Stranger Danger

“Have you seen my head?”

Ye Qing’s skull turned numb, and his back broke out in cold sweat when he heard this. He felt as if he had plummeted into an ice hole, cold and frozen. He did not dare to move even a muscle.

If before he only felt that something extremely bad would happen if he moved carelessly, now he knew for certain that he was in big trouble.

It was because the one question had made him feel like Sun Wukong trapped underneath the Five Fingers Mountain. His back felt like it was bearing the heavens themselves, his skin felt icy to touch, his yin god and demonic thought were completely suppressed, his energies were tied up by invisible shackles, and his mind was trembling like a leaf.

Right here and now, he was no different from a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

He was never a coward nor a man who gave up easily. However, he could do but quake in his boots right now. He just could not muster even the slightest courage to struggle or fight back.

Beads of sweat rolled profusely off his forehead. However, the reaction could not alleviate his shock and terror in the slightest. He had no idea how he was going to get out of this situation. None.

……

When Shangguan Hongjin and Pedant Earth finally reached the bottom of the basin, they were immediately treated to a terrifying sight. They saw a man leaning forward and clinging to Ye Qing’s back with both hands. Ye Qing himself wasn’t moving a muscle almost as if he was listening to the stranger. From a distance, they looked like a pair of old friends catching up with each other.

If that was all, then they might not have suspected a thing. The problem was that the man clinging to Ye Qing’s back did not have a head. In other words, he was a headless corpse.

Why was a corpse clinging to Ye Qing? And how?

Worse still, the corpse felt like an infinitely tall mountain to their senses. They felt like ants attempting to perceive the infinite totality that was the sky.

The Sage. It has to be the fallen Sage.

Both warriors arrived at the exact same conclusion. The headless corpse before them could only be the fallen Sage.

“Have you seen my head?”

Then, something even scarier happened. The headless corpse asked Ye Qing a question.

This should not be possible since the Sage did not have a head. And yet, a voice had definitely come from its body, one that terrified and suffocated both Shangguan Hongjin and Pedant Earth to their core. They began trembling like a leaf.

“Have you seen my head?”

A few seconds of silence later, the question came again. At the same time, a terrifying aura washed out of the headless Sage and shook both heaven and earth.

“Hmph!”

A muffled groan escaped Ye Qing’s lips, and warm blood began bleeding from pouring out of every orifice. He felt as if he had just been struck by a clump of mountains and electrocuted by ten thousand lightning bolts. His headspace was shaking like a drum, his yin god was fading, and a series of disturbing pops came from inside his body. It was the sound of his muscles and bones being pushed beyond their limits.

Ye Qing was shocked to say the least. Like a celestial or a demon, the entity had dealt him a serious blow with its presence alone. Unless he was gravely mistaken, the entity was probably the fallen Sage.

He could feel the sheer power and danger the headless Sage was giving off with his bones. If he did not come up with a solution soon, he would most likely have to face the thunderous wrath of a Sage.

However, he couldn’t think of anything. Or rather, whatever idea he came up to save his own life all ended in theoretical failure. The Sage was just too powerful. His aura alone was so scary that he could not even muster the slightest will to resist.

He wasn’t willing to give up on his life without fighting though.

I must fight!

A hint of determination flashed in Ye Qing’s eyes as the Sage’s aura and energy grew closer and closer.

At this point, it was do or die. He knew full well that his final gambit was probably no less futile than trying to stop the wheels of time itself. If it failed, then he would mostly die.

He would definitely die if he did not fight, however. It did not take a genius to know which was the superior option.

He was just about to take action when suddenly, something unexpected happened. A small head crawled out of the Dragon Nursing Nest he had been carrying on his waist.

Giggle?!

The blood drained away from Ye Qing’s blood. The second Giggle showed itself, the presence behind his back suddenly grew indescribably violent. If before the Sage’s presence was just the desolate and oppressive calm before the storm, now the storm was upon him, rampaging and chaotic.

Originally, his plan was to find an opportunity to set Giggle free while he was fighting against the Sage. However, not only did Giggle surprise him by appearing on its own, it triggered an unexpected reaction from the Sage.

What’s going on here?

There was no time to hesitate, however. Throwing all caution to the wind, Ye Qing swung his left elbow into the Sage’s chest like a hammer.

Bang!

Ye Qing lifted an eyebrow. He knew it was a slim hope from the start, but not only did his full-powered elbow strike fail to budge the Sage even an inch, it was his arm that hurt from the impact.

It was both surprising and unsurprising. A dead Sage he might be, he was still a Sage. They said that a lean camel is still bigger than a horse, and a Sage was so, so much bigger than a Spirit Master like him.

Ye Qing did not panic though. He immediately ripped off the Dragon Nursing Nest and tossed it into the sky, shouting, “Run!”

While he was shouting, he raised his right arm and brought it down on the Sage like he would split the headless man in half.

Ye Qing had a plan when he attacked the Sage. If his elbow strike was strong enough to knock back the headless Sage and buy both him and Giggle a chance to survive, then all was well. If not, it was still fine. He simply needed to keep the Sage’s attention on himself and buy as much time for Giggle to run as possible, and what better way to do that than to attack him?

His plan was simple, but it worked. He could feel the Sage’s aura locking onto him before it came crashing down like an unstoppable tidal wave.

“Ahhhhhh!!!”

Ye Qing growled out as his right arm grew several times bigger than before, and sharp hair burst out of his flesh. He then punched the sage’s shoulder with everything he got.

THUMP!

It sounded like the drumbeat of the heavens. Such was the noise that a muffled groan escaped Shangguan Hongjin and Pedant Earth’s lips, and blood began seeping out of their orifices. At the same time, the ground beneath Ye Qing and the Sage crumbled inch by inch.

However, the powerful punch failed to harm the Sage even a little, much less push him away. The Sage was still clinging to Ye Qing and grabbing his shoulders with both hands. Their position hadn’t changed one bit.

The Sage’s aura was still growing stronger though. Then, the Sage tightened his grip just a bit, and Ye Qing’s shoulders caved in and crumbled away like soft tofu.

A muffled groan of pain escaped Ye Qing’s lips, but he wasn’t done yet. His eyes abruptly turned as dark and bottomless as the night.

Their surroundings faded into an unknown world before they knew it. It seemed infinitely vast and filled with all sorts of Heavenly Demons, though their shapes and sizes were indistinct. There were incessant murmurs that sounded like weeping, laughing, sorrow, and joy all at the same time, and it seemed capable of bringing out the greed, anger, ignorance, delusion, Seven Emotions and Six Desires hidden in the deepest depths of one’s heart.

While the victim’s mind and soul were being attacked, a grand, tall, mysterious silhouette sitting on a throne emerged from the space higher than the nine heavens and looked down from above.

The silhouette lowered its palm, and the world crumbled.

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