The resplendent sunlight poured into the hall through the window, illuminating the dust particles that drifted through the air. The singing of the birds entered through the windows as well while the Lake of Dragons and Snakes shimmered in the sun. This was originally an extremely peaceful and tranquil morning, yet the atmosphere in the hall was extremely tense.
If any regular people were present, they would definitely reevaluate their composed and aloof impression of cultivators. Expressions of shock and thought filled everyone’s faces.
They were independent from the Daemon Suppression alliance, even with many conflicts and disputes existing between them, but so many cultivators who were almost no different from them had died all of a sudden. What they felt was no longer just sympathy over the deaths of fellow humans. Instead, they felt truly threatened or even fearful.
Li Qingshan furrowed his brows in thought, as if he was lamenting over the horrors of the war.
Ru Xin stared at him, as if he was extremely fascinating.
However, ever since Qian Rongzhi warned him, Li Qingshan had decided to strengthen his abilities as an actor. In particular, he could not afford to show even the slightest opening before these observative people.
As a result, no matter how Ru Xin stared at him, he remained like the sculpture, “The Thinker”. Ru Xin lost interest very soon. She let out a sigh lazily and leaned against her hand, gazing at the shimmering Lake of Dragons and Snakes outside the window. Memories flooded back to her like the tide.
The shimmering light turned into balls of fire, turning the sky red. Fire-red figures soared through the flames like spraying sparks. Their fire hair scorched; they roared furiously like erupting volcanoes and flames surged out of their mouths, filling the skies like a meteor shower.
The sea water overflowed the dams, destroying the forests and drowning out the landscape. Thousands of fish-tailed merfolk swam within the water, chanting and singing together. No one would have imagined the gentle, tactful merfolk could actually produce such a startling war song unless they had heard it in person.
The singing rose into the sky like invisible rope, pulling the sparks into the sea water, drowning and extinguishing them. However, they too were charred to ashes under the attacks of the meteors. Every now and then, the song of the merfolk around her would become elated and sorrowful. Crystalline tears would even flow from their eyes, turning into translucent pearls that sank into the bottomless ocean.
After their shock, the cultivators present engaged in an intense discussion. “Is the moon demon really that powerful? Just what kind of daemon is he?” “I don’t think it’s actually him who’s powerful. Instead, the Night Roaming folk are just despicable. So much for calling them folk or people, they’re actually assisting the wicked against us. We should’ve driven the otherfolk to extinction a long time ago. That way, they wouldn’t have been able to cause us any more trouble.”
“You don’t think he’s powerful? I’ve heard that even Fu Qingjin of the Sword Collection palace interfered in person, but he ended up being injured, retreating in defeat.” “He just had an advantage in numbers, that all.” “An advantage in numbers? I think you’ve been in secluded cultivation for far too long. You’ve basically been living under a rock. Three years ago, he faced the elders of the three mountains together and killed two of them. He also frightened the Green Vine Elder to the point where he was too afraid to leave the mountain. He only worked up the courage to move around a little after obtaining a Duality Formation of Disintegration, but he still ended up dying.”
Li Qingshan took some secret pleasure in all of that when he heard it. He even closed his eyes in the end, just in case a smile oozed out through his eyes. However, he grew bored of it before long, so he opened his eyes, emerging from his state of “The Thinker”. Looking around, his gaze landed on Ru Xin’s face, and he noticed something.
Ru Xin’s eyes were shrouded in haze, as if her mind was in an extremely distant place. As sunlight fell on her bright and delicate face, all of her emotions vanished before he knew it. She was like a beauty sculpted from white jade, so beautiful that she no longer seemed alive.
For some reason, Li Qingshan’s heart sank. He asked her secretly, “Ru Xin, are you thinking about a man?”
Ru Xin returned to her senses and answered, “I may be, but it’s definitely not you.”
“What’s wrong with me that you can’t think about me?”
“I’d rather think about the moon demon instead of you. I heard he’s a handsome man!” The mocking expression that Li Qingshan found great familiarity in returned to Ru Xin’s face. She shot a glance at Li Qingshan, like he was welcomed to check himself in the mirror.
Li Qingshan smiled. “Then you better keep thinking!” It left Ru Xin slightly surprised.
Han Tieyi noticed all the “flirtatious glances” going on between them and raised an eyebrow. Hua Chengzan said to him secretly with a smile, “The two of them sure are relaxed. We should learn from them.”
Liu Zhangqing raised his hand to give a sign, and the hall fell quiet. “Fellows, many of you have been in secluded cultivation the entire time, so you might not be familiar with this daemon. Commander Wang, please give an introduction to him!”
Wang Pushi’s stern face was so cold that it seemed like steel. He stood up and arrived at the front, hanging up the painting Chu Danqing had created in the past.
“This is the moon demon. His actual name is Northmoon. Regarding his strength, I’ve received news that he’s defeated the stone demon and the blood demon in the past and was nominated as the commander of the night roamers by the Spider Queen. He’s spent the past three years in secluded cultivation. Through the battle last night, he’s demonstrated extremely great influence and leadership. The Daemon Suppression alliance or even us pale in comparison in this aspect.”
The two major human organisations impeded one another, such that both of them were afraid of unleashing their full strength in a battle against the daemons, just in case they were weakened and allowed the other organisation to take advantage of them.
Wang Pushi continued, “If you still don’t have a clear understanding of his strength, then hear me out. Earlier this morning, fellow Fu of the Sword Collection palace ventured to Bronze Cauldron mountain to provide reinforcement, though he did fall for an ambush, which cost him a lot of spiritual energy. Afterwards, fellow Fu managed to trap the moon demon in the Green Ruins Illusion. In order to wait for reinforcements, the moon demon did not attack him immediately. By the time fellow Fu had recovered most of his spiritual energy, their battle unfolded and ended with fellow Fu’s defeat.”
The hall immediately fell quiet. Over the past three years, they had gained a deep impression of the stone demon and blood demon’s strength and terrifying deeds. Among the humans, Fu Qingjin’s reputation soared the most, even surpassing some of the veteran late Foundation Establishment cultivators. Yet, the “moon demon” had actually defeated all three of them.
However, Li Qingshan managed to notice a few other things from that. Old Wang had originally been extremely displeased with Fu Qingjin, yet he constantly referred to him as “fellow Fu” now.
Wang Pushi let out a heavy sigh. “From today onwards, we’ve gained a terrifying opponent. The circumstances have become extremely dire. Yesterday, fellow Fu brought the murderer of the Hawkwolf guards from the Vermillion Clothes sect to Clear River prefecture. He seems to be intending on proposing an alliance. I was thinking we could respond to this proposition either way, so I don’t want to say anything more. I have no choice but to invite you all to discuss this now.”
Li Qingshan had never expected Fu Qingjin to have already begun taking actions behind the scenes. If he had not struck first, Fu Qingjin would probably be leading many cultivators in a large-scale attack. However, speaking of which, he was also the major impetus behind the alliance between these two factions. External pressure would always result in internal peace.
The hall fell silent before becoming noisy again. However, they primarily discussed how they would form the alliance. There were very few objections.
Obviously, Li Qingshan would not try to stick out like a sore thumb. Wang Pushi saw how he remained silent and called on him, “Kid, tell me, what do you think we should do?”
Li Qingshan stood up. “Old Wang, I think we should form an alliance. As the old saying goes, we’re all in the same boat. If the Daemon Suppression alliance is destroyed, the pressure we face will definitely increase drastically. However, the Daemon Suppression alliance were the ones who started this war, and now that they’ve been weakened, I think we should use this opportunity to claim more authority such that we’re the ones in charge of the alliance. We shouldn’t be ordered around by outsiders.”
