Stranger Danger

Pei Qiansui roared, and his hands sank into Chu Wang’s body. Then, he began pulling outward.

The Soul Refining Hand refined souls to strengthen the practitioner’s hands. It also gave the hands the ability to turn intangible and sink into the victim’s headspace. That was how the martial art was able to extract one’s soul and refine it. As the victim’s soul was pinned in place, they usually could not move until they were dead.

Pei Qiansui’s intangible hands were being melted by Chu Wangsun’s righteous qi, but he kept pulling as if he couldn’t feel the pain. Face warped into a vicious snarl, he slowly pulled out a semi-transparent silhouette from Chu Wangsun’s body.

It was none other than his Yin God.

“A sage treats others with leniency. You can still turn around, Pei Qiansui!” Chu Wangsun with his usual indifference. It was almost as if the Yin God being pulled out wasn’t his.

“Hahaha! Fuck your sage nonsense! Just die!” Delight and excitement danced on Pei Qiansui’s face when he saw that he was moments away from extracting Chu Wangsun’s Yin God from his body. Chu Wangsun was a Half-Step Grandmaster with an exceptionally sturdy Yin God, so of course he wasn’t able to refine and annihilate it at first notice. But if he could pull Chu Wangsun’s Yin God out of his body, then he could shove it into the Phenomenon-class Strange Artifact his master gave him, the Soul Refining Furnace, and refine it until it perished.

Unfortunately, Chu Wangsun’s Yin God became stuck after he reached the halfway point. No matter how hard he pulled, the Yin God refused to budge an inch further.

“How about this?!”

Pei Qiansui growled, and a pair of arms reached out from the void. The arms were pitch black and looked semi-transparent. Strange, demonic patterns covered its skin, and it formed a human face each on the back of the hands. The human face looked warped and hateful, and it was letting out a cacophony of unholy screams and wails that disturbed the mind.

Invisible, formless tentacles began growing out of the mouth at the back of the hands. They swayed left and right in the air.

“Yin God: Demon Extracting Hands”

The tentacles growing out of the Demon Extracting Hands wasted no time in penetrating Chu Wangsun’s body and wrapping around his Yin God.

Now that the Yin God was in play, Chu Wangsun’s Yin God finally began moving once.

At the same time, an oddly-shaped furnace appeared above Pei Qiansui’s head. It was shaped like a human head where scarlet blood was constantly gushing out of the eyes, ears, nose and mouth. The blood converged at the bottom of the furnace and formed a blazing red inferno.

This was Pei Qiansui’s Phenomenon-class Strange Artifact, the Soul Refining Furnace, and it could refine all yin-type beings in the world. So long as the target was a yin soul or a ghost and not a Grandmaster or higher, then they could not break free from the Soul Refining Furnace’s confinement. They would be refined and converted into Pei Qiansui’s strength.

Trapped within the Soul Refining Furnace, no ghost or yin soul would ever see the light of day.

“Hahaha! You’re dead, Chu Wangsun! Dead!”

After Chu Wangsun’s Yin God was fully pulled out of his body, the human mouth of the Soul Refining Furnace opened wide as if it would swallow the Yin God whole.

Chu Wangsun was too arrogant. So arrogant, that he never even took away his Strange Artifact or placed a restriction on him.

A swimmer often died because they drowned. The overconfident usually died because they were overconfident. That was why Chu Wangsun was going to die today.

“Stubborn and unrepentant. It looks like there’s no saving you.”

It was at this moment Chu Wangsun’s Yin God spoke up. Despite the dire circumstances he was in, the scholar’s tone never changed even a little. “The sage said, ‘To slay before teaching is not good, but to slay one who does not repent after teaching is good!”

As it spoke, Chu Wangsun’s Yin God grew increasingly tangible until it took the form of a sage wearing a loose robe with big sleeves and a square crown on its head. It was also holding a book named “On The Subject of Wisdom”.

“The sage disciplines himself and so is immune to all evils. Freeze!”

The sage spoke, and his power followed. As soon as Chu Wangsun’s Yin God made its solemn, eminent declaration, the guests still inside the restaurant, the Soul Refining Furnace falling toward it, and the cackling Pei Qiansui all froze in place.

“The sage loathes evil and so slays demons and monsters. Slay!”

As soon as it said this, killing intent unlike anything anyone had ever felt filled the restaurant in an instant. It was like the rage of the Son of Heaven, a million deaths on the battlefield, and rivers of blood that flowed hundreds and hundreds of kilometers without end.

First, the invisible tentacles wrapped around Chu Wangsun’s Yin God crumbled into nothing.

Then, Pei Qiansui’s arms were sliced clean through from the shoulders.

Finally, a red mark slowly appeared on his neck. When the freezing stopped, his head would probably fall right off his neck.

Shock and fear churned in Pei Qiansui’s eyes. However, none were as strong as his regret.

He thought he had already made up his mind. He was going to lie low until he grew strong enough to kill Chu Wangsun and everyone here and wash away the humiliation he suffered today. So why was it that he was able to swallow his indignity while the humiliating punishment was going on, but he suddenly lost his cool after it was finally over?

It was almost as if a voice was whispering sweet nothings beside his ears. It told him that his tolerance was unnecessary, and that the only way he might vent his hatred and wash away today’s humiliation was if he acted now. At that moment, his anger, hatred and killing intent punched right through his mental defense like a volcano that could not be stopped and annihilated his initial plan to endure.

At that moment, all that was left in him was murder.

His regret lasted only for an instant, however. After all, it was already too late to change the outcome. And if it was already too late to change the outcome, then why bother? If he died, he died. Since ancient times, countless sons and daughters of the jianghu had died for one reason or another. What was there to be afraid of?

He wasn’t going to die with a whimper though, and he definitely wasn’t going to give Chu Wangsun or the bastards who were watching from the sidelines and laughing at his misery a good time. He might not be able to kill Chu Wangsun, but he was going to take everyone else to the grave with him.

“Hahaha! You love being a sage, don’t you? Okay! I’ll fulfill your wish!”

Right as Pei Qiansui’s head rolled off his neck, his Yin God, the Demon Extracting Hands abruptly broke free from the sage’s shackles. At the same time, Pei Qiansui’s face appeared on the back of the Demon Extracting Hands, laughing.

“Everyone here is coming to the afterlife with me. You will become the reason they all died today!”

“If you fail to save even one of them, then you can’t possibly call yourself a disciple of the sages anymore, can you? Ahahahahaha!”

Pei Qiansui’s maddened laughter continued as the demonic patterns etched on the Demon Extracting Hands began swelling and discharging demonic qi in every direction. At the same time, a terrifying, destructive pressure began seeping out of the Yin God.

“He’s going to detonate his Yin God! Everyone, run!”

Xie Taohua blanched and appeared outside the restaurant in the blink of an eye. Unfortunately, the rest of the guests were still standing in place with dumbfounded expressions.

Chu Wangsun had discovered Pei Qiansui’s scheme at first notice, but despite his best efforts, he was still too late to stifle his efforts. For the first time, his eyebrows wrinkled a little.

Pei Qiansui was the eighteenth ranker on the Human Champions Ranking and a powerful late-stage Spirit Master. If he was allowed to detonate his Yin God, then Number One and everything within a hundred meters of him was going to be annihilated into dust.

Number One was the most famous restaurant in Bei You, and countless guests visited it everyday. Not only that, Number One was located at the city center and dining area. The amount of traffic that went through this place was considerable to say the least. If Pei Qiansui succeeded, then the consequences were unimaginable to say the least.

He could not allow it to happen no matter what.

The book Chu Wangsun’s Yin God was holding began flipping open on its own. Countless ancient seal scripts flew out of the book, and the sounds of reading filled the restaurant. It sounded like countless scholars were reading the sages’ scriptures out loud.

“The wind, the rain, the sounds of reading.

Family matters, national matters, worldly matters.”

The ancient seal scripts came together to form a profound image that looked like an infinite expanse and stars. It wrapped around Pei Qiansui’s Yin God.

Buzz!

As soon as the ancient seal scripts wrapped around Pei Qiansui’s Yin God, the latter finally reached its limit and exploded. There was no sound, and the shockwave that rippled across the restaurant was barely noticeable. Still, everyone’s heart skipped a beat despite themselves.

In the sky, a giant fireball was burning furiously and attempting to expand in every direction. Countless ancient seal scripts were destroyed in the attempt to contain the fireball, but the seal scripts were endless. They formed a tapestry of an eternal, infinite sky that could not be overcome no matter what. The Yin God’s detonation was powerful, but what was a supernova in the tapestry that was the infinite universe itself? A flash in the pan. A dot in the sky.

Naturally, a mere dot in the sky could produce no waves.

“I have a book that is like infinity.

The sun may fall,

The moon may crumble,

But my book shall encompass it all.”

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