Bone claws grabbed Lolth one by one. However, they were unable to harm her, and the pulling force from each skeleton was nowhere near enough to move a Daemon Commander.
“The Blood Sea Banner sure is high-handed. Probably even that bastard Fu Qingjin’s Green Ruins Illusion pales in comparison!”
Li Qingshan could clearly see Lolth being swallowed up on the Blood Sea Banner that rippled like the ocean. Fu Qingjin’s Green Ruins sword only managed to generate a Green Ruins Illusion, while Xiao An’s Blood Sea Banner created its own space.
Actually, the Green Ruins sword was still superior, but as a successor, Fu Qingjin was unable to unleash the Green Ruins sword’s strength, while Xiao An had personally forged the Blood Sea Banner. As such, it obviously appeared slightly stronger.
And, the current Blood Sea Banner was the same as the Skull Prayer Beads. It was only a basic form, still extremely far away from true completion. Once it truly reached that stage, it would be well beyond something a measly Green Ruins sword could rival.
There was a great boom in the sea of blood, and the mountain of bones scattered. The skeletons shattered and landed in the sea of blood.
The surface of the sea finally settled down, but it rapidly gathered and produced new skeletons.
Xiao An pointed out with a finger. Lolth suddenly turned around and was met with a roaring wave composed of blood sweeping towards her.
It was boundless, stretching towards the sky. It could not be avoided. It could not be dodged.
The vigour alone was enough to make people shiver.
The colossal wave arrived right before her. Lolth’s figure became as tiny as an ant’s.
In the moment the wave slammed down, ringed patterns appeared in her pupils in a strange and mysterious fashion. Suddenly, her eyes lit up, emitting two streaks of light as she peered through the wave before her. She no longer saw the boundless sea of blood, but the underground landscape. She immediately took off.
The two streaks of light directly shot out of the Blood Sea banner. Lolth’s most inconspicuous innate ability came into wondrous effect. It was actually the nemesis of all formations and illusions.
Xiao An needed to manage the Blood Sea Banner, so she was unable to enter the banner and fight. With a wave of her hand, the Skull Prayer Beads flew in.
Lolth’s eyes narrowed as twenty-one Skull Prayer Beads shot straight towards her. She gritted her teeth and twisted her body, allowing them to hit her. Her speed was virtually unaffected. Right when she was about to break out, she saw Li Qingshan’s wretched face again.
“Let me do it!”
Through the Water God Seal, Li Qingshan had replenished all of his daemon qi. Even half of his wounds had recovered, now covered with layers of flesh and blood, which did make him seem even more terrifying than when he was only a skeleton.
He nodded at Xiao An and dove head-first into the Blood Sea Banner, unleashing a tiger’s roar and shaking up the entire sea of blood.
Li Qingshan unfurled his wings of wind and lunged at Lolth. “Mother of my child, don’t be in such a hurry to leave!”
Lolth was furious and filled with resentment. The poisonous whip flogged Li Qingshan’s body viciously. His flesh and blood spattered everywhere. His lunge had been stopped, but he had completely cut off her path of retreat.
When his flesh and blood landed in the sea of blood, it immediately kicked up a surge; the blood devoured it and converted it into part of the sea.
Li Qingshan was fearless. He accelerated rapidly with the wings of wind and slammed heavily into Lolth, spreading his arms and laughing strangely as he embraced her firmly. They plunged into the sea of blood together.
The sea of blood was unable to distinguish between friend or foe. It was hostile to the living, devouring all flesh and blood.
Even as the master of the Blood Sea Banner, Xiao An required all her strength to prevent the blood from attacking Li Qingshan, but in the blink of an eye, he was reduced to a tall skeleton again.
However, as the target of the attacks of the Blood Sea Banner, Lolths’ condition was even worse. She was forced to use her daemon qi to fend off the corrosion of the blood. Her poison suit became blood-red in the blink of an eye.
Vicious poison dyed the region black, but it was nothing compared to the boundless sea.
Li Qingshan grabbed Lolth by the neck and wrapped his legs around her waist, riding firmly on top of her. He laughed loudly as he hurled punch after punch at her body while she put up a desperate struggle. They bobbed up and down in the sea of blood, kicking up huge waves.
Unable to break free from Li Qingshan, Lolth tossed aside her whip and gripped Li Qingshan’s cervical vertebrae madly with both hands. Under the terrifying force, the vertebrae crackled, becoming riddled with cracks very soon. Li Qingshan’s life force was tenacious, but only death would be waiting for him if his neck were broken.
Li Qingshan tried to break free from her grip, but he actually failed to. Having lost his flesh and blood, his strength had plummeted.
This was how a single counterattack from a Daemon Commander could be life-threatening even if they were in the most disadvantageous position.
But how could Xiao An simply watch Li Qingshan be injured? Taking advantage of their stalemate, the Skull Prayer Beads flew over and wrapped around Lolth’s wrist, turning back into a string of beads.
The twenty-one Skeleton Demons tugged together, forcefully prying Lolth’s hand away and pressing it against her back while gnawing at her wrist constantly. If it were not for her innate ability that had turned her skin into an indestructible silvery-grey, her bones probably would have been stripped bare in the blink of an eye.
Suddenly, Li Qingshan clenched his hands together and raised them high into the air, smashing down heavily like a hammer.
Lolth felt like a hill had crashed into her. There was a great boom, followed by powerful tremors that shook through her entire body.
Wherever the shockwave reached, her poison suit that the sea of blood had eaten away ripped and tore apart. Her silvery-grey body directly sank into the depths of the sea of blood.
Water filled the entire cavern, instead holding up the rapidly-collapsing ceiling. Xiao An held the Blood Sea Banner as she stood in the water silently. The flames in her eye sockets flickered as she stared at the Blood Sea Banner closely.
Before long, Li Qingshan leapt out of the Blood Sea Banner. “Haha, I finally got her!”
Li Qingshan also learned just how great of a difference existed between defeating a Daemon Commander and subduing or killing one. Without the assistance from Xiao An’s Blood Sea Banner, he would have never been able to prevent her from escaping. As a matter of fact, if he were careless, it was even possible for him to die from a counterattack.
In the end, while he did manage to subdue her, stripped bare like last time, he obviously could not do anything that would be a bad influence on children in front of Xiao An.
And, he had been reduced to bones. He was in no shape to even if he wanted to do something.
In the Blood Sea Banner, Lolth lay among the blood sea. Her daemon qi had already been completely depleted, and her skin returned to its original, snowy-white colour. Her physical strength was close to being completely drained too.
She could neither see the surface of the sea, nor could she see the bottom, as if she was floating in the centre. The blood constantly ate away at her life force.
If she were a normal Daemon General, she would be reduced to a puddle of bloody fluid before long, merging with the sea of blood and increasing the Blood Sea Banner’s power.
But as a Daemon Commander, her body was extremely tough, but she could only last a little longer at most. With her connection to the outside world severed, she could not even recover her daemon qi. All she could do was inch closer to death like this.
The unprecedented feeling of fear and death enveloped her. This was a sensation she had not experienced in a very long time.
Stuck in the sea of blood, not only did it injure her body, but her mind was heavily affected as well. This was the deep despair of helplessness, boundless like the sea of blood.
She used her remaining strength to wail out.
“Sir Golden Cicada!”
Xiao An asked, “Do we want to kill her?”
Li Qingshan rubbed his chin, and his eyes flashed. “It’s not like we can’t!” A familiar voice immediately rang out by his ear. “Please hold on. Spare her life.”
“Oh, it’s you. So you’re called Golden Cicada. What do you have to say?” Li Qingshan’s objective was to make the voice speak up. He thought, Sure enough, he has quite the connection to Lolth to cultivate in this underground region.
“So you still found out my name, but it’s best if you don’t let anyone know about it.” Golden Cicada’s tone sounded slightly like a warning. “If you kill her, the Dragon King of Ink Sea won’t just let this matter be.”
“Fine then. I won’t kill her.” Li Qingshan was extremely straightward with his reply to Golden Cicada’s surprise.
“Let’s go!” Li Qingshan called towards Xiao An.
“Wait, are you going to leave like this?” Golden Cicada asked.
“I never said I’d let her go! I’ve already spared her once, but she still sticks to me like a limpet. Surely I can’t just let her make attempts at my life for nothing and destroy my weapon for nothing.”
Li Qingshan spoke like it was common sense. Since killing her would cause problems, then he would keep her suppressed in the Blood Sea Banner forever, but very clearly, as the blood constantly ate away at her, her cultivation would definitely regress drastically. It was even possible that she would not be able to maintain her cultivation at Daemon Commander anymore.
His thought process was very straightforward. Since you want to protect her, then you need to cough up something, for example, the phoenix’s feather.
Golden Cicada fell silent.
“Since we are travellers on the same path, we should assist one another. I’ve promised you that I will definitely do everything I can to obtain the Chant of Deva-Nāga for you. Actually, after we parted last time, I came across a nice opportunity. If I were to go back on my word, wouldn’t killing me be a piece of cake with your strength?”
Li Qingshan took a step further and expressed with great sincerity.
“Fine then. I’ll give you what you want.”
After discovering Xiao An, who stood by Li Qingshan’s side, Golden Cicada’s profound sliver of perception of the heavenly secrets became more and more intense. He could basically confirm the Chant of Deva-Nāga would appear on Li Qingshan.
And, Li Qingshan’s words at the end managed to reach his heart. He remained underground to avoid trouble and unnecessary ties with other people so that he could focus on cultivation and take that final step, but it did not mean a Daemon General could toy with him.
“Release her!” Li Qingshan was overjoyed inside and nodded towards Xiao An. With how generous Golden Cicada was, he did not come off as too cheap.
With a flap of the Blood Sea Banner, Xiao An tossed out Lolth. She gazed at Li Qingshan resentfully, and when she saw Xiao An, her gaze became filled with hostility, as well as a smear of deep fear. Having been suppressed in the sea of blood, although it had only been a short period of time, it felt as lengthy as a century to her. It caused her lingering despair.
Her gaze was resentful, but it no longer possessed a sense of condescension like she was above Li Qingshan.
If it were last time, then she would still be filled with great unwillingness to accept her defeat. But this time, under the trap she had cast down, Li Qingshan had forcefully carved out a path of survival, forcing her to find a helper to subdue him. Yet, in comparison, the helper Li Qingshan had found was so powerful.
A huge chasm existed between Daemon Commander and Daemon General, but Li Qingshan used various methods to make up for this chasm, earnestly proving he was not a weakling completely at her whim.
“I-” “You’re welcome to try, you’re welcome to try again!”
Right when Lolth wanted to spit out a threat, Li Qingshan directly interrupted her.
