Rumble!

  With a background of drooping clouds and interweaving lightning, Li Qingshan and the demon nascence stood in a stalemate mid-air like they were facing a twisted mirror. Due to the physique of the demonic and divine, the demon nascence on the other side instead seemed more like Li Qingshan, and his words sounded more like mutterings to himself.

  Before he could refute him, there was a flash of lightning behind him, and the lightning sword pierced from the ocean to the clouds.

  Within the violent boom, Li Qingshan flapped his wings and dodged miserably. Feathers scattered in the air as he gained another horrific wound.

  Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

  The blazing sword of lightning darted back and forth, leaving behind a series of criss-crossing flashes and slicing everything in the surroundings to pieces.

  Li Qingshan was sealed within, unable to put up any resistance at all. The small world constantly circulated at different speeds, leaving his daemon qi chaotic and beyond his control. It all sank into chaos under the demon nascence’s influence.

  He felt like his body had been extended, where a drifting limb grew out from the other end. The senses of that limb reached him even faster than anything else, so fast that he could not respond mentally and his body would be drawn along. He was completely unable to control it either.

  It was basically a voodoo doll that could move around freely made for him, constantly cursing him.

  In a split second, the sword slashed across his body and exposed his white bones. His right arm was cut off near the elbow, and the opening on his waist exposed his spine. He knelt down on one knee, allowing the furious seawater to swallow his chest. Even more unfortunately, his wings had been completely torn apart by the lightning, so he could not dodge the incoming attacks anymore. The situation rapidly worsened and death drew closer.

  The demon nascence sneered coldly. “Look at you. What beyond the Nine Heavens? Just the mere fourth heavenly tribulation is enough to kill you? Why don’t you just kneel down and accept your fate?”
“Shut your mouth!” Li Qingshan roared furiously.

  “Hah, with the predicament you’re in, you can’t even stay alive, so do you really think you can do anything to me?”
The lightning sword gathered the lightning and constantly attacked Li Qingshan. The demon nascence did not even have to dodge the lightning anymore, just standing there with its hands on its hips and its nose pointed at the sky. It seemed as arrogant as it could get.

  Ruan Yaozhu was unable to understand what was going on. Even a skandha-māra would use the five skandhas or form, sensations, perceptions, thoughts, and consciousness to disturb the cultivator. It would neither be tangible nor conscious, much less be able to curse the cultivator like this. On top of that, the demon nascence was basically identical to Li Qingshan from a certain perspective.

  Search hosted.novel for the original.

  Boom! Li Qingshan endured another strike to the back. If he had not used the spirit turtle’s innate ability in time, he basically would have been split into two. However, the great force of the strike still slammed him against the ocean.

  How can this happen? It must be that shitty turtle, that Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance, screwing me over! There’s something wrong with the Heavenly Tome of Liberty he’s given me!

  “Nice!” The demon nascence’s voice reached Li Qingshan through the deep, rippling water clearly. “Li Qingshan, you don’t want me to talk? Then that’s exactly what I’ll do. You’re just a measly mortal who happened upon a shitty cultivation method through good luck, and you’ve started getting ahead of yourself. Do you actually think you can defeat Demon God Qiongqi and reach beyond the Nine Heavens?”
Ruan Yaozhu furrowed her brows slightly. There was nothing strange about cultivators of the Human realm setting beyond the Nine Heavens as their goal, but what was this about Demon God Qiongqi? How could a mere Soul Nascence cultivator become involved with a monster like that?

  “Tsktsk, you abandoned your wife and wantonly slaughtered the innocent, yet you’re still bold enough to talk about some Nine Heavens again and again? Even I feel embarrassed for you. Fortunately though, you won’t be able to reach it. Even if you do, you’ll just be an embarrassment! You’re better off dying here. At least that’ll save quite a lot of trouble.”
The demon nascence’s sneers echoed and overlapped with the thunder, completely unaffected by the booms.

  Li Qingshan was absolutely furious. He finally understood how the opponents he had mocked in the past felt now. He was tempted to rip this damned thing to pieces. However, the more furious he became, the more vicious the demon nascence’s words were. The endless curses were like arrows that pierced his heart, even more unbearable than the tribulation lightning.

  As a result, he simply sealed off his ears and eyes so that he did not have to hear or see it. However, the words only became clearer as if… as if they came from the bottom of his heart.

  He came to a realisation and immediately understood that he was wrong. The damned thing was neither wicked nor was it conscious, as that was his own voice.

  He struggled to climb to his feet. The lightning sword hung high in the air, crackling with light. Suddenly, it pierced the sky and the sea, pinning him firmly to the depths of the ocean.

  The sea water erupted, sending waves hurtling in all directions.

  The demon nascence extended two fingers. That was a sign that signified victory from Li Qingshan’s past life. It smiled. “That’s two times. There’s still… one last time!”
When Li Qingshan rebirthed again and slowly climbed out of the ocean, he thought, And what did I think it was? So it’s just a mixture of distracting thoughts! The greatest enemy is yourself? Pah, how tacky!

  “So you’ve finally discovered it, fool! But it’s already too late!”
The demon nascence pointed a finger at the sky. The lightning sword had lost its target, so it hovered about its head, slowly spinning and absorbing the lightning without firing, recovering its glow. Nearby, the tribulation clouds amassed above Li Qingshan’s head. As the lightning shot by, it vaguely assumed the form of a blade.

  A second armament of tribulation lightning!

  Ruan Yaozhu was dumbfounded. Was this really the fourth heavenly tribulation? Li Qingshan had basically committed sins against the heavens. There were his inner demons running amok inside and armaments of tribulation lightning outside. Even Yin Soul cultivators would probably be doomed given the circumstances.

  “You’re the fool. If I hadn’t discovered it, how would you have discovered it? Whatever, it’s far too foolish to argue with myself.”
Li Qingshan shook his head. His greatest dissenter on the path to beyond the Nine Heavens was himself.

  Fear, doubt, guilt, powerlessness, fury… day and night, those emotions blazed away like fire, without any end. However, his great willpower normally suppressed these distracting thoughts.

  However, at this critical juncture of the fourth heavenly tribulation, not only was he going from Daemon King to Daemon Emperor, but his soul nascence was turning into a proper soul too.

  Soul nascences cultivated from the Heavenly Tome of Liberty were unique, and the Yin Souls it produced was almost like a yin demon, a skandha-māra. It was even more skilled in various mysterious and unpredictable techniques like bewitchment, infiltration, and invisibility. It could easily crush other cultivators of the same realm that were not skilled in combat or possessed weak wills like Shen Yushu.

  However, the price was that it was extremely easy to suffer from cultivation deviation, like right now.

  And this was not a coincidence, but something that was bound to happen.

  If practising the Heavenly Tome of Nature was following the path of nature and could lower the difficulties of tribulations, then the effect of the Heavenly Tome of Liberty was the exact opposite. It made the cultivator prematurely experience what was called the five skandhas ablaze and inner demons attacking.

  The demon nascence said, “You’re done for.”
“You’re also done for.” Li Qingshan gazed at the lightning blade that was gradually taking shape and murmured to himself, “I didn’t even notice this if you hadn’t mentioned it… Are you trying to destroy yourself?”
The soul nascence was the rudimentary form of a yin demon. Everything it said was his own thoughts, akin to the uncontrollable negative emotions of a mortal.

  The various thoughts all turned into reality; the various emotions were all exposed. The deepest thought and the most terrifying emotion was the urge to destroy himself. As a result, the demon nascence opposed him and wanted nothing short of his destruction.

  Only by completely denying his own existence and reducing everything to nothingness could he completely let go of such a heavy burden, no longer needing to continue down this difficult path.

  It was laughable. Was the path to the Nine Heavens merely seeking for his own death?

  The demon nascence said blankly, “This is your fate, as well as mine…”
With a rumble, the lightning blade took shape, and the lightning sword whistled down. The killing intent from the world was gathered in this blade and sword. Just who could stop them?

  Li Qingshan sneered. “Fuck fate. You’re just weak.”