Chapter 211: 211
The blackwater salamander had been curious about what kind of daemon Li Qingshan was supposed to be a long time ago .
Li Qingshan said, “You’re a thing!” He punched down with his fist . Although the blackwater salamander was exhausted, it was not stupid . It dodged quickly .
Li Qingshan shot a glare at him . “How dare you dodge when the leader is hitting you? Do you still want to live or not?”
Xiao An’s two skulls pressed over threateningly . With no other choice, the blackwater salamander made his way back over and let Li Qingshan hit him .
Li Qingshan let out a sigh of relief and sat down on the spot . He looked at the first daemon soldier under his command in satisfaction . He had never thought he would end up becoming a leader among daemons before he even managed to become a Black Wolf commander . Moreover, he was one that led some of the strongest daemons out there .
According to the standard of human Qi Practitioners, the blackwater salamander was around the ninth or tenth layer . It was quite close to Daemon General now .
If Li Qingshan’s strength as a daemon was measured using the standard of Qi Practitioners, it would be rather impressive if he managed to reach the seventh or eighth layer . He was still very far away from Daemon General . There was nothing he could do about it . Cultivating as a daemon took up tremendous amounts of time in the first place . Those pills had already been of great help to him to be able to reach his current strength so quickly .
His three powerful abilities were the only reason for his victory .
Now that there was no danger, the blackwater salamander settled down to rest as well . It glanced at Xiao An carefully before asking, “Leader, Milliped…”
Li Qingshan corrected, “Call him great king . ”
The blackwater salamander continued, “Why has great king Milliped sent you to beat me up?”
Li Qingshan said, “It’s not just you . I’ll be beating up all the daemons underground . I’ll spare them if they yield, but if they don’t, I’ll beat them all to death . ”
Although the blackwater salamander was not the strongest daemon in this region, it was the daemon that was the most difficult to handle . Even Milliped was reluctant to venture into its waters . Even if he did, subduing him would still be very difficult . That was why Li Qingshan decided on him as his first target .
The blackwater salamander looked at Xiao An . “Leader, who’s this?”
Li Qingshan said, “That’s the vice leader!”
The flames in Xiao An’s eye sockets surged . She had actually become the vice leader .
Li Qingshan asked, “Do you know where great king Milliped’s dwelling is?”
“I do, I do!” Probably all the daemons in this region that had some intelligence knew where it was .
He was not satisfied with just beating up these daemons and making them submit to him . His primary objective was still to turn them into a combat force that he could control . As a result, he came up with a daemon’s gathering with Milliped, where he would summon all the daemons who had condensed daemon cores .
The blackwater salamander could only agree helplessly .
Li Qingshan thought of something . He took out an uneaten roasted chicken from his hundred treasures pouch and tossed it to the blackwater salamander .
The blackwater salamander ate it in a single gulp . The various spices, and the taste of salt in particular, permeated its mouth . It swam around Li Qingshan excitedly and stared right at him . “Leader, is there anymore?”
Li Qingshan thought, Just as I had expected . Although the underground was like a great treasure trove, possessing spiritual veins and various spiritual herbs, it could never match the abundance of food available on the surface . Even a Daemon General like Milliped could not eat whatever he wanted, let alone regular daemons .
He only needed to absorb the spiritual qi of the world within the black water, and he would not starve to death even if he went a decade without food . However, the instincts of creatures would never vanish . The carrot and the stick had been proven to be highly effective throughout history . Now that Li Qingshan had used it properly, it resulted in exactly what he had expected .
“Hmph, if you go when the time comes, there’ll be as much as you want!”
“I’ll definitely go! I’ll definitely go!” The blackwater salamander immediately became extremely eager . If he could eat such good food every single day, there would be nothing wrong with being a daemon soldier . Li Qingshan left the region with Xiao An . He ate a Hundred Grasses pill and recovered most of his daemon qi before asking Xiao An curiously, “Why did you turn back?”
Xiao An explained . As it turned out, she did it to hide her identity . There would be a time when they would return to the surface . If she remained in human form, she would be remembered by far too many creatures . It might even lead to the exposure of Li Qingshan’s identity in the future . And, in this subterranean world, a non-humanoid form was instead more convenient than a humanoid form when it came to moving about .
Li Qingshan admired Xiao An’s cautiousness . He could not be certain that the world of humans and the world of daemons never intersected . There would never be anything wrong with being a little more careful . They could communicate using their auras anyway . Xiao An’s aura consisted of the flames that surged from her body .
“Let’s go to the next place . ”
……
Outside Salt Mountain city, in the quiet garden, within the hole .
Li Qingshan looked at the daylight pouring in from above and felt dazzled . He turned around and said to Milliped, “I’ll go prepare some food and drinks for them . You can go back first!”
Milliped returned reluctantly . Li Qingshan returned to the surface with Xiao An, but they found the surroundings to be bare .
Snow covered the ground and mountains in the distance . Clearly, there had been quite a lot of snowfall during the time that they were gone .
Li Qingshan was happy . He smiled at Xiao An, who smiled back .
His punitive expedition against the daemons had been much more successful than Li Qingshan had imagined before setting out . Apart from the troublesome blackwater salamander, there were a few other powerful daemons .
One of them was a boulder viper over thirty meters in length . It was even stronger than the blackwater salamander . Its body was basically made out of rock, impermeable to regular weapons, and it hid in the soil without giving off any aura at all . Li Qingshan was almost injured by its sudden sneak attack . However, when Li Qingshan stated his intentions, the boulder viper immediately expressed its willingness to follow Milliped’s command . It would be taking part in the gathering of daemons .
The blackwater salamander looked down on Milliped due to the geographic advantage it possessed . However, even the boulder viper was not bold enough to openly confront a Daemon General .
As a result, Li Qingshan managed to recruit his second powerful daemon soldier without even whipping out the carrot and the stick . As long as the king possessed absolute strength, expeditions would always become much easier for the general .
There were a few other battles, but basically all of them were more threatening than dangerous . Of course, that was because Li Qingshan possessed sufficient strength, or who knows how many times he would have died already .
Although the strongest daemons featured Milliped’s strength, they had to probe out Li Qingshan’s strength if he was to be their leader . The boulder python had yielded so quickly because its ambush attack on Li Qingshan had failed, and a punch from Li Qingshan had cracked the rocks on its body .
Even though Li Qingshan was not confident he could achieve victory half of the time if they really did become embroiled in a battle to the death, no daemon was willing to battle other daemons of the same strength to death without a proper reason .
The world believed humans were intelligent and rational, while daemons were bloodthirsty and crazy .
That was not true . Even when wild beasts in the wilderness fought for a mate or territory, they would not battle their opponents to the death . The loser might not even suffer particularly severe injuries . Most of the time, victory would be determined through roars and demonstrations of strength .
However, humans would often gamble their lives without any regard for the sake of women and power . Even when they knew there was no chance, they would still want to try it . They would end up defeated and dead, never able to learn from their mistakes . Perhaps it would just be a small scuffle, going from a small insult to fighting . Finally, they would end up with a battle to the death over the vague concept of pride .
The only thing that existed within wild beasts was an instinct for survival . They did not have complicated emotions like humans; this aspect would not change even after becoming a daemon .
As a result, Li Qingshan had faced a group of surprisingly rational opponents .
If even powerful daemons would yield, it went without saying for the weaker ones . They basically bowed their heads the moment Li Qingshan unleashed his daemon qi; it was so simple that even Li Qingshan was left in disbelief . It only took him a single month to do all of this, far quicker than he had anticipated .
Milliped was just too slow-witted, so he could be easily ignored . He had no awareness of recruiting subordinates either, which was why he was in his current situation . Li Qingshan made up for Milliped’s lack of intelligence, immediately taking over control of his territory for him . Now, Li Qingshan had basically gained a few dozen daemon soldiers under his command, and his identity as the leader of the daemon soldiers had come true . All he had to do was wait for the gathering of daemons, where he would establish his control completely . He would be able to command these daemon soldiers around, and he would have a Daemon General as a friend .
If the Sect of Clouds and Rain still wanted to touch him, they would be seeking their own doom . As long as there were no masters who had undergone tribulations, he could deal with them no matter how many people they sent . Even if the sect master came, bold enough to venture underground, he would show the sect master the power of a carapaced Daemon General .
Thinking about the perfect future awaiting him, Li Qingshan put on the large bamboo hat and the bamboo basket again, letting Xiao An hide in there .
Although he could return to normal, he purposefully maintained his huge figure so that it would be convenient for him to move around within human society . For the sake of the gathering’s success, he needed a banquet . He would have to rely on Yu Shukuang for this .
In the Proud Sword manor, Yu Shukuang grabbed Li Qingshan’s hands excitedly . “You’ve finally returned?”
Li Qingshan saw how panicked Yu Shukuang had become . He asked in a hurry, “What happened?”
Yu Shukuang told him the whole story . Li Qingshan replied furiously, “He has gone too far . Have you contacted Hua Chenglu?”
Yu Shukuang said bitterly, “I’ve already sent the letter, but there has been no reply . ”
Li Qingshan understood that even if Hua Chenglu did something, she would not go as far as to reply to the letter and explain everything . However, this was probably much more complicated than it seemed . Even if Hua Chenglu wanted to act, the Hua family might not necessarily be willing to develop bad blood with the Green Vine mountain over a friendship between children .
He had already witnessed the unruliness and arrogance of cultivation sects from the Sect of Clouds and Rain in the past . They were even bold enough to kill Hawkwolf guards, so why would they be afraid to forcefully recruit a disciple?
Yu Shukuang asked, “What am I supposed to do? Sigh, it’s all because I’m useless!”
Li Qingshan tried to persuade him . “Don’t worry too much . At most, she’ll suffer some hardships as the disciple of someone else . She won’t be in danger . Getting her to experience the vile side of human society isn’t necessarily a bad thing . ” The Green Vine mountain was an orthodox sect after all . They were not thugs .
Yu Shukuang sighed heavily . That was true, but how could he stop worrying?
Li Qingshan was rather worried as well . He liked Yu Zijian’s straightforwardness and kindness very much . He did not wish for her to endure any abuse .