Stranger Danger

“If even you say that, then I guess it really is an opportunity.” Su Bancheng chuckled.

He was pretty confident in Chu Wangsun’s judgment because he knew a Confucian Magia known as the “Eye of the Sacred Heart”. Similar in vein to the Buddha’s “Telepathy”, he could feel and hear a person’s true thoughts. At the adept level, he could even influence another’s mind and manipulate them to his heart’s desire. It was an extremely potent Magia to say the least.

Chu Wangsun said suddenly, “I heard that the Qing Emperor and the North Duke Office share a good relationship with each other. If what the woman said is true, aren’t you worried that you might incur your master’s wrath?”

“My master is my master, and I am me. My master may share a good relationship with the North Duke Office, but I share no ties with them whatsoever.”

Su Bancheng laughed. “Besides, didn’t you say it yourself? To spurn the heavens’ gift is to incur their wrath. The mice fight, and the winner takes all the cheese!”

“I should’ve known that you, Su Bancheng, would say something like this.” Chu Wangsun smiled.

“When will you depart?” Su Bancheng asked.

“According to the woman, the North Duke Office is going to travel to the Kṣitigarbha Stupa and retrieve the ultimate treasure on the eighth of August. It’s probably because the eighth of August is a special day of sorts. We have a little over half a month before the eighth of August, which is a fair amount of time. Still, it would be wise to travel there sooner than later to avoid accidents,” Chu Wangsun analyzed.

Su Bancheng nodded in agreement. “Makes sense. I would like some time to investigate the validity of the treasure as well.”

……

“It’s done.”

Several hundred kilometers away on an island, Ye Qing suddenly opened his eyes and rubbed his palms together triumphantly.

“Even gods and Buddhas are like mortals before the promise of opportunities, much less true mortals like Chu Wangsun,” Feng Qingyou remarked.

Right now, the woman was sitting behind a yaoqin and plucking its strings from time to time, eliciting pure, crystalline sounds that resembled a clear spring.

“Indeed.” Ye Qing smirked. “In this regard, you and I are no different.”

The woman that spoke to Chu Wangsun and Su Bancheng earlier was naturally, Green Daylily, and he was the one who arranged for the “accidental” meeting to happen.

The plan was really simple. He would bait Chu Wangsun into traveling to the Northern Sea and participating in the competition for the Ten Directions Stupa using Green Daylily as the hook, and the Ten Directions Stupa as the bait. Looking at the results, it was clear that the plan was a resounding success.

The reason he did this was quite simple as well. One, it was to kill Chu Wangsun. Although he could ambush Chu Wangsun right now, they were still too close to the Four Seas. Chu Wangsun was hardly a weakling, and he was accompanied by Su Bancheng, another Chu genius. Even if he and Feng Qingyou managed to kill Chu Wangsun, it was unlikely they would be able to do it without being detected by the likes of Chu Xunxian. Worst case scenario, they would die.

He desired vengeance, but not at the cost of his own or Feng Qingyou’s life.

That was why he lured Chu Wangsun to the Northern Sea using Ten Directions Stupa. No matter how powerful Chu Xunxian was, he could not rush to Chu Wangsun’s rescue before it was far too late.

Besides that, it was guaranteed that Chu Wangsun and the North Duke Office would fight each other over the Ten Directions Stupa. Chu Wangsun was powerful, but the North Duke Office was no weakling either. The battle between two tigers would surely result in injuries, which would make it even easier for him to kill Chu Wangsun.

His second reason for doing this was, of course, to claim the Ten Directions Stupa. It was one of the three Buddhist artifacts the ancient Kṣitigarbha carried with him before he became a Buddha. It did not take a genius to know that it was extraordinary. Although he already had the Earthly Sovereign Bell, a Strange Artifact that was far more powerful and famous than the Ten Directions Stupa, that was no such thing as too much of a good thing. 𐍂�

Even if the Buddhist artifact turned out to be useless to him, he could give it to someone who could or sell it for money. What’s not to like?

And how could he increase his chances of obtaining the Ten Directions Stupa? By making him lead the charge for him, of course.

As for Su Bancheng, he had nothing to say except the guy was unlucky. It wasn’t his fault the Chu genius insisted on mixing with the likes of Chu Wangsun, was it?

The plan was pretty simple, and the execution turned out to be pretty stress free as well. All he needed to do was to set up a “coincidence” and have Green Daylily divulge the news regarding the Ten Directions Stupa to Chu Wangsun.

He wasn’t afraid that Chu Wangsun might see through his ploy either. Be it the inheritance or the artifact, they were all temptations that few mortals could endure.

Chu Wangsun was also mortal. Naturally, he wasn’t immune to temptation either.

Of course, this begged the question of how he could kill Green Daylily to increase the believability of the plan. After all, the final words of the dead were usually more believable than the possible lies of the living.

Besides, if Green Daylily was alive, Chu Wangsun and Su Bancheng would surely want to keep her by their side if only to dig for more information. The prolonged scrutiny might reveal some flaws to the duo and alert them that something was amiss. The risk wasn’t worth the reward.

In conclusion, Green Daylily was better off dead than alive.

“It’s time. Let’s go.”

A moment later, Ye Qing got up to his feet and looked at the boundless sea in front of him, smiling. “We wouldn’t want to miss the start of the show.”

……

Lu Tai Yuan was located at the northernmost region of the Northern Sea and close to the arctic regions. It was essentially a giant ice plain.

Lu Tai Yuan was lifeless and barren because it sported extremely cold weather and was covered in thick ice and snow all year long. Only a kind of Stranger named “Snow Deer” lived in the icy plains. It was how Lu (Deer) Tai Yuan got its name.

But of course, the Snow Deers weren’t the reason Lu Tai Yuan became famous. The Kṣitigarbha Stupa was.

There was a tall, sheer cliff at the deepest region of Lu Tai Yuan. It was dozens of kilometers long and over three hundred meters in height. Engraved into the walls was a stupa mural describing the ancient Kṣitigarbha entering the eight major hells and making the Great Wish to not become a Buddha before all of hell was empty. Hence, it was named the Kṣitigarbha Stupa.

The Kṣitigarbha Stupa was huge, impressive, grand, and overflowing with the air of Buddha. Those standing beneath the mural would feel like they were standing in the eight major hells and looking up to the Kṣitigarbha purifying countless ghosts and rescuing them from the hells.

It was also why Lu Tai Yuan had a second name called Kṣitigarbha Plains.

When the Kṣitigarbha Stupa was first discovered, it caused quite the stir as a matter of course. Countless people thought it was a grand opportunity and rushed to the mural in hopes of gain.

However, the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. The jianghu people soon realized that the mural was just an ordinary mural. Sure, an image of Kṣitigarbha would appear, and a Hundred Ghost Parade would take place every eighth of August, but there was still nothing to be gained whatsoever.

Gradually, the jianghu people left, and Lu Tai Yuan regained its former tranquility. The only time it was busy was the eighth of August where the warriors who practiced the way of ghost refinement showed up.

This year’s eight of August should have been no different. It should’ve been overflowing with ghosts and warriors who practiced the way of ghosts. In reality, it was empty and almost devoid of life.

There was only the cold, the frozen blood, and the buried corpses.

“Ahhhhh!!!”

Suddenly, a bloodcurdling scream cut through the air. It sounded impossibly clear in the silent Lu Tai Yuan.

A tall, muscular man wearing a set of bloody armor and escorting a troop of soldiers slowly approached from afar.

The soldiers were all carrying long spears, and hanging on the sword tips were many heads. There were male, female, old and young. Everyone’s head was bound to the spear using their hair. As the soldiers marched, blood occasionally dripped from the severed stumps and left behind a scarlet trail amidst the pure white snow.

Despite carrying spears with countless bloody, bleeding heads on their speartips, the soldiers weren’t perturbed in the slightest. They were making light conversation with each other and generally looked to be in a good mood—a stark contrast compared to the severed heads with horrified expressions etched permanently on their faces.

It wasn’t long before the muscular man and the squad of soldiers arrived at a View Mound. He then dumped the heads on his spear on it.