Legend of the Great Sage

was afraid of earning the princess emeritus’ hatred due to Li Qingshan.
He had only made his decision after all this time, yet he was still extremely afraid.

“Senior, if you are also trying to join the Myriad sect, could you take me along with you? There are far too many bandits on the road.
If I were to travel alone, I probably wouldn’t make it even if I spent the rest of my life travelling.”

Li Qingshan said, “Alright!”

Zhu Yingcai was overjoyed.
“Really?” He banged his head against the ground a few more times.
“Thank you for your kindness, senior!”

The lord of White Deer country called out from beneath Li Qingshan, “Senior, could you take me along with you too!”

Leaving the city was very difficult for him right now.
While he could fly a distance, he could only cover five kilometres at most.
Once he fell into the army of rebels, that would be dangerous.
These dissidents hated him to the bone.
They would probably do anything to kill him.

Li Qingshan was dumbfounded by his shamelessness.
He patted his head.
“Thank you for entertaining me, incompetent ruler! You take care!”

Grabbing Zhu Yingcai, he shot off into the air.
The lord of White Deer country crawled out from under the table and said resentfully, “Just you wait! Once I get to the Myriad sect, I’ll definitely report this to the princess emeritus!”

Whistling through the night wind, Li Qingshan gazed down from above.
The lights in the city waned as the people on the streets diminished, most having rested already.
Only a few beggars wandered around like lost souls, searching through the garbage.

The deep night instead outlined the fires from the camps around the city, like a wildfire surrounding a lone city, silently burning away.
Who knew when it would burn through.

Having flown twice, Zhu Yingcai became much more courageous now.
He asked loudly, “Senior, are we going to the Myriad sect now?”

“Wait here for me.”

Li Qingshan left Zhu Yingcai at the top of a tall tower before landing before Flower Fragrance parlour quietly.
The boisterous brothel had quietened down too with the doors tightly shut and the lights dimmed.
Only two rows of large, red lanterns remained, illuminating the rustling shadows of the trees.

Li Qingshan arrived beneath the peach tree, touching it once more.
The peach blossoms fell, the green leaves wilted, and the tree withered away.

He had unleashed all of its vitality all of a sudden, but he had also consumed all of its vitality.
Perhaps he had managed to feed a group of beggars, but was killing still the qilin?

Killing the incompetent ruler would bring him great relief, but even if he disregarded that princess emeritus and the Myriad sect, the city would definitely sink into chaos with the ruler’s death.
Once the rebels took the city, what good would they do?

Burning, plundering, and killing would all be unavoidable, turning this White Deer city into a living hell, but what crimes had the common people in the city committed? It was exactly as they said, “I don’t kill because of benevolence, but I die because of benevolence!”

Suddenly, he discovered that the path of the qilin was not that simple.
Perhaps just possessing a heart of benevolence and some compassion was not enough.
Many of the times, it would instead become restrictive due to too many qualms.
Even upholding justice and helping the weak would become affected.

So much time has passed already, yet I’ve never reached the first layer of the Qilin’s Conventions of Longevity.
Perhaps I’ve failed to comprehend its essence.
I’ve wholeheartedly tried to win people over by virtue, but ever since I arrived in the Human realm, what have I done that can be considered as winning people over by virtue?

He sat down beneath the peach tree and circulated the Qilin’s Path of Longevity silently.
The various experiences he had since arriving in the Human realm flashed past his eyes.

The qilin is a divine beast of paramount benevolence.
Is benevolence just doing good and accumulating good karma? But what is good? Saving people yet killing a tree, slaying an incompetent ruler yet massacring an entire city.
Because of a single thought of benevolence, I commit countless sins.

No, that’s definitely not the qilin’s path.
Even if I sacrificed the Heaven Climbing Vine in order to save all the creatures of the nine provinces, it never would have worked.

Killing ants to save a person is not the act of a qilin.
Killing a person to save tens of thousands is not the act of a qilin either.

Li Qingshan’s thoughts were clear.
He said, “Life, death, ups and downs, as fate foretells.
A tree is as such, a country is as such!”

White Deer country should have been destroyed a long time ago, yet it had continued to stand for millennia because of the power of cultivators.
The lords of the country all prioritised cultivation.
None of them were still interested in ruling.
They allowed their domain to fall into upheaval and their people to fall into destitution, such that they were forced to come for this Deer city in the end.
However, under the protection of a Human Sovereign, even an army of a million could not take down this city.
They would only be reduced to starved corpses littered across the land.

The remaining people would probably survive off cannibalism, no longer possessing any resistance.
The army around the city would be driven back, never to rise up again until the next upheaval.

“That princess meritus sure is a bastard!”

“Really?” A gentle woman's voice suddenly rang out from behind Li Qingshan.

———————————————————————————————————————

With the Path Beneath Our Feet, the Nine Heavens Aren’t Far