The group of people parted to two sides, and Li Qingshan arrived in the centre. He asked, “What are we competing over?”
“Physical strength. You can’t use any attacks. All you can do is wrestle. The person who leaves the ring loses. Don’t tell me you’re the person competing?” Jin Feipeng extended a finger and drew with it, and a ring the size of a table appeared on the ground. Afterwards, he raised an eyebrow as he looked at Li Qingshan, rather interested.
The sect disciples could all see that Li Qingshan was just at the eighth layer, so they all scorned him. With physical strength, strength was only a part of it. Qi was the critical component. A huge difference existed between every single layer among Qi Practitioners, and it determined the level of body tempering. Without the nourishment of qi, forcefully tempering the body would only be detrimental. This was common knowledge in the world of cultivation.
“And I had thought the Academy of the Hundred Schools was supposed to be rather impressive. Looks like this is all they are. They couldn’t find a proper Body Practitioner, so they sent in this guy instead for the humiliation.”
“Exactly. Let’s just watch the show. After all, we have this senior brother on our side.”
The disciples of the academy had all witnessed Li Qingshan’s strength, so they rebuked loudly. Some of them even chanted, “Senior brother Li will be victorious!”
For a moment, it became extremely rowdy. Suddenly, a huge figure loomed over everyone as he straightened himself out. He was actually a huge man who stood nine feet tall. He had remained seated the entire time, so he seemed no taller than the other people beside him.
The huge man made his way through the crowd, arriving before Li Qingshan and casting a huge shadow over him. His cultivation had reached an impressive tenth layer, making him someone akin to a first senior brother. His eyes were the size of bells, and he had a long, thin nose like a lion’s and a huge gaping mouth like a tiger’s. He was covered in muscle and was absolutely enormous. He gave off a bearing of pure force and weight. In particular, there was a bulge on his forehead, which made him seem even more hideous. As he loomed over Li Qingshan, he smiled condescendingly.
“I heard you’re the one who’s supposed to compete with me in terms of physical strength?”
The ruckus stopped. All the sect disciples erupted with laughter. Li Qingshan was not a small man, but he seemed so thin and frail when standing before him. The disciples of the academy all quietened down. They glanced at one another, no longer possessing the same confidence as before.
Jin Feipeng smiled. He was the one who had proposed this aspect. Victory was basically guaranteed for him. The Horned Rhinoceros mountain’s Horned Rhinoceros’ Arts of Mountain Splitting was said to possess the power to split mountains once it was cultivated to the limit. Although it was rather sluggish in battle, defeat was not a concept he had to consider in a competition like this.
Li Qingshan saw Hua Chengzan in the crowd. He grinned at him. Brother, I’ve learnt quite a lot about you.
Hua Chengzan was completely left in the dark about his smile. All he did was nod to tell him to be careful, but he was clearly distracted. He was thinking about Qiu Haitang.
“I’m speaking to you!” The huge man glared at Li Qingshan with his enormous eyes.
“This one is the primary disciple of the school of Novels, Li Qingshan. Let’s begin!” Li Qingshan looked back and clasped his hands casually. Although he called himself this one, he did not even ask for his opponent’s name or sect. He was even more distracted than Hua Chengzan.
He could not help it. Doing two things at the same time was very difficult. After he said that, he caused another roar of laughter from the opposing side. “What? The school of Novels? What school’s that?” “Is that basically forfeiting?”
Li Qingshan was just about to hit him with a few words even more scalding than what Chu Tian had said when Qiu Haitang’s voice clearly rang out in his ears. As a result, he simply closed his eyes and entered the ring carelessly.
“Come at me!” With that, he closed his eyes. He truly turned a blind eye to everyone, acting as haughty as ever.
The huge man was furious. Originally, he wanted to use this match to improve Horned Rhinoceros mountain’s reputation within the Daemon Suppression alliances and earn even more benefits, but his opponent did not give him this opportunity at all.
His huge hands, the size of fans, grabbed Li Qingshan’s shoulders. He was in no hurry to push Li Qingshan out of the ring. The huge man had already made up his mind as he smiled. He wanted to break a few dozen bones in Li Qingshan’s body first.
“Qingshan!” Han Qiongzhi became alarmed. Although she was completely confident in Li Qingshan, he was completely biting off more than he could chew.
The huge man channeled his strength that was enough to crush steel into Li Qingshan’s body, but his vicious smile gradually vanished. No matter how he tried, it was completely ineffective. “This kid’s body is actually a hundred times tougher than metal. He really does have some skill, seeing how he’s bold enough to face me.”
“Stop wasting time. Just end it!” The master of the Vermillion Clothes sect was rather impatient.
“I’ll throw him out while he’s careless and make him take a massive tumble. That’ll appease my anger a little.” The huge man stopped looking down on Li Qingshan. With a great roar, the ground seemed to shake. The muscles on his arms twisted and coiled as he pushed as hard as he could.
Nothing happened!
Li Qingshan simply smiled with his eyes shut. He was so peaceful that he seemed like he was sleeping.
However, the huge man’s expression changed drastically. He used everything in him to push, pull, and slam Li Qingshan, but it was completely useless. Cold sweat covered his forehead.
Just by standing there, Li Qingshan seemed like he had been nailed into the ground. This was obviously not due to his strength alone. After reaching the third layer of the ox daemon and undergoing the heavenly tribulation, he had developed a profound connection with the earth. In particular, as he stood on the ground, he felt like he had merged with it.
This was where his innate talent, Strength of the Earth, came from. No matter how powerful the man was, how was he supposed to shake up the boundless earth?
As a result, Li Qingshan did not try, nor did he have to try, for this match. His mind had already returned to the Soaring Dragon ship.
“Do you feel love too?” Qiu Haitang’s eyes twinkled like stars.
“What did you say before? We’ve arrived at the Green Vine mountain?” Li Qingshan gazed down, but all he saw was a sea of clouds. The thick clouds had covered everything.
Qiu Haitang raised the ship’s wheel in her hand and beams of light shot out from the centre, constructing a three-dimensional map. There was a speck of light that represented the Soaring Dragon ship, while the mountain below was the Green Vine mountain.
“Descend immediately.” Li Qingshan beamed instead. He leapt to his feet and swung his hand in an exaggerated manner.
However, the Soaring Dragon ship did not descend. He looked back with a frown. “I said descend!”
“I was asking you, do you feel love too?” Qiu Haitang was extremely curious. If she had not witnessed it herself, she struggled to believe an expression like that could appear on a daemon’s face, so she became extremely curious about the details. Compared to it, attacking the Green Vine mountain did not even seem important anymore.
“Of course. Descend now!” Li Qingshan stamped his foot.
“Then tell me, do you love her? Does she love you? Are you together?” Qiu Haitang was relentless.
“Yes, yes, yes. We even plan on spending the rest of our lives together. Have you had enough? You better make this thing descend now!”
“How lucky. You’re luckier than me.” Qiu Haitang let out a gentle sigh. The ship’s wheel spun, and the Soaring Dragon ship descended slowly.
“Hmph, that’s because I’m not all hung up over a single person like you.” Li Qingshan was already prepared to admire the Green Vine Elder’s stunned expression.
“What do you mean? Isn’t she the one you love the most?”
Li Qingshan’s body swayed, and the Soaring Dragon ship came to a halt. Qiu Haitang’s gaze was rather earnest and rather lost at the same time. All she wanted was an answer.
“What are you doing? I want to attack the Green Vine mountain!”
