Chapter 254 – A Despicable Woman (1/2)

Li Qingshan could not be bothered with sorting the items carefully. He glanced through them quickly, enough for him to gain a rough idea of what he now possessed. At this moment, he opened a strange-looking hundred treasures pouch. He discovered that it was not for items like spiritual artifacts and spiritual stones. Instead, it contained many poisonous bugs like scorpions and centipedes.

Apart from controlling ghosts and refining corpses, there were plenty of cultivators who wielded insects or used gu1. However, regular hundred treasures pouches were unable to hold anything living. For example, the disciples of the Burial Mound mountain used special bronze bangles for controlling corpses, while this was a rare bug pouch.

Li Qingshan released a venomous scorpion from the pouch. The scorpion was a reddish brown, and it was huge, the size of an adult man. It surprised Li Qingshan.

The huge scorpion waved its huge pincers menacingly. It suddenly spotted Milliped and immediately shirked away, wanting to escape. Milliped’s body scrunched up before shooting off like an arrow. He burrowed into the huge scorpion, and the scorpion struggled a little before falling on its side and dying.

Milliped devoured all of the scorpion’s flesh, only leaving behind an empty shell, before emerging once again. His mandibles twitched and clicked. He was very happy with it.

Suddenly, Li Qingshan came up with an idea and released all the poisonous bugs. There was a huge assortment, some flying, some crawling, and some leaping. Milliped released a pink gas and enveloped all the poisonous bugs. They fell to the ground before Milliped ate them all.

If the arts of nurturing gu really did exist, then Milliped was the king of gu. These poisonous bugs were nowhere close to him. Even when weakened, Milliped was still a Daemon General after all. All he needed was time, and he would definitely be able to recover his original strength.

Li Qingshan finally made up his mind. Afterwards, he began to catch the butterflies in the dark cavern.

Three days later, just as Li Qingshan was scooping up the plants in the water, he suddenly heard a daemon soldier report, “Leader, there’s bad news. The Daemon General to the west is killing his way over.”

Following that, another daemon soldier rushed over. “The east too!”

“And the south.” “The north is no different.”

Li Qingshan straightened himself up calmly. It was so soon.

The dens of these daemons were located near the boundary between Milliped’s territory and the other Daemon Generals’. They had been on the constant look out for the activity of the surrounding Daemon Generals recently.

Li Qingshan hauled up the last handful of aquatic plants and returned to Milliped’s dwelling. A lot of the fluttering, blue butterflies were now missing, and the beautiful sea of flowers was now dimmer.

He had already picked all of the mature Blue Butterfly flowers that could be used for refining pills and stored them in a jade box in his hundred treasures pouch. Or more accurately, he and Xiao An had already swept through and collected all the mature spiritual herbs in the territory.

Collecting these spiritual herbs had not been as simple as he imagined it to be. Many of them required special tools and placed emphasis on how they were collected. For example, the Blue Butterfly flowers would definitely lose their efficacy if they were directly picked by hand. They required a special set of gold, silk gloves to be worn. Fortunately, there were plenty of tools in these hundred treasures pouches.

The daemon soldiers had all gathered before the stone platform now. Every single one of them was nervous and uneasy. Although they were afraid of disobeying Li Qingshan’s orders as the leader, fighting other daemons was different from fighting humans. This matter involved Daemon Generals. They did not possess a Daemon General, so defeat was basically guaranteed.

Li Qingshan glanced past the daemons and the restless group settled down, quietly waiting for his command. Through the various trials, Li Qingshan had gradually developed a heavy, composed bearing like a mountain. Gradually, he no longer led the daemons through just his own strength and the benefits that he could provide to them.

“Everyone, we are currently under attack from Daemon Generals in all directions. They’ve come to take this land. Great king Milliped is injured, while I don’t possess the power to stop them. The vice leader and I will be temporarily leaving with great king Milliped, heading for somewhere where he can heal in peace.”

He did not hide it, nor did he lie. Li Qingshan was honest, speaking his mind.

“Croak, croak. Leader, where are you going? What are we supposed to do?” asked the ice frog as it leapt around.

“All you have to do is wait here for their demands to surrender. Though, you have to remember to stay united. No matter who takes over this territory, they will all require your strength.”

There were principles among the underground daemons too. As long as they did not revolt out of desperation, Daemon Generals would not kill daemons. However, the encroaching forces would definitely affect the benefits that they could derive from the land. However, as long as they could remain united, they would be important figures that could affect how the territory would be divided up later.

The daemons had already tasted the benefits of unity. As it turned out, they would often hear about a few daemons being slaughtered in their dens every Herb Gathering ceremony, but this time, only a few weaker daemonic beasts had died. There was even delicious food for them. They became rather reluctant to see Li Qingshan leave.

Li Qingshan made his way out of the cavern with Xiao An. The daemons parted to form a path for him.

Milliped was sleeping in the bug pouch. After losing his daemon core, his instincts gained a greater grip over him. He could still eat and sleep like before, and he was not mentally affected at all. If Li Qingshan had suddenly lost his daemon core instead, resulting in a plummet in strength, he would definitely become overcome with dismay. He could only sigh over how a foolish daemon had a fool’s luck.

“Are you going to return?”

When Li Qingshan reached the entrance of the cave, the boulder viper could not help but ask. This was also the question that the daemons all wanted to know.

“Of course. Very soon. Just wait.”

Li Qingshan waved his hand without looking back, alarming a blue light butterfly that fluttered before him gently. It was slightly dim, but still so dreamily beautiful.

Li Qingshan had only collected the more mature spiritual herbs. He did not touch the younger ones, and most of the time, he only harvested them, without touching their roots, as he would return sooner or later. He would claim this territory for Milliped and for himself.