But this time, Han Anjun did not give him a new mission, summoning him back instead.

  Li Qingshan smiled. “You’re finally going to let your son-in-law get some rest?”


  When the disciples of the school of Music heard how he would be returning to Clear River city, they all faltered. They did not possess the same amount of strength as Li Qingshan, but correspondingly, they did not carry a responsibility as great as his either. They would basically return and rest up after every mission.

  However, there was still quite a distance to cover if they wanted to return to Clear River city. The situation right now was turbulent with the flames of war reaching everywhere. It was very easy for them to run into surprise attacks from daemons again, so they wanted Li Qingshan to accompany them.

  However, if he took them along with him, it would definitely waste some of his time. As Li Qingshan made a name for himself, he became known for his aloofness and pride as well. It was rumored that he always moved alone and disliked human contact. It all seemed true now.

  If they asked him and were rejected, it would be embarrassing.

  “I’m going back to Clear River city. Do you want to come with me?” Li Qingshan read their thoughts. He did not mind wasting a bit of time.

  The disciples were overjoyed. They thanked him constantly and did not find him as unreasonable as he was supposed to be.

  They were all humans after all!

  White clouds filled the surroundings, lifting up Li Qingshan and the disciples of the school of Music into the air gradually. With a hum, it took off with a long tail of clouds behind.

  “There’s probably no one in the entire academy who can match senior brother’s Cloud Riding technique and Mist Wielding technique, right?”


  “Senior brother is a rare genius that only appears once a century in our Clear River prefecture. Despite all those who earned the titles of geniuses during the entrance examination, senior brother was still the first one to reach Foundation Establishment.”


  The cloud crossed over a chain of mountains and threw it behind. The disciples all sang praises from the bottom of their hearts. Apart from the fact that this was what they believed, they were obviously trying to suck up to him too. Actually, they had all spent a longer time in the academy than Li Qingshan, so technically they were his senior sisters.

  Even if they could not obtain any realistic benefits, developing a good relationship with someone like him was still good. When the weak received the strong, most of them did it with this same thought in mind. Even though they would often emerge with nothing, as long as this sliver of hope existed, they would never become tired.

  Li Qingshan smiled. Just when he wanted to say something, he felt a wave of uneasiness.

  The dark land flashed with golden light that pierced the cloud.

  ……


  This was a prosperous, ancient city. Although it was nowhere close to the prefectural city in terms of prosperity, it was surrounded by a few mines in the mountains. They relied on the mountains and dug into the mountains, but the people were well-off.

  The lanterns in the city lit up as soon as the sky darkened.

  Because of daemons running amok, a lot of people had already vanished from the streets, only leaving behind a night watchman striking a gong on the streets as he called out lazily, “The weather’s dry, so be careful with fire!”


  The night watchman paused. Using the moonlight, he saw a figure walking over from afar, obscured by the thin, night mist. He squinted his eyes, wanting to take a closer look.

  Somehow, the figure arrived right in his face instantly. A pair of eyes shone with blood-red light on his handsome, healthy face. A pair of fangs extended from his lips, and he sucked hard.

  With a spurt, the night watchman’s chest suddenly bulged before exploding with bright red blood.

  With a clang, the gong struck the ground. The night watchman collapsed on the ground and twitched, having been reduced to a pale, cold corpse already. Not a single droplet of blood remained in him anymore.

  Bloodshadow licked his lips and continued along the street. His gaze passed through the thin mist and walls, seeing the humanoid figures that radiated with vitality inside the houses on the side of the street.

  His mouth expanded to an exaggerated size, which twisted his entire face. He sucked in large mouthfuls and fresh blood emerged from behind the walls and flowed violently into his mouth.

  At the end of the street, a powerful ball of vitality attracted his attention. He looked over and saw a slovenly daoist priest in faded, shabby robes carrying a gourd of alcohol in one hand and a burnt stick in the other.

  “Wretched daemon, I’ve waited for you for quite some time now!”


  Zhou Tong took a sip of alcohol and raised the stick in his hand.

  A bolt of lightning twisted and turned like a dragon, piercing the night mist and striking Bloodshadow instantly.

  ……


  The cloud was ripped to pieces, but there was not a single person on there. Two cloud ribbons flew out from Li Qingshan’s hand and wrapped around the disciples from the school of Music, surging into the air.

  Golden light shimmered on the ground. There was a huge hedgehog daemon covered in glistening quills. Every single quill was the size of a spear, reaching towards the sky.

  Li Qingshan used the Wave Treading Form and constantly climbed upwards like he was climbing up cloud steps. He wanted to escape the range of attack first and lead the music disciples somewhere safe before killing the hedgehog.

  A thin veil of clouds obscured the shining moon in the sky, making it hazy.

  Li Qingshan burst through the clouds, climbing above it. The hedgehog daemon’s quills would basically run out of power at this altitude, but before he could even catch his breath, he saw a hunch-backed old man sitting on the clouds, speaking extremely slowly.

  “Are you the cultivator who killed three of my Daemon Generals recently?”


  Dragonsnail!

  Li Qingshan’s heart sank. Among the three daemons, the one he feared the most was still the unfathomable Dragonsnail, and even daemons as unruly as Bloodshadow and Strongboulder seemed to recognise this too.

  Li Qingshan’s clone underground had already entered secluded cultivation, preparing for his battle with Fu Qingjin. He had reported this to the Spider Queen. While the Spider Queen was displeased, she had no objections seeing how he managed to keep a powerful opponent away from the battle. But when that happened, Dragonsnail requested that he assume control over all the daemons in his territory.

  Li Qingshan originally disagreed, but the Spider Queen had already made up her mind, so it was difficult for him to object. As it turned out, not only had Dragonsnail incorporated Strongboulder’s subordinates into his own, but he had even taken Bloodshadow’s subordinates too. He was basically ruling over the daemons in the Spider Queen’s place.

  Looks like my performance recently has made me stand out too much, attracting the attention of this old daemon to specially set up an ambush here for me. This old daemon is extremely shrewd and meticulous. He’s much more difficult to deal with than Strongboulder or Bloodshadow. If I were alone, then it would be easy, but I’d probably struggle to keep these Qi Practitioners safe.

  Li Qingshan said without overreacting, “So what if I am?”


  “Then you better remain here for good!”


  Dragonsnail’s speech suddenly became much faster, no longer with the same frustratingly slow pace. His overall speed increased too, arriving before Li Qingshan in a flash. His shrivelled hand reached towards Li Qingshan’s throat.

  So fast! He’s actually even faster than Bloodshadow!

  Li Qingshan’s body responded faster than his mind and parried with his sword. Dragonsnail seemed to miss the almost transparent Illusory Water Sword of Invisibility, continuing to extend his hand over.

  Li Qingshan beamed with joy inside. The sharp edge of the sword cut through Dragonsnail’s hand easily, splitting his shriveled arm into two. The sword qi in his dantian erupted with it.

  A sinister light flashed through Dragonsnail’s rather blank eyes. His arm that had been split open rapidly swelled and parted, like the huge mouth of a monster. With thousands of sticky threads, it bit towards Li Qingshan’s neck.

  Li Qingshan had already fulfilled his objective, so he pulled back his sword to withdraw. The Illusory Water Sword of Invisibility was covered in a layer of sticky fluid that ate away the glow on the sword. He channeled his spiritual qi into the spiritual artifact in a hurry to wash off the stick fluid, but the sword had already become much more dim. Even the sword itself had become clearly visible now.

  Dragonsnail had basically let him land that strike. The sword qi in his dantian was fatal to regular Daemon Generals, but he did not have the slightest confidence in it when it came to Dragonsnail.

  Sure enough, Dragonsnail only paused slightly before continuing like normal. He did not even force out the sword qi like what Strongboulder would do.

  “Let me down! Let me down! I want to go home!”


  At this moment, one of the music disciples began to scream and cry like a child, struggling as hard as she could. She was the one who tried to take it one step further with Li Qingshan. The constant threat of danger finally made her snap. Not everyone’s minds were as tough as Li Qingshan’s.

  “Don’t be afraid. We’ll definitely be fine.” “Believe in senior brother!” “You bitch, shut your mouth, you hear me?!”


  The other music disciples were afraid she would actually fall down, so they all spoke up to comfort her, even scolding her.

  When their voices reached Li Qingshan, they spoke with startling speed, like a tape on fast forward. It was almost unintelligible. He furrowed his brows and seemed to understand something.

  Swish, swish, swish, swish! A few streaks of golden light shot towards him, so fast that even Li Qingshan almost failed to react in time. Without even looking back, he swung his sword and knocked away the quills flying towards his back, but the screaming behind him suddenly stopped. A quill had directly pierced her head, killing her on the spot. A bloody hole appeared on her clean, smooth forehead.

  The comforting stopped too. A bloody hole had appeared on each of the other music disciples too, reducing them to corpses in the blink of an eye, still held up by the cloud ribbons.

  Their eyes were wide open, almost struggling to believe that this would be their fate. Originally, they wanted to depend on Li Qingshan for some safety, but they never thought they would die because of him.

  The cloud ribbons dispersed, and they fell towards the ground, gradually becoming smaller and vanishing through the clouds. Their clothes ruffled like fallen petals.

  Li Qingshan had no time to lament. He finally understood. Dragonsnail had not become faster, but he had become slower. Not only had he become slower, but the response of his brain and the rate at which he circulated spiritual qi had slowed down too. However, he actually had no idea when he had fallen for this!

  He stared at Dragonsnail before him. What a strange and terrifying innate ability!

  Behind Li Qingshan among the clouds, the hedgehog daemon shuddered, and over a hundred streaks of golden light shot over like rain. There was nowhere to dodge. It was much slower than Li Qingshan, but it just happened to be unavoidable.

  ……


  Why would Bloodshadow be afraid of a mere bolt of lightning after having faced a heavenly tribulation?

  Just you wait until I suck you dry and see what your blood tastes like!

  Bloodshadow sneered inside. He took a step forward, bathing in the sparks. His face gradually became charred, overwhelmed with a hint of fear. He stared at the stick in Zhou Tong’s hand. “What is that?”


  It did not vanish after a flash like regular lightning. Instead, it lingered in Bloodshadow’s body, wreaking havoc recklessly. Every tiny spark could pierce his entire body and vaporise a part of his blood. Even his blood-red daemon core was wrapped in lightning, which made him shiver inside.

  “As the Lord commands, may the Lord of Thunder and Mother of Lightning cast the divine lightning to slay the daemons!”


  Zhou Tong was stern. He did not waste a single word and performed a series of ritualistic daoist gestures. His shabby robes danced about as he wielded the stick like he was wielding a supreme sword, plunging it right into the sky.

  Boom!

  The divine lightning descended from above, linking heaven and earth and illuminating a range of five hundred kilometers.