Chapter 1002: I have never experienced such a day

After reaching the Second Grade, Li Qi did another major thing.

The Demon of Karma fell, and the Demonic Prince ascended to Second Grade.

To be precise, the Demon of Karma didn't die; it was just that the source of his power was seized by the Demonic Prince, who, with a 'deeper understanding,' took control over 'Karma.'

This was an astonishing achievement: a Third Grade forcefully devoured a Second Grade, directly stripping away the opponent's Dao, integrating it into himself, solidifying his Dao Heart, and ascending to Second Grade.

No one would believe it if you told them.

But he did it.

This must be the Demonic Prince.

A monster personally cultivated by the Heavenly Demon and the Buddha, two First Grades, inheriting both the Heavens of the Formless Realm and the complete experience of Retribution of Black Karma.

It's hard to say exactly what this thing is, but regardless, at least he's on Li Qi's side now.

The Demonic Prince has one advantage: he is very 'direct.'

He never deviates from his path, continuing until he reaches his destination. His target used to be Li Qi, and Li Qi can truly say he suffered greatly from it.

Now, the Demonic Prince's target is the Heavenly Demon.

Now it should be the Heavenly Demonic Overlord's turn to have a headache, wondering why he made the Demonic Prince like this.

Moreover, the Demonic Prince should still have the Buddha's protection, right? After all, having mastered the Formless Realm, he might even become a future Buddha. Even if those few Buddhist First Grades chose to retreat due to the Buddha's nirvana, they shouldn't completely ignore him.

Everything is developing in a good direction.

As for Li Qi, in this instance, he once again confirmed that he was right.

Higher intelligence cannot stop thinking, and thus will not stop singing. The beautiful songs brought by thought will forever be sung.

This song is natural; even if one witnesses their kind being destroyed before their eyes, they will not mourn, will not be silent, nor will they follow the deceased.

Higher intelligence will sing loudly, as if to burn themselves, disregarding the past and what others are like, just like Li Qi, transcending the ineffable separation of life and death, with thought always existing.

The thoughts of all living beings are also like this.

All things exist in parallel in this way; there is no absolute self, nor any complete other, but at the same time, there is no absolute uniqueness. This world is both distinct and a unified whole.

It's like Chaos; Chaos is the fulfillment of everything, the coming together of all things, but without corresponding separation, there is no coming together.

In Chaos, everything condenses into one, but if they had not been separated before, they would not condense in Chaos. So, it's like a tide: once the tide rises, there must be an ebb.

Therefore, coming together depends on separation, the contraction of the heart depends on its expansion, and the rising tide depends on the falling tide.

All living beings are also like this; living beings are like the forms of the Grand Unity and Li Qi—they are both parts of each other and also possess their own distinct parts.

The relationship between the Grand Unity and the Four Symbols is like this, the relationship between the Four Symbols and the twenty-eight lunar mansions is like this, the relationship between the twenty-eight lunar mansions and other Star Officials is also like this, and the relationship between the Star Officials and the living beings within them is still like this.

This Universe is a harmonious whole, but behind this harmony, there are different thoughts. This distinction is the reason for the birth of higher intelligence.

Just as life itself is negative entropy, the birth of life is due to the absorption of order from the surrounding disorder, and higher intelligence creates change within the unchanging unified Universe.

With change, there came the appearance of 'arrows,' or 'axes,' and then everything else.

Thus, eternity was also born.

Besides the continuous flow of time, what else can truly be called eternal?

Besides the constantly changing space-time, besides the continuous advancement traversing distance, can other things truly be called infinite?

Only movement is infinite and eternal, and movement itself relies on constantly changing others and selves, just as was said just now, the coming together of all things, and the corresponding separation.

However, eternal infinity can only mean continuous travel; eternity is boundless travel through time, and infinity is boundless travel through space.

The destination of the Immortals is like this: traveling ceaselessly in one direction. This is an inevitable destiny.

Infinity has no end; it is a dead end, or rather, it is a bottomless pit.

But the more it is so, the more important the journey becomes.

Going to a bottomless pit has no end, so everything encountered along the way is the only meaning.

Li Qi has already realized this.

Chasing the ultimate Dao is meaningless; the ultimate Dao does not exist, because the Dao is within all things, each thing has its own Dao, and eternity exists among them.

When all things are annihilated, everything ends.

But at this moment, the world is not like that.

All beings passionately become one, yet at the same time, they must separate and part.

These two things are contradictory, but they do not negate each other.

This is a dual experience, desiring both the ineffable separation and the stable connection, and thus a new form emerges—an indescribable transcendence where the higher intelligence of all beings, in a state of complete independence, transforms into the present reality.

Chaos forged higher intelligence, and higher intelligence separated Chaos, thus becoming individual flames, freed from disorder, like unique gems.

It is both melted into one and, due to the intense friction between thoughts, independently forms a clear self—truly an incredible process.

In this union, brilliant myriad things were born.

This is everything Li Qi saw in the Grand Unity, in Reincarnation.

Higher intelligence proved the existence of the self, and everything synthesized by Chaos proved the existence of the external world. Now, Li Qi has recognized the state of the Universe; his Dao Heart is incomparably stable, his Dao Heart is unshakable, and his purpose is clear and definite.

Everything that denies the existence of the external world and the self has a 'Dao conflict' with Li Qi, so purely mechanical cognition and the Demonic Dao are Li Qi's Dao enemies.

Li Qi is satisfied with the answer at this moment; there is no longer any debate about self and external world, no longer any conflict about ultimate and partial; everything is just so.

There is no fear of an unstable Dao Heart, no insecurity of being a pawn; he is so content and wonderful at this moment, the world so conforms to his ideas, his Dao can easily interpret all known things, reality is solid, and his own power fully verifies all of this.

It's simply...

Indescribable.

How to put it, Li Qi has never had such a moment in his cultivation until now.

He held a cup of tea, sat by Mystic Radiance Mountain, and gazed into the distance, feeling that everything was so comforting.

Is this what it feels like to step off the chessboard? No flaws in the Dao Heart, no threat of the Inner World possibly shattering at any moment, and no external crisis constantly approaching.

Complete control over everything he possesses, no worries far or near, cultivation soaring unprecedentedly, and a Dao Heart of unparalleled peace.

It's so damn good.

What kind of life was he living before?

Li Qi finally understood what kind of life those high-grade existences, who had no sworn enemies and no cultivation problems, were living.

Do they usually eat this well? Having gotten used to this kind of life, how could he go back to facing the Heavenly Demon later?

Alas, thinking of this, Li Qi's wonderful mood somewhat declined again.

"What's wrong?" Shen Shuibi, sitting on a rock beside Li Qi, basking in the sun, suddenly asked.

She could tell that Li Qi's mood had suddenly shifted from happy to low just now.

This made the Little rabbit (Nickname) a bit curious.

These past few years, the Little rabbit (Nickname) could be said to be very pleased with herself.

The difficult days were finally over, and she had not lost her composure from beginning to end, which made her a little happy.

She is the kind of woman who doesn't get much but cherishes what she has, storing important things in her memory. When memory can support her, she retrieves them, examines each one, and cherishes them, thus enabling her to persevere through those difficulties.

Now she has no pressure; the Human-Shaman War is over, Mount Luofu has been rebuilt and has begun recruiting disciples again. She was busy with this for a while and finally completed the task perfectly.

Empress Luofu and the Sun-Moon True Lead Cauldron both survived the war, and Yang Ning is also lively and well.

On the other hand, Li Qi also returned safely and is tucked away with her on Mystic Radiance Mountain, rarely going out, living the most comfortable days of her life, neither needing to travel nor needing to worry, able to do what she likes every day, quietly waiting for time to pass.

Her daughter is also doing very well; Shi Tou seems to be the only person in the world who can subdue Li Shiwei. Under Shi Tou's gentle pressure, Li Shiwei has also become much calmer.

Their story also has something to say, but it's like when Li Shiwei fell into a raging sea and was about to drown, she grabbed a hard rock.

He is understanding but never goes overboard in his actions, able to anticipate what troubles Li Shiwei might encounter and pave the way for her, as Li Shiwei is young, naive, and inexperienced.

He has no pretense, is simple, practical, and always pays attention to details, making people feel comforted. One can understand this with just a brief interaction; he will help anyone in unseen ways, showing meticulous care.

Li Qi is even deeply grateful for this; this young man is so steady that he solved all of Li Shiwei's troubles, saving Li Qi from having to deal with the messes the Little rabbit (Nickname) created.

And for Li Shiwei, perhaps she will never know exactly how much she owes Shi Tou.

But Li Qi remembers it for her; Li Qi has almost treated Shi Tou as his own son, even allowing him and La Qi to come and listen to him preach.

You know, Li Shiwei isn't even qualified to listen; the Little rabbit (Nickname) can't be exposed to these things, she might self-destruct if she heard them.

As for La Qi, this disciple, everything he did during Li Qi's recovery period also made Li Qi feel greatly comforted. He even started to dote on La Qi, allowing La Qi to finally live the life of a normal Young Master, instead of being left to fend for himself.

Now, La Qi has abundant resources; he can almost get enough resources from his Master for whatever he wants to do, which has made his cultivation much smoother, to the point where his methods of digging graves and tombs have become rusty.

The old La Qi was a Master at grave-digging; now he doesn't dig graves anymore, which shows how good his life has become.

The only one with problems is probably Yang Ning; Yang Ning has encountered many troubles recently. It is said that a female True Dragon named 'Lan Yue' is harassing her, but she refuses to say the specifics and is currently hiding from disaster.

All in all, everyone is flourishing, which is great news, great news.

Shen Shuibi even felt that these days were a bit too peaceful, to the point where she wanted to have a second child.

Li Qi, however, felt it wasn't the right time.

Although it's peaceful now, there will be more haggling over the matter of eradicating devils later. If more variables are added then, it won't be good.

And... honestly, Li Qi is a little afraid of having children now.

Children are much harder to deal with than disciples.

Disciples are carefully selected, fitting one's Dao Path, practically tailor-made, specifically chosen to inherit one's Dao Path.

As for children, despite having a Bloodline connection, what they grow up to be is purely up to fate. No matter how you raise them, accidents will always happen, and you can't really resort to brainwashing.

Things like giving birth to a troublesome child are not uncommon. To be honest, Li Qi isn't particularly satisfied with Li Shiwei's Dao Path either.

If he were to have another child now, with the Bloodline connection, not caring for them is certainly not an option, but caring for them might create flaws for himself even if he has none, making things even more difficult then.

So, the matter of having children was temporarily put aside.

"Nothing," Li Qi smiled. "I just feel that such days are truly good. When I think that I might lose them in the future, I feel a bit lost."

Shen Shuibi smiled, "Then we'll talk about it when the time comes. Why worry about things that haven't happened yet?"

Li Qi nodded, looked at the Little rabbit (Nickname), and stroked her hair.

Her long hair had grown back now; her hair was truly long and very smooth. She always took meticulous care of it and would never entrust it to anyone else.

Except for Li Qi; occasionally, Li Qi would help her comb her hair, and then he could slide his fingers through the dark strands, experiencing a strange, indescribable sensation.

"Indeed." Li Qi continued to lean back in his lounge chair, watching the sun greet him.

Literally, not metaphorically.

That Golden Crow was indeed greeting Li Qi. As Emperor Jun's only remaining offspring, for so many years, he had continuously borne the important responsibility of being the 'Sun of the world.'

This allowed him to stay away from all Dao conflicts and live a peaceful life.

After greeting the sun, Li Qi looked to his side again, at Shen Shuibi, who was calculating Pill Formulas on a rock, finding joy in it.

The couple didn't intentionally cling to each other; there was no need. They had been together for so long that they could treat each other as air and do their own things, yet not feel the slightest awkwardness.

While doing their own things, an occasional glance was enough.

Li Qi closed his eyes and rocked in the rocking chair.

However, at this moment—

Before Li Qi, a door was torn open, and from it emerged an Ink Tiger, and... the surging aura of the Underworld.

"Ordained Invoker, my Master requests your presence," the Ink Tiger said. (End of Chapter)