Wang Pushi looked at this bag of spirit stones. “Captain, this… this is too precious.” His Bodhi brew didn’t even have one-tenth of its value. Gu Yanying had clearly summoned him in order to give him these spirit stones. His heart was filled was gratitude he couldn’t express with words.

Gu Yanying said, “I let you take it, so take it. It’s not like I’m lacking this little spirit stones!” Then she told Hua Chengzan, “Little Hua, what you’re missing right now isn’t spirit stone. Don’t only tell other people to use the time they spend on bullying kids on training instead. You also go easy on sowing your wild oats around and spend more time on cultivation. Out of my eighteen subordinate captains, you’re the only one with a cultivation still at the qi refining stage. You have to know that you’ll end up as a mortal if you can’t pass through a heavenly tribulation and establish your dao’s foundation.”

Li Qingshan thought that it was no wonder Gu Yanying had known Feng Zhang was lying. Sitting here, she’d actually clearly heard their dialogues inside the city. For an ordinary person, this would truly be a figure that resembled a god.

Hua Chengzan said smilingly: “Yes, boss Gu, I’ll certainly cultivate even if I have to risk my life and limbs.”

Gu Yanying said to Li Qingshan last, “Little brother Qingshan, I’ll give you this map. I’ll also gift you with a few words, ‘Thirty thousand miles across the Verdant province, a mere corner of the rivers and lakes.’”

Her words done, she went away through the air, her wide sleeves like an eagle spreading its wings in the wind.

That figure with white clothes brighter than snow had already vanished beyond the horizon before Li Qingshan could return to his senses.

It turned out you could really fly!

His mouth repeated the words Gu Yanying had left behind. He clearly understood in his heart there would be no more opportunity to meet in this life if he still stayed inside Suncheer City.

In this winter season, Feng Zhang was soaked from head to toes with sweat as if he’d been just fished out from the water. It looked he’d gotten away from a great catastrophe at this moment. He took a deep breath in.

Wang Pushi’s expression recovered its grimness as he immediately emitted the intense pressure of his power.

It was as if Li Qingshan suddenly discovered that this person in front of him was also an extraordinarily fearsome figure. He’d seemed ordinary like an uncle next door under Gu Yanying’s radiance that was similar to that of the stars and the moon, but as soon as Gu Yanying left, that dreadful momentum that resembled a wildfire pressed down as if it hid the sky and covered the land.

Li Qingshan instinctively felt dread and danger, as if there was an ax above his head, about to drop down the next moment. He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists. He didn’t move a single bit no matter how the aura oppressed him. The iron bones in his entire body seemed to grind with metal clangs under the gigantic pressure.

Feng Zhang knelt on the ground with a “putong.”

Wang Pushi turned his head away. He simply had no desire to look one more time at this disgraceful appearance of Feng Zhang’s. Compared to Li Qingshan, the distance was as far as between the heavens and the earth.

“Leave your wolf badge behind, get lost!”

He’d have punished Feng Zhang at most if he’d come in advance and met with the same kind of situation. But he could really not lose this face in front of Gu Yanying. The rage in his heart really reached the utter limit. This dog was actually unable to know what was good for him and dared to speak deceitful words.

Gu Yanying hadn’t said anything directly, she hadn’t seemed angry either, but she’d decided Feng Zhang’s fate with a few casual words.

“Captain!” Feng Zhang shouted in grief, as if struck by lightning.

There was a kind of feeling like “When birds are about to die, their cries are mournful1” when the voice fell in Li Qingshan’s ear. He thought: he’s just making you resign, why do you look like your parents just died, that’s not the behavior of a man.

How could he understand the meaning it had for Feng Zhang. He understood even less the difficulty of joining the Eagle Wolf Guard. Various techniques hard to spot in the martial world could be casually consulted inside the Eagle Wolf Guard’s library pavilion. Even people stronger than him would be courteous to him wherever he went. His entire family clan had gained glory thanks to this status of his. Once deprived of this status, he would merely be what men of the martial world called an “innate master.”

Wang Pushi was famous for having a heart of iron and stone however. Words he spoke were certainly impossible to change. Feng Zhang put his wolf badge on the table with a feeling of disaster that maybe even his life might be in danger. He turned his head back threw a look at Li Qingshan.

His eyes were filled with a venomous expression that said he wanted to peel his skin and sleep on it, cut his flesh and eat it. This kind of look would be enough to make an ordinary person feel ill at ease for several months. But what kind of person was Li Qingshan; he glared back with no fear and no qualms. The firmness of his will could already not be compared to how it used to be after going through so many things.

Feng Zhang was the first one to move his eyes away. He moved his feet and left in a flurry.

Wang Pushi said, “Collect it!”

Li Qingshan went forward and gathered that Verdant province map like a cherished possession. He couldn’t use this item to cultivate or kill his enemies, but it broadened the manly emotions in his chest. It let him know how vast the world was, how tiny his own existence.

But no matter how tiny his existence, there would certainly come a day he would prove a frog wouldn’t stay a frog forever. He would definitely leap out of this deep well, stretch his two wings and fly to the highest skies, to chase that silhouette too distant to reach.

This experience not only hadn’t broken his confidence, it strengthened his ambition instead, made his heart grander, set down an even loftier goal for him.

Hua Chengzan smiled to the side without breathing a word. There were only the three words “ignorance is fearlessness” in his heart. There will certainly be a day when you understand just how far the distance between you and her is, so far that no amount of fortuitous adventure, innate talent, or painstaking efforts can make up for it. You won’t be able to go one step nearer no matter how you chase her.

“There’s also this.” Wang Pushi threw a look at the wolf badge.

Li Qingshan froze blankly a moment. He took up the wolf badge. A gust of cool air penetrated inside his palm, and he felt a pleasurable comfort all over his body.

This item was forged from dark icy iron. It was able to calm the mind, and allowed the wearer to train with half the effort for twice the effect, also helping them to prevent any deviation from the rightful path of their cultivation. Other than that, it also had many wonderful secondary functions.

Li Qingshan didn’t know about this, but he still knew this item was very extraordinary. Everything had changed so fast however, it couldn’t help but make somone stand confused between laughter and tears. An hour hadn’t even gone by that he’d already become one of those Eagle Wolf guard those men of the rivers and lakes were incomparably afraid of. This was also merely due to Gu Yanying’s attitude.

Wang Pushi collected the table, furnace, and small cauldron, putting them back inside the pouch at his hips before standing up. “You’re not an Eagle Wolf guard yet, go report at Zhuo Zhibo’s place in Blessed Peace!” He took out an iron ruler and tossed it in the air. The iron ruler swelled in the wind, turning ten feet long as it floated in the sky. Wang Pushi trod on it in one step.

Hua Chengzan patted Li Qingshan’s shoulder and gave him an expression of “you’re on your own now.” He told him three words: “Run for it!”

The iron ruler broke through the air as it went away, dragging a beam of spiritual light behind.

“Hey, old Wang, wait for me!” Hua Chengzan stamped into the empty air and crossed a distance of several hundred feet in one stride, stepping on the ruler. He also disappeared in the blink of an eye into the night’s sky.

Li Qingshan had no time to marvel at those immortal means. He felt a violent burst of killing aura assault him. He recognized Feng Zhang’s twisted face at first glance as the latter charged his way like a mad dog. He decided to listen to Hua Chengzan’s suggestion for now instead of facing Feng Zhang’s frenzy head on. He used the “Tiger Demon Mountain Climb” body technique and leaped up the mountain.

A wind blade slipped through where he’d stood as soon as he jumped up. The upper half of the tall pine slowly slid down and fell on the ground with a rumble.

Li Qingshan saw this scene when he turned his head back. He was shocked inside. This was probably not only Feng Zhang’s power, but also the effect from the wind-stitching blade. The Eagle Wolf Guard’s welfare program was indeed pretty good, that wasn’t something those second or first grade masters’ miscellaneous spiritual weapons could compare to.

According to the green bull, those were simply weapons with strengthened firmness and sharpness. They could fundamentally not count as genuine spiritual devices. Every spiritual device would have a special effect. This wind-stitching blade that could send out wind blades could at least amount to a low rank spiritual weapon.

1. quote from the Analects of Confucius.