Chapter 1306: Your Time Is Up, Your Death Is Near

“This has to be it. There is no way I can still hear that damn song at this heavens forsaken place.”

Ye Qing was currently standing in the middle of a wasteland filled with thick miasma. Just smelling it was enough to induce hallucinations, and just making contact with it was enough to grow puss on one’s skin. That was why few flesh-and-blood creatures, much less humans frequented this place.

Of course, this wasn’t a concern for Ye Qing. The miasma could not harm a hair on his person.

The reason he came here was simple. It was to avoid the eerie, strange lullaby, of course.

This was as far out as it could get. There was just no way he could still hear someone singing that damned lullaby here, right?

As if he had jinxed himself, a breeze mixed with miasma blew into the wasteland. As it passed through the terrain, the trees, and the grass, the sound somehow transformed into an eerie song.

“Mid-April, the sounds come slow. The rain hits the palm leaves where it is shaded.”

“The miasma rises, the wind blows. The tree above the Mad Lord’s tomb withers.”

“Mid-April, the night watches. The stars blink, and the moon shows its face.”

“The soul flies, the heart trembles. Skeletons riot in the Mad Lord’s tomb...”

......

“Seriously?”

Ye Qing was speechless. Apparently, the wind could sing now. How illogical was that?

𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Not only that, he could clearly feel that the wind had become stiff and numb just like the people who sang the lullaby earlier. They flew circles around him and stared fixatedly at him like many faces and eyes.

At the same time, that strange premonition of death crept closer to him.

Ye Qing threw out a punch. Like a river, his intent shattered and annihilated every gust of wind and miasma within fifty kilometers of him.

For a time, no wind or cloud could be seen within fifty kilometers of Ye Qing. No sound could be heard either.

This only lasted a moment until a flock of birds flew over from somewhere, landed on a nearby tree branch, and chirped.

The chirps were normal at first. However, the birds’ eyes suddenly grew empty and unfocused, and their heads suddenly turned a hundred and eighty degrees toward Ye Qing. It was as if they were puppets on strings.

After that, well, there was no after that.

The birds were just opening their beaks when Ye Qing punched them into meat paste.

It was useless though. The malice and premonition of death did not disappear even though he managed to silence the birds before they sang. In fact, they had gotten worse.

“Heh. Let’s see who’s better at hide and seek then...”

A sneer crinkled around Ye Qing’s eyes before he took one step and shot up into the sky.

......

“This damn thing just won’t leave me alone...”

Standing beside a river, Ye Qing stared at the fishes and prawns floating on the surface and staring at him, mouths bubbling.

Every time a bubble popped, an eerie lullaby would fill his ears.

Eyes turning cold, Ye Qing stomped the ground and unleashed his power. The dozen-kilometer-long river immediately started boiling furiously.

Just a few breaths later, the river and the aquatic creatures and Strangers living in it were burned into ash.

A hint of irritation and darkness flickered in Ye Qing’s eyes after he did this. His energies were fluctuating erratically, and his spirit looked depleted.

If someone were to observe his fortune right now, they would realize that a black cloud of death was floating above his head.

To put it simply, Ye Qing was currently surrounded by death.

He could perish at any moment.

It had been three days since his first encounter with the lullaby at Dragon Gate Pass.

For the past three days, he had run hundreds of kilometers of road and trekked thousands of kilometers of land to avoid the lullaby. He had run into settlements, uninhabited deserts, unscalable snow peaks, bottomless rivers, Stranger-infested lands, and champion-hiding mountains.

It was all futile though. If he entered a settlement, the people would sing. If he went into a desert, the wind and sand would sing. If he climbed a snow peak, the wind and snow would sing. If he slipped underwater, the water would sing. If he traveled to a Stranger-infested land, the Strangers would sing. If he ascended a spirit mountain, the bells would sing.

In conclusion, no matter where he went, no matter what he tried, he just could not escape the lullaby or loathe the culprit no matter what he tried.

Technically speaking, the lullaby hadn’t done any damage to him whatsoever. However, his fortune was weakening, his tribulations were strengthening, and the stench of death was growing thicker.

This helpless feeling of impotence even though he could clearly sense the disappearance of his fortune and the incoming march of death was torturous to say the least. It was enough to make anyone fall into despair and collapse.

Right now, it would seem that the stench of death and tribulation permeating him had reached critical mass.

The tribulation could come at any moment.

Death could appear at any moment.

The greatest fear known to man was the unknown, but death was a close second.

It was never a lie that great terror lay between the gap between life and death, and this feeling that you might die at any moment, that your fortune was completely controlled by another, was the absolute first.

Whoever was behind this, it was clear why they had chosen this method. Besides diminishing Ye Qing’s fortune and preventing any accidents from happening, it was also to torment him.

“It’s time. Are you still going to stay your hand? What else are you waiting for?”

Ye Qing suddenly looked up and shouted with a dark expression, “Don’t you think it’s utterly shameless to use such an evil art? Despicable?”

“You dare to curse me with this art, but you still don’t dare to show your face even now?”

“Come out! Come out! Kill me! Come kill me already!”

At some point, Ye Qing seemed to have gone completely insane. His face was contorting, his eyes were bloodshot, and he was screaming at the top of his lungs.

A terrifying burst of energy transformed into a deadly gale that uprooted every tree including meters deep of earth within dozens of kilometers of Ye Qing. They all blended into a dust storm that blotted out the sky itself. It was quite terrifying.

“Come out! What are you afraid of? Are you afraid of me? Hahaha... Wimp! You’re just a spineless wimp!”

Ye Qing roared like thunder, causing the dust storm to grow even worse and chaotic.

Suddenly Ye Qing seemingly sensed something and narrowed his eyes at a certain point of his storm.

As if on cue, the violent dust storm actually parted ways to reveal a single passage.

A middle-aged man wearing a white fox coat stepped out of the passage. He looked to be in his forties, and his appearance was meager but refined.

Behind the middle-aged man was an ordinary-looking old man. The old man carried himself in a reserved and servile manner, shuffling behind his master like a servant or a shadow. It was oh-so-easy to miss him if he wasn’t looking closely.

When the two men showed up, the violent dust storm slowly subsided as if a giant, invisible hand was quelling them by force. When the dust literally settled, only a gentle breeze was left flying around the duo and brushing against their clothes.

“Who are you?” Ye Qing asked warily.

“You asked for me, so I came!” The man said while looking at Ye Qing.

“It’s you!” Ye Qing growled. “You’re the one who did this?”

“Who are you? What grudges do you have against me? Why are you doing this?”

“I thought you’re a supremely intelligent man, Mad Lord. Weren’t you the one who toyed with everyone like a puppet master?”

The meager-looking man asked tauntingly, “Why don’t you guess who I am, what grudges I have against you, and why I’m doing this?”