Li Qingshan sat high on top of the stone steps, resting his head against his fist, which rested against his knee as he sank into thought with furrowed brows.
Yin and yang, good and evil, buddhas and demons. All of it was but an appearance.
Unwittingly, he demonstrated a form of solemnity, like the gods in shrines and temples. This dark temple was his centre of worship, wrapped in an atmosphere of silence and depth.
Enduring and unmoving like the earth, thinking quietly and deeply like hiding secrets.
If any mortals mistakenly stumbled upon this place, their first reaction was to worship, and then to pray.
Regardless of whether he accepted it or not, he had already become a god. Whether it was a Heretic God, a Human Immortal, or a sangharama guardian, those were all just terms of reference. He was not a True Immortal or a proper god yet, but that was only a step away.
He took out the Black Sun Demon Heart. It hovered gently in his palm, shining dimly.
After understanding all this, this object was better described as the heart of the qilin, a sacred heart, than the Black Sun Demon Heart.
The heart ceased to give off any aura, completely under his control. Even Demon Gods could not grasp its existence anymore, becoming an item that only belonged to him, and it tempted him deeply.
“Come, my beloved child, my proud child. I’ve already waited long enough. Go become the ruler…”
A vague beckoning rang out in the depths of the darkness. This was the lingering consciousness of the primordial qilin. In reality, it was the pulsing of the invisible laws, translated into a blurry, broken sentence through his Origin Soul. It wanted him to devour the Black Sun Demon Heart and take on this duty.
“…Go recover the order of nature!”
“The order of nature?”
Li Qingshan murmured. He caught the scent of blood and slaughter from that, which even made him tremble. He recalled a distant dream. He dreamed of becoming the enemy of thousands, killing until mountains of corpses blotted out the sun and seas of blood swallowed the stars.
Back then, he was still a young man in the mountains. He still did not know any cultivation methods, having just killed his first person out of drunkenness and anger, paving a path of slaughter, a path to the Nine Heavens.
That was where everything began.
Right now, he seemed to have returned to before he had killed someone, standing at the beginning once again, both fearful and confused.
But this time, brother ox was not there to guide him.
Was his power insufficient? Or did he require even greater abilities and treasures? No, none of that.
He wanted power? Easy! All he had to do was devour the Black Sun Demon Heart. What would be so difficult about becoming a true god by then?
The issue of this was not just the Black Sun Demon heart, but the pond of lotuses in front of the grand hall in Nālandā.
Every lotus was a manifestation of the laws drawn from the Qilin Paradise. The golden lotus represented light, the green lotus represented fertility, the red lotus represented warmth…
Yet in nature, they were just another Black Sun Demon Heart. They were two sides of the same coin.
If he also devoured the Black Sun Demon Heart in his hand, the two would merge back together. Not only would he rule over the Demon domain, but he would be able to rule over Sukhāvatī as well.
By “recovering the order of nature”, that was merging the two worlds back together. That was his duty.
By then, even if he wanted some peace, the world would push him forwards, and buddhism would never tolerate him.
All conflicts will be beyond mediation, and the flames of war would burn up to the clouds. War would tear apart the kingdom of heaven, and demon qi would definitely blaspheme the pure land. Even if the buddha descended on him with a palm strike, he would have well and truly deserved it.
He was not afraid of opposing the gods and buddhas of the heavens, nor was he afraid of falling in battle, but this time, it would be much more than him who would be sacrificed.
Whether it was those innocent good people of Sukhāvatī or the depraved bad people of the Demon domain, they would all moan and wail in pain, mixing together and perishing together.
Without Li Qingshan, they would all be far better off. He could not help but clench the Black Sun Demon Heart firmly.
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Heh, stop getting lost in your fantasies. Do you really think you’re the saviour of the world? Just who are you able to save?
Tsk, the hero king? Quit joking. You’re just the culprit of all crimes, source of all wickedness!
None of this was for saving anyone. It was just to recover the order of nature. That was the will of the primordial qilin.
However, even with how bloodthirsty and battle hungry the tiger was, it came nowhere close to the qilin’s ruthlessness.
The world had no compassion. All was worthless. The qilin was of utmost compassion, regarding all as equals.
He seemed to feel the legendary beast of utmost benevolence currently gazing at him, waiting for his dream to come true so that everything became like how fate dictated it to be.
At the same time, he also understood why brother ox had originally set down a test like that.
Perhaps fate was already written, but he still had to choose. Whether he accepted it or denied it lay on a single whim.
Li Qingshan suddenly raised his head and asked the darkness in the space a question, “Why did the primordial qilin perish?”
The more he comprehended the path of the qilin, the more puzzled he became about this.
The darkness in the space made no reply.
Li Qingshan shook his head. The primordial qilin had already perished. Even if its will still existed, it had merged with the entire Qilin Paradise, almost like the will of the world, incapable of any clear, independent thought. All that remained were the reflexes of primitive instinct, incapable of conversing with him like a living creature.
With some further thought, he spat out five words, “The Battle of Mending Heaven?”
The laws immediately rippled slightly, verifying his thoughts. That was the imprint hidden in the depths of the world’s memories.
However, if the primordial spirit turtle had stood on the side of the victors for the sake of good fortune, what was the reason for the qilin to do that? With its path, it should have never participated in any battle.
Perhaps it was also for the sake of maintaining the order of nature. After all, something like the creation of humanity was truly the most destructive culprit to the order of nature, so it was slain in the end by Nüwa like the primordial spirit turtle?
The will of the world obviously could not answer such a complicated question, unless he became the lord of the world and ventured deep into the memories of the world, taking a look for himself.
Li Qingshan was tempted. He opened his hand again, and the Black Sun Demon Heart hovered up again.
He was not the lord of the world yet, but he possessed a key, so he opened the divine eye on his forehead and gazed into the Black Sun Demon Heart.
At that moment, the Black Sun Demon Heart shone with the most resplendent of light. His entire consciousness was sucked inside.
“…domain Demon the of light the are you. All of hearts the in lies light…”
He suddenly heard Qian Rongzhi’s voice from behind him. He said impatiently, “Didn’t I tell you to…”
He came to a halt half way. He became surprised.
Qian Rongzhi seemed to be unable to see him, lecturing the demonfolk below the platform, except her words were all over the place and strange. The demonfolk seemed to have appeared out of thin air as well, seeing past him and gazing vehemently at their “King of Light”.
He immediately understood that he had already entered the memories of the world.
Everything replayed rapidly like a movie. The demonfolk below the platform dispersed before gathering again, all walking backwards. People moved to and fro in the temple at great speeds, leaving behind a string of shadows.
He witnessed how the temple was constructed and he also witnessed how the interwoven sewerage system shrank inch by inch under the efforts of countless demonfolk. He saw the skyscrapers fall rapidly to the ground. The demon city was reduced to flat land.
He also saw how demonic beasts became demonfolk and how adults became children.
Amidst the constant change, the sun and moon rapidly glided through the air. A huge, golden hand suddenly appeared before suddenly vanishing again, leaving behind a red sun that sank in the east.
After another instant, the red sun rose up from the west, and the barren land had recovered its lushness.
A warm gust of wind blew over a skeleton. Ants surged up as a black mass, using the remains to assemble a corpse. A pack of wolves even delivered chunks of flesh.
At that instant, an elk was revived from the dead, standing up from its knees.
Time receded faster and faster, taking away everything, returning everything, until it reached the origins of everything.
The clear sky, the endless land, the running beasts… all twisted and contracted towards a certain point, merging together in the very end.
He suddenly leapt out of this point, except he saw a half-human, half-dragon man, drawing back that fatal bolt of lightning.
The man overlooked everything, gazed through everything, and grasped everything, like he was the heavens itself, except the sky also shattered under his fury, making the oceans spill and the mountains collapse.
A divine dragon soared by his side with thousands of colossal dragons behind it. A phoenix unfurled its glorious wings, blotting out most of the sky, proudly ignoring the man’s threat. Its resplendent light forced back the herd of dragons.
The scene froze here. This was the beginning of the qilin’s world.
Li Qingshan was dumbfounded.
The scene at the edges began to shatter, except looking through the primordial qilin’s view, it was neither looking at the man that killed it, nor the divine dragon and phoenix.
There was only a woman in the centre of the scene. She held her head high, and her long hair drifted in the wind, extending upwards as much as she could with her slender body, holding up the shattered heavens with a sky. However, the lower half of her body was a snake’s meandering between the mountains and seas.
“Empress Nüwa.”
A sense of parental attachment arose. Li Qingshan’s heart trembled as if he was gazing at his birth mother. There was no distinction between his past or present life. She had always been so hard-working, gentle, and loving. His tears suddenly blurred his vision.
When he tried to lock onto her face, the scene had already dimmed. Darkness sweeped over once more, and he had returned to countless years in the future, that empty temple, like another lifetime.
A sigh lingered and echoed through the darkness. “The qilin has already perished, the phoenix has grown old… The qilin has already perished, the phoenix has grown old…”
