Chapter 190 – The Third Layer (1/2)

By then, he could do whatever he wanted. If the Sect of Clouds and Rain found him, he could escape to the caves. He only needed to take a few twists and turns; with his aura hidden, the Sect of Clouds and Rain would never be able to capture him.

The estate occupied a few thousand square meters. As it was located in the mountains, many fallen leaves soon covered it again despite having just been sweeped earlier.

It was a secluded place, where the scenery and building complemented each other. The place gave off an antiquated aura within its tranquility. Who knows just what it had weathered already. The original, wooden carvings on the beams and columns had faded, which instead replaced the sense of extravagance with a certain weatheredness.

Li Qingshan was extremely satisfied. It was even better than his residence at the Hawkwolf Guard. He lowered his head and said, “Looks like we’ll be staying here for a while.” He rubbed Xiao An’s head. “Once I rise up and accomplish something with my ability, I’ll knock on their doors one by one and make the people of the Sect of Rain and Clouds bleed. They’re dreaming if they think they can take you! Hahahaha!” His smile was as resplendent as the sun.

Xiao An was infected by his laughter and a smile formed on her face like a ripple in water. She thought to herself, Yeah, no one can take me away.

In order to buy this place, money alone would likely not have been enough to do the job for Yu Shukuang. He relied on the Proud Sword manor’s influence as a gang as well. Just like the food chain, the Green Vine mountain could just send a disciple over and that would be enough to render great hero Yu docile, while great hero Yu could turn a few rich merchants docile just by turning around.

What a brutal social hierarchy!

Li Qingshan sighed. He looked through the manor, in search of a place to begin digging.

Xiao An pulled out a book on the shelf in the study, and with a creak, the shelf turned around, revealing a flight of steps downwards.

Li Qingshan gave Xiao An a thumbs up. “Nicely done. Let’s go in and take a look!”

As soon as Li Qingshan and Xiao An set foot inside, the bookshelf closed automatically. With the strength that they possessed, they were fearless, so they ventured downwards with nothing to be scared of.

They discovered that this was a man-made secret room, divided into several dozen rooms and connected by several secret passageways. They led to a few important structures in the estate. There was also a large stockpile of grains and food in there.

This had instead saved him some trouble. He took out the underground mental map and matched it to the entire hidden structure. He arrived in a stone room, raised his right foot, and stomped down heavily.

With a thump, the floor became covered in cracks; followed by a rumble, the rock and soil all collapsed, kicking up motes of dust.

The dust settled and revealed a great hole in the floor. Li Qingshan stuck his head into the cave and looked around. As expected, it was connected to the cave system below. He smiled happily. With this path of retreat, he could cultivate in peace now.

Returning above ground, the twenty tables of food had already been delivered. Li Qingshan indulged in the food heartily. Xiao An ate some with him before placing down her chopsticks and watching him eat as she leaned on her hands.

After enough food and drink, Xiao An went to the study to look at the books, while Li Qingshan meditated in the courtyard. He swallowed ten Qi Gathering pills in a single gulp, and they were swallowed up by the daemon core as soon as they were digested, all converted into daemon qi.

He had decided to direct his focus back to the cultivation of the Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression from today onwards. If his cultivation of the spirit turtle was too low, it would be insufficient to keep the ox demon and tiger demon suppressed, preventing him from reverting to human form. It would lead to quite a lot of trouble.

The Ox Demon’s Fist of Great Strength and the Tiger Demon’s Fist of Bone Forging could drastically strengthen his body, endowing him with extraordinary battle prowess. However, what controlled his cultivation as a daemon was the tiny daemon core condensed from the Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression.

The first layer of the Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression was condensing a daemon core, allowing him to reach a level equivalent to the sixth layer of human Qi Practitioners. If he reached the second layer, it should result in him breaking through his current realm, allowing him to become a Daemon General. By then, he would not have to fear the Sect of Clouds and Rain anymore.

However, this would be far more difficult than reaching the second layer with the ox demon or tiger demon. Of course, now that he had mentioned it, this was not exactly difficult. Instead, it was an issue of time. He could not afford to waste a few decades or a century on this. He still wanted to go looking for Gu Yanying once he became accomplished in his cultivation.

If a century passed in a blink of an eye, perhaps she would not age, but it would already be a miracle if he could still remember her name. No matter how deeply he had fallen in love at first sight, how could it withstand the erosion of time? He had to try to win her over while this feeling for her remained.

He had also promised to take Xuanyue to the Dragon province. Who knows just how quickly her cultivation could advance with the pills from the provincial lord’s estate. She might even end up achieving something before him during that century and run off by herself. By then, wouldn’t his promise just be a joke?

And, if he spent too much time on the ground, his brother ox beyond the Nine Heavens would probably run out of patience, even though he had never seen him run out of patience before.

In short, it was simple. He had to devote himself to cultivation and advance aggressively. He wanted to use countless pills to pave a shortcut to success so that he could rise up.

He closed his eyes. Externally, he drew in the spiritual qi of the world, while he absorbed the pills internally. He constantly gathered, took in, and converted the energy.

The sky was clear, only awash with moonlight. He let out his daemon core, which spun into the air, radiating with deep blue light that pulsed like it was breathing. A smear of moonlight was absorbed into the daemon core as well.

His mind, on the other hand, constantly descended, like a spirit turtle sinking into a bottomless abyss, entering a sleep of millennia, almost like it did not exist.

The spiritual qi of the world constantly surged into his daemon core and body.