Unlike the expanse of fertile land on the Central continent, the Daemonic beast continent was covered with precipitous cliffs, mountains, and great swamps. Clouds and mist curled above the mountains and lakes, seeping into the endless sea of trees, leaving it even more verdant than before.
There was no good or evil here. They only followed the most ancient principle of nature—natural selection and the survival of the fittest.
A great river raged between the mountains like a dragon, suddenly taking to the air upon reaching a cliff, plunging straight down as a thousand-metre-long waterfall that filled the air with spray.
Through the spray and behind the waterfall, there was actually more than what met the eye. A dwelling was hidden there, which was where the spiritual veins of the mountains and river gathered.
The rumbling sound of the water was blocked outside. The silent dwelling was pitch-black, without any light at all.
A pair of exceptionally-large, jade-green cat eyes blinked, illuminating all of the darkness.
“Sigh, the Nine-tailed Fox Empress is beautiful, noble, and powerful, but it is too bad she was up to no good!”
Xuanyue rested her cheeks on her hands with a frown. Through her rather impressive bloodline as an innate spiritual beast and a certain person’s blessings, she had already undergone the third heavenly tribulation. She now seemed like a seventeen or eighteen year old woman.
During the battle of the Jade palace, she had received a strike from Xiao An before coming back from death through her innate ability, breaking free from the Nine-tailed Fox Empress Su Mirao’s bewitchment and fleeing far away from the Dragon province. Afterwards, the nine provinces were swallowed by the space-devouring beast. A certain person discovered her in the wilderness of the Frost province, so he casually tossed her onto the Daemonic Beast realm.
She was filled with resentment towards Su Mirao who used her as a meat shield, but she often could not help but miss the magnificent Jade palace where she could live extravagantly. She could not help but sigh again. “Meow…”
Suddenly, she clenched her small fist and tried to reinvigorate herself. “As a cat, I still have to rely on myself. Isn’t that right, Big Blacko?”
Before her lay a pair of dolls. One was woven from black cloth with crooked stitchwork, stuffed full with furballs, which seemed like a large, black, standing ox, but it was very plump, basically without a neck. The words “north” and “moon” were carefully stitched into its horns. That was the Big Blacko that she was referring to.
“Yeah, yeah! Meowster Xuanyue, you’re the smeowtest!” Big Blacko nodded fervently, but his voice came from her mouth, talking to herself with a gruff tone.
“I’m completely free now. Free! Do you understand what that means?”
Xuanyue was taken away as if she had returned to the Boundless mountains of the distant past, yearning for the distant Dragon province as she taught a certain “country bumpkin daemon”.
“I don’t know. What is it? Is it edible?” Big Blacko shook his head, expressing his complete cluelessness.
“Haha, what a fool! Freedom is the best, best thing in the world.”
“And you, Little Whitey. You might have stabbed me, but I don’t blame you. Who can help the fact that you’re so clueless, so clueless.”
The other doll was carved from white wood. She was a small skeleton and even clutched a small, white sword in her hand. Sure enough, she seemed quite clueless. However, while Xuanyue said she did not blame her, she did wrinkle her nose.
“Ah, another string has burst! Sigh, you nod and shake your head, so it’ll only be strange if it doesn’t burst!”
She fished out a needle and string in a scramble before suddenly checking the time. “Hold on, it seems to be time. Forget about it, Big Blacko. I’ll fix you once I get back. Watch over the home with Little Whitey, I, your master, am off for a feast!” She patted the two dolls on the head and tossed aside the needle and string, bounding off gracefully and vanishing.
Without the support of her daemon qi, Big Blacko immediately fell to the ground, but he suddenly let out a laugh.
The moon rose up to the centre of the sky, full and round, like a silver disc. It shone with clear, cold light, except it seemed slightly larger than normal.
Between the mountains, she crouched on a barren, small hill, gazing at the moon. Her irises narrowed like a pair of almonds.
This was very close to her dwelling. This small hill was not some treasured land for cultivation normally either until when she discovered a secret one day…
As the moon rose up into the sky, the spiritual qi grew denser and denser until it was almost visible. The moonlight seemed to amass in layers on the hill, immediately enveloping the place in a haze. It was particularly conspicuous between the mountains.
She inhaled the dense spiritual qi as her smiling eyes formed a pair of crescents.
At this moment, daemon qi rushed into the air, sweeping over from the east.
Rumble. The mountains swayed, the earth shook, and trees snapped.
A huge, black bear around the size of a small mountain strode over from between the mountains. The towering trees beneath his feet bent over like grass. He was a Daemon Emperor that had undergone the fourth heavenly tribulation. His eyes that resembled searchlights shone down on this hill. He was overjoyed inside, This is it! The rumour was true! However, he directly ignored Xuanyue at the top of the hill.
“Piss off, stinky bear! This is my territory!”
Xuanyue’s tail shot up as her hair stood on end, baring her teeth and growling threateningly. However, before this colossal black bear Daemon Emperor, she clearly did not possess much influence.
“This is your territory?”
A smear of surprise flashed through the black bear Daemon Emperor’s eyes. He never expected her to stay put without fleeing. He was aware that the mountains and forests within several hundred kilometres of this place belonged to a cat daemon, but he clearly did not take a Daemon King seriously.
“Haha, from today onwards, everything here belongs to me! If you submit to me, I’ll spare…”
He suddenly halted, but it was not because of her. He raised his enormous head and peered into the sky. A series of powerful daemon qi rose up on the horizon, and they all targeted this hill, whistling over through the air.
One of them was a colossal, black python that could fly and another was a crane whose wings blotted out the sky… They were all renowned daemons of the Daemonic Beast realm, and without any exception, they were all Daemon Emperors. Apart from her, regular Daemon Kings did not even dare to set foot in a thousand kilometres of this place.
The black bear Daemon Emperor’s heart trembled. Sure enough, trying to claim this empyrean serum isn’t that easy!
Empyrean serum was a natural phenomenon that only occurred in large worlds with dense spiritual qi.
During a night of gengshen, the moonlight would condense into thousands of strands of essence of supreme yin, falling from the sky. The benefits were unbelievably great. Even regular plants could turn into daemons upon obtaining it.
However, the conditions for this empyrean serum to appear were quite stringent. Not only did it require timing, but it also required a certain geography. It needed a magnetic rock that did not attract metal called “emerald autumn rock” to trigger a reaction from the world, drawing spiritual qi over and causing empyrean serum to fall.
The small hill that Xuanyue currently sat on was a pile of emerald autumn rock, and it “just happened” to be in her territory.
However, possessing wealth was always a crime, even when innocent.
At that instant, the daemons gathered all around here, all gazing at the small hill in interest.
It had only been recently that the World of the Five Continents evolved to a point where it could sustain existences of the fifth heavenly tribulation. Daemons cultivated far slower than humans, so the Daemonic Beast continent had yet to produce any Daemon Sovereigns.
Whether it was her foundations, bloodlines, or blessings, Xuanyue was better off than Li Long, yet she had only reached the third heavenly tribulation. It was determined by the method of cultivation of daemons. If she wanted to make drastic progress, she required a colossal fortuitous encounter.
The empyrean serum was this fortuitous encounter. Whoever obtained it first would become a Daemon Sovereign first and turn the entire Daemonic Beast continent into their hunting ground. All of the daemons would have to bow down to them as well, leaving them as the leader of the myriad daemons.
As such, all of these Daemon Emperors were determined to obtain the empyrean serum.
Daemons did not like communication like humans. Coupled with the fact that they already had countless grievances that arose from their struggle over territory, it was even more unlikely for any negotiations to appear. They would only communicate in the most primitive manner. The winner would stay and the losers would piss off.
However, they were all afraid of someone swooping in and taking advantage of them, so none of them dared to move first. The tremendous daemon qi rubbed and clashed together, constantly conflicting and rising up rapidly.
The moon rose even higher, glowed even brighter, and grew even larger. The colossal figures of the daemons overlapped, enveloping her tiny figure.
“Go away, all of you! Big Blacko gave this to meow!” Xuanyue called out.
Pairs of eyes gazed over. She shrunk up, instantly experiencing tremendous pressure, but she immediately stuck her chest forward proudly again.
The black bear Daemon Emperor shouted, “You little kitty, aren’t you afraid of dying?” To think that she would actually raise a fuss in front of a group of Daemon Emperors. Once the battle began, just the consequences would have been enough to claim her life.
“I think you’re the ones who aren’t afraid of dying. Do you have any idea just how vicious meow Big Blacko is? If I tell you, I’ll frighten you to death! His full name is Northmoon! Hmph, hmph!”
“Northmoon? What’s that? Tell him to get his ass out here. I’ll kill him with a swing of my paw!”
The crane Daemon Emperor suddenly remembered something. He asked in surprise, “Hold on, what is your relationship with Li Qingshan?”
He was originally the Cloud Shadow Crane King of the Ten Daemon Kings of the nine provinces. His cultivation had reached the peak of the third heavenly tribulation a long time ago, but he remained at the realm of Daemon King because of the difficulty of the heavenly tribulation of ascension. With the evolution of the World of the Five Continents, he had undergone the fourth heavenly tribulation in the process too, but he never forgot the name of Northmoon.
The daemons were all frightened. They might not remember or even have heard of Daemon King Northmoon before, but it was impossible for them to not know about Li Qingshan. He was the ruler of the world. Although there had basically been no more news of him ever since he left on the back of a kunpeng, he was still an existence that people revered.
“He’s my pet! Hehe, are you scared now?” Xuanyue said complacently with her hands on her hips.
The daemons looked at one another and began laughing aloud. Their laughter echoed through the mountains.
The black bear Daemon Emperor laughed so hard that he almost began to shed tears. “You said Li Qingshan is your pet? Haha, looks like he’s really left this world for good, or how would you still be alive?”
“He hasn’t left. He’s always been here. I can sense it! You don’t know anything at all!” Xuanyue was so angry that she even turned red. “Stop laughing!”
At that instant, the laughter completely halted.
The daemons all widened their eyes. A figure appeared behind her. No one had managed to see where he had appeared from or when he had appeared.
He stood with a smile, exposing his sharp teeth slightly. His hair and eyes were scarlet, while his horns were curved like the moon, just like the legends.
This place had always been the territory of the tiger.
The air seemed to freeze. A strange atmosphere overcame the Daemon Emperors, leaving them all immobilized.
By now, several dozen metres of light had already accumulated on the hill. It suddenly surged up and made contact with the moonlight in the sky, condensing into an oval-shaped bead of light, falling from the moon. That was the precious empyrean serum, but not a single Daemon Emperor took a step forward.
Xuanyue blinked her eyes in confusion. Why was her order so effective? “Hmph, do you finally know fear now?”
She caught the empyrean serum with both hands in a hurry. The glow illuminated her face, and she immediately cheered up again.
The Cloud Shadow Crane King opened his mouth to say something, but Li Qingshan brought his finger over his lips. All of the daemons fell silent. Then he waved his hand gently and the Cloud Shadow Crane King immediately flew away without any hesitation.
In the blink of an eye, all of the daemons dispersed, leaving even faster than they had arrived. In particular, the black bear Daemon Emperor was not particularly skilled in flight or any escape techniques, so he scrambled away, basically wishing he was missing his forelimbs so he could run a little faster.
When the vicious tiger descended from the mountain, the beasts fled in all directions.
“You bunch of fools! You sure run fast! I’ll frighten you all to death! Ahh, so meowch!”
The balls of empyrean serum condensed mid-air with streams of silver light like comets.
Her figure flickered around, darting about and catching them all, like a cat chasing after fireflies.
Li Qingshan smiled and pointed at the sky.
Immediately, a meteor shower fell in the thousands, weaving across the entire night sky. It was magnificent, like a dream.
“How beautiful!” She widened her eyes and became even happier before becoming troubled. How was she supposed to catch all of it!?
She busied herself for most of the night before returning to her dwelling beneath the waterfall in satisfaction, laying down on a large, soft bed. She picked up “Big Blacko” again to talk to him, embracing him firmly in her arms. “Thank you, Big Blacko!”
“Master, you don’t have to thank me. This is all what I am supposed to do.”
“Hehe. Thank you still. Ahh, so sleepy. I’ll definitely patch you up tomeowrrow.”
She let out a great big yawn and curled up, drifting off to sleep. She murmured, “Big Blacko, being free is so lonely!”
“Hopefully, this time I can protect you properly, away from all of the wind and snow,” Li Qingshan stood by her bed and said silently.
Xuanyue jerked awake from her sleep. Her ears pricked up. “Big Blacko!?”
The darkness was silent. No one answered.
The moonlight was clear and bright, gentle like water.
