Chapter 330: The essence of the magic

Just after the Heaven Demon appeared, darkness enveloped everything, the surrounding time completely froze, all movement ceased, leaving only Li Qi and the Heaven Demon still maintaining their original ability to move.

Li Qi listened to the Heaven Demon, who looked exactly like him, even sharing the same temperament, speak.

Then, Li Qi curled his lip, “I, Li Qi, like to say ‘no’ to those who think too highly of themselves.”

“So don’t say anything more. As long as I stubbornly stick to my path, you won’t be able to deceive me.”

Li Qi simply closed his eyes and mouth, not uttering another word.

But the Heaven Demon Li Qi seemed unfazed; instead, he tilted his head and continued, “However, even if I could manipulate self-will, I wouldn’t do it.”

“Because that would be too boring. A will manipulated by me would be my will, and then there would be no difference between him and my Clone. In that case, it would mean that only ‘I’ am truly alive in the entire world, and everyone else is just my Clone. What meaning would there be in that?”

“Besides, with just my will, no matter how much time and inspiration I have, my ingenious ideas are limited. Only when you all possess self-will will countless exquisite ideas emerge, making this world colorful and keeping me from being so bored.”

Li Qi listened to the other party’s words, still with his eyes tightly shut, remaining silent.

He kept repeating in his heart: I can’t hear, I can’t hear, I can’t hear, I can’t hear…

But the Heaven Demon seemed not to care, still talking to himself, “Oh, by the way, do you know why I pursue meaning? Do you know what ‘Demon’ is?”

“If you don’t know, I’ll tell you.”

“You see, I can easily manipulate all your senses. I can effortlessly destroy your perception and then reshape it. With just a snap of my fingers, I can make you return to your infancy sensorily, let you relive a childhood, and finally complete a ‘Rebirth’. Everything would be as real as it gets.”

“To be honest, it’s not that difficult.”

“Think about it, every day when you return home from the Imperial Academy, looking at the myriad lights on both sides of the road, how do you know that there are really families in those many rooms living their lives just like you? You haven’t gone into each one to see, right?”

“How do you know that there are truly countless people in the world, truly distant oceans and lands, truly so many people and so many things happening? Right? At most, you’ve read some books, looked at some maps. The only foreign realm you’ve been to is the Holy Flame World, and even the Holy Flame World was navigated on a Star Shuttle. Is the Star Shuttle really traveling? Is it possible that it’s just showing you a panoramic video?”

“Isn’t the distant night view just a texture from the games you used to play? The further away, the blurrier it gets, but in reality, it’s just that the resolution gets lower the further away it is. When you close your eyes, do places you can’t see at all truly exist?”

“Even if all these are true, even if you’ve traveled to certain places, that only proves what you saw at that time. When you came back, maybe it disappeared.”

“As for other people, the ones you frequently interact with, at most, are a hundred or so. The rest are either never contacted or just met once, and most only involve audio, video, or even just text communication. Do they truly exist?”

“Look, you were just video chatting with that person named Shen Shuibi, right? How do you know that on the other side of the video, it wasn’t me? Can you tell the difference?”

“So, think about it, if a Heaven Demon, which is me, wanted to toy with you, the cost wouldn’t be that high. After all, the information you can receive is limited—just a few thousand people, a few hundred scenes.”

“Everything in the world can be fake. Since I can easily fabricate your senses, what can be guaranteed to be real?”

“In this world, the only real thing is one’s own will, that is, ‘I’ can be assured to be real, reliable, and without error.”

“Even the Heaven Demon could be fake. The only real thing is yourself.”

“When everything in the world is fake, life is meaningless, all things are meaningless. The birth and death of life are like the sun rising and setting—they have no meaning, they just are. Seeking meaning ultimately leads not to a solution, but to the realization that there is no solution.”

“When everything could be fake, and meaningless, the only thing that is meaningful, the only thing that is certainly real, is oneself.”

“Demon is me, and I am Demon.”

“demonic thoughts, in fact, is meaning. It is, in fact, the scaffold fabricated by all sentient beings, used to support the excessively overgrown and bloated parts of all sentient beings at the thought level beyond their essential needs. Without demonic thoughts, there would naturally be no humanity, and this world would have no reason to exist. Therefore, life cannot resist demonic thoughts; this is inherently part of their existence. Without demonic thoughts to support them, all sentient beings are meaningless.”

Li Qi listened to the Heaven Demon speaking to him.

For some reason, the Heaven Demon actually started lecturing Li Qi on the Dao, and not in an abstruse Dao sound, but in plain, straightforward language, explaining the essence of the Demonic Dao.

The Demonic Dao is not about doing evil. If doing bad things were called the Demonic Dao, that would be too crude.

The essence of the Demonic Dao is to recognize this illusory and false world, and then find the only meaningful thing within it.

That is ‘oneself’.

When everything in the world is fake, then the only truly reliable existence left is oneself.

It’s like being in a huge virtual reality game where you can’t tell whether other people are NPCs or players, but one thing you can be sure of is that you are definitely a player.

So, if that’s the case, and everything in the world is meaningless, only you have meaning, then what should you do?

Of course, it’s… to play.

Since nothing has meaning, naturally, besides pleasing oneself and acting for the meaning of one’s own existence, there seems to be nothing else to do.

Thus, the Demonic Dao began to do many strange and bizarre things.

They were like a group of self-righteous players.

After the Heaven Demon explained it this way, Li Qi suddenly seemed to understand why the Demonic Dao would do so many malicious things.

Nothing special, just for fun.

The Fourth Calamity, a group of players who descended into a game world, have you heard of it?

Those of the Demonic Dao are such a group of Fourth Calamity.

Their actions are completely illogical, not adhering to any worldly rules, everything stemming purely from their ‘original intention’.

Li Qi seemed to understand the logic of the Demonic Dao.

Indeed, if the world truly was as the Demonic Dao described, then the Demonic Dao certainly had its own worldview and rules of conduct, coupled with corresponding cultivation method and spell arts, it could indeed be called a Dao.

However, Li Qi didn’t understand why the Heavenly Demon of Enjoying Others’ Emanations would tell him all this.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t help but think in the way of the Demonic Dao: if the Heaven Demon truly was as he described himself to be…

Then all his motivations seemed to boil down to ‘fun’.

Was it fun to tell him all this?

Was it fun to manipulate him?

Li Qi didn’t understand. He wasn’t someone who could produce particularly interesting reactions, and he didn’t become hysterical or crazy after being messed with by the Heaven Demon, so it shouldn’t have been much of a thrill for the Heaven Demon.

Why would he pay attention to him? And why would he tell him all this?

Li Qi didn’t know, but he still adhered to the sole supreme directive of ‘I can’t hear’, resolutely refusing to engage in any communication with the Heaven Demon, regardless of whether what the other party said made sense or not…

Wait, Li Qi suddenly realized something.

Did he just now think that the Demonic Dao actually ‘made some sense’?

The moment this thought emerged, his still empty human-body Minor World suddenly began to stir.

As mentioned before, Li Qi’s human-body Minor World was currently an empty shell because he had dispersed his cultivation, and this dispersed cultivation was used by him as a hook to fish out the Heavenly Demon’s Dao Resonance.

Li Qi could no longer remain calm. He suddenly opened his eyes, “Damn it!!!”

The Demonic Dao, taking advantage of this moment, joined the framework within him!

Just by ‘thinking it made some sense’, his body suddenly began to operate, and the Demonic Dao silently entered his body because of his single ‘thought’.

A Dao is not a School.

A School is something you join if you want to, and leave if you want to; at worst, you betray the School.

However, a Dao is your body and mind, your everything, the foundation of your cultivation, the source of your thoughts, the benchmark for all your actions; it is the sum of everything you genuinely affirm from the bottom of your heart.

One can betray anyone, but cannot betray oneself. One can deceive everyone, but cannot deceive oneself.

You cannot betray and deceive your own Dao.

Since Li Qi felt that the Demonic Dao had a certain logic, he couldn’t deceive himself either; it wasn’t something he could just discard.

He also knew this, knew that the Heaven Demon wanted to use this point of his recognition to twist his cultivation method!

Not to completely turn him into the Demonic Dao, but at least to drive a nail into him!

However, Li Qi immediately reacted!

One must know that cultivation, no matter what, requires a realistic foundation. He could agree with the views of the Demonic Dao, but as long as he didn’t cultivate Demonic Dao methods… didn’t invest his cultivation into it, even if there was some inner recognition, it wouldn’t show outwardly.

A Dao is judged by the heart, not by actions, but others can only observe actions, not the heart.

With this thought, Li Qi immediately began to save himself!

He immediately began to seal off his human-body Minor World, preventing his cultivation from recovering!

Then, he began to actively collapse the framework within his body!

Even if this would cause his cultivation to completely dissipate, dropping him to the level of a Mortal.

But he couldn’t afford to worry about that much.

Seal off the human-body Minor World, preventing external Qi from flowing in.

Then, shatter the existing structure within the body to prevent the Demonic Dao from utilizing them!

Li Qi knew this might be futile, because if the Heaven Demon truly wanted to do something to him, Li Qi had no right to resist.

But, he had to resist!

He must resist!

Even if facing a First Grade, who knows if there’s a glimmer of hope? What if this is just a Heaven Demon Clone? What if he isn’t the Heaven Demon?

Right?

No matter how difficult the path ahead, he had to do it.

However, what Li Qi didn’t expect was that as he self-destructed, the Demonic Dao instead… started to cordon off areas?

Li Qi collapsed a piece, and it occupied a piece.

No!

This won’t do. This is playing right into the opponent’s hands; this is actively giving up the human-body Minor World to the Heaven Demon.

Li Qi immediately changed his strategy. He opened up his human-body Minor World and began to absorb external Qi, while simultaneously reconstructing the human-body Minor World framework with Human, Shaman, and Dao as its core.

However, when he began to build, he would inevitably need resources from the outside world, different types of Qi, to fill the human-body Minor World.

The Heaven Demon outside just smiled and waved his hand.

From the Void Realm, countless Demonic Qi surged forth.

Li Qi wanted to rebuild his human-body Minor World?

Alright, he would only be given one type of raw material: Demonic Qi.

As long as you build, you will inevitably carry the seeds of the Demonic Dao.

The disparity was too great; no matter how he chose, the outcome was already determined.

Li Qi had to rack his brains again.

Think… observe, and then make a decision.

How could he counterbalance this situation?

Immediately, a bolt of lightning flashed through Li Qi’s mind.

Then, he directly formed a hand seal, sat cross-legged, and chanted, “The Bodhisattva now approaches the great Bodhi-field. Desiring to attain the fruit of Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, to subjugate all Demonic Army!”

“To perfect the Tathagata’s Ten Powers, Four Fearlessnesses, Eighteen Uncommon Buddha-Dharma, to universally turn the Dharma Wheel for all, and make the lion’s roar!”

“To extensively bestow the Dharma upon all sentient beings, to purify the Dharma Eye of all sentient beings with its proper Dharma. To subdue all heretical and external doctrines!”

He wanted to suppress the Demon with Buddha-Dharma!

Li Qi had cultivated Buddha-Dharma for a period of time; he even had one hundred and eight types of Demon-dispelling spells!

All his inner body spirits sat cross-legged, dispersing their divine bodies, emitting a great sound with their Divine Power, their sound pervading even the highest heavens, making a lion’s roar, proclaiming to all sentient beings according to their kind!

Li Qi was truly desperate!

If his inner body spirits were completely dispersed, he would truly become a Mortal, and to return to the path of cultivation would require a hundred or even a thousand times the effort.

Because the inner body spirits were essentially part of the body; if they were damaged, Li Qi would probably need to reincarnate to have new ones.

However, the Heaven Demon still just smiled faintly and gently pointed.

The Buddha-Dharma he had once painstakingly researched and learned suddenly transformed uncontrollably.

Li Qi’s pupils contracted, and he immediately realized what this was.

Buddha and Demon are one!

The Heavenly Demon of Enjoying Others’ Emanations utilized the Buddha-Demon Unity, effortlessly using the Buddha-Dharma generated by Li Qi himself to twist it, mixing the Demonic Dao into it, indistinguishably!

Li Qi was utterly despairing.

There was no way to resist at all. The opponent didn’t even use a spell beyond the Seventh Grade; he just spoke a few words, stirred some Demonic Qi, and then lightly twisted Li Qi’s Buddha-Dharma.

Li Qi’s cultivation gradually stabilized, his human-body Minor World reconstructed, and his cultivation returned to the Seventh Grade.

Only this time… it was no longer a mixture of three Dao Orthodoxy.

But five!

Human, Shaman, Dao, Buddha, Demon.

The characteristics of five Dao Orthodoxy were mixed within his single body.

The Heaven Demon looked at the complex energy on Li Qi’s body with satisfaction and smiled.

“See? Isn’t this perfect? How about it, even in the world, it’s rare to cultivate five Dao Orthodoxy simultaneously. Oh, by the way, you don’t have corresponding spells and cultivation methods for the Buddha and Demon paths yet, do you? Here, I’ll give them to you.”

Saying that, he pointed a finger, and a Divine Sense Legacy pierced into Li Qi’s brain!