Legend of the Great Sage

“Youxiong?!”

TL: Youxiong is the name of the tribe which the Yellow Emperor comes from. It is also one of his many names.

Li Qingshan suddenly jerked awake and sat up. He discovered he was still lying on the moist ground with the rippling, small river beside him. The great gusts of wind blew through the tree branches, making the canopy dance wildly.

The empty mountains had just received some rain, and the sunlight was dazzling. The trees were refreshing. The air was filled with the smell of plants and soil.

“Was it a dream?”

He touched something with his right hand. It was the ancient bronze sword, which made him widen his eyes.

Then he reached into his clothes. The wine skin had already been warmed by his body.

He looked around, but there was no figure of a bear in the forest. In the tranquil mountains and woods, the atmosphere suddenly became eerie.

As the successor of the māra, the progenitor of toying with people, who exactly could create a dream so easily for him and even leave him convinced that it was real?

At the very least, it could not be achieved by a regular hunter, and the alcohol and sword were all extremely extraordinary too.

He removed the stopper again and took a gentle whiff. Spiritual qi rushed through his head. His entire soul had been refined.

Wherever the fragrance of the alcohol reached, the surrounding vegetation grew vigorously, gradually developing a spiritual nature, becoming spiritual herbs.

The fish in the river surged, growing at a visible rate. Their black scales faded away, replaced by golden, glimmering light. They immediately developed into daemonic beasts.

He plugged up the wine skin in a hurry and glanced around in shock. He did not know any fengshui, but after becoming a Human Immortal, he could sense many things even if he did not understand them. The fengshui of this mountain and forest was changing.

He had eaten many spiritual pills in his life, but they came nowhere close to the alcohol even when combined.

And this was clearly not some regular wine skin either, similar to a sumeru ring instead. Its capacity was immeasurable.

The man had given this to him, but because it was far too precious, he actually felt guilty.

Standing up, he dispersed the carp daemons and catfish daemons that lingered around and grabbed the ancient bronze sword.

With a clang, he drew the sword from its sheath and raised it up to the sun. He took in all of the sun, moon, and stars, and the mountains, rivers, and trees on the sword, but he was still unable to tell if they were special in any shape or form.

That in itself was very strange. Let alone a regular bronze sword, even when it came to a powerful arcane artifact, he could tell how the inscriptions were carved and how the formations worked with just a single glance as a Human Immortal.

In other words, even as a Human Immortal, he had no right to wield this ancient sword. He could not even understand it.

With a thought, he summoned a wisp of wind that wrapped around him. That was the “letter of wind” that the Wind-coursing Great Sage had given to him. It contained all the information he had comprehended in the Formless realm.

This was not “wind” in the regular sense, but the manifestation of a certain kind of law. The law allowed the Wind-coursing Great Sage to bypass the obstructions between the myriad worlds and obtain all the information.

And it was not just a matter of expressing and recording the information. Whether it were secret schemes or ploys hidden in the mind, it could all be turned into “wind” for him to catch, for him to see, for him to hear.

That was why he was called the Wind-coursing Great Sage. To this Macaque King, there were no secrets in the world.

In other words, all wondrous cultivation methods and profound comprehensions were available to him.

He was an embodiment of the laws. Having obtained this letter of wind, that was equivalent to receiving the assistance of this kind of law. He no longer required a lengthy period of cultivation and difficult thought to directly reach the highest realm of the Four Dhyāna and Eight Samāpatti. It was equivalent to going into an exam with the answers.

Of course, his current powers were still insufficient to sustain that realm of comprehension. However, as long as this letter of wind remained, he could consult it at all times. He could summon or dismiss it on a whim, and it would never be exhausted, free for him to use until he completely returned to the highest realm of the attainment of Neither Perception Nor Non-perception.

Of course, this could not be sustained by the powers of a Human Immortal. In other words, before he became a True Immortal, there would not be any bottlenecks anymore.

If I encounter a few more Great Sages and they give me a few more things, wouldn’t I be guarded by multiple laws instantly? I’ll have the force of the world on my side. By then, what’s so difficult about reaching True Immortal?

Thinking up to there, he took a deep sip of the alcohol. Spiritual qi rushed into his Origin Soul wave after wave, and his powers grew rapidly. He immediately absorbed a wisp of the letter of wind, and this power rapidly diminished. His comprehension immediately began to grow.

In his eyes, the ancient bronze sword gradually changed.

The mountains, rivers, and trees gradually deepened from a simple, flat engraving. It sucked his mind in, immediately crossing over thousands of mountains, lakes, forests, and tundra.

The sun, moon, and stars hung high above the black land. Day and night interchanged as the stars shifted, demonstrating the most wondrous of patterns.

The trichiliocosm, the six realms of saṃsāra, all lay within.

Not a single thing could be put into words. Just how shallow and insufficient was the language of humans? It was completely incapable of describing this mighty world.

In a single instant, the power rang out and Li Qingshan fell forwards. The ancient bronze sword turned back to how ordinary it seemed before. He continued to clutch the hilt firmly as he trembled away.

All the weapons and artifacts he had seen and wielded in his entire life were basically like scrap metal compared to this sword. This was not some exaggerated description, but a barely-adequate declaration of reality.

In reality, a comparison like that was already an insult to this sword. If it possessed a sword spirit or sword soul, it definitely would have split him into two by now.

It was completely impossible for something like a sword spirit to exist. Even if there was one, it would be an existence akin to the will of the world, and it would exist throughout the entirety of the six realms of saṃsāra and the trichiliocosm.

With a swing of the sword, the very stars in the sky shifted!

“I want to switch over to the sword!” Li Qingshan was extremely excited. “I want to use the sword!”

A fortuitous encounter like that was no longer just a fluke, but a stroke of luck, no, a godsend! The god of fortune himself had leapt down from the heavens to celebrate with him.

“Joining this Youxiong tribe sure is nice!”

However, as his excitement gradually settled, he was filled with much greater doubt. Who exactly was the man draped in bear skin? And why did he bestow this endless land to him? Was it a joke or was he serious?

The mysteries became more and more difficult to understand.

Li Qingshan had never been one to fret. It was not like becoming stronger could be bad. He stowed away the wine skin and ancient sword and clasped his hands at the distant sky. “Chief, regardless of what you’re after, thank you for your wine and sword! Though…” He changed the topic and smiled. “When I’m strong enough, I still want to become the chief!”

Beyond the Nine Heavens, the bear skin fell from the man’s shoulders, revealing a set of azure dragon robes. His tasselled crown swayed about as he nodded with a smile. “I await that day.”

A dragon’s head poked out from the sea of clouds, asking, “Why do you not kill him, to nip him in the bud?”

“You feel threatened?”

“He is the chosen one after all.”

“Sigh, if you hadn’t caused his daughter’s death, he probably would have lowered his head to me already.”

The giant dragon shut its eyes. “That was only an accident.”

“There are no accidents.”

The giant dragon was unable to answer that.

The man patted the dragon and said softly, “You know, I’ve never blamed you, but you can’t commit all kinds of misdeeds behind my back, or I might just cut off your head.”

The sky dimmed. The sea of clouds surged. The stars lost their glow.

Only the figure of a man remained high above, his eyes hazy like the heavens.

The heavens unleashed its killing intent, shifting the very stars in the sky.

“As you wish.”

The dragon lowered its head and spread its wings, riding off into the sky with the man on its back. In the distance was a glorious palace.