Chapter 1641: By Force

The Qilin, with its Hovering Steps, Sympathises with the Living.

Li Qingshan originally never understood the qilin's path of paramount benevolence. Now, he had comprehended it completely.

It supported them without trying to possess them, it did so without thinking it was superior to them and it aided them without trying to control them. That was called virtue.

TL: This is from chapter 10 of the Dao De Jing.

Nature birthed all of the living creatures, but it did not claim them to be its, placing them under its control, much less ask them for any payback, demanding all living creatures to be loyal to it. Its virtue of benevolence was omnipresent, but also utmost profound, never to be sensed by anyone. It was like everything was supposed to be like that, thus the name "nature".

Of course, the true qilin would have never turned the life force of the plants and trees into its own power like Li Qingshan. The path that Li Qingshan walked was not the qilin's path at the end of the day. He only made use of the qilin's powers and transformations.

However, even the primordial qilin had been incapable of completely following through with its own path, betraying the nature it had been born with, following Sovereign Wa into the Battle of Mending Heaven and perishing under the lightning of Sovereign Xi.

At the end of the day, the primordial qilin was also just one of the many living creatures, not the senseless, unfeeling laws.

However, when it cast one final glance towards the figure that mended the heavens with her very own body, it probably did not regret its choice.

If the heavens had emotions, they too would age.

Between his exhale and inhale, life and death cycled, going from the bloom of a hundred flowers to the wilting of trees, from flourishing prosperity to only bleakness in sight.

With everything that unfolded right now, even a mortal would comprehend something, let alone several cultivators of unparalleled intelligence and talent.

Under the golden-leaved bodhi tree, Li Fengyuan extended his hand. A fallen leaf drifted into his palm. He looked up as the tree leaves dispersed and rustled away in the wind, spreading on the ground. Only withered branches that jutted towards the night sky sharply were left behind. He could not help but gently caress the coarse bark, having already understood the sorrow involved.

The nine-coloured deer had been overwhelmed by Li Qingshan, but she still could not help but develop a sense of closeness. The qilin was the chief of all terrestrial beasts, and the nine-coloured deer and the qilin's bloodlines were particularly close. Witnessing Li Qingshan who had become an embodiment of the primordial qilin demonstrating the path of nature of the cycle of life and death from so close, she immediately felt like she had been enlightened, virtually forgetting that she was opposing Li Qingshan.

Only Ruan Yaozhu could not help but drop to her knees as she watched the Hundred Herbs garden that she had poured her heart into be destroyed. She pressed her hand against her chest. Her heart was in agony. If it were not for the neutral and mild nature of the Heavenly Tome of Nature, she almost would have suffered from cultivation deviation and lost control over her powers. Why would she still care about some path of nature?

Li Qingshan sighed inside, but he continued to inhale and exhale the spiritual qi without budging.

A withered-yellow colour radiated outwards rapidly from him. Wherever it reached, the plants and trees wilted to death.

The surging spiritual qi was so dense that it had almost become a liquid, flowing with dazzling light and gathering towards him like the rivers to an ocean.

His figure began to grow, three metres, six metres, nine metres... he instantly towered over all the trees around him.

The cultivation of his clone grew abruptly. In the blink of an eye, it reached the fifth heavenly tribulation, the realm of Yang Soul cultivators, but it still showed no signs of stopping.

By then, Li Qingshan had only absorbed all the spiritual qi within three hundred metres of him. There were countless spiritual herbs in that range that could lead to conflict between many cultivators outside, yet compared to the entirety of the Hundred Herbs garden, it was like nothing.

The Hundred Herbs garden's terrain was extremely expansive. In order to support plants that required different conditions, it contained mountains, valleys, plains, deserts, lakes, and rivers. There was everything.

Li Qingshan was the lord of the Demon domain, and he presided over the expansive demonic earth, but at that moment, even he could not help but be amazed by the breadth and depth of the Myriad sect's foundations and heritage.

So what if a few direct disciples perished? With this Hundred Herbs garden around, they were free to produce new direct disciples endlessly, which was equivalent to an endless stream of enemies to Li Qingshan right now.

As a result, he had to uproot the Hundred Herbs garden, and he could use it against the enemy and strengthen this clone. As mentioned in the Art of War, "One cartload of the enemy's provisions is equivalent to twenty of one's own, and likewise a single picul of his provender is equivalent to twenty from one's own store."

Most importantly, this power did not originate from the Demon domain, so it would not be so easily noticed by the people up in the heavens. Only like that would he have a chance to swallow the Myriad sect in one single gulp while the enemy was still unprepared.

Of course, the Hundred Herbs garden was not that important. The Myriad sect was not that important either. Even as a conservative estimate, the Human realm had over a hundred large sects. Losing one or gaining one would not necessarily influence the overall situation and which of them lacked a place like the Hundred Herbs garden?

If he could choose, Li Qingshan also did not want to hurt Ruan Yaozhu, but the Myriad sect possessed something that he needed to obtain. This thing would influence the fate of the living creatures in the Demon domain and even the future direction of the war, so he could not allow any of his personal feelings get in his way.

Very soon, the cultivation of the clone reached its limit—the sixth heavenly tribulation, the realm of Human Immortals. He had already become the size of a mountain.

The spiritual qi required for each major realm was thousands of times more than the last, but that was not an issue at all in the Hundred Herbs garden. As a matter of fact, a majority of the garden remained lush.

However, Li Qingshan did not stop absorbing the spiritual qi. He gazed down at Ruan Yaozhu.

"Yaozhu."

He did not speak, but his voice rang out in Ruan Yaozhu's heart, like the whistling of winds or the shaking of the earth. The only thing it did not resemble was a human's voice.

Ruan Yaozhu was completely disheartened, but even she could not help but look over at the sound of the voice, meeting a pair of jade-green eyes. Those were not the eyes of a human.

By now, Li Qingshan's face was no longer a human's either, but something between a lion's and a human's. A pair of brown antlers sprouted between his thick, black hair, looming over the top of his head.

However, he instead seemed less frightening compared to before, giving off a strange sense of divinity, like an ancient statue of a god, forgotten by the people, sitting peacefully on the ground.

At that instant, Ruan Yaozhu seemed to forget her sorrows too, drawn in by the jade-green eyes.

As the cultivation of his clone reached its limit, Li Qingshan's might as a god and the path of the devaputra-māra reached the limit. Let alone the fact that Ruan Yaozhu's mind was in disarray, she would struggle to resist him even if she was in her usual state.

Their eyes met. Li Qingshan began to pour his Qilin's Conventions of Longevity from the Nine Transformations of the Demonic and Divine and various comprehensions regarding the path of nature he had gained through the merging the laws of Sukhāvatī and the Demon domain into her.

Imbuement of wisdom.

Ruan Yaozhu groaned and furrowed her brows. "Stop, Qingshan!"

"Don't worry! I won't directly twist your mind. I'll just show you the true path, which will still require your gradual comprehension in the future."

Li Qingshan was only giving her a push from behind, forcing her to see the true path of nature.

Meanwhile, her personal foundations were already sturdy enough. With this helping hand, it was enough for her to step through the boundary of mortality and immortality and reach the realm of Human Immortals.

By the time Ruan Yaozhu had calmed down slightly, Li Qingshan extended his finger and pressed it against her forehead gently, channeling the spiritual qi into her body.

Ruan Yaozhu shook her head and struggled desperately. She refused to accept this power. Using the plants and flowers of the Hundred Herbs garden as her own resources for cultivation was basically a theft of something entrusted in her care. However, with Li Qingshan's mountainous divine might, how could she resist? All she could do was shed tears of grievances.

The nine-coloured deer cried out, "Hold on! You're killing her!"

However, Li Qingshan ignored her, continuing to absorb spiritual qi while pouring even more spiritual qi into Ruan Yaozhu.

The spiritual qi required to condense a Yang Soul into an Origin Soul was a lot, but it was still nothing compared to the Hundred Herbs garden.

Immediately, thick tribulation clouds filled the air as the sound of thunder boomed.