“Hehe, I’m not bad, I suppose.” Ye Qing shrugged. A man should be humble!

“Is there anyone else in this inn, Joyless?” Chu Nianjiu asked.

Ye Qing answered, “There is one inside the back garden, but he’s just an ordinary person.”

He had scanned the entire place using his demonic thought earlier. The only person in the area besides them and the innkeepers was that man, and he was just an ordinary person who felt[1] like his days were numbered.

“Let’s go,” Lin Yuhuai said.

When they arrived at the back garden, they saw a handsome man wearing a silly grin inside the cattle pen. He was dripping saliva and sleeping in the middle of a bunch of cattle.

“He’s definitely just a normal person. Let me wake him up,” Ye Qing said. He had just set foot inside the cattle pen when a few cattle swarmed him and mooed at him loudly. At the same time, some of them began writing on the ground with their hoofs.

“Help...”

Ye Qing narrowed his eyes. As he thought, every bull and cow in this inn was formerly a human.

The good news was that the cattle swarming him had just eaten the Cattle Transformation Grass a while ago. That was why they were acting so human. But the others... there was probably no saving them.

“Calm down. You’re safe now. Just make sure to remember that you’re human, and you will return to normal in three days,” Ye Qing consoled them. The Cattle Transformation Grass was probably a kind of curse, and he was hardly an expert in this area. There was nothing he could do to help them.

It was at this moment Qi Xuanyun spoke up, “Allow me.”

“Eight views approach the firmament and expel the evils. The wind rises...”

The young Taoist shook his sleeves once and produced a yellow talisman that was obviously brimming with power between his fingers. At the same time, he chanted a bunch of words that Ye Qing didn’t care to make sense of.

When he was done, the yellow talisman abruptly transformed into a gust of wind and blew past the cattle. Wisps of filthy energies immediately started rising from their bodies.

When the wind passed completely, a dozen or so people returned to normal. But only a dozen. The rest remained as they were.

“It’s too late for these people. They had turned into cattle for so long that they had completely lost their humanity and sapience. Not even my Evil Expelling Talisman can save them now.”

Qi Xuanyun wore a sorrowful look as he spoke. “Even if they turned back to normal, they would remain retarded for the rest of their lives.”

“Thank you for saving us, heroes! Thank you!”

Some of the victims immediately ran up to the group and thanked them profusely.

Ye Qing pointed a finger at Qi Xuanyun and said, “You’re welcome, but the one you should really thank is him. I couldn’t have dispelled the curse afflicting you all.”

“Thank you for saving our lives, young Reverend!”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you...”

“We will never forget what you’ve done for us. Never!”

Maybe it was because they were still in shock, but most of the victims weren’t quite themselves yet. They could only repeat words of gratitude over and over.

Qi Xuanyun had never experienced a situation like this. Blushing like an apple, he waved his hands repeatedly to indicate “You’re welcome” but was unable to say a single word. In the end, Lin Yuhuai had to step in to save him from his predicament.

Suddenly, a cry of surprise broke out. “You... Which one of you is Yang Yun?”

Ye Qing looked and saw a man staring back and forth between the retarded man curled up on the ground and the guy next to him. His expression was panicked and horrified because the two men shared the exact same appearance.

1. Felt, because aura. ?

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