The rays of the setting sun gradually subsided, and the stars appeared.
Above Calm Wave lake, two figures confronted one another. One blazed like fire, with his lips curled into a flagrant smile, while the other was as gloomy as a shadow, his face so cold that it seemed like he was always wearing a mask.
“So you’ve already become a Daemon Commander.”
Mo Yu said in a lifeless tone, devoid of any fluctuations. However, shock filled him on the inside. Just how much time had Northmoon spent going from a Daemon General to a Daemon Commander? A decade? Perhaps even less than that! Even among human cultivators, that could be regarded as extremely fast. It was completely beyond belief to daemons.
“What, are you frightened out of your mind?” Li Qingshan smiled.
“No wonder you’re so bold. Do you know what crimes you’ve already committed? You’ve broken the rule of peaceful coexistence the dragon king set down, killing fellow clansmen.”
Li Qingshan laughed aloud. “It has been much longer than a single day or two since you’ve wanted to kill me, yet you still say something so hilarious right now. There has always been a single rule among daemons, which is the law of the jungle. If you really want to draw a clear line, then sure. I killed them because they wanted to kill me. I’m killing you also because you want to kill me!”
“Kill me?” A fluctuation finally appeared in Mo Yu’s tone, as if he had remembered a problem he had never considered before.
This was not because he was foolish. Instead, it was a habit he had developed over thousands of years. As the crown prince of the Green province daemons, never had anyone threatened his life. Only he ever determined the deaths of others.
Coming to Calm Wave lake and seeing Northmoon again, all he thought about was how to kill him so that Northmoon did not escape again. He never considered the possibility that he might be killed.
With the reminder, he began to think. Back then, Northmoon was already powerful enough as a Daemon General. Now that he had become a Daemon Commander, what kind of strength would he possess? He could not help but regret not killing him off in a simple and direct manner back then.
However, Mo Yu forgot about a problem. Even if he wanted to kill him, would Li Qingshan just let him kill him?
“Yeah, you better not forget you still owe me a debt. It’s about time you paid it off!”
Li Qingshan had once clashed with Mo Yu in the past and had a century of his lifespan shaved away by one of Mo Yu’s innate abilities, the Death Bringer Curse. This was not a particularly lengthy time to Li Qingshan, but it still caused him great discontent.
After a period of silence, Mo Yu said calmly, “You will die.” He said it as if he was declaring some predetermined reality.
“I will die!” Li Qingshan actually nodded and admitted at complete ease. “Everything in the world struggles to escape the cycle of life, so who can claim eternal life? Though, you’ll definitely die ahead of me!”
When he reached there, he no longer said anything more. He swung his right hand, and all the ripples on Calm Wave lake below were flattened, extending off into the distance. It was like a huge mirror, reflecting the inky-blue sky as well as the crescent moon on the horizon.
“Watermirror Image!”
The Northmoon in the reflected scenery suddenly moved and leapt out of the surface of the water.
Even a lion would use its full strength to catch a rabbit, let alone the fact that Mo Yu was no rabbit. With his innate ability that allowed him to move through space freely, killing him definitely would not be an easy feat.
In the past, Li Qingshan rarely ever used his mirror clone in battle. He would only let his mirror clone launch a sneak attack at critical times, as the mirror clone was far too weak. It could basically withstand a single strike or two at most, and in intense battles, he had to concentrate and not split his focus.
But right now, after Li Qingshan reached Daemon Commander, the two problems had both been resolved. First, his mirror clone was no longer so feeble. It benefited from Li Qingshan’s increase in strength. Furthermore, Li Qingshan’s soul sense had become much more powerful, enough to control two bodies at the same time in battle.
As a result, the mirror clone could finally fight alongside him!
The phoenix wings and wings of wind unfurled at the same time, and Li Qingshan and his mirror clone set off together, attacking Mo Yu from the sky and the lake.
Mo Yu unfurled a pair of pitch-black, feathered wings, but the wings were not like the wings of birds. Instead, it seemed to be layered together with shadows, extending rapidly through the night sky. In the blink of an eye, the wings had reached over a hundred meters across as if they wanted to shroud the entire sky. An ominous feeling filled them.
Black feathers drifted about and left behind black streaks. When the wings enveloped them, the aquatic life in the lakewater all died. Mo Yu stared straight at Li Qingshan as his black pupils flowed like liquid, filling his eyes and replacing all of his eye whites. It was eerie and terrifying.
Gaze of Death!
Li Qingshan halted, and a frigid coldness immediately penetrated his skin, seeping through his organs and straight into his soul.
If someone could see Li Qingshan’s “flames of life”, then they would have seen the flames flicker violently and dim slightly. Mo Yu’s innate abilities truly were strange. They could ignore the enemy’s speed, strength, and defence and directly attack them.
Last time, Li Qingshan had suffered under this move. Even with his ever-burning flames of the phoenix, he had almost struggled to endure it. If Gu Yanying had not suddenly appeared and brought the Dragon King of Ink Sea’s order of “stop where you should”, he basically would have been in life-threatening danger.
This time, Mo Yu used his full strength right from the start, so how could Li Qingshan still stand a chance?
Li Qingshan gradually slowed down, stopping in front of Mo Yu in the end. His face was completely sheet-white, and his heart seemed to stop beating. Even the blazing phoenix wings behind him had dimmed. Having lost the control of his will, his mirror clone was like a puppet with broken strings, collapsing into the surface of the lake.
Mo Yu said as he resided in the centre of the darkness, “You have become stronger, but to me, it means nothing. Do you really think that you can decide when you will die? When I said you would die, I didn’t mean some time in the future. I meant right now.”
As he said that, his shadowy wings suddenly extended and enveloped Li Qingshan like two pitch-black hands. Mo Yu made his way across a path paved from shadows towards Li Qingshan. Facing the immobilised Li Qingshan, he only needed a gentle swing of his hand to behead him, but he failed to notice the corner of Li Qingshan’s lips curl slightly. Even if he noticed it, he would have only believed it to be twitching out of despair on the verge of death.
The power of death was invading Li Qingshan’s body endlessly, wanting to sever his life force. However, never had his flames of life been so powerful before. The phoenix was no longer the phoenix the spirit turtle suppressed either.
The daemon core spun about and sent streams of warmth through his body, purging the coldness of death. This was the unending power of the phoenix.
Mo Yu arrived in front of Li Qingshan and was prepared to swing his hand and behead him when his body suddenly sank. A force tugged him downwards, immediately alarming him.
A fist coiled with black cracks was already in his face. Mo Yu was taken aback as if he did not even have the opportunity to use his teleportation ability. The fist smashed viciously into his corpse-like face.
