The land was vast, watched by the stars. The mountain towered, coiled around by the colossal dragon.
At this very moment, all of that had become completely insignificant. Only the person in each other’s embrace could not be replaced.
This was an opportunity forged by the adherence that would never change even in the face of death and the stubbornness to even cross through outer space.
As a result, they were reunited.
Li Qingshan breathed in the faint smell of sandalwood from her hair deeply as an indescribable sense of joy filled him, making up for the intangible emptiness and giving him a sense of peace.
Suddenly, he frowned. He could sense many broken bones under her soft skin. He asked, “You’re injured?”
Xiao An jerked back to her senses and recalled her current predicament. The swing from the Corpse Emperor earlier had already injured her.
Resting her head against Li Qingshan’s shoulder, she gave him a simple account of the Hungry Ghost realm’s invasion, the Corpse Emperor hunting her down, and her plan. All of a sudden, she felt rather annoyed. He would be facing danger as soon as he returned because of her, facing a virtually undefeatable opponent.
Li Qingshan understood what she was thinking. He smiled. “What, you’re not going to welcome my return?”
“Welcome back.”
Xiao An smiled. She would never say something foolish like getting him to leave first. Living and dying together had already become something that needed no further explanation to the two of them.
Li Qingshan raised his head and gazed at the sky, meeting the eyes filled with malice. “Looks like the nine provinces really have changed by quite a bit during the time I was gone. But fortunately, I’ve been constantly changing too. Allow me to save this world!”
Xiao An wanted to say something, but she faltered. She was a little worried about how he would respond once he heard what she had done, but now was not the time to mention that.
On Dragonshead mountain, the emperor of Great Xia said, “So that’s Li Qingshan!”
He had never seen Li Qingshan before, but crown prince Si Qing did have a lot of contact with him in the past, so he glanced at Si Qing. Si Qing’s face twisted with hatred as he gazed at Li Qingshan’s figure. His gaze contained a sense of deeply-hidden fear behind his hatred. He clearly stood on the mountain, looking down on him, yet he felt like he was looking up at an unscalable mountain.
The religious preceptor of the left said, “He is that wretched daemon!”
The emperor of Great Xia said, “Wasn’t he launched into outer space by Bai Chen? And what was that blue shooting star earlier?”
No one could answer him. They could not help but admit that the matters were already out of their control. All great plans and schemes required strength as a foundation. It was not something that could be achieved by murmuring in the darkness and acting like they were manipulating everything from behind the scenes.
“Big sis!”
With her large eyes and thick eyebrows, Si Bao waved excitedly at Gu Yanying. She had already become one of the many crown princes and princesses of Great Xia now.
Gu Yanying just happened to be looking at Li Qingshan and Xiao An in thought. She looked back and smiled.
In the blink of an eye, she met a pair of hawk eyes as well. The Guardian Hawk God was looking at her too.
Gu Yanying bowed from afar as if she was admitting defeat, or in other words, there was no need for them to clash anymore. There was no need for her to seek his approval anymore either.
Her various mixed and ambivalent emotions of the past vanished with the bow. She had already flown higher and further away, having witnessed a sky that even the “Hawk God” had not seen before.
Her father was still her father, but her father was also just her father.
That seems to be the temple of heaven!
Gu Yanying thought through everything before also giving Si Bao a hug.
The altar was basically surrounded by all the great cultivators. The three ducal ministers and the nine ministers was only a generalisation. There were the religious preceptors of the left and right as well, several crown princes, the six ministries, and so on. There were several dozen in total, but not a single person saw how she had crossed through the formation and arrived on the mountain peak.
“Big sis, you’re so powerful!” Si Bao was surprised.
Gu Yanying still possessed a cultivation at the third heavenly tribulation. She had not even reached the peak of the third heavenly tribulation. What granted her this power was obviously the kunpeng’s feather. It was all thanks to Li Qingshan’s new mount that she managed to preserve some of the kunpeng’s feather’s power.
A part of this power did not truly belong to her, where it would diminish with each use. It recovered extremely slowly too, but it had already paved a path for her.
The Guardian Hawk God immediately understood she had obtained that feather and inherited its legacy. On top of that, she had comprehended it even further and deeper than Bai Chen in the past.
If she had not succeeded yet, he definitely would not have considered their relationship as father and daughter. He would even go as far as to turn against her, but now, his gaze softened instead. As he gazed silently at Gu Yanying’s face, that elderly figure in his memories became young again, bearing great similarity to Gu Yanying.
As a result, he shut his eyes as if he had let out a sigh of relief. The young hawk he had pushed off the mountain had already found her own sky, and she had left him far behind her.
“My dear disciple, what are you doing here?”
Gu Yanying’s gaze suddenly landed on Qian Rongzhi who stood on the altar. She had her thoughts and was about to make her way over to ask what was going on when the emperor of Great Xia blocked her path, gazing at her cautiously.
The “celestial” played a critical role in the offering to heaven’s success, and the offering to heaven was supposed to save the entire Great Xia empire, so he could not allow anything to happen to her.
Gu Yanying stopped and sighed. “Your majesty, you’re going to regret this. This disciple of mine… whatever, we have been master and disciple after all.”
Qian Rongzhi did not look at Gu Yanying. Only when Gu Yanying rose up to the top of the mountain did she glance at her indifferently. That was the behaviour befitting of a true celestial. On top of that, she was still rather worried about Xiao An. That Corpse Emperor definitely would not give up.
Sure enough, a violent aura rose up into the sky in the north, churning the wind and clouds and immediately locking onto Xiao An.
A figure rushed over. The face that was no different from a human’s had now become extremely twisted.
Kuang Tianyou spent a very long time trying in the Chess Tomb, but he discovered it was completely impossible for him to regenerate his entire limb in a short amount of time. Killing the successor of white bone was his only mission this time. The entire Hungry Ghost realm was watching this matter, so he could not stay in hiding forever.
As a result, he rushed out of the Chess Tomb despite the sense of shame. The eyes in the sky seemed to see his missing arm, which left him even more furious and violent.
“Die!”
Kuang Tianyou bellowed fiercely, swinging down with his blade!
There were no tricks, no splendour, just great force!
Zombies did not develop techniques or abilities. They only fought with their bodies. Wherever the blade passed by, it left behind a black slash as if even the world could not contain the attack.
The blade was no longer restrained by the tombs, so it was as vicious as a natural disaster. It continued to build up force as if it was trying to cut down Dragonshead mountain as well.
He did not take Li Qingshan beside Xiao An seriously at all. Just the collateral damage from the attack was enough to crush the likes of him.
“Qingshan?” Xiao An saw how Li Qingshan had no intentions of retreating into the imperial court of Great Xia. Even if he retreated now, it would not be enough to block the attack.
“Don’t worry. You have me around.”
Li Qingshan rubbed her head. He took a step forward, standing in front of her. He looked at Kuang Tianyou and said, “Idiot from the Hungry Ghost realm, you better not think I won’t give you a beating just because you’re disabled. Come, come at me! I’ll only use one hand too!”
Abruptly, his left arm shrank as his right arm began to extend, becoming strangely thick and sturdy. It became covered in black fur like an ape’s arm.
He was obviously talking nonsense about just using one arm. This was the second innate ability of the ape demon, the Ape Demon Extends its Arm.
