Stranger Danger

Chapter 742: The Oriole Behind

Motherfucker! Ye Qing swore inside his head. The strange man hadn’t just stolen his Magia Fruit, he was obviously trying to kill him through the Magia Tree as well.

Although the Magia Tree allowed anyone and everyone to pluck its Magia Fruits, they were deathly afraid of getting hurt. Anyone who attacked it or hurt it would earn its eternal ire, and it would not stop until it had slain its attacker.

That was what the strange man had done. He had redirected his attack onto the Magia Tree so that the Stranger would do his dirty work for him.

If the Magia Tree’s trials were just a breeze, then the assault Ye Qing was currently weathering was a storm.

Ye Qing was defending himself using the “Impetus of Tai Chi”, and for several times, he was able to charge out of the Magia Tre’s attack range. However, every time he was moments away from departing the floating island, he would encounter all sorts of obstacles. One time, the air became as sticky as a swamp, and his steps became painfully slow. Another time, he began reversing back to the Magia Tree as if his momentum was somehow being reversed. He was also beset by more mundane obstacles such as a thick fog that was difficult to navigate through or a spatial lockdown that pinned him in place.

“You piece of—! Do I look like a saint to you?”

He was annoyed enough that his prize was snatched away by an oriole, and now the damn tree wouldn’t let him go no matter what! A dark flame began to burn inside his heart.

A steely glint flashed in Ye Qing’s eyes as the tai chi circle around him neutralized or redirected the storm of Magia elsewhere. Then, he charged toward the Magia Tree instead.

Seemingly noticing the threat he posed, the Magia Tree grew even more violent than before. The wind howled, the rain poured, the purple qi boiled, the mountains and rivers shook, the stars and moon fell, the nine suns aligned in the sky… It unleashed even deadlier Magia at Ye Qing all at once.

Ye Qing just kept running. His response toward the terrifying storm of Magia was to raise his fist, muster his fist intent, and charge ever forward.

Who could stop the lone cavalry when even death had lost its sway on him?

“Break Through”

The fist force punched right through the storm of Magia like it was made of paper. It continued to fly toward the Magia Tree without slowing in the slightest.

The Magia Fruits flipped its pages like crazy and shot beams of light toward the Magia Tree. When they landed, countless runes and Buddhist patterns appeared on its crystalline trunk, and its color turned into lapis lazuli.

A golden Buddha appeared at the bottom of the tree, holding a prithvi mudra and wearing a kind smile. When his palm moved an inch forward, a hundred and eight Arhats appeared in front of him and assumed a formation. When it moved two inches forward, eighteen Bodhisattvas manifested and sat cross-legged on the ground. When it moved three inches forward, the Buddhas of three times—Dipamkara (the Buddha of the past), Shakyamuni (present) and Maitreya (future)—showed themselves while chanting a Buddhist sutra.

There existed a Kingdom of Buddha within three inches of space.

Meanwhile, Ye Qing’s fist force was still traveling toward the Magia Tree. Not only was his fist intent unending, it kept growing stronger and stronger until it was level with the heavens themselves.

When a warrior’s fist intent was like the will of the heavens, it could reach even the gods and the demons.

Rumble!

There was a terrible outburst of power. Like Sun Wukong causing havoc in Heaven’s Palace, Ye Qing’s fist had shattered the one hundred and eight Arhats, the eighteen Bodhisattvas, and the three Buddhas. Then, it finally landed on the Magia Tree’s tree trunk.

Thunk!

It sounded like someone was hitting a giant bell with a hammer. Sound waves so dense they were almost visible rippled out of the Magia Tree, shattering the ground and shaking the floating island.

“Hmm! You’re quite tough, aren’t you?”

Ye Qing was surprised. His “Break Through” had left only a small imprint on the tree’s bark. He could also tell it was dozens of times tougher than it was before. With his current strength, it would probably take him a dozen punches before he could crack its trunk, much less destroy it.

“But so what? Let’s see how tough you really are!”

When someone had lost their temper, there was nothing they wouldn’t do. Ye Qing sneered and transformed into the Chaos Demon Ape.

Unlike before, his fur wasn’t as black as tar anymore. It was dark yellow probably because he absorbed the Profound Yellow Mother Qi. While he wasn’t nearly as terrifying-looking as before, he was now strong, beautiful, and seemingly as unshakeable as the earth itself.

As soon as his transformation was complete, Ye Qing immediately grabbed the Magia Tree’s trunk, roared, and pulled with all his might. He was attempting to rip the Magia Tree out of the earth!

Sensing danger, the Magia Tree attempted to push him back with a flurry of powerful Magia. Its trunk was also shining brightly and emanating enough heat to melt steel and jade like nothing.

Ye Qing could not seem to feel it, however. The dark yellow energies circulating around his body was protecting him from the worst of it. Letting out a deafening roar, he kept pulling until his arms were bulging, and his legs were sinking into the ground. Moments later, the Magia Tree was ripped right out of the ground.

Mountain Tunneling King had returned from his pursuit just in time to see Ye Qing ripping out the Magia Tree in his Chaos Demon Ape form. His mouth fell open dumbly as he stopped in his tracks.

He had heard of powerful warriors taking no damage whatsoever during the Magia Tree’s trials. He had also heard of people stealing a Magia Fruit from right under its nose before booking it like the wind. He had even heard of warriors who were so powerful that the Magia Tree outright gave them a Magia Fruit without bothering to test them.

But not once had he heard of anyone being strong enough to destroy the Magia Tree. Not only was he witnessing it, Ye Qing was doing it in a manner that he did not think was possible. He was pulling it out by the roots almost as if it was just an ordinary plant!

Rumble…

After the Magia Tree was ripped out of the ground, invisible thunderclaps immediately erupted in the sky, and the floating island began shaking violently and crumbling piece by piece.

Ye Qing roared and raised the Magia Tree high, high in the air. Its branches and roots flailed with mad desperation, but it wasn’t able to break free no matter what it tried.

On a related note, the floating island seemed incapable of floating without the Magia Tree to support it. It immediately plummeted toward the ground.

Boom boom boom!

The dust clouds were massive, and it sounded as if the deafening rumbles would never end. A long time later, when both the dust clouds and the rumblings finally subsided somewhat, neither Ye Qing nor the Magia Tree was anywhere to be seen. All Mountain Tunneling King could see was the debris.

“Young master! Young master!”

Mountain Tunneling King waited until the dust cloud subsided some more before rushing into the giant pile of debris and calling out to Ye Qing again and again.

“Cough! Cough!”

It was at this moment he heard a coughing sound from a certain direction. When he turned around, he saw Ye Qing standing on top of a pile of debris, pinching his nose and coughing non-stop.

Mountain Tunneling King immediately raced forward and showered him with concern, “Are you alright, young master?”

He knew that Ye Qing was fine, of course. He was the man who ripped out the Magia Tree by the roots after all. However, that was no reason for him not to show his concern.

“I’m fine… cough! Cough!”

Ye Qing responded before summoning his astral qi and pushing away the dust and soot covering his body. He then asked, “Where’s that man?”

“My apologies, young master, but I failed to catch him,” Mountain Tunneling King’s voice turned a tad fearful as he replied.

“Do you know who he is?”

Luckily for him, Ye Qing was a reasonable man. The strange man was definitely a Grandmaster, and he was strong enough to catch even him off guard. It was perfectly natural that Mountain Tunneling King wouldn’t be able to catch up to such a guy. He just wanted to know the strange man’s identity.

Mountain Tunneling King let out a sigh of relief before answering, “If I’m not mistaken, he is the one they call Ugly Slave, young master.”

“Ugly Slave?” Ye Qing lifted his eyebrows.

“Ugly Slave is ranked ninety-third on the Earth Champions Ranking, and he was born with full body paralysis. His parents discarded him in the wilderness after finding out his disability, but he was rescued by the Heretic Doctor, Xu Songshan.”

Mountain Tunneling King explained, “Unfortunately for Ugly Slave, Xu Songshan wasn’t called the Heretic Doctor because his methods were unorthodox, but because he was pure evil. He loved experimenting his drugs and methods on live subjects, and Ugly Slave had been a victim almost since the day he was born. I probably don’t need to tell you how horrible that is.”

“Although Ugly Slave was born crippled, he was surprisingly talented in the ways of martial arts. In fact, he was a martial genius. Despite his broken body, he invented a martial art called the ‘Body Separation Soul Controlling Art’ that allowed him to detach his limbs from his body and control them using subsouls. Essentially, each limb is an entity of its own. It is quite anomalous.”

“Thanks to the ‘Body Separation Soul Controlling Art’, Ugly Slave was able to kill the Heretic Doctor and even make quite the name for himself in the jianghu.”