The light burned in the sky like aurorae.
In the great volcano, Li Qingshan shut his eyes and raised his head, taking in a deep breath.
Immediately, the sky full of light gushed into the crater like a tipping ocean.
Li Qingshan sucked in the surging spiritual qi like a whale. His belly immediately swelled up as if it was about to burst from all the spiritual qi.
That breath of spiritual qi was enough to turn a mortal into a Human Immortal. Li Qingshan’s almost exhausted powers were immediately replenished, and the circulation of the sun and moon in the small world accelerated once again. Even his mind cleared up.
Then Li Qingshan extended his hand and pressed down on his belly. It immediately flattened again, except calm, green light continued to glow beneath his skin.
The spiritual qi from that breath was far too abundant, so abundant to a point where even he struggled to digest all of it slightly as a True Immortal. As such, he used the great strength of the ox demon to forcefully compress the spiritual qi into the small world in his body. It was actually compressed into a solid, forming a crystal that shone with resplendent green light.
Whoosh—
Li Qingshan exhaled and immediately began to suck in another deep breath. His belly bulged once more before being flattened again.
With each breath, a tremendous amount of spiritual qi was channelled into his body, but the sea of light in the sky showed no signs of dimming or growing thinner. Instead, it only became denser and brighter.
The green glow under his skin grew brighter and brighter until it swallowed him completely, turning him into a pure ball of light. He was like a green planet that had fallen into the volcanic crater.
The inhales and exhales rang out endlessly. Wherever the green light reached, thousands of plants grew wildly, oozing out from the volcano. Even the lava and sea of fire surged with countless plants, most of which were rapidly swallowed and incinerated by the flames.
However, there were some plants that actually grew even better in the lava. One of them even bloomed with gorgeous flowers that were as red as blood.
Even Li Qingshan could not help but glance at it. His eyes shone with resplendent, jade-green light.
As if it had sensed his grace and encouragement, that variety immediately began to spread, occupying the entire lava pool and turning it into a sea of flowers. It gave off a dense fragrance with the smell of sulphur.
No!
In the sea of flowers, Li Qingshan suddenly shook his head and stopped gathering spiritual qi.
With a spurt, he plunged his right hand into his body like a blade, pulling out a bloody, jade-green crystal.
The sun and moon had become much brighter in the small world. The Divine Dragon Transformation and Snake Demon Transformation had grown substantially, but the rainforest grew more vigorously too. The Qilin Transformation had become even more lively.
Two forms of powers that negated one another were completely incapable of recovering balance in the small world.
Before he knew it, Li Qingshan even felt like he conformed a little more with the Dao. This was an experience that all True Immortals dreamed of, but it was like a curse that hastened his death to him.
The spiritual qi of the Demon domain was not pure. It contained the aura of the primordial qilin. He was aware of this, but there was no such thing as absolutely pure spiritual qi in the world. The paths of cultivation that demonfolk took came in all shapes and forms too. They were not limited to the primordial qilin’s path of nature.
However, Li Qingshan did not gather the tremendous amount of spiritual qi through the methods of regular True Immortals, but through his authority as the lord of the world, which was also the world’s “will of the heavens”, the primordial qilin’s will. He would unconsciously gather the aura that belonged to the primordial qilin too.
If he continued cultivating like this, the primordial qilin would probably be reborn before long.
Li Qingshan’s cultivation had only just begun, yet it encountered an impasse.
With the shifting divine will, the sea of light in the sky suddenly collapsed, spreading through the mountains and the land like a flood.
Wherever the light passed by, it was as if the qilin had passed by those places itself. Countless plants burst out from the earth, like a green carpet of plants was being unrolled away from the volcano. In the blink of an eye, it covered the bleak mountains and earth.
Beyond the mountain, an elder demonfolk madly smashed his head against the ground, towards the divine mountain. He was filled with devotion, but his expression seemed extremely twisted.
Suddenly, he became stunned. The earth between his hands became covered in lush grass and a few wild flowers bloomed, swaying in the wind.
Before he knew it, the injuries on his forehead had healed and his blood stopped flowing. Even some of the grey hair on his head had vanished. All of his pain and exhaustion disappeared. He had never felt so peaceful inside.
He thought he had understood the will of the god, cupping the wild flowers as he murmured, “The god wants me to live…”
Just like the flowers that bloomed in the lava, the demonfolk that worshipped the mountain all sensed some kind of “blessing”. Not only did their lifespans lengthen and their cultivations increase, but even their dispositions improved.
Meanwhile, Li Qingshan had not even spared a glance at them.
He attempted it without using his authority as the lord of the world. He could reduce the influence of the primordial qilin, but the rate at which he gathered spiritual qi was far too slow.
To a True Immortal, the optimal place of cultivation was the Primordial World. After that was the Human realm or the Daemonic Beast realm, but unless he Merged the Void with the Dao, he could not even set foot outdoors.
If that’s the case, then only this path remains!
Li Qingshan sat in the sea of flowers with his long, black hair draped to the ground. His expression was extremely calm, but his pitch-black eyes were filled with determination.
Gradually, red light lit up in his eyes; the oceanic prayers, worship, venting, and wails rang out in his ears. His heart surged with endless pain, fury, hatred, sorrow…
Apart from the lord of the Demon domain, he possessed another identity, the god of the demonfolk.
With the construction of the temples and the establishment of the statues, the power of belief from billions of demonfolk constantly gathered towards him.
At this moment, he was converting all of this power of belief into spiritual qi, sending it into the small world.
This was probably the purest spiritual qi there was in the world. It conformed to none of the Dao, devoid of any attributes.
The sun and moon revolved, growing bright and brighter. The plants flourished, but they stopped growing wildly.
The small world finally began to approach a state of balance.
Then what was the price?
Li Qingshan dropped down to his knees and punched the ground.
Boom!
The mountains shook and the great volcano erupted with unprecedented intensity. The scorching-hot lava swallowed all of the plants on the mountain. The black plumes reached straight for the sky.
He ground his bright, white teeth as his eyes shone with fervent red light. He felt the slight urge to abandon the Nine Transformations of the Demonic and Divine, venture to beyond the fucking Nine Heavens, and directly turn into the primordial qilin so that he could end all of this.
Compared to struggling within the mud, he was better off perishing together with them!
His rational side told him that this was not his true thoughts. The pain and hatred of billions of demonfolk prompted him on and erupted in the bottom of his heart. The demonfolk were willing to perish together with any god, whether it was buddhism or the heavenly palace. They hoped they could destroy everything.
If he wanted to use the power of belief as a resource, then that would be swallowing all of the pain and hatred of the demonfolk. None of the tortures of hell could compare to it, as no matter how intense the pain was, it could only torment a single person. Meanwhile, cultivation like this was equivalent to shoving the pain of countless people into a single person's heart.
That was not something he should have done. There were no gods that would have done that. They would only use the power of belief as a weapon. No one would crush through swords and blades and eat them.
However, this was his only choice.
Between the long, black hair, a voice rang out.
“Hehe, how satisfying!”
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