Li Qingshan began to follow the process of the Siddhānta school’s offerings to Maheśvara seriously, chanting the scriptures with greater concentration. Xiao An even provided a group of Skeleton Demons to him, standing around on the side in white robes as attendants to the ceremony. The reality of the situation demonstrated that it was actually effective. As a result, they formed a group of skeleton attendants that paid tribute to the ceremony every single time.

  The statues he carved became even more majestic, the offerings he provided became even more plentiful, and the image in the illusions became even more vivid.

  The howling of the people and the pressure of the god all seemed real, constantly testing his willpower and courage. Afterwards, right when he was about to give in, he would turn into a rampaging ox, trampling the altar, destroying the statue, and halting the ceremony.

  It was an extremely strange sight. Within a crowd of frightening skeletons, a certain man of absolute devotion would pray to a statue for a while before seizing up on the spot, only to suddenly turn into an ox and smash the statue to pieces. Afterwards, he would collapse on the ground and gasp for air.

  During the process of the ceremonies, Li Qingshan became more and more exhausted. Every single time was like a bitter battle, sapping all of his energy, except he had only chanted for a short while.

  As for how his energy had simply vanished like that, that was still a mystery. It was as if the true offering was not the random catches from the ocean, but himself.

  The grace of a god was boundless, but the wrath of a god was hellish.

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  Maheśvara had always been unpredictable. Perhaps only a single whim separated fortune and misfortune.

  But at the very least, he was still fortunate right now. His comprehension of the Heavenly Tome of Liberty grew with each day.

  Of course, the process was not as simple as offering up some seafood and a god would give him some power. Maheśvara probably did not like seafood that much. With each offering, he personally came into contact with the path of great liberty in an extremely dangerous manner, like he was staring into light that was enough to blind him to seek inspiration.

  However, inspiration could not replace cultivation, so comprehension was merely comprehension. His cultivation did not soar. He would only encounter slightly fewer bottlenecks in his future cultivation, and he would be able to wield his power with greater flexibility.

  But that was enough for him. The path was the source of power, while techniques and abilities were simply ways of using the power.

  No matter how wondrous the Illusionary Demon Movement Technique was, it was just a technique. As Li Qingshan’s comprehension of the path of great liberty deepened, he constantly advanced faster, truly making tremendous progress in a single day. He could achieve an initial mastery over it before long.

  “Qingshan, it’s about time.” Gu Yanying reminded him.

  Li Qingshan had unleashed the Divine Movement of the Five Elements and Illusionary Demon Movement Technique at the same time, turning into a ball of five-coloured light first. After that, he gradually vanished into thin air.

  “Can you see me?”
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  “Of course.” Gu Yanying shrugged and pointed at her eyes. Those had originally been the sharp eyes of a hawk. After merging with Heaven-stirring’s feather, she already possessed some of the kunpeng’s powers, so she could clearly see Li Qingshan.

  Li Qingshan then looked towards Xiao An.

  Xiao An blinked her eyes and looked around. “Huh? Where are you?” Her clear eyes vividly reflected Li Qingshan’s appearance.

  “Alright, alright. You win.” Li Qingshan revealed himself again.

  It was not that the Illusionary Demon Movement Technique was unreliable; instead, they were far too impressive.

  Gu Yanying went without saying, while the Path of White Bone and Great Beauty she practised had always been capable of seeing through illusions. Ever since she attained the fruit of Srotāpanna, illusions were basically useless on her unless it was from someone whose cultivation far surpassed her. Even a fox of Green Hills, Su Mirao, had suffered at her hand before.

  “That Ao Xuan is called a ‘golden-eyed black dragon’. Since you can see me, he probably can too. Sigh, I just have too little time.” Li Qingshan stroked his chin in thought before suddenly making up his mind. “I’ll make one more offering.”
“Are you certain?” Gu Yanying asked. When he completed the previous offering, Li Qingshan spent a good while on the ground before climbing to his feet, and he was even a little delirious. Xiao An also became worried, but she did not try to persuade him out of it.

  “Yanying, go catch a fish for me, the bigger the better. Xiao An, prepare the offering squad of white bone.” Li Qingshan gazed into the distant north and smiled. “That kid has a short temper as well, so we can’t make him wait too long.”
Since they had agreed on venturing down the same path, to fight alongside one another, then they had to watch out for each other and help each other out.

  As a result, he drew the Frenzy Flower Blade of Path’s End slowly. The gleam flowed like water; the patterns resembled flowers. He gazed at the volcano that had cooled down in the distance, leaping up and swinging down.

  With a flurry of figures, his blade criss-crossed, cutting through the rock.

  Rumble. Boulders were sliced off, kicking up dust as they rolled down.

  A while later, he returned to the foot of the mountain. He calmed his mind and stood with his blade in hand.

  The dust slowly cleared, and a blurry outline of the volcano gradually appeared, bearing some resemblance to Maheśvara. His expression was peaceful; he sat with his legs crossed, gazing over the ocean. In a daze, it overlapped with what he saw in the illusions.

  Li Qingshan sucked in a deep breath, preparing for one last offering before the battle. Stomping down with his right foot, a huge altar three hundred metres across rose up slowly. It was no longer just a circular disk of earth. It was engraved with all the inscriptions and glyphs required by the Siddhānta school when making an offering.

  Whoosh! The sudden gust of wind dissipated all the clouds in the sky. An azure cloud loomed over instead, casting a shadow that enveloped the entire island. The resplendent sunlight outlined the shape of a huge bird that carried a giant whale in its claws, tossing it onto the altar.

  Boom!

  The ground shook. Li Qingshan brought his hands together, beginning the final offering.

  Gu Yanying and Xiao An watched closely from one side.

  The man and god confronted one another. Magma surged within the mountain, pouring out of every crack like blood from wounds. The mountain abruptly sprang alive, staring straight at Li Qingshan with a lightning-like gaze.

  The inscriptions on the altar flashed; a ray of light shot into the air. The whale turned to ash, exposing its jagged, white bones.

  Li Qingshan entered the illusion again, but he did not see the god on the mountain top. The mountain beneath his feet had become a lot smaller as well. He was standing at the top of the mountain.

  The people all howled, not cursing furiously, but prostrating themselves, bending over deeply and bowing towards him with great respect. In a daze, he discovered that he was the god. A sense of great joy flooded his heart, and he could not help but spread his arms and yell out.

  “I am Maheśvara!”
All the people looked up. There were all sorts of people, male and female, old and young, but they all resembled Li Qingshan himself filled with reverence.

  Li Qingshan shuddered in fright. The ground beneath his feet gave way, falling into a bottomless abyss. Laughter rolled in from all sides.

  “Qingshan, Qingshan!” A familiar and worried voice called out his name. He slowly opened his eyes, only to discover that his head was in splitting pain and his body was in agony. He was surrounded by rubble and flowing lava. “Xiao An? What happened to me?”
“You yelled out ‘I am Maheśvara’ before throwing yourself head-first into the volcano. Afterwards, the mountain collapsed, and it ended up like this.”
“Really? Then did it work or not?” Li Qingshan murmured. The fright and the feeling of falling was still strong and vivid even now, which left him feeling uneasy.

  Gu Yanying suddenly said, “Qingshan, your back!”
Li Qingshan turned his head to take a look, but he could not see it, so he produced a Spirit Turtle’s Profound Shell as a mirror, only to see the image of Maheśvara on his back. It was blurry but endowed with divine bearing, sitting with his legs crossed and smiling. It did not resemble a tattoo, but a birthmark.

  Maheśvara sat on the back of the ox, roaming the land…