Li Qingshan smiled helplessly and hugged her in a doting fashion. Then he flew to the top of the mountain, arriving right beside Yin Qing. He saw her gazing at the cloudy skies in a daze.
The lead clouds weighed heavily, sprinkling down with rain. She spread her arms and allowed the rain to fall on her face, as happy as a child.
“It’s a pity that it’s overcast, and you can’t see the sun. If it were sunny, the scenery would be even better!”
“The sun!” Yin Qing’s eyes lit up as if she had just been reminded of something. She leapt up and tread through the air, bursting through the cloud layer.
The dazzling sun shone brightly, and the sea of clouds surged. Her mind suddenly brightened up too, sweeping away several centuries of gloom.
Only after wandering about to her heart’s content did she return to Li Qingshan’s side. “I’ll be serving you in the future. I still don’t know your name.”
“Li Qingshan. Because the mountain below is called Savage mountain, people call me the King of Savages.”
“Alright. Then what would you like me to do for you, sir King of Savages?” Yin Qing clasped her hands and bowed, naturally giving off the feeling of a soldier, which made her seem valiant in bearing.
“I want you to cook for me.” Li Qingshan raised an eyebrow.
“Huh?”
Yin Qing was surprised. Let alone the years she spent in the Asura realm, she had never done a job like this even further back before she had become an asura. The food from the Asura realm was also infamous for how disgusting it was. There were even legends that dictated the Asura realm waged war against the Heaven realm because they were jealous of their delicious food.
She said in a rather troubled fashion, “That… I can try it…”
“Do you know anything else apart from assassination?” Li Qingshan shook his head helplessly. She really had no sense of humour at all. However, he was very satisfied with her respectful attitude.
“Heh, fair enough.” Only then did Yin Qing realise he was joking.
“I’ll probably have missions for you soon, but this isn’t the Asura realm, so battle isn’t as common. I can deal with most of the battles myself, so you’re welcome to treat this as a vacation and rest up in a different environment,” Li Qingshan said gently.
Out of his many subordinates so far, Yin Qing could be described as the strongest. With her techniques to move through space, she basically had no opponents. Even Yu Wufeng, who neared the third heavenly tribulation, could be assassinated by her if he was careless.
She was a warrior who had no concern over her life too. Although he had defeated her, she did not yield to him because of the threat of death. To Li Qingshan, she was more worthy of respect than the ten bound to the Blood Oath Scroll.
“If that’s the case, you defeating me seems to be a good thing instead.” Yin Qing smiled.
“It’s good and bad. You’ll understand slowly. Anyway, tell me about the Asura realm first!”
The two of them just sat down above the sea of clouds and began talking. The sun shifted bit by bit until stars adorned the sky, and the full moon rose up.
“That’s basically all that I know. After all, my cultivation is limited. I only heard most of this from others. As for whether they’re actually true, I can’t guarantee anything.” Yin Qing glanced at the brilliant moon in the sky, reluctant to see it go. “I need to return to the Asura Field.”
Li Qingshan nodded and opened the Asura Field, letting Yin Qing inside. He continued to sit above the sea of clouds alone, furrowing his brows and mumbling to himself, “The trichiliocosm… the six realms of sa?sāra… the four dhyānas and Nine Heavens…”
The words of others could be of help and inspiration! That really was true!
The things Yin Qing mentioned that even she herself could not verify had a drastic effect on Li Qingshan. Some questions had been answered, which led to ten times more questions.
This was the appearance of the world she had seen and heard in the Asura realm.
This feeling was like when humans first realised they were drifting through the endless cosmos. They could not help but sigh over their insignificance. An overly-narrow space could make people feel restrictive, but an extremely vast space could also throw their minds into disarray.
“I see… I see…”
Li Qingshan sighed. His lips gradually curled into a smile, and he spread out his arms, lying down above the sea of clouds and laughing at the top of his lungs.
“Xiao An, the world is so large, and the Nine Heavens are so distant- No, they’re not that distant. Don’t you think so?”
Before he knew it, Xiao An was crouched right beside him, holding him by his cheeks and staring at him. She nodded with a smile.
Li Qingshan stared at the round moon that resembled a silver dish. He had already established his foundations, and he had dealt with the King of Southern Yue. It was about time for him to take his next step!
But before this, he needed to go to the Great Marsh of Cloud Dream and check on Ru Xin.
……
The vast Cloud Dream marsh was wrapped in mist all year long. The white water birds flew from one lush island to another verdant island in flocks.
In the depths of the marsh, the Jade Melting cauldron was buried in the mud, shuddering from time to time and flickering with red and blue light. Ru Xin sat in there quietly, her beautiful blue fishtail coiled around her as she practised the Heavenly Tome of Cloud Furnace. These were the three most peaceful years of her life.
In order to refine the marsh, Li Qingshan had defeated and killed the Daemon Commanders there. He had actually raised a bit of attention a long time ago, but it never culminated into an actual threat, which was obviously thanks to the Great Banyan Tree King’s efforts.
Otherwise, if some person of unknown origins had just come along and refined such a large marsh, it would without a doubt break the original order of the Mist province daemons. Such a large Water God Seal would definitely tempt even Daemon Kings too.
Of course, when the Great Banyan Tree King helped Li Qingshan, he was clearly protecting the daemons of the Mist province too. Otherwise, if a reckless one ran over there to make trouble, it was as clear as day what would happen. Even if it were his “small friends”, they might not necessarily get anything out of him. They might possess the upper hand right now, allowing them to take the Water God Seal, but even they would not know how they would die in the future.
Li Qingshan was a person who took the Dragon King of Ink Sea as his target, a person who seriously wanted to go dragon-slaying in the Ink sea.
As a result, there was peace for all.
The King of Southern Yue would not care too much about this situation either. Refining the waters and mountains occurred very frequently in the Mist province. It did not attract as much attention as in the Green province. Moreover, this was the territory of daemons in the first place. Since the Great Banyan Tree King had not done anything, he only brushed it off as internal strife among the daemons, followed by a certain powerful daemon who had managed to collect enough Water God Seals to build a water dwelling here.
This happened very frequently too. Peace had never been a thing in the Mist province. Even cultivators battled each other constantly despite all being humans, so let alone daemons of completely different species who purely focused on strength. There was absolutely no iron rule that forbade daemons from killing one another like in the Green province. Sometimes, conflicts would even rise up to the level of the third heavenly tribulation, which would even require two kings to step in to mediate the situation many of the times.
Chaos possesses its own order.
This was Li Qingshan’s greatest realisation ever since he came to the Mist province. It seemed like a lawless land of chaos, paying no consideration to both the laws of Great Xia or the morals of humanity, but it had its own set of invisible principles at work.
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!
Ru Xin suddenly opened her eyes. Someone was knocking the cauldron. A familiar voice rang out.
“Is anyone home?”
