Stranger Danger

Chapter 499: Jealousy Needs No Reason

Of course, it was beyond painful to be burned alive, but Ye Qing was a man on a mission. While keeping the pain at bay and maintaining clarity of mind, he began his refinement process by targeting the weakest portions of the Purple Sun Trueflame—those that had been weakened by their clash against the Black Sky Divine Palm force and Zhou Hengshan’s saber intent. It was only after he mastered them completely that he began to refine the rest of the Purple Sun Trueflame.

The process sounded easy on paper, but only he knew just how dangerous it had been. One single mistake, and he would’ve died just like that.

In the past, he might have chosen a different, safer course of action. But today, he no longer had that option.

Only by becoming stronger could he survive—no, live in this world.

The good news was, he succeeded.

There was now a mysterious, noble, and unfathomable purple flame floating inside his dantian. Surrounded by an entourage of Burning Wind, it illuminated every inch of Ye Qing’s dantian and sea of qi like a king.

“What? You refined the Purple Sun Trueflame?” Yi Pin exclaimed in shock. “You’re not kidding me, are you?”

“What do you think?” Ye Qing smirked and flipped his palm upward. A wisp of purple flame immediately appeared at the center.

The moment the Purple Sun Trueflame appeared, the room temperature skyrocketed, the air distorted, and Yi Pin felt like he was cooking alive just like when the trial was still ongoing.

“P-put it away!” Yi Pin said in a hurry. It was only after Ye Qing had put away the Purple Sun Trueflame that the old Taoist sighed with trepidation and relief. “Do you want to kill me, brother?”

“You’re the one who didn’t believe me, so I decided to give you a lesson in seeing is believing.” Ye Qing smirked.

Yi Pin sighed again and stared at Ye Qing. His voice was brimming with jealousy as he remarked, “You’re truly a lucky guy, brother.”

His jealousy was well-founded. The Purple Sun Trueflame was one of the fiercest and most yang fire in the world. Strangers feared it, and evils stayed well out of its way. Not only that, it was powerful and could be used for countless purposes.

Although Ye Qing had only refined a small amount of Purple Sun Trueflame and so could not literally boil a sea or transform a corner of the world into a scorched wasteland like the Fire God Moth, it was still nothing to scoff at.

Ye Qing could go up against a Spirit Master right now, and he could probably deal them a crippling blow on the first strike assuming that he managed to catch them off guard with the Purple Sun Trueflame.

Unfortunately, this was the extent of Ye Qing’s cultivation of the Purple Sun Trueflame unless he stumbled upon another grand opportunity. Although the Purple Sun Trueflame was the flames of dawn, which theoretically meant that the sun itself was an infinite source in which he could harvest the purple qi of dawn from—a raw substance that he could condense into the Purple Sun Trueflame—reality wasn’t so simple.

The sun was suspended higher than the nine heavens themselves, so by the time its rays reached the human world, they would have become infinitely weak and contaminated. Assuming that he was trying to refine a single wisp of Purple Sun Trueflame from the purple qi of dawn emitted by the sun alone, it would have taken him between thirty to fifty years to accomplish the feat.

Alternatively, he could fly above the nine heavens, breach the astral winds, and get as close to the sun as possible to absorb its pure rays, but it would take at least a Grandmaster to perform such a feat.

Besides that, he would need a cultivation art that could extract the purple qi of dawn and convert it into Purple Sun Trueflame. However, it was an exclusive secret kept by certain noble clans and powerful sects, and it was very difficult for a common man to obtain it.

He could seek out Strangers or places that contained the Purple Sun Trueflame, but obviously, such a venture came with considerable risks. Even if there was no danger, the process of refining the Purple Sun Trueflame was, as Ye Qing could attest with his own experience, incredibly dangerous. One misstep, and all that would be left of him was ash.

Absolutely everything must swing in his favor if he wished to refine the Purple Sun Trueflame.

For reasons that should be obvious, Yi Pin had not intended for Ye Qing to refine the Purple Sun Trueflame. He just thought it was a good idea to use an object of supreme yang to counteract another object of supreme yin. The fact that Ye Qing possessed the Profound Yellow Qi and the Nature’s Water made his chances of success far higher than most.

He underestimated the young man’s audacity, however. Not only did he refine the Purple Sun Trueflame right after he eliminated the Black Sky Divine Palm force and saber intent, he actually succeeded. He seriously was one lucky bastard. Oh, how envious I am!

Of course, Yi Pin was equally aware that luck was hardly the only factor Ye Qing had succeeded in his risky endeavor. If he didn’t possess an unbelievably tough body, if his willpower wavered for even a second while he was on fire, if the foreign forces ravaging his body didn’t happen to be objects of absolute yin, and if he didn’t possess a sufficient number of Profound Yellow Qi and Nature’s Water, then he would’ve failed to refine the Purple Sun Trueflame. The process had been as painful as it was risky.

One might say that nine out of ten of the warriors in Ye Qing’s position would have died today, and probably none would be able to walk away unscathed.

Sometimes, luck just favored a person. And sometimes, someone made their own luck. Ye Qing succeeded because he was a combination of both.

I’m still jealous though! What, do I need a reason to be jealous? Not in the slightest! At least not me!

Despite his jealousy, Yi Pin soon arrived at an important decision. From now on, he was going to befriend Ye Qing seriously and cease screwing him over for his self-interest completely. Judging from the sheer potential and dogshit luck Ye Qing displayed today—hells, he would believe it if Ye Qing told him that he was really the heavens’ favorite son—befriending the young man could only bring fortuitous tidings.

What? He wasn’t trying to curry favor with the guy! He was just trying to befriend him, okay?

Oh, shut up. He was a goddamn senior; a lofty champion in the past. Even if he was trying to curry favor with the guy, which he totally wasn’t, you gotta word it in a more sophisticated, friendlier fashion, get it?

Ye Qing teased him. “I have you to thank for my success, you know. If it wasn’t for your ‘idea’, I would never have had such a boon.”

Ye Qing purposely put some weight behind the word “idea”.

It was a mistake. Instead of feeling shame, Yi Pin declared with a perfectly straight face, “What are you talking about, brother? We’re brothers! It’s only natural that a brother would help out his brother, right brother?”

“Har har... whatever you say, brother.” Ye Qing rubbed his nose with a bit of irritation. What could you do when the person you were trying to embarrass had embodied the teaching, “If I’m shameless, then no one can shame me” to its core? Ye Qing’s own face was pretty thick, but he had to give it to the old man. No one was more shameless than him!

Two wisps of Profound Yellow Qi had appeared inside the room while the two of them were conversing. Yi Pin took one look at the qi before asking, “So, now that you’ve recovered, what are you going to do now?”

The corners of Ye Qing’s lips curled into a devilish smirk. “I’m going to keep playing the game, of course.”

And by that, he meant he was going to keep stealing Profound Yellow Qi.

“But how? You already took out all the bad guys yesterday.” Yi Pin advised, “Now that you’re strong enough to butt heads with Sun Xuanzhen, Huo Linglong and Ye Juejiang, my advice for you is to show your strength and intimidate into giving you a share.”

“I don’t know. There are more wolves than meat in this place.” Ye Qing shook his head. “There are now less than twenty people left in the Earthly Sovereign’s Coffin, and people are dying almost everyday. For now, there is just enough Profound Yellow Qi for three people to share, but a fourth? Do you really think they would accept this outcome?”

Yi Pin frowned a little. He had to admit that Ye Qing’s words made a lot of sense. Not only that, if Ye Qing showed himself now, there was a high chance the three warriors would join hands to eliminate the new competitor from the equation. Ye Qing might not fear any one of them at his current strength, but it was a different story if they attacked him together.

“Besides, Yue Juejiang would figure out that I’m the one who stole his Profound Yellow Qi Calabash as soon as I revealed my true strength. Things would get even more troublesome then.” Ye Qing chuckled. “I’ll admit that that’s not my main concern though. I just don’t like sharing the current stock of Profound Yellow Qi with four people.”

Yi Pin rolled his eyes. In the end, it all came back to greed.

“So? How do you want to play this? Snatch them by force?” Yi Pin asked.

Could he do it? The rewards were great as a matter of course, but could he really weather the dangers?

Ye Qing smiled confidently. “Snatching is such a barbaric, primitive method. Do I look like a primitive or a barbarian to you?”

That was what he said, but the main reason he didn't resort to brute force was because he wasn’t ready yet. It was almost guaranteed that there was going to be a huge battle between Sun Xuanzhen, Huo Linglong, Yue Juejiang and himself in the end, but he didn’t want to bring forward the final battle so soon. At the very least, he would consider it only after he had converted all of the Profound Yellow Qi currently in his possession into power.

He really, really, really didn’t fancy the idea of getting injured again.

Yi Pin: “...” Is he trying to imply that I’m stupid?

“Great minds think alike, it seems. I was thinking the exact same thing.” Yi Pin echoed in agreement so he wouldn’t seem like an idiot. Unfortunately, he was unable to hold his silence for more than a couple more seconds before he betrayed his intellectual deficiency. “So, did you have a plan, brother?”

“I do now.” An enigmatic smirk crossed his expression. “You’ll see.”

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