Whoosh!
The winds blew over from the distant mountains, filling the Scorching Fire hall and making the clothes of the direct disciple sway. It eased up the solemn atmosphere.
“What a strange gust of wind.”
“Who is it exactly?”
“From that direction… it might be a disciple from the Flying Star valley.”
The direct disciples discussed among themselves. All of the officers were currently inside Black Cloud city. It was impossible for them to travel so far away to face the tribulation.
They did not enlist the inner disciples of the sect for this battle, as they were the seeds for future direct disciples. They would not be of much help to this battle either, so there was no need to “sacrifice” them.
It was possible to say that even if all the direct disciples here perished, just the tremendous amount of resources freed up would be able to produce a few direct disciples.
“They succeeded?”
“Just what heavenly tribulation was that? Even the fifth heavenly tribulation doesn’t seem to create such a large disturbance.”
“Stop joking. Are you saying that they would choose to face the tribulation of a Human Immortal in the wilderness, right by a battlefield?”
“If that’s the case, are they supposed to choose to face the tribulation of a Human Sovereign in the wilderness, right by a battlefield?”
“This… it might also be a demonfolk.”
“A demonfolk has come to the Human realm to face the tribulation? Is there something wrong with their head?”
They argued away, actually unable to guess who the person who faced the tribulation was. However, war was imminent, and no one really tried to sniff out any clues either. They were just using this topic to distract themselves a little.
Ruan Yaozhu suddenly thought of someone. “Senior brother Li, where’s junior brother Qingshan?”
“Junior sister Ruan, won’t you look at what time it is? You’re still thinking about him at a time like this.”
Ke Xin was very irritated. She really had been frightened slightly this time. She had lost her gracefulness and ease from when she first spoke.
If it were just Li Liehuo, then she could dismiss it as exaggerations to raise attention, but even “old people” like Dai Mengfan and Le Tian had begun “exaggerating”. The situation might actually be very bad.
At a time like this, who would still care about an inner disciple? No matter how talented he was, what purpose could he serve now?
However, Li Liehuo answered the question very seriously, “I’ve received news from the black-furred heaven-gazing hou that he projected out his Yin Soul to scout out Cold Blood pass with junior sister Chao. His current whereabouts are unknown.”
Reaching there, he furrowed his brows and sank into his thoughts. He suddenly said, “No, it’s impossible. He’s only faced the fourth heavenly tribulation recently!”
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The direct disciples looked at one another. They all found it absurd. Was Li Liehuo worried that the person undergoing the tribulation was Li Qingshan?
Wan Jianfeng became even more certain that he had indeed been under too much pressure, clouding his thoughts.
Ruan Yaozhu bit her lip and lowered her head silently, yet she had a powerful belief that he must have still been alive. Definitely!
The strange gust of wind left as quickly as it came, and their conversation topic returned to the matters of war. Very soon, they sank into anxiety again.
Le Tian smiled. “We can’t keep wasting time like this. Please pass orders immediately, senior brother.” He glanced at Wan Jianfeng and continued, “There are some matters that just can’t be explained convincingly with words.”
Li Liehuo nodded in agreement. Wan Jianfeng flicked his sword. “Exactly.”
……
“I’m still alive?”
Li Qingshan reverted to human form, laying between the mountains with a smile on his face.
The great winds had dispersed all the tribulation clouds. The sky was clear as far as the eye could see, seemingly transparent.
The heavenly tribulation had arrived far too viciously, and the skandha-māra was extremely difficult to deal with too. When the “perceptions demon” appeared, chaotic thoughts sprang forth in his head, and the various demonic and divine transformations immediately showed signs of fracturing. Fortunately, the small world had completely stabilised, which was the only reason why it did not collapse.
The “actions demon” made him lose control over his body, such that he struggled to control his actions. He had almost been beheaded by the armament of tribulation lightning. Even now, there was still a great gash across his neck, spurting with blood.
The final “consciousness demon” was the most terrifying. It directly twisted his consciousness, making him develop doubts over everything he was certain about. What brother ox? What Nine Heavens? Is it really all that important? Why don’t I just live an easy life instead…
If he really had been swayed, then even if he succeeded with the tribulation, his personality would change drastically. He would no longer be the same Li Qingshan as before.
It was very likely for him to enter the Demon domain immediately and devour the Black Sun Demon Heart in exchange for even greater power.
The end result would probably be as Qian Rongzhi had predicted too. Instead, he would not receive the recognition of the Demon domain, and he would face the backlash of the power, dying a horrible death. If the “person of legends” could not fulfil the legend, then their fate was probably even worse than a mortal’s.
Li Qingshan was not aware of this, but he did understand the choice of his path had always been the most important, as well as the most terrifying.
Once he made a misstep, even if it would lead to temporary glory and ease, he would probably face a miserable outcome in the end.
It made him wonder whether many cultivators had forever lost the right to become a Human Immortal the moment they succeeded with the heavenly tribulation and became a Human Sovereign.
Only when their lifespan ran out and they faced death did they truly regret their original decision. That was why it was commonly said that bodhisattvas feared causes, while the living creatures feared consequences.
But he was fine. After facing the tests of form, sensations, perceptions, and actions earlier, his will had become even firmer, so he made it past this dangerous journey.
After subduing the skandha-māra, he was heavily injured and on the brink of death. He immediately launched a counterattack, using the ape demon’s ability to destroy the colossal sword before raising great winds and dispersing the tribulation clouds.
Xiao An nodded with a smile. “Yeah, you’re still alive!” She touched his forehead. “Would you like a rest?”
Li Qingshan shook his head with a smile. “Maybe not. The demonfolk are almost at Black Cloud city. I don’t think Li Liehuo can hold them off.”
The ground rumbled away as scorching magma spurted out from the cracked ground.
The battle had destroyed the crust. Without Li Qingshan suppressing the place, it immediately erupted completely.
Among the mountains, another volcano rose up gradually. Li Qingshan lay right at the mouth of the crater. He smiled. “Perfect.”
He used the last bit of his power to assume the Phoenix Transformation before using the last Phoenix’s Nirvā?a. The phoenix danced through the flames, turning into a phoenix’s embryo in the end.
Before long, there was a crack, and a fracture appeared. Li Qingshan in infant form lay quietly inside the egg.
Xiao An used the Trisepultural Robes as a blanket, wrapping him up layer by layer and holding him gently in her arms.
“Hey, do you really have to do this?” Li Qingshan found this both exasperating and hilarious. It was not like he was an actual infant, but the only sounds he produced were a series of “eeks” and “ahs”. His arms and legs possessed no power at all, so he could not put up any resistance. All he managed to do was grab a strand of her hair.
Xiao An smiled so widely that even her eyes squinted together. She kissed him on the face and began to sway about gently. She actually began singing a lullaby.
Li Qingshan tried his best to shoot a glance at her, but he discovered helplessly that he really did feel sleepiness creep up on him gradually.
Xiao An pinched his tiny cheek and smiled. “Go to sleep, go to sleep. I’ll take care of you.”
“Alright, alright. You win.” Li Qingshan closed his eyes helplessly and sank into deep dreams very soon.
The pale-white flames flickered away in Xiao An’s eyes as the scenery over a thousand kilometres away were reflected in them.
The army from the Demon domain sprawled over several hundred kilometres, crawling along the ground. The vanguard had already ventured deep into the Human realm, while the rear of the army had not even left Cold Blood pass yet. Even without any offerings or sacrifices, they could change the boundary of the two worlds from the auras they gave off.
Just recently, Li Qingshan had still been cultivating in the marsh, discovering the mobilised demonfolk army through the Profound Light Illuminates All.
However, he had to focus on cultivation and could not pay constant attention, so he could only cancel the ability. Fortunately, Xiao An was around. She scattered all of her Skull Prayer Beads, all turning into Skeleton Demons that observed the advancing army from afar.
They had all become extremely small, around the size of a prayer bead. They did not give off any auras either, so they were extremely suited for reconnaissance.
A skeleton demon raised its head in the grass, only to see a streak of light pierce through the air. Wan Jianfeng rode on his sword and gazed down on the meandering demonfolk army.
“Hmph, with how thinly spread they are, aren’t they completely at my whim? Li Liehuo is far too timid. I don’t even need to face any Demon Sovereigns. Just with my sword and me, I’ll kill them as they come. The demonfolk can completely forget about expanding their territory to Black Cloud city. If I make such a great contribution, wouldn’t the position of great senior brother be mine? What, are Li Liehuo and Chao Tianjiao supposed to be the only ones who can claim that position while I’m not allowed?”
He swung down with his sword suddenly, and a streak of light three hundred metres long whistled towards the demonfolk army!
However, something that left Wan Jianfeng dumbfounded occurred.
Mid-air, the streak of light suddenly began to shrink drastically. In the blink of an eye, it had been halved.
Xiao An could tell just from that that this direct disciple probably had not visited the battlefields in the Demon domain before.
The demonfolk did not march in alone. Instead, they expanded the Demon domain as they advanced.
In other words, the boundary still existed beyond the army. The laws of the Human realm and the Demon domain overlapped, severely restricting all techniques.
And after passing through this region, it was essentially entering the Demon domain. The techniques of human cultivators would be weakened once again by the laws of the Demon domain.
That was not it. The advancing demonfolk army basically could not be regarded as any military formation at all, but they still had a thin layer of army qi. If the attack had not been weakened consecutively before, it was completely incapable of stopping the attack, but it was different now. It shaved down the attack further without any hesitation.
In the end, only thirty metres of it remained. Landing in the army, it did kill many demonfolk, but it was truly nothing compared to all the soldiers they had sent.
The shamans immediately collected their weapons and armour before dicing their corpses and directly sprinkling it onto the path of the advancing army. Very soon, it was trampled into a bloody mud, becoming a small interlude in this bloody army. They used the flesh and blood of demonfolk to consolidate the territory.
Following the attack, the demonfolk army did not even respond. Since the twelve Demon Sovereigns just stood by silently, the Demon Emperors and Demon Kings did not want to attract the attention of a powerful sword cultivator on the battlefield either.
There was even less reason for the other demonfolk to stand forward. No matter how restrictive the laws of the world were, it was still very easy for Wan Jianfeng to kill them. No one wanted to become a part of the bloody mud trampled over by thousands.
As a result, the army did not halt at all, just like how a colossal monster would completely fail to sense when it had been bitten by a tiny insect.
Wan Jianfeng had never encountered something as great as this before, where he could fight as he wished and the enemy would not even make a sound, let alone fight back. However, his sword-wielding hand trembled gently. If he continued like this, how long would it take before he killed these several million demonfolk?
If the demonfolk army arrived beneath Black Cloud city and cast the Twelve Citadel Demon Formation of the Ominous, how were they supposed to deal with that? If they just hid in the city and used techniques, they could only kill some of the weaker demonfolk. It might not even have been enough to kill Demon Kings.
This powerful Human Sovereign and dauntless sword cultivator had been shocked by the brutality and absurdity of war.
He could not help but ask himself, If only half of us perish, can we really protect Black Cloud city?
However, Xiao An sank into her thoughts instead.
