Legend of the Great Sage

“You!”

By the skin of his teeth, the Martial Chief King caught the incoming blade and stared at Li Qingshan with widened eyes. He struggled to believe that Li Qingshan could produce such a vicious swing.

Every single part of the Martial Chief King’s body was tough and indestructible like a demonic weapon, but Tiger’s Fang was even sharper and more unstoppable. It also contained the terrifying power of tremors, tearing through the Martial Chief King’s body like invisible teeth.

“Land!” Li Qingshan roared out, and the blade cut off the Martial Chief King’s right arm. Demon blood sprayed into the air. The blade continued along its path, cleaving towards his abdomen and leaving behind a horrific wound!

Tiger’s Fang had filled up with blood during that swing, so it glistened with blood-red light again. Li Qingshan flapped his wings, and the blood-red light flickered about. He launched hundreds of strands of blade aura at the same time, like flowers bursting into full bloom. Demon blood fell like rain!

A slight smile appeared on Gong Yuan’s face with this sight. Only at a time like that would he be a little more pleasing to the eye. She powered the Heart of the Abyss at the same time, giving the Martial Chief King absolutely no time to catch his breath.

The Martial Chief King was covered in a layer of pitch-black. Although he circulated his demon qi as hard as he could, he was unable to stop the invasion of the cold, which rushed right towards a crimson demon heart in his body. Under a state like this, even his mind seemed to be frozen, not just his body. His reactions became as slow as possible.

In that moment, who knew how many times Li Qingshan had swung his blade. He had completely lopped off the Martial Chief King’s arms and feet. He was covered in wounds, which was a horrific sight, and his demon qi had been weakened until it almost stopped existing. He seemed like he was on the brink of death, where he would head off to his next life with a few more swings.

But for some reason, Li Qingshan frowned and was instead overcome with a sense of unease. The spirit turtle’s predictions were rarely wrong. Would this be a final fling?

“Very impressive. It’s been a very long time since someone has injured me to such a degree. You’re very impressive, so I’ll let you die a little faster!” The Martial Chief King laughed viciously with his deep voice, which soon turned into a violent roar. The demon heart in his body seemed to cross some kind of boundary. It erupted with crimson light, forcing out the power of Ruin’s End.

This was a special ability of his demon heart. It could allow him to erupt with all of his latent power when he was heavily injured and on the brink of death, immediately pushing his strength to a whole new level. In the Demon domain, he had survived battle after battle of certain defeat through this ability, constantly overcoming bottlenecks until he became a Demon King.

The current situation seemed precarious, but it was nowhere close to even threatening his life.

Gong Yuan said, “Be careful!”

The horrific wounds on the Martial Chief King’s body suddenly spurted with black demon qi, turning into demonic weapons that hurled towards Li Qingshan.

“Quit boasting. You better watch as I butcher you right now!” Li Qingshan bellowed out. The demonic weapons surged over like a flood, filling his view, so he advanced against the flow. His eyes became tranquil and placid, allowing him to see the trajectory of every single demonic weapon. By either dodging or parrying, he flapped his wings and drifted about, like he was dancing between the weapons.

However, the weapons were far too dense, so there would be a point when he could not dodge or parry. Blood splashed from his body, but he was unfazed. He kept the weapons away from his vital points as he advanced coldly, slashing with his blade.

The blade aura roared like a blood dragon. With a clang, it halted, revealing the straight blade. It was firmly caught by a muscly arm. As it turned out, the Martial Chief King had recondensed his limbs with demon qi. This seemed to be a repeat of what had happened earlier, except Tiger’s Fang trembled and roared, but it could not break free.

This was the greatest downside of Tiger’s Fang. It had to maintain constant victory to unleash its power, which formed a snowballing advantage until it crushed the enemy. In order to block the demonic weapons from earlier, most of its blood-red light had been depleted, so its edge weakened as a result. It was no longer enough to cut through the Martial Chief King’s hand of demon qi.

The demonic weapons condensed from demon qi swarmed over again, wrapping around Li Qingshan like a meat grinder.

Li Qingshan gritted his teeth and grabbed the hilt with both hands, pushing the blade down bit by bit, right towards the Martial Chief King’s forehead.

The Martial Chief King shivered inside. He never expected him to be so vicious and determined, actually wanting to perish together. He snorted coldly. “You’re still not capable of making me perish with you!” He gripped the blade firmly with his right hand as his left hand turned into a spinning drill, plunging into Li Qingshan’s abdomen viciously.

“Then let’s try it!” Li Qingshan smiled viciously. He emitted a strand of his soul sense to power the Asura Field.

“Li Qingshan!” Gong Yuan rushed over to provide assistance, only to see a blood-red swirl spread outwards, swallowing the two of them.

In the Asura Field, Yin Qing was currently cultivating when she suddenly shivered inside. She sensed the surge of an extraordinary murderousness as if she had returned to the Asura Field and two Asura Kings were fighting to the death nearby.

Li Qingshan and the Martial Chief King fought the entire way down to the ground, ripping apart everything in the surroundings but remaining firmly locked together the entire time. They were like two vicious beasts tearing at one another, both with eyes reddened from the battle. They would rather die than relent. However, Li Qingshan was without a doubt the weaker one, losing the upper hand tremendously.

With countless demonic weapons against him, Li Qingshan’s flesh was shaved away piece by piece, like he was sentenced to slow slicing. He laughed madly as he poured all of his strength into the blade as if he was gambling whether he would split open the Martial Chief King’s head first or if the Martial Chief King would tear him apart.

To think that the nine provinces have someone like this. Even in the Demon domain, I’ve rarely come across an opponent as tenacious and vicious as him. His body is startlingly tough too, but he’s far too foolish at the end of the day, actually challenging me in destructive power. Die!

The Martial Chief King’s demon qi erupted loudly. Amidst the sounds of shattering metal, Li Qingshan’s tiger bones became riddled with cracks. He continued to smile even the moment before his skull shattered.

The Martial Chief King exhaled deeply and touched his forehead. There was a deep gash there, almost having split his head in half, followed by his entire body down below. This battle was even more difficult than he had imagined it to be. After erupting with his latent power, this was both his strongest form, as well as when his defences were the weakest!

There were plenty of people who noticed this, but not many were bold enough to meet his attacks. As such, none of them managed to escape the fate of being crushed in the end. Now, all he had to do was break through this domain and leave. Then he could kill the Merfolk and retreat back to the Demon domain to recuperate, and he would be in no more danger.

He was covered in wounds and utterly exhausted, but Yin Qing who hid in the space there actually could not find a single opportunity to assassinate him. The surging murderousness made the blood-red swirl in the sky spin, and another two Asura Commanders fell down. They caught a glimpse of the Martial Chief King and avoided him from afar. They were battle-hungry, but that did not mean they liked to throw their lives away pointlessly.

With a phoenix’s cry, the flames gathered together, and a phoenix soared through the sky. Nirvāṇa Rebirth.

The flames scattered. Li Qingshan, who had clearly been pulverised, appeared once more. He said to the Martial Chief King from above, “You’ve lost, Martial Chief King!”

The Martial Chief King suddenly raised his head and became filled with disbelief.

……

Gong Yuan happened to be holding the Asura Field in concern when Li Qingshan emerged. He was covered in wounds and in extremely poor shape, but he was brimming with energy.

“Where’s the Martial Chief King?” Gong Yuan eased up inside, but she showed none of it on her face as she asked coldly.

“Isn’t this it?” Li Qingshan raised his right hand, and sure enough, he was holding the Martial Chief King’s head, twisted with rage and dying with open eyes.

Gong Yuan gazed at Li Qingshan’s dazzling smile. His appearance resembled a child showing off his prize, actually possessing a hint of innocence, which made her heart skip a beat.

“But I still ended up letting him escape!”

Li Qingshan sighed. The Martial Chief King was even more resolute than he had imagined. He actually fled towards the blood-red swirl in the sky immediately. Although he managed to kill him in the end, his soul had escaped into the blood-red swirl. By now, he must have been reborn in the Asura realm already, becoming an asura. Given his talent, he would amount to an Asura King in the future at the very least.

However, Li Qingshan did not feel a hint of regret. Instead, he was rather eager. He prayed to the heavens, I could defeat you this time because it was rather unfair. If we fought alone, I definitely wouldn’t be your opponent. If we ever meet again in the Asura realm, let’s go for another battle!

“Idiot!” Gong Yuan said.

“Who’re you calling that?” Li Qingshan was taken aback.

“Who else could it be? Given the situation back then, you obviously should have retreated, yet you just had to rush up and suffer a beating. If you’re not an idiot, then what are you?”

“You’re the idiot. If I retreated, he would come for you. You have no idea just how vicious he was on the brink of death!” Li Qingshan objected. Despite his ox hide and tiger bones, he had still been forcefully ripped apart in the end. He studied Gong Yuan. “With how small you are, you probably won’t withstand many strikes before you’re beaten to death.”

Gong Yuan immediately became speechless.

He conveniently glanced past her perfectly-sized chest, her slender and exquisite waist, and her elegant and graceful fishtail, which made him want to cherish her. It earned him a vicious glare from Gong Yuan, and only then did he look away.

“I knew you cared about me!” Li Qingshan patted her shoulder.

Thinking about it now, it was very possible for the Martial Chief King to escape into the demon cavern if he had not dragged him into the Asura Field. He could destroy the demon cavern, but the Martial Chief King was nowhere near as large as the Thousand Tendrils King or the Corpse King from before. He was no bigger than a regular person, so he would be split into two at most by the spatial cracks, which would not be lethal. It was even possible for him to get out unscathed and escape.

Li Qingshan did not think that much when he fought. He received him with his battle instincts, using up an opportunity of Nirvāṇa Rebirth to kill the Martial Chief King.

Care? Gong Yuan shook her head gently. She refused to back down as a queen. “Since I agreed to help you, I’m obviously prepared to die in the process.”

“Don’t worry! Since I invited you here from the South sea, I can’t exactly say you’ll be in no danger at all, but no matter who it is, they’ll have to step over my corpse first!” Li Qingshan said with sincerity.

He had always remembered his debts. Right now was unlike when they waged war against the fire devourers. Their relationship back then was just collaborating partners. No one owed the other anything. If there really had been lethal danger, he obviously was not great enough to die for Gong Yuan instead. However, Gong Yuan was assisting him selflessly under the name of “friends”. His principles prevented him from letting Gong Yuan die right before him.

“I’ll collect your corpse.” The smile on the corner of Gong Yuan’s lips was fleeting.

“Alright then!” Li Qingshan shook his head. This vicious tongue sure felt like it came from the same lineage. Afterwards, he gathered all the corpses of the demonfolk and said, “You find a place to rest. I’ll head back for now.”

Li Qingshan flew away, only to discover Gong Yuan following close behind. He could not help but smile. “What, you don’t want to see me go?”

“If you were intercepted and killed along the way, how am I supposed to collect your corpse?” Gong Yuan paused. “Or if I was killed, how are you supposed to block it for me?”

“It’s not like we’re made from mud! Alright, let’s travel together then!”