Legend of the Great Sage

Li Fengyuan originally sat there, all solemn and serious, but when he heard that, his demeanour immediately collapsed. He said in grief, "First father, I'm Fengyuan! I'm also one of the four heavenly kings! How can you forget about me!?"

"Fengyuan! I think I've heard this name somewhere before." Li Qingshan smiled and held his chin. "How did you sneak your way into the ranks of the four heavenly kings?"

Li Fengyuan was immediately left speechless. He was a rare phoenix, a creature of nature whose bloodline existed since ancient times, yet he really was embarrassingly mediocre compared to the three other heavenly kings.

He said without the slightest confidence, "This- I- I'm your son…"

Li Qingshan came to a realisation. "I see!" He patted Li Fengyuan on the shoulder. "That's no wonder, seeing how you have a father like me! You're so young, and you already know how to bring up your dad for everything. You have a bright future ahead of you. Keep working hard, kid!"

"Yeah!" Li Fengyuan clenched his fist firmly, filled with spirit.

"Doesn't amnesia normally come with a drastic change in personality according to the stories?" Gu Yanying tilted her head.

"He's probably born shameless!" Rāhu Xiaoming looked up at the sky.

Li Qingshan just ignored them. He extended his hand and knocked the Vairocana crown on Li Fengyuan's head. "What's up with your attire?"

A so-called Vairocana crown was actually a Vairocana hat coupled with a Five Buddhas crown. The gold and red Vairocana hat was adorned with pearls and agate, such that it was extremely exquisite in style. The Five Buddhas crown depicted the Five Tathāgatas gilded in gold, each of them solemn in expression. Together, it formed an ornament that only an eminent monk wore. It was not something that any regular monk could possess.

If Li Qingshan's memories still remained, he definitely would have recalled a certain story about a journey to retrieve buddhist scriptures.

Li Fengyuan brought his palms together and lowered his head slightly. "Namo Amitābha, I have already converted to buddhism!"

Li Qingshan was mildly taken aback. At that instant, Li Fengyuan actually gave off a solemn aura of righteousness.

Afterwards, he flew into a rage and asked Xiao An, "Which bald ass did this? To even deceive my own son! I'll go and punch his bald head in right now!" Then he said to Li Fengyuan earnestly, "Fengyuan, I understand. It's not your fault. As the most useless of the four heavenly kings, you're far too easily influenced!"

He did not show any blame at all. Instead, he was filled with sympathy as if he was trying to say, It's not your fault that there's something wrong with your head. It's all your mother and father's fault for neglecting you. I didn't take good care of you as your first father, which is why you ended up like this.

Li Fengyuan was beyond tears now. His expression suddenly changed again, becoming lost and distant. He sank into his memories. "That day, I just happened to be cultivating under the golden-leaved bodhi tree in the Hundred Herbs garden…"

A great gust of wind blew by with a whoosh. The leaves and branches shone gloriously.

He opened his eyes and looked up. He had a striking appearance as his long hair flowed in the air.

No matter how foolish he behaved in front of Li Qingshan, he was a noble phoenix at the end of the day. He had once ruled Clouded city in the nine provinces, followed by the otherfolk continent in the World of the Five Continents, earning the respect and recognition of the people, titled as a wise monarch. As the eldest among Li Qingshan's many children, he had even been jokingly called as "mister crown prince" by the monkey children.

From the moment he was born, he possessed the power that the divine wutong tree had accumulated over ten thousand years for him, coupled with the legacy of the phoenix that existed since the ancient times.

The legacy was not just a cultivation method, but a tremendous amount of knowledge and memories as well. He struggled to endure all of it when he was first born, but as his cultivation progressed, the knowledge and memories were constantly exposed, becoming a part of his realm of comprehension.

This was a path of cultivation devoid of any obstacles. It could not even be called cultivation, but a natural process of growth, similar to how cubs grew to adults.

Well before Nüwa created humanity, when the term "cultivation" did not even exist, the phoenix was already a lofty divine creature.

As long as he did not perish, becoming a god was only a matter of time for him, and the last thing he lacked was time. As a phoenix that could constantly rebirth, even the Book of Life and Death had no record of his name.

From the moment he was born, he transcended the threat of death, possessing everything that a person could dream of, but he still found it insufficient. The four heavenly kings was almost a joke, but he understood exactly what kind of path Li Qingshan took and exactly what awaited him once he failed.

As a result, for three whole years, he did not take a single step away from the bodhi tree, cultivating arduously day after day.

Actually, even if he spent every single day enjoying himself, the rate at which his powers grew would far surpass the arduous cultivation of regular people.

And even if he cultivated arduously, his rate of progress would not be much faster. As a natural divine creature, it was more about natural growth, not nurture and cultivation.

But under these circumstances, that speed was nowhere near enough.

Don't tell me I'll only be able to hide behind, waving the banner and cheering him on, as first father fights to the death at the front? Waiting for him to emerge victoriously or… fall in battle.

Li Fengyuan furrowed his brows, exhibiting a stubborn expression that resembled Li Qingshan's.

He needed power. He needed the power that made him worthy of the title of the four heavenly kings, even if it was just the joke-like Meat-stewing Heavenly King.

At this moment, the wind suddenly stopped. The birds and insects stopped crying out too. Everything fell silent, except the leaves continued to dance.

The deep, dignified sound of chanting emerged from the sky, the ground, and the bottom of his heart at the same time. In the beginning, it was as soft as a buzzing mosquito, but it grew louder and louder. In an instant, it was like roaring thunder.

Sunlight filtered through the golden leaves, suddenly becoming so dazzling that he was unable to stare at it directly.

Li Fengyuan widened his eyes even further to see. The light wove into a life-like image…

Explaining up to there, he changed the topic and asked, "Guess what I saw."

Smack! Li Qingshan smacked him over the head impatiently. "Damned brat, don't make me beat around the bush. Spit it out!"

Li Fengyuan said angrily, "Li Qingshan, I'm not a child anymore. Can you show me some respect?"

Li Qingshan smiled. "In your first father's eyes, you're always a child." His face then sank. "If you don't hurry up, I'll hang you up and give you a beating!"

"Alright, alright!" Li Fengyuan could only confess. "I saw the image of a buddha."

"The image of a buddha? Surely you weren't hallucinating? Then what?"

Li Fengyuan laid out his hands and shrugged. "Then I converted to buddhism!"

"Hold on, did I miss a part of this story?"

Li Qingshan grimaced as if he was trying to understand the meaning of this.

Gu Yanying and Rāhu Xiaoming exchanged glances. This was not just the issue of missing a part of the story. It was not like Li Fengyuan was an ignorant, superstitious countryman. Unless he suffered from cultivation deviation, he could not be hallucinating.

If he really saw the embodiment of a certain god and buddha, then this would be a big deal. Li Fengyuan had clearly skipped over the most important part of the story as well, which made everything seem very suspicious.

Xiao An furrowed her brows slightly. She had a deep understanding regarding buddhism. Sunlight? An image of a buddha? Mahāvairocana?

Li Qingshan said, "Alright, let me just run through this again. You said you were cultivating, and then you raised your head and saw how the sunlight looked like a buddha, so you just converted to buddhism?"

"Yeah!" Li Fengyuan nodded.

Li Qingshan grabbed Li Fengyuan by the collar. "Damned brat, are you fucking with me?"

Li Fengyuan refused to back down. "Yeah, I'm fucking with you. Bite you, you bastard!"

"You trying to rebel?" Li Qingshan raised his fist.

"The son is beating his dad!" Li Fengyuan called out.

Gu Yanying could not help but smile as well. "Tsk, like father, like son."

Li Qingshan became even angrier, raising his fist to beat him.

Li Fengyuan shut his eyes. He seemed solemn and stirring like a vehement martyr, except the fist stopped before his face. He opened his eyes. "First father?"

Li Qingshan let go of his collar and sighed with a smile. "Kid, you've sure grown up!" He said seriously, "If you want to make your own choice and bear the consequences, you don't have to walk the same path as me. You don't owe me anything. Go do whatever you want to do. Remember, you have to live for yourself!"

"I understand!" Li Fengyuan directly met Li Qingshan's eyes. "First father, I will never be the most useless one out of the four heavenly kings!"

Li Qingshan patted him on the shoulder and did not ask any further. If one day, he chose to oppose him, then there was nothing for him to say either. Of course, he would receive no mercy either.

Li Fengyuan smiled. He was aware of that himself.

In the story that he had never finished, he had indeed given up some extremely important things.

Eternal life or power? That was a question.

However, it was not like he was those spirit turtles that would outlive their usefulness. If he could not stay true to himself and live out his will, what was the point of eternal life?

However, that was all for himself, so there was no need to say anything about it.

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He made his way around Li Qingshan and arrived beneath the golden-leaved bodhi tree again. Meanwhile, Xiao An, Gu Yanying, and Rāhu Xiaoming all returned to their respective Hungry Ghost realm, Daemonic Beast realm, and Asura realm for cultivation.

After completing the Spirit Turtle Transformation, Li Qingshan already neared the sixth heavenly tribulation. As long as another transformation made a breakthrough, he could face the tribulation immediately.

However, his memory loss was far too severe. He had forgotten everything he had comprehended, which was equivalent to producing several dozen bottlenecks out of thin air. If this continued, let alone taking a step further, his cultivation would even regress. Even the small world would collapse.

That was why he maintained the Spirit Turtle Transformation the entire time in an attempt to deduce the other transformations, but this clearly was not easy. The other transformations of the demonic and divine were no weaker than the Spirit Turtle Transformation, and they contained utterly different wills.

The Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance sat in the Pavilion of Heavenly Tomes and calculated day and night, yet his Myriad Heavenly Tomes could only nurture a group of Human Sovereigns. Given his own cultivation, that was the limit.

No matter how great at deducing and calculating he was, the paths were different, and that was that.

Under this situation, the Spirit Turtle Transformation instead became an obstacle. Each transformation of the demonic and divine was a different path.

He had gone too far down the path of the spirit turtle, and he even had to start over with the other paths. This was extremely difficult. He progressed with his deductions at turtle speed.

There was less than a decade till the promised time of the Blood Oath of the Nether River. He was running out of time, yet all he could do was sit there patiently and take everything slowly.

Suddenly one day, a black paper crane flew into the Xuanming dwelling. It unfurled slowly and Chao Tianjiao's voice echoed through the entire cavern. "Li Qingshan, the day of the duel draws near. Are you ready? Hahahaha!" Her laughter was filled with undisguised malice.

After becoming a Human Immortal, harassing Li Qingshan basically became her favourite pastime. The more Li Qingshan resisted, the more delight she derived from it. Towards the end, he downright just played dead and let her do whatever she wanted. He just treated it like he had fucked a dog.

He admitted it anyway. Back then, he had taken advantage of her, so it was basically retribution. As the old saying went, "A day as husband and wife, a hundred days of devotion." Who knew how many days they had spent together as husband and wife, yet she actually still remembered this bet. She was basically treating him as something beneath human.

It left Li Qingshan so furious that he ground his teeth. Why don't I just crush this woman to death with a Wolf Fang mountain?