Stranger Danger

The thing wrapped around his body was completely transparent. It was also slimy like some sort of tentacle.

The moment the tentacle caught him, some sort of evil, anomalous energy of nothingness was injected into his body.

His body immediately grew transparent and intangible as well as if he was being assimilated or departing this world.

Not only that, his strength and mind were instantly shackled as well. All that was left was his consciousness.

As he was slowly lifted into the air, Ye Qing’s eyes grew wider and wider.

It was because he saw countless tentacles where there was nothing before.

The tentacles were transparent and colorless. Each tentacle was as thick as a tree trunk requiring several people to embrace completely, and they were covered in suction discs from head to toe. They descended from the sky like roots and covered the entire Kunlun City.

Before Ye Qing could make sense of what he was seeing, an even greater horror entered his vision.

There were countless humans in the sky. Male, female, old and young. There had to be at least a hundred thousand of them. It looked as if they were standing in the air.

These people were all dead as a matter of course, and yet their bodies didn’t rot even though thousands and thousands of years had passed. Looking at their appearance alone, one might think that they were still alive.

Not only that, Ye Qing could sense their souls, even though all he felt from their souls were pain, fear, and despair.

He could even hear them sobbing and wailing. The screams, cries, and sobs of a hundred thousand souls were so hellish, so unholy, that even Ye Qing almost broke under the pressure and succumbed.

Their bodies were intact, and their souls were still present. Some people might think that they could still be saved.

In reality, they were as dead as they could be. It was because their souls had been completely transformed into pain, fear, and despair. Not a sliver of thought of consciousness remained in their souls. Their mind[1] was long gone.

Ye Qing had no doubt that these people were the missing citizens of Kunlun City.

As it turned out, they weren’t missing after all. They had just been kidnapped into the sky and converted into a form that could not be seen or perceived by the tentacles.

The tentacle lifted him up some more, and Ye Qing finally saw that everyone’s head was pierced by a tentacle.

That was how they were suspended in mid-air. The invisible tentacle of nothing had pierced through their heads and buried deep into their body and soul.

That was why it looked from the bottom like they were standing in the sky.

Not only that, Ye Qing could clearly sense the tentacles absorbing the souls’ pain, fear and despair.

Suddenly, Ye Qing felt something and looked up.

He immediately saw a transparent, shapeless tentacle descending toward his head and sinking into his headspace.

The second the tentacle made contact with his headspace, what felt like an infinite amount of malice, desire, and other negative emotions broke out like a dam had broken.

It was trying to drown him in infinite fear and despair.

It did not take much to imagine how much the citizens of Kunlun City had suffered during their final moment. It was bad enough that they were filled with endless horror until their minds had burned out, but their souls were turned into vessels of fear and despair that would feed the beast for eternity as well.

Speaking of beast, it was at this moment Ye Qing saw something he would never forget.

The owner of the tentacles turned out to be a Stranger that was shaped like a jellyfish. It was completely transparent, and it was so gigantic that it covered the entire sky.

Beneath its umbrella-like body were countless writhing tentacles. They spread out in every direction like spider webs or tree roots.

“That’s… the Cloud Mother of Nothingness?!”

Ye Qing’s eyes widened as he finally recognized the Stranger.

The Cloud Mother of Nothingness was a type of Nine Nethers Demon. It was also a bonafide Ancient-class Stranger.

Throughout the history of the human race, many Nine Nethers Rifts, Nine Nethers Black Tides or Nine Nethers Demons had broken out here and there and caused untold havoc on the world. That was why the humans were very familiar with them.

Out of all of the known Nine Nethers Demon, the Cloud Mother of Nothingness was easily one of the strongest and most terrifying types of Nine Nether Demons.

The Cloud Mother of Nothingness was born from the nothingness of the Nine Nethers. Shaped like a jellyfish and big as the sky itself, it floated in the infinite void and fed on fear and despair.

Because it was born from nothingness, it could not be seen or perceived. It was also undying and immortal.

When a Cloud Mother of Nothingness showed up, it would bind and drag all flesh-and-blood beings into the sky. It would create fear and despair using negative emotions and drag them into the pits of degeneration. Should they succumb, they would be trapped in an eternal hell of fear and despair of the Cloud Mother of Nothingness’ making and feed it for eternity.

The Cloud Mother of Nothingness had only appeared three times in the history of the human race, but each time it appeared, it dealt an unbelievable amount of damage to humanity and took countless lives.

Worst of all, the Cloud Mother of Nothingness was an Ancient-class Stranger and on par with a human Sage. It was powerful enough that only a Sage could fight against it.

As if that wasn’t enough, the Cloud Mother of Nothingness’ unique birth and characteristics meant that conventional means could barely put a scratch on its body. Even if that wasn’t the case, it was immortal and undying. As it enjoyed a near infinite lifespan, it was almost impossible to kill permanently. The best way to deal with it was to exile into the depths of the void via great power.

Ye Qing was on full alert as soon as he recognized the entity who had kidnapped him. Without hesitation, he knocked the Earthly Sovereign Bell inside his head.

Dang!

Inside his headspace, his Heavenly Demon yang god gently held the Earthly Sovereign Bell with one hand and tapped its surface with the other. The outburst of bell chime and profound light instantly annihilated the tentacle that dared to slither into his headspace.

The next moment, the bell chime and profound light emerged from his body and spread out in every direction.

Bang bang bang bang…

A series of strange noises popped in the air. The next moment, Ye Qing found the invisible energy restricting his body disappearing without a trace.

Not only that, the tentacles piercing everyone else’s heads abruptly broke at the center and released the bodies, causing them to fall like the rain.

For a time, Kunlun City was struck by a downpour of dead bodies.

“Time to run!”

As soon as he broke free from tentacles, Ye Qing immediately dashed toward the exit while carrying the Earthly Sovereign Bell on top of his head[2].

Seemingly angered by Ye Qing’s resistance, the Cloud Mother of Nothingness floating high above the nine heavens shook its umbrella-like body and blasted countless beams of fear and despair toward the ground. For a time, both heaven and earth were dyed by all sorts of colors.

Not only that, the broken tentacles rapidly regrew themselves before flailing wildly like weeds at the bottom of the river. They then attacked Ye Qing from all sides.

Ye Qing did not bother dodging. With the Earthly Sovereign Bell covering him in an unbreakable shell of profound light, nothing could harm even a hair on his body.

That said, the tremendous strength behind each impact made it very difficult for him to make any progress.

“Hah…”

Ye Qing sucked in a deep breath and abruptly removed the Earthly Sovereign Bell from his head. It slowly grew bigger when he tossed it into the air.

Activating the Earthly Sovereign True Body, Ye Qing punched the Earthly Sovereign Bell.

The Earthly Sovereign Bell abruptly shone brightly. The mountains, the rivers, the sun, the moon, the celestial birds, and the strange beasts all emerged to suppress anything and everything.

The countless tentacles broke at once, and the endless fear and despair were scattered instantly.

Ye Qing seized the opportunity to break through space and reappeared dozens of kilometers away.

The second he was out of Kunlun City, Ye Qing immediately put away the Earthly Sovereign Bell, concealed his life force, and covered up his energies with his demonic thought to avoid detection.

It might look like he was one-sidedly kicking the Cloud Mother of Nothingness’ shapeless butt—shattering countless tentacles and suppressings its endless waves of fear and despair like nothing—but he really failed to inflict even a single wound on the Stranger.

At his current strength, he might be able to injure the Cloud Mother of Nothingness with the Earthly Sovereign Bell, but there was zero chance he could kill it. He did not dare to say he could pull it off even after he became a Sage.

That was why he never planned to clash against the Cloud Mother of Nothingness head on from the start until the end.

1. This is why I specifically translated 神魂 as mind, at least for this novel. There is a huge difference. ☜

2. Actual tinfoil hat moment. ☜

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