Stranger Danger

Chapter 978: The Sandpiper, The Clam, and The Fisherman

Seeing that the door was closing, and his preys were slipping through his grasp, the North Duke gritted his teeth and raced toward the door.

However, right before he would reach the door, a mysterious flash sent him bouncing like he had run into an invisible wall.

By the time the North Duke caught himself, the door had already slammed shut.

Not only that, the door on the ground began turning transparent and disappearing at a visible rate. A few seconds later, all that was left was a barren land. It was as if nothing had ever happened.

Of course, Chu Wangsun and Su Bancheng were nowhere to be found.

It was at this moment something unexpected happened. Two figures abruptly popped into existence about a hundred meters away from the North Duke.

Their appearance was as abrupt as it was soundless. One moment there was nothing, and the next they were there.

“Hahahaha... finally, we escaped. I have never been screwed over so badly in my life. Those people from the North Duke Office are complete idiots as well. The next time I run into them, I’m gonna make them all pay!”

One of them was chirping like a sparrow until he noticed his surroundings. “Anyway, where are... hmm? This place looks rather familiar. Where did the Chu Gate send us?”

The figure hadn’t even finished musing before he spotted a hateful-looking North Duke.

For a moment, they could only stare at each other in complete silence.

The North Duke’s face turned from purple fury, to dreamy astonishment, and finally ecstasy.

Su Bancheng’s face was the opposite. It went from ecstatic release, to dreamy astonishment, and finally white-faced disbelief.

“What... how is this possible?”

Su Bancheng’s eyes were wide as saucers as he murmured in disbelief. “There is no way we are still here. No way...”

The door earlier was called the Chu Gate. A Disaster-class Stranger, no one knew how it came to be or why it existed. Shaped like a door, it looked like a door and only ever appeared on the ground. People came to call it the Chu Gate.

The Chu Gate was sentient and loved forming contracts with humans. Once a contract was formed, it could be summoned any time at a location where land existed. Once it was successfully summoned, it would protect its contractor from all danger. Its contractor could also pass through its door and be teleported to a random location.

Of course, not anyone could enter a contract with the Chu Gate. Specifically, only the exceedingly talented were worthy of entering a contract with the Chu Gate and summoning it.

The cost of summoning it was pretty hefty as well. The contractor must give up a martial art that they were practicing. It could not be a martial art manual or a martial art they had never practiced before.

So, how did this work exactly? Once the contract was confirmed, the contractor would forget the martial art they chose to surrender the Chu Gate completely. Not only that, they would not be able to practice it ever again. The contractor could study the specific martial art manual and receive the tutoring of a martial art master, and they would not be able to learn even the basics. Not even a Sage was immune to this effect.

Even scarier, the contractor only needed to give up some mundane martial arts at the beginning, but the more times they summoned the Chu Gate, the stronger the martial arts they must pay. If a contractor had forgotten all of their martial arts, then the contract would automatically be nullified.

As for why the Chu Gate needed the martial arts for, no one knew just like no one knew how it came to be or where it came from. It was an enigmatic existence to say the least.

The Chu Gate was just a Disaster-class Stranger, a rare one who was completely harmless too. However, no one could deny its power. It was so powerful that not even a Sage could damage the Chu Gate or disobey the contract that had been signed.

This was why Su Bancheng could not believe that the Chu Gate... had failed.

Actually, that wasn’t an accurate statement. The Chu Gate did take effect and teleported them somewhere. It was just that one hundred meters was basically worth nothing in this scenario.

Technically, the Chu Gate’s random teleportation had no specified location or range. However, it generally teleported its contractors thousands of kilometers, sometimes even tens of thousands of kilometers away from their original location. That was why Su Bancheng was so shocked. One hundred meters? Just what the hell was going on here?

“You were laughing? Go on! Keep laughing!” The North Duke’s grin slowly spread from ear to ear. “You were having such a good time!”

“...”

“Didn’t you say you’re going to make me pay? I’m right in front of you. Come on! Make me pay!”

It was at this moment Chu Wangsun spoke up. “Don’t you think that something is off, North Duke?”

Despite the danger he was in, not a shred of panic or terror could be seen on Chu Wangsun’s face.

“Is there? Nah, I think the heavens just finally opened their goddamn eyes for once, that’s all!” The North Duke sneered.

“Someone like you believes in the heavens, North Duke?” Chu Wangsun said indifferently.

“Are you making fun of me?” The North Duke blurred and reappeared right in front of Chu Wangsun. The North Duke Consort, Lu Daoweng and more also recovered their wits and surrounded the duo as well.

“I’m not making fun of you. I’m just saying it as it is. Besides, the human heart is far scarier than the heavens.”

Chu Wangsun didn’t try to back off despite the North Duke appearing right in front of him. He didn’t even look intimidated.

“What do you mean?” The North Duke narrowed his eyes and asked.

“Sandpiper and clam war together, and the fisherman catches both,” Chu Wangsun said simply.

The North Duke didn’t speak, but a hint of severity crept onto his face.

Chu Wangsun continued, “It is clear that someone is pitting us against each other. They plan to sweep in at the last moment and claim all the spoils.”

“I’m sure this person would also have the Ten Directions Stupa.” Chu Wangsun looked straight at Ye Qing and asked, “Am I right, wannabe fisherman?”

Ye Qing didn’t move. He kept pretending to be dead.

Chu Wangsun remarked, “He doesn’t want to wake up, it seems. Why don’t we oblige his wish and make sure he never wakes up, North Duke?”

“Makes sense,” The North Duke agreed.

He wasn’t an idiot. Anger might have overtaken his good senses earlier, but Chu Wangsun’s reminder had snapped him out of it and made him realize that something was seriously off.

For starters, he might not recognize the Stranger Su Bancheng had summoned earlier, but it had swallowed all of his attacks and repelled him like nothing. It was clearly a powerful Stranger meant to teleport Su Bancheng and Chu Wangsun to safety. And yet, they had reappeared just a hundred meters away from their original spot. This clearly made no sense.

It was very possible that the teleportation had failed because someone had interfered, so who could this person be?

He did not possess the strength to interfere with the Stranger. Chu Wangsun and Su Bancheng weren’t stupid enough to dig their own grave either. By process of elimination, the only person who could have done it... was that man.

The man had singlehandedly driven Su Bancheng to the brink. Considering his strength, there was a definite chance he could have interfered with the Stranger’s ability.

Besides that, he was an extremely paranoid man. Sometimes, he was so paranoid he did not believe his own people. However, he had trusted this complete stranger in just a few words of conversation. Later, he didn’t even recall his existence as if something was blocking his memory and awareness.

The devil was in the details, and he was everywhere once the North Duke really looked into it. He could not help but break out in cold sweat when he realized just how close he had come to being totally played by the unknown stranger.

Of course, what came after fear and trepidation was anger. Anger that surpassed even Chu Wangsun murdering his men and injuring him.

His mind made up, the North Duke flicked his fingers and sent three drops of azure blue water droplets in Ye Qing’s direction.

Splash splash splash!

They were just tiny droplets, and yet they traveled through the air making river-like noises. Space itself was groaning as if it could not bear their weight.