Chapter 195 – Drinking under the Moon (1/2)
He dove underground once more. Li Qingshan used the underground mental map and found a great cavern. He said to Xiao An, “It looks like we’ll have to tough it out for a while. You can’t compare this place to Salt Mountain city.”
“Alright,” Xiao An said obediently. Her voice was slurred. Apart from when she yelled out the first time, she was unable to say anything clearly. However, it was an extremely pleasant voice, similar to a spring breeze. It was a comforting voice.
Within a forest-like series of stalagmites, Li Qingshan checked the pills on him. He had already used up half of the Qi Gathering pills, so only around four thousand remained. However, he had only used up one of his Hundred Grasses pills, so over a thousand remained, while there were almost a hundred high grade pills left for cultivation. He was quite wealthy in terms of resources.
Li Qingshan stowed away a talisman. This talisman was known as a Communication talisman. It came in a pair, and as long as they were within five hundred kilometers of each other, the other would respond if one was activated.
Although it was unable to deliver any complicated messages, it was enough for signals. As for how Qian Rongzhi would lure out the West Gate Granny, Li Qingshan did not probe into that too much. It would require quite a lot of adapting for her to do that. She was extremely familiar with this line of work anyway.
He was not worried that she would betray him. She did not exactly have any moral thresholds to speak of, but she was motivated by her own interests, which were instead easier to grasp. If she betrayed him, just her actions of feeding information to the enemy would have been enough for the Sect of Clouds and Rain to hunt her down.
All he needed to do was wait quietly in a suitable location for a suitable time. All of this made him think of a fable from his former life—A tiger caught a fox, and then the fox told the tiger that if it spared him, it would lure other animals over.
However, this was based on the premise that the tiger had the ability to eat all the animals the fox lured over.
He raised his head and poured Qi Gathering pills into his mouth. He began to cultivate.
Six days later, Li Qingshan began to miss his courtyard in Salt Mountain city. This was not just because he missed the tasteful alcohol and dishes, but because of Xiao An as well. In the empty cavern, there was nothing for her to do. When she was bored, she would just lean on her hands and watch him cultivate.
This made Li Qingshan feel very ashamed. He would often stop cultivating and play or talk with her for a while. If he were alone, it did not matter what he did. Even if he used the Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression and went into seclusion for a whole year, it would not matter.
Li Qingshan made up his mind. “Since we don’t have to be here, let’s go back and take a look. That millipede must have run out of patience and left already!”
The mountain manor was desolate, while the aura of autumn had deepened. Li Qingshan opened the front door and directly went to the back garden. He made his way through the well-spaced vegetation and glanced into the cave. He could not help but smile bitterly.
Milliped’s eyes were closed as he laid in the hole. He slept like he was dead, as if he had not even moved from his original position. Suddenly, he snapped open his slightly bulging eyes and stared straight at Li Qingshan. He asked quietly, “Where’s the food?” He had not realised that Li Qingshan had stood him up.
Li Qingshan grinned, “It’s coming!” Afterwards, he turned around and left with Xiao An. Perhaps he had been touched by his only interest in food, or perhaps he was just too easy to fool that it made Li Qingshan slightly uneasy.
In the Proud Sword manor, Yu Shukuang looked at Li Qingshan in surprise and joy. “Great hero Niu, you’ve finally returned.”
Li Qingshan nodded. “Yep, yep, I’m back. There’s something else that I must trouble you with.”
Yu Shukuang saw how cautious he was, so he said with much emotion, “Anything for you, great hero Niu, no matter how dangerous or life-threatening…”
Li Qingshan interrupted him. “It’s not that intense. Just prepare three things for me and deliver them to my manor.”
“Do you mean?” Yu Shukuang was unable to imagine just what was enough for Li Qingshan to verbally request for them. Even if he wanted them, he should not have come to him, right?
“Millet, rice, and alcohol.” Li Qingshan took out another million taels of silver and slammed it on the table.
“Just those?” Yu Shukuang was so surprised that his chin almost dropped off. He was asking him for regular grains and food in such a formal manner.
Li Qingshan said, “As well as other grains, vegetables, and fruits. Prepare whatever you have, the more the better. Of course, I’ll need those twenty tables of food as well. You need to undertake this as secretively as possible too. Don’t let too many people know.”
“Don’t worry at all, great hero Niu. I’ll send people to make preparations immediately. You’ll get as much as you could possibly want.” Yu Shukuang slammed his chest as he guaranteed. As one of the leading figures in the jianghu, he might not be able to obtain certain things, but gathering some grains and food was a cake-walk.
Li Qingshan said in a seemingly unintentional manner, “Oh right, I obtained a few Innate pills recently.” With that, he turned around and left.
The speaker had said that intentionally, while the audience obviously cared about what had been mentioned.
Yu Shukuang’s eyes gradually widened. As a member of the jianghu, he did not know much about the various pills that Qi Practitioners possessed, but there was one that he just had to know, which was the Innate pill. It was a sacred pill that all practitioners of martial arts could only dream about. With how much effort they devoted to martial arts, all of them wanted to rise up and step into a whole new world.