Legend of the Great Sage

s that lay in a dream was not the twisted path leading to it, but the fact that no one knew what would happen once it came true.

What if she ended up wandering through the void forever after shattering through space? What if she was eaten in a single gulp by a powerful demon as soon as she arrived in a different world?

When it came to this, his “beyond the Nine Heavens” was not necessarily much better than her “shattering through space”.

“You can think about it yourself slowly!” Li Qingshan strolled away with his hands behind his back.

Feihong gazed at his back and felt troubled.
She had just dealt with a problem after so much difficulty, only for him to toss her a greater one.
She spent a good moment thinking about it, but she could not come up with anything, Whatever.
I’ll deal with it when time comes.
You better watch as I achieve peerless swordsmanship first and make those foolish women die from regret!

There were some problems that others did not have to think about, but Li Qingshan had to think about them.
The tiny failure could not even be considered as a setback compared to the trials of life and death he had faced in the past, but in the current situation, it just happened to perturb his worry hidden in the depths of his heart.

Just what was awaiting him beyond the Nine Heavens? Even if he had the ox demon’s persistence and the tiger demon’s vigour, what if his centuries and millennia of hard work was all just an empty illusion? Or perhaps it was like what the Clam King of Mirage Sea had said, that the world had always been an empty illusion and everything was just the murmurs of someone else as they slept.

Li Qingshan arrived by a pool.
The full moon reflected in the pool, as if it was right by his side.

He suddenly thought of something.
He could not help but bend over and attempt to scoop up the moon.

However, the water rippled, wrapping around the tips of his fingers gently.
The moon shifted as a result.

The reflections in the water were obviously beyond his reach.

His mind was completely absorbed by the rippling moon.
He extended his hands again, but he grabbed nothing again.
Only water trickled between his fingers.
As the ripples settled, the full moon appeared on the water surface again and his disappointment immediately turned back into hope.
He was extremely serious with every single attempt he made, such that he forgot everything else going on around him, including his past failures.
He did something so foolish that even little children would not do.

Just like that, he repeated it who knew how many times.
Suddenly, he returned to his senses, “Hang on, there’s something off.
It’s winter right now, so why hasn’t the water frozen over?”

In the blink of an eye, the pool was sealed up by ice.
Even the moon was obscured by the clouds.
The surroundings were dark and quiet.

Li Qingshan was dumbfounded.
He smiled wryly, “Have I suffered from cultivation deviation?”

Even now, he continued to long for the moon in the water, with the same pure sincerity as a child.
It was so gentle and close, such that he wanted to cup it in his hands.

Like a bolt of lightning through the night sky, a shadowy figure suddenly lit up in the depths of his sea of consciousness.
A black ape hung upside down, extending its long arms, like it was trying to scoop up something.

A mantra leapt out at him, The Ape Demon Scoops the Moon, All to Null and Void!

A tremendous amount of information flooded through his sea of consciousness, turning into the Ape Demon’s Method of Moon Scooping.

Indeed, it was the fifth transformation of the Nine Transformations of the Demonic and Divine, the Ape Demon Transformation!

However, Li Qingshan was unable to smile.
He murmured to himself, “The Ape Demon Scoops the Moon, All to Null and Void, All to Null and Void!”

Unlike the Ox Demon Transformation and the Tiger Demon Transformation, the ape demon did not possess he ox demon’s persistence to never yield even in the face of death, nor the tiger demon’s ambition to fight anything and everything, which were both filled with a solemn and stirring spirit.
The ape demo’s figure even bore a sense of childish innocence.

All the ape wanted to do was scoop up the moon in the water.
That was fated to be an empty illusion, but it was completely unaware, trying tirelessly, until even the world around it collapsed.
Was that not a form of great sorrow?

Even in the legendary last layer of hell, Avīci, at least those trapped in there would be aware they were being punished and tortured, and perhaps they would even struggle and put up resistance.
Even if they could not put up a struggle, at least they still understood despair.