Chapter 88: The Iron Shirt Gang, At Your Service

“Die? So sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not done with life yet,” answered Ye Qing with a shrug. A moment before Grandpa’s tree branches would skewer him, he channeled his true qi and swung his sleeves around like he was drawing a circle.

“Flowing Cloud, Flying Sleeve”

According to the Tao Te Ching, water was the softest and weakest thing in the world, but it could never be defeated by strong, firm things such as a punch for no amount of punches was going to change its form. Through this, it was understood that the soft could overcome the hard, and the weak the strong.

As far as his previous world was concerned, no one was able to carry it out in practice both physically or philosophically—but Ye Qing wasn’t in his old world anymore. “Flowing Cloud, Flying Sleeve” was a martial art that could be hard or soft depending on the circumstances, and when it became as soft as water, there was no attack in the world it could not defend against.

As Ye Qing swung his sleeves round and round, the surrounding air grew thicker and thicker until Grandpa Tree felt as if he was wading through water. The closer the falling branches got to Ye Qing, the slower they became until finally, their momentum was completely spent. The second it happened, Ye Qing sucked in a deep breath and let out a powerful croak from his abdomen. Then, he hardened his sleeves into steel and threw his arms down like he was throwing a giant stele.

Grandpa Tree blanched when the surrounding air abruptly transformed into a raging, unstoppable torrent. Before he could react, it crashed against his canopy and snapped countless twigs and branches.

“Argh!”

Grandpa Tree let out a bloodcurdling scream and hurriedly pulled away from Ye Qing, but his canopy had been reduced to just the thickest, strongest branches. Even his trunk was barren like that of a man who shaved himself bald from head to toe.

The branches were part of Grandpa Tree’s body. Naturally, losing them had greatly diminished his power. Despite this, he was too stunned to feel much pain. That was just how powerful the young man was. The young man should’ve been trivial to kill since Grandma Mud had immobilized his lower half, and yet he still managed to defeat him and deal him a severe blow in one hit. Grandpa Tree realized too late that the young man was actually stronger than even Yan Yufei.

I must escape!

The tree Stranger turned around to run as soon as the thought had crossed his mind. There was literally no reason for him to stay unless he had a firewood wish. This meant that he was abandoning Granny Mud to the young man’s mercy, sure, but she was an ally-of-convenience, not his wife. Like hell he was going to sacrifice his life for her!

Zap!

Alas, blinding light shot through his body practically the second he made a move. It was like he was struck by a lightning bolt from the Nine Heavens above. His trunk turned ashen, and fire and smoke rose from multiple parts of his body. When the blinding light finally faded, it was revealed that there was a scorched hole at the center of Grandpa Tree’s forehead. Then, a beam of light shot through his head once and landed snugly in Ye Qing’s palm. It was a sword. Clearly, it was the one that had given the tree Stranger the time of his life.

Thump!

With that, the great tree collapsed to the ground and ceased living forever.

The moment Grandpa Tree fell, Granny Mud was struck by a terrible sense of danger. She immediately released a ton of bubbles filled with yin spirits, and unlike with the Shenwu Defense Force these yin spirits did not wait for Ye Qing to break them out of their ephemeral prison. They circled around Ye Qing and cried, laughed, roared or screamed at him to confuse and damage his mind.

A weak-willed person might have collapsed to the unholy noise and lost their mind, but Ye Qing was completely unhurt not just because his mind and spirit were strong, but also because he had the “Emperor Fuxi Visualization Method”. It prevented any and all evil energy from invading his head.

When Ye Qing felt the grip on his ankles disappearing without warning, he chuckled. “You think you can escape?”

First, he extended his left arm and clenched his fist. A ball of Netherflame immediately consumed the surrounding yin spirits and killed them before they could even scream. Then, he punched his left fist into the mud below so hard that the kilometer-long street shuddered a little. The pool of mud started burning intensely, and no matter how hard it struggled it was unable to extinguish the flames.

The Netherflame was said to be capable of burning anything and everything. Forget a pool of mud, it could’ve burned through solid stone with little difficulty.

The pool of mud grew shallower and shallower as the Netherflame burned. When it was almost completely dry, Ye Qing abruptly plunged his left hand into the ground and pulled out a strange creature that looked like a pitch black lizard. It had an old woman’s face, and its body looked like it was made from mud. It stank to the high heavens as a matter of course.

The lizard wasn’t dead yet, so it kept struggling and roaring on top of its lungs. It was, of course, Granny Mud.

“So ugly!”

Ye Qing shook his head in disgust before crushing the lizard between his hands. Obviously, he dashed away before the smelly mud could stain his clothes.

After Grandpa Tree and Granny Mud were dead, Ye Qing immediately unleashed his spirit and scanned his surroundings. Unfortunately, Rainbow Child was nowhere to be seen. He clicked his tongue in disappointment, “Tsk. That damn mushroom managed to escape in the end!”

Of course, that wasn’t to say that he had wasted his energy. Buy one get two Strangers would always be a great deal especially since Grandpa Tree and Granny Mud were way easier to kill than they should have been. It was because they had exhausted most of their energy against Yan Yufei, and they had underestimated him because of his age.

Ye Qing let out a little sigh before channeling the “Blood Shadow Divine Art” to restore his spent true qi immediately. Once he had returned to peak condition, he walked over to Grandpa Tree and stuffed his corpse into his Nature’s Shell.

Grandpa Tree was a tree, and trees were incredibly useful for a number of things, much less one who was a powerful Stranger. He could probably use his main body to create Strange Artifacts, or his branches to refine pills or something. Worst case scenario, he could use the body to make sturdy furniture or houses.

As for Granny Mud… he wouldn’t use her even if she did turn out to be a useful ingredient. To put it in a nutshell, ugliness is a sin!

“Kill!”

“This way, men!”

“Charge! Do not allow any one of these bitches to live!”

“Kill! Kill them all!”

The sounds of fighting, fire and blood weren’t just contained to the entrance. In fact, it had spread to the entire Anyang a long time ago. Ye Qing glanced at his surrounding once before letting out a long, long sigh in his head.

Their preparation was substantial, and their ambush had gone as well as it could be. Despite this, a lot of Strangers still managed to break through the defense line and enter the county. A good number of them were powerful and strange entities such as Grandpa Tree or Rainbow Child as well. As a result, the Shenwu Defense Force, the Sentinels, the bailiffs and more still incurred a horrific amount of casualties.

“It is time!” Ye Qing muttered to himself and pulled out a contact talisman from his sleeve. It exploded like fireworks when he tossed it into the air.

Not long after the contact talisman was activated, a cacophony of footsteps suddenly appeared from multiple directions. At the same time, loud, high-spirited cries boomed from the streets:

“Lord Yan, Tao Xian of the Iron Shirt Gang, at your service! Let’s defend Anyang together!”

“Ruan Hongluo of the Iron Shirt Gang, at your service!”

“Jie Chen of the Iron Shirt Gang, at your service!”

“Yi Jun of the Iron Shirt Gang, at your service!”

The cries were extremely loud and out of place all things considered, which was why they immediately drew countless attention. Yan Yufei had been fighting against the Servant of Fear until he heard someone calling out to him. When he looked, he saw the Hallmasters of the Iron Shirt Gang—Tao Xian, Ruan Hongluo, Yi Jun and more—and a large group of Iron Shirt Gang disciples joining the battle and killing all the Strangers around them.

Why are they here? And why are they shouting their arrival?

Yan Yufei looked confused, but regardless of the Iron Shirt Gang’s intentions, it was a good thing that they had come to assist them.

It was at this moment another vigorous voice boomed, “Qiao Six, at your service, my lord!” The information broker showed up at the end of the street right after that with Zuo Yiyan and Hong Yu in tow.

Qiao Six came too? What’s going on? Who gathered these people together?

Yan Yufei’s confusion was growing by the second. Qiao Six sensed his gaze and rubbed his nose in embarrassment. Honestly, he hadn’t wanted to shout a battle cry like the Iron Shirt Gang because it was embarrassing, but for some reason it also felt wrong to show up without announcing himself. Plus, how would Yan Yufei know that he had come to help if he didn’t say anything? Sometimes, being thick-skinned was a good thing! A great thing even!

Qiao Six saluted Yan Yufei from afar. Then, he ordered, “Let’s go, Yiyan!” and charged toward the Strangers.

Yan Yufei was still confused, but the pressure on their forces had greatly lessened thanks to their presence. Naturally, he was thankful.

“On behalf of the people of Anyang and Chu, thank you all for coming to our assistance!”

The reinforcements responded, “No worries, Lord Yan! Slaying Strangers is our natural responsibility!”

The addition of the Iron Shirt Gang and Qiao Six’s forces instantly bolstered the Shenwu Defense Force and the Sentinels’ morale. For the first time in a long while, they launched an offensive that broke the stalemate and slowly shifted the tides of battle in the humans’ favor.

“Perfect!” Ye Qing snapped his fingers in self-satisfaction as he observed the battlefield. Naturally, he was the one who had arranged for the Iron Shirt Gang to appear at this time, and also the one who told them to shout the battle cry. How else would the people know that the Iron Shirt Gang was the one who helped them during their time of need without it?

The reason he did this was simple. It was to make the government owe the Iron Shirt Gang a favor, and to give the Iron Shirt Gang the opportunity to ally themselves with the government.

He had been forced to reveal Lightning Bolt and the Blue Demon Hand in this battle, so there was no hiding the fact that he was the one who killed Yan Tieyi and annihilated the Zheng Clan. This meant that opportunistic hyenas and those whose interests had been hurt by those incidents would be tempted to attack him and disturb his peaceful everyday life. In that case, he might as well reveal himself on his own terms.

No matter how this battle turned out, the Iron Shirt Gang would be remembered as the faction who went above their obligation and helped Anyang during their time of need. Add to the fact that he was the one who revealed this whole conspiracy and came up with the plan to annihilate the Strangers in the first place, and neither Yan Yufei nor Ling Jianqiu could punish him even though they knew that he was the one who murdered Yan Tieyi and Zheng Feng.

This merit also guaranteed that the government would help out the Iron Shirt Gang if—no, when the hyenas finally launched their assault. The government wouldn’t favor them forever as a matter of course, but in the short term, they must step in unless they wanted to give off the impression they were ingrates. Also, it would leave a stain on their reputation if they chose not to repay the brave people of Anyang who came to their aid during their time of need.

The government’s interference would definitely intimidate the other factions, and the Iron Shirt Gang would be safe in the short term. That should buy him enough time to grow so strong that any faction would realize the folly of attacking him or the Iron Shirt Gang. And if they were too stupid to realize that, well, he didn’t mind destroying them and enriching himself through their dead bodies!

In short, he was killing multiple birds with one stone with this one act!

Boom!

It was at this moment a loud explosion sent both Yan Yufei and Ling Jianqiu flying. Their faces were covered in reddish warts and tentacles, but they were far enough from the root cause that the anomalous growth eventually subsided into nothing. They were obviously having trouble with one of the most powerful Strangers in the area, the Servant of Fear.

“Our lords are in danger! We need to protect them! Men, charge!”

A squad of a dozen Shenwu Defense Force soldiers cried in outrage when they saw that Yan Yufei and Ling Jianfei weren’t just beaten back, but injured. They did not hesitate to charge the Servant of Fear.

“No! It’s dangerous!”

“Stop right there!”

Yan Yufei and Ling Jianqiu blanched and cried out in warning, but it was too late. The soldiers had just gotten within ten meters of the Stranger when their faces, their arms and other body parts started growing reddish flesh buds that twisted around like worms. It should not need to be said just how disgusting they looked.

The closer they got to the Servant of Fear, the longer and thicker the reddish buds became. Eventually, they transformed into oily and disgusting tentacles.

Why didn’t the soldiers get away from the Servant of Fear as soon as their bodies started changing? It was because their minds had long since extinguished under the Stranger’s unnatural influence. Their husks quickly transformed into disgusting monsters that hovered protectively around the Servant of Fear.

“What a bizarre and terrifying Stranger!” Ye Qing watched the Servant of Fear warily. The abomination was easily the strongest Stranger he had encountered tonight, so without hesitation, he… turned around and walked away in the opposite direction.

It was the only logical conclusion. He should just leave the Servant of Fear to the professionals since he didn't know if he could defeat it without endangering his own life. There were still a lot of Strangers to kill anyway. He was sure that no one would begrudge him for focusing on the small fries!