The magnificent phoenix overlooked the entire mountain, dyeing the sky a fiery-red. The sky full of flames abruptly gathered together, condensing to a limit and erupting with a ring of fire.
In the centre of the flames, scarlet hair drifted through the wind. Li Qingshan stretched and yawned. “Dying every now and then feels quite great!” He pressed against his jaw and cracked his neck, waving his hand. “Heh, everyone, we meet again.”
He grinned revealing his sharp, tiger teeth. His scarlet eyes were dark like blood.
Everyone was dumbfounded, completely at a loss as for how to respond.
Then he looked towards Xiao An in the forest of pagodas. “Xiao An, give me a moment. I’ll come and help you very soon.”
Xiao An smiled. “If you still don’t come, I’ll have to deal with it myself.”
“I can’t let that happen!” Li Qingshan gazed at his right hand and murmured to himself, “A heart of slaughter? It’s not that simple!”
The palace master’s face was completely sunken. He could vaguely sense that something was amiss. The current Li Qingshan made him feel endangered. He drew the Heaven Leaning sword again and said, “Your majesty!”
“Li Qingshan, I killed you once, so I can kill you a second time!” With a wave of his hand, the Fierce King of Chu leapt into the clouds, launching a palm strike at Li Qingshan. “Reversal of the Five Elements!”
The world changed and twisted. A resplendent slash shot over, basically arriving before Li Qingshan at the same time.
“A second time!” Li Qingshan looked at the sky before lowering his head again, blinking his eyes.
“Last Reflection of the Setting Sun!”
A water surface devoid of any ripples unfurled, reflecting the landscape.
The Fierce King of Chu’s eyes narrowed. The distorted world of the Reversal of the Five Elements loomed over him instead, and the resplendent slash shot back as well. With a flash, the palace master moved aside, and the slash landed on the top of Great Buddha mountain, leaving behind a three-hundred-meter-long gash.
“What is this ability!?”
The Fierce King of Chu shattered the distorted world with a palm strike, but Li Qingshan had already vanished. A streak of scarlet light brushed past his shoulders, turning into an arc as it shot towards the grandmasters of the school of Names and Music. He warned them loudly, “Be careful, fellows!”
The two of them paled drastically in fright. The grandmaster from the school of Music plucked her strings in a hurry, but before she could even play the first note, fierce wind rushed into her face, and a pair of scarlet eyes appeared, stunning her mentally.
Li Qingshan snatched the jade pipa and smashed down with it.
“Freeze!” the grandmaster of the school of Names widened his eyes and bellowed out, pushing his cultivation to the limit and unleashing the Freezing curse. However, before he could even finish what he was saying, he suddenly became immobilised. He saw his own panic-ridden face gradually twist and distort. A smooth mirror surface turned into water rippled and dispersed.
“Noisy! Noisy! Noisy!” Li Qingshan repeated three times and smashed the jade pipa three times.
With the first time, the strings snapped, and her head was crushed.
With the second time, the pipa cracked, and half of her body was destroyed.
With the third time, the pipa shattered, and her soul nascence fled.
Li Qingshan opened his mouth and sucked hard, gulping down the soul nascence and suppressing it with the spirit turtle, giving her absolutely no opportunity to detonate her soul nascence. He licked his lips. “Tasty!”
The grandmaster of the school of Names watched this unfold before his eyes while completely immobilised. He felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured over him, extinguishing his flames of fury inside. All he could do now was shiver, wanting to escape as far away from here as possible!
The roaring sounds of the populace rang out in his ears, and Li Qingshan looked up. Golden light enveloped him from above as the King of Chu’s Seal fell like a wall, just as unstoppable and undodgeable as before.
Rumble! Hundreds of streaks of lightning danced around like frenzied dragons. The grandmaster of the school of Daoism bellowed furiously, “Die, wretched daemon!”
“Myriad Sword technique!” The palace master formed a seal with his hands, and the Heaven Leaning sword split into thousands, assembling sword formations upon sword formations and surrounding Li Qingshan. They closed around him and thrusted at him together.
No matter how powerful your abilities are, just how many directions can you block? Once the golden seal falls, the end result will still be all the same.
“Fellow, lend me your body for a second.”
Li Qingshan casually reached out with his right hand without even looking back. The moment the grandmaster of the school of Names broke free from the Freezing curse, he felt his body being pulled over uncontrollably, frightening him out of his wits. He put up a struggle desperately.
“Eat my blade!”
Li Qingshan wielded the grandmaster of the school of Names and unleashed a “hidden blade technique”. Out of the thousand bolts of lightning and the myriad swords, a good majority landed on this “blade”.
In a split second, the grandmaster of the school of Names became riddled with holes, virtually ground to a paste. He wanted to flee with his soul nascence, but he was firmly stuck in Li Qingshan’s right hand. Seeing how there was no way out alive, he roared furiously, “I’m going to take-” He only managed to say the first half when he discovered he was being raised into the air rapidly.
“And your soul nascence too.”
Li Qingshan flicked his right hand gently, and the pull suddenly became a push. His soul nascence immediately soared through the air. The grandmaster’s face of surprise and fury melted away, becoming riddled with cracks that poured out with light. He slammed head-first into the King of Chu’s Seal.
Boom!
The soul nascence exploded, and the violent power whistled hundreds of kilometers away, sweeping aside all of the lightning and swords with ease. The golden seal came to a sudden halt in its fall too, being lifted several dozen meters into the air instead. A layer of golden light faded away.
Li Qingshan shielded his eyes from the light and took a look, clapping his hands. “How useful!”
“Li Qingshan!” The palace master growled. Li Qingshan looked over, and anger flashed across his face.
“One with the sword!” The palace master swung the Heaven Leaning sword, and a blinding streak of light suddenly shot out from the top of Great Buddha mountain.
“You’re asking to die!” Li Qingshan flapped his wings and turned into a scarlet streak of light to receive the attack.
The palace master beamed with joy inside. As long as he paused even for a moment under the golden seal, they could still put him to death.
Right when the two streaks of light were about to collide, Li Qingshan shifted a few meters away out of nowhere, brushing past the palace master. He tilted his head and sneered. “Idiot!”
With a boom, Li Qingshan landed on Great Buddha mountain again, making his way towards the grandmaster of the school of Miscellany. “Again!”
“Stop him, fellows!” the grandmaster of the school of Miscellany cried out and fled without any hesitation. He had already made a tidy profit by obtaining the treasured blade. He did not want to pay with his life at a time like this.
Li Qingshan stopped and looked away. All he saw was a cold flash, and a spear thrust towards him. The tip trembled, splaying with cold light like stars across the night sky, enveloping him. It also resembled the rise of a black dragon, able to pierce and destroy everything in its path.
Li Qingshan did not dodge or look at the tip of the spear. He gazed at Yue Wuyang behind the spear indifferently.
“Black Sand hell!” Jin Fugui roared furiously, and black sand flooded the surroundings, enveloping Li Qingshan and Yue Wuyang.
Within the roaring sand, the spear stopped before the scarlet eye. It only needed to advance another three inches, and it could pierce Li Qingshan’s right eye.
Li Qingshan did not move. He did not even use any abilities to block as if he had halted the spear with his gaze alone.
“Why didn’t you block?” Yue Wuyang asked.
“Why didn’t you thrust?” Li Qingshan smiled.
Yue Wuyang said nothing. He did not go through with the strike because Li Qingshan did not dodge, or because he did it for the sake of Han Qiongzhi. There was something else on top of all of that, a voice warning him again and again inside, You’ll die! You’ll die! You’ll die! He was not afraid of dying, but he did not want to die so pointlessly.
“I don’t want to break Qiongzhi’s heart.” Li Qingshan turned away and no longer looked at Yue Wuyang anymore, making his way forwards.
The tip of the spear trembled, and Yue Wuyang remained in the posture of thrusting the spear. A good while later, he let out a long sigh and stood with the spear beside him. He clasped his hands at the sky. “Your majesty, forgive me, but I cannot partake in this battle!”
Li Qingshan made his way through the black sand and felt the pain from the depths of his soul again. Suddenly, he waved his hand twice like an adult shooing away an annoying child. “Piss off!”
The black sand suddenly gathered towards, sweeping back into Jin Fugui’s hand. He scratched his nose and smiled wryly. “I’m still your superior after all-” Seeing Li Qingshan raise his eyebrows, his heart lurched inside, and he said to the Fierce King of Chu in the sky, “Your majesty, there are many details of suspicion involved. The Hawkwolf Guard requires closer investigation.”
“Are the two of you even human?” The Fierce King of Chu was furious. He did not say that to insult them. Instead, he was questioning their allegiance.
Yue Wuyang shut his eyes and said nothing, but Jin Fugui smiled. “I’m a Golden Hawk commander of Great Xia!” Even if you’re the governor of a province, mighty with a king’s authority, you have no right in sending the two of us to our deaths! Especially sending us to our deaths over such a strange matter.
“Alright, alright, alright!” The Fierce King of Chu was livid. In the blink of an eye, his encirclement around Li Qingshan had fallen apart. He gazed at the figure with drifting scarlet hair. He had only rebirthed once. Even the powers he used were no longer as great as earlier, and he had even lost his weapon, yet the feeling he gave off had completely changed. It was as if he had replaced him as the King of Chu and now controlled everything within the palm of his hand.
By now, the grandmaster of the school of Miscellany had already used the opportunity to flee. Li Qingshan stood on the cliff and bellowed out, “Get your ass back here!” His voice boomed like thunder, but it did not contain any abilities.
“Kid, I thought you died from stupidity!”
With a flash, the Treasure Gathering basin split open, and the Blade Spirit of Frenzy Flower appeared, cutting through the grandmaster of the school of Miscellany in a single stroke.
ps: 好了，六月第一章，十二万字的第一步，怒求月票!
