The other thing that lit up with it was the flash of a blade, shaped like a crescent moon, which swept towards Li Qingshan’s throat.
Xiao An guarded the entrance to the cavern. She saw Li Qingshan enter the drapes, but there was neither sounds nor fighting. She had no idea what had happened, and she happened to be bored.
Suddenly, there was a screech. A gust of wind swept up the drapes in the surroundings, and the sharp sound reverberated through the cavern, becoming even resonant.
Ye Liusu now knelt on one knee, leaning forward and placing all her strength into the curved dagger in her hand. The edge was less than an inch away from Li Qingshan’s throat, but it was unable to advance any further. It had been blocked by a slender, ice blade.
Li Qingshan remained in the same posture, leaning on his side. He wielded the ice blade in a reverse grip with his left hand, easily receiving all her strength with a single hand. He studied her up and down, appreciating her delicate face now with a pair of star-like eyes. They seemed to complete her, allowing her to spring alive. He smiled. You might have overcome the first heavenly tribulation too, but it’s impossible for you to win against me in terms of strength.
Xiao An sat down. They had finally begun fighting, but then she heard movements from deep within the caves.
“What are you doing?” Ye Liusu said coldly. Her voice was as clear as the flash of her dagger. The appearance of the intruder left her slightly amazed. What a handsome man, no, daemon!
Although the Night Roaming folk were known for their beauty, such that both men and women were extremely pretty, there was probably no one who surpassed the person right before her in terms of appearance.
The smile made him seem even more enchanting, but it was not gentle at all. Instead, it seemed more like a reckless provocation. Combined with what his right hand did, it made her killing intent become even colder.
“I wanted to take a look at your dagger,” Li Qingshan said. Only then did he discover that her dagger was already in her hands, while his hand was on her buttock. This isn’t my fault. Who told you to move around? He pulled his hand back like he had done nothing wrong at all.
“Did you see it?” Ye Liusu said coldly.
“I saw it.” Li Qingshan glanced down. The curved dagger shone with the brightest white light, like a crescent moon. He suddenly understood why. Just like how human assassins would paint their weapons black, only light could blind the opponent in this underground world.
Afterwards, his gaze shifted over to the gully on her chest uncontrollably. In this world, there really were far too few women who dressed so boldly.
“Then die!” Ye Liusu called out. With a twist of her dagger, it brushed past the ice blade and swung down. The dagger cut through the darkness, moving even faster and more viciously than the stroke from earlier.
She thought, As a strength type Daemon General, his reaction and speed must be a little slower. Getting so close to me is your greatest miscalculation today! Though, I don’t think I’ve heard of a Daemon General like him under the Spider Queen’s command. Don’t tell me another Daemon Commander sent him over? If I kill him and get caught, it’ll be troublesome. He doesn’t seem to have any killing intent either, so I’d better hold back instead!
But very soon, Ye Liusu discovered that her worries were unnecessary. Li Qingshan flew up without even changing his posture, like he was still lying on the stone platform. He rotated and brushed past the blade. He was surprisingly nimble.
Ye Liusu’s eyes twinkled. The dagger was like a swooping sparrow, going from a downwards slash to an upwards stroke in an unbelievably beautiful manner. In the narrow space above, it turned into a series of blurs, enveloping every vital point on Li Qingshan’s body.
Li Qingshan extended his hand with a smile, grabbing her dagger-wielding right hand with great precision among the flashes and blurs.
Ye Liusu immediately let go of her weapon, turning her hand around and grabbing his arm too, pulling him down. At the same time, she caught the curved dagger with her left hand and went for the throat. It left behind absolutely no trace, a completely unfathomable attack. The killing intent was concealed, dense but hidden.
Even Li Qingshan felt a hint of danger. He tilted his head slightly, and a cold sensation swept past his throat, leaving behind a thin cut. A smile remained on his face. Taking advantage of the overextended attack, he grabbed her left hand too and pushed her down heavily onto the stone platform.
Ye Liusu tried to put up a struggle, but under Li Qingshan’s strength, it was obviously useless. She lifted a long leg of hers that wore black shoes and kicked the back of his head.
Li Qingshan lowered himself conveniently, dodging the kick. “Before you attack someone, it’s best if you hear why they’ve come in the first place.”
Two pairs of eyes met, and the tips of their noses were almost touching. They could clearly feel each other’s breathing, which was rather intimate contact.
Ye Liusu stared into Li Qingshan’s eyes without backing down. Her eyes had dimmed slightly, making her dark blue eyes seem like ice in the night.
“Who are you?”
Li Qingshan was taken aback. He was actually unable to come up with an answer immediately. He raised an eyebrow. “Good question!”
He did not have a proper name right now. Xuanyue had once called him Big Blacko, but it was clearly a very horrible name. He had once called himself the Old Daemon of Black Mountain too, but that was even less appropriate, just in case someone connected it with Li Qingshan.
Li Qingshan immediately sank into a dilemma. He had never been good at coming up with names. He had almost forgotten he was lying on top of an absolute beauty.
Ye Liusu took advantage of this opportunity to take note of everything about the enemy. Suddenly, she noticed that something seemed to be carved on the two sharp, protruding horns on his head. She muttered, “North moon.”
Li Qingshan’s eyes immediately lit up. “Yes, that!”
His memories returned to a few years ago. In the depths of the Boundless mountain, that cute, mischievous cat daemon had forcefully carved this promise into his horns, depositing it deep within his memories. Even the heavenly tribulation was unable to erase it.
On the Ice Sword cliff, he had used his loudest voice to bellow at the heavens, swearing he would obtain the power to send her to the Dragon province. He wondered how she was doing right now.
Ye Liusu squinted slightly and suddenly raised her head, slamming it against his. She sneered inside. Hasn’t anyone told you to not become distracted in battle?
With a thunk, Ye Liusu fell back onto the stone bed. It hurt so much that she gasped. So hard!
Li Qingshan returned to his senses. He smiled. “Just call me Northmoon! Hmm? What’s wrong with your head?” A lump had appeared on Ye Liusu’s smooth forehead.
Xiao An crouched at the entrance as her teeth chattered about. She let out a clattering laughter.
“I’m going to kill you!” Ye Liusu squeezed out a threat from between her teeth.
Li Qingshan said, “You’ll have that opportunity later, but let me finish speaking first. Where do I start? Oh right. You know the previous Daemon General in charge of this territory, right?”
“He was a fool called Milliped I think. He was lured away by the humans to be slaughtered. Don’t tell me that’s you!” Ye Liusu mocked.
“Of course not. He might be a little foolish, but you’re not allowed to talk about my friend like that. Anyway, this territory used to belong to him, as well as me. In other words, you’re currently living in my home, lying on my bed. I want you to… piss off.”
Li Qingshan found this way of wording it to be extremely interesting. He felt like he was talking to his ex-wife after a divorce. He tilted his head slightly. “Are you going to agree or disagree?”
“So what if I agree? And so what if I disagree?” Only now did Ye Liusu understand. As it turned out, this guy was a daemon soldier under Milliped’s command. He wanted to take back the territory after going through the heavenly tribulation. However, it led her to an even greater question. How could a daemon that had just emerged from a heavenly tribulation be so powerful? He had completely surpassed her physically!
“It’ll be for the best if you agree. If you don’t agree, I’ll beat you until you agree.” Li Qingshan smiled very sincerely. Giving a beauty like her a thorough beating should be quite the sensation!
“Then try it!” Ye Liusu said frostily. The curved dagger began to spin, turning into a round disc that shot towards Li Qingshan.
Li Qingshan raised his body to avoid it and secretly muttered, “Oh no.” He felt a gust of wind from behind his head. He reached back and grabbed her round, powerful leg, and Ye Liusu pushed herself up, gripping the hilt of the dagger and stabbing viciously into Li Qingshan’s right eye.
Li Qingshan wanted to repeat the same trick and grab her hand, but he grabbed nothing. It was a feint.
On the narrow stone platform, Ye Liusu turned into a shadow, circling around Li Qingshan rapidly. Li Qingshan remained exactly where he was, only swinging his ice blade around, parrying every one of her assassination attempts. Just inches apart, flashes of the weapons filled every gap between the two of them, but there were no sounds of collisions.
Ye Liusu pushed her nimble, mysterious dagger style to the limit, targeting Li Qingshan’s vital points with every attack.
Suddenly, the curved dagger spat out a crescent light. It looped around the ice blade along a strange trajectory, arriving behind him and swinging towards his back like a hook.
“Soul Stealer!” Just as the name suggested, who knew how many lives she had stolen with this battle skill. Even those almost as strong as her would die to this attack.
With an elongated clang, the ice blade slanted behind Li Qingshan’s back, blocking the tip of the curved dagger; this demonstrated that their strength was not even close.
Ye Liusu slid to the edge of the bed like a ghost, heaving slightly as she stared at Li Qingshan. He was just too powerful. Not only was his strength completely one-sided, but his reactions actually surpassed her too. Was he really a Daemon General who had just undergone a heavenly tribulation?
“So close!” Li Qingshan checked the ice blade and found a tiny nick. He stroked it with his hand, and the blade recovered.
This battle was not for slaughter or for revenge, so there was no reason for him to kill with a single stroke. Ye Liusu’s abilities were extraordinary. She could assist him in breaking through to the third layer of the tiger demon through battle.
The curved dagger in Ye Liusu’s hand suddenly lit up, and she swung it violently. “Moon Breaker!”
Li Qingshan suddenly looked back. A cold half-moon brushed past his face just a hair’s breadth away, but he spotted a Blue Butterfly flower fluttering around in the trajectory of the half-moon. It was just about to be cut apart.
He immediately leapt up, catching up to the half-moon he had just dodged and destroying it with a swing of his blade.
“That’s my flower. You’d best be careful.”
Li Qingshan stood within the sea of flowers. The Blue Butterfly flower had no idea about the danger it was just in, fluttering over his head.
It was a flower, yet not a flower, a butterfly, yet not a butterfly. It was a flying True Spirit pill.
“That’s mine! Moon Breaker!” Ye Liusu produced an even larger half-moon, which Li Qingshan dodged by moving to the side.
With a boom, the half-moon landed on the rock face behind him, leaving a huge mark on the delicate sculptings.
Li Qingshan glanced backwards and said relaxedly, “Fortunately, the sculptings aren’t mine.”
Ye Liusu was furious, but she became afraid of just swinging her dagger carelessly again. Every single sculpting there had taken her painstaking effort. They would be extremely difficult to repair. Moreover, this guy clearly could not be dealt with using a move like that.
At this moment, daemon qi and the special, gloomy aura of night roamers surged over from everywhere.
PS: Thank you for your encouragement. Never have the monthly votes been so great, actually reaching twelfth place. Of course, I know this is all because the god-level authors haven’t done anything yet, waiting for the double monthly votes, but I still feel very happy. Momentary happiness is still happiness. I don’t have an impressive rate of pumping out words, and to be honest, that’s not what I’m going after either. Coming up with novel, interesting content and then carving it out bit by bit is where my interests of writing novels lie.
How do I say this? Although there’s just me at home right now, I was in the gloomy underground, watching the battle between Li Qingshan and Ye Liusu with interest just earlier. Chasing after constant joy is just a little too greedy. If reading this part made your loneliness a little easier to bear with, making you anticipate tomorrow just a little more, then it would be my greatest honour.
Oh right. It snowed today. It was very beautiful.
