“Tell me, am I wrong?” Qiu Haitang completely ignored Li Qingshan’s reasonable request and grabbed him by the arm.
“If you’re not going to listen to me, I’ll choke you to death!” Li Qingshan wrapped his hand around her neck, but he failed to see any fear on her face at all.
Alas, just women in love would lose all reason, let alone those who had their hearts broken. All Li Qingshan could do was let go of her and be patient with her. “Please, you’re a cultivator. It’s not like you’ll die if you don’t have a man.”
“The assimilation of yin and yang is a natural principle of the world, while love between a man and a woman is human nature. If there is no love, what’s the point of living in this world?” Qiu Haitang said firmly.
“A three-legged toad is difficult to find, but two-legged men are everywhere. Can’t you just open your mind a little?” Li Qingshan pressed his arms down on Qiu Haitang’s shoulders. I couldn’t tell, but you’re still a little girl caught up in your ideals. You better just stick with your job of a procuress with fantastic future prospects!
“There might be a lot of men in the world, but I only love him!”
“That’s because you won’t give others an opportunity. Let me tell you, I was originally in love with someone too…”
With no other choice, Li Qingshan crouched down on the front of the ship and did his best to recall the various books on love he had read in his past life so that he could play the role of a close advisor. He rambled on about how love was blind and how love was up to choice…
Qiu Haitang crouched down too, listening carefully and even nodding from time to time. In a different world, the various newspapers, magazines, and materials available on the internet had already mentioned these topics to a point where they had lost their meaning, but it was all extremely novel to her. She listened with great interest.
Most importantly, these random topics had no practical use at all, but they sounded very reasonable, enlightening Qiu Haitang again and again. She was filled with deep respect. A daemon actually knows so much! She no longer looked at him in the same way either, feeling much closer to him now. Li Qingshan’s current image in her heart had already gained the title of “a friend of women”!
“Do you understand now?” Li Qingshan said all of that in a single breath. He had been forced to watch his heroic journey of revenge be encumbered to such a point. He really felt sorrow well up from the bottom of his heart.
“I think I do a little, but also not that much,” Qiu Haitang said in thought. She immediately felt the daemon before her erupt with murderousness, so she smiled gently and drifted backwards, activating the ship’s wheel. The Soaring Dragon ship finally began to descend once more.
Li Qingshan let out a sigh of relief and leapt onto the dragon figurehead. The sea of clouds was everywhere, preventing him from seeing anything at all. The daemon qi in his body surged, refining the flag. With a swing, it expanded to ten times its size and rippled violently, kicking up a violent gust of wind and blowing away the thick cloud layer.
“Thank you.” Qiu Haitang gazed at his upright figure from behind.
“What?”
“We’re here.” Qiu Haitang pointed below.
The last layer of clouds ripped apart, and the mountains rose and fell like waves. Green Vine mountain was right beneath them.
“Fire the cannons!” Li Qingshan laughed aloud.
“Yes!” Qiu Haitang said. It was clearly so dangerous, yet he treated it like a child’s game. Her heart loosened up with his behaviour for some reason, no longer shackled down by her mental burden. Instead, she felt slightly eager. According to his words, she had to vent her emotions after her heart was broken.
Her slender finger landed on the ship’s wheel gently and countless black cannons protruded out from the ship.
I’ve been coerced by a daemon! You can’t blame me!
……
“Qingshan! Qingshan!” Han Qiongzhi’s voice rang out from an extremely distant location.
Li Qingshan opened his eyes in the hall of the Hua family, but everything was dark.
“It’s so dark! What’s happened? And why’s it so stinky?”
The nine-feet-tall, tenth layer first senior brother of Horned Rhinoceros mountain was currently engaged with Li Qingshan in a death struggle. He grabbed Li Qingshan firmly. His face had become bright-red, riddled with veins as he sweat profusely. His feet were embedded in the ground as he used up everything he had in him to push Li Qingshan. His enormous muscles were almost strangling Li Qingshan.
Everyone could tell who was winning. The disciples of the Daemon Suppression alliance were stunned as the disciples of the academy gradually began to laugh.
Jin Feipeng’s face was overcome with disbelief. The master of the Vermillion Clothes sect frowned. “Is this really the primary disciple of the school of Novels?”
“He’s a member of my Hawkwolf Guard too. I’ll be surprised if he lost.” Hua Chengzan smiled.
Han Qiongzhi stopped worrying. She called out, “Qingshan, stop playing around.”
Li Qingshan returned to his senses and began to move. He wrapped his arms around the huge man’s waist, and it immediately became thinner. He lifted him up like pulling a carrot out of the ground and leaned backwards, throwing him against the ground heavily through a German suplex.
The huge man had been using a hundred ten percent of his power, so he was in no shape to respond. In the blink of an eye, all he saw was the ground flying rapidly into his face. He heard a rumble and darkness descended.
Boom! All the tables trembled. The top half of the huge man had already become buried in the ground, while his large, thick, pillar-like legs still hung in the air.
“Victory to the Academy of the Hundred Schools.” Hua Chengzan smiled.
“Divine be senior brother Li’s strength!” “Mighty be senior brother Li!” The disciples of the academy erupted with cheers.
“First senior brother!” A group of disciples from the Horned Rhinoceros mountain rushed over and pulled the huge man out of the ground. His face was covered in dust as he looked at Li Qingshan viciously.
“Who else?” Li Qingshan curled his hand at the sect disciples leisurely. He did not even take a second glance at the huge man.
“The first senior sister of the Rose Cloud sect, Man Rou, seeks guidance. I wish to compete over true qi with you.” Immediately, a petite, delicate girl walked over. She was also at the tenth layer.
“Hold on, we want to change our person. Junior brother, you can go up,” Wei Yangsheng said in a hurry. The most important aspect in competing over true qi was the level of cultivation unless it came to someone like Chu Tian, who practised five kinds of true qi simultaneously. According to his knowledge, Li Qingshan only practised the regular Gui Water Method of Condensing Qi.
He had heard that the aspect that the Rose Clouds manual of the Rose Cloud sect focused on was true qi. In the very beginning, the true qi would be faintly discernible; it was as soft as clouds but extremely tough. Towards the end, it would be enough to flood entire regions in an unstoppable fashion. Even he was not confident about emerging victorious. It was just a pity that junior sister Xiao An was not present, so he was forced to go with junior brother Chu Tian for the greatest chances at victory.
Li Qingshan was just about to leave the ring when Man Rou said, “What’s wrong? Weren’t you asking who else earlier? Don’t tell me the primary disciple of the school of Novels doesn’t even hold as much authority as the primary disciple of your school of Confucianism?”
Man Rou seemed delicate, but she spoke with power as if she was unstoppable. She wanted to use Li Qingshan’s words against him. She wanted to force him, an eighth layer Qi Practitioner, into a contest of true qi with her, a tenth layer Qi Practitioner, which would guarantee their victory and avenge the huge man.
Wei Yangsheng knew it was a provocation, but he was unable to say anything more. The primary disciples all technically stood on equal footing, so all of them had the authority to decide. And, he really did not have the confidence he could defeat this unfathomable junior brother Li of his when it came to actual combat.
“True qi? Then come!” Li Qingshan said casually.
“Qingshan.” Han Qiongzhi became worried. Rarely did Qi Practitioners ever compete with true qi alone, but it was even more dangerous than regular battles. Once foreign true qi invaded the body, just the lighter consequences would be destroying their meridians and losing their cultivation. The more severe consequences involved exploding dantians and dying on the spot.
Man Rou beamed inside. You’re asking for it. Men all like to suffer just to uphold their pride. She raised her dainty hands and said, “Please!”
Li Qingshan raised his hands too.
“Let go of my hands!” Man Rou turned bright red.
“Isn’t this it?” As it turned out, Li Qingshan had directly seized Man Rou by her tiny, tender hands with his huge hands. Man Rou tried to tug them out, but she clearly failed. She was vexed and embarrassed. This was no true qi competition. This was intimate contact between lovers.
Han Qiongzhi ground her teeth. This guy actually agreed to it just to take advantage of her! So much for worrying about him. You better just die instead!
“It’s the palms!” Man Rou said furiously and with embarrassment. The Rose Clouds sect was a sect of female cultivators. A man had never touched her like this in her life, let alone in the eyes of the public.
“Is there a difference?” Li Qingshan curled his lip. I’ve already had enough with beauty Qiu, who gets whatever she wants. Why would I tease you?
After adjusting his grip, the competition finally began.
How dare you grope me! I’ll show you what’s what! Man Rou glared at Li Qingshan. Rose Clouds true qi flowed out endlessly. Before she had even unleashed her true strength, Li Qingshan’s Gui Water true qi had already begun to collapse.
Unfortunately, the Gui Water Method of Condensing Qi focused on the ease of cultivation, making it suitable for all, so it was not particularly powerful.
Rose Cloud true qi rushed into Li Qingshan’s body in an unstoppable manner.
And then… there was no and then.
Man Rou’s tiny mouth dropped slightly. She could sense she had completely lost connection with her true qi the moment it entered Li Qingshan’s body. Raising her head, she only saw that he had closed his eyes again.
The daemon core shaped like a turtle’s shell bobbed up and down in the sea of qi in Li Qingshan’s body. The multicoloured Rose Clouds true qi immediately yielded the moment it entered its domain, becoming as docile as possible. It just happened to be of the water element as well, so it was absorbed into the daemon core.
This time, Li Qingshan did not focus either. The spirit turtle’s daemon core could easily suppress the true qi of a measly Qi Practitioner like it was playing around. You have absolutely no idea challenging me to a competition of true qi. Let alone her, even if the Rose Cloud elders were present, they would suffer in the same way.
Man Rou was too afraid to withdraw her hand, as that would allow Li Qingshan’s true qi to invade her body, which would be horrible. She completely refused to accept this, desperately mobilising her Rose Clouds true qi.
……
On the Green Vine mountain, a hubbub suddenly appeared. The Green Vine Elder roused from his cultivation and arrived outside. He saw many disciples staring at the sky and pointing, discussing among themselves.
“What’s that?” “Is that a ship?”
The Green Vine Elder gazed over. Hmm? Isn’t that the Soaring Dragon ship of Pine Sough academy? What’s it doing here?
“May I ask who it is on the ship? Is it senior Wen?” The Green Vine Elder said loudly. His voice reached the sky with his spiritual qi. The head scholar of Pine Sough academy, Wen Zhengming, was a powerful cultivator who had been through two heavenly tribulations. He was afraid of disrespecting him in the slightest.
“Old man Green Vine, time to die!” Li Qingshan called out. With a wave of his flag, it stitched six words in the sky, also “Old man Green Vine, time to die!”
“Oh no!” The Green Vine Elder spotted the scarlet figure and leapt in fright. He saw hundreds of stars light up at the same time, growing brighter and brighter.
In that instant, they turned into hundreds of beams of light, flying towards the Green Vine mountain.
