Legend of the Great Sage

“Don’t be so close-minded.
It’s just a mountain.
I’ll just give one back to you.”

And because it landed in the ruins of the spiritual mountain, Wolf Fang mountain basically stood even taller and larger than the spiritual mountain.
It would probably become covered in vegetation again before long as snow covered the very top.
However, there would not be those miscellaneous, cluttered murals and statues anymore.
It would just be all white and clean.

It was a joke, but the Upraised Light abbot was unable to laugh.
He stared blankly at Wolf Fang mountain and suddenly realised something.
He murmured, “Mountains come and go.
Flowers fall and bloom.
Nothing is exempt from formation, existence, disintegration, then emptiness.”

Li Qingshan had no idea what he was chanting about.
He was desperately trying to come up with a counter plan.

The first plan was widening the distance between them as much as possible, flying several tens of thousand kilometres in a single breath.
However, to a god, distances were nothing.
They could shrink the earth beneath their feet, where even the ends of the world were within arm’s reach.

The second plan was to find a large city and use their residents as hostages to threaten the Sangharama God.
However, even if the Sangharama God bought that, he was not willing to stoop that low.

Perhaps he might as well use that ancient bronze sword of mysterious origins to bring an end to all of this while the Sangharama God was immobilised and finish him off.
However, was god-slaying really that easy?

He came up with several plans before discarding them one by one.
He thought long and hard.
Perhaps there was only one plan that could work.

“Monk, it’s time for us to go.
Are you coming or not? Actually, forget about it.
I probably can’t protect you anyway.
The Sangharama God is going to be after me anyway.
It won’t be too difficult for you to last until midnight.
Let’s just go our own ways!”

“Hold on.” The Upraised Light abbot took out a book from his clothes and passed it to Li Qingshan.
“If you manage to escape, please give this to the successor of white bone.”

Li Qingshan accepted the book.
It was just a thin booklet compiled from a single, uncut, folded paper.
There was no name on the cover either.
When he pulled it open, there was not a single word inside.

“What is this book?”

However, the Upraised Light abbot said, “It’s time for me to go.” He did not fly away.
Instead, he sat in the lotus position mid-air, bringing his palms together.
His aged face shone with light, clear and bright.
As if he had let go of the tremendous burden, his expression was peaceful, no longer making a single sound again.

Li Qingshan was taken aback.
He reached over, but the Upraised Light abbot scattered as dust, vanishing off into the wind with the secret he discovered in the Great Thunderclap temple.

“Sigh, you sure have it easy.”

Li Qingshan shook his head.
He had no idea whether to feel happy or sad for him.
Wolf Fang mountain in the distance shook violently, ready to fall at any moment.

He shoved the booklet into his clothes and touched something, which immediately made him think of a classic story.
He flew over to Wolf Fang mountain and spat on the cliff.

“Off you go!” With a slick, the notice with the six-syllabled mantra was stuck there.

The mountain continued to shake violently.
Slowly but surely, the notice slid down.

“Yep, the children’s stories are all a lie!”

Li Qingshan turned around and fled, vanishing off into the horizon as a streak of light.

In the blink of an eye, he arrived before the weakwater again.
He felt his body give way, plummeting immediately, but this was his exact intentions.

He immediately transformed into a spirit turtle in the water.
With a thunk, he dove into the depths of the weakwater and chose a hidden spot.
He drew his head and limbs into his shell, erasing his presence and obscuring all signs of fate.

At the same time, a mirror clone rushed into the air with his aura and fate, crossing the fifteen hundred kilometres of weakwater and flying off into the distance.

At this moment, there was still well over an hour before midnight.

This was his only chance at survival, hiding to the very end using his talents as a pure-blooded spirit turtle.

The “coward” did as he pleased.

TL: The word for coward or cowardice in this case in Chinese is “怂”.
It is composed of two other Chinese characters, “从” and “心”.
Together, they form a phrase that means “doing as somebody pleased”.