Stranger Danger

“Phew… we’ve walked pretty far. It should be safe now, right?”

Yi Pin abruptly sat down on the snow and panted.

“I think so!” Ye Qing replied in a low tone while scanning their surroundings.

They had been running for over four hours. Of course, they weren’t just running either. The duo had been using all sorts of Strange Artifacts and Magia to wipe out their footprints, physical trail, energy trail and so on. Not only that, they created plenty of false tracks to confuse the shit out of anyone who might be chasing them and buy themselves even more time.

“There’s a cave over there. Let’s go take a look, shall we?”

Ye Qing released his demonic thought and probed around for a bit. Then, he began walking toward the right.

As he claimed, the duo saw a cave not long after they resumed their journey. The cave was pretty well hidden and located leeward of the mountainside. It was a pretty ideal hiding spot all things considered.

The duo entered the cave and found it to be surprisingly spacious. They were glad to find that no animal or Stranger were using the cave.

After inspecting the entire cave and confirming that there was no danger, Ye Qing suggested to Yi Pin, “Let’s hide here!”

“Got it.” Ye Qing accepted the arrangement without question. For one, he didn’t understand arrays and so could not be of help even if he wanted to. Two, the sooner he regained his strength, the safer both of them would be.

After locating a clean spot and tidying it for a bit, Ye Qing sat down on the floor and began recovering his strength.

When Yi Pin returned to the cave after he was done setting up the arrays, he immediately saw Ye Qing surrounded by a cloud of Profound Yellow Mother Qi. The qi was so bright that it felt like daytime inside the cave.

“Well, I guess I won’t be needing the candles.”

Yi Pin mumbled to himself before examining the thick cloud of Profound Yellow Mother Qi surrounding Ye Qing with a stunned expression. “What on earth is Joyless’ cultivation art? How is he creating such a dense cloud of Profound Yellow Mother Qi? Not even the old monsters of the Earthly Sovereign Hall could do this, could they?”

“Could it be the cultivation art of the ancient Earthly Sovereign himself?”

The more he thought about it, the likelier Yi Pin thought that his guess was correct. Ye Qing had acquired even the Earthly Sovereign Bell, so it did not seem all that strange that he would obtain the Earthly Sovereign’s martial art as well.

“What a lucky man!”

Yi Pin muttered a bit jealously when a sudden idea occurred to him. His eyes lit up as he produced a cloth bag from his pockets and pointed it in the direction of Ye Qing. The Profound Yellow Mother Qi surrounding Ye Qing was immediately pulled into the bag.

“I’m rich! I’m rich!”

Yi Pin exclaimed in excitement as the bag grew bigger and bigger. Even a wisp of Profound Yellow Mother Qi was priceless to any warrior, much less an entire cloud of it. He would be going against his conscience to not grab some of that good shit for himself.

Ye Qing was meditating, but he was aware of what Yi Pin was doing as a matter of course. He couldn’t help but let out a mental laugh. How Yi Pin of Yi Pin to do such a thing.

Ye Qing did not stop him though. Yes, Yi Pin was shearing him like a sheep, but he was very careful not to do it in a way that would be in any way considered crossing the line. He was only collecting a tiny portion of the Profound Yellow Mother Qi that had seeped out of his body, and losing that would neither slow down his recovery nor negatively affect him in any way. So, he ignored the old man and returned his focus to his injuries.

Right now, his internal organs were in tatters, and some of them had shifted out of place. His meridians were broken, and he was low on vigor as well. Therefore, he could only mend them bit by bit using the Profound Yellow Mother Qi. Only when his internal organs and his meridians were properly mended, and the cycles within his body were reconnected could he begin to restore his vigor and true qi. When all that was done, he would return to full strength.

Of course, this was an arduous process, and the first step was the hardest of it all. Not only was mending his internal organs and meridians using the Profound Yellow Mother Qi a slow and painful process, he needed to be extremely careful as well. One misstep, and he might have to start all over again.

The silver lining was that the recovery process wasn’t completely unbeneficial. His internal organs and meridians would be stronger and more resilient after the mending process. His physical body in general would be a tad stronger as well.

Steel could not be strong without being tempered hundreds of times by fire. It was the same logic.

Sometimes, happiness and suffering went hand in hand.

……

Five days passed by in the blink of an eye. Yi Pin was currently tossing his bag up and down to pass the time while watching Ye Qing, who was still meditating up until this point, with a discontented expression.

A day ago, the Profound Yellow Mother Qi surrounding Ye Qing had suddenly subsided into nothing. Even Ye Qing’s own energies had disappeared as if he had turned into a stone.

Of course, it wasn’t because Ye Qing was badly injured, and that he was about to die. On the contrary, this was a sign that he was almost fully healed. Otherwise, he would not be able to control his true qi and Profound Yellow Mother Qi so precisely and prevent even a wisp of them from leaking.

Ye Qing might look like a rock sporting almost zero vitality right now, but to Yi Pin’s senses, the young man felt like a volcano. He might look inconspicuous on the outside, but on the inside, an unbelievable amount of energy was churning violently. If it detonated, it could destroy heaven and earth itself.

Logically speaking, Yi Pin should be very happy that Ye Qing had recovered. In reality, he was terribly disgruntled. The reason was very simple. As soon as Ye Qing had reached a certain point of his recovery, he had immediately withdrawn his energies and Profound Yellow Mother Qi and ended Yi Pin’s incessant gathering of the qi. Naturally, the old man was unhappy.

“Stingy bastard…”

Yi Pin mumbled to himself. Sure, he had collected a lot of Profound Yellow Mother Qi in the past couple days, but who in their right mind would complain about having too much of a good thing?

“Oh well. Time to catch some fresh air.”

After staring at Ye Qing for a moment longer and confirming that the young man wasn’t going to allow him to collect the Profound Yellow Mother Qi any longer, Yi Pin finally got up to his feet and unlocked his arrays. Then, he exited the cave.

The outside of the cave was… just as boring as the inside. Plain and monotonous, all he found was mountains, snow, and more mountains and snow.

Not only that, the wind was howling, and the snow was falling furiously. It all added to the cold and desolation of this land.

“Damn… it’s so cold.”

Yi Pin gathered his clothes and rubbed his palms together.

Bei You was a bitter, frigid place as well, but it had nothing on this land. Not only was it as cold as the coldest winter, it was snowy and stormy all year long. That was why almost no living creature could survive in this place.

“Hmm? Is that a snow hawk?”

A short while later, when the cold became positively unbearable, Yi Pin turned to return to the cave. It was at this moment he saw a snow hawk standing on a rock not far away from him.

“Perfect timing! Two days of rations is two days too many.”

Yi Pin’s eyes lit up, and a rope flew out of his sleeve and bound the snow hawk before it could react.

However, the snow hawk suddenly scattered into a bunch of snow the next moment.

“Snow?” Yi Pin caught one of the snowflakes and watched as it slowly melted in his palm. “It really is snow.”

“Shit!”

A bad premonition gripped him, and Yi Pin did not hesitate to sprint back into the cave.

“Hahaha… I found you.”

It was at this moment a chorus of laughter came from the sky. At the beginning, it sounded like it came from a few kilometers away. However, it was practically right on top of Yi Pin the next moment.

A thick bundle of snow flew straight toward the old man.

“Heeeeeeeeeeelp!!!”

Yi Pin screamed when he felt the terrible power behind his back.

“Kekeke…”

The laughter in the snow became even more terrifying. “No one will come and save you. Surrender the treasure, and I’ll grant you a less painful death.”

A large hand reached out of the bundle of snow and made a grab for Yi Pin.