What on earth was going on here?
Because his immortal sense had been disrupted by the treasure light to the north, Li Changshou waited until his paper incarnation approached the settlement and hid in the treetop before he could make out what was happening within.
Hundreds of villagers had gathered near the settlement gate, where a stage had been erected. Several figures in Daoist robes were dancing about on it.
Someone was here preaching...
Having identified the source of the treasure light as the clay statue behind these "preachers," Li Changshou chuckled inwardly. The middle-aged man his paper incarnation had become jumped down from the treetop and was about to leave.
He had thought some treasure had emerged and was hoping to pick up a bargain.
These days, there weren't that many treasures to be had...
This kind of preaching—if it occurred outside the Southern Jambu Continent, it was likely a promotional campaign by a major sect to recruit disciples.
But if it happened within the Southern Jambu Continent, it was either swindling money or harvesting incense-burning merit.
This sort of thing wasn't uncommon.
The cultivation level these preachers displayed was at the third or fourth rank of Spirit Transformation;
The old Daoist standing guard beside the three-foot-tall clay statue displayed cultivation at the peak of Return-to-Void, approaching Return to the Dao...
In any case, it was none of his business.
The paper incarnation's hands formed seals, hiding behind a tree as it began executing the Earth Escape;
A snippet of chanting scripture drifted on the wind, reaching the paper incarnation's ears and Li Changshou's heart.
He heard the scripture chanting:
"...Great vows to attain the unsurpassed Dao, vowing to let the West bear Bodhi..."
The Western Teaching?
The paper incarnation's fingers formed seals even faster. The ground before it had barely begun to ripple when the paper incarnation eagerly plunged in;
It fled three parts faster than before.
Simultaneously, Li Changshou's true body on the desolate island also rose, executing the Illusion-Transformation Technique to become a fish and heading directly east.
The Western Teaching involved great karmic entanglements—why stay here when he could run!
Unexpectedly, this was the southwestern corner of the Southern Jambu Continent, far from the Western Bullhead Continent, yet the Western Teaching had already extended its incense-collecting tentacles this far.
But just as Li Changshou was about to flee, his immortal sense suddenly detected an anomaly in the seawater to the southeast.
Approximately eight hundred li away, a mass of dense demonic energy was heading toward the direction of the treasure light...
Li Changshou immediately halted and dove to the sea floor, concealing his presence with everything he had;
He also froze the paper incarnation underground, leaving it completely still.
Was a great sea demon being drawn to the settlement's treasure light?
This was not good at all.
After observing carefully for a time, this sea demon's cultivation was equivalent to an early-stage True Immortal cultivator. Beneath its demonic energy, its body was a strangely shaped large fish somewhat resembling a manta ray, but far more massive—over a hundred zhang in both length and width.
If one considered the possibility that it was concealing its cultivation, a conservative estimate would place it at late-stage True Immortal.
Beneath the thick demonic energy, the creature's body was also wreathed in strands of blood-red light that flickered like flames;
This was the mark of extreme wickedness—its killing karma was immense, its sins already manifesting visibly.
Li Changshou's heart stirred with sudden interest.
Of course, it wasn't that he had any particular fondness for this bizarre-looking creature. He was purely eyeing the power of accumulated sin on this great demon.
Clearing such thick sin would earn him a substantial amount of merit!
Should he kill this demon on the way?
Li Changshou's mind raced.
After his ascension, his foundation was too thin, and he didn't have many treasures.
Merit was a valuable commodity, and quite rare;
If one stayed secluded in a sect cultivating without doing anything beneficial for the stability of heaven and earth, one might not earn a shred in several hundred years.
If one was a ruthless practitioner committed to "Proving the Dao through Force," one had to avoid merit's blessing to ensure the Heavenly Way wouldn't influence one's later stages.
But Li Changshou had no such lofty ambitions. His consideration was purely practical.
—If he had more merit as protection, his safety quotient would rise accordingly.
If in the future he could obtain great merit, he wouldn't emulate the great powers by nurturing treasure artifacts. He would first create a Merit Golden Body!
With a Merit Golden Body, it would be like having an ironclad death-exemption medal. No matter what tribulation he faced, he wouldn't need to fear too much;
At that point, even if a Sage wanted to strike him down, they would have to hesitate over whether the karmic cost would exceed several times the merit contained in his Golden Body.
Of course, a Merit Golden Body was extremely difficult to forge, requiring an enormous amount of merit.
As of now, with the Heavenly Way趋于 perfect, opportunities to obtain great merit were few.
Going to the Heavenly Court would offer more chances to earn merit—Li Changshou had previously considered related matters.
First, let's deal with the matter at hand.
Killing this great demon would surely yield no small amount of merit;
As the saying goes, grains of sand pile into mountains, and drops of water form seas. Everything had to have a beginning.
As for forming karmic ties with the Demon Clan...
Humans and demons were mortal enemies. Even if he treated demons courteously, should he ever fall into the hands of a demon expert, the only outcome would being thrown into a cauldron of oil.
There was absolutely no need to be polite to demons.
But considering that the creature might be concealing its cultivation, he would have to accept some risk...
This was the South Sea, not a demon gathering place. Within two thousand li, this was the only demonic energy of this magnitude, with only a scattering of minor demons on a distant island...
Now that his Water Escape and Earth Escape were mastered, traveling a hundred thousand li in a day was no empty boast. He could kill this thing and immediately flee to the mortal world to hide, with no fear of retaliation from other demons...
Moreover, if he had the ability to prevent harm to his fellow humans while guaranteeing his own safety, but stood by and watched this great fish demon slaughter them, it would be somewhat hard to justify.
After all, he had lived twice in this world...
Although Li Changshou reserved judgment on whether the creatures of Bear Settlement truly counted as his kind.
......
With a try-and-see attitude, Li Changshou activated his Water Escape. Moving more than ten times faster than the great demon, he silently surged to a stretch of sea a hundred li from shore.
Outside of the Three Teachings' immortal sects, escape arts in the Primordial were mostly hard to come by;
Moreover, among today's cultivators, the prevailing attitude was to value treasures over techniques, causing many to underestimate the utility of escape arts.
Calculating the great demon's projected path precisely, Li Changshou shook his sleeve, sending six paper incarnations flying left and right. They took on different faces, different builds, and different auras—both male and female.
The six paper incarnations immediately set to work on the sea floor, quietly laying out a trapping formation suited for underwater use.
The treasure umbrella was temporarily useless—it hadn't been upgraded yet.
Li Changshou then fled toward the shore, merged with the paper incarnation hidden underground, collected it, and found a spot in the coastal forest to hide.
He closed his eyes, focused his mind, and every sound and movement within several hundred li flowed into his heart.
Moments later, enormous waves erupted across the sea surface a hundred li away!
A circular formation appeared upon the waves, directly trapping the towering surf!
The great demon, over a hundred meters long, had not detected the ambush ahead and crashed directly into the temporary trapping formation. Upon realizing something was wrong, it immediately began frantically ramming the barriers!
Six paper incarnations had already materialized from various positions, rushing to the demon's sides. Each scattered several bottles of poison powder, using immortal power to adhere it to the demon's body.
In an instant, the seawater around the great demon turned murky. The creature's entire body was rapidly corroded, and its demonic soul suffered severe damage!
"Who are you! What... kind of..."
This time, Li Changshou had thrown out his last two bottles of supreme-grade Immortal-Weakening Powder...
Though this great demon's cultivation realm was higher, its tolerance was clearly inferior to the East Sea Dragon Palace's Second Prince from before. Its movements immediately became incredibly sluggish.
Li Changshou's spirit was taut with extreme tension;
Once the six paper incarnations had finished scattering their poison, each drew a sword and crossed them as they charged forward. Talismans linked by immortal light appeared throughout the seawater;
The sword formation and Threefold True Flame struck simultaneously!
The talisman formation acted like chains, locking onto the great demon from every direction. The formation's power erupted—sealing, electrocuting, freezing, charring...
The demonic body, already corroded by poison, now had almost no defensive power remaining.
Six immortal swords wreathed in Threefold True Flame sliced through, leaving six intersecting gashes on the demon's body!
Waves of Threefold True Flame poured into each gash, using the demon's essence, qi, and spirit as fuel. The flames roared to life!
The fire instantly engulfed the great demon in the sea, yet the creature couldn't even emit a scream...
In the tree on the shore, Li Changshou clenched his left fist. Six paper incarnations, each wielding a fire-wreathed sword, plunged into various parts of the demon's body.
Within the formation walls, beneath the sea—firelight surged!
Water columns erupted from the surface. Several chunks of the demon's remains, wrapped in Threefold True Flame, shot skyward. Its demonic soul, chained by talisman formation lassos in midair, was swallowed directly by the surging Threefold True Flame!
Li Changshou executed the Five-Element Escape—Wood to Earth to Water in one fluid motion—his body hurtling toward the trapping formation.
When he arrived at the formation's center, three paper incarnations sat cross-legged on the sea surface, chanting the Salvation Scripture, the Rebirth Mantra, and the Calamity-Averting Blessing;
Three paper incarnations were cleaning residual poison powder from the seawater, inhaling the polluted water and undying flames into their mouths for later recovery.
The Threefold True Flame was truly ferocious. In the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the great demon's massive body had been reduced to nothing but a patch of ash on the sea surface...
Li Changshou emerged from the water. A question suddenly occurred to him.
The Threefold True Flame's power was too great. If he needed to use it for pill-refining back at the sect, or if someone suddenly asked him how his Threefold True Flame cultivation was progressing—wouldn't that be...
He needed to figure out how to reduce the flame's power;
Ideally, its power would be controllable—adjustable at will.
Li Changshou tossed out the soul-capturing bead. With a sweep of his sleeve, the ash and seawater were drawn into his palm, compressed into a water sphere, then tossed skyward and gently dispersed.
Surprisingly, it felt rather satisfying...
The chanting continued. Li Changshou grasped the soul-capturing bead and examined the memory fragments within.
Hmm, this great demon truly hadn't come from the South Sea. It originally lived in the West Sea...
Its ancestors hadn't been anyone notable. Deep-sea demon clans had always been lacking in fortune and couldn't rise...
This fish demon had slaughtered countless sailors. Countless fishermen from the sea had perished at its hands. Killing it was an act of justice.
A streak of golden light suddenly rose from the sea surface and注入 into Li Changshou's arm.
A sudden clarity arose in Li Changshou's heart. He felt that his own Dao had gained an additional layer of protection, and his path toward immortality seemed to have become slightly smoother.
This was merit.
A rough estimate suggested that killing several million demons of similar wickedness would allow him to forge a Merit Golden Body...
Then again, perhaps he should just forget it. Staying in the mountains and never leaving was fine enough.
"Hmm?"
Li Changshou frowned. In this creature's memory fragments, he had spotted something strange.
Attacking villages, pretending to be repelled by the clay statue, retreating to the sea to lie in wait...
Then attacking other villages, pretending to be repelled by the clay statue, retreating to the sea to lie in wait...
Li Changshou's mouth began twitching uncontrollably. The moment the chanting ended, he immediately packed up the paper incarnations, treasure artifacts, and pouches;
He didn't bother recovering the formation bases, hastily destroying the formation in place. Executing his concealment technique and illusion transformation, he fled eastward at maximum Water Escape speed.
This great demon was connected to the Western Teaching!
It was working with the same people who were preaching in Bear Settlement!
They would first spread the Western Teaching's tenets there. When the demon attacked, they would use the clay statue to pretend to repel it and display a "miracle," thereby gaining a flock of devoted believers to provide the Western Teaching with incense-burning offerings!
The scheme was admittedly despicable, but Li Changshou had no righteous drive to expose it, and he truly wanted no entanglement whatsoever with the Western Teaching.
The two Western Sages loved converting people westward and were plotting the Investiture of the Gods;
Before and after that great war, many unnecessary conflicts within the Dao Sect had the shadow of those two Sages behind them!
And after the Investiture, the Grand Pure One's single stroke of "converting the barbarians into Buddhists" had forced the Western Teaching to transform into the Mahayana Buddhist Sect...
This was a war over the fate of teachings, with five Sages entangled within!
Even Grand Golden Immortals were merely pawns随意拨弄 in this game—let alone a newly ascended minor immortal like him.
Can't afford to offend them, can't afford to offend them. Better to slip away quickly.
Like wind and lightning, Li Changshou alternated Water Escape and Earth Escape eastward;
He had thought his current speed of a hundred thousand li per day was the limit, only to find he had covered that distance in half a day.
When pushed to the limit, potential truly could be吓一吓出来.
He went ashore, concealed his presence, found a spot to touch up his disguise, and assembled both physical and magical伪装;
This time Li Changshou transformed into a frail scholar, hurrying northeast.
Hidden in his sleeve, his right hand gripped the soul-capturing bead as Li Changshou carefully examined the demon's scattered memory fragments.
Before long, he did indeed find some more useful intelligence;
He even heard the name "Du Xian Sect" mentioned, in the context of a discussion about the Three Teachings' immortal sects—it was something someone had said to this great demon...
......
By the time Li Changshou had fled fifty to sixty thousand li.
At Bear Settlement's gate, a crowd of sturdy men and women, bored and yawning, watched the figures dancing about on the stage.
The five cultivators were also somewhat bewildered, exchanging glances.
According to plan, their boss should have appeared by now. Why was there still no movement?
Had the boss oversleight? Gotten the wrong location?
This prayer dance had already been performed three times, and even these simple villagers had grown tired of watching.
"Ahem!"
The old Daoist cleared his throat, stopped chanting, then swayed his head and called out in a strange tone:
"Believe in the Divine Lord, and receive the Divine Lord's protection—impervious to blades and fire, invulnerable to water!"
"Wang Cai, come demonstrate for everyone."
The selected young man immediately agreed, secretly pasting a talisman on himself. He knelt and burned incense before the clay statue with practiced gestures, golden light appearing across his chest and back.
This talisman was called the Vajra Talisman—a fairly basic charm. It could naturally withstand mortal blades without issue.
However, the young disciple took half a step forward, about to follow the "script"—calling one or two people up to slash at him—
But as his gaze swept the crowd, a thought occurred to him, and his spiritual intuition screamed in wild warning.
Looking at this entire field of humanoid creatures, each absurdly muscular, Wang Cai was gradually devoured by shadow. His mouth twitched several times.
Suddenly, he spotted a cute-looking girl with red-rimmed eyes at the back of the crowd. His spirits rose, and he pointed at her:
"Young lady, would you come up and try? See if you can move me?"
"Hmm? Oh."
Xiong Lingli looked up, wiped her tear-brimming eyes. Her small face was exceedingly pitiable.
But the moment she pushed through the crowd, Wang Cai's legs couldn't help but tremble.
This...
This...
"Do you really want me to hit you?" Xiong Lingli asked softly.
"Y-yes."
Wang Cai glanced back at the team's second-in-command. The old Daoist glared at him, and Wang Cai could only agree, his heart repeating:
This girl is just a bit sturdy—she's only a mortal;
Yes, she's only a mortal.
We are cultivators. We... won't be afraid.