Chapter 1269: Uprooting Mountains
Chapter 1269: Uprooting Mountains
The religious preceptor of the left’s expression changed drastically. He pointed straight at Li Qingshan. “Don’t you dare, wretched daemon!”
The Unraging monk said, “Don’t, damned disciple!”
Li Qingshan ignored them. He tossed the remaining part of Kuang Tianyou’s head to Xiao An and unleashed the wings of wind, gliding over the mountains. Xiao An followed closely behind him as they vanished into the horizon together.
The Dragon province was covered in mountains, basically without any flat land at all. Virtually every single mountain had spiritual veins running through them, so the spiritual qi from any single mountain surpassed the Qing Xiao dwelling in the Chain mountains. It reminded Li Qingshan of how that old bald ass had destroyed the Qing Xiao dwelling, which left him even more furious.
On Dragonshead mountain, Gu Yanying said, “Your majesty, the Hungry Ghost realm is about to devour this world. We are all citizens of the nine provinces. If we continue to fight among ourselves like this, we’ll make a fool of ourselves before the Hungry Ghost realm. Why don’t you just set aside your differences and release the Unraging master. That way, you can continue with your offerings to heaven too.”
The emperor of Great Xia frowned. “How did you know?”
Gu Yanying smiled. “I guessed. If you are sincerely after a compromise, I can serve as a mediator. Normally, the ‘wretched daemon’ is still quite reasonable.”
Before the emperor of Great Xia could respond, the religious preceptor of the left sneered. “My Spirit Kṣetra temple isn’t a place that anyone can take down with ease. It won’t be too late to discuss this once the wretched daemon has returned here after realising there’s nothing he can do.”
The emperor of Great Xia said in thought, “The religious preceptor is correct.”
With the strength that Li Qingshan had demonstrated, he would be a source of great assistance if he could convert him into a force of his own.
There was a much deeper reason that he was unable to mention. As the emperor of Great Xia, he possessed paramount authority, so how could he allow a wretched daemon that had appeared out of nowhere to stand on equal footing with him so easily?
“If he’s willing to yield, I can confer him the title of one of the Ten Daemon Kings and bestow a province to him.”
Gu Yanying bowed slightly. “May everything go as you wish, your majesty!” However, she shook her head inside. With everything that’s happened so far, why would Li Qingshan still care about standing among the ranks of some Ten Daemon Kings? You’re already doing quite well if he hasn’t thrown you off Dragonshead mountain and taken the throne for himself.
The territory of the Dragon province was not too big. In a short while, Li Qingshan saw a holy land of buddhism curling with incense smoke and enveloped in golden light among the mountains. That was the greatest temple in the word, the Spirit Kṣetra temple.
The temple was littered with pagodas and halls, resplendent and magnicident, having merged with the mountains. It was like a complete block of gold had been poured there.
At this moment, warning bells rang through the temple. A streak of buddhist light rushed into the sky, illuminating the surroundings. Another eight specks of golden light rose up, hovering above the Spirit Kṣetra temple.
The religious preceptor of the left had already sent them a warning. The eight Monk Kings present in the temple guarded the Spirit Kṣetra temple through the use of their formation.
The Seven Treasures Monk King was one of them. As he gazed at the sky full of daemon qi that swept over like dark clouds, he felt rather mixed inside. The religious preceptor of the left had informed them about the battle beneath Dragonshead mountain and the conclusion he had given was, The wretched daemon is fierce and tough. Do not leave the formation and clash against him in the open.
Meanwhile, even the mighty religious preceptor of the left was too afraid to leave Dragonshead mountain and reinforce the Spirit Kṣetra temple right now, afraid Li Qingshan would intercept him along the way.
Boom!
Li Qingshan landed at the temple gate and dispersed his wings of wind, gazing at the golden mountain. He did not have any plans to launch a direct attack. That would take a lot of time and a lot of effort. Just the unknown, protective formation was far more powerful than the Chan Monastery of Deva-Nāga’s from back then. Who knew how many more tricks this holy land of buddhism was hiding. Even if he was not afraid of them, it was still trouble.
“Wretched daemon! How bold of you to shelter the buddha nemesis and create trouble for our Spirit Kṣetra temple!” the Seven Treasures Monk King bellowed out.
The temple rang loudly with warning bells. The commotion was so great that it even overwhelmed Li Qingshan’s bearing.
Li Qingshan said sternly, “You’re the bold ones, you bald asses! How dare you destroy my dwelling!”
“Destroy your dwelling?” The Seven Treasures Monk King had basically forgotten about the tiny mountain cave in the Chain mountains. Only when he heard that did he recall it. “You mean that barren mountain in the Chain mountains?” Probably no one in the world would think a tiny mountain lacking in spiritual qi could directly compare to the Spirit Kṣetra temple.
“Barren your mother! There were clearly trees on the mountain!”
Li Qingshan flew into a rage. He took a step forward, and the ground shook. His figure swelled up rapidly as his skin darkened. His legs turned into hooves as a pair of horns shot into the sky. His surging daemon qi became even heavier and more consolidated.
“Moo!”
An ox’s cry seemed to rise up from the depths of the earth. In the blink of an eye, he had already turned into a colossal daemon standing three hundred metres tall, ox-horned, ox-hooved, ox-headed, and ox-tailed. He glared at the Spirit Kṣetra temple with his ox eyes. If it were not for the fact that he was still humanoid in shape, he basically resembled a huge ox standing there.
He had abandoned the other transformations and pushed the Ox Demon Transformation of the Nine Transformations of Demonic and Divine to the limit. After shattering the daemon core and creating a world, his figure was no longer as exaggerated as before, which easily broke three thousand metres in height. However, he had become much more consolidated and refined.
The eight Monk Kings communicated with one another.
“Be careful, the wretched daemon is coming.”
“I’ve already ordered all the monks to recite scriptures in the grand hall. Even Daemon Emperors can forget about getting through the formation, not to mention the fact that he’s just a Daemon King. How is he going to breach the Spirit Kṣetra temple?”
So-called formations had always been about utilising the climate, the geography, and human circumstances to defeat the strong as the weak. A holy land of buddhism like the Spirit Kṣetra temple even gathered the power of belief from buddhist disciples across the world. Individual cultivators would be completely incapable of shaking the formations. Even with absolute strength, they could not last through such a long battle.
Xiao An said, “Qingshan, I’ll go in and destroy the formation.”
“That’s called walking to our deaths!” the Sword Spirit of Immortal Relinquished screamed out. The Spirit Kṣetra temple was not the Bhikṣu Mountain temple. A frontal attack was different from a sneak attack at night too.
“That won’t be necessary. Just stand on my shoulder and watch.”
Li Qingshan let out a simple grin on his ox face. The muscles throughout his body twisted and bulged as he slowly bent down and knelt down on one knee.
A Monk King sneered. “Wretched daemon, it’s still not too late for you to kneel down and beg for mercy!”
Li Qingshan said nothing. His back arched up like a mountain, like a volcano about to eru pt. His arms that seemed to be forged out of solid metal were suddenly raised high into the air before slamming against the ground heavily.
Boom! The mountains shook.
The Monk Kings looked at each other, clueless about what he was trying to do.
Boom! The ground cracked open.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Li Qingshan struck the ground again and again. All of the buildings inside the Spirit Kṣetra temple shook and swayed, but under the protection of the formation, none of them collapsed. At most, they only lost all of their roof tiles.
At this very moment, from a bird’s eye view, it was possible to see two cracks running around the mountain spreading rapidly until they linked up behind the mountain, forming a circle.
The spiritual qi in the Spirit Kṣetra temple immediately began to decline.
“Oh no, he’s trying to sever the spiritual vein!”
“There’s no need to be flustered. The wretched daemon is just wasting his strength. Does he really think he can sever the spiritual vein by creating cracks? Even without the spiritual vein, the formation will remain standing. Let’s see what else he’s capable of!”
Li Qingshan straightened himself out. He was not trying to sever the underground spiritual vein. Instead, he was trying to free the entire Spirit Kṣetra temple from the earth. He pointed at the temple. “Rise!”
Rumble!
The colossal mountain actually began to rise gradually with his gesture and order.
Thousands of tonnes of soil poured down. Pagodas tilted in the temple; halls collapsed.
However, the grand hall stood very firm, except the chanting monks inside were unable to react in time, falling and rolling across the floor.
The Monk Kings all paled in fright. They were in disbelief. What kind of power was this!?
The remaining part of Kuang Tian’s face was filled with shock as well. “The power to uproot mountains?”
Even in the Hungry Ghost realm, when he was in his peak condition, he could not pull such a large mountain out from the ground. Even if he underwent another heavenly tribulation, he probably still would not be capable of something like that! He immediately felt like his defeat was well-deserved. He even wondered whether Li Qingshan had been holding back some strength during their battle.
It was obviously impossible for Li Qingshan to achieve this through his own strength, even if he turned into an ox. Back then, when he uprooted a small mountain and placed it on Great Buddha mountain as the buddha’s head, it had already taken him all of his strength, and he had to do it in person. Right now, he was basically relying on the Force Field of the Earth alone to uproot the entire mountain.
Everything still boiled down to the Swelling Earth of the Nine Heavens in his hand. With his source of the earth, he could deal with these mountains and rocks as easily as a father could order his son around.
Of course, if it had been someone else, even if they were stronger than Li Qingshan in terms of cultivation, they could not wield the power of the Swelling Earth of the Nine Heavens like this. The power of the ox demon already neared the fundamental powers.
As the mountain was lifted up from the ground, a great pit replaced where it stood originally. At the bottom of the pit was a black hole.
Immediately, demon qi gushed into the air, shrouding the stars and dimming the sun.
The Spirit Kṣetra temple suppressed a demon cavern of unprecedented size. Countless demonfolk climbed out of the demon cavern, with even a few Demon Kings among them. Having regained freedom, they all demonfied as they roared out, ready to make a mess.
A hoof fell, shattering the demon cavern. The roars immediately vanished.
The space where demon caverns resided had always been extraordinarily fragile. Li Qingshan’s stomp had crushed it, cutting all of the demonfolk to pieces. Even Demon Kings could not withstand such damage. On top of that, it was completely impossible to reassemble themselves in the shattered space, so only death awaited them.
A hundred thousand demonfolk and several Demon Kings perished from a stomp.
The Monk Kings were about to rush out of the Spirit Kṣetra temple and throw their lives at Li Qingshan. When they saw this, they gulped instead and dismissed that thought.
Even when a human unearthed an ant’s nest and tried to crush all the ants, it would not be as simple as this. They were not afraid of dying, but they did not want to be casually crushed underfoot.
Li Qingshan did not even look at the demon cavern. He raised his head high into the air as his bare, robust body was filled with a sense of primitive vigour. Supporting the Spirit Kṣetra temple with one hand, he stood in the world like a primordial demon god. He suddenly moved his hooves and ran off in the direction of Dragonshead mountain.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Stepping through rivers and stepping over mountains, he left behind a track of deep footprints.
Many cultivation sects sat between the mountains along the way. The cultivators all watched in shock as they saw him run along madly with a mountain in his hand, unable to return to their senses.
Li Qingshan said to Xiao An, “Now these are our hostages! Several tens of thousand bald asses for a single bald ass. Now that bald ass has himself a fantastic deal!”
On Dragonshead mountain, the vice minister of works who happened to be a grandmaster of the school of Mohism arrived at an extremely great altitude. He took out an arcane treasure that resembled a telescope and peered in the direction of the Spirit Kṣetra temple with one eye.
“Do you see it? Has the wretched daemon taken down the Spirit Kṣetra temple?”
The religious preceptor of the left panicked inside. Just then, his connection with the Spirit Kṣetra temple had abruptly been broken as if the temple had vanished into thin air.
The vice minister of works widened his eyes and furrowed his brows as if he was not too certain about what he was seeing. He blinked his eyes repeatedly before allowing his jaw to drop.
The religious preceptor of the left urged him a few more times.
The vice minister of works lowered his head. He was still rather stunned. “He’s returned… with… the Spirit Kṣetra temple!”
“With the Spirit Kṣetra temple?”
Everyone below felt puzzled. What did that mean, with the Spirit Kṣetra temple? Had he stuffed the Spirit Kṣetra temple into his pockets or something? This vice minister of words had always been enthralled in the research of puppets and machinery, such that he was a little deranged, so everyone had their doubts.
However, when a vigorous figure crossed over a mountain, running towards Dragonshead mountain with great steps, everyone was stunned. Their gazes all gathered on the golden mountain that hovered above his right hand.
That was… the Spirit Kṣetra temple!?