Chapter 272: Seventh Rank in Sight

It wasn't until Li Qi stood on the streets of Chang'an, looking at the bright lights all around, that he truly woke up as if from a dream.

Then he looked around at the night scene.

Ten thousand fires adorned the main roads, with lights on three streets and six markets.

Cheers for peace echoed, songs filled the air, drunken heroes stumbled, and young ladies strolled by.

Fireworks added layers of splendor, with five hundred layers of towering opera houses.

Lanterns shone brightly, illuminating the faint shadow of the Milky Way.

Drums beat continuously, marking the fading sound of the water clock.

This was the familiar yet proud splendor of the Tang Nation, taken for granted by all its people.

The Tang Nation, a land of flowing prosperity and flourishing brilliance.

Then, he took out his terminal.

This small device could connect to countless realms, easily communicating with another world billions of miles away from this one.

The daily routines that the people of the Tang Nation took for granted each day hid wonders beyond description.

Moreover, this sound… it was very noisy.

Li Qi realized with a start that he had heard this sound before.

It was among… the countless strings extending from the seismograph.

There were countless such sounds.

Li Qi's heart trembled.

He understood, he finally understood!

"The recorded data is enough," Li Qi felt his body.

He put away his terminal and walked slowly towards the Earth Flow Vehicle station.

His miniature heaven and earth began to undergo a slow transformation.

His cultivation, which had already reached the Peak of the Eighth Rank, began to transform.

The Human Dao began to brew within his miniature heaven and earth.

Riding the evening Earth Flow Vehicle, in less than an hour, he easily traveled from this end of Chang'an to the central area, returning to his small courtyard in Chang'an.

Upon entering the small courtyard, Li Qi immediately found a quiet place and began his cultivation.

He began to sort out his miniature heaven and earth.

Inside his body was a Guangyang Prefecture, a miniature version of the real Guangyang.

The principle of its formation was that during the Grand Ritual, a trace of Qi from all existing things in Guangyang, including every person, every demon, every mountain, every river, and even houses, roads, and cities, was extracted by Li Qi during the Grand Ritual.

A trace might seem very little, but in reality, every single thing had a trace extracted, and all these things gathered within Li Qi's body, forming a genuine replica of Guangyang.

This was the origin of the Guangyang in Li Qi's miniature heaven and earth; millions of people, one wisp of Qi per person, hundreds of thousands of mountains, one wisp of Qi per mountain, together formed this Guangyang.

Li Qi's body likely contained a billion wisps of Qi; the types of Qi forming Guangyang were that many, and even one wisp of each would be enough to make Li Qi explode.

The reason he didn't explode was that they continued to operate within his miniature heaven and earth in the same way as Guangyang, instead of running wild and out of control.

The natural operation of a Guangyang, with countless earth Qi flowing, countless water veins flowing, cities, villages, city-states, and roads, all had their underlying principles.

These principles were the 'Dao of Baiyue' that had existed for a long time; all social operations in the Baiyue region relied on this Dao, which allowed billions of people in Baiyue to function normally.

These Qi were operating according to their original 'Dao', according to the 'Dao' originally belonging to Guangyang.

Li Qi was unable to deal with them, so they remained within his body.

The reason these Qi could coexist peacefully instead of directly exploding within Li Qi's body was because they operated according to the 'Dao', and this 'Dao' had been tested for a long time and was suitable for Guangyang.

If he were to dismantle them arbitrarily, causing them to operate without their Dao, they would likely explode.

It was like Wang Mang's New Deal, where changing the Great Dao directly led to a country losing its Dao and collapsing.

Even if Li Qi had a way to dismantle them without explosion, after he reassembled them, with his previous level, it would be difficult to create a more effective operating method than Guangyang.

Dao is the law governing the operation of things.

Everything operates based on Dao; Dao is the law of operation for all things.

Therefore, Li Qi felt blocked.

These Guangyang Qi had their own Dao, and this Dao was very complex; the previous Li Qi did not have the ability to modify them, so he could only let them exist.

If he wanted to refine these Qi, he would have to dismantle them, so that they no longer relied on the Dao of Baiyue to operate, but instead on Li Qi's Dao.

This is the essence of 'refinement'.

To transform the Dao of other things into one's own Dao.

How easy is that?

Is the operating mechanism of a billion wisps of Qi so easy to modify? Most people can't even understand it, let alone change it.

Not to mention the operating mechanism of a billion wisps of Qi, most people probably don't even know how their own village or the street they live on operates.

This is a very complex System.

Why can you buy vegetables downstairs? Where do vegetables come from? What do the logistics and transportation pipelines look like?

Why can you get money for your work, and where does the money come from? What are the laws of economic circulation?

Why can money buy things, work earn money, and money buy things? Where does this consensus come from?

Going a bit deeper, why can this world exist stably? Why do hydrogen and oxygen atoms combine to form water?

Hidden beneath all this stable operation is the Dao.

These laws are unimaginably complex.

It is the 'Dao' that dictates the logistics mechanism of vegetables, the exchange mechanism of labor and remuneration, the mechanism of hydrogen and oxygen atom combination; the institutional rules of this society, the physical rules of this Universe, are all Dao.

The normal operation of society is a manifestation of Dao.

The stable existence of the world is also a manifestation of Dao.

The difference in this kind of 'Dao' is the reason why different worlds arise.

Modifying these things is a pipe dream for ordinary people.

Most people find it difficult even to understand, so it is naturally even harder to seek the existence of this Dao.

They can only go with the flow, living according to the local Dao; wherever they go, they follow the Dao of that place; only a few people can influence the 'Dao', or even make society and the world operate according to their own 'Dao'.

If the 'Dao' changes, then the entire society will change with it.

The Dao of villages and cities are different, so the living environments of villages and cities are also different.

The Dao of Baiyue and Chang'an are different, so everything in Baiyue and Chang'an also has huge differences.

Going into finer details, if in another world, the way hydrogen and oxygen atoms combine is different from Earth, then it will also have huge differences from Earth.

For example, in this world, there are no atoms at all; the world is made up of wisps of Qi.

This is the source of 'special products'.

Why does the Earth Oil Realm have Earth Oil? Why do other worlds not?

Because the Dao of the Earth Oil Realm has subtle differences from them, and it is this difference that leads to the production of Earth Oil; the Dao of other worlds is different from the Earth Oil Realm, and thus cannot produce Earth Oil.

This is where the difficulty of the Grand Ritual lies.

The Grand Ritual requires a thorough understanding of the Dao of Guangyang, a complete grasp of its operating mechanism, in order to be completed.

Previously, Li Qi relied on True Knowledge Dao Resonance to grasp the Dao of Guangyang, barely completing the Grand Ritual, but he couldn't modify it.

Li Qi was helpless with these Guangyang Qi; his Dao was too shallow; although he could analyze the Dao of Guangyang, he couldn't use his own Dao to control these Qi.

That is, he couldn't refine them.

It's like a program.

A person who completely doesn't understand 'Dao' can only use it step by step, according to the wishes of the program's creator, which is the creator of the 'Dao', to use the program's functions and achieve certain effects, such as spells and the like.

If one can understand the code of this program, then one can make some customizations, create MODs or similar things, based on their level of understanding, to make the program more convenient to use.

If one can understand the code of this program and also has a unique code operating mechanism of their own, then this program is merely a material library; useful parts are extracted, and then, according to one's own Dao, a new program is written, and this program will be entirely one's own.

This is the difference.

Li Qi could only understand before, but couldn't refine, because although he could see how the Guangyang in his body operated, he didn't have the ability to write MODs or fix bugs; he could only accept it all, even if it made him uncomfortable, there was nothing he could do.

But now, after long-term study and accumulation of foundation.

And then, having personally witnessed and accepted some methods from beneath Chang'an…

This was probably the Shaman's profound intention in taking him to the seismograph.

After absorbing this knowledge and organizing this information, Li Qi believed he had the ability to modify it.

Because, in these days, he had learned the power of the Human Dao.

No one would think that Li Qi spent his days observing the operating methods of the Human Dao, summarizing various mechanisms, consulting various people, and constantly reading documents and materials on his terminal for fun, right?

All of this was to better understand the Human Dao!

Now, combining his understanding of Shaman Dao, he felt that he was qualified to modify the operating mechanism of the Guangyang within his body!

First… is the Human Dao's labor remuneration mechanism.

A social operating method without profit began to be implemented in the Guangyang within his body.

This method represented lower internal friction.

Then, there was the Human Dao's communication method, that kind of delay-free informational communication that Li Qi couldn't replicate in the outside world; before, he didn't even have a clue.

But now, he speculated on the operation method of The Axis of All Realms, which might not be correct, but it was indeed a clue.

Using this clue, he could replicate a The Axis of All Realms within his body that only functioned internally.

He would take on the task of The Axis of All Realms, using his own body to facilitate the communication of these Qi.

He didn't know how The Axis of All Realms communicated, but the Shaman took him to the 'seismograph'.

The seismograph told him one of The Axis of All Realms's surveillance methods.

True Knowledge Dao Resonance began to be shaped by him into countless strings, thereby replicating a small part of the Human Dao's communication methods.

All of this happened within his body, so he could naturally achieve this.

Next, there were the various organizational structures of the Human Dao, as well as the numerous organizational structures of Shaman Dao.

Finally, there was the classification and responsibility division of the Human Dao's hundred arts, which Li Qi had studied for quite some time.

A Dao path is not some mysterious thing; in fact, Dao paths are very practical.

Every Dao path has a complete set of clear and understandable methods for how to understand the world, transform the world, how to build and how to develop, by no means something profound and abstruse.

Perhaps these things were originally obscure, but countless powerful beings would still spend time trying to simplify them, just to allow more people to understand them.

Making oneself profound will only lead to loss of heritage, not widespread dissemination.

If one wants to spread the Dao throughout the world, how could they play mysterious? Of course, it should be as clear as possible, otherwise, how could others understand and accept it?

Therefore, through his observation and summation of the Human Dao, his speculation about The Axis of All Realms, coupled with the classics Li Qi had read and his own thoughts.

These days, Li Qi's 'comprehension' of the Human Dao manifested at this moment!

Using the methods of the Human Dao, combined with Shaman Dao, and also incorporating Li Qi's understanding of other philosophies, he began to attempt to reconstruct the Guangyang within his body using this method.

Disassemble, and then make these Qi operate according to Li Qi's own Dao.

His miniature heaven and earth must embody his own Dao.

However, there was a problem.

Can Shaman Dao and the Human Dao coexist within the body?

Li Qi had also considered this point.

With the help of the Human Dao's methods, he could indeed disassemble this mass of Guangyang Qi.

So, can the methods of the Human Dao and Shaman Dao coexist?

Li Qi thought for a moment.

Countless Dao paths in the world all exist stably within this world.

Moreover, Shaman Dao and the Human Dao once coexisted during the period of the ancient Human Race.

Even the current Human Dao retains the two branches of Shamanes, Chong and Li.

It seems that they should be able to coexist stably.

Li Qi had also deduced the combination of the two methods for a long time and felt that it should be foolproof.

If worst comes to worst, he still had a save-load divine talisman.

If he was about to die, he would just load a save.

Time passed bit by bit.

Day after day.

This 'refinement' took Li Qi a full five days and six nights, during which he did not sleep, eat, or leave his spot.

This really did resemble an Immortal's 'seclusion'.

But in reality, seclusion is just doing these things.

Seclusion itself is finding a quiet place to work and cultivate without disturbance.

It's not about finding a place to sit down and sleep.

Of course, it's also possible that certain cultivation methods of certain Dao paths require sleep for cultivation.

In any case, Li Qi worked continuously for over five days this time.

Finally, with the help of his observation and comprehension of the Human Dao during this time, plus the countless information and intelligence he organized from the seismograph.

The Guangyang within his body was refined.

'Guangyang' was gone.

In its place was a brand new area of Li Qi's miniature heaven and earth.

Hundreds of millions of Qi were disbanded and then reconstructed.

These Qi no longer operated according to the Dao of Guangyang, but instead gently followed Li Qi's Dao.

This proved that Li Qi's Dao was sufficient to control the Qi of Guangyang.

If his Dao was insufficient and the Qi too abundant, the collapse of his miniature heaven and earth would be minor; he would most likely die from an internal explosion.

Watching the Qi within his body gradually become orderly and regular, Li Qi let out a long sigh of relief.

He used his 'Correct' Dao Orthodoxy to govern the methods of Shaman Dao and the Human Dao, keeping them distinct.

By holding himself upright, the two did not interfere with each other.

"Hoo…"

This seclusion ended.

Li Qi could feel that he was only a thin layer away from the Seventh Rank.

That layer, according to the "Zhu" Book, was 'creation from nothingness'.

Creation from nothingness?

To be honest, Li Qi didn't quite understand, although there were many explanations in the book.

But those explanations were like a calculus textbook.

Calculus textbooks clearly state principles and formulas, and even have examples, but if you don't understand it, you still won't understand it.

However, slowly, he would eventually understand.

The Guangyang within his body had been refined, and Li Qi's power had advanced further, becoming more harmonious, and his strength had increased significantly.

Hmm… the Shaman also arranged an entrance exam for him, it should be fine, right?

Thinking about these things, Li Qi rose from his room.

He pushed open the main door.

It was the morning of the seventh day since he left the hospital.

Shen Shuibi should also be discharged from the hospital.

Time to pick up my wife!