Not a single daemonic beast, no matter how vicious or terrifying, could make Li Qingshan react like this. However, what he saw was not a beast of any kind, but a person. More accurately, it was a fair-skinned fatty sprawled out at the centre of the alcohol jars.
His head was shiny, and he wore a pink cloak, exposing his bulging, white belly. He gave off heavy daemon qi and the smell of liquor.
As a result, Li Qingshan performed a very simple calculation. What do you get when you combine a daemon with a human form?
Li Qingshan breathed in deeply and swallowed back the foul language he was about to let loose. The one who had been secretly eating his food was actually a Daemon General!
He had only seen two Daemon Generals in his life, a cat and a rat. Xuanyue had been utterly spoiled, so she went without saying. However, even that rat happened to be the great king of Black Rat mountain. He was an imposing figure with countless under his command.
A mighty Daemon General was an existence on Wang Pushi’s level if it were a human, standing above millions. Why would something like that do something so degrading?
This was why he had never thought of this in the beginning. In the end, he was slapped across the face by the cruel reality. He clung onto the hope that the poison and drugs in the alcohol had come into effect.
However, the bald Daemon General’s heaving belly and his thunderous snoring completely obliterated all of Li Qingshan’s hopes. He had not been poisoned. He had just fallen drunk.
Li Qingshan and Xiao An looked at each other. Li Qingshan slowly retreated backwards, while Xiao An controlled the Iron Plate corpse in a slow retreat as well. They had created the hole as a path of retreat, but who knew it would actually lead to the den of something so terrifying. They could not remain in this mountain manor any longer.
Clang!
The bald Daemon General with his pink cloak scratched his belly and knocked over a jar.
However, it was like a clap of thunder to Li Qingshan’s ears. He immediately stopped. Only after seeing how there was no more activity for quite a while did he continue with his gradual retreat. True qi formed a thick cushion below his feet, preventing him from producing any sound.
Under Xiao An’s control, the Iron Plate corpse’s feet landed on the ground softly as well.
The bald Daemon General suddenly opened his eyes. He writhed in a strange manner as he stood up. At first, his calves straightened up, followed by his thighs, and then the upper half of his body. He looked at Li Qingshan and Xiao An in a daze.
Li Qingshan felt a chill run from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head before emerging from his scalp. This completely originated from his instincts towards danger as a daemon. He became more and more certain that this Daemon General was not someone he could deal with right now.
However, a cocked bow had to be fired. He waved his hands and launched ten talismans. They were all Immobilisation talismans, seven low grade and three medium grade. He did not try to kill him. He only hoped that the Daemon General could be immobilized for even just a second so that he could take off with Xiao An.
The bald Daemon General did not seem like he had completely sobered up yet. The ten talismans landed on him perfectly, including one on his face.
Li Qingshan rejoiced over his good fortune. At the same time, he stuck a Swift Breeze talisman to his legs and immediately tried to charge out. However, just when he was about to turn around, his eyes narrowed, and he halted.
The bald Daemon General just stood right in front of him, almost right in his face. The Immobilization talismans on him were eaten away rapidly, until not a single sliver remained, revealing his dazed face.
Only from this angle did he notice that the Daemon General was not particularly fat. He was long and mellow. As he stood there, he actually towered above Li Qingshan. He bent over as he stared straight at Li Qingshan with his bulging eyes. It was an indescribably terrifying sight.
Xiao An reacted by moving a finger. The Iron Plate corpse hugged the Daemon General, and Li Qingshan used the opportunity to retreat in a hurry.
The bald Daemon General trembled, and a pink gas emerged around him. The Iron Plate corpse that charged over seemed like it had stepped into a vat of acid. With a series of hisses, white smoke rose up from its body. Its powerful body that had been strengthened with metal and refinement was completely eaten away in the blink of an eye. All that was left was a ball of pale, red flames that returned to Xiao An’s hands.
The Iron Plate corpse that could even kill sixth layer Qi Practitioners could not even last a single attack. It had not even been enough to make the enemy move a finger.
Li Qingshan was astounded. He became extremely fearful of the pink gas.
The bald Daemon General moved extremely quickly and without any rhythm at all. They could not escape. Li Qingshan released his violent daemon qi and immediately reached thirty feet, smashing through the earth above his head. He grabbed Xiao An and tossed her outside. “You go first!”
The pink gas spread rapidly, enveloping Li Qingshan’s surroundings. Hisses rang throughout the secret room. Large portions of the stone floor weakened and collapsed. To think that Li Qingshan had wanted to deal with him using poison. He had finally witnessed what poison actually was.
There was an azure, blue colour within the surging pink gas. It originated from a spherical barrier composed of countless hexagons, which protected the area around Li Qingshan and stopped the invasion of the pink gas. As a result, Li Qingshan eased up slightly. Fortunately, the Spirit Turtle’s Profound Shell was sturdy enough. Now, he had to think of a way to get out of this situation.
He stomped down with his hoof. Explosive power filled both his legs, causing the ground to crack. His steel-like body creaked as it twisted, using the force to launch himself into the air.
The bald Daemon General took another strange posture, with his body bent forward and his bald head directed at Li Qingshan. His tall body contracted significantly, like a spring that had been forced down before being let loose suddenly.
All Li Qingshan saw was a blurry figure charge towards him ten times faster than he had launched into the air.
Thunk!
A large crack appeared on the indestructible Spirit Turtle’s Profound Shell. Li Qingshan was knocked off his trajectory, from flying up vertically to horizontally. Who knows just how many walls he smashed through before becoming deeply embedded in the soil.
He was shocked. He had just achieved the strength of two oxen, so he had absolute confidence in his strength. However, the Daemon General was still much stronger.
The bald Daemon General sprang up from the ground and rubbed his head in a daze. He raised his head and looked at Li Qingshan, as if he had never imagined that he would fail to destroy Li Qingshan’s Spirit Turtle’s Profound Shell.
At this moment, two prayer beads whistled down from above, directly striking the Daemon General’s bald head.
The Daemon General raised his head. A petite figure landed behind him with lightning speed, surging with pale, red flames. She used all of her strength, directly converting a portion of her own flesh and blood into flames to deliver the most powerful thrust she had ever unleashed.
Li Qingshan instead panicked. He called out, “You idiot! Get out of here!” Daemon Generals were not existences who could be defeated with tricks like that. He disregarded the poison and punched out as hard as he could.
The Daemon General did not try to avoid the attack. He said sluggishly, “Are you daemons? Why do you attack me?” His voice was slightly slurred, but Li Qingshan still managed to make out what he was saying.
Everyone present stopped like an invisible hand had interfered with the situation. Li Qingshan’s punch stopped before the Daemon General, while Xiao An’s hidden blade remained three inches away from his bald head. The falling Skull Prayer Beads halted above the Daemon General’s head too.
Li Qingshan slowly pulled back his fist and laughed dryly. “Exactly. Daemons shouldn’t fight among themselves.” He glanced at Xiao An. “Why don’t you get over here!” Xiao An stowed away her hidden blade and prayer beads and returned to Li Qingshan’s side.
Li Qingshan reverted to human form and clasped his hands. “May I learn your name, great Daemon General? I am Black Mountain. I’ve cultivated for five centuries in the mountains, and I’ve barely managed to assume a human form. I had no intentions of offending you. It truly is my fault.”
“I’m Milliped. What does offending mean? And what’s ‘fault’?”
Li Qingshan was slightly relieved, having confirmed that this Milliped was not angry about what had happened earlier. He seemed to be slightly dim, and his reactions were extremely sluggish.
He suddenly thought of something. By Milliped, that’s basically just a millipede. This guy is actually a millipede daemon, so it’s no wonder that he’s so powerful and fast, yet his reaction speed was so slow.
He had once heard Xuanyue mention a lot of common knowledge regarding daemons. Daemons with flesh and blood were primarily divided into four groups, the scaled, the furred, the feathered, and the carapaced.
The scaled referred to animals of the water, the furred referred to terrestrial animals, the feathered referred to animals capable of flight, and the carapaced referred to insects.
Among them, the carapaced possessed the largest variety. There were countless insect daemonic beasts. No one knew just how many insects there were in the world.
Insects were born without much intelligence, completely acting on instincts, so there were many that could become daemonic beasts. However, there were far fewer that could condense daemon cores or reach even higher realms of cultivation compared to the other categories.
However, insect daemons would often be the strongest. Whether it be strength, speed, endurance, or tenacity, they would exceed all other daemons of the same cultivation level.
An ant could carry four hundred times its weight. A flea could jump a hundred times its length, and it could jump once every four seconds for several dozen hours on end. The tenacity of cockroaches was as clear as day. These creatures all resided at the bottom of the food chain, but if they had the opportunity to turn into daemons, they would immediately reach the very top. They would become the most terrifying hunters in the world.
However, insect daemons had one fatal flaw, which was their very low intelligence. Even if they gained self-consciousness after condensing a daemon core, they would not be particularly clever. Intelligence was basically their weakness.
Li Qingshan came up with an idea as a result. He asked, “Milliped, why have you eaten my things?”
Milliped said, “I didn’t know it was yours. No, it’s all mine, everything underground.”
Li Qingshan said, “Do you want more?”
“Yes!” Milliped opened his mouth and saliva flowed out.
Li Qingshan said, “There’s no more food here, but there’s plenty above ground, so why don’t you go there?”
Milliped shook his head like a motor. “Can’t go above ground.”
“Why not?”
Milliped’s dazed expression revealed a sliver of fear. “Orders. I can’t go against them.”
Li Qingshan rejoiced. He had gotten him to speak so easily. He sure was simple. He was much easier to handle than someone clever like Xuanyue. Intelligence would always be the most important standard for comparing creatures. Humans used this only advantage of theirs to suppress all other beings by themselves. If they were dim-witted, it would be useless no matter how powerful they were.
“There’s none left here. I’ll go up and grab some more for you, okay?”
“Okay, okay. Go quick, go quick!” Milliped’s eyes lit up and urged him on.
So simple! Li Qingshan was slightly stunned. It was so simple that he felt rather embarrassed. In order to make it more convincing, he followed up with, “Then what do you like to eat?”
