Legend of the Great Sage

The Heaven Leaning peak stood alone on the shore like a divine sword, pointing towards the heavens and standing on-guard against the Demon continent on the other side, deterring the demons and frightening off the wicked. Meanwhile, the master of the Sword Collection palace, Yu Zijian, was the spirit of the divine sword.

At the top of the peak, she asked the intangible will of the heavens why it had created a continent like that, bringing forth so much slaughter and wickedness.

The will of the heavens was always beyond reach, unable to be questioned! But at this moment, he stood right by her side, grabbed firmly by her.

“Over there… I see… I never actually sensed it…”

Li Qingshan gazed over the ocean at the Demon continent that he had created himself. He immediately understood all of its history and sank into his thoughts.

Yu Zijian held her breath and stared at him closely, quietly waiting for his response. Suddenly, she felt a tremble from her hand. She was surprised. She could not help but ask, “Are you still alright?”

“I’m alright.”

Li Qingshan smiled. At that moment, a thought flashed through his head, as if he saw a “Demon domain” he had created with his own hands.

If he wanted to purify the other continents so their residents could live in peace and harmony, he needed to extract the land corrupted by the Demon domain and the Hungry Ghost realm.

Yet in the past history of the Demon domain, did that golden hand that took away the sun possess the same good intentions?

Yes, in order to obtain a pure land of Sukhāvatī, he needed to create a corrupted land of the Demon domain first.

He had intentionally left the continent in the cold bitter north because he did not have any plans for any creatures to live or thrive there.

Sukhāvatī had drained the Demon domain of all of its vitality, rendering the entire place barren. Perhaps that in itself was a form of compassion.

However, far, far too long had passed, so long that everything deviated from their original intentions. Everything defied their original wishes.

In the end, many creatures still gathered there, stubbornly taking root with admirable life force, only to become even more brutal and wicked under this harsh environment.

The Demon continent had become the main base of all demonic cultivators in the world. All the mortals born on the continent possessed certain special characteristics of demonfolk and undead, numb and heartless, filled with tremendous strength. They were called “otherdemons” by people. They invaded the other continents, just like how the demonfolk waged war against the trichilicosm and the six realms of saṃsāra.

Li Qingshan gazed at the sky and recalled the receiving light of the buddha that had brought him to Sukhāvatī. Had it really been a coincidence when it brought him in as a measly sangharama guardian?

It was completely capable of destroying him, the future king of the Demon Gods, yet it still wanted to show him all of the right and wrong, good and bad there. The time he spent as Eggborn was the happiest and most peaceful time in his life. Everyone lived on happily. “Paradise” was not a lie.

However, when he fell into the Demon domain and held the human child that Jiuying gave birth to, all of the happiness and peace turned to irony. All that remained in him was grief and fury.

At that moment, he seemed to see the infant grow up and age with each passing day, until his face became covered with age spots, gradually giving off a foul stench, drooling from the mouth, leaving others disgusted.

Was even his great passionate vow to bring salvation to all unable to stand up to the passage of time?

The qilin has already perished, the phoenix has grown old… The qilin has already perished, the phoenix has grown old…

He suddenly understood the entirety of its meaning, but he also lost the ability to express it in words.

Formation, existence, disintegration, then emptiness. Birth, old age, illness, death. No one, nothing, was an exception to that. Just how much meaning lay behind everything that he did?

He could not help but furrow his brows and sink into his thoughts. The silvery-grey ocean ebbed and flowed as the north wind swept over into his face with snow. His expression was as cold and solemn as a statue, looming up to the heavens, beyond reach.

Yu Zijian could not help but let go of him. She did not find the answer she wanted, but she seemed to see the will of the heavens itself, distant and profound, unable to be described.

If it was anyone else, they would lose the courage to ask forever, but she gritted her teeth instead and shouted resolutely, “Li Qingshan, stop playing the fool! I will be getting an explanation for all the living creatures in the world today!”

Li Qingshan suddenly snapped back to his senses, gazing at her with shining eyes. He could not help but smile. “I’m just a mortal. Why are you asking me for an explanation?”

Yu Zijian let out a great sigh of relief. In the moment earlier, it had basically been even more terrifying than facing the most dangerous enemy. Her will had almost been consumed, yet she also found a strange sense of familiarity, able to understand the state he was in.

However, he still preferred the “Niu Juxia” right before her.

She rebuked him. “You lie! You’re clearly the god of the world and the hero king too! You shared all of your cultivation methods to everyone, regardless of who they are, so of course, you have to take responsibility.”

His grand aspiration of martial arts for everyone was not as glorious and correct as it sounded. It changed the world and the fates of countless people, but it also led to countless incidents of chaos and conflict.

Demonic cultivation methods were often non-standard, placing emphasis on quick success. It was easier to suffer from cultivation deviation, but compared to the temptation of longevity, it could not necessarily be regarded as a price to pay. They cultivated much faster than orthodox cultivation methods and the techniques they used were vicious in nature and extraordinary in power. Orthodox cultivators of the same cultivation often were not the opponents of their demonic counterparts.

As such, many cultivators turned to the wicked path, specially choosing cultivation methods of this variety from the Pavilion of Heavenly Tomes so that they could win battles. It was so bad that a few years ago, the demonic path went on a meteoric rise within the World of the Five Continents, greatly surpassing the orthodoxy. It was only until the Sword Collection palace’s forceful rise and Yu Zijian’s great efforts that they gradually fell back into decline.

Li Qingshan held his chin and sighed. “There’s bad people in the masses?”

“You only found out now?”

Yu Zijian had seen plenty. Just which of the powerful demonic cultivators was not a mortal when they first started off? None of them seemed like bad people, but once they grasped extraordinary power, they immediately became twisted.

“I almost forgot. I’m not exactly some good person either! Hehe!” Li Qingshan began laughing without any sense of shame, patting Yu Zijian on the shoulder gladly. “Fortunately, you’re around. You just have to kill all of those bastard demonic cultivators.”

“You big bastard!”

“What did you say?” Li Qingshan basically doubted his ears. Sigh, when I took care of you in the past, you called me Niu Juxia. Now that you’re grown up, you call me a big bastard.

“You big bastard!”

Yu Zijian furrowed her brows, which added a sense of harshness to her, reflecting her experiences over the years. Let alone demonic cultivators, even her fellow colleagues would become fear-stricken when they saw her like this, afraid to say anything more.

Over the years, the Sword Collection palace had presided over the orthodoxy and slain countless demonic cultivators, but they had also made numerous sacrifices too. Even cultivators were like this, so the mortals went even more without saying.

With her current cultivation, she could overwhelm all the demonic cultivators in the world alone with her sword, but this advantageous situation would not last for too long. The demonic cultivators would produce Human Sovereigns sooner or later and rise up again. By then, it would be another battle between the righteous and the wicked, another round of endless slaughter. Who knew how many more innocent lives would be lost, yet he could actually still laugh.

“Alright then. What do you want me to do?”

Yu Zijian said without hesitation, “Kill all of the demonic cultivators in the world first!”

“Heh, what harshness!”

“Trust me. The orthodoxy has its fair share of hypocritic scoundrels, but there really are no good ones among those demonic cultivators. I’d rather kill a thousand innocent people than let one go. Letting one go means the death of who knows how many tens of thousand people, and it’ll leave everyone in the world thinking that they can get away with their deeds without punishment. It’ll be an everlasting negative influence.”

Yu Zijian’s expression became even harsher. This was the determination that had been forged through countless brutalities. Sometimes, small expressions of benevolence and mercy were even worse than fake benevolence and mercy.

Li Qingshan had no doubts about that. He had never believed the shitty saying where the people of the orthodoxy were hypocrites, while the people of the demonic path were real men. When hypocrites did things, they still had to take their image into consideration. When these “true men” came to butcher cities, they did not show any mercy at all.

“And then?”

“And then destroy all of these demonic cultivation methods and uproot the foundations of these demonic cultivators. Afterwards, announce it to the world under the name of the hero king so that everyone takes it as a warning. After that, even if there are ones that have managed to slip away, they’ll be relatively easy to ‘deal with’.” Every single sentence she said was filled with a sense of harshness, as well as unchanging determination.

“Cultivation methods aren’t actually good or wicked.”

“Yeah, what matters is killing all the demonic cultivators and deterring the entire cultivation community under the name of the hero king so that no cultivators dares to try it.”

“But even if you kill all the demonic cultivators in the world, you can’t kill the wickedness within the hearts of all living creatures. They’ll only become even more hypocritical and despicable, labelling all their enemies as demonic cultivators and all opposition as the demonic path.”

“That’s still better than doing nothing.”

“Actually, there’s an even simpler method.”

“What method?”

“Killing the thought is better than killing the people.” Li Qingshan pointed to his head. “You don’t even need to take any direct action. As long as I have the determination, it can directly turn into the will of the world and influence the consciousness of all living creatures, making them embrace good and return to the orthodoxy. What do you think?”

Yu Zijian clapped and smiled. “That would be perfect! Hold on, if you’re capable of that, why didn’t you do so earlier?”

“Would you like to be influenced by me?”

“Of course. Haven’t I always been influenced by you?” Yu Zijian gave him a toothy grin. “I trust you.”

Li Qingshan was speechless. Then he said, “What if it wasn’t me?”

Yu Zijian thought about it before shaking her head. “I’d refuse…”

Li Qingshan was touched and gladdened. Right when he was about to say something, he heard her continue, “... but I can go and die.”

Her expression was normal. There was no hot-bloodedness and high-spiritedness, or any lament and pity, as if it was common sense.

“If the people of the world can go without shedding tears, I’m willing to shed tears. If the people of the world can go without making sacrifices, I’m willing to sacrifice myself.”