The blood-red glow that dyed the sky left the leader of the martial arts alliance, Zhang Yuntian, slightly uneasy inside. However, when he glanced back, everyone seemed so relaxed apart from the people of the Ma family. The World’s society might possess a large force, but they only had a handful of true masters.
And because of the arrival of the daemon star, almost a third of all the masters in the world had gathered here. All seven great sects had at least one representative here, which was well beyond what that hero king could handle. As for the army composed of mortals, even fewer people were worried about it. No matter how many more there were, ants were still ants.
“This lowly monk would like to see if that hero king really is as superhuman as he’s rumored to be!”
“Even if he’s actually superhuman, how can he withstand the master’s Great Fist of Subduing Tigers?”
The Tiger Subduing monk laughed aloud, accepting this compliment calmly. It was true. There were only a handful of people in this world that could block a punch from him.
The group travelled through the thick forest. A large river blocked their path up ahead with several boats of various sizes docked there. That was where Li Qingshan had disembarked. When they saw the sight outside Pegasus city in the distance, they were all shocked.
A blood-red outline criss-crossed through the air as a thick mist of blood enveloped the entire city. They all stopped where they were, facing a hill.
Pegasus city is surrounded by flat ground. Where did this hill come from?
Right when they developed this thought, they peered through the bloody mist and discovered it was actually a mountain of corpses. They all paled. Such a horrifying and eerie sight was completely unheard of.
“Argh!” Ma Xingkong cried out. He was overwhelmed with fury. There were many familiar faces within the mountain of corpses.
Li Qingshan followed the sound and looked over. “They sure know when to come. What do we do?”
“If the enemy does nothing, then we do nothing!” Gu Yanying said calmly.
“It’ll only be suspicious if we do nothing. Why don’t you take a look at what’s beneath our feet?”
Li Qingshan kicked a head, which happened to belong to the old man whose chest he had pierced. It was as if they had placed him in this spot because his status was relatively more important.
“I’ll never spare them!” Ma Xingkong’s roar crossed over the river and rang out from afar.
“Yeah, fair enough. Though, speaking of which, why did we have to pile up all the corpses?”
Gu Yanying gazed at Rāhu Xiaoming in confusion. She originally thought it was a sacrifice, but that did not seem to be the case!
“For fun.”
“Does it really serve no purpose at all?”
Gu Yanying frowned. In order to pile up these corpses, she had spent the entire night awake, personally watching over the operations and ordering the people around.
“Why would piling up a bunch of dead corpses serve a purpose?” Rāhu Xiaoming glanced at her in contempt.
The other people standing on the corpse mountain were speechless. They endured a multitude of feelings as they stood here, yet it was actually all because of a mindless request from this brat. Do you think this is a pile of sand instead?
“Hah!” Li Qingshan patted Rāhu Xiaoming’s tiny shoulders. “Nicely done!”
“No problem.”
“Hey, Li Qingshan, you get a little serious too. Everyone you’re about to face are ‘masters’. You better take out your ‘Flowery’ and cut them down!” Gu Yanying said in exasperation. Right now, apart from Li Qingshan and her, everyone else had reached a critical moment of being converted into asura.
“I refuse! I just sealed my blade away yesterday. If you want to go, go yourself!”
Li Qingshan was unhappy. So much for sealing away his blade so seriously yesterday. Why would he be a hypocrite and slap himself in the face now?
“If I could go, why’d I ask you? Cut the nonsense and get going!”
The army could not be mobilised, so Gu Yanying was extremely feeble right now. She definitely could not stop so many “masters”.
If it were not for Rāhu Xiaoming’s sudden appearance, having brought the Frenzy Flower Blade of Path’s End out with him, it would definitely be a bitter battle even if they could mobilise the army.
“Alright, alright!”
Li Qingshan shrugged helplessly. He grabbed the hilt of the blade and leapt off the corpse mountain.
The Frenzy Flower Blade of Path’s End awakened and immediately mocked and taunted him.
By the time Li Qingshan reached the river bank, his forehead was already bulging with veins. He was absolutely furious. He yelled at Ma Xingkong, “Old bastard, what’re you yelling out for? What, your whole family is dead?”
“Y- you…”
Ma Xingkong almost fainted from anger. His face reddened before turning purple; he pointed at Li Qingshan, unable to utter a single word. He was about to rush over the river and throw his life at him.
“Please hold on, brother Ma. This might be a trap by the enemy!” Zhang Yuntian said.
Ma Xingkong looked back. Apart from his family, everyone else’s faces were filled with hesitation and fear. The river before him raged violently. Apart from a small number of innate masters, no one could cross it with ease. He was experienced with the jianghu after all, so he held back his rage and hatred and clasped his hands. “I’ll leave the decision to the alliance leader!” Then he said to everyone else, “No matter who kills this bastard and avenges the Ma family, I’m willing to offer ten cities as a reward!”
With that, everyone became tempted. Ten cities was a range of several hundred kilometers at the very least, with a population of hundreds of thousands. That was enough to found a sect.
The Ma family is done for, Zhang Yuntian thought. The mountain of corpses was basically the foundation that the Ma family had built up over the past two centuries. Originally, they thought the World’s society was only using their advantage in numbers to attack the settlements in the surroundings, but they never expected Pegasus city to fall so easily as well, without even managing to hold them off for a single day. Even if Ma Xingkong won this battle, his forces would shrink drastically. The ten cities were only a friendly gesture that came at no extra cost.
The figure on the other side of the river had arms that reached all the way to his knees, which matched the rumors perfectly. Zhang Yuntian asked sternly, “Are you Li Qingshan!”
“That’s your father, me!” Li Qingshan said.
Zhang Yuntian’s face changed as he pointed straight at him. “Demon, I originally thought you were just a hypocrite fishing for fame, but I didn’t think you’d be so devoid of morales, even opposing the entire martial arts community! You’re basically beneath a beast!”
“You’re absolutely wrong! I’m like a beast, but definitely not beneath a beast!”
Within the Nine Transformations of the Demonic and Divine, the phoenix was an avian and the tiger was a beast, so Li Qingshan really was telling the truth.
Zhang Yuntian’s face sank even further, but he felt even more uneasy inside. Never had he been put in a situation like this before, where he confronted an enemy like him.
“Alliance leader, this Li Qingshan is just a fool they sent to buy time. They seem to be carrying out some sort of ceremony, so now is the perfect time to launch an attack. We can’t let them succeed!” Ma Xingkong said loudly.
“Sir Ma is absolutely correct. Good and evil have never been able to coexist. If we work together, are we really unable to deal with him alone? I think there’s nothing impressive about this Li Qingshan apart from possessing a pair of overly long limbs! Perhaps he might be a crossbreed born from the White Ape King and some human woman!”
The Tiger Subduing monk took note of the aura that Li Qingshan gave off. It seemed to have reached the innate realm, but it definitely was not powerful. Even the White Ape King would suffer at their hands if they worked together, so it did not matter even if he had a secret technique to hide his true strength.
Before the Tiger Subduing monk had even finished what he was saying, he suddenly saw his own shoes. He could not help but blink his eyes forcefully. He had no idea what had happened.
With a thump, his bald head fell to the ground, only leaving the bottom half of his body still standing.
Zhang Yuntian’s eyes almost leapt out of their eye sockets. He wondered whether he was dreaming. Li Qingshan had only swung his blade on the other side of the river, and the Tiger Subduing monk right by his side had been bisected along the waist.
“What the hell are we up against!?”
The other responded as well. They almost went crazy on the spot.
“It’s an illusion! It must be an illusion! How can something like this actually be possible?”
