However, Li Qingshan eased up as well. Since he was a sangharama guardian, a palm probably would not just fall down on him from the sky!
He was better off prioritising how to get out of this “damned place” first!
The resplendent garden paved from golden tiles was extremely beautiful, but it was devoid of any people. There was only an altar and a few abodes.
It was not exactly in ruins, but it did give off an indescribable sense of bleakness, which made it seem lonely and empty.
He glanced at princess Qin. She seemed to be completely unaware, smiling away foolishly in happiness. When she heard how he would be leaving, she became very reluctant to see him go.
“I’ve completed my promise. If you want to stay, then you can stay!”
Li Qingshan shook her off and left. The moment he stepped out of the garden, there was a sudden gust of sand, such that he almost could not open his eyes.
The gust of sand passed by. When he looked back, the bodhi trees, the altar, and the abode were gone. The garden had vanished. All that remained was a white, sandy ground.
Princess Qin stood there blankly. There was not even enough time for her smile to fade away. “What did you do?”
Li Qingshan sank into his thoughts when a streak of light flew over from the horizon, landing before him. It was a golden leaf.
The golden leaf shimmered, and a dignified but benevolent voice rang out from it, “You must be the new sangharama guardian!”
“I am.”
“Come with me.” The golden leaf flew away, and Li Qingshan followed behind it closely. Immediately, they arrived in a beautifully-adorned hall. On the glistening plate detailed three large words—Sangharama God Hall.
The golden leaf drifted in, landing in a plump hand.
Li Qingshan looked up. That was a middle-aged man with a solemn expression but an easy-going demeanor. The aura he gave off told Li Qingshan he was a true god.
“I am the Sangharama God.”
Li Qingshan did not dare to be careless. He clasped his hands and said, “I am Li Qingshan. Greetings, esteemed god.”
The Sangharama God brought his palms together and returned the gesture. He smiled. “You’re not a disciple of buddhism.”
Li Qingshan immediately spread his palms and brought them together. “A secular disciple, a secular disciple.” With a thought, Li Qingshan decided to stop hiding it. “I practise the path of great liberty.”
Originally, he thought this Sangharama God would discriminate against him as a “successor of the heretic path”, hopefully chase him out of this paradise out of anger, but he never expected the Sangharama God to just smile. He did not care at all.
Li Qingshan was forced to ask, “May I ask what the sangharama guardians do?” They must have been like lackeys, running about and purging demons while crying out, “I exterminate you in place of the buddha!” If that was the case, he could use that opportunity to slip away.
However, the Sangharama God left him disappointed. “You don’t need to be in such a hurry. You’ve only just arrived in Sukhāvatī. You can take a look around first.”
Li Qingshan made up his mind. “Then may I ask how I can leave?”
“Leave?” The Sangharama God was surprised. When regular people arrived in this paradise, every single one of them ravished with joy and thanked everyone around them. He had never met someone in such a hurry to leave.
“I’ll be honest with you. I once swore a Blood Oath of the Nether River…” Li Qingshan hid nothing, confessing his gamble with Demon God Qiongqi and everything at stake. “… the agreed time is coming up soon. I need to go to the Demon domain and fight that Demon God to the death!”
Towards the end, he gave off a sense of bleak heroism, like he would not be returning from this trip, given the unforgiving circumstances.
Qingqi mountain was Qiongqi’s home base. He possessed an extremely great geographic advantage there and was a true god too. Even with the Mountain-moving tablet in his possession, he could not necessarily push over Qingqi mountain so easily.
But now, he was someone with an organisation behind him. Buddhism had so many powerful cultivators, so surely they could not just watch their newly-recruited lackey walk to his death.
If the Sangharama God was willing to help him and they called along a few more arhats, he could basically just sit by and watch as Qingqi mountain fell if they worked together.
Heh, with the completion of the Spirit Turtle Transformation, my intelligence sure grows with each passing day!
“I see. No wonder you were chosen as a sangharama guardian. Despite being so young, you’re bold enough to contend against a Demon God. Impressive, impressive!” The Sangharama God patted Li Qingshan on the shoulder in admiration. “But you don’t have to worry. As long as you stay in Sukhāvatī, the twelve Demon Gods are powerless over you even if they work together.”
“But I heard the Blood Oath of the Nether River is extremely powerful…”
The Sangharama God said proudly, “Don’t forget what this place is. How can a mere oath rival the power of great benevolent belief? You can just stay here in peace!”
Hold this, this wasn’t the plan.
Li Qingshan finally understood what a “great organisation” meant.
Qiongqi was terrifying, except like the Sangharama God, he was a true god. Who knew how many existences with that cultivation buddhism possessed. Just the arhats numbered at least eighteen, and there were the four great bodhisattvas above them, with the buddha even further up.
What was the Blood Oath of the Nether River supposed to be? In front of our bossman brother Tathāgata, it ain’t shit. What, you have something to say? C’mon, stick your head over and explain it to brother Tathāgata.
Li Qingshan was devastated. “Are we supposed to just let Qiongqi continue to strut around like that?”
“You reap what you sow. Once he’s done enough bad, there’ll obviously be something waiting for him. Qingshan, you’ve broken the precept of hatred!” He immediately brought his palms together and chanted, “With a thought of hatred, your good karma goes up in flames. With a thought of hatred, open to you are a myriad of problems.”
Even in the end, the Sangharama God never told him how to leave this world, perhaps because he saw through his plan to kill with a borrowed blade, or perhaps because he was worried about him running over and throwing his life at Qiongqi.
Li Qingshan could not force a true god to change his mind either. He calculated the time. He still had a year and a half, so he could only rely on himself for a way out.
As a result, he rose up into the air, chose a direction, and shot off.
In a mere half a day, he gave up.
Sukhāvatī was very similar to Ruin’s End. Not only was it boundless, but it was also beyond the six realms of sa?sāra. There were no such things as boundaries and exits.
And, it constantly influenced his mentality too.
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Feelings of peace and joy welled forth from the bottom of his heart endlessly like a string.
Like sunlight melting the snow, it nullified the ox demon’s stubbornness. Like pulling the logs out of the flames, it pacified the tiger demon’s anger. Like clear, illuminating light, it diluted the ape demon’s delusions.
Compared to happiness, this feeling was better described as relief, letting go of the burden he had always been carrying. He even began to recall the happiness of childhood—the beautiful landscape of Crouching Ox village and the simplicity and honesty of the villagers. His brother and sister-in-law had once possessed a soft side too. They did not only bring him abuse and insults…
He gritted his teeth and shook his head violently, wanting to chase away these thoughts, but despite being a successor of the māra, he was completely helpless.
These thoughts did not originate from the outside world, but from the bottom of his heart.
Otherwise, why would he have challenged Black Wind stronghold, why would he have left the money to his brother and sister-in-law, why would he have tried to release brother ox…
Those were all the happy and touching memories in him. However, if this continued, all of the demonic transformations would regress, or perhaps they had already begun regressing. Even the foundations of the Nine Transformations of the Demonic and Divine would cease to exist.
“Everyone has a buddhist nature within them. All can attain buddhahood.”
The Sangharama God said to himself quietly. He had noticed the many secrets and feelings that Li Qingshan possessed, but he did not worry about that. Many people who first arrived in Sukhāvatī were the same, but in the end, they would all be purified by this pure land, starting afresh.
Even Mahe?vara had to lower his head before the buddha, so what was a mere successor of the māra supposed to be?
For the first time in his life, Li Qingshan discovered that the thing more powerful than his inner demons was his inner buddha.
