Stranger Danger

“Fang Muyun!”

“Long Ao!”

Long Ao on the island and Fang Muyun on the Floating Pavilion recognized each other at the same time, but neither one of them made a move immediately.

It made sense. They were both trying to make sense of the scene in front of them.

Long Ao was trying to puzzle out why Fang Muyun had appeared at White Fish Island today of all days. It was right in the middle of his summit too.

Did Fang Muyun figure out the Four Seas Dragon Palace’s plot?

Fang Muyun was trying to understand why so many Strangers were gathered on this particular island, why Long Ao, the third crown prince of the Eastern Sea Dragon Palace, was here, and why they were shouting, “Kill the humans, elevate the four seas!” like crazy.

Did they know he was coming? Were they lying in ambush?

Both Long Ao and Fang Muyun rejected their first thought at the same time.

In Long Ao’s case, it was because he discovered that there was no one else in the area except Fang Muyun and his three aides. If the scholar really had figured out their plot, he wouldn’t have shown up alone.

In Fang Muyun’s case, he realized that the Strangers would be in hiding instead of shouting like maniacs if they really were plotting to ambush him. Besides, what kind of ambushers just stood there and did nothing after seeing their prey?

There was only one truth. This encounter… was just a coincidence!

A coincidence!

A coincidence!

Once again, the same thought flashed through the dragon and the human’s mind at the same time.

They even cried out at the same time:

“Kill him!”

“Fly[1]!”

The former cry belonged to Long Ao, and the latter Fang Muyun as a matter of course.

Long Ao’s cry was much, much louder though. It was a draconic roar that resounded throughout the island.

It was said that the clouds obeyed the dragon, and wind the tiger. It wasn’t an exaggeration. As soon as the draconic cry boomed, the clouds immediately surged in from every direction toward Fang Muyun.

At the same time, the rabble finally snapped out of their daze and rushed toward Fang Muyun using their wind and rain, screaming.

A brush appeared in Fang Muyun’s hand. It was rainbow-colored and overflowing with literary[2] qi. At the same time, grandiose qi gathered at the tip of the brush and turned into droplets of ink.

Literary qi was the brush, and grandiose qi the ink. Together, they made the “Literary Essence Brush”.

The next moment, Fang Muyun filled in the eyes of his Fengbo using the Literary Essence Brush.

When Zhang Sengyou painted the eyes of his dragon, it came to life and flew away.

When Fang Muyun painted the eyes of his Fengbo, it came to life and became a god.

Invisible power billowed out of Fengbo and disintegrated the painting it resided in. The dust then entered Fengbo’s body.

Fengbo’s body began to grow more solid and real. His palm leaf fan and blue wheel were flashing with divine light as well.

The next moment, the palm leaf fan fanned, and the blue wheel spun. The formless light of the divine turned into the Eight Trigrams—Qian, Kun, Kan, Li, Zhen, Dui, Gen, and Xun—and pushed the forces of nature into action. The Fiery Wind, Torrential Wind, Smoky Wind, Giant Wind, Bleak Wind, High Wind, Fierce Wind and Cold Wind rose at the same time and blew in from every direction.

When Fang Muyun used Fengbo to dispel the Lost Fog, the winds had felt gentle and calm. That wasn’t the case anymore. They were now scorching like fire, freezing like ice, dark like death, bright like the sun; forceful enough to shatter everything, insidious enough to penetrate bones and slither hearts, corrosive enough to rot bones and fester muscles, and destructive enough to ruin minds and annihilate souls.

The clouds scattered before the winds.

The sea rotted before the winds.

The rocks shattered before the winds.

The trees wilted before the winds.

Everything crumbled before the winds.

The dozens of Strangers at the forefront were either burned to ash, frozen into popsicles, melted into skeletons, or annihilated into soulless husks.

At the same time, over half of the army of Strangers on White Fish Island were injured or killed in the blink of an eye, leaving only the stronger ones behind.

“Fly now!” Fang Muyun urged after dealing a heavy blow to the Strangers of White Fish Island.

Whatever Long Ao and the Strangers were planning, it was clear it was anything but good. It might even be some sort of grand conspiracy.

Since he was fortunate—or more accurately, unfortunate—enough to stumble upon them, the only thing he could do was fly. Fly to safety with all his might.

It was the only course of action; the only way he might have a sliver of hope to survive.

Unfortunately, Fang Muyun had just finished talking when he noticed that the sea water directly underneath the Floating Pavilion had turned red as blood. The next moment, a blood whale burst out of the water surface and swallowed the entire building in one gulp.

Crack!

There were countless streams of water and sharp teeth inside the blood whale’s mouth. They clenched around the pavilion and threatened to destroy the restrictions protecting the Strange Artifact with both corrosive power and pure strength. Already, some restrictions were exploding into bits.

Fang Muyun immediately waved his Literary Essence Brush and cut the blood whale in half like it was a sword.

Not only that, the white flash born from literary steel split open the blood red sea as well and prevented it from mending.

After cutting the blood whale and splitting the blood sea, a paper boat underneath Fang Muyun, Fugong, Lugong and Shougong’s feet.

The paper boat looked beyond fragile, but it really possessed immense power. Literary ink scattered across the sea, and the next moment, grandiose literary qi flowed out of the boat and grew into a river of grandiose qi. It seemed to be flowing toward some sort of mysterious space. The literary ink acted as some sort of oar and carried them straight toward it.

It looked like the boat was moving at a leisurely pace, but neither wind nor rain could enter the space surrounding them. It was as if they existed in different spaces.

The boat was called Hardwork Boat. A Disaster-class Strange Artifact, the Hardwork Boat was given its name based on the idiom: “Up the mountain of books, there is a path of diligence;

Across the boundless sea of learning, there is a boat made from hard work.” Folded from the papers of a Confucian Sage’s book, it was imbued with the power of a Confucian Sage. It could bridge the real world and the Confucian sanctuary known as the “Sea of Learning”.

Usually, the Hardwork Boat was used to ferry Confucian students into the Sea of Learning so they might listen to the lectures of the Sage. It could purify their literary heart, improve their understanding of the scriptures, sharpen their reason and logic, and increase their knowledge and cultivation. During times of crisis, one could also slip into the Sea of Learning and save themselves.

Generally speaking, the Hardwork Boat was only given to knowledgeable, virtuous, and strong-hearted Confucian geniuses who had received the approval of the Confucian Sages. It was so that they could improve their cultivation and to save their life during a dangerous moment.

The Hardwork Boat Fang Muyun possessed was given to him by the Jixia Academy. He had always used it to purify his literary heart and temper his knowledge, and never to save his life because no one could ever threaten him… until now.

If Long Ao was alone, then he wouldn’t need to run away. However, he sensed several presences on White Fish Island that were at least on par with Long Ao. That spelled trouble. Grave trouble.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, he had taken a deep injury from Xiahou Qi during their duel a few days ago, and he was still in the middle of recovery. Worse, he had lost the large majority of his paintings during that fight, and they made up the bulk of his strength. He wasn’t completely helpless without his paintings, but he was definitely much, much weaker without them.

Injured and weakened as he was, Fang Muyun wasn’t confident that he could handle Long Ao and the rest of the Strangers. A virtuous man does not stand next to a wall about to collapse, so he immediately activated the Hardwork Boats in an attempt to escape into the Sea of Learning.

1. Thank you for your service, Gandalf. ☜

2. I bloody hate tl this word. It could be literary, scholarly, wordy blah blah blah blah fuck your miserable life translator qi ☜

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