Stranger Danger

Chapter 99: Acrostic

Chapter 99: Acrostic

That was too close!

Ye Qing wasn’t just hurt, he was hurt pretty badly. Although he managed to avoid getting hit by the crescent of death—he would’ve died otherwise—it had come close enough to wound him with its force and destructive will. The reason he hadn’t allowed himself to show any sign of weakness until now was because of the assassin’s last words:

“Save me, junior brother!”

His last words were proof that the assassin hadn’t come alone. Considering how powerful he had been, his junior brother could not be too far behind. The only reason he managed to kill the assassin was because the Blood Shadow Divine Art just happened to counter his cultivation art perfectly. Another Vessel Augmentor, even a weaker one might have proven to be more than a match for him, not to mention that he was in no condition to fight a consecutive battle.

Had Ye Qing showed any weakness at all, he was certain that he would not live to see tomorrow’s sun. That was why he had pretended to be fine, no, more than fine. There was no telling if the assassin’s junior brother had watched the battle, but at the very least Ye Qing wanted him to think that he was almost or fully healthy after the battle. He wanted to sow so much doubt and uncertainty in the junior brother that he was disinclined to fight him.

Of course, his tactic only worked against smart people. If the junior brother turned out to be an idiot or a one-track minded person who couldn’t read a clue to save his life, then he was dead as a dodo. It was as simple as that.

Luckily, his acting skill was up to par, and his spirit was just strong enough that he noticed the junior brother spying on him from the darkness. That was why he did not slip up until the end and somehow lived to see another day.

“That was way too close! Thank god I’m a lucky man, and thanks for watching over me, dad [1]!” Ye Qing breathed an audible sigh of relief after he finally managed to stop his cough. “But who are these people? Why did they show up now to take the ‘Emperor Fuxi Visualization Method’?”

He could see why the assassin—or anyone for the matter—would want to steal the “Emperor Fuxi Visualization Method” for themselves. After all, it was an incredible visualization method that could increase one’s mental strength and fortitude. However, Zheng Feng had owned it for years without ever finding a murderous Astral Refiner standing in his backyard, while he had barely owned it for a week or two before trouble found its way to its doorsteps. Was he mistaken about his luck, or was Zheng Feng just that lucky?

In the end, Ye Qing could only comfort himself by thinking, it must be because I’m too handsome and talented. Even the heavens deem that I must face a tribulation or two to balance out the scales.

Ye Qing went into the room, assumed a meditative pose and closed his eyes. He then channeled the “Blood Shadow Divine Art” with all he got. His heart beat loudly like drums, and he could hear his blood rushing like a river in his ears. Soon, he emanated a red light and turned boiling hot like the sun. The entire room was dyed in red for a long time.

Over four hours later, when the horizon started to turn white like the belly of a fish, Ye Qing suddenly opened his eyes and exhaled a mouthful of murky qi. Lightning suddenly crept across the furniture, and the room was filled with a terrifying, murderous aura in an instant.

Buzz—

The entire room shook as the unusual aura swam restlessly throughout the space. Invisible blade energies instantly diced the table, the chairs, the cups and every item in the room into fine powder. It was terrifying to say the least.

Ye Qing reached out and pulled seemingly all the air in the room into his palm. Then, he clenched his hand until there was a devastating pop and a terrific gale. A long time later, the wind finally subsided together with the murderous aura and the blade energies.

“Phew! It’s done!” what he spat out of his mouth just now was of course, the blade force that had invaded his body. Technically speaking, his internal injuries weren’t that severe. The problem was that the blade energies would not stop attacking his insides until he had expelled it from his body. Without it, it only took him seconds to return back to full health.

On a related note, he had fully refined the blood he absorbed from Qing Kui as well. As expected of an Astral Refiner, his vigor was extremely powerful. It wasn’t just enough to heal up his injuries, it had pushed his physique to a whole new level as well. Right now, not even three Qing Kuis combined had more vigor than him. With high HP and high defense, he was what the netizens would call a tank [2].

“Now that I’m back to peak form, I should check out that bronze mask.” Ye Qing recalled the bronze mask he picked up last night and retrieved it from his Nature’s Shell. He then examined its appearance for a bit. The bronze mask was rusty and covered in blackened bloodstains. It also oozed an air of antiquity and hardship. Besides that, it didn’t look any different from an ordinary mask.

“It doesn’t look like much. I should ask the Annon Sutra about it.” When in doubt, ask the Annon Sutra!

So, he took out his vellum and fed it his blood as usual. “What kind of Strange Artifact is this bronze mask?”

A short while later, the Annon Sutra glowed darkly and manifested its answer:

“The Bronze Tiger Head is a Malice-class Strange Artifact and a mask belonging to Wei Rou, a great general from the previous dynasty. Wei Rou was already quite famous at a young age because he was a master of all things military, but he had the unfortunate luck of being born with a woman’s face. Too pretty to intimidate an enemy or ally, he eventually decided to wear a tiger mask every time he entered the battlefield. It quickly proved a simply but brilliant solution to his problem.”

“However, because the tiger mask was exposed to the battlefield for too long, it eventually became tainted with bloodthirst, violence and vengeful spirits who had died on the battlefield. On the one hand, it gained special abilities and transformed into a Strange Artifact. On the other hand, Wei Rou’s personality was slowly warped by the tiger mask until he finally transformed into a vicious, bloodthirsty and murderous beast who only knew murder. After he lost a battle and was caught by the enemy, he was executed by chariot-splitting. [3]”

“Wei Rou was unresigned to his fate, however. Such was his grudge that a fragment of his soul became attached to the mask. As a result, the tiger mask became even stranger than before.”

“The wearer of the Bronze Tiger Head can soak the mask in blood to summon Wei Rou’s soul fragment into existence. The violence and bloodthirst of the myriad battlefields he had fought and the power of hundreds of heroic souls would come together to grant the wearer immense power.”

“In exchange, the wearer must withstand the Bronze Tiger Head’s unrelenting corruption. If their mind and spirit proved insufficient to fend off the mask’s thirst for violence and blood, they would eventually succumb to the same fate as Wei Rou and transform into a mindless beast.”

“Besides that, the bearer of the Bronze Tiger Head may be harassed by Wei Rou’s soul fragment from time to time.”

When the Annon Sutra was finally done explaining the Bronze Tiger Head, Ye Qing exclaimed in amazement, “A Malice-class Strange Artifact! No wonder it’s so powerful!”

As someone who had barely survived its attack, he could personally attest to its strength. Unfortunately, its side effects were just as dangerous. Judging from the aura he felt last night, he wouldn’t be surprised if a weak-willed person activated it and immediately lost their minds the second after.

“It’s a crying shame that the side effects are so terrible. I can only use it as a trump card!” Ye Qing sighed. Frankly, it was lousier than the Blue Demon Hand and Lightning Bolt in terms of practicality.

“What did it mean that ‘the bearer of the Bronze Tiger Head may be harassed by Wei Rou’s soul fragment from time to time though’? Like, is the guy going to appear randomly and stalk me like a ghost, or is he going to haunt my dreams or something?”

Unfortunately the Annon Sutra did not give him a straight answer, so he could only wait and see what happens next. He consoled himself, “It should be fine. We’re both men, and the Annon Sutra said he’s only going to ‘harass’ me, not ‘attack’ or ‘kill’ me, so who cares?”

With that done, Ye Qing decided to look into Astral Refinement stage cultivation art next. Now that he was a bonafide late-stage Vessel Augmentor, one could say that he had reached the absolute ceiling of the Vessel Augmentation stage. The only way he could progress further was to enter the Astral Refinement stage, and to do that he would have to refine astral qi. He didn’t actually know if that was the case, but a Reforged needed to invoke qi to enter the Qi Invocation stage, and a Qi Invoker needed to augment their blood vessels to enter the Vessel Augmentation stage. Going by that logic, it made perfect sense that a Vessel Augmentor would need to refine astral qi to enter the Astral Refinement stage.

Just like last time, he planned to consult the Annon Sutra to determine the best Astral Refinement stage cultivation art for him and where he could get it. If the cultivation art turned out to be out of reach, then he would seek out Ling Jianqiu and request a suitable Astral Refinement stage cultivation art as a reward. Considering his contributions to the county, he was sure the Chief of Bureau wouldn’t reject him.

However, he would prefer not to do this because the exchange would most likely bind him to the ship that was the Pacification Bureau. Sure, it was one of the biggest, stablest, and safest ships in the realm, but he would have to surrender his independence and freedom as the price. Independence was the only reason his secrets were still under wraps. He seriously didn’t want to join the Pacification Bureau unless he had no other choice.

Without further ado, he cut open his finger again and asked, “Where can I find an Astral Refinement stage cultivation art that suits me best?”

This time, it took half a teatime before the Annon Sutra was finally satisfied. Then, it manifested these words:

“Redstone grasps for the heavens like swords

Forest awash, a world forever transformed

Books are tasty, yums an early worm until a

Sprite kicks it over for knowledge lost.”

“I-Is this a poem? Why did you suddenly change your style, brother?” Ye Qing blurted. It wasn’t a bad poem, but it was a massive departure from its usual first-person perspective, suspenseful and thriller-style response. In fact, it was so unexpected that Ye Qing didn’t even know what to make of it.

“I guess I’m supposed to decipher its meaning or something?” Ye Qing muttered before pouring through the poem a second time. It was, on the surface, a very simple poem. The first two lines described scenery, whereas the last two lines seemed to imply a moral lesson. It was very easy to understand since it was written vernacularly. There was just one problem.

What the fuck does this have to do with my question? This… this isn’t a scam, is it?

That seemed unlikely since the Annon Sutra had never failed him before, so Ye Qing crossed his arms and racked his brain once more. Unfortunately, the answer still eluded him like a mirage.

Bro! I seriously don’t get what you’re saying! Can you go back to your previous style, please?

Ye Qing felt like crying. He hadn’t transmigrated to another world to learn how to decipher a poem, dammit!

“Redstone reaches toward the sky like a sword, forest leaves wobble atop meandering… wait a second. Redstone… Forest? Is that how it is?”

Ye Qing was reciting the poem for the umpteenth time when suddenly, it hit him. Was this an acrostic? The first word of the first line of the poem was “Redstone”, whereas the first word of the second line was “Forest”. Together, they made the word “Redstone Forest”!

Besides that, the description seemed to match what he had seen the first time he traveled to Redstone Forest. The stone forest did look like swords pointing toward the sky, and it was forever changed after the Heptachromatic Fog of Aging had washed over a good portion of it.

“Yes! It has to be referring to the Redstone Forest!” Ye Qing slapped his thigh in excitement.

“What about the last two lines? ‘Books’ and ‘Sprite’… Book Sprite? Is it referring to Wawa?”

Although he didn’t know how Wawa could help him find the Astral Refinement stage cultivation art he was looking for, the Annon Sutra never gave him a useless answer. Even if he was wrong, there was no harm in bringing Wawa on one of his adventures.

“There is no better time to start than now, so let’s go!”

……

It was morning by the time he returned to Endless Horizons. Wawa was playing with Kung Fu Frog as usual. He called out to her with a beaming smile on his face, “Can I ask your help with something, Wawa?”

Wawa patted her tiny chest and declared, “Wawa loves helping people. How can I help you, friend?”

Ye Qing replied, “I’d like to head out to Redstone Forest and search for something. Would you like to help me with it?”

“Redstone Forest? Are we going out to play, friend?”

Wawa looked so excited she bounced up and down on his shoulders. She had automatically translated what was most likely going to be a boring search in the middle of nowhere into an fun adventure. “Of course I’ll come with you! Wawa loves to go out and play! You’re a good friend, friend!”

As long as she’s happy, I suppose!

Ye Qing went up and stored Wawa’s true body in his Nature’s Shell. He then left Endless Horizons with Wawa, Kung Fu Frog, and Faceless in tow. Although Wawa was the only one the Annon Sutra had asked him to bring, it didn’t say that it couldn’t bring additional help with him. If his previous experience was anything to go by, it was practically guaranteed that they would definitely encounter some sort of unpredictable danger. They were safer as a team of four than a team of two.

Ye Qing had just left the gates when he ran into a couple of familiar faces. “Sister Yun! Hu Nu! What brings you to the gates?”

“Warrior Ye!”

Yun Yan was accompanied by Hu Nu and dozens of Sentinels, and they all greeted him warmly and with deep respect. Everyone here had witnessed his prowess last night and knew just how strong he was. Not only had he killed plenty of powerful Strangers, he was the one who interrupted the summoning ritual and ultimately prevented the Nether Lord from descending upon Anyang. He was, by all means, the savior of Anyang, so how could not treat him with respect?

“Are you heading out as well, Joyless?” Yun Yan looked surprised to see Ye Qing at the gates as well.

Ye Qing gave her the excuse he had prepared earlier, “Yeah! There’s something I need to do. What about you guys? Where are you going?”

Ye Qing was puzzled because the Sentinel squad accompanying Yun Yan was armed to the teeth. It looked like they were out on an expedition, but that didn’t seem right because nearly all of the Strangers around Anyang had perished in that battle.

A Sentinel answered his question, “Something strange has happened at Redstone Forest, and we’re heading over to investigate it.”

“Redstone Forest?” Ye Qing blinked. Was it a coincidence? He didn’t think so!

1. chapter 69, when he calls himself the heavens’ favored son and the heavens his dad ?

2. gaming slang ?

3. execution method used in ancient China that involved tying horses or chariots to the condemned's four limbs and neck and then violently pulling them apart by having the horses set off in different directions. ?