Stranger Danger

Chapter 388: Chaos Demon Ape Body Tempering Sutra

“Have you… been to the treasury already?” The Heartless Brain exclaimed in surprise.

“What do you think?” Ye Qing countered.

Of course he had visited the treasury already. While the Heartless Brain was hunting down the stragglers, he got bored and decided to pay the treasury a visit and swipe every last valuable inside it. And thanks to Hu Fengsan’s memories, the looting didn’t take much time at all.

The explosive talismans he set were powerful enough to set the granary and the treasury on fire, but not nearly enough to blow up the whole thing. This was especially true for the treasury where the Chaos Heaven Brigands’ greatest treasures were stored. Naturally, nothing of real value was harmed.

Although the Chaos Heaven Mountain was just one of the Chaos Heaven Brigands’ bases and not their real headquarters, there was a surprising amount of good stuff in here such as Strange Artifacts, various tools and equipment, money, provisions, pills, martial arts manuals and more.

Ye Qing had zero interest in the provisions, tools and mundane equipment. He took only the Strange Artifacts, martial arts manuals, pills, money and other valuables.

Of course, Ye Qing didn’t possess nearly enough Nature’s Shells to store all of the items. Heck, the money alone could fill up an entire Nature’s Shell and more. Luckily, Chen Ah Sheng’s Nature’s Shell had a big enough space to store all of the items.

Ye Qing had swiped Chen Ah Sheng’s Nature’s Shell while he was moving the Heartless Brain over to his body. In fact, he had stripped off his gloves, which was a Strange Artifact, and other valuables as well. By now, he had looted enough bodies that the work felt like second nature to him.

On a related note, Chen Ah Sheng’s Nature’s Shell was no ordinary Nature’s Shell. In fact, it was one of the best Strange Artifacts Ye Qing had ever obtained. He called it “a” Nature’s Shell, when in reality it was nine Nature’s Shells bound together by a chain bracelet. Each Nature’s Shell was a superior-grade Nature’s Shell with a space that was dozens of times bigger than the best Nature’s Shell Ye Qing possessed. Its value couldn’t be understated.

The bracelet’s name was Nine Heavens. It was probably referring to the fact that the owner of the bracelet might never run out of place to store their items.

With Nine Heavens, Ye Qing only needed to use three Nature’s Shell to store everything he took from the treasury.

To be fair though, the items inside the treasury were nothing to write home about. The really, really good stuff were already stored in Chen Ah Sheng’s Nine Heavens. Chen Ah Sheng’s Trueman-stage cultivation art, the “Chaos Demon Ape Body Tempering Sutra”, was an obvious example. There were various Spirit Purification stage to Spirit Master stage martial arts such as the “Sky Piercing Fist of the Sage”, the “Staff That Overturns Rivers and Seas”, and the “Sky Star Palm”.

As for medicine, the Temptation Breaching Pill of Heavens and the Water of Insight could aid a Spirit Master in entering the Trueman stage. Chen Ah Sheng also had a couple of Hatred-class Strange Artifacts. Finally, the guy had a mountain of silvers, properties, deeds and more.

Ye Qing could tell that Chen Ah Sheng had made a lot of preparations to enter the Trueman stage and become a Grandmaster. Too bad for the fucker, it all belonged to Ye Qing now.

“Brother Ye, you… are a very fast man, aren’t you?” The Heartless Brain sighed helplessly after a long moment.

“Don’t worry, I’m not a greedy man. I’ll give you the reward you deserve when I’m done tallying everything,” Ye Qing said with a smirk.

If you’re going to do that, then you wouldn’t have taken Chen Ah Sheng’s stuff! The Heartless Brain complained inside his own head. Since he took over Chen Ah Sheng’s brain, he naturally inherited his memories as well. As such, he knew very well that the Half-Step Grandmaster’s Nine Heavens was where the greatest valuables of the Chaos Heaven Brigands were stored.

If he still had the Nine Heavens, then he most likely could’ve kept the best items to himself. But now, it was too late. He couldn’t ask Ye Qing for the items because the young man had already allowed him to occupy Chen Ah Sheng’s body. If he made such a request, it would make him look greedy and ungrateful.

It might look like he and Ye Qing shared a cooperative relationship right now, but in reality he was subordinate to him. In fact, his life was partially in Ye Qing’s hands. He had to be careful. It wasn’t worth risking death over some items.

“There’s one thing you should know if you really are planning to reward me. Although I can use Chen Ah Sheng’s power, I am not him in terms of body and mind. Therefore, it is impossible for me to cultivate my strength and become stronger, meaning that martial arts manuals and the like are useless to me. Therefore, you should give me Strange Artifacts that I may use to protect myself or attack my enemies and some money. It’s been a long time since I enjoyed the food and wine of humanity, and even longer since I fuc… ahem…”

The Heartless Brain trailed off with an awkward cough before he could say something he would regret.

Ye Qing chuckled. “Sure. Don’t worry. Chen Ah Sheng didn’t have much stuff[1], but the one thing he didn’t lack was money. I promise you you’ll be able to eat and drink to your heart’s content.”

“Good, good!” The Heartless Brain guffawed. “Oh right, now that I’m technically a human, I should have a human name as well. What do you think I should call myself, Brother Ye? I’d like to have an awe-inspiring name, but ah, please don’t give me a name like ‘Batian’ (Dominate The Heavens) or ‘Wudi’ (Invincible). It’s too overt and distasteful, you see.”

Ye Qing mulled over the matter for a moment before answering, “The body’s surname is Chen, and your original name has ‘Wuxin’ (Heartless) in it. How does Chen Wuxin sound?”

“Chen Wuxin? The world is heartless, and so am I! Very well!” The Heartless Brain laughed heartily. “From now on, my name is Chen Wuxin!”

……

“The crux of the ‘Chaos Demon Ape Body Tempering Sutra’ lies in the word ‘tempering’. And how do you temper oneself? You do it by going through the stances and practicing the fists. You will use your fist to vitalize your blood, nurture your body, hone your muscles, and toughen your bones. When you have honed every part of your body to perfection, then you would have entered the adept level.”

Inside a guest room, Ye Qing was recalling the passages inside the “Chaos Demon Ape Body Tempering Sutra” and walking around in measured, precise steps. Sometimes, he would lie down on the floor. Sometimes, he would dash from wall to wall. Sometimes, he would climb up a furniture or two, and sometimes, he would hang off the ceiling. To put it simply, he was acting like an ape.

When he was still, he was so still that someone could walk into the room and not see him unless he happened to be right in front of them. When he was moving, it was like the heavens had called down the thunder. He was perfectly in control of his actions and could flow from form to form like water. It was quite the graceful sight.

Ye Qing was currently practicing the stances of the “Chaos Demon Ape Body Tempering Sutra”. The “Chaos Demon Ape Body Tempering Stance” was a moving stance that required him to be moving constantly instead of holding a pose like a normal stance.

Three repetitions later, sweat was rising off Ye Qing’s skin like steam. His blood flow was so loud that it was like a train was running through his veins.

The next moment, Ye Qing threw a punch at the empty air in front of him like a spirit ape who was battling a mortal enemy. He would cut, slash, strangle, smash, claw or even headbutt his imaginary enemy like a wild beast, and there was no part of his body that he wouldn’t use to gain the upper hand.

Over time, Ye Qing’s movements grew faster, wilder and more aggressive. After all, he didn’t want to be a spirit ape. He wanted to be a spirit ape who had transformed into a demon ape, one who would transform order into chaos, turn the world upside down, and even restart it anew with pure violence and bloodthirst.

Considering how powerful and aggressive his movements were, it wouldn’t be surprising if he accidentally or intentionally tore the whole place down. In reality, not a single piece of furniture or brick was harmed.

What Ye Qing was practicing now was a fist art that came attached with the “Chaos Demon Ape Body Tempering Sutra”. It was called the “Chaos Demon Ape Fist”.

There were nine forms and thirty six variations in the martial art. Each form targeted the skin, flesh, bone and internal organs with purpose and precision and honed a practitioner from outside to inside.

Obviously, the “Chaos Demon Ape Fist” could also be used to battle against foes. Earlier, Chen Ah Sheng had transformed into the Chaos Demon Ape and used the “Chaos Demon Ape Fist” to rip the one-horned giant to shreds and deal Corpse Child a grievous blow. Had luck been on his side, he might even be able to kill both ghosts and claim the victory.

But of course, the main application of the “Chaos Demon Ape Fist” was still the tempering of one’s body. Assuming he reached the end of this cultivation art, his body would enter the Trueman stage, and he would gain the ability to transform into the Chaos Demon Ape[2]. He would be impervious to most weapons, immune to water and fire, and overflowing with strength and vitality.

The “Chaos Demon Ape Fist” could not reach its full potential unless the practitioner had transformed into the Chaos Demon Ape. In other words, the Chaos Demon Ape was the foundation, and the “Chaos Demon Ape Fist” the art.

The reason Ye Qing was practicing the “Chaos Demon Ape Body Tempering Sutra” was to forge his own Chaos Demon Ape Body.

Since entering the jianghu, he had stumbled across all kinds of opportunities and forged a body that was stronger than most body-tempering warriors. However, he had never trained using a pure body-tempering cultivation art.

He had wanted to obtain a body-tempering cultivation art for a long time. Sure, his strength and bodily control were no weaker than a pure body-tempering warrior’s, but ultimately, he was relying on his gifted body and his instincts to do most of the hard work. He had never truly trained in the ways of a body-tempering warrior, and what Gu Suitang taught him were techniques, not cultivation. As such, he was unable to unleash the full potential of his body like an actual body-tempering warrior could. He was like an uneducated miser who had no idea how to spend the mountain of wealth he possessed properly.

Moreover, his body had hit a bottleneck a while ago. It would take a tremendous amount of effort and time to progress to the next stage. Like a piece of refined steel that had been refined countless times already, the only way it might be refined further was to find a better blacksmith, a bigger hammer, and a hotter flame.

A suitable body-tempering cultivation art was the blacksmith, hammer and flame all wrapped up in one. The better the body-tempering cultivation art, the bigger the boost.

The “Chaos Demon Ape Body Tempering Sutra” was the ultimate art of the Chaos Demon Tempering Sect, one of the thirty six unorthodox sects. It was a cultivation art that could carry a warrior all the way to the Trueman stage and make them a Grandmaster. Once they had successfully forged their Chaos Demon Ape Body, they could supposedly carry mountains, wield an entire hill as a weapon, cut rivers and so on. Long story short, it was incredibly powerful.

The “Chaos Demon Ape Body Tempering Sutra” was how Chen Ah Sheng went from a perfectly ordinary refugee to one of the most notorious brigands in the jianghu.

Out of all the valuables Chen Ah Sheng possessed, the “Chaos Demon Ape Body Tempering Sutra” was easily the most valuable of them all. It was why he didn’t hesitate to study the cultivation art as soon as he got his hands on it.

The entry level of the cultivation art was entry level, but the farther the practitioner got, the bigger the cost became. It took an obscene amount of natural treasures to sustain it.

As the leader of the Chaos Heaven Brigands, Chen Ah Sheng had obtained a lot of natural treasures through countless raids and plunderings. Despite this, he never managed to enter the adept level of the cultivation art before he died. Because of this, the Chaos Demon Ape Body he transformed into wasn’t perfect, and he wasn’t able to become a Grandmaster either. Otherwise, his battle with Corpse Child would’ve turned out very differently.

This problem was nothing to Ye Qing, however. Everything he might need was right inside his cheat, the Annon Sutra. The gray runes replenished his vigor, and the silver runes replenished his true qi. The runes were better than natural treasures in every way not only because they were tailored to a specific aspect of the body, but also because he didn’t need to run all over the world to collect them. He simply needed to kill Strangers to gather more. In short, they were perfect to cultivate the “Chaos Demon Ape Body Tempering Sutra”.

Thanks to the dragon-serpent runes, it took him only ten or so days to enter the journeyman level. Not only that, he now had the strength of seven dragon elephants.

Of course, part of the reason he was improving so quickly was because his body was incredibly strong. It was only natural that he improved quickly.

Chen Ah Sheng had taken five years to reach the journeyman stage. If he knew that Ye Qing had reached the milestone in just ten days, he would probably retire and return home to be a farmer on the spot.

Pop pop pop pop pop!

Suddenly, Ye Qing’s bones popped like a series of thunderclaps, and the silhouettes, fist intent and force within the room disappeared like they were never there. Standing at the center of the room, Ye Qing sucked all of the air inside the room into his stomach like a dragon.

1. Yes, he’s lying through his teeth. ☜

2. Before anyone asks, partial or imperfect transformation is possible. ☜