Legend of the Great Sage

At that moment, the entire world changed.

In his eyes, those flowers and grasses were originally all the same. Some of them were only slightly larger. Some were a little redder, while others were a little greener.

Yet now, even when they were the same variety, there was a distinct difference due to their age, maturity, and shade of their petals. They were like faces of people—even if it was just a nose and two eyes, it was still a thousand different faces for a thousand different people. It was impossible to mix them up. He could even tell their “personalities” from these faces, as well as everything they had been through.

This was no longer a lonely wilderness, but a raucous community of people. The Razortooth grass bush before him was like a group of bloodthirsty soldiers, desiring the nourishment of flesh and blood, except they desired metallic dust even more right now to maintain their weapons.

The Black Fir tree nearby was like an old man that had left the polar climate for the tropics, irritated by the heat of this place. On the other hand, the Three-leaved Flame flowers that were bright and beautiful like young women were the exact opposite. They found this place to be too cold.

He did not have to observe carefully, nor did he have to make judgments according to the information provided to him. As Li Qingshan walked past them, he could hear their various complaints and requests.

Li Qingshan curled his lip. “How troublesome!”

He strolled around with his hands behind his back before returning to the hill and sitting down beneath the Golden-leaved Bodhi tree.

Shen Yushu smiled inside. How’s that? You don’t even know where to start, do you?

At the same time, Ruan Yaozhu was observing him as well. She could not help but become rather worried about whether he could handle this job or not.

The nine-coloured deer said, “Don’t worry. This kid’s got the bloodline of the qilin, and you’ve given him the jade slip. With all those clones, how could he do a poor job? That kid Shen Yushu is going to be disappointed.”

Ruan Yaozhu smiled. “Oh, the qilin! I’ve never seen one myself. I heard all living creatures are close with it, particularly beasts, with deer in particular…”

“S- so what? The exact reason why we develop intelligence is to surpass our instincts!”

Ruan Yaozhu touched her lips and smiled. “And that’s why you’re intentionally harsh on him, to balance out this instinct?”

“Like I need you to care!”

After checking on the situation of his “people”, he did not get to work immediately. Instead, he continued to comprehend the Heavenly Tome of Liberty, absorbing the spiritual qi of the world. The Soul Nascence in his body gradually consolidated, bearing greater and greater resemblance to him.

With a thought, his Soul Nascence flew out, plunging into the small world within his body.

At that instant, it was like the world had been reformed. The world condensed from earth, fire, wind, and water originally only had unfeeling grass, yet now, it had gained a “small person”. He opened his clear eyes and gazed at the sky, meeting Li Qingshan’s eyes. He also saw himself at the same time.

From that moment onwards, the world finally had meaning.

This change had surprised Li Qingshan slightly as well. He immediately circulated the Nine Transformations of the Demonic and Divine. With the world as a cradle and the heavens and earth as an incubation chamber, he began to nurture and train this “small person”.

There was sunlight and rain, as well as frost and snow. The small person experienced both bitterness and happiness, thinking about danger while living in peace and finding joys within the hardships.

He grew up in the small world alone, crawling around everywhere until he gradually grew up. Then he tottered around and learned how to walk, growing day by day. With each passing moment, he changed in a different way.

Li Qingshan circulated the Nine Transformations of the Demonic and Divine and the Heavenly Tome of Liberty at the same time. The two cultivation systems that were originally completely different began to demonstrate startling compatibility. He used the small world to temper and nourish his soul nascence, all the while paying back the small world through his soul nascence. They constantly supplemented one another.

In particular, the benefits that the newly-formed soul nascence received was far too great.

The small world had always been an existence that completely surpassed Li Qingshan’s current cultivation, possessing extraordinary power. Right now, he was basically using everything he had achieved with the Nine Transformation of the Demonic and Divine to support the cultivation of the Heavenly Tome of Liberty. Coupled with the dense and abundant spiritual qi inside the Hundred Herbs garden, his soul nascence grew at a tremendous pace.

Originally, no matter how powerful the soul nascence became, it would remain as an infant, uncertain and pure like a newborn, curled up in its mother’s womb. Only when it underwent the fourth heavenly tribulation, going from a soul nascence to a soul, would it intrinsically change.

However, Li Qingshan’s soul nascence was actually growing up, turning into a child around three or four years of age, perhaps due to the influence from the various transformations of the demonic and divine, or perhaps the Heavenly Tome of Liberty was simply different in the first place.

The child’s expression changed, like it was enveloped in a layer of mist, just standing there on the ground. It seemed as if he had been standing there since time immemorial, recording all the emotions of humans.

The Heavenly Tome of Liberty did not come with any techniques. It was purely a “path”.

This path was different from ordinary paths of cultivation. It was neither about cleansing the heart of desires, nor establishing control over the emotions. Instead, it placed great emphasis on emotions and desires. Compared to the feelings of mortals, it led to love that was much deeper, hatred that was much wilder, fury that was much more intense, sorrow that was much more painful…

Love led to life and hatred led to death. In a fit of fury, he could destroy worlds. In a wave of sorrow, he could weep with the entire world.

It was exactly because buddhism understood the concept of impermanence that it pursued rendering everything to emptiness. It was because they saw how the world was on fire, how it was like a sea of bitterness, that they transcended mortality, reached the other shore and brought salvation to all. If someone denied the other shore and willingly danced in the depths of the flames, the sea of bitterness, then that was a demonic path.

If someone managed to comprehend impermanence, but they did not pursue transcendence, did not develop benevolence, and did not try to bring salvation to all, instead becoming the embodiment of impermanence, mocking the people and pursuing great liberty for themselves, then they would be a heavenly demon, a māra.

The path of the heavenly demon was the path of impermanence.

After realising that, the soul nascence grew a little larger yet again, becoming around seven or eight years old. It became even more consolidated.

Before he knew it, he had already become completely submerged in cultivation, losing track of time. Forty-nine days passed in the blink of an eye.

As a result, no one took care of the “field of responsibility” that Ruan Yaozhu had allocated to him. The Hundred Herbs garden was rich with spiritual qi, possessing a natural cycle of itself. The exotic herbs possessed great vitality as well. As such, they would not die, but it was unavoidable for them to sag and wither.

It had to be noted that if the growth rate of the spiritual herbs slowed down even slightly, it would become a tremendous loss, let alone a situation like this.

Shen Yushu had visited Ruan Yaozhu several times to report this in an attempt to chase Li Qingshan out of the Hundred Herbs garden, but Ruan Yaozhu refused to see him, stating secluded cultivation as the reason.

The cultivators working in the Hundred Herbs garden all began discussing this. The serene and harmonious atmosphere had been affected as a result. Some people even became furious as Shen Yushu fanned them on.

All of them could only cultivate for a short while and enjoy some benefits of the Hundred Herbs garden once they had completed their laborious duties. If they wanted to spend a period of time focused on cultivation, they had to ask someone to take care of the plants in their place, and they would have to return the favour in the future. Just who was allowed to simply sit under the Golden-leaved Bodhi tree for several dozen days and do no work at all?

They planned on submitting a joint request after Ruan Yaozhu had emerged to chase away the “pest” Li Qingshan.

Li Qingshan was unaware that he had already become the centre of criticism. Even if he knew, he would not care. To him, this was only ample preparation for the work to come.

As his soul nascence stabilised, he understood the path of the Heavenly Tone of Liberty. Since it was one of the myriad paths, then it came with an endless number of techniques.

The techniques derived from the path of liberty even included bewitching techniques, enchanting techniques, escape techniques, transformation techniques, and so on. All of these techniques had an extremely strong effect when he learnt how to use them.

The Fractal Shadow technique happened to be one of the techniques he was most skilled at. Coupled with the increase in his cultivation, he produced an array of figures beside him. They were no longer blurry humans either. Not only were they completely tangible, but their appearances were clearly defined too, bearing great resemblance to his main body. Their movements were sharp and nimble, far beyond what mortals could achieve.

The demon was born from the heart, not from anything else. With a single thought, he could conjure a myriad of things.