Chapter 389: Lord of the Epidemic's body

In a separate courtyard of Imperial Academy.

The two were talking and walking towards the Lord of Pestilence's residence.

They were discussing their cultivation matters, both of them very anxious, as these all concerned their upcoming promotions.

However, the Lord of Pestilence was unlike Li Qi; he was not allocated housing in Chang'an because his range of movement needed to be strictly controlled. After all, even if he didn't want to, some traces he left behind would pose a huge threat to ordinary people.

After all, he was also a Seventh-Rank, a very powerful existence for Mortals. Although he didn't seem like much in Tang Nation, that was because this was the Immortal Realm.

And the Immortal Realm… also had Mortals, so the Lord of Pestilence's Physical Body was restricted by Imperial Academy.

Yes, theoretically speaking, none of these were the Physical Body.

What the two of them were heading to now was the Lord of Pestilence's Physical Body. Only in that place could Li Qi truly begin to adjust the Lord of Pestilence's body problems.

“Li Student, is this boundary you mentioned the source that binds my power? Why can't I still see it, and how should this thing be measured?” The Lord of Pestilence asked Li Qi as he walked.

“This method can only be understood, not explained. I also took a near-fatal risk to inject Five Aggregates Demonic Blood into the five aggregates to obtain this method of observing and calculating boundaries. If you don't have a Divine Ability similar to Celestial Eye, it's very difficult to do,” Li Qi said.

“Indeed… if it were too simple, it would be abnormal,” the Lord of Pestilence nodded, somewhat helpless.

Li Qi looked at the Lord of Pestilence, and to be honest, he was a little surprised.

The Lord of Pestilence was truly… too normal.

As a viral aggregate, he was a bit too friendly, ordinary, and common. He even carefully restrained his abilities to prevent endless plagues from spreading.

However, it was clear that he had always been troubled by this.

Li Qi had already learned about the Lord of Pestilence's specific situation during their previous conversations.

A fist-sized piece of flesh could gather hundreds of billions of viruses. Such a vast number made it impossible to control them as easily as one's limbs. He himself couldn't control the countless escaping forces, so he could only Seal his Physical Body in a corner of Imperial Academy with a Formation, to prevent endless harm.

And for this solution… coincidentally, Li Qi had one.

By simply delineating the boundary between groups and individuals, and then manipulating a large group as a single unit, the required operational volume could be greatly reduced, and the body could be controlled better.

But the problem was, it was difficult…

This large group must be precisely at the boundary between individual and group for manipulation to be possible. So how does one find this boundary?

By brute force?

With trillions of viruses at every turn, how can one brute force?

If it were merely a difference in quantity, then adding or subtracting a little would still be acceptable, and it wouldn't take long to find a barely controllable range.

However, density and arrangement, and even individual strength, are also important criteria for judgment.

Two people can be regarded as partners, judged as a whole, but if two people are separated by thousands of miles, they can only be considered two individuals.

But if two are very strong, reaching Fifth or Sixth-Rank, thousands of miles away are still within reach for them, and they can still be regarded as a whole.

Under these various factors, brute-forcing is almost an impossible task. This is an almost infinite number of arrangements, which can only be optimized through algorithms, not by brute-forcing with computational power.

The Lord of Pestilence currently has some achievements, otherwise he would not be able to control his existing power, but these achievements cannot support his 'perfect' control of power, and some will still leak out.

And Li Qi has a perfect method. He can calculate where this subtle boundary is through an algorithm. Even if the Lord of Pestilence's control is insufficient and he cannot do it, at least he has a direction to strive for, and can gradually gather his power.

In exchange for this, Li Qi's request was that the Lord of Pestilence tell him his ideas about 'Self'. Both parties would get what they needed.

Facing the friendly Lord of Pestilence, Li Qi said, “Then, to show my sincerity, I will first help adjust your Physical Body. If it works, then you can tell me your views on the Self.”

“Actually, there's nothing to hide. Even if Li Student didn't help me with this, and just asked me directly, I wouldn't hide it. It's not a big deal,” the Lord of Pestilence replied.

“It's just that I can't explain it clearly here right now. You'll need to see my Physical Body to understand my ideas, otherwise, I'm not good with words and it's hard to express.”

“No problem, it's only a few steps away,” Li Qi smiled.

As they spoke, the two arrived at a house in Imperial Academy.

Li Qi immediately realized that this house… was a cave entrance.

The Lord of Pestilence's Physical Body required a cave to contain it? That's quite impressive.

The two walked side by side into this cave. The scene shifted, and before Li Qi's eyes… appeared a boundless ocean.

All around was the endless ocean, with not an inch of land in sight. However, Li Qi could fly, so he floated in the sky, observing the surroundings.

This is… a planet?

Li Qi estimated the curvature in the distance. Although it was all sea, as long as he looked far enough, he could calculate the curvature, then deduce the area of the circle, and then get the diameter of the circle, which was the diameter of this planet, estimating the size of this cave.

A simple calculation showed that the diameter of this planet was approximately seven thousand miles, the size of a moon.

Then… how deep is this sea beneath his feet?

Li Qi reached out and conjured a wisp of Jin Qi (Metal Energy), probing downwards.

The Jin Qi (Metal Energy) moved extremely fast, far exceeding the speed of sound, but for a moment, it couldn't reach the bottom!

“This sea is about two thousand miles deep. Besides a rocky core, this cave only has this water,” the Lord of Pestilence explained from beside him.

Li Qi nodded, indicating understanding.

Then… there's a lot of water here.

It was already hundreds or thousands of times more than the oceans on Earth.

“So, your Physical Body?” Li Qi asked.

“This sea below, is my Physical Body,” the Lord of Pestilence said.

Then, Li Qi saw with his own eyes that the Lord of Pestilence's body suddenly disintegrated again.

He 'died' once more.

The countless viruses that made up his body dispersed and then fell into the ocean.

Immediately after, Li Qi understood his meaning.

The ocean began to stir.

The endless seawater began to surge!

Torrential rain fell without warning, and unbelievably huge waves began to churn, far exceeding any so-called 'rogue waves'.

Every single wave crest was as high as Mount Everest, and there were tens of thousands of such waves, constantly swirling around Li Qi!

Beneath these phenomena, Li Qi vaguely noticed a subtle glow within the giant waves.

Immediately, this glow began to spread.

The entire ocean began to glow.

A spectacle so beautiful it was impossible to look away.

Heaven's light, boundless above and below, cold jade inverted, clear ice pot.

Clear waves, ten thousand acres, clean as if washed, light penetrates the Purple Star, soaked in the heart of the waves.

Li Qi's eyesight could only discern light in the water, like a dream, but fortunately, with True Knowledge Dao Resonance, he could see minute details, allowing him to clearly see the light source.

They were tiny creatures in the water.

Endless tiny creatures.

These tiny creatures were all different, varying in form. The large ones ate the small ones, the small ones ate the even smaller ones, and the even smaller ones performed photosynthesis. Countless plankton-like tiny creatures formed their own food web.

There were even some photosynthetic ones, clustered together to form an underwater forest similar to a coral reef.

Along with the churning giant waves, Li Qi also saw that throughout this entire ocean, there were no 'fish' or other similar life forms, not even seaweed.

Everything, everything, happened within these glowing tiny creatures.

Moreover, these tiny creatures themselves were completely different. They reproduced each other, devoured each other, had a complete food chain, with producers, consumers, and decomposers.

This was not a mere cluster, but a… much more complex, interdependent, coexisting ecosystem!

It's just that they were all small, just plankton.

But these plankton had a common 'will'. These countless plankton, countless 'viruses' of different forms, together formed the existence known as 'Lord of Pestilence'.

There was no need for explanation; Li Qi immediately understood the Lord of Pestilence's situation.

No wonder… he said he was clumsy with words, found it hard to describe the scene, and hoped Li Qi would come to his Physical Body to see for himself.

So that's how it was.

Such a situation was indeed difficult to describe with ordinary words.

So… magnificent.

An entire ecosystem larger than the whole Earth.

There were algae-like viruses floating in shallow sea areas, capable of photosynthesis, serving as producers.

There were viruses clinging to the seabed and continental shelf, surviving on mud, sand, and marine snow debris.

There were predatory viruses, similar to copepods, capable of self-feeding and preying on other viruses, serving as predators.

There were also viruses drifting aimlessly in the deep sea.

And deeper than the deep sea, in the even more terrifying abyssal ocean floor, those 'viruses' that had mutated and acquired cultivation and rank by relying on various Qi emitted by the planet in such extreme life-threatening environments.

The ocean of this planet was a full two thousand miles deep. In the darkest depths of the ocean, in the absolute darkness where even sunlight could not penetrate, the 'tiny creatures' there had generally begun to possess cultivation. They began to use the terrain to filter and struggle in the harsh environment, and then transform with Spiritual Qi, becoming 'Spirit Beasts' with ranks.

However, viruses were still too small. Even if they became Spirit Beasts, they couldn't possess true spiritual intelligence, only basic instincts.

Thus… 'Lord of Pestilence' came into being.

Li Qi had already guessed what had happened to the Lord of Pestilence's home world, the Seventh-Rank world.

That home world was probably divided into two parts: continents and oceans.

The life on the continents, in a long struggle, was eventually devoured by the 'plankton', or rather, the viruses, from the ocean.

And the collective will of these plankton, namely: the Lord of Pestilence, was noticed by the world, and eventually transferred as a whole to Chang'an, becoming a Imperial Academy student.

Why could Li Qi be so certain that these plankton were viruses?

Because he could now also feel a certain erosion, an instinct from the Lord of Pestilence. The power he couldn't control and that was escaping was pressing on Li Qi's Physical Body, trying to infect him, to turn his flesh and blood into sustenance for these plankton.

Although with his Seventh-Rank cultivation, the Lord of Pestilence couldn't shake him in the slightest.

But Li Qi was still amazed.

Amidst his astonishment, he also noticed what the Lord of Pestilence's 'Self' was all about.

No explanation was needed. For a smart person like Li Qi, witnessing it firsthand was worth a thousand words.

The Lord of Pestilence… simply had no such thing as a 'mind' to speak of.

What Li Qi considered a 'spiritual entity' crucial for judging the Self was merely a tool for maintaining thought for the Lord of Pestilence. He didn't care about any 'spiritual entity' at all, and naturally didn't need to maintain Self-identity.

“Student, as you can see, the 'Self' you value so much doesn't seem that important…” The seawater suddenly vibrated, and a voice emerged from it.

The Lord of Pestilence did not use the condensed body, but directly used this ocean as a medium to speak.

Li Qi, however, felt a violent dread.

Because, in his Information Stream Vision, he saw countless 'Lord of Pestilence'!

Thousands? No, no, far beyond that number!

Billions, countless 'Lord of Pestilence' minds, all 'spiritual entities' that could only be seen in the Information Stream.

Each of these minds, like Li Qi's Demonic Clone, possessed the same mind, the same memories. Every single one of them was the Lord of Pestilence.

And these 'Lord of Pestilence' were mercilessly devouring and slaughtering each other, killing other 'Lord of Pestilence', and then new 'Lord of Pestilence' were constantly born in this ocean, each one identical.

Just like… life itself.

Life itself is like this.

Constantly renewing, constantly dying and giving birth to new ones, like Reincarnation.

Although these Lord of Pestilence were all very weak, even less than an ordinary person, perhaps unable to defeat a rhinoceros beetle, they indeed existed.

No wonder the Lord of Pestilence didn't care about death and recomposition, because he was doing similar things every moment.

Every Lord of Pestilence was individual, yet they were also a collective. All the Lord of Pestilence combined made up the true Lord of Pestilence.

So miraculous, although the Lord of Pestilence was only Seventh-Rank, he could probably contend with a Sixth-Rank existence by relying on this Physical Body.

Nothing else, large volume, thick HP bar, greater fault tolerance, and greater output.

An entire planetary ecosystem was the Lord of Pestilence's body, no wonder Chang'an praised the Lord of Pestilence as a rare type.

This is… another perspective?

Another solution, another answer to 'I am I'.

Not caring about Self-identity, or rather… the Self-identity of the whole is not something like a mind, but comes from the continuation of this natural world.

To be honest, this even… greatly aligns with the ideas of Shaman Dao.

So… what 'Self' does the Lord of Pestilence care about?

Li Qi looked down at the sea.

He could ask.