Chapter 507: Give birth to a child

It's time to return to Shaman God Mountain.

After Li Qi arrived, he and Shen Shuibi communicated again, and Li Qi very simply helped her perfect the automatic Medicinal Pill production mechanism.

It was quite difficult, but since Shen Shuibi had spoken, no matter how difficult, he had to try, right?

Fortunately, studying a lot is useful; after pondering for a few days, he actually figured it out, spending some time to create an automatic Medicinal Pill production machine.

Hmm... however, compared to the ready-made ones in Tang Nation, there's still a big gap, but it's usable.

The people of Tang Nation also mass-produce Medicinal Pills, but... Medicinal Pills are best when handmade by Daoists; the quality difference in mass-produced ones is quite significant. The same Medicinal Pill might have three or four times less potency, not to mention the Medicinal Pill poison. Mass-produced Medicinal Pills from Tang Nation have strict dosage requirements precisely to control Medicinal Pill poison and prevent deaths.

But it doesn't matter; as long as the grade is sufficient, it's more than enough as a prize.

During this period, Shen Shuibi carefully, little by little, transplanted the orchid outside without any damage, holding it securely.

She didn't even put it in her Mustard Seed Bag; the Cloud Disk space in the Mustard Seed Bag is outside the domain, too cold. She didn't want that.

So, carrying a pot of orchids, the two walked hand in hand and left Mount Luofu.

Outside, the Old Horse stretched its body to its limit, reaching a hundred zhang in length, carrying and bearing a pile of Spiritual Artifacts unsuitable for the Mustard Seed Bag, all of which had been plundered.

Li Qi shook his head, glancing at the ruins still embroiled in internal strife below.

Trusting ruins, hoping to make one's Dao path smooth by digging up graves and ruins...

That's unreliable.

Putting everything else aside, times are progressing, so contemporary things are definitely the strongest. What's buried in the ground is only trash and outdated trash.

Without further thought, Li Qi urged the Old Horse, and the group left here, heading towards Star-Mansion Array.

Once they reached Star-Mansion Array, they could directly teleport to Shaman God Mountain.

Leaving Mount Luofu, on the way, Li Qi noticed that Shen Shuibi seemed to be in a much better mood. She just held the orchid tightly, not letting go, probably waiting until she returned to Shaman God Mountain to personally hand it over to Granny Mei before releasing it.

"Does Granny Lan have any messages or last words left behind?" Li Qi asked.

"Hmm... there were no last words, but she left behind something very valuable," Shen Shuibi said with a smile.

"Is that so? Then it indeed seems very valuable," Li Qi didn't ask further, just smiled.

"It is very valuable. I suddenly realized the importance of Legacy," Shen Shuibi said to Li Qi, leaning her face against his back as she spoke.

"It is indeed very important. What do you mean 'suddenly realized'? Legacy is for confirming possibilities. Even those Great Powers, who can be sure they can Breakthrough the cognitive barrier and reach the end of the Great Dao? Aren't they still one by one having their Dao paths severed, going to make mistakes for others?" Li Qi said with a smile.

Yes, the Great Powers are all using themselves to 'make mistakes'.

Great Shaman Mi Xin once told Li Qi this concept, so Li Qi himself knew about this matter.

Among the high and mighty Great Powers, at least thirty percent of them have had their Dao paths severed. Their paths have reached their end. They seem very powerful, First Grade, Second Grade, Third Grade, but... what use is cultivation after the Dao path is severed?

Enjoyment? Do you think Great Powers would care about a little enjoyment? Enjoyment is meaningless to them. Even if enjoyment can cover up pain, their lives are infinite.

The word 'infinite' is very heavy.

Exhausting all efforts to enjoy, trying all sorts of entertainment, traveling through the Heavens, doing both good and bad deeds, acting as one pleases, so what? After hundreds of thousands of epochs, how else can you enjoy yourself?

After all the delicacies have been tasted, all the beauties have been seen, games, sports, beautiful scenery, even learning and training, and even drugs, have all become tiresome, how many things are left to do?

This cultivation is like a coffin. After the Dao path is severed, it means being imprisoned in this coffin, and the future will be spent in countless eons of pain.

At such a time, the only hope lies in a few methods—

Falling into depravity, committing suicide and Reincarnation to re-cultivate, or cultivating successors.

The Great Powers themselves took the wrong path or encountered accidents, leading to the severance of their Dao paths.

They use their entire lives to prove that what they did was wrong, so future generations can naturally avoid their paths.

Then, cultivate a successor, let him take other paths that might be correct. What if he succeeds?

Then this life will have no regrets.

This is Li Qi's understanding of why these great Dao Orthodoxys constantly recruit new Disciples and carefully protect them. However... Shen Shuibi probably couldn't be bothered to think about these things before.

Now that she's been stimulated and has this idea, it's normal.

So Li Qi didn't feel anything, just pondered these matters for a moment, then stored them in his memory and put them aside.

But at this moment, Shen Shuibi suddenly said to him—

"That's right, such an important matter... So, Li Qi, let's have a child?"

Li Qi jolted, almost falling off the Old Horse.

"Why did you suddenly bring that up?" Li Qi's voice trembled a little, but he managed to suppress it.

His current feeling was somewhat similar to facing the Shaman God.

Uh... how should I put it?

It just feels...

Shaky.

"I'm thinking, after you and I, we'll have to participate in the war, right?" Shen Shuibi said to Li Qi.

Li Qi paused, then thought for a moment.

Immediately, he nodded, and his mind calmed down.

Yes, the two of them would definitely have to participate in the war.

The Celestial Pole Golden Elixir Method leaked due to Li Qi. Although this aligns with the thoughts of the radical faction within Shaman God Mountain, it also means that Li Qi can no longer remain aloof.

The leakage of the Celestial Pole Golden Elixir Method means that everyone's only remaining way to obtain the Great Dao opportunity is to seize the main body of the Sun-Moon True Lead Cauldron.

However, the Sun-Moon True Lead Cauldron is currently in the hands of Shaman God Mountain, which was one of the 'advantages' Li Qi had previously estimated.

But this advantage cannot be maintained. Shaman God Mountain cannot secretly awaken the Sun-Moon True Lead Cauldron. The awakening of a Second Grade existence will inevitably be accompanied by huge commotion that no one can hide.

If no one was paying attention, a Second Grade might be able to stealthily hide, but now everyone is watching each other with wide eyes, with even a First Grade personally supervising, and many Second Grades listening intently throughout the Heavens, fearing to miss even a tiny piece of information. In such a situation, nothing in the myriad worlds of the Heavens can escape detection.

But before awakening, Shaman God Mountain can make ample preparations to face the first wave of impact, awakening the Sun-Moon True Lead Cauldron in a safe, suitable, and well-defended place. This is what was previously mentioned as Shaman God Mountain's advantage.

The word 'defended' implies that many, many people will form a defensive line to resist enemies attempting to seize the Sun-Moon True Lead Cauldron.

Among these people, Li Qi and Zhu Fengdan cannot escape participation, as he is already Sixth Grade and also a component of the radical faction.

Since Li Qi is participating, Shen Shuibi naturally cannot stand idly by.

In Li Qi's estimation, perhaps even Zhu Fengdan would have to participate, let alone him, the instigator.

As for how long this impact will last... that depends on fate.

When the Sun-Moon True Lead Cauldron is awakened, several Second Grades from Shaman God Mountain will be waiting nearby, ready to immediately take over once the Great Dao opportunity is released, hoping for the birth of a new First Grade.

During this process, some people will be unlucky and perish during the promotion, but immediately other Second Grades suitable for this Great Dao opportunity will take over, until success, or until all suitable Second Grades are dead.

If they all die, then they can only concede, all losses will be for naught, and Shaman God Mountain will suffer a major blow.

This is also the scenario the conservative faction least wants to see, which is why they chose to be conservative and delay, waiting for the right time to mature.

But what infuriated the conservative faction was that Li Qi single-handedly pushed for the radical faction to gain power, bringing this matter to a quick decisive battle, a rapid start to the war.

However, regarding this matter... Li Qi still wonders whether he single-handedly pushed for the leakage... or if the radical faction set him up to leak it?

Either way, he's involved.

However, things have reached this point, and the conservative faction can do nothing. Shaman God Mountain has unified its opinion internally, and this matter is settled.

This also means that Li Qi's participation in the war is inevitable, it's just a matter of when Shaman God Mountain decides to start the war, and it won't be delayed for too long.

Li Qi realized that it was precisely because she understood this point that Shen Shuibi made this request.

He couldn't make a decision immediately, he just held Shen Shuibi's hand and fell into deep thought.

Participating in the war... will he die?

No need to think, he will definitely die. In a war of this magnitude, even the Shaman God cannot protect people, because the Sages have probably already found their opponents.

Soldier against soldier, Dao Resonance against Dao Resonance, king against king. Everyone has an opponent. This is a competition of overall strength. Even if one side has one more Ninth Grade, that Ninth Grade can become the key to victory in the hands of those peerless strategists.

"Hmm, alright, let's have a child," Li Qi nodded and agreed.

Shen Shuibi seemed to have anticipated this answer, so she didn't show any surprised expression. Instead, she sat back down and began to close her eyes, concentrating her cultivation.

Li Qi knew what she was doing, so he couldn't help but feel a little flustered.

To be honest, he was somewhat at a loss for what to do now.

A child.

He could indeed consider this now, but even with Li Qi's vast knowledge, mastery of a hundred arts, and a brain containing a dozen libraries, he had never personally been involved in such a matter.

He knew a lot of theoretical knowledge.

For example, for cultivators, having children is never about genetic material or gene combination.

Oh... perhaps for True Dragons, because True Dragon genes are truly terrifying, and gene combination has an advantage: there's no limit to the number.

During this trip to the East Sea, Li Qi had already figured out that the number of True Dragons is actually much greater than what is shown. It's just that they seem to want to present themselves as 'True Dragons are very rare', which is why it's like this now.

In reality, the reproductive capacity of True Dragons is not at all weaker than that of the Human Race; if they wished, they could be like the Human Race.

The Human Race occupies the central area of the Nine Lands Under Heaven. In Tang Nation, the number of non-Human Races is pitifully small; almost all resources are occupied by billions of Human Race members.

But the East Sea is the opposite; there are only a few True Dragons, and most of the others are various special life forms, fighting in the East Sea, a gladiatorial arena without any rules, to satisfy the needs of 'natural evolution,' while the True Dragons themselves do not participate, merely watching quietly.

Leaving aside the exception of True Dragons, the children of Great Powers from other Dao Orthodoxys are not limited by 'genes' or such things. Genes and even flesh and blood bodies can be changed at any time for them; this is simply not important.

What truly determines the fertility of high-grade cultivators, like Li Qi and Shen Shuibi, who are Fifth Grade and Sixth Grade, is their own Dao.

Just like the two children born to Empress Luofu and the Sun-Moon True Lead Cauldron, Shen Shuibi and Yang Ning.

Although they serve as Empress Luofu's personal maids, similar to the common depiction of two children holding Spiritual Artifacts behind an Immortal in Immortal paintings, that was merely Empress Luofu's method of keeping them by her side.

The two of them are typical children of a Great Power, possessing a unique Dao Resonance throughout the Heavens, which was directly separated from Empress Luofu and the Sun-Moon True Lead Cauldron.

These two wisps of Dao Resonance were mixed, becoming intertwining sun and moon, and with the nurturing of the two, eventually hatched into Sun Essence and Moon Essence, and then specifically manifested as the forms of the Jade Rabbit and the Golden Crow.

Although Li Qi and Shen Shuibi cannot be considered Great Powers, they are mid-grade cultivators after all, so they naturally need to imitate this process and nurture their offspring with their own Dao.

This method allows for eugenics, like Shen Shuibi and Yang Ning.

Or, like a certain Great Power of old, one could cut a gash in their arm and spill blood, and those blood droplets would instantly give birth to thousands of offspring.

Without even thinking, Li Qi and Shen Shuibi would definitely choose eugenics.

However... there are also choices to be made.

"How will we have this child? Will it be through the manifestation of the Great Dao, or... will we truly conceive one? Just using Dao Resonance to catalyze it within?" Li Qi asked.

The difference between these two... is probably that, in addition to inheriting the Dao Resonance of the two, the child can also inherit the Bloodline of the two.

Of course, Bloodline is not important for cultivators, so many people choose the former to avoid the suffering of pregnancy and childbirth.

Even Great Powers cannot avoid this, because when the child is inside the body, it is essentially one with the Great Power, an organ of the body. This is a normal physical reaction, similar to a 'Dao injury'.

No one is willing to suffer a Dao injury out of nowhere; they might even be caught off guard by an enemy. Shen Shuibi was also manifested directly by the Great Dao, not born by Empress Luofu.

However, Shen Shuibi said: "Hmm, let's conceive one. I think... that way, it will be closer."

"Okay..." Li Qi could only nod at this point.

To be honest, he was still trembling.

The two continued to chat intermittently, while the Old Horse remained silent, speeding up to carry them towards Star-Mansion Array.

However, in their hearts, both began to ponder.