Myriad city suddenly fell quiet. Whether it was the dragon cries or wind howls, all of it was gone.
The sea wind blew and the fire spread through the entire city rapidly. It whooshed away, perhaps from the wind or the fire. Crackling explosions erupted in between, turning into a sea of fire!
The Pavilion of Heavenly Tomes towered above the sea of fire, swaying within the black smoke and waves of heat. It seemed like it could collapse at any moment, yet also as if it would never move.
The Pavilion of Heavenly Tomes had eight entrances facing the four cardinal and intercardinal directions, corresponding to the eight trigrams, “qian”, “kun”, “kan”, “li”, “yi”, “zhen”, “gen” and “dui”.
By now, three of the gates were already in ruins, about to collapse at any moment. They were the southern, northeastern, and southeastern gates. The knuckle prints on the gates were clearly discernible, corresponding to the three trigrams that the Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance had used against Li Qingshan. It was as if they would swing wide open from the slightest force, letting him into the Pavilion of Heavenly Tomes.
However, as Li Qingshan was swallowed by the water, the knuckle prints on the gates gradually faded away as the cracks closed up at a visible rate. The southern gate was even close to complete repair.
The attribute of the south was fire, corresponding to the “li” trigram. It was the first gate that Li Qingshan had taken down.
Just like that, unless Li Qingshan took down all eight gates at the same time and removed all of the Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance’s options, he could forget about breaking into the place.
But given the current situation, that was clearly impossible! Right when he began taking down the fourth gate, the first gate had almost fully repaired. They were enough to continuously cycle on like this.
As it turned out, the direct disciples were merely pawns. The All-encompassing Formation of the Myriad was the Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance’s true chessboard. The further Li Qingshan advanced, the more powerful he would find the formation to be.
And that was under the circumstances when his powers were great with sufficient preparation. If it had been any other Human Immortal, they probably would have been swallowed by the fire dragon already.
Even with his numerous transformations of the demonic and divine, the spiritual qi was endless, while the beads on him only diminished. Only a handful remained.
“Li Qingshan, no matter what you’re capable of, you can forget about breaching my formation!”
The Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance’s tremendous, icy-cold voice echoed out from the black water that was just as tremendous and icy-cold.
Li Qingshan felt like he had returned to Ruin’s End. The depths, the darkness, the coldness, the loneliness. There was no sky or earth. He had swum around in it alone for who knew how long, so long that he almost lost all of his memories.
But at that moment, he sensed a Ruin’s End that was even more hostile. The piercing coldness made him shiver uncontrollably, while the tremendous pressure felt like it was trying to crush his organs.
The “kan” trigram was a relatively well-balanced trigram. It was not as offensive as the “li” trigram or the “zhen” trigram, nor was it as defensive as the “kan” trigram or the “kun” trigram. However, under the Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance’s control, it had definitely become the sharpest spear as well as the toughest shield!
Suddenly, another bead on Li Qingshan was exhausted. Only three remain!
By now, he had already recovered his usual appearance, devilishly handsome and radiating with demon qi. His long, black hair bobbed around in the icy-cold, black water.
Hearing the Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance, Li Qingshan smiled. “The path of formations emphasises change and flexibility, while the Myriad formation has only ever demonstrated the pinnacle of that. Fellow, you may be skilled in the methods of ken, but don’t you think you’ve paused on it for too long?”
The Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance snorted coldly and said nothing more, pouring his attention into controlling the formation in an attempt to deplete Li Qingshan’s last three beads. However, he failed to notice the black figures that appeared behind him, slowly approaching him.
These black figures all had blurred faces and were only vaguely humanoid. They were the kleśa-māra recruited by Li Qingshan.
At this moment, the Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance devoted all of his focus to the All-encompassing Formation of the Myriad, pushing its might to an unprecedented level, but it also made him lose his aloof mental state, completely neglecting what went on around him.
“Being too stubborn will lead to mental afflictions!” Li Qingshan sighed.
The Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance looked back in surprise. All of the kleśa-māra lunged towards him!
Li Qingshan immediately felt the pressure on him plummet, and the black water rippled. His eyes suddenly became as deep as the ocean, bringing his hands together and pushing them forwards. With each inch he covered, it was as if he was pushing away a mountain, slow, heavy, and unshakeable!
Another bead slowly died out after shining brightly. Only two remained!
Li Qingshan extended his arms to the limit and bellowed out, “Open!”
A crack appeared between his left and right hands. With a boom, the endless black water parted into two!
The crack gradually grew larger as a valley opened up in the black water. There was no sky or earth in sight, only endless darkness.
Li Qingshan continued to stare ahead until the endless darkness faded away and a beam of light appeared before his eyes. He saw the interior of the Pavilion of Heavenly Tomes.
The vermillion gate had already parted open, revealing a metre-wide crack.
Li Qingshan stepped onto the door sill and made his way in.
Bang! The vermillion gate closed behind him.
Immediately, the endless black water vanished. All he saw was a mountain piled up from millions of books and scrolls.
With a wave of his hand, the mountain collapsed, turning into billions of pages that fluttered through the air. It revealed an eight trigrams diagram on the ground with a column of light reaching straight up to the top of the Pavilion of Heavenly Tomes from the centre.
Li Qingshan knew that this was the core to the All-encompassing Formation of the Myriad. He was just about to make his way over and destroy it.
“Li Qingshan!” The Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance’s voice rang out again, but he had already lost his composure from earlier. His voice was filled with surprise and anger!
Very clearly, the kleśa-māra had disturbed his mental state.
An oceanic pressure burst forth. Li Qingshan’s body swayed gently, but he said in praise, “Truly a spirit turtle, to be able to suppress demons in such a swift manner!”
He said that as he made his way through the fluttering pages, towards the column of light.
With each step he took, the pressure on his body grew heavier. It was so close yet crossing over actually exhausted another one of his beads. Only the last one remained!
He arrived before the column of light. With a thrum, the column of light actually became blinding, and the air became scorchingly-hot too. The fluttering pages in the air were set alight at the same time.
Li Qingshan’s eyes ached. Everything seemed hazy white, but he could still clearly sense where the column of light was. He tried extending a hand over, but with a hiss, the tip of his finger was vapourised the moment it touched the column of light.
He could basically imagine that throwing a punch over would only cost him an arm for nothing.
On the Pavilion of Heavenly Tomes, the Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance pursed his lips firmly as the crystal ball in his hand shone brightly, even more blinding than the sun.
He powered the All-encompassing Formation of the Myriad with all of his strength, gathering all of the spiritual qi in the core of the formation. Only one thought remained in his head. As long as he could hold on for a few moments longer, he could definitely deplete the last of Li Qingshan’s powers.
In that final moment, Li Qingshan seemed like he was unable to withstand the heat from the column of light either, taking a step back.
But as he took the step back, he flicked out with the last bead in his hand.
All of the spiritual qi in the bead was unleashed, erupting with blinding light and immediately vanishing into the white column.
At that moment, the column swelled a little wider yet again and grew several times brighter, but it had also become twisted.
Li Qingshan felt like his face was about to melt away, but the pressure on him gradually vanished.
With a crack, fractures ran across the crystal ball in the Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance’s hand. He looked back in a daze. A column of white light rushed into the air, having pierced the floors already. The heat it released incinerated all of the books.
Li Qingshan smiled brightly. “Li Qingshan be the one who destroyed the formation!”
