Milliped considered the question seriously, while Li Qingshan grew nervous. He was afraid this Daemon General would say something along the lines of, “You!” He would be done for if that were the case.
But fortunately, Milliped said at the end, “Yellow seeds. White seeds.”
It took Li Qingshan a moment to understand that he was talking about millet and rice. He was actually a herbivore, but he soon remembered that most millipedes in the world were herbivores anyway.
Of course, most daemons never followed this. Even if it had been a goat who had grazed on grass for most of its life, it would happily eat meat and drink alcohol after turning into a daemon. This guy was probably so stupid that he had not even bothered to change his diet!
“I’ll go up to grab them!” Li Qingshan was just about to leap out of the hole above him with Xiao An.
“Hold on!”
Li Qingshan’s heart sank, but he heard Milliped say, “And that colourless water!”
“Water? You mean alcohol?”
“I think so…”
“Okay, I’ll go fetch that!”
As expected, Milliped did not stop him. He did not even try taking Xiao An as a hostage. He just pressed him. “Quickly! Quickly!”
Li Qingshan leapt out of the secret room underground. The hole just happened to be above the back garden, which was why the buildings had not collapsed. He rushed out with Xiao An, before collapsing on the ground and gazing at the deep, blue night sky, gasping for air.
He felt like he had gone fishing, only to catch a great white shark. That was far too dangerous. Fortunately, this shark was not particularly clever, nor could it leave the water, or it really would have cost him his life this time.
Xiao An laid beside him, also looking at the night sky. The faint wisps of clouds floated by, but she seemed slightly depressed.
Li Qingshan suddenly stood up, grabbed her, and helped her to her feet. He lectured, “You haven’t been behaving yourself at all. I told you to go, so you go. Why’d you come back?”
Xiao An waved her hands and eeked and ahhed in argument.
Li Qingshan shot her a glance. “Hmm? You’ve just learned how to speak, yet you’re gonna talk back at me? It was pure luck in the Boundless mountains, which was why you happened to help me. That doesn’t mean you were right. If I say you’re wrong, then you’re wrong. I’m saying all of this for your sake!”
The rims of Xiao An’s eyes reddened from anger. She turned around and no longer said anything.
Li Qingshan said, “You’re not allowed to cry!”
As a result, tears streamed down Xiao An’s face.
Li Qingshan’s heart immediately began to ache. He steeled his resolve. “Crying won’t work this time. You need to learn.”
Xiao An suddenly raised her head and looked at Li Qingshan with a gaze she had never displayed before. Her chest heaved heavily. She was like a volcano welling up with lava as she suddenly erupted and said, “Just how many times do you have to abandon me before you’re satisfied!?” Her voice grew clearer as she spoke, while her face was filled with sadness. As soon as she was done, she turned around and rushed into the house.
“You-” Li Qingshan was completely stunned, like he had been struck by a Lightning Summoning talisman.
Xiao An had finally spoken a complete sentence; this should have been something worthy of a great celebration, but the sentence made his heart ache slightly. He laid back down on the ground, defeated. He too experienced the worries that came with a growing child.
In the hole in the garden, Milliped asked, “Do you have it?”
“I don’t!” Li Qingshan barked.
“Why are you so loud?” Milliped asked in a daze.
“It’s got nothing to do with you!” Li Qingshan barked again, “Just keep waiting!”
“Okay.”
This was the first time Li Qingshan had realised the severity of the issue. Xiao An was growing up slowly, so she would definitely develop her own thoughts and opinions. Perhaps, there might even be the legendary rebellious phase. It was impossible to avoid conflict as a family—no, it was possible to say that the closer they were as a family, the more easily they would come into conflict with each other.
As the head of the family, he had to consider just how he was supposed to communicate with her. He had to guide her growth slowly and patiently, but just how was he supposed to go about it?
He felt his mind descend into a mess. This was far more complicated than cultivation. As a result, he just laid there as he thought about a lot of things. He thought about how his parents treated him. He thought about the methods of education mentioned by those professionals on television during his previous life.
Li Qingshan suddenly sat up. “Yep. I need to treat her as an equal first.” He crawled to his feet and made his way over to the door slowly. He raised his hand to knock, but he ended up hitting nothing. The door suddenly swung open and a petite figure threw herself into his arms.
Li Qingshan was slightly taken aback before breaking into laughter. He could feel how attached she was to him. He stroked her hair. “I’m sorry. I was too brash earlier. I’ve never wanted to abandon you. I just want to protect you.”
“I… want to… protect… you too…” Xiao An was still not very fluent, but she was extremely serious.
Her expression was simply adorable, which both touched Li Qingshan and made him develop a desire to protect her. He smiled. “Alright, great king Xiao An. This one is under your protection. Come, let me give you a kiss!” He swept aside her fringe and pecked down heavily on her smooth forehead.
The daemon young man who stood like a black tower and the small, tender girl formed an extremely unique sight. Instead of smacking your lips and saying something like, “In me the tiger sniffs the rose,” the current situation was more like, “An ox munching on peony, wasting it for being unable to appreciate its beauty.”
Xiao An’s face was bright red. She raised her heels and gently kissed his great face that was as black as the bottom of a pot.
Li Qingshan rubbed his face. The feeling of the kiss lingered there. He could not help but chuckle.
In the hole, Milliped called out again, “I’m hungry!”
Li Qingshan curled his lip. “Let’s find a way to deal with him first!”
Xiao An covered her mouth to hide her smile.
Li Qingshan was rather reluctant to leave behind this secret cultivation spot he had just created, and Milliped did not seem like he posed much danger either.
Then he thought about the habits of millipedes, which did seem like a harmless bug. Millipedes would usually play dead if they were toyed with, and then they would release some kind of irritating gas at most.
Now that he thought about it, the pink, poisonous gas that Milliped released, which was also what the Iron Plate corpse ran into, was no irritating gas, but actual, acidic poison that could eat through rock and metal.
If the Sect of Clouds and Rain came for him right now, all he would have to do was lure them into the hole before waiting to collect their corpses. What ninth layer or tenth layer? They were all useless before a Daemon General. Even if the sect master came, defeat was probably more likely against an insect Daemon General.
After quite a while of thought, Li Qingshan wore the bamboo basket and took Xiao An with him. He arrived in Salt Mountain city and found Yu Shukuang. “I’ll be gone for a while. Don’t let anyone approach my estate!”
This was what he eventually decided on. A Daemon General was just too dangerous. He seemed very stupid and could be toyed with or used, but that would come with an element of unpredictability in whatever he did. If he angered him by accident, an extremely miserable fate would await him.
From a certain perspective, Milliped was even more dangerous that Xuanyue. At the very least, Li Qingshan knew what Xuanyue wanted. He could even relate to her. Even if he angered her, she would not kill him.
Wagering his life on the mood of an idiot was not a clever choice. Before he had obtained the power to protect himself, he had decided to maintain his distance. I can’t afford to provoke him, but that doesn’t mean I can’t avoid him.
Yu Shukuang jerked awake from his dream. “Great hero Li- Niu, where will you be going?”
“That’s not for you to worry about.” Li Qingshan pondered that question slightly. He was obviously going to go provoke the people he could afford to provoke.
Yu Shukuang said, “Then, please go, please go!” Before he had even finished talking, Li Qingshan had vanished already, kicking up a violent gust of wind and causing the door to swing wildly.
Yu Shukuang was rather reluctant to see him go. The ‘Tiger Butcher’ was terrifying, but he stuck to his word, and he was very generous. All he made him do was buy an estate and deliver a few days worth of food, and in return, he received a million taels of silver and a Hundred Grasses pill. He was an ideal backer that he could rely on. If he could help him out with a few things in return for some more pills, there was a lot of hope for him to reach the innate realm.
He climbed out of bed and took out an envelope from his drawer. He carefully took out the letter and read it under the lantern light.
His daughter’s letter told him that she had already ingested a legendary Innate pill and had already begun cultivating.
The edges had even become roughed up. Clearly, he had read it countless times already, but whenever he saw it, he would smile happily. That little girl who leaned on her arms as she listened to his stories of maintaining justice and helping the weak had finally grown up! She had surpassed her father!
However, what followed his joy was despondence and unease.
The world of Qi Practitioners was completely different from the world of the jianghu. In the jianghu, he was the great hero Yu who maintained justice and was revered by countless. However, before even the weakest Qi Practitioner, he had to bow and scrape to them, careful with every single move.
Only the ignorant common people would treat Qi Practitioners like gods. He understood this very well. No matter where, human nature was just as vile. He could only blame himself for enjoying her gazes of admiration too much, making the stories he told her too perfect. In the end, the stubborn girl really ended up believing in some ‘path of justice’. She might end up suffering as a result.
Recalling that, he could no longer fall asleep anymore. Sigh, he really was unable to help her at all now!
He was clearly still in his late thirties, yet he suddenly felt like he had aged. He stowed the letter away carefully and returned it to the drawer. He wanted to break through to the innate realm more than ever right now.
The starlight pierced through the trees and fell into the hole, landing onto Milliped’s dazed face. His eyes were wide and his mouth was wide open as he stared at this sight that he rarely ever saw. Saliva flowed out of his mouth. “Looks like sesame!”
“How slow!”
Li Qingshan left Salt Mountain city. He travelled a few dozen kilometers, found a cave, and dove in. He travelled underground and arrived before the Zombie Daoist’s dwelling before suddenly stopping. His nose pricked up, and he sniffed the air gently. His expression immediately changed.
It was extremely faint, but the familiar smell of rouge was something he could never forget. It came from that deviant, the West Gate Granny!
Aside from that, there were three other different scents of rouge. At least four people of the Sect of Clouds and Rain were here, and it was very likely that they were the four grannies of the Sect of Clouds and Rain, or four ninth layer Qi Practitioners in other words.
He had never thought they would actually come here in search of him. He felt like he had still been too careless. If he were caught in the dwelling by these people, the consequences would be unthinkable.
PS: Xiao An’s first words, which probably aren’t what everyone was expecting! As one of the main characters in this book, she will gradually display her own flair. She obviously won’t be surpassed by some deviant of a woman. To be honest, they do bear different things on their shoulders in this book, but they definitely don’t exist just to become the main character’s women. I like this feeling very much. If you like it too, then give me some monthly tickets in support!
