Stranger Danger

“An illusion?”

Ye Qing was frowning when a black line suddenly appeared from the far end of the grassy plain. It stretched from end to end, and it seemed to consume every inch of the world as it progressed.

Slowly, the black line turned into a churning tide. Even the sky seemed to darken at its presence.

When the black tide came closer, Ye Qing finally realized that it was no tide at all. It was an army of human skins; a seemingly endless number of them.

The human skins were clad in black armor. Their presence was intimidating, and their march even and steady. They looked like a well-trained army.

At the center of the human skin army was a chariot, and sitting on top of the chariot was a man wearing a python robe, a feather crown, and a bronze mask. Worse, the man did not seem to have any skin at all. Ye Qing could see every fiber of his muscles as clear as day.

Several flags were planted on both sides of the chariot. One of them showed a dragon and a snake coiling together to form the word “Jiang”, and the other saw dark, evil-looking clouds forming the word “Death”.

“The Undying Army of the King of Nanjiang?!”

If he merely had suspicions when the black-armored human skins first came into view, now he was certain that the army was none other than the legendary Undying Army.

Legend had it that the King of Nanjiang was skinless and wore a bronze mask to cover up his face, and he owned an army created from the human skins of his denizens. They were clad in black armor and utterly fearless. They were called the Undying Army. It was how the King of Nanjiang was able to defeat all opposition to unite the tribes of Nanjiang and eventually invaded the Central Plains.

“Why can’t I break out of this?”

The moment Ye Qing saw the King of Nanjiang and his Undying Army, Ye Qing was certain that he had succumbed to an illusion. He immediately tapped the space in front of him and executed “Heavenly Demon Captures The Soul”, but to his astonishment, it did not produce any noticeable effect whatsoever. The scene before him had not changed at all.

An illusion was the deception of one’s senses and consciousness via spiritual power. As long as the victim was conscious of the fact that they were in an illusion and took the appropriate actions to breach it, the illusion would hold no power over them.

The problem was that it wasn’t working. He knew that the King of Nanjiang and the Undying Army were fake, and he used “Heavenly Demon Captures The Soul” to dismantle the illusion. And yet, he was still trapped.

The “Paranirmitavaśavartin Heavenly Demon Sutra” itself possessed the power to conjure illusions, manifest facades of the world, and draw out heart demons, not to mention that he was also practicing the “Dream Butterfly True Scripture”. His understanding of illusion arts had grown so much that there should be no illusion that he couldn’t breach with ease.

When it came to illusions, the “Paranirmitavaśavartin Heavenly Demon Sutra” had never failed him before. Even against the Ghost Ship, an illusion-type Anomaly that greatly negated its piercing effects, it was still effective to a certain extent. This was the first time ever it had failed him thoroughly and completely.

Frowning, Ye Qing tapped the space in front of him and let loose his torrent of demonic thought once more. Unfortunately, it rippled uselessly to his surroundings just like before and failed to affect the illusion he was seeing whatsoever.

“Strange…” Ye Qing muttered with a deep frown on his face. By now, the black tide that was the Undying Army was right in front of him.

He knew that the army before him was an illusion. He also knew that an illusion he couldn’t pierce might as well be reality. He would most likely detest the consequences if he allowed the King of Nanjiang and the Undying Army to kill him. That was why he summoned his yin and yang qi and had them swim around him like a pair of black and white fishes.

“Impetus of Tai Chi”

Thanks to the “Impetus of Tai Chi”, every attack that landed on his person was reflected right back with greater force. Like a rock that crashed into a calm lake, disturbance and chaos immediately rippled through the Undying Army.

The bad news was that more human skin soldiers flooded in to fill up the gap he created. The good news was that he did not fear them in the slightest. While protecting himself with the “Impetus of Tai Chi”, he killed his enemies in just the span of inches and carved a way through the black tide like a fish in water.

Every time he took a step, a huge number of soldiers would be flung off their feet.

Every time he threw a punch, an innumerable number of human skins would disintegrate to dust.

For a time, the endless army couldn’t even touch him, much less wound him!

But of course, Ye Qing was well aware that he was simply buying himself more time to think with his resistance. No matter how many enemies he killed, it would never end so long as the illusion was still intact.

As if on cue, the King of Nanjiang tapped the Human Skin Drum, and countless human skin soldiers sprang into existence once more. Not only that, the Undying Army’s aura climbed to a whole new level as if buffed by the drumbeat.

“If I can't find a flaw, then I’ll break it via brute force!”

Ye Qing furrowed his brow and made his decision. While the human skin soldiers were still charging from all sides, he sucked in a deep breath, lifted his hand, and punched.

When he raised his hand, he grasped the five phases, the eight directions, and yin and yang in his palm. When he punched, it felt as if the sky was crumbling, and gods and demons were disintegrating before his might.

“Break Hammer”

In one punch, the endless black tide instantly burned into dust like a dry leaf in an inferno. Not only that, shockwaves rippled across the surrounding space, and both the sky and the earth were shaking violently. It looked like someone had shattered the mirror that was the world around him into pieces.

The surrounding environment warped, and he found himself back in the Celestial Cave once more. It was only then Ye Qing let out a small sigh of relief.

The “Break Hammer” he just unleashed was obviously nothing like the original. At best, he had grasped but a sliver of its true power. Even so, it was the Dark Overlord’s ultimate technique for a reason. Even a sliver was enough for him to pull off the impossible.

On a related note, he was nowhere close to grasping “Annihilation Hammer” despite being able to execute “Suppression Hammer” and “Break Hammer” already, even if just barely. It was because “Annihilation Hammer” was too lofty and powerful as Murong Xianxian had mentioned before. It would be a long time before he could even consider learning it, much less use it.

Still, “Suppression Hammer” and “Break Hammer” should be all he needed against anyone beneath the Sage stage.

“You are the one behind Gong Wuwei, aren’t you? If you’re already here, then why don’t you show yourself properly?”

Instead of throwing himself into battle immediately, Ye Qing stayed his hand and saluted toward a distant pavilion.

When he broke the illusion using “Break Hammer” earlier, he also sensed a hint of energy coming from that particular pavilion. He was fairly certain that it belonged to the one who played the qin and trapped him in the nigh unbreakable illusion.

From the start, he knew that there was a mastermind behind Gong Wuwei. It was because he could tell at first glance that the woman was nowhere strong enough to grow the ambition to unite Mount Qi, much less assassinate the likes of Ding Banshan, Xu Laodao, Chen Wuxin and more without a fight. It was plain unrealistic even considering the fact that she possessed the Disaster-class Strange Artifact, the Human Skin Drum.

On that subject, Ye Qing did not even think that Gong Wuwei was the Human Skin Drum’s true master. He could tell from her reactions that she didn’t seem to have full control of the Human Skin Drum, not to mention that she wasn’t strong enough to outmuscle all competitors and claim such a powerful Strange Artifact in the first place.

That was how he became certain that there was a mastermind behind Gong Wuwei. The illusion merely confirmed what he already suspected.

The reason he pressed Gong Wuwei relentlessly was to force the mastermind to show themselves. There were two reasons. One, if he was wrong, and there was no one behind Gong Wuwei after all, then he wanted to reap everything she had sown for himself. His goal was to take over Mount Qi in the first place, so this was just perfect. Two, if there was a mastermind behind Gong Wuwei, and the person turned out to be more troublesome than expected, then he did not mind entering a negotiation with them.

He couldn’t let Chen Wuxin’s death go to waste, could he?

He especially could not lose the Boundless Mara Buddha.

Of course, the plan was formed on the foundation of his own strength. He was certain that there was no one he couldn’t defeat so long as they weren’t a top fifty Trueman or Grandmaster on the Earth Champions Ranking. Even if he was wrong, he was confident he would be able to retreat safely.

He hoped for the best, but reality struck once again. Judging from the qin sound and the strength of the illusion he saw, the mastermind behind Gong Wuwei was extremely powerful. After all, they had forced him to use a trump card he barely grasped in the very first exchange.

Thankfully, the “Three Origin Hammers” guaranteed that he could destroy whatever his hidden enemy threw at him and protect himself. No harm would come to him even in the worst case scenario.

This was why Ye Qing remained calm and did not beat a tactical retreat immediately. They had fought, and both sides had shown off their strength. Since a decisive victory could not be achieved, it was only natural that they entered a negotiation next.

It was at this moment he heard a voice he never expected to hear:

“It’s only been a couple months since we last met, and you are much stronger than you were before, Joyless. Congratulations!”

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