Stranger Danger

“Phew…”

As the sun rose, and purple qi greeted the world once more, Ye Qing let out a sigh before opening his eyes. A hint of joy peeked out of his features as he muttered under his breath, “Who doesn’t like a blessing in disguise?”

It was the third day after he left the city. That night, after locating a fairly safe hideout not too far away from the city, he immediately began meditating to heal his wounded mind and depleted spiritual power.

At first, he thought it would take him one or two weeks at least to recover from such an injury. In reality, not only did he recover in just three days, his reservoir of spiritual power had actually grown a little bigger than before.

And how was this possible? It was all thanks to the Edict of Divine Thought.

The Edict of Divine Thought was, in essence, a wisp of spiritual and martial intent. When he snuffed it out, he had destroyed Di Shitian’s intent but not the vast spiritual power that empowered it.

It didn’t sound like much, but Di Shitian was no weakling. What was an ordinary wisp of spiritual power to Di Shitian was a helluva treasure to a small fry like Ye Qing.

Obviously, the spiritual power it provided could not compare to the nine-hundred-years-old Moon Lotus Seeds Joy Bodhisattva had given him. However, its purity exceeded the Moon Lotus Seeds.

As a result, not only did he fully recover from his mental exhaustion and injuries, his spirit was stronger, and his Yin God was denser as well.

That wasn’t all. He hadn’t refined and absorbed all the spiritual power stored inside his headspace yet. Once he converted it all into demonic thought, he was sure his cultivation would advance further. He might even become a middle-stage Spirit Master thanks to this.

Of course, it was a little counterintuitive and silly to use a champion’s spiritual intent purely as an item to grow one’s spirit. After all, the most important element of a spiritual intent wasn’t the spiritual power that fueled it, but the champion’s insight into martial arts and the world itself. Even a mere glimpse into the world beyond was a great boon to any warrior.

Unfortunately for Ye Qing, he had completely annihilated Di Shitian’s will. This meant that Di Shitian’s martial understanding and insight were destroyed as well. So, he had no choice but to opt for the inferior option.

He would be lying if he said his heart didn’t ache at the lost opportunity, but of course he was satisfied with this outcome. He had already gotten a blessing in disguise, it would be greedy and stupid to complain that the blessing wasn’t better. Besides, the wisp of spiritual intent wasn’t the only thing he got out of this venture.

First, he had retrieved Nanke. Obviously.

Second, Slaughterer, Earth Walker, Su Xiu and Dream Master had so kindly contributed their possessions to his cause, and a good amount of them were valuable natural treasures and martial arts manuals too.

Out of all the items, there were six that sat at the top of all the loot.

The first item was, of course, the Wenliang Pearl. He had found it in Earth Walker’s Nature’s Shell, meaning that Yaksa had killed Ancestor Greenwood and robbed him of his item. Too bad for Earth Walker, he died before he ever got to make use of the treasure.

The second item was three jade scrolls[1]. They came from Su Xiu, and he reckoned that it was the Demon Controlling Jade Manual Su Xiu and Greenlake Bai were talking about.

Although he called them jade scrolls, and their name was the “Demon Controlling Jade Manual”, they were really made of some sort of unknown material that looked like metal or jade, but was neither. One thing for certain, it was unbelievably tough and impossible to damage.

Even stranger, he could not find a single word in either one of the scrolls. They were completely blank and seemingly useless. If there was something magical about them, he wasn’t able to identify it despite his best efforts.

He was sure they were extraordinary though. Otherwise, Su Xiu and Greenlake Bai wouldn’t have fought over it.

The third item was a pill called Pill of the Undying Spirit of the Valley. He had found in Dancer’s Nature’s Shell.

There was a passage in Tao Te Ching that went something like this:

“The spirit of the valley never dies.

This is called the mysterious female.

The gateway of the mysterious female

Is called the root of heaven and earth.”

To put it in more practical, secular terms, the Pill of the Undying Spirit of the Valley was a pill that helped a warrior to discover their true nature and realize their true self, which indirectly increased their chances of becoming a Grandmaster.

As amazing as the pill was, it was unfortunately useless for a body-tempering warrior like Ye Qing. A body-tempering warrior emphasized on honing the body and enriching the vigor. They sought perfection of the body and not the mind, which was why a pill that improved the cultivation of the mind—while appreciated—wasn’t nearly as valuable or useful to him.

That was why the pill was useless to him—for now. He would have to put it out of his mind for the moment.

The fourth item was a Phenomenon-class Strange Artifact called the Ruyi[2] of Fortune. Carved from jade and about as big as a human palm, one half of the ruyi was black, and the other half white. The black half of the ruyi had the word “Misfortune” engraved on it, and the white half the word “Fortune”. It possessed the power to turn fortune into misfortune and vice versa.

To put it simply, the Ruyi of Fortune could change the luck of two people. For a short time, it could strip a target of their good luck to enhance the user’s own luck. The user would become so incredibly lucky that their tribulations would turn into happy accidents, and every obstacle standing in their way would be swept clean.

On the other hand, the victim who was stripped of their luck would experience all kinds of misfortune and hardships.

To put it in even simpler terms, the Ruyi of Fortune was the Incense of Fortune and the Incense of Misfortune combined.

The power to steal another’s luck was incredible to say the least. The word Ruyi meant “as one pleases”, and the power to do as one pleases was powerful indeed.

For a person, there were few things more important than luck. A lucky person could live their whole life happily and without hardships, whereas an unlucky person would be lucky to make it past childhood especially in this day and age.

Luck was a curious variable. An unlucky person could suffer all kinds of hardships and tribulations despite making all the right decisions, an unlucky family would not remain a family for long, and an unlucky country would decline and fall into ruin.

Everyone knows that luck was a key factor in life, but it wasn’t an easy concept to grasp. Formless, everchanging and profound, there was a reason why the saying, “Let the heavens decide” existed. There was only so much a person could do to affect luck.

Everyone was born with a predetermined amount of luck. While it wasn’t impossible to improve one’s luck and change one’s fate, it was certainly most difficult. Only a person with a special set of skill or an item that was blessed with great fortune and karma could alter one’s natural luck and fate.

For example, Ye Qing had obtained an impressive amount of Profound Yellow Qi from the Earthly Sovereign’s Coffin. It was something that could improve his luck and protect his luck to a certain degree. However, items like these were extremely rare.

A Strange Artifact that could steal another’s luck was even rarer. The Ruyi of Fortune might just be a Phenomenon-class Strange Artifact, but its value was positively immeasurable.

However, its activation conditions were equally stringent. First, the Ruyi of Fortune must have a target. The target could not be too weak or too strong.

A weak target naturally possessed weak luck, so stealing their luck would not improve one’s own luck by much. A strong target naturally had strong luck, and if they were too strong, then not only would the attempt end in failure, there was a chance the Ruyi of Fortune would backfire on the user.

Moreover, the Strange Artifact only worked once per target. The user could not steal luck from the same person twice.

Second, the user must know the target’s birth date, true name, and background. They must write these details on a yellow talisman using a cinnabar brush before striking it with the black half of the Ruyi of Fortune for two hours per day, and forty nine days in total. If the ritual was interrupted even once, then it would have been all for naught.

If the ritual was successful, then the user would be able to continually steal their target’s luck for forty-nine days straight. However, once their forty-nine days were up, their stolen luck would automatically be returned to the target. Not only that, the user would experience around seven days of terrible luck.

Naturally, they could not use the Ruyi of Fortune during this period.

In conclusion, the Ruyi of Fortune was much more complex and troublesome to use than any other Phenomenon-class Strange Artifact Ye Qing had used until now. Without ample preparation, one could even say that the Ruyi of Fortune was no more useful than a rock on the ground.

In the right circumstances though, the Ruyi of Fortune’s power could not be understated. It could be the trump card that turned what seemed like an impossible situation around.

Ye Qing was sure that the Ruyi of Fortune was an invaluable Strange Artifact not just to Dream Master, but also to the Eight Legions of Devas and Nagas.

1. Like literally, they’re made of jade. Google search for some interesting images. ☜

2. A ruyi is a Chinese curved decorative object that serves as either a ceremonial scepter in Chinese Buddhism or a talisman symbolizing power and good fortune in Chinese folklore. ☜