Stranger Danger

At a place neither Kui Pingshan nor his men could see, Feng Qingyou was sitting crosslegged on a massive rock with an old qin placed in front of her.

Her face was calm and expressionless as he plucked at the strings and elicited invisible ripples in the air.

Floating beside Feng Qingyou was a ball of fog. Indistinct and constantly changing, the ball of fog resembled a round mirror about one meter in diameter. However, it seemed infinitely deep and vast, capable of accommodating the immense earth and the boundless sky. It was quite mysterious and unusual to say the least.

Even more unusual was the fact that Kui Pingshan, Wan Pojiang and their men were all trapped inside the ball of fog.

Inside the fog, Kui Pingshan and his men rampaged around like wild boars but could never pass through the perimeter of the fog.

Outside the fog, just sixty meters away from Feng Qingyou, the Kun Armor was fighting against Duan Pofeng, and the Barbarian Slayer Army among themselves.

Not a single person was looking at Feng Qingyou though.

She was the one behind everything, of course.

It was her music that caused the Barbarian Slayer Army troops to suddenly suffer a bloodline backlash and lose their minds.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Of course, the “Mantra of Confusion” was just a catalyst. The true cause of their madness was the trees around them.

These trees were no ordinary trees. They were a type of tree called the Calming Wood.

The Calming Wood emitted an anomalous scent that was perfectly harmless to humans. In fact, it could soothe one’s mind. However, if a Stranger or an animal were to smell it, they would become possessed by irritation and madness and fight among themselves. Many Stranger Hunters used the Calming Wood to hunt Strangers because of this characteristic.

This was only possible if the target Stranger lingered long enough around the Calming Wood though. Moreover, the scent only worked on weaker Strangers.

The large majority of Barbarian Slayer soldiers possessed Stranger bloodlines. Their bloodlines were activated to a greater degree than most people due to their martial arts as well. As such, they were no different from Strangers despite sporting a human’s appearance.

That was why Feng Qingyou chose to sow the seeds of chaos amidst the Barbarian Slayer Army using the “Mantra of Confusion”. It also accelerated the effects of the Calming Woods. Her plan worked. Barring those with higher cultivation and greater mental fortitude such as Duan Pofeng, practically everyone had succumbed to madness and were fighting each other to the death.

The fog trapping Kui Pingshan was a Disaster-class Strange Artifact called the Spirit Altar Space Mirror.

There existed a world within the space of a spirit altar. When dispersed, Spirit Altar Space Mirror appeared to be mist or fog. When gathered in one spot, it appeared to be a mirror. It was capable of pulling an entire space of three hundred meters unto itself without a trace.

To put it bluntly, the Spirit Altar Space Mirror was no different from ordinary mist or fog when it was dispersed. When its “mirror” form was activated, it would draw in the space the mist was encompassing including its living creatures into a separate space. The transition was seamless, and it was very difficult for the victims to break out of the space prison.

“There exists a meter of space on the spirit altar where gods and demons cannot leave, and celestials and Buddhas cannot cross over.” That was what the Spirit Altar Space Mirror was.

Earlier, the Spirit Altar Space Mirror was in its dispersed form. Once Kui Pingshan and his personal guard had separated from the Barbarian Slayer Army, Feng Qingyou immediately activated its mirror form and trapped them all inside its pocket space.

The reason she hadn’t just trapped the entire army inside the Spirit Altar Space Mirror was because one, it wasn’t powerful enough to pull off such a feat, and two, separating them was the best way to deal the most amount of damage to the Barbarian Slayer Army.

“Argh!”

On his last legs, Duan Pofeng finally could not hang on any longer and was punched into fine bone powder by the Kun Armor. Then, the Kun Armor pounced on top of the Barbarian Slayer Army and slaughtered them like sheep. Bloodcurdling screams filled the air as the army suffered huge losses.

“Argh! You cowardly mice!”

Hearing the screams, Kui Pingshan finally could not hold back his killing intent any longer. Eyes bloodshot, he let out a roar and summoned a grayish, earthen jar above his head.

The earthen jar was old, covered in cracks, and looked like nothing special. However, Wan Pojiang and his personal guards turned as white as a sheet as soon as they saw it.

“God Demon… Come eat…”

The next moment, a strange murmur came from inside the jar. It sounded both anomalous and filled with madness.

The next moment, the light of reason in Kui Pingshan’s personal guards’s eyes—all hundreds of them—slowly disappeared, and they began making their way toward the earthen jar.

Once there, the personal guards all dropped to their knees, cut open their chests with their own two hands, and ripped out their hearts. Then, they held their hearts high above their heads.

Everyone’s movement was uniform, and everyone’s expression was respectful. They could not seem to feel any pain.

“God Demon… Come eat…”

“God Demon… Come eat…”

“God Demon… Come eat…”

The next moment, the personal guards touched their foreheads against the ground—arms still raised high in the air, and chanted the strange mantra in perfect unison.

As they chanted, the hearts actually began to grow eyes, ears, a nose, a mouth, and four limbs. The facial features of the hearts looked almost identical to the personal guards themselves.

“God Demon… Come eat…”

“God Demon… Come eat…”

“God Demon… Come eat…”

Then, something even stranger happened. The hearts themselves began chanting the mantra while jumping off the personal guards’ hands. They hopped over to the earthen jar and jumped inside.

The horrifying sounds of chewing appeared as soon as the first heart leaped into the earthen jar. Bright red blood began seeping out of the cracks as well. Strangely, the blood did not fall off the jar and drip on the ground. Instead, they formed all sorts of wailing and screaming human faces. It was terrifying to say the least.

At the same time, the personal guards who had cut out their own hearts slowly withered like a dead tree that was slowly being eroded away by time. Their bodies withered away into skeletons, and the skeletons eroded into fine powder.

When everyone had turned into powder, the chewing noises finally came to a stop. The earthen jar no longer looked as dark and tattered as before either. It looked as good as new and bright red in color. A cloud of blood vapor emanating otherworldly whispers hovered above its opening, horrifying and strange.

As the whispers continued, the entire forest began shaking for some reason. The plants, the rocks, even the earth began to wriggle unnaturally as if they had come alive.

“Please, God Demon…”

Kui Pingshan said respectfully and prayed.

Boom…

A pillar of thick red light burst out of the opening and into the sky. The sounds of drums filled the air, and countless celestials suddenly appeared in the clouds. At the same time, a terrifying god demon who was covered in blood took form on the ground.

“The heavens have nine levels. Is that all?”

“So what if there are a million celestials? They are all ants…”

The god demon opened his mouth and blew out a wisp of dark wind.

The wind rose, and the nine heavens were split. The sun and moon grew dim and lightless.

The wind stilled, and the celestials fell like rain.

“Ants, that’s all you are… hahahahaha…”

The god demon slowly vanished amidst the laughter, leaving behind only gusts of dark wind.

As the dark wind swept across the forest, the Spirit Altar Space Mirror’s pocket space seemingly cracked under immense pressure and disintegrated inch by inch.

Outside, the ball of fog abruptly exploded, and deadly shockwaves of dark wind withered every plant in the vicinity.

At the same time, Kui Pingshan reappeared in the real world.

The moment Kui Pingshan reappeared, he was immediately greeted by the sight of his devastated army. His rage was such that his eyeballs nearly fell out of their sockets.

Of course, he detected Feng Qingyou as well.

“It’s you… I’m going to crush you into a million pieces!”

When he saw Feng Qingyou, Kui Pingshan’s eyes were utterly crimson, and his hair and his beard were floating like he was a god demon himself. He swung his halberd at her.

“White Tiger Evil Suppressing Halberd—Repel Evil!”

The halberd fell, and a white tiger swooped down from the sky. Its roar resounded throughout the jungle, crushing hills and rivers and repelling all evil.

The tiger’s roar caused the Barbarian Slayer troops fighting against each other to finally snap out of their madness.