From the instincts he had developed through many years of killing and robbing, he could feel that this young man was a difficult person to deal with. Seeing how his senior and junior brothers still howled on around him, even rubbing their fists wanting to get a piece of the action, he growled, “All of you shut up!” He asked cautiously, “May I be honoured to know your name, sir?”


  “Let’s go!” Li Qingshan said to Qian Rongzhi before directly striding away, acting like they did not exist. The ugly man’s expression changed a few times. When Li Qingshan almost walked into him, he dodged to the side and just watched as Qian Rongzhi left with him. He quietly gulped.

  “Big brother!”


  “Don’t provoke him. This person is very dangerous.” The ugly man looked at Li Qingshan’s back. If this young man was the Black Wolf commander, he would never even consider challenging him. Now that this woman had obtained a helper like him, she would be difficult to deal with.

  ……


  In the main office, Fang Enshang pushed aside the curtains, tidied his desk, and prepared some water for his ink. He was about to get to work. He was still full of enthusiasm towards this job. Hearing the footsteps, he raised his head. “Oh Rongzhi, you’re here. Who’s this?”


  This was the second time Li Qingshan had met Fang Enshang. Back then in the Quiet Spring valley, a slaughter would have definitely unfolded if it had not been for Fang Enshang’s mediation. He had quite a good impression of him.

  Qian Rongzhi introduced them to each other. Li Qingshan clasped his hands. “Greetings to the commander from your subordinate, Li Qingshan!”


  “So you’re Li Qingshan.” Fan Enshang looked at this young man who stood tall. He studied him up and down, as if he did not believe that this was the Tiger Butcher who had killed countless. He could not help but ask what he was wondering, “Where have you been during this period of time?”


  Li Qingshan stated the excuse that he had already prepared patiently. Most of it was true, but there were some lies as well. He admitted to the fact that Zhuo Zhibo had been scheming against him, which forced him to flee underground. As he fled for his life, he alarmed a powerful daemon underground, and Zhuo Zhibo’s entire group was wiped out. Only he managed to escape.

  Apart from the fact that Li Qingshan was the daemon, there were basically no lies in that story.

  Qian Rongzhi would chime in and add to his story whenever it was suitable. With how crafty and resourceful she was, she had been on extremely harmonious terms with Fang Enshang over the past few months. She also gained a deep understanding of his character, which she would cleverly use to control his thoughts.

  As expected, Fang Enshang fumed over the injustice. “To think there would actually be a commander who would work with criminals in order to deal with his own subordinate! He truly deserved death! Then what about the previous Black Wolf commander, Lao Xishan?”


  Li Qingshan said, “I parted ways there with the vice commander. The vice commander might not have believed me and ventured underground as well.”


  “Then why have you only just returned?”


  Qian Rongzhi said, “That’s actually something everyone knows about. Because of the child by his side, Li Qingshan offended the Sect of Clouds and Rain. For this matter, the vice sect master and four grannies of the Sect of Clouds and Rain had all come to Jiaping city. If I hadn’t contacted him in time to tell him to flee, he would be dead already.”


  Fang Enshang slammed the table. “How dare they!”


  Li Qingshan said, “I know the Sect of Clouds and Rain is powerful. I’ve returned this time because I want to enter secluded cultivation on the mountain for a period of time. Thanks to district magistrate Zhou’s good graces, he agreed to give me a recommendation to the Academy of the Hundred Schools. As long as I go to the academy, even the Sect of Clouds and Rain should have second thoughts about touching me!”


  Fang Enshang patted Li Qingshan’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. As long as you remain in the Hawkwolf Guard here, no one will be able to touch you. Once you make it to the Academy of the Hundred Schools, it’s even more impossible for these sects to act as they please. Our Hawkwolf Guard is not one for others to walk all over!”


  He was so sincere that he made Li Qingshan feel rather embarrassed about lying to him. In the end, Li Qingshan handed over the Zombie Daoist’s head and completed the mission, earning him over ten thousand points of contribution.

  The Qi Gathering pills or spiritual stones that could be exchanged for using the contribution no longer interested Li Qingshan. However, using the dwellings on the mountain for seclusion also cost contribution, and it was not cheap either. A single day was fifty points of contribution.

  Qian Rongzhi brought Li Qingshan to the place for secluded cultivation, which was a large, stone cave dug out from the mountain.

  Li Qingshan could sense that the spiritual qi inside was denser than outside, just as expected. There was no furniture inside, just a huge formation carved into the ground.

  Qian Rongzhi said, “This is a Spirit Gathering formation, but activating it will cost you additional spiritual stones.”


  Li Qingshan looked at the formation. Sure enough, there were several grooves. He nodded and thought, What a clever design.

  Qian Rongzhi placed her hand on a round disc on the wall, channelling in true qi and turning it gently. A huge piece of rock slid over loudly.

  “Once this stone door is sealed, you can only open it from the inside. If you want to open it from the outside, you’d need to tear it open forcefully. I think even the sect master of the Sect of Clouds and Rain isn’t bold enough to do something like that.”


  Li Qingshan nodded. The entire Hawkwolf Guard would never allow something like that to occur. He took out a pill from his hundred treasures pouch and passed it to Qian Rongzhi. “If anything unexpected happens outside while I’m in seclusion, I’ll have to trouble you with handling it. If there are any dangers, I’ll have to trouble you with reminding me too.”


  While those lies were enough to fool Fang Enshang, Fang Enshang was not the one to make any decisions with regard to the deaths of the two commanders and a group of Hawkwolf guards. He would have to report this to his higher-ups. Although there should not be any major issues according to Qian Rongzhi’s analysis, he just was taking precautions with this.

  “A Sea of Qi pill!” Qian Rongzhi’s eyes lit up.

  Sea of Qi pills were crucial pills for Qi Practitioners to break through to the sixth layer. It could assist the Qi Practitioner in condensing a sea of qi, so it truly was quite precious. However, Li Qingshan had found almost a hundred of them from all the hundred treasures pouches in his possession, so giving one away was nothing to him.

  “I’ve already gotten my hands on one. With this one, it’ll increase my chances by thirty percent.” Qian Rongzhi accepted the pill, but she did not speak any words of gratitude.

  This was their relationship. It was clear cut, where neither of them owed each other anything. They simply made use of one another without any efforts to hide their intentions. There were no meaningless interactions. They would not even say an additional word to each other when there was no need to.

  At this moment, there was a thump, and the huge, stone door closed, plunging the cave into darkness.

  Qian Rongzhi became extremely relaxed too. In this space that was sealed off from the world, her expression and bearing underwent a wondrous transformation. Her gentleness and kindness vanished, while a bone-chilling sensation filled Li Qingshan once again.

  She was like a snake about to eat a person. Dim, cold light flashed through her eyes as she pursed her lips. She smiled. “Looks I can use the medicinal enhancers I’ve kept around now.”


  The ugly man and his companions were the medicinal enhancers she had prepared for her breakthrough to the sixth layer. They could provide large quantities of true qi at crucial times.

  Li Qingshan frowned. He turned the mechanism. As the stone door opened again and light landed on her face, it was like magic. Wherever the light reached, her expression would change slightly, and when the light engulfed her completely, she had recovered her image as a gentle and kind elder sister.

  Li Qingshan felt that compared to him, she was more like those demons and daemons of the legends.

  The light cast a long shadow in the cave. Li Qingshan looked at the owner of the shadow. “Diao Fei?”


  Diao Fei faltered. “I heard that you’ve returned.” His cultivation had already reached the fourth layer. Although he had not improved as quickly as Li Qingshan and Qian Rongzhi after they had joined the Hawkwolf Guard, he had not been wasting his time either.

  The three people that had once joined the Hawkwolf Guard together were reunited once again.