Chapter 109 - Demons Come Knocking
Chapter 109 - Demons Come Knocking
Li Qingshan said, “Please let me through!” Afterwards, he squeezed past the young master and looked deeply at the woman dressed like a scholar. He shook his head. She was a beauty. In his former life, he would struggle to make her smile even if he used everything he had. But now, his target was much higher. With the small joys of his own, private dream, he walked past her and conveniently caught a whiff of her fragrance. Dreams were the source of happiness.
The woman’s frown deepened, perhaps due to the smell of women on Li Qingshan, or perhaps due to Li Qingshan’s fearless gaze. Maybe Li Qingshan shaking his head at the end was the reason why she was so furious.
The young master wanted to draw his sword, but the woman shook her head. She allowed Li Qingshan down the stairs as she showed contempt in her eyes.
Li Qingshan did not leap up and fight back immediately like a cat that had its tail stepped on. He definitely possessed the strength, but he realised that as long as he held back momentarily, he could avoid a lot of trouble. Of course, he had not lost his temper either.
However, the person who had just evaded trouble was about to go make trouble for others now. He made his way down the stairs and shook off the smell of women on him. He wanted to try it, so he had tried it now and no longer cared about it. He knocked the jar on his waist. “Xiao An, let’s go kill some bad people!” He did not choose to part with protector Yan and the others just for the sake of hanging out with some women.
The jar thumped back in response, and Li Qingshan sniggered. He strode away, walking towards a dark alleyway. Only when he entered the darkness did he feel the gaze on him completely vanish.
“Rongzhi, what’s the matter?”
The scholar called Rongzhi said, “I saw that his steps were level and steady. He seems to have practised martial arts before.”
“He’s just a practitioner of some external martial arts at most. If you hadn’t stopped me, I definitely would have taught him a lesson.”
“He’s just someone insignificant. Even if you kill him, you’ll just dirty your hands, so what’s the point? We better eat quickly instead and travel quickly tomorrow so that we can get to Jiaping city early.”
“Yeah, it’s rare for the Hawkwolf Guard to be recruiting new members. We can’t miss this opportunity.” The man’s eyes blazed. As long as he joined the Hawkwolf Guard, he would be on a completely different level compared to the jianghu, becoming a man among men. No one could resist such a temptation, so he was determined to obtain this position.
“It probably won’t be that easy. This time, all of the masters within a range of five hundred kilometers of Jiaping city have been drawn over. There might even be third or fourth layer Qi Practitioners, and the number of places are limited as well. There’ll definitely be a tough struggle.”
“Don’t worry. With these talismans as trump cards, we’ll be able to turn the tables even if we come across powerful masters.” The man was confident. He forgot about Li Qingshan very soon. Yeah, he was just an irrelevant figure.
However, unbeknownst to them, Li Qingshan heard everything they said loudly and clearly. His auditory senses had already reached the level of daemonic beasts, so as long as he wished, he could clearly hear anything within a range of five kilometers.
The Hawkwolf Guard had actually begun recruiting people; this was probably the position that had cleared out due to Feng Zhang’s expulsion. Probably even Wang Pushi would have never imagined he would be able to survive and actually fill in the spot! Obviously, he did not care if his appearance would crush the hopes of these people. He did not have too much time to think about it right now either.
That was because a few dark, shady figures had already begun to block up the alleyway he was in. The small city was more prosperous, but there were not too many outsiders. And, there were even fewer people who attracted as much attention to themselves as Li Qingshan. The news that a teenager with a tremendous sum of money spread very quickly, and he had actually walked into this world of darkness himself. It would make no sense if he was not robbed.
Li Qingshan whispered, “We’re pretty lucky!” He knocked the jar. “It’s time to eat!”
“Hand over your money!” A person pulled out a shiny dagger, but what answered him were the Blood Flames of Corpse Incineration that shone even brighter. Basically unable to let out any sounds, the people had been swallowed by the flames. Their flesh and blood turned into pure energy, becoming part of the fire.
A lantern lit up the darkness, bringing light to an old man’s dumpling stand. Although there were no customers, only moths fluttering about, he did his best to remain open.
A young man strode over and said loudly, “Senior, give me a bowl of dumplings!”
“Alrighty!” The old man began moving dexterously, and very soon, some dumplings were floating in some clear water.
“It’s so late, so why aren’t you resting? You’re elderly now, so shouldn’t you be enjoying your time in retirement?” Li Qingshan chattered casually. The old man sighed away his complaints. It was all because of his unfilial children. His wife and he had no proper source of income; this was all part of the most ordinary bleaknesses of the world.
Li Qingshan sat beside the stand, eating dumplings as he comforted the man with a smile. He actually found this much better compared to dining with escorts in a fancy restaurant. He preferred sitting in the corner of the darkness, eating simple food and talking to a weathered old man. How strange.
“Little brother, you don’t seem to be a local. Forgive me, but you better quickly return to your inn after you’re done. It’s not very safe here at night.”
Li Qingshan said, “Are there bad people?” Afterwards, he heard even more woes and grumbles. Every single place had them, procuresses who forced women into prostitution, wretched loan-sharks and jianghu gangs that harassed the weak while cowering before the strong.
Li Qingshan listened and memorised it all quietly. He casually asked for the names and addresses of these people, eating four or five bowls of dumpling as he did that. He left behind all of the silver he found on the ruffians who just tried to rob him before standing up and bidding farewell.
“T- that’s too much!” The old man astounded, but when he raised his head, Li Qingshan had already vanished. There was a night breeze. He thought about the stories of monsters and ghosts he had heard before. He decided to close up for the night immediately.
On that night, demons came knocking, upholding justice and helping the weak, ridding the cruel and bringing peace.
There were no evil abilities or techniques in the world, only evil people. If I were to kill every single bad person in the world, I would be a man of great benevolence.
Before the sun had even risen for the day, Li Qingshan had left the small city. He began practising the Ox Demon’s Fist of Great Strength in a region of wilderness. He had consecutively killed over a dozen people last night. He felt at ease, throwing fists like beating drums that boomed through the air.
Xiao An sat by one side, refining the essence blood of the people. The Blood Flames of Corpse Incineration constantly flowed around him, assuming various shapes such as wild beasts and venomous snakes. In the end, it actually became a lotus pedestal that lifted him up from the ground. It hovered in the wilderness, sometimes higher and sometimes lower in quite an imposing manner. Wherever it passed by, the verdant wild grass would immediately wither and die, leaving behind a trail of death on the ground.
Xiao An could kill second layer Qi Practitioners like Yan Song as easily as a piece of cake now. Li Qingshan felt both admiration and awe. He was definitely stronger than Xiao An right now, but he could not fly. However, Xiao An was still nowhere close to the level where he could rebuild his body. The Path of White Bone and Great Beauty was terrifyingly powerful, but it was difficult to practise. It required even more sacrifices.
Although Li Qingshan had not purposefully tried to gather money, his wealth had easily reached several tens of thousand taels after the slaughter last night. If those people were lamb-eating wolves, then he was a wolf-eating tiger. Suddenly, he discovered that to Qi Practitioners, the currency of ordinary people no longer held much significance at all, as they all possessed powers that surpassed ordinary people. Even through the most underhanded methods of stealing, they could easily gather a sum that ordinary people would struggle to accumulate through their entire lives.
To Qi Practitioners, the true treasures were spiritual pills and spiritual stones that could increase their cultivation. However, it was evident that these resources would remain in the hands of powerful organisations. Ordinary people would probably never even hear about it in their entire lives. If he wanted these items, joining the Hawkwolf Guard was the best choice.
He signalled to Xiao An and continued on the way. Regardless of day or night, he travelled and stopped whenever he wanted. He casually destroyed two or three nests of bandits, and after three days, he finally arrived before a river and stopped.
The river was Clear river, as well as where the name, Clear River prefecture, came from. It flowed for thousands of kilometers, directly to Clear River city. The river was five to ten kilometers wide. Even with his two lives combined, he had never seen such a mighty river before. Looking at the rippling, reflective water, he immediately felt his mind open up.
Li Qingshan arrived in a large town on the banks of the river. It was called Downstream town, originally developed due to the Downstream port. It was only a town, but it was much busier than Qingyang city. On a horse, he saw a sea of heads, jostling about in the streets with quite the noise. Suddenly, he thought of something. If he killed all these people, would Xiao An be able to reconstruct his body immediately? But afterwards, he shook his head. Wouldn’t he just be a mass murderer then?
There were countless vessels on the river bank as people hurried to and fro from the port. It was extremely busy, and there were obviously many ferries travelling south. Li Qingshan immediately saw huge, dragon ships of several stories high, constructed from beautifully carved beams and painted rafters. They seemed like luxurious restaurants and hotels built on water. He immediately gave up on the thought of hiring a smaller boat and boarded a large, dragon ship instead.
The room at the very top of the dragon boat offered the best views, but it was also the most expensive. It actually cost several thousand taels of silver. Obviously, Li Qingshan was not lacking silver, so after fishing out a few silver notes, the manager of the ship immediately smiled from ear to ear before ordering some maidservants to take him to the very top. Before they left, he even gave ambiguous hints for them to take care of his needs as much as possible.
The room was extremely large. Even if there were several dozen people there, they would not find it crowded. Its decor even exceeded the best establishment Li Qingshan had visited along the way here in terms of extravagancy. He opened the window and looked down at the port and Downstream town. He wondered when Yan Song and the others would arrive, but he ended up seeing two familiar figures. It was the pair he had come across in the restaurant three days ago.
“What? The top room is already booked, and we have to stay below?” The man was displeased.
The manager said awkwardly, “There’s nothing we can do. Young master, the next level down is very luxurious as well, so please just make do!” A person who could spend several taels just to board a ship obviously did not need money. Even if you offered them several tens of thousand taels to switch rooms, they would never agree to it out of pride.
The woman said, “We’ve never had the habit of making do. Please find a way, manager. Money isn’t an issue.”
The man frowned. He raised his head and saw Li Qingshan.
The man smiled with composure. “I’ll go talk to him myself.” The woman hesitated slightly before nodding. Although she did not want to make trouble, she disliked staying in a lower cabin even more; that would mean staying right under other people’s feet. She hoped this teenager could be sensible. If he was not sensible, then he would have to suffer a little and understand the dangers of society.