Stranger Danger

“Right! Right, it’s all this guy’s fault! I only did what I did because he forced me to do it! If you want to settle scores, then settle it with him! I’m just the underling who doesn’t know anything!”

The Heartless Brain was curled up in a corner of the bottle when he said this. He hadn’t hesitated even a moment when he sold Ye Qing out to Feng Qingyou.

Ye Qing: “...” How long did it take him to go from “brother” to “this guy” since he woke up? A minute? Two minutes? Well, you asked for it, “brother”.

“I don’t know what this is, Qingyou, but it’s audacious enough to slander your good name and mine. For both our sakes, I believe you should punish him properly. But don’t kill him, of course. Living is more painful than dying after all.”

Ye Qing leaned back and pretended he couldn’t see the Heartless Brain after saying that.

The Heartless Brain immediately changed his tune, “Brother Ye! My brother! You cannot do this to me! We are brothers who beheaded a chicken, burned the yellow papers and swore to the heavens even though there isn’t a single drop of blood between the two of us! You cannot leave me for dead!”

“Wow, don’t call me your brother. I’m pretty sure I don’t have a brother who sells out his friends like nothing!” Ye Qing purposely emphasized the word “brother” each time he said it.

“Joyless Ye, you heartless bastard! That wasn’t what you said when you sent me to Mount Qi! I never gave up your secret despite the horrible torture I went through, and this is how you treat me?!”

The Heartless Brain wailed, “Okay then! If you’re going to abandon me like this, then don’t blame me for returning the favor!”

“Miss, I was a blind fool who gave my loyalty and trust to an untrustworthy bastard. If you will accept me, I would like to correcy this mistake and join you instead. I will tell you everything I know about this unfaithful, treacherous bastard. All I ask is that you slay him now and eliminate the grave threat he poses to all of society!”

Ye Qing: “...” Every time he thought he had figured out the depths of the Heartless Brain’s shamelessness, the Stranger would find a new low to stoop to.

That said, the shameless bastard only dared to say what he said because he figured out that he and Feng Qingyou weren’t strangers. He did address her as Qingyou just now, and they were currently sharing a room and a table. Hasty the Heartless Brain might be, he wasn’t stupid. That was why he was putting on this buffoonery right now.

“Very well. I accept your surrender.”

Feng Qingyou’s eyes crinkled in amusement as she watched Ye Qing and the Heartless Brain bickering with each other.

“Bring him in, Wuwei.”

“Right away, miss!”

Gong Wuwei opened the door and entered the room. She was accompanied by another man. He was over 1.7 meters tall, and his appearance was perfectly average. His aura spoke a different story, however. He was just standing there, and yet he gave off a kind of coldness and fearsomeness that could only have been accrued through countless cold-blooded murder.

Something was off with him, however. His eyes were currently unfocused and blank like that of a puppet’s.

“Who is he?” Ye Qing asked. The unknown man was a Trueman.

“His name is Xing Ying. You may know him as the Baby Eater, one of the Three Demons of Yandang,” Feng Qingyou replied in an indifferent tone.

“The Three Demons of Yandang?!” Killing intent flashed in Ye Qing’s eyes. In fact, he had heard of this bastard. The Three Demons of Yandang were three bandits operating near Yandang Mountain of Mount Qi. They were sworn brothers who called themselves the Baby Eater, the Heart Digger, and the Head Slicer.

Their monikers should tell you all you needed to know about their character. The Baby Eater loved eating babies, the Heart Digger loved to dig out people’s hearts, and the Head Slicer loved to behead people for pleasure. All three of them were heartless monsters who blatantly committed the taboo without hesitation and deserved to be punished by everyone.

Unfortunately, the Three Demons of Yandang were all Truemen. Out of all of them, the Baby Eate was the strongest. They also spent most of their time hiding inside Mount Qi, which was why they were able to avoid their rightful retribution to this day.

Thankfully, it looked like Feng Qingyou had dealt with them. If the Baby Eater had fallen into Feng Qingyou’s hands, then surely the Heart Digger and the Head Slicer were dead.

“You’re a lucky bastard, Heartless Brain.”

Clearly, the Baby Eater was the host Feng Qingyou had prepared for the Heartless Brain. Although he lost the Half-Step Grandmaster Chen Ah Sheng, he got a Trueman Xin Ying in exchange. It was a win for him no matter how you looked at it.

“He’s yours.” Feng Qingyou waved her hand and removed the cork covering the bottle.

“What… what do you mean?” The Heartless Brain looked confused.

Since you’ve decided to join me, it’s only right that I offer you the appropriate support, right? His body is yours,” Feng Qingyou declared with a smile.

“But… why?”

It should be a no-brainer to accept this offer, but the Heartless Brain hesitated. He simply could not figure out what Feng Qingyou was planning. He subconsciously looked at Ye Qing for directions.

“Well, I guess we’ve teased you long enough. It’s like this.”

Ye Qing smiled and proceeded to tell the Heartless Brain all about his decision to cooperate with Feng Qingyou, the fact that he wanted him to remain in Mount Qi and continue assisting Xue Beikun and so on. “If you’re going to stay in Mount Qi, then you’re going to need a new body, and this is the body Qingyou has chosen for you. So, what are you waiting for? Thank her already, Brother Chen.”

“I see! Thank you, Miss Feng. I shall happily accept your gift, hahahaha…”

Now that he finally understood what was going on, the Heartless Brain guffawed before urging, “What are you waiting for, brother? Carry me over to his head already!”

Ye Qing chuckled and lifted the Heartless Brain into the air with a wisp of true qi. Then, he placed him on the back of Xin Ying’s head.

The Heartless Brain wriggle on the Trueman’s head for a bit before forcing his way inside. At the same time, Xin Ying’s brain was ejected out of his skull.

If Xin Ying was still conscious, then the Heartless Brain wouldn’t even be able to get close to him, much less control him. Somehow, Feng Qingyou had muddled his consciousness such that he never realized his approaching demise even until the moment the Heartless Brain ejected his brain out of his skull.

While the Heartless Brain was busy taking over Xin Ying, Ye Qing whispered to Feng Qingyou, “What did you do to him, Qingyou? I’ve never seen him this scared before.”

Feng Qingyou answered, “It’s nothing. A Heartless Brain likes crawling into a human’s head, right? So, I cast an illusion and gave him a taste of his own medicine.”

“That’s it?” Ye Qing did not believe her.

“Naturally. It’s just that I put him through the illusion a couple more times than he liked,” Feng Qingyou added.

“... And how many times is that, exactly?” Ye Qing seemed to realize something.

Feng Qingyou replied calmly, “About ten thousand times or so.”

“Yep. That would do it.”

“You the boss, Qingyou.”

“A couple more times than he liked”, she said. Calling it the understatement of the century would be understating it.

While they were talking, the Heartless Brain finally finished taking over Xin Ying and awakened back to reality.

“Hahaha… I, Chen Wuxin, am back!”

The Heartless Brain barked out in laughter while testing his limbs. Then, he walked up to Feng Qingyou and said gratefully, “Thank you for granting me a new lease of life, miss. I swear I will do everything in my power to repay the favor.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” Feng Qingyou nodded. “From now on, you will stay here and assist Wuwei in managing Mount Qi. I want you to make sure that Mount Qi is firmly in our grasp.”

“That said, you must act with caution. The two of you will need to work together and set up smokescreens that will convince others that Mount Qi is still in sixes and sevens. No one must know that Mount Qi has really gained a master.”

“As you command, miss,” Gong Wuwei answered with a salute.

“Chen Wuxin, you may communicate with Xue Beikun and arrange a couple of performances with him. But again, make sure you do not arouse the Qing Wu garrison’s suspicion.”

Feng Qingyou looked Chen Wuxin in the eye and said, “I will need you to rein in your impatience and eagerness for immediate results when you cooperate with Xue Beikun. Slow and steady wins the race. If Xue Beikun rises through the ranks too quickly, someone will suspect foul play, and he will fall into danger. That will be detrimental to all of us.”

……

After Chen Wuxin came back to “life”, Feng Qingyou began issuing one instruction after another. She meticulously went through each and every detail and provided instructions for all of them. What seemed like a complicated, tangled mess was slowly but surely being dissected into orderly, manageable pieces under Feng Qingyou’s arrangements.

Ye Qing did not know if he was just his imagination, but right now, Feng Qingyou was displaying a kind of charisma he had never seen before. If before, he had only seen the calm and collected, simple yet elegant side of her, now he was seeing the strong, domineering, and fiercely intelligent side of her. In either case, he was absolutely fascinated.

With that done, Ye Qing would remain in Mount Qi for two weeks and assist Feng Qingyou in cleaning up the strays that somehow escaped notice for one reason or another. Eventually, they were able to eliminate all the variables and take total control of Mount Qi.

After that, Ye Qing temporarily returned to Bei You to bid Li Longxiang and Wen Shu goodbye. Feng Qingyou remained behind at Mount Qi to oversee matters and make the necessary arrangements before their travel.

Ye Qing stayed at Bei You for half a month. One day before he took his leave, Yi Pin finally came back from his travels. The two would spend the whole day drinking to their heart’s content.

The next day early morning, Ye Qing left silently before Yi Pin or Li Longxiang woke up.

I came home, but you are nowhere to be seen.

I left home, just in time to miss you.

Nothing seemed different about the jar of wine we shared.

And yet years had already gone by.

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