The rain stopped, but the clouds continued to cover the sky. In the eastern horizon, the pale glow of dawn peeked through the clouds. Before anyone had noticed, the dark night had passed and dawn had arrived.
The cool breeze made his scarlet hair flutter, still moist from the rain and mist. This was a comfortable early morning.
Li Qingshan stood on the tallest mountain in the Moon Court dwelling alone, gazing at the sky in the north solemnly as if he was waiting for something.
Suddenly, an aura appeared in the northern sky. Its brutal nature ripped apart the clouds, allowing sunlight to sprinkle down. It was still extremely far away, but the surging aura was already rather stifling.
After Jia Zhen fled, he immediately reported everything to Si Qing, who then passed it onto the Beast King. Having obtained his enemy’s name and appearance, the Beast King set off immediately, rushing over from the Dragon province.
His orange, beast-like pupils locked onto the figure with fluttering, scarlet hair immediately. Seeing the two words on his horns, he became even more certain he had not found the wrong individual.
Bang! The air exploded and fierce winds howled, kicking up white ripples in the air.
The Beast King whistled over, landing in front of Li Qingshan. The entire island shook and countless structures collapsed.
Li Qingshan held his breath without taking a single step back, studying the “Beast King”.
He seemed to be in his fifties and was extraordinarily tall and large. He had a tall and wide nose bridge, and his eyes shone with vigour. His mouth drooped downwards, truly possessing a huge, gaping mouth. He seemed like a lion. As they stared at one another, he truly did give off the dignity of a king among beasts. He did not hide his aura, fuming away like a volcano about to erupt, about to destroy everything.
Although he had technically defeated a “king” in the past, that took the strength of who knew how many people, taking advantage of the favourable climatic, geographical, and human conditions before finally shattering space and taking the life of the Corpse King.
Afterwards, Li Qingshan had estimated that under normal circumstances, if he faced the Corpse King alone, even when he had already become much stronger now, even when he had the Water God Seal for support, the only fate awaiting him in the end was certain death.
He only had a chance at surviving if he spotted him from afar and immediately turned around, flapped his wings, and fled. A great chasm of strength existed between the two realms of cultivation, which could not be made up for so easily. And, the Beast King before him was probably even stronger than the Corpse King.
The Beast King studied “Northmoon” too. There were not a lot of people who could remain calm before his wrath. The aura he gave off was not powerful, nowhere close to the level that was enough to kill E Dan, which left him rather doubtful.
“You’re the one who killed E Dan!” He growled like a lion.
“That’s right,” Li Qingshan said calmly.
“And yet you still remain here?”
“I need to see at the very least just what my enemy looks like, as well as confirm a few things.”
“Well you’ve seen me now. Are you ready to die? I’ll refine your soul into a beast soul!”
The Beast king took another step forward, and his colossal aura rushed over like a tsunami.
Li Qingshan smiled. “I won’t be dying at your hands!”
Before he had even finished talking, a thick, boney hand grabbed him by the throat, so fast that he was unable to respond. A blur of the Beast King standing where he was still lingered in his eyes.
Li Qingshan muttered to himself, “Looks like others just can’t be relied on. Only personal strength is true strength!”
Suddenly, his body began to pulse, like ripples on the surface of water. His figure twisted before completely shattering apart and vanishing.
This was merely the clone he had left here. He was nowhere near stupid enough to remain here with his true body and wait for the Beast King to come kill him. When he sensed the impending doom and realised the danger came from the north, he immediately made his decision, which was to flee!
Just like how fleeing could triumph over all, the true meaning of the spirit turtle was to avert and evade misfortune and disaster, hiding away from the world.
In simpler terms, he was simply holing up in his shell, preventing anyone from finding him. No matter how powerful the enemy was, they could not do anything to him.
He left his mirror clone here to see what the Beast King was like, and also to see the Dragon King of Ink Sea’s response. There was no reason to say that only E Dan could kill Northmoon and Northmoon could not kill E Dan, or he would be killed off in vengeance.
As the king of the Green province daemons, the Dragon King of Ink Sea was also the protector of all daemons in name. If he simply allowed powerful human cultivators to kill the Daemon Commanders and Daemon Generals under him, then he would be abandoning his duty.
But in the end, the Dragon King of Ink Sea did not appear, which explained a lot of issues.
With how great of a disturbance it had been above Moon Court lake, it was impossible for the Dragon Ink of Ink Sea to have not heard about it. The Beast King had rushed over here from the Dragon province aggressively, while the Dragon King of Ink Sea who happened to be in the Green province had not made it in time. Perhaps he was incapable, or perhaps he was reluctant, but it only led to a single conclusion. He could not rely on the Dragon King of Ink Sea.
“Northmoon, no matter where you flee to, I’ll kill you regardless and refine you into a beast soul!”
A roar dispersed the clouds. The Beast King threw a punch at the mountains beneath him.
Boom!
Black cracks spread out into the surroundings, and the entire island shattered, sinking into Moon Court lake. The dwelling had been completely destroyed.
Right now, Li Qingshan was making his way around in the depths underground. In order to cover his tracks, he did not even use his wings. Instead, he ran along the ground gracefully with a smile on his face. Sensing the weak tremors from the distance, the fine sand sprinkled down over him, and he concealed his aura even harder. He slowed down slightly and silently powered the spirit turtle’s daemon core.
The only thing he was worried about was having his location pinpointed through divination. With the Beast King’s identity and cultivation, he could definitely find an extremely powerful practitioner of divination. He had to carefully guard against this.
Fortunately, this aspect happened to be the spirit turtle’s specialty. After eating the Fruit of Wisdom, he possessed a deeper comprehension of the usage of these powers, so he was not too worried. However, he did have to cast aside his identity as Northmoon temporarily.
Entering the pitch-black, complicated underground caves, he was like a spirit turtle gradually diving into the sea abyss. No one could find his traces anymore.
A small stream gurgled out from an inconspicuous cave in the Chain mountains.
Li Qingshan strode out of the pitch-black depths, already possessing black hair, black pupils, and a bronze face.
The sunlight shone resplendently, and all the vegetation was verdant. A figure in clothes even whiter than snow sat beside a small stream on a boulder nearby, gazing at him with a slight smile.
Her black hair draped down beside her beautiful face like a waterfall, reaching her waist and moving with the wind. Compared to her past valiance, she seemed more graceful and unrestrained right now, but it was very difficult to describe her with words like charming or effeminate, perhaps because she would always be so confident and composed, perhaps because she had never treated herself as a woman.
Li Qingshan shivered inside. He went up and clasped his hands. “Greetings, commander Gu!”
Gu Yanying said, “Little bro Qingshan, you’ve made quite the trouble this time.”
Li Qingshan laid out his hands like he was powerless. “Circumstances.”
Gu Yanying said, “I think you’re finding great pleasure within it.”
Li Qingshan smiled. “There’s an old saying from my hometown. Life is like sexual assault. If you can’t oppose it, then enjoy it!”
TL: Can’t say I condone this.
Gu Yanying raised an eyebrow. “That doesn’t sound like something the farmers from Crouching Ox village would say, and it’s not like you’re the one being assaulted. It’s E Dan!”
Li Qingshan said, “Hopefully he enjoyed that final battle! Alright. You’re not waiting here because you want to hear this from me, right?”
Gu Yanying raised two fingers. “Two matters. After you left, the king of the myriad beasts rushed underground and began massacring night roamers and daemons. The Dragon King of Ink Sea told him to return to the Dragon province.”
“This old beast sure is obedient.”
“Unless he wants to die in the Green province.”
“The Dragon King of Ink Sea can kill him?”
Li Qingshan was mildly surprised. He had personally witnessed the Beast King’s strength. After all, the higher the realm of cultivation was, the more difficult it was to kill one another. It was only possible to kill the Beast King with strength that completely surpassed him.
“I don’t see why not.”
“Mighty be my king!”
Li Qingshan could not help but reevaluate the strength of the Ten Daemon Kings. They had been crowned as the Ten Daemon Kings several thousand years ago. After another few millennia of accumulation, every single one of them was a terrifying, old monster.
Gu Yanying said, “The Dragon King of Ink Sea has already passed an order for Northmoon to visit the Ink Sea to see him!”
Li Qingshan asked, “Do you think Northmoon should go?”
“I don’t think Northmoon should go.”
“That’s right. I’ll just treat this like I never heard it.”
Li Qingshan nodded with a smile. He would never entrust his personal safety to a powerful existence’s mood, and he hated playing the role of some subject or subordinate the most. He had far too many secrets on him. He might not necessarily be able to fool the dragon king’s eyes.
Of course, he could send his clone to the Ink sea, but something as rude as that would probably just infuriate the Dragon King of Ink Sea. Not every Daemon King was as gentle and forgiving as the Golden Cicada Spirit King and the Great Banyan Tree King. As a result, the best approach was to downright behave like he had never heard it in the first place.
Gu Yanying said, “Then there’s still the second matter. Great Xia has a government office known as the Bureau of Astronomy. I know their supervisor. He’s a muddle-headed old man, but also the most powerful naturalist from the school of Yin-yang across the nine provinces. The Bureau of Astronomy has an arcane treasure known as the Platform of Astronomy. It stands three meters tall, gathering yin and yang qi and the essence of the five elements, forged from meteorite. As long as the old man divines on there, he can basically find out about everything. Jia Zhen just happens to be on relatively good terms with him.”
She brought up the problem that worried Li Qingshan the most in one fell swoop. He frowned and muttered, “The Bureau of Astronomy, the Platform of Astronomy!”
“The old man does not divine for others so easily, much less use the Platform of Astronomy carelessly. Just Jia Zhen alone really won’t be enough to convince him. However, if you add in the Beast King, prince Si Qing, and the imperial clan’s desire to retrieve the Asura Field, that’s enough for him to pay a visit to the Platform of Astronomy and calculate a certain person’s whereabouts.”
“That’s truly terrible.”
“This is a Minor Formation of Five Elements Inversion. It can obscure the heavenly secrets. You cannot leave the vicinity of the formation within for at least the next three months. Combined with your own abilities, you should be able to get away. Oh right, entering the Asura Field will achieve a certain effect too.”
Gu Yanying passed the formation to Li Qingshan.
Li Qingshan pondered silently for a moment. “Let’s just say I bought this from you. We’re in the clear now.”
A formation that could obscure the strongest naturalist of the school of Yin-yang’s divination was definitely invaluable, and what was even more precious was the information she had provided to warn him. If his position had been calculated while he was unaware, even his identity as Li Qingshan could very possibly be exposed.
“It’s no different from lifting a finger for me. We had an agreement before, so of course I should watch your back a little. If you were finished off, who’s supposed to complete the task you promised me?”
