Chapter 87
Facing monsters and demons, the first thing ordinary cultivators would think of would be to chop off the monsters and wipe out the demons. Gu Yanying definitely had the power to do so. Although Li Qingshan’s strength and speed had substantially increased after transforming into a demon, it would still be entirely impossible for him to match up with a golden core master.
But there was no murderous intent on her face at this very moment. Her usually free and easy smile had also vanished, a faint compassion emerging instead. She seemed like a stone sculpture or a jade carving under the shine of the moonlight.
She immediately broke away from this kind of mood. She gently heaved a sigh, an easy smile appearing at once.
“Little brother Qingshan, there’s only the mountain forests you’ll be able to call home from today on. I fear we will have no opportunity to meet again in this life, unless you cultivate to a monster general or even a monster marshal. But by then we will probably be enemies. May favorable winds guide your path!”
She spoke softly, and even waved her hand, not caring the least that Li Qingshan had absolute no way of hearing or seeing her from the ground. Her sleeves rose up and she flew out like a white eagle. Only after she’d flown ten miles away did the wild wind she lifted plow a deep gully in the sea of clouds.
A white eagle had stopped at the edge of a well and seen what she’d wanted to see. A peculiar frog had added an interesting experience to her life on earth.
But a frog was still a frog no matter how interesting it was. At most it could become a little stronger. There were things a hundred times more important waiting for her, a thousand times more important. If she couldn’t find that wretched cat, it could very possibly lead two great sects of the Verdant province to go to war, the Hidden Sword Palace and the Dark Shade Sect. A great fire would rise in the province’s prefectures’ backyard by then.
But she hadn’t noticed a green bull on the ground also watching her from the darkness while she was watching Li Qingshan. This was simply something unimaginable for a golden core master. How deep was her spiritual perception? She even knew some divination spells.
But if she were able to genuinely forecast the future, she would have known that the frog wouldn’t stay a frog forever.
Li Qingshan howled crazily for a while before barely forcing his state of mind to restore its calm. Little An still stood at the side and did his hardest to comfort him.
He looked at Little An. Only now did he understand Little An’s feelings after transforming into a skeleton, how much of a psychological blow it was for a human to transform into an alien species.
The green bull walked out from the darkness. It watched Li Qingshan, its bull face entirely filled with smiles, its mouth clucking in wonder just like an artist looking at an artwork he was extremely satisfied with.
Li Qingshan said, “You knew long ago I would turn out like this? This is definitely not any Strength of Nine Bulls and Two Tigers right?” His present strength absolutely exceeded the strength of one bull, or one might say that the strength of one bull wasn’t referring to a bull’s strength to begin with, but to a bull demon or a bull monster.
The green bull said, “Looks like things turned out pretty good!”
Li Qingshan abruptly pounced toward the green bull, his right claws ruthlessly wiping down. His sharp claws were like curved blades, glinting with rays of light in the darkness.
The green bull didn’t dodge nor hide, its smile unchanging. Little An rushed forward and shoved Li Qingshan away.
Li Qingshan quivered from head to toes, his hands gripping the ground. “Sorry, brother bull, I don’t know what’s happening to me?” His heart seemed to be filled with explosive powders. Any anger and dissatisfaction would ignite and trigger a field of slaughter.
There were suspicions the green bull had been duping him, but he’d been aware of that since long ago. It was just like in the legends, those people who made a deal with the devil would need to pay a price at the same time they obtained their strength. It was cruel but fair, and there shouldn’t be any complaint.
Moreover, the green bull had also proved the supernatural skill it’d taught him was indeed not common stall goods. This supernatural skill had truly reached an unimaginable degree just speaking of the body tempering’s results. It’d let his body reach an imaginable power in the space of a few trivial months.
The green bull said, “Your temperament isn’t yet sufficient to master your demonic nature. However, I’m already very surprised you’ve been able to reach this step. What you said is correct. It was born from the daoist body tempering supernatural skill Strength of Nine Bulls and Two Tigers, but in reality this is already not ‘Nine Bulls and Two Tigers’ anymore.”
“There aren’t that many supernatural skills that would make a human transform into a demon! What should I do now? How can I restore my human shape?” Li Qingshan had no desire to spend a lifetime in the depths of the mountain forests.
“Very simple, you can change your shape as long as you pass through a heavenly tribulation and become a monster general, the same as the realm of foundation building for humankind.”
“How long do I need!”
“If quick, a hundred years!”
“What!” The red light flashed like a storm in Li Qingshan’s eyes. “Can I live for a hundred years?”
“Don’t worry, after transforming into a demon, your lifespan will also be greatly increased!”
Li Qingshan’s teeth ground loudly together. Just as he was almost unable to resist the turbulent desire for killing inside his heart, the green bull said, “But it’s not that there aren’t other ways!”
Li Qingshan said, “What ways?”
The green bull said, “I’ll teach you another supernatural skill. Oh right, actually you still can’t be regarded as a complete demon right now.”
Li Qingshan said, “Then after cultivating this supernatural skill I’ll be able to transform into a complete demon?”
The green bull smiled and said nothing. Li Qingshan knew he could only walk forward without turning back.
The great fire was still burning. Li Qingshan and Little An’s four eyes met each others. He said, “Alright, now we’re both not human anymore, there’s only you who won’t be repulsed by me!” It was truly mutual sympathy between fellow sufferers, big brother unable to mock the second bother.
Little An desperately nodded, indicating he didn’t find Li Qingshan repulsive at all.
Li Qingshan said, “Let’s not talk about it anymore. Let’s hurry to train!” He let Little An use all the corpses on the mountain peak to cultivate and heal his body’s injuries. Li Qingshan also searched the corpses meanwhile.
He found a bottle of spirit pills not entirely consumed on hall master Wu’s body. He raised his head and ate them down, immediately restoring his body’s wounds. He found a talisman on Sick Scholar Wei Dandong’s body. From the patterns, it seemed exactly identical to Lu Tingrui’s. It ought to be also the speed-increasing Clear Wind Talisman. Then he found another divine talisman on Chu Xin’s body like the one the latter had used. It seemed he’d indeed been wealthy.
That thin sword of Lu Tingrui’s could still be regarded as intact, its spiritual light still very bright. Little An’s sword’s spiritual light was already very dim after the battle and wasn’t suitable for use anymore. It just happened there was a ready substitute.
Finally he found a full four talisman on Feng Zhang’s body. They were all the same kind that could release a fire. There was also a bottle of healing spiritual pills that he carefully collected after he saw its spiritual light was much better than that bottle on hall master Wu.
Li Qingshan threw all the corpses into the sea of fire. He noticed the intensity of the fire wasn’t vigorous enough and tossed a Fire Talisman without any hesitation. The Fire Talisman floated from the air back to the ground. He didn’t manage to trigger it.
The green bull said, “Monster qi can’t rouse daoist talismans and spiritual devices, except if you’re able to refine them.”
Li Qingshan tried that scroll of [Cursive Sword Script] once more. It indeed didn’t show the slightest reaction to the monster qi he poured inside, unwilling to accept it. There was no need to say he did absolutely not have any refining ability at present. He could only put them away first.
Little An had restored the traces of injuries all over his body at this time, his bones restored to their whiteness. They weren’t pale white anymore however, but a little lush and green like jade. His supernatural skill had gone up yet another layer.
Seeing the fire became smaller, Little An suddenly opened his mouth and spewed out surging flames the color of blood. The blood on those carcasses seemed to become fuel for the flames, lifting a bloody blaze several dozen feet high. It even overshadowed the orange fire and thoroughly exterminated any vestige of corpses.
It was precisely a technique from the [Dao of the Beautiful Bones], the “Cremation Blood Flames.” It could draw and ignite flesh and blood. A body would die without any doubt if it came into contact with it, then turn into a corpse before scattering to ashes and dispersing like smoke. Hence it was called “Cremation.” Its fearfulness even surpassed ordinary Fire Talismans.