Stranger Danger

Chapter 548: Joy Bodhisattva’s Invitation

Chen Wuxin left as quickly as he came. After that, Ye Qing spent the next few days cultivating, cultivating, and even more cultivating.

Ye Qing’s cultivation plan for himself was very simple. During the morning, he would refine the Profound Yellow Qi and cultivate the “Chaos Demon Ape Body Tempering Sutra” to temper his body. The sooner he completed the final step of the martial art and ascended his body to the Grandmaster stage, the better.

At night, he would use Nanke to hone his control over his new strength and body. At the same time, he also cultivated the “Paranirmitavaśavartin Heavenly Demon Sutra” to manifest his Yin God and enter the Spirit Master stage as soon as possible.

Besides cultivation, Ye Qing would occasionally take a stroll around or outside the city, but not to relax or catch some rest. In fact, he wasn’t going to rest until he mastered the “Chaos Demon Ape Body Tempering Sutra”.

The reason he went out was to seek out the items Nanke desired in exchange for its services. Thanks to the Annon Sutra, it was generally simple to satisfy Black Lord and White Lord’s demands. In fact, a good number of items could be bought directly from the Tower of Cornucopia’s shops. Sure, most of them were extremely expensive, but as the man who robbed the Chaos Heaven Brigand’s treasury, money was the one thing he didn’t lack. Anything that money could solve was not a problem.

However, not all of the items they requested could be purchased. In fact, some requests did not involve items at all. That was why Ye Qing occasionally left the city to hunt certain Strangers or unusual items.

Speaking of requests that did not involve items, sometimes, the two snakes would make some extremely unusual requests. For example, they would ask him to stay a night at a haunted house, stand under a tree during a thunderstorm for the entire day, run naked around the entire city one time, peep on Widow Wang, his neighbor while she bathed, tell Old Chen that his son’s surname was really Wang[1], dip honey in piss and taste it, so on and so on.

He did not know what the fuck was wrong with Black Lord and White Lord, but as a bashful man there were certain requests he would never accept. For example, he never accepted the request to streak around the city, dip honey in piss and the like. However, there were some requests that his heart said no, but his cultivation said yes such as peeping on Widow Wang while she bathed. What was shame before the allure of power? Nay!

It definitely wasn’t because he wanted to peep on her himself. Nuh uh.

Honestly, if it wasn’t for Nanke’s demands, he would have stayed inside the Temple of Divination twenty-four seven. Thankfully, Black Lord and White Lord never gave him a task he couldn’t complete, so overall everything was going as planned.

Calendars do not exist in a mountain.

Time flows like an unending stream.

Before late autumn was over, Bei You greeted its first big snow.

The snow looked like goose feathers as they rode the icy wind and leisurely floated down the dark sky. It gave the brownish yellow soil of Northern Xinjiang a silvery make-up and lessened its usual ruggedness and roguishness.

The pedestrians’ attire had changed overnight as well. Almost everyone was wearing a thick sheepskin coat and hugging themselves tightly to keep warm. The white outfit made them look like a natural part of the wind and snow.

It was like the spring wind had changed the landscape overnight and filled it with flowers.

In Northern Xinjiang, snow was as common as the rain of Tian Yong. It was perfectly normal and nothing to be surprised about. In fact, Yi Pin claimed that this year’s snow was actually a lot later than normal. Previously, a days-long snow would appear as soon as September or October, but this year it didn’t snow until November.

This was Bei You’s first snow of the year and Ye Qing’s first snow since he arrived at Bei You. Yi Pin believed that it was worth commemorating and decided to set up a stove in the courtyard. They just sat there admiring the snow while drinking white and cooking lamb meat. It was a relaxing, peaceful moment especially for Ye Qing since he had been cultivating almost non-stop until that point.

Their wine bottles were half-full when a series of knocks came from the entrance.

“Hmm?” Ye Qing set down his cup with a slight frown on his face. “It looks like we have honored guests today. Please greet them, Longxiang.”

“Okay.” Li Longxiang got to his feet, patted away the snow on his outfit, and left to open the front door.

A beautiful nun was standing outside the entrance. Her head was shaved, but her bald head actually added to her charm instead of diminishing it. Not only that, the somewhat heavy snow didn’t affect her in the slightest. Whenever a snowflake was around one meter away from the woman, its speed of descent would suddenly suffer, and it would always fall one meter away from the woman.

It was as if nature itself was submitting to her.

“Are Reverend Yi Pin and Warrior Ye around, young man?” the woman asked smilingly while clasping her hands together in a prayer.

Li Longxiang blanked out for a moment. He had never seen such a beautiful woman in his life.

The woman did not lose her cool even though Longxiang was so stunned by her appearance that he forgot to speak. “Are Reverend Yi Pin and Warrior Ye around, little reverend?”

“Y-yes! Yes, they are!” Li Longxiang finally returned to the earth and looked down at his feet while blushing furiously.

“Please invite her inside, Longxiang,” Ye Qing called out while looking at the woman’s general direction. He had a feeling that he knew who she was.

“Senior uncle has given you permission, so please come inside.” Li Longxiang stepped out of the way and motioned for the woman to enter.

“Thank you, little reverend.” The woman nodded and stepped into the courtyard. She then saluted Yi Pin and Ye Qing and said, “Greetings, Reverend Yi Pin, Warrior Ye. I am Worriless of the Buddhist Hall of Joy.”

“The Worriless Protector?! To think you would grace our lowly temple with your presence!” Yi Pin jumped to his feet and exclaimed with pleasant surprise before Ye Qing could even say anything. “Please, take a seat.”

Ye Qing clasped his own hands and said, “Well met, protector.”

“Please, there is no need to be so courteous,” Worriless replied politely and smilingly. “First, I would like to apologize for taking up your time. The reason I came here is to invite the two of you to attend the Bodhisattva’s Trueman feast five days later. It is her sincerest wish that you would grace her halls with your presence!”

Worriless then produced two golden invitation letters from her sleeves and sent them floating into Ye Qing and Yi Pin’s hands. “These are your invitation letters.”

After the duo accepted the invitation letters, Ye Qing said courteously, “The Bodhisattva is too courteous. She did not need to send someone as important as you to be her messenger.”

Worriless smiled at him. “Thank you, but I don’t find this task to be beneath me. You are the Bodhisattva’s honored guests, and it is my honor to be able to invite you to her Trueman feast.”

“You flatter us, protector,” Yi Pin said with a wide grin on his face. “Would you like to take a seat? It’s pretty cold today, I’m sure you can use a cup of tea or two to warm up your body.”

“Thank you, but I have to return to the Bodhisattva and report the completion of my mission,” Worriless turned him down gently. “Please attend the Bodhisattva’s Trueman feast five days later.”

“We will,” both Ye Qing and Yi Pin replied in unison.

“Goodbye.” Worriless clasped her hands together in prayer, nodded, and took her leave just like that.

After Worriless was gone, Yi Pin looked at the invitation letter and clicked his tongue in amazement. “I can’t believe Joy Bodhisattva sent a protector just to invite you to her Trueman feast. She seems to value you a lot for some reason!”

“She invited you as well, didn’t she?” Ye Qing countered.

“Don’t be stupid. It’s obvious that you’re the one she really wants to invite. I’m just the extra,” Yi Pin said with a tinge of jealousy.

Ye Qing glanced at him with astonishment. “Sometimes, your self-awareness really surprises me, brother.”

Yi Pin: “...” Why do I feel like you’re taking a jab at me?

“Anyway, are we going or not?”

“Joy Bodhisattva went so far as to send a protector to give me my invitation letter. Do you think I really have the option to say no?” Ye Qing sighed.

To be honest, he really didn’t want to attend the Trueman feast. Why would he go when he could be cultivating within the safety of his own walls? Besides, he had a feeling that he was going to get embroiled in some sort of trouble again if he went.

Unfortunately, Joy Bodhisattva had sent a protector to invite him almost as if she had anticipated his response. If he did not show up, there was a good chance he would earn her ire and land himself in even more trouble. All in all, he did not have a choice.

“What about you, brother?”

“I’m not going.” Yi Pin shook his head without hesitation.

“You’re not? But why?” Ye Qing was caught off guard by his reply. If you didn’t want to go, then why did you say yes just now?

“One, every big shot in Bei You would be attending Joy Bodhisattva’s Trueman feast. I have no intention of showing my face to these people and embarrassing myself.”

“Two, I promised a client that I would be checking out their fengshui exactly five days later, so I can’t actually attend the feast.”

Yi Pin then fixed at Ye Qing with a wordless stare and said slowly, “And finally, I have this feeling that being near you in a setting like that is like setting a powder keg next to an inferno. Sorry, but I have no intentions of getting caught up in your troubles. Good luck.”

Ye Qing: “...”

You wound me, brother!

1. Meaning that Old Wang cucked him. ☜