Legend of the Great Sage

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“Have you always been nourishing it with your energy?”

“Of course.
I’ve been doing it since it was laid, for over ten thousand years, without missing a single day!” Feng Xiwu said.
He possessed patience that outclassed any daemon or human.
The feelings and anticipation he had devoted to the phoenix’s embryo were even deeper than what he felt towards the phoenix itself.
“Is there something wrong with that?”

“Of course, there’s something wrong with that! It’s not just wrong! It’s terribly wrong!” Li Qingshan pointed at the phoenix’s embryo.
“You’ve given it far, far too much energy, such that it can no longer digest it completely.
That’s why it hasn’t hatched!”

Feng Xiwu was completely stunned.
“This… this…”

Li Qingshan continued, “In the words of humans, this is spoiling it, drowning it with love! That’s the same ‘drowning’ as ‘drowning in water’, as well as ‘drowning to death’!”

Feng Xiwu leapt up like he had been struck by a bolt of lightning.
“You’re certain!?”

“Extremely certain.
I’ll be honest with you.
I’ve also gone through the experience of becoming an egg, but when I first hatched from the egg, I was extremely feeble.
Let alone a Daemon Commander, I wasn’t even on par with mortals, and that was the result of my Nirvāṇa Rebirth.
I had been very powerful before that.
Like I was wondering.
I was very confused.
No matter how noble the phoenix is, it can’t be this powerful as soon as it is born.
It must be due to your ‘efforts’, but this won’t work!”

Xiao An said, “I understand now.
As the buddha says, ‘Formation, existence, disintegration, then emptiness’.
In the very beginning, even towering trees were seeds.
Even the buddha had only been a mortal.
The phoenix’s principle of eternal life deviates from the word ‘emptiness’, where it’s still ‘formation’ after ‘disintegration’, going on in cycles.
However, it’s not completely without downsides.
It must convert all of its power into flames, reverting to weakness from strong, before it can undergo rebirth in fire.
The power you bestowed upon it is too great, which instead breaks the process of ‘formation’.”

“That sounds so profound! You’re still the clever one!” Li Qingshan praised before lifting up the phoenix’s embryo again.
“If this egg was a world, then the world is still in chaos right now.
If you want to take form from this chaos, then you have to rein in this world first.
In other words, the feebleness at the very beginning is absolutely essential.
Ha, I’m so profound too!”

Xiao An nodded with a smile.

Normally, Feng Xiwu definitely would have despised Li Qingshan’s current behaviour, but right now, all he could think of was what they had just said.
He murmured, “‘Formation, existence, disintegration, then emptiness; formation, existence, disintegration, then emptiness; formation, existence, disintegration, then emptiness…”

No matter how much time he had spent with the phoenix in the past, he was not a phoenix after all, nor did he have the experience of turning into an egg.
It was impossible for him to have first-hand experience like Li Qingshan.
He had only been following his heart and constantly committing himself to the egg, wanting to provide it with a bit of assistance.
The more unlikely the phoenix’s embryo would hatch, the more attention he devoted to it, even if he had to sacrifice his own cultivation speed, even if he had to sever his connection with the entire world.

But all of his efforts had actually been in the completely wrong direction, instead becoming the exact reason why the phoenix’s embryo could not hatch.
For a moment, even with his mental fortitude, he found this rather difficult to accept.

“No wonder the power I’ve injected into it has been constantly leaking away…”

As a divine tree of nature, the amount of energy he had injected into the egg over ten thousand years was enough to turn a regular wild beast into a Daemon King.

“I was wrong… I let down the great trust that was placed in me…” Feng Xiwu sighed heavily as tears rolled down.
If he had not done this unnecessary deed, perhaps the phoenix’s embryo could have ascended and gone off to find its parents already.

The more he thought about it, the more guilt-ridden he became, and the more regretful he became.
He collapsed on his knees, burying his head in the ground, and began sobbing away.

The divine wutong tree shook violently, but its glow had become very dim.

Li Qingshan and Xiao An looked at one another.
They could still sympathise with Feng Xiwu a little.
Drowning something with love was still love.
The more emotional he was, the less rational he became.
It was often easy for those who were immensely patient to become obsessed.
If Li Qingshan himself had spent ten thousand years making a mistake, a sob would be a small matter.
If he handled it badly, he might even directly lose his mind.

He patted Feng Xiwu on the shoulder.
“Don’t be sad.
Hatching the egg is still the priority! You can say it’s your good fortune that you ran into me.”

“It’s not an egg! It’s a phoenix’s embryo!” Feng Xiwu wiped away his tears before sitting up on his heels.
He bowed his head deeply towards Li Qingshan, no longer a form of courtesy because he had a request, but because of gratitude from the bottom of his heart.
“If it weren’t for you, fellow, I still would not even know where I had gone wrong.
Thank you!”

“This is my duty.
There’s no need to thank me.” Li Qingshan returned the gesture and also felt rather emotional inside.
The great Daemon Kings like the Golden Cicada Spirit King and the Great Banyan Tree King all had good temperaments and showed him good graces, but when it came to being upright and noble, possessing the bearing of a gentlemen, Feng Xiwu really could be considered as one of the rare few he had seen throughout his entire life.
He only became so hysterical when it came down to the phoenix’s embryo, which he could understand.

“Then what we need to do right now is to disperse the phoenix’s embryo’s energy?” Feng Xiwu asked.

“I have to admit your efforts haven’t gone to waste.
Your energy has already merged with the phoenix’s embryo completely.
If you disperse it forcefully, you’ll definitely harm it.”

“Then we let it disperse the energy naturally?”

Li Qingshan shook his head.
“Who knows how long that’ll take.
Even a century might not be enough, and wouldn’t all of your efforts go to waste?”

Feng Xiwu widened his eyes.
“You mean…”

Li Qingshan smiled.
“Let’s hatch the strongest phoenix chick in history!”