Chapter 452: 452
The ground cracked, and a huge boulder burst out from the earth . An invisible, terrifying power swept through the entire city in an instant . In everyone’s eyes, even the sky turned blood-red, but what was dyed red was not the sky, but their eyes . Regardless of their age or gender, their eyes all glowed red due to being filled with blood .
In the busy streets, everyone became frenzied, growling as they lunged at the people beside them . Their eyes were filled with hatred as they ground their teeth; it was like they were facing their mortal enemies .
“Oh no, the rock demon is slaughtering the city!” Sun Yi’s face changed drastically and cut down the people who lunged towards him . It was rumored that people would kill one another in madness wherever the rock demon went . He could slaughter an entire city without doing anything .
“Let’s go!” Hua Chenglu felt herself become restless and ingested a Pill of Soothing as she spoke anxiously .
Before she had even finished speaking, a voice rang out from beneath her, “To where?”
The ground began to ripple like water, and Strongboulder emerged . He stared at them with a vicious smile, like he was staring at a group of puppets . He had no intention of fighting . Killing them was easy, but Strongboulder wanted to rile up their killing intent and malice before he killed them so that he could feed off them .
Sun Yi was filled with fear, but under Strongboulder’s gaze, his fear turned into hysteric hatred and killing intent very soon . He charged towards Strongboulder .
Strongboulder threw his fist gently, and with a thud, Sun Yi’s head exploded like a watermelon, and pulp of red and white sprayed over Strongboulder . He let out a laugh . The two remaining Qi Practitioners could not withstand it any longer either and rushed over . They were ripped apart like dolls as the ground became covered by their slippery organs .
Strongboulder licked the blood on his hand and admired the slaughter that was everywhere . Only a moment had passed, but tens of thousand people had already killed one another .
In that moment, Jiaping city turned into a blood-soaked purgatory as malice radiated into the air . Strongboulder took in a deep breath and sucked in this malice, converting it into daemon qi and making his power as a Rock of Slaughter even greater .
Suddenly, Strongboulder sensed something and gazed in the direction of the district government’s office . There were still other Qi Practitioners! His hand expanded violently and plunged into the ground . A crack stretched into the distance .
However, before he could finish, the huge hand closed around him and crushed Zhou Wenbin to pulp with ease . Succeeding with the attack, the huge hand collapsed and shattered, only leaving behind a bloody mess .
Li Qingshan found this situation to be extremely troublesome; it was not because he feared Strongboulder’s power, but because protecting two Qi Practitioners in the face of this power was anything but easy . Even if he transformed, it would still be difficult, let alone under the current circumstances .
However, he could not afford to think too much about it . The streets and buildings receded around him rapidly, and he arrived on the busy street in the blink of an eye . The street was no longer noisy . It was deathly silent now . Blood formed streams as corpses were scattered everywhere . It was a chilling sight .
Only when Li Qingshan saw how Yu Zijian and Hua Chenglu were still alive did he let out a sigh of relief . He hid his aura even more carefully and slowly approached them .
Hua Chenglu continued to hold on arduously through the power of the Pill of Soothing, resisting the invading killing intent . However, she knew she was probably done for this time . Who knew how many times she had heard of the infamous rock demon already . Even Foundation Establishment cultivators could not necessarily survive before him . Zijian, looks like we’re really going to be going out on the same day .
As for Yu Zijian, she seemed to have become frightened out of her wits by the sight around her . She stood still like a statue, without moving at all .
Strongboulder let out a soft expression of surprise and looked at Yu Zijian’s face . She had not been infected by the Rock of Slaughter’s power, becoming a bloodthirsty, frenzied madmad . She did not even give off a hint of murderousness or malice .
“Why?” Yu Zijian croaked . Her memories from three years ago flooded her head . She felt like she was reliving the moment with everything going on around her, with countless living people dying horrible deaths right in front of her .
Indescribable pain filled her chest, drowning out her hatred and resentment . When she said that, tears had already begun coursing down her cheeks, as if she was asking Strongboulder, yet also asking herself .
“There’s no why . Do you hate it? If you hate it, come kill me!” Strongboulder was rather surprised . She was a mere Qi Practitioner, yet she was actually completely resistant to the Rock of Slaughter . He extended his hand at Yu Zijian and withdrew all of his power, directing it towards Yu Zijian instead . Her heart beat violently, urging her to kill .
Yu Zijian moved, but she did not charge over madly like Sun Yi and everyone else . Instead, she straightened herself out, wiped away her tears, and drew the Nine Yang sword . The noon sun seemed to flow across the blade like water as she pointed it towards this undefeatable opponent . Her gaze was sorrowful yet determined, without a hint of madness or fear .
“Interesting! It’ll be even more interesting when I kill you!” Strongboulder laughed .
There was a flash of white light, and the Nine Yang sword swung towards Strongboulder’s indestructible body . Hua Chenglu’s eyes widened . She could already see the fate when her sword snapped, and she died .
Strongboulder just spread his arms, completely neglecting the attack . Suddenly, his eyes narrowed, and he raised his arms, as if he wanted to block, but it was already too late . The Nine Yang sword landed on him, and he was sent flying like a spinning top, smashing through several dozen buildings consecutively .
Even Yu Zijian was surprised by the power of her strike, while Hua Chenglu behind her saw a large figure flash by . Before they could even return to their senses, they felt their waists tighten as the surroundings rapidly receded around them .
Li Qingshan could not bother with hiding himself anymore . He grabbed them by the waist and fled into the distance as quickly as he could . He had landed a strike on Strongboulder while he was careless, but he had failed to cause any meaningful damage . Before anything else, he had to take them to somewhere safe first .
Hua Chenglu saw a ripple of blue light, and Li Qingshan’s figure appeared . She said in surprise, “Have you been following us the entire time?” Normally, help would have never arrived so quickly, so only one explanation remained . He had been following them the entire time . If that were the case, all the dangerous situations they had encountered that turned into nothing made sense .
Li Qingshan said, “Now’s not the time to talk about that . He’s right behind us . ”Hua Chenglu turned around and took a look . With a great rumble, Strongboulder burst out of the rubble and shot into the sky like a cannonball . Before the dust had even settled, he fell back down like a meteor, shooting towards them .
Strongboulder stared at Li Qingshan with extreme fury . Due to a moment of carelessness, the human had actually managed to land a sneak attack . He radiated with murderousness like an ill omen .
In a different time and place, Li Qingshan would be very willing to fight Strongboulder to the death, but the circumstances right now were rather inappropriate . However, it was very difficult for him to escape from Strongboulder with just his cultivation as a human .
Suddenly, shimmering light filled his eyes . He had arrived above the Clear river again . Li Qingshan came up with an idea and dove headfirst into the river .
The river suddenly surged, rushing upwards with a roar . It turned into a huge dragon, opening its mouth and receiving Strongboulder with a growl .
Strongboulder completely ignored it . The water dragon ripped away at his body and smashed into him, but it failed to even leave a mark . With a wave of daemon qi, he directly rushed through the water dragon, smashing into the Clear river loudly .
Not only did the shockwave empty out that section of the river, but even the structures on the two banks were completely destroyed . He arrived on the flat riverbed and failed to find the three of them . The destroyed water dragon fell as rain before suddenly turning into mist that enveloped the region .
The mist was thick like clumps of cotton, reducing visibility to absolutely nothing . Not only did it restrict sight, but it also interfered with the sensing of aura .
“Mere trickery!” Strongboulder sneered . With a gush of his malicious aura, the mist immediately began to disperse . He vaguely made out three figures who fled into the distance . It was Li Qingshan, who carried Yu Zijian and Hua Chenglu with him .
Strongboulder leapt up and smashed viciously into Li Qingshan’s back, but when he came into contact with Li Qingshan, the three figures dispersed like mist . In the moment before, Strongboulder had clearly sensed the aura of living people from them . With a rumble, Strongboulder smashed into the ground and formed a huge crater . He became even more vexed . He had killed many Foundation Establishment cultivators before, but never had he been toyed with twice while even failing to land a single blow . With the time he had wasted, they had probably fled far away already .
Sunlight fell down from above, projecting a shadow onto Strongboulder’s face . Strongboulder suddenly raised his head and saw Li Qingshan appear, just standing beside the crater with a sword in hand and staring at him . “Are you the rock demon?”
Li Qingshan had followed the Blaststream Water Dragon with a technique of shrouding mist . Then, he used the Divine Talisman of Great Creation to turn fiction into reality, attracting Strongboulder’s attention in the opposite direction . Afterwards, he used the Invisibility technique to hide Yu Zijian and Hua Chenglu, suppressing their auras as well . He had already fled thousands of meters away in a single instant .
Hearing the rumble in the distance, Hua Chenglu calmed down . The rock demon was terrifying, but this man was extraordinarily powerful too .
But at this moment, Li Qingshan thought of something and suddenly stopped . He summoned a cloud and left it in front of them before turning around and leaving .
Hua Chenglu asked, “What are you doing?”
“I’m going off to kill the rock demon, obviously,” Li Qingshan said like it was as clear as day . Running across each other was better than actively seeking out each other . Who cared if the time was right or not? It would be fate if they ran into each other .
“Alone!?” Hua Chenglu said . The horrors of the rock demon had been deeply engraved in her heart . Even the mid Foundation Establishment One Thought master had died to his hands, while Li Qingshan was only at early Foundation Establishment . He was basically seeking his own doom if he did this .
“Of course not . ” Li Qingshan pointed out, and a streak of green light shot across the sky .
Fu Qingjin finally could not help himself any longer and interfered . Li Qingshan caught the scent of something called opportunity from all of this, so he returned to the crater . Strongboulder leapt out of the crater, lunging straight towards Li Qingshan . Suddenly, he felt a hint of danger . A stream of green light stabbed towards the back of his head .
“Fu Qingjin!” Strongboulder growled furiously . The sword qi was extremely familiar . He would know who it was even without seeing it with his eyes . He dared not treat the Green Ruins sword like any regular weapon . An armour of rock and soil suddenly erupted from his body, and the sword qi stabbed three inches deep before dispersing by itself .