The expressions of all the Golden Core cultivators changed drastically. One of them grabbed the cultivator by the collar. “What? Tell me clearly. What exactly happened?”
The other cultivators’ gazes towards Li Qingshan and the others became extremely hostile. Originally, they were already anticipating some losses in the competition this time, but they never expected it to almost be complete annihilation.
The Foundation Establishment trembled as he explained everything. The Golden Core cultivators all flew into a rage. Some of these dead disciples were like children to them, and some were actually children or descendants. They were extremely attached to them. These disciples were the foundations of their sect, yet they had all been sacrificed to refine the Asura Field, now all dead. They were overwhelmed with fury and hatred.
“Si Qing, this isn’t over until one of us is dead!”
On the Soaring Clouds terrace, Si Bao placed her hand on the railing and gazed at over a dozen streaks of light flying off into the horizon. She said, “How fast. This Northmoon sure is bold. Though, how is he going to escape from Mo Yu?” She never thought the competition would actually end so quickly.
Gu Yanying waved her folding fan gently and smiled. “It’s just a clone, so even if it’s killed, it doesn’t matter. Though, if he really does end up succeeding, Si Qing and the others are going to cry!”
Si Bao said with admiration, “Big sis, you anticipated this a long time ago, right?”
“How could I? That guy is very unpredictable.”
……
Pitch-black feathers shot through the air as pitch-black streaks.
Northmoon refused to underestimate the abilities of this crown prince of daemons. With only a mirror clone, he was definitely not Mo Yu’s opponent. If Mo Yu caught him, Si Qing and the others would immediately arrive, and it would be even more difficult to escape.
He turned around, and with a flip of his hand, he raised the Asura Field that had shrunken to the size of an alms bowl high into the air. It erupted with a suction force, drawing in the black feathers like rocks sinking into the ocean.
He smiled. Apart from being able to summon asura, it was a great shield this time too. Not a single powerful attack could cause much harm at all if they were drawn into the Asura Field that spanned several hundred kilometers.
There were two daemons high in the air, one pursuing and one fleeing, moving like flashing lightning.
Failing with that attack, Mo Yu extended his ghastly-pale hand that resembled a corpse’s and reached towards Li Qingshan’s throat with a flash.
“Tremor!”
Li Qingshan launched a palm strike backwards, matching Mo Yu’s hand. He wanted to use the force to escape further away, but a powerful suction appeared from Mo Yu’s palm, keeping him firmly stuck. At the same time, the silent, cold power of death ebbed over, constantly eroding away his body. Wherever it reached, his body would immediately stiffen and grow numb.
In a single moment, he lost feeling in his entire arm. Even the colour of his skin had become a deathly grey. The power of this clone alone was nowhere near enough to oppose a Daemon Commander as powerful as Mo Yu. He could not even survive a single strike.
Whoosh!
Mo Yu suddenly unfurled a pair of pitch-black wings that enveloped Li Qingshan completely, forming a black sphere before beginning to twist, collapse, and shrink.
Jia Zhen waved his fan, and a bolt of scorching-white lightning hurtled towards Mo Yu. E Dan threw a punch, and the aura turned into a vicious wolf.
But at that exact moment, the black sphere had already shrunk to the size of a fist, vanishing with Northmoon and the Asura Field. The lightning and the wolf both missed.
“No!” Si Qing roared hysterically.
Five hundred kilometers away, a black speck appeared out of nowhere, turning into a black sphere. A pair of black wings unfurled. Mo Yu gripped Northmoon by the neck as he said sinisterly, “You will die!”
“Everyone will die, but not today!”
Northmoon’s face became a deathly grey, but it exhibited an extremely-resplendent smile.
Mo Yu suddenly noticed that something was amiss. When he checked Northmoon’s hands, they were already empty. The Asura Field had vanished. Afterwards, Northmoon’s figure began to ripple, gradually fading away.
As if someone had kicked up a wave on the mirror-like surface of a lake, the various images reflected in the lake immediately rippled apart. As the ripple settled, Northmoon had already vanished.
Mo Yu was stunned. His face that resembled a dead man’s suddenly began to twitch and twist violently. He had spent several days to invade the Asura Field, even going as far as to fall out with Si Qing, yet in the end, his mortal enemy, Northmoon, had swooped in and taken advantage of him. Repressed anger smouldered inside him. Suddenly, he raised his head and let out a crow’s cry. All of the people and beasts that heard this caw on the ground below passed away immediately.
Having watched the Asura Field he had refined vanish right before his eyes, Si Qing felt like he had been struck over the head. He was so furious that he wanted to cough up blood. Overwhelming killing intent assaulted him from behind. He turned around, only to see over a dozen furious Golden Core cultivators rushing over in pursuit. They used their strongest killing move as soon as they struck, without holding back anymore at all.
“You bastard, die!”
……
Below the Soaring Clouds terrace, Li Qingshan smiled at Han Qiongzhi. “Don’t worry, I’m fine. Tieyi is fine too!” In his right hand hidden within his sleeves, there was a ripple of water, and it turned into a water mirror.
The image in the water mirror twisted, and the palm-sized Asura Field appeared. He immediately used the spirit turtle to suppress its aura.
This was his most flexible innate ability—Watermirror’s Image.
In the very beginning, he could only create a mirror clone, but afterwards, he discovered he could reflect attacks. Even further afterwards, he discovered that no matter how far away, he could use the Watermirror’s Image to directly summon his clone to his side. The items on the clone obviously came too.
In the past, he had never imagined this move could be of any proper use. It only gave him the convenience of being able to summon his clone to his side when needed. It could help out, or he could summon his clone back in time if it were under attack, letting him avoid some losses.
He never imagined it would achieve such wonders this time. Although he could not directly summon his clone to his side, he could secretly pass some “stolen goods” over to his main body through the water mirror. Leaving his clone there was only to lure the enemy away.
Having completely duped Si Qing and Mo Yu and obtained the Asura Field, Li Qingshan was in a great mood. When he gazed into the distance again, he saw Si Qing facing off against the Golden Core cultivators, which made him even more cheerful. Good things came in pairs.
Heh, my good grandsonny A’qing, you’ve gone to such lengths and pains, yet it has still all fallen into the lap of your grandfather Northmoon in the end!
If he thought closely, there were a lot of suspicious points to consider. How did Northmoon grasp the perfect timing to strike? And how was he able to locate the centre of the Asura Field as soon as he struck, stealing the control over the Asura Field? Even Mo Yu had taken several days before he slowly invaded the centre of the Asura Field.
However, no one could have imagined that the real Northmoon had always been trapped in the Asura Field, calculating and analysing the entire Asura Field through the spirit turtle, which was why he managed to succeed in a single stroke.
Suddenly, he felt a sharp gaze. Looking back, he smiled brightly at Gu Yanying on the Soaring Clouds terrace and said to Han Qiongzhi, “I’ll go have a talk with commander Gu.” He called Hua Chengzan along.
Hua Chengzan caught up to him in a hurry, and the two of them arrived on the Soaring Clouds terrace, clasping their hands. “Greetings from your subordinates, commander Gu, commander Si!”
Si Bao said impatiently, “Li Qingshan, tell me everything that happened. What happened inside?”
Li Qingshan told her what happened, without any lies. However, he did skip over the matters connected to his secrets.
When Si Bao heard that Li Qingshan had obtained the Great Banyan Tree King’s Fruit of Wisdom, she had already widened her eyes. When she heard how he took on eighteen people alone and defeated all of Si Qing’s lackeys, she even showed disbelief.
“The Great Banyan Tree King would give the Fruit of Wisdom to a kid like you? You actually defeated so many Foundation Establishment cultivators alone? You better not be boasting, or I’ll beat you up!”
Li Qingshan laughed. “Just by you?”
“What did you say!?” Si Bao questioned her ears. There truly were no bounds to this kid’s arrogance.
“Cough, cough, nothing. Hehe, I’ve overreacted. I’ve been provoked a little too much by people recently.”
Gu Yanying held back Si Bao, who was about to blow up, and smiled. “Alright, settle down. Keep going!”
“Afterwards, I visited each battlefield and stopped all of the battles before killing all of Si Qing’s subordinates. However, the Asura Field descended afterwards, and it still ended up descending into chaos. In the end, only we were left, but we were quite lucky. We finally managed to escape there alive.”
Apart from Li Qingshan, everyone felt like they had just survived a disaster, but probably only he was able to remain in a good mood. Even the Academy of the Hundred Schools from the Clear River prefecture that had the most survivors lost more than half of their disciples. However, Li Qingshan was not acquainted with any of them, so their deaths did not exactly sadden him.
“I can testify that everything commander Li said is true!” Hua Chengzan added.
Hua Chengzan’s gaze drifted past Gu Yanying and Li Qingshan. He could not help but think, Does she know his other identity? Heh, I’m such an idiot. If she didn’t know, why would she give him so much special treatment?
Both of them were people who resided between the Daemon race and the Human race, so they obviously possessed a natural understanding of one another. Both of them only did things that they wanted, and they were both unfathomable. Back then, under the snowy pine outside Qingyang city, it was actually a fateful encounter between them, while he was just an insignificant background character.
He could not help but think of what Li Qingshan had said to him in the past, to either pursue her arduously or to let go of her with ease. Back then, he even said he had absolutely no idea how great of a distance existed between them and Gu Yanying. Before he knew it, many years had passed, and he could already stand on equal footing with her.
When he thought up to there, he suddenly made up his mind. It was about time he made up his mind!
Si Bao clapped her hands and smiled. “Hah, Si Qing is going to be in trouble this time. He probably can’t even maintain his position as the Marquis of Ruyi. I really want to thank that Northmoon!”
If he had just used cultivators as sacrifices to refine the Asura Field, as long as he had a justifiable reason, the imperial court would probably do nothing to him. Perhaps someone might even admire Si Qing’s great efforts. However, if he lost the Asura Field, then the situation would be entirely different.
Dragon Arenas were all items the imperial clan forged using tremendous amounts of resources. They were equivalent to items the emperor bestowed upon them. Once they were lost, it would be a great crime. Now that this had happened, his actions of sacrificing cultivators would come off as atrocious and foolish.
In short, evil could be covered up, but incompetence was unforgivable. The imperial court would definitely punish him.
Si Qing understood this too. He had almost fallen into a rage after going through such sacrifices and pains to end up like this. He turned into a black dragon and roared furiously, spitting out rolling black smoke that formed a black cloud. He moved around inside, catching a Golden Core cultivator in his claws, just about to kill him.
Jia Zhen said in a hurry, “You mustn’t, your highness!”
Si Qing barely managed to keep his fury in check. He asked the Golden Core cultivator, “Do you want me to spare your life?”
The Golden Core cultivator happened to be extremely staunch. He said, “I, Peng Shizong, have cultivated for my entire life. I can only endure insults so many times!” Immediately, he blew up his golden core. With a great boom, the dragon’s claw was forcefully blown apart, and the black dragon suffered a colossal wound from the explosion. Blood and scales scattered into the surroundings like it was raining. Si Qing let out a furious and forlorn dragon’s roar.
