The boulder that Li Qingshan had hurled down struck the pine tree, but it did not directly hit him. The thick snow accumulated over the entire winter had softened his fall and saved his life. He just happened to land in a nook. At the same time, the supreme secret manual of the Abstruse temple, the Method of the Violet Clouds, preserved his life. He could be regarded as extremely fortunate.
However, he could sense the obscure will of the heavens from this. He thought, The heavens be on my side! If I can kill this thug, I’ll definitely be blessed by the heavens. Perhaps even shattering through space won’t be anything difficult! No, this is exactly what it is. I just have to announce this…
“Fucking hell, you’re still alive?”
A familiar curse suddenly echoed through the sky. Li Qingshan’s face appeared above the cavern, blocking out the clear blue sky. He was so furious that it seemed like he was the one who had been thrown off the mountain instead.
“Y- you…”
He widened his eyes, but before he could even respond, he had been tugged out of the nook by the legs. The world spun around him before a cliff face filled his eyes.
“No…”
Splat! His head burst open, and blood splattered everywhere.
Splat! Splitch! Splotch! Splat!
A while later, Li Qingshan tossed the pair of legs aside in satisfaction. “You really gotta make sure you see the corpse even when you think they’re dead. Can’t afford to be careless at all. Let’s see how you live now?”
The cliff face and the snowy ground were rich with colours. The bloody mess obviously did not have the ability to answer him.
“With how clear the will of the heavens is, it’s not exactly a bad thing. We just need to consider the worst-case scenario for everything, and that’ll be sufficient. It’s convenient for planning,” Gu Yanying’s voice rang out, but it originated from a large basket on Li Qingshan’s back.
“Greatest in the world, how does it feel in there?” Li Qingshan turned his head slightly and asked.
“It’s very nice. If you could walk a little more steadily, it’ll be even better.”
Gu Yanying poked her head out with a smile, like a little monkey curled up on a big monkey’s back. She had personally designed this basket. It was layered with thick furs, with four tough ropes criss-crossed across Li Qingshan’s chest, keeping the two of them firmly bound together.
The mountain path was precipitous, and there were many goods they had to transport with them. However, Li Qingshan was impatient, so she suggested they could make their way down the mountain first to take a look. Sure enough, they had found something.
“I want to be more steady, but do you know how many traps there are beneath the snow?”
Li Qingshan shot off, kicking up the snow beneath his feet. He had planted his bare feet deeply into the ground, where a wisp of power surged into the balls of his feet with each step. He used this power to advance. He was swift like the wind, yet extremely firm and steady.
When they made it to the other side of the mountain, it was already dusk. Torches were lit, and everyone saw their return. They bowed.
“My king!” “Society leader!”
Li Qingshan said a few more words to raise everyone’s morale, which roused them with enthusiasm. He placed down the basket on his back and asked, “Where are we heading?”
Gu Yanying crawled out of the basket and stretched out her body. “If the others heard you say this, they would probably be in an uproar right now. The mighty hero king actually doesn’t even know where we’re going.”
“Hmph, it’s not like I’m the society leader. What’re you thinking about that for?”
Li Qingshan sat down and picked up the fine alcohol prepared on the table. He took a sip before spitting it out, slurring his words. “There’s poison in the alcohol.”
A sharp-smelling wisp of smoke rose up from the ground, which only demonstrated the potency of the poison. He remained unfazed. Instead, he seemed more displeased about the fact that Gu Yanying did not let him become the society leader.
“Fair enough.” Gu Yanying smiled, which left Li Qingshan absolutely fuming.
Gu Yanying took out a sheepskin map and laid it out on the table.
“Five hundred kilometers south of here is a place under the rule of the Ma clan, one of the four great aristocratic clans of the world. They’ve already ruled over the region for two centuries now. Their descendants control every single field and mine in the region. It’s said that even every single leaf shares the same surname as them, Ma. Their leader, Ma Xingkong, is a ninth layer Qi Practitioner, with countless masters under his command. I was originally thinking of going to Flying Horse city to negotiate with them. They have the largest number of literate people gathered there, so it’ll help with spreading your novels too.”
Li Qingshan slammed the table. “Fuck your bureaucracy. This isn’t Great Xia, and you’re not the daughter of the Hawk God. You’re leaning towards capitulationism and surrender. Negotiation will not result in a final victory for the revolutionaries, nor will it help us in uniting our comrades.”
“You sure ramble on about a lot of strange things! But you’re right. I’m too accustomed to this. Once we try to play according to the rules of this world, we’ll be riddled with openings and overwhelmed everywhere. We might as well strike first and catch them off-guard, so our first target should be here!” Gu Yanying pointed at a spot on the map.
“The mines.”
“And there’ll be a lot of miners. I’m sure they’ll take a liking to your ideas.’ Gu Yanying’s eyes were bright, reflecting the firelight.
“You finally understand what I’m trying to say.” Li Qingshan nodded. “There are intrinsic differences between this world and ours.‘’
The next morning, it began to snow gently again. Li Qingshan carried Gu Yanying on his back and led the group towards the south.
Their journey was filled with twists and turns. In those few days, they actually encountered two avalanches. If Li Qingshan’s senses for danger had not remained as sharp as before and Gu Yanying did not constantly examine the terrain and assume the worst, either one of the avalanches would have been enough to completely bury their recently-formed World’s society.
Everyone had realised that they were currently strewn with disasters, so their morale completely bottomed out. Fortunately, Li Qingshan had described this as a journey against heaven right from the beginning, or the group would have fallen apart a long time ago. There was no one that did not fear the unknown. But even with that being the case, a few people fled in the night after the first avalanche. The two protectors hunted down and executed all of them, which managed to put a stop to this behaviour.
By the dusk of the fifth day, they had reached their destination. The mountains surrounded a huge pit five kilometers across, and the pit was filled with rows upon rows of buildings. It was clearly a small city.
Countless miners scurried in and out of the mines like ants, hollowing out the mountain through the use of various simple machinery. They collected coal in the same place and forged various kinds of weapons. Then they imprinted the weapons with the symbol of a flying horse and transported them away by the river, delivering them across the world.
Li Qingshan gazed at the fluttering flying horse banner in the mines and said to Gu Yanying, “We need to make some banners too.” He turned and ordered the protector of the right. “Take down this place, but don’t kill anyone. We’ll hold a public trial at night.”
No one had any idea what a public trial was, but taking down a mine like this was as simple as it could get to a group of swordsmen. They basically did not encounter any proper resistance at all. In particular, the protectors of the left and the right basically took out all of their opponents in a single strike. After all, no matter how powerful and influential the Ma family was, they could not station a ninth layer master to watch the mines. Either one of the protectors was enough to destroy the Ma family’s control here.
“Have you noticed that the spiritual qi is clearly so thin, yet they’re no weaker than the Qi Practitioners of the nine province, not even in the slightest. They’re even slightly stronger,” said Li Qinghan.
“Looks like this is also a difference between small and large worlds, just like the difference between being in earth and water. It’s easier to produce ripples in water. But it’s still manageable. If they were just a little bit stronger, it would be troublesome,” Gu Yanying said.
The intrinsic difference of this world compared to the nine provinces was the strength of individuals had not completely surpassed the strength of groups yet.
In the nine provinces, even if they combined all the mortals, it still would not be enough to even touch a hair on Li Qingshan, but a different possibility existed in this world.
“C’mon, let’s change the way we play!”
