Stranger Danger

Chapter 426: Blood Demon Sutra

The fog spread rapidly as soon as it entered Ye Qing’s body. In just the blink of an eye, it had spread to every corner of his body through his veins, flesh and blood. Faint mist could be seen seeping out of his pores.

If this was all the fog did, then Ye Qing had a million and one ways to eliminate it from his body. The problem was that the fog was slowly corrupting and assimilating him from the inside. Forget expelling the fog from his body, his astral qi was slowly being consumed and assimilated as well.

A few breaths later, the fog appeared inside his headspace as well. He could vaguely see a torso suspended in the middle of the thick fog.

“It’s trying to take over my body!” Ye Qing frowned. If he didn’t come up with a solution soon, he would become the corpse’s new host.

“Open your mind and let me in to protect your mind, boy! I might be able to resist this fog!” The Fog Demon’s voice rang beside Ye Qing’s ears urgently. When he saw that Ye Qing wasn’t reacting, it urged again, “We’re past the time for caution, boy! Do you really want to die?”

The Fog Demon wasn’t plotting something this time. If Ye Qing died, it would die as well. For once, it truly wanted to save Ye Qing from the bottom of its heart, even though it was because it viewed Ye Qing as its personal prey and couldn’t stand anyone else taking that glory from it.

“Are you sure you can stop it?” Ye Qing mentally asked the Fog Demon. Maybe it was because he was still under the effects of the Qi of Ultimate Purity, but the life-or-death crisis only cooled his head even more.

“Honestly? I’m not sure. I can only say that I’ll do my best,” the Fog Demon answered.

Ye Qing furrowed his brows and didn’t give the Fog Demon an answer. Inside his headspace, he condensed his demonic thought into a saber and executed the “Hellfire Red Lotus Saber Art” and the “Heavenly Demon Captures The Soul” repeatedly. However, all that did was to slow the fog’s progress slightly. It wasn’t enough to eliminate the fog completely.

“What are you waiting for, boy? Let me in already!” The Fog Demon urged again.

Ye Qing didn’t stray from his current course of action, however. He remained calm and tried everything he thought might work against the fog one by one.

He wasn’t worried that the Fog Demon might screw him over. After all, their lives were on the line here. If there was one thing about the Fog Demon he could trust, it would be its desire to live. The only reason he hadn’t let the Fog Demon in was because the Fog Demon itself wasn’t certain if it could handle the fog, which made the option high risk and low reward. There was no simply reason to pick it until all other options had been exhausted.

“Hmm?”

Suddenly, Ye Qing noticed something. The fog attacking his blood was failing to corrupt it. Not only that, his blood was actually devouring the fog in turn!

After his blood had devoured the fog, Ye Qing was struck by a sudden pang of desire and hunger. It had been a long time since he felt this sensation—specifically after he began cultivating the “Blood Demon Sutra”.

It had been so long that he completely forgot that he had consumed a drop of strange blood belonging to a powerful, unknown existence residing at the Jade Dragon Lake. As a result, his blood underwent a mutation and gained the ability to devour other people’s blood as well. Technically speaking, he was now a Strangerkin.

At the beginning, he was too weak to master the powerful blood completely. From time to time, he would be struck by the urge to feed on fresh blood. However, he soon grew strong enough to wrestle down the urge with ease, and after he cultivated Shangguan Wuwo’s “Blood Demon Sutra”, the urge was completely gone... until now.

The “Blood Demon Sutra” was a martial art of blood control. It enabled the practitioner to absorb and refine other people’s blood for their own use and improve their fine control over their own blood. That was how he resolved the hidden threat posed by his own blood.

He didn’t realize that his blood could devour the fog until after the fact, however. Where there's a will, there's a way. Of course, there was the possibility that devouring the fog might threaten his life down the line, but he was dying now. Even if his fears were proven true, he would deal with it in the future.

“Guard me, Fog Demon. Do not allow anyone to approach me,” Ye Qing ordered.

“Did you find a solution, boy?” The Fog Demon felt its non-existent heart sliding back into its chest.

“Yeah,” Ye Qing replied indifferently before focusing on cycling the “Blood Demon Sutra”. He began mobilizing every drop of blood in his body to devour the fog.

His blood stirred like a hibernating beast awakening to extreme starvation. It pounced on top of the fog and consumed every last wisp of it.

Inside Ye Qing’s headspace, the fog sensed the danger and quickly gathered itself to escape. Ye Qing sneered disdainfully when he saw this. “You think you can come and go as you please? Stay!”

The blood in his body took the form of a large hand. It caught the fog in a death grip before it could go anywhere.

Of course, a good amount of fog simply slipped through the bloody hand’s fingers and continued its escape, but it barely traveled a few inches before the invisible Blood Shadows trapped it and began consuming it as well.

The fog grew thinner and thinner over time. Eventually, it disappeared completely. The blood hand crumbled and returned to its original form after that.

Ye Qing’s face didn’t relax, however. It was because his blood was the one stirring up trouble this time. Like a tidal wave, it slammed against his blood vessels, nerves and internal organs again and again. Even with his tenacity, the pain was slowly but surely growing.

It looked even worse from the outside. His blood vessels were swollen and bulging out of every part of his body. It was almost to the point where his skin looked transparent. They looked like they could burst at any moment.

Not only was he bleeding from every orifice, tiny beads of blood were leaking out of his pores as well. More importantly, the blood was giving off thick fog as well. His face was also warped to the point where it was nearly indistinguishable.

It was at this moment a painting, a bronze mirror and a pipa flew over to Ye Qing. They were about ten meters away when a massive demonic Buddha manifested in the air and blocked their way. “Halt, you three.”

The items stopped, and the three women appeared one after another.

“We mean no harm. We simply wish to assist Scion Ye,” Longing explained as she gauged the Boundless Mara Buddha’s strength. “Scion Ye has been invaded by the corpse’s original fog. If we don’t help him now, his life would be in grave danger.”

“Can you help him?” The Fog Demon asked while watching the trio warily.

Longing replied, “Our power originates from the fog, so we can suppress it to a certain extent. I believe we can be of help to Scion Ye.”

“Kekeke...” The Fog Demon suddenly let out a strange cackle. “You’re welcome, but this brat never throws himself into something he isn’t sure about. I’ll ask for your help only if the fog turns out to be too much for him to handle.”

As a Nine Nethers Demon and an expert in toying with the human heart, it could tell that Longing’s offer was only half true.

It was true that she and her sisters possessed the power to quell the fog inside Ye Qing’s body, but she was lying when she said it was to save Ye Qing. They were simply coveting the fog currently inside his body.

“You’re an artifact spirit, aren’t you? This one greets you, senior.” Longing bowed politely to the Fog Demon before pleading, “Scion Ye saved us, senior. We would never turn against our savior and liberator, so please, allow us to return the favor.”

“It’s clear that Scion Ye can lose his life at any moment. Surely you don’t want that to happen?”

Longing was about to say more when suddenly, Hua Mei spoke up, “Sister, I personally think that Scion Ye can resolve his own situation. Why don’t we give him some time?”

“Hua Mei?” Longing glanced at Hua Mei in surprise.

Jue Yan pondered for a moment before voicing her agreement as well. “I agree with Hua Mei. Let us wait and see what happens.”

“... If that is what you think, then I shall drop this matter.” Longing stopped insisting and nodded. “But again, please don’t hesitate to ask for our help should you deem it necessary, senior. We promise that we will do everything in our power to save Scion Ye.”

“We’ll see.” The Fog Demon cackled uncaringly before thinking to itself: Interesting. It looks like they’re not of one mind.

Its thoughts quickly turned back to worry though. If Ye Qing really couldn’t handle the fog ravaging his body, then it would have no choice but to let the three women take over.

Ye Qing’s situation only seemed to worsen over time. His skin began cracking like glass, and some of his blood vessels literally burst from how much pressure they were subjected to.

Just when everyone including the Fog Demon thought that Ye Qing would falter, the young man’s lips abruptly curled into a strange, somewhat unsettling smirk.

The next moment, they watched in astonishment as the blood pouring out of his wounds began flowing back in reverse. His wounds slowly began healing as well. At the same time, his astral qi, his vigor and the fog began intermingling with each other and forming a small cyclone around Ye Qing.

A teatime later, Ye Qing slowly rose to his feet. However, the Fog Demon quickly noticed that it wasn’t Ye Qing at all. No, it was just some sort of silhouette. The real Ye Qing was still seated on the floor.

Whatever the silhouette was, it had come out of Ye Qing’s body. Although it was right in front of it, the Fog Demon couldn’t see its face at all. It was covered in fog and looked quite mysterious.

The next moment, the cyclone of qi, vigor and fog merged into the silhouette. It was only then its face was revealed to the Fog Demon and the three girls. It was a humanoid creature that was completely made of fog. Its features were constantly changing and shifting, and there were wisps of red mixed with the white fog.

Shocked, Longing, Hua Mei and Jue Yan immediately charged the fog person. It was because they sensed the original fog in the fog person and thought that the corpse had returned to life.

“Calm down, Misses.”

It was at this moment Ye Qing opened his eyes and climbed to his feet with a smile. From their point of view, it looked like the fog person had overlapped with Ye Qing to give him a misty, light red appearance. The fact he was smiling also added to the unsettling atmosphere.

“Is it you, Scion Ye?” The three women stopped in their tracks and stared at Ye Qing intently. “Are you alright?”

Ye Qing took two steps forward and passed through the fog person. He then replied cordially, “Thank you for your concern. I am fine.”

“What... What is that fog person behind you, Scion Ye?” Longing asked concernedly.

Ye Qing took two steps to the side so they could have a full view of the fog person. “Oh, this? This is the fog that tried to corrupt me earlier. But don’t worry, I now have full control over it. It is no longer a threat to anyone.”

As he said this, the fog person crumbled into wisps and flowed into Ye Qing’s body.

After probing Ye Qing with her senses carefully and confirming that he really had become the master of the original fog, Longing complimented him with a mixed expression on her face, “You truly are a genius, Scion Ye. I don’t mean any slight, but I still can’t believe that you actually managed to control the original fog with your own strength. You have my deepest respect.”

They knew more than anyone just how terrible the original fog was. Even with their power, they had no choice but to split the body into four parts and suppress three of them inside their objects. Even so, the effort had consumed nearly every sliver of power they possessed. That was why they didn’t think that Ye Qing could truly deal with the torso and the original fog inside his body at all. When Longing had asked Ye Qing to destroy the torso, she really just wanted him to buy enough time for them to properly suppress the body parts and original fog inside their objects before coming to his aid.

They had misjudged his power, however. Against all expectations, Ye Qing had saved himself.

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