Stranger Danger

“Phew… that was too close!”

At the foot of Forgotten Peak, Ye Qing finally stepped out of the darkness and shot the cloud shrouded mountain with a long, narrow-eyed look. At the same time, he felt a flash of fear and trepidation.

That was seriously too close. If he was just a little slower, then the Tomb Keepers would have discovered him, and he would be in deep, deep trouble.

The eyeballs that spied on him earlier were called the Nether Eye. A Phenomenon-class Stranger that was shaped like an eyeball, it was called the Nether Eye because it was born in the Nether.

The Nether Eye was divine in the sense that it could not be seen, heard, or perceived by a flesh-and-bloody being. If it encountered a living being, it would follow them and watch their every move. It was impossible to shake them off. Once the Nether Eye had observed all possible actions their victim could take, the victim would lose their eyes and become permanently blind.

In summary, the Nether Eye was an extremely rare and anomalous Stranger.

The white object Ye Qing ignited earlier to reveal the Nether Eyes was the horn of a Psychic White Rhino. There was one quote in a book called the “Garden of the Strange”: “The living rhino cannot be burned. If burned, it would give off a strange scent that clings to the clothes, and Man would be able to communicate with ghosts.”

It was a description of the power of the Psychic White Rhino’s horn.

A Disaster-class Stranger, the Psychic White Rhino possessed the ability to see deities, ghosts, and all other supernatural beings. Its horn in particular could be ignited to identify an anomaly that could not be identified; see the evil that could not be seen.

He had obtained this Psychic White Rhino horn from the vault of Goddess City, though he never found a reason to use it until now. Earlier, after sensing that something was off, he also came to the realization that the mist of Forgotten Peak gave him a cold, evil feeling. The sensation normally meant that he had encountered some sort of unseeable, imperceptible evil spirit.

That was why he decided to ignite the horn of the Psychic White Rhino and see if his intuition was correct. And he was right.

Objectively speaking, the Nether Eyes weren’t a serious threat to him. The real threat was the Tomb Keepers themselves.

Clearly, the Nether Eyes were cultivated by the Tomb Keepers. Their purpose was to keep watch and prevent any outsiders from entering the Forgotten Peak.

Ye Qing had to admit that it was quite the effective method.

After all, the human eyes and senses could be fooled sometimes, but not the Nether Eyes.

The Nether Eye possessed no intelligence, but it could track down all living flesh-and-blood beings. No matter how well one concealed themselves, they could not stop their body from leaking vitality, and the Nether Eye could track that trail of vitality.

Not only that, once the Nether Eye had locked onto someone, it was impossible to escape it unless the person left its territory. No secret art or method could save them.

Finally, the Nether Eye could not be seen, heard, or felt. Barring certain special items like the horn of the Psychic White Rhino or secret arts, it was impossible to perceive the Nether Eye.

And if one could not perceive the Nether Eye, they could not effectively avoid its gaze or handle it as a matter of course.

What this meant was that the Nether Eyes alone could keep watch over the entire mountain, and the Tomb Keepers only needed to observe their activity to know if an intruder had crossed into the mountain.

In fact, that was definitely the case. As soon as the Tomb Keepers noticed that the Nether Eyes were acting unusually, they immediately took action and searched the area with a fine tooth comb. The spiritual power that enveloped the entire Forgotten Peak just now must belong to a Half Sage as well.

If he didn’t have the Psychic White Rhino’s horn, if he didn’t discover the Nether Eyes, if he didn’t turn around and leave the Forgotten Peak immediately, he would have been discovered already.

These Tomb Keepers sure were a scummy bunch.

“Dammit… I guess I’ll have to find another way.”

Ye Qing sighed and left the place.

Although the Tomb Keepers failed to find him, he had alerted the snake inside the bush so to speak. There was no way he could sneak onto the Forgotten Peak now. He could only head back and think of a new plan.

That said, this venture wasn’t completely fruitless even though he had fumbled at the starting line.

At the very least, he confirmed that Forgotten Peak was rife with dangers. Not only was it guarded by the rare Nether Eyes, the Tomb Keepers possessed at least one Half Sage among their ranks.

Therefore, the only way he could scale the mountain was one, deal with the Nether Eyes and two, deal with the Half Sage and the Tomb Keepers guarding the Forgotten Peak.

Dealing with the Nether Eyes was the easy part. They were dangerous only if you could not perceive their existence. Otherwise, there were a hundred and one ways to deal with them.

For example, the Nether Eyes followed living beings because they were attracted to their vitality and life force. Therefore, insulating his vitality was one way to avoid the Nether Eyes.

This was also how the Tomb Keepers avoided attracting the attention of their own Nether Eyes. Whatever they did to insulate their life force and vitality, they felt no different from a corpse.

Dealing with the Tomb Keepers was a different story though. The Half Sage most of all.

Ye Qing was still thinking when he avoided the many guards of West Kunlun and returned to the Qianyuan Garden.

“Who came?”

To Ye Qing’s surprise, the Qianyuan Garden was fully lit up. Inside the main hall, he could sense Mister Taozhu conversing and drinking with several people.

It took barely any effort to confirm that these people were all quite powerful. Every single one of them was either a Trueman or a Great Trueman. They were clearly jianghu warriors who had come to participate in the Celestial Peach Gathering.

Ye Qing had no intention of eavesdropping on their conversation and was going to return to his room. However, when an idea occurred to him, he stopped in his tracks and looked back at the jianghu warriors, a smile slowly curling his eyes into slits. “Now that I think about it, these jianghu warriors seem like a good option…”

……

“You came back, young master.”

Mister Taozhu greeted a meditating Ye Qing at his room.

“The feast is over, it seems. Who are those people?” Ye Qing opened his eyes and asked.

They are my jianghu acquaintances. They knew I was here and so came to pay me a visit.”

Mister Taozhu suggested, “I can reject further gatherings like this if you prefer a tranquil environment, young master.”

“Not at all. In fact, I want you to invite as many of your jianghu acquaintances to visit you as possible. I also want you to visit others and make contact with those who will be participating in the Celestial Peach Gathering. The more the better.”

“May I know why, young master?” Mister Taozhu asked in puzzlement.

“Because I need pawns. As many pawns as possible.”

Ye Qing said, “One more thing. I want your men and Cheng Qishang’s group to spread rumors and information regarding the Kunlun Ruins as much as possible. Don’t just spread them in one place though. I want it to be as widespread as possible.”

“Also, no need to keep the rumors subdued. In fact, make absolutely sure that West Kunlun finds out about these rumors.”

“As you command, young master,” Mister Taozhu answered without asking for the reason.

“This is the best I can do. Will it succeed, or will it fail? We will see.”

After Mister Taozhu left, Ye Qing let out a quiet sigh and returned to his meditation.

……

Heavenly Pond Peak was the tallest peak of West Queen Mountain. The top was steeped into the clouds like a bridge that connected heaven and earth.

At the summit of the Heavenly Pond Peak was a huge lake with crystal clear water. From above, it looked like a giant mirror that was embedded to the ground. It was both magnificent and beautiful.

The lake was, of course, the famous Heavenly Pond[1] of West Kunlun.

Legend had it that the Heavenly Pond of West Kunlun was created from the tear of a goddess. It transformed into a lake when it hit a peak of the world of mortals, and it boasted all sorts of wondrous powers.

Of course, the legend was just a legend. To believe it was to indulge in folly.

It was true that the Heavenly Pond was magical in many ways, however. For starters, it never ran dry, and it was lukewarm throughout the whole year. Second, it was overflowing with spiritual qi and could be used to nurture spirit plants, create medicine, forge Strange Artifacts and more.

The Kunlun Heavenly Pond was both a famous landscape and a forbidden zone because of this. Normally, it was forbidden even to the disciples from West Kunlun.

Today though, it was absolutely packed with people.

It was because today was the novennial Celestial Peach Gathering of West Kunlun.

1. This has the same vibe as calling a horse D small lol. ☜

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