Li Qingshan swept through the atmospheric wind layer, drawing the atmospheric winds into his wings of wind and flying at an unprecedented speed. The exhaustion from his recent battles still lingered, but he felt extremely lively inside. The sharp atmospheric winds brushed past his ears as the landscape beneath him was thrown far behind. He had arrived above the boundless South sea in a short while.
There was a mass of shadows on the surface of the ocean. A storm was sweeping over. It was not as great as the storm that rampaged through Fire Melt mountain, but its scale was still quite large, demonstrating the might of the world recklessly.
With a thought, Li Qingshan suddenly began to plummet, diving into the storm. The fierce winds, heavy rain, and lightning filled his face, but it had vanished in the blink of an eye. In a few seconds, he had passed through the centre of the storm.
Looking back, he saw a crack in the thick storm clouds, allowing a ray of sunlight to pour through the darkness. The storm halted slightly before dispersing and scattering.
Li Qingshan smiled resplendently, diving into the depths of the South sea without even looking back. When he arrived above the Crystal palace, he noticed that Gong Yuan was cultivating in the sea abyss with a simple sweep of his soul sense.
He hid his aura and snuck down silently, reaching the bottom of the abyss. He secretly approached her from behind. Her long, deep-blue hair swayed in the water, and her beautiful figure made her seem like a spirit of the sea. She radiated with a bizarre charm.
When there was still over thirty meters between them, Gong Yuan suddenly sensed him and turned around. “Li Qingshan, what are you sneaking around here for?”
“I just wanted to give you a nice surprise.” Li Qingshan shrugged, but he was surprised inside. She could actually notice him beforehand. They really had dual cultivated together in the past.
“I don’t see anything nice about it at all. Give me back the Sea of the Abyss. Don’t come over here!”
Gong Yuan’s expression was frosty. With a wave of her hand, an ice wall rose up right in front of Li Qingshan, riddled with threatening, thorn-like icicles.
“Is anyone home?” Li Qingshan knocked the wall of ice. “Open up, Yuan’er!”
“Stop wasting time!” Gong Yuan furrowed her brows. She did not buy into that.
“Alright then!”
Li Qingshan stopped. Normally, he would not care about what she said at all. Let alone a wall of ice, even a glacier could not stop him.
However, his current mood was drastically different, and Gong Yuan’s status in his heart was anything but ordinary too, so he stopped and tossed the Heart of the Abyss over the wall of ice.
Gong Yuan inspected it carefully as if she was afraid Li Qingshan had replaced it with a fake.
Li Qingshan shook his head. They all said that the thoughts of women were unfathomable like the deep ocean, let alone this woman who cultivated at the bottom of the ocean. Her thoughts were only even more unfathomable. Everything that had happened between them in the demon cavern was still vivid before their eyes, and the deep kiss had basically been engraved in their minds, so how had she turned against him so quickly?
“I’ve come to apologise to you. I’m returning to the Green province.”
“I know.” Gong Yuan stowed the Heart of the Abyss away and did not try to convince him to stay.
“I don’t know when we can see each other again after today. If you ever encounter something that requires my assistance, feel free to come and find me!” Li Qingshan smiled helplessly. He did not approach her.
Only when he vanished into the depths did the coldness on Gong Yuan’s face recede, replaced by gloominess. From the position of the Merfolk Queen, she should have done everything within her ability to maintain a positive relationship with Li Qingshan and not distance herself from him so coldly.
The strength and potential Li Qingshan had demonstrated during the battle within the Twelve Citadel Demon Formation of the Ominous had even amazed the King of Southern Yue. Even Demon God Qiongqi wished to gain his assistance. Just how powerful of an ally was he?
However, perhaps because her inner demons had been nullified by him, and she could no longer maintain her coldness and calmness, or perhaps because it was the strange inclination towards infatuation of Merfolk at work, she finally acted on her feelings for once.
Of course, she knew he would not remain in the South sea, but she still clung onto a ray of hope. What if he changed his mind? But in the end, she had blocked him with a wall of ice. Her pride prevented her from convincing him to stay. All she could do was gaze into the distance in melancholy.
The Profound Light Illuminates All revealed her expression, which made Li Qingshan sigh inside. He still had a very, very long path ahead of him. It was impossible for him to stop in one location for too long. Since they would have to bid farewell to each other sooner or later, perhaps this was not a bad thing…
By the time Li Qingshan’s aura had completely vanished, Gong Yuan closed her eyes gently and remiscinced everything that had happened since they first met. It was quite a sensation, but it also made her feel slightly bitter. What a resolute, cold-hearted man. Afterwards, she circulated the All Water to Ruin’s End and used the deathly-still power of Ruin’s End to calm herself down.
Suddenly, a pair of powerful arms wrapped around her firmly from behind. A familiar voice rang out by her ear. “Surprise!”
“Li Qingshan!” Gong Yuan was furious. She radiated with bone-chilling coldness, freezing the seawater into ice. She flexed her slender, beautiful fishtail, and the ice shattered and shot out.
Li Qingsha laughed aloud. The entire sea abyss shook as a result.
Being filled with worry really was not the kind of person he was! The awkward situation of being too embarrassed to say something was something he deeply despised too. As a result, he both left and returned resolutely, succeeding in his sneak attack while she was unsettled.
With a flap of his wings, he burst out of the ocean and rose straight into the sky.
“What are you doing? Are you staying in the South sea?” How could Gong Yuan resist his strength, let alone the fact that his cultivation method even suppressed hers? No matter how she struggled, she could not break free from his embrace, so all she could do was give up.
“The scenery here is quite nice, much better than at the bottom of the ocean.” Li Qinsghan pointed into the horizon. The sunlight was beaming.
“If you’re declining, you can be more straightforward.” Gong Yuan snorted in contempt.
“Sorry!” Li Qingshan’s eyes were filled with sincerity.
“Whatever. If you actually stay behind, I’d only look down on you. How do you plan on dealing with Qiongqi’s matter?” Gong Yuan asked.
“Qiongqi is not a problem, even though I might have been deceived…” Li Qingshan explained Feng Xiwu’s analysis with a smile.
“And that’s still not a problem?” Gong Yuan widened her eyes.
“Since I’ve been forced to make a bet against my will, I’ll just find a way to weasel out of it, but you just can’t weasel out of some promises.” Li Qingshan gazed at the sky. His eyes were filled with a desire that prevented him from stopping.
“What promise?” This was the first time Gong Yuan had seen him act like this.
“Ten thousand years! Someone is waiting for me there. He said he’ll wait a thousand days for me!” Li Qingshan pointed at the sky.
“A day in heaven is a year in the mortal realm- no, it’s ten years!?” Gong Yuan said in surprise.
“That’s right. He once said that ten thousand of my years is just a thousand days to him. I once thought this was a metaphor, expressing that ten thousand years was absolutely nothing to him, but only now do I realise that he’s not the kind of person to use metaphors.” Li Qingshan snickered.
Gong Yuan was unable to imagine how distant that was. The flow of time there was actually three thousand six hundred times faster than the nine provinces. “So your cultivation method is a legacy…”
“That’s right. That’s basically my greatest secret!” Li Qingshan said. Originally, he treated his transmigration as his greatest secret, but looking at it now, possessing innate knowledge was nothing special at all.
“Hmph. Means nothing to me.” Gong Yuan acted with disdain, but she was unable to hold back her joy inside.
“Hah, it does mean nothing. I really don’t understand how you win a smile from a beauty, so just give me a casual smile seeing how helpless I am!” Li Qingshan smiled. He had no other request despite turning around and returning to her side.
Gong Yuan smiled slightly. “Hopefully your dream comes true one day and you make it in time.”
“I’m eternally grateful.” Li Qingshan’s eyes shone. He lowered his head. “Give me a farewell kiss!”
Gong Yuan sneered and turned her head away.
“Oi, I’m leaving for real this time. I don’t know when we’ll meet again.”
“Then hurry up and go!” Gong Yuan waved her hand impatiently.
“Fine then!” Li Qingshan let go of her helplessly and backed away slowly. Right when she turned around, he flapped his wings as hard as he could and pushed his speed to the limit, flying over and kissing her gently on the lips.
“Li Qingshan!” Gong Yuan shouted.
Li Qingshan laughed aloud, spiralling around as he rose up into the sky. He vanished with the blink of an eye. His voice echoed between the clouds. “Until we see each other again, Yuan’er! We’ll definitely be seeing each other again!”
“Damned men!”
Gong Yuan stood among the clouds for a little longer as if he was still hiding somewhere and would emerge at any time to force a hug on her.
The white clouds flowed slowly. He had really left this time.
She touched her lips and smiled. The ocean was vast and boundless, while the sky was misty and limitless. She thought to herself, Do you think you can fool me with just something like that? I’m a cultivator too! If I ascend, your ten thousand years will only be a few thousand to me at most, or maybe just a few hundred! Bah, why am I calculating this? I’ll never be that kind of woman who waits forever in love sickness.
Li Qingshan rapidly approached the north, casting the South sea far behind him. He stared right ahead. After facing who knew how many hardships, it was finally time for him to return. He bellowed at the top of his voice.
“Dragon King of Ink Sea, just you wait for me!”
