Stranger Danger

“... A memorial hall?”

Ye Qing had finally arrived at the village center when something caught his attention.

It was a building that was preserved better than most of the houses in the village. Built out of dark red stones, it was big, tall, and rugged in appearance. A broken, cobweb-covered board hung on top of its dilapidated door. He could barely see the word “Hall” inscribed on it. That was how he came to the conclusion that the building was a memorial hall.

The door to the memorial hall was half-open[1]. When he peered through the gap, he could see collapsed offering tables, memorial tablets that were scattered all over the place, and thick, thick layers of dust.

His demonic thought told him that nothing was wrong with the memorial hall, and yet his heart was heavy with unease and an odd feeling he couldn’t describe.

What is it? Why am I so uneasy?

Ye Qing was still trying to identify the source of his discomfort when a cool breeze blew, and the sound of a bell ringing appeared from above. It sounded both melodious and solemn.

Ye Qing looked up and found that the ringing was coming from a pair of bronze bells hanging on a corner of the memorial hall. Not only that, it was emitting invisible ripples that contained invisible silhouettes that looked like birds. Their wonderful flight and melodious chirps matched the bell ringing perfectly and formed a musical piece that was both soothing to hear and beautiful to watch.

“Huh… I can’t believe I almost overlooked it.”

Ye Qing was surprised. He had, in fact, noticed the bronze bells earlier. However, they were dirty, covered in rust, and seemed perfectly ordinary to his demonic thought. That was why he had glossed over it.

It wasn’t until the bronze bells revealed its own power that he realized that it was a Strange Artifact. From the looks of it, it was quite the amazing Strange Artifact too.

Ye Qing did not hesitate. He leaped into the air and grabbed the pair of bronze bells.

Right before he was about to land, a streak of something black suddenly appeared behind him and attacked the back of his head.

The strange object looked like human hair, and it moved soundlessly yet swiftly through the air. An instant later, it skewered Ye Qing without any resistance whatsoever.

“Hehe. Can’t believe someone could be this unguarded in a dangerous place like this. What a fool…”

On a rooftop not far away from the memorial hall, a thin, small man was lying on the tiles and toying with a clump of hair. The black object that was about to skewer Ye Qing was, in fact, his hair.

The man had a head of long, black hair that any woman would’ve envied. It was black like tar, long like a waterfall, and soft and smooth like silk. The way it surrounded the man made it look like he was floating on a dark, bottomless lake.

It was at this moment the man’s laughter abruptly cut short. It was because he saw the young man he just skewered fading away into nothing like a mirage.

Clearly, his assassination attempt had failed.The person he skewered was just an illusion.

The next moment, the man flinched and turned pale. His black hair abruptly rolled toward the back and spread out as if a powerful wind was lifting them into the air.

As the hair floated, they turned harder than steel and sharper than a needle. Then, it stabbed out in every direction like a porcupine shooting its quills.

However, the man grew even paler. It was because he had suddenly lost sensation of a portion of his hair; the ones directly behind him to be exact. It was as if they had sunk into some sort of unknown space and become completely cut off from him.

At the same time, a terrible aura crashed toward him from above.

With a thought, the man turned his hair back to normal and withdrew them. They immediately wrapped around him and formed some kind of black, impenetrable cocoon.

Finally, the young man’s fist struck the cocoon. The fist had cut through the air without a sound, but when contact was finally made, it was like a thunderclap had erupted through the sky. One part of the cocoon abruptly caved inward, and every strand of black hair abruptly grew as taut as a qin’s string. An invisible shockwave washed out and toppled all nearby buildings.

Bang bang bang…

Strand by strand, the black hair began snapping in two as if they could not bear the weight of the young man’s fist. It wasn’t like the hair was weak either. The severed strands of hair had cut through the air and sliced the roof tiles as easily as tofu.

A muffled groan broke out from the cocoon of black hair as it fell toward the ground alongside the tiles and bricks.

The man wasn’t done, however. His hair quickly formed a series of intricate webs in front of him, and any debris that fell on it were sliced clean through like paper.

Clearly, the hair was sharp enough to cut rock like it was mud, much less a flesh and blood body. If his attacker dared to jump down the rooftop to end his life, then his hair would carve him into many tiny cubes for sure

“Interesting…”

Standing on the rooftop, Ye Qing withdrew his fist and stared at the webs of hair with a smirk on his face.

Not only was his ambusher a late-stage Spirit Master, his hair was stronger than your conventional Phenomenon-class Strange Artifact. When it was hard, it was tough enough to cut through metal and jade like mud. It could even pierce astral qi. When it was soft, it resembled spider silk in the sense that it was incredibly tenacious. It was impervious to water or fire, and even the sharpest blades would find it difficult to find purchase on it.

Of course, as deadly and tenacious as the hair was, it wasn’t strong enough to hurt his body. That said, it didn’t mean Ye Qing was going to jump right into the trap his opponent had laid for him though. He had no wish to waste his energy unnecessarily.

Instead, Ye Qing raised his foot about half an inch and brought it down, triggering a mighty crash that felt like an earthquake that shook the nine heavens.

Boom!

The entire structure began crashing down on the man. It was one thing if it was just a normal building collapse, but this one was powered by Ye Qing’s force. He let out a strange cry and just barely escaped the debris before it could crush him like a pancake.

“A misunderstanding! It’s just a misunderstanding, friend!”

After the man ran out of the building, his hair joined together to form countless limbs. Like a spider, he began crawling away from the village center at high speed, covering sixty meters in just the blink of an eye.

“Is that so? Remember that it’s just a misunderstanding when I stand over your dead body later!”

Ye Qing chuckled as he chased after the man. The reason he was so relentless was because one, the bastard had tried to kill him, and two, the man wasn’t the only person in the area. He could also sense several beams of malice directed at him. Killing the man would teach these people not to fuck with him.

He had just taken a few steps when suddenly, his yin god hurt like someone had just cut it with a blade. Ye Qing lifted an eyebrow and expanded his demonic thought, he realized that the man had left behind a trail of invisible hair as he ran. Like a spider’s web, they encompassed the whole area and completely walled off the area.

This was what had cut his Yin God earlier. These invisible, formless strands of hair somehow possessed the power to cut one’s mind and spirit.

“Fool! You think I, Thousand Feet Inferior[2], would be afraid of you? Hahaha!”

The man also stopped in his tracks when he noticed that Ye Qing had skidded to a stop. He turned around and glared at Ye Qing with scorn and bloodthirst. As he spoke, the crisscrossing webs of hair rushed toward his enemy like a giant net.

The formless hair strands were his Yin God and his Magia. By combining his spirit and his Yin God, he could form a massive web of formless, invisible hair. Any enemy who fell into it would have nowhere to run or escape just like an insect who had become caught in a spider’s web. Their fate was to become his food.

His Magia even had a very poetic name: “Ten Thousand Feet[3] of White Hair”.

My white hair spans farther than the horizon,

For my sorrow is that deep and strong.

I wonder, when I look into the world,

Where does my misery come from?[4]

1. Or was it half-closed? Discuss. ☜

2. 散人, which stands in contrast to Superior (上人) ☜

3. Chinese feet, mind you. ☜

4. A Li Bai poem with some author tweaks during the last two lines, and my decision not to translate the first line literally has “The white hair spans ten thousand meters.” In my opinion, the word “meter” just ruins the poem feeling.” ☜