Stranger Danger

“Do not worry, lady. He is my friend.”

Feng Qingyou gave the wary-looking Lady Hundred Flowers an assuring smile. “He is the one who captured Green Daylily earlier.”

“Ah… it was you, warrior?” Lady Hundred Flowers hurriedly thanked him. “Thank you so much for helping me, Warrior Ye.”

“You’re welcome, lady. It is my natural responsibility,” Ye Qing replied cordially.

“I can tell you are a man of great virtue, Warrior Ye,” Lady Hundred Flowers praised him, though she was really stunned on the inside.

She was both stunned at Ye Qing’s youthfulness and his unpredictable skills.

Just recalling how he had manipulated Green Daylily like a puppet earlier sent chills up her spine.

“How did it go, Joyless?” Feng Qingyou asked.

“It all went well. This is the guy,” Ye Qing replied smilingly while dropping the man he was holding on the ground.

“He is the one who lurked in the shadows and blocked your messages for help earlier, lady,” Ye Qing answered.

That’s right. The reason he was missing for so long was because he discovered this guy while the Three Sages of Blue Wave were keeping Lady Hundred Flowers occupied. After Feng Qingyou intervened, the man realized that the plan had gone awry and tried to run away. Naturally, he decided to follow and capture him.

“Ah! It was him?!” Lady Hundred Flowers exclaimed in shock. She couldn’t even remember how many times she had been surprised already. The pleasant and not-so-pleasant surprises just kept coming one after another.

“Yep.” Ye Qing smiled. “He’s not very strong, but he’s damn good at running away. It took me a long while to finally subdue him.”

“Not very strong…” Lady Hundred Flowers looked like she wanted to say something but chose to stay quiet in the end. Although the captive was unconscious, she could sense his terrifying aura. It marked him as a Great Trueman. Just how strong is this guy to consider a Great Trueman “not very strong”...?

There was no mistaking the captive’s swollen, bluish black face and Ye Qing’s pristine condition though.

Lady Hundred Flowers decided that she did not understand the world of geniuses and should just stick to her ordinary corner of the world.

Ye Qing noticed Lady Hundred Flowers’ fluctuating emotions as a matter of course, though he did not probe her with his demonic thought out of politeness. Naturally, he didn’t know what she was thinking either. Even if he did, he wouldn’t have minded. He was telling the truth.

Although this guy’s cultivation level was much higher than his, the martial art he practiced was a little too dark and unorthodox. Not only was his “Earthly Sovereign Scripture” the bane of his martial arts, his physical body was pathetically weak. The one outstanding quality he had was his ability to run. Everything else was average at best.

The man was like a toothless tiger after he successfully defeated his secret arts and Magia. He could only run away. However, he had locked the man down with his demonic thought, so his efforts were completely futile. The cat-and-mouse game lasted about several hundred kilometers before he finally dropped him in one punch. Yep, it was that simple.

“Did you find out who he is?” Feng Qingyou asked.

“Yeah. His name is Ding Buren, and he’s one of the Nine Ministers of the North Duke Office,” Ye Qing answered. He had searched his victim’s soul on the way back as a matter of course.

“This confirms that it is definitely the doing of the North Duke Office. One of the Nine Ministers, you say? He’s quite high-ranked,” Feng Qingyou remarked.

Although the North Duke Office was no different from a jianghu sect these days, they still followed the old nation’s system. The North Duke was the ruler, followed by the Consort, the Two Counselors, Six Generals and Nine Ministers. They were all highly prestigious people with thousands and thousands of people answering to their beck at call.

Since Ding Buren was one of the Nine Ministers, he was a VVIP as well.

“Why did he order the Three Sages of Blue Wave to attack Hundred Flowers Island and murder Lady Hundred Flowers?” Feng Qingyou asked.

“It was both for personal vengeance and other reasons,” Ye Qing answered.

“Personal vengeance?” Lady Hundred Flowers sounded confused. “But I’ve never offended the North Duke Office before.”

“Of course you haven't, lady. The only crime you commited is the crime of jade ring[1],” Ye Qing answered.

“I don’t understand.” Lady Hundred Flowers voiced her confusion.

“Your beauty, lady!” Ye Qing clarified smilingly. “Sometimes, being too beautiful is a crime.”

“What?” Lady Hundred Flowers’s eyes widened in astonishment.

“You may not know this, lady, but the North Duke once saw you when he ventured to the Eastern Sea. you are so beautiful that he could not help but try to court you, though you had rebuffed his every advance. He could not possibly take you by force or threaten you since he was a man of great prestige and reputation, so in the end, he had no choice but to give up.”

Ye Qing explained, “However, the North Duke could never forget your beauty, and it wasn’t long before his Consort learned about this. The North Duke Consort was a petty, small-minded woman who was jealous of your outstanding beauty and angry at her husband’s unceasing longing for you. So, she wanted you dead.”

“In summary, one of the reasons Ding Buren came here is to kill you on behalf of the North Duke Consort.”

“I… I… I can’t even…”

Lady Hundred Flowers was beyond astonished at this point. She had imagined many reasons why the North Duke Office wanted her dead, but this was something that never entered her mind until Ye Qing mentioned it. “But I’ve… never met the North Duke before.”

“That is normal, lady.” Ye Qing chuckled. “After all, the North Duke never told you who he was, and I’m sure you have an entire river of courtiers. It is perfectly reasonable for you not to remember him.”

Lady Hundred Flowers blushed a little. However, she was quickly overcame with worry and self-blame.

“You said that this is only one of the reasons. What is the other reason, Joyless?” Feng Qingyou asked.

“The Kṣitigarbha Stupa,” Ye Qing answered. “In fact, this is the main reason he came here.”

“The Kṣitigarbha Stupa?” Both Lady Hundred Flowers and Feng Qingyou frowned, though for a different reason.

Lady Hundred Flowers was frowning because she had never heard of the Kṣitigarbha Stupa before.

Feng Qingyou was frowning because she had.

“What is the Kṣitigarbha Stupa, Qingyou?” Lady Hundred Flowers looked to Feng Qingyou for an explanation.

“The Kṣitigarbha Stupa was a Buddhist stupa mural engraved to an icy cliff at a place called Lu Tai Yuan in the Northern Sea. It was called the Kṣitigarbha Stupa because it recorded the story of the ancient Buddha ‘Kṣitigarbha’, who guards the underworld and liberates all ghosts. He is a Buddhist who vows not to become a Buddha until hell is empty.”

Feng Qingyou said slowly, “What’s incredible is that every eighth of August, the day Kṣitigarbha entered hell and made the Great Wish to never become a Buddha until hell is empty, Lu Yuan Tai would experience a Hundred Ghost Parade, and the portrait of Kṣitigarbha on the mural would come to life and speak of Buddhism and chant the Daśacakra Kṣitigarbha Sūtra, liberating countless ghosts.”

“Because of this, warriors who are experts in the way of ghosts would purposely travel to Lu Tai Yuan every eighth of August to refine the evil ghosts and practice their secret arts and Magia. It is a feast of opportunities for those who practice the way of ghosts. Over time, the day was also nicknamed the Ghost Liberation Festival."

“The Ghost Liberation Festival! I’ve heard of that before,” Lady Hundred Flowers exclaimed in realization before she asked another question, “But what does the Kṣitigarbha Stupa have to do with me?”

Feng Qingyou looked at Ye Qing. “That, you will have to ask Joyless.”

“From what I’ve scoured from Ding Buren’s memories, the North Duke somehow found out that the Kṣitigarbha Stupa is really one of the three great buddhist Artifacts Kṣitigarbha Stupa carried with him before he became a Buddha. It was named the Ten Directions Stupa.”

Ye Qing did not keep the girls in suspense and divulged the truth directly. “There are eight major hells in the Ten Directions Stupa, and countless evil ghosts are sealed within. However, during the Great Extinction of the ancient times, Kṣitigarbha Stupa fought against someone and perished in battle. The Ten Directions Stupa was also damaged and crashed into the bottom of the Northern Sea.”

“Later, strata movement caused the Lu Tai Yuan to take form, and the Ten Directions Stupa to resurface. However, so much time had passed that no one recognized the mythical Ten Directions Stupa, thinking that it is just an ordinary Buddhist mural.”

1. Remember the idiom from before. ☜

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