“S- spare me!”
Yang Pinghu knew he was done for. His eyes were wide open and filled with deep regret, refusing to accept this.
“You cannot be spared!”
Li Qingshan gripped the Dragon Seizing bident firmly and plunged it into Yang Pinghu’s chest. When it emerged from his back, the tip had already been dyed red.
Yang Pinghu widened his eyes in resentment, immediately dying on the spot.
The past sect masters of the Clear Court sect had used this Dragon Seizing bident to seize and kill countless daemons in this Clear Court lake. Yet in the end, the sect master himself died to his own heirloom arcane artifact. It sure befitted the principle of karma.
“How uptight!”
Li Qingshan shook his head, casually tossing Yang Pinghu’s corpse into his hundred treasures pouch.
Actually, Yang Pinghu had many different techniques at his disposal, but faced with such speed and an attack like that, he actually could not even use a single technique at all apart from wielding the Dragon Seizing bident and tossing out a few life-saving talismans.
The difference of an entire realm was a difference among worlds.
With the fourth layer of the ox demon, Li Qingshan already rivalled the Spider Queen in terms of strength, raw power, and life force. He had also almost been captured alive countless times. After breaking through to the fourth layer of the tiger demon, his other aspects were basically equivalent to a Daemon Commander apart from insufficient daemon qi.
In a direct confrontation with a Daemon Commander out to kill, Yang Pinghu might have been able to last a moment if he had practised the cultivation methods of Body Practitioners before, but he did not. As a result, he did not even last for a moment.
Li Qingshan opened Yang Pinghu’s hundred treasures pouch and checked through it. Everything that a millennium-old sect had built up was quite impressive, but regular talisman and pills obviously no longer interested him.
“Hmm? This is an Origin Spirit pill!” Li Qingshan took out a dark-golden pill. Its spiritual qi was completely withdrawn. It did not even give off any fragrance. It was rather hefty in his hand, making it seem more like a metal ball.
Origin Spirit pills had a similar function to True Spirit pills. They were pills for breaking through to the Golden Core realm, but the difference in their value was something else. And, they truly never appeared on the market.
So far, Li Qingshan had only obtained one from the Green Vine Elder’s hundred treasures pouch. He had gained another now, which gave him some extra guarantee when he tried to condense a Golden Core in the future.
He picked up the Dragon Seizing bident again. The bident split into two, shining with light. Profound glyphs vaguely appeared as the bident turned into a two-headed snake.
Ever since the blood-red blade shattered, he had been lacking a suitable weapon. Although he had never used a bident before, it was still an arcane artifact after all, and it was of the water element. As such, it was perfect for now.
Li Qingshan filled in the small region that Yang Pinghu had destroyed—Yang Pinghu had sacrificed his life for it, the life of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, yet he only managed to waste fifteen minutes of Li Qingshan’s time. He even geared him up with equipment instead. Afterwards, Li Qingshan casually refined the Dragon Seizing bident.
The shape of the bident changed slightly. The two prongs curved slightly like the horns of an ox. From a certain perspective, it suited him better.
So that’s how you use this thing. Li Qingshan casually placed the Dragon Seizing bident on his shoulder and returned to the waters that belonged to the Clear Court sect, continuing with his job.
Suddenly, he sensed daemon qi in the distance. It was the one that had slipped by in the river. For some reason, he found the daemon qi rather familiar.
“Get over here!”
Li Qingshan pointed the Dragon Seizing bident in the direction of the daemon qi, and the prongs that resembled snake heads suddenly parted, shooting over as two streaks of light. They turned into ropes of water that dove into the depths of the lake.
Before long, there was a splash, and a great, red carp burst out from the water, having been tied up. As the ropes wrapped around it, it rapidly shrank too.
“So it’s you!”
Li Qingshan gazed at the floundering carp between his prongs and recognised it with a single glance. It was the carp he had fed with pills back then in Ancient Wind city before being released into the lotus pool of the Qian estate.
Afterwards, the Black Lotus Altar Lord slaughtered the city. The carp gave him the lotus pod the Altar Lord had left behind. In turn, he fed it a few more pills before releasing it into the waters of the Clear river.
He had never expected to see it here, and it had become so large after a few years, even having condensed a daemon core. Clearly, it had benefited quite a lot from the effects of a lotus seed from the Altar Lord.
The carp suddenly stopped struggling, staring straight at Li Qingshan as if it also managed to recognise Li Qinghan. Afterwards, it opened its huge mouth as if it was asking for pills.
“You actually managed to recognise me!” Li Qingshan was rather surprised. Had he accidentally leaked his daemon qi while cultivating in Ancient Wind city, which it memorised? That would not be too strange. Back then, it was only a regular carp, so there was nothing he thought too much about.
He casually fished out a pill and fed it to it.
“Alright, now you’re one of my underlings. You can say it’s fate. The only way you can repay me is by turning into a beauty and paying with your body. Speaking of which, are you male or female?”
The carp swallowed the pill and floundered around happily. Who knew whether it had understood what he was saying.
Li Qingshan shook his head and tossed it back into the water. It swam around before returning to its original size.
The Dragon Seizing bident sure had some usages!
Sensing a few more clusters of daemon qi surging in the lake, Li Qingshan smiled and dove into the water, continuing with his refinement of the lake.
The huge, red carp swam beside him. He had basically enlisted his first daemon soldier for this water dwelling.
As Li Qingshan refined Clear Court lake, he managed to shock the cultivation world of the Clear River prefecture yet again.
The school leaders held a meeting in the academy.
“Where’s Li Qingshan?” Liu Zhangqing frowned. Li Qingshan was now the Scarlet Hawk commander. His identity and status varied drastically compared to the past. Technically speaking, it was mandatory for him to attend a meeting like this.
“I’ve contacted him, but he wants to cultivate in seclusion, so he’s left it up to me!” Hua Chengzhan said helplessly.
“He sure is clever. Who doesn’t want to cultivate?” Liu Zhangqing said in displeasure, but he did not think too much about it.
However, Hua Chengzan did find it rather strange.
When Superman appeared, the male protagonist was never present. Only an idiot would find nothing wrong with that.
Technically speaking, there had only been two times when the moon demon was present and Li Qingshan was not, but this was already enough to form a clue to clever people. And, when Li Qingshan appeared, the moon demon never seemed to appear, or he only sent his clone.
This did not necessarily mean Hua Chengzan had begun to suspect Li Qingshan of anything because of this. No one could connect a Scarlet Hawk commander with a daemon so easily. At most, Hua Chengzan guessed that this was his tactic to avoid direct confrontation with the moon demon.
However, as the clues appeared one by one, there would be a day when he would discover something before anyone had realised anything was wrong. So-called clever people were just people who took note of every single detail.
“That guy, he had clearly come to my dwelling yesterday to linger around, disturbing my alchemy, yet he has entered seclusion today.” Ru Xin seemed to confirm Li Qingshan was avoiding conflict, but she unintentionally pulled Li Qingshan away from his connection with the moon demon.
“But even I wouldn’t be willing to make trouble with the moon demon right now. The late Foundation Establishment sect master of the Clear Court sect could not even withstand a single attack from him before losing his life. People like us value our lives even more than gold.” Hua Chengzan instead defended Li Qingshan.
His saying at the end, “value their lives even more than gold”, received the recognition of all the cultivators present. The descendants of the wealthy dared not take a single risk that could endanger their lives. All of them pursued longevity, so none of them were willing to risk their lives with someone else.
Speaking of which, Li Qingshan had spent three years in secluded cultivation, avoiding the most dangerous part of the war before rendering a fantastic service very quickly after establishing a foundation. He had even been promoted to Scarlet Hawk commander. And last time, during the decisive battle between the moon demon and Fu Qingjin, everyone had taken on huge amounts of risks, where even Zhou Tong almost died, but he had been missing yet again.
Liu Zhangqing could not help but sigh inside, This kid knows when to advance and retreat just too well! Perhaps only like that can you be counted as a legitimate cultivator. Nothing, no matter how major, is more important than your own life and cultivation.
Zhou Tong said, “If it weren’t for the fact that Yang Pinghu, that bastard, was afraid of trouble and had been tricked into leaving by the moon demon, how would he have died so easily?”
Hua Chengzan said, “If the moon demon wanted to trick them, he would have turned against him the moment he left. Why would he have waited to strike after Yang Pinghu had made it to the shore? I think Yang Pinghu was afraid of trouble, yet also reluctant to simply accept this, so he got in the way of the moon demon refining the lake from the shore. He probably thought the moon demon would not be able to do anything to him as long as he kept his distance, which was why he ended up killed.”
“Then are we only supposed to watch as he becomes a water god!?”
Hua Chengzan said, “We can constantly send people in from all directions to disturb the process and prevent him from refining the lake. However, according to the speed that the moon demon displayed when he rushed to the shore, we’ll probably have to pay with a life each time.”
“And, according to my analysis, his current strength has probably become extremely close to Daemon Commander already. A difference in strength as large as that can no longer be made up with using strategy. Honestly, there’s no longer anyone who can stop him in the entire Clear River prefecture.”
The two words, “Daemon Commander”, made everyone fall silent.
Liu Zhangqing let out a long sigh. “So it’s true. I’ve already reported this to the Marquis of Ruyi. Great general Han and commander Gu already knew about it too! If we can end this game of chess, then smaller figures like us don’t have to worry anymore.”
The feeling of being used as chess pieces was not fantastic, especially when they were used in a hopeless game of chess that already neared checkmate.
However, everyone present had thought it through. The Clear River prefecture had basically passed the news onto the Ruyi commandery the moment they received it. If there really were any countermeasures they could take, they should have received a reply immediately.
No, these observers had probably noticed something unusual long before them, as they still had not ended it. Whether the game of chess could end was probably beyond the control of even those three now.
Those who had undergone the first heavenly tribulation had already become ants in the eyes of those who had undergone the second heavenly tribulation. And yet, what were they in the eyes of the “kings” who had undergone the third heavenly tribulation and reigned over the Green province?
Liu Zhangqing said, “Ru Xin, Fu Qingjin is still on Benevolence island, right?”
“Yeah. He’s in complete dejection, walking around randomly with his broken sword everyday. When you run into him at night, you’ll even think he’s a wandering ghost.” Ru Xin smiled. She was probably the most composed out of everyone present.
Who would have thought that she was single-handedly responsible for the major incident of the moon demon becoming a god this time?
Liu Zhangqing said, “Check with him again and see if the Sword Collection palace has given any form of response!”
“Alright.” Ru Xin agreed happily.
Afterwards, Liu Zhangqing laid out his hands. “You can all go back and cultivate. I’ll let you know if we reach a conclusion. If you have nothing to do, please avoid Clear Court lake.”
“I think we should just spare the communication! We’ll leave it up to fate!” Zhou Tong left in annoyance before suddenly stopping and saying to Hua Chengzan, “Kiddo Hua, you still owe me a sword.”
