Li Qingshan and Xiao An smiled at each other. It really had been quite some time since they last heard those two names!
“So you didn’t die, and you’ve become so powerful. That’s fantastic. I don’t have to go to the Ink sea anymeowre.” Xuanyue used her claws to rub her chest, letting out a great sigh of relief. She said hesitantly, “Then… am I still your meowster?”
“I’ve never treated you as my master!” Li Qingshan said in exasperation, but a smile hung on his face.
“Damn it! Sure enough, you’ve turned against me the meowment the opportunity arises! I even personally engraved those two words on your head! Otherwise, how could someone like you come up with such a great name?” Xuanyue leapt onto Li Qingshan’s head gently and patted his ox horns heavily with her claws, reminding him about this blessing she had given him.
“I was tempted to butcher you back then!” Li Qingshan stared into her eyes.
“Haha, you stayed meowd back then, but you still ended up accepting me obediently. Come, call me meowster!” Xuanyue gawked down with her furry head on Li Qingshan’s head, looking at him with her glistening, heterochromatic eyes.
“Did you see just how powerful I was just a while ago or not?” Li Qingshan rubbed his forehead.
“You were very powerful. You became as tall as a mountain and killed all those damned people. You were basically even more powerful than meowster!” Xuanyue said excitedly.
“The two of you…” The Dark Queen was taken aback. Even when she faced Li Qingshan, she would do so with some reverence.
Li Qingshan stood up and pointed at his head. “I just happen to be lacking a pet. Could you give this cat to me?”
Before the Dark Queen could even answer him, Xuanyue yelled out, “I’m not your pet! I’m your meowster! Meowster!”
“Heh, that’s not for you to decide!” Li Qingshan grabbed her by her collar and lifted her up. He could still remember exactly how she had kidnapped him to the Dragon province back then.
“Mother.” Xiao An nodded towards the Dark Queen and said to the Fierce King of Chu in the air, “Please stop, father!”
The Fierce King of Chu said after a moment of silence, “Xuanyue, are you aware that you’ve already become the public enemy of buddhism now?”
“If anyone wants to kill me, tell them to come. I won’t hold back with anyone apart from the people of the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga.” Xiao An shook her head. She did not mind adding a few more Skull Prayer Beads to her collection.
By now, even if the grand preceptor of the left from the Spirit K?etra temple wanted to kill a “buddha nemesis” like her, he would have to consider his decision carefully. Buddhism had never lacked a spirit of martyrdom, but they also had a bottom line. They would not carry out things like suicide attacks.
The Fierce King of Chu shut his eyes and let out a sigh. In the cultivation community, the strong was revered and did not require the opinions of the weak, and the path that she walked was without a doubt a profound and distant one. Compared to that, even the position of the King of Chu was nothing! He glanced at Li Qingshan deeply again, unable to hide the hatred in his eyes. “Li Qingshan, our grievances are vast like the ocean and the mountains. It’s beyond reconciliation!”
“You’re not an opponent that I’d like, nor are you my opponent! If you want to hate me, then hate me. However, the matters today aren’t as simple as they seem. Who knows what the Sword Collection palace is scheming, but that doesn’t matter.” Li Qingshan shrugged. He would pay another visit to the Sword Collection palace when he had the time in the future and butcher the Elders of Heaven and Earth. Maybe he would pull out all the swords on the Sword Collection peak in the process.
The Fierce King of Chu flew away. He personally believed he was capable of facing Li Qingshan in battle, but if it included his “daughter” on the side, then he would truly stand no chance. He would only be asking to be humiliated if he continued to put up a struggle. Gazing at the sun that had sunken into the horizon, he suddenly felt a sense of desolation. He was aware that he would probably never get his revenge.
The Dark Queen gazed into the horizon and suddenly felt rather sentimental too. Xiao An said from beside her, “Mother, father is not in a good mood. You should spend some time with him!”
“Then you…” The Dark Queen was reluctant to part with her.
“He probably doesn’t want to see me right now,” said Xiao An.
“Xuanyue, why don’t you go back to the Umbral Yin sect with me and take a look? You can wait there for your mother. You’ve spent so many years apart, so you should spend a few days together at the very least,” said the master of the Umbral Yin sect, except his sinister tone did not match the heart-warming contents at all.
“Thank you for earlier.” Li Qingshan clasped his hands at the master of the Umbral Yin sect. While he did watch on indifferently from the sidelines and only struck in the final moments when the situation was favourable to him, which Li Qingshan did not approve of, at least he had not opposed him. On top of that, if it were not for his finger at the very end, it would have been quite troublesome for Li Qingshan by the time the Fierce King of Chu’s Green Province cauldron had crushed down on him.
“Hehe, it was nothing. I should thank you instead, fellow, for resolving the conflict between the Umbral Yin sect and Sword Collection palace for good,” said the sect master.
Under the Dark Queen’s pleading gaze, Xiao An nodded in agreement, and the Dark Queen smiled, which made her seem a little more cheerful. “I’ll be back very soon!”
Right when she was about to fly off, a slender hand grabbed her by her sleeve. Turning around, it was a beautiful, young girl with a crescent moon on her forehead.
“Xuanyue, sorry about that. I almost forgot about you. You can come with me!” The Dark Queen was in an extremely good mood, such that she even apologised for once, but she felt rather perplexed. She basically never assumed her human form around her.
“I won’t be, meowster. You’ve already found the real Xuanyue. I don’t need to be your Yue’er anymeowre.” Xuan Yue smiled, revealing her sharp fangs.
“You don’t have to leave. I’ll still treat you like before!” The Dark Queen was not a particularly sentimental person, but she was still somewhat attached after all those years they spent together.
Xuanyue shook her head, and the bell on her neck jingled. The Dark Queen glanced at Li Qingshan and did not try to persuade her to stay anymore. “You can come back any time!”
Xiao An reached an agreement with Li Qingshan to meet up again when the Golden Cicada Spirit King ascended before setting off for the Umbral Yin sect. She had benefited quite a lot from this battle, so she just happened to be in need of a quiet place for secluded cultivation. She needed to refine the ?arīra, repair the Skull Prayer Beads, and perhaps forge another arcane treasure of white bone. She was not afraid of assaults from buddhism, but she did not want to be disturbed either.
Xuanyue watched the Dark Queen fly off until she vanished into the horizon. Only then did she turn around, “Hey, Big Blacko, are you a man of your word?”
“I always have been!” Li Qingshan touched his horns.
“Then let’s set off!” Xuanyue extended her finger in high spirits.
“Where to?”
“The Dragon province!”
“But that’s the south!”
“Does it matter!?” Xuanyue became furious out of embarrassment.
“It’s fine. Actually, the Mist province is quite nice too. All of the people from the Dragon province are very annoying.”
“You lie! The Nine-tailed Fox Empress is beautiful and powerful. Only a bumpkin of a daemon like you would enjoy a land of savages like the Mist province!”
“How dare a mere Daemon General act so brazenly before this Daemon King! Whatever, as long as you’re happy!”
Li Qingshan wrapped his arm around her waist and unfurled his wings. In the next moment, he had already passed through the cloud layer. His gaze pierced the clouds and gazed at the rising and falling mountains. The monks of the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga were still caught in a holy atmosphere, prostrating on the ground and ignoring everything else going on beside them. If it were not for the fact that he had witnessed the boundlessness of the buddhist dharma, perhaps he would be mocking their foolishness, but he only sank into his thoughts now.
The Unraging monk seemed to sense that. He raised his head and his face was filled with helplessness.
Li Qingshan waved his hand with a smile as farewell. He suddenly experienced a hint of uneasiness, but it flashed by in the blink of an eye.
Gazing into the distant north, it was time for him to uphold his promise of the past!
