Chapter 1073: The Awakening of Li Qi

The Heart Demon fell.

Just as the Heart Demon was attempting to possess Li Qi, he was met with a counterattack.

He encountered someone who should have died.

Li Qi.

That’s right, when his heart was obliterated by the demonic thoughts, Li Qi’s mind was protected by the Heavens of the Formless Realm and then hid within the Myriad Heavens of the Three Realms.

When he tried to possess Li Qi in the manner of a Heart Demon, he discovered that Li Qi was still alive.

Thus, the Heart Demon died.

And Li Qi… throughout these countless eons of experience, felt all living beings in the Myriad Heavens.

There, he underwent a trial.

He had to find a way, a method to Breakthrough subjective cognition.

So, he remained in the Myriad Heavens.

There, he sometimes respected others, and sometimes was respected by others.

Sometimes he was a guide, and sometimes a follower.

Sometimes he was a child, and sometimes an elder.

Sometimes he was a powerful being, and sometimes an insect.

Sometimes he was male, and sometimes female.

Sometimes he was darkness, and sometimes light.

Sometimes he was a tyrant, and sometimes a slave.

In this process of floating and alternating changes, a moment of unification would occasionally appear, where he was simultaneously both teacher and student, both changing and teaching all beings, and drawing new knowledge from all beings to perfect himself, then imparting this perfected knowledge to others.

Therefore, he even far surpassed both, becoming the creator, explorer, driver, and observer in the alternating circle of aging and youth.

He carried out this Reincarnation, and also observed this Reincarnation, and he himself, with the change of feeling, sometimes slowed down and sometimes rushed forward.

One new image after another continuously emerged from this process.

These things, rather than being symbols, were more like ‘confirmations’; this was an understanding, not a picture, meaning that rather than being a ‘feeling’, it was more appropriately an awakening.

In this process, Li Qi re-confirmed his previous answer.

He discovered that truth exists.

But the ‘complete theory’ that those pursuits longed for, that absolute, perfect theory that would fill one with wisdom after reading it, did not exist.

Moreover, you should not crave a perfect doctrine, but rather crave your own flawless Perfection.

Just like everything else, this theory is not in any concept or book.

Truth, or rather the ‘Dao’, is gained through experience; the Dao cannot be taught, nor can it be described.

But in this process, he gradually gained a wonderful experience.

Transcending subjective time.

What is subjective time?

Imagine a thing; it must have a chronological logical order, regardless of whether this logical order can be changed, such as the timeline of Mortals, but in any case, the temporal sequence of a thing is always fixed.

From Li Qi’s birth to now, can his own temporal sequence be torn apart?

He was created by the demonic thoughts on the banks of the Li Shui River, and then experienced so much; every event, in fact, happened in order. If the order were reversed, Li Qi’s experiences and thoughts would become chaotic.

Even for his own stability, he had to maintain their existence.

Otherwise, the existence of ‘Li Qi’ would completely collapse, utterly losing all elements that could be called Li Qi.

So, how does one escape this shackles and transcend subjective time?

The method Li Qi thought of was actually very simple.

It was the demonic thoughts’s method.

To see oneself through the eyes of others.

As mentioned before, the demonic thoughts is the demonic thoughts itself, and everyone has demonic thoughtss.

demonic thoughtss are actually everyone’s thoughts themselves, and the demonic thoughts is also demonic thoughtss, so the demonic thoughts is everyone’s thoughts themselves. Therefore, the demonic thoughts can view its own objective from the subjective perspective of others.

Li Qi’s temporal sequence, for others, may not necessarily be in order.

It is perfectly normal for subjective time and objective time to be inconsistent; time itself is like this, it is merely a description of the movement of things, not an absolute value.

So, by viewing Li Qi from the perspective of other things, one can Breakthrough Li Qi’s own subjective perception.

Imagine there are three perspectives: Li Qi’s subjective perspective, and objective perspective A, and objective perspective B.

The three operate at different speeds, so the temporal sequences they see are also different, and a ‘time dilation phenomenon’ will occur, but this description is only correct in the observer’s reference frame.

And Li Qi, at this moment, with the help of demonic thoughtss, possessed three reference frames.

Five seconds passed in Li Qi’s subjective time, three seconds passed in objective perspective A, and one hundred years passed in objective perspective B.

It’s like a person traveling at the speed of light; from his perspective, he instantly reached his destination, while from the perspective of others, it took him as many years as it should.

The trajectory drawn by a moving particle in four-dimensional space over the real number domain is called the world line of that particle. Each point on the trajectory is called an event of that particle, and different world lines can inherently contradict each other.

For beings above First Grade, this paradox is easy to break; they simply do not follow external Karma, everything is based solely on their own subjective time.

This is also a major argument of the demonic thoughts.

Space-time is relative, which means space-time is subjective.

This proves that objective, absolute space-time does not exist; therefore, it is natural for one's own will to interpret this world.

But then the problem arises.

Even if Li Qi used the demonic thoughts’s method to observe from other perspectives, and even borrowed a part of the demonic thoughts’s viewpoint for this, forcefully observing one’s subjective time with many objective perspectives would lead to death.

When he viewed his subjective perspective from the angle of objective perspective A, he would find that his subjective perspective was misaligned, and between the two, a ‘difference value’ would arise.

What I see and what actually happened to you are not consistent.

If one only focuses on one’s own subjective time, then this inconsistency will not cause any consequences; everyone has their own subjective experience, and they do not interfere or influence each other.

But if one insists on connecting the two, observing one’s own subjective experience through another’s objective observation, then ‘cognition’ will be torn apart by the ‘difference value’.

This difference value could even shatter Li Qi’s temporal sequence, making his subjective perspective fragmented and unable to operate self-consistently.

This could even lead to the closure of his possibilities.

Because, if the temporal sequence collapses, when should he do what?

For example, in the next second, Li Qi is preparing to strike, and in this second, he begins to think about striking, but because of the collapse of the temporal sequence, he will never be able to strike in the next second, because… the next second might never arrive.

Thinking about striking and preparing to strike might even be reversed, leading to him being prepared to strike without thinking, yet never truly being able to strike.

Even reality itself would be pulled back and forth by the chaotic temporal sequence, not knowing where to go or what to do. After all, with a disordered temporal sequence, you want to pick up a glass of water.

But the next event jumps to a point where the water has long been drunk, or some other strange point in time.

Every instant, the scene before him is completely unfamiliar, every action has no consequence, every event has no cause—this is the result of a disordered temporal sequence.

Endless events flicker alternately in chaotic temporal sequence, each independent of the other, unable to form a complete timeline and logical order, and thus unable to perform any action, as each event has no cause or effect.

How to solve it?

Li Qi could never find a solution before, but now, Li Qi finally found a way to solve it.

It’s very simple, and also very absurd.

That is the ‘absolute reference frame’.

In other words, it was the Sun-Moon Orbit that Yang Zhenqian desperately brought to Li Qi…

Sun-Moon Orbit.

The foundation of motion, absolute space.

Due to its nature and its independence from external things, it is always identical and unmoving.

The absolutely still place, around which all Heavens revolve.

This is ‘Celestial Pole’.

A First Grade Dao Foundation that currently exists.

Obviously, in ordinary space-time, in the spatial dimension, there is no way to prove the absoluteness of a reference frame.

But what if it's a mysterious space-time that is inherently static from its very existence?

Indeed, proving the absoluteness of Celestial Pole is very difficult.

Many Second Grades tried to do so; all Second Grades of Shaman Dao who attempted to achieve Dao through this fell, yet none could fully prove the absoluteness of Celestial Pole.

If this point is not proven, one cannot achieve Dao through it.

So how will Li Qi prove this point?

Very simple.

All or nothing.

Just gamble with his life.

He directly tore apart his own subjective perception, falling into the subjective time difference tearing.

Then, if Celestial Pole can resolve his current state, it proves the absoluteness of Celestial Pole.

If Celestial Pole cannot resolve it.

Then he will die on the path to Dao, just like those Shaman Dao Second Grades who fell before him.

Achieving Dao is like this; even the process itself is difficult to describe, because all of this can only be contemplated based on one’s own cognition. This cognition is the sum of all experiences from birth to now. One cannot understand things beyond one’s cognition; if you understand, you understand, and if you don’t, no explanation will clarify it.

But in any case, the result was obvious.

He succeeded.

He destroyed the Heart Demon, and… he successfully propped up the body of Tai Yi.

How many First Grade opportunities does Li Qi have?

The ‘Three Realms’ composed of Amitabha Pure Land, Desire Realm, Myriad Heavens, and Heavens of the Formless Realm.

The ‘Celestial Pole’ from Sun-Moon Orbit.

And the body of Tai Yi.

A total of three, and the three complement each other, jointly forging Li Qi’s current strength.

A newly born First Grade, yet possessing three First Grade opportunities, his strength is naturally beyond that of an ordinary First Grade.

The Three Realms are the demonic thoughts’s eggshell, the Desire Realm, and the Heavens of the Formless Realm forged by the World Honored One Tathagata, plus the Form Realm created by Li Qi using his Second Grade path, with Tai Yi as inspiration and reference, a Immortal Heaven-like entity created by the unification of the three.

Celestial Pole is the culmination of Yang Zhenqian’s life; all his accumulations were for the discovery of Celestial Pole. This is the entirety of a top-tier Second Grade, even surpassing his life.

And the body of Tai Yi, the collective of all Star Officials.

And all of this constitutes the current Li Qi.

Li Qi stretched his body.

Tai Yi’s body stretched with him.

At this instant, the tide of battle turned!

The delicate balance of the First Grades’ battle was broken.

“Are you surprised? demonic thoughts, can you not see my heart? Of course, you can’t, because the Heavens of the Formless Realm is with me now,” Li Qi said.

“Shamansan risked his life to seize the Heavens of the Formless Realm just for this?” The demonic thoughts looked at Li Qi and asked.

The battle had already begun.

However, the battle of the First Grades was somewhat beyond imagination.

Li Qi felt as if he wasn’t fighting anyone, because space-time itself had already collapsed under such a battle, and all possibilities were mixed into a single mass, with no need for searching.

What they were doing was not battle itself, but more akin to arduous labor like planting trees and creating land from the sea.

The battle did not erupt head-on, yet it was more terrifying and intense than any direct confrontation.

However, the situation had already shifted in Li Qi’s favor.

Now, Li Qi could keep up with the demonic thoughts.

All things have demonic thoughtss, so the demonic thoughts can appear before everyone simultaneously without any hesitation. This is the speed of ‘thought’, faster than a considerable portion of First Grades.

But Li Qi could keep up.

No matter what possibility the demonic thoughts jumped to, Li Qi would not be affected by time differences. His reality was perfect and complete, allowing him to jump with Li Qi from any perspective.

There is a saying that likes to call the observer’s perspective the ‘God’s-eye view’.

This perspective, like an omniscient God, can observe anything without restriction in a non-realistic way, narrating events at different points in time in the same location, and with the inner thoughts of multiple characters appearing alternately.

What is a God’s-eye view?

Does a God’s-eye view that can simultaneously observe all perspectives truly exist?

Actually, it does; the ability to simultaneously switch to all perspectives can be considered as having obtained the God’s-eye view.

This perspective is possessed by the demonic thoughts.

Now, the First Grade Li Qi also has it.

Moreover, the demonic thoughts is even inferior to Li Qi here, because the demonic thoughts still needs to follow its own subjective time, even though it can switch perspectives and appear at any time from any perspective.

But Li Qi is one step ahead of him, because Li Qi doesn’t need the ‘switching’ step.

Possessing an absolute reference frame, he simultaneously possesses all perspectives and will not be torn apart by the time difference.

It is this single point that makes Li Qi faster than the demonic thoughts.

In the war of possibilities, Li Qi suppressed the demonic thoughts!

In this struggle, Li Qi exclaimed, “Hoo… no wonder you were so composed. With this speed, my struggles during the Second Grade period were indeed nothing more than child’s play in your eyes. It seemed like I was struggling, but in reality, I was just your toy.”

“But it’s different now. What, why aren’t you speaking?” Li Qi asked.

The demonic thoughts did not reply, because Li Qi’s speed indeed surpassed him.

However…

That’s about it.

Winning isn’t that simple.

The battle between First Grades isn’t that simple, Li Qi. (End of chapter)