Chapter 163 – For Scaring Children (2/2)
The sallow, skinny man faltered. He was unable to answer that question.
Li Qingshan shrugged. As it seemed, it was true. Rumours would stop with the wise!
Afterwards, Li Qingshan understood very soon just what wishful thinking meant inside a restaurant.
“It’s said that the Tiger Butcher stands twenty feet tall and has a girth of twenty feet as well. He has a green face and curved teeth, with a head made of metal! He can move as swiftly as the wind, and he’s as loud as thunder! He loves to eat human flesh, and he needs four or five people to fill him for each meal!”
“That’s a daemon, right?”
In a corner of the restaurant, Li Qingshan slapped his forehead. He felt like if these rumours continued to spread, his true form would become exposed.
Xiao An could now smile in a very natural manner.
In the dead of night, a child cried constantly within a certain household. He threw a tantrum for some candy, or he would refuse to go to sleep.
His mother said, “You can’t eat candy at night! It’s bad for your teeth!”
The child refused to relent.
The mother finally lost her temper. “If you keep crying, if you keep crying, the Tiger Butcher is going to eat you!”
The child immediately stopped crying. He fell completely silent. A long while later, he said softly, “Mummy, I don’t want candy. Just don’t let the Tiger Butcher eat me.”
The mother smiled in satisfaction.
On the streets outside, Li Qingshan finally understood what daemonification meant! His nickname was now extremely effective at scaring children and could make them stop crying. It firmly took root within the hearts of the common people. It assisted countless households in disciplining their children.
The Hawkwolf Guard possessed many powerful people, but they mainly targeted Qi Practitioners, which was rather distant from the lives of ordinary people. Moreover, he had just killed a few people at most in the mission this time.
However, from just the two times that Li Qingshan was involved, he had caused over a thousand deaths with countless witnesses. As a result, his nickname spread extremely rapidly, leading to great fame. The situation soon became completely out of control.
In the Iron Fist school within Qingyang city, the first disciple, Wang Lei, asked, “Is this all true?”
Liu Hong said, “Aside from the part about cannibalism, the other parts probably aren’t just baseless rumours. I could tell a long time ago that nothing good could come out of this kid, that he would disturb the jianghu. However, I never thought he would be so vicious such that he would directly destroy half of it. Don’t be jealous of your junior brother. There’s nothing good about roaming through the jianghu.”
“Wise be master. To think that I had almost attacked him,” Wang Lei said in lingering fear. He had never thought that a bumpkin from a village would become such a terrifying figure. From them on, his envy of Li Long vanished. The jianghu was just far too dangerous. He was better off remaining in Qingyang city obediently and waiting to take over his master!
“That is nothing. I even punched him a hundred times!” Liu Hong said proudly. This matter that had humiliated him before now became a great honour for him. He would mention it to whoever he saw from then on.
Many masters would pass through Qingyang city. When they heard he had punched the Tiger Butcher Li Qingshan a hundred times and that he was still standing there in one piece, they admired him deeply. Even those stronger than him developed some respect for him.
Afterwards, on his deathbed, Liu Hong even specially ordered his disciples to engrave a great sentence on his gravestone. “Here lies the person who once punched the Tiger Butcher a hundred times,” so that later generations would look at it in reverence.
Soon afterwards, a great sculpture was erected at the entrance of Crouching Ox village. It depicted a young man. He was able-bodied and wielded a blade; his gaze was vicious. The sculpture seemed life-like. It was Li Qingshan.
It was Half-village Liu, caretaker Liu, who had paid a hefty price to invite the most renowned sculptor within the local region to create it. On the day the sculpture was completed and put in place, the deafening sounds of gongs, drums, and firecrackers rang out. Village head Li organised everyone in the village to pay their respects to it.
Many years later, mountain bandits appeared once again in the region of Qingyang. They pillaged and plundered many villages, but Crouching Ox village was the only one they were afraid to approach due to this statue, bringing them peace. Out of deep gratitude, the villagers erected a temple. They would all come to pay their respects right before the beginning of winter every year. It became a great festival, called ‘Respecting the Tiger Butcher’, but this was a story for another time.
Zhuo Zhibo frowned heavily in the office of the Hawkwolf Guard within Jiaping city. Recently, Li Qingshan had caused him just far too much trouble. He wanted to kill him with a borrowed blade, to lead him to his doom. When the West Gate Granny came to investigate in Jiaping, he was confident that Li Qingshan was deeply involved in the entire matter. He even provided a portrait and information regarding his missions to her, but he never expected it all to fail.
He had never imagined that the kid would be lucky enough to befriend the daughter of the Hua family, such that even the West Gate Granny was helpless against him. He had brought renown upon Li Qingshan instead.
However, he was not particularly worried. Sitting right in front of him right now was the West Gate Granny. Just as Li Qingshan had suspected, the West Gate Granny was unable to find Li Qingshan anywhere, so she just waited for him to come to her here. She was determined to obtain the girl with the Aspect of Heavenly Fragrance and Beauty.