Chapter 1037: Enter

Li Qi looked at Chang'an before him.

Many eons ago, when he first came to Chang'an, he could only marvel at its prosperity.

But now, Chang'an had transformed into this state.

Was it Karma for humanity?

Logically, at this level, everyone had long passed the stage of the strong preying on the weak. Many Great Powers, including Li Qi, had no interest in bullying the weak.

They merely sought a higher Dao, with no interest in devouring or plundering.

However, after the human emperor's fall, these Great Powers still arrived.

They came for various reasons.

For instance, Li Qi had no interest in humanity's Spiritual Artifacts and Opportunities; he merely wanted to understand how the human emperor fell, what immense pressure, what kind of entity, completely sealed off the possibility of a First Grade.

If he could witness that, Li Qi felt his understanding of 'Heaven' would advance further, an Opportunity no less significant than being personally guided by the Heavens.

Facing the sealed Chang'an, Li Qi glanced at the Second Grades beside him.

"What do you say, should we break in?"

"Of course, can this place really stop us?" a Second Grade said, then immediately took the lead.

A hole instantly appeared in Chang'an City.

Although combat doesn't involve spacetime, it doesn't mean the Second Grades won't use the most simple and direct violence.

Li Qi followed suit.

Ahead of him were Chang'an's imperial guards, a small team composed of over a dozen Third Grades.

Each invading non-human Second Grade faced such a team.

After all, the number of Second Grades on both sides showed an overwhelming disparity; humanity simply couldn't produce enough Second Grades to obstruct them.

Li Qi broke in, looking around, and found that Chang'an itself was merely a Third Grade Spiritual Artifact, but a larger entity resided within, with the Dragon Vein pouring into it.

Li Qi glanced at the Third Grades before him.

"Oh, buying time, are we?" he murmured to himself.

The human Third Grades remained silent, merely occupying advantageous terrain, firmly defending against the Second Grades' assault.

The battle began.

Since the battle didn't involve abstruse spacetime and deductions, it was simply a direct contest of power and techniques.

Li Qi formed a hand seal, and his Inner World unfolded.

High Grades defeating low Grades is simple; Li Qi only needed to unfold his Inner World to swallow them whole. Regardless of their techniques and methods, as long as they couldn't break Li Qi's Inner World, Li Qi could directly launch a dimensionality reduction attack, ignoring all technique characteristics, forcibly devouring these Third Grades, and sealing off their possibilities with his Inner World.

However, as Li Qi opened his Inner World, a heavy sense of oppression struck.

That Third Grade team, disregarding everything, directly charged in with suicidal resolve and ferocity, sweeping aside the Formation's corners, dragging their long blades, and taking advantage of the instant Li Qi was suppressed, they actually pushed him back a few steps!

Li Qi was utterly astonished, only to see the human General in front of him, bolstered by the Formation behind him, with bristling tiger whiskers, blade flashing with golden lines, wide, glaring eyes, and a blade sparking with electricity, delivering fifteen consecutive strikes that all landed on the weak points of Li Qi, caused by that sudden oppressive feeling, as if he knew from the start that Li Qi would be momentarily stunned by this pressure.

Li Qi's Inner World shattered. It's no laughing matter to say that his Inner World was instantly cut to pieces by the Third Grades, in conjunction with that heavy pressure.

Unfortunately, this couldn't harm Li Qi.

Li Qi indeed took that combo attack completely unprepared, but so what?

His injuries healed almost immediately.

Physical injuries, even those to the Inner World, were as good as nothing to a Second Grade. Only two types of harm could truly affect them.

One is 'Dao injury,' which means finding a flaw in their 'Dao.' Severe Dao injuries can even lead to immediate demise, and even less severe ones will cause sluggishness, meaning the affected part of the 'Dao' will cease to function until the flaw is resolved.

The other is sealing off possibilities, restricting them to a certain possibility, effectively preventing them from interfering with the outside world. If sealed tightly enough, it can completely close off possibilities, achieving 'killing.'

Apart from these two methods, there's almost no way to inflict effective damage on a Second Grade. Damage to tangible things like the Physical Body, Spirit Soul, or Inner World is virtually meaningless. Even if you can temporarily sever their head, cut off their limbs, or shatter their Inner World, it will only restrict them for a short while.

Soon, the Second Grade will fully recover, without any lingering effects.

Unless... one can do what Golden Monkey did, forcibly sealing off the opponent's possibilities through brute force, meaning, subjecting the opponent to irresistible brute force from all directions, and this brute force lasts 'permanently.'

This can also achieve the outcome of 'sealing possibilities,' crushing your body and Inner World, so that you cannot escape, every minute and every second, into the endless future.

Unfortunately, humanity could achieve neither method.

So Li Qi didn't even bother with their attacks; instead, he searched for what had just suppressed him.

"Found it, it's you." Li Qi looked up and indeed found the trace of a Second Grade.

Truly... miserable.

The vast human imperial palace had only two Second Grades. One was in the very center of the palace complex, doing who knows what, while the other was coordinating with all the Third Grades to resist the incoming multiple Second Grades.

Additionally, the Dragon Vein and The Axis of All Realms were also providing support, but their output was limited, as they couldn't focus solely on this one area, so the support provided was almost negligible.

Could they hold on?

Hold on for nothing. One person trying to fight so many Second Grades—as far as Li Qi could see, there were six or seven Second Grades who came to observe the human emperor's remains.

Six or seven, while humanity could only rely on two Second Grades and the Formation beneath their feet. In such a situation, could one fight against three?

Not a ghost of a chance.

Realizing this, Li Qi waved his hand, and a long river of techniques appeared in the sky.

Hundreds of millions of techniques converged and condensed into a long river, then... poured down.

The techniques were denser than a sandstorm, then swept over.

Can a person hide from sand in a sandstorm?

Clearly, these people could not.

Gods and ghosts howled in agony, and numerous Third Grades shattered simultaneously, forced back by brute force.

But after all, it was humanity...

Then the human General, mounted on a Dragon Steed, soared into the sky.

The Dragon Steed kicked up a heavenly wind, drew its bow, and an arrow flashed with brilliant light, piercing through the autumn water.

An arrow flew towards Li Qi.

Li Qi was too lazy to dodge, letting the arrow pierce through his Physical Body, then shatter, and then reform.

The human General and the imperial experts were neither anxious nor angry; they defended against the invasion of the Second Grades, doing everything possible to delay their progress.

In reality, what they were doing was already very clear.

Within the human imperial palace, they had the advantage of terrain, direct blessings from the Dragon Vein and The Axis of All Realms, and assistance from two human Second Grades. When forming a Formation, although they couldn't defeat Second Grades, they could certainly delay them for a period.

"Why bother?" Li Qi's body recovered. He didn't rush his next attack, but instead said, "Retreat now, and you can avoid death. My purpose is merely to observe; there's no need to stop me."

The other party did not reply, only continuing their attack.

A Formation composed of over a dozen Third Grades was actually quite formidable.

Divine Abilities transformed profoundly, changing in myriad ways, the battle Formation like a cloud descending, riding shadows and clouds. If a Mortal were to witness a single sword mark, they might become a generation's Sword Saint, yet here it was merely one of countless swords.

Exotic spirits and strange beings appeared, displaying unique forms, crossing boundaries to arrive.

This was their challenge to the Second Grades; even with such a vast disparity in strength, they would obstruct the Second Grades' progress, even if only for a moment.

Li Qi couldn't quite understand what they were striving for.

Perhaps there were other tricks up their sleeves? But he didn't think any trick could compensate for a threefold numerical difference.

And this wasn't just an ordinary threefold difference, but a threefold difference in Second Grades.

The distinction here is that Second Grades can perfectly utilize every ounce of power, and even in this chaotic battle, there's no possibility of them being defeated one by one.

So...

In just about ten minutes, all the human Third Grades were slain by Li Qi.

For this level of combat, ten minutes was incredibly fast, as they could potentially fight for tens of billions of years. If dragged into a timeline war, there's no telling how long it would last.

Li Qi stepped over the blood of the Third Grades, entering the human imperial palace.

Truly...

Unimaginable.

Does humanity have to experience such a catastrophe every so often?

Each time the human emperor falls, it is when humanity faces these external Dao invasions. And Li Qi is a typical external Dao from the Southwest, as a Shaman, he even broke into the imperial palace.

Truly, times have changed. The human emperor's power allowed humanity to expand, but the human emperor's fall also brought humanity's catastrophe.

Humanity wanted to avoid this catastrophe, so they needed to forge the Yellow Dao, but in the process of forging the Yellow Dao, it brought about successive catastrophes like this.

Truly, Karma cycles.

However, after the Yellow Dao is forged, the progress of humanity replacing Heaven will greatly advance, to what extent can a human emperor who can act freely push the great undertaking of humanity replacing Heaven?

It's truly unimaginable.

Time flows uniformly, but society does not develop at a constant speed. Often, a year is too long, and ten thousand years are too short. When civilization begins to grow explosively, its development speed will exceed all imagination.

One can only say, thankfully humanity did not successfully forge the Yellow Dao.

But those things had nothing to do with Li Qi now; he felt no sympathy for humanity, he was merely sighing with emotion.

This could also be considered part of the 'Karma cycle.'

Li Qi began to have some doubts.

Demon of Karma, and now Demonic Prince, can they truly control Karma? Can they truly wield this level of power?

It's hard to say.

Perhaps, they only control a small part of Karma. Is Karma, this natural phenomenon, backed by something deeper? Could Demonic Prince's study of Da Sanzang and Da Zhengzang also be for this reason?

Leaving that aside, Li Qi and the other Second Grades had all successfully entered the palace complex at roughly the same speed.

Within the palace complex, there was another group of human Third Grades, and behind them, many Fourth Grades were waiting.

"Hey, are Third Grades free? Aren't they rare talents? Why waste them like this? Even official positions would incur losses, right?" A Second Grade True Dragon beside him couldn't help but say.

Li Qi then chimed in, "There are losses. I noticed it when I was killing earlier. Each team probably only has one captain who is a dual Third Grade; the rest were all promoted by official positions, and... when I attacked, I wanted to tear off the official positions too, but I couldn't catch them, they were a bit slippery."

Second Grades can indeed cause losses to official positions; they can destroy the official positions themselves. However, humanity has adopted a special method here.

Official positions have a 'reserve official' system, meaning that when an official position becomes vacant, a reserve official will immediately inherit it, then continue to exercise the power of the official position and immediately enter the battlefield.

It's the same now, but even more extreme, without even an inheritance ceremony.

After the main official dies, the deputy official succeeds; if they die, another succeeds, and so on, until the official position itself shatters or there's no one left to succeed.

Those Fourth Grades waiting behind were the 'reserve officials.'

"Let's see, a few thousand of them. How many hits do you think these official positions can withstand?" The Second Grade True Dragon said with interest.

"Not interested, just a waste of time. They might be delaying behind the scenes, trying to complete some grand plan," Li Qi reminded him.

"Doesn't matter. What grand plan? Unless there are Second Grades equal to our number, or... a First Grade appears, anything else is futile," the True Dragon said.

Humanity indeed had official positions to bolster their combat power, which was the fundamental reason they could delay the Second Grades. But wasting dozens of Third Grade official positions here was truly unwise.

Li Qi made no comment, but he already saw a Second Grade charge forward again, engaging in battle along this second line of defense.

No, it shouldn't be called battle.

It was a massacre.

One official Third Grade after another was slaughtered, and then those behind quickly filled in.

Sometimes, an Opportunity would be seized, and the official position would be destroyed along with them.

The invading Second Grades advanced as if strolling through a garden, in no hurry. After all, these people posed no threat whatsoever, their only role being akin to a muddy road.

What is a muddy road?

It's something that can dirty your shoes and slow you down a bit.

That's all.

Their deaths only resulted in dirtying the Second Grades' shoes, and sometimes, the official position would die along with them.

Official positions became fewer and fewer, and reserve officials also dwindled.

The human imperial palace had become a scene of corpses.

The six or seven Second Grades had already approached the core palace area; beyond that lay the human emperor's remains.

"The defenses are quite lax. Have all the Great Powers gone to guard key areas? There are only two true Second Grades here," another invading Second Grade voiced his confusion.

The moment he uttered those words.

A sword light slashed towards him.

Everyone's spirits immediately lifted!

human emperor sword! (End of Chapter)