Stranger Danger

Originally, the old man was covered in wounds. His aura was weak, and his face was as white as a sheet. It was clear that he had grievously injured.

However, the mysterious energy permeating the air was healing his injuries at a visible rate. His aura quickly stabilized, and his pallid complexion soon regained a healthy color. In just a dozen breaths or so, the old man had made a major recovery.

The next moment, a terrifying aura washed out of the old man’s body. At the same time, a dark green fog spread across the surroundings. The plants withered, and the earth and rocks disintegrated at a visible rate. In just the blink of an eye, everything within several hundred meters of the old man had turned into a corroded swamp. More fog was rising from the swamp, and the miasma was everywhere.

As it turned out, the old man was a Great Trueman. His true name was Wan Dusheng, though most people would not recognize it.The King of All Poisons though? That was a name practically everyone in the jianghu had heard of.

The King of All Poisons was the forty-third named warrior on the Earth Champions Ranking. A Great Trueman, he was a master of poisons. Cruel and ruthless, he once turned an entire commandery and five thousand kilometers of land into a poisonous swamp. The tens of thousands of citizens living in the commandery had all been turned into Poison People as well. He was later hunted by the orthodoxy and was forced to escape into the One Hundred Mountains of Nanjiang. He was ultimately able to avoid justice.

Despite the harrowing experience, the King of All Poisons did not know restraint. He continued to massacre innocents in the One Hundred Thousand Mountains of Nanjiang to practice his evil art. He was notorious to say the least.

Unfortunately, the One Hundred Thousand Mountains of Nanjiang was rife with dangers, and the King of All Poisons himself was cunning and powerful. As much as the jianghu wanted him dead, they had no choice but to leave him alone.

This situation lasted until a while ago, where the King of All Poisons’ bad karma finally caught up to him. He had captured two random people to test his poison as usual, but it turned out that they were Sky Mending Palace disciples. As if that wasn’t enough, they were quite prestigious disciples as well.

The Sky Mending Palace was notorious for their vengefulness, and he quickly found out that the rumors were true. The Sky Mending Palace had dispatched three Sky Mending Envoys to hunt him down.

The Sky Mending Palace boasted seven elites called the Seven Sky Mending Envoys. They were the Envoy of Joy, Envoy of Rage, Envoy of Worry, Envoy of Thought, Envoy of Surprise, Envoy of Terror, and Envoy of Sorrow. They were all Great Truemen and extremely powerful.

Although the King of All Poisons was a Great Trueman himself, he was inferior to the Sky Mending Envoys. In fact, every single Sky Mending Envoy could defeat him one on one. Three? He could multiply himself by three, and he still wouldn’t be able to win against them.

As a result, he suffered serious injuries and was forced to escape. By the time he reached this location, he was already exhausted beyond imagination and on his last legs. He thought for sure that this was where he met his end, but there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Through sheer luck, he encountered this strange energy and found himself mostly restored.

He did not know what was hidden within this underground cave, but it could only be extraordinary. Forget the purple qi or the illusion of celestials, just the fact that the ambient energy could restore his injuries completely and fill him with vigor was enough to resolve him to obtain it.

It wasn’t just because it was his opportunity, but also because it was his only hope of surviving his predicament.

If he could obtain this item, it might allow him to escape the Sky Mending Envoys' pursuit. It might even grow his strength further until he became a Half-Sage, no, a Sage!

When that happened, the so-called Sky Mending Envoys and Sky Mending Palace were all going to pay.

“Sky Mending Envoys, Sky Mending Palace. Wait for me…” The King of All Poisons laughed like a madman. “I’m coming for you!”

“What’s got you laughing like that? Share it with me! Funny jokes should be shared with everyone.”

The King of All Poisons was still laughing when a voice suddenly rang behind his back.

His joy morphing into shock and a bit of fear in an instant, the King of All Poisons spun around to find a youngster standing not far away from him.

Right now, he was standing in the middle of the poisonous swamp he created. The miasma was so deadly that any living being foolish enough to enter this place would be poisoned and melted into a goo of flesh in an hour at most.

Not only that, he was spiritually connected to the poisonous swamp. He should be able to detect anyone who set foot inside its perimeter at first notice.

And yet, he felt nothing when the youngster appeared. Not only that, the miasma did not seem to affect the youngster at all.

He tried to perceive the youngster’s energy, but it was profound beyond words. It felt as ephemeral as the wind or the clouds, but also as thick and dense as the earth at the same time. It was unusual to say the least.

“Who are you?” The King of All Poisons asked cautiously when he realized that he could not figure out the youngster’s cultivation level immediately.

“I’m the one who should be asking you that question!” The youngster, a.k.a Ye Qing, countered.

“You…”

Suddenly, a possibility occurred to the King of All Poisons. It was perhaps the only explanation as to why the youngster was able to appear behind him without him noticing: the cave. His swamp did not encompass the cave, so assuming that the youngster came from the cave, then it made sense that he wouldn’t notice him.

And if the youngster really did come from the cave, then the treasure in the underground cave was probably in his hands!

The King of All Poisons could not help a rush of killing intent when he thought until this point. “Did you take the cave’s treasure?”

Ye Qing lifted his eyebrows and asked in confusion, “What treasure?”

“Stop pretending and surrender the treasure now! If you do, then I can let you live!” The King of All Poisons’ killing intent grew sharper, and as if resonating with his killing intent, the poisonous swamp began stirring restlessly as well. The dark green fog transformed into venomous snakes, scorpions, spiders, toads and more poisonous Strangers. It was both anomalous and frightening.

“Treasure?”

Ye Qing ignored it all, however. He asked with a smirk, “Are you talking about this?”

Ye Qing raised his right hand and looked at the sky. When he made a grabbing motion, the skyful of purple qi descended, and the celestials, gods and Bodhisattvas all bowed their heads. They all flowed into his palm in an instant.

“You… what…” The King of All Poisons’ eyes widened. He was flabbergasted by what he just saw.

“That’s right. I’m probably the ‘treasure’ you thought I was.”

Ye Qing continued smilingly. “Do you still want me? Not that I would come with you, of course. You’re far too ugly.”

“You bastard… I’m going to kill you!”

The King of All Poisons’ breathing slowly grew heavier. His eyes grew bloodshot, and his expression became contorted by fury and savagery. He was hoping that the treasure inside the cave would be able to save his life and even aid him to become a greater warrior. But now, he realized that there was no treasure after all. Everything he saw and felt was juts a product of the youngster’s cultivation.

Without the treasure, there was no hope for him to live; no hope for him to become stronger.

How could he not be angry? How could he not be mad?

That was why he desired to kill the youngster. He might die, but he was going to drag the bastard to the grave with him at least!

“Poison Swallows The Sky”

The next moment, the poisonous liquid and fog in the swamp converged in the air and formed a gigantic, nine-headed snake monster. All nine heads threw up torrents of poisonous liquid, withering plants and eroding rocks along the way. It was as if this small part of the world had turned into a kingdom of swamp and poison.

The nine-headed snake monster’s name was Xiangliu[1], and it was the King of All Poisons’ yang god. He had fashioned it to imitate the ancient Stranger Xiangliu. According to ancient folklore, Xiangliu was an evil beast with a snake’s body and nine heads. It was a human-eater, and its mere presence caused deadly poison to flow like rivers. It left behind kingdoms of swamp and poison in its wake.

Manifesting his yang god and transforming his surroundings into a kingdom of swamp and poison was the King of All Poisons’ greatest trump card. It showed just how much he wanted Ye Qing dead.

Ye Qing was looking at the flood of poison with disdain, however. He took one step forward, and the ground shook violently. The flood of poison was blown apart, and the kingdom of swamp and poison fell into shambles in an instant.

1. Xiangliu (/ʃæŋ.ljuː/), known in the Classic of Mountains and Seas as Xiangyao (/ʃæŋ.jaʊ/), is a venomous nine-headed snake monster that brings floods and destruction in Chinese mythology. ☜