Chapter 1034: Comprehension

After witnessing the birth of the demonic thoughts, Cang Tian took Li Qi away from that place.

However...

Li Qi had already entered the game.

How should I put it? Li Qi had already appeared at the very moment the demonic thoughts was born. In other words, when others trace back to this place, they will also encounter Li Qi.

If any dispute arises here, they will also meet Li Qi.

At this point, could Li Qi remain aloof?

It was clearly impossible.

Therefore, Li Qi had already participated in this segment of history, becoming a part of it. His main body was even right next to where the demonic thoughts was born.

Whatever major events happened here in the future, Li Qi would undoubtedly be entangled. He would be forced to take a side.

This was the consequence of 'being drawn into history'.

To discern secrets, one could not rely on reading books or listening to others' accounts. For a Great Power, such methods would be insubstantial and could not reveal the full picture.

Only by being present at the scene could one truly understand what happened.

However... when you appear at the scene, you also become a part of history, a part of the secret. You naturally join the development of this history, becoming one of its background elements.

Then, if something goes wrong here in the future, you will certainly be drawn into it.

The more you know, the more dangerous it becomes; the more you participate, the more crises you face.

That's why many Second Grades are unwilling to interfere too much or know too much. They have their own matters to attend to and no inclination to waste much time on curiosity.

This is also what makes the demonic thoughts so terrifying.

Because, theoretically speaking, the demonic thoughts exists in all of history. He is literally 'involved in everything', the ultimate troublemaker, the one and only designated scapegoat.

No matter what historical secret it is, the demonic thoughts is likely present, existing as a demonic thoughts of some witness.

But despite causing so much trouble, he is still alive and kicking, and no one can control him, which shows his true worth.

After leaving this place, Li Qi went to the next location.

Matters concerning the Myriad Heavens naturally couldn't involve only the demonic thoughts.

Next, Li Qi appeared beside 'Hao Tian'.

Then, Li Qi could see that under Cang Tian's protection, Hao Tian glanced at him.

But Hao Tian did nothing. He, as always, calmly passed every second, barely interfering with the outside world, merely observing.

But Li Qi had already discerned it.

Hao Tian, by himself, formed a segment of space-time. Hao Tian's 'quiet observation' was truly quiet, so quiet that he caused almost no disturbance to the outside world.

Normally, even a Mortal's gaze would cause disturbance to appear. After all, the essence of 'disturbance' and 'observation' is the same.

When you look at something with your eyes, photons have actually already hit that object. If you want to perceive something, you must make contact with it, and this contact is the disturbance itself.

But Hao Tian's observation was different. Li Qi didn't know how he did it, but he seemed to be observing 'unilaterally'. He could see all beings, but they would not be disturbed in any way by this, not even by the reflection of photons.

However, this kind of existence made Li Qi perceive another special power.

Hao Tian, why was he called 'Tian'? Was it because of his independence? Li Qi couldn't be sure.

But after he saw these things, Cang Tian again took Li Qi and disappeared, heading into past history.

This time, he arrived beside the Buddhist Heavens.

Here, one could see giant wheels turning, numerous 'Heavens' operating. Most Bodhisattvas of the Buddhist sect had their own 'Heavens'. The Buddhist sect had a tradition of opening up Heavens, so there were especially many 'Heavens' here.

But Li Qi could tell at a glance that these 'Heavens' were actually similar to his own Myriad Heavens, and even far inferior.

These Heavens were a clumsy imitation, their essence being for 'independence'.

Just like Hao Tian's independence.

Although these Heavens still couldn't completely break free from the outside world, they all expressed the same attempt: 'to detach from the Mortal World'.

This was also the consistent style of the Buddhist sect, or rather... was it an attempt by the World Honored One?

The Heavens of the Formless Realm seemed to be the common goal of these Buddhist Heavens, an attempt to avoid being entangled in Karma with anything. The ultimate goal of these Heavens was to develop from the Form Realm to the Formless Realm, and to stay as far away from the Desire Realm as possible.

And the Desire Realm was almost the complete opposite of the Heavens of the Formless Realm.

After seeing these, Cang Tian then took Li Qi to the Daoist sect's 'Great Luo Heaven'.

In the Great Luo Heaven, Li Qi saw similar things.

The Heavens here were the Void Transcendent Heaven, the Grand Ultimate Obscuring Heaven, the Crimson Bright Harmonious Yang Heaven, the Profound Bright Respectful Splendor Heaven, the Resplendent Sovereign Soaring Heaven, the Pure Imperial Whistle Heaven, the Void Bright Hall Resplendent Heaven, and the Primordial Bearing Soaring Heaven.

These were also the Daoist Heavens, no different in nature from the Buddhist Heavens, but what they pursued was not the 'Heavens of the Formless Realm', but another kind of 'transcendence'.

It was freedom, a complete detachment from all Mortal World affairs, the freedom to come and go as one pleased, completely breaking free from all shackles. This was the purpose of creating these 'Heavens'.

Cang Tian quickly took Li Qi away from the Great Luo Heaven.

This time, he didn't look at anything else but returned to the original spot.

At the original spot, Cang Tian wasn't idle either.

He displayed his unique characteristics. Although it wasn't his true body, it contained a portion of his power.

He didn't hide it, as Li Qi was also a practitioner of Shaman Dao, which could be considered a benefit.

Here, Li Qi could perceive 'emptiness' and 'loftiness'.

This was actually remarkably similar to Hao Tian. These Heavens shared a common characteristic: the higher their grade, the further they were from the Mortal World.

Heaven, by its very nature, was lofty and above all.

So, the so-called 'Heaven' was actually, as Li Qi initially thought, an 'independent space-time'.

Then... it's about how independent these space-times are?

If there truly was a 'Heaven' that became completely independent, reaching a state of transcendence, becoming a place that couldn't be observed, imagined, or even consciously acknowledged as existing, then...

Pondering these thoughts, Li Qi asked, "It seems one is missing, what about Immortal Heaven?"

"I can't take you to Immortal Heaven for now. To be precise, the Immortal Heaven you know is already dead," Cang Tian replied.

"Ah? Why?" Li Qi was startled.

"Didn't you participate in it? Why are you asking? When you drew Immortal Heaven out, his personality was already destined to be annihilated. Otherwise, do you think the Desire Realm in your hand would have been so easy to obtain?" Cang Tian answered.

Li Qi was speechless and sighed.

I didn't kill Immortal Heaven, yet Immortal Heaven died because of me.

However... it seemed there was nothing that could be done. Being targeted by numerous First Grades, this outcome was probably already predetermined. Immortal Heaven' previous cautiousness was all for safety, but his identity already destined him to have no safety whatsoever.

These mere ten-odd minutes of 'observation' were far clearer than Li Qi's billions of years of self-study behind closed doors.

Studying theories for ten thousand years, deducing the forms of various microscopic particles, was not as good as seeing what they truly looked like with a particle collider.

With Cang Tian's help, Li Qi came into contact with things he had never encountered before.

Thus, he began to summarize.

After the demonic thoughts's birth, the Heaven of Others’ Emanations was almost never used to refer to the demonic thoughts, because the demonic thoughts was not a Heaven, but a demon. The demonic thoughts itself had an extremely strong desire to interfere with the external world.

Hao Tian's independence also displayed a certain characteristic of 'separation', and Cang Tian's loftiness even more clearly demonstrated this point.

Cang Tian and Hao Tian were both independent 'Heavens'.

And the Buddhist Heavens seemed to be imitating this nature of Hao Tian and Cang Tian, all as an attempt to escape the great web of Karma.

The Daoist sect also had Heavens.

In other words, the 'emptiness' of the Buddhist sect also had the 'freedom' pursued by the Daoist sect, the 'loftiness' of Cang Tian, and the 'independence' of Hao Tian.

"So... is 'Heaven' actually a part of the attempt to pursue transcendence? And the Great Power whose name has 'Heaven' as a suffix is the manifestation of this attempt? The reason why the demonic thoughts's name doesn't have 'Heaven' as a suffix, but 'demon', is because he doesn't have the meaning of transcendence."

"So, are the Heavens I opened also meant to be from this aspect? Or is it not necessarily to take this path?" Li Qi muttered to himself, while his Myriad Heavens, which he had opened, appeared in his hand.

So, the Heavens were born like this.

They were new things created to break away from existing rules.

Then... was Hao Tian also like this? Shouldn't Hao Tian be the first First Grade to appear independently in the Reality Universe? Why was he also detaching?

Wait a minute.

Hao Tian was also like this, so wouldn't that mean—!

Li Qi immediately looked at Cang Tian: "Is transcendence... the best choice?"

Cang Tian was a little surprised, but he still replied, "It seems you understand quickly. However, of course not. Whether to transcend or not is actually not that important. To be honest, no one truly desires 'transcendence', after all, there's no real difference between that and death."

"What we desire is not transcendence."

"The Heavens don't desire transcendence, but what you do are all things that lead to transcendence. So, what is it that I am creating when I open the Heavens?" Li Qi was a bit confused.

He looked at his own Myriad Heavens and couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

What exactly was it?

Heaven, high above, seemed to want to detach from the Reality Universe, even to exist independently. All Great Powers named after Heaven were like this, yet Cang Tian said that transcendence was not their goal.

Was the 'emptiness' of the Buddhist sect and the 'freedom' of the Daoist sect not transcendence?

These two shouldn't be false, right?

Then what was Cang Tian pursuing? The demonic thoughts abandoned the path of transcendence, thus losing 'Heaven', causing the Desire Realm to detach from his body and become something akin to a discarded shell. What did he gain in return?

Li Qi couldn't quite figure it out.

Cang Tian should know the answer, but this answer couldn't be given to Li Qi by Cang Tian, because that would only create another Cang Tian.

He could take Li Qi to see, to experience, to protect him from disturbance in dangerous places, but he absolutely could not provide the answer for Li Qi.

So, Cang Tian left.

After Li Qi noticed Cang Tian's departure, he also chose to leave, but he didn't return to Mystic Radiance Mountain.

He wouldn't be able to think properly back at Mystic Radiance Mountain, so he decided to find a quiet place at random.

Thus, he almost randomly selected a planet outside the Universe and appeared on a mountain on that planet.

This was a lifeless rogue planet, without its own sun or any vitality. Orogenesis had almost ceased, the planetary core had solidified, and there was no geothermal heat. The planet had stopped rotating, and its gravity was insufficient to collapse it into a black hole, but the planet itself showed no movement whatsoever.

The surface temperature was close to that of a vacuum, which was just above absolute zero. Because its planetary core had solidified, there was naturally no magnetic field. The oceans had evaporated, and the atmosphere was gone.

This was a dead planet, a large rock floating in space, with no light whatsoever. If nothing unexpected happened, it would continue to drift like this until it disappeared.

This was actually a state of 'possibility convergence'; without external interference, it would continue without change for an unknown duration.

Li Qi began his contemplation in this place.

On the dark planet, Li Qi began an endless solitary retreat.

He started to hypothesize various situations.

Through his understanding of all things, he exhaustively iterated through the results of every 'idea'.

This was a very simple method, but extremely difficult to execute.

Because trying to fathom the thoughts and goals of First Grades was simply absurd. Li Qi actually had no real clue; he was just using this method to get as close as possible to the First Grades' thoughts.

This contemplation continued.

Time slowly flowed by.

This planet encountered many things.

It was captured by the gravity of a certain star system, then plunged into a nebula, where its surface was buffeted by solar winds and interstellar dust, smoothed over hundreds of millions of years, but eventually pushed back into space.

It had been landed on by certain civilizations, but they found nothing there except some ordinary minerals common in the Universe, no precious civilizations or organic matter, so it was quickly abandoned without in-depth exploration.

It also narrowly avoided falling into a certain Ruin, but ultimately, due to luck, it was flung around a gravitational line and accelerated towards other places.

The most thrilling time was during an interstellar war, when a gamma-ray burst was detonated by a certain civilization, turning into a stellar Sword Qi that rushed towards an enemy civilization, intending to blow up their mothership.

This gamma-ray burst grazed past the planet, with a distance of less than eight light-minutes at the time. It was literally a close shave, but it still didn't hit.

Thus, this planet drifted along, like many pieces of space debris, experiencing a journey that seemed both dull and thrilling.

Until one day.

An earth-shattering event occurred on this planet.

A huge shout came from this planet:

"So that's how it is!"