Stranger Danger

“What humongous strength you have, young friend. My old limbs aren’t going to stand your youthful energy, so I guess this is it.”

The Chief Libationist’s astonishment grew even greater when he saw that Ye Qing was seconds away from bursting out of the earth.

The wisp of grandiose qi he used to suppress Ye Qing was something he nurtured through the countless scrolls of books he read, the untold number of roads he walked, and a willpower that would last tens of thousands of years.

It was just a wisp, but he carried the density of a thousand autumns, and the weight of entire realms. It would not be an exaggeration to say that it held enough power to protect a realm for ages. Even a Sage would not dare to challenge this wisp of grandiose qi head on.

And yet, this youngster who wasn’t even a Great Grandmaster yet was pushing back against his grandiose qi. This strength of his was practically unexplainable.

Before this, he thought that the young man was a member of the Earthly Sovereign Hall. Now? He was going to bust the head of anyone who told him that. Whatever this martial art he was cultivating, it was a million times stronger than the Earthly Sovereign Hall’s so-called “Profound Yellow Imperishable Body” and “Profound Yellow Exquisite Art”!

In fact, his intuition was telling him that, at this rate, the one who was going to lose… was him.

It was shameless enough that he was bullying a junior. If he actually lost to him, how in the fuck was he going to face anyone? Where in the fuck was he going to hide his old face?

So, right before Ye Qing would break free, the Chief Libationist summoned a ruler and smacked Ye Qing in the forehead.

There was a soft smack, and the dark yellow light surrounding Ye Qing was scattered just like that. Ye Qing himself was dizzy and sporting a red bruise on his forehead, and all the progress he made earlier was lost. He fell right back into the hole the Chief Libationist had put him in.

“You lost, mister!” Ye Qing shook off the dizziness and said.

“Lost? When did I lose?” The Chief Libationist asked.

“You promised me that you would defend only, but you just attacked me. So, you lost,” Ye Qing said.

“Nonsense! I didn’t hurt you, did I? If I didn’t hurt you, then how can it count as an attack?” The Chief Libationist exclaimed with mock hurt. “Besides, haven’t you heard that offense is the best defense?”

Ye Qing: “...” Offense is the best defense your fucking ass, you cheating old fart! Do you think I’m stupid?!

Now he understood why everyone said that the Chief Libationist of the Jixia Academy boasted knowledge and martial cultivation that punched through the heavens, but his personality was… something. To put it in a flattering way, he was confident, uninhibited, unfettered, and pure and innocent like the heart of a newborn. To put it bluntly, he was childish as fuck despite being an old man, disrespectful toward the Confucian code of ethics, and totally at odds with the prim and proper image most people had of a Confucian.

There was a quote in “Martial Review” that went something like this: His knowledge puts him a class above all others like the heavens tower over the earth, his martial strength sweeps all be it in the heavens or the earth, his heart is big enough to fit all under the heavens, and his personality is outspoken, straightforward, and uninhibited. He acts more like a jianghu hero than a Confucian sage.”

Ye Qing finally got to experience it with his own body. He wished he hadn’t. This rascally energy alone was completely unbefitting of a Confucian Sage!

That said, Ye Qing must admit that the Chief Libationist truly did not intend to hurt him. Otherwise, that ruler smack would have done far more than just dizzy him.

“Are you satisfied now, young friend?” the Chief Libationist grinned at him.

“Your word is your bond, mister. What else can I do but be impressed?” Ye Qing ridiculed the Chief Libationist.

“Hahaha, good!” The Chief Libationist pretended that he hadn’t heard Ye Qing’s sarcastic remark and said, “Since we’re done here, I’m going to take them away now.”

“Excuse me, but I never said I’ve given up, have I?”

Ye Qing stared at the Chief Libationist and suddenly cracked a grin to match the scholar’s. “After all, I haven’t lost yet.”

The Chief Libationist felt a sudden sense of unease, but before he could react, a book flew out of Ye Qing’s body.

The book was titleless and ominously red in color. The next moment, a bizarre, bloody red eye suddenly appeared at the center of the book and covered the entire world in red. At the same time, strange chants filled everyone’s ears:

“The world is unkind, so it deserves to be rebelled against!”

“Humans are evil by nature, so they deserve to die!”

“Code restricts nature, so it should be gone!”

“All living things are stupid, so they should be destroyed!”

“Natural selection is natural, so it should be indulged!”

……

As the bizarre chants continued, all sorts of corrupting, obviously anomalous illusions took form. They chilled the heart and tainted the Dao.

“The Rebellious Spirit!”

Something cold flashed in the Chief Libationist’s eyes as he swung his ruler. It gave off the clear, grandiose light of Confucianism.

The blue light and the red light mingled with each other like fire and oil. They crackled loudly and shook the surrounding space dangerously.

The Chief Libationist’s ruler passed through countless layers of space before landing squarely on the book. Tak! And the book exploded open.

However, the red light remained strong and dense. It quickly took the form of a man with his hair down in a disheveled manner and wearing a blood red Confucian robe.

The man’s eyes were bloodshot, and his face warped into a visage of madness. As soon as he spotted the Chief Libationist, he asked, “This world is evil with no kindness in sight. True or false?”

“Humanity is born evil and not good. True of false?”

……

Every time the blood red silhouette asked a question, he would spit out a word that transformed into a chain and flew toward the Chief Libationist.

The Chief Libationist did not dare to treat it lightly. He swung his ruler repeatedly to shatter the chains or the blood red silhouette.

However, more blood red silhouettes popped into existence. It felt like their numbers were endless, and that it was futile to try and kill them.

As time passed, the silhouettes’ faces grew more and more twisted. At the same time, more faces were growing throughout their bodies. They all looked twisted and lost, and they were all asking questions that turned into chains.

Eventually, the Chief Libationist was overwhelmed and trapped by the chains. Even with his prodigious strength, he was unable to break free from the chains or deal with the anomalous blood red silhouettes immediately.

I knew it would work.

Ye Qing was very happy to see that his investment had paid off.

The book was called a Rebellious Spirit. Although it looked like a book, it was really an extremely rare Stranger.

A Disaster-class Stranger, a Rebellious Spirit was a Confucian Sage who, for whatever reason, came to question the teachings and etiquette of Confucianism and fell into an uncontrollably spiral of doubt. They eventually defied the thinkings of Confucianism, deviated from the path both mentally and physically, and perished.

However, a great Sage’s spirit was immortal even after they perished, and from that immortal spirit birthed a Stranger known as the Rebellious Spirit.

A Rebellious Spirit didn’t necessarily have to be a book. It could look like a brush, an inkstone, a piece of paper and more. However, all Rebellious Spirits were extremely annoying Strangers to deal with—for scholars that was.

A Rebellious Spirit normally did not appear before anyone except a scholar. When they did, they would ask questions or recite lines that went against the beliefs of Confucianism. If the scholar failed to answer the questions, or if the Confucian’s heart wasn’t firm enough, they would be corrupted and eventually subsumed into the Rebellious Spirit.

Even worse, a Rebellious Spirit was exceedingly difficult to kill for scholars. It was almost to the point where it was unkillable. Moreover, the deeper one’s knowledge, and the better one’s grasp of Confucianism, the harder it was for them to kill the Rebellious Spirit. That was why even a Confucian Sage might choose to steer clear of a Rebellious Spirit’s path.

Ironically, the Rebellious Spirit was almost harmless against everyone else. In fact, the more illiterate the person, and the less they knew about Confucianism, the lesser the harm a Rebellious Spirit could do to them.

Therefore, it was quite simple to handle a Rebellious Spirit. Just find an illiterate brute who knew nada about etiquette to suppress it.

That said, a Rebellious Spirit’s existence wasn’t completely antithetical to a scholar. If a scholar could answer the Rebellious Spirit’s questions or hold on despite its influence, then their Confucian heart would grow stronger, and their knowledge would improve.

Ye Qing had searched everywhere and paid a hefty price to purchase this Rebellious Spirit even before he took off to Qi. It was all to deal with the Chief Libationist.

Since his experience at the Demonbearer Abode, he already learned that Chu Wangsun was protected by the Chief Libationist’s divine thought. If Chu Wangsun encountered a life-threatening crisis, then it would manifest and save the day.

Therefore, the only way to kill Chu Wangsun was to deal with the divine thought first.