Chapter 571: Situation

In Lingchou Realm, after a series of inexplicable and meaningless pleasantries, Li Qi moved into the luxurious single cultivation grotto-heaven arranged for him, closed his eyes, and began to cultivate earnestly.

Even though things hadn't started yet, Li Qi abruptly, even bizarrely, proactively requested a grotto-heaven.

Everyone knew that Li Qi had something to do, and it was definitely not simple.

Lingchou Realm Lord naturally wasn't a fool; she wouldn't truly believe that Li Qi wanted to cultivate, after all, how could someone who obtained an envoy's talisman possibly be someone who neglected serious business?

Therefore, after Li Qi entered the grotto-heaven, she immediately gestured, sealing off any potential perceptions around, and said to her attendant, “Watch the envoy closely. Try your best to meet his requests, but you must remember everything he asks for. Be careful and on guard; he comes with ill intentions.”

“Yes,” the attendant nodded.

Then, she continued, “Oh, and remember to be careful of Clones, especially Clones without Karma connections. He intends to essentially confine himself to the grotto-heaven; any interference will have to be through Clones. Also, be careful to scrutinize anyone trying to gather information. It’s best to use Shaman Dao to monitor all personnel with access to secrets, increase control, and thoroughly inspect all traders, implementing an identity registration system to prevent any possible espionage.”

“Understood.” The attendant bowed, indicating he understood.

After giving these instructions, the Lingchou Realm Lord hurried away from the area, presumably to find a way to deal with Li Qi.

After all, the sudden arrival of the envoy, coupled with the information Li Qi had previously revealed, clearly stated: “The Human-Shaman War is within the next few hundred years.”

Although news of this battle hadn't spread, was it possible that the Realm Lords of these worlds had heard nothing?

In fact, it was precisely because of the Human-Shaman War that she dared to embrace industrialization.

About sixty thousand years ago, Lingchou Realm was still a seventh-grade world. At that time, the main civilization of Lingchou Realm was a humanoid species similar to the ‘forest elves’ in Li Qi’s perception, who loved to live in harmony with the world.

They were nimble-fingered and skilled at weaving vines, branches, and various fibers to create intricate and beautiful fabrics, which they regarded as the art of their entire civilization.

During this indigenous period, after some time, a traveling Shaman arrived here, found them very compatible, and thus preached the Dao to them.

Generally speaking, Shamanes rarely preach the Dao, after all, everything follows natural. If there's an opportunity, then so be it; if not, they don't force it. Everyone has their own path, and each path is part of natural, all slowly operating under the Dao.

But Lingchou Realm was indeed suitable, so it became a world that the Shaman particularly cared for.

Even now, the Magic Robes and fabrics of Lingchou Realm are still its most important commodities.

However, this is the most crucial point.

Commodities.

As this world entered a commodity economy, they were inevitably swept up by things like profit and revenue.

So, the question arises...

Do you cultivate and pursue the Dao for revenue and profit?

Or do you cultivate to increase your strength for the sake of revenue and profit?

To be honest, for the Lingchou Realm Lord, by today, she could no longer distinguish between the two.

Initially, she engaged in commerce solely for cultivation resources, which brought many benefits to the world. The world's grade ascended quickly, and with sufficient resources, her cultivation also began to advance by leaps and bounds.

With resources, one can improve their cultivation.

With improved cultivation, one can then seek more resources.

This was a positive cycle that made Lingchou Realm's business grow larger and larger, as the Magic Robes produced by the entire world indeed had their unique qualities.

But soon, they reached a Bottleneck in productivity.

After all... no matter how fast people worked, the quantity of handmade products was limited.

Production quantity could no longer keep up with demand for goods, so naturally, the growth of resources also entered a Bottleneck, unable to maintain its previous high-speed growth.

No matter how much they improved their techniques, or even cut corners, production could not achieve a qualitative Breakthrough under the constraints of Shaman Dao technology.

Thus, after extensive searching, the Lingchou Realm Lord introduced the Spiritual Artifact assembly line.

As long as the settings are configured and raw materials are input, with just a few people to oversee, then... this rumbling machine will churn out tens of thousands of Spiritual Artifacts in a few seconds!

These Spiritual Artifacts were identical, but no matter how identical they were, they always utilized Lingchou Realm's own weaving techniques. Even with mass production, at least seventy percent of the quality was guaranteed!

Moreover, it completely eliminated the previous inferior products or beginner works. After all, handmade products always have flaws, but these products emerging from the assembly line were completely identical, with no stunning masterpieces, but also no possibility of defective products. Even if a defect occurred, it could be disassembled into raw materials and re-entered into the process.

Perfect.

In this way, with the massive output from the Spiritual Artifact assembly line, coupled with a small number of exquisite handmade Magic Robes by Great Masters, Lingchou Realm made a name for itself. Every day, world-class giant ships would rush here, fill their warehouses, leave behind a pile of garment raw materials, and then depart.

However, the result of this was that too many resources within the world were being collected, causing the Heavenly Dao to weaken somewhat, and the world's Great Origin also showed signs of decline.

But she had already begun to address this, for example, by using the money earned to purchase other resources to replenish the world. At the same time, she no longer used local specialty resources as raw materials for clothing, but instead purchased raw materials from those world-class giant ships.

In this way, the world would not continue to weaken, and the good life of the people of Lingchou Realm could be maintained.

There was just one problem: this subtle transformation... began to influence Lingchou Realm's ideology, and subsequently affected many people's choices of cultivation method.

Unbeknownst to them, Lingchou Realm had gradually transformed from a purely Shaman Dao world into a Dual Cultivation of Human Dao and Shaman Dao.

Originally, the Lingchou Realm Lord didn't think there was any problem with this. She was just a miniature heaven and earth, an ordinary miniature heaven and earth. A fifth-grade world might seem like a hegemon in many places, but only when truly in that position, looking up, could one realize how many behemoths still existed above a fifth-grade world.

Those Great Powers could crush them with a flick of a finger. Of course, they wouldn't even bother to move that finger because there were too many miniature heaven and earths, too many to bother with. Great figures naturally had matters that great figures would pay attention to.

Having understood this, several millennia ago, the Lingchou Realm Lord's own Dao Orthodoxy within her body began to slowly change without her realizing it.

Her Inner World underwent subtle changes.

If it were someone from the world, they would certainly perceive this change, this... change from the ancient times when Human and Shaman separated.

Why did Human Dao and Shaman Dao separate? And why are they now hostile to each other?

Everything has a trace.

But the Lingchou Realm Lord herself didn't know. It was just that the development of Lingchou Realm was a Great Dao, and this Great Dao would sweep many people forward, rushing towards a future unknown to anyone.

An inherent, objective, and unchangeable production relationship within society began to distort Lingchou Realm's original views and their future path.

Until... five years ago.

The Human Dao envoy quietly arrived.

And just like today, five years later, the Shaman Dao envoy arrived in a grand manner.

Today's Lingchou Realm —

Has two envoys.

It was then that the Lingchou Realm Lord suddenly realized that her useless little place, a place that Great Powers wouldn't even bother to glance at, seemed to have become the center of the Dao conflict's vortex.

— — — — — — — — — —

“Sigh, fortunately, it’s not at the center of the conflict, otherwise wouldn’t I have been taken down on the spot?” Li Qi sighed.

Fortunately, it was only a peripheral area.

He actually knew that the other party probably wouldn't dare to kill him; doing so would easily lead to serious consequences, as he was an envoy.

But what if? Right?

What if they just got a crazy idea and wanted to trade their life for Li Qi’s? What then?

A gentleman does not stand under a crumbling wall, so he still had to retreat into his shell and slowly resolve the situation.

Sitting in the grotto-heaven, Li Qi pondered the situation while observing the surroundings of the grotto-heaven.

It was quite beautiful, seemingly customized according to the aesthetics of Lingchou Realm's beings, with various intricate patterns adorning the surroundings, showcasing a special rhythm.

These patterns also contained the Great Dao within them.

However...

“Quite a lot of repetition, machine-made?” Li Qi scrutinized the patterns, a thought popping into his head.

It didn't look like it was hand-embroidered; it looked more like machine-made.

If that were true, it would indicate that his conjecture was basically confirmed.

However, there was still leverage now; the other party hadn't torn off their disguise, which meant they were actually in a difficult position.

Li Qi understood this dilemma. After all, what could a fifth-grade world dare to do when facing Human Dao and Shaman Dao? Unless she truly made up her mind to side with one and directly eliminate the other.

But was such a decision truly something she could make quickly?

Li Qi thought it was unlikely; this person didn't have that much courage.

But regardless of the Lingchou Realm Lord’s courage, that Human Dao envoy was his true opponent. The other party’s vision was also very sharp, immediately seeing that Lingchou Realm was caught in the Dao conflict and attempting to coerce Lingchou Realm into joining Human Dao.

After all, Human Dao had an advantage in terms of material quantity.

Shaman Dao doesn't need that many resources, and they usually don't collect too much, but due to their 'creation from nothing' characteristic, this doesn't affect Shaman Dao's overall combat power. In fact, too many resources can even become a burden for Shaman Dao, as transportation is also tiring. More isn't necessarily better; just enough is fine.

But for these wavering worlds, these resources might be more important than their lives. There are countless extraterrestrial cultivators who risk their lives for some resources, Spiritual Artifacts, and Medicinal Pills.

This is actually irrelevant, but if it happens in Lingchou Realm, there's a problem.

As a fifth-grade world, Lingchou Realm is already crucial in this world cluster and holds significant importance for constructing the battle lines. If Lingchou Realm takes the lead in defecting to Human Dao, then many of Lingchou Realm's subordinate miniature heaven and earths would follow suit.

Perhaps it wouldn't affect the overall situation of the Human-Shaman War much, as there would also be Human Dao worlds defecting to Shaman Dao worlds, and the overall balance would likely remain similar. But for the front line Li Qi was responsible for, it would be devastating, effectively giving Shen Shuibi several more fifth-grade enemies out of thin air.

Therefore, Li Qi could not allow that Human Dao envoy to succeed.

“What should I do…” Li Qi muttered to himself.

His proactive request for this grotto-heaven was actually to protect himself. As long as he stayed in this grotto-heaven, not showing a desperate eagerness to prove himself, and acting as if he truly only wanted to cultivate, oblivious to outside matters, then he would be safe. If he could stay here for two or three years…

Then, the outside might think that he truly came to cultivate, only being forced to handle external affairs.

After all, no one knew him, right? The vigilance of the present might not be the vigilance of the future.

Well... let's do that then.

First, enter seclusion for two years.

However, he couldn't be idle during these two years; Li Qi still had other methods.

He closed his eyes, sensing those who were thinking of him.

Who would be thinking of Li Qi?

The righteous Li Qi, still widely spoken of in Guangyang, and the behind-the-scenes boss 'Li Qi' extolled by various merchant associations, worlds, and races.

Although Li Qi didn't manage things, this merchant association was built under his name. It was his identity as Young Master that supported the foundation of the association, so nominally, it was his enterprise.

Li Qi had also utilized this reverence and admiration before, when dealing with Chan Zhi the Monk. (For details, see Chapter 195)

Condense a Golden Body, and use a Divine Dao method to create a Clone to operate outside!

If it were an ordinary sixth-grade cultivator playing this mind game with a fifth-grade Realm Lord, they would likely be captured and killed, as the other party could even see Li Qi's Golden Body connection and then follow the Shaman Dao to find the Golden Body's location.

However, Li Qi was different. Li Qi was still shielded by Grand Shaman Yun Fang, and coupled with his identity as a third-distant outsider, it made him almost impossible to track.

Even if someone didn't track him personally, but only focused on tracking his Shaman Dao, it would still pass through the talisman. Under triple protection, it would be almost impossible to detect Li Qi's Clone in the outside world.

Presumably, the other party would certainly be on guard against this, as one could never be too careful when dealing with an envoy from Shaman God Mountain. Therefore, Li Qi did not intend for the Golden Body to directly come to this world.

He intended to do business with this world.

Aren't they weaving? Making Magic Robes, right?

In Chang'an Shangyuan, some people still remember Li Qi's first order, the Magic Robe worn by Lingxiao Kingdom Lord, because Lingxiao Flower Goddess's dance was too stunning.

The seventh-grade Magic Robe woven by the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact combined stable production without putting too much pressure on the world's resources, because the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact's own production efficiency was not high, but it excelled in stable quality.

If you were to compare efficiency with something like a Spiritual Artifact assembly line, the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact would truly be crushed to dust. But the advantage of the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact was “stability.”

Just like the stable quality of the Spiritual Artifact assembly line, the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact could easily produce similar Spiritual Artifacts, and their quality was generally higher than those from a Spiritual Artifact assembly line, while also possessing the characteristic of being ‘alive’.

Let the peripheral civilizations from the merchant association, with the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact, challenge the Spiritual Artifact assembly line.

The Golden Body condensed in the distant, uncultivated outer starry sky. Li Qi's business was not in developed world clusters like Lingchou Realm, but rather in pioneering efforts in distant lands beyond the star map.

With the descent of the Golden Body, the merchant association immediately reacted.