“You… you can hatch the egg?” Feng Xiwu grabbed Li Qingshan’s shoulders and asked in great joy.

  “It’s the phoenix’s embryo, thank you!” Li Qingshan smiled.

  “Oh, right, right, right. Alright, there’s no need to pay so much attention to these details. Answer me quickly.”


  “I do have a lot of confidence, but I need a little bit of your help.” Li Qingshan extended the small finger on his right hand. “Think about it, an extremely powerful phoenix the moment it hatches, just like accumulation works. It’ll be all thanks to your efforts over the years that he’ll be a phoenix among phoenixes!”


  Feng Xiwu immediately grabbed his hand. “As long as you can hatch it, let alone a bit, even ten bits, a hundred bits is no problem!”


  “That would be for the best. My friend, lend me a hand!”


  “Alright, my friend!”


  The two of them suddenly became the best of friends, which made Xiao An shake her head gently. “You take your time with the hatching. I’ll go outside and cultivate.”


  “This…” Feng Xiwu hesitated.

  “I won’t leave Fire Melt mountain.”


  Feng Xiwu considered it. “It’s fine even if you leave Fire Melt mountain.”


  Li Qingshan said in surprise, “Why’d you suddenly change your mind?”


  “Trust is very important! And since she’s willing to enter here for you, she definitely won’t speak carelessly at the risk of your safety.”


  “A scheme like that is not something a gentleman would do.”


  “I’m also respecting your friendship!”


  Xiao An left the phoenix’s nest and sat down under the divine wutong tree, beginning to meditate. She also needed time to digest the Divine Nun of the South Sea’s teachings, to lay down a foundation for the cultivation of the Path of White Bone and Great Beauty.

  Qingshan is already striving towards the third heavenly tribulation. I can’t fall too far behind.

  ……


  Above the sea of magma, below the glowing wutong, time passed in a hurry.

  Li Qingshan formally began hatching the egg. Since the phoenix’s embryo could not rein in such great energy, then it was time for him to take up the matter. He circulated the Phoenix’s Scripture of Nirvā?a as he recalled the sensation he felt when he became an egg. His aura gradually faded away as he gave off a similar glow to the phoenix’s embryo, pulsing like it was breathing.

  Gradually, the rate at which they pulsed matched up, becoming a single entity.

  Originally, Feng Xiwu still had some doubts, but when he saw this, he became completely convinced. His figure suddenly vanished, and his voice echoed through the entire phoenix’s nest. “I know you’re borrowing my power to cultivate. Just like how the debt of a droplet of water should be paid back with the entire spring, I, Feng Xiwu, am not a miserly tree. Accept this energy!”


  Immediately, the phoenix’s nest rippled with magnificent red light that flowed towards Li Qingshan and the phoenix’s embryo.

  Li Qingshan’s end goal definitely was still cultivation, but Feng Xiwu had been planning for that right from the beginning. According to his original plans, hatching the phoenix’s embryo would definitely take tremendous amounts of energy. How could a single Daemon Commander sustain that? He was only borrowing Li Qingshan’s bloodline anyway. He had even wasted ten thousand years, so why would he be stingy at a time like this?

  Li Qingshan had revealed the true reason why the phoenix’s embryo did not hatch, but since he was confident enough to hatch the strongest phoenix chick in history in this state, Feng Xiwu was very willing to assist him with cultivation.

  Oof, what pure fire spiritual qi. It really is a divine wutong tree after all. Coupled with how the phoenix’s nest can restrain the powers of the spirit turtle and increase the powers of the phoenix, there’s a layer of cultivation in difference, but they’re extremely close to being balanced. This is simply fantastic.

  Li Qingshan was overjoyed inside. Using this power, he restrained the Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression slightly and achieved a subtle balance. He began to balance out fire and water.

  At that moment, he began to glow with a deep, blue light as well, mixing together with the scarlet light. Through his experiences of dual cultivating with Gong Yuan, he had restrained the Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression such that it did not break through to the fifth layer, but the spirit turtle did become even more profound and silent through absorbing the aura of Ruin’s End.

  Feng Xiwu watched closely and was astonished. Just what are his origins? He possesses three bloodlines at the very least, and every single one of them is extremely powerful, even greater than the phoenix’s bloodline. There’s even a water bloodline at the level of divine beasts that mutually restrains the phoenix.

  Even if Li Qingshan was a phoenix, a true dragon, he could not make Feng Xiwu so surprised. There had been a lot of divine and exotic beasts that possessed the phoenix and true dragon’s bloodlines in the ancient times, but for an existence that possessed multiple high-level bloodlines at the same time, he had basically never even heard of that, let alone seen it.

  The greater the bloodline, the more pure it was, and the more difficult it was to merge together. If he could unleash every single bloodline, just what kind of power would he possess?

  Even Feng Xiwu was unable to imagine it.

  Li Qingshan was too focused to pay any regard to him. This was the first time he balanced fire and water without the “Flower of Fire and Water’s” assistance, completely relying on his own strength, but he was filled with confidence.

  The Nine Transformations of the Demonic and Divine definitely could be practised even if the world did not have a Ru Xin. He definitely could make the spirit turtle and phoenix get along through his own efforts. It would only be very difficult and would take up tremendous amounts of time and effort. However, it would only be strange if such a powerful cultivation method was not difficult.

  When it came to this aspect, he could be considered as rather lucky. He had encountered Ru Xin and overcame the difficulties at the beginning relatively easily. However, similar to other spiritual medicines, they were only for support. Over-dependence on foreign items would lead to a day where cultivation came to a crawl. He did not want Ru Xin to use her essence blood to refine medicine for him either.

  Now was the time for him to use his own strength. He had still built up some experience in the very beginning after all, and he had such a great environment, so he believed it would not be too difficult.

  Time was not a concept in the nest. Li Qingshan and Xiao An both submerged themselves in cultivation. In the meantime, the battle at Fire Melt mountain had already shaken up the entire Mist province, spreading through the world. As one of the few large forces in the Mist province, they had actually been annihilated, where even the three Fire Devouring Kings were unable to slip away. That was simply unbelievable.

  Over ten great cultivators and Otherfolk Kings had been involved in this battle. A battle of such a scale was like the first ray of sunlight to the nine provinces that had remained at peace for thousands of years, foreboding a changing of ages, the arrival of chaos.

  The brutal result where five of them died left everyone shocked too.

  Over the past few thousand years, there had not even been ten human great cultivators that had fallen in battle. Something that rarely occurred even across centuries had actually happened so easily. It had suddenly happened in the same location at the same time.

  Who could still rest easy now? Could even the lords like the King of Southern Yue and the Fierce King of Chu say they could survive every single battle?

  All of the kings cast their gazes towards the shore of the South sea, doing everything within their ability to collect information on the battle.

  However, the Mist province had always been a land of wilderness, and the south was the wilderness within the wilderness. The fire devourers had been annihilated, while the merpeople had always kept to themselves. The surviving Merfolk warriors had all been ordered to keep silent too. Ji Changfeng and the others were not the kind to blabber either, so while there was a lot of information floating around, very little of it was proven to be true.

  With the battle, Li Qingshan’s name as the King of Savages began to spread through the world. He had occupied Fire Melt mountain as his dwelling and had become the king of the south. This was something impossible to hide, and very difficult for people to not care about.

  However, that was all it was, caring. In the cultivation community, cultivation was the highest standard when it came to evaluating a person, as well as the only standard. Who knew how many Merfolk and Fire Devouring Folk at the same cultivation as him had died in the battle. Their deaths had not influenced the overall situation at all.

  Due to Li Qingshan’s complicated background and identity, a lot of conspiracy theories did appear. Some said the Fierce King of Chu had sent him to the Mist province to wear them down from the inside, while others said the King of Southern Yue impelled him to eliminate Fire Melt mountain so that he could prepare for the war between provinces. The Great Banyan Tree King had not been spared from these conspiracies either. Perhaps he had wanted to exterminate the fire devourers a long time ago, as they were a race that refused to become a part of his alliance and liked to burn down forests…


  In short, basically everyone was certain that Li Qingshan was a chess piece that belonged to one side, placed there to achieve some kind of objective. As a pawn, he moved about on the chessboard and was fortunate enough to receive a reward in the end.

  However, only those who were included in the conspiracies understood that he was not his own chess piece. Even fewer people understood that he was not anyone’s chess piece, but a chess player that could alter the overall situation. If it were not for his efforts, the battle of Fire Melt mountain would have never existed in the first place. There never would have been a possibility of victory either.

  Only Li Qingshan and Xiao An knew that compared to playing chess and coming up with schemes, he would much rather flip over the chess board and directly beat up the chess players. He was currently heading in that direction too.

  ……


  Deep within the ocean, a great celebratory banquet was currently being held in the Crystal palace. A joyous atmosphere filled the magnificent halls and buildings.

  “What a rude person. He clearly agreed to come, yet he’s absent without even saying a word!” Gong Yuan said coldly and placed the crystal cup in her hand on the green jade table heavily. To her lower right was an empty seat, which originally belonged to Li Qingshan. Once he began cultivating, he forgot about all of these trivial matters.

  “Please calm down, your majesty. Qingshan must be caught up with something important. Obtaining the divine wutong tree’s recognition comes with great fortune!” Ji Changfeng drank a cup with a smile. Ever since he got his revenge, he seemed much livelier and more vigorous.

  “Definitely. The divine wutong tree is actually such a powerful Daemon King. Probably no one thought of that. The fire devourers have occupied Fire Melt mountain for so long, yet even they had never received his assistance, yet as soon as the King of Savages arrived, he came out to meet him, which is truly admirable. I’ve met countless people in my life, and I thought I was good at judging people, but I have to admit I’ve really made a huge misjudgement this time!”


  The speaker was an old man with a goatee, the head caretaker of the King of Yue’s estate, mister Ram. Having received certain orders, he had also come to attend the victory banquet.

  “Mister Ram ought to punish himself to a cup of alcohol,” Gong Yuan said mildly and stopped looking at the empty seat. Ever since they took down Fire Melt mountain, it instead became even more important that they handled their relationship with the King of Yue’s estate appropriately. They dared not be careless.

  Although the battle of Fire Melt mountain had eliminated one of their problems for good, the price they had paid was relatively heavy too. A Merfolk King had fallen in battle, and most of their foundational forces were annihilated. Now was when the Merfolk were the weakest. They needed a lengthy time to recover, so they could not make an enemy out of the King of Southern Yue’s estate right now. As long as they endured through this and lasted until the world descended into chaos, then the vast sea was theirs to maneuver in.

  Once the chaotic age of the nine provinces came to an end, perhaps the humans and daemons would be surprised by the establishment of a new order on the ocean. She would then lead the Merfolk back into the age of the divine kingdom.

  As a result, they were especially in need of foreign aid right now. She originally had something to discuss with Li Qingshan, which was why she had specially given him a seat of honour. Even the two other Merfolk Kings, Ji Changfeng, Ye Duanhai, and the Divine Nun of the South Sea would be sitting beneath him, giving him absolute respect, yet he actually did not come. It basically drove her mad. He had to take responsibility!