"Don't tell me you're the former lord of the Proud Sword manor? I've heard a lot about you!"
Liu Hong was surprised. In the past, the Proud Sword manor possessed some renown in the jianghu, but it was rumored that the lord had vanished afterwards, and the Proud Sword manor declined. He never thought it would become such a powerful Qi Practitioner.
"That was a very long time ago. I never thought someone would still remember it!" Yu Shukuang laughed aloud as his full beard trembled. "Please wait a moment. We can't leave these corpses for that wretched daemon!"
He waved his right hand and true qi surged, gathering the corpses into a pile. They were still alive just a moment ago, yet they had been reduced to such a state. The bloody sight made Liu Hong feel rather nauseous.
A ball of fire flew out from Yu Shukuang's hand and landed on the pile of corpses. They were reduced to ashes in the blink of an eye.
Wang Lei suddenly burst into tears. As it turned out, he had brought his entire family with him when he came to the Clear River prefecture. Originally, he had taken care of his family, and they had managed to make it here after so much difficulty. In the end, they all died to the attacks of the locusts. If Liu Hong had not pushed him away, he would have been a dead man too.
Liu Hong let out a long sigh. He could not help but tear up too.
Yu Shukuang had already grown accustomed to this. Ever since the locust plague, who knew how many people had died to the insects. It was already quite rare for their corpses to be left behind for cremation.
"This place has already been reduced to a wasteland since a year ago. Even regular locusts are rare, yet two locusts daemons have actually appeared. How strange!"
"The wretched daemon seems to recognise Li Qingshan …" Huang Binghu hesitated before describing how he had conversed with the Gu Daemon.
"Li Qingshan!" Yu Shukuang was taken aback. His path of cultivation had a lot to do with Li Qingshan. He said seriously, "I know a thing or two about this. The Soaring Locust King was originally suppressed in the Demon Suppression hall of the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga. Afterwards, it bewitched an eminent monk and escaped somehow. I've never heard that it's connected to Li Qingshan. Based on the current situation, I'm afraid it's not gratitude, but enmity. This is troublesome. "
Huang Binghu's expression darkened. Based on the speed at which the locust demon was growing, it was more than enough to deal with them. Now that it had summoned another locust demon, it was clear that it was determined to capture them. Moreover, it was not in a hurry to kill them. Instead, it wanted to keep them alive to slowly torture them. No matter how he looked at it, the locust demon's hatred for them ran deep. It did not feel good to be targeted by a Daemon King.
"Alright, let's get on the boat first!"
Yu Shukuang led the lucky survivors to the ferry crossing. Sure enough, there was a dragon ship waiting there. It could accommodate two or three hundred people, but less than a tenth of the people had boarded right now.
As the sun rose in the east, the dragon boat set sail and went downstream.
Yu Shukuang leaned on his sword as he stood on the deck. His scarlet clothes ruffled in the wind as the scenery on the two banks rapidly receded.
"Fellow Daoist Yu, is there anyone else to help?" Huang Binghu walked out of the cabin, his severed arm already reattached.
"Isn't having me enough?" Yu Shukuang laughed.
"That's not what I meant," Huang Binghu said in a hurry.
"I'm just joking. There's no need to be so nervous. I've also been considering whether I should ask for reinforcements or not. For the sake of the locust plague right now, no cultivator can afford to be idle. The higher one's cultivation is, the more trouble there will be. Otherwise, school leader Li would not have sent me here. He would have come personally."
"I understand that. However, if the Soaring Locust King sends even more powerful locusts, then the entire ship will be in danger of dying!"
Yu Shukuang nodded. He touched the scarlet bronze tablet on his waist and secretly made up his mind. "Is your arm fine?"
"It's fine now, but I won't be able to use a bow for a very long time. Hopefully, it's not for the rest of my life."
"When we get to the prefectural city, we can ask a disciple of the school of Medicine to take a look. There won't be any residual effects!"
The boat moved like the wind, covering a great distance in a single day. When they passed by Jiaping city, Ye Dachuan came out to take a look before returning to the cabin.
When the moon rose into the sky, the fragrance of flowers drifted over with the wind. Yu Shukuang's face lit up. He clasped his hands. "Greetings, commander Hua!"
"Dispense with the formalities." A beautiful figure landed gracefully on the front of the boat. She asked gently, "You said the Soaring Locust King is attacking you because you know Li Qingshan?"
"Yes." Yu Shukuang also found this reason to be rather forced, nor did he expect commander Hua to rush over immediately.
In the cabin, Huang Binghu and Liu Hong had been tense the entire time. They immediately rushed over when they heard the disturbance. All they saw was Yu Shukuang reporting to a woman politely. The faint fragrance of flowers lingered in the air. Even the wind from the river failed to disperse it.
The woman's facial features were picturesque, her figure graceful, and her bearing elegant. She seemed like a flower fairy that had descended, but she possessed a natural sense of dignity. She wore the uniform of a Scarlet Hawk commander.
The woman glanced past them. Huang Binghu and Liu Hong both lowered their heads and bowed. They were both relieved, feeling like their lives were finally secured. She asked, "You're both from Qingyang city. Do you know Li Qingshan?"
Liu Hong and Huang Binghu both mentioned their connections with Li Qingshan.
"Then what a coincidence today." The woman smiled. She was extremely beautiful. Suddenly, she cast her gaze towards the depths of the night sky, and a golden flower bloomed between her fingers. Suddenly, it shot out a thin, golden streak of light, disappearing in a flash.
A locust turned into the size of a regular locust and flew through the air, tailing behind the boat from afar. They were simply too far away, such that even Yu Shukuang failed to discover them. However, it was exactly because of this that he only focused on the tiny boat that he overlooked commander Hua's arrival. Suddenly, there was a flash of golden light. Before he could even respond, he was pierced, falling out of the sky.
Only then did Yu Shukuang and the others realise that they had been tailed the entire time. They all felt lingering fear. Fortunately, they had not called for reinforcements earlier, or they really would have died a horrible death if the even stronger locust attacked.
"Now, we'll see just how deep the Soaring Locust King's hatred runs!"
'Commander Hua' said. Although the Soaring Locust King had many clones, only a few could threaten her, and she was constantly being attacked from all sides. It was not necessarily necessary for her to muster such a large force out of hatred.
As the river flowed, her emotions fluctuated slightly. She gazed at the bright moon and thought, "Big brother Li, are you alright?"
They did not come across any more danger during the rest of the journey. The boat approached Clear River city smoothly.
Everyone arrived on the deck. The city was brightly lit under the night sky, reflected in the water of the Clear River. The hustle and bustle carried over with the night wind, displaying a long-awaited liveliness. Finally, it was no longer a desolate sight, which roused everyone's spirits.
Before Yu Shukuang and the others could celebrate, 'commander Hua' suddenly looked back. All they saw was a black cloud rising up from the horizon. It was a cloud composed of millions of locusts. There were countless clones of the Soaring Locust King with daemon qi as well. They lunged towards the boat and Clear River city with an aura that could devour everything!
This was the true plague of locusts. Before this devastating disaster, Yu Shukuang and the others all changed in shock.
Alarm bells rang out in the prefectural city of Clear River, ringing in everyone's hearts!
"Hmm? What heavy daemon qi up ahead!"
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