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The clash was so explosive that the tower—having endured a not insignificant hit when Ye Qing had barged in the first time—finally collapsed in earnest. Most of the debris was blown away and annihilated by the shockwave before they could even hit the ground.

Amidst the rubble, the old woman blanched as her arms exploded, and her chest caved inward. Ye Qing’s fist force proved to be even greater than she expected. She tried to create some distance as she stumbled backward, but Ye Qing gave her no quarter and swung his arm like a hammer. It smashed into the old woman’s left chest and exploded half of her body just like that. She was flung across the residence like a rag doll before she hit the ground and dug a long trench.

Ye Qing was going to dash forward and end her there and then, but a sobbing sound suddenly interrupted him. It sounded so sorrowful that he felt the urge to cry even though it didn’t make any sense.

A drizzle suddenly poured down from the sky. Normally, a rain like this should be calming, soothing and rejuvenating, but instead it dyed the emerald green plants in the residence pitch black. Not only that, the grass started growing jagged teeth, the tree branches transformed into venomous snakes, and the flower turned into giant maws filled with rows and rows of sharp teeth.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the servants, attendants and everyone else who was still in the residence and weren’t under a roof started suffering all kinds of maledictions. Some people’s flesh started festering everywhere, some people started aging rapidly, some people were coughing blood uncontrollably, and some people’s bodies were even splitting open and growing limbs, eyeballs and whatnot. It was bizarre and evil to the extreme.

“She’s…”

Ye Qing’s spirit was telling him that the rainwater contained all kinds of taint such as illness, decay, aging, pain and so on. It was the reason behind the unfortunate humans’ transformation.

“The Woman of Taint…”

Ye Qing muttered under his breath as he stared at Lady Zuo’s direction, frowning. The woman had regained her form before he knew it, and she was currently carrying a red umbrella and sobbing non-stop.

The Woman of Taint was a Stranger who possessed all sorts of dark, filthy, and evil powers. Despite possessing the desirable exterior of a graceful, gentle, and loveable woman, she was overflowing with taint such as illness, poverty, decay, sorrow, pain and more on the inside. When she cried, a tainted rain that devastated all living things would fall from the sky.

In and of itself, the Woman of Taint was pretty weak. She was impervious to most weapons because she could transform into rain, but that was it. However, the damage she could cause with her rain could only be described as devastating. Not only could it cover a wide range, the taint itself could spread like a disease. If she wasn’t suppressed as soon as possible, she could singlehandedly wreck an entire portion of the commandery.

If she was any other Stranger, Ye Qing would’ve left her to kill Gold Toad first. Both Strangers were going to die one way or another, and it didn’t matter who went to the afterlife first. But in this case, he had to deal with the Woman of Taint before she could cause any more damage than she already had.

Ye Qing turned around and faced the Woman of Taint. His spine and body straightened in an instant as he threw a punch.

As his will climbed to incredible heights, the world abruptly warped like a mirage. The picture of an invisible wind boiling rivers and lakes and threatening even gods and demons slowly unfolded in the sky. It looked both awe-inspiring and seemingly omnipotent.

Space itself turned into a furnace as the surrounding air heated up rapidly. Then, the invisible flames spread out and boiled the tainted rain into nothing.

The Woman of Taint melted into water once more as her cries grew increasingly sorrowful and aggrieved. What was a drizzle instantly turned into a downpour, and since the rainwater was black in color, it looked like the sky itself had turned as black as tar.

A crazy amount of black clouds gathered around the area, and the rain poured like it would never end. But no matter how hard it fell, it just couldn’t eliminate the picture in the sky. The lakes and rivers continued to boil, and cloudy vapors continued to rise into the sky. The lakes, rivers and clouds were a representation of the will of his fist. In fact, the will of his fist was everywhere.

The downpour evaporated into nothing in an instant, and the pitch black sky collapsed just like that.

When light returned to the world once more, it was revealed that invisible flames were burning everywhere including the Woman of Taint herself. Like boiled water, she kept evaporating until she was no more.

Bang!

The second he killed the Woman of Taint, the old woman he had smashed away a while ago abruptly appeared behind Ye Qing. Her shoulder, arms, and torso had all returned to normal, and she was covered from head to toe in golden scales. She landed a solid punch against his back.

There was a loud boom, but Ye Qing didn’t move an inch from his place. It was the old woman who was pushed back and felt like her bones could crumble into pieces at any moment.

“How did you find out that I am here, Ye Qing?” The old woman screamed on top of her lungs while withdrawing, “Your pets are in my hands right now, so you best restrain yourself! One signal is all I need to order my men to kill them!”

“Hehehe… why don’t you try it then?” Ye Qing patted away the dust on his shirt and shot her a lazy smile. “If I could find you, what makes you think I couldn’t find them? Seriously, I dare you to send the signal. Let’s see if things will turn out the way you hope it will.”

The old woman—or rather, Gold Toad visibly deflated at his reply. She had been wondering if Ye Qing had rescued his companions already, and judging from his reaction, the answer could only be yes.

Worse still, Ye Qing wasn’t the early-stage Astral Refiner she thought he was at all. He was now a bonafide late-stage Astral Refiner.

She had thought that her plan was perfect. She had taken his companions as hostages, and she was a powerful Stranger and the knife in the dark. If Ye Qing rejected their request and flipped the table, she was certain that she could make him regret his decision. Even if the Patrolman somehow defied all odds and rescued his companions, she was sure he wouldn’t be able to find her.

However, the Patrolman had proven to be far, far more capable than her predictions. She was certain he wouldn’t be able to locate Kung Fu Frog and Wawa and rescue them, but he did. She was certain he wouldn’t be able to find her, but he did. And she was certain that he was an early-stage Astral Refiner when he last fought Silver Toad, and yet somehow, he had become a late-stage Astral Refiner.

She felt like her plots and schemes were jokes before the young man, and she felt like a jester trying to make fun of a king. It wasn’t until the last moment that she realized that she was courting death!

It was no wonder Gold Toad was panicking even with her wits and strength.

“How the hell did you find me, Ye Qing? Was it Paper Taoist? Grudge Mother? Or Jasper Boat? No, no, it can’t be them, none of them knew where I was hiding. Just how the hell did you find me!? This is impossible, impossible!”

“You want to know the truth?” Ye Qing smiled evilly. “Not telling!”

He abruptly closed the distance between them and lashed out with his sleeves. Gold Toad hurriedly tried to leap backward, but as soon as she moved a muscle, she suddenly felt like the space tens of meters around her had frozen solid. Before she could do anything else, Ye Qing’s sleeve struck her right across the torso, and she collapsed into the ground with a bloodcurdling scream. The ground itself sank deeper into the earth.

“Mercy! Mercy! Let me leave, and I’ll tell you the secret of the silver page!” Gold Toad begged as she looked up at Ye Qing. She was missing half of her golden scales, and golden blood was all over the place. She looked like an absolute mess right now.

“So sorry, but Paper Taoist has already told me about its secrets.” Ye Qing chuckled, but his smile didn’t reach the eye. “All I want is for you to die!”

As he said this, he slowly started walking down the pit where Gold Toad was lying. Pressing both hands against the ground, Gold Toad grew more scales from under her skin until her whole body was covered in it. A terrific amount of power gushed out of her body as she slowly, very slowly tried to push herself up into a standing position. It was like she was being sat on by a mountain, and she was attempting to shove it away.

But the closer Ye Qing got, the dimmer her light became. More scales and blood were spilled, and her body slowly but surely sank back down to the earth once more.

It was as if every step Ye Qing took was the mountain crushing down on her.

Nine steps later, Ye Qing was standing right in front of Gold Toad. The Stranger was buried so deep that she couldn’t even raise her head.

“Who dares invade my residence and commit murder!?”

Ye Qing was just about to kill Gold Toad when suddenly, a righteous cry cut through the air. The next thing he knew, people were shooting arrows at him. Astral Breaking Arrows to be exact.

Ye Qing could tell what kind of projectile was being fired at him based on the sound alone. If the Pacification Sentinels were equipped with Starbreaker Crossbows and Starbreaker Arrows, then the bailiffs of the Imperial Clan Court and the Three Companies and Six Offices were equipped with Astral Breaking Crossbows and Astral Breaking Arrows.

The two names sounded similar, but their ability was very different from one another. The Starbreaker Crossbows packed a massive punch, and the Starbreaker Arrows possessed Stranger piercing and sealing properties because their enemies were mostly Strangers. On the other hand, the bailiffs of the Imperial Clan Court and the Three Companies and Six Offices mainly faced jianghu warriors, and so were equipped with weapons that could pierce astral qi, break bones, and sever veins.

The Astral Breaking Arrows were very effective against ordinary warriors, but Ye Qing was anything but ordinary. A casual wave was all he needed to send the arrows scattering as if they had slammed into an invisible barrier.

“We meet again, Bookkeeper Li! How have you been?” Ye Qing greeted after batting away the arrows. The leader of the group who shot at him was none other than Li Yuechun, the idiotic official who had tried to abuse his authority and escape from Fish Dragon Market some days ago.

When Ye Qing learned that this place belonged to a bookkeeper, he had wondered if it was the one he had batted away like a fly. He didn’t think that it would actually be the case.

It was looking like the poor man was going to endure another bout of face-slapping, and to that, Ye Qing could only say: Fate is quite the curious thing, ain’t it?

“It’s you!”

Li Yuechun recognized the man who had publicly humiliated him at Fish Dragon Market, of course. At the time, there was nothing he could do because the Pacification Bureau’s authority exceeded all. But now that Ye Qing was literally wrecking his own home, he finally couldn’t suppress his anger any longer and yelled, “According to the law of Chu, invading an imperial official’s residence is a serious crime! You are an official yourself, and yet you not only invaded my home, but also massacred my people as you pleased! Do you know your sin, Lord Ye!?”

Li Yuechun’s reaction didn’t surprise Ye Qing whatsoever. He chuckled, “I should be asking you that question, Lord Li. According to the law of Chu, anyone who harbors Strangers should be executed to the three generations.”

“You dare! I am an imperial official! I would never do such a thing!” Li Yuechun retorted, “Anyone with eyes can see that you’re trying to shift the blame on me despite openly invading my home and murdering my men! I am definitely going to report this to the senior commandery official and get you dismissed for this!”

“Men! Capture him!”

“Oh my, I’m so scared!”

Ye Qing sneered and stomped the ground once. The earth immediately undulated outward like a tidal wave and threw the dozen guards and servants off their feet. Their faces were unnaturally red, and their energies were disrupted.

“I can see you’re the type of guy who refuses to be convinced until you’re faced with grim reality. So be it.”

Ye Qing swung his sleeves and tossed Gold Toad out of the pit. After the Stranger landed in front of Li Yuechun, she slowly lost her human shell and revealed her true self: a golden, millstone-sized toad.