What was going on here?
With his immortal consciousness disturbed by the treasure light from the north, Li Changshou waited until his paper person avatar approached the village, hiding in the treetop of a large tree, before finally glimpsing the situation within.
Hundreds of villagers gathered near the village gate, where a stage had been set up, with several figures in Daoist robes jumping about on it.
Someone was preaching here…
Upon clearly seeing the source of the treasure light, it was a clay statue behind several ‘preachers.’
Li Changshou chuckled inwardly, and the middle-aged man transformed from the paper person jumped down from the treetop, immediately preparing to leave.
He had thought some treasure was emerging, hoping to come pick up some leftovers.
These days, how could there be so many treasures to pick up…
If such preaching occurred outside the South Jambudvipa Continent, it would most likely be promotional activities by major sects to recruit disciples.
But if it occurred within the South Jambudvipa Continent, it was either a scam for money or collecting merit from incense offerings.
Such things weren’t uncommon.
The cultivation levels revealed by those several preachers were all Core Formation third or fourth stage.
The old Daoist guarding that three-foot-tall clay statue revealed cultivation at the peak of the Return to Void realm, approaching the Returning to Dao realm…
In any case, it was a matter unrelated to him.
The paper person made hand seals, hiding behind a tree to begin earth traversal.
A chanting of scriptures came with the wind, entering the paper person’s ears and Li Changshou’s heart.
The scripture sang:
“… great vow to achieve supreme enlightenment, promising to form Bodhi in the West…”
Western Religion?
The paper person’s hand seals moved even faster, and just as slight ripples appeared on the ground before him, the paper person eagerly dove in.
Running three degrees more urgently than before.
Meanwhile, Li Changshou’s true body on the desolate island also stood up, using illusion transformation to become a swimming fish, heading straight east.
The Western Religion meant great karma, what was there to wait for but to run?
Unexpectedly, though this was still the southwestern part of the South Jambudvipa Continent, very far from the Western Cattle Gift Continent, the Western Religion had already extended its incense-collecting tentacles here.
But just as Li Changshou was about to escape, his immortal consciousness suddenly caught something unusual in the seawater to the southeast.
About eight hundred Li away, there was a mass of dense demonic qi, currently swimming toward the direction of the glowing treasure light…
Li Changshou immediately stopped and descended to the seabed, fully concealing his traces.
He also stopped the paper person still tunneling underground, keeping it motionless below the surface.
A great sea demon attracted by the village’s treasure light?
This wasn’t good at all.
After careful observation, this great sea demon’s cultivation was equivalent to an early True Immortal realm cultivator. Under the wrapping of demonic qi, its body was a strangely-shaped large fish, somewhat similar to a manta ray, but with a more enormous body, both length and width exceeding hundred zhang.
Considering the possibility of hidden cultivation, a conservative estimate would be the late True Immortal realm.
Under the dense demonic qi, strands of blood light coiled around these demon-like flames.
This was a sign of its extreme viciousness, heavy with killing karma, its karmic obstacles already manifesting.
Li Changshou’s heart throbbed with excitement.
Of course, he didn’t have any special fondness for such strange creatures—he purely had his eye on the karmic obstacle force on this great demon.
Clearing such thick karmic obstacles would earn quite a bit of merit!
Should he take the opportunity to kill this great demon?
Li Changshou thought rapidly.
After becoming immortal, his foundation was too weak, and he didn’t have many treasures.
Merit was a good thing, and quite rare.
If one stayed secluded in their sect to cultivate, not doing good deeds beneficial to heaven and earth’s stability, even hundreds of years wouldn’t yield a trace.
If someone was single-mindedly [proving the Way through force], they would want to avoid being blessed by merit, thus ensuring they wouldn’t be influenced by the Heavenly Dao later.
But Li Changshou didn’t have such lofty ideals; he considered very practical matters.
—With more merit for protection, his safety factor would be higher.
If he could obtain great merit in the future, he wouldn’t learn from the various bigwigs to nurture magical treasures, but would first create a Merit Golden Body!
With a Merit Golden Body, it would be equivalent to a death-exemption golden token. Then whatever tribulation he encountered, there would be no need for too much fear.
At that time, even if a Saint wanted to forcefully strike him, they would have to consider whether it was worth losing several times the merit force of the Merit Golden Body.
Of course, this Merit Golden Body was extremely difficult to forge, requiring vast amounts of merit force.
Until now, with the Heavenly Dao tending toward perfection, opportunities to obtain great merit have become rare.
Going to the Heavenly Court would provide more opportunities to earn merit. Li Changshou had considered related matters before.
First, the current situation.
Killing this great demon would certainly yield no small amount of merit.
As the saying goes, sand accumulates to form mountains, drops gather to form seas—everything must have a beginning.
As for getting entangled in karma with the demon race…
The human race and demon race were mortal enemies. Even if he was polite to the demon race, if he ever fell into the hands of demon race experts, his only fate would be the oil pot.
There was no need to be polite with the demon race.
But considering the other party might have hidden cultivation, he would have to bear some slight risk…
This was the South Sea, not a demon race gathering place. Within two thousand Li, there was only this one great demon’s qi, with just scattered minor demons on some islands…
Now with water and earth traversal mastered, he could travel a hundred thousand Li daily without issue. He could kill this thing and immediately flee to hide in the mortal world, without fear of other demon race revenge…
Moreover, having the ability to prevent it while ensuring his safety, yet watching this great fish demon go kill his kind with eyes wide open, would be somewhat inexcusable.
After all, he had been human for two lives…
Although Li Changshou had reservations about whether the Bear Village’s biological bodies were the same kind.
…
With an attitude of giving it a try, Li Changshou used water traversal, moving ten times faster than the great demon, silently rushing to a sea area hundred Li from shore.
Besides the Three Schools’ immortal sects, traversal methods were mostly quite hard to find in the primordial world.
Moreover, among current cultivators, the trend of valuing treasures over methods prevailed, causing many to underestimate traversal methods’ usefulness.
Calculating this great demon’s route, Li Changshou’s sleeve fluttered, and six paper people flew out left and right, transforming into men and women of different appearances, builds, and auras.
The six paper people immediately busied themselves at the seabed, quietly arranging suitable water-based entrapment formations.
The precious umbrella temporarily couldn’t be used, not having completed its upgrade.
Li Changshou then traversed toward the shore, joining with the paper person hidden underground, collecting it, and then finding a seaside forest to hide.
Eyes closed, concentrating, every movement within several hundred Li entered his heart.
Moments later, a hundred Li away on the sea surface, huge waves surged to the sky!
A circular grand formation appeared on the sea surface, directly trapping these huge waves!
That hundred-meter-long great demon, not detecting the ambush ahead, directly crashed into the temporarily arranged entrapment formation. Upon discovering something wrong, it immediately began frantically colliding about!
The six paper-person avatars had already appeared from various places, rushing to surround the great demon, each sprinkling several bottles of poison powder, using immortal power to stick it around this great demon.
In an instant, the seawater around this great demon became completely murky. The great demon’s entire body was rapidly corroded, and its demon soul also suffered heavy damage!
“Who… are… you…”
This time, Li Changshou had sacrificed his last two bottles of supreme-grade Soft Immortal Powder…
Although this great demon’s cultivation realm was relatively high, its drug resistance was not as strong as the East Sea Dragon Palace’s Second Prince encountered before. Its movements immediately became extremely sluggish.
Li Changshou’s spirit was highly tense.
The six paper-person avatars finished sprinkling their poison powder, each holding treasure swords charging forward in intersecting paths. In the seawater appeared talismans strung together by immortal light.
The sword formation and Three Realm True Flame unleashed their power simultaneously!
The talisman formation was like chains, locking down this great demon from various places. The formation’s power erupted—sealing, electrocuting, freezing, roasting…
That demon body, already half corroded by poison powder, now had little defensive power left.
The six immortal swords wrapped in Three Realm True Flame slashed past, immediately creating six intersecting cracks on the great demon’s body!
Streams of Three Realm True Flame drilled into various cracks, using this demon’s essence, qi, and spirit as fuel, the fire blazing in all directions!
The great fire instantly enveloped this great demon in the sea, but it couldn’t make any miserable screams…
In the tree by the shore, Li Changshou’s left hand clenched into a fist, the six paper-person avatars each holding fire swords, charging into various parts of this demon’s body.
Within the formation barrier, in the seawater, fire light erupted!
The sea surface exploded into pillars of water. Several remnants wrapped in Three Realm True Flame shot skyward, the demon soul within locked in midair by the talisman formation’s chains, then directly swallowed by the surging Three Realm True Flame!
Li Changshou used Five Elements Traversal, smoothly transitioning from wood traversal to earth traversal to water traversal, his form rushing toward the formation’s location.
By the time he arrived at the formation, three paper people sat cross-legged on the sea surface, chanting the Scripture of Salvation, the往生 Mantra, and the Disaster-Dispelling Prayer Mantra.
Three paper people were dealing with the poison powder remaining in the seawater, swallowing the polluted seawater and unextinguishable flames into their bellies, to be recovered later.
This Three Realm True Flame was truly fierce. In the time it took to drink a cup of tea, this great demon’s enormous body had been reduced to just ashes floating on the sea surface…
Li Changshou emerged from the water, suddenly thinking of a problem.
The Three Realm True Flame’s power was too strong. If he needed to use it for pill refining in the sect, or if someone suddenly asked him how his Three Realm True Flame cultivation was going, wouldn’t that…
This true flame needed to be figured out how to reduce its power.
The best would be controllable power, able to adjust the size at will.
Li Changshou threw out the Soul-Capturing Zhenzhu, his sleeve waved, and that pile of ashes and seawater was drawn into his palm, formed into a water ball, thrown into the air, and lightly scattered.
Unexpectedly, it felt somewhat satisfying…
The chanting continued, and Li Changshou gripped the Soul-Capturing Zhenzhu, checking the memory fragments inside.
Hmm, this great demon indeed wasn’t from the South Sea, it originally lived in the West Sea…
Its ancestors didn’t have any powerful figures. Deep sea demons, due to lacking fortune, had never been able to rise…
This fish demon had killed countless people, and uncountable numbers of fishermen had perished at its hands. Killing it was carrying out heaven’s will.
A strand of golden light suddenly rose from the sea surface, entering Li Changshou’s arm.
Li Changshou’s heart suddenly gained some understanding, feeling his own way gained a measure of protection, his path of seeking longevity seeming to become slightly smoother.
This was merit.
Roughly calculating, perhaps killing several million such heavily sinful great demons would allow him to condense a Merit Golden Body…
Maybe better to forget it and just stay in the mountains without going out.
“Hmm?”
Li Changshou frowned, seeing something strange in this creature’s memory fragments.
Attacking villages, pretending to be driven back by clay statues, hiding in the sea…
Then attacking other villages, pretending to be driven back by clay statues, hiding in the sea…
Li Changshou couldn’t help his mouth twitching. The chanting had just ended, and he immediately collected the paper people, magical treasures, and treasure pouches.
Not even bothering to recover the formation bases, hastily destroying the formation here, using eye-confusing methods and illusion transformation, he frantically urged water traversal eastward.
This great demon belonged to the Western Religion!
It was in league with those people preaching in Bear Village!
They first promoted Western Religion’s principles there, waiting for the great demon to attack, then used the clay statue to pretend to drive away the great demon showing ‘divine miracles,’ thus gaining a batch of devoted believers providing incense offerings to the Western Religion!
This scheme was definitely despicable, but Li Changshou didn’t have so much sense of justice to expose this matter, and truly didn’t want any entanglement with the Western Religion.
The Two Saints of the West loved converting people to the West and were also plotting for the Investiture of the Gods.
Before and after the Investiture of the Gods tribulation, many unnecessary Dao sect conflicts had these two Saints’ shadow of scheming behind them!
After the Investiture of the Gods, Laozi single-handedly transformed barbarians into Buddhists, forcing the Western Religion to become Mahayana Buddhism…
This was a struggle of religious fortune, with five Saints involved!
Even Golden Immortals of the Daluo Heaven were just pieces casually moved by Saints in this game of chess, let alone a small immortal like him who had just crossed tribulation.
Can’t mess with them, can’t mess with them, better hurry and slip away.
Swift as wind and lightning, Li Changshou alternated between water and earth traversal heading east.
Originally thinking his current limit was a hundred thousand Li daily, unexpectedly in half a day he had already run a hundred thousand Li.
Such things as potential, when scared, really did exist.
Going ashore, concealing his movements, finding a place to touch up his disguise, preparing both physical means and magical method disguises.
This time Li Changshou transformed into a frail scholar, heading northeast.
The right hand hidden in his sleeve gripped the Soul-Capturing Zhenzhu as Li Changshou carefully observed this great demon’s scattered memories.
Before long, he found some more useful intelligence.
He even heard the three words “Mount Dao Immortal Gate” in a topic about the Three Schools’ immortal sects, mentioned by others speaking to this great demon…
…
When Li Changshou had fled fifty to sixty thousand Li.
At Bear Village’s gate, a group of strong men and strong women were bored senseless, yawning continuously, watching these few people jumping about on the stage.
These several cultivators were also somewhat puzzled, constantly exchanging glances.
By rights, their boss should have appeared, how come there was still no movement?
Had the boss overslept? Got the wrong place?
This prayer dance had already been performed three times, and these simple villagers below had already grown tired of watching.
“Ahem!”
That old Daoist lightly coughed, stopping the scripture chanting, first shaking his head and swaying, then called out in an odd tone:
“Believe in the divine, receive divine protection, immune to blade and spear, unharmed by water and fire!
Wang Cai, come demonstrate for everyone.”
The chosen young man immediately agreed, secretly attaching a talisman to himself, making a show of kneeling and offering incense before the clay statue, golden light appearing on his chest and back.
This talisman was called the Vajra Talisman, considered a rather basic talisman, naturally able to block mortal weapons without issue.
However, this young disciple stepped forward half a step, just about to follow the ‘procedure’ of calling one or two people up to slash at him with swords.
But upon seeing what lay before him, as the thought arose, his heart’s spiritual sense wildly jumped, frantically warning him.
Looking at this full venue of humanoid creatures muscled beyond reason, Wang Cai’s entire person was gradually consumed by shadow, his mouth twitching several times.
Suddenly, he spotted a red-eyed, rather cute-looking girl in the back of the crowd. His heart brightened, and pointing at that maiden, he said:
“Miss, would you come up and try to see if you can hit me?”
“Hmm? Oh.”
Xiong Lingli looked up, wiping her tear-filled eyes, her little face particularly pitiable.
But the moment she squeezed out from the crowd, Wang Cai’s legs couldn’t help but tremble.
This…
This…
“Do you want me to hit you?” Xiong Lingli asked softly.
“Y-yes, that’s right.”
Wang Cai turned his head to look at the team’s number two figure. That old Daoist glared at him, leaving Wang Cai no choice but to agree, constantly telling himself in his heart:
This little girl is just a bit sturdy, but she’s still just a mortal.
Yes, she’s just a mortal.
We are cultivators, we… won’t be afraid.