Li Qingshan's heart trembled inexplicably. The illusion collapsed, and his Yin spirit escaped. It was faintly discernible and extremely weak. He quickly returned to his physical body.
Chao Tianjiao's eyes were in a trance for a moment, then she returned to Xuanwu Hall. She glanced at his face and smiled, "You're seriously injured."
Li Qingshan smiled dryly, "Thank you for your concern, senior sister."
"I'm a little worried about whether you can accept my gift in the upcoming army competition." Chao Tianjiao looked like she would let him go if he begged her.
Li Qingshan said indifferently, "I want to fight 10."
"Heh, you're really stubborn. Don't blame me if you lose face!"
"If there's nothing else, I'm leaving."
Li Qingshan was indeed stubborn. In his current weak state, he wouldn't recover without a month, but he would never wag his tail and beg Chao Tianjiao.
Chao Tianjiao waved her hand. Li Qingshan turned around and left. When he was about to walk out of the door, he suddenly heard her say, "You should be prepared to face a mad Demon Overlord! This is the opening ceremony of the army competition. You can only win and not lose, otherwise I won't spare you!"
Li Qingshan looked back at her and nodded slightly, "Thank you."
The so-called mad Demon Overlord was probably a demonic beast. Know yourself and know your enemy, and you'll never be defeated. As long as you know what the opponent is, you can make a lot of arrangements in advance. In fact, he already had some ideas now.
After Li Qingshan left, Chao Tianjiao shook her head. "Damned brat. You're still so cocky even when you're injured. I've been merciful this time, seeing as you've allowed me to pass the Coldblood Pass."
Thinking of this, her expression was a little dignified. The situation in Lengxue Pass was indeed very strange. It was not as simple as Tu Wancheng turning into a demonic beast, but a prepared and purposeful massacre. Moreover, Demon Overlords and Demon Kings were cleared in advance.
But what was the purpose of all this?
Chao Tianjiao looked up at the sky, only to see black clouds and heavy snow.
Li Qingshan left the Black Tortoise Hall but did not return directly to the Graystone Tower. Little Ann was probably concentrating on cultivating, but in his current state, he was unable to cultivate, so he simply strolled around the city.
This leisurely posture and leisurely expression, in the midst of the ferocious-looking soldiers on the street who were in a hurry. It was rather eye-catching. There were actually quite a few people who recognized him, but all of their expressions were unfriendly, and none of them came forward to greet him.
If it wasn't for Li Qingshan's identity and strength, there might have been a lot of people who came up to provoke him.
Not only had Li Qingshan offended Li Liehuo, he had also humiliated the entire Raging Inferno Army. The grudge with Chao Tianjiao. He had offended the Xuanwu Army again.
In fact, if that was all, it would not have been enough to make the ordinary soldiers so hostile towards him. On the contrary, he might have gained quite a bit of respect. After all, the strong were worshipped in the army.
But recently, he had caused the abbot Yangon to fall into a coma. He had completely become a great sinner in the eyes of the entire army.
Not only was the abbot responsible for purifying the demonic land and recording the contributions, but he also had to remove the demonic qi from the soldiers who fought in the Demon domain. Otherwise, it would be very easy for them to suffer from qi deviation or even become demonfolk.
He upheld the Pure Land Sect's philosophy of equality for all. He was easy-going and amiable, so he was extremely popular in Black Cloud City. Who knew how many people had been helped by him, especially by the soldiers at the bottom level.
As a result, Li Qingshan was now notorious. As a disciple, he was a general as soon as he joined the army, so he now had a nickname, "General Crawling on the Ground".
Li Qingshan's hearing was just too good. He could always hear countless mutterings, none of which were good. Even though he was broad-minded, he still hated them to the core.
Suddenly, he heard shouts and fighting sounds, as well as cheers and curses, which immediately dispersed the mutterings.
He was curious. After turning around a tower, he arrived at a drill ground.
There was a dense crowd of two or three thousand people, who were cheering and cursing around a ring in the middle of the drill ground.
Two soldiers were fighting fiercely on the ring: one was wearing light armor and holding a spear. The other was wearing heavy armor and holding a sword and shield.
Although they were all low-level soldiers who had not even undergone the first heavenly tribulation, they were all full of fighting spirit and murderous intent. Every time they fought, it would cause a great commotion.
"What's going on?" Li Qingshan grabbed a young soldier who was watching the show at the outermost edge.
The young soldier stared straight at the ring and said without looking back, "Are you new here? You don't even know this. This is the competition of the whole army!"
Li Qingshan said in surprise, "The competition of the whole army has already begun. Isn't it going to take half a month?"
"Sigh, you really don't know anything. The competition of the whole army will begin as soon as winter comes. "
Li Qingshan rubbed his chin. He guessed that this was probably the preliminaries, and the final half a month later would be the competition.
His guess was correct. Once winter came, the wind and snow would be fierce, and the cold would be harsh. The army was unable to advance. Apart from small-scale investigations and assassinations, they were basically in a state of truce.
An army of a million holed up in the barracks of Black Cloud City, and they were all hot-blooded, combative men. If they were not given something to do, they would definitely cause trouble. As a result, the competition of the whole army would be held as soon as winter came.
In order to inspire the soldiers' passion, not only would they be given great rewards, but their status in the army would also be directly determined.
Even the lowest-level soldiers could make an appearance in the "competition" that Li Qingshan would be participating in if they could place highly. Not only was this an honour, but if they caught the attention of a certain general, they could immediately be promoted or chosen as a personal guard. They could even obtain a cultivation method and formally set foot on the path of cultivation.
Many lucky people like that would be born every year.
And because the winter here was particularly long, basically half of the time was spent fighting demonfolk, while the other half was spent on the competition of the whole army. These were the two most important paths of promotion in the army. Although the latter often resulted in deaths, it was much safer than fighting demonfolk, so the entire army was obviously fired up with enthusiasm.
Even those who had failed could happily gamble a few rounds if they believed in their own judgement and luck. The hurried and vicious soldiers along the way were either going to watch the competition or to participate in it.
At this moment, cheers surged up like a wave, reaching for the clouds.
In the ring, the soldier with the spear seized an opening and stabbed his spear into the gap in his opponent's armour.
The young soldier's face was bright red from excitement. He could win quite a lot of this round.
Li Qingshan smiled instead. "He's lost."
Before he had even finished speaking, the soldier with the blade and shield tossed aside his podao decisively and grabbed his spear. Ignoring his injuries, he suddenly charged forward with his shield. With a bang, he knocked his opponent off the ring.
The cheers immediately died down, replaced by another cheer in the blink of an eye, like the waves behind surpassing those before.
The young soldier stamped his feet and cursed. Only then did he turn around. He was taken aback. "Sigh, why do I find you so familiar? Ah, you're crawl … "
"Crawl what?" The corner of Li Qingshan's eye twitched. The young soldier corrected himself in a hurry. "G- general."
No matter how notorious Li Qingshan's reputation was, he could not be humiliated by a low-ranking soldier. However, the young soldier only seemed to omit the word 'ground'.
Li Qingshan was furious. My low profile isn't something you can brag about. He knocked the young soldier unconscious with a knifehand strike and tossed him out of the arena. He conveniently took the metal helmet from him and put it on his head before making his way to the centre of the field.
"Son of a b * tch, what're you squeezing for?" "Those at the back, get back!"
He squeezed through the crowd amidst a series of curses and arrived below the ring. The soldier with the blade and shield had also left the ring to tend to his wounds. The ring happened to be empty, so he leapt onto it. Under everyone's gaze, he raised his arms and called out,
"Long live Li Qingshan!" To be continued.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
