Stranger Danger

Taoism believed in “Three Flowers Condensing onto the Head” and “Five Qi Gathering unto the Origin”. Such was the case for the “Records of Fortune and Merits” as well. There was a line in the martial arts manual: “When three golden lotuses bloom on thy head, a river of fortune shall lead thou to sagehood.” To put it in simpler terms, it meant that the practitioner who created three Golden Lotuses of Fortune and Merit would gain the qualifications to attain Dao and become a Sage.

That wasn’t all the Golden Lotuses of Fortune and Merit could do, however. Each lotus possessed the power to block a fatal hit exactly once. Since she had three lotuses, that meant that she had three extra lives. That was why Duanmu Longhua was still alive even though she received what should have been a fatal blow.

As for why she suddenly turned from a young girl to a middle-aged woman, that too was because of the Golden Lotus of Fortune and Merit.

Attaining the Dao and returning to one’s purest form was a process everyone must go through before they could become a Sage. Every time Duanmu Longhua created a Golden Lotus of Fortune and Merit, she would become thirty years younger. When all three Golden Lotuses of Fortune and Merit were fully formed, she would transform into an infant that was perfectly flawless and pure. Once she attained the Dao, she would be able to reforge her body using the fortune she had accumulated.

Before she ran into Ye Qing, Duanmu Longhua had created two and a half golden lotuses. In fact, she was literally one ritual away from perfecting her third and final golden lotus, which was why she looked like a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl before. Now, she had aged back to her thirties or forties since she had used up one of her golden lotuses to save her own life.

Creating even a single Golden Lotus of Fortune and Merit took an unbelievable amount of fortune. It had taken her decades of effort and careful planning to create just two and a half golden lotuses. It was worth it though. Had everything gone exactly as planned, this last batch of Divine Fate Pills would have completed her third and final golden lotus and pushed her to sagehood in one go.

Alas, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. A cruel twist of fate had caused her to fumble at the last step and even cost her a Golden Lotus of Fortune and Merit. She had been one step away from becoming a Sage, and now, she was practically back at the starting point. Why? Because it costs twice as much fortune to recreate a golden lotus after losing it. It was like she had lost two Golden Lotuses of Fortune and Merit in one go.

That wasn’t the only problem. It had taken her decades to create two and a half Golden Lotuses of Fortune and Merit, and it would take decades more to recreate the golden lotus she just lost. Forget how much work it would take, she might not live long enough to enjoy the fruits of her work. Youth did not equal natural lifespan after all.

What this meant was this one punch had more or less snapped her royal road in half. How could she not resent him? How could she not hate?

Ye Qing brushed a finger against his nose and broke into a sunny grin. “That’s… awesome. I thought I had wasted that attack, but now I know what it cost you, I feel so much better!”

Duanmu Longhua’s eyes turned blood red with volcanic fury. “I was going to grant you a somewhat comfortable death, boy, but I changed my mind. When I capture you, I’m going to wring out your fortune slowly and prolong your pain as much as possible. I’m going to refine your body into a puppet and annihilate all but one wisp of your true spirit. You will serve me as my slave for eternity, unable to live or die for the rest of your pathetic life! How do you like that, boy?”

“Sounds fantastic,” Ye Qing shrugged, “but that revenge dream will only come true if you can catch me.”

“Do you seriously think you can run?” Duanmu Longhua sneered.

“You won’t know until you try.”

Ye Qing bared his teeth and shot Duanmu Longhua a savage grin. “Plus, I just gave you a ‘pleasant surprise’, haven’t I? I think I have a couple more up my sleeves.”

With that said, Ye Qing kicked off the ground and charged toward Duanmu Longhua.

“I hope you will enjoy the pleasant surprise I’ve prepared for you as well,” Duanmu Longhua replied with a sneer.

The city lord took a step backward and suddenly vanished into a pool of darkness. At the same time, the darkness squirmed unnaturally before spitting out a roaring tiger. Pitch black in color, the tiger had three tails and one horn on top of its head. As soon as it appeared, it opened its mouth and swallowed Ye Qing in one gulp.

“Roar!”

After devouring Ye Qing, the black tiger let out a mighty roar and rolled on the ground. By the time it climbed to its feet again, it had transformed into a rotund man overflowing with death and violence.

The rotund man was named Tiger Master Gong, and he was one of the four Truemen under Goddess City. However, the jianghu people preferred to call him “Black Tiger Gong” because he loved nothing more than to consume human flesh and devour people alive.

Tiger Master Gong let out a burp and slapped his round belly. Every time he did this, thunder and roaring would break out from inside his stomach.

Unfortunately, the situation didn’t last even two seconds. Tiger Master Gong abruptly turned pale as a bulge suddenly appeared on his belly. It looked like someone was trying to push their way out of his belly.

Tiger Master Gong’s response was to surround his hands in black flames and slap his belly again. Every time he did this, black flames would pour into his stomach and shake his belly violently. The earth beneath his feet crumbled inch by inch, and powerful shockwaves washed out of his body again and again. One could vaguely see the silhouette of a black tiger roaring in the sky as well.

It was no use though. The bulge was still growing little by little.

“What are you waiting for, Nail Grandma? Help me already!” Tiger Master Gong yelled with an ugly expression.

Tiger Master Gong practiced a cultivation art called the Black Tiger Spirit Devouring Art. It created a pocket furnace inside his body that could consume all living things. Any flesh and blood creature unfortunate enough to fall into his stomach would be digested shortly and refined into the purest energies, nourishing both his body and spirit.

This wasn’t the first time he devoured a Trueman. Once, he fought an elusive opponent who was even stronger than him in terms of cultivation. However, once he managed to swallow that man, it was all over. It took him only moments to turn his opponent into a glob of blood and gore.

This guy was different though. He could not be boiled, broken, crushed, or melted. It was like he had just swallowed a chunk of metal, except even metal was more digestible than this guy.

“I’m coming. You don’t need to yell. Don’t you know that my feet are bad?”

An ancient voice answered Tiger Master Gong’s yell, and a woman stepped out of the darkness. The woman was pretty like the prized jewel of a small family, but strangely, everything below her waist including her legs were covered in wrinkles and livor mortis. The old, decaying flesh was covered in rusted iron nails as well.

The woman walked with a limp. Every time she took a step, smelly, bloody fluid would fly off the nails and hit the ground with a sickening plop. It was no wonder she complained that she had “bad legs”.

“Help me now, Nail Grandma!” Tiger Master Gong kept urging. He couldn’t help it since his belly was growing bigger by the second, but the damn woman was still moving at a snail’s pace.

“Yes, yes!”

Nail Grandma slowly bent down and ran her hands across her rotting legs for a bit. Then, she pulled out a pair of iron nails that were covered in pus and blood. Finally, she flicked both of them straight at Tiger Master Gong’s stomach.

The logical thing to do here was to dodge out of the way, but Tiger Master Gong stayed exactly where he was. Right before the iron nails would hit his belly, the pus on the nails suddenly glowed a dark light, and a rich energy of rot and decay spread out of it.

The next moment, the two iron nails disappeared into Tiger Master Gong’s belly button and dantian as if they were intangible. A muffled grunt came from within his belly, and the bulge disappeared all of a sudden.

“Hahaha! I’m cured!” Tiger Master Gong rubbed his belly and let out a boisterous laugh.

“Have you learned your lesson? If it wasn’t for my Soul Rotting Nail, you would be dead already, you glutton!” Nail Grandma chided him.

Tiger Master Gong let out a chuckle. “Come now, I couldn’t possibly know that the brat is so tenacious. But now that he’s inside my stomach, his fate is as good as sea—”

Suddenly, the blood drained away from his face. Before he could do anything, a hand shot out of his stomach with a disgusting squelch.

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