Legend of the Great Sage

These two questions seemed simple, but upon thinking about them, Li Qingshan was actually unable to answer.

Even if Ruan Yaozhu played favourites with him, she could wake him from cultivation or arrange for others to take care of his plants.
Most of the plants liked summer.
Once winter came, they all stopped growing.
With the wondrous techniques of the Myriad sect, they were completely capable of maintaining summer in this region.
Winter did not seem to be particularly necessary.

“Don’t tell me the Hundred Herbs garden isn’t for nurturing the exotic plants and providing resources to the sect? There’s some other motive involved?”

Ruan Yaozhu extended her hand and caught a translucent snowflake.
She said with a smile, “You can say that, but don’t think that.”

Li Qingshan said, “Senior sister, just stop making me beat around the bush.”

“I’m afraid you’ll just become annoyed by my preaching.”

“I will pay great heed to senior sister’s teachings.”

The nine-coloured deer suddenly coughed loudly.

Ruan Yaozhu said, “You possess the bloodline of the qilin.
You can sense the hearts of the plants and understand their requests at all times.
You have pushed the watering and fertilising process to the limits, controlling it down to the tiniest portion.”

“Is there something wrong with that?”

“All creatures living in this world must face hardships and difficulties in order to grow and thrive.
They need sunlight, rain and dew, but they also need ice, snow and drought.
These plants may have a spiritual nature about them, but they know nothing more than their instincts.
Speaking of which, even when it comes to the paragons of creatures, humans, if you give them whatever they want all the time, what will they turn into?”

“Heh, great fatties at the very least.”

“When you just let them be and focused on cultivation, the plants did wilt a little, but in order to obtain nutrients, their roots have reached deeper into the ground.
I did not find that to be anything inappropriate, so I let you be.
Instead, I’m worried that you’ll take care of them far too meticulously, which is why I increased your workload.
I never expected you to still be able to keep up with this.”

Li Qingshan sighed.
“I didn’t think that working too hard would be an issue.”

Ruan Yaozhu comforted him with a smile.
“If it were others, I’d advise them to take care of these plants carefully, as no matter how careful they are, they can’t reach your level.
However, you can do better.
Cultivation is no different.
Advancing valiantly is good, but there’s no need to be in such a hurry.”

“More haste is less speed.
If you’re in too much of a hurry for success, doing your all for everything, it’ll instead leave you further away from your goal.
In more practical terms, even if it’s just to collect their fruits, leaves, and flowers to refine pills, they only have their greatest effect when they grow slowly.
Just let nature take its course!”

Li Qingshan had a flash of inspiration, like the first ray of light that pierced the dark night.
He murmured, “Let nature take its course, let nature take its course… I understand now!”

He finally understood why his Qilin’s Conventions of Longevity had always stagnated.
As it turned out, it was not because he was too “wicked”, but because he was in too much of a hurry.

All this time, he had paraded the concept of advancing valiantly, facing the dangers fearlessly and pushing forwards constantly.
This spirit had merged with his blood a long time ago, becoming an instinct.

The bottleneck with the Qilin’s Conventions of longevity originated from this belief.
However, the Qilin Transformation was different from the other transformations.
It was not that he was not trying hard enough.
Instead, he was trying too hard and spending too much effort on it.

If the exotic plants and flowers in the Hundred Herbs garden were to share a certain characteristic, then that would be their painfully slow growth rate.
Some spiritual trees could even go for over a decade without changing in appearance.

However, he was far too impatient.
As a result, he did good only to conform to the path of the qilin.
He cultivated arduously without rest, tempted to devote all of his efforts to it.

It was like planting a seed that never sprouted, so he watered it often and added fertiliser often, even tempted to dig it up and take a look to see whether there was something wrong with the seed.
The end result would obviously go against his wishes.
There was nothing wrong with the seed.
He was the problem.

He had once heard a story.
There was a hunchback by the surname of Guo who was extremely skilled at growing trees.
The ones he planted always lived, and they would thrive extremely well too.
No one could understand how he did it.
When someone asked him, he said, “I can’t make trees grow faster or live longer.
I only abide by the nature of the tree, to let the root system spread, to make the tree grow more firmly and so on.”

Once it took root properly, he no longer had to care too much about it.
The tree was free to grow naturally.
Others either were far too casual and neglectful, or they were far too concerned about it, checking it in the morning and touching it at night, even shaking it about to see whether it was rooted properly and prodding the bark to see whether the tree was wilting.
Instead, they killed the tree.

The Qilin, with its Hovering Steps, Sympathises with the Living.
Originally, as long as he had a heart of benevolence and compassion, he could establish the foundation of the Qilin’s Conventions of Longevity.
However, he could never remain as a good person.
He was bound to become conflicted, so the more he tried to conform to the path of the qilin, the further away he was from the path of the qilin.

The very nature of the qilin’s path was not paramount benevolence and compassion, but letting nature take its course.
It was like the growth of plants, wilting and blooming with each passing year.

As long as he never completely abandoned this heart of benevolence, the Qilin Transformation would grow like a tree.
His killing intent and wicked thoughts were all just wind and frost it was supposed to encounter.
It was impossible to avoid it, and he needed it too.

If his guesses were correct, then even if progress would be very slow, the Qilin Transformation should have been the last transformation he had to worry about among the various transformations of the demonic and divine.