Legend of the Great Saint

Li Qingshan said, “Please make way!’ Then he squeezed past that noble son and gave a deep look at that woman who seemed like a scholar. He shook his head. She was beautiful. It would have been hard for him to earn a smile from the siren even if he it gave his all in his former life. Ah but now, his goals were much higher. He carried the small happiness of his secret dreams and casually smelled her sweet fragrance as he passed by her. Dreams were things that brought happiness.

The woman’s brows wrinkled tighter. She didn’t know what it was that made her the angriest: the smell of rouge on Li Qingshan, his absolutely unrestrained gaze, or perhaps it might well be that head shake at the end.

The noble son nearly pull his sword out, but the woman shook her head and allowed Li Qingshan to go downstairs and then leave, contempt showing in her eyes.

Li Qingshan hadn’t leaped up and immediately counterattacked like a cat with its tail stepped on, even if he had the strength to do so. He found that he could avoid quite a lot of trouble if he could but resist a little momentary anger. Of course, he wasn’t all that angry either.

However this person who avoided trouble was now going to find trouble for other people on his own initiative. He came at the foot of the restaurant and shook off the smell of rouge from his body. He’d wanted to experience it for himself, and he’d experienced it. He didn’t take it to heart in the least. He knocked on the porcelain jar at his hips. “Little An, let’s go kill some bad guys!” The reason he chose to part ways with protector Yan and the others wasn’t simply for the sake of enjoying a cup of wine with beautiful women.

A “Dong Dong” noise answered from inside the porcelain jar. Li Qingshan laughed mischievously and left in great strides toward a dark little alley. He only felt the gazes behind him thoroughly vanish after he plunged inside the darkness.

“Rong Zhi, is there any problem?”

The scholar called “Rong Zhi” said, “His gait is calm and steady. He looks to me like someone who’s practiced martial arts.”

“It’s some external martial arts at most. I’d have taught him a lesson if you didn’t stop me.”

“It’s only an insignificant person. Even killing him would merely be dirtying our hands, what need is there for that? We still better hurry with our meal. Tomorrow we have to hasten our journey and hurry a little faster to Blessed Peace City.”

“Yes, the Eagle Wolf Guard rarely recruits new guards, we can’t let this opportunity slip by.” A feverish fire ignited in the man’s eyes. As long as he could join the Eagle Wolf Guard, he would step beyond the boundaries of these rivers and lakes, becoming a man above men. He was determined to obtain this status.

“I fear it won’t be so easy. Every master within a thousand miles will be attracted to Blessed Peace this time around. Even masters at the third or fourth level of qi refining might appear. Available spots are limited, there’s bound to be a battle to the death.”

“Don’t worry, we have these talismans as trump card. We can turn the tide even if we were to encounter powerhouses.” The man was full of confidence and very quickly pushed Li Qingshan out of his mind. Indeed, he was but a mere insignificant character.

They didn’t know however that their dialogue had clearly gone into Li Qingshan’s ears. His hearing had long ago entered the level of monsters. He could listen clearly to sounds even ten miles away with a little focus.

The Eagle Wolf Guard actually began to recruit people. It might well be that Feng Zhang’s death had left a spot open. Even Wang Pushi probably didn’t think that he could have escaped from that disaster and fill in that spot! As to whether his own appearance would blot the hope of these people from the sky, that was something he naturally wouldn’t care about. He didn’t have too much time to think about it at this time either.

Because several black shadows had already blocked his way inside the small alley, crowding forward with unpleasant faces. The small city was somewhat flourishing, but there weren’t many outsiders, and even less outsiders as high-profile as Li Qingshan. The news about a young man in his teens with a great amount of money on him had spread out very quickly. He actually even dared to walk on his own into this world of darkness. It would be too unreasonable if they didn’t mug him a little.

Li Qingshan quietly said, “Our luck’s pretty good!” He knocked the jar. “Time for dinner!”

“Hand over your money!” A man pulled out a shiny dagger, but what answered him was an even brighter Cremation Blood Fire. The flames swallowed several people almost without any sound. Their fleshes and blood became pure energy that merged inside the flames.

A dot of lantern fire burned inside the darkness, illuminating a wonton booth manned by an old man. It didn’t have business but only moth hovering around. It still barely managed to survive however.

A young man came in in great strides and loudly said, “Boss, a bowl of wonton!”

“Alrighty!” The old man moved deftly. Wontons very quickly floated up and down inside clear water.

“It’s so late, why aren’t you resting yet. You should be quietly enjoying your later years at your age.” Li Qingshan started to chat and talk without much thought. The old man sighed and complained. It was nothing else than lack of piety from his children. He and his old companion lacked a reliable source of income for their livelihood; the most ordinary of pains in this world.

Li Qingshan sat beside the small booth, smiling and comforting at the same time he ate the wontons. As he sat alone in a dark corner and ate the simplest of foods facing such an old man with hardship written all over his face, he actually felt even much better than enjoying drinks with beautiful women. It was truly odd and uncanny.

“Little brother, you don’t seem like a local to me. I’ll shoot my mouth off and advise you with a few words. Hurry up and go back to the inn after you’re done eating, this place isn’t very peaceful at night.”

Li Qingshan said, “Could there be some bad guys?” Then he heard even more grumbling and complaints. Female brothel owners who forced honest girls into prostitution, unscrupulous profiteers who acted as loan sharks, gangs from the martial world terrorizing the weak with their strength. No place would be lacking in such things.

Li Qingshan listened in silence and noted them down in silence. He casually made some discreet inquiries about where those people lived. He ate four or five bowls of wonton in succession, then tossed down the silver he’d obtained from these robbers just earlier. Li Qingshan stood up and said his farewells.

“This… this is too much!” The old man cried in alarm and raised his head, looking at the shadows of a Li Qingshan already vanished from sight. A gust of nightly wind started to blow. Remembering those creepy stories he’d heard about ghosts and demons, he decided to immediately close his booth.

A monster came knocking at the door that night, like a chivalrous knight helping the weak, rooting out the strong and bringing peace to honest people.

There was no evil supernatural skills or spells in the world, only evil people. It would be great humane benevolence if one were to thoroughly kill off all the evil crafty men in this world.

Daylight wasn’t lit yet when Li Qingshan left the small city. He found a patch of wilderness and practiced the [Bull Demon Strong Fist]. His heart felt carefree after killing more than a dozen people the previous night. His fists fired out like drums, breaking through the air with loud bangs.

Little An refined the blood essence from these dozen people at the side. The Cremation Blood Fire rolled in circles around his body, transforming into every sorts of shapes, perhaps ferocious beasts or perhaps venomous snakes. In the end it actually formed into a lotus flower that carried him up as it soared in the sky and flew over the wilderness. Now it rose, now it dropped, its might outstanding. Thickets of wild weeds withered and died wherever it went, leaving a track of death on the ground behind it.

It would be as easy as pie for Little An if he wanted to kill a master at the second level of qi refining like Yan Song. Li Qingshan was both envious and admirative. His current strength wouldn’t lose to Little An in the slightest, but he couldn’t soar and fly. However, Little An was still far away from achieving the degree necessary to again form flesh and blood. The [Dao of the Beautiful Bones] was frightfully powerful, but it was difficult to cultivate. He needed even more bloody sacrifices.

Li Qingshan hadn’t gathered money and valuables with any great care during the massacre last night, but his wealth still had easily reached several dozen thousand taels. If those people had been sheep-eating wolves, then he was a wolf-eating tiger. He suddenly discovered that mundane money didn’t have much meaning anymore for qi refining warriors, because they had the strength to stand absolutely above ordinary people. Even using the lowest level of methods like robbing, they would still easily obtain a huge wealth that would be difficult for ordinary people to even hope to amass in their entire lives.

True wealth for qi refining warriors lay with those spiritual pills and spirit stones that could raise the level of cultivation. But one could imagine that these resources were certainly hoarded by powerful influences. Ordinary people would probably never hear of them during all their lives. Joining the Eagle Wolf Guard was the best choice if one wanted to come into contact with these things.

He called Little An and once again started on his way. He cared nothing about day or night on the road. He traveled when he wanted to travel and stopped when he wanted to stop. He exterminated two or three dens of bandits in passing and finally caught up to a great river three days later. He halted his steps.

This river was precisely the Clear River. It originated from Clear River City and stretched continuously for thousands of miles. One could directly reach the Clear River capital city along with it. The surface of this great river spanned across ten to twenty miles. He’d never seen such a river even adding his two lives together. His chest and mind seemed to widen when he beheld these vast gleaming waves reflecting in the sunlight.

Li Qingshan reached a great town on the riverside, called Downriver Town, which had grown from the downriver ferry crossing. It was merely a town, but it was much more bustling than even Suncheer City. Riding atop a horse, he only saw the squeeze of people moving back and fro, their boiling noises filling the sky. An idea suddenly struck his mind. Could Little An immediately refine a body of fresh and blood anew if they killed all these people? He immediately shook his head. Wouldn’t he become a homicidal manic then?

There were countless boat oars on the river banks, and people walked hither and thither on the docks. It was extraordinarily bustling, and naturally there wouldn’t be a lack of passenger ships going down to the south. Li Qingshan even saw a great dragon boat as tall as a multistoried building1. There were carved verandas and painted pavilions on the boat, just like a luxurious restaurant traveling over water.

He immediately discarded the idea of renting a small boat and boarded a great dragon boat.

The scenery was best in the rooms at the top floor of the dragon boat. They were also the most expensive and actually required several thousands of taels. Li Qingshan naturally wasn’t lacking silver. He took out a few silver notes and saw a smile immediately hang on the face of the boat steward. He assigned a maid to guide Li Qingshan to a room on the top floor, and even left rather ambiguous suggestions before leaving. He could summon her no matter what needs he had.

The room was extremely expansive, it could even accommodate several dozen persons without them feeling cramped. The decorations were even more luxurious than the best hotels he’d lived in along the way. He opened the windows and looked down upon the harbor and Downriver Town, guessing at when Yan Song and the others would arrive. He saw two familiar faces on the docks however. They were precisely that pair of man and woman he’d met three days ago in the restaurant.

The man said in annoyance, “What, the rooms on the top floor are all full already, we have to live downstairs?”

The steward said embarrassed, “There’s really no way. Noble son, the second floor is also very luxurious, please just make do!” Who would lack money if they could afford several thousand taels of silver to board a ship. They wouldn’t be willing to lose face even if you were to give them several dozen thousands of taels.

The woman said, “We’ve never had the custom of making do once in our lives. May the steward please think of a way, money isn’t an issue.”

The man frowned. He raised his head and just happened to see Li Qingshan. Then man calmly smiled and said, “I’ll personally go up and discuss it with him.” The woman hesitated faintly, then nodded. She didn’t want to create trouble, but she was even less willing to live in a low level ship hold, to live under someone else’s feet. She hoped that young man would be a little tactful. If he didn’t know tact, then it’d serve him right to suffer a little so he could understand the viciousness of the human world.

1. Picture the dragon boat as something like this: