Stranger Danger

"No, you are not Jin Manshan."

Ye Qing did not answer Jin Manshan. Instead, he shook his head and replied seriously.

The beaming Jin Manshan looked a little uncomfortable when he heard this. He asked a bit unnaturally, "You jest, young friend. If I'm not Jin Manshan, then who is?" "You are definitely not Jin Manshan!" Ye Qing shook his head and repeated himself.

This time, anger and hatred appeared on Jin Manshan's features. "Pure gibberish. I'll kill you!"

Jin Manshan roared and covered himself in golden light. Then, he pounced toward Ye Qing. The woman—Jin Wanliang's mother, Ming Yueying—was the same as well.

Ye Qing's response toward the attack was to take one step backward and tap his finger.

Thump!

A soundless chime resounded throughout the area, and both Jin Manshan and Ming Yueying's energies were scattered. They were also frozen in the air and unable to move a muscle.

"No, you are not Jin Manshan."

Ye Qing looked at Jin Manshan and repeated himself a third time.

"No! I'm Jin Manshan! I'm Jin Manshan—Argh!"

As soon as the words left Ye Qing's mouth, it was as if Jin Manshan had gone insane. He started yelling at the top of his lungs while pitch black mud flowed out of his eyes, mouth, nose, ears, and other orifices. His skin began cracking bit by bit as well.

In just the blink of an eye, Jin Manshan had turned into a lump of human-shaped mud. When the mud dripped on the ground, they scattered in every direction like worms and killed every plant that happened to be in its path. Even the earth was dyed pitch black.

Ye Qing looked at Ming Yueying next. The woman looked afraid and angry as she yelled, "I am Ming Yueying! I am Ming Yueying! I'm not a fake!"

"You are not Ming Yueying."

Ye Qing smiled and repeated the phrase "You are not Ming Yueying" three times.

The next moment, Ming Yueying began bleeding black mud, cracking, and dissolving into a lump of mud just like her husband.

"What... What on earth?" Jin Wanliang exclaimed with wide-eyed shock.

Feng Qingyou answered, "That is the Mud Morph. It's also nicknamed the Thrice Rejected. It's a Disaster-class Stranger."

"Mud Morph? Thrice Rejected?"Why do the names sound so strange?

"Mud Morph is shaped like a lump of pitch black mud like the ones you're seeing right now. However, it possesses the ability to transform and mimic anything, humans included. Hence the name."

As if she could hear Jin Wanliang's thoughts, Feng Qingyou launched into an explanation. "Before transforming into a human, a Mud Morph would observe the target's speech, behavior, temperament, personality and more to mimic them. Given enough time, it could even obtain their memories to a certain extent."

"When the time is right, Mud Morph would take on the other person's appearance and replace them. Their disguise is so perfect that an ordinary person would have trouble noticing anything amiss. Not even those closest to the victim would be able to tell that something is off through their appearance, speech, and behavior."

"What's really scary is the fact that a Mud Morph can influence those around them. Given enough time, it corrupts those who make frequent contact with them until they are completely bewitched. The victims will believe that the Mud Morph is the real deal, and they will obey all of its commands like a puppet. When everyone related to the victim has fallen under the Mud Morph's influence and corruption, and they all firmly believe that it is the real deal, then the Mud Morph would fully transform into a human and replace their victim completely. When that happens, even a Sage would have trouble identifying its true form."

"Gulp..."

Jin Wanliang gulped in shock and terror when he heard this. However, he was also feeling a small amount of relief.

Thank goodness his stays on Gold Island in recent times were pretty short. He hadn't stayed for long after discovering that something was off with his parents as well. That was why he hadn't fallen under its influence and corruption. Otherwise, the consequences would've been unimaginable.

"So... Why is it called the 'Thrice Rejected'?"

"The reason people nickname it Thrice Rejected is because a Mud Morph is forced to revert to its original form if you deny its identity three times in a row. You need to say its full name like Joyless did."

"Ah, I see," Jin Wanliang nodded in realization.

While they were speaking, the two lumps of mud had merged together and become even stronger and more terrifying than before. Pitch black mud was slowly rising into the sky and spreading its horrible stench everywhere. Right now, its aura was infinitely close to that of an Ancient-class Stranger.

"Who dares wreak havoc on Gold Island?"

"Who dares to disrespect this land?"

"Kill them! Protect the island lord!"

......

At the same time, countless people were rushing in from every direction to attack Ye Qing, Jin Wanliang, and Feng Qingyou.

They weren't just people from the city lord residence either. There were people from Gold City as well such as ordinary citizens, common servants, the elders and stewards of Gold Island and more.

Jin Manshan and Ming Yueying had already revealed their true forms, and yet those people ignored this oddity altogether and recklessly charged them.

Clearly, they had all been corrupted by the Mud Morphs and transformed into their puppets.

Jin Wanliang's face darkened when he saw this. He stopped hiding his true strength and clashed against the invaders. Jin Qianshan and the Golden God Guards were also blocking their way.

No, their corruption hadn't been dispelled yet. Ye Qing had simply taken control of them.

"Tsk... trying to overwhelm us with quantity, eh? It's useless though. These days, quality is more important than quantity."

Ye Qing narrowed his eyes slightly and threw a punch at the Mud Morph.

The punch cut through the air without a sound, but a thunderclap erupted somewhere.

The next moment, the gigantic lump of mud exploded and scattered in every direction.

The shower of mud reconverged in the sky of Gold Island and transformed into a river of mud. It poured down from the sky like a waterfall of stars.

Light was extinguished, and both heaven and earth were dyed pitch black in an instant.

Expression unchanged, wisps of light shone out of Ye Qing's pupils like the will of the heavens and the earth. He clenched his fist and pointed it toward the sky.

Light returned all of a sudden, and fist intent surged like an earthquake. Then, everything was divided into two.

One half was hot and dazzling like the sun.

The other half was pure and cool like the moon.

It was a punch that created the sun and the moon had purified heaven and earth.

"The Deep Sea of Fist Art: Sun Moon Impetus"

The darkness and filth receded immediately. Even the river of mud was boiled into nothing under the combined light of the sun and the moon.

When the darkness receded, and true light returned to the world once more, everyone on Gold Island saw a magical sight: they saw a sun and a moon hanging above the nine heavens at the same time. One of them looked dazzling, and the other cool. It was magnificent.

Not only that, their combined light caused the corrupted madmen to stop whatever they were doing and stand motionlessly.

A moment later, black mud flowed out of their orifices and evaporated under the sunlight and moonlight.

The anger and madness contorting their faces also faded into tranquility.

A few breaths later, the sun and moon in the sky slowly faded into nothing, and Gold Island regained its regal, luxurious appearance once more. The taint and darkness that gripped it before were completely gone. For those who didn't know, it was almost as if nothing had ever happened.