With a gentle wave of her right hand, she ripped open a chasm in the boundless moonlight, resembling a gaping, tooth-ridden mouth. Thousands of shadow crows flapped their wings and flooded into the surroundings, swallowing up Li Qingshan and Xiao An like the tide.
“Master!”
Ye Liubo noticed the disturbance and emerged from her dwelling. She cried out when she saw this sight.
Ye Weiyang glanced at her and felt displeased. With her strength, she actually recognises this person as her master? She’s a disgrace to the night roamers. Once I kill them, I’ll bring you back to the Shadow palace for some proper guidance! Hmm? That’s…
The flock of crows flew past, revealing an azure sphere in the air that currently enveloped Li Qingshan and Xiao An. It was covered in cracks, but it managed to block the entire attack.
Ye Weiyang was mildly surprised. He actually managed to block it. What a powerful defence, but it did not seem like a technique. It seemed more like a daemon’s innate ability. As it seemed, he possessed a daemon bloodline, which also gave her some closure on why the Great Banyan Tree King wanted to protect him.
“Shadow Queen, show me everything you’re capable of!” Li Qingshan said.
The heavy demon qi turned into a set of vicious-looking armour, and the Demon Dragon sword spiraled out, producing dragon cries as it pointed right at the Shadow Queen.
When the flock of crows passed by earlier, the Great Banyan Tree King’s voice rang out in his head. “I want to defuse the situation between the two of you and achieve peace, but she’ll only accept it after she’s witnessed your strength, so give it your all!”
Li Qingshan thanked the Great Banyan Tree King for his kindness. It was all thanks to his meticulous efforts that his time in the Mist province had been so successful. However, dealing with the current problem still required his own strength.
Before Li Qingshan had even finished speaking, there was a loud response. “Alright!”
The moonlight stretched into long shadows beneath Li Qingshan’s feet, suddenly springing alive and turning into a blurry figure. It wrapped its arm around Li Qingshan with one hand as the other turned into a blade and plunged directly into his back.
Blood spurted out, turning into flames. Neither his demonic armour or the Spirit Turtle’s Profound Shell were of any use!
Li Qingshan’s eyes narrowed, and he reached backwards.
The Demon Suppression Tower appeared and loomed over his head, casting a huge shadow. It was on the brink of falling over them. As long as he pulled her into close combat, then no matter how powerful of an assassin she was, she would have to suffer.
Xiao An struck out at the same time. The Buddha Slaying sword pierced the shadow silently. Meanwhile, Li Qingshan failed to catch anything.
The shadow twisted and retreated before returning to Li Qingshan’s feet. It turned into a regular shadow.
As it turned out, that was not Ye Weiyang in the flesh. Instead, it was merely a technique she had cast, yet it was actually so brutal that it completely caught them off-guard.
Everything happened in a split second. By now, the flames from the blood had only just bloomed into a flower before returning to Li Qingshan’s body. The wound immediately closed up.
Before Li Qingshan could even catch his breath, another attack arrived before the previous one had even subsided. Thousands of shadow plants grew out from empty space, extending and coiling around the Spirit Turtle’s Profound Shell firmly. The Spirit Turtle’s Profound Shell creaked, and the cracks grew denser; the shell was already on the brink of shattering.
The heart isn’t a weak point? Then let’s try here!
Ye Weiyang suddenly appeared. She held a tiny bow curved like the crescent moon, pinching a grain of sand that shone with silver light in her right hand.
The bow was known as the Crescent Moon bow. It was a supreme treasure passed down from the ancient Night God kingdom, wielded by the Shadow Queen of each generation. The sand was known as “Stellar sand”, which had been refined from meteorite.
She drew the bowstring that resembled a silver thread, and the sand twinkled like a star as she directed the bow straight at Li Qingshan’s forehead. She let go gently. This was known as the Crescent Moon Shooting the Star form.
A streak shot across the sky. The Spirit Turtle’s Profound Shell shattered loudly. Fragments scattered in the air, glimmering with light.
Li Qingshan swung the Demon Dragon sword, and the tip of the sword trembled, pushing against the Stellar sand, but he did not feel any resistance. Oh no!
The grain of Stellar sand suddenly dispersed, turning into thousands of silver threads that landed on Li Qingshan. He only felt a gentle, piercing pain as if insects were biting at him.
But at that moment, thousands of stars lit up in Li Qingshan’s soul, twinkling away as if they were trying to tear apart his soul. Even his will shook. As it turned out, this move did not target the body, but the soul.
Sigh, I’ve wasted another grain of Stellar sand! Since his body’s tough, then I’ll attack his soul and sea of consciousness. This is the way of assassination. Li Qingshan, oh Li Qingshan, you’ve received three killing blows from me, so even if you die, it’s not in vain!
Ye Weiyang stowed the Crescent Moon bow away and looked at Li Qingshan, but she was disappointed yet again.
The Spirit Turtle Suppresses the Seas!
Li Qingshan bellowed out inside, and the figure of the spirit turtle appeared, glowing brilliantly and suppressing the stars. The phoenix soared through his sea of consciousness, repairing his injured soul. Before long, his mind cleared up once again, and he said proudly, “Is that all?”
Ye Weiyang was surprised. No one understood the power of the Crescent Moon bow better than her. Originally, she thought that even if Li Qingshan survived, he would have fainted, as those with tough bodies often possessed unrefined souls. Little did she know that Li Qingshan practised the ox, tiger, turtle, and phoenix transformations from the Nine Transformations of the Demonic and Divine. His soul was so tough that it even surpassed his body.
Her heart abruptly skipped a beat, and the Buddha Slaying sword slashed over from behind. As it turned out, when Ye Weiyang had all her attention on Li Qingshan, Xiao An had made her way behind her silently. Against an opponent like her, neither the Skull Prayer Beads nor the Blood Sea Banner were particularly effective. Only the Buddha Slaying sword was capable of something. If she were bold enough to receive a stroke from the sword, it definitely would have been as difficult to shrug off as a punch from Li Qingshan.
This damn girl, how is she absolutely silent! If I get injured, I’ll be utterly embarrassed. I’ll have you taste my power this time!
With a flash, Ye Weiyang dodged the sword, but she was a little irritated. Her deep-blue eyes gazed at Xiao An’s beautiful face that was as placid as water. Ye Weiyang swung the Crescent Moon bow in her hand. The straight bowstring suddenly unstrung itself from the bow, slicing towards Xiao An’s neck like a blade.
Xiao An completely ignored it, continuing towards the Shadow Queen with her sword stroke. It was a simple stroke just like before, without any flashy lights or sharp sword qi.
Alright! Li Qingshan praised inside. He never thought that not only had her cultivation progressed rapidly during the few years she spent in the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga, but even her swordsmanship had improved too. She had imbued the buddhist truths into her path of the sword, breaking away from the sword intent of the Three Absolutes Calligraphy and forming her own style.
Ye Weiyang brushed past Li Qingshan, dodging Li Qingshan’s blow at the same time. A bloody mark appeared on her face. She managed to dodge the Buddha Slaying sword’s edge, but the invisible sword qi still harmed her, which left her even more irritated. However, compared to the damage she had caused, this was a negligible sacrifice.
She was actually so unconcerned for her own life!?
A thin, red mark appeared on Xiao An’s pale neck, circling all the way around. The bowstring had already severed it, but she was completely unfazed. She brought her sword together with Li Qingshan’s before going after the Shadow Queen again!
Ye Weiyang appeared and wandered between the swords. Her heart was filled with disbelief. She’s been beheaded, yet she’s completely brushing it off. Is she still human?
Unless it were ghosts, the body was extremely important to everything in the world. No matter how high their cultivation was, they would not want it harmed without good reason, but Xiao An and Li Qingshan both broke this common principle.
From their very essence, neither of them were humans. Xiao An practised the Path of White Bone and Great Beauty, so her body was simply meaningless. When the bowstring swept through her neck, she only parted her vertebrae slightly. Li Qingshan went even more without saying. He could only be killed if crushing strength overwhelmed him, like when he faced the Dragon King of Ink Sea.
The two of them worked together against a powerful foe, their teamwork as tacit as it could be. Sword qi criss-crossed and cascaded.
However, Ye Weiyang moved through the flickers of light like a fish swimming through the turbulent waves. She was completely unscathed. At the end, she leapt backwards and melded into the night again.
She’ll struggle to pose any life-threatening danger to Xiao An and me for now, but killing her is basically impossible. If she just dodges and hides, we can’t even harm her. She really is the most difficult person to deal with we’ve encountered so far in the south.
Li Qingshan furrowed his brows and thought. Compared to the Shadow Queen, the Fire Devouring King actually posed a greater threat to him, as the strengths of assassins were targeting vital points and overwhelming the strong despite being the weak. If there were no vital points, then the threat of assassins would diminish drastically. On the other hand, the flames and the power of the Fire Devouring King could openly crush him with absolutely no concern about his vital points or weaknesses. As long as his strength was insufficient, he would be burnt to a crisp. But in comparison, killing the Shadow Queen was much more difficult than killing the Fire Devouring King.
These two are said to be of the second heavenly tribulation, yet the strength they’ve demonstrated basically resembles great cultivators of the third heavenly tribulation! Who knows what kind of cultivation method they practise! Their bodies differ drastically from regular people, where even piercing their hearts and cutting off their heads is useless. No wonder Myriad Poison had been so generous. I didn’t think this would be so troublesome!
Ye Weiyang was no longer as relaxed as she was like in the beginning. She began to think seriously.
If I want to kill him, I’ll have to take some risk and engage him in close combat!
Ye Weiyang’s eyes turned cold, and she silently drew a dagger. The dagger was a foot long and completely dark and transparent like a half-transparent shadow. A black snake coiled around the hilt.
The killing intent immediately sharpened, and the spirit turtle screamed with warning. Li Qingshan furrowed his brows. “Shadow Queen, if you keep attacking us, I’m going to run!”
“Run?” Ye Weiyang found it rather funny. If he had just said it, then so be it, but he actually said it with a threatening tone.
“You can try killing me, or there will be a day when I flatten the Shadow palace!” Li Qingshan said firmly.
The phoenix wings unfolded completely, and the fierce winds began to whistle, ready to take off at any time. He could not deal with the Shadow Queen, but was he supposed to allow her to just kill him like this? If you insist on making things difficult for me today, you better not blame me for returning it ten fold in the future.
“Alright, then I’ll try!” Why would Ye Weiyang fall for the threat? She sneered coldly and swung the dagger, about to strike.
“Both of you, get over here!” The Great Banyan Tree King’s ancient voice rang out suddenly, echoing through the mountain and demonstrating great might.
Ye Weiyang and Li Qingshan were both taken aback. The Great Banyan Tree King was mellow and allowed nature to take its course. Rarely did he ever order anyone around so sternly.
He was gentle and benevolent like a grandfather, but once he got serious, even the Shadow Queen refused to defy him. She revealed herself and arrived before the Great Banyan Tree King. It was not out of fear, but out of respect. Whether it were the night roamers or the Shadow Queen herself, they had all benefitted too much from him.
It was possible to say that without his assistance, she would not be sitting on the throne as the Shadow Queen today. He possessed such great virtue, yet he never showed it. She had always wanted to pay him back, so when he spoke at crucial times, it obviously bore great weight.
