Chapter 831 - The Flames of War Rise Once More
“You can just wait for the day when your strength recovers. You better not say I went back on my word.”
Li Qingshan said to Yin Qing and immediately left the Asura Field, telling Xiao An his plans. Xiao An expressed her support. “If you want this to proceed successfully, you’ll have to ask for the Great Banyan Tree King’s guidance.”
That was exactly what Li Qingshan was planning to do. He arrived beneath the great banyan tree and said, “Fellow, I have something else I need your help with.”
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“As long as it’s not sending me into battle, there’s no need to be so polite. Ask away,” the Great Banyan Tree King said jokingly. Ever since Li Qingshan returned from the Mirage sea, they had become closer to each other yet again. The Clam King of Mirage Sea undergoing the tribulation had clearly set off certain thoughts in this Daemon King of the Mist province’s mind.
However, after hearing Li Qingshan’s request, the Great Banyan Tree King fell silent for a moment. “Why are you asking this?”
“With your wisdom, haven’t you guessed it already?” Li Qingshan said.
“You and that girl sure do match each other. Both of you basically want to exterminate an entire group of people.” The Great Banyan Tree King smiled wryly.
“Surely you don’t plan on protecting the Bone Eating shamans as well! It’s not like they’re daemons. You can say they’re humans, yet they feed off humans. Perhaps if they continue to develop, they’ll become otherfolk.”
Li Qingshan’s target was the Bone Eating shamans that had chased after him in the past. Back then, he had heard there were numerous Bone Eating shaman tribes littered across the Mist province, and there was even a city of Bone Eating shamans. That was equivalent to a great group of cultivators. Bone Eating shamans were brutal and bloodthirsty in nature, so their battle intent and killing intent obviously went without saying. They must be extremely effective for strengthening the Asura Field.
On top of that, the Bone Eating shamans’ unique tradition of eating humans guaranteed they would not have any allies, so at least it would not be like stirring a hornet’s nest where the situation would completely develop out of hand in the end. They were basically perfect.
Who knew how many Bone Eating tribes there were, and they were all scattered throughout the jungle and mountains of the Mist province, so looking for them would be overly troublesome. He obviously had to ask the Great Banyan Tree King.
The Great Banyan Tree King said after a moment of consideration, “Give me a map.”
He was without a doubt breaking his principle of neutrality once again, but absolute neutrality had never existed in the first place. As a Daemon King, the Great Banyan Tree King understood his own position extremely well. Neutrality was built upon strength and balance. He was a towering tree, not a weed that swayed with the wind.
Li Qingshan immediately took out the mental map of the Mist province for the Great Banyan Tree King to indicate. A while later, specks of light littered across the surface, which even varied in brightness depending on the strength of the Bone Eating tribes.
The brightest speck was to the east of the Mist province. The Great Banyan Tree King explained with emphasis. “This is Bone Eating city, which has a Bone Eating Shaman King. Coupled with the totem of Qiongqi they worship, it’s equivalent to two great cultivators, and if they work together, they’re even more powerful than that. Definitely leave the place alone unless you are absolutely confident.”
“I see,” Li Qingshan said.
Defeating a single Myriad Poison Ancestor had already been utterly difficult, let alone two. Moreover, he had only defeated the Myriad Poison Ancestor by striking back from a defensive position. If he had attacked the Myriad Poison cult instead, death would have been guaranteed.
However, Li Qingshan was slightly tempted. If he could fight the Bone Eating Shaman King in the Asura Field, then it would net him an Asura Commander at the very least. Perhaps there would even be a chance to break through to the fifth layer of the tiger demon. He had just gained a powerful helper, the Myriad Poison Ancestor, so if he did not make use of him, it would be far too great of a pity.
He obviously had no chance in a direct confrontation, so what if he lured the Bone Eating Shaman King out of his territory? If he, Xiao An and a “Poison a.s.similating Ghost King” struck together, who knew what the outcome would be.
Li Qingshan held onto that thought. He decided to start off with the weaker ones first and take it step by step.
Then he discussed it with Xiao An before gathering the ten cave masters in the great hall at the top of Savage mountain to pa.s.s orders.
“The points on the map are Bone Eating tribes. I want you to go to these tribes right now. Heh, didn’t these Bone Eating shamans even try to eat me back then?”
Li Qingshan smiled. He remembered what he had recently told Ru Xin. “Even the debt from a glare will be paid back a hundred fold.” Now was the time for him to make it come true. Weren’t you so keen on eating me back then? It’s my turn to “eat” you now, and I’ll eat all of you.
However, there were just far too many Bone Eating tribes, basically littered across the entire Mist province randomly. If Li Qingshan were supposed to sniff them out one by one, then even if he destroyed one a day, it would take over two years. Now was the perfect time for him to use his lackeys.
“Just which tribe is bold enough to do that!? I’ll go destroy them right now!” The Gentleman of Heavenly Blubber called out loudly to express his loyalty, except he added in his heart, As long as it’s not the largest, brightest point. The existence of the Bone Eating Shaman King was not a secret.
“I’ve already annihilated the original tribe.” Li Qingshan shrugged.
“Then… the king wants us to ma.s.sacre these tribes?”
The Gentleman of Heavenly Blubber secretly clicked his tongue. He originally thought he was already vicious enough, but he was still nowhere close compared to this “King of Savages”! Just because a single Bone Eating tribe had offended him in the past, he wanted to destroy all the Bone Eating tribes across the Mist province.
“No, I want you to bring back all these Bone Eating shamans, and you’re not allowed to kill a single one!”
Li Qingshan gazed at the mental map of the Mist province. He had already begun imagining thousands, no, tens of thousands of Bone Eating shamans gathered together in the Asura Field, killing one another. His lips curled into a smile.
That made the cave master shiver. He was not satisfied with just killing them. Did he want to capture them alive before torturing them?
“My king, may I ask what is the point of this?” Yu Wufeng stood up. He did not believe Li Qingshan was a deviant like that.
“It’s for refining an artifact. Alright, this is the last issue. All the spoils this time will belong to you. Oh right, there are all totems of Qiongqi in the Bone Eating tribes. Behind the totemic murals are a skull. I just want that.”
Li Qingshan said before taking out his spoils to show to them. It was filled with intense malice and evil. Li Qingshan had no use for the evil, but the malice was very useful to him, so he might as well just collect it and look into it. Even if he came up with nothing, he could give it to Xiao An to refine. It would not be going to waste.
“Yes, sir!”
The cave masters all thought to themselves that the Bone Eating tribe was not some sect, so just what spoils could they find? They were filled with great reluctance, but none of them were bold enough to say no. Right now, they were not just bound by the Blood Oath Scroll anymore. After witnessing the Myriad Poison Ancestor’s subservience, they revered Li Qingshan from the bottom of their hearts.
After explaining the rough plan, he sat down on the throne. “Xiao An, tell them the details.”
There was a complete and detailed plan for everything, from the number of places and their locations to their strength and their allocation, to how the cave masters were supposed to strike. It was all so that they achieved the greatest efficiency.
“Yu Wufeng, you’ll be responsible for this region. Apart from these points…”
Xiao And had everything planned out already and immediately began allocating missions. She did not only take into account the Bone Eating tribes’ locations and strengths, but also the ten cave masters’ differing cultivations, abilities, and speeds too.
All of the points she sent the ten cave masters to were the dimmest and most numerous points. These Bone Eating tribes were all like the one Li Qingshan had originally destroyed. They did not have even a single person that had undergone a heavenly tribulation, which felt a little like overkill, but according to the situation Li Qingshan had described, all of the Qiongqi totems in these tribes possessed the strength of Daemon Generals. If it were the stronger tribes, perhaps the Qiongqi totems would reach Daemon Commander in strength, and these tribes would probably have formations too.
As a result, he decided to go all out to ensure absolute success and secrecy. As for the stronger tribes, Li Qingshan and Xiao An would personally take action against them. This would not actually waste time, as there were not a lot of these stronger tribes at all. By the time they had cleaned up these tribes, the ten cave masters might not necessarily be done yet.
“Ma’am Xiao An, how are we supposed to bring back these people though? Hundred treasures pouches can’t store living creatures. We can bind them together with techniques, but that will attract too much attention. How will we be able to keep it a secret?” a cave master asked with a frown.
“Yeah! Don’t tell me we’re supposed to use bug pouches or seals? That can only hold a few people though. Don’t tell me we have to take multiple trips across several tens of thousand kilometers?” another cave master added.
Artifacts that could store living creatures did exist, such as bug pouches for nurturing insects and seals for mounts, but their s.p.a.ce was extremely limited. They could not even hold a single tribe of Bone Eating shamans.
“Use sumeru rings,” Xiao An said emotionlessly. Sumeru rings and hundred treasures pouches differed in terms of quality. They could not create a domain of their own like the Asura Field, but they could store living creatures.
“But out of everyone here, no one has a sumeru ring apart from the first, second, and fifth cave masters!”
It was extremely difficult to refine sumeru rings, and to regular cultivators, a large-enough hundred treasures pouch was sufficient. Only aristocratic clans with very deep heritages would waste materials on refining sumeru rings, so they could be described as relatively precious. Meanwhile, the cultivators of the Mist province just happened to be a little poorer than those in the Green province in general.
Li Qingshan had considered this a long time ago. He pressed his hand on the stone table and moved it from left to right, leaving behind five sumeru rings. Through all these years of battle, he had basically acc.u.mulated a sizable sum of items, but finding so many sumeru rings still took him quite the effort. For the sake of this plan, Xiao An and he had both offered up their sumeru rings. The items inside had all been moved to hundred treasures pouches, and thankfully, there was the Myriad Poison Ancestor as well.
All of the cave masters had their gazes drawn over, leaving them amazed. They looked at Li Qingshan with even more reverence than before. He obviously would not be bored enough to collect sumeru rings. Behind every single sumeru ring was the death of a powerful cultivator.
“We’ll lend them to you for now, but we’re still missing two. Do you have any ideas? If you don’t fess up, you’ll be breaking the blood oath.”
Li Qingshan refused to believe that all of them would have no ideas whatsoever. Sure enough, after bringing up the blood oath, another cave master expressed that he had an arcane artifact similar to a sumeru ring that could also hold people. In the end, they pooled all the bug pouches together and dealt with this difficult problem.
“Alright, everyone set off according to the plan. I’ll be waiting for the news of your victories!” Li Qingshan waved his hand, and the ten cave masters set off under his orders.
“Let’s go too!”
Li Qingshan smiled at Xiao An. In the past, he had to worry about Savage mountain being attacked, but now, he had the Great Banyan Tree King controlling the formations and the Myriad Poison Ancestor around to deal with any potential problems. As long as it was not the King of Southern Yue, there would not be any problems at all.
ps： 求月票啊同志们！马上菊花不保啦，这个月我都这么努力了，你们于心何忍！