“Changgeng, what did you gain from this venture?”
At Taibai Palace, Li Changshou’s true form had just returned to Little Qiong Peak when the Jade Emperor’s avatar arrived right after, truly giving Li Changshou much to ponder.
He had deliberately let Golden Roc lag by half an hour, secretly rushing back first.
Was His Majesty the Jade Emperor here on behalf of the Heavenly Dao to warn him—showing that his every move was under the Dao’s watchful eye?
Li Changshou looked at Marshal Quan Tong before him, still considering whether to probe with a few words, when Quan Tong asked again:
“Did Elder Brother Tongtian find the Chaos Bell?”
Li Changshou privately breathed a sigh of relief, the weight on his heart lifting by about a third.
“We found it, but the Chaos Bell stubbornly refuses to comply. It knows there are too many karmic obstacles in the Severing Sect’s destiny to be suppressed. It’s still at an impasse with Uncle Master Tongtian.”
In his heart, he silently apologized for being unable to reveal the truth of the matter.
Fortunately, the outcome would not be different either way.
When Quan Tong asked about Li Changshou’s interesting experiences in the Chaos Sea, Li Changshou mentioned that on his way back, he used his qi-sensing technique to see the sword of killing tribulation floating above the Five Continents.
“As the Great Tribulation turns, it has reached the brink of eruption,” Quan Tong smiled and patted Li Changshou’s shoulder. “What comes next depends on you, Changgeng.
I know you’re under immense pressure. Just maintaining the balance between the Three Schools of the Dao requires all your wit and wisdom.
You must also guard against the Western School’s schemes while selecting and recruiting proper deities for the Heavenly Court.
Ah, whenever I think about how I’ve placed all this pressure on your shoulders, I feel quite guilty.”
Li Changshou smiled and shook his head.
His Majesty was overthinking things.
“Your Majesty need not worry. This minor deity will not let the Heavenly Court down,” Li Changshou said. “The List of Gods is in the Heavenly Court, as is the Divine Pillar of Investiture. The initiative lies entirely in our hands.
Among the Three Schools of the Dao, this minor deity… I also have some friends, though their chances of entering the tribulation aren’t very high. They’re all personally taught by the Sages—how could they easily end up on the List?”
Quan Tong smiled without speaking, calmly changing the topic as he went with Li Changshou’s paper avatar to their exclusive corner in the great hall.
Barbecue, squatting, discussing the greater trends of Heaven and Earth.
On Little Qiong Peak, Li Changshou’s true form retreated to the underground secret chamber and conducted a surprise inspection of Ling E.
The bun-headed young woman was sound asleep hugging her Senior Brother’s pillow, completely unaware of why someone had covered her with a thin blanket…
Immortals couldn’t even catch a cold.
Li Changshou looked at his sleeping Junior Sister—her lovely face flawless, appearing so docile and adorable at this moment. His heart filled with deep affection as he took out a stone tablet and carved a line of large characters, using immortal power to suspend it before her.
As soon as it detected her opening her eyes, the tablet would flash with light, letting her see the line of characters written on it:
Three thousand six hundred more recitations of the Scripture of Stability!
Then the tablet would gently knock her head, helping her wake up quickly.
Care for his little Junior Sister could not be neglected.
Thinking carefully, he had been away running errands all these years while Ling E remained in the Heavenly Court like a hostage of the Heavenly Dao. He did feel somewhat guilty about this.
As for Ling E’s Golden Immortal tribulation, if the Ancestral Master of Dao didn’t give some leeway, then…
That would be too much.
At this moment in the Hall of Celestial Lights, Golden Roc was kneeling on one knee, presenting the spirit core of the Demonic Venerable to the Jade Emperor while recounting his small adventures with the Four Plum Generals in the Chaos Sea.
The Jade Emperor naturally praised Golden Roc, personally ordering the spirit core of the Demonic Venerable to be sealed and suppressed beneath the Tower of Reincarnation in the Netherworld.
This also formally set a precedent—from now on, whenever the Heavenly Court needed to suppress demons, they would first consider the Tower of Reincarnation, which was guarded by a great power ranked high in the Heavenly Dao’s sequence.
[The Netherworld’s backup Tower of Reincarnation: Jade Emperor certified, Taibai trusted, truly the premier choice for suppressing demons, whether at home or traveling! Heavenly Court & Netherworld announcement.]
A certain master and servant pair: …
With the Demonic Venerable’s spirit core sealed and suppressed, this matter could be considered temporarily concluded.
There was no news from the Severing Sect’s side—the matter of the Chaos Bell’s return to Heaven and Earth must have been completely concealed by Patriarch Tongtian.
Finding an opportunity, Li Changshou returned to Taiqing Temple to return the Taiji Diagram, the Ruler of Heaven and Earth, and the Ground Flame Banner. Tower Lord had become his essential companion treasure.
Although knowing these matters couldn’t be hidden from his teacher, Li Changshou still reported the details of what happened in the Chaos Sea.
The Sage Taiqing had no comment on this.
It should be said that the Sage Taiqing rarely commented on worldly matters. It seemed that compared to these major affairs of the Three Realms, this thin-faced old Daoist was more concerned about the marriage prospects of his senior disciple and junior disciple [respectively].
Thus, this master and disciple pair had a cordial chat lasting two years, with eighteen out of thirty-some sentences asking about Grand Magus and Kong Xuan.
From his teacher’s words, Li Changshou obtained a key piece of information—why Grand Magus was so fond of sleeping.
It was related to an error in Grand Magus’s cultivation method years ago. At that time, Grand Magus hadn’t gone into cultivation deviation, but rather was walking a path opposite to “cultivation deviation.”
The key point of this path was abandoning oneself to merge with the Dao.
Taiqing intervened in time, saving Grand Magus who should have dissolved into the Dao. Since then, Grand Magus had attained what could be called the highest dao realm below the Sages, but often lacked energy and liked to wander in the Great Dao while sleeping.
In other words, the Grand Magus had little interest in anything outside the Dao.
Why would the Sage Taiqing mention these things?
It was to give Li Changshou a small task before the God-Making Tribulation officially descended—help Grand Magus find his [interest] again.
When his teacher gave him an order, Li Changshou dared not refuse, so he kept this matter in his heart.
The Master Alchemist of the Immortal-Making Sect… bah!
The Love Master of the Human School would have to start tackling a “brand new” subject.
After leaving Taiqing Temple, Li Changshou went to Doulu Palace to get some precious spiritual medicines from Little Jin and Little Yin, then buried himself in the alchemy room of Little Qiong Peak.
This time, he would make a grand effort!
Not only did he need to figure out pills that could affect the seven emotions and six desires of powerful experts, but he also needed to increase his pill reserves for the God-Making Tribulation, preparing for unexpected needs.
Times were different now—when Li Changshou needed treasure materials and spiritual medicines, he no longer had to spend spirit stones to get them himself.
For nearby sources, he could find Palace Steward Dongmu and take freely from the Heavenly Court’s treasure vault;
For distant sources, he could directly order the Heavenly Army, Immortal Alliance, Lintian Palace, Dragon Palace, Netherworld, and other forces to quickly find some rare herbs for him.
Of course, Li Changshou mostly used the former method, being very mindful of the issue of “abusing power and authority.”
At most, he would have Baize and Golden Roc run errands to get some herbs for him.
Speaking of pill concoctions, one must mention the unique effect Li Changshou’s Way of Balance had on harmonizing medicinal properties.
The process of pill concoction is achieving a certain balance between the medicinal properties of the herbal raw materials;
Li Changshou’s alchemy attainment was already high, and with the double advantages of Lord Lao’s pill-making insights and the Way of Balance, although his current dao realm limited him from refining Nine Revolutions Golden Pills, he could mass produce Eight Revolutions Spirit Pills.
This grand pill-making session lasted exactly thirty-three years.
The set of pills refined for Grand Magus was finally complete.
Next came the question of how to use them.
Li Changshou summoned Ao Yi and had several batches of pills delivered to Jade Void Palace, Azure Lotus Palace, Three Immortal Islands, Mount Emei’s Luofu Cave, Qianyuan Mountain, and Jade Spring Mountain.
When Ao Yi returned to report the various reactions, Li Changshou smiled and nodded, saying:
“Ao Yi, accompany me on an outing this time.”
Ao Yi was startled but immediately replied: “Alright, where are we going?”
“Anshui City.”
Li Changshou stretched lazily. This paper avatar transformed into paper form while his true body came from behind the hall, wearing cyan-blue robes and a cloud-patterned hair band, just like in years past.
Half a day later, on a scenic gentle slope outside Anshui City.
Looking toward the sea, the ocean light and cloud colors were dazzling. Even ordinary white clouds formed from rising water vapor could take many forms, inspiring endless imagination.
Looking toward the city, the prosperous metropolis remained unchanged year after year. The joys and sorrows of individual mortals seemed insignificant, yet they were like touches of color in this floating world of glory.
Ao Yi had a premonition that being called out by Brother Sect Leader and brought to the place where they met during the Sea God Sect’s Sea God Ceremony years ago, there must be important matters.
Sure enough, after walking for a while with his hands behind his back, Li Changshou asked gently: “Ao Yi, is the Dragon Race stable now?”
Ao Yi smiled and said: “Thanks to Brother Sect Leader’s blessing, the Dragon Race is stable now.”
Li Changshou turned his head to observe today’s Ao Yi. After passing the Golden Immortal tribulation, Ao Yi had resolved his mental knot about that [cold-faced old Daoist]. In human form, he had the tall figure of a normal young man.
“Before when you were younger, calling me Brother Sect Leader sounded natural, but now it seems odd.”
Li Changshou smiled and said: “Don’t add ‘Sect Leader,’ and don’t mention ‘brother’ anymore. Just call me Elder Brother directly, and I’ll call you by your name.”
“Mm, Elder Brother.”
Ao Yi scratched his head and chuckled: “I’ll do as Elder Brother says.”
“You just said the Dragon Race is stable,” Li Changshou said. “But Ao Yi, though the Dragon Race is stable, Heaven and Earth have become somewhat unstable because of the Dragon Race’s stability.”
Ao Yi pondered briefly and asked: “Is Elder Brother referring to those incidents involving the Dragon Race in recent years?”
“Yes,” Li Changshou sighed. “Although I anticipated there would be such backlash—after the Dragon Race’s long peace, some old ailments that hadn’t been eliminated would flare up.
However, I hadn’t expected things to become this serious.”
A jade talisman fell into Ao Yi’s hand. His brows furrowed tightly as he studied its contents.
One by one, scene by scene, it showed all the major and minor crimes committed by the Dragon Race of the Four Seas and those dragons managing water affairs in the Southern Continent over the past hundred years.
The main offenses involved harassing human women and men, and treating humans like sea folk, and there were even cases of taking by force and then discarding them like worn-out shoes.
The Heavenly Court had already punished a group of dragons for these incidents, but clearly, the punishment wasn’t severe enough—the Dragon Race hadn’t learned their lesson.
Or perhaps they were deliberately escalating things, secretly testing their strength against the Heavenly Court.
Li Changshou sighed and said slowly:
“Arrogance, complacency, believing that being of the Dragon Race makes you superior to other beings, bringing your way of ruling sea folk onto land, thinking that as long as you don’t kill or eat humans, you’ve done nothing wrong.
I don’t even need to investigate various dragon territories to roughly know the current attitude within the Dragon Race.
Aren’t there dragons saying that the Heavenly Court stands only because of the Dragon Race’s support? Without the Dragon Race’s help back then, how could I, Taibai Star, have risen to power?
But Ao Yi, the Dragon Race, and I had a mutually beneficial relationship—each taking what we needed. The Dragon Race helped me greatly, and I repaid several times over.
Regarding the Dragon Race, I believe I owe nothing.”
Ao Yi’s face showed shame as he lowered his head and said: “Elder Brother has given our Dragon Race far more than we could ever repay.
Without Elder Brother, the Dragon Race would have long ago ended up like those ancient great demons and primordial fierce beasts—forcibly suppressed by the Western School’s Sages, then perishing under Heaven’s punishment.
Elder Brother’s kindness to our Dragon Race… has already been beyond measure.”
“The order the Heavenly Court needs to establish doesn’t require privileges that transcend Heaven’s laws.
The Dragon Race’s ancient karmic obstacles haven’t dispersed, and now the winds of corruption and extravagance are hard to control and stop. When private desires expand, they will devour your race’s last destiny!”
Li Changshou said firmly: “If the Dragon Race doesn’t do something soon, then the blade suspended over the Dragon-Slaying Platform will fall just like this!”
Ao Yi’s face turned somewhat pale. He pressed his lips together without a word, nearly crushing the jade talisman in his hand.
He suddenly dropped to his knees, with a slight sob in his voice:
“Elder Brother, I’m useless!
I thought I just needed to set a good example, and the Dragon Race’s customs could be changed.
I thought that being constrained by the Heavenly Dao would make them let go of old dreams… but, but now I don’t know what to do!”
Li Changshou heaved a long sigh. With his hands behind his back, he watched the clouds drifting with the wind over the sea surface and placed a second jade talisman before Ao Yi.
“Deliver this personally to your father, and let him prepare for the bloodshed of entering this tribulation.
Within this is what I see as the Dragon Race’s only chance.
How can reform be etched in hearts without bloodshed?”
Ao Yi gripped the talisman and looked up, but only saw Li Changshou’s gradually dispersing silhouette…
He remained lost in thought for a while, not daring to look at the contents of the second jade talisman. He directly transformed into dragon form and dove into the vast misty waves, disappearing.
On the shore, Li Changshou’s figure coalesced again as he shook his head slightly.
Helping the Dragon Race one last time was the first layer.
Consolidating the Heavenly Court’s divine authority and ensuring the Dragon Race couldn’t pose a threat to the Heavenly Court were the second and third layers.
Actively controlling the variables brought by the Dragon Race, eliminating these variables, and keeping everything under his control—this was the crucial fourth layer.
As for the fifth layer…
The God-Making Script: Nezha Chapter had already been arranged.
…
Since his true form rarely came to the Southern Continent, Li Changshou wouldn’t just do this one thing.
His paper avatar hidden in the East Sea detected Ao Yi hurriedly returning to the Dragon Palace. Only then did Li Changshou feel at ease to head into the Shang Kingdom’s territory, searching left and right until he found…
Great Virtue Empress Earth’s Seven Emotions Avatar Reincarnation: Little Le, who had taken the form of a young girl, bouncing around the street eating candy.
Li Changshou strolled over, naturally blending into the street scene;
Little Le raised her head and noticed Li Changshou’s figure, immediately shuddering and instinctively hiding the candy behind her back while glaring at him:
“Why are you here? Hmph! You never come without a reason!”
Li Changshou squinted and smiled, making a gesture of invitation.
Although Little Le was excessively cute at this moment, and Li Changshou hadn’t hidden his presence—his behavior seemed somewhat strange among mortals—the surrounding common people acted as if they couldn’t see Li Changshou at all.
This phenomenon also appeared with the Jade Emperor when he and the Wood Lord came down to wander among mortals and first met Li Changshou, making Li Changshou envious for a long time.
However, this wasn’t divine power, but the dao realm.
“This time I do indeed have a request. Let’s talk somewhere else.”
“Blegh,” Little Le made a face and turned around, bouncing toward her residence in the city.
Moments later, in a small courtyard dappled with bamboo shadows, Seven Emotions had resumed her maiden form and changed into proper attire as she strolled over.
Since Little Ai was most familiar with Li Changshou, she naturally came to receive him.
This didn’t need identification—just Little Ai’s soft sigh made Li Changshou’s nose tingle with emotion…
“Great Power Deity, it’s truly not easy to see you once.”
Li Changshou squinted and smiled, saying: “With the God-Making Tribulation imminent, I’m truly stretched thin. And you don’t want to go to the Heavenly Court.”
Little Ai managed a forced smile that looked just a tiny bit… worse than crying.
She sighed: “Being too close to the Heavenly Dao feels very constraining. We’re already burdens weighing down our true form, yet to be bound by the Heavenly Dao, deepening its influence on our true form…
Our true form is too pitiful.”
“Well then, let’s discuss business, discuss business.”
Before Little Ai could lose control of her sadness, Li Changshou quickly explained his purpose.
This time, he naturally wanted to request the Seven Emotions Avatar to work on Grand Magus’s state of mind, helping him recover his [interest].
Since the main actors would be Little Love and Elder Desire, Little Ai couldn’t make the decision. Li Changshou had to speak separately with each of the Seven Emotions Avatar, promising seven portions of benefits.
Of course, he had just divided the originally prepared benefits into seven portions.
“Grand Magus is the Great Senior Brother of the Dao Schools, with unfathomably profound dao realm. I can’t guarantee anything about this, you know.”
“That’s natural, it’s all just an attempt,” Li Changshou smiled and said, “Planning lies with us, success lies with Heaven, but… Senior Desire, could you please go down first? This junior hasn’t reached the level of truly remaining unmoved with Senior in his lap.”
“Mm~”
Seven Emotions’ Desire squinted and smiled but didn’t linger. Her finger traced along Li Changshou’s chin as she calmly stood up.
The grass ring atop Seven Emotions’ head turned slightly, and Little Ai appeared instead.
Hurriedly fixing the collar that had been pulled open by the Desire avatar, Little Ai’s cheeks were bright red as she stammered for a while before finally letting out a soft sigh.
“Being unable to control myself when being frivolous with others, I’m truly too pitiful.”
Seeing this, Li Changshou raised his eyebrows.
The seven personalities of Seven Emotions had begun to gradually break free from their single-personality ‘labels’—this was a good thing.
Mm, better cut out that previous part, to avoid misunderstandings.
“Time is of the essence, let’s start making arrangements.”
Little Ai asked: “Are we going to Xuandu City?”
“No, right here in the mortal world,” Li Changshou smiled calmly, already having a plan with 95% confidence.
Well, better secure it one more time.
He should work on Big Sister Kong Xuan’s mindset first. As long as she’s proactive enough, with himself arranging Heaven’s timing and Earth’s advantage, how could this match not work out?