Stranger Danger

“Gale Birds?”

A vein bulged on Ye Qing’s forehead as he looked at the strange birds feeding on his precious Bloodsucking Mosquitoes. The Gale Bird was a ten-meter tall Stranger with a snake’s head and an avian’s body. It enjoyed eating children and possessed a pair of powerful wings and a mouth that could generate a lot of wind. The wind contained a deadly poison that would putrefy the skin upon contact.

Ye Qing knew this because he had studied a book named “The Stranger Tales” that was kept within the archives of August Hill Village. It was a compilation of anecdotes and apocryphal stories about the Strangers, and there were a lot. For starters, it had spoken of a strange serpent that eternally devoured its own tail, and anyone who saw the serpent would transform into a baby and be eaten by it; a Mind Demon that was small enough to live in a human’s ear and could mentally manipulate humans into killing each other to feed on their malice, a Nimbus Cloud that was like a child who glowed like the sun when it was happy, shot thunder at the ground when it was angry, rained heavily when it was sad and more; a Dream Eater that fed on dreams, so on and so on.

Before today, Ye Qing firmly believed that the contents of the book was mostly fiction because the Strangers described in it were simply too fantastical to be real. He thought it was just something an author made up to amuse the masses. Now though, he wasn’t so sure. The Gale Birds in front of him were very real at least.

Suddenly, Ye Qing was assaulted by a wave of dizziness. At the same time, his flesh and blood began to fester in real time like they were rotting.

“Its breath is poisonous!?” That was the moment Ye Qing finally decided to abandon Chen Zheng and run like hell. He hadn’t run when the Bloodsucking Mosquitoes came because he was immune to them, but the Gale Birds were a different story. These Strangers would kill him if he did not run while he still could!

It was a shame he couldn’t see Chen Zheng’s death through to the end, but then again, if the sonuvabitch managed to survive the Bloodsucking Mosquitoes feeding on his blood and the Gale Birds rotting his flesh with its breath, then he would just have to accept that fate did not want him to die today.

“Sha! Sha!”

Speaking of which, it looked like fate had a bone to pick with him today because one of the Gale Birds abruptly turned toward Ye Qing’s direction and let out an ugly cry, its ribbon-like tongue rippling across the air just like a snake’s tongue would. At the same time, Ye Qing felt a smelly, powerful gust of wind pulling him from behind and nearly throwing him into the air.

I thought you like eating children? I’m already an adult! I’m coarse and rough and not tasty at all! Ye Qing swore inside his head even as he clung onto a boulder and attempted to wait out the attraction. However, the pull was only growing stronger and stronger, and his body was still rotting from the deadly poison. It wasn’t long before chunks of his flesh and blood began stripping off his body and flying into the Gale Bird’s mouth like cotton waddings! At this rate, his flesh was going to be sucked clean off his bones, which was basically the same as being eaten alive!

Rumble rumble rumble!

Ye Qing was still racking his brains for a way out when suddenly, the entire hill shuddered like a drake was flipping over in its sleep. Ye Qing was nearly shaken off the boulder he was clinging to, and the Gale Bird attempting to suck him to death startled and stopped doing what it was doing. It hurriedly flapped its wings and escaped into the sky.

Some of the Gale Birds weren’t as lucky. Bucket-width vines abruptly burst out of the earth and caught not one, but several Gale Birds who were too slow to escape, dragging them into the ground. Terrified for their kin, the Gale Birds in the air flapped their wings and blasted their wind against the vines with all their might. Unfortunately, they failed to damage the vines even a little. That was all they managed to do before the trapped Gale Birds were dragged into the crevices and disappeared.

“Sha! Sha! Sha!”

Only five Gale Birds were left when all was said and done. They flew circles around the area and cried mournfully for their fallen kin, but they did not dare to approach the ground.

“What the bloody hell just happened?” Ye Qing blurted out loud. He would get his answer just a second later. The ground started trembling once more, and entire chunks of earth were kicked off to the side. The next thing he knew, he was staring at a colossal Stranger the size of a small hill.

The Stranger was a massive bull with a horse’s face. Easily over forty meters tall, it had a pair of crescent-shaped horns and brown scales that covered nearly every inch of its body. Each individual scale was as big as a millstone and glowed a blackish yellow under the hot sun.

The bull Stranger had one tail that was completely covered in fur. Each strand was as thick as a bucket. At the tip of the tail was a human face that was smeared with blood. There were even a few strands of dark green feathers hanging out of its mouth.

Clearly, the “vines” were really the bull’s fur. They had dragged the Gale Birds into the underground before feeding it all into the mouth.

As if all this wasn’t mind-blowing enough, the face suddenly spoke, “Haha! What are you looking at, cutie? Are you so enamored with me that you can’t look away? Don’t worry, I promise I’ll eat you in a moment. That way, you can look at me forever and ever, haha~”

“...”

Ye Qing’s jaw was on the floor right now. His eyes were as wide as saucers, and his brain kept trying to convince him that it was all a dream. How could he not? Not only did a giant bull’s tail just talk to him, it—she seemed to be a female! Like what the fuck?

Then, it finally clicked to him: Oh shit! The tail-woman wants to eat me!

Survival instinct prevailed over shock at that moment. Ye Qing immediately jumped off his boulder and sprinted toward the distant forest!

“Oh, cutie, it’s pointless. You’re not going to escape me!” The tail-woman giggled sweetly. Her voice sounded so sweet, inviting and more importantly, human that no one would ever believe she was a face on a bull's tail until they saw her with their own eyes.

“But first… will you please get rid of those ugly birds in the sky for me, Bull?” The tail-woman said sweetly. Ye Qing instinctively looked back just in time to see the massive bull letting out a thunderous snort that was far louder and impactful than a thunderclap. He was almost a hundred meters away from the bull at this point, and still he felt like someone had hit his head with a hammer.

The Gale Birds in the sky weren’t nearly as lucky. The snort was so powerful that their heads abruptly exploded into a shower of blood and gore. Before their headless carcasses could hit the ground, the fur on the bull’s tail grew like crazy and caught them all. Then, it pulled the carcasses toward the woman so she could gobble them all up in one gulp. Ye Qing could hear their bones snapping like twigs even as blood sprayed forth from the corners of her lips. It was creepy to put it mildly.

“Peeping on me again, cutie? Just give me a moment! I’ll be right there!”

The tail-woman was still chewing up the Gale Birds’ bodies when she called out teasingly to Ye Qing. Assuming he wasn’t mistaken, he even saw her winking at him from afar. Clear goosebumps broke out of his scalp as he ran even faster toward the forest ahead of him. He had no doubt the tail-woman would eat him like chicken wings if he was even a little bit slower!

Ye Qing’s speed was excellent, and he was able to reach the foot of the hill and slip into the dense woods just a few seconds later. However, he had just taken his first step into the forest when the ground started trembling, and the woman’s sweet giggles entered his ears. The hunt was on!

……

On a tall, straight mountain that stretched all the way into the clouds, a young man was meditating on top of a cliff. He was around twenty-five to twenty-six years old and wore a set of pure white clothes that matched his handsome features very well. His aura was sharp and devoid of warmth like a sword.

The mountain was lofty, and the wind was extremely strong. It was pushing the sea of clouds beneath the cliff to heavens-know-where. As the ground was completely blocked from view, it was impossible to say how far up the young man was, only that a drop from this height was going to be fatal for sure.

The young man wasn’t afraid in the slightest, however. He was so calm and collected that he resembled a cold, hard rock.

Suddenly, the young man opened his eyes and fished out a wooden tag from his sleeves. It had snapped in half before he knew it.

“Zheng’s Lifetag is broken!” the young man uttered in a low, raspy voice. He then gripped the wooden tag so hard that it exploded into a million pieces.

“Killer of my brother, I will find you and destroy you if it’s the last thing I do!” He swore under his breath. The air was stifling and oppressive just like the calm before the storm.

Buzz—

The sound of singing swords abruptly rang from beneath the cliff. The next moment, the sea of clouds scattered into nothing as if they were skewered by a tsunami of sword qis.

“Master said I’ve reached a bottleneck, and I’ve certainly cultivated in peace and solitude for long enough. It is time I leave the mountains!” The young man said while rising to his feet. Then, he started walking down the clouds like he was a god descending to the earth!

……

“Haha! Don’t run, cutie! You’re going to end up in my mouth anyway, so why bother?”

Behind Ye Qing, ancient trees thick and tall enough to have lived for hundreds of years kept falling like they were trampled by some sort of giant. The earth shook violently and constantly like an earthquake that would never end. However, none of them were as terrifying as the sweet voice that kept talking to him like the tail-woman was right beside him this whole time. He just could not shake the bull Stranger off no matter how far he ran!

Ye Qing snuck a glance behind him and noted that the hill-sized bull was definitely still chasing after him. Its tail was also lifted high up in the air like a snake towering over its prey. He could almost see the woman’s face at the end of the tail.

“Peeping at me again, cutie? If you let me eat you, then we can be together forever! Don’t you want that?”

“Oh cutie, your flesh smells incredible! I can’t wait…”

Ye Qing ignored her and kept running. Every time he was about to run out of stamina, he would sacrifice a dragon-serpent rune and restore himself as good as new. It was the only reason the giant bull hadn’t caught him… or maybe not. Given its size, Ye Qing was fairly sure that the bull could catch up to him if it really wanted to. It was just toying with him like a cat would before eating the mouse!

Ye Qing didn’t know if that really was the case, and he didn’t care. One thing for certain, he must keep running if he wishes to live!

Suddenly, the scenery before his eyes changed drastically. The lush, ancient trees that towered over the earth were abruptly replaced by a completely different kind of tree. Not only was its trunk pitch black in color, they were bald and overflowing with doom and gloom.

The deeper Ye Qing went, the darker the environment became. Then, there came a point where the trees were suddenly covered in human skins. As soon as Ye Qing burst into this area, every skin on the trees abruptly came alive and turned toward him, drilling their gaze into his soul with their pitch black eyes.

“The human skin Strangers? Did I accidentally stumble upon the human skin Strangers’ lair?” Ye Qing recognized the creepy monsters in front of him, of course. At first he was cursing his luck, but then it hit him that he might be able to pit the human skin Strangers and the bull against one another. Worst case scenario, it would still be a three-way fight!

Ye Qing did not hesitate. Still sprinting at full speed, he shouted on top of his lungs, “Human skin Strangers, your grandfather’s here to kick your ass!”

It was like someone had shot a flare or sent a signal to every human skin Stranger in the area. They immediately peeled off the trees and chased after Ye Qing like a tidal wave.

The human skin Strangers at the very back did not get to participate in the chase, however. It wasn’t because they didn’t want to, but because a humongous hoof had abruptly descended from the sky and crushed them into bits.

“What ugly things! Bull, make sure you stomp them all into bits! Do not let them hurt a single hair on my cutie!” The tail-woman ordered sweetly while swaying right above the bull.

What happened next was, of course, a one-sided slaughter. The giant bull easily trampled the human skin Strangers to bits! They were unable to put up even the slightest bit of resistance!