Stranger Danger

“Why are you sitting on the floor, darling?”

After Young Snow had regained her youth, she noticed her man sitting on the floor and cried out in concern.

“You’re the one who pushed me, remember?” The man rolled her eyes at her.

“Oh, right! I’m sorry, I panicked just now. I promise I won’t do it again,” Young Snow apologized.

“It’s okay,” The man replied cordially, knowing better to push his luck. He rose to his feet and asked again, “So, what happened just now?”

“I think someone saw through my Snowy Soul Mirror and dispelled my Snowy Soul Imprint remotely,” Young Snow answered.

The Snowy Soul Mirror was the mirror on the table. It was a Phenomenon-class Strange Artifact created from the head and soul of a Snowy Mirror Demon. That was why it was named the Snowy Soul Mirror.

A Snowy Mirror Demon possessed a humanoid body and a mirror for a head. It also had a pair of flight-capable wings. Not only could it spy on a victim using its mirror head from hundreds of hundreds of kilometers away, it could mark them with an imprint for tracking purposes.

As the Snowy Soul Mirror was forged from a Snowy Mirror Demon’s mirror head and soul, it too inherited the Snowy Mirror Demon’s power. It could also spy on someone from hundreds of kilometers away, and leave behind an imprint that allowed it to track a target even from thousands of kilometers away.

The snowflakes dancing around the mirror earlier were none other than the Snowy Soul Imprints. Anyone who was marked by it could be tracked down using the Snowy Soul Mirror even if they were thousands and thousands of kilometers away.

As the guardians of the gate, their duty was to observe each and every person who entered the city and mark them with a Snowy Soul Imprint. This allowed them to detect and suppress any troublemaker at first notice. It also allowed them to manage Goddess City better and ensure the smooth running of the Goddess Festival.

“How can this be? The Snowy Soul Imprint is nigh imperceptible. How can anyone discover its existence?” The man exclaimed in surprise.

The Snowy Soul Imprint was invisible, intangible, and nigh impossible to detect for the average warrior. The fact was that they had pulled this trick every Goddess Festival, and no one had ever noticed their actions—until now.

“They’re probably a Trueman,” Young Snow replied. While the Snowy Soul Imprint was normally imperceptible, that only applied to warriors beneath the Trueman or Grandmaster stage. A Trueman or Grandmaster had created their yang god and become one with the world around them. Therefore, their consciousness and spirit were far sharper than your average warrior. It made sense that they would be able to detect the Snowy Soul Imprint.

“Trueman?” The man shuffled uneasily. “A Trueman came to our city? Who is it?”

“I don’t know.” Young Snow shook her head.

“In that case, what should we do?” the man asked.

Young Snow thought for a moment before answering, “This is for the higher-ups to decide, not us.”

As she said this, Young Snow reached into her own stomach. Ripples appeared around her stomach area as her hand slipped right in like her flesh was water. A second later, she pulled out a flawless mirror from her stomach. It was none other than the Snowy Soul Mirror, and it looked as good as new.

The second the Snowy Soul Mirror left her body, Young Snow suddenly began aging rapidly. In just the blink of an eye, she had transformed back to her old, wizened self—actually, no, she looked a tad older than she was before.

“Stay here and protect the mirror. I’m going to report this to the city lord myself,” Young Snow declared.

“Got it.” the man nodded in acknowledgement.

Young Snow rose to her feet and left through the exit. She was gone in no time.

……

“Brother Leng, you should be pretty familiar with Goddess City, right? Do you know any good restaurants around the area? I can use a warm, fulfilling meal after the past couple days.”

Inside the city, Ye Qing was picking Leng Tianjue’s brain like nothing was amiss. It was almost as if he had already put the earlier transgression out of his mind—which he had. He knew that someone was spying on him from the very beginning, but he paid it no heed, at least at the beginning. It was a guardsman’s job to keep a close eye on those who ventured into their master’s territory after all.

However, they crossed the line when they tried to plant an imprint in him. That was why he decided to teach them a lesson and broke the imprint.

There was a chance his retaliation would be viewed as some form of provocation by Goddess City, but honestly, Ye Qing wasn’t worried in the slightest. His retaliation was extremely subtle, and the demonic thought was nigh imperceptible. Forget a pair of Spirit Masters, not even the average Trueman would be able to detect its origin. Therefore, there was no way they could identify him.

Assuming he was wrong, and someone in Goddess City was somehow able to identify him. What were the chances that the higher-ups of Goddess City would risk offending a Grandmaster over two underlings, and on the eve of their important festival no less? As if that wasn’t enough, he hadn’t come alone. It was obvious what the correct choice to make was.

Finally, on the off chance that the city lord of Goddess City did have a screw loose in his head, he still believed in his and Qingyou’s strength. With their powers combined, he did not believe that there was anyone or anything in Goddess City who could stop them from escaping.

That was why he had long since put the encounter out of his mind.

On a related note, Leng Tianjue and his companions had no idea about the exchange as a matter of course.

Fei Fei pouted and interrupted, “Tsk… there’s nothing good out in the outer city. The inner city is where the real luxury lies. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to get in until the festival starts.”

“Outer city? Inner city? What’s the difference?” Ye Qing asked curiously.

“It’s like this, warrior Ye. Goddess City is split into the outer city and the inner city. The outer city is where the ordinary civilians, traveling merchants, wandering warriors and more reside, and where the inns, markets, and other service and entertainment facilities are located. The inner city is what the people call the Goddess Palace, and it is where the city lord, the elders, the guests of honor and the disciples reside. It is the heart of Goddess City, and it is also where the three wall paintings that form the foundation of the city are stored.”

Cang Qingmei explained, “It should be obvious, but the inner city commands a higher status over the outer city. Normally, no one from the outer city is allowed to enter the inner city, and those from the inner city wield the power to kill anyone from the outer city as they pleased.”

“Finally, the inner city is open to the public only during the Goddess Festival.”

“I see.” Ye Qing nodded. To put it simply, it was the difference between the outer sect and the inner sect. In fact, Goddess City was a sect, so it was perfectly normal for them to have an arrangement like this. “In any case, I’m not going to wait until the Goddess Festival begins before I have my lunch, so Brother Leng…?”

“No worries. I happen to know an excellent restaurant just around the area,” Leng Tianjue answered. “Follow me.”

On the way to their destination, Ye Qing noticed that Feng Qingyou was observing the surrounding passersby with occasional frowns and looks of puzzlement. A short while later, he could not hold back his curiosity any longer and asked, “What are you looking at, Qingyou?”

Feng Qingyou replied in a voice that only he could hear, “Something’s not right about the people of this place!”

“Hmm? What do you mean?” Ye Qing asked. He himself couldn’t see anything wrong with the people around him.

“Everyone I’ve observed so far has abysmal fortune,” Feng Qingyou answered.

“Abysmal fortune?” Ye Qing glanced at her in surprise. “You mean they’re very unlucky?”

“You can say that.” Feng Qingyou nodded affirmatively. “I know a qi observing art that allows me to view the forces of mountains and rivers, discern the fate of a nation, and identify the qi[1] or any man or woman.”

“Generally speaking, the fortune of a human being can be separated into five levels: yellow, purple, red, white and black. Yellow and purple are the best of all the colors. Strong in destiny and favored by the world itself, people with yellow or purple fortune would find their life’s journey smooth-sailing no matter what they do. They are usually superior to most people in terms of power and status as well.”

“People with red fortunes are pretty blessed as well. They are usually born with excellent talent, and they are lucky in the sense that any hardships or dangers they encounter in life would usually turn out alright in the end. Generally speaking, they would lead a long and peaceful life and live for around a hundred years old.”

“People with white fortune have average fortune. It is the type of fortune most people share. For them, fortune and misfortune, happiness and sorrow, life and death go hand in hand.”

“Finally, people with black fortune are born under an evil star so to speak. Their lives are filled with misfortune, constant disasters, and horrendous luck, and most of them would not meet a good end or die of natural causes.”

“All things are everchanging. Be it the forces of the mountains and rivers, the fate of a nation, or the qi of a human being, nothing is set in stone. However, everyone I’ve seen in Goddess City so far have black or grayish fortune. To make a metaphor, they are choking with misfortune and drowning in omens of death. You can see why I find this strange.”

“That isn’t all. Looking at their fortune alone, these people should be suffering all sorts of misfortunes and tragedies. If they were born ill, they would have died young and painful, and even if they weren’t, they would have encountered all sorts of disasters and perished as a result. And yet, not only are they still alive, you can tell that they are doing quite well.”

1. Qi is considered a component of one’s fortune. In fact, vigor is qi+blood, fate/destiny is qi+luck, so on and so forth. It’s just that my translation obfuscates that to a certain extent because I believe that it’s only going to confuse people for no good reason. ☜

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