Lao Xishan clutched the stump of his arm and retreated in a hurry. He cried out, “What are you!” He stared straight at Xiao An. He wanted to lock onto Xiao An with his aura, but he found nothing at all.
Xiao An stood within the tall grass that had basically swallowed her and stowed her hidden blade away. She stared at him silently. The two Skull Prayer Beads did not pursue him either, both returning to her hands. They were just for drawing away Lao Xishan’s attention.
The true battle had already ended.
Not a single droplet of blood fell from the wound. Soon afterwards, he lost sensation in the entire arm. All he felt was a faint sting, followed by numbness. The numbness spread across his entire body.
A layer of pale, red flames stuck to the severed arm, directly spreading across Lao Xishan’s body.
Lao Xishan wanted to escape, but he fell to the ground. Deep fear filled his head. “What did you…”
Before he could finish, the firelight in the depths of his eyes became brighter and brighter. The flames spurted out from his eyes, nose, and mouth violently, setting him alight from the inside.
All of the flames flowed back into Xiao An’s palm before vanishing completely. Everything was obviously no different from stabbing the ants under the great aspen tree. Afterwards, she looked back at Li Qingshan eagerly, basically telling him to praise her.
Li Qingshan raised an eyebrow. “Nicely done! You really are my Xiao An after all!”
Xiao An lowered her head bashfully as her face reddened and her lips curled slightly.
Li Qingshan placed his hand on his hips. “I really do need to work hard! If this continues, I’ll end up depending completely on you in order to get by, despite being a man!”
He waved his hand, and his true qi swept the hundred treasures pouch and flying blade into his hand. Originally, he wanted to return to Jiaping city with commander Lao. That way, he would have a witness to prove that he had nothing to do with Zhuo Zhibo’s disappearance.
However, since Lao Xishan wanted to abuse his power, he would have to change up the story. Commander Lao was worried about commander Zhuo, so he entered the Zombie cave searching for him. In the end, both of them became lost in the maze-like caves. I don’t care if you’re not convinced. All that matters is I’m convinced.
With that, he now possessed the hundred treasures pouches of three sixth layer Qi Practitioners, along with seven more from elite Qi Practitioners. That was a total of ten hundred treasures pouches, a tremendous piece of wealth.
He could not wait until he returned to Jiaping city. He just began looking through his spoils right there and then. The ten hundred treasures pouches were placed in a line before him as he could not help but become rather excited.
He opened the hundred treasures pouches that belonged to Ge Jian and the six other Black Wolf guards first. These people had served as Hawkwolf guards for many years now, and they were all Zhuo Zhibo’s trusted subordinates, so they must have received quite a lot of care. Every single one of them were quite wealthy, so it was truly stunning when it was all combined.
In the end, he found a total of over four thousand Qi Gathering pills. Just Xie Nande’s hundred treasures pouches contained over a thousand of them, along with three hundred Hundred Grasses pills and several dozen other pills of even higher quality. There were also over a hundred spiritual stones, over two hundred talismans, and several tens of million taels of silver notes.
Opening the hundred treasures pouches was not just about searching through his spoils. Instead, it was a very interesting and special process, as all cultivators would place their items that they valued the most or used the most within their tiny hundred treasures pouches. As a result, aside from the items that Li Qingshan had been looking for, there were many other interesting items as well. He could tell what kind of person the owner was from them.
The seven hundred treasures pouches represented the characters of seven different people.
Xie Nande’s hundred treasures pouch contained a zither and many music sheets. This old bastard’s hobby was quite refined. If he had not followed Zhuo Zhibo to the bloomy depths of the underground to become an enemy of his, he would have been able to look for some remote areas of nature to play his zither, allowing it to resound through the natural scenery. It would have been quite a delightful thing to do.
Ge Jian had fetishes. He had many dudous and handkerchiefs in his pouch. Who knows where he had obtained all of them. It made Li Qingshan develop disdain towards him.
He found a thick stack of letters within the hundred treasures pouch of an unknown Black Wolf guard, which made Li Qingshan fall quiet. It no longer mattered whether he was a husband or a father. He could never return home again.
However, Li Qingshan did not regret killing him. Ever since he had made up his mind about venturing beyond the Nine Heavens, the path that awaited him would not be one where he could afford to show mercy. If he did not kill, he would be killed. That was the reality.
However, when killing had already turned into a habit, enemies basically no longer seemed like people in Li Qingshan’s eyes, but some kind of humanoid being that could talk and fight back. All he needed to do was destroy, rip, crush, and pierce them, and then their flesh and blood would be devoured by Xiao An’s flames, as if they had never existed in this world in the first place.
Right now, those blurry, humanoid figures recovered their meaning as humans one by one, which made Li Qingshan sigh. It maintained his conscience and humanity.
The remaining three hundred treasures pouches belonged to the two commanders of the Hawkwolf Guard and the Zombie Daoist. Li Qingshan valued them the most.
The first one he opened was Lao Xishan’s. Although he had only just broken through to the sixth layer, his hundred treasures pouch was still much larger in comparison to Xie Nande’s.
However, the items in there were not worth his attention. Even Xie Nande had more items than him, which made Li Qingshan rather disappointed.
Due to the constant oppression from Zhuo Zhibo and the fact that he had just broken through, he had consumed a lot of resources during his secluded cultivation.
At least the Zombie Daoist did not disappoint Li Qingshan. There were close to two thousand Qi Gathering pills and fifty or sixty spiritual stones, equivalent to the wealth of three or four Hawkwolf guards. However, there was not a single talisman at all. He spent his entire time hiding in the darkness, controlling corpses, so he had no need for them.
Li Qingshan did find something very interesting. It was a strange map that seemed like a mental map. However, when he channeled true qi into it, it turned into a series of numerous, three dimensional lines.
Li Qingshan immediately managed to tell that it was an underground map, and it extended over a hundred times further than what Hao Pingyang had discovered with his mechanical insects. If he had not seen it in person, he basically would have struggled to believe that such a vast world existed deep underground.
As a matter of fact, there were even caves below Jiaping city and his feet right now. And, the Zombie cave was not the only entrance to the system. There was one near Jiaping city. The caves came to an abrupt end near the edges of the map, so clearly, the map did not cover the entire system. It was labelled with many specks of light, which temporarily stumped Li Qingshan.
Li Qingshan stowed the underground mental map away carefully. Perhaps the map could even be more precious than a high grade spiritual artifact at times. It was exactly this map that allowed the Zombie Daoist to move about freely underground, avoiding the search of the Hawkwolf Guard and also allowing him to appear in various places at any time so that he could collect corpses.
The last one he opened was Zhuo Zhibo’s hundred treasures pouch. As he channeled his true qi into it, the hundred treasures pouch opened up a huge space. It was much larger than the Zombie Daoist’s hundred treasures pouch. It seemed like a huge warehouse, holding a great assortment of items.
Although Li Qingshan had roughly looked through it when he was underground, he still felt shocked by this sight. This was the largest hundred treasures pouch in his possession. Just the pouch itself was a valuable spiritual artifact. The items inside would definitely match up to the hundred treasures pouch’s value.
Just the Qi Gathering pills numbered at over three thousand. This was not a particularly special number when considering Zhuo Zhibo’s status, but he soon discovered over seven hundred Hundred Grasses pills. They were probably the pills that Zhuo Zhibo usually used for cultivation, which was why he had not hoarded too many Qi Gathering pills.
Li Qingshan then opened a small, porcelain bottle. It held pills that were translucent like dew. They were actually Pearl Dew pills, which he had consumed before. Just a single Pearl Due pill had stunned all the Qi Practitioners back then. He opened several bottles, and they all turned out to be Pearl Dew pills. Counting them up, they amounted to thirty five. The overall value of the Hundred Grasses pills had already exceeded the Qi Gathering pills, while the Pearl Dew pills probably raised the bar higher once more.
Aside from those, there were other types of pills as well, amounting to several dozen. They were not labelled, and with Li Qingshan’s lacking knowledge of pills, he was unable to identify them. However, the fragrance they gave off was definitely no worse than the Pearl Dew pills.
There was also a mid grade spiritual artifact flying blade, thirty three mid grade talismans, one hundred and twenty low grade talismans, and two hundred and eleven spiritual stones.
In summary, he had obtained close to ten thousand Qi Gathering pills, over a thousand Hundred Grasses pills, around a hundred high quality pills, several hundred spiritual stones of miscellaneous quality, seven low grade spiritual artifacts, three mid grade spiritual artifacts, and several hundred talismans from this trip alone.
He did not have to worry about lacking the resources to sustain his cultivation anymore. If he ate all of these pills and converted them to true qi and daemon qi, just what level of cultivation would he be able to reach? Just the thought of it excited him.
It was just a pity that he required the recognition of a commander to complete his mission regarding the Zombie Daoist, so he was unable to exchange the contribution for pills. However, it would probably be a long time before he lacked pills again, so he was not worried. He believed that before long, new commanders would be sent over from above. However, the higher-ups would definitely send people to investigate the matter, seeing how they lost two commanders and seven elites in one fell swoop. He needed to come up with a good lie.
When Li Qingshan returned to Jiaping city by travelling through the evening, it had not even reached midnight. Just like before, he returned to his residence without disturbing anyone. However, he saw that his residence was ablaze with lanterns. He glanced at Xiao An and quietly approached the building.
The building gave off the aura of a Qi Practitioner, but it was not powerful, only at the third layer. Moreover, the smell was rather familiar. He racked his brains, trying to think of who this smell belonged to.
The window on the second floor suddenly opened from outside and Li Qingshan questioned loudly, “Qian Rongzhi, what are you doing in my room?”
The person in his residence so late at night was actually Qian Rongzhi. She sat on the bed, meditating. Her hair was disheveled and her clothes were messy as if this was her room.
Qian Rongzhi was slightly surprised before recovering her composure. She smiled. “Obviously waiting for you!” Charm overflowed as she smiled, shaking up the minds of people.
Li Qingshan frowned. “You’ve practised the arts of charm from the Sect of Clouds and Rain?” She had reached the third layer as well.
Qian Rongzhi said, “It’s just a pity that I can’t enchant you! And, this residence has already become mine. This is no longer your room.”
Li Qingshan frowned. “What?”
Qian Rongzhi said, “You don’t need to be surprised, as everyone on this mountain believes you’re dead. They obviously won’t leave a residence open for a dead person.”
Li Qingshan said, “So you’ve moved in instead?”
Confidence that bordered lunacy appeared in Qian Rongzhi’s eyes. “That’s because I knew you’d return. Zhuo Zhibo’s already dead, right? He died to you!” Zhou Wenbin had basically guessed that Li Qingshan had something that he could rely on as well, but only she was confident that not only would Li Qingshan return alive, he would kill Zhuo Zhibo as well!
Volume Afterword – Everything is just the Beginning
One author, three volumes, eighty-four days and nights, four hundred and seventy one thousand, seven hundred and six characters.
Of course, you can’t forget the thirty five thousand, seven hundred and sixty three readers. I bow and I thank you for your support. Thank you. You were the ones who supported me to experiment, to change.
Of course, this wasn’t easy at all. However, I don’t want to spend too much time reminiscing about this. It’s just like the title. Everything is just the beginning.
These things of the past might always seem rather familiar, but I’m not someone who’ll repeat the past. From the next volume onwards, there will be some completely new things that will unravel before you.
Just as a spoiler, the name of the next volume is ‘The Daemon City Underground’.
You know what I’m going to write now, right? A wondrous world of daemons, a group of strange daemons!
The path to Great Sage is obviously not one that can be carved within the human world alone. Daemon General, Daemon Commander, Daemon King. How can Li Qingshan go without his own domain in a world of daemons?
The story that I want to write, the world that I want to sculpt, has begun to take shape. I will devote my heart and soul to it, working hard to come up with the plot, such that it achieves the effect I want it to achieve. If you have any good ideas, please tell me in the reviews section. My own thoughts are limited, so let us advance forward together.
I beg you for monthly tickets one last time, for the sake of a good beginning to the next volume! (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to give me recommendation and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation).
