Chapter 197: Call for counterattack

In an instant, Li Qi understood.

Shen Shuibi naturally didn't know how to call him, nor the honorific he had just applied for.

So, she chose… exhaustive enumeration.

For example, the Formation diagram under Li Qi's feet, based on Li Qi's simple understanding of Formations, showed that it was a Divine Descent calling System.

It had Li Qi's parameters as known by Shen Shuibi inputted, and then an automated naming mechanism was created, continuously generating possible honorifics for Li Qi and calling him without pause.

And this was just one of the thousands of Formations on this Formation Plate.

The entire Formation Plate was densely covered with such automatic naming mechanisms, various Dao, various methods, thousands of Formations and rare Materials, together forming this… very valuable calling machine.

Every second, hundreds of thousands of different summoning methods could be generated here, including the Divine Descent of the Divine Dao, the Covenant of Shaman Dao, the Mirror Flower Water Moon of the Dao of Reason, the Connected Heart Method of the Human Dao, the Blood Call Technique of the Demon Dao, and so on.

Thousands of methods, each working automatically, constantly attempting to call Li Qi.

Li Qi could discern the effects of these Formations, but only their effects.

It's roughly comparable to Li Qi knowing the function of a mobile phone, but Shen Shuibi personally built this phone, attached every transistor, and hand-crafted all the chips and screens.

Forget the technology; some of the Materials on it Li Qi couldn't even recognize, but to integrate so many Formations into one would require an unimaginable amount of effort.

Moreover, this thing was truly… very expensive.

Just the Materials appearing on it, not to mention those Li Qi didn't recognize, the ones he did recognize were already priceless. Li Qi himself certainly couldn't afford it, even if he sold his eighth-grade Jin Qi (Metal Energy), because there were visibly four or five eighth-grade Materials within it.

Not to mention the technical content contained within; being able to combine thousands of Formations into one already exceeded Li Qi's scope of knowledge. If this thing were used to create a Spiritual Tool, it would definitely reach the limit among eighth-grade items, probably reaching the level of half-step seventh-grade.

Even for Shen Shuibi, accomplishing these things must not have been easy, right?

Especially since her cultivation method had long been completely废, and she was currently painstakingly re-cultivating.

Technical aspects she might be able to figure out herself, but she detested worldly and mercenary things. Just imagining her negotiating business and finding Materials herself, Li Qi knew how much effort she had put in.

After understanding all this, Li Qi felt a little touched.

However, seeing the little rabbit, who was angered by him and had turned her back, Li Qi immediately reacted and quickly walked over, holding her hand with his Spirit Soul's golden body, and said, "Shen Guniang—"

the little rabbit stopped, looking back with a puffed-up face.

Li Qi was originally skilled with words, so he had already prepared many flowery phrases in his mind, but upon seeing her turn around, he choked on them all and couldn't speak.

After a moment of愣, he awkwardly opened his mouth: "You've worked hard."

However, as soon as he said this, the little rabbit's puffed-up expression disappeared.

She lowered her head, a little embarrassed, but couldn't help but hum proudly: "It's good you know it was hard…"

There was a feeling of wanting to show off but being too shy to do so.

Seeing this, Li Qi smiled, relieved.

He grew bolder, reaching out to stroke the little rabbit's head: "Alright, then I'll take it from here."

To his delight, Shen Shuibi did not make any resistant movements.

Of course, in reality, she had no reaction at all, as if Li Qi had done nothing, neither happy nor resistant.

the little rabbit merely nodded: "Okay, then I'll leave it to you."

After speaking, she returned to her usual blank expression, standing obediently in place, activating follow mode.

It was as if the lively person from just now was fake.

And Li Qi was stunned.

He still didn't understand the situation… why did she suddenly go idle?

So he patted Shen Shuibi's shoulder: "Ahem, Shen Guniang, wake up first. Can you tell me what happened these past few days?"

Shen Shuibi regained her senses, looking at Li Qi with displeasure, her eyes seemingly saying, "You're so annoying."

However, she quickly continued to tell Li Qi what had happened in the past few days, trying to finish quickly so she could drop the burden and go do her own things.

She was truly not good at, and very much disliked, handling such mundane affairs, nor did she like interacting with the outside world.

What the little rabbit loved most was to immerse herself in her own world, quietly busy with her own matters.

To put it nicely, this was being Immortal Qi-like, untainted by the dust of the world.

To put it bluntly, it was severe social anxiety and reclusiveness.

But the little rabbit is very cute, so it's fine.

Furthermore.

Because of this trait, something Li Qi had realized, but Shen Shuibi had been oblivious to, had long since emerged.

the little rabbit had always delegated these affairs to others, and she habitually relied on this 'other,' only needing to obediently listen.

Previously, this 'other' was Empress Luofu.

For countless years, she had lived this way.

And now, this 'other' was Li Qi.

Therefore, when there was no one to rely on, the little rabbit fell into the extreme agitation she had experienced before, unable to settle down. But now that Li Qi was back, she immediately calmed down.

She didn't even notice that after Li Qi's arrival, the anxiety in her heart had disappeared, as if a great stone had been lifted, and she could return to her comfort zone.

As for Li Qi, he was naturally delighted.

He was overjoyed!

— — — — — — — — — — — —

Several hours later, Li Qi had completely understood everything Shen Shuibi had done.

And the little rabbit had once again entered power-saving mode. She had been a bit overloaded these past few days, so she directly reverted to her original form, curled up in Li Qi's arms, with her ears covering her eyes, sleeping soundly.

For her, completing this Formation Plate and taking over the entire Xi Jiu Men were very energy-consuming, and the latter especially so.

She was also very tired, so she nestled in Li Qi's arms to rest.

It's just that, even as a the little rabbit, she was still wearing small clothes.

How particular.

Once it came to Li Qi, he immediately took over these matters and made his own plans.

The first and most urgent matter was to find Wang Baiyan.

According to Shen Shuibi's account, combined with Wang Baiyan's previous actions, Li Qi had already confirmed it.

This little bastard is governing!

He didn't care about the disaster victims at all. His goal was to make Li Qi destroy the blood sacrifice, then incite demons to attack Guangyang City, while he, as an outsider, would betray both sides from the middle to profit from it!

It's just that Wang Baiyan didn't expect that the blood sacrifice was not actually for resisting the Swallowing Heaven Demon Nest, but merely a means for Chan Zhi to save himself.

Now the entire situation was crystal clear; the previous confusion was gone. Li Qi had organized the entire sequence of events.

First, there were four forces in Guangyang besides Li Qi.

The first force was the Jianghu force led by Orthodox Sword Palace.

Li Qi felt that these people could be trusted. From Zhang Lan, it could be seen that Orthodox Sword Palace, like himself, was completely self-sufficient, confronting the Swallowing Heaven Demon Nest without any reward, purely for a sense of chivalry.

Zhang Lan's character was also excellent; for the sake of the disaster victims, he even actively fought against two eighth-grade cultivators and was prepared to perish together, which could be called a true hero.

If they knew what was happening here, Li Qi couldn't think of a reason for them not to intervene.

So, when he left, he left a letter for Zhang Lan as a contingency. (Chapter 187)

It probably wouldn't be long before the next step could be taken.

Second, Guangyang City's local forces were basically completely paralyzed. According to Li Qi's own experience, he knew that Guangyang Prefect had gone back to the capital to report! (Chapter 174)

Previously, Li Qi didn't understand, but now, it was as clear as day.

Nonsense, if he didn't run, would he wait for death?! This person definitely rushed back to the capital of Bailin Kingdom for help. If he stayed here, he would surely become one of Chan Zhi's Puppets.

Therefore, this person must have, after discovering that Guangyang Sima and Situ had both become Chan Zhi's Puppets, decisively chosen to withdraw the army from Zhenguan, set up the Mountain and River Grand Formation to resist the Swallowing Heaven Demon Nest, and then hastily left to return to the capital to call for reinforcements.

But for some reason, no one returned to rescue Guangyang City. It's unknown what happened in the capital of Bailin Kingdom. If the monarch had intervened, Chan Zhi, a mere seventh-grade, should have been easily captured.

Third, there was the Human Dao force led by Wang Baiyan.

That is, the Wang Family of Sword South. Their goals and methods were also clear. Wang Baiyan interacted with Li Qi for two reasons: one was to use Li Qi's Shaman abilities to communicate with the Heavenly Dao and help them acquire a miniature heaven and earth as their own resource world.

The other reason was to hope to use Li Qi's hand to destroy the Mountain and River Grand Formation and the blood sacrifice. He linked the blood sacrifice and the Mountain and River Grand Formation, intending to mislead Li Qi into damaging Guangyang City's defenses.

This way, he and Li Qi would save the common people, their good names would spread far and wide, and he could also drag Li Qi, a Disciple of Shaman God Mountain, into the mess, helping him withstand the backlash from Shaman Dao. When the Shaman Dao forces arrived, he could completely pull Li Qi out to block them, saying, "What kind of nobodies are you?! This matter was done by a Disciple of Shaman God Mountain and me together. Are you going to defy Shaman God Mountain?"

Li Qi would even have to stay and resist the invasion of the Swallowing Heaven Demon Nest with him.

Thus, he used a borrowed knife to kill, striking a blow at Guangyang's local forces, allowing the Human Dao to take deeper root in Guangyang Prefecture and subtly complete other schemes there.

All of this was well-calculated, but Wang Baiyan himself didn't expect that the reason Guangyang's defenses were so weak was because of the existence of Chan Zhi!

The blood sacrifice was also not due to the Mountain and River Grand Formation, but Chan Zhi's conspiracy. So, although the blood sacrifice was ultimately prevented, the Mountain and River Grand Formation still existed, Guangyang's defenses were not compromised, and the Swallowing Heaven Demon Nest could not break through.

Due to Chan Zhi's appearance, all of Wang Baiyan's schemes came to naught, turning into nothing.

This brings us to the fourth force.

That is Chan Zhi himself.

A practitioner of the Dakini Heaven Dao lineage under Mahakala, who achieved Dao as a seventh-grade, and an extremely formidable expert among seventh-grades at that, even capable of facing both Guangyang Sima and Guangyang Prefect, two seventh-grade cultivators, by himself, killing one and driving away the other.

Guangyang Sima, whom he killed, had become his Puppet, a pawn for him to manipulate Guangyang's political situation, while Guangyang Prefect fled and has not returned since.

But these were not his goals. His goal was the true Shaman Dao method, to balance the Buddhist heart and demonic thoughts within him, and to lay a solid foundation for his advancement to sixth-grade.

Li Qi had now figured it out.

Back then, he had only guessed half right.

All of this was a setup; it was no coincidence at all!

This bald thief had probably been eyeing him for a long time!

These one hundred thousand common people, Zhenguan, the White Rhinoceros Army, and even everything that happened before, were all part of this demon monk's scheme to make him 'voluntarily' offer the Shaman Dao secrets.

When he was going around Bailin Kingdom doing good deeds, he had already set his sights on him.

All these coincidences were actually his arrangements.

He had long noticed that Li Qi was from Shaman God Mountain, so he arranged everything early on, deliberately making Li Qi run into the White Rhinoceros Army, and based on Li Qi's consistent trait of always doing good deeds, he set up the 'blood sacrifice' as a trap for him.

Using the blood sacrifice to coerce Li Qi, ultimately making him voluntarily offer the Shaman Dao method.

Looking at his appearance, Li Qi more or less guessed it.

Chan Zhi clearly had a heart-eating method, yet he didn't use it on Li Qi to directly obtain the Shaman Dao method from his mind.

Although he threatened Li Qi, he never completely tore off the pretense.

Clearly, there were two possibilities: first, he was wary of Shaman God Mountain, so he didn't dare to directly kill Li Qi.

Second, even if he ate Li Qi's heart, he wouldn't be able to obtain the Shaman Dao method; Li Qi had to be 'willing'.

Li Qi felt that both reasons were likely.

If the 'Zhu' book and the Spirit Soul Legacy of the techniques in his mind could be obtained by the heart-eating method, then Shaman God Mountain might as well not exist. How could it have the face to stand in the Southwest of the world?

Li Qi had ample reason to believe that if the other party ate his heart and learned the method, then he would die the next second.

Therefore, he didn't even prepare to learn the Shaman Dao method, but was forcing Li Qi to work for him, to help him research a method to suppress demonic thoughts, rather than directly snatching the Shaman Dao cultivation method.

Tang Nation is located in the center of the world, intimidating all directions.

The Buddhist Kingdom is in the far west of the world, known as the Great Western Heaven Pure Land Buddhist Kingdom.

Shaman God Mountain is also the same, occupying the Southwest of the world, and is a force capable of standing in the world.

The entire world, according to East, West, South, North, and Center, is divided into eight directions and a center, making nine parts.

Shaman God Mountain, being able to occupy one of these parts, would certainly not allow its methods to be leaked. It can be surmised that this monk actually had no way to deal with Li Qi directly; he could only threaten Li Qi indirectly through this method.

So, by summarizing the demands and capabilities of the four forces, and Li Qi's position in the middle, a very clear plan can be derived.

Li Qi used his Divided Soul's Divine Descent to escape while Chan Zhi was experimenting with his methods, which meant he never intended to fight Chan Zhi head-on.

Damn it, a seventh-grade bullying a ninth-grade, a powerful one bullying a weaker one, then I can't be blamed for calling for backup.