Earth Store's Original Vows Sutra

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west; time flows on.

In the days that followed, Li Jiusheng would go to an open area each day to slowly practice his fists, and the Little Fox would mimic him nearby, going through the motions move by move, gradually improving herself.

The Little Fox was a Nine-tailed Demonic Fox with an extremely powerful bloodline, making cultivation very simple for her. But Li Jiusheng did not immediately teach her to cultivate; instead, he guided her to keep tempering her body, strengthening her physique to pave the way for the future.

From start to finish, Li Jiusheng never spoke a single word to the Little Fox. Though she was willing to get close to him and follow his training, that didn't mean she could accept close physical proximity with him. Li Jiusheng understood this well and did not rush things.

Every morning, he would practice fists with the Little Fox for a while, then feed her some tasty treats and leave her be. Sometimes the Little Fox found it strange—how was this human different from others?

As the days passed, Li Jiusheng spent this time settling himself, combing through all the Dao he had absorbed and the methods he had cultivated from beginning to end. Every technique had advanced from 'Aura' to 'Rhyme,' and a few had even reached the level of 'Dao.'

During this period, he practiced fists in the wilderness, comprehended Dao by a waterfall, sipped tea in the tea room, and read books in the Scripture Repository Pavilion, steadily stabilizing his mid-stage Grandmaster realm.

Throughout this time, a small figure was often near him, neither too close nor too far.

That was the Little Fox.

One thing she was very reluctant to admit was that she loved the faint aura of tranquil ambition and lingering Dao Rhyme on Li Jiusheng. So whenever he cultivated or comprehended Dao, she would quietly draw near and watch in silence.

Li Jiusheng noticed all this and smiled faintly. The Little Fox was actually a very cute little girl. Though she had witnessed many of humanity's evils in the Demon Refining Tower of the Luochuan Sect, she hadn't lumped all humans together as bad. She was just very cautious, needing to repeatedly confirm whether Li Jiusheng was a human she could approach.

Li Jiusheng didn't disturb the Little Fox either. She could do whatever she wanted. Sometimes he would even take books from the Scripture Repository Pavilion for her to browse. At first, the Little Fox refused, but Li Jiusheng simply handed her the book and then left her alone to cultivate on his own. When she got bored, she would flip through it.

As she read, she became captivated.

What Li Jiusheng gave the Little Fox was a geography chronicle of the Old Lands, recording the human customs, local powers, weather, and terrain of that region. It wasn't all text—it had illustrations, which held great appeal for a child like the Little Fox.

And so, Li Jiusheng cultivated while the Little Fox read—in the wilderness, in early spring, in the Scripture Repository Pavilion, in the tea room. The distance between them grew closer and closer. The Little Fox became increasingly unguarded around Li Jiusheng, to the point where sometimes, after he finished cultivating, he would groom her fur. She would let out a few soft grunts and shift her body into a more comfortable position for him to brush.

As he groomed the Little Fox's fur, a smile crept onto Li Jiusheng's lips. After all this time, feelings had finally grown between him and the Little Fox.

From then on, wherever Li Jiusheng went, the Little Fox followed—sometimes at his feet, sometimes not far away.

When he practiced fists, she practiced fists too.

When he meditated, she meditated too.

When he read, she read too.

Gradually, the lively and adorable side of the Little Fox's personality emerged. She was, after all, just a newborn vixen.

The suffering she had endured in her mother's womb over those years had been soothed away by Li Jiusheng's gentleness.

Li Jiusheng had originally been alone, but the Little Fox's arrival brought him no small amount of joy. On his lonely path of seeking the Dao, he now had a companion.

The tea room.

Wispy sandalwood smoke rose.

Li Jiusheng was reading a secret manual, and the Little Fox was also reading a book. The tea room was silent, the moment peaceful.

Li Jiusheng was looking at the secret techniques of various major sects that the two brothers in black had stolen.

The brothers had infiltrated the Old Lands for over a decade, visiting every major sect and plundering over a dozen Storage magical treasures, intending to sell them abroad. Unexpectedly, they ended up in Li Jiusheng's hands.

Now, Li Jiusheng was reading the Great Forest Temple's Earth Store's Original Vows Sutra.

The Great Forest Temple was a Buddhist sect in the Old Lands with a long heritage. The Earth Store's Original Vows Sutra was one of their foundational scriptures, a renowned Primordial spirit cultivation method in the Old Lands that had long been coveted by Grandmasters.

To break through from Grandmaster to Great Grandmaster, the key lay not in the physical body, but in the Primordial spirit. A Grandmaster comprehends their domain, merging mountains and rivers into it as their path to enlightenment, and then must cultivate the Primordial spirit. The Primordial spirit is like fire, blazing like a scorching sun—it can leave the body, travel by night, travel by day, move objects, and carry a flying sword to kill enemies from a thousand miles away. That is a Great Grandmaster.

To cultivate a Primordial spirit, one needed a Primordial spirit cultivation method. In the Old Lands, the Great Forest Temple's Earth Store's Original Vows Sutra was hailed as the foundational method for Primordial spirit cultivation, meaning that whatever other Primordial spirit methods had, the Earth Store's Original Vows Sutra also had, and what the Earth Store's Original Vows Sutra had, other methods did not.

"The Great Forest Temple is a major Buddhist Sect, and this Earth Store's Original Vows Sutra is their core Secret technique. I didn't expect the brothers to still get their hands on it—they've got some skill." Li Jiusheng couldn't help but praise as he flipped through the manual. His vision blurred, and he seemed to hear Sanskrit chanting at his ears, faint and elusive, as if coming from deep within the earth.

Li Jiusheng focused on comprehending.

His enlightenment radiated outward, capturing the scattered Dao Rhyme—strand by strand, wisp by wisp, from nothing to something, from little to much. His understanding of the Earth Store's Original Vows Sutra gradually entered a favorable state.

In a daze, Li Jiusheng's consciousness sank into the depths of the earth. In a trance, he saw the underworld hell, saw mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

The Earth Store's Original Vows Sutra pulled him into a pitch-black, sunless forest of hell.

In this hell, Li Jiusheng saw a red-robed monk walking slowly.

Wherever he passed, there were no evil ghosts.

Wherever he passed, white bones littered the ground.

In the next scene, Li Jiusheng saw the red-robed monk arrive before a series of pagodas built from white bones. He sat cross-legged, his expression peaceful, and chanted a single "Amitabha."

Boom!

In the next instant, he saw behind the red-robed monk a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, endless slaughter, and a blood-stained kasaya.

Only then did Li Jiusheng realize that the monk's kasaya had originally been white. It was just that he had killed so many evil ghosts, so many malevolent spirits, and emptied hell itself that the white robe had been dyed red.

Though he had killed many evil ghosts, he knew he was a good monk.

So, before the pagoda of piled white bones, the monk spoke softly: "Hell is empty!"

In that moment, the monk became a Buddha.

The scene abruptly ended, and Li Jiusheng's consciousness returned to reality. All that remained in his mind was a single Primordial spirit killing technique from the Earth Store's Original Vows Sutra.

"I never imagined the Great Forest Temple's Earth Store's Original Vows Sutra to be so brutal—emptying hell to become a Buddha. No wonder it's a top-tier Primordial spirit cultivation method, pursuing ultimate combat power. For me, it's a perfect fit." Li Jiusheng was overjoyed. He loved ultimate combat power. His physical body had taken this path, and naturally, his Primordial spirit would follow the same route.