Chapter 1373: Thoughts
Ruan Yaozhu fumed. It was far too obvious that Li Qingshan was teasing her. No matter how good-tempered she was, she could not allow that. If it were not for his clear and pure eyes, without any impure thoughts, she would have chased him out of the Hundred Herbs garden immediately.
Li Qingshan smiled. He was completely unconcerned. He was no longer that Li Qingshan wet behind the years who fell in love as soon as he saw a beauty. He did not develop a romantic interest towards her. He was merely joking. He had always been good at mocking and possessed a mouth that spewed foul words. Right now, he was complacent, nowhere self-conscious enough to hold back a little.
Suddenly, his chest ached, and he had been launched into the air. The nine-coloured deer had butted him away.
Li Qingshan made a flip and stood in the air, rubbing his chest. He did not become angered. He asked, “Why did you butt me?”
He actually had no chance to dodge at all. Sure enough, she had already undergone the fifth heavenly tribulation.
The nine-coloured deer was surprised as well. Originally, she wanted to teach him a small lesson, yet he was unscathed. His physique truly was tough. She raised her antlers proudly. “Hmph, nothing good can come out of a foul person!”
Ruan Yaozhu said, “Junior brother Li, you cannot talk so brashly in the future.”
Li Qingshan rubbed his head. “Understood.”
Ruan Yaozhu could not bring herself to scold him any further. She thought, He has no impure thoughts. I’ve been overthinking instead. She pointed out to him. “Do you see that hill?”
Li Qingshan nodded. The hill was not particularly large, which made him think of Crouching Ox hill. It happened to be at the centre of the Hundred Herbs garden, and there were not a lot of shrubs there. Instead, there was a towering tree. The leaves were a faint, golden colour as if they were adorned with gold. He could tell with a single glance that it was anything but ordinary.
He could not help but ask, “What is that tree?”
“That’s a Golden-leaved Bodhi tree. It can calm the mind and give inspiration. It’s most beneficial to cultivation. It’s often where I take a small rest, so go and rest under that tree.” When Ruan Yaozhu reached there, she felt slightly strange inside too.
“That’s… not really appropriate, is it?”
Li Qingshan was not a dimwit at the end of the day. That was a place akin to her bedroom. If they really were alone here, then so be it, but there were many cultivators working throughout the Hundred Herbs garden. Ever since they came here, it had already earned them many gazes. Ruan Yaozhu had shown him great kindness before, so he refused to damage her reputation.
Ruan Yaozhu grumbled again, “What’s inappropriate about that? Whenever I have seniors or juniors visiting, I receive them all there.” However, then she felt like she had said too much, like she was trying to cover up something. “I’m going to go take a look around. If you don’t want to go there, so be it.” She rode off on the nine-coloured deer.
Li Qingshan shook his head and made his way up the hill, arriving beneath the Golden-leaved Bodhi tree. He saw how the thick body of the tree was composed of multiple trunks woven together like a banyan tree.
There was a bamboo mat under the tree, with a small tea table and a tea set. The bamboo mat was verdant-green like it was new. The tea table was deep red, while the tea set was patterned like shattered ice. It was extremely simple and elegant.
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The thin shade of the tree glimmered with a faint golden colour, swaying with the breeze and shining with specks of gold.
Li Qingshan arrived beneath the tree and immediately felt his mind clear up. His head no longer hurt and even his soul sense became sharper. He simply sat down there carelessly.
He was not in a hurry to cultivate. He reflected on his various experiences ever since he arrived in the Human realm and gradually felt tired, letting out a great yawn. Suddenly, he smiled. It had been a very long time since he felt this sensation, so he downright lay down on the cool, bamboo mat before drifting off into his dreams.
Ruan Yaozhu took a look around the Hundred Herbs garden and handled some miscellaneous chores, but she felt slightly uneasy.
“Sigh, he’s actually sleeping. Geez.” The nine-coloured deer glanced back at the Golden-leaved Bodhi tree. “Piece of wood, oh piece of wood, you’re opening the door to let someone bad in!”
Ruan Yaozhu smiled. “Didn’t you say he’s been a good person his entire life, and he can’t even bring himself to step on an ant?”
“That’s exactly the problem! Regardless of whether he’s a good person or not, he’s still a man at the end of the day. You can tell with a single glance that he’s plenty experienced with women and is a lady-killer at that. You need to be wary of him in the future, just in case you suffer from the tribulation of attachment!
Ruan Yaozhu reddened. “What are you saying? I just don’t wish to see him lose to senior brother Le Tian. That’s two thousand Green Jade bookmarks after all. How can he afford to lose that?”
The nine-coloured deer yelled out, “This is terrifying! You’ve known Le Tian for more than a millennia, yet you only met this kid less than ten days ago. Don’t tell me you’ve been bewitched? Does this kid have the bloodline of the nine-tailed fox?”
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Ruan Yaozhu was mildly surprised. Everything had occurred so smoothly that she did not even think about the reasons properly. Perhaps she had been touched by the compassion of the qilin, perhaps she refused to watch a good person become doomed, or perhaps she was venting against Le Tian who never listened to her even after a thousand years of convincing.
She truly struggled to identify the exact reason. They all placed a role to a certain degree, but there was no need for her to think too much about it either.
“Jiu’er, thank you for your reminder, but I whole-heartedly devote myself to cultivation, so how can I fall into the web of attachments? If junior brother Li really is thinking of something else, please expel him from the Hundred Herbs garden for me. If he isn’t thinking of anything else, am I really that unreserved?”
“Alright, I will keep an eye on him for you! Hehe, with our piece of wood’s morales and beauty, I refuse to believe he won’t be interested.”
“Beat him!”
Li Qingshan slept very soundly, completely unaware that he was already in someone’s crosshairs. Even if he knew, he would not care. He had just entered the six realms of saṃsāra and was about to face Demon God Qiongqi. He was in high spirits with great morale, so why would he think about women right now? On top of that, with how nice she had been to him, how could he think about sleeping with her and ruining her cultivation? That would not be befitting of his principles of always repaying his debts.
He was asleep, but he maintained a sliver of clarity which entered the World of the Five Continents…
Gazing down from the perspective of the god of the world, the boundless ocean, the many continents, and the humans, ghosts, daemons, and demons unfurled before his eyes like a grand painting. It was not as delicate as the Hundred Herbs garden, but it was his world.
The crux to winning the gamble was here!
Li Qingshan understood his capacity. He called himself a novelist, but he did not possess the talent to write novels, and just how many novels could he copy at the end of the day? This was not a permanent solution to the problem.
However, books were still written by people. He did not possess the talent, but that did not mean others did not. The population in the World of the Five Continents spanned into the billions, and there was such a great temporal difference with the Human realm too.
It was completely possible for him to gather as many people as he wanted to write, and that would result in something. Even if only a hundredth, or even a thousandth, of them managed to produce something decent, it meant an endless source of contribution and bookmarks.
Even if Le Tian tried to take everything into account, he never would have expected him to possess an entire world, especially one where he could visit with his will freely.
The world itself could not directly provide him with any cultivation resources, but as long as he used it correctly, its value was beyond imagination. This was perhaps what Si Long was trying to do but failed.
The Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance used the system and rules of the entire Myriad sect to satisfy a small pastime of his, while Li Qingshan could use his identity as the god of the world to make the entire world supplement his cultivation. This was the power and influence of cultivators.
Winning this small gamble was just something he would do in the passing. He did not truly take it seriously. He still had a long time before three decades were up. If worst comes to worst, he could just run away from the debt. His priority right now was to obtain a proper dwelling.
Ruan Yaozhu was a kind owner, but no matter how great the Hundred Herbs garden was and how wondrous the bodhi tree was, he would still be depending on her at the end of the day. It was not a place where he would remain for long.
