When the Demon Suppression Tower missed, Li Qingshan said, “Oh no!”
If the Gentleman of Heavenly Blubber really rolled back to the depths of the valley, then he would be in trouble. He knew from the appearance alone that the power behind these formations could not be compared with the messy formations in the city.
Things like formations had always been about quality instead of quantity. He managed to destroy hundreds or even thousands of formations in the city with a single stomp not because of how powerful he was, but because the formations interfered with one another. They were already in a precarious situation, and they still operated at full strength without the slightest regard, so simply attacking one of them could set off a chain reaction.
However, who knew how many times more ingenious the arrangement of the formations on the central peak were, as the cave masters were bound by the blood oath. They did not have to worry about being attacked by one another, so the formations were purely arranged to fend off invading outsiders.
The formations were linked together and assisted one another, forming a perfect unity. They also had the blessed land of extremely dense spiritual qi as a foundation. Once they truly began operating, even third heavenly tribulation cultivators would struggle to breach them.
The purpose of formations had always been about using the geographic advantage to fend off the powerful after all.
At this moment, Xiao An descended from above and blocked the Gentleman of Heavenly Blubber’s path. Only then did Li Qingshan stop worrying, diverting all of his attention to dealing with this Mountain Insect.
Rumble!
The Gentleman of Heavenly Blubber whirled away like a meat tank. The storm he kicked up left behind a deep trail in the ground. He possessed so much vigour that even if a mountain blocked his way, he could smash through it forcefully!
He was also filled with confidence about this move. There were not a lot of people in the world that could take on a head-on collision from him, much less stop him from entering the formation, and this overconfident woman definitely was not one of them.
Xiao An’s seaweed like hair drifted freely with the wind. Her eyes remained as placid as water the entire time. She pulled out a tiny, blood-red banner from her sleeve and waved it gently at the Gentleman of Heavenly Blubber.
The surging sea of blood seemed to be hiding an extremely vast world. That was exactly the Blood Sea Banner that had white bone as its handle and blood as its seas!
The Gentleman of Heavenly Blubber rolled right into it and vanished.
Li Qingshan threw a punch, but before his punch had even landed, Mountain Insect’s body dispersed. He actually survived, turning into countless black insects and scattering.
At this moment, a streak of red light rushed into the air!
From the ruined city and the dwellings on the cliff sides, streaks of light flew out one after another, fleeing in all directions.
They were the remaining demonic cultivators of the Lair of Demons. Originally, they still held onto their hopes that the cave masters could take down Li Qingshan, but never did they think that in the blink of an eye, three of the five cave masters would be dead. Even the strongest among the five, the Gentleman of Heavenly Blubber, had fled, and it seemed like he had failed to escape.
Only now did they suddenly realise that the Hawkwolf Guard was their great enemy. The newly-appointed White Hawk commander was not trying to join the Lair of Demons at all. He had clearly come to eradicate the Lair of Demons. His various actions earlier were clearly just to lure the cave masters off the mountain so that he could kill them.
They did not blame the cave masters for being careless. Despite being in Savage mountain, they actually could not even flee back to the central peak.
Now that the tree had fallen, the monkeys were scattering. All they could do was take flight in the face of disaster. Fortunately, not a lot of people remained. All of the people who possessed dwellings on the mountain or managed to survive Li Qingshan’s stomp were masters that had undergone the first heavenly tribulation. They turned into over a hundred streaks of lights and took off. No matter how powerful Li Qingshan was, his arms would be too full to take care of all of them. He would be doing well if he managed to kill twenty or thirty of them.
The streak of scarlet light that rose up first moved extremely quickly. It was like a meteor, reaching the top of the mountain in the blink of an eye. Clearly, he was very confident in his escape technique, which was why he took the first move!
Right when he was about to escape from Savage mountain, a huge claw of bone suddenly extended out from the top of the mountain, grabbing the scarlet streak of light and revealing a demonic cultivator. Before he could even plead or put his life on the line, the claw closed together like it was crushing a firefly. The light vanished, and the mangled corpse was thrown into a toothy mouth, reduced to roaring flames.
A prayer bead vanished from Xiao An’s hand—the Skull Prayer Beads!
A huge, ferocious Skeleton Demon emerged from the mountain peak, its jaw clacking about as it let out a strange cackle.
The laughter rose up from everywhere at the same time, echoing through the entire valley. It was a song of death that filled all the demonic cultivators with fear.
Skeleton Demons climbed out from the top of the mountain. There was even one that guarded the entrance of the valley, completely surrounding Savage mountain.
Li Qingshan could vaguely recall they each possessed the strength to rival a Corpse Commander. After Xiao An underwent the second heavenly tribulation, they seemed to grow as well, becoming even larger and more powerful.
Under Xiao An’s command, they were like a troop of super soldiers, cooperating perfectly and maneuvering about freely. They sealed off all paths of escape, smacking and crushing the streaks of light like they were catching flies. Not a single streak of light managed to escape.
“Fighting alongside you still brings me the most peace of mind!”
The phoenix cried!
Li Qingshan pulled his gaze away. The phoenix wings blazed with fire and extended to several dozen meters wide.
With a flap of his wings, the flames of the phoenix incinerated the cloud of insects.
Only one black insect remained, turning into a black blur, flying away without any regard. Three hundred meters, thirty meters, fifty meters… It only needed another moment, and it would be able to escape.
But it came to a halt!
Li Qingshan caught the black insect between his right thumb and index. With a gentle squeeze, the black insect exploded.
The fifth cave master of the Lair of Demons, Mountain Insect, was dead!
Right now, Li Qingshan was wrapped in flames. Even his head full of scarlet hair had risen up like a burning ball of flames.
He completely turned into a glorious phoenix that burned majestically, possessing an unparalleled aura of nobility. He also incinerated away the residual poison in his body.
Originally, while his body was tough, he was not immune to poison. He only had a slightly stronger resistance at most. In the past, Spider Queen Lolth’s venom had made him suffer quite a bit. Even the spirit turtle could only purify it after quite some effort. The spirit turtle was extremely effective at suppressing auras and his sea of consciousness, but it was much worse at suppressing poison.
However, after reaching the first layer of the Phoenix’s Scripture of Nirvā?a and undergoing nirvā?a rebirth once, he made up for this shortcoming. Not only could the endless flames heal his wounds, but it could also avert disasters and eliminate the factors that tried to kill him.
The death represented by poison still could not contend against the life represented by the phoenix!
Although he could not claim he was invulnerable to poison, some poison from a measly Wei of the Poison could not harm him. Otherwise, with his courage and caution, he would never take that risk.
Although he was still a very long distance away from beyond the Nine Heavens, although he had yet to complete any one of the transformations of the Nine Transformations of the Demonic and Divine, he could be described as accomplishing something with his divine arts in this World of the Nine Provinces!
The battle and slaughter of the ox demon and tiger demon made his body tougher and tougher and his will firmer and firmer. The suppression and recovery of the spirit turtle and the phoenix made his aura more and more pure and his mind clearer and clearer. They supplemented each other, forming a perfect union, which was the current Li Qingshan.
“Qingshan, there’s one more!”
Xiao An shook the Blood Sea Banner, and the Gentleman of Heavenly Blubber flew out, smashing towards Li Qingshan as a mountain of flesh.
After undergoing the second heavenly tribulation and condensing a White Bone ?arīra, her arcane treasures had grown stronger and become even more flexible, but she had yet to further refine them, so it was very difficult for her to trap a cultivator like the Gentleman of Heavenly Blubber for long periods of time.
Of course, once she drew the Budda Slaying sword, killing him was nothing difficult, but she naturally had to leave something like that for Li Qingshan to enjoy.
The Gentleman of Heavenly Blubber smashed around blindly in the sea of blood. He never expected her to actually possess an arcane treasure with its own independent space. Right as he deliberated over how to get out, the surroundings suddenly lit up again. Suddenly, he saw a flawlessly handsome man with scarlet hair and eyes smiling at him.
“Alright!”
Li Qingshan smiled. By now, “Li Qingshan” had been completely hidden away already. His curved horns were carved with the name of Northmoon. That was the declaration he had intentionally left behind.
He threw his fist once again!
This was his strongest weapon. With a fist thrown, he swept away all obstacles!
“Li Qingshan!? Alright, alright, alright! If you want to kill me, then I’ll throw my life at you! I refuse to believe you also have a spatial arcane treasure!”
The Gentleman of Heavenly Blubber was surprised at first, but he made up his mind soon afterwards and went from being a mountain of flesh to a ball of flesh. He spun away at high speeds, kicking up a tornado and smashing towards Li Qingshan.
Boom!
The ball of flesh collided with Li Qingshan. All of the rock and soil within five kilometers of them immediately left the ground, flying into the air. Even Savage mountain shook!
The Gentleman of Heavenly Blubber’s attack was truly fierce. It did not rely on arcane artifacts or treasures, nor did it involve any profound movements. He only relied on his fat and the extraordinary spiritual qi and strength within his fat to crush opponents head-on. It possessed the imposing bearing of crushing all that lay in his path!
But unfortunately, this was the exact path Li Qingshan had taken too. No matter when, the ox demon would always be his very foundation. It contained the strength and belief left behind by brother ox.
He can actually stop me head-on! He’s actually this powerful! This is impossible! Even the strength of Daemon Kings aren’t that great! Hmph, it must be a momentary eruption of strength. I’d like to see just how long you can last!
The Gentleman of Heavenly Blubber felt disbelief before immediately making up his mind! This move of his had always been about pressing forward with indomitable will, with no way out again.
Li Qingshan’s iron fist sank deeply into the Gentleman of Heavenly Blubber’s fat. The Gentleman of Heavenly Blubber pushed his cultivation method madly while his fat shook like waves, absorbing Li Qingshan’s terrifying strength like a sponge.
I have to overwhelm him and crush him!
The Gentleman of Heavenly Blubber roared inside, but Li Qingshan’s strength was endless.
The thick earth was like a kind mother, spoiling him with strength. No one could surpass her favourite son through strength.
“Die!”
Li Qingshan bellowed. At that moment, it was not only the ox demon. The powers of the tiger demon, spirit turtle, and the phoenix merged with the punch too, sending the Gentleman of Heavenly Blubber flying and smashing heavily into the cliff face.
However, he looked at his fist and frowned, as the Gentleman of Heavenly Blubber had actually managed to survive!
His strength still had not completely recovered at the end of the day. After undergoing the phoenix’s nirvā?a, his required period of growth still had not finished. If he had not achieved the second layer of the Phoenix Transformation, then his appearance still should have resembled around fourteen or fifteen years of age. However, the feeling of merging the four powers into one was very nice. He already began to anticipate the strength he possessed after he fully recovered.
As for the Gentleman of Heavenly Blubber, he could simply finish him off with another punch!
“Don’t kill me! I’m willing to serve you as my master!”
The Gentleman of Heavenly Blubber called out. He who was as fat as a mountain of flesh had clearly become thinner. His stature now approached severe obesity, and he no longer seemed so deformed anymore. If it were not for his special cultivation method that could block damage with his fat, he would have followed Wei of the Poison’s footsteps already, directly reduced to a bloody mist.
Even though he had managed to hold on, he was heavily injured and could not fight back anymore.
