Chapter 1346: Bastard

“I have the princess emeritus to protect me. If you even touch a hair on me, she’ll never spare you! I’ve already sent a request for help to her in the ancestral temple. She’ll be here very soon… ouch!”

The lord of White Deer country threatened loudly, which made Li Qingshan even more furious. He slapped him across the face and knocked the crown off his head, leaving him dishevelled. “Hmph, touch a hair on you? You sure know how to dream!”

The lord of White Deer country behaved like the slap had broken his bones. His entire body slumped down before he begged away desperately.

“Senior, senior! We’re the ones who share the same path! Why are you becoming angry with me over those lowly people? Once the princess emeritus arrives, I’ll help you put in a good word with her so that she gives you a Green Jade bookmark. With that, you can join the Myriad sect too. We’ll be senior and junior brothers afterwards.”

“Who shares the same path as you? You have a Green Jade bookmark?”

Li Qingshan raised his eyebrows. Zhu Yingcai had a Black Wood bookmark, while the lord of White Deer country had a Yellow Bronze bookmark. In terms of cultivation, he would require a Green Jade bookmark to serve as his “Immortal Ascendance tablet”.

“Do you know how precious Green Jade bookmarks are? How can a measly Foundation Establishment cultivator like me possess one? Senior, with your cultivation at the third heavenly tribulation, you need a Green Jade bookmark to participate in the test if you want to join the Myriad sect! If you are willing to kill the rebels outside the city, the princess emeritus will definitely reward you handsomely! White Deer country is renowned as her motherland. It’s her home country!”

The lord of White Deer country finally confessed his original objective. The dissidents outside the city gathered like fire, having sieged the city for almost a month now. Beggars filled the streets in the city, such that chaos could erupt at any moment. Once the city was breached, the consequences were unthinkable.

He had sought help from the princess emeritus in the Myriad sect a long time ago, but he had never received a reply. Having gathered the various magicians for the banquet, he was already prepared to flee from the city and directly seek refuge from the Myriad sect, yet he was unsure about how he would face the princess emeritus if he did something like that.

As he had said, White Deer country was the princess emeritus’ motherland. Now that it had been reduced to such a miserable state under his rule, who knew what punishment awaited him.

He purposely acted unconcerned and continued to hold banquets because he was confident about fleeing from the city with his cultivation. He also aimed to deceive the public and keep them from panicking.

When he met the great Soul Nascence cultivator Li Qingshan, he came up with an idea. He planned on inviting him to a fine banquet. Once they were flushed from the alcohol, when it would be inconvenient to decline a request, he would ask for Li Qingshan’s help to destroy the army of rebels outside the city. Then he could slip away with ease.

Who would have thought that Li Qingshan would be so ill-tempered, completely unlike his appearance. Even when he heard about the Myriad sect, he was still bold enough to lay his hands on him, sitting proudly in the main seat.

“You incompetent ruler, you were originally planning to have me help you escape, weren’t you? Hmph, you can keep dreaming!”

Li Qingshan became tempted to kill. His eyes were about to shine with red light when he suddenly thought of something, and it silently faded away again. He sat down on the lord of White Deer country.

At this moment, fresh alcohol and dishes had been delivered by the servants. They saw how the lord of the country had been captured, so all of them paled in fright, afraid to take a step forward.

Li Qingshan felt like he was starving, so he called out, “Bring me the meat, or I’ll dig out your hearts to go with the alcohol!”

The lord of White Deer country also called out from beneath him, “What’re you staring for? Bring the senior his alcohol and dishes!”

Li Qingshan drank the alcohol and ate the dishes as they came. He acted as if there was no one else around, except he sank into his thoughts during the process.

All he thought about was the path of the qilin. He wanted to win people over by virtue, so how had he even become tempted to kill? He had basically made no progress with the Qilin’s Conventions of Longevity at all. It was even more difficult to progress with than the Phoenix’s Scripture of Nirvāṇa. Don’t tell me I’m just not born to be kind, that I can’t cultivate any good karma, and all I’m capable of is conflict and sins?

By the time he had had his fill, he had already made a decision. He had to pay a visit to the Myriad sect. Only by meeting even more cultivators that were even stronger could he truly understand the entirety of the Human realm, find the path to Ruin’s End, and accumulate more resources for his future cultivation.

The only issue was while he did possess the Green Jade bookmarks from the Dragon’s Pool dwelling, he could not simply take them out. After all, they were far more valuable than Black Wood bookmarks. If the Myriad sect decided to ask him about their origins, that really would be a difficult question to answer. He might even give himself away, and that would basically be walking to his own doom!

Zhu Yingcai suddenly said, “Senior, I have a request!”

“What is it?”

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Li Qingshan glanced at him. Seeing how conflicted he was, he could guess what he was thinking. He was clearly thinking of having him bring him to the Myriad sect, yet he was afraid of earning the princess emeritus’ hatred due to Li Qingshan. He had only made his decision after all this time, yet he was still extremely afraid.

“Senior, if you are also trying to join the Myriad sect, could you take me along with you? There are far too many bandits on the road. If I were to travel alone, I probably wouldn’t make it even if I spent the rest of my life travelling.”

Li Qingshan said, “Alright!”

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Zhu Yingcai was overjoyed. “Really?” He banged his head against the ground a few more times. “Thank you for your kindness, senior!”

The lord of White Deer country called out from beneath Li Qingshan, “Senior, could you take me along with you too!”

Leaving the city was very difficult for him right now. While he could fly a distance, he could only cover five kilometres at most. Once he fell into the army of rebels, that would be dangerous. These dissidents hated him to the bone. They would probably do anything to kill him.

Li Qingshan was dumbfounded by his shamelessness. He patted his head. “Thank you for entertaining me, incompetent ruler! You’re on your own!”

Grabbing Zhu Yingcai, he shot off into the air. The lord of White Deer country crawled out from under the table and said resentfully, “Just you wait! Once I get to the Myriad sect, I’ll definitely report this to the princess emeritus!”

Whistling through the night wind, Li Qingshan gazed down from above. The lights in the city waned as the people on the streets diminished, most having rested already. Only a few beggars wandered around like lost souls, searching through the garbage.

The deep night instead outlined the fires from the camps around the city, like a wildfire surrounding a lone city, silently burning away. Who knew when it would burn through.

Having flown twice, Zhu Yingcai became much more courageous now. He asked loudly, “Senior, are we going to the Myriad sect now?”

“Wait here for me.”

Li Qingshan left Zhu Yingcai at the top of a tall tower before landing before Flower Fragrance parlour quietly. The boisterous brothel had quietened down too with the doors tightly shut and the lights dimmed. Only two rows of large, red lanterns remained, illuminating the rustling shadows of the trees.

Li Qingshan arrived beneath the peach tree, touching it once more. The peach blossoms fell, the green leaves wilted, and the tree withered away.

He had unleashed all of its vitality all of a sudden, but he had also consumed all of its vitality. Perhaps he had managed to feed a group of beggars, but was killing still the qilin?

Killing the incompetent ruler would bring him great relief, but even if he disregarded that princess emeritus and the Myriad sect, the city would definitely sink into chaos with the ruler’s death. Once the rebels took the city, what good would they do?

Burning, plundering, and killing would all be unavoidable, turning this White Deer city into a living hell, but what crimes had the common people in the city committed? It was exactly as they said, “I don’t kill because of benevolence, but I die because of benevolence!”

Suddenly, he discovered that the path of the qilin was not that simple. Perhaps just possessing a heart of benevolence and some compassion was not enough. Many of the times, it would instead become restrictive due to too many qualms. Even upholding justice and helping the weak would become affected.

So much time has passed already, yet I’ve never reached the first layer of the Qilin’s Conventions of Longevity. Perhaps I’ve failed to comprehend its essence. I’ve wholeheartedly tried to win people over by virtue, but ever since I arrived in the Human realm, what have I done that can be considered as winning people over by virtue?

He sat down beneath the peach tree and circulated the Qilin’s Path of Longevity silently. The various experiences he had since arriving in the Human realm flashed past his eyes.

The qilin is a divine beast of paramount benevolence. Is benevolence just doing good and accumulating good karma? But what is good? Saving people yet killing a tree, slaying an incompetent ruler yet massacring an entire city. Because of a single thought of benevolence, I commit countless sins.

No, that’s definitely not the qilin’s path. Even if I sacrificed the Heaven Climbing Vine in order to save all the creatures of the nine provinces, it never would have worked.

Killing ants to save a person is not the act of a qilin. Killing a person to save tens of thousands is not the act of a qilin either.

Li Qingshan’s thoughts were clear. He said, “Life, death, ups and downs, as fate foretells. A tree is as such, a country is as such!”

White Deer country should have been destroyed a long time ago, yet it had continued to stand for millennia because of the power of cultivators. The lords of the country all prioritised cultivation. None of them were still interested in ruling. They allowed their domain to fall into upheaval and their people to fall into destitution, such that they were forced to come for this Deer city in the end. However, under the protection of a Human Sovereign, even an army of a million could not take down this city. They would only be reduced to starved corpses littered across the land.

The remaining people would probably survive off cannibalism, no longer possessing any resistance. The army around the city would be driven back, never to rise up again until the next upheaval.

“That princess meritus sure is a bastard!”

“Really?” A gentle woman’s voice suddenly rang out from behind Li Qingshan.

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With the Path Beneath Our Feet, the Nine Heavens Aren’t Far

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