Hua Chengzan sat with his legs crossed. Li Qingshan stood behind him, pressing down on both of his shoulders. The figures of the spirit turtle and the phoenix appeared and replaced one another, sometimes deep and serene, sometimes rising with glorious light. He illuminated the back of Great Buddha mountain.
Hua Chengzan felt like he was submerged in the deep ocean at times, his mind extremely peaceful as he avoided all disasters and pain—the remaining influence of the demonic seed thinned out and faded away in the lengthy passage of time.
At other times, he felt like he rose up in the air, straight into the clouds. He was filled with a desire for eternal life—a scorching yet harmless flame rose up in his heart, circulating through his body with his blood and healing his wounds.
The Unraging monk, Gu Yanying, and Duoge watched on from the sides. They were all amazed.
Li Qingshan’s eyes were deep and serene like the deep ocean. At the same time, his bearing was noble and unapproachable like he had become someone completely different, or more accurately, he had become a “god”. The phoenix and spirit turtle were both naturally born as gods. They were completely free of any vulgar and secular thoughts. They were life forms that were completely different from regular humans and daemons.
If it weren’t for the disturbance of the demonic thoughts, he would be like this!
The Unraging monk sighed inside. For the first time in his life, he felt like possessing some demonic thoughts was not exactly a bad thing. At least it added some humanity.
Although the life pursuit of all cultivators was to become “inhuman”, they would always feel a reluctance to abandon their “humanity” the moment before they actually became buddhas or immortals.
Gradually, the still water and scorching flames merged together as one. As Li Qingshan healed Hua Chengzan, he also practised the various powers within him.
The Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression had the wondrous effect of calming the soul, but if he only used that one power, it would drastically change Hua Chengzan’s personality, or even make him become lost in the “deep sea” forever. It was like how the power of Ruin’s End influenced Gong Yuan. As a result, he needed to use the Phoenix’s Scripture of Nirvā?a to neutralise it, to incite his rising passion and free him from the “deep sea”, as well as to heal his wounds.
This lasted for three whole days and nights.
Li Qingshan exhaled and drew back his hands. He had completely familiarised himself with the brand-new power, paving a foundation for the fifth layer of the Phoenix’s Scripture of Nirvā?a.
Hua Chengzan opened his eyes slowly. At first, they were rather lost as if they had been split into two. One half was slumbering in the deep ocean, while the other half was soaring through the sky. Only quite a while later did the two perspectives gradually overlap, returning to “Hua Chengzan’s” perspective. However, he gained a new understanding about various things in the world.
His cultivation had not been recovered immediately, but his mind was calm and clear, and his body was filled with vitality. With that as a foundation, recovering his cultivation was merely a matter of time. He could even climb higher than before. Influenced by the divine natures of the phoenix and the spirit turtle, it made him seem a little more unblemished on top of his already extraordinary grace and handsomeness, enough to make any woman’s heart flutter, but she still remained an exception.
Gu Yanying asked with a smile, “Little Hua, how do you feel?”
“Can anything still go wrong if I’m the one behind it?” However, even Li Qingshan struggled a little to guess Hua Chengzan’s changes. After all, even though the phoenix and spirit turtle’s divine natures conflicted, they were still divine natures after all. There was no ox demon or tiger demon to balance them out.
“I’ve never been better. Qingshan, your world is much more fascinating than I imagined!” Hua Chengzan looked back and smiled.
“Actually, this isn’t the most fascinating part.” Li Qingshan stopped worrying and grinned. His countenance returned to normal. His eyes were dark and bright, but not deep, while his bearing was not exactly noble either.
“Really?” Hua Chengzan was rather curious.
“Though, it’s best if you don’t experience the other part.”
Li Qingshan patted him on the shoulder. No matter how great the influence of the divine natures were, it could not result in anything bad, but the demonic natures were different. Neither stubbornness nor battle-hungriness were exactly good ideas.
Hua Chengzan bowed in gratitude, but Li Qingshan grabbed him by the hand to stop him. “Speaking of which, I haven’t thanked you either!”
“If you hadn’t gone as far as to expose your identity back then and save me, I would have died a long time ago. What I said in the grand hall has already become a source of great guilt for me. If you don’t accept this, I really can’t get any peace of mind.”
“You were just influenced by the demonic seed. What guilt is there supposed to be?” Li Qingshan disagreed.
“The growth of the demonic seed happened because of my wicked thoughts.” Hua Chengzan shook his head.
“Yeah, if you think like that, then you don’t have to be afraid about falling into the demonic path. The difference between buddhism and the demonic is just a single whim. With eminent monks, they never have any wicked thoughts, so even if they have a demonic seed within their hearts, it’ll only wither away with time. I think you are endowed with a root of wisdom, so why don’t you undergo tonsure and join our Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga instead?” the Unraging monk said suddenly.
“This…” Hua Chengzan was taken aback slightly. “Thank you for your graces, Unraging master, but I’ve already gone down the path of the sword, so perhaps not.”
“Oh right, speaking of the path of the sword, I’ll pass this onto you as well.” Li Qingshan pressed down on the top of Hua Chengzan’s head and passed all of the variations within the Sword Collection Manual of Heaven and Earth to him.
Quite a while later, Hua Chengzan roused from the complicated, varying sword moves, except his head still felt like it was about to split open. He smiled wryly. “Let me prepare myself first at least!”
“Haha, who ever worries about choking when you have a table of delicacies before you? As for your cultivation, I think it’s best if you recover it yourself.”
“That goes without saying. Could you send me off?”
“To where?”
“The Clear River prefecture.”
“Now is not a good time. The Soaring Locust King has gathered all of his swarms there. It’s quite a frightening sight.”
At this moment, Li Qingshan used his clone to watch over the prefecture, protecting Ru Xin as she continued to spread the plague among the insects. However, the effect was nowhere near as great as with the regular locusts. The clouds of insects formed one single unit under the lead of a powerful cluster of daemon qi like a dark cloud that never dispersed. They gave off a rhythmic buzz like continuous claps of thunder deafening everyone nearby.
Under the effects of the plague, tens of thousands of locusts died at every moment. They even constantly devoured one another to maintain their existence. However, it did not even leave a scratch in the existing population. Even Li Qingshan, who had witnessed plenty of grand sights, was slightly shocked. The Soaring Locust King’s resolve was enough to make him frown.
“That’s only more reason to go back. My entire family is there. Oh right, Qiongzhi… is still waiting for you!”
“I know. It’s time to go back.” Li Qingshan nodded.
“Qingshan, it’s all up to you.” The Unraging monk reminded him.
“Leave it all to me!” Li Qingshan said confidently.
“You take care as well, master. The Soaring Locust King probably hates you no less than the Golden Cicada Spirit King. Perhaps he’s already colluding with the Demon domain and wants to destroy the Demon Suppression hall. We can’t be so sure that he hasn’t created such a great disturbance as merely a diversion. Even now, the whereabouts of the grandmaster from the school of Agriculture is still unknown. There’s something fishy about this,” said Gu Yanying.
“Thank you for your reminder, commander Gu.” I’m also worried about that. I’ve already reported this to my senior brother, the abbot. Before the dust settles, I won’t take a single step away from Great Buddha mountain. If the Soaring Locust King comes alone, he probably won’t get anything out of that!”
The three of them bade farewell to the Unraging monk. Li Qingshan and Hua Chengzan travelled to the Clear River prefecture, while Gu Yanying returned to the Waterside Pavilion of Listening Wind. She had no interest in partaking in this slaughter.
Li Qingshan arrived at Han Qiongzhi’s dwelling, but he did not see her. There was only a handwritten letter on the table. Opening it up and taking a look, there was only a single message on the white paper. “Li Qingshan, you great bastard, I’m not waiting anymore.”
Li Qingshan grinned and scratched his head.
