Stranger Danger

“What just happened?”

“Why is my name on the memorial tablet?”

“Mine too!”

Not everyone in the village had entered the memorial hall, and some of them had just arrived at the village center. It was at this moment someone’s head suddenly popped like an overripe watermelon for seemingly no reason whatsoever. On top of that, their names had suddenly appeared on the memorial tablets jutting out of the big man’s body. Everyone here was a veteran with decades of experience under their belt, but they still chilled to their very core.

The unknown was always scary after all.

“Motherfucker, the hell is going on here? That’s it, I’m leaving!”

“Yeah. There’s no reason to stay here while danger is aloof!”

Those with good instincts did not hesitate to leave the village center immediately. There was no need to risk whatever danger was lurking in this place after all. Unfortunately, as soon as they turned around, an invisible silhouette holding a memorial tablet immediately appeared behind their backs. Their personal memorial tablet.

Worse still, not one person seemed to notice the invisible silhouette or the memorial tablet at all.

“It’s too late,” Ye Qing replied slowly.

“What do you mean, warrior Ye?” Shangguan Hongjin frowned deeply.

Before Ye Qing could reply, the warriors who tried to leave lost their heads and grew a memorial tablet on their neck just like the one from before.

“What in the…”

The blood drained away from Pedant Earth’s face as his eyes widened like saucers.

Shangguan Hongjin had also raised her eyebrows. Her expression was calm, but her shaking fingers proved that she wasn’t nearly as calm as she pretended to be.

It was at this moment Shangguan Hongjin realized something and looked at Ye Qing with suspicion. “How did you know they wouldn’t be able to escape? Did you know something? Or was this your doing?”

“It would be nice if I’m strong enough to pop multiple Spirit Masters’ heads with a single thought, but no. Of course it wasn’t me.”

Ye Qing did not lose his cool despite her accusation. He explained patiently, “It was them.”

“Them? Who’s them? I’m not in the mood for riddles, young man!” Pedant Earth shivered.

“Looks like you really can’t see them. The memorial hall is overflowing with people. Lots and lots of people!” Ye Qing answered while staring in the direction of the memorial hall.

Even as Pedant Earth and Shangguan Hongjin were trying to make sense of Ye Qing’s words, they noticed that Ye Qing’s gaze was slowly shifting in Shangguan Hongjin’s direction. It was as if he was staring at something that was slowly but surely walking toward the woman.

In fact, that was the truth. From Ye Qing’s perspective, he saw a silhouette carrying Shangguan Hongjin’s memorial tablet and slowly walking toward the woman. But from Pedant Earth and Shangguan Hongjin’s perspective, they could only see Ye Qing staring at nothing in particular while slowly turning his head toward her. It was weird, absurd, and terrifying to say the least.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you, Miss Shangguan, but one of them is walking toward you.” Ye Qing warned as he narrowed his eyes a little.

“Do you know how much you look like a charlatan right now?”

Shangguan Hongjin scoffed, but her eyes abruptly sharpened as if she sensed something. She did not hesitate to unsheathe her saber an inch with her thumb and envelop the area in front of her in powerful saber intent.

Her saber intent caught the silhouette by surprise, and it was deadly enough that even Ye Qing felt chilled to the bone. However, the silhouette continued to walk toward Shangguan Hongjin as if it couldn’t feel the attack at all.

“Is it unkillable?”

Ye Qing raised an eyebrow. Then, he raised his palm and made a cutting motion at the silhouette.

Red lotuses descended from the sky, and the storm of saber intent was cut into two.

The silhouette was no exception.

“Ahhhh!”

The silhouette let out a bloodcurdling scream, the Red Lotus Hellfire burning it into nothing instantly.

Shangguan Hongjin and Pedant Earth still couldn’t see the silhouette, but they could hear its shrill, painful, and hateful death throes. This time, they knew for certain that Ye Qing wasn’t toying with them.

“There’s really something?!” Shangguan Hongjin looked very confused. “But why can you see them and not us?”

“Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer for you.” Ye Qing shrugged.

He was telling the truth. He had no idea why he could see the silhouettes while everyone else couldn’t. He also didn’t know why he seemed to be the only one who could hurt them.

Suddenly, Ye Qing glanced at the memorial hall with narrowed eyes. Maybe it was because he had killed the silhouette, but every single silhouette in the memorial hall was now looking at him with hate and vengeance. A second later, the silhouettes swarmed the big man and wrote Ye Qing’s name, birth date and death date on the memorial tablets.

Even as they were busy writing Ye Qing’s details, the silhouettes continued to stare at him unblinkingly. Some silhouettes’ heads were twisted a hundred and eighty degrees to the back, some of their necks were stretched all the way up to the roof, some heads were squeezed so tightly that they were almost deformed… In any case, it was not a pretty sight.

“Ye… Ye Qing? Is that your name, warrior?”

Pedant Earth and Shangguan Hongjin couldn’t see the silhouettes. What they could see was that every memorial tablet was weeping blood and forming words on its surface. Ye Qing’s details to be exact. It was a terrifying and anomalous sight.

The memorial tablets slowly disappeared after the writing was complete, leaving behind the big man who was somehow still spasming and screaming despite being dead.

That was all Pedant Earth and Shangguan Hongjin could see, but Ye Qing could see a lot more. He saw the silhouettes ripping out the memorial tablets from the big man’s body before falling into an organized formation. Then, they began walking toward him with uniform footsteps.

Pedant Earth and Shangguan Hongjin shivered involuntarily despite not being able to see a thing. They felt as if they had suddenly plunged into a lake of ice.

“Are those things coming toward us?!”

Veins appeared on Shangguan Hongjin’s hands as she crouched down a little. Deadly saber intent surrounded her even though she hadn’t unsheathed her sabers yet.

“That’s right.”

Ye Qing did not wait. He immediately executed the “Hellfire Red Lotus Saber Art” and summoned a hail of red lotuses.

The “Hellfire Red Lotus Saber Art” was a purifying art that worked best against sinful souls, and the silhouettes before him were the perfect prey. They instantly disintegrated into ash without any resistance.

However, more silhouettes carrying memorial tablets immediately exited the memorial hall and strode toward him with uniform footsteps.

Once again, Ye Qing executed the “Hellfire Red Lotus Saber Art” and annihilated them all. This time though, he was frowning a little. He wondered if it was his imagination, but the second wave felt a little harder to kill than the first one.

His enemy gave him no time to think. A third wave emerged, and Ye Qing was forced to fight again.

It didn’t take long for Ye Qing to realize that he was in a predicament. No matter how many silhouettes he killed, they just kept pouring out of the memorial hall in increasing numbers. As if that wasn’t bad enough, it turned out that his previous feeling wasn’t an imagination at all. The silhouettes really were growing stronger and stronger. At first, he was able to kill them as easily as a cook cutting some vegetables on the cooking tray. Now, it actually took effort to achieve the same outcome.

“What the hell are these things? How annoying!”

Ye Qing’s eyebrows were locked together in a deep frown. Already, he was planning to make a run for it.

Assuming that these silhouettes kept growing in strength and numbers, it was only a matter of time before they overwhelmed him. In that case, running away was clearly the superior option.

Shangguan Hongjin and Pedant Earth couldn’t see anything, so they couldn’t lend him a hand. They could only get out of the way and watch helplessly as Ye Qing fought against thin air.

“What do we do, Miss Shangguan? Should we help him?” Pedant Earth asked.

“And how do you propose we help, exactly? We can’t even see the damn things!” Shangguan Hongjin scoffed at the stupid question.

Ye Qing had helped her once at the paddy field, and she told him that she owed him her life and would repay the favor one day. Unlike most warriors, she meant every word she said. The idea of escaping alone had never crossed her mind, and she was currently racking her brain for a way to help Ye Qing.

Unfortunately, she was unable to do anything even though the enemy was right in front of her. She also knew that attacking blindly would only worsen Ye Qing’s situation. This feeling of helplessness was despicable to say the least.