Stranger Danger

“Song Taiyi, Zhao Hanqing, Yue Shanhe[1]…”

On the sea far away from White Fish Island, Ye Qing was sitting on the Golden Carp Wave Breaking Boat and watching the trio fight against Long Ao, praising, “Fang Muyun even had the three Confucian Sages as his painting? He sure has a lot of trump cards, doesn’t he?”

He was already quite surprised when Fang Muyun brought out Wan Xingchen, Zhao Hengdao, Li Yiji and Jiang Tongxuan, but the scholar surprised him again by bringing out three amazing figures.

Obviously, the three warriors fighting against Long Ao right now were paintings. They weren’t real people. That said, they were extraordinary figures who founded their own doctrine among all the Confucian Sages and were revered second to only the First Sage and the Second Sage.

Despite this, they weren’t really revered for their attainment in the way of Confucianism. Rather, they were known for their immense bloodthirst and power.

Ten thousand years ago, Song Taiyi founded the Sword Dao of Confucianism. With Confucianism as the base, the sword as the guard, he stored grandiose qi in his chest and “toppled the Five Sacred Mountains of the Daoists like nothing” with his sword. He was an accomplished killer whose bloodthirst was only matched by his sword.

With just a jar of dirty why and an iron sword, he had beheaded countless demons and slain the Strangers until they ran away at the mere hearing of his name. He killed and killed until all warriors under the heavens fell as silent as winter cicadas.

Zhao Hanqing was a Sage who based his Way on his nation and his heart on the people. When his home nation was in danger of falling, he singlehandedly withstood the foreigner’s invasion and kept it standing for a century via sheer might. With just a roll of bamboo strips and a ruler, the number of enemies he slew were numbered by the millions.

Near the end, when it looked like all hope was lost, and all of his efforts were for naught anyway, Zhao Hanqing sacrificed himself to unleash an attack that would wipe out an entire foreigner nation and kill tens of millions of Strangers. One might say that he was a man who literally built a bright and clear world with his flesh and blood.

Yue Shanhe was a former soldier who transitioned into martial Confucianism later in his life and founded the way of Military Confucianism. He defended his realm with military strength and bettered the lives of countless using Confucianism. With his army, he had slain the demons, killed the evils, annihilated the Strangers, and stamped out the rebels and traitors. He was a man who created a Golden Age for his people for a time.

In summary, these three were so powerful, so bloodthirsty, that no one else in the long history of Confucianism, a doctrine with benevolence and righteousness at its core, could compare to them. It was to the point where some Confucian Sages denounced them as heartless, wicked, homicidal, and heretical. They believed that these three Confucian Sages’ action and behavior went against everything Confucianism stood for and belittled them often[2].

There was one thing even they could not belittle, however—their strength. Song Taiyi, Zhao Hanqing and Yue Shanhe were without a doubt among the strongest of the strongest.

Of course, the three Sages before them were just Fang Muyun’s paintings. Their strength did not amount to even one-ten-thousandth of the original. However, their resemblance to the original’s essence was quite close, which was why Long Ao could not treat them lightly.

Song Taiyi’s sword was vicious and capable of cutting everything.

Zhao Hanqing’s roll of bamboo slips was overflowing with righteous qi and unstoppable.

Yue Shanhe’s fists were thick with killing intent and weighed mountains.

Together, they were able to beat the absolute crap out of Long Ao, breaking his scales and spilling his draconic blood everywhere. The Stranger looked terrible to put it mildly.

That was not to say that Long Ao was weak, however. On the contrary, anyone else would be dead already.

Long Ao was the third crown prince of the Eastern Sea Dragon Palace and a true descendant of true dragons. His vitality was stronger than your conventional Stranger. Despite his sorry state, his life wasn’t actually in danger.

Ye Qing looked at Feng Qingyou and asked, “Who do you think would win, Qingyou? Fang Muyun or Long Ao?”

“It’s hard to say. Long Ao looks like he’s being pushed back, but he hasn’t gone all out yet. Fang Muyun looks like he has the upper hand, but he’s already looking fatigued. However, I don’t think he has run out of tricks yet.”

Feng Qingyou replied smilingly, “With that said, it is still very difficult to say who will fall, and who will emerge victorious.”

“One thing is certain, however. No matter which side wins, it will be a pyrrhic victory. No matter how hard they struggle, the fisherman is still going to take it all.”

“Hahahaha! Well said!”

Ye Qing laughed, grabbed his wine cup from the table[3], and drained its contents in one gulp.

The sandpiper and clam war together, and the fisherman catches both. With that in mind, how could he not enjoy this occasion without some wine?

Everything that happened today had happened because of his and Feng Qingyou’s planning, of course.

Originally, his plan was to lure Fang Muyun on his way to Poison Dragon Island to White Fish Island. Then, he and Feng Qingyou would gang up on him and kill him there. 𐍂

But after he found out about the Stranger conspiracy, he changed his mind immediately. Why strain himself when he could make someone else do his dirty work for him?

The plan was simple. He was going to have Long Ao “kindly” take out Fang Muyun for him!

Not only did this save him the trouble of fighting Fang Muyun himself, he did not need to get involved at all. Chu would never realize that he was the one pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

Even if Long Ao failed to kill Fang Muyun, he could intervene after the duo had sufficiently worn each other out. The plan was to kill Fang Muyun and blame it on Long Ao, effectively achieving the same outcome.

After the deed was done, Chu would surely realize Fang Muyun’s death and rush to investigate. They would eventually discover the Four Seas Dragon Palace’s conspiracy and save the Four Seas from annihilation.

After discovering the Four Seas Dragon Palace’s conspiracy, the humans would surely go to war against the Four Seas Dragon Palace. During that battle, assuming that Lady Luck was smiling upon him, he might be able to find the opportunity to slay Chu Wangsun as well.

This was what he meant when he said, “First, we lend a dirty worker a knife. Then, we divert the calamity to the east. Finally, the fisherman takes it all.” earlier.

Of course, ideas, even the best ideas, were just thoughts. They amounted to nothing if one did not convert it into reality.

It wasn’t easy trying to convert the idea into an executable plan, and the hardest part of it all was easily this: how could they lure Fang Muyun to White Fish Island without drawing his suspicion?

After all, Fang Muyun was a careful, meticulous man. If he noticed something and grew wary, then the entire plan might fail before it even began.

At first, neither Ye Qing nor Feng Qingyou were able to come up with a plan that they were satisfied with no matter what.

Then, one day before the departure, Feng Qingyou finally came up with a plan after Fugong messaged him their departure time and mode of transport.

The Lost Fog.

Now that they knew that Fang Muyun would be riding Fugong’s Floating Pavilion to Poison Dragon Island, they could have Fugong pilot the Floating Pavilion into the Lost Fog on purpose and move toward White Fish Island. Once they were at their destination, Fugong would point out that something was wrong and have Fang Muyun clear the fog for them. After that, it was game over for Fang Muyun.

The Four Seas Dragon Palace would never allow their conspiracy to be exposed. They would do everything in their power to silence Fang Muyun if it was the last thing they did.

Fang Muyun should figure out quickly that he had stumbled upon a massive conspiracy. He should also understand—especially since he failed to escape—that the only way he was going to get out of this alive… was to annihilate his opponents to the last.

Naturally, the two sides would fight each other to the death.

Ye Qing would have fulfilled his objective.

But of course, this plan presented another crucial question: how could they ensure that the Lost Fog would appear on Fang Muyun’s travel route at that timing?

To this end, Ye Qing and Feng Qingyou stayed up all night diving into the deep sea and capturing dozens of Lost Fishes using the Fish Intestine Grass.

The Lost Fish was an extremely weak Hatred-class Stranger that enjoyed feeding on Fish Intestine Grass. It was completely harmless save for two abilities. One, those who saw the Lost Fish but did not recognize it for what it was would one hundred percent lose their way. Not even Grandmasters or Truemen were immune to its effects. That was why it was named the Lost Fish.

And two, when dozens of Lost Fishes appeared at the same time, they would always summon the Lost Fog.

This was why Ye Qing and Feng Qingyou burned the midnight oil to catch the Lost Fishes.

Once they captured enough Lost Fishes, all they needed to do was to release them at the right time.

There was another problem. After Fugong had piloted the Floating Pavilion into the Lost Fog, how could he make sure that he did not fall for the Lost Fog’s influence and stay on course for White Fish Island?

This was actually the easy part. Feng Qingyou gave Fugong a refined gu insect named Knowing. Originally a pair, the two gu insects would always be able to detect each other’s presence no matter how far apart they were.

Long story short, Ye Qing and Feng Qingyou attached one Knowing gu insect on White Fish Island and gave Fugong the other one. This way, Fugong could ignore the Lost Fog’s influence and consistently steer the Floating Pavilion toward White Fish Island. The rest was history.

Again, it all sounded very simple on paper, but it was beyond troublesome to actually execute. If even one part of the plan went awry, then the entire plan could fail just like that.

Thankfully, the heavens were on their side. Everything went almost perfectly, and they were now just waiting to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

1. To be honest their names are kinda on the nose as in it reflects the poem they shouted, but these aren’t monikers as far as I can tell so I can’t just translate it like say, Mountain River Yue. Sounds bad too, so you get a TL note instead. ☜

2. Meaning that these three are THE Sages that you actually want to emulate. ☜

3. Wow, they even have a table on their boat? Talk about luxury. ☜