Wen Zhengming shut his eyes and let out a gradual sigh. His sword returned to its sheath, and he took off, throwing a word of caution behind.
“With how indecisive you are when it comes to choosing a side, you’ll definitely end up suffering one day, fellow Gu. Please take care.”
“Thank you for your reminder, great confucian Wen. However, the matters in the world are never perfect. There has to be sacrifices.” Gu Yanying clasped her hand and took off into the sky, sweeping away the clouds.
In the blink of an eye, the three spectators who could not help but leap on stage returned to the darkness once again. Below Bronze Cauldron mountain that had completely collapsed, Li Qingshan fished out the bronze cauldron. It was slightly damaged, but it was still an arcane artifact after all.
The night roamers who had scattered out of fright gathered together again silently. They were still uneasy. There was not a single organisation that would forgive soldiers deserting their commander when it mattered.
“Sir, where are we going now?” Ye Mingzhu studied Li Qingshan carefully, but she was unable to tell what he was thinking.
“We’re going back!” Li Qingshan ordered. He had already lost the element of surprise if he wanted to continue attacking. The night roamers were not accustomed to moving around under the sun either. With these two disadvantages, it would be a bad idea to keep fighting.
“We’re not going to continue our attack?”
“Liubo’s wounds come first.” Li Qingshan made his way through the crowd and arrived before Ye Liubo. She was still unconscious.
Li Qingshan touched her face and sensed a brutal aura rampaging through her body. It was the reason why she was unconscious. It was Wen Zhengming’s aura of righteousness. Fortunately, Wen Zhengming had been focusing on him the entire time, so she had only been injured on reflex. If Wen Zhengming even paid the slightest attention to her, she would have died already.
Every single heavenly tribulation represented a realm of cultivation, and the gaps between the realms would only grow larger with each tribulation, like a chasm that could not be filled in.
Ye Mingzhu reported with a frown. “The aura’s extremely tenacious, and it seems to suppress the powers of us night roamers. It’s extremely difficult to deal with.”
With a wave of his hand, pieces of the Spirit Turtle’s Profound Shell gathered together, wrapping around her and hoisting her into the air like a crystal coffin.
Li Qingshan let out a sigh. This battle had taken an extremely great toll on him. He had only managed to recover some of his daemon qi and his mental energy just now.
His eyes grew clear, and the daemon core revolved. The Spirit Turtle Suppresses the Seas!
His cultivation was profound, and he was adept with his various innate abilities, but this was still the first time he had used the ability to suppress seas on someone else through the Spirit Turtle’s Profound Shell.
Ye Liubo shuddered and winced in pain. The righteous aura within her seemed to be alive, moving left and right to avoid Li Qingshan’s power. At the same time, it caused Ye Liubo even greater damage.
“Master,” Ye Liusu said in concern.
Above the clouds, Wen Zhengming glanced back. The spider daemon had killed a Foundation Establishment cultivator right in his face, but it was not like he had not achieved the same.
Li Qingshan’s forehead became covered in sweat. It was clearly just a strand of righteous aura, yet he actually felt like he was unable to suppress it even when he used all of his daemon qi. It was like an army thrown together in a hurry being pitted against a few dozen elite soldiers. If this continued, Ye Liubo would lose her life before long.
Li Qingshan made up his mind and bellowed out, “Suppress!” The Spirit Turtle’s Profound Shell pressed in from all directions and into Ye Liubo’s body. It completely cut off the righteous aura’s paths of retreat, and it was depleted in the end.
“Impressive, wretched daemon!” A cold light flashed through Wen Zhengming’s eyes. He wavered slightly, but he still chose to continue on his path in the end, albeit furiously.
A while later, Ye Liubo woke up slowly. She saw Li Qingshan and said feebly, “Master, are you fine?”
“I’m obviously fine.” Li Qingshan’s heart softened, and he withdrew the Spirit Turtle’s Profound Shell with a smile. He placed a healing pill into her mouth and picked her up. “Let’s go!”
Ye Liubo felt rather flattered before becoming filled with delight. She wrapped her arms around Li Qingshan’s neck and pressed her head against his chest. She seemed to be living in happiness.
The group returned to the underground dwelling, and Li Qingshan placed Ye Liubo on the stone bed. “Rest up!”
Afterwards, he took out all the hundred treasures pouches he had obtained through the battles and began to allocate everyone’s rewards.
“Liusu, count through them.”
Ye Liusu stepped up under his orders and opened the hundred treasures pouches one by one, tallying up everything that they contained.
They had killed a total of nine Foundation Establishment cultivators and countless Qi Practitioners. The spoils they had received were extremely abundant. Just the supreme grade spiritual artifacts amounted to seventeen, with over a hundred high grade spiritual artifacts and almost a thousand other spiritual artifacts.
Any single one of them was enough to light up any night roamer’s eyes. The various pills formed a dazzling array as well, almost too many to count. By the time Ye Liusu took out the talismans, formations and various puppets, she had almost filled the entire cave, turning it into a huge treasure trove.
“My share first.”
Li Qingshan picked out the pills that were beneficial to him first. Just the Virtue Accumulation pills amounted to four. Coupled with the other high level pills, they were enough for him to cultivate the ox demon to the fourth layer.
Afterwards, he took the few scarlet talismans. Although all of them were either inferior or low grade, they were still quite powerful. Most importantly, they did not possess any prominent special characteristics. Even if he used them as a human, people would not wonder about their origins.
As for the spiritual artifacts, all he chose was the military tablet for controlling Corpse Soldiers. He was prepared to give it to Xiao An as a gift along with all the other corpses. As for the other spiritual artifacts, he had no use for them, and they were difficult to sell, so he did not take a single one.
But most importantly, the blood-red blade and the bronze cauldron were already in his possession.
The blood-red blade would be for his identity as a daemon. The primary reason why he had crushed Fu Qingjin in battle this time was because Fu Qingjin did not understand what his innate abilities were capable of, so it was no wonder that Fu Qingjin would be reluctant to accept his defeat, issuing a vow like that. If Li Qingshan wanted to defeat him again in the future, these tricks would not work anymore. It would be the real thing. With this blood-red blade in hand, at least he would not suffer too much.
As for the bronze cauldron, he could leave it in his dwelling for forging artifacts. With his cultivation at Foundation Establishment, he should be able to use it. He had not even mastered the basics for artifact forging, but with this powerful artifact in his possession, he would probably be able to create some spiritual artifacts if he spent some time learning, right?
After choosing, Li Qingshan looked back and said, “Liubo, choose three supreme grade spiritual artifacts!”
Ye Liubo stared at Li Qingshan eagerly and bit her lip. “Master, can I have a different reward?”
“Stop messing around. Go.” Li Qingshan’s gaze softened. After all, this was the first time someone had shown him such loyalty in his entire life.
Ye Liubo was rather reluctant to oblige, but under his gaze, she was unable to turn him down. She had not thrown herself into life-threatening danger in vain.
Under everyone’s envious and jealous gazes, Ye Liubo picked and choosed before deciding on three spiritual artifacts, which were a protective shield, a small bow glistening with silver light, and a golden bracelet that she wore on her wrist.
This girl has really earned his favour. I would’ve treated her better if I had known before, Ye Mingzhu thought. Not only had Ye Liubo taken away three supreme grade spiritual artifacts, but she also had the priority in choosing, so she obtained the best supreme grade spiritual artifacts out of all of them.
“Liusu, you take two as well. It’s all thanks to your strategy that we could win the battles so easily.”
“Thank you, master.” Ye Liusu bowed and went up to take two spiritual artifacts. She knew this probably had something to do with the fact that she had not fled when it mattered. However, she wondered inside whether she would be able to be like Ye Liubo if she did not carry the mission of revitalising the night roamers on her shoulders.
Li Qingshan turned around and said with hostility, “Now for you lot.” His hand slid down the shiny supreme grade spiritual artifacts. “There’s twelve remaining. The six clans should have received two each, but those who fled will lose half of their spoils. Do you have any objections?”
Under Li Qingshan’s gaze, the matriarchs all lowered their heads. None of them dared to object. Although it pained them, they instead let out a sigh of relief when they considered how Li Qingshan could have lost his temper instead. They went up to pick one each.
Li Qingshan waved his hand. “Liusu, you can allocate the rest!”
Ye Liusu accepted his orders and split up half of it first. She split it into seven portions, with the additional portion going to the personal guards. That was equivalent to declaring the establishment of a new clan. Only with authority could she implement her beliefs.
The matriarchs looked at one another and exchanged glances. They were filled with doubt. The personal guards were all overjoyed, being able to obtain a share for themselves was obviously good news. Who cared about who was in charge? All that mattered was they would be obtaining benefits.
Li Qingshan nodded. After the allocation of rewards, he stowed the tremendous amount of remaining resources away and began to think over the battle earlier. He left his mirror clone here to deal with any possible issues, while his main body returned to the dwelling in the Chain mountains.
The sky had lit up completely now. In the Chain mountains, the Qing Xiao dwelling.
Xiao An seemed to sense something. She emerged from the dwelling and gazed into the distance. A white cloud shot through the sky with a long tail. She smiled in relief.
“I’m back!” Li Qingshan picked up Xiao An and said in her ear, “The battle was very satisfying. I taught that bastard Fu Qingjin a proper lesson. Here’s a gift.”
As he said that, he shoved a hundred treasures pouch into Xiao An’s hands. Before Li Qingshan had begun fighting, he had told the night roamers to collect the corpses. The hundred treasures pouch contained all the corpses from the battle, including the corpses of the nine Foundation Establishment cultivators.
With that, she would be able to strengthen the Skull Prayer Beads even further. She would be able to begin the next step in the plan.
Suddenly, Li Qingshan raised his head, and his eyes narrowed. He saw Qian Rongzhi flying over.
Qian Rongzhi landed on the flat platform gracefully. She bent over and placed a hundred treasures pouch into Li Qingshan’s hand. She smiled. “This is what you wanted.” She straightened herself out and stuck her hand out. “It’s time for you to settle your debt.”
Li Qingshan accepted the hundred treasures pouch and ran some numbers. He took out two True Spirit pills. “Is this enough?”
Qian Rongzhi’s eyes lit up as she smiled happily. “It’s enough. You’re just as considerate as before.” Suddenly, she grew serious. “Let’s get serious now. The academy has called an emergency meeting. All Foundation Establishment cultivators have to return for discussions.”
Li Qingshan thought inside, Just as expected.
“Are you going to ask what happened?” Qian Rongzhi asked absentmindedly while she thought, Seems like he just returned.
“What happened?” Li Qingshan asked in an unfazed manner.
“Eleven Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Daemon Suppression alliance were slain, with seven sects destroyed. Among them, the rock demon killed two, while the daemon who slew the three elders three years ago and devastated the Green Vine mountain struck again. Leading several dozen Foundation Establishment level night roamers, they killed nine people. He’s now known as the ‘moon demon’. This is the situation right now. What do you think about it?”
In the academy, Liu Zhangqing was stern. He used as few words as possible to tell everyone about what happened last night.
An entire hall was filled with Foundation Establishment cultivators in front of him. There were actually thirty to forty people. Among them, there were many news faces Li Qingshan had not seen before. They were cultivators who reached Foundation Establishment but did not become school leaders, setting up their own dwelling and cultivating as hermits instead. They also belonged to the academy, or more accurately, the faction of the empire. They were unable to distance themselves from war anymore, having all been mobilised.
