Legend of the Great Sage

The Upraised Light abbot shut his eyes painfully. “Amitābha!”

The spiritual mountain collapsed together with several of the snowy mountains in the surroundings. The rumbling lingered in the surroundings as an echo.

The flap between Li Qingshan’s right thumb and index finger had ruptured, dyeing the Mountain-moving tablet red as it trembled away uncontrollably. He gripped his wrist firmly with his left hand, lowering his right arm slowly and exhaling deeply in satisfaction.

However, if he could not escape from Sukhāvatī, this would be all pointless. The Sangharama God had not sustained any life-threatening injuries. It was only a matter of time before he escaped from the rock and soil.

Boom!

Thousands of tonnes of earth was launched into the air. An army suddenly extended out from the ruins, pressing against the ground violently and hoisting out an imposing figure. Millions of tonnes of soil poured down, making the ground rumble.

The corner of Li Qingshan’s eye twitched before he smiled again. Gods sure were powerful!

The Sangharama God insisted on holding up the spiritual mountain, so it was equivalent to being openly smacked by the spiritual mountain, yet he actually still possessed such terrifying power.

Now, he was really out of options. The Mountain-moving tablet could only control all the mountains throughout the world. It was useless on collapsed mountains, as that was already beyond the laws it could control.

“Monk, I have a question for you. Where do the demonic beasts come from?” Li Qingshan suddenly had a stroke of inspiration. “Don’t tell me they were welcomed here by the buddha as well?”

In hindsight, the Upraised Light abbot brought him to the city clearly because he knew demonic beasts would appear, wanting to use them to awaken his memories. On top of that, before the demonic beasts appeared, soldiers had already begun dispersing the crowd and sounding alarm bells. They were all accustomed to it, like it was a common occurrence.

Paths were always connected. If demonic beasts could come, then he could go!

The sliver of hope illuminated the path before him.

“This… With each midnight, they appear, but they turn to nothing as soon as the sun shines on them. As for anything else, I’m… not too sure about it.”

The Upraised Light abbot spoke ambiguously, clearly not telling the entire truth. He was hiding something.

“Midnight. No wonder the bell would ring twelve times.”

Li Qingshan’s eyes lit up and immediately grasped the crucial point. This sliver of hope immediately became even more dazzling.

Midnight was when yang was born, as well as the moment when yin was heaviest.

There must have been some kind of hole in the buddha’s modification of the Qilin Paradise, or why would he intentionally let demonic beasts in?

He was still unaware that due to the wilting of the pond of lotuses, demonic beasts were already prowling through the entirety of Sukhāvatī.

He glanced up at the deep and dark sky. Midnight was close now. There was roughly still two hours.

The issue right now was how was he supposed to last until then.

The Sangharama God’s mountainous back had already been lifted up from the ruins. Let alone two hours, even fifteen minutes was enough for the Sangharama God to kill him a hundred times.

Boom! The Sangharama God’s head extended out from the soil, roaring furiously, “Li Qing-”

A mountain filled his eyes. With a boom, it smashed his head and back into the soil again.

“Shan.” Li Qingshan finished off his sentence for him before lowering the Mountain-moving tablet. If he took on another Lion’s Roar, even if he would only be stunned for an instant, he would be dead.

The Mountain-moving Great Sage had given him three great mountains. Yellow Cliff edge had crushed the Unadorned Ghost Immortal to death. This was the second mountain, Wolf Fang mountain.

Unlike the spiritual mountain, the three mountains were all innate spiritual treasures that had been further refined. They possessed the might of laws. Even the Sangharama God was left with a splitting headache when he took on a blow like that. His back cracked as if it had snapped in half. In particular, his fury remained all pent-up inside him, such that the pressure displaced his organs. For a moment, he was unable to muster his strength.

Amitābha. Fourth brother is watching over me.” Li Qingshan said to the Upraised Light abbot. “Don’t be so close-minded. It’s just a mountain. I’ll just give one back to you.”

And because it landed in the ruins of the spiritual mountain, Wolf Fang mountain basically stood even taller and larger than the spiritual mountain. It would probably become covered in vegetation again before long as snow covered the very top. However, there would not be those miscellaneous, cluttered murals and statues anymore. It would just be all white and clean.

It was a joke, but the Upraised Light abbot was unable to laugh. He stared blankly at Wolf Fang mountain and suddenly realised something. He murmured, “Mountains come and go. Flowers fall and bloom. Nothing is exempt from formation, existence, disintegration, then emptiness.”

Li Qingshan had no idea what he was chanting about. He was desperately trying to come up with a counter plan.

The first plan was widening the distance between them as much as possible, flying several tens of thousand kilometres in a single breath. However, to a god, distances were nothing. They could shrink the earth beneath their feet, where even the ends of the world were within arm’s reach.

The second plan was to find a large city and use their residents as hostages to threaten the Sangharama God. However, even if the Sangharama God bought that, he was not willing to stoop that low.

Perhaps he might as well use that ancient bronze sword of mysterious origins to bring an end to all of this while the Sangharama God was immobilised and finish him off. However, was god-slaying really that easy?

He came up with several plans before discarding them one by one. He thought long and hard. Perhaps there was only one plan that could work.

“Monk, it’s time for us to go. Are you coming or not? Actually, forget about it. I probably can’t protect you anyway. The Sangharama God is going to be after me anyway. It won’t be too difficult for you to last until midnight. Let’s just go our own ways!”

“Hold on.” The Upraised Light abbot took out a book from his clothes and passed it to Li Qingshan. “If you manage to escape, please give this to the successor of white bone.”

Li Qingshan accepted the book. It was just a thin booklet compiled from a single, uncut, folded paper. There was no name on the cover either. When he pulled it open, there was not a single word inside.

“What is this book?”

However, the Upraised Light abbot said, “It’s time for me to go.” He did not fly away. Instead, he sat in the lotus position mid-air, bringing his palms together. His aged face shone with light, clear and bright. As if he had let go of the tremendous burden, his expression was peaceful, no longer making a single sound again.

Li Qingshan was taken aback. He reached over, but the Upraised Light abbot scattered as dust, vanishing off into the wind with the secret he discovered in the Great Thunderclap temple.

“Sigh, you sure have it easy.”

Li Qingshan shook his head. He had no idea whether to feel happy or sad for him. Wolf Fang mountain in the distance shook violently, ready to fall at any moment.

He shoved the booklet into his clothes and touched something, which immediately made him think of a classic story. He flew over to Wolf Fang mountain and spat on the cliff.

“Off you go!” With a slick, the notice with the six-syllabled mantra was stuck there.

The mountain continued to shake violently. Slowly but surely, the notice slid down.

“Yep, the children’s stories are all a lie!”

Li Qingshan turned around and fled, vanishing off into the horizon as a streak of light.

In the blink of an eye, he arrived before the weakwater again. He felt his body give way, plummeting immediately, but this was his exact intentions.

He immediately transformed into a spirit turtle in the water. With a thunk, he dove into the depths of the weakwater and chose a hidden spot. He drew his head and limbs into his shell, erasing his presence and obscuring all signs of fate.

At the same time, a mirror clone rushed into the air with his aura and fate, crossing the fifteen hundred kilometres of weakwater and flying off into the distance.

At this moment, there was still well over an hour before midnight.

This was his only chance at survival, hiding to the very end using his talents as a pure-blooded spirit turtle.

The “coward” did as he pleased.

TL: The word for coward or cowardice in this case in Chinese is “怂”. It is composed of two other Chinese characters, “从” and “心”. Together, they form a phrase that means “doing as somebody pleased”.