Legend of the Great Sage

The demonfolk that covered the snake all fell down, rotting and melting away mid-air. They fell into the swamp of flesh and blood and produced plumes of smoke, which curled and twisted like snakes. Dark-red, orangey-yellow, indigo-blue, deep-green… countless colours spread through the swamp, mingling together and constantly mottling and changing. It turned into a devilishly splendid sight that could not be put into words.

Haze and miasma rose up from the ground. The air was filled with a sweet smell. Even the demonfolk that were originally incapable of gathering over collapsed to this smell, becoming a part of it in the very end.

The Demon Emperor was stunned. He immediately understood that the flesh and blood of the giant snake contained poison!

The Demon Kings clutched their throats firmly and tore away at their chests with their claws, wanting to force out the poison. However, snake-like plumes wriggled out from their open wounds, slowly wrapping around them.

The Demon Kings collapsed one by one, rotting away into foulness. The plumes all merged with the miasma.

The demonfolk army of several million strong had been annihilated, with only the commander remaining.

The Demon Emperor did all that he could to suppress the Deviance sword that trembled more and more violently in his hand. The chill in his heart became more and more intense. He experienced a bitter taste in his mouth. That was the taste of fear.

The snake’s eyes lit up with resplendent, golden light, resembling the eyes of a dragon. It opened its abyss-like mouth and sucked in deeply. All of the miasma surged in.

It constantly twisted its bloodied body, growing rows upon rows of fine scales. The colour of each scale was different, and they constantly changed too, enhancing the colour of the miasma.

A pair of sharp horns rapidly extended out from the snake’s head, jagged and forked like the horns of a deer. A mane that resembled fire grew from its back and reached down all the way to its tail. Four sharp claws protruded out of the snake, lifting up its colossal body. It raised its dragon’s head and let out a great roar. A violent aura swept hundreds of kilometres away, filled with fury and a refusal to accept this.

“Demon Sovereign!?”

The Deviance sword almost flew out of his hand. The Demon Emperor discovered a woman’s face bulging out from the top of the dragon’s head. Suddenly, she opened her eyes and smiled mysteriously. The demonic dragon rose up into the air.

He flew away on his sword without any hesitation. Even in the Demon domain, Demon Sovereigns could be considered as prominent figures, but how could someone from the nine provinces possess such a great cultivation? Even if the demonic seed could drastically increase their cultivation, it could not make a person skip over two major realms of cultivation instantly. On top of that, the heavenly tribulations would definitely descend in the process unless this person’s strength had already reached the fifth heavenly tribulation.

Dragon form, Human Sovereign, the nine provinces… Surely not?

Suddenly, he looked back. Under the glow of the black sun, the surroundings were completely bare. The army camp stretched off into the distance, deathly silent.

The swamp of flesh and blood had completely evaporated away, having been swallowed by the huge dragon. By now, even the colourful dragon had vanished. Everything that occurred earlier was like a nightmare.

“Sikong Cangjian.”

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A voice abruptly rang out from before him, startling him. He turned around slowly, only to see the gorgeous colours fade away, revealing a valiant man with a striking appearance. His figure was slender and his limbs were long, but he also possessed a feminine beauty with a rhombus-shaped gem embedded in his forehead. It flowed with many colours, adding a hint of mysteriousness to him. He stared at him coldly.

“You’re… Si Long!?”

……

The kunpeng circled over the nine provinces, staring at the ground with its sharp hawk-eyes. Even someone as free and graceful as her felt exceptionally heavy-hearted right now.

Plumes of smoke rose up everywhere throughout the nine provinces. That was the demon qi that the demon caverns constantly produced, corrupting millions of tonnes of soil and demonifying billions of lives. If these demon caverns were not suppressed, the world would turn into the Demon domain sooner or later even without invading demonfolk.

However, that was still nothing compared to the actual threat.

As she gazed towards the boundary between the Green province and the Mist province, the mouth of the hungry ghost had already turned into a deep abyss thousands of kilometres long, and it was currently ripping wider. Everything in its surroundings fell into it.

The Demon domain was terrifying, but it could not instinctively devour worlds. As long as they suppressed all the demon caverns, there would be a day when all the wounds closed up and the corrupted land was purified.

However, such a large mouth of the hungry ghost could not be sealed up at all. The laws of death had already begun twisting this world, and it was devouring faster and faster too.

The destruction of the World of the Nine Provinces had already become just a matter of time.

She let out a sigh and returned with a flap of her wings, covering several thousand kilometres and landing in a pure-white city that hovered among the sea of clouds.

……

A pair of eyes opened up, scarlet like fire and shining splendidly.

Li Qingshan discovered he was lying on the surface of water. Milky-white light rippled in his surroundings with white feathers placed around him. Handsome and beautiful faces gathered around him, filled with mixed expressions of both fear and reverence. When he glanced over, they all avoided his gaze, afraid to meet his eyes.

He pouted. “It sure does resemble heaven!”

The featherfolk looked at one another, unsure what he was talking about.

“First father, you’re awake!” Li Fengyuan walked over with a face filled with surprise and joy.

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“Where is this?” Li Qingshan yawned, giving off an exhausted sense of looseness.

“This is a sacred ground of the featherfolk. Who knows how many years it’s taken to accumulate this pool of sacred liquid. Just healing you took up half the pool.”

“Heh, you sure are capable, making them agree to that. If this weren’t bathwater, I’d drink the other half too.”

When he mentioned bathwater, the faces of the featherfolk all became rather ugly. However, they had opposed Li Fengyuan entering the battle with Clouded city back then, so they were afraid of Li Qingshan coming after them. As such, they could no longer care about this sacred ground anymore.

Back then, Li Fengyuan wanted to lend his first father a hand as the Meat-stewing Heavenly King. However, after personally witnessing the level of the battle, he discovered that he really had only been kept around to make up for the numbers so that Li Qingshan could have “Four” Heavenly Kings. Not only was he completely useless, but he might even need Li Qingshan’s care in the process. If he were accidentally caught and used as a hostage, he would have made the situation even worse, so he cleverly chose to spectate from afar.

By the time they reached the decisive battle on Dragonshead mountain, it was even more impossible for him to interfere. In the end, after all that difficulty, his first father finally emerged victoriously, so all he could do was continue with his miscellaneous jobs, healing Li Qingshan with his phoenix flames. The effects were extremely evident.

“If you want to drink, you’re obviously drinking alcohol. I’ve already prepared it all to congratulate you on defeating Si Long and conquering the nine provinces!”

Li Qingshan laughed aloud. “Find me a few pretty little featherfolk girls to accompany me while I drink!”

The featherfolk’s faces all sank, but they eased up inside. If they were to accompany him while he drank, then they would accompany him!

A female featherfolk snuck in a gaze and even thought, Drinking with him isn’t exactly humiliating. I’ll just make this sacrifice for the sake of the featherfolk then.

With a bang, the doors swung open, and Gu Yanying walked in. She said with a smile, “Though, how are featherfolk girls worthy of you, mister Li? If it were me, I’d made all seven otherfolk races each offer up a few girls and have a great feast of three days and three nights on Dragonshead mountain.”

Li Qingshan smiled. “That’s a good idea. By then, I’ll have to ask you to offer up a dance performance too.”

Smack! Before he could even finish, he was struck over the head.

Gu Yanying sat down beside the pool and swung her folding fan gently. She asked with a smile, “Are you satisfied with that performance?”

Li Qingshan shook his head. “Alright, let’s deal with the celebrations later. Let me handle the matters regarding the Hungry Ghost realm first, as well as these demon caverns.”

Gu Yanying said in surprise, “So you still remember!”

Li Qingshan stretched. “I’ve always been trying to save the world.”

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“That’s unfortunate. It’s already too late.” Gu Yanying sighed gently, which was soon replaced by determination. “We don’t have any time to celebrate. We need to leave the nine provinces as soon as possible!”

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Author’s Word for Monthly Votes—Happy Children’s Day

Yesterday afternoon.

Walking on the dusty road alone, even the sun became hazy in the early summer of this small county city located in the central plains. I’ve already lived here for over two decades, but there’s still no memories worth recalling. All there was was floating depression and anxiety. I hate this city and I also hate reminiscing.

But as I walked alone, this feeling still made me recall something clearly. Many years ago, for many of the times, when I was still a child, I seemed to have walked like this, walking for a very, very long time.

Back then, I still hadn’t become so dazed and distracted by other thoughts, neither thinking of the novel nor remiscincing the past. My gaze drifted around, from the telephone pole to the wheels on the car, from the sky to the advertisement boards, filled with fragmented details and scenes of unknown meaning.

Children always just struggle to focus on anything. This is most definitely a form of bliss, because even pain could not keep me concentrated for long. As I cried, I would remember the half-eaten chocolate in my hand, shoving it into my mouth and eating as a cried, leaving my dad furious as he thought it was something that a good-for-nothing did..

However, if children could focus on pain like adults, their frail hearts might not be able to endure it!

With that kind of mood walking on that kind of road, I could not help but wonder whether I had grown up or not. Perhaps these two decades of memories were just an illusion. If the fine, bulky clothes on me were stripped away layer by layer, all that was inside was a dirty, naked boy, his gaze drifting about, eating chocolate as he cried away like a good-for-nothing.

Sigh, I suddenly remembered an actual memory. When I was in the first grade, I went to the other side of the city with a group of friends to pick up bullet casings from the shooting range. When we were returning, the guy who pedalled me over insisted on me pedalling him back, but back then, I still hadn’t learnt how to ride the bicycle. I only learnt how to ride the bicycle many years later, and it took me an entire week before I learned.

After an argument, everyone felt unhappy inside, unwilling to take me with them. I just stood aside with a pout and said in the end that I would walk back myself. Afterwards, those bastards just rode off.

As a result, I just walked in the sun and used that vague feeling to travel through the foreign city—which still seemed absolutely humongous back then. I walked for more than three hours and by the time I had gotten home, it was already dark, yet all that I had obtained was a bullet casing. However, I did not feel particularly sad either. I even felt like it was supposed to be like that. I didn’t know how to ride the bicycle, so all I could do was walk!

Actually, thinking about it now, if I had just softened up my tone slightly or just made a scene shamelessly and clung onto their bicycles without letting them go, I would have been able to ride back with them!

There were many other matters that came afterwards that seemed to have much better choices, but in the end, I still walked back alone with a pout. I really didn’t learn at all!

Ah, before I knew it, I’ve already rambled about so much. Just treat it as sharing a wonderful childhood memory with you all, corresponding to Children’s Day.

Oh right, this is an author’s word asking for monthly votes.

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Happy Children’s Day, don’t forget to vote. Of course, it makes perfect sense if you don’t vote too. Those who release slowly don’t deserve votes!

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