‘After this, it would be unwise to have any more open interactions with Wen Jing.’

Li Chang Shou calculated thus in his heart, standing quietly on a white cloud before Spirit Mountain’s gate, thoughts rising and falling in his mind.

Throughout Spirit Mountain, large groups of Heavenly Soldiers were searching ‘carefully’ back and forth.

Fortunately, not many fierce beasts or demons were found within Spirit Mountain’s gates. If chaos had truly erupted within Spirit Mountain’s gates, with heavenly thunder rolling and earth fire surging…

The Western Teaching would likely need major reconstruction again.

His divine consciousness swept Spirit Mountain’s surroundings – a total of two hundred and thirty-six fierce beasts and demons had been captured by the Heavenly Army. The vast majority had been struck into serious injury by divine punishment, no longer posing any threat.

Some were familiar faces, having participated in the previous battle at East Sea’s Eye.

Perhaps due to their despair, or perhaps due to Spirit Mountain’s orders, although they all tried to fight to the death, they couldn’t organize effective resistance.

Even so, tens of thousands of Heavenly Soldiers were killed or wounded, with deaths being the majority.

All the Heavenly Court generals who came today sustained various injuries.

There was no help for it – the Heavenly Soldiers’ strength was too low. When those beasts and fierce creatures launched sneak attacks, even with the power of the Heavenly Dao’s protection, it was difficult to survive such ambushes.

The events that occurred at Spirit Mountain today would inevitably spread.

After all, they had maintained the bronze mirror broadcast throughout.

Of course, the Heavenly Court would officially follow Li Chang Shou’s words, giving Spirit Mountain sufficient face and maintaining the Six Sages’ dignity.

As Li Chang Shou predicted various possibilities for subsequent events, he made discoveries.

The Spirit Mountain expedition and the subjugation of fierce beasts had not only greatly weakened Spirit Mountain’s strength but also had a deeper, far-reaching influence.

[Large formations of Heavenly Soldiers combined with the power of the Heavenly Dao could now steadily capture Golden Immortal realm experts. With the addition of one or two masters, they could easily subdue Great Luo Golden Immortals.]

The situation for cultivators in the Primordial World had begun to become subtle from this day forward.

Those who wished to be free and unfettered could no longer act willfully.

From now on, judging the Heavenly Court’s strength could no longer be done by simply counting the number of masters and great supernatural beings. The Heavenly Dao could intervene at any time, adding much uncertainty.

According to Li Chang Shou’s calculations, at least a hundred fierce beasts and demons should still be hiding in the secret realm beneath Spirit Mountain.

But after this battle, Spirit Mountain would either have to abandon them or restrict them – they could no longer be used.

The strategic objective had been perfectly achieved.

“Master!”

The Golden-Winged Great Peng flew over from afar, clasped his hands in salute to Li Chang Shou, and said: “The search outside Spirit Mountain is complete, with no escapees. Should we search Spirit Mountain’s interior in the same way?”

“Let’s stop here for today.”

Li Chang Shou said calmly: “Take these fierce beasts and demons to the Divine Punishment Hall for individual interrogation. After I report to His Majesty the Jade Emperor, we’ll proceed with executions. When the time comes, the Three Realms must all know of this matter.”

“Yes!”

The Golden Peng accepted the command with clasped hands, turned to convey Li Chang Shou’s orders, and the Heavenly Soldiers and Generals quickly withdrew from Spirit Mountain, forming hundreds of battle formations to escort those fierce beasts back to Heaven.

In Spirit Mountain’s secret grounds, the Sages’ place of pure cultivation.

Sage Zhun Ti slightly raised his head, light flashing through his eyes, his left hand about to rise.

“No need.”

A light sigh came from the side, and the black light brewing in Zhun Ti’s left hand immediately retreated.

Sage Jie Yin said: “The Heavenly Dao turns, this is an inevitable situation. You and I need only wait quietly now.”

“Very well.”

Zhun Ti nodded slowly and added: “Elder Brother, does this Li Chang Geng truly have Master’s decree? Didn’t Master promise us back then, as long as…”

“Does it matter whether he does or doesn’t?”

Jie Yin’s lips revealed a faint smile as if it wasn’t his Western Teaching that had suffered damage today.

This Sage said:

“When the Heavenly Dao wishes to prosper a faction, it must first make it suffer losses and tribulations. Moreover, the time for the West’s great prosperity will naturally be after this great calamity. What you and I need to be vigilant about now are Tai Qing and Yu Qing. These two fellow Daoists won’t easily let you and me gain power.”

“Very well,” Zhun Ti spoke no more and closed his eyes to meditate, faint misty light suffusing his surroundings.

On the cloud path, Li Chang Shou frowned slightly as he rode his cloud.

Earlier his Dao Heart’s spiritual perception had rippled gently, seeming to sense approaching danger; but after being fully alert for a while, he only felt his hair stand on end, with nothing unusual occurring.

Just now, was that the Sage wanting to make a move against him?

Li Chang Shou’s mouth twitched several times.

He had already done everything so thoroughly, given the Western Teaching so many steps down, yet those greater and lesser Sages still harbored such thick killing intent…

Forget it, better to keep hiding.

After all, he had done what needed to be done. For the subsequent handling of the Three Thousand Worlds, let Golden Peng take the lead, and let the Heavenly Court’s soldiers gain more experience, while he controlled the overall situation from behind.

In the coming years, he would focus on cultivation, sleep, and punishing Chang’e, while occasionally reading the great works of the Primordial World left by Senior Lang, secretly observing the Primordial World’s Heavenly Dao through the Primordial Qi of the Kun Peng Ark…

Stable and pleasant.

At Three Immortal Island, in that secluded tower.

“Sister! Brother-in-law made it out of Spirit Mountain alive!”

Bi Xiao ran along the clouds, her slender figure leaping through the tower window, holding a message jade talisman and calling out joyfully.

In the tower, behind the screen, some water sounds could be heard.

Hearing this, Immortal Yun Xiao, who had been bathing in the clouds, rose and emerged from behind the screen already dressed in a thin cyan garment. Her black beautiful hair steamed dry on its own, entwining and coiling into a phoenix-tail style, making her already fair and slender neck even more striking.

She looked at Bi Xiao somewhat helplessly and said softly:

“Don’t speak like that. Since he dared to go, he naturally made thorough calculations.”

“Hehe, I was just worried for Sister’s sake.”

Bi Xiao smiled and made a face. Maintaining a maiden’s heart, her Dao Heart was almost pure and unblemished, fearing nothing in heaven or earth except when Big Sister called for her to kneel.

A common affliction in the Severing Teaching.

Bi Xiao asked quietly: “Sister, was Brother-in-law helping Ancestral Master this time?”

“Mm,” Yun Xiao walked to her dressing table, looked at herself in the mirror, thought briefly, and replied: “It’s hard to say, he’s never discussed these matters with me.”

Yun Xiao’s tower originally had no dressing table, but as a woman adorns herself for the one who admires her, the dressing table came to be.

Bi Xiao took an immortal fruit from her sleeve, took a small bite, and sighed lightly: “Now that Brother-in-law has moved to the Heavenly Court, we can’t go play at his place anymore.”

“We can still go to the Heavenly Court,” Yun Xiao said, “It’s just that we’re amid a great calamity now, so you and I shouldn’t move about freely – that’s one thing. Going to the Heavenly Court would also easily invite idle talk from the Enlightenment Teaching and make things difficult for him – that’s another.”

“Sister, you have so many concerns about having a Dao companion.”

Bi Xiao smiled and said: “I say, the struggle between great teachings is the struggle between great teachings, private matters are private matters. You should just go to the Heavenly Court openly and let them talk as they please. Why care about them?”

Yun Xiao frowned slightly, and Bi Xiao immediately ceased her campaign, quietly adding:

“I mean, others can’t affect our Dao Hearts.”

“Go cultivate,” Yun Xiao said softly.

“Ah,” Bi Xiao shrank her neck, turned and floated out the window, patted her chest, and vanished in a flash.

Yun Xiao sat before the mirror lost in thought for a while, then soon sighed lightly, and pinned the copper coin she had been holding to the edge of the bronze mirror, her gentle gaze gaining some determination.

Just survive the great calamity.

Then there would be no more constraints.

…

After the Spirit Mountain expedition, the Heavenly Court’s prestige soared, officially rising above the Sages’ great teachings.

Li Chang Shou led the Heavenly Army back in triumph. Spirit Mountain’s two Sages never intervened from start to finish, and Spirit Mountain’s disciples offered no resistance, allowing the Heavenly Court to take away their secretly nurtured enforcers of many years.

Three days later, before the Middle Heaven Gate, the fierce beasts and demons were executed.

The scene was quite spectacular, with the Heavenly Court broadly inviting the Primordial World’s many great beings and supernatural experts to observe.

At noon that day, massive corpses and endless blood dyed one white cloud after another, and a continuous blood rain fell on a certain desolate mountain in Central Divine Continent.

This seemed to herald the end of one era of the Primordial World and represent the beginning of another Primordial epoch.

The Era of the Three Realms.

Nine days later, Heavenly Soldiers entered the western and southern regions of the South Jambudvipa Continent, Heavenly Court immortals, and deities manifested everywhere, overthrowing the Western Teaching’s spiritual churches that occupied the area in one stroke.

A month later, the Five Continents were officially unrestricted.

The Heavenly Court’s Eight Departments each sent out a hundred thousand troops, joining with the Dragon Palace’s million marine forces, majestically entering the Three Thousand Worlds, heading toward the nearest spiritual nations.

This was destined to be a protracted expedition.

The Heavenly Court directly intervened in the Three Thousand Worlds’ war situation, but under Li Chang Shou’s micromanagement, they would control the speed of forward progress, keeping the Immortal Alliance and spiritual nations at equal attrition.

At the same time, the Heavenly Court began secretly increasing support for the Approaching Heaven Palace.

The matter of the Approaching Heaven Palace was still known in detail only to Li Chang Shou and a very few powerful ministers of the Heavenly Court like East Minister Mu.

Three months later, the Heavenly Court announced the deployment of troops to guard the northern and southern borders of the West Cattle-Gift Continent.

The Western Teaching’s influence over the Five Continents fell to its lowest since ancient times.

Half a year later, news of victory came from the Three Thousand Worlds – the combined forces of the Heavenly Court and Dragon Palace had destroyed one spiritual nation, gained a foothold in the Three Thousand Worlds, and established the first direct military outpost of the Heavenly Court.

But the Three Thousand Worlds were too vast – relying solely on Heavenly Court garrisons was not realistic at the current stage.

Li Chang Shou’s approach was to continuously develop the Approaching Heaven Palace’s power within a delicate balance, striving within three thousand years to bring more than eighty percent of the Great Thousand Worlds under Heavenly Court jurisdiction, implement Heavenly Court law and order, effect the separation of immortals and mortals, while preserving the path for mortals to seek immortality.

In Li Chang Shou’s view, this couldn’t even be considered a grand plan.

He was merely following the natural course of events.

But what troubled Li Chang Shou was that he…

After doing so much and working hard for so long, though he couldn’t say he had repeatedly risked danger, even if there was no great merit there was at least hard work, yet the Heavenly Dao simply wouldn’t give him that final portion of merit needed for condensing his Merit Golden Body.

And what he had worried about before began happening bit by bit.

Incense merit, the merit salary given by the Heavenly Court…

Had been restricted.

After completing the arrangements for the Three Thousand Worlds, another thirty-plus years passed.

Li Chang Shou naturally went to the Tai Qing Palace once. Of these thirty years, twenty were spent receiving instruction at Tai Qing Palace.

Spending more than twenty years beside his own master, if someone said the father and son hadn’t discussed anything or schemed together, no one would believe it. Master Tai Qing was quite interested in talking.

But as for what they discussed, there oddly wasn’t any substantial content. Master’s words front to back added up to only three hundred sentences, and they were spoken separately, ranging from the evolution of the Heavenly Dao to the great calamity…

In any case, those who understand, understand.

After returning from Tai Qing Palace, Li Chang Shou went into closed cultivation for ten years, during which he kept watching the changes in his own merit.

He repeatedly confirmed and waited continuously with a glimmer of hope, until today, when he finally confirmed completely.

The Merit Golden Body was perfectly stuck at ninety-eight percent.

Merit Golden Body meant ‘merit perfection,’ with no room for modification. It had to reach the value set by the Heavenly Dao to undergo transformation.

This day.

Li Chang Shou looked within himself, seeing the merit treasure pool inside his spirit platform that was almost full yet never quite filling, frowned and pondered for a while, finally sighing in dejection.

What could he do?

Could he stand up and criticize the Heavenly Dao, shouting that the Heavenly Dao boss wasn’t human, running away with large amounts of merit and the Creation Jade Slip?

Then go to the Western Teaching to do a debt transfer?

This…

Now it could basically be confirmed that the Ancestral Master not giving him merit wasn’t as Senior Xuan Du said, to prevent him from being bound by the Heavenly Dao.

— Hadn’t the Ancestral Master previously released the eighth and ninth strands of Primordial Purple Qi specifically to bind him?

The Ancestral Master made it clear that he didn’t want him to use the Merit Golden Body to establish a connection with the Heavenly Dao and deeply comprehend it.

This was probably also a consideration for maintaining Heaven and Earth’s stability.

“Ah.”

Before the pill room, Li Chang Shou sprawled in a rocking chair, his eyes lifeless and lips pale, his whole being emanating a kind of dejection.

Like an immortal fish that had been cooped up indoors for thirty years, today walking out on its own to bask in the sun, avoiding mold.

Ling E, who had been cultivating by the lake, blinked and floated over on a cloud, wearing a grass-green short dress and a pair of embroidered shoes resembling sandals. Her pretty face wore no powder or rouge, yet was so elegant and lovely.

She jumped down from the cloud, landing on the left side of the recliner, hands behind her back as she leaned forward to closely observe Li Chang Shou’s lifeless expression.

Rarely seen, precious.

“Senior Brother, what’s wrong with you?”

Li Chang Shou waved his hand listlessly and sighed: “This immortal life, even if one achieves immortality it’s not necessarily happy. There are many inevitable things in the world, and one’s wishes can never be perfectly fulfilled.”

Ling E blinked, and though unwilling to bring it up directly, still asked quietly:

“Did you… quarrel with Sister Yun Xiao?”

“It has nothing to do with her,” Li Chang Shou raised his left hand and gently patted Ling E’s head. “Don’t pry too much. I haven’t had you copy scriptures lately – do you think you’re already a mature little immortal?”

“Not at all!”

Ling E didn’t know why, but she felt inexplicably happy. She took out a miniature rocking chair from her sleeve; blew a breath of fragrant orchid immortal qi, and the rocking chair transformed to normal size, arranged beside Li Chang Shou.

Ling E lay down on it with a grin, supporting her chin with one hand, and blinked at her senior brother.

“Senior Brother, if you can’t raise your spirits, just look at this junior sister!

This junior sister can help you raise… your… spirits!”

Li Chang Shou glanced at her, originally wanting to appreciate another famous scene from ‘Little Jade Peak is Misty’ in the backyard, but sighed dejectedly again and lay there staring blankly at the sky.

Clouds gathered and dispersed, mist pervading.

Being unable to condense the Merit Golden Body he had been concerned about for years was indeed a blow.

Although now he had ‘Primordial Purple Qi’ as an alternative path for comprehending the Heavenly Dao, he still felt stifled.

The Heavenly Dao was being unfair, and the Ancestral Master playing dumb – who could he reason with?

So what was the point of keeping these merits within himself?

Li Chang Shou showed a thoughtful expression. At his side, Ling E, who had been gritting her teeth and kicking her legs, about to ruthlessly deploy her ‘E Charm Great Method,’ saw this and couldn’t help but collect her thoughts, afraid of disturbing Senior Brother’s contemplation.

Soon, Li Chang Shou slapped his thigh, his eyes full of ‘determination.’

Won’t give Merit Golden Body, is that it?

Well, I don’t want it anymore!

To be stable, it was because his own conduct wasn’t perfect, thus he wasn’t worthy of having Merit Golden Body – nothing to do with the Heavenly Dao or Ancestral Master.

Li Chang Shou turned his head to look at Ling E and asked: “Between defensive magical treasures and killing magical treasures, which do you prefer?”

Ling E blinked, quickly reacting.

A test question, is common, just a small quiz.

“Escape-type magical treasures!”

“Oh? That’s ambitious.”

Li Chang Shou praised, taking out a silver shuttle from his sleeve, golden light surging in his palm, his expression extremely solemn.

He wasn’t skilled at refining tools but was good at finding ‘junk’ piled in corners of the Tushita Palace.

Although his current Dao realm was barely passable and his supernatural abilities mediocre, reforging magical treasures that Lord Lao had casually refined still presented considerable difficulty.

But balancing the yin-yang and five elements force within it, adding some supreme ancient precious materials, wasn’t hard to accomplish…

Half a day later.

Five-colored light flowed over the silver shuttle, yin-yang twin fish slowly rotating at the bottom, causing constant exclamations of wonder from Ling E at the side.

This treasure in hand could greatly enhance five elements of escape techniques;

Entering into it could create one’s domain of principles, freely entering and exiting the Chaos Sea.

Subsequently, Li Chang Shou carved a ‘Shou’ character on the side of the shuttle and then handed the carving knife to Ling E.

Ling E’s cheeks were flushed red as she pursed her lips and wrote an ‘E’ character stroke by stroke, already on the verge of ‘cooing up smoke.’

She asked quietly: “The previous question wasn’t a test?”

“Mm, after so many years, I haven’t made any proper treasures for your protection,” Li Chang Shou took back the shuttle, some divine light flickering in his eyes.

One must be ruthless to stand firm!

One must dare to give up to gain!

Dazzling golden divine light surged in his palm as Li Chang Shou gritted his teeth and pushed forward, vast amounts of merit from his palm pouring into this silver shuttle.

Appear!

Supreme Later Heaven Merit Escape Treasure!

Golden light surged up, covering Little Jade Peak in a layer of golden radiance.

After a while, Li Chang Shou let out a light breath, his eyes completely peaceful, and placed the now treasure-light-surrounded shuttle in Ling E’s palm.

“Take it and play.”

Ling E: …

“Senior Brother, really giving it to me?”

“What’s mine is yours, treasures are for sharing,” Li Chang Shou stretched lazily, his heart much lighter, his Dao heart suddenly clear.

Although he had spent sixty percent of his accumulated merit, being able to create a supreme merit spiritual treasure and give it to his junior sister was quite an accomplishing thing.

A rare extravagance.

One must be fair, right? In a bit, he would use the remaining Merit Golden Body to forge a cloud mist garment and take a stroll to Three Immortal Island.

Suddenly heard!

Boom!

The Heavenly Court’s weather suddenly changed, a golden cloud covered Tai Bai Palace’s backyard, a hundred auspicious signs surging upon it, instantly transforming into a golden light pillar that forcefully struck down, without discussion enveloping Li Chang Shou within!

Merit!

Vast and pure Heavenly Dao merit!

At the same time, the Great Dao trembled in Li Chang Shou’s heart, condensing several large characters that plastered themselves to his primordial spirit’s face.

[This time, for sure.]