Chapter 199 - Slaughtering Both
The Golden Shield talisman shattered.
The East Gate Granny’s charred face revealed a mysterious expression. She held a talisman between her skinny fingers.
“Hmm?” Li Qingshan was slightly surprised. Something was amiss.
The talisman was activated. Frigid light poured out as coldness permeated the surroundings.
Crack, crack. The frigid ice climbed up Li Qingshan’s arms from his fists, sealing up his entire body. His punch struggled forward, but it ended up stopping before the East Gate Granny’s face.
Li Qingshan’s colossal body had turned into a huge piece of ice. His expression was still one of shock. The terrifying killing intent that the East Gate Granny almost found to be suffocating had been frozen as well.
Xiao An on the side was not spared either. She was immobilised by the ice.
Li Qingshan was not the only one with trump cards.
The West Gate Granny sneered. “You’ve finally managed to bring yourself to use the supreme grade Frost Wave talisman.” She knew that the East Gate Granny possessed this trump card all along, which was why she would always go easy on her. Now that she had finally been forced to use it, she could not help but rejoice.
The East Gate Granny had just survived a life-threatening attack, but she was filled with dejection. Over the century of cultivation, who knows just how much effort it had cost her for her to end up with this supreme grade talisman. It was truly her protective talisman. Even if she killed Li Qingshan now, it probably would not be able to make up for her losses.
In hindsight, she should have never come in the first place. If that old coot could die in the trap alone, it would have been something joyous. She looked at Li Qingshan again, and her eyes were filled with resentment and bitterness. She was tempted to skin him alive and break all of his bones immediately, torturing him to death.
The West Gate Granny studied Xiao An and sighed. “It’s a pity with this kid, or we could have erased her memories and controlled her with the Heart Bewitching technique. She would be able to serve as quite a powerful weapon to our sect.”
The Frost Wave talisman did not just bound people in ice. It also froze their bodies and destroyed their meridians. It was almost equivalent to a strike from a Foundation Establishment talisman. It was impossible for them to survive.
The East Gate Granny said, “The child is very strange, so it’s not exactly bad news that she’s dead. As for this Li Qingshan, he was actually a daemon, and he actually managed to hide his daemon qi so well, even posing as a Qi Pract.i.tioner!”
In the blueish-white ice, Li Qingshan’s eyes suddenly swivelled.
The East Gate Granny was stunned. “He’s still alive! Finish him off quick, or we’ll be the ones who’ll die here today!”
The West Gate Granny was startled too. How is that possible!
Thump! Thump! Thump! Li Qingshan’s heart beat like a wardrum, becoming faster and faster. His blood vessels swelled, and his muscles bulged as he produced a soundless roar.
Crack, crack. A series of cracks stretched over the ice.
The West Gate Granny wasted no time at all. She controlled the flying needle, directly stabbing towards Li Qingshan’s heart with one hand while clutching a supreme grade talisman in the other. Suddenly, there was a burst of golden light that dazzled her eyes.
Xiao An’s frozen flesh and blood transformed into raging flames once again. She stuck a talisman to her shiny bones. It was a high grade Strength Talisman of the Guardian Kings.
A huge, golden figure burst out of the ice. It was complete with a golden sword and clear facial features. It could not be compared to the same inferior talismans from before.
At the centre of the golden man was a tiny set of shiny bones. They actually became slightly golden under the golden light, giving off a buddhist aura. It turned around and locked onto the West Gate Granny, which actually seemed like the furious glare from a guardian king.
The West Gate Granny became dazed. Her mind had been shaken, overwhelmed by the glare. She focused on practising the arts of enchantment to affect the minds of others, so her mind was obviously very powerful, yet she was actually affected now.
The Path of White Bone and Great Beauty resonated with the Strength Talisman of the Guardian Kings and unleashed unbelievable power.
Guardian kings were the protectors of buddhism. Even just a sliver of their aura was not something that Qi Pract.i.tioners could endure. Both their strength and minds would be suppressed.
The furious glare of guardian kings could subdue demons, while the downward gaze of bodhisattvas brought benevolence to the six realms.
Xiao An did not let this opportunity slip by. She rushed over to the West Gate Granny. Her white bones were emotionless, while the guardian king was furious. It raised its golden sword high into the air and swung down with enough power to purge all evil.
The threat of death allowed the West Gate Granny to return to her senses. The golden sword was only inches away now. She let out a scream and used a technique. Profound Yin true qi surged out from her body, forming a barrier. She made up her mind and also took out her supreme grade talisman. She hesitated on whether to retreat, or to activate the talisman.
Swish!
The sword cut through the true qi barrier and cut off her hand that held the supreme grade talisman.
The West Gate Granny clutched her severed arm as she shrieked and retreated. She wanted to use her true qi to retrieve the talisman, but the guardian king grabbed it instead, turning it into a futile attempt. The guardian king launched a second slash.
She immediately became afraid to remain there for even a moment longer. She used a technique that could increase her speed and rushed out of the cave, but when she looked up, she discovered that the East Gate Granny had already fled ahead of her. She could not help but curse inside.
All of this happened in a single moment. Boom, the ice exploded, and Li Qingshan emerged. He called out, “Where do you think you’re going?” He took a step forward, and the Ox Demon Tramples followed.
A crack spread from the bottom of his feet and rapidly approached the East Gate Granny. However, she was not the target.
Dust was thrown into the air as the cave collapsed. The cavern was completely sealed off now.
The East Gate Granny had only just turned around, yet this all happened before she could even say anything!
The sound waves and wind blades emitted from the Tiger Demon’s Killing Roar swept over and slammed her against the wall. Before she had even slid down to the ground, Li Qingshan caught up and threw a punch at her.
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“Black Clay Vortex!” The East Gate Granny actually still managed to use a technique despite the current situation. It nullified most of the power, but it still made her spurt blood.
However, Li Qingshan launched over a hundred punches in a single moment. He collapsed the Black Clay Vortex and punched her into the wall, turning her to pulp.
Li Qingshan suddenly turned around. Xiao An was currently chasing the West Gate Granny around everywhere. The West Gate Granny actually managed to pierce the golden figure with her flying needle, but she was unable to harm Xiao An’s forged bones at all.
The West Gate Granny abruptly felt a set of scarlet eyes lock onto her. The colossal body rapidly approached her with the shade of death. She could not help but despair.
Even without Xiao An’s extraordinary performance, Li Qingshan still possessed absolute confidence as long as they outnumbered the enemy two-to-one. He took advantage of the moment when the West Gate Granny was unable to dodge due to Xiao An and scooped her up. He grabbed her in his hands and crushed down forcefully. Her protective true qi shattered, and the West Gate Granny followed in the steps of the East Gate Granny. She could not even let out a shriek. She was simply crushed to a pulp.
Li Qingshan let out a small exhale and smiled resplendently. He had won this fight!
As his daemon qi was water elemented, the supreme grade Frost Wave talisman did not hurt him too much, but even with that, he suffered from frostbite across his body. If it had been a different talisman, he might have been in danger.
He had made quite a few mistakes in this battle. First, he had failed to gauge the power of the Cursive Sword Calligraphy correctly. Otherwise, if he had incorporated it into his plan properly, he should have been able to heavily injure or even kill the East Gate Granny.
He had also underestimated the wondrous effects the Strength Talisman of the Guardian Kings had on Xiao An. Of course, there was no need for him to be so fixated on perfection. Li Qingshan had been constantly learning about fighting during the battle.
In comparison to him, the West Gate Granny and the East Gate Granny made many more mistakes. If they had been prepared at the very beginning and used their full strength instead of trying to toy with them, Li Qingshan’s chances of victory would have been reduced to fifty percent at the very least.
It was exactly because of their careless and arrogant mindset that Li Qingshan had managed to get the first strike. They did not cooperate with each other at all. Instead, they faced the constant attacks frantically. Their ultimate defeat had basically been determined from the very beginning.
However, would there be any ninth layer Qi Pract.i.tioners who would take a third layer Qi Pract.i.tioner seriously? His greatest weapon was not the Cursive Sword Calligraphy, nor was it the Strength Talisman of the Guardian Kings, but his weak, outward appearance. No matter when, he would always be able to catch his opponent off guard and get the first strike, claiming an advantage.
The flames devoured the corpses of the West Gate Granny and the East Gate Granny before returning to Xiao An. Afterwards, it gradually condensed into a body of flesh and blood, which smiled towards Li Qingshan sweetly. She offered up the two hundred treasures pouch, the two high grade spiritual artifacts, and the supreme grade talisman.
Li Qingshan returned to human form and opened the hundred treasures pouch to take a look. He was surprised. He had never seen such a large s.p.a.ce before, and there were countless pills, spiritual stones, talismans, and cultivation methods.
However, there was not a single Qi Gathering pill at all. Instead, their pouches contained something called Qi Ama.s.sing pills. They were slightly worse than Pearl dew pills, but they were ten times as powerful as Qi Gathering pills, and there were very few impurities within them. They amounted to a thousand in total, while the other pills amounted to several dozen as well.
The items that surprised Li Qingshan the most were two embroidered boxes covered in inscriptions. They held two faint, purple pills that gave off a special fragrance. The embroidered box was clearly to prevent the pills from losing their effects.
Li Qingshan was afraid of looking at them for too long, so he closed the boxes in a hurry. Since ninth layer Qi Pract.i.tioners treated them with so much care, they definitely were not something ordinary. He had to carefully investigate the names of these pills when he had the chance.
Apart from the two or three high grade talismans that Li Qingshan paid some attention to, the rest were not worth mentioning. There were only two spiritual artifacts, but a single grade was enough to increase the value of a spiritual artifact by at least ten times over. Just the value of the high grade scarlet needle and spiritual comb had exceeded the total value of all the spiritual artifacts he had obtained so far, apart from the Cursive Sword Calligraphy.
Aside from those, there were very few spiritual stones as well, just a few dozen. They must have spent all of their wealth on their supreme grade talisman, the high grade spiritual artifact, and the purple pill.
Li Qingshan scooped up Xiao An and rubbed her hair. He smiled. “We’re rich!” He split the two hundred treasures pouches between them.
Xiao An said, We’re rich!”
Li Qingshan took out ten Hundred Gra.s.ses pills and meditated on the spot for a while so that his true qi and daemon qi returned to peak condition. Only then did he draw the Wind-entwining blade and dig his way out again. He arrived outside with Xiao An, but when he noticed Qian Rongzhi seated in the open nearby, he could not help but be slightly surprised. “You haven’t left?”
Qian Rongzhi smiled. “I still haven’t received my share, so how could I just leave?” She appeared to be calm and composed, but she had actually been nervous the entire time. Only now did she ease up. She was now even more surprised by Li Qingshan’s strength. He had actually managed to kill two ninth layer Qi Pract.i.tioners.
The cultivation methods of the Sect of Clouds and Rain focused on bewitching the mind of the enemy and was not exactly battle-oriented, but the strength of ninth layer Qi Pract.i.tioners was still a great deal. Li Qingshan became more and more mysterious and unfathomable in her eyes.
Then she looked at Xiao An beside him. She also seemed to be filled with mystery. She could not help but sigh. That child is still just so pure!
Xiao An saw Qian Rongzhi look at her, so she smiled bashfully. “h.e.l.lo!”