Stranger Danger-Chapter 1227: Overnight Celebrity

“Er, what did you just say?”

“I said you can leave now,” Ye Qing repeated.

“No way. No way! I just gave you information regarding Military Opera Actor, and you’re going to chase me off?” Tao Wang looked at him in disbelief.

“I didn’t ask you to. You’re the one who offered it to me willingly,” Ye Qing answered. “Besides, haven’t I told you what you wanted to know already?”

“Business has ended, so you can leave now.”

“How cruel! You’re going to lose me as a friend if you keep this up, Brother Ye!” Tao Wang pretended to be sad.

“Hah. Say that again after you’ve become my friend.” Ye Qing got up to his feet and began walking away.

“Hey, where are you going?” Tao Wang called out.

“It doesn’t look like you’re leaving, so I am,” Ye Qing answered. “We will meet again. I expect you to uphold your promise.”

“Don’t worry! I’m a scholar! My words are my bond!” Tao Wang shouted. “Oh right, what about the townspeople?”

“Don’t worry. They’ll recover after a good night’s sleep, and they won’t remember what happened tonight.” Ye Qing’s voice echoed like it came from far, far away.

“That’s good.” Tao Wang let out a sigh of relief before mumbling to himself, “It looks like my intuition was right. He is a good person.”

“One last thing. You shouldn’t call yourself a scholar anymore.”

Ye Qing’s voice echoed one last time. “Every time you do, you’re insulting the true scholars.”

For a few seconds, Tao Wang was too stunned to speak. Then, he shouted, “Excuse you?! What the heck does that mean?”

Ye Qing did not respond though, so he looked to Tao Ni instead and asked, “Seriously, what did he mean by that? Why is he saying that I’m insulting the true scholars?”

Tao Ni shrugged. “Isn’t it obvious? You don’t deserve to be a scholar.”

“......”

Tao Wang was speechless for a moment. “Alright. I retract my previous statement. Also, you’ve become a bad boy, Tao Ni.”

“What can I do? I have a bad influence,” Tao Ni replied before turning around and began walking toward Myriad Blessings Town.

“What did he mean by that?”

It took a moment for Tao Wang to realize what Tao Ni just said. He immediately gave chase and started hitting him in the head again and again, “Who are you calling a bad influence, brat?!”

“Ow! Ow! Stop hitting! At this rate, I’m going to be stupider than you are!”

“Who are you calling stupid? Stay still! Today’s the day I teach you why flowers are red, and rivers are blue[1]!” “I said, stay still!”

......

“Let’s go, let’s go!”

“Go where? Dawn just broke a moment ago!”

“You don’t know? Jade Capital Teahouse just announced the latest issue of the ‘Records of the Jianghu’, and the storyteller is narrating it already!”

“Is it still about Ye Qing, the Mad Lord?”

“But of course! Half of the big stuff that’s happening in the jianghu right now is caused by him! Who else are they going to write about?”

“But he just beat the Snow Sword Celestial two days ago. There can’t be anything new, can there? I don’t want to hear about the old stuff I’ve heard a hundred times before.”

“Oh, you sweet summer child. Yesterday at the Rocky Wasteland, the Mad Lord defeated the thirty-ninth warrior on the Earth Champions Ranking, Wang Shan the Mountain King. Even better, he did it in one move!”

“What? The Mountain King lost in one move? Are you kidding me right now!”

“Oops, allow me to clarify. They exchanged a single blow, and the Mountain King surrendered after that.”

“The Mountain King surrendered after just one blow? Is this a game between children or what?”

“No, no, no, it’s not like that at all. This is what is stated in the ‘Records of the Jianghu’: At the Rocky Wasteland, the Mountain King gathered his strength for three days and created a single staff from the surrounding storms. It is a staff that warped wind and clouds and darkened the sun and the moon. Not even a Half-Sage can stop it.”

“And yet, unmoved and unperturbed like a mountain, the Mad Lord unleashed a palm strike capable of slaying the heavens, the sun, and the moon all at once and returned the Mountain King’s staff to nothingness. Rocks and stones within dozens of kilometers of the battlefield disintegrated into powder because of this.”

“After the failed attack, the Mountain King knew that he cannot defeat the Mad Lord and surrendered willingly. The duo then put their conflict behind them with a smile and talked ten thousand words with a glass of wine.”

“How marvellous! A wine in the jianghu, a conflict that is resolved as quickly as it began! If only I could meet them in person. By the way, is it just me, or does the Mad Lord sound like a better person that he’s made out to be? In this case at least, he doesn’t seem like a ruthless, tyrannical man!”

“You are so naive, lad. Did you know that the Mad Lord killed the Martial Opera Actor at Myriad Blessings Town that very same night?”

“Martial Opera Actor? Are you talking about the thirty-sixth warrior on the Earth Champions Ranking, the one who lives life like an act, the Martial Opera Actor?”

“Who else? It is stated that Martial Opera Actor had transformed into the Sacred True Lord Erlang of the ancient Heavens and led an army of heavenly soldiers and generals to slay the Mad Lord. However, the Mad Lord singlehandedly slew the Giant Spirit Divine General with an axe, killed the Four Generals of Mo with a saber, destroyed the Seven Sages of Mount Mei with a halberd, and finally engaged the Sacred True Lord Erlang Martial Opera Actor had transformed in epic combat.”

“It was said that Martial Opera Actor was invincible and unkillable in both body and mind after transforming into the Sacred True Lord Erlang, but still the Mad Lord was able to rip apart that myth. The Mad Lord had killed him again and again until not a wisp of his mind nor body was left in this world.”

“Oh my heavens... I can hardly believe that he defeated two Earth Champions Ranking warriors in one day! It’s just unbelievable! Quickly, quickly! I want to hear the story from the storyteller himself! I want to know just how awesome the Mad Lord was when he bested his enemies!”

......

Jade Capital Teahouse was, as its name implied, a teahouse.

Teahouses were commonplace in any town or city, but the teahouse called Jade Capital Teahouse was an unusual one.

It was because it was the teahouse established by the famous White Jade Capital itself.

Sometimes, the name makes the fame.

Although Jade Capital Teahouse was a teahouse, it offered a service that was usually not available in other teahouses. While the customers were enjoying tea at Jade Capital Teahouse, they also got to hear storytellers talking about all kinds of secret stories, anecdotes, and other interesting things that happened in the wulin.

Of course, if this was all Jade Capital Teahouse offered, other teahouses and restaurants had similar setups. However, the stories told in other establishments were mostly hearsay or old news that everyone and their mothers had heard of.

On the other hand, the storytellers of Jade Capital Teahouse strictly told true stories and real people. Some of these stories even involved ancient secrets. Besides that, the storytellers of Jade Capital Teahouse were very humorous and witty. This was why the teahouse was quite well received by the jianghu.

On top of that, Jade Capital Teahouse compiled all the big things that had happened in the jianghu and release them as an issue every once in a while known as the “Records of the Jianghu”. Their storytellers also gave in-depth details and commentary that were not present in the issue for the sake of brevity.

As of late, Ye Qing and the Earthly Sovereign Bell were the big news happening in the jianghu. Naturally, news regarding Ye Qing dominated the latest releases of the ‘Records of the Jianghu’, and the storytellers mostly talked about his background and past achievements. It was fairly well received.

Ye Qing had a humble origin, but his life was full of fantasies, dangers, conspiracies, betrayals, revenge, passion, slaughter, opportunities, fortune and more. His revenge was almost always served cold, and his achievements were heroic and blood-pumping. Sure, there wasn't any beauty or romance in Ye Qing’s life story, but otherwise, he was a protagonist in every sense of the word. In this day and age, who doesn't enjoy listening to the story of a hero?

Because of this, Jade Capital Teahouse was always jampacked in recent times. To say that they earned a ton of money from selling Ye Qing’s story would be an understatement.

By the time some people caught wind of the news and rushed to Jade Capital Teahouse, there were no longer any available seats. Besides, the in-depth narration of Ye Qing’s battle against Wang Shan the Mountain King and the Military Opera Actor was already over.

Those who showed up in time to listen to the story were satisfied and full of yearning, and those who did not could only return home in disappointment.

1. Intentional mistake to show that he’s, well, illiterate. ☜