The ground cracked, and a huge boulder burst out from the earth. An invisible, terrifying power swept through the entire city in an instant. In everyone’s eyes, even the sky turned blood-red, but what was dyed red was not the sky, but their eyes. Regardless of their age or gender, their eyes all glowed red due to being filled with blood.
In the busy streets, everyone became frenzied, growling as they lunged at the people beside them. Their eyes were filled with hatred as they ground their teeth; it was like they were facing their mortal enemies.
“Oh no, the rock demon is slaughtering the city!” Sun Yi’s face changed drastically and cut down the people who lunged towards him. It was rumored that people would kill one another in madness wherever the rock demon went. He could slaughter an entire city without doing anything.
“Let’s go!” Hua Chenglu felt herself become restless and ingested a Pill of Soothing as she spoke anxiously.
Before she had even finished speaking, a voice rang out from beneath her, “To where?”
The ground began to ripple like water, and Strongboulder emerged. He stared at them with a vicious smile, like he was staring at a group of puppets. He had no intention of fighting. Killing them was easy, but Strongboulder wanted to rile up their killing intent and malice before he killed them so that he could feed off them.
Sun Yi was filled with fear, but under Strongboulder’s gaze, his fear turned into hysteric hatred and killing intent very soon. He charged towards Strongboulder.
Strongboulder threw his fist gently, and with a thud, Sun Yi’s head exploded like a watermelon, and pulp of red and white sprayed over Strongboulder. He let out a laugh. The two remaining Qi Practitioners could not withstand it any longer either and rushed over. They were ripped apart like dolls as the ground became covered by their slippery organs.
Strongboulder licked the blood on his hand and admired the slaughter that was everywhere. Only a moment had passed, but tens of thousand people had already killed one another.
In that moment, Jiaping city turned into a blood-soaked purgatory as malice radiated into the air. Strongboulder took in a deep breath and sucked in this malice, converting it into daemon qi and making his power as a Rock of Slaughter even greater.
Suddenly, Strongboulder sensed something and gazed in the direction of the district government’s office. There were still other Qi Practitioners! His hand expanded violently and plunged into the ground. A crack stretched into the distance.
……
How could Li Qingshan not recognise this familiar daemon qi? He said to Zhou Wenbin, “Run!” before shooting off in the direction of the daemon qi. Soon after he had taken off, a crack stretched over from afar, reaching deep into the government office. A huge hand of rock, several meters long, suddenly extended out from the ground, grabbing Zhou Wenbin who had tried to flee. He called towards Li Qingshan from between the cracks, “Save…”
However, before he could finish, the huge hand closed around him and crushed Zhou Wenbin to pulp with ease. Succeeding with the attack, the huge hand collapsed and shattered, only leaving behind a bloody mess.
Li Qingshan found this situation to be extremely troublesome; it was not because he feared Strongboulder’s power, but because protecting two Qi Practitioners in the face of this power was anything but easy. Even if he transformed, it would still be difficult, let alone under the current circumstances.
However, he could not afford to think too much about it. The streets and buildings receded around him rapidly, and he arrived on the busy street in the blink of an eye. The street was no longer noisy. It was deathly silent now. Blood formed streams as corpses were scattered everywhere. It was a chilling sight.
Only when Li Qingshan saw how Yu Zijian and Hua Chenglu were still alive did he let out a sigh of relief. He hid his aura even more carefully and slowly approached them.
Hua Chenglu continued to hold on arduously through the power of the Pill of Soothing, resisting the invading killing intent. However, she knew she was probably done for this time. Who knew how many times she had heard of the infamous rock demon already. Even Foundation Establishment cultivators could not necessarily survive before him. Zijian, looks like we’re really going to be going out on the same day.
As for Yu Zijian, she seemed to have become frightened out of her wits by the sight around her. She stood still like a statue, without moving at all.
Strongboulder let out a soft expression of surprise and looked at Yu Zijian’s face. She had not been infected by the Rock of Slaughter’s power, becoming a bloodthirsty, frenzied madman. She did not even give off a hint of murderousness or malice.
“Why?” Yu Zijian croaked. Her memories from three years ago flooded her head. She felt like she was reliving the moment with everything going on around her, with countless living people dying horrible deaths right in front of her.
Indescribable pain filled her chest, drowning out her hatred and resentment. When she said that, tears had already begun coursing down her cheeks, as if she was asking Strongboulder, yet also asking herself.
“There’s no why. Do you hate it? If you hate it, come kill me!” Strongboulder was rather surprised. She was a mere Qi Practitioner, yet she was actually completely resistant to the Rock of Slaughter. He extended his hand at Yu Zijian and withdrew all of his power, directing it towards Yu Zijian instead.
Her heart beat violently, urging her to kill.
Yu Zijian moved, but she did not charge over madly like Sun Yi and everyone else. Instead, she straightened herself out, wiped away her tears, and drew the Nine Yang sword. The noon sun seemed to flow across the blade like water as she pointed it towards this undefeatable opponent. Her gaze was sorrowful yet determined, without a hint of madness or fear.
“Interesting! It’ll be even more interesting when I kill you!” Strongboulder laughed.
There was a flash of white light, and the Nine Yang sword swung towards Strongboulder’s indestructible body. Hua Chenglu’s eyes widened. She could already see the fate when her sword snapped, and she died.
Strongboulder just spread his arms, completely neglecting the attack. Suddenly, his eyes narrowed, and he raised his arms, as if he wanted to block, but it was already too late. The Nine Yang sword landed on him, and he was sent flying like a spinning top, smashing through several dozen buildings consecutively.
Even Yu Zijian was surprised by the power of her strike, while Hua Chenglu behind her saw a large figure flash by. Before they could even return to their senses, they felt their waists tighten as the surroundings rapidly receded around them.
Li Qingshan could not bother with hiding himself anymore. He grabbed them by the waist and fled into the distance as quickly as he could. He had landed a strike on Strongboulder while he was careless, but he had failed to cause any meaningful damage. Before anything else, he had to take them to somewhere safe first.
Hua Chenglu saw a ripple of blue light, and Li Qingshan’s figure appeared. She said in surprise, “Have you been following us the entire time?” Normally, help would have never arrived so quickly, so only one explanation remained. He had been following them the entire time. If that were the case, all the dangerous situations they had encountered that turned into nothing made sense.
After three years, she saw Li Qingshan once again. However, Yu Zijian immediately became troubled with something else. He’s Niu Juxia!?
Li Qingshan said, “Now’s not the time to talk about that. He’s right behind us.”
Hua Chenglu turned around and took a look. With a great rumble, Strongboulder burst out of the rubble and shot into the sky like a cannonball. Before the dust had even settled, he fell back down like a meteor, shooting towards them.
Strongboulder stared at Li Qingshan with extreme fury. Due to a moment of carelessness, the human had actually managed to land a sneak attack. He radiated with murderousness like an ill omen.
In a different time and place, Li Qingshan would be very willing to fight Strongboulder to the death, but the circumstances right now were rather inappropriate. However, it was very difficult for him to escape from Strongboulder with just his cultivation as a human.
Suddenly, shimmering light filled his eyes. He had arrived above the Clear river again. Li Qingshan came up with an idea and dove headfirst into the river.
The river suddenly surged, rushing upwards with a roar. It turned into a huge dragon, opening its mouth and receiving Strongboulder with a growl.
Strongboulder completely ignored it. The water dragon ripped away at his body and smashed into him, but it failed to even leave a mark. With a wave of daemon qi, he directly rushed through the water dragon, smashing into the Clear river loudly.
Not only did the shockwave empty out that section of the river, but even the structures on the two banks were completely destroyed. He arrived on the flat riverbed and failed to find the three of them. The destroyed water dragon fell as rain before suddenly turning into mist that enveloped the region.
The mist was thick like clumps of cotton, reducing visibility to absolutely nothing. Not only did it restrict sight, but it also interfered with the sensing of aura.
“Mere trickery!” Strongboulder sneered. With a gush of his malicious aura, the mist immediately began to disperse. He vaguely made out three figures who fled into the distance. It was Li Qingshan, who carried Yu Zijian and Hua Chenglu with him.
Strongboulder leapt up and smashed viciously into Li Qingshan’s back, but when he came into contact with Li Qingshan, the three figures dispersed like mist. In the moment before, Strongboulder had clearly sensed the aura of living people from them.
With a rumble, Strongboulder smashed into the ground and formed a huge crater. He became even more vexed. He had killed many Foundation Establishment cultivators before, but never had he been toyed with twice while even failing to land a single blow. With the time he had wasted, they had probably fled far away already.
Sunlight fell down from above, projecting a shadow onto Strongboulder’s face. Strongboulder suddenly raised his head and saw Li Qingshan appear, just standing beside the crater with a sword in hand and staring at him. “Are you the rock demon?”
Li Qingshan had followed the Blaststream Water Dragon with a technique of shrouding mist. Then, he used the Divine Talisman of Great Creation to turn fiction into reality, attracting Strongboulder’s attention in the opposite direction. Afterwards, he used the Invisibility technique to hide Yu Zijian and Hua Chenglu, suppressing their auras as well. He had already fled thousands of meters away in a single instant.
Hearing the rumble in the distance, Hua Chenglu calmed down. The rock demon was terrifying, but this man was extraordinarily powerful too.
But at this moment, Li Qingshan thought of something and suddenly stopped. He summoned a cloud and left it in front of them before turning around and leaving.
Hua Chenglu asked, “What are you doing?”
“I’m going off to kill the rock demon, obviously,” Li Qingshan said like it was as clear as day. Running across each other was better than actively seeking out each other. Who cared if the time was right or not? It would be fate if they ran into each other.
“Alone!?” Hua Chenglu said. The horrors of the rock demon had been deeply engraved in her heart. Even the mid Foundation Establishment One Thought master had died to his hands, while Li Qingshan was only at early Foundation Establishment. He was basically seeking his own doom if he did this.
“Of course not.” Li Qingshan pointed out, and a streak of green light shot across the sky.
Fu Qingjin finally could not help himself any longer and interfered. Li Qingshan caught the scent of something called opportunity from all of this, so he returned to the crater. Strongboulder leapt out of the crater, lunging straight towards Li Qingshan. Suddenly, he felt a hint of danger. A stream of green light stabbed towards the back of his head.
“Fu Qingjin!” Strongboulder growled furiously. The sword qi was extremely familiar. He would know who it was even without seeing it with his eyes. He dared not treat the Green Ruins sword like any regular weapon. An armour of rock and soil suddenly erupted from his body, and the sword qi stabbed three inches deep before dispersing by itself.
Strongboulder’s murderous, beady eyes were fixed on Li Qingshan. He decided to kill this person who had struck him with a sneak attack first, regardless of the consequences.
