Chapter 102 – Starting Over as a Human (1/2)

Li Qingshan checked his hand. There was a bottle of spiritual pills.

Gu Yanying only acted like it had never happened, kicking up a whirlwind with a sweep of her sleeves and taking off into the sky along the rays of moonlight with Xuanyue.

Xuanyue looked back and glanced at Li Qingshan again. Her smile had vanished now, and tears emerged from her lakewater-esque eyes.

“Wait for me! I will definitely be there!” Li Qingshan roared at the sky as loudly as he could.

Xuanyue suddenly looked back. She heard him yell something, but the snowstorm drowned out his words. However, she could read his lips. She saw the three words, wait for me.

Gu Yanying showed surprise as well. The clouds closed below their feet.

On the Ice Sword cliff, the last ray of moonlight disappeared. Li Qingshan remained in the same posture as when he roared at the sky. His roar was a promise to the black ox, to Xuanyue, and to himself.

I will definitely reach beyond the Nine Heavens. I will definitely take you to the Dragon province.

I will definitely find the answer. I will definitely possess strength.

Under the mist, Li Qingshan stood before the waterfall once again. He no longer had the arrogant black ox beside him, nor was the girl bathing in the waterfall before him anymore.

He rubbed Xiao An’s head. At least you’re still by my side.

Without Xuanyue leading the way, he had to rely on his rough memory to return along his original path, coming back to this place. Although he could conceal his aura, he still encountered countless dangers along the way. Only after all of that did he finally return to this waterfall.

Winter had already passed. The world was beginning to bloom.

It felt like an entire lifetime had passed.

In just three short months, someone had told him that the Green Province spanned fifteen thousand kilometers, someone had told him that their objective was to leave the Green province, and finally, someone told him that they were waiting for him beyond the Nine Heavens.

Li Qingshan lowered his head and smiled. He said to Xiao An, “Let’s see just where I can reach!” After that, he leapt into the pool of water.

The first thing that Li Qingshan did in the water was not cultivate, but summarise his accumulated experiences and the lessons he had learnt.

The advantages and the disadvantages, his gains and his losses.

A tiny shrimp being involved in a battle between sharks would rarely result in anything good. Just the flecks of meat that slipped between the teeth of the sharks could allow the shrimp to strengthen significantly, but it would probably end up dead as well.

He had survived completely due to the protection of a great sea monster, the black ox. However, this sea monster had already left him, giving him the goal of similarly becoming a great sea monster.

Not only did he have to possess the unswerving determination of an ox and the boldness of a tiger, but he also needed the depth and tolerance of a spiritual turtle. This form of tolerance was not lying down in the face of humiliation, being a coward and afraid of everything, but maintaining lofty ambitions, enduring what others could not and achieving what others could not.

Perhaps the reason why the black ox had not wiped the Soaring Dragon Elder from existence right from the start was for him to understand this. Anyone could state the great principles of life, but only by experiencing it would they truly understand it and embed it in their heart.

If he had not experienced the despair he felt when he roared out on the sheer cliff face, how was he supposed to understand the value of strength and the point of friends?

He desired even greater power.

There was no concept of time in the mountains. The buds turned into verdant leaves, and the flower buds bloomed into flowers.

The water from the waterfall also flowed more vigorously and became louder compared to during winter.

Li Qingshan sat beneath the waterfall. All of the sounds and all of the changes in the surroundings were picked up by his ears, but they did not cause his mind to waver at all.

Between extreme stillness and extreme motion, he was not just training, but also comprehending the activity and changes of nature. Or to him, the two had always been together.

He ingested the spiritual pills one by one, turning them into raging spiritual qi, but to him, that was not everything he used.

Even in an absolute state of meditation, he could still sense the existence of the tremendous spiritual qi in the surroundings. It was omnipresent, ruling over all of the activity and changes in the world.

He was like a spirit turtle, hidden deep in the sea, having forgotten about himself, and the spiritual qi would no longer reject him, naturally fusing into his body.

It was just like what was mentioned in the daoist canon. “Humble your minds, fill your bellies, weaken your pre-existing beliefs, and strengthen your backbone.” It was also like how the black ox had originally taught him—fill your body, strengthen your body, and only then will you have a foundation for everything. Only by humbling his mind and weakening his pre-existing beliefs could he be free from distracting thoughts and truly reach unity with nature, sensing the existence of the spiritual qi of the world.

To humans, this could only be achieved once Qi Practitioners had overcome the first tribulation and reached Foundation Establishment. Otherwise, it would require great luck and comprehension.

However, to daemons, this was a natural instinct. In the eyes of humans, the birds and beasts of the wilderness were foolish without a doubt, copulating and feeding, multiplying and propagating based on instincts alone. However, they were a part of nature, so they could naturally sense things that many humans could not. Spiritual qi was one of them.