With a bang, Li Qingshan erupted with a wave of air and shot off.
The Unraging monk stared at the empty bowl on the table, unable to say anything for a very long time.
In the past, he had hoped to change Li Qingshan, to guide him onto the proper path of buddhism and inherit his legacy.
In a daze, so many years had passed. Only then did he discover that Li Qingshan had never changed. He had only grown stronger.
However, he was the Unraging monk after all. He smiled self-deprecatingly. “Senior brother, you accepted a buddha nemesis, I accepted a buddha nemesis. Looks like… we’re in the same boat.”
The Dauntless monk shot a sharp glance at him before smiling wryly as well.
They each had bottom lines that they stuck to. Li Qingshan’s actions were completely intolerable for buddhism, and he had even earned himself the title of buddha nemesis. As such, maintaining their relationship as master and disciple, even just in name, would only impede the Unraging monk’s cultivation. As a result, they were better off cutting ties.
Rumble!
A bolt of lightning ripped through the air and landed on Li Qingshan.
Li Qingshan could sense that the hostility of the world was growing stronger. Before the intangible will of the heavens, even cultivators would become frightened, but it instead reminded him of the situation inside the small world, which filled him with a hearty spirit, having the time of his life as he fought the heavens and defied fate.
He flew back onto Navy Li’l Fatty’s back. It had not stopped devouring for even a second. It had already produced a great chasm outside the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga. Before long, this place would not just be affected by aftershocks. It would probably become the epicentre.
Li Qingshan thought of an idea. Wielding his finger like a sword, he pointed it at the distant cliff face and waved away, drawing a vertical stroke, a horizontal stroke, a hook… and even a circle at the very end. He studied it carefully before nodding in satisfaction, riding off on the space-devouring beast with a great laugh.
The Dauntless monk and the Unraging monk returned to the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga and saw a colossal word several hundred metres across on a distant cliff face—Remove!
There was even a crooked circle drawn around the world.
The Dauntless monk was absolutely fuming, but as he gazed at the giant chasm at the entrance of the monastery and sensed the earthquakes growing in frequency, he had already decided to follow Li Qingshan’s suggestion and leave the Green province, this place of trouble.
Devouring, digesting, destroying.
The space-devouring beast moved quickly and freely through this barren land.
Within the apocalypse that he had created with his own hands, Li Qingshan deeply experienced the will of great destruction and great annihilation. He made daily progress with the Sovereign’s Limit Record of World Destruction.
Gong Yuan had already bid farewell to him, returning to the sea abyss to consolidate everything she had gained over the past few days. With that, she could convert it into her cultivation and climb higher. They were not mortal men and women. They could not spend day and night together.
Above the ocean, the white clouds churned and twisted with time. When cultivating, time always passed by extremely quickly.
A thought suddenly flashed through Li Qingshan’s head. He felt a hint of uneasiness, so he opened his eyes and stood up. He was rather perplexed, as the sense of uneasiness did not come from him but somewhere else.
As a result, he circulated the Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression, calculating away calmly.
The spirit turtle was born with the ability of divination. Ever since he formed a world within him, this ability had strengthened, so he found a clue before long. With a wave of his hand, he summoned a piece of the Spirit Turtle’s Profound Shell. It was hazy inside as countless scenes flashed by, but they were all obscured and unclear.
Just like how the heavenly secrets were unpredictable, even true spirit turtles could not calculate everything, let alone a half-assed one like him. Without any information, it was very difficult for him to come to an accurate conclusion. Only when it had to do with his own fate would his senses be relatively sharper.
He remained patient and slid his right hand across the mirror slowly, peeling away the thick mist. A beautiful face appeared before him.
“Haitang!”
Li Qingshan gazed at the face of peerless beauty. Not only had time failed to even leave a mark, but she had instead become even more beautiful than before. Her peach-blossom-like eyes peered through the mirror right at him.
That was obviously impossible. She could not see him at all. The image was only a result of his senses from the heavenly secrets. However, the feeling was so strong that it felt like only a piece of glass separated them.
Suddenly, he realised that she was thinking of him, or it would be impossible for him to develop this connection. Many things had happened between them in the past, but their ties actually were not that deep.
She was neither like Gu Yanying, where he fell in love at first sight when he was still young and inexperienced, nor like Han Qiongzhi, becoming engaged when he was still an insignificant cultivator. Even with Gong Yuan who he had only met much later, they had dual cultivated together. They even fought beside each other several times, facing trials of life and death.
The reason why this connection existed right now was almost entirely out of her thought for him, keeping them linked together like a red string.
Unlike his memory of her, there was no hidden bitterness. Instead, she had a sense of calmness and indifference about her, so clear that it was almost transparent. She bore no resemblance to the pitiful woman who was helplessly besotted over love. Instead, she seemed more like an enlightened, eminent monk.
There was no hatred due to separation, no sadness and haggardness, just a thought of lovesickness.
It touched him. The image in the mirror rippled with his heart. He had to dismiss his thoughts in a hurry, and only then did the ripples stop.
With my current disposition and when I’m intentionally circulating the Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression, it can actually shake my mind. How unbelievable. To think that her love is so deep! Would this be what you call the utmost sincerity can even crack the toughest of stones?
Even lovesick merpeople could not be so obsessed. It was not like she was a mortal woman either, someone who could not live without a man. A much wider and further path clearly lay before her, so why did she have to be bound by the feelings between a man and a woman?
Han Qiongzhi had once stated clearly that she liked him when he advanced valiantly without being tied down. His admiration towards Gu Yanying was for the same reason too. Now that was the mainstream philosophy of cultivation. Even when they formed cultivation partners, cultivation came first.
A woman like Qiu Haitang was truly an exception among cultivators.
He had said he wanted to start a harem, but that had only come out of his nature to break free from anything that tied him down in his pursuit of freedom. From a certain perspective, that was also the ape demon’s “path”. It was impossible for him to actually move all the women he knew into a single palace. They all had their own paths and pursuits.
And now that war was imminent, cultivation was the priority. Otherwise, if he were defeated, even remaining alive would be difficult, let alone starting some harem. He had basically spent all his time recently on the Sovereign’s Limit Record of World Destruction. He could not even afford to control his clones, let alone find women.
But since he had developed a connection today, how could he just sit by and ignore this?
Li Qingshan spread his wings and took to the skies. Simply by sensing around, he knew she was in the west. He did not have her precise location, but there was clearly a tie guiding him to her.
Soaring over the ocean, he returned to the nine provinces, crossing through the Mist province and entering the Lightning province.
The terrain suddenly pulled up, turning into lofty plateaus. The mountains rose and fell, shimmering with white snow. The clouds fluctuated, tranquil and pure. The sights were pleasant.
Li Qingshan discovered that the earthen magnetic field here was particularly chaotic. When the clouds amassed to a certain degree, they would flash with lightning that was extraordinarily vicious.
Much of the lightning did not rain down from above. Instead, it rose up from the earth, dancing about madly like snakes. As they connected the earth and the sky with each bolt, it was a grand and glorious sight.
“I’m cursed with misfortune right now, so I’m basically asking to be struck by lightning here. Hold on, don’t tell me this place is also under the influence of the intangible will of the heavens and wants to place me in danger?”
