“So noisy!” Li Qingshan mumbled and hurled out both fists.
“Ouch!” Li Fengyuan was blown away before he could even respond, slamming into the wall and trembling all over.
Feng Xiwu’s face changed and raised his arm to block. A force well beyond what he could withstand appeared with the profound power of tremors. Even he had to stagger back over a dozen steps before coming to a halt. When he looked at Li Qingshan again, he had not even opened his eyes as if he was still sleeping, which filled him with surprise and doubt. Was he actually sleeping or fake-sleeping? If simply his instinctive strikes from when he was asleep possessed so much power, that would be far too frightening.
In the past, he had essentially held Li Qingshan in a special light as well. He did not treat him like an ordinary Daemon Commander. However, while he did believe Li Qingshan had a future ahead of him, it would take him a few decades or a century at the very least before he could stand on equal footing with him. He never expected him to undergo the heavenly tribulation and become a Daemon King in the few months since he last saw him, and a simple strike from him would be so shocking.
“Don’t wake him up. Let him rest!” Xiao An laid down Li Qingshan on the ground, resting his head on her thighs.
With a flash, Li Fengyuan wiped away the blood on the corner of his mouth and rushed over again. Possessing the purest bloodline of the phoenix, even regular Daemon Kings were unable to keep up with his vitality and regeneration. He called out, “First father, you’re so strong! Even second father is not your opponent. No one can stop you anymore…”
His voice came to a halt. A hand grabbed him by the back of his neck and hoisted him into the air before slowly tightening around his neck.
Under the gaze of her clear, empty eyes, the little phoenix seemed to have seen a ghost. He struggled desperately.
“You’ve undergone the heavenly tribulation too? Release him!”
Feng Xiwu was startled. The little phoenix was only a Daemon Commander, but the power he possessed was extremely great. Following this period of guidance, he was no longer any weaker than Daemon Kings, especially when it came to speed, yet he had actually been subdued in a single move. Xiao An had struck without any prior signs too, which even he found to be difficult to grasp. Her current expression even made him shiver.
“Shhh…” Xiao An raised her index finger and brought it to her lips. Li Fengyuan nodded furiously, and only then did she release him.
Li Fengyuan immediately scrambled far away, hiding behind Feng Xiwu. For an instant, Feng Xiwu felt that this method of education was perhaps not completely unacceptable, but he immediately dismissed the thought. He asked, “What happened exactly?”
“You better just ask him after he wakes up!”
“Alright then! Let me play something for him.” With a wave of his hand, a zither and zither stand appeared, and a censer produced wisps of smoke. He sat down and began playing. The tunes of the zither rang out.
Hearing that, Li Qingshan’s expression became much more peaceful. The entire divine wutong tree seemed to become a zither, its leaves swaying about and the tunes echoing around.
Xiao An nodded in gratitude towards Feng Xiwu. Sure enough, the phoenix’s nest was the best place to rest in. Li Qingshan could sleep well here and recover as quickly as possible.
Li Qingshan’s slumber lasted for almost half a month, and he experienced a long dream. The dream was chaotic, including both the idling away of his past life and the battles of his current life. Enemies, friends, and lovers leapt out one after another before vanishing again.
In the end, numerous Demon Kings gathered around him, twisting and merging into Qiongqi’s snickering head, which repeatedly said, “Five hundred years… five hundred years… five hundred years…” The background was a river that meandered through the voice. The head grew larger and larger as if it wanted to swallow him in one gulp.
His brows were furrowed, and his teeth were gritted together, like he was in a nightmare. He felt even more repressed and anxious than when the Dragon King of Ink Sea hunted him down.
With a rumble, the scene shattered!
A vigorous, forceful figure said with his back to him, without even looking back, “No, it’s ten thousand years!”
“Yeah, ten thousand years,” Li Qingshan smiled and mumbled. He watched the figure gradually vanish off into the distance, sinking into the darkness. He woke up from his dream and heard someone whisper, “Second father, what’s first father going on about with the ten thousand years?”
“He’s talking about the time and effort I put in for you. You have to be a good boy in the future, alright?” Feng Xiwu never forgot to educate him.
“Okay!” Li Fengyuan nodded obediently as his eyes circled about, gazing at Li Qingshan eagerly.
Li Qingshan yawned and stretched himself out before sitting up and leaning on his hand. His head still felt a little painful, and he was still filled with exhaustion. He had not completely recovered yet.
He had gone through several months of consecutive battle, cleaning up demon caverns. Then he fell into the Twelve Citadel Demon Formation of the Ominous, followed by the demon cavern. He underwent the third heavenly tribulation, confronted the seven Demon Kings, and was even hunted down by a Demon Emperor. In the end, he even faced a Demon God.
He had gone through so much. Probably just one of them was enough to leave a regular great cultivator utterly exhausted, but he had gone through it all in a single breath. In battle, he never lacked fighting spirit, but he would also feel utterly exhausted following the battle.
“First father, you’re awake.” Li Fengyuan glanced at Xiao An carefully and greeted him softly, following the rules.
“Damned brat. It’s just been a few months. Where’s your enthusiasm gone? Don’t pick up your second father’s bad habits.” Li Qingshan reached over with his huge hand and pulled Li Fengyuan into his arms.
“I was sent flying by you when I was enthusiastic. Stop! You’re going to break me!” Li Fengyuan felt his bones crackle between Li Qingshan’s arms.
“Really? How come I don’t remember that?” Li Qingshan scratched his head and laughed aloud. “Though, it makes perfect sense for a father to give his son a beating. It’s filled with my dense, fatherly love!”
Li Fengyuan’s tiny face twisted as if he was about to vomit.
“What’s wrong? You’re unconvinced about this?” Li Qingshan shot him a glance and used a little more force. Li Fengyuan immediately said, “I’m convinced, I’m convinced. Mighty be first father. Even when you beat me up, reason is on your side, so how can I be unconvinced?”
Feng Xiwu sighed. To think that the world actually had such a spineless phoenix, and he was clearly being overwhelmed by force, yet he still acted like he was enjoying himself. Feng Xiwu really had no idea what to say.
“I didn’t think you’d undergo the third heavenly tribulation so soon. Looks like I still ended up underestimating you.”
“Second father!” Li Qingshan snickered, and Li Fengyuan immediately understood him, giggling along too.
“Shut your mouth!”
……
After some small jokes and laughter, Li Qingshan told them about what had happened. He did not hide too many details from Feng Xiwu and the little phoenix. He only hid aspects that were directly connected to their secrets, such as Xiao An’s Path of White Bone and Great Beauty.
The little phoenix leaned on his shoulder and was absolutely enraptured by his tale, tempted to become a part of it and charge into battle with Li Qingshan.
“Qiongqi!” Feng Xiwu was extremely shocked. Only people at his realm of cultivation could comprehend what a true god signified. When Li Qingshan purged demons, it was actually all a trap evil god Qiongqi set up, and he had even directly descended here with a clone in the end, inviting Li Qingshan to join the Demon domain.
If it were not for the fact that Feng Xiwu knew Li Qingshan was not the type to boast and go on about nonsense, he basically would have suspected he was still dreaming or making up a fairytale to fool children. It was a story beyond belief.
“Yeah, that bastard. He sure has nothing better to do. How can there be a god that’s that bored? Fortunately, he was bored enough. Originally, I thought I was dead for sure, but I didn’t think he just wanted a five-hundred-year promise,” Li Qingshan said rather happily.
Back then, it truly had been certain death. Even if he were in perfect condition, he stood no chance even when working together with Xiao An.
“Qingshan, you’ve probably been deceived by him!”
