Chapter 549: Commonality

Seventeen years passed in the blink of an eye.

In those seventeen years, Li Shiwei and Zhang You had followed this giant ship, wandering through thirteen different miniature heaven and earths within the World Group, each with its own stories and epics.

However, in Boundless Outer Domain, all epics were commonplace, and all stories were ordinary.

When the scale transcended to the realm of Boundless Outer Domain, nothing special remained special, and no sacrifice was truly a sacrifice; countless miniature heaven and earths, countless civilizations, their lights flickering on and off, yet few cared about them besides themselves.

Nevertheless, Li Shiwei gradually rose to prominence, beginning to earn the title of 'Hero' on the ship.

For no other reason than that in every miniature heaven and earth, she displayed... how should one put it, the qualities of a righteous hero?

From Hunter Sea World onwards, she seemed to have become fascinated with heroic deeds.

She was no longer limited to acting against savage beasts but also engaged in dispensing justice on the ship itself; after one incident after another, she seemed to genuinely uphold the law, using her status and strength to do many things on the ship.

Thus, in miniature heaven and earth after miniature heaven and earth, she consistently maintained this identity and style.

Thirteen miniature heaven and earths, fifteen years—Li Shiwei's reputation had spread to many miniature heaven and earths and civilizations.

As for her former captain, whom Li Shiwei always called 'Leader,' he had become a new supervisor within this giant vessel, so Li Shiwei inherited his position, becoming the new captain, responsible for one-fifth of the giant ship's security.

Her status grew higher and higher, her prestige greater and greater, only...

Her cultivation had remained stuck at the Peak of the Eighth Rank, showing no signs of breakthrough.

Only one path lay open to her: using worship and reverence as her Dao foundation, and through the methods of the Divine Dao, condensing faith to attain eternal life, becoming a wild god.

However, it was impossible for her to take this path; Li Shiwei, born on Shaman God Mountain, knew very well that achieving godhood through faith was a shaky foundation, and an extremely inferior method within the Divine Dao.

It was another ordinary day, and Li Shiwei was on leave today; Zhang You was still at work.

Li Shiwei sat in her chair; by now, she no longer needed to live in a double dormitory; as a captain, she had her own independent area, which was even an Immortal Cave, providing various conveniences for cultivation.

On this giant ship, such areas were rare, considered a captain's privilege.

Li Shiwei sat in her chair.

Her appearance had matured considerably; she was no longer the cute little girl from before.

However, Little rabbit, after all, had cultivation and was also the child of Moon Essence, with an extraordinary Bloodline; even without cultivation, she could live for hundreds of years, so she still looked very young, at most twenty years old.

"Boss, you're still determined not to walk the Divine Dao?" The stone had barely changed, still the same, though its cultivation had improved significantly, reaching the Peak of the Eighth Rank.

For the stone, a thousand years were but a flick of a finger; a dozen years for a Anomolus Spirit formed from precious jade like him were no different from yesterday; theoretically, the stone was born eternal.

After all, its foundation was a Sixth Rank precious jade; it just hadn't developed its true power yet; as long as it slowly developed its potential, the Sixth Rank was almost a certainty.

"Of course, I won't walk the Divine Dao; I cut that off back then, but... I am indeed a bit curious, why haven't I reached the Seventh Rank yet?" Li Shiwei looked at her hand, somewhat puzzled.

"That's perfectly natural, you're only in your early thirties, still very young; the Peak of the Eighth Rank is already very impressive," the stone comforted her, as the Seventh Rank was, after all, too difficult.

Eternal life.

Attaining eternal life, what a monumental achievement must that be? How could it be so simple?

When Li Qi attained eternal life, it was by relying on the Heavenly Demon to take him back to the edge of the Universe, personally listening to the magnificent aftersound of the Universe's creation, witnessing the creation of infinite space-time, with the Universe growing every minute and every second, and new miniature heaven and earths being generated, seemingly without end.

How could Li Shiwei have such an Opportunity? So, naturally, she could only slowly explore on her own.

"Hmm, it's just that on this ship, it's probably hard to get any useful Opportunities anymore; Boss, you've done quite a lot in these past dozen years, your curiosity should be satisfied, right? How about going home? To find Invoker?"

"Although the world isn't vast, it's ultimately filled with powerful individuals; returning to the world will bring many revelations," the stone suggested to Li Shiwei.

"No thanks, coming out as an Eighth Rank, and going back still an Eighth Rank, how can I face my father? Besides, the Seventh Rank is already somewhat within sight; let's talk after I succeed." Li Shiwei shook her head: "If I still haven't succeeded by forty, then I'll go back; Father is already a Sixth Rank, and Mother is even a Fifth Rank; a dozen years is nothing to them, a small matter; if I'm still like this at forty, it won't be too late to go back." Li Shiwei sighed.

The stone, however, felt nothing and continued to remind her: "If you want to find Opportunities above the Seventh Rank, you should still go to miniature heaven and earths above the Sixth Rank, but our route seems to only wander around Seventh Rank Small Worlds; there are no Sixth Rank miniature heaven and earths, that's the task of other ships. Oh, right... Boss, this ship is about to enter its cyclical route; the twenty-year cycle is almost here; after the next miniature heaven and earth, the one after that will return to Holy Flame World, and then Hunter Sea World. Given your personality, you're probably too lazy to go this time, right?"

"Cyclical route... Ah, the next one will be a cycle, huh?" Li Shiwei suddenly realized this point.

Originally, this ship would go to Hunter Sea World once every twenty years to collect goods.

That is to say, the route of this giant ship was to make a cyclical voyage around a specific area, and after collecting a round, it would bring people back to Holy Flame World, the distribution center, unload all the collected items, replace a batch of crew members, and then go through the route again.

In other words, staying on this ship would make it difficult to see new scenery.

Li Shiwei deeply agreed: "Indeed, this should also be considered. I'll go find the Leader right now; he's now part of the management of this ship, so he should be able to approve my resignation. I've stayed long enough, and I have some savings; we should still go out and explore on our own."

She was, of course, still the same decisive person as before; what she said, she did; since it was vacation anyway, she went straight away.

She set off immediately, without stopping.

Many people greeted her along the way, calling out "Li Captain!" and similar phrases; everyone was greeting her.

After all, because of Li Shiwei, many messy affairs on this ship had been resolved, and the merchants traveling with the ship also received relative fairness because of Li Shiwei, so her prestige was very high.

Li Shiwei casually greeted these people but did not delay, quickly arriving at the former stone-faced captain's office.

Knock, knock, knock, a gentle knock on the door.

"Come in." It was still that cold voice; the Leader hadn't changed at all.

He was a Seventh Rank, over two thousand years old; a few decades were far from enough to change him.

However, it was enough to change Li Shiwei.

Li Shiwei pushed the door open and looked at her former captain, now the giant ship's management: "Leader, I have something to discuss with you."

"I'm really not used to it; when did you learn to knock? The last time you came to see me... was it five years ago? The door was kicked open back then." The former captain still maintained his expressionless demeanor, but there was a hint of emotion in his words.

It must be an illusion; his tone of voice and expression showed no fluctuation, but the content made one feel a bit teased.

Li Shiwei, however, paid no mind to the teasing and said: "I've known how to knock since birth; it just depends on whether I want to or not. Leader, after this task is over, it'll be time to return to Holy Flame World, right? The voyage is about to cycle."

"Yes, it's about to cycle. Oh, I understand what you mean; you don't want to cycle anymore. Well, I can apply for you to switch to another ship, a new route, with different miniature heaven and earths this time." The captain seemed to see through Li Shiwei's thoughts at a glance.

Clearly, he knew Li Shiwei would absolutely not go through this route again.

"No need, I want to resign. I've learned almost everything about the Chamber of Commerce's affairs, and recently, I've discovered some commonalities. I plan to delve deeper into this aspect to see if I can use it to forge my Seventh Rank Dao foundation." Li Shiwei waved her hand and said.

"Commonalities? Oh? What commonalities? Tell me?" The captain asked expressionlessly.

To be honest, this kind of communication was quite awkward; the captain could clearly say things with emotional content, but his tone and expression never changed, including his eyes, which were always like stagnant water, making people feel eerie and very uncomfortable.

"It's just that I've now... observed over a dozen miniature heaven and earths and interacted with thousands of civilizations on the ship, some of which even developed on the ship itself." Li Shiwei carefully chose her words and began to explain.

Yes, there were many civilizations unique to the ship.

These two-thousand-mile-long giant ships, capable of self-sufficiency in The Void Realm, could themselves be considered Small Worlds; within these giant ships, some races would even multiply and live inside the ship, forming a civilization entirely dependent on the giant ship, never entering any miniature heaven and earth.

And these races naturally became good helpers and assistants for the Chamber of Commerce; many odd jobs within the ship were done by these races, and they did them better and more skillfully than others; the only thing the Chamber of Commerce had to pay was to let them live inside.

For Mortal races, such ships, wandering between miniature heaven and earths, with a twenty-year cycle, and an expected lifespan that could cycle tens of thousands of times, were even more terrifying than those miniature heaven and earths.

This was Li Shiwei's gain; as she witnessed more and more miniature heaven and earths, Li Shiwei understood these civilizations and races better and better. She developed her own understanding and insights into the history, customs, temperaments, cultivation methods, and unique Dao Orthodoxy of thousands of races and civilizations.

Then, she discovered some 'commonalities' within them.

Some commonalities that all civilizations and all races adhered to.

Whether it was the aquatic races in the sea, the Ore life forms in the earth, plant civilizations, ship civilizations, or the most numerous humanoid races forming various aspects, tens of thousands of races, they seemed to have different life characteristics, different traditions and customs, and different cultivation paths.

However, amidst all these differences, Li Shiwei saw that they all seemed to subtly follow the same thing.

She just couldn't see it clearly yet.

Her intuition told her that this might be where her Seventh Rank Opportunity lay.

Therefore, by resigning at this time, she intended to wander Boundless Outer Domain on her own, seeking commonalities among different civilizations.

This also perfectly aligned with the Dao Orthodoxy she cultivated.

Li Shiwei was a practitioner of Dao Orthodoxy, and the first assumption of Dao Orthodoxy was the existence of a 'Supreme Grand Dao'; all things were evolutions of this Dao, and everything was a derivative of this set of Dao.

The saying 'Taiji generates two polarities, two polarities generate four phenomena, four phenomena generate eight trigrams,' or 'Dao generates one, one generates two, two generates three, three generates all things,' and even 'Nameless, the beginning of heaven and earth'—all these viewpoints originated from this.

As a Dao Orthodoxy practitioner, Li Shiwei's plan to lay her Seventh Rank Dao foundation by seeking commonalities was perfectly valid.

She herself felt this was a very good direction, so she prepared to work hard in this regard.

Therefore, she needed to see more, to explore more miniature heaven and earths and study more civilizations within her lifetime, rather than staying on the ship, interacting with these existing civilizations.

The captain tried to persuade her: "On the Chamber of Commerce's ship, if you switch to another ship, you can still see many different sceneries; there's no need to resign so hastily. It's not easy to find work with the Chamber of Commerce; it's very difficult to get in. You're now more or less a junior middle manager; you should know how much higher your authority is than an ordinary Eighth Rank, and how many miniature heaven and earths have to listen to your commands?"

"I suggest you don't resign. With this position, it's much easier for you to collect epics and civilization processes. Sometimes, all it takes is one command, and they will voluntarily hand over their history to you. If you resign, you'll be alone, and it will be very, very difficult to collect these things then."

But Li Shiwei shook her head: "No, if I do that, I won't be able to distinguish what the commonalities are. Even if I find the commonalities of these miniature heaven and earths, can I differentiate whether these 'commonalities' are brought by the Chamber of Commerce or exist naturally?"

The captain was momentarily speechless.

That was indeed the point.

Doing these things within the Chamber of Commerce meant that these miniature heaven and earths would naturally have a brand new commonality: 'they all have a relationship with the Chamber of Commerce.'

It was difficult to determine where this commonality came from, so she needed to eliminate variables, to see those miniature heaven and earths that had never had a relationship with the Chamber of Commerce, and to exclude all possible influencing factors to determine the ultimate commonality.

If found, then Li Shiwei's Seventh Rank Dao foundation should have a basis.

The captain then said: "Indeed, you're right. Hmm... Since that's the case, and you're almost leaving, I'll give you a gift. I know of a Seventh Rank miniature heaven and earth that has never been involved with the Chamber of Commerce; perhaps it can help you."

Li Shiwei looked up and said happily: "There's such a good thing in this World Group? I was already preparing to go to other World Groups! It has to be the Leader! Alright, then I'll accept this favor!"