Stranger Danger

Chapter 744: Cities Have Fallen Over Her Beauty

Countless people swarmed the palace from every direction. There were genius warriors from the Huan Champions Ranking such as Xu Rulin, Defeated, the Holy Son of Maitreya, Zhang Lingyang; Earth Champions Ranking Grandmasters such as Blood Rakshasa, Mistress Qu, and the Mortician; and many, many more nobodies.

Everyone’s face was fraught with love and intoxication. They could only stare blankly at the woman in the sky and walk toward her.

Auspicious clouds joined together to form multiple flights of stairs that led up to the sky. The bewitched people woodenly climbed the stairs and toward her. It wasn’t long before they were all gathered in front of the palace.

“Celestial palace my ass… Peh!”

Ye Qing hid a scoff as he stared at the palace in front of him. In fact, he had snapped out of his bewitched state even before he set foot on the staircase of auspicious clouds. The reason he continued to act bewitched was because the woman’s laughter gave him a very familiar feeling. Specifically, it reminded him of the severed hand he saw during the Hill Carrier’s Treasure Appreciation Auction.

The hand had been so bewitching that everyone had fallen in love with it at first sight. However, its influence was practically nothing compared to the woman inside the palace. After all, everyone within tens, maybe even hundreds of kilometers of her had fallen hopelessly in love with the woman after she showed herself. Among the influenced were powerful warriors from the Human Champions Ranking and Earth Champions Ranking as well.

That wasn’t all. He could feel her influence growing the closer he got to the palace.

The reason he awoke so quickly was one, because he entered the Grandmaster stage and was much, much stronger than he was before, and two, because of the Profound Yellow Mother Qi.

The Profound Yellow Mother Qi was a natural karmic qi with the ability to improve one’s body and talent, shield one from negative or demonic influences, and greatly bolster one’s physical and mental defenses. It was infinitely useful.

Thanks to the Profound Yellow Mother Qi, he was able to shake off the woman’s influence quickly and see the palace for what it truly was.

In another person’s eyes, the stairs were made of auspicious clouds. But in his eyes? They were built from countless dead bodies.

Just the same, the so-called celestial palace looked huge, magnificent and luxurious to most people, but what he saw was a dilapidated building that seemed horribly damaged by the ravages of war.

Everyone ran inside the palace after they set foot on it. Ye Qing was no exception.

The interior of the palace looked pretty broken as well, but it was wide and spacious, and glimpses of its former glory peeked out here and there.

There was a huge throne at the center of the palace. A woman was sitting on it.

She was the one who appeared outside the palace earlier. She was exactly as—no, she was even more beautiful and charming than the illusion they were shown. Even with his mental fortitude, one look at her face was almost enough to steal Ye Qing’s soul away.

Something was strange, however. There was a peachwood nail stuck inside her forehead. Thin and long, it pierced through her whole head and nailed her to the throne behind her back.

There was no bloodstain around the wound though. In fact, the peachwood nail looked as red as blood. It was as if the nail had absorbed all the blood inside her head.

Besides that, the woman was missing her left hand as well.

If Ye Qing only suspected that she was the owner of the severed hand he encountered at the Treasure Appreciation Auction before, now he was one hundred percent certain.

The woman looked incredibly lifelike, but Ye Qing’s demonic thought told him that there was no life inside her body. He wondered why.

The warriors who entered the room began forming lines in front of the woman. When they were ready, a man stepped up to the woman, cut open his wrist, and held it to her luscious lips. Almost immediately, his body began shriveling at an visible rate. Clearly, the woman was feeding on his blood.

Although he was dying, the man did not snap back to wakefulness or notice his state at all. He just wore an obsessive, infatuated smile on his face.

A short while later, the man was completely drained and turned into a withered corpse. But somehow, he was still moving. He stiffly stepped behind the woman and stood there.

The man’s smile never changed from the start until the end. His eyes did not stray from her for even a second either.

As for the others, it was almost as if they were staring at the air. They did not find the bizarre, positively terrifying scene disturbing in the slightest.

After the man stepped away, another warrior walked up to the woman, cut open his wrist, and fed the woman as well.

It wasn’t long before the woman had sucked five people’s blood. One of them was a Grandmaster too.

Ye Qing wondered if it was his imagination, but the woman seemed to look even more lifelike than before after consuming five people’s blood.

Is she still alive?

Ye Qing could not help but entertain the terrifying thought.

The Dark Overlord Li Hentian was the greatest warrior in the world eight hundred years ago. However, this woman probably wasn’t too far behind him. Assuming she really was still alive, this meant that she had somehow lived for over eight hundred years. Just how scary was that?

It was at this moment a familiar figure walked toward the woman. He was none other than Zhang Lingyang.

Ye Qing hadn’t fought Zhang Lingyang back at the basin, but he did probe him with his demonic thought before. That was how he knew that the man was exceptionally strong. So strong, in fact, that he could not have beaten him before he became a Grandmaster.

It was also why he did not believe that Zhang Lingyang was still enthralled by the woman’s supernatural charm.

He was unable to perceive the warrior’s inner thoughts, however. Not even a little. It was like he was peering into a bottomless old well where the water was perfectly still.

He was right. After Zhang Lingyang reached the woman, he abruptly pulled out a short saber and thrust it at the woman’s throat.

Clang!

What happened next stunned both him and Zhang Lingyang, however. When his saber struck the woman’s throat, it actually sounded like he was hitting metal. It failed to leave even the slightest mark on the woman’s skin as well. Not only that, Zhang Lingyang was pushed back a few steps, and his hand was numb from the impact.

“Oh my… they say that a pretty girl’s skin is made of water, so why are yours harder than even stone?”

Zhang Lingyang shook his wrist while wearing an odd expression on his face. “I was going to give you an easy death since you’re so pretty, but I guess I have no choice but to get violent. This sin is going to haunt my dreams to come!”

Despite his frivolous words, Zhang Lingyang was as tense as he could be on the inside. It was because he knew how powerful the woman was. The only reason he was immune to her influence was thanks to his master’s gift, a Five Thunder Heavenly Master Seal, an item of supreme yang.

The reason he came here despite being immune was one, he wanted to know exactly what was the thing that bewitched so many people at once, and two, he wanted to nab a treasure or two. That was why he came here after all; to become rich as fuck.

At first, he was quite satisfied with his decision. For one, the woman really was one of, if not the prettiest women he had ever seen in his life. If she wasn’t a blood-sucking monster, then he really would have hesitated to destroy such a pretty thing. Two, the peachwood nail was a valuable treasure. And how did he know? It was thanks to his man’s intuition, of course!

Of course, he was sure that he wasn’t the only one who was untouched by the woman’s influence. They must surely be plotting the same thing as him. But who was he? He was the champion of the Human Champions Ranking; the future of the Dragon Tiger Mountain! Cowardice and hesitation was not in his blood!

More importantly, he was certain that no one could catch up to him as long as he managed to kill the monster and take the peachwood nail.

To pull off this feat, he would need to kill the woman in one strike. That was why he chose the Demon Suppressing Saber. The Demon Suppressing Saber was a weapon specifically designed by the Heavenly Master Mansion to defeat evil and suppress dark powers. It was especially potent against evil and yin-type Strangers such as the one right in front of him.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. He had imagined many scenarios in his head, but he never imagined that his Demon Suppressing Saber would fail to harm even a hair on the woman’s person.

He was on his highest alert as a result of this.

The pic below is Chi Wuyao from Against The Gods. I believe it's the best pic that describes this upcoming character.