The Governing meridian began in the lower abdomen, extending down to the crotch, moving along the spine, and reaching the brain. It governed all the yang meridians in the body, which was why it was called the “sea of yang meridians”. It was the last of the eight extraordinary meridians to be opened.
Li Qingshan sat quietly as a faint, blue haze gradually rose up from him. When he practised qi now, he no longer had to ingest any pills. The endless spiritual qi of the world would gather in his body automatically, far more effective than any regular pill.
If he could withstand it, he would direct it to the sea of qi in his dantian for conversion into true qi. If he could not, the spirit turtle’s daemon core would absorb it, converting it into daemon qi. Nothing went to waste.
Limited by the size of his sea of qi, his cultivation speed was not particularly fast. However, he was able to remain in a state of cultivation for all twenty-four hours of a day, so a single day of cultivation for him could rival ten from regular people.
As he became absorbed in cultivation, his mind rapidly sank, submerging in a boundless, azure ocean. A spirit turtle carried him, allowing him to drift freely through the ocean. He was at great comfort. This was a form of extreme peace and freedom of the mind.
Although cultivation was often described as arduous, true cultivation was never arduous. Regular people just were incapable of understanding this mysterious feeling.
At this moment, Li Qingshan’s mirror clone in his underground dwelling remained in the same posture, seated on the stone bed. He used the spiritual qi within the spiritual stone vein to maintain his mirror clone in case anything unexpected happened.
He had already cast down numerous formations using the formation banners. Even Fu Qingjin would not be able to move around so freely. After who knew how long, Li Qingshan opened his eyes and saw Ye Mingzhu bowing before him. He asked, “Has it been a month yet?”
“Only fourteen days have passed. The matriarchs of the five other clans have come to seek an audience with sir Northmoon. These are their gifts.”
Ye Mingzhu smiled. Everything had gone much more smoothly than she had imagined, obviously due to how she handled it all. More importantly, Li Qingshan’s strength that had led to consecutive victories against Strongboulder and Bloodshadow had crushed the courage of the other clans to confront him directly. In this brutal underground world, only strength could earn respect and leave people convinced.
Li Qingshan opened the boxes. They all contained spiritual herbs over a thousand years old, and he smiled in satisfaction. That’s right. This was the exact outcome he wanted. He did not want to busy himself with collecting spiritual herbs. Instead, he just wanted to move his mouth and have his subordinates handle it.
“How did you do it?” Li Qingshan was rather curious. There were six major night roamer clans, so how had Ye Mingzhu completed this mission in such a short amount of time without destroying a single clan? He was rather surprised by this.
“I just declared an ultimatum three days ago—anyone who doesn’t come today will be hunted down and slain.” Ye Mingzhu giggled.
“That simple? If none of them came, what would you have done?”
“Actually, they all agreed to it soon after I left.”
“And then they all came.” Li QIngshan’s expression was rather strange.
“Yes. They obviously all hoped that some idiot wouldn’t come, which would let them destroy her clan and divide up her territory. It’s exactly because of this reason that they’re afraid of becoming that idiot.” Ye Mingzhu played around with her hair. With her deep understanding of night roamers, she had grasped their weakness with ease.
Li Qingshan shook his head with a sneer. Even at a time like this, they still did not forget about internal conflict? Perhaps this had already become a habit engraved in their very beings.
“You’ve done very well. Send them in!”
“Yes.” Ye Mingzhu turned around and said loudly, “Liubo, Liusu, sir Northmoon wishes to see the matriarchs.”
Under Ye Liubo and Ye Liusu’s lead, the matriarchs of the five night roamer clans entered the cavern and arrived before Li Qingshan. They all stated their names and clans before bowing together. “Greetings to sir Northmoon.”
Apart from an old woman and a young girl, all of them were beautiful madams like Ye Mingzhu. They all raised their heads and studied Li Qingshan. No matter how dissatisfied they felt, they all showed utmost respect. None of them were ignorant enough to openly oppose him. People as stupid as that would have never been able to become matriarchs in the first place.
From a certain perspective, it was also this kind of cleverness that prevented them from uniting and opposing this ruler from a foreign race.
“This should be our first meeting, right? Let me just say a few words before we start—those who obey me will live, and those who defy me will die. Do you understand?” Li Qingshan remained seated there. He did not seem arrogant, nor did he give off any pressure. He just said it very seriously; it was as simple as telling them he liked it when it was sunny and disliked it when it was rainy.
“Understood,” Ye Mingzhu replied first, and the other matriarchs agreed in a hurry. With their current circumstances, they no longer had much interest in resisting anymore. At the end of the day, as long as the Spider Queen wanted to unite the night roamers, she would definitely send over a Daemon General to lead them. They would be ruled over no matter who it was. Even if they put up a desperate struggle, it was pointless, so why not use this opportunity to gain an upper hand over the future?
Li Qingshan smiled in satisfaction. This came before everything else. If any of them dared to say they did not understand, he would not mind making an example out of them. There might not even have been a need for him to do anything, as the other matriarchs might try to do it for him.
“Very good. You’ve already seen the formations when you came here. This is my first order. Send powerful members over to serve me under my direct command. We’re going to be erecting a fortress here in preparation for the attacks from the humans.”
Before the matriarchs could even respond, Li Qingshan continued, “The second order is that all night roamers are forbidden from killing one another as long as they are in my territory, whether secretly or openly. If anyone defies this order, not only will they pay with their lives, but their entire clan will be punished too.”
Ye Liusu’s eyes lit up. Was this not what she had been striving towards the entire time, to stop the night roamers from killing one another and uniting them once more? Perhaps he really might be able to change everything.
“The third order is that from today onwards, all clans will give me offerings of spiritual herbs. All varieties are welcome, and the older, the better. Do you have any objections to these three orders?”
Under the gaze from Li Qingshan’s scarlet eyes, none of the matriarchs had any objections. The three orders seemed restrictive, but they were not completely unacceptable. It was not like he had specified what kind of powerful members he wanted with the first order, so they could deal with it easily. The second order was even simpler. If they could not kill one another, then they would not kill one another.
The last order was a little troublesome, but spiritual herbs never really held much value to night roamers in the first place, as they could not refine pills. Only fruits that could be directly ingested were relatively more valuable. The gifts they had brought forwards were all the former.
Li Qingshan had not placed any specifications on that order either. All of the clans had built up a supply of regular spiritual herbs. As a matter of fact, some spiritual herbs grew throughout their territory and were never picked because they had no idea on how to use it. They were all extremely old, so it would be very easy to fill the quota with them.
“You’ve all been very cooperative, which delights me. It would be impolite of me to not reciprocate. Here are a thousand Qi Gathering pills. Human cultivators normally use them to cultivate. You can split them evenly between the five matriarchs!”
As the most common pill, Qi Gathering pills held very little value. He could obtain a lot of them with just a single spiritual stone. However, they were crucial to all sects and Qi Practitioners.
Li Qingshan had found several tens of thousands of them in the Green Vine Elder’s hundred treasures pouch. For a sect that cultivated spiritual herbs and refined pills, it was very normal for them to have built up such a large supply.
Li Qingshan basically no longer required them anymore. Sitting down and taking in a breath of spiritual qi would be equivalent to several hundreds or even thousands of Qi Gathering pills. However, they were perfect for him to reward others with. He was basically salvaging them.
The matriarchs’ expressions all varied. They had obviously heard about the renowned Qi Gathering pill, and they were capable of refining them too. However, many of the herbs that went into the pills could only be found above ground, which inhibited them from refining them. Even when they managed to get their hands on some, the pills seemed extremely precious. They would only use them to nurture their most talented clansmen.
Two hundred Qi Gathering pills was already a very great sum to them, enough to support a year’s cultivation of ten night roamers. They would be able to nurture another group of elite warriors. Although it was nowhere close to the value of their gifts, they were still rather surprised and overjoyed, as they had never thought they would receive a gift like that in return. They all found this sir Northmoon to be so reasonable that he no longer seemed like a daemon.
“Ye Mingzhu.”
“Yes, sir.” Ye Mingzhu just happened to be tempted by all that. Hearing her name being mentioned, she stepped forward in a hurry. Her eyes were filled with eagerness.
“You’ve done this well, gathering the matriarchs. Here’s a True Spirit pill as your reward. If you have someone suitable ingest it, they should break through very soon and face the heavenly tribulation.”
There was no need for Li Qingshan to explain what the pill did. The various clans were extremely well-informed. Ever since Ye Liubo returned to show off, the matriarchs immediately learnt about the existence of such a wondrous pill. Now, all of their eyes widened, staring straight at the True Spirit pill in Li Qingshan’s hand. They were tempted to snatch it over right now. Powerful members who had undergone the heavenly tribulation were the most precious, central force in all clans.
“Thank you for the reward, sir Northmoon.” Ye Mingzhu smiled widely and bowed gracefully, accepting the True Spirit pill.
“Then I’ll leave the ship’s wheel that controls the puppets and cannons in your possession for now. I hope you can maintain the order underground.”
Li Qingshan’s words made Ye Mingzhu elated. She said in a hurry, “I definitely won’t disappoint you, sir.” As long as she possessed this power, she would be able to consolidate her position as the greatest matriarch. She looked at Li Qingshan with so much charm that she seemed like she was infatuated with him.
The faces of the other matriarchs became extremely warped. Ye Mingzhu had once shown off the power of the puppets to them. If they faced them in direct confrontation, it would come at an extremely heavy price even if they managed to destroy this puppet army. As for the cannons, their power was even more terrifying. Even those who had undergone the heavenly tribulation would be injured if they took on a blast.
The tiny ship’s wheel was like a staff of power, giving Ye Mingzhu the power to destroy any clan. They now understood that he had bestowed her with it.
No, we can’t let this continue. The matriarchs exchanged glances, and all of them thought of the same thing.
“Sir Northmoon, I have objections to that! “I have objections too!” “Me too!”
The matriarchs who had always been so tolerant, agreeing with whatever Li Qingshan said, all objected together. They were indignant. They could accept the rule of a daemon, but they could not accept Ye Mingzhu walking over them.
PS: Hmph, hmph, hmph, it’s time for Dream Teller’s orders—Young masters! Take pity on me! Give me monthly votes!
