Li Qingshan raised his foot, kicking the headless corpse off the floor.
While the men and women on the floor below were still confused by the procuress’ scream, a bloody corpse landed loudly before them. After a while of silence, someone cried out, “Murder!”
The lower floor immediately exploded. Their fleeting joy had shattered from shock. Li Qingshan laughed aloud at the sight. He looked around, and from the corner of his eye, he saw the emerald green of Qing Xiu’s clothes. She had already been taken to the fourth floor on the other side.
Li Qingshan leapt out; he was like a tiger lunging at its prey, like a hawk swooping down for a rabbit. He leapt across the opening in the centre of the building.
Just when Qing Xiu was about to sink into despair, there was a rush of wind, and Li Qingshan arrived in front of her. He stowed his blade back in his sheathe, while the two guards who had seized her sprayed with blood, falling backwards.
“You-” Qing Xiu stuttered that single word for quite a while, unable to say anything else. He was actually bold enough to kill people in the Parlour of Clouds and Rain. She had never seen such a reckless person before. This was completely different from what she had been expecting originally.
Li Qingshan said, “If you’ve received any ill treatment at all, feel free to tell me!”
The building was in chaos. Guards surged out from everywhere, coming out from every corner of the building.
Qing Xiu complained in a hurry, “I- I’ve been abducted by them. I didn’t get into this willingly. If I don’t oblige, I’ll be beaten and even starved! I even have to practise martial arts! If I don’t, I’ll also get beaten and starved.”
“You bitch, shut your mouth!” With a boom, the procuress directly smashed through the floorboards and arrived on the fourth floor, but she only received Li Qingshan’s murderous gaze.
“Perfect timing!” Li Qingshan yelled out. The Wind-entwining blade produced a wind blade in the air, directly flying towards the procuress’s face.
The procuress had never seen someone so vicious before, directly trying to kill her without saying anything else. She spent most of her time welcoming guests and seeing them off. She could not even remember the last time she had to personally fight. She could not even utilise half of her true qi properly anymore, so with a scream, she fell back down to the third floor.
Looking up, all she saw was Li Qingshan appearing in the hole above, wielding his blade with both hands and directly swinging down. She did not even have time to pull out a talisman from her hundred treasures pouch, perhaps due to being stupefied. She dove onto the ground instinctively and rolled away like a ball.
One of them was adept with battle, while the other was not. One of them used their tough body to openly kill a second layer Qi Practitioner, while the other focused on dual cultivation and sexual practises. While she was a third layer Qi Practitioner, she only had the battle prowess of the second layer.
There was a flash of red, and the Wind-entwining blade sliced off a great piece of her bottom. The procuress squealed like a pig, losing all will to fight.
Before Li Qingshan had even landed on the ground, he kicked off the wall and flew over, catching up to the procuress. He stomped down on her back as he smiled viciously. “You old hag, let’s see where you run off to now!”
Whenever the procuress tried to struggle, she would feel the foot on her back crush down like a metal log, breaking all of her bones. A shiny blade was poised by the side of her face such that she became frozen.
A sharp sword stabbed over from behind. Before it had even arrived, green light surged three feet from the sword. Furong grasped the spiritual sword viciously as she directly stabbed at Li Qingshan.
“Good!” Li Qingshan was not surprised, but overjoyed. Shifting his body slightly, he let the sword pass by. Even the third layer Qi Practitioner procuress was not his opponent, let alone the second layer Furong. He turned his left hand into a claw and reached out, grabbing Furong by the throat and dragging her in front of him.
With one below his foot and one in his hand, he had killed two birds with one stone.
Li Qingshan directed his Wind-entwining blade at the procuress. “As a Qi Practitioner, you stand above most, leading an extravagant life, yet you still do such heartless things. Even if you’re dead, there’s nothing to regret.”
The procuress squealed loudly, “Spare me, good sir!”
“You cannot be spared!” Li Qingshan was just about to swing down with his blade.
“Stop!” Two voices rang out at the same time. One came from Ge Jian; the other was not Diao Fei, but a middle-aged man in sapphire-blue robes. He drifted down to the third floor like a falling leaf. He was actually a fifth layer Qi Practitioner with delicate facial features. He said in a sunken tone, “Sir, you seem to be very unhappy with our services.”
He was the true master of the Parlour of Clouds and Rain, Zhao Liangqing. Usually, only the procuress received guests, while he remained behind the scenes, using these women as human cauldrons for his cultivation.
If Zhuo Zhibo wanted to deal with a newcomer, he obviously would not ask for his permission, which was why he managed to set up the whole scheme. However, Zhao Liangqing did not mind it too much either. Catching the eyes of a vulture like Zhuo Zhibo would never lead to anything good. And, he thought it would be a piece of cake for Furong to deal with this person as well, but he never expected something like this to happen.
Li Qingshan thought about how if he did not use his daemon qi, he could easily defeat second layer Qi Practitioners, and he would have great confidence against third layer Qi Practitioners as well. However, it would be difficult to say against the fourth layer, while victory would be impossible against the fifth layer.
He called out loudly, “Ge Jian, go get our big brother Zhuo! I’ve found a nest of bandits who force women into prostitution! How can our mighty Hawkwolf Guard be afraid of some brat like you!” His voice was imbued with true qi. It shattered a few cups nearby and made the ears of many people ring.
Big brother Zhuo!? Ge Jian reeled back, almost falling over. He had personally witnessed how arrogant Li Qingshan had been to Zhuo Zhibo, so why did he call him big brother Zhuo now? He was clearly pulling in Zhuo Zhibo and the Hawkwolf Guard to protect himself.
Zhao Liangqing frowned heavily. Although Li Qingshan had demonstrated strength beyond what regular Qi Practitioners possessed, he was confident that he could kill him. However, he was afraid of doing so.
This was not only due to the two hostages in Li Qingshan’s possession, but also because of his identity as a Hawkwolf Guard. The Hawkwolf Guard was not invincible. It was the exact opposite actually. Due to various dangerous missions, their death and injury rate was quite high. If they died during their missions or were assassinated, and the culprit could not be found, nothing much would happen, and it would just be treated as a cold case.
However, if he killed a Hawkwolf guard in the eye of the public, he would be challenging the authority of the Hawkwolf Guard. Consequently, he would be hunted down. Even Zhuo Zhibo would not be bold enough to spare him. He would instead be the first one to try and kill him so that he could clear his own name and any doubts that came with it. If Zhao Liangqing was an independent cultivator, perhaps he would have the courage to kill upon being angered, but with such a large business behind him, he became more and more terrified of the consequences.
Li Qingshan sniggered. As expected, this wolf’s hide was quite useful. Only an idiot would serve as the hawk and wolves of the government and not make use of that identity. Since Zhuo Zhibo wanted to be his elder brother, then he would welcome him to.
Zhao Liangqing said, “Please release the people of my Parlour of Clouds and Rain!”
“They’ve committed crimes of forcing women into prostitution and harming young girls. They cannot be released. Oh right, you can’t leave either. As a Hawkwolf guard, I will be investigating you. You have the right to remain silent, but anything you say may be used against you in a court of law.” Li Qingshan had no idea what to say, so he just spouted some nonsense he had heard from his past life. He completely ignored Zhao Liangqing’s great strength as a fifth layer Qi Practitioner.
Zhao Liangqing’s face darkened. “Force women into prostitution? Do you have any evidence?”
Li Qingshan said, “I have a witness!”
Zhao Liangqing said in a sunken manner, “Where’s your witness?”
Li Qingshan’s eyes suddenly narrowed. Two guards had grabbed the dejected Qing Xiu.
Zhao Liangqing grabbed Qing Xiu by the chin. “You do have quite some beauty. No wonder he’ll lose his temper over you. You can release the people now!”
Qing Xiu’s eyes teared up as she stared right at Li Qingshan. We really are done for now!
Li Qingshan said, “That’s a lady of your parlour! What’s she got to do with me?”
Zhao Liangqing said, “Oh, fair enough. We can’t keep a troublemaker like her around!” He put his hand on Qing Xiu’s shoulder. Before he could even use any force, Qing Xiu let out a miserable scream.
However, it was immediately drowned out by an even more miserable squeal, frightening Qing Xiu to the point where she closed her mouth. The blade in Li Qingshan’s hand fell, cutting off one of the procuress’ arms. He said with glowing, red eyes, “Why don’t you try to touch her again?”
Those heroes who surrendered after being threatened with a hostage were all idiots. Li Qingshan would never do something like that. You might be vicious, but I’ll be even more vicious!
Ge Jian finally gave up on resolving this matter by himself. This brat had a kind of fierceness and unruliness that came from the mountains and forests, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Everything today was a counterattack against the scheme Zhuo Zhibo had set down, but the entire situation had already developed out of his control. He crushed a talisman, which was used to call for reinforcements among the Hawkwolf Guard; he used this to alert Zhuo Zhibo of the critical situation.
Zhao Liangqing glared at Li Qingshan. He had not done anything, nor was he bold enough to do anything anymore. He could clearly tell from Li Qingshan’s gaze that if he were bold enough to kill Qing Xiu, Li Qingshan would be bold enough to behead the two women. This would be an almost irrecoverable loss to him. On one side was a mere lady who had just been groomed, while on the other side were two important helpers of his. It was obviously as clear as day to him who was more important.
The light in his eyes flickered as he circulated his cultivation method. Before everyone’s eyes, the rather feminine master of the parlour suddenly changed. He became extremely terrifying, like the horrifying demons or ghosts from those legends. An aura of brutality and cruelty crushed down on their hearts. The legs of the guards almost gave way.
He basically roared out, “I said, release them!” Within the Sect of Clouds and Rain, they could use their arts of charm to become as beautiful as ever, enchanting anything and everything, but they could also use it in the exact opposite fashion, turning into demons or ghosts and frightening all people. It was a technique that could directly shake the souls of people. With that, the noisy Parlour of Clouds and Rain immediately fell into silence. Everyone felt like a great horror had descended; they even became afraid of drawing too much attention just from breathing, let alone screaming and fleeing. Even Ge Jian was afraid of looking at Zhao Liangqing’s face. How was Li Qingshan, who had been in the face of it all, supposed to cope with this pressure?
However, Li Qingshan only smiled gently. “I said, release her!” He was a daemon in the first place, and his cultivation had surpassed Zhao Liangqing’s. The reason why the arts of charm were effective against him was because his body was powerful, and his desires were stronger than regular people, requiring the Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression to suppress them. However, when it came to frightening people, Zhao Liangqing was basically trying to teach a fish how to swim. He did not even need to use the Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression against it. You’re trying to scare me? Would you like me to revert to my original form and frighten you to death!?
Zhao Liangqing saw how it was useless, so he could only give up on it. He stared straight at Li Qingshan. If his glare were a sword, it would have pierced Li Qingshan all the way through already.
“What are you looking at? If you keep looking at me like that, I’ll dig your, no, their eyes out.” Li Qingshan rubbed his blade against the procuress beneath his feet.
“What do you want?”
Li Qingshan pointed at Qing Xiu. “I want my witness!”
“Don’t even think about it!” Before Zhao Liangqing had even finished talking, Li Qingshan had cut off the procuress’ other arm. “I have two anyway. If I kill one, I still have another!”
