The wind whistled, and the drizzle assaulted his face.
Li Qingshan flapped his wings, flying through the dark sky. The half-transparent wings loosened and tightened. He was like a red fish, sometimes leaping into the sea of clouds and sometimes falling into the rain. Through his process, he rapidly familiarised himself with the usage of the wings.
At this moment, the spirit turtle’s daemon core flashed and gave him an omen of warning.
Li Qingshan turned around, hovering in the air. All he could see was a sky filled with rain and clouds, unable to sense anything wrong at all, but the feeling of being spied on only became clearer.
A green light shot through the clouds. Fu Qingjin’s expression was bleak as his gaze was like a bolt of lightning. The moment Li Qingshan stopped, he stopped too, carefully hiding in the clouds.
The rain continued to fall. All was silent.
Li Qingshan basically identified him immediately. As it turned out, he had still given himself away with this visit to the Parlour of Clouds and Rain. He was tempted to use his clone to probe his strength, but upon considering the three hundred treasures pouches on him, he turned around and flew downwards, entering underground through a cave.
“What vigilant prey.” Fu Qingjin appeared. If he had prey like this, then his mission as a liaison would not be too boring. However, now was not the time for him to reel in his net.
……
Moving underground, Li Qingshan took out his underground mental map and found his way, returning to his territory. The sight earlier truly made him understand what being stared right in the face meant. He was forced to respond immediately.
Returning to the cavern, he found Milliped cultivating silently by lying on the stone bed, recovering his strength bit by bit.
A shadow appeared behind him, consolidating and lunging towards him. Li Qingshan had already been prepared. He suddenly turned around and extended his right hand before placing it down again. A soft body threw herself into his embrace.
“Master, you’re back!” Ye Liubo was filled with surprise and delight.
“You’ve already undergone the heavenly tribulation.” Li Qingshan raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah! It’s all thanks to the pill master bestowed upon me!” Ye Liubo said gratefully. After ingesting the True Spirit pill, she immediately felt the energy in her body change qualitatively, finally breaking through and going through the heavenly tribulation. This was not due to the True Spirit pill alone, but also because of the lengthy time she had spent at the bottleneck.
“Liubo is willing to do anything to repay master’s kindness.” Ye Liubo licked her lips.
“That’s fantastic. Keep managing the trade. I need even more spiritual herbs.”
“That’s not what I mean. Master, look at what this is.” Ye Liubo grumbled before taking out many spiritual herbs from her hundred treasures pouch.
Before Li Qingshan left, he gave her many of the spiritual artifacts and talismans he had no use for. After undergoing the heavenly tribulation, she went back to show off and successfully completed a few transactions, earning Li Qingshan a lot of spiritual herbs yet again. None of them were less than a century old.
“Nicely done.” Li Qingshan accepted the spiritual herbs and smiled.
Right now, he had two choices. One was abandoning this place to avoid any potential attacks from Fu Qingjin, venturing deeper underground and temporarily taking up residence in Blacklustre city. The other option was to fortify this place and turn it into a fortress that opposed the Daemon Suppression alliance.
In the past, he would have leaned towards the former. After all, his subordinates were limited, and it was not like he cultivated for the sake of the Daemon race’s prosperity. There was no need for him to throw himself at the Daemon Suppression alliance. But now, he had another idea in mind. He needed to see the Spider Queen before that.
“Let’s go and visit Ye Mingzhu first.”
“Please allow me to come with you… master!” Ye Liusu emerged silently from the darkness.
“Alright. Bring Milliped with us.”
……
“Sir Northmoon, it really has been quite a while. Have you brought more good news back for me?”
In Blacklustre city, Ye Mingzhu immediately rushed back after hearing about Northmoon’s arrival, showing great respect towards him. Having received the support of his weapons, the Spider Shadow clan was gradually turning the tides of the war underground.
“Matriarch Ye is riding the crest of success!” Li Qingshan sat on a high-back chair with his legs crossed while Ye Liubo and Ye Liusu stood beside him.
“How can you call me matriarch, sir Northmoon? You can just refer to me as Mingzhu. This is all thanks to sir Northmoon’s efforts. Please accept this measly gift as a small tribute.” Ye Mingzhu offered up a brocade box with both hands.
“Nothing comes for free! You must have a request in mind, don’t you, Mingzhu?” Li Qingshan opened the box. Inside lay a thousand-year Dark Blood Ginseng. It was completely pitch-black, oozing with spiritual qi. It had already become slightly humanoid. Unlike other spiritual herbs, it was one that could be directly consumed. Even underground, the value of Dark Blood Ginsengs was extremely high.
“May I ask if sir Northmoon has any more of the pill that Liubo consumed? If you do, I am willing to exchange for them with even more and even better spiritual herbs.” Ye Mingzhi’s eyes shone. There were many night roamers in the clan who had reached the bottleneck but were unable to break through. If she could obtain a few of these pills, they would gain several powerful members who had undergone the heavenly tribulation in the blink of an eye, forming a crushing force.
“Mingzhu, you really are ambitious, aren’t you?” Li Qingshan fiddled around with the Dark Blood Ginseng with a smile.
“I don’t have any other choice either. If sir Northmoon is willing to assist me, I swear that any future requests from sir Northmoon will be completely fulfilled as long as it is within this territory, which can include me too.” Ye Mingzhu smiled charmingly.
“I do have a few requests, but before that, I need to see the Spider Queen first! Normally, I’ll always personally fetch what I want.”
Li Qingshan smiled. If he wanted to protect the territory and fend off Fu Qingjin, the night roamers would be an extremely important component in his plan. However, he had never planned on maintaining such a fragile relationship of treating them as equals and dealing with them through trade. He wanted to grasp this power in his very own hands, consolidating his cornerstone of authority in the underground world.
It’s just a few dozen subordinates, that’s all. I’ll definitely possess what Fu Qingjin has too.
In Cobweb city, the bright, red carpet extended from the throne. Spider Queen Lolth leaned on her hand with her scarlet dress, studying Li Qingshan.
“Northmoon, you’ve finally bothered to come see me.”
“Ma’am Spider Queen has summoned you multiple times, but you never came, not even once. What are you planning?” Bloodshadow’s pale face was filled with undisguised animosity.
“I’ve been constantly thinking about ma’am Spider Queen too, but for the ma’am’s request, I’ve been busying myself outside the entire time. I’m not like certain people who just idle around in their own territories all day.” Li Qingshan chuckled and glanced at Bloodshadow.
“So you’re saying you’ve brought me the Green Vine Elder’s head?” The Spider Queen’s expression changed, becoming interested.
“Unfortunately, I haven’t.” Li Qingshan laid out his hands.
“Are you toying around with ma’am Spider Queen? Ma’am, I’ll venture to the surface right now and bring you the head of the Green Vine Elder.” Bloodshadow rebuked loudly before volunteering himself. The Spider Queen’s expression coldened slightly too.
Li Qingshan laughed aloud. His laughter echoed through the huge chamber.
“What are you laughing about?”
“From today onwards, no one will be able to bring back even a hair of his, as he has already vanished with the Green Vine mountain.”
“Vanished?” Spider Queen Lolth was doubtful.
“What are you blabbering about?” Bloodshadow frowned.
“I couldn’t help it. I went a little too hard,” Li Qingshan said with his hands laid out.
The Spider Queen curled her finger, and an oval mirror in the corner of the room glowed brightly.
That’s an arcane artifact! Li Qingshan was surprised inside. An image appeared on the surface of the mirror, passing through the rock and soil until it arrived above ground, reflecting the Green Vine mountain that had already been reduced to a crater.
In that moment, even Bloodshadow was unable to say anything more. Only now did he understand what Li Qingshan meant by “vanished”. His first response was that this was impossible. Even if he used his full strength, it was impossible for him to reduce an entire mountain to something like that unless he blew up his daemon core!
The Spider Queen’s smile slowly widened, gorgeous yet cruel. Laughter that could make people shudder rang out in their heads like threads of spider silk. Waiting outside, Ye Mingzhu’s heart lurched, and she lowered her head. She gained a deeper understanding of Li Qingshan’s strength yet again.
At this moment, Dragonsnail and Strongboulder rushed over too. They heard the Spider Queens’ laughter and were both shocked.
“What is this crater?’
After paying his respects to the Spider Queen, Strongboulder saw the image in the mirror and asked with furrowed brows.
“Green Vine mountain,” Dragonsnail said slowly. His voice was even slower than before, also doubting the conclusion he had reached. He gazed at Li Qingshan deeply.
“Did you do this?” Strongboulder’s voice boomed like thunder, filled with surprise.
“You’ve done very well. From today onwards, you are permitted to see me directly. You do not have to notify me.” Spider Queen Lolth’s voice became much more friendly. No one would dislike a powerful subordinate that conformed to their tastes.
Ye Mingzhu’s expression changed. This was a special right only Dragonsnail, Strongboulder, and Bloodshadow possessed. Did this mean the three great Daemon Generals under the Spider Queen’s command would increase today?
“Let’s fight!” Strongboulder licked his lips as scorching battle intent rose from his body, but he did not object. If he were truly responsible for this, he was indeed worthy of this right.
Bloodshadown said, “Ma’am, he’s lying! Northmoon, I don’t believe this is something you can do. Are you bold enough to clash with me? This time, I won’t spare you so easily.”
Bloodshadow was confident he was strong enough to expose Northmoon’s true power as long as the Spider Queen permitted him to fight. He wanted to prove to the Spider Queen that Northmoon was completely unworthy of standing with them.
“You better stop!” Spider Queen Lolth shut them up. “So you want to fight against a clone?”
A clone!?
Aside from Dragonsnail, everyone was surprised.
Ye Mingzhu suddenly understood why he was so composed and fearless when he faced the entire Spider Shadow clan the other day. She became even more glad about her decision.
“You’ve been using a clone to face us this entire time?” Bloodshadow’s expression became even more sunken. He remembered how he had vanished from the cave in an unbelievable fashion during the pursuit that had ended inconclusively last time. As it turned out, it was just his clone. He had been led around like a fool.
“Safety comes first. I think ma’am Spider Queen can understand my worries, right? If you hear me out, maybe even brother Dragonsnail and brother Strongboulder can understand. Actually, I wouldn’t have been surprised at all if ma’am Spider Queen placed the blame on me and handed me over.”
“Tell me, what you’ve done that needs me to place the blame on you. I’m very curious too. Just how did you do it?” Spider Queen Lolth was intrigued as she asked in interest.
