Yu Zijiang looked at the sobbing Ma Chaoqun and the weeping Yu Shukuang who reminisced about the kind-hearted woman who had passed away long ago.
Yu Zijian seemed to be able to feel their pain. She was filled with sadness, but she had no idea what to say.
They clearly were not bad people, so why did they have to end up like this? Were the heavens really messing with people?
Suddenly, she heard Niu Juxia’s voice ring out, “Benevolence is not a bad thing, but you cannot ask for perfection with every single thing in this world. Otherwise, you will harm others and yourself. Your soft-heartedness almost killed your father and had made you suffer. If my cultivation was slightly weaker, I would have been dragged in as well. I hope you can take this as a lesson and avoid following the footsteps of your mother!”
Yu Zijian looked at everyone’s faces in the surroundings. Clearly, they had not heard that. She looked at the sky in confusion. “Then what am I supposed to do?”
“Zijian, oh Zijian. Zi, or violet, is a colour of great respect, while jian, or sword, is the lord of all weapons. With the propitious omen of violet qi from the east, a wise monarch sweeps through the world, kills millions, and unites the entire world under them, leading to eternal peace and becoming a figure of great virtue and benevolence.” Towards the end, Li Qingshan’s voice gradually drifted off. Clearly, he had already travelled away.
Yu Shukuang had originally given her the name of ‘Zijian’ to remember her mother. The jian, or sword, obviously represented the Proud Sword manor. Yu Zijian understood this as well, but she never thought her name actually possessed a meaning like that. As if she had been granted a new name, she felt like she had suddenly been enlightened. She subconsciously touched her sword. This was the first time she had felt this vague connection with this cold weapon.
Her pretty face gradually changed. It lost most of its delicateness, now replaced with determination.
Sometimes, a person’s growth and change only required a moment of inspiration, to let the seed sprout, to let the divine sword out of its sheath.
Right now, Li Qingshan would have never imagined just what seed of fate, what seed of change, some random life philosophy he had cooked up would plant.
If what he said became true, if she wielded a sword and killed millions, only in search of great virtue and benevolence, would he regret it? Would he rather she return to this moment and place in time, return to the same kind-hearted, naive girl?
Or would he laugh aloud and praise, Nicely done!
Li Qingshan returned to his manor. For the next few days, he ate pills and cultivated without skipping a beat. The days suddenly mellowed out, but with Xiao An’s company, he did not find them boring. However, he would always feel like he was missing a drinking buddy whenever he drank. He felt rather lonely.
The next day, Yu Shukuang brought Yu Zijian to thank him. He told him that Ma Chaoqun had already returned to Pheasant’s Grace mountain, and he had said that he would not be returning.
Li Qingshan did not open the door for them. He only said a single word from inside, “Go!” He managed to put on the act of a great hermit master perfectly. The reason why he did this was because there was nothing he could talk about if he did see them. Was he supposed to say, “Betrowth your daughter to me!” instead?
Ever since that day, the meals each day became even more lavish. However, Li Qingshan would always end up picking up the cup of alcohol before placing it back down. After having drunk with someone else so happily in the past, he suddenly found drinking alone to be difficult.
Suddenly, his face lit up. He arrived in the hole and saw a figure slowly walk out within the darkness. He had a long body and a bald head. If he was not Milliped, who was he supposed to be?
Li Qingshan laughed. “You’re finally back.”
Milliped looked at Li Qingshan and grinned foolishly.
After seeing him properly, Li Qingshan instead became surprised. “What’s wrong with you?” Many parts of Milliped’s cloak was damaged, and he had many wounds on him as well.
Milliped sat down before the round table assembled from alcohol jars loudly before fishing out a beautiful, red tuber and shoving it into Li Qingshan’s hand.
The tuber was elongated and round as well. It seemed extremely plump and gave off an exotic fragrance that made the entire hole smell nice.
Li Qingshan took out a random assortment of recovery pills from his hundred treasures pouch in a hurry.
Milliped ate them before closing his eyes and directly collapsing on the ground. His snores were thunderous. He actually fell asleep.
During this process, his wounds rapidly closed up. Even his pink cloak slowly repaired itself. He was going through a process of self-repair.
Li Qingshan looked at the tuber in his hand and suddenly smiled helplessly. “Isn’t this a sweet potato?” Also known as batata, yam or, for more sophistication, Ipomoea batatas. In short, it was a sweet potato.
However, the spiritual qi it possessed was dozens of times denser than the spiritual ginseng Li Qingshan had obtained in the past. He could tell with a single glance that it was a rare treasure of nature.
For a moment, Xiao An and he just stared at each other.
Li Qingshan was filled with questions. Where on earth did this sweet potato come from? Who had harmed him? However, these questions could only wait until he was awake.
Fortunately, Milliped slept very deeply and woke up very soon. He opened his eyes in under two hours. Looking at his fresh, pink garb, he smiled at Li Qingshan. “It’s useful.”
Li Qingshan raised the sweet potato in his hand. “Just what is going on?”
“Eat it. It’s on me!”
Li Qingshan said, “Why don’t you tell me what happened first. I can always eat it later.”
Milliped explained by waving his hands; although he spoke without clarity, going all over the place.
However, Li Qingshan still managed to roughly understand what had happened. As it turned out, the sweet potato originated from underground, from Milliped’s territory, so it should have been his.
However, in recent years, another Daemon General had been constantly encroaching on and claiming his territory, finally obtaining the plant that this sweet potato grew from. As a result, whenever the sweet potatoes ripened, the two Daemon Generals would always fight.
Milliped was originally stronger, but he was alone. The other Daemon General had many subordinates, so he would be outnumbered every time. Milliped suffered defeat most of the time, but this time, he finally managed to escape with a sweet potato after much difficulty.
Originally, Milliped had been grinning foolishly, celebrating this matter. However, the further he went on, the sadder he became, before suddenly bursting into tears.
Only now did Li Qingshan learn that the underground was not peaceful either. Daemon Generals had their troubles too. He raised his hand and slapped Milliped’s forehead. He barked, “Stop crying, you good-for-nothing!”
“You’re hitting me too!” Milliped sobbed and cried even harder.
Li Qingshan bellowed, “He has subordinates, but don’t you have any?”
Milliped shook his head and sniffled, looking over with his misty eyes.
Li Qingshan grabbed Xiao An by the shoulder. “We’ll be your subordinates!” Although he hated troubling his friends, he definitely would not just turn a blind eye to his friend’s troubles.
“You…”
Xiao An pointed at the sweet potato in Li Qingshan’s hand and smiled. “That looks like you more!”
Li Qingshan stood up. “Let’s go and check out what the underground is like!”
Taking all of their grain, food, and alcohol with them, the three of them made their way towards the dark underground. Li Qingshan finally began his path as a daemon, entering a world dominated by daemons.
……
Under Milliped’s lead, they advanced through the twisting and turning caves, constantly venturing deeper. One hundred feet, one thousand feet, until he no longer had an estimate anymore.
Li Qingshan had never been so deep underground before, but the scenery underground was somewhat different from what he had imagined. It was not desolate and barren. Instead, it was hiding secrets everywhere, hiding treasures that Li Qingshan had never seen before.
