Legend of the Great Sage

The corner of Li Qingshan’s lips twitched. “We’re fucking done now!” Then he looked at the Upraised Light abbot, who had already shut his eyes, ready to be executed.

“You bastard, you brought me to this damned place. You need to take responsibility!”

He could not help but admit that if he did not go and sniff those lotus flowers like someone asking to die, bringing the Great Thunderclap temple to ruins, perhaps the Sangharama God would not be so furious. Perhaps he would let them off with a slight punishment.

But it was all too late no matter what he said. If apologies worked, what was the point of developing his powers?

With the fury of a true god, entire mountains would collapse!

After bowing to Tathāgata, his fair, plump skin had already become as red as lava, while his easygoing face became twisted like a vicious ghost. With a pair of blood-red eyes, his gaze dropped down on them slowly.

Boom! Li Qingshan’s eyes narrowed. He felt like a mountain had crushed down on him, making his hooves buckle, almost kneeling down on the ground.

However, the tiles under his feet did not crack at all, as if it was all just an illusion.

No, this was not an illusion! He had been overwhelmed in terms of laws.

After becoming a true god, he was already capable of wielding laws. He did not even need to cast any techniques. Every single movement he made possessed great might and great pressure. Meanwhile, as the guardian god, who knew how many wicked demons and heretics the Sangharama God had slain in the past. The fierceness of his aura ranked towards the top in the entirety of buddhism.

“Wretched animal, pay with your life!”

The violent bellow was like a sudden clap of thunder, like a lion’s furious roar!

Li Qingshan’s heart shuddered, and his organs were displaced. He was devastated as his entire body felt powerless. Blood welled straight up in his mouth.

The Lion’s Roar—also known as the Lion’s Roar arts—was one of the most common techniques of buddhism. Not only were many cultivators capable of it, but even masters of the jianghu who possessed some inner force could use it. That was how common it was.

However, when a true god used it, it passed through the invisible laws as a medium, and the destructive power was so great that even Li Qingshan’s body of the demonic and divine could not withstand it. If it were not for the fact that his Origin Soul was hidden in the very depths of the small soul, it probably would have burst with that bellow alone.

Yet, it did not harm a single blade of grass in the Great Thunderclap temple. The Upraised Light abbot who was right beside him only heard a furious roar too.

Seeing how the qilin tottered about but refused to fall down, the Sangharama God was rather surprised as well. Seeing how the Great Thunderclap temple had been destroyed, he was absolutely furious, directly demonstrating his form of fury for subduing demons. He did not hold back at all. Originally, he thought a measly guardian who had only undergone the sixth heavenly tribulation recently would immediately collapse, but he never expected him to still hold on.

However, his face sank. He was just prolonging the inevitable!

“Accept your fate!” He spread his arms and reached out.

Li Qingshan’s vision darkened as if a dark cloud loomed over his head.

Under the watch of the eyes, the pressure did not decrease, growing heavier instead, like he was trapped in an invisible cage. He was heavily injured as well, so it became even more impossible to offer up any resistance.

“This is… the difference between… man and god!” Between the fingers of a god, even the divine beast qilin was no different from livestock.

“Is this the origin of the nightmares?” The fear, the fury, the despair…

“Heh, it’s the same old formula, the same familiar taste!” Together with that fervency as well!

“Roar!” The qilin growled, and the myriad beasts replied.

At this moment before death, the ox demon, tiger demon, and ape demon that gradually regressed, assimilating with the world, completely recovered. He turned back into that deluded, stubborn, bloodthirsty wild beast!

Rumble! The Sangharama God closed his fingers.

At that instant, the qilin’s hooves lifted up in the air, striding through space and breaking out of the invisible prison, leaping out from between the fingers.

The Sangharama God was slightly surprised. His sure-success grasp had actually missed!

As the god of sangharama guardians, his duty was focused on fighting. In terms of battle prowess, he even surpassed regular arhats and True Immortals. Coupled with the fact that he was located in a “homeground” like Sukhāvatī, he should have been able to capture any wicked demon he wanted with a glare, a bellow, and a grasp.

However, from that instant earlier, the laws of the world pulsed strangely, twisting the laws he wielded.

Even now, it continued to pulse, both spreading outwards like a ripple and drawing inwards like a vortex.

At the centre of the ripple and vortex was Li Qingshan!

Having escaped by the skin of his teeth, Li Qingshan ravished with joy. This was the joy of “life”.

The divine eye opened on his forehead, allowing him to see the changes in the laws of the world as well. As a result, he became even more certain about his guess. This world’s original form was the legendary Qilin Paradise.

He did not know what buddhism had done to change this place into the so-called “Sukhāvatī”, but the “source” of the world could not be changed so easily.

The lotuses were manifestations of the “source”, having been condensed by the buddha, probably to both protect the Great Thunderclap temple and to suppress them.

He made the lotuses wilt, both obtaining this “source” and releasing this “source”, allowing Sukhāvatī to return to the Qilin Paradise.

The world sheltered him. Endless life force was unlocked in his body. His wounds rapidly recovered.

Chosen by the heavens- No, a ruler! Just like how spirit turtles were the rulers of Ruin’s End.

This was not the Sangharama God’s homeground, but his homeground. It was nowhere near enough to make up for the difference between them, but it did increase his chances of surviving.

He did not try to escape from the Great Thunderclap temple. Instead, he leapt into the grand hall.

This was the largest hall he had seen in his entire life. The ceiling seemed even higher and more distant than the sky, covered in wonderful murals, like heavenly maidens, dragons, and elephants, temples, scriptures, and so on, all drifting within the clouds and mist. A feeling of insignificance overcame him from just raising his head.

The huge, dignified statues, depicting bodhisattvas, arhats, heavenly kings, wisdom kings… All of the gods of buddhism were here, either with their eyebrows locked in thought, their eyes shut silently, or smiling away brightly. They took on a myriad of forms, like they were all alive.

Even the Sangharama God could only occupy a seat at the very end. Under the gaze of the divine eye, a streak of light passed through the ceiling, passing into the statues, making its eyes glow as it glared at him.

Are the gods and buddhas all watching me?

The thought made him leap in fright, but upon further thought, he had already come so far, so there was nothing scary about it anymore. If his time had come, then his time had come. There was nothing he could do about it.

Instead, he found it fascinating. He could not help but laugh, like a complacent monkey. To the ape demon, there was nothing that could not be joked about.

The statue of the Sangharama God suddenly quivered, walking down the altar with its swordbreaker clubs, pressing closer murderously with heavy steps. It wanted to chase him out of the grand hall.

The heavy pressure remained everywhere, but under the protection of the laws of the world, they were no longer enough to bring him to his knees.

However, he was well aware that even against a statue, he was no opponent. If a few more of these gods and buddhas could descend, then it would just be wonderful.

However, perhaps because the Great Thunderclap temple had been sealed by the buddha, severing its connection from the outside world, those statues never moved, only staring at him silently.

With a tumble, he avoided the vertical sweep of the swordbreaker clubs desperately and turned back into human form. With a swivel of his eyes, he came up with a wonderful idea. He pointed at the Sangharama God statue. “Stop right there! If you continue to attack me, I’ll smash this place to pieces!” As he said that, he kicked over a long-browed arhat beside him. With a clank, it produced a great pit in the ground. Its long brows had snapped as well.

“Stop! Y-y-you get out here!” The Sangharama God’s furious roar rolled through the sky, but he was fearful, no longer bold enough to strike recklessly.

“Hah, I think you should get out of here!”

Li Qingshan grabbed the Sangharama God statue and tossed it outside viciously, conveniently closing the doors in the process.

By now, he had already arrived in the depths of the grand hall. He gazed at the statue of Tathāgata and smiled.

Outside, the Sangharama God interrogated the Upraised Light abbot furiously. “Were you the one who brought him here?”

The Upraised Light abbot smiled wryly. “That’s right, it was me.”

“Why did you do this?”

“I was wrong! I was wrong!”

The Upraised Light abbot shook his head as he became even older. He did not expect everything to turn out like this either.

If it was just removing the seal without permission, he could still accept his mistake, but at this point, Li Qingshan could never escape. He could not hide inside forever. He was just delaying the inevitable at most now.

He let out a great sigh. “Sigh, Qingshan, I’ve harmed you!”

Before he had even finished what he was saying, there was a great rumble and the doors to the grand hall erupted into splinters from a kick. Li Qingshan rushed out, having transformed into his mountainous form of the demonic and divine. He seized a statue of Tathāgata in one hand and grabbed its neck with the other.

He roared furiously, “Let me go!”

The Upraised Light abbot was dumbstruck.

Li Qingshan glanced at him. “Ah! I almost forgot about you. Don’t panic, I have a hostage!” He roared furiously at the Sangharama God, “Let us go!”

The Sangharama God’s face twisted as his chest heaved away. He became so angry that his entire body shook too. Even all the cultivation he had built up throughout his life was unable to suppress his fury.

“How dare you, wretched animal!?”