Chapter 468: Enlightenment (Happy New Year)

When dawn broke, Li Qi put away his Ghost Carriage and walked towards the center.

Here, not a trace of Yin Qi could be seen; a colossal Peachwood tree stood at the very heart of the island, its branches and leaves spreading for three thousand li, dancing in the wind, with countless leaves scattering.

Li Qi walked along the roots of the tree, the massive roots like a road.

This great Peachwood tree was simply a sky-supporting pillar! If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes from a distance, Li Qi wouldn't have even realized he was standing beneath this tree; its size was incredibly unbelievable, reaching the effect of 'not knowing the true face of Mount Lu, only because one is in this mountain.'

The enormous roots, possibly the size of a city, intercepted a section of a river like a dam, and these roots, large enough to be called dams, were but a drop in the ocean compared to the entire tree.

Looking from afar, the reach of this great tree's branches was even more vast, exceeding human vision; the huge branches forked left and right, extending far outwards, and when Li Qi looked towards the edge of the branches, he could only see more such gigantic branches around him, these branches were so wide that building a country on them would not be an issue at all.

Walking on the tree roots, the surrounding rocks had huge cracks, and spring water gurgled out from within; trees grew thickly, some towering trees twisted and coiled, while others were even split in half by lightning.

Vines tangled, like green spider webs.

However, such scenery was also magnificent, and moreover, this tree was a great Peachwood tree; Li Qi could see numerous petals on its branches, the vast canopy three thousand li deep, extending a true 'riot of colors.'

Her song-like brows furrowed, her spring sleeves gathered, red blooms and green calyxes clustered on the fragrant feast.

The morning sun subtly revealed the clear glow, as people entering the mountain walked alongside birds.

Gazing at the flowing mist and clouds, the beautiful scenery was endless, a expanse of pure light and pink walls, red shadows on the branches, delicate landscapes.

Li Qi was quite satisfied with such scenery, and at the same time, his heart grew even more puzzled.

During the day, it was natural scenery.

At night, it was filled with bursts of Yin Qi.

How was such a switch accomplished? Did the Pao Qiu Association also master this method, allowing them to seamlessly transport Li Weng?

Forget it, don't think about these, they are minor matters; he already had that Ghost Carriage in his hand, and once he refined it, he could try using the Ghost Carriage's traversal ability to test it; he imagined the answer wouldn't be too difficult to find.

Thinking this, Li Qi quickened his pace, manipulating the wind to rise into the air, drawing ripples in the sky, stepping on the constantly falling peach blossoms, and swiftly rushing towards the great Peachwood tree.

In this scene, with peach blossoms fluttering and someone floating, treading on flowers and walking in the void, if seen by ordinary mortals, it would probably become another legend of an immortal's trace.

Unfortunately, in Mount Dushuo, there were no ordinary mortals.

Li Qi could even see other streaks of light and various Spiritual Artifacts, most of which had a strong Dao of Reason style, indicating that everyone had their own affairs after disembarking, fulfilling their goals on Mount Dushuo; Li Qi was not conspicuous among them.

Actually, he was quite conspicuous, because walking on flowers in the void looked very cool, but was actually very foolish; directly controlling a streak of light was much faster.

But there was no helping it; Li Qi felt this was cooler, and anyway, it was only three thousand li, it wouldn't delay him for long; he just regretted not bringing Old Ma down.

Earlier, he thought there might be danger, so he left Old Ma on the ship; now that he thought about it, bringing him along should have been fine; Mount Dushuo, theoretically speaking, should still be very safe for the members of their research vessel, as it had the Divine Qi protection of a fifth-grade Treasure Ship, and the Ghost Market could not harm him.

Drifting along like this for one or two hours, Li Qi finally arrived at the center of Mount Dushuo, on the main trunk of that great Peachwood tree.

Upon arriving here, he couldn't see the so-called 'main trunk' at all.

Li Qi only felt as if he was in a giant forest, but this forest was three-dimensional; the ground beneath his feet was a tree trunk, beside him were tree trunks, and above his head were still tree trunks.

The entire world was filled and made of woody tissue, and massive amounts of Yang Qi and Wood Qi gushed out, making one feel uncomfortable all over.

Wood Qi and Yang Qi were both symbols of vitality, but too intense a concentration would make one feel like they were suffering from heatstroke.

Like the sun, it was a pure condensation of Yang Qi; far away, it was the source of life, but close up, it would scald one to death.

However, Li Qi was, after all, a seventh-grade Martial Artist, so although he was uncomfortable, there was no danger.

Standing on the trunk of the great Peachwood tree, Li Qi closed his eyes and quietly felt the Yang Qi, Wood Qi, and the intense Life Qi emanating from behind these Qi, gushing out from this place.

How wonderful.

The location of the Ghost Gate, a place of extreme Yin, yet possessed such intense Yang Qi.

Just like the Yellow Springs.

The Yellow Springs, as the source water of the Underworld, was itself quite intense Yang Qi; as mentioned before: "Below the Yellow Springs, all things are crimson.

Crimson is the Qi of flourishing Yang, hence the Yin of extreme Yang." (See Chapter 457 for details)

The principle of Yin and Yang complementing each other seemed to be embodied in these places.

Even attributes as fundamentally conflicting as Yin Qi and Yang Qi could complement and generate each other; Li Qi felt that the Dao struggle within himself should also be possible.

Just like the Taiji diagram of the Dao sect.

Thinking these thoughts, Li Qi suddenly felt a certain operation.

Life Qi and Yang Qi continuously permeated the great Peachwood tree.

Death Qi and Yin Qi, on the other hand, accumulated at the root of the great Peachwood tree.

This was the Reincarnation of life and death, just like the rotating Yin and Yang fish on the Taiji diagram.

"The six paths of Reincarnation, the cycle of life and death, the flow of Yin and Yang, is this related to the natural rotation pursued by Shaman Dao? Is the four seasons of Heaven also a kind of rotation?"

Li Qi fell into deep thought.

The four seasons of Heaven, spring, summer, autumn, and winter, could be said to be one of the foundations of Shaman Dao's Dao; when Li Qi first entered the ninth grade, he needed to collect the Qi of the four seasons, sacrifice to the Heavenly Gods of the four directions to obtain the corresponding seasonal Qi, used to open up and stabilize his personal small heaven and earth.

The rotation of the four seasons, the rotation of life and death, the rotation of Yin and Yang...

Rotation...

Li Qi suddenly felt a sense of awe from the 'Dao'; he seemed to clearly perceive the process of Yin and Yang Qi transformation.

Therefore, he immediately used the power of 'boundaries' to examine the 'boundaries' of this rotational change.

Since there was a process of rotation, there must be a boundary of change, the boundary at the moment of transformation of spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

He felt it, the existence of this rotational boundary.

He simply sat down and began to analyze, identify, contemplate, and understand.

"The so-called rotation, it turns out, is like this." Li Qi suddenly realized that he had unconsciously overlooked a very important thing on his cultivation path.

The so-called rotation was not mysterious; on the contrary, rotation was an extremely real, extremely common fundamental property of matter.

Even chopping wood and lighting a fire was part of the transformation.

The human body also constantly converts food or other things into needed energy at any time and anywhere.

All things, at every moment, were constantly transforming their forms, because the essence of transformation was actually mutual influence.

That's right, 'mutual influence' was the essence of transformation; every substance could not completely maintain its self, they would inevitably be affected by other things around them, and at the same time, they themselves were also influencing other things.

This included humans themselves; while humans transformed nature, they also accepted nature's transformation.

Of course, the Human Dao might hold different views on this, but for Li Qi, a Shaman, this mutual influence was a very natural and easy-to-understand matter.

In the mutual influence and rotation of all things, all things reached a 'subtle balance,' producing a dynamic static state.

This subtle balance was the so-called 'Law.'

The four seasons of Heaven, the five Qi of Earth, were all like this.

If this mutual influence reached a state one desired...

Li Qi raised his hand, and tens of thousands of Qi suddenly appeared around him.

These Qi were the Materials; Li Qi had learned tens of thousands of spells, with various different effects, but their essence was the same, which was to use these Qi as Materials; different Qi had different properties, and when combined, they would have other properties, just like machinery; as long as different mechanical modules were assembled together, various strange machines could be made.

The only difference was that machinery required physical Materials to be combined, while spells could directly call upon the Qi within the body.

Similar to... ordinary people using guns needing to prepare physical Materials like guns and ammunition, while a gun directly assembled by a spell could be hidden within the body and called out at any time through the spell.

The source of great power coming from oneself was actually just installing large engineering machinery into the body, and having enough energy to drive these spells; there was nothing mysterious about it; if a person could summon a dump truck at any time and anywhere, he could also achieve great power from himself.

But this was not the point.

The point was that the way these Qi formed spells was a 'mutual influence' that produced a wonderful result, just like a chemical reaction, producing different products, and thus having different effects.

Just now, Li Qi realized this subtle reaction produced by mutual influence.

So, he released these Qi.

At the same time, he began to transform these Qi; if the essence of rotation was mutual influence, leading to a dynamic balance, then for Shaman Dao, this could become an important method.

As a Shaman, almost all of Li Qi's methods and spells were based on the influence of Qi on the external world; Shamanes would use various methods to catalyze these Qi, allowing the Qi to produce additional and greater influence on the external world, such as the typical practice of sticking needles into straw figures, this curse method, which was actually through the Qi of blood, hair, etc., wrapped around the straw, to influence the main body of the Qi, which was his enemy.

Was this also part of the transformation?

Li Qi needed empirical evidence.

Massive amounts of Qi filled the surroundings.

Spring's joy Qi causes birth, autumn's anger Qi causes death, summer's joy Qi causes nourishment, winter's sorrow Qi causes storage; these four are common to Heaven and man.

Things are moved by Qi. The movement of Divine Qi is subtle, indeed. When the sun and moon are eclipsed, rainbows appear in daylight, the five planets cross each other, the four seasons overlap, water dries up and mountains collapse, night light appears in day, stones speak and dogs sicken, summer frost and winter thunder—the movement of Divine Qi is subtle, indeed. Therefore, it is said that Heaven and man have a way to communicate, and this is what it means.

Li Qi once again felt the correspondence between the personal small heaven and earth and the external great heaven and earth, and in the Fusion and transformation of countless Qi, he grasped a certain Law.

Tens of thousands of Qi floated around Li Qi, changing with his movements; each of his movements would cause different Qi to produce different effects.

Hundreds of thousands of Qi produced over ten million different effects; Li Qi's hand stirred among these Qi, constantly combining new Qi, probing the different manifestations of the 'flow' property, calculating and feeling the Qi of the earth, the Qi of wind and thunder, the flowing forms of myriad Qi, the birth of all things from dew, the Qi of mind, the Qi of nature, Life Qi, soul Qi, Divine Qi, heavenly Qi, earthly Qi, the Qi of mountains and rivers, human breath, which is like the rubbing of hard and soft, the opening and closing of heaven and earth, one contraction and one expansion, mutually influencing each other, by which humans are born, and by which heaven and earth endlessly give birth to humans and things, the cavities and meridians, the appearance of rivers and valleys, this is the subtle movement of Yin and Yang, moving to form a single movement and a single stillness.

After a full four hours, he opened his eyes and tentatively opened his hands.

Countless Qi, hundreds of thousands of types, separated, each wisp clearly distinct, no longer producing 'disturbances' and 'influences,' meaning that the flow of these Qi disappeared, turning into individual, independent existences.

Immediately after, Li Qi clenched his hands.

With a bang! These Qi all furiously fused, compressed, and even swallowed each other!

The Qi compressed in this way began to become chaotic, losing their original properties, and transforming into another kind of Qi that Li Qi was familiar with—

Martial Dao Inner Qi!

Li Qi used the method of flow to forcefully create Martial Dao Inner Qi!

But these Martial Dao Inner Qi were completely uncontrollable, even more violent than the Qi of all the Martial Artists Li Qi had seen; he couldn't control them further, and with a rumble! A large amount of Qi directly exploded, scattering around, stirring up countless storms, thunder reverberated for tens of li, and the wind blades scraped by the Qi waves cut countless marks on the tree bark, but did not cut off any tree trunks.

The explosion of a seventh-grade Martial Artist was still far from enough to damage this great Peachwood tree.

But Li Qi smiled at this moment.

"Indeed, the Dao of flow can control and influence the properties of Qi, giving it a considerable advantage in spell construction; it's truly an unexpected gain. Observing the Ghost Gate at such close proximity indeed yields rewards. If I can master this method of flow, will I be able to comprehend the Dao of 'Taiji' from it?" Li Qi muttered to himself.

It could be considered that he had learned some new things, which was good.

Having learned the Dao of flow, he might be able to explore more deeply in the future.

At that time, Taiji, the heavenly timing, and even deeper Dao, should also appear.

Life truly always has unexpected gains; it's always good to go out and see more.

Since he had already gained something and had reached the branches of the great Peachwood tree, it was time to begin the sacrifice.

Having prepared the altar and taken out the prepared offerings, right on this great Peachwood tree, Li Qi began the ritual of sacrificing to Shen Tu Yu Lei.

(Happy New Year, brothers. A new year.)

(I'll take a day off tomorrow. I've been feeling a bit brain-fogged lately. I feel like my intelligence and energy have been severely depleted after getting sick. I need to recover.)