“Careful, young master!” Faceless warned while staring at the childlike figure in the woods warily. It was because he sensed a hint of danger from them, whoever they were.
“You worry too much. Come on! Perhaps it’s a kid from a neighborhood nearby?” Ye Qing said with a smile. Besides the childlike figure, he had also picked up the vital signs of multiple people in the forest. Specifically, they were humans.
Let’s see. One, two, three, four, five, six! There are six people in the forest! Ye Qing calculated in his head.
As they got closer, Ye Qing finally saw the childlike figure for what it was. It was a Stranger with a rabbit’s head but a human’s body. It was only as big as an infant, but it was standing on two legs and digging a hole using a spade that was shaped like a carrot. While digging, it sang what sounded like a nursery rhyme,
One two three four five…”
There were six humans in the ground next to it. Literally, they were buried in the ground all the way up to their necks. They looked listless as if they had just received a good thrashing.
Their eyes lit up when they saw Ye Qing. Like a drowning man who had found a straw, they cried out, “Help! Please help us!”
“Please help us, warrior! This Stranger is planning to kill us!”
The rabbit Stranger paid neither Ye Qing nor them any attention, however. It was fully focused on the hole in front of it.
“It’s like it’s planting carrots,” Ye Qing watched the rabbit with a strange, indecipherable expression.
Kung Fu Frog was a righteous Stranger who was always eager to enact justice and save lives. When it saw that the humans were trapped, it immediately leaped over to save them. But right before it was about to land, a hole appeared right beneath its feet. At the same time, the rabbit sang again,
One two three four five…”
The next moment, Kung Fu Frog was pulled straight into the hole and buried, leaving only its head out in the open. It couldn’t break free no matter how hard it struggled.
“Young master!” Faceless cried. Unlike Kung Fu Frog, Faceless’ plan was to take out the rabbit Stranger first. Everyone would be free if it died, right? Unfortunately, the rabbit suddenly let out a shriek in Faceless’ direction and opened a hole beneath his feet as well. Before he could jump out of the way, the strange rhyme rang again and froze him in his tracks. He immediately followed in Kung Fu Frog’s footsteps.
Wow! It overwhelmed two Malice-class Strangers in an instant! Not bad! Ye Qing thought as he observed the rabbit Stranger. As he tilted his head as if remembering something, the rabbit sang again,
One two three four five…”
A hole appeared beneath Ye Qing’s feet, and he felt an unnatural power shackling him and pulling him toward the hole.
Ye Qing channeled his vigor and pushed back against it. The invisible power vanished, and the spade the rabbit was holding abruptly snapped into two.
“Dig a little—” The rabbit’s face morphed into human-like shock when the spade broke. Shivering, it slowly turned its ruby-like eyes on Ye Qing and stared.
The rabbit apparently didn’t like what it saw because it let out a frightened whimper, hugged its head, and dug a pit in the ground in just the blink of an eye with its bare hands. After leaping into the pit and burying itself completely, the swollen mound sank into the hole as if it was going somewhere.
“Haha! You think you can run from me?” Ye Qing chuckled. He could tell that the rabbit was underground and escaping to somewhere at incredible speed. In response, he raised his right foot half an inch and stomped the ground.
The ground undulated up and down like a ripple in a piece of fabric, but for some reason it made no noise whatsoever. However, the rabbit, the six humans, Kung Fu Frog and Faceless were all expelled from the earth in an instant. They flailed for a bit before hitting the ground in a series of thuds.
The rabbit Stranger was the fastest to recover. It tried to escape, but it couldn’t even manage a step before it collapsed back to the ground. For some reason, it just could not gather any strength. It was the same for Kung Fu Frog and the others as well.
“Sorry. I can’t quite control my strength yet!” Ye Qing rubbed his nose apologetically. After his experience in Firewind Canyon, he was stronger than ever before. However, his precision and control had also become a lot worse as a result. For now, he was like a cannon who couldn’t help but shoot a cannonball even if the target was a mosquito.
Ye Qing took one step and appeared in front of the rabbit. He grabbed it by its nape and returned just as quickly. It took his companions and the six humans at least a dozen breaths before they finally recovered enough to move.
The six humans were a surprise. They had looked completely spent when he saw them, but after regaining their freedom and popping a fiery red pill, they were almost back to normal in just a dozen breaths or so.
It was worth noting that they were a group of three middle-stage Vessel Augmentors and three early-stage Vessel Augmentors. It was a fairly strong party all things considered.
“My name is Tian Hang. Thank you for saving our lives, warrior!” thanked a middle-aged man in his forties after he regained his strength. He had a loyal, honest appearance that made it difficult to think that he was capable of deception or trickery.
Ye Qing waved it off. “You’re welcome, but I was just passing by.”
A cold, vicious-looking man standing behind Tian Hang uttered hatefully, “Damned rabbit! I’m gonna skin it alive, eat its flesh and drink its blood!” He then rushed over and brought his saber down in one smooth motion. However, Ye Qing raised his hand and caught the blade between two fingers. No matter how hard the man tried to pull or push, he was unable to move his blade even an inch.
The vicious man glared at Ye Qing. “What are you doing, warrior?”
Ye Qing shrugged. “It’s just a rabbit, a cute one no less. Why don’t you let it go?”
To say that the group was flabbergasted would be an understatement. Was he joking? How was a rabbit capable of “planting” a human being into the ground like an actual carrot “cute”?
The vicious man was still trying to pull his saber free as he uttered, “Let it go? This Stranger nearly killed us all! There’s no way we can pretend like nothing had ever happened! Now let go!”
Ye Qing’s smile grew kinder. Fingers twisting, he easily snapped the saber—a thick blade that was forged from cold steel—in half and sent the man stumbling. He looked like he couldn’t believe what just happened.
“I tried giving you a hint, but you just wouldn’t listen, would you? This rabbit is called the Infant Rabbit. It’s a Hatred-class Stranger who loves digging holes and nothing else. Gentle, timid and harmless, it would only attack if it felt threatened.”
“Moreover, its retaliation is incredibly mild. The worst it would do to its attackers was digging a hole and keeping them in the ground for a bit. It would never try to kill its attackers.”
“If it encounters a powerful foe it couldn’t possibly defeat, it would immediately escape or cower in fear. It’s probably one of the most cowardly Strangers you could encounter.”
Ye Qing gave the shivering Infant Rabbit beside his feet a reassuring pat before continuing as if he hadn’t noticed the group’s rapidly changing expressions, “As the Infant Rabbit is harmless and mild-natured, they are well-received by nobles, wealthy people, and especially wealthy women. There are a lot of people who would pay a lot of money to buy an Infant Rabbit. Besides that, an Infant Rabbit’s body is a veritable treasure trove. Its brain and flesh are delicious to eat, its fur is excellent for making clothes, and even its bones are a rare medicinal ingredient.”
“In other words, there are few prey a Stranger Hunter loves more than a Infant Rabbit!”
Ye Qing shot the humans a smile that didn’t quite reach the eye. “Am I right, my dear hunters?”
As the name might suggest, a Stranger Hunter was a hunter of Strangers. They usually killed Strangers to sell their body parts for a living.
The group’s faces turned dark and grim. Ye Qing’s subtext was clear: he was saying they deserved what they got, and if they were to be honest with themselves, they did.
When they stumbled upon the Infant Rabbit a while ago, they immediately got greedy and tried to capture it. However, the Infant Rabbit turned out to be warier and stronger than they had anticipated. It saw them coming and buried them in retaliation.
Later, Ye Qing saved them and caught the Infant Rabbit, but they thought Ye Qing was too young to recognize the Infant Rabbit and tried to kill it in the name of revenge. It was so that they would have the excuse to claim its body parts. Although a dead Infant Rabbit wasn’t worth as much as a live one, it was still a lot of money.
Unfortunately, they were dead wrong. Not only did the youngster recognize the Infant Rabbit, he even exposed their little scheme straight to their faces.
Embarrassment, resentment, anger and more sprouted in the hearts of the six men in an instant. The vicious man even looked like he wanted to murder Ye Qing there and then. But before anyone could make a move, Tian Hang stepped forward with an obsequious smile and said, “Sorry, sorry. My brother didn’t mean to offend you, he was just too eager to take revenge against the Stranger. I hope you won’t mind!”
“Since you were the one who captured the Infant Rabbit, it’s only right that you get to decide what to do with it. We shall take our leave immediately!”
With that said, Tian Hang saluted Ye Qing one last time, gave the vicious man’s sleeve a strong pull, and left.
The vicious man was clearly displeased, but he obeyed his leader and turned around. He glared resentfully at Ye Qing before he left though.
“Heh. He’s lucky not everyone in his group is an idiot!” Ye Qing muttered. The vicious man’s gesture and thoughts didn’t escape him, of course. If Tian Hang hadn’t been smart enough to recognize the threat, well, let’s just say that today next year would be the anniversary of their deaths.
There was no helping these people though. Maybe it was because they interacted with Strangers for too long, but most Stranger Hunters were cruel, bloodthirsty, and greedy bullies who would not hesitate to commit atrocities to further their self-interests. Sometimes, they would even commit a murder, rob a caravan, raid a village and more if they thought they could get away with it.
If Tian Hang and his group had chosen to attack him, he absolutely wouldn’t have minded sending them to kingdom come. It would be good karma as far as he was concerned. It was too bad Tian Hang had more sense than courage.
“Shame, shame!” Ye Qing shook his head in the group’s direction before looking down on the Infant Rabbit. The poor thing was still trembling like a leaf. He let out a sigh and gave it a little kick, “You are definitely the most cowardly Stranger I’ve ever met yet. You bring shame to your race, you know that?”
He then flicked the Stranger into his hand and tossed it far, far away. “You can go now. Try not to get caught again, alright? Not everyone is as kind-hearted as I am!”
The Infant Rabbit hit the ground surprisingly soft and rolled twice. When it caught itself and looked around, it discovered that it was both safe and completely unhurt. After pressing its fat paws together and giving Ye Qing a bow, it dug the ground and buried itself in another pit. It was gone just like that.