Stranger Danger

Chapter 404: Reverse Waterfall, Ghost In The Grave

“What is your stake then?” The Harmony King broke into a wide grin. “I don’t accept bets without stakes.”

Hong Jianglong replied, “I have a Luan and Phoenix Chirping painting that is drawn by the ‘Art Celestial’ Zhang Baiduan himself. That will be my stake. My request is the same as Lord Lei. I would like to borrow your ‘Strange Encounters’ for a couple of days.”

The Harmony King’s eyes glittered like stars when he heard this. He replied in a hurry as if afraid that Hong Jianglong would change his mind. “It’s a deal then! The betting is closed!”

When the Harmony King turned back to Ye Qing’s screen, he noticed something and burst out laughing. “Hahahaha! You guys are losing for sure! Look at what Ye Qing ran into!”

When the crowd looked, they saw Ye Qing running into the waterfall that had trapped Wei Bulao for a significant amount of time a while ago. The not-so-young young man had been forced to use some sort of secret art to finally break free from the waterfall, but he had to shave a few years off his lifespan and add a couple more wrinkles on his face to do it.

Now, it was Ye Qing’s turn to face the waterfall. The Harmony King didn’t believe for a second that the young man would be able to overcome it with ease. The rest of the group looked expectant as well.

Ye Qing slapped them all in the face just a second later. On the screen, the young man suddenly turned around and walked backward toward the waterfall. For whatever reason, the waterfall paid no attention to him and allowed him to get close. When he was right in front of the waterfall, the waterfall pushed Ye Qing to the top and...

There was no and. Ye Qing left the area just like that.

“What just happened?”

“How did he do that?”

Many people looked stunned and confused.

“Is he cheating, Jianglong?” The Harmony King glared at Hong Jianglong with bulging eyes. He looked like he might strangle the Pacification Commissioner to death if he didn’t give him a proper explanation.

“Hahaha, calm down, Your Highness,” said Lei Xiaodan placatingly before launching into an explanation. “The reason Young Ye wasn’t attacked by the waterfall wasn’t because Brother Hong was cheating for him, but because it’s the Reverse Waterfall.”

The explanation successfully distracted the Harmony King. “What’s a Reverse Waterfall?”

Lei Xiaodan answered, “People climb upward, whereas water flows downward. A Reverse Waterfall is an incredibly rare Stranger where its waters flow upward instead. The Reverse Waterfall is extremely powerful, and even its most common variant is a Soulstealer-class Stranger. If a human walks toward it with the intention of getting on top of the watefall, then it would get hostile and harass them endlessly.”

“However, the Reverse Waterfall has an exploitable weakness—or should I say, nature—as long as your back is facing toward the waterfall, and you walk backward toward it, then it wouldn’t get hostile. That is how Young Ye is able to overcome the Reverse Waterfall without any difficulties.”

“I see!” The Harmony King exclaimed in realization.

A while later, the Harmony King laughed again. “Look! Ye Qing ran into that grave that troubled Tou Jiao so that he lost his lead! It’s over for Ye Qing!”

The Harmony King was understating it. The grave had harassed Tou Jiao with an endless army of ghosts, run away when Tou Jiao tried to hunt it down, and gone right back to harassing him again as soon as he gave up. It was an incredibly intelligent Stranger, and there was absolutely nothing Tou Jiao could do against it. In the end, the warrior had to activate his secret art and push himself beyond his limits to finally catch up to the grave and kill it.

Unfortunately, the cost was too great. After the art had ended, he became so weak and fatigued that his climbing speed suffered greatly. As a result, he had fallen all the way to tenth place.

Everyone was watching Ye Qing’s screen intently. They wondered how Ye Qing was going to deal with the strange grave.

The start of the encounter went more or less the same as Tou Jiao’s. As soon as Ye Qing stumbled upon the grave, a bunch of ghosts immediately emerged from the grave and pounced toward him.

Ye Qing didn’t panic, however. He produced a single incense stick, lit it, and prayed toward the grave.

To everyone’s astonishment, the ghosts suddenly stopped in their tracks. When Ye Qing started toward the grave, the ghosts didn’t try to stop him, and the grave didn’t try to run away either. It allowed Ye Qing to move closer to it.

When Ye Qing was right in front of the grave, he bowed three times before planting the incense stick on the grave.

The next moment, the incense stick began burning rapidly. The cloud of smoke it produced floated about halfway toward the grave before vanishing all of a sudden. It was almost as if some invisible entity had inhaled the smoke.

That was exactly what happened. On the screen, an old, deathly pale face suddenly appeared on top of the grave and inhaled the smoke into its mouth greedily. It looked absolutely intoxicated by its taste.

While the face was busy enjoying the smoke, Ye Qing walked past the grave and took his leave. This was not the epic battle they had envisioned.

“What... What is that?” The Harmony King exclaimed in shock.

He looked to Lei Xiaodan for answers again, but this time the Judicial Commissioner threw his hands up in surrender. “Don’t look at me, I don’t know what he did either. You’ll have to ask Brother Hong for this.”

Hong Jianglong rubbed his nose and explained, “The grave is a Soulstealer-class Stranger called the Ghost In The Grave. It is not as rare as the Reverse Waterfall, but still pretty rare. A human lives in a house, and a ghost in a grave. A grave is basically a ghost’s dwelling. However, some ghosts didn’t have a grave because their deaths are sudden, and they are forced to take shelter in the nearest abandoned grave to avoid the sun and the astral winds. Over time, it formed the Ghost In The Grave. They can normally be found in the wilderness.”

“Since the Ghost In The Grave were made up of a bunch of lost, forgotten ghosts, and the grave itself was abandoned a long time ago, there is no one who offers sacrifices to them. If someone passes by a Ghost In The Grave, it would show itself and demand offerings from them.”

“If the person refuses to fulfill its request or attacks it, the Ghost In The Grave would fight back, drag them into the grave, and feast on their body and soul.”

The Harmony King thought for a moment. “So, you’re saying that you can get a Ghost In The Grave to release you if you give it the offering it desires.”

Hong Jianglong shook its head. “All ghosts are greedy, so it’s highly unlikely that an average offering can satisfy its demand. And if you can’t satisfy their demand, it\'s still going to drag you into its grave.

“If I have to guess, the incense stick Joyless offered the Ghost In The Grave is no ordinary incense stick. That’s why the Stranger allowed him to leave.”

“I see!” Lei Xiaodan chimed in. “No wonder Young Ye’s incense stick look divine and potent.”

“The incense stick is secondary. The man is the real reason he is able to overcome this obstacle without trouble.” Song Xilai suddenly broke his long-standing silence. “The young are often lacking in knowledge, but not Ye Qing. On top of that, he is cool-headed enough to identify the Stranger he’s dealing with and come up with the appropriate solution immediately. It’s quite impressive.”

“Hmph! He was just lucky. There’s no way the brat can remain this lucky!” The Harmony King replied sullenly.

Despite the Harmony King’s hopes, Ye Qing continued to climb the mountain at a blistering pace. If he encountered a weak Stranger, then he would crush them via brute force and continue along his way. If he encountered a strong Stranger, then he would appease them using all sorts of bizarre solutions. Even if the danger couldn’t be resolved peacefully, he would still find a way to deal with it in the shortest amount of time possible.

Because of this, Ye Qing quickly surpassed Tou Jiao, Chu Renhe, Wine, Sex, Wealth, Popularity, Eat, Drink, Fuck, Gamble and more and rose to the seventh spot. He was only behind Yang Zhao, Chu Qingge, Wei Bulao, Luo Zhan, Qi Xuanyun and more now.

Almost everyone had nothing but praises for Ye Qing. The Harmony King was the only one whose face grew blacker over time. In the end, he huffed in frustration, “You’re still saying your brat isn’t cheating, Jianglong? You must have told him the behavior of all the Strangers living in Flying Dragon Mount beforehand!”

“I couldn’t have even if I wanted to, Your Highness,” Hong Jianglong replied with a wry chuckle. He knew that the Harmony King was just complaining. He wasn’t really accusing him of cheating.

The Flying Dragon Mount was a Strange Artifact that could generate a massive biome with all kinds of flora and fauna in it. That was why the Strangers who appeared in the Hidden Dragon meet were different every time. As the Flying Dragon Mount was only open during the Hidden Dragon Meet, it was impossible to say what Strangers might be lurking in the mountain until the competition had begun. That was why Hong Jianglong said he couldn’t cheat for Ye Qing even if he wanted to.

The Harmony King’s frustration was understandable though. After all, Ye Qing’s performance might as well be cheating. He even managed to deal with the skinless man who severely wounded Chu Qingge using an unbelievable method that seemed so simple in hindsight. He simply used a paper doll and had it stare at the skinless man as he snuck away.

The Harmony King could not bring himself to blame his daughter for not arriving at a similar solution, but that didn’t stop him from feeling pissed and annoyed.

Someone consoled the Harmony King, “Chin up, Your Highness. Look! Ye Qing just ran into the Treant of Much Drivels. We all know that this Stranger can’t be circumvented easily.”

“The Treant of Much Drivel?” The Harmonyy King looked up and saw Ye Qing being surrounded by two massive Treant of Much Drivels. They seemed to be talking non-stop to Ye Qing.

The Harmony King’s interest was immediately piqued. “Quick! Quick! Make it so we can hear their conversation, Jianglong! Let’s see how this brat is gonna solve this crisis!”

Hong Jianglong hid a sigh and looked at Lei Xiaodan and Song Xilai. “Sorry.”

Lei Xiaodan and Song Xilai exchanged a helpless look with each other as well.

While it was possible to tweak the Flying Dragon Mount’s restrictions and array to eavesdrop on a certain person on a mountain, such an action would cost a certain amount of energy. However, they couldn’t deny the Harmony King’s request either, so they had no choice but to exert themselves.

Hong Jianglong, Lei Xiaodan and Song Xilai came together and injected their astral qi and spiritual power into the brazier. A second later, they could suddenly hear the Treant of Much Drivel’s voice.

One of the Treant of Much Drivel looked at Ye Qing and declared proudly, “I’m incredibly rich. Every day, I awake from a bed that is woven entirely from gold. When I open my eyes, I am greeted by a ceiling full of night pearls from the Eastern Sea. Thousands of maids assist me in gargling my mouth using mango pomelo sago, and washing my face using the Spring of Eternal Life. I wear clothes that are woven using thousand-year-old natural silk, and ride to lunch on a once-in-a-century Dragon Horse.”

“My main course is a dragon’s liver and a phoenix’s marrow, and my soup is bejeweled nectar. I eat only one bite from each dish, and when I’m full, I realize that I haven’t even touched every dish on a single table corner.”

“After I’m done, I walked in a straight line for about four hours to digest my food, but I realized that I haven’t even left my own courtyard.”

“After the food in my belly has fully digested, I get ready to head out for work only to realize that I don\'t need to work. After all, every coin in the world belongs to me. Bored, I decided to visit some of my childhood friends to pass the time. I entered a carriage and let my driver drive me there, but by the time I left the main entrance, my friends had long since died of old age, and I myself am in my twilight years.”

“Can you be richer than me?”