Legend of the Great Sage

issues both inside and out right now.
He had yet to even face the Dragon King of Ink Sea, but he felt like his body was already close to giving out.

 ……

Li Qingshan stood in the air.
His scarlet hair drifted with the wind and his scarlet eyes gazed towards the east.

On the horizon, a darkness even heavier than the curtain of night spread over, obscuring the stars and moon.
It was like a dark cloud.
It filled half the sky in the blink of an eye, even reaching about the skies.

Immediately, Li Qingshan experienced an almost-suffocating pressure and his mind shook because of it, but he immediately calmed himself down and yelled at the sky, “Dragon King of Ink Sea!”

The dark clouds were like ink in water, constantly surging about like living animals.
Scales and claws could be vaguely made out from them.
A pair of dragon eyes lit up and glanced past him indifferently, stabbing right through him like a sword, before looking away.
The ink-like clouds shot over his head and after another blink of an eye, it had reached the other end of the horizon.

Li Qingshan lowered his head, only to see a splotch of ink on his chest rapidly expand and spread.
He frowned and his body erupted loudly, turning into thousands of droplets of water which fell into Calm Wave lake.

Thousands of kilometers away, Li Qingshan was overcome with horror.
Through the eyes of his mirror clone, he finally saw the Dragon King of Ink Sea who had travelled over five thousand kilometers just to kill him.
Originally, he wanted to keep him busy for a moment, but his clone had dispersed from a single encounter.

This was his most powerful mirror clone so far that possessed a portion of his strength.
It was no weaker than any Daemon Commander, yet he actually failed to even see how the enemy had attacked him.
Only when he was struck did he discover he had been pierced by a droplet of ink.

With his life force, he would not necessarily die even if he became riddled with holes, but when it came to the droplet of ink, perhaps it was better described as destroying the innate ability, the Watermirror’s Image, from its very basis than killing his mirror clone.

The great will within the droplet of ink even pierced through his clone and tried to attack his original body.
If it were not for the fact that his Watermirror’s Image was different from regular clone techniques, that strike alone would have heavily injured his original body.

This was no longer just a difference in strength, but a chasm between realms of cultivation.
It was no wonder the Dragon King of Ink Sea could dismiss the Dragon province’s Beast King or whoever he was with a single word, forcing him to give up on avenging his disciple.
No matter what strategies and schemes were used, they were all useless before an opponent like that.

However, he had already achieved his two objectives of sending out the mirror clone.
The first one was to estimate the Dragon King of Ink Sea’s speed, but the end result was he would definitely be caught before he could clean off all the ink.
The second was to estimate his strength, but the end result was he would be dead once he was caught.

Right now, the situation of his original body was even worse than his clone’s.
Even if he could make out how the Dragon King of Ink Sea attacked him, he probably would not even be able to withstand a single strike.

Although the distance between them right now probably could not be traversed by a mortal even if they spent their entire lives travelled, he was no different from a sitting duck with the danger he faced.

He had considered seeking refuge from the Golden Cicada Spirit King or the Great Banyan Tree King before, but their relationship was just fellow cultivators.
The Golden Cicada Spirit King admired him, but he did not owe him anything.
All he wanted to do was leap out of this well and anything that got in the way of his objective would be his enemy.
Although the Great Banyan Tree King had gone out of his way to give him special treatment, he would not be turning his back on the neutrality he had maintained for ten millennia to endure the wrath of the Dragon King of Ink Sea for him.

When it came to fellows or fellow cultivators, that was referring to fellow cultivators on the same path.
The part of “path” came before the part of “fellow cultivators”.
They were only fellows when they were on the same path.
If their relationship impeded their path, it would only ruin their friendship.
Having been aware of this the entire time, Li Qingshan never planned on seeking refuge under anyone in the first place.

He was at the end of the road.
Was this already certain death?