Chapter 1368: The Heavenly Tome of Liberty
“Senior, may I ask which floor must I go to to view the heavenly tomes? And what price would I have to pay?”
Li Qingshan had already decided on strengthening his human cultivation as an important step to increasing his strength, and the Pavilion of Heavenly Tomes possessed exactly what he needed.
“Heavenly tomes must be exchanged for using bookmarks. Do you have any?”
“Thanks to senior brother Le’s generosity I do, as he’s lent me quite a lot of Green Jade bookmarks.”
Li Qingshan smiled. As it seemed, this old turtle did not know about everything. Even with divination, he was not all-knowing.
The Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance shut his eyes for a moment before opening them again, shining brightly. “I see. What a great gambling nature. What extravagance. I have a heavenly tome here for you then.”
Li Qingshan asked, “What heavenly tome?”
“The Heavenly Tome of Liberty.”
“The Heavenly Tome of Liberty!”
Li Qingshan shuddered inside. According to Rāhu Xiaoming, the Sovereign’s Limit Record of World Destruction and the Sovereign’s Limit Record of World Prosperity possessed a certain will and path that corresponded with the lord of the māra, Maheśvara. It matched up with the Heavenly Tome of Liberty too.
TL: The name Maheśvara comes from “Mahā” and “Īśvara” in sanskrit. “Mahā” means great, while “Īśvara” has several different meanings. It can mean the supreme self, ruler, lord, king, queen, or husband according to wikipedia. The Chinese translation of Maheśvara is very similar to the actual meaning in sanskrit, except “Īśvara” corresponds with a synonym of “liberty”, which is closely related to the concept of “self”. This is why the Heavenly Tome of Liberty is connected to Maheśvara even though it isn’t very clear in Chinese.
“That’s correct. The cultivation methods you offered up gave me some inspiration to complete this heavenly tome.
“Then could you introduce the details of the heavenly tome, such as the cultivation I can attain with it?” Li Qingshan asked with humility.
He had developed great admiration towards this Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance. In that short while, he had basically comprehended the Sovereign’s Limit Record of World Prosperity and the Sovereign’s Limit Record of World Destruction, and he had used them to complete the Heavenly Tome of Liberty. His calculating powers were monstrous.
Throughout all these years, he had only been practising the Sovereign’s Limit Record of World Destruction. Even practising two cultivation methods at the same time was extremely difficult, let alone merging them together, yet right now, there was an even stronger and even more complete cultivation lying right before him. He could not help but feel like he had made the correct decision by coming to the Myriad sect.
“Your cultivation method is known as the ‘Sovereign’s Limit’, while this heavenly tome is known as the ‘Immortal’s Limit’. You can reach the limits of Human Immortal with it. I can’t calculate any further than that, but there’s definitely far more room for development in the future. The lord of the māra, Maheśvara, dwells at the peak of the Desire realm. Due to his great liberty, he’s known as the lord of the trichiliocosm, both good and wicked, both a god and a demon. He is a being of birth and destruction, thus attaining great liberty.”
“With this Heavenly Tome of Liberty alone, you naturally can’t attain ‘great liberty’. More accurately, it’ll just be ‘minor liberty’ at most, but even that is extremely rare. The path of Maheśvara is not only his path, but also one of the three thousand paths. Since it matches with your disposition and it’s compatible with your current cultivation, there’s no point for you to give up on everything you’ve attained so far. Would you like it?”
Li Qingshan said without hesitation, “Of course, I do!”
“Give me eight hundred and fifty Green Jade bookmarks.”
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“It’s that expensive!?”
Li Qingshan grinned. This was clearly daylight robbery! The bookmarks he had obtained from offering up the Sovereign’s Limit Record of World Destruction and Sovereign’s Limit Record of World Prosperity could not even round the price down to the nearest hundred. Surely this old turtle is not fooling with me!
“A cultivation method is the foundation of cultivation. Do you think cultivation methods come easily?”
“Yeah, fair enough. Eight hundred and fifty it is then!”
Li Qingshan thought about his Nine Transformations of the Demonic and Divine and Xiao An’s Path of White Bone and Great Beauty, which made him admit that. Originally, a powerful and suitable cultivation method could only be obtained through sheer luck. Now that he could directly exchange for one, it could be considered as a blessing.
Probably everyone in the Myriad sect knew about the prices of heavenly tomes. With the Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance watching the Pavilion of Heavenly Tomes, he probably would not be ripped off in a place like this, so he simply handed over eight hundred and fifty Green Jade bookmarks obediently.
The Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance accepted the bookmarks casually and gave him a jade slip.
Li Qingshan browsed through it slightly, only to find it indescribably deep and profound. He tried to comprehend it further and images immediately began to flash through his eyes; sometimes the vast sea of stars and other times blood and corpses strewn everywhere; sometimes the terrors and horrors of a world’s destruction and other times the vigour and energy of saving the world…
Then the images condensed into supernatural figures, either gentle or terrifying, either dancing around or beastial. For a moment, it was like a riotous reverie of demons, making his mind stir and tempting him to dance along. An unmatched sensation of delight rapidly spread through his chest, almost bursting out of his body and rushing beyond the heavens until it filled the entire universe.
The Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance silently observed Li Qingshan. He did not warn him about how dangerous it was to casually browse the entire Heavenly Tome of Liberty with his current cultivation.
The Heavenly Tome of Liberty was probably the most dangerous and unpredictable heavenly tome that was most prone to cultivation deviation out of the Myriad Heavenly Tomes. It was filled with contradictions and disputes, chaos and impermanence. If he remained careful and prudent, cautious like he was hesitating, he would struggle to attain the will of “liberty”. However, if he let himself be washed away by the great joy and laughter, dancing to its tune, he would definitely fall into madness and confusion.
Even he had taken significant time before he managed to complete the calculations, but it was only in a rudimentary form. The path that belonged to the lord of the māra, Maheśvara, could not be trodden by any simple person.
However, from the moment Li Qingshan began cultivating, the struggle between the demonic and the divine in his heart had never stopped. The tiger demon’s frenzy left him bloodthirsty and battle-hungry, and he loved the ape demon’s ability to do whatever it wanted, yet none of it could destroy the qilin’s bit of benevolence at the end of the day.
The various demonic thoughts and the many divine natures constantly struggled together, tugging at one another.
He was once known as the hero king, using novels to spread martial arts in an attempt to achieve true equality. He had once possessed benevolent thoughts, wanting to save all the living creatures in the world, but he had also gone as far as to destroy an entire world for the sake of contending against a powerful enemy.
He had never been ensnared by the contradictions. He stayed true to himself, without any regrets or resentment. From a certain perspective, the Heavenly Tome of Liberty was basically made to fit him. At the very least, he would not suffer from cultivation deviation that easily.
He removed his soul sense from the jade slip as if he was not attached to that sense of liberty and delight at all. He clasped his hands. “Thank you for your guidance, senior. This cultivation truly is extremely wondrous. I will comprehend and practise it properly so that I can make it to new heights!”
He could not help but rejoice in his gamble with Le Tian. Otherwise, who knew how many years he would have to spend working for the Myriad sect before he could obtain this Heavenly Tome of Liberty. Time was far too important to him. The benefits of the gamble had already begun to show itself.
The Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance thought, Sure enough, the warning was unneeded. This kid’s will is so staunch and unyielding that he cannot be treated as a regular person. He is an outstanding genius! If he doesn’t die along the way, he’ll definitely achieve great things. He’ll be far more than just a direct disciple of the Myriad sect. Though, I wonder whether he’ll be a curse or a blessing to the Myriad sect. I need to continue observing him!
He waved his hand in an unconcerned manner. “If there’s nothing else, you can go! Don’t get in the way of my reading.” He turned around and left.
Li Qingshan had achieved his objective of remaining in the Myriad sect, and he had obtained an extremely important heavenly tome too. He should have been completely satisfied, yet he felt lost as if he had missed something important.
From the corner of his eyes, he saw the bookshelves that stood several metres tall, connecting with the ceiling. Suddenly, he had a flash of inspiration. He recalled the books that had flooded his face like thousands of butterflies earlier. Through his exceptional memory, he found the books one by one on the shelves and noticed something surprising.
Most of the books were not cultivation methods, but various tales, writings, records, and rumours. They were all stories.
He yelled out before the Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance completely disappeared, “Hold on!”
The Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance looked back with his hands on his back. His body did not move at all as his head almost swivelled all the way round. “What else?”
“Senior, you like novels?”
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