Chapter 457: On the boat

Li Qi stayed on the ship for a full seven days.

During this time, the old horse even bred once, and Li Qi didn't even know who the other party was; it seemed to be a wild seahorse.

Seahorse! A female one!

What about reproductive isolation?

Forget it… I can’t ask for too much…

Besides that, Li Qi lectured at least eight hours a day.

The Dao of Reason Reader is an extremely complex and precise thing, and it’s not something that can be taught in a day or two; just trying to seal off the interference of the five aggregates is incredibly difficult.

Fortunately… the Dao of Reason had deeper foundations than Li Qi had imagined.

They actually found a way to temporarily shield the five aggregates, and it was safer than the Five Aggregates Demonic Blood, so they didn’t have to gamble their lives to remove the influence of the five aggregates.

That was the Buddhist Qi from that Great Master of Buddhism.

Li Qi had never met that Great Master, but the first two days they were thinking about how to suppress the five aggregates, and on the third day, Wang Dun suddenly left.

When he returned that afternoon, he brought back a wisp of Buddhist Qi.

That Great Master Jingmo was actually a Buddhist Son; he had Amitabha’s Buddhist Qi in his hand, and he was very generous in lending the Buddhist Qi to Wang Dun to help them research a state free from the five aggregates.

This Buddhist Qi can allow people to enter a state similar to ‘enlightenment’; this mysterious state does not consume Buddhist Qi but can make people temporarily forget the five aggregates.

This state is called… meditation, or rather, Zen meditation.

Li Qi was greatly shocked by this.

So, this is what Zen meditation is.

It should be known that although Li Qi often went into seclusion, he had never entered that mysterious state where his cultivation improved just by opening and closing his eyes.

He always thought this state was nonsense, but the Zen meditation of Buddhism could truly achieve such a thing.

As long as one earnestly accepts the guidance of that wisp of Buddhist Qi, the Buddhist Qi will guide one’s True Spirit to ignore the five aggregates and immerse oneself in a complete spiritual experience.

This is a very wonderful experience, and it is neither painful nor dangerous.

When Li Qi first obscured the five aggregates, he almost died, the reason being that the Five Aggregates Demonic Blood was too crude, directly obscuring the five aggregates and making Li Qi directly face the terrifying information flow from the outside world.

Therefore, Li Qi had to face this terrifying and complex world with his fragile spirit and mind; he had no choice but to construct a buffer structure to continue observing the world and, relying on willpower and mind, forcibly wrote a temporary operating System to replace the five aggregates in a void to take over his body, thus regaining his sanity.

But in front of this wisp of Buddhist Qi, all of this seemed to be shielded; the Zen meditation state was not pleasant, but it was not painful either, allowing one to clearly perceive their own spiritual state and gain many insights into ‘pure spirit’.

It was very strange; Li Qi’s previous seclusion was actually just finding a place to shut himself in, similar to closing his door to guests, no longer talking to people, and dedicating all his time to research.

But this current seclusion was more in line with Li Qi’s previously imagined understanding of seclusion, the kind where you close your eyes and your cultivation skyrockets.

In reality, it was indeed so; after thoroughly experiencing their own spiritual states, they generally gained a certain understanding of ‘pure spirit’ and, with Li Qi’s help, began to construct a formula that could describe pure logic.

This formula was the precursor to the Dao of Reason Reader.

With this formula, the ethereal information flow from the outside world could be transformed into understandable abstract features, which could then correspond to concrete features in reality, thus, the Dao of Reason Reader began to take shape.

After that, it was about establishing a bottom-level protocol for a common language.

Everyone’s formulas were different, built based on their own understanding, and thus unable to communicate with each other.

Therefore, another language was needed for mediation, which meant communicating verbally in the material world, agreeing to construct the same formulas, and unifying these formulas into a single one.

In this way, everyone’s Dao of Reason Reader would be able to communicate through a common language, thereby confirming each other’s spiritual existence.

This was… a rather peculiar experience.

Once one truly understands the abstract essence of the world, it’s not hard to see why the Spirit Dao would consider the material world meaningless.

When pure spirit and logic can denote all material entities, and can manifest all the properties of the material world, then whether the material world continues to exist no longer matters.

Each of us, and indeed all existences in the myriad worlds, are essentially spirit; our memories and consciousness are spiritual; no one would say, if I change my body, I am no longer myself.

People’s self-perception is always based on spirit; if there is only a body, that is a vegetative state, and probably no one would consider a body that only breathes to be ‘alive’ or to possess rational thought.

Nor would anyone feel that after leaving the body, they are no longer themselves; even if they leave the body, the self that is only spirit is still themselves.

This is also an important criterion for the Spirit Dao to judge the self.

The question of 'I am I' is very simple for the Spirit Dao: everything material can be replaced, only the spirit can represent oneself, and the spirit is an absolute abstract expression, possessing unique properties.

The Ship of Theseus is meaningless because the existence of abstract qualities cannot be replaced.

For example, the classic abstract existence: numbers.

Every number is unique.

Admittedly, combinations of other numbers can represent other numbers, such as 1+1 equals 2, but 1 is always 1, and 2 is always 2; no change will occur.

This is absolutely unique; there cannot be two 1s; among infinite numbers, each one is unique.

For the self, perhaps other things can appear to be the same as the self; I am 2, but 1+1 can be the same as 2 in nature, yet it can never become 2.

Under these consensuses, the Dao of Reason Reader finally took shape.

This still has a big difference, possibly even a huge gap, compared to the Spirit Dao’s affirmation, after all, they are professionals and have probably developed a complete System.

But for the Dao of Reason and Li Qi, this thing could directly read abstract information flow and convert it into information that they and others could understand, and that was enough.

For Li Qi, this could greatly enhance the True Knowledge Dao Resonance’s reading ability.

For the Dao of Reason, this perspective could help them harmonize other Dao Paths and examine their Spiritual Artifact from another perspective.

After a week of learning and debugging, the Dao of Reason Reader was finally temporarily completed.

But Li Qi and the others were not idle.

Soon, the roles of teacher and student were reversed.

Li Qi began to study the Dao of Reason, not their cultivation methods, but their philosophy, their understanding of Spiritual Artifact, and some special techniques.

This was also an agreement reached by both sides, an exchange of knowledge.

However, this kind of lecturing had to be temporarily interrupted for one day before it could even begin.

No choice.

The ship was about to set sail, and everyone from the Dao of Reason, including Wang Dun, had to help launch this Treasure Ship and then do some simple inspections and maintenance work, so they agreed to resume lecturing the next day.

At that time, it would be Li Qi’s turn to study the Dao of Reason’s knowledge, but during this free time, Li Qi could wander around the ship or visit the ship’s library.

It had been more than fifty days since he left Chang’an, and he was finally about to depart for the Deep Ocean.

Once he reached the Deep Ocean, Li Qi’s ideas could be implemented and carried out, and he could also help Peng Hai Cauldron collect Ingredients.

The Ingredients Peng Hai Cauldron wanted would not be found on East Isle.

East Isle was just a small-scale operation; the true Treasure Trove of the East Sea was in the Deep Ocean, in the stormy seas and the endless seabed.

Moreover, the True Dragon would also be there; Li Qi was certain that his arrival would alarm the True Dragon, and… perhaps it had already been alarmed; that Flood Dragon might be one of the True Dragon’s people.

After all, besides the True Dragon and the two matters of flood control, Li Qi didn't think anything else could move a Fifth-Grade Flood Dragon; that was a Fifth-Grade.

Under normal circumstances, a Fifth-Grade in the world would generally not encounter any life-threatening danger, because the world prohibits existences above Fifth-Grade from fighting fiercely; this is a rule.

The Human Emperor personally taking action is an exception, after all, the rules were decided by those few, and they have the final say.

Hmm…

Therefore, Li Qi deduced that the Flood Dragon Lord Tianhong was actually instigated by the True Dragon.

However, that’s good too.

The purpose of coming here was this; it’s finally on the right track, hopefully, I can get in touch with the True Dragon soon and end this probing early.

But that would be a matter for the deep sea; for this rare day of leisure, I'll spend an hour or two exploring this ship, and then the rest of the time reading, doing some pre-study.

The Dao of Reason’s collection of books, I’m really looking forward to it.

Thinking this, Li Qi stretched lazily; he had been cooped up in the Doctrinal Canon’s room for the past few days and hadn’t had a good look at the ship yet.

At this moment, the ship had actually already set sail, a distance from East Isle, but it hadn’t fully accelerated yet, so Wang Dun and the others were still responsible for that.

Li Qi stood on the deck, hands on the railing, gazing out at the sea.

East Isle had completely disappeared; far away, there was nothing around, only the boundless sea and the whistling sea breeze.

This ship was like an isolated island, drifting alone on the sea, rushing towards an unknown direction.

The speed of this ship, although not yet accelerated, was already faster than the old horse’s speed; at this rate, it would only take two to three days to reach the Deep Ocean area.

After all, it’s a Fifth-Grade Treasure Ship; this is not something ordinary people can have; if it weren’t for connecting with the Dao of Reason, Li Qi would probably only be able to rent a Seventh-Grade Treasure Ship and slowly make his way there.

There were other people on the ship, roughly four to five thousand; only half were from the Dao of Reason; it seemed they all had quotas and could bring friends aboard.

However, Li Qi found it a bit strange; he had heard the name Great Master Jingmo many times, but he had never seen Great Master Jingmo in person.

He was quite interested initially, but for some reason, he never managed to meet him.

However, since everyone was on the ship, they would meet sooner or later, so Li Qi wasn’t in a hurry.

This ship was only a few miles long and wide; in such a small area, unless the other party deliberately avoided him, it would be impossible not to meet.

Sitting on the deck, Li Qi inhaled the sea air deeply; the salty smell was strong.

The sea was vast and majestic, shimmering with light, reflecting the dawn and the afterglow of sunset in the sky.

That’s right, it had both dawn and afterglow simultaneously, because the sea had no obstructions whatsoever, and the world was a flat continent, so in the East Sea, this place of sunrise, you could clearly see the different glows cast by the sunlight.

The Astral Wind Layer was hidden high in its sky, with beautiful rainbows, countless colors like a dazzling kaleidoscope, adorning the sky; if your eyesight was good enough, you could see the streaks of Astral Wind within the Astral Wind Layer, like countless giant ribbons, dancing gracefully, stretching long rainbows across the sky.

The surroundings were calm and peaceful, with nothing to disturb them; Li Qi had seen all sorts of strange creatures in the shallow sea before, but now there was nothing.

The reason is not hard to understand; after all, this is a Fifth-Grade Treasure Ship; this ship alone can suppress all sea monsters, making all ordinary beasts tremble and lose all will to resist.

Just as Li Qi was enjoying all of this, suddenly, an old man next to him called out, “Young man, judging by your looks, is this your first time here?”

“Yes, it’s my first time in such a deep place, after all, it’s the far ocean, and my cultivation was low before, so I didn’t dare to go,” Li Qi said with a smile.

“Not bad, you know your limits. I’ve seen many young rascals at Ninth-Grade who dare to run into the Deep Ocean, even saying it’s a challenge for the brave, only the brave can overcome the storms, what a bunch of fools… just seeking death. Oh, by the way, can you give me a hand? Help me set up this stand.” The old man said with a smile, pointing to a row of parts in front of him.

“Is this… a fishing stand?” Li Qi looked at the pile of parts; through their shapes, the Formations on them, and the distinctive extending telescopic rod, Li Qi immediately recognized the parts’ purpose.

“That’s right, how can you not fish when you come to the Deep Ocean? A man can’t not know how to fish. Come, help me set up a stand; seeing how steady you are, young man, you must be good material for fishing. I’ll teach you!” The old man said with a laugh, then threw out another stand.

Uh… did he prepare one for himself too?

Well, since I have free time today, I might as well go fishing.

Anyway, the bait and tools were all provided by the other party, and fishing on a sea vessel was only natural.

Thinking this, Li Qi stepped forward, his True Knowledge Dao Resonance quickly scanning the parts, identifying the function of each one, then, in just a few quick movements, he assembled the stand.

However, Li Qi was somewhat startled.

This stand’s grade was surprisingly not low; it was a Seventh-Grade Spiritual Artifact. This old man, at first glance, was only Eighth-Grade, but he was quite wealthy.

“As expected of the Dao of Reason’s ship, it really has some tricks; assembling the stand is much faster. Go ahead and assemble yours too, steady young man; you need to fish to temper your character.” The old man urged.

Li Qi nodded slightly; with the previous experience, he was even more agile this time, assembling it in half the time.

However, after it was assembled—

Suddenly, he felt that the surrounding time had slowed down.

An illusion?