Chapter 1418: Planning and Preparing
Chapter 1418: Planning and Preparing
Li Qingshan stroked his chin in thought. “Our priority right now is to verify Xiaoming’s safety and hopefully save him. The dwelling comes second.”
Gu Yanying said in thought, “Lin Xuan is the first senior brother of the Myriad sect. It probably won’t be that easy to get inside his dwelling.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. I’ve already obtained the formation disc to the Xuanming dwelling.” Li Qingshan smiled complacently and pointed at the wound on his chest. “I took on this punch for that.”
On top of that, he still had a trump card—the Yin Demon. With those two conditions met, it was not impossible for him to infiltrate the Xuanming dwelling.
“Truly something that Li Qingshan would do.” Gu Yanying praised and asked, “Can it control the protective formation?”
“It can’t. It’s just a key.” Li Qingshan also found that a little regretful, or everything would be much easier.
“Then can’t you just change the lock?” Xiao An looked at Gu Yanying.
Gu Yanying’s eyes lit up. “That’s right. The dragon doesn’t seem to be particularly clever. We can try and lure him out. If you use that opportunity to gain control over the dwelling, we’ll reverse the geographic advantage and become almost untouchable.”
Li Qingshan said in surprise, “You want to lure the snake away from its den? That’s a fifth heavenly tribulation true dragon after all!’
“Don’t worry. He can’t catch me that easily.”
Gu Yanying was confident. In the furious lightning of the fourth heavenly tribulation, she had already completely merged with Heaven-stirring’s feather. She was no longer a human or a hawk anymore, gradually morphing into a true kunpeng. That was enough to make up for the difference in cultivation.
“You don’t need to be faster than that dragon. When you take the Xuanming dwelling by force, he’ll definitely sense it and rush back to defend the dwelling. I can hold him off for a little longer and buy you some time.”
Li Qingshan smiled. “Can you stop him? Hopefully, we don’t end up losing another one before the other one’s even freed yet.”
Xiao An only smiled silently. The fourth heavenly tribulation had been of great importance to her too. She had already reached the fourth layer of the Path of White Bone and Great Beauty, attaining the fruit of Srotāpanna of the four fruits of attainments of buddhism. She had condensed a treasured body of white bone.
Her joints were all condensing into white bone śarīra, opening the chakras throughout her body of form. At the same time, she had reforged her various treasures of white bone. It had used up everything she had built up so far, but her strength had advanced by quite a large step.
“Very well then.” Li Qingshan eased up. “Fortunately, I haven’t been idling around.” With their assistance, he became a little more confident.
After another discussion with them, he made them leave this place and find somewhere to cultivate while he returned to Myriad city.
Along the way, everyone constantly glanced at him. The gamble of thirty years among the direct disciples and his challenge to Chao Tianjiao in three decades’ time had already made Li Qingshan’s name ring through the Myriad sect, and Li Liehuo’s punch had completely propelled him to fame.
An inner disciple had actually managed to offend the first senior brother and the first senior sister of the Myriad sect simultaneously. They were people that even direct disciples had to lower their heads towards out of respect, yet they just happened to run into a stubborn one.
In the Fate Perturbing casino.
“Kid, I really don’t know if I should call you crazy or if I should praise your courage!”
Le Tian played around with dice as he paced around, studying Li Qingshan closely as he sneered away.
Li Qingshan smiled. “Both are fine.”
“Have you come to find me to tell me to collect your corpse?” Le Tian bellowed.
This dark horse was about to become a dead horse. His wager of a thousand Green Jade bookmarks and his debt of a thousand Green Jade bookmarks, two thousand in total, was about to all go down the drain. Even he felt extremely pained over that.
Pi Yangqiu had probably heard the news, so he rushed over in a hurry. He began to complain the moment he arrived. “Look at you, junior brother. It’s not like the dwelling belonged to you in the first place. You can’t take it in such a short amount of time either, so you might as well have given it to the first senior brother and saved yourself from an endless amount of trouble. Now, not only have you forced yourself into a dead end, but he’ll definitely blame me too.”
“Do you really think I can get out of this too?” Le Tian sighed. “I was wrong. I should have never gambled against you right from the start.”
This gamble left him extremely depressed. Regardless of the outcome, it would all be for nothing, and he would be forcefully tied together with this kid. Originally, if he just cultivated in the Myriad sect, how could there have been so many dangers? Yet, this kid was far too good at finding ways to die. He was basically unstoppable.
Suddenly, he flew into a rage and grabbed Li Qingshan’s neck. “Give me back my Green Jade bookmarks!”
Faced with the complaints and fury of two direct disciples, others definitely would have been shaking with fear, yet Li Qingshan began to laugh.
Pi Yangqiu was slightly surprised, while Le Tian’s eyes were filled with interest as if his anger was merely an act.
“Senior brothers, it’s pitiful that you’re acting like this. I have a plan that can guarantee you the Green Jade bookmarks you deserve.”
Pi Yangqiu said in surprise, “Even we don’t have any ideas, yet you do?”
Li Qingshan shot him a glance. “Let go!”
Le Tian let go and said, “Interesting.”
Li Qingshan fixed his collar. “Tell me, how many Green Jade bookmarks do you think the items that first senior brother Lin left in the Xuanming dwelling are worth?”
Pi Yangqiu said, “That’s difficult to estimate.”
“Is it enough to pay off all the gambling debts?”
“Definitely!” Le Tian had already guessed Li Qingshan’s plan and became excited. Sure enough, it was extremely interesting. The gamble was gradually becoming even wilder.
Li Qingshan said, “I plan on obtaining the Xuanming dwelling before I’m transferred. That way, if I die on the battlefield, not only can I pay off my debts to senior brother Le, but you can count the amount you lost on me too, senior brother Pi. How’s that?”
Pi Yangqiu said, “Junior brother, it’s impossible for us to go after Ao Xuan.”
Li Qingshan said, “I haven’t told you to do anything yet.”
Le Tian said, “Then what do you want?”
“When senior sister Ruan contests the enlistment order in the Direct Disciple hall, please help her out and buy me some time. Also, lend me another two thousand Green Jade bookmarks, a thousand each! That’s very fair, isn’t it?”
Pi Yangqiu was stunned. He said seriously, “You really are crazy.”
If another two thousand Green Jade bookmarks were added to the mix, then the gamble would reach an unbelievable level. Coupled with the wagers from the other direct disciples like Ge Xing, the total sum involved would be approaching a tremendous ten thousand Green Jade bookmarks. For regular small sects, even their savings from ten thousand years would not come close to such a sum.
Li Qingshan smiled. “No, this is called doubling down! I only have a single question for you right now. Are you going to gamble or not?”
Pi Yangqiu said in doubt, “Kid, you’re not going to run off with this sum, are you?”
Li Qingshan stared straight at him. His gaze was clear and sharp.
“Sorry, I’ve misspoken.”
Le Tian played around with his dice. “If we don’t, are you still going to go after the Xuanming dwelling?”
“Of course, I have to. Before I enter the battlefield, I need to settle this.”
Le Tian licked his lips and tossed out a thousand Green Jade bookmarks. “Alright, I’ll make this gamble.”
In order to break free from this web of his own spinning, he constantly increased his wage, continuing until he was knee deep and seeing red. It was not a gamble if it did not turn people’s faces red, make their hearts beat, and their blood vessels dilate.
Li Qingshan looked at Pi Yangqiu. “What about you, senior brother Pi?”
Pi Yangqiu remained silent for quite a while before letting out a sigh. “We’ve already come so far, so what else can I say? Three decades is too long. I want to see the outcome immediately.”
He was bold enough to gamble with his life probably because there was something he could depend on! The chance to turn everything around had suddenly appeared in this gamble that was supposed to be certain defeat, and they could even see the outcome immediately. As gamblers, how could they just accept defeat willingly?
Li Qingshan accepted another one thousand Green Jade bookmarks and left the Fate Perturbing casino after bidding farewell to them, directly making his way to the Pavilion of Heavenly Tomes.
Le Tian and Pi Yangqiu stared outside the window, watching Li Qingshan’s figure vanish into the criss-crossing streets.
Pi Yangqiu could not help but ask, “Hey, we haven’t gambled on the wrong side, have we?”
Le Tian said, “If it isn’t the final moments, who knows? Don’t you find this feeling to be wonderful?”
“After this gamble, I’m giving up gambling.”
As soon as Li Qingshan set foot in the Pavilion of Heavenly Tomes, the Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance immediately summoned him. Sure enough, he knew everything.
The Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance said, “I’ve already prepared what you want. The price is two thousand two hundred Green Jade bookmarks.”
That just happened to be everything that Li Qingshan possessed right now.
Li Qingshan smiled and said nothing more, checking through the items. These items consisted of:
The formation scroll of the Xuanming formation. It was extremely complicated and profound, which could save him time from all the calculations, allowing him to gain control over the Xuanming dwelling as quickly as possible.
The Divine Movement of the Five Elements and the Illusionary Demon Movement Technique. The former emphasised rapid movement while being able to pass through everything, while the latter emphasised flexible infiltration without being discovered. When used together, they were complementary. They were basically what he was relying on to infiltrate the Xuanming dwelling.
Records of all the battles of first senior brother Lin Xuan. As his mount, the true dragon Ao Xuan definitely possessed an extremely important role in them. His abilities, techniques, and battle style would all be recorded. He could even calculate what kind of personality he had.
Last of all, there was the Secret Scroll of Inner Demons. It contained the most mysterious and unfathomable secret techniques to do with inner demons. By practising it, it was possible to both guard against inner demons while inciting the inner demons of enemies.
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All of those items only took up a very small space. The largest part of it all were the teachings of the various schools and sects deemed as “lesser paths” or “heretic” by buddhism that worshipped Maheśvara.
His ideology was extraordinarily deep yet strange and indescribable. It covered a myriad of different aspects, yet it contradicted itself.
It included many different techniques, which were definitely unlike regular techniques. It covered everything, from bewitchment and movement to transformation and destruction and so on.
For example, it covered the dual cultivation methods of the Śāktaṃ school, the alchemy techniques of the Raseśvara school, the path of strange deeds of the Paśupati school, and the live offering ceremonies summoning gods into the body of the Siddhānta school. The practices reached beyond even the wildest of imaginations.
If he could completely master them all, not only would it be greatly beneficial to cultivation, but he would even be able to unleash extraordinary power from the Heavenly Tome of Liberty too.
Li Qingshan tossed out all of his Green Jade bookmarks without any hesitation. “I’ll take it all!” Then he asked, “Why are you helping me?”
“This is a part of my duty.” The Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance walked away without even looking back.
A kunpeng that had inherited a feather of Heaven-stirring and a successor of the White Bone Bodhisattva. None of this could escape his eyes. Even if he could find nothing through divination, some things were still gradually clearing up, providing him with startling information.
He was neither bold enough to oppose him, nor did he have the courage to befriend him. Even a single wrong step meant eternal damnation. He was just a mere spirit turtle. He was unable to deal with any of the consequences. All he could do was wait and see, adjust with the situation, continue to observe, and gather more information. After all that, he would make his judgement.
Li Qingshan clasped his hands. “Thanks!”