“What happened to you?” Li Qingshan said in surprise. Back then, he had saved the One Lamp monk from the Soaring Locust King, and he had even been extremely grateful. Why had he ended up like this now?
“It’s all your fault! It’s all your fault!” The One Lamp monk grabbed Li Qingshan’s wrist firmly.
“What did I do?” Li Qingshan became even more perplexed.
“Why- why did you save me!?” The One Lamp monk glared at Li Qingshan, like he was looking at an unforgivable enemy and not his saviour.
“There’s something wrong with your head!” Li Qingshan shook off his hand and gazed at the Demon Suppression statue.
“If you hadn’t saved me, the Soaring Locust King wouldn’t have escaped, and all these people wouldn’t have died…” The One Lamp monk murmured to himself.
“Oi, don’t try to deny your responsibility in this. You were the one who was deluded by the Soaring Locust King and insisted on going to the ninth floor!” Li Qingshan turned around and pointed at him in the face.
The One Lamp monk shuddered and began slamming his head against the ground. Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! “Yes, it’s all my fault. I deserve a thousand deaths!”
His face became all bloody before long, strewn with tears too. He was both miserable and pitiful.
Ever since the locust plague erupted, the One Lamp monk had been under tremendous mental pressure. He spent every single day in pain and regret. Although no one said he was responsible, he had clearly played a critical role in the Soaring Locust King’s escape.
In the very beginning, he still rushed around and fought the plague, but then a year ago…
Over five hundred kilometers from the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga stood an earthen city where wind roared. Howls rose and fell throughout the entire place as the dark cloud of insects flew in the air. A ball of fire rose into the air and incinerated all of the insects before pulling back into a lamp.
The glow from the lamp was particularly bright, burning and flickering with great instability. The One Lamp monk locked his eyebrows as his ugly face was filled with exhaustion. His steps were extraordinarily heavy and clumsy. In order to stop the locust swarms, he had basically rushed around tirelessly, completely depending on pills and spiritual stones to sustain himself. However, even that was not enough to stop the spread of the locust plague. All he could do was watch helplessly as the cities were devoured by the locusts one by one.
The scorching sun beat down on him. He pursed his dried lips and called out, “Soaring Locust King, get out here! One Lamp is right here!”
“One Lamp master, we meet again!” A burly man with dry, yellow skin emerged from around a corner, giving off dense daemon qi. He was a locust Daemon Commander. An enthusiastic smile stretched across his face, like he had come across an old friend. He even offered up something in his hand. “You want some?”
It was an arm, and there was still a string of prayer beads around the wrist. The One Lamp monk recognised the prayer beads at first glance and widened his eyes. “Junior brother One Virtue!”
“So you know each other! This bald ass bit off more than he could chew, actually mouthing off right in front of me. He thought he was you, the One Lamp master.”
“Prepare to die! The Light of the Buddha Reaches All!”
The One Lamp monk flew into a rage. He erupted with resplendent, whitish-golden light, which swallowed half the city. Even the sunlight dimmed in comparison.
The dust settled, and a black hole appeared in the ground. All of the structures there had been destroyed. However, the locust Daemon Commander stood on the edge of the hole and said, “One Lamp master, you sure are fucking bright. I have something very bright and shiny here too. I’ll give it to you!”
He tossed over a head, which rolled over to the One Lamp monk’s feet. It was “junior brother One Virtue’s” head. His eyes were wide open with regret, while his face was filled with pain and fear.
“Spear of Great Radiance!” The One Lamp monk charged at the locust Daemon Commander furiously, and streaks of whitish-golden light shot out.
The locust Daemon Commander rose up and retreated, dodging the streaks of light with ease. He let out a savage and delighted laughter.
“Come at me! Come kill me! Don’t you hate the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga? I’m a disciple of the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga, so why don’t you send your main body here?” the One Lamp monk yelled hysterically.
“Kill you? Why would I kill you? You’re my great saviour. I can’t even thank you enough! It’s all thanks to you that I could taste so many delicious things.” The locust Daemon Commander arrived behind the One Lamp monk with a flash.
。
The One Lamp monk suddenly swung his arm backwards, and the lamp oil splashed out, bursting into flames. However, the locust Daemon Commander had already taken off.
“Come down here and fight me to the death!” the One Lamp monk yelled at the sky.
“I know you want to die very much, so I’ll never kill you. I’ll keep you around as a witness so that you can witness just how I eat billions of humans and how I eat your senior and junior brothers. Hahahaha!”
Within the burning city, the One Lamp monk collapsed on his knees and sobbed away with “junior brother One Virtue’s” head in his arms.
Three days later, he returned to the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga and personally requested to enter the Demon Suppression hall as punishment. He remained there until today.
Seeing an adult man like him sobbing away, even Li Qingshan found it a little difficult to put up with. “Do you have to be like this? It’s not like you did it on purpose. Speaking of which, I didn’t do it back then to save you. Instead, it was purely because I refused to just relent like that. If he hadn’t let go, you would have been torn apart. I didn’t expect him to escape either. I really didn’t.”
Outside the Demon Suppression hall, the Dauntless monk’s face darkened. Originally, he had still been grateful to Li Qingshan for saving the One Lamp monk, but he never expected that he had no intentions of saving anyone at all. Instead, he had even prepared himself to commit murder.
“How can you be so at ease!?” the One Lamp monk asked.
“It’s not like I did anything wrong.” Li Qingshan shrugged.
“Do you know just how many people in the Green province are in misery and just how many have died to the mouths of the insects?” the One Lamp monk asked emotionally.
“It’s not like I killed them. You can say it as many times as you’d like. Even if I’m at fault, so what? If I’m at fault, then I’m at fault!” Li Qingshan said.
The One Lamp monk became speechless for a good moment. “You’re not a disciple of buddhism at all. You don’t have the slightest benevolence in you. You understand nothing!”
“Bullsh*t!” Li Qingshan immediately became infuriated. He hated it the most when others told him he knew nothing in a presumptuous manner. Even the Great Banyan Tree King who knew everything had not said something like that to him.
He grabbed the One Lamp monk by the collar and pulled him up close. A demonic glow vaguely appeared in his eyes. “You really are a piece of trash!”
Anger flashed through the One Lamp monk’s eyes. As the genius disciple of the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga with the best chance at undergoing the third heavenly tribulation, no one had ever labelled him with those three words.
“You are indeed at fault! But do you know where you are at fault? It’s because you’re too weak!”
“I’m too weak?” The One Lamp was stunned. No one had ever said that to him.
“If you weren’t so weak, you wouldn’t have become deluded by the Soaring Locust King, and you wouldn’t have set foot on the ninth floor. You’ll be able to find the Soaring Locust King and finish him off!”
Li Qingshan was very adept at finding simple answers to complicated questions. The answers might not always be correct, but they would definitely be very practical.
The One Lamp monk was stunned.
“Do you know why a demonfolk like him could place a statue here?” Li Qingshan grabbed One Lamp’s head and turned it towards the Demon Suppression statue.
“He set aside the butcher’s blade and achieved enlightenment!” The One Lamp monk responded almost instinctively. During the year-long meditation, he had also come to some understanding regarding the Demon Suppression Statuary.
“Absolutely incorrect. It’s because he was strong enough. What ‘set aside the butcher’s blade and achieved enlightenment’? It still boils down to being strong enough. Trash don’t even have a butcher’s blade to set aside. Don’t hate the Soaring Locust King. If you want something to hate, hate yourself for being too weak!”
Li Qingshan tossed aside the One Lamp monk and stared at the final Demon Suppression statue. He began comprehending the ninth layer of the Demon Suppression Statuary.
ps: 更新还有，月票拿来!
