Chapter 143 - Bountiful Returns
Chapter 143 - Bountiful Returns
Li Qingshan continued, “Alright, look. You wanted to be a good person, but you’re basically bending over backwards for slaps to the face. And then you couldn’t put up with that, so you became a bad person, basically killing everything and everyone in sight mindlessly. You couldn’t bring salvation to all living creatures, so you decided you would destroy all living creatures. If that’s not a mental disorder, what would it be? If you should comprehend this ability, then comprehend it. If you should cultivate it, then cultivate it. But don’t take it all too seriously.”
As a result, a certain powerful being beyond the Nine Heavens became labelled as someone suffering from a mental disorder.
If the black ox were present, it would have definitely chimed in with praises, not because of how impressive what Li Qingshan saw was, or how intelligent he seemed. Instead, it was the exact opposite. This all sounded slightly stupid, but contemplating the philosophy of life, the truth of the world, had never been his specialty.
He was not a wise man. He did not have great wisdom or knowledge. He was not a benevolent man either. He did not have great benevolence or great mercy.
He was a courageous man. He gave off an aura of unruliness and fearlessness. If he could not think it through, then he would just stop thinking about it. He would approach matters in whatever way that made him happy.
This was easy to say, but even great cultivators countless times more powerful than Li Qingshan could only carefully comprehend and understand the essence of an ability created by immortals and buddhas beyond the distant Nine Heavens. It was impossible for them to be like what Li Qingshan had said, “Don’t take it too seriously.”
People could not go without reverence and fear, yet those who were courageous were fearless. At the end of the day, abilities and cultivation methods would only be tools to me, existing purely for the sake of achieving what I want. This would never be reversed, where it supersedes my original goals.
Xiao An obviously treated Li Qingshan’s teachings as the gold standard. He viewed it with much greater importance than the essential ideas from the Path of White Bone and Great Beauty. Although he did feel that there was something off about Li Qingshan words, he definitely would not be wrong. Instead, either Xiao An had not thought it through, or there was something wrong with this eminent monk. However, it did clear up his messy, abstruse thoughts, preventing the ability from affecting him too much.
Probably no one would have imagined that something as wondrous as this would arise from a half-assed teacher and an ignorant student.
Li Qingshan felt rather proud of himself. Whether it be Xiao An’s talent or his intelligence, they were both extraordinary. Moreover, Xiao An was still a child, so he needed his guidance that served as a beacon.
As he said that, Li Qingshan’s stomach rumbled again. He would always become famished after a great battle. He went out and had a great meal before coming back and locking his door.
Li Qingshan calmed himself down from his excitement and took out Qian Yannian’s hundred treasures pouch. “Now let’s see what we’ve gotten in return for all of this!”
As soon as he channeled true qi into it, he could not help but gasp. The space inside was as large as a store room. This was the largest hundred treasures pouch he had obtained so far. It was even slightly larger than Zhao Liangqing’s.
Li Qingshan was worried that Zhao Liangqing’s hundred treasures pouch had been imprinted by the Sect of Clouds and Rain, so he was afraid of carrying it around with him. There was no possibility with this one, so it could replace the one he obtained from the Hawkwolf Guard.
There were various items stored in the hundred treasures pouch, forming quite an assortment.
The first thing that Li Qingshan searched for were pills.
For once, Qian Rongzhi was not lying. He took out small bottle after small bottle, placing them onto the table. Before long, the table was covered by them. The pill refining arts of the Qian family did not seem to be particularly impressive. Each Qi Gathering pill was the size of a longan at the very least, and each bottle only held three of them.
However, even with that being the case, there were over four hundred of them. This was Qian Yannian’s greatest tool to control the Qian family, but it was just easy pickings for Li Qingshan now. Just these pills were enough for him to reach a whole new level with his daemonic path.
He probably could reach the second layer with the Ox Demon’s Fist of Great Strength, and afterwards, he would be able to practise the Tiger Demon’s Fist of Bone Forging. As for the Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression, he had basically been practising it everyday, even when he practised qi. Most of the power from the Qi Gathering pills had been devoured by it. Although there was still a very long road ahead of him before he could face the first heavenly tribulation and become a Daemon General, he was travelling very swiftly towards it.
With over a hundred bottles of Qi Gathering pills placed together, Li Qingshan was overjoyed by the sight. He smiled from ear to ear like a poor man who had suddenly won the lottery. He casually took out a pill, tossed it into the air, but he did not swallow it immediately. Instead, he sucked on it like candy. The Qi Gathering pill that was refined from several dozen medicinal herbs was extremely bitter and astringent. It viciously stimulated his mouth, but Li Qingshan sucked on it like he was tasting tea. There was a certain sweetness to it.
Xiao An saw how Li Qingshan’s brows were furrowed as he smiled ear to ear before counting through the Qi Gathering pills on the table. He thought of the sight when Qian Rongzhi spoke to the corpses again.
The collection was not limited to Qi Gathering pills. There were several bottles of relatively more precious pills similar to Pearl Dew pills. They were called Hundred Herb pills and were basically a stronger version of the Qi Gathering pill. As they required even more precious herbs and had a greater requirement on the alchemist’s ability, there were not a lot of them. There were only around a dozen in total. Li Qingshan planned on saving them for important moments when he needed to break through.
Aside from that, there were other pills for strengthening vitality like Blood Invigoration pills. Clearly, the old coot Qian Yannian knew his life was coming to an end and wanted to last for a little longer.
The twenty-seven talismans exceeded all of the talismans Li Qingshan had collected so far ever since he began cultivating. Looking at the squiggly writing on the talismans, Li Qingshan only managed to recognise a small portion of them. Five of them were mid grade Lightning Summoning talismans. This daoist talisman was extremely powerful. If it were used during a lightning storm, it could even summon heavenly lightning. It had startling power to incapacitate or kill.
Even without the other talismans, if Qian Yannian used these five Lightning Summoning talismans together, he could basically kill any Qi Practitioner below the sixth layer instantly. Even sixth layer Qi Practitioners would have to be wary.
If Li Qingshan did not possess the tenacity from daemonifying, only death would await him from making trouble with Qian Yannian.
However, to Li Qingshan’s slight pity, there were not a lot of spiritual artifacts. There were only two at the low grade. Clearly, Qian Yannian was not skilled at forging artifacts, nor did he go around killing Qi Practitioners like the Hawkwolf Guard.
Out of the two low grade spiritual artifacts, one of them was a patterned, hidden blade around a foot in length. Once true qi was channeled into it, a blade five feet in length would extend out from it, becoming an extremely long sword. Li Qingshan immediately gave it to Xiao An.
The other spiritual artifact was rather special. It was a wooden buckler the size of a washbasin. When he tried channeling true qi into it, the tiny buckler suddenly expanded to the size of a pedestal. It became much heavier as well.
Li Qingshan already knew that some spiritual artifacts could transform, such as Wang Pushi’s metal baton. However, this was the first time he had obtained something like this, and it was for defence as well.
However, he found this spiritual artifact to be extremely fitting. With this, he would be able to wield a huge shield in hand and run around carelessly. If he came across an enemy, he could slam them with the shield. Just who would be able to block an attack like that?
Aside from that, the pouch contained items that ordinary people desired. The first item out of all of them was gold and silver. There were one and a half million taels of silver notes, which was slightly less than he had imagined. Qian Yannian had ruled over Ancient Wind city for all these years, yet he had not even accumulated as much wealth as Zhao Liangqing. However, with further thought, it did make sense. The Qian family was a large household, so they had a lot of people that needed to be fed. And, most of the money would probably be in the hands of the caretaker under Qian Yannian’s command.
However, there was not just money. There was a large pile of deeds for property as well. Just from a casual glance at it, he could tell that the Qian family owned most of the real estate in Ancient Wind city as well as much of the fertile land outside the city.
According to the rule, everything that a Hawkwolf guard obtained from a mission would belong to them. In a single night, Li Qingshan had become a great landowner. As he compared this to the days he spent in the cowshed, he could not help but sigh in amazement.
Originally, Li Qingshan wanted to check out Qian Yannian’s cultivation method that allowed him to emit sword qi from his nostrils, but he failed to find it. However, he was not particularly affected by this. He had contribution once he returned to the Hawkwolf Guard anyway, so he could check out their library. And, before he reached the ninth layer of the Innate Method of Practising Qi, he had no plans to change cultivation methods. He was in no hurry to find a new one.
The sounds of celebration outside continued. Gongs and drums rang through the air as firecrackers were set off. They seemed to celebrate for the entire night.
Li Qingshan smiled. He ate another Qi Gathering pill and began cultivating.
Xiao An meditated as well, sitting beside him with his legs crossed.
The morning next day, the district magistrate who had a weathered and rather miserable face, but also happened to be smiling from ear to ear, knocked on Li Qingshan’s door. When he saw Li Qingshan, he was taken aback. He had never thought that the great sir Hawkwolf guard who had destroyed the Qian family and shocked the Ancient Wind city the night before would actually be so young. He basically doubted whether he had the right person or not.
Li Qingshan said, “Sir, what’s the matter?”
The district magistrate was extremely familiar with the voice that pierced through the darkness last night. After confirming that Li Qingshan was the person he was looking for, he stated his reason for visiting.
Li Qingshan had no idea how to respond. The district magistrate wanted to parade him through the streets as a hero. He said that the hand-held carriage was already prepared downstairs. Li Qingshan obviously declined.
The district magistrate did not try to insist on it. No one would be bold enough to force someone who seemed like a vicious god like him into anything.
Li Qingshan said, “If you want to do that, you’ll be better off sending people up the mountain to clean up the remains instead. The weather is warm right now, so it might lead to diseases if you don’t.”
The district magistrate said, “Thank you for your reminder, sir. I’ve already sent people to deal with this. There’s an open pit near the Qian estate, at the bottom of the mountain to the west. I’ve tried to gather the people to move the remains there to be buried, but they all find it to be a foul job. Moreover, since it’s the remains of the people of the Qian estate, none of them want to do it.”
Li Qingshan considered it. “There should be quite a lot of gold and silverware left in the Qian estate. You can send people in to gather them and pay the people with those items. You need to deal with this today. We can’t afford any delays.”
The district magistrate was overjoyed. He agreed in a hurry as he thought to himself about how well Li Qingshan understood the common people. If Li Qingshan had not spoken, no one would have been bold enough to touch the items of the Qian estate.
Li Qingshan had another plan for all of this. After sending off the district magistrate, he said to Xiao An, “Can you really cultivate like this?”
Xiao An nodded.
Li Qingshan said, “Around how long do you have to take?”
Xiao An shook his head.
Li Qingshan said, “Alright. Then we’ll stay here for a while. It’ll be perfect for me to settle down and cultivate a little as well. Once we return to Jiaping city, it probably won’t be as peaceful as before.”
“How impressive of you, Li Qingshan!”
In the office of the Hawkwolf Guard of Jiaping city, Zhuo Zhibo held a letter in a small garden as the corner of his eyes twitched. He lost his temper and shattered the stone table with a slam of his hand.
His contact in Clear River city had responded to his letter. He finally knew everything that had happened under the lone pine tree outside Qingyang city.