Legend of the Great Sage

Chapter 1442: Great Gift

Li Qingshan’s heart skipped a beat as if he had been through this before. He grabbed Chao Tianjiao’s wrist and moved it away gently.

“Senior sister, please don’t place your hand on the shoulders of others so casually.”

Seeing how he was fazed, Chao Tianjiao mocked him ruthlessly. “What, you’re shy?”

Li Qingshan said indifferently, “My heart only belongs to Yaozhu, so please just give up, senior sister!”

At this moment, the officers of the Xuanwu army still lingered on the training grounds. When they heard that, they truly developed admiration from the bottom of their hearts towards Li Qingshan. Just how violent was the temper of their captain? He had just offended senior brother Li to the death. Then, without even batting an eye, he said something like that to the first senior sister. They had never seen someone who knew how to die better than him.

Chao Tianjiao gripped Li Qingshan’s shoulder firmly and ground her teeth. “You sure know how to dream!”

Even when it came to regular Demon Sovereigns, she would have crushed their shoulders, but she felt a strange, tensile sensation from the tips of her fingers. She was actually unable to pierce his skin.

Just what kind of fortuitous encounter did this kid have? How is his physique so tough?

Li Qingshan secretly used the Ox Demon Forges it Hide, and the skin on his shoulder became dark hide. He said without any emotional reaction, “Ah, it hurts! Please spare me, first senior sister!”

Chao Tianjiao let go as she fumed. “Don’t get cocky, kid. The army-wide martial arts competition is coming up. I’ll be sending you up first. I’ve prepared a small gift for you!”

“Don’t worry, I definitely won’t miss out on that!”

Li Qingshan swung his hand and turned away from Chao Tianjiao, about to return to his tower.

The Upraised Light abbot suddenly stood in his way. “Amitābha. Please give me a moment, fellow.”

“What’s the matter, master?” Li Qingshan brought his palms together and bowed.

The Upraised Light abbot recalled the colossal, demonic figure that had appeared at the boundary of the Demon domain. He felt uneasy about it, so he wanted to get to the bottom of it. Meanwhile, Li Qingshan walked the path of Maheśvara. Maheśvara was closely connected to buddhism, but he was no different from a demonic path, so Li Qingshan required special attention.

“Sir, you’ve made a great contribution against the demons. You’ll definitely obtain a sizeable amount of contribution from the Myriad sect. You’ll need to come to the Pure Land temple to make a written statement. It’ll be convenient for me to report it to the Desireless Heavenly palace as well.”

Li Qingshan just happened to be looking for help from this monk, so he smiled. “I see, then I’ll come with you, master.”

The Pure Land temple seemed to be enveloped in a warm glow. The snow turned to rain before it even reached the ground, nourishing the grass on the ground. It was like spring there.

However, Li Qingshan stopped and furrowed his brows subconsciously. For some reason, he simply loathed this place.

The Upraised Light abbot did not seem to notice his reaction. He raised his hand. “Please come in, fellow!”

“It truly is a pure land of buddhism.” Li Qingshan smiled and made his way through the gate.

At that instant, a tranquil and invisible power seeped into his skin like spring rain, nourishing his mind. The thumping of wooden fish and the sounds of chanting rang out from afar. If a mortal had arrived here instead, they would probably be overcome with the urge to leave the ruckus of secular life and convert to buddhism immediately.

However, he detested it even more. His demonic thoughts were constantly nourished as his back began to burn again, immediately rejecting the tranquil, invisible power. The thumping of wooden fish and the sounds of chanting were like countless mosquitos and flies buzzing right by his ear. All he could hear was the same thing being uttered again and again, amitābha.

“Fellow, you don’t seem to like this place very much?” the Upraised Light abbot looked back and asked.

“No, it’s very good here.” Li Qingshan held back his restlessness and squeezed out a smile. “I’ve really made the right decision in coming today!” He had to get rid of the image of Maheśvara as soon as possible.

He arrived in the grand hall. The great buddha gazed down, overlooking all the living things calmly, yet it also seemed as if it had not seen anything at all.

Li Qingshan felt agitated inside and lowered his head slightly. He was tempted to smash the great buddha to pieces with a single punch and then butcher all the chanting monks.

Sucking in a deep breath, he finally sat down on a cushion before the buddha.

The Upraised Light abbot sat on the other side of the table and pushed a log of merits over. “Please write it down, fellow!”

Li Qingshan picked up the brush and wrote, “Under orders, Li Qingshan scouted the Demon domain and discovered that Cold Blood pass had been massacred, reduced to an empty fortress.”

He was just about to place down his brush when the Upraised Light abbot said, “If you have made any other contributions, you can write it down as well, such as any demonfolk you’ve killed or anything else you’ve discovered. It’ll all be converted to contribution in the Myriad sect.”

Li Qingshan raised his head in response. “Do demonfolk I’ve killed in the past count too?”

The Upraised Light abbot’s eyes shone. “They do.”

In order to fend off the Demon domain, not only had the Human realm united all the major sects, but they even tried all sorts of ways to encourage smaller sects and independent cultivators to participate in the battle too. Any cultivator who had experience fighting demonfolk were valuable talents, so of course, they would not mind offering up this bit of benefit to them.

“Hah, there’s actually something as great as this? I’ve killed quite a lot of demonfolk in the past!”

Li Qingshan raised his eyebrows. This really was unexpected. Back then in the nine provinces, he had gone through many struggles to the death against demonfolk. Countless demonfolk had died to his hands. When he was scouting earlier, he actually had not encountered a single one.

Something like this was far too rare. Of course, the cultivators of the Human realm would not be bored enough to run onto the battlefield for nothing, while among the trichiliocosm, it required a world that had been invaded by the Demon domain, but had not been devoured by the Demon domain, coupled with a cultivator who had ended up ascending successfully…

Every single event had a very slim chance of occurring. Even Si Long, who had also been born in the nine provinces, had not gone through something like that. If it had been a regular Soul Nascence cultivator, it would have been quite a feat for them to kill a Demon King or two, and it would be very likely for them to die. They would not be fortunate enough to claim this merit.

“Amitābha. Any demonfolk you’ve killed is merit and contribution.”

Li Qingshan scratched his head. “But I don’t really remember the exact number.”

“Amitābha. As long as you make an honest report and it’s not too different from the actual number, it’ll be fine. We are seated right before the buddha. The buddha will bear witness on your behalf.”

“Alright then.” Li Qingshan thought about it and began writing. After filling in the log of merits, he pushed it back over to the Upraised Light abbot. “That’s all!”

The Upraised Light abbot saw the number and was stunned.

Li Qingshan smiled silently. He had killed his fair share of Demon Kings, Demon Commanders, and so on, which was far more than the army stationed at Cold Blood pass.

If that all counted and was converted to contribution in the Myriad sect, he would basically be on a meteoric rise. He even thought about how the World of the Five Continents probably should have produced many demonfolk and demonic beasts by now. If he went back and butchered them all, would he still be far away from direct disciple?

The group of direct disciples probably never imagined even in their wildest dreams that they had given him a great gift as soon as he was sent onto the battlefield in the Demon domain.

The Upraised Light abbot gazed at the log of merits before looking at Li Qingshan. This was the Pure Land temple, right in front of the buddha. Even when it came to cultivators with the same cultivation as him, the fifth heavenly tribulation, they could not lie without being detected.

“Amitābha. I never thought that you had made such a great contribution! I must apologise for failing to recognise this!”

Li Qingshan smiled. “It’s not a problem at all. You’re too kind, master. If you hadn’t reminded me, I wouldn’t even know that I’ve made such a great contribution.”

The Upraised Light abbot asked closely, “May I ask where you killed so many demonfolk?”

“Erm…” Li Qingshan thought about it. “Not in the Human realm anyway.”

“Don’t tell me it’s the Demon domain?” The Upraised Light abbot leaned forward as his eyes shone.

Li Qingshan was surprised. “What are you thinking, master? Don’t tell me you suspect me to be a spy from the Demon domain?”

“Are you not?”