Chapter 324: Leisure

After that, there's naturally no need to say more.

Although Li Lieqi was very displeased, displeasure was one thing; she was still very active in learning.

That teacher, Youqi General, left after debriefing them.

Li Qi and the others stayed behind, discussing, learning, and deliberating on the boundaries between the collective and the individual in different grotto-heavens.

This was quite novel for them.

Because... even Li Qi hadn't found any records of such things in ancient texts, so how could these people have seen anything similar?

Therefore, Li Qi used this as bait, and they couldn't refuse.

This kind of thing was even rarer than those top-tier Dao scriptures.

Even these Imperial Academy students probably couldn't easily access it.

Li Qi knew in his heart that this thing should have already departed from those 'axioms' and entered the realm of private teachings that one had to find a way to access.

He knew that to copy a cultivation method, one either had to expend one's own power to form a spiritual Legacy, or write it on Materials worthy of such a cultivation method, with various spells interspersed to assist; otherwise, the recorded cultivation method would only have text, no charm, and would be very difficult to understand.

Because when writing a cultivation method, the most important thing is its spiritual meaning.

Pale text alone can hardly convey a complete spiritual meaning, just as describing a painting with only words; no matter how good the words are, they can't compare to illustrations, which can express more charm.

But illustrations can't express everything either; for a magnificent painting, just looking at a photo, it's very difficult to fully understand where its magnificence lies.

This is life-threatening for cultivation method practice; if the spiritual meaning isn't fully understood, wouldn't practicing it be courting death? What if one's Qi deviated or one suffered a Qi Deviation?

Therefore, it must be supplemented with various Materials, plus the writer's own understanding of the cultivation method, to fully infuse the spiritual meaning into the copied version, ultimately forming a cultivation method booklet that can be taken out and given to others for study.

Of course, there are indeed people who can completely express the spiritual meaning purely through 'characters' without spending extra Material costs, but such people specialize in calligraphy; their practice is the Dao of calligraphy.

These calligraphers' brushstrokes stir wind and rain, and their characters make ghosts weep; their characters themselves can convey and carry so much charm, but their ability to write doesn't mean others can.

Writing ordinary cultivation methods is already this difficult.

Leaving aside things as profound as heavenly will, just looking at the 'boundary' theory at hand, although profound, it hasn't reached the level of an axiom, but it's certainly not shallow and can't be easily written down.

So, when they couldn't get boundary texts written by others, comprehending it themselves was the best option for these students.

There was no other way besides this.

Li Qi's Master is a third-rank Grand Invoker! Even he couldn't get texts about the boundary theory, so it's even more impossible for these people. Third-rank officials aren't common cabbages; how many people in the entire Imperial Academy have a third-rank background?

Therefore, everyone was very excited.

They might not have realized the 'boundary' behind it, but they realized the usefulness of this method for the subsequent Cultivation of Military School of Thought methods!

For this, they were very willing to stay with Li Qi for extra practice, rehearsing in their assigned grotto-heavens and sharing their ideas in practice, working together to perfect this method.

Everyone was very happy.

"Then let's begin! Let student Li Qi demonstrate exactly how it's done first. If you only talk about principles and not techniques, no one will learn," someone suggested.

Li Qi smiled, "Okay, my grotto-heaven just had a battle, so let's go to your grotto-heaven for the demonstration. I remember you're still on the march and haven't reached the front line."

"Exactly, you're not as fast as student Li Qi. Our march is much slower," the others also laughed.

"Let's go to your grotto-heavens first. If they can't handle it, we'll go to those unused desks; the grotto-heavens there also have enough space to try," Li Qi immediately suggested.

This was his goal, but he said it very naturally, without any sense of abruptness or ulterior motive.

The others also nodded, agreeing.

Then, several students joined hands and entered the grotto-heaven together to begin learning.

They learned using the lives within this grotto-heaven as tools.

Just to become learning tools, those soldiers had to risk their lives in battle.

Unfortunately, this was not something Li Qi could interfere with; it was better to honestly do his own thing. If he felt uncomfortable, he felt uncomfortable, just like seeing someone else beat their own dog.

The dog couldn't do anything, and the person was happy.

Li Qi was unhappy, but what was Li Qi? If he was uncomfortable, he just had to bear it.

The exchange of learning began.

While learning, Li Qi began to survey the specific information of these grotto-heavens, silently memorizing it in his heart.

In this way, he surveyed all the grotto-heavens bit by bit.

Doing things, chatting and laughing freely with the other students, and then, under the guise of observing the landscape trends to arrange military formations, he openly surveyed the grotto-heavens. The other Imperial Academy students even asked if he needed help.

Of course he did! How slow would it be to survey alone? Why not use free labor?

Li Qi thus tricked everyone into working for him.

But at the same time, Li Qi felt a little sad.

The concept of 'boundary' alone, just an inspiration, could trick Imperial Academy students into contributing their labor to him.

One of its extended uses in the Military School of Thought could serve as a prerequisite skill for 'using troops like a god'.

Then...

How were those top-tier scriptures popularized throughout the world?

Li Qi dared not imagine what kind of Great Power lay behind this.

Look at those seemingly ordinary scriptures; they are everywhere, even in places like Great Deer Kingdom, one can learn them.

They are ordinary; any Mortal can memorize them and then rewrite them on a wooden board, in the sand, or even on any piece of paper.

Though so profound, even when written in the sand, their essence would not be lost in the slightest.

No matter what, anything can fully carry all the meanings of these scriptures.

They clearly record the essence of the Heaven-reaching Dao, expounding on each Dao's ultimate understanding and goals for this Universe. Logically, such things should require an immense amount of treasures to carry.

However, in reality, these scriptures require no cost; anyone can learn and record them. Even if you don't understand them, you can memorize them and slowly ponder them at home.

Sometimes, understanding one or two sentences can benefit one for life.

It's hard to imagine how those Great Power achieved this, who could write such astonishing masterpieces.

Perhaps, only such people can achieve 'spreading the Dao throughout the world'.

The true Great Power simplified the Dao to a level comprehensible by Mortals, then wrote it down as a product for the general public to read.

How grand a feat is this? And what terrifying things does it represent behind it?

Forget it, Li Qi shook his head.

As always, don't think so much, focus on doing things, honestly conduct research, improve his Cultivation, and lay the foundation for seeing the infinite Dao paths of this world in the future.

——————

After that, Li Qi's life stabilized again.

He attended classes normally every day, even resuming other courses, diligently studying in each of his major and elective courses, and he kept up with the progress, which surprised the teachers.

This student didn't come to the foundational classes before, but now that he's here, he's caught up with all the others? Had he learned these things before?

However, they didn't delve too deeply; it didn't matter.

Imperial Academy students have their own arrangements; not graduating has nothing to do with the teachers. Coming to class is up to fate, whether they come or not, and whether they keep up doesn't matter, as they are not Personal Disciple anyway.

The relationship between Imperial Academy teachers and Imperial Academy students is not that of Master and Disciple; if one had to describe it, it could only be 'just a job'.

Everyone is here to work; teaching is just doing one's best. As for being dedicated... unless a student is too outstanding, so outstanding that the teachers can't bear not to, otherwise, don't expect the teachers to be fully invested in you.

This kind of full dedication from a teacher probably only applies to one student per teacher.

This is how large classrooms are; you can't expect a teacher to take on a dozen students at once and pour all their effort into all of them. How much salary would the school have to pay for that?

So, no one bothered to investigate Li Qi's peculiar behavior.

After class every day, it was naturally time for extra practice.

Everyone wanted to develop in the Military School of Thought, so they naturally devoted themselves wholeheartedly.

The after-class practice quickly allowed Li Qi to record the data of these grotto-heavens within half a month.

The direction of the earth veins, the Feng Shui situation, the characteristics of the grotto-heaven, local customs, and so on and so forth.

Piecing together these earth veins was like a puzzle.

But now Li Qi couldn't see the shape of these puzzle pieces; he could only feel out the shape of each piece first, and then slowly put them together.

This was difficult, but he could accumulate familiarity over time, and he could do simulated puzzles, first designing several similar models and slowly putting them together. Once he thoroughly understood them, he would then truly try.

Then there was the Cultivation of military Qi, and the research with other Imperial Academy students, which also gave Li Qi many inspirations.

Although he was smarter than these students, others were also Geniuses, especially Li Lieqi.

With their collaborative help, this military Qi method gradually began to take shape and could even be reproduced.

Everything was developing in a good direction.

Although this method would eventually be shared by everyone, it didn't matter.

Besides that, there was the matter of the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact with Liu Canzhi.

Here, Li Qi would spend two to three days a week researching the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact with Liu Canzhi.

Moreover, Li Qi also discovered that the 'boundary' approach seemed to be able to increase the complexity of the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact.

Shamanic Silkworm Artifacts are not true living beings; they only have very simple intelligence and cannot transform into demons, so they are much inferior to true Gu worms.

Although their efficiency is higher than Gu worms, their developmental potential is not as good as true Shaman Gu arts.

Li Qi thought of a way: if a nest of Shamanic Silkworm Artifacts were treated as 'one living being,' not calculated separately.

Shamanic Silkworm Artifacts themselves are made up of many small parts, so why not treat Shamanic Silkworm Artifacts as small parts and combine them into something more complex?

Li Qi integrated his recently researched military Qi method into the production of Shamanic Silkworm Artifacts.

It was like individual units combining into small collectives, then treating the small collectives as individual units, combining with other small collectives to form another large collective.

This way, the collaboration method of Shamanic Silkworm Artifacts could be improved, turning many nests of Shamanic Silkworm Artifacts into one nest, thereby increasing complexity and also increasing the types of Spiritual Artifacts the Shamanic Silkworm Artifacts could remember, accelerating efficiency.

The efficiency of a single Shamanic Silkworm Artifact did not improve, but when several nests could collaborate, one nest working was certainly not as fast as ten nests working.

However, they had only achieved simultaneous coordination of two nests for now; any more, and the intelligence level of the Shamanic Silkworm Artifacts would not be able to support it.

Further research was still needed.

But the prospect of this thing was gradually emerging.

It was just that there were still many things that needed further research.

It didn't matter; Li Qi had plenty of time.

Liu Canzhi also wasn't worried about wasting time.

He was preparing to use the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact as the Dao foundation for his promotion to the seventh rank. The day the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact achieved success would be the day he, a Spell Cultivator, was promoted to the seventh rank.

Everyone was very satisfied.

Days slowly passed amidst Li Qi's busy and fulfilling routine.

Soon, about a month later, Li Qi finished his day's work and prepared to pack up and go home.

Busy, fulfilling, stable life.

That's really good.

It would be even better if the rabbit was by his side.

This kind of life was actually the daily routine Li Qi hoped for.

Every day he was better than the day before.

No danger, no crisis, although there were some distant worries, there was no immediate danger.

If the rabbit were by his side at this time, and the two of them planned and prepared for the future together, and then spent their leisure time every day living a shameless life, it would be a life of immortals.

Unfortunately, it wasn't possible.

The resources of the Holy Flame World were extremely important and could not be given up.

If he could acquire this world, then the things produced within it would be able to seek more profit, contributing a little to Mount Luofu's great debt repayment cause.

Arriving home, he quickly washed up, lay on the bed, and Li Qi picked up his terminal, dialing Shen Shuibi's number as a daily routine.

The rabbit had been out of contact a few days ago, which made it impossible for him to ask about the boundary matter, so now Li Qi called once a day to see if she was back.

Li Qi wasn't too worried about her safety, because there was no one in the Holy Flame World who could last a single move against her, even in that world group.

The only slight threat was the Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord, but according to the rabbit herself, she wasn't very afraid.

After all, although she wasn't good at combat, she was still a legitimate Legacy of Mount Luofu, and her foundation was profound.

So, Li Qi guessed that she must have encountered something that prevented her from looking at her terminal.

Anyway, for long-lived beings like them, a month or so is basically just like an unanswered phone call, so there's no need to be nervous.

However, this call tonight suddenly connected.

"Hmm? Yu, what happened a few days ago? Why didn't you answer my..." Li Qi immediately flipped up from the bed.

However, he stopped halfway through his sentence.

Because around the rabbit, there were corpses everywhere.