Chapter 1036: Chapter 1030: The Lotus Ferry Bodhisattva
The three cities of Deston Prefecture were chaotic places where dragons and fish intermingled, crowded with cultivators.
Following the great battle within Highsun City, commoners and low-level cultivators could be seen wearing mourning white for the dead.
A group of nuns appeared in Highsun City after the turmoil, chanting sutras in the city for the deceased, intending to deliver all living beings to reincarnation.
As cultivators used Spiritual power to rebuild Highsun City, Li Changsheng silently watched these nuns enter the crudely, newly-built Li Clan’s Chamber of Commerce to perform rites and deliver the souls of the dead.
Before long, waves of Buddhist chants could be heard.
Upon inquiry, it was the true Buddhist mantra of the “Great Merciful and Compassionate, the Lotus Ferry Bodhisattva.”
“These nuns came from a small temple.”
Li Changyao, the spy chief of the Heavenly Principle Hall, immediately obtained intelligence on the nuns and had even gone to test them.
“After the Shadowfell Prefecture fell, temples and nunneries sprang up all over Deston Prefecture.
Statues of the Great Merciful and Compassionate, the Lotus Ferry Bodhisattva, are everywhere. Over the past fifty years, thousands of Buddhist temples have been built.”
“Following the path of the Wu tribe’s invasion, the Buddhist temples spread all the way from Deston Prefecture to the Central Plains.”
“The power of faith from all living beings is truly highly sought after.”
Li Changyao’s brows furrowed slightly.
Back in the Azure Cloud Prefecture, there was a Great Ming King Temple.
Master Yuming of that Buddhist temple had even been beaten by her a few times.
The old monk was an insidious, fat monk who had silently gathered faith from suffering families in the Azure Cloud Prefecture for hundreds of years.
The incense burned, and the worship offered by the common people were the source of his Spiritual power; he had likely secretly cultivated his way up to the Void Refinement realm.
Now, whenever the old monk had nothing better to do, he loved to manifest his presence on Buddha statues.
Clearly, having recently broken through to Void Refinement, he was showing off.
Things like this were something any Void Refinement realm expert could do—it simply required leaving a trace of the Spiritual power of laws on an object.
Li Changsheng said calmly,
“The common people are suffering, powerless to free themselves from their predicaments, and in their despair, there are no noble benefactors to help them.
At times like these, when a Buddha statue is erected before them, and a monk tells them that these Buddhas sit high above and are omnipotent, do you think they will believe it or not?
This is the very last life-saving straw that a desperate person can grasp.
If simply believing can grant them protection, they would rather believe it exists than risk it not existing.”
“What Lotus Ferry Bodhisattva? It’s clearly the Dharma Image of the Shadowfell Prefecture deserter, Abbess Dairou!”
Li Changyao curled her lips in disdain.
“The people of the Lotus Ferry Nunnery are a bunch of rats and snakes, hiding for decades without daring to show their faces.
Yet, these Buddhist temples and nunneries have been built all across Deston Prefecture.
Ask these nuns and the monks who worship that demonic hag, and you’ll find they are all refugees who survived the disasters.
They practically fabricated all the lore about the Bodhisattva they worship themselves.”
“They even spouted nonsense to me about how the Great Merciful and Compassionate the Lotus Ferry Bodhisattva has existed since the dawn of the world, and that she only manifested from the Paradise because she saw the suffering of the world.
So fucking merciful and compassionate—why didn’t she stop the war?
She might as well have just exterminated the Wu tribe! And guess what they said? They brought up Karma and Cause and Effect with me.”
“When I drag out the demonic hags behind this, I’ll show them what Karma really means!”
Hearing this, Li Changsheng’s expression remained calm.
The matter of the Bodhisattva gathering the power of faith had already begun decades ago.
With endless wars in Deston Prefecture, few people cared about such a trivial matter.
The clan hadn’t stopped it either. The identity of the person behind the rise of these temples was practically calling out its own name.
In the end, it was merely a Dao path that Abbess Dairou was using to seek a breakthrough.
Taking a glance inside the Golden Toad Divine Palace, Li Changsheng let out a long breath.
“They are at the Body Integration realm. Our cultivation time has been short, and we only have a half-baked understanding of Dao paths.
We just need to keep an eye on them; as for how to deal with them, the elders will naturally take action.”
“Mm.” Li Changyao nodded obediently.
Having hurriedly broken through to Void Refinement over these thirty-two years using pills and the False-Void Refinement space refined by the clan, let alone understanding Dao paths, she hadn’t even fully grasped the spatial laws within her own Void Refinement Space yet.
…….
Azure Cloud Prefecture.
The clan elders had been campaigning in Deston Prefecture.
Decades had passed, and the clan’s domain had undergone earth-shattering changes.
Today, the Azure Cloud Prefecture, combined with the former lands of the Duravia Trade Prefecture, and after hundreds of years of planning and subdivision, has become a territory of twenty-one Regions and one hundred and thirty-six districts.
Azure Cloud Prefecture, after that heavy snow that lasted for a hundred years, enjoyed a period of peaceful and tranquil days.
The officials of the Azure Cloud Prefecture began to divide the land of the Azure Cloud Prefecture.
Those with Spiritual Roots entered sects to cultivate the Dao, spending half the year cultivating and the other half planting spiritual plants.
These cultivators simply brought their small families and entire villages to plant spiritual plants.
Ordinary cultivators who could never break through to Foundation Establishment or Golden Core in their lifetimes would return to their hometowns in their old age to train cultivators for their hometowns and send them to sects.
If they possessed the qualifications for the Golden Core, that would truly bring honor to their ancestors.
The officials of the Azure Cloud Prefecture would personally sponsor them to establish a sect or found a clan.
In just a few short decades, the entire Azure Cloud Prefecture presented a scene of flourishing Immortal Dao.
In the cloudy sky above the Thunder Fire Demon Cave.
Two people advanced, treading upon auspicious clouds.
Huang Xiujin was constantly pondering.
He looked at Li Jianning beside him, hesitating for a moment before saying, “Patriarch, our Azure Cloud Prefecture is indeed very prosperous now, but have you ever thought about why our Li Clan has never done things this way?”
Li Jianning frowned slightly.
“Resources, internal demand, and supply,” Huang Xiujin said.
“We have never allowed too many sects and immortal clans to rise, nor have we spread cultivation methods among the common people.
We only sent some cultivators with formidable cultivation aptitude to sects or the clan to be nurtured.
There are many people in this world capable of cultivating, but if they all cultivated, even with our Azure Cloud Prefecture’s vast lands and abundant resources, it wouldn’t be enough to supply their cultivation.”
“The spiritual energy of heaven and earth has a limit.
Coupled with the limited Spirit Stones beneath our ley lines, cultivating on such a massive scale will sooner or later cause our land to dry up and become exhausted.”
“Therefore, generally speaking, every prefecture only allows the existence of three to five Void Refinement cultivators, simply because the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is just enough.
As for other Void Refinement cultivators, they generally cultivate within Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands.
These Grotto-Heavens and Blessed Lands mostly retain a surplus of heaven and earth spiritual veins, just like our Li Clan’s Grade 3 Spiritual Vein.”
“Cultivators have long lifespans.
The reason even the Ghost Eye Sect doesn’t use the people of our Azure Cloud Prefecture to refine Human Pills is that after they die, their corpses return to the Azure Cloud Prefecture, and their spiritual power returns to heaven and earth, thus cycling to bless the common people.”
“The Patriarch allowing everyone with Spiritual Roots to cultivate will result in prosperity in the short term, but afterward…”
Li Jianning did not speak further, silently listening to Huang Xiujin’s admonition.
He then asked, “How long can this situation be maintained?”
“I have calculated. In three hundred years, the Azure Cloud Prefecture will be crawling with cultivators.
All wild natural treasures will be completely divided up, and we will only be able to use Spirit Stones to nourish spiritual plants.
The emergence of a massive number of cultivators will form internal entanglements and conflicts.”
Huang Xiujin’s calculations were proper.
It was evident that being burdened with Li Jianning—a Patriarch who only knew expansion and didn’t understand restraint—had turned his hair white with worry.
In the past, when he assisted Xinnian, he never had to think about so many things.
Li Jianning had a lean and muscular build.
Unlike the refined and peaceful appearance of the previous Patriarchs, he possessed a bit more of a sinister and ruthless air that made others fear him at first sight.
“I don’t care about that much. I am not as smart as Great-Grandfather. The seniors of Azure Cloud are all seeking their Dao paths in Deston Prefecture.
This is the only method I have to make the Azure Cloud Prefecture unprecedentedly powerful.”
Huang Xiujin frowned slightly.
Ever since losing his son, Li Qiukong, there was nothing this Patriarch Li Jianning was more passionate about than the pursuit of powerful strength.
Not only did he demand this of himself, but he also applied this mindset to the construction of the clan.
At the very least, Huang Xiujin hadn’t seen many people who would actively seek out lightning strikes every few days.
The injuries from the last lightning strike had barely healed before Li Jianning couldn’t wait to undergo another Lightning Tribulation.
As the two advanced, they saw a group of monks below the Azure Cloud Prefecture, currently preaching Buddhist sutras within the prefecture.
Huang Xiujin said in a deep voice,
“These are the Rebirth Buddhist Temples that sent messages back from Deston Prefecture.
The Great Merciful and Compassionate, the Lotus Ferry Bodhisattva’s sutras have spread from Deston Prefecture to our Azure Cloud Prefecture.”
“In just fifty short years, does Abbess Dairou of the Lotus Ferry Nunnery want to reach the heavens in a single bound?”
Li Jianning took a deep breath and looked at Huang Xiujin.
“Old Butler, have our people keep an eye on the Great Ming King Temple.
In a few days, go and remind Master Yuming as well; tell him not to get any ideas about copying the Lotus Ferry Nunnery.
I don’t want the people of our Azure Cloud Prefecture to rely on illusory Buddhas; what we rely on are our weapons.”
“Understood.”
Talking back and forth, the two had already arrived at the Thunder Fire Demon Cave.
Within the terrifying landscape of the Thunder Fire Demon Cave, Demonic Cultivators crossed blades with one another.
With more cultivators in the Azure Cloud Prefecture, some people who thought they could do whatever they wanted just because they had mastered Spiritual power were sent to the Demon Cave, naturally leading to an increase in Demonic Cultivators.
Before long, Li Jianning met many seniors deep within the Thunder Fire Demon Cave.
These were the seniors the clan elders had brought back from the outside world during the battle at the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems.
The clan and these outsiders cooperated with each other while remaining mutually vigilant.
The people from Grand Tower were the majority; they feared Min Tiange of the Peerless Hall and didn’t dare to show themselves in the world, terrified that someone would deduce their location.
Soon, Li Jianning saw a child sitting cross-legged.
That was the Taotie of the Mountain of Esoteric Stratagems.
The moment he saw a member of the Li Clan, Taotie asked with a gloomy expression about the whereabouts of the Huan Gui.
Looking at the Grand Tower cultivators, expert after expert dodged his gaze, afraid that the Li Clan would ask them to run errands.
Li Jianning arrived at the dark abyss of the Thunder Fire Demon Cave and met Holy Monk Yidian, whose face was covered in fierce flesh, looking more like a mountain bandit than a monk.
“Jianning greets the Holy Monk.” Li Jianning offered a slight Buddhist bow.
Holy Monk Yidian opened his eyes, his gaze sharp.
“Have you found traces of Min Tiange? Has anything happened in the Shadowfell Prefecture?”
“Ever since the Peerless Hall exposed its strength, they have never appeared in Shadowfell Prefecture again.”
Li Jianning said in a deep voice, “Recently, the clan received a message from Deston Prefecture.
Spear Saint Gu Fenghua has already launched a counteroffensive against the Shadowfell Prefecture, and many cultivators are searching in Deston Prefecture for opportunities to break through their current realms.
With the chaos in the Shadowfell Prefecture reaching this point, Min Tiange will show himself sooner or later.”
Holy Monk Yidian’s expression gradually softened. It seemed that to him, apart from Min Tiange, nothing in the world was worth his concern.
Li Jianning asked, “I have come because the clan has noticed the Lotus Ferry Nunnery’s actions becoming increasingly frequent lately.
Rumor has it that the Holy Monk once suppressed the Lotus Ferry Nunnery. Over these years, our clan hasn’t been able to find traces of them, no matter what, so I came on behalf of the clan elders to ask.”
“The Lotus Ferry Nunnery?”
Holy Monk Yidian pondered for a long time.
Perhaps it was because the era was too ancient, but he carefully sifted through his past memories before finally recalling a nunnery that had been inconspicuous during his long life.
While Holy Monk Yidian was thinking, Li Jianning also recounted the investigations into the Lotus Ferry Nunnery over the years.
Even though he was clearly a monk, when the Lotus Ferry Nunnery was mentioned, a trace of disdain flashed through his eyes.
“A bunch of old hags, trying to extract blessings amidst a great disaster. How shameless.”
—
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