“Motherfucker!”
Li Qingshan cursed aloud. His body swayed and flickered, seeming to move off in all directions. He immediately assumed several dozen different poses.
Ox-headed A’pang only grabbed a series of afterimages as the Yang Soul turned into an illusion and slipped out from between his fingers.
After all, Li Qingshan had not read all those books for nothing. He had completely mastered all the techniques that went with the Heavenly Tome of Liberty. Like the Divine Movement of the Five Elements and the Illusionary Demon Movement Technique, he had already merged them all together, reaching a state that it all came to him naturally.
Dodging the grasp, he immediately fled in the opposite direction of the Road to the Yellow Springs, vanishing into the endless yellow sand in the blink of an eye, without any trace remaining.
“Hmm? Interesting!”
Ox-headed A’pang was slightly surprised. That grab of his seemed nothing special, but who knew how many Yang Souls of Human Sovereigns he had captured with that. No matter what they were capable of, none of them could escape from the palm of his hand.
Like a dog butcher butchering dogs, they were completely at his mercy no matter how vicious of a hound they were. Oftentimes, before he had even captured them, they had already collapsed on the ground and begun whimpering away. However, that “wild dog” today was a little different, not that he was particularly powerful, but because he did not fear him at all.
He mocked him loudly. “Le Tian, I respected your courage as a Human Sovereign for gambling against me. Why have you become anxious like a lost dog now?”
Le Tian remained seated on the ground, staring at the pair of dice in a daze. He had been completely ignored.
Li Qingshan did not fall for his goadings, hiding his aura perfectly. He had spent all those years in the Pavilion of Heavenly Tomes, so his patience had reached a level of utter mastery a long time ago.
However, when he heard Ox-headed A’pang call him Le Tian, it still irritated him.
Fucking hell, these gods of the afterlife are shameless! That Le Tian bastard seems clever, but he’s actually a fuckwit. Your opponent is a hundred times more powerful than you, so just why would they give you a fair game?
Le Tian was in a state of mental disarray. The Ox-headed A’pang that he knew definitely was not like this. Instead, he was the exact opposite. He was renowned for upholding his word, or he would have never survived the previous time. Just that grab alone would not be something he could escape from.
However, even if Ox-headed A’pang was irritated by Li Qingshan’s nonsense, why did he put up with him for so long? Why didn’t he capture him sooner? Why would he need to resort to ruining the gamble and going back on his word intentionally?
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When he tried to divine the reason, the backlash from the chaotic fate almost made his Yang Soul collapse immediately. All he saw was the glimpse of an extremely chaotic vortex. All he was facing were the minor effects.
Ox-headed A’pang did not chase after him. He laughed madly. “There is no place of belonging on the Road to the Yellow Springs. Where can you flee to?”
Hmph, I might not be able to defeat you, but does that mean I can’t escape from you?
Li Qingshan refused to believe him, but he suddenly noticed that right below his feet was the same meandering Road to the Yellow Springs. When it was narrow, it was as thin as an untravelled path, but when it was wide, it was enough to allow a carriage to pass through. The surface was uneven, amassed with dust. It seemed like a regular earthen path through the country.
He furrowed his brows and abruptly changed directions, but no matter how he turned and no matter where he flew to, the Road to the Yellow Springs would extend there, and it would always reach off into the distance. It went beyond what he could see as if it had predicted the direction he would choose.
Suddenly, he raised his head. Ox-headed A’pang just sat ahead of him, waiting for him with a simple smile on his face.
I’m hallucinating? No, the so-called hallucinations of mortals are just illusions. Weaker ghosts can fool the five senses. I practise the Heavenly Tome of Liberty and walk the path of Mahe?vara, so how can I be deluded by something like this? Even Ghost Immortals aren’t capable of that!
Ox-headed A’pang fished out a rugged pouch of alcohol and took a few swigs. He exhaled. “The thousand major roads, the myriad minor paths, all lead to the Yellow Springs.”
Li Qingshan immediately realised the situation. “So this Human realm is the Road to the Yellow Springs!”
Ox-headed A’pang shook his huge head. “Doesn’t matter if you’re a Human Sovereign or human shit, you’ll all make your way down the Road to the Yellow Springs some day!”
Li Qingshan appeared and arrived before Ox-headed A’pang again. What trapped him was not Ox-headed A’pang but the Hell realm, as well as the supreme laws that cycled through life and death that permeated the six realms of sa?sāra. Even if he underwent another heavenly tribulation, he would not be able to avoid the Road to the Yellow Springs.
Since he could not escape, then he could only fight!
“Come then, ox-headed ghost! I’ll test you out!”
Ox-headed A’pang gazed down at him. “Le Tian, if you drop down and give me three proper bows right now and call me granddaddy ox three times, I’ll spare your life and let you live for another five centuries!”
Le Tian looked around, basically scratching his head in anxiety. He was tempted to replace Li Qingshan as Le Tian.
If his lifespan could be extended by five centuries, it would be worth it no matter how many times he bowed his head. Speaking of which, Ox-headed A’pang probably possessed the same seniority as his ancestors. Not everyone’s paths were about forging ahead boldly like Li Liehuo’s and Chao Tianjiao’s. His path was about enjoying life and following the arrangements of fate.
And after witnessing that great vortex, he knew that if he could not get away today, it definitely would not be as simple as ending up in reincarnation. He would probably be smashed to pieces with his soul obliterated.
Ox-headed A’pang took another sip of alcohol. “I’ll spare whoever that bows to me!”
Le Tian immediately adjusted his posture, throwing his head against the ground three times and crying out granddaddy ox three times. He was only afraid that his movements were not obvious enough and his cries were not loud enough.
“Piss off now!” Ox-headed A’pang swung his hand, and Le Tian rolled into a crack on the side of the Road to the Yellow Springs, suddenly jerking awake in the quiet room.
The single lamp remained, like it had all been a dream.
Death’s Door, the Road to the Yellow Springs, and Ox-headed A’pang never seemed to have existed. Only the damage to his Yang Soul served as evidence to it all.
He opened his hand, and a pair of dice lay there quietly. When he bowed his head, he had taken back his lifebound items. They still depicted a pair of blood-red “ones”.
He had escaped death after so much difficulty, but his heart weighed extremely heavily. He murmured, “No wonder… no wonder I couldn’t undergo the sixth heavenly tribulation. I lost this round!”
In his own conceit, he believed he could avoid disaster, embrace good fortune, and do as he pleased with his puny tricks as a fortune teller. He believed he could avoid all the chaos in the world that could not be predicted through gambles after gambles. Yet at the end of the day, it was all a delusion. All his schemes, plots, and plans were trumped by just three bowings of his head.
Ox-headed A’pang said to Li Qingshan, “Your turn now.”
“Hah, how is three enough?”
Li Qingshan abruptly conjured numerous illusions with a thought, splitting into two, then four, then eight…
The Heavenly Tome of Liberty was not actually known for its offensive powers. Even with the Divine Fire of World Destruction he had accidentally comprehended, it was very difficult to threaten a Ghost Immortal as powerful as Ox-headed A’pang.
But in the Pavilion of Heavenly Tomes, Li Qingshan had read all the books on military tactics and strategies, finally comprehending this ultimate move.
To regular cultivators, producing too many clones during battle would instead require them to split their focus. It brought no benefit at all, only detriment. And even if they could establish a military formation, it would still lead to reduced mobility.
However, this was the Road to the Yellow Springs, a place where he had nowhere else to go. Li Qingshan’s will was refined, and his mind was sturdy. At the same time, these thought clones were all like the weakest of undead as individuals.
He immediately established a great army. Without any chain of command, they automatically established a military formation. Their minds were united as the tremendous army qi channeled into his Yang Soul. It shone brightly, surging with murderousness that dispersed the yellow sand.
Ox-headed A’pang was slightly fazed too. He stood up. “Kid, aren’t you afraid of the tortures of hell, where you’ll never be reborn?”
“Haha, off to the grave to recruit the former subordinates, raising ten thousand banners on an expedition to slay the king of hell! Remember, your granddaddy’s surname is Li! Kill!”
