Legend of the Great Sage

enemy for the sake of completing a promise was something Li Qingshan would do, but she would not.
Speaking of which, she would only complete the promise successfully once Chu Danqing left the Painting Tomb safely.

“So that’s your true intentions!”

Chu Danqing stood up between her and the mural, gazing at her furiously.

“Danqing, back down,” the Dragon King of Ink Sea ordered in a dignified manner.

“Yes, master!” Despite his reluctance, Chu Danqing could only step aside.

“If I said I won’t, would you believe me?” said the Dragon King of Ink Sea.

“Fellow, you are too proud to lie.
Even if it is a lie, it’ll count,” said Xiao An.

“In other words, you want to coerce me into agreeing that I won’t ever oppose the two of you again?”

With a rumble, a bolt of lightning shot across the sky.
Dark clouds began to gather in layers.
A storm was about to erupt.

Chu Danqing felt extremely distressed.
He knew how his master was proud and aloof and would never agree to any threats, but under these circumstances, he definitely was not the buddha nemesis’ opponent.
He never imagined all of his efforts would end up claiming his master’s life.

“Life and death are just ordinary affairs.
You can’t call it coercion.
The dragon king is free to make a choice, but I do hope I can avoid a battle.”

“Why?”

“If I kill you, your disciple will definitely try to avenge you.
I’ll have to kill him too, but he’s Qingshan’s friend.
Unless I have no other choice, I don’t want to do that either.” Actually, there was another reason.
Paintings could not be “eaten”.

The Dragon King of Ink Sea sank into his thoughts.
Only the dark clouds grew thicker and thicker.

Their eyes met.
One pair was blank, while the other pair was empty.
The blankness was with emotion, but the emptiness was truly emotionless.

Since there were emotions, he had to care, just like how his disciple was willing to risk his life at any time out of his concern for him, just like how he cared about his dream to soar through the heavens and swim through the seas.

Meanwhile, the emotionlessness was almost unworldly.
He was in the painting, but his heart lay outside.
Those words did not even resemble a threat, but the embodiment of some kind of law.

The Dragon King of Ink Sea let out a sigh.
“If Li Qingshan said something like that to me, I’d fight him again no matter what!”

“Qingshan won’t say something like that.”

“I will never oppose the two of you ever again.”

Xiao An nodded.
With a swing of her sword, she cut through the Painting Tomb and was about to leave.

“Hold on.
I originally planned on giving Qingshan this painting as a thank you.
I want to give it to you instead now.”

Chu Danqing gazed at her deeply and passed over a painting.

Unfurling the painting, Xiao An’s expression changed slightly like a ripple across a lake.
Her eyes were glued to the painting.

As it turned out, it was a portrait of Li Qingshan, standing there casually with his hands on his hips.

“Hopefully, you don’t forget about him!”

Xiao An returned to her senses and agreed with him in a hurried manner before tossing down a pile of paintings.
She drifted off into the crack.

Chu Danqing gazed at the Hundred Scrolls of Wonders on the ground.
He was dumbfounded.
That was almost a hundred arcane-treasure-level paintings, yet she had tossed them to him.
It left him smiling wryly.
Was she copying Li Qingshan, ensuring that all of his debts would be paid off?

He let out a deep sigh of relief and turned towards the mural.
He was already holding a brush in hand.
He dripped a droplet of blood onto the tip of the brush and brought it towards the mural.

The brush was silent as he dabbed out twice.

With a rumble, the mural shattered, and the ink dragon soared.

The Painting Tomb shook violently.
All of the scenery turned into rapidly-spinning colours like a kaleidoscope, gathering towards the vigorous dragon.

Chu Danqing had already exhausted everything in him with those two dabs of the brush.
As the world spun around him, he fell down, directly into the great desert where night had already taken over.
All he saw was the figure of a dragon meander about in the colourful mirage.
With each meander, he became even larger.
In the beginning, he could still see his entire body, but towards the end, he could only see a scale and half a claw.

In the end, a colossal dragon head poked out, followed by a slender body.
As if it had been dyed by the colours of the mirage, pigments emerged from the inky-black, adding to the texture.

A dragon’s cry rang through the desert as the ink dragon rose into the air.
The Painting Tomb no longer existed, having merged with him.

The imitation trapped within the painting could finally soar through the world like a true dragon.

The stone door to Qing Xiao’s dwelling opened up.

A beam of moonlight entered the dark, hollow centre of the mountain, outlining her figure.

The dwelling that they had dug out so seriously back then had become so crude now.

She drifted down and unfurled the scroll, gently touching the painting.

Even with the wonders of white bone and great beauty, there were still appearances she could not completely see through and discard.
It furrowed her brows and moistened her eyes.

The moonlight was lucid.
Tears fell like rain.

How could she forget about him?