Legend of the Great Sage

Chapter 1504 - The Book of Life and Death

“The will of the heavens? Hah, we’re cultivators.”

Chao Tianjiao laughed. Cultivators all possessed some abilities of divination. After becoming a Human Immortal, even if they were not familiar with this area, they could still sense things vaguely. However, the more that was the case, the more they looked down on the so-called “will of the heavens”.

The reason why mortals worshipped gods was because gods were beyond their reach and could not be fathomed. If they could be reached and fathomed, they were only slightly stronger people at most.

The will of the heavens was no different.

Since she already possessed the word “immortal” in her title, she had basically witnessed it already. “The so-called will of the heavens is just an assembly of the myriad laws and principles. Don’t tell me you’re referring to something like the will of a world?”

However, the Human realm did not even have a will of the world.

The Spirit Reverend of Ocean Returnance’s expression was distant. “Who knows? Who knows!”

Chao Tianjiao guessed that the old man had probably sunk into another thought, so she shrugged and bade farewell. She took a step; the space pulsed, and she vanished from there.

Le Tian carried the three-legged golden toad as he made his way towards the Fate Perturbing casino. The three-legged golden toad’s glow was dim and its eyes were half-closed, which made it seem very lethargic.

It was all thanks to the three-legged golden toad that he was alive. It saved his life during the battle in the Demon domain, blocking Taowu’s final strike, but it had also become heavily injured as a result, unable to extend his lifespan. His lifespan was running out, and his life was coming to an end.

Li Qingshan caught up with him from behind and patted him on the shoulder. He asked with a brilliant smile, “Hey, Le Tian, when are you dying?”

“First senior brother, I’ll never die!” Le Tian was powerless. The damned brat that he had been ordering around just recently had already become so “direct” with him.

“Sigh, didn’t I hear you’re close to dying?” Li Qingshan was unable to hide his disappointment.

“I’m just running out of lifespan. I’m not dying.” Le Tian explained patiently.

“There you go.” Li Qingshan disagreed with that. “You make it sound so sophisticated. Isn’t running out of lifespan almost dying?”

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“You’re the first senior brother. Everything you say counts.” Le Tian gave up on trying to prevent Li Qingshan from cursing him right in the face.

“In other words, you’re going to gamble again Ox-head and Horse-face again?” Li Qingshan was intrigued. Those were both figures of legends, so how could he not be interested?

“It’s just Ox-headed A’pang. He’s responsible for my file.”

“File?” Li Qingshan became even more curious. The three-legged golden toad opened its eyes that resembled golden beads slowly and glanced at him before closing them again.

“Don’t tell me you haven’t heard about the Book of Life and Death before?”

The two of them walked together. The path was empty. Everyone had gone out of their way to avoid them.

Le Tian explained the details. Only then did Li Qingshan understand that the primary range of responsibilities of the underworld in the Hell realm was not regular people but cultivators.

That made perfect sense too. Across the six realms of sa?sāra and the trichiliocosm, who knew how many lives were lost with each passing moment. Even if they only looked at humans, it was an astronomical sum. Coupled with the differences in temporal flow, let alone the ten measly Courts of Yanluo and the ten Hell Guards, even if they had a thousand times the number, it would still be too much to handle.

If they all had to be recorded in the Book of Life and Death before sending soul collectors to drag them to the underworld to stand trial, it would be even more impossible.

As a result, regular creatures were just free to lie and die, cycling through the six realms, either rising up to the Heaven realm or falling down to the Hungry Ghost realm. It was completely decided by the laws of the six realms of sa?sāra themselves.

Everything that the Book of Life and Death recorded were the full names of cultivators. The lower-level cultivators did not even have the right to make it into the book. You could just stay at home and practise some qi or establish a foundation, extending your lifespan by a century, and no one would care.

Only Golden Core cultivators would have their names recorded in the Book of Life and Death, but as long as their lifespans were not abnormally long, no one would even look at the names, whether man or ghost. If you could last a few thousand extra years without dying, that was completely up to you.

As for the people that could personally attract the legendary Black and White Impermanence, Ox-head and Horse-face, they were all extremely powerful cultivators, Yang Soul cultivators like Le Tian.

At their realm, there were far too many methods to extend their lifespans. There were countless exotic herbs, and pills that could maintain their lives. The golden toad’s methods of prolonging life was merely one of them.

If a Yang Soul cultivator just stuck with the lazy spirit of pointless life over a good death, they could basically last until the ends of the world.

The underworld primarily targeted people like that. The Book of Life and Death would automatically calculate the lifespan that they deserved. It was not completely forbidden to extend their lifespans, but it had to abide by the underworld’s basic laws. They forbade a cultivator from existing for eternity.

Once the time arrived, they would come to collect the soul.

In order to prevent Human Sovereigns that openly defied the rules by force, they had to send Ghost Immortals and Hell Guards. Otherwise, if the ghost envoys of the underworld began fighting against cultivators of the living world, it would not be a good sight to behold.

Li Qingshan was amazed. All the stories he was familiar with from his past life actually had an explanation like this behind them. He could not help but think of the Myriad Poison Ancestor who abandoned his body back then in the nine provinces, wanting to roam the world as a soul nascence. The nascences of life, infants, definitely could not survive for long, but “adults” probably could.

In other words, once they reached Yin Soul or Yang Soul, they basically possessed eternal life. There was no need for them to become True Immortals or arhants. There were just “supernatural factors” controlling this situation.

Fair enough. Even a piece of trash like Shen Yushu could reach Yin Soul, even possessing a chance to reach Yang Soul.

Even if cultivation required very great talent and luck, if they could produce a single Yin Soul cultivator from a million people, it would probably reach terrifying numbers. If their numbers were not controlled, the world would probably be filled with cultivators.

“Hold on. In other words, my name is in the Book of Life and Death as well?”

“Of course. The legendary Book of Life and Death is a manifestation of the laws of the Hell realm. With your cultivation, your name is obviously in the Book of Life and Death.”

Le Tian glanced at Li Qingshan in disdain. He might have become the first senior brother, but he was still a clueless bumpkin in the end. However, he squinted his eyes, hiding his disdainful gaze very well.

Li Qingshan questioned closely, “Then can I remove my name from there?”

Le Tian felt even more disdain for him. It was not like the Book of Life and Death was a physical book. It was not even an arcane treasure. “Of course you can, as long as you twist the laws of the entire Hell realm and break the laws of rebirth in the six realms of sa?sāra. Hehe, that’s not completely impossible, but if you’re capable of something like that, even the Ten Courts of Yanluo won’t be able to touch you, so why would you still need to edit the Book of Life and Death?”

Li Qingshan rubbed his chin and said in thought, “What if the Ten Courts of Yanluo have a feud with me? Or if I just want to mess with them?”

“You-” Le Tian shuddered inside, actually catching the scent of something devastating.

Suddenly, Le Tian recalled the situation when Li Qingshan faced Taowu on the battlefield in the Demon domain. With his personality, even if he encountered the Ten Courts of Yanluo, he probably would not bow down. He would rather be sent to the bottom of hell, Avīci. Perhaps one day, he would really possess that power…

Smack! Li Qingshan hit him in the back of his head. “Was that the kind of gaze you should look at your first senior brother with?”

Le Tian rubbed his head and frowned. “You were clearly in the wrong first, first senior brother!”

“Oh, you’re going to talk back? Let’s hear how I was in the wrong.” Li Qingshan clenched his fist. He had yet to forget how Le Tian had originally used him for gambling!

“Dying was originally a trifle. However, I’m going to be gambling against Ox-headed A’pang. When you ask me when I’m going to die, that’s basically asking me when I’m going to lose.”

Li Qingshan nodded. “Yep, that’s reasonable! It really is my fault then. Hehe, I can apologise to you, but when that gamble happens, be sure to call me alone.”

“Why?”

“I want to see what that ox-headed guy looks like? I might even place a wager on you.”

“Then you’ll have to pay a visit to death’s door!” Le Tian warned. To cultivators, especially Human Sovereigns, the last people they probably wanted to see were the Hell Guards. They were not the spiritual beasts from the Spiritual Beast garden but monsters that ate people from the Daemonic Beast realm.

“I’ll welcome whatever they throw at me with open arms!”

Li Qingshan smiled. The Hell realm, the ox-headed ghost, and a gamble of life or death must have been very interesting!

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