Stranger Danger-Chapter 1741: Portrait

“You can still head back if you’re afraid, boy,” the Thousand-headed Demonic Serpent taunted Ye Qing as if it could hear his unease.

“Senior, your taunts are pretty weak.”

Ye Qing stowed away his worry.

“Is it?” The Thousand-headed Demonic Serpent smiled. “If it works, then who cares?”

“Come with me. We’ll soon be there.”

The Thousand-headed Demonic serpent abruptly sped up and disappeared into the fog ahead. Ye Qing gritted his teeth and chased after it.

He wasn’t going to head back after coming this far. Most importantly, the Earthly Sovereign Bell seemed to sense something and was swaying gently inside his mind.

Therefore, he believed the Thousand-headed Demonic Serpent to some extent.

After sinking another dozens of kilometers or so, a bright light suddenly caught Ye Qing’s attention.

There wasn’t a hint of gloominess or darkness in front of him. Even the fog had become incredibly thin as well.

At the center of the thin fog was a thatched cottage flanked by a cyan mountain, green waters, a bamboo forest, flowers and grass. The birds were chirping, the butterflies were dancing. It looked like a beautiful and fantastical painting.

“What the...”

The scenery before his eyes astonished Ye Qing as a matter of course. He had imagined the bottom of the Ghastly Abyss of the Lost to be twisted or distorted, taunted or dark, filled with mountains of corpses or overflowing with sea water.

However, he never imagined that it would look like a beautiful and quaint countryside.

“What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?”

It was at this moment the Thousand-headed Demonic Serpent shrank into a middle-aged man with a handsome but evil-looking countenance. He was wearing a black shirt and a snake hairpin.

Ye Qing answered honestly, “I wasn’t expecting the bottom of the Ghastly Abyss of the Lost to look like this.”

“It’s pretty, isn’t it?”

The Thousand-headed Demonic Serpent smiled. “It’s all the work of that old fart.”

Ye Qing exclaimed in surprise, “The Earthly Sovereign made this?”

“Who else but that old fart would have so much free time in their hands?”

The Thousand-headed Demonic Serpent said, “You probably don’t know this, but the old fart once lived here for a time, and that cottage was his residence. Do you want to check it out?”

“Sure.”

Ye Qing agreed without hesitation. After the duo landed, they walked toward the thatched cottage.

“The old fart had brought this stream to this place by breaking the spacetime barrier with the power of space. There were a lot of fishes here.”

“I don’t see any.”

“I ate them all!”

“...”

“This is where the old fart raised some chickens and ducks. It used to be quite lively around here.”

“I don’t see them.”

“I ate them all!”

“...”

“This is where the old fart used to plant his vegetables. There was everything such as cabbage, spinach, radish and more.”

“Let me guess, you ate them all?”

“Wrong! I’m a carnivore, so I couldn’t care less about vegetables. They were pecked away by the birds.”

......

Ye Qing and the Thousand-headed Demonic Serpent were walking along a road made of limestone. On the way, they crossed a stone bridge linking a stream and circling around a fence. As they walked, the Thousand-headed Demonic Serpent told him all the things that had happened while the Earthly Sovereign was living here.

At this moment, Ye Qing could clearly tell that the Thousand-headed Demonic Serpent depended and missed the Earthly Sovereign a lot despite his rude appellation.

He could tell from this that the duo weren’t nemeses. In fact, they were probably friends; the kind of friends who were terribly annoyed at one another, but would not hesitate to die for each other.

“Come in!”

Upon arriving at their destination, the Thousand-headed Demonic Serpent waved open the door and gestured for Ye Qing to step into the thatched cottage.

Now that he had figured out the relationship between the Thousand-headed Demonic Serpent and the Earthly Sovereign, Ye Qing was certain that the Stranger wouldn’t harm him. So, he stepped inside without trepidation.

The decor of the thatched cottage was pretty simple. A bed, a wooden table, a teapot, three tea cups, five bamboo chairs, and a couple of ink wash paintings were everything inside the cottage.

It was simplistic, but it was also exquisite-looking and elegant. It was neat, tidy, and well-arranged. There was a kind of return-to-natural beauty to it.

“So? Not bad, isn’t it?”

The Thousand-headed Demonic Serpent asked smilingly while leaning against the window frame.

“It is,” Ye Qing answered honestly. “I’m sure you played a role in it as well!”

The Thousand-headed Demonic Serpent looked proud when he heard this. “But of course. I’m the one who gathered the wood and bamboo the old fart needed to build his cottage.”

“I was going to build or conjure a palace with my Magia, but the old fart refused to give in. He said that a residence like that has no soul compared to one that is built with one’s own two hands. I swear there’s a screw loose inside his head.”

That was what he said, but Ye Qing could tell that the Thousand-headed Demonic Serpent was pretty proud of its achievements.

“Hmm?”

It was at this moment a portrait at the center wall of the room caught his attention.

The portrait showed an old man wearing a conical bamboo hat and fishing beside a stream. The sun hung high in the sky, and a comfortable breeze was blowing through the area. It looked nice.

He had already seen the portrait earlier, but he was looking at it again because he thought he saw the old man blinking at him.

Just when Ye Qing thought he was imagining things, the old man blinked at him a second time.

“Er... senior? Did you see that?”

He wasn’t mistaken. The old man had definitely blinked at him.

“See what?”

The Thousand-headed Demonic Serpent looked confused until he saw the portrait Ye Qing was staring at. He said, “Oh, that painting? That’s a portrait of the old fart. He drew it himself.”

“Do you know that that old fart is incredibly narcissistic? There is nothing he loves more than drawing a portrait of himself; an old fart with a face full of wrinkles. He might as well draw a couple of beauties. At least that would be a sight for sore eyes.”

“Narcissistic? We call this creative concept, you insensitive fool!”

The Thousand-headed Demonic Serpent had just finished talking when the old man inside the portrait raised his fishing rod, stuck it out of the portrait, and swung it in its direction.

The old man wasn’t moving quickly, and yet his strike felt undodgeable and unblockable.

Smack!

The Thousand-headed Demonic Serpent could only watch helplessly as the fishing rod hit it squarely in the head.

“Ow!”

The Thousand-headed Demonic Serpent cried out in pain as he clutched his head, but his eyes were fixated on the old man in the portrait, “Old fart... you...”

“Who are you calling an old fart? How rude!”

Before the Stranger could finish, the old man walked out of the portrait and smacked him in the forehead. It was only then he cracked a smile and said, “Long time no see, little serpent!”

The Thousand-headed Demonic Serpent stared at him in shock. “You... aren’t you dead?”

The old man was all smiles. “I am dead. This is just a wisp of my spiritual consciousness. Can’t you tell?”

“Of course I can!”

The Thousand-headed Demonic Serpent recovered from his shock and asked, “What I mean is, why didn’t you tell me that you left behind a wisp of consciousness?!”

“Why should I?”

The old man said matter-of-factly, “I left this behind to supervise you and make sure you didn’t goof off!”

“If I told you about me, then I wouldn’t be able to supervise you, could I?”

It made perfect sense—like hell it was!