Chapter 578: Reason of Victory

Envoy Pang knew one thing: although he had already unfolded his measuring line and regulated the surrounding Heaven and Earth, Li Qi was still able to infiltrate, even break his spell, and allow that Martial Artist to continue approaching.

This indicated that his origins had been completely exposed, seen through by the opponent, and his intelligence had been completely lost.

It was just that, although he was still somewhat confused now and didn't know how he lost, the fact that he lost was very clear.

However, everyone had their trump cards, and they were all disciples of great Dao Orthodoxy. Even if he was not as good as Li Qi and lost this world cluster, saving his own life was not a problem.

After all, he also had a Human Dao Envoy, and an Envoy had immunity. If Li Qi truly killed him... Li Qi wouldn't dare to act.

To put it bluntly, the war hadn't even started yet, so everyone still had to maintain Face.

In Envoy Pang's view, if he were truly killed, Li Qi might not pay with his life, but there would definitely be more disputes later, and it might even implicate other envoys, or even Li Qi himself, making him a target for retaliation. It wouldn't be worth it, it wouldn't come to that.

Thus, he spoke again: "Li Qi... this time I lost. However, I don't understand, how did you do it? Explain these clearly, and then return my companions, and I will naturally retreat and hand over this world cluster."

Seeing the opponent surrender, Li Qi breathed a sigh of relief.

He actually wasn't entirely confident either, after all, who knew what other trump cards the opponent had? But things couldn't always be done with 100% certainty, that would definitely be too late, so he directly launched his attack.

Fortunately, he succeeded directly.

So, since the other party wanted to know, there was no harm in telling him.

Thus, Li Qi said: "It's just a small trick of illusion. Your Excellency is indeed skilled at controlling thoughts. If things had continued as they were, I couldn't have won against you."

"After all, the people of Lingchou Realm... don't care what the Dao is. And if they don't care about the Dao, and only care about practical benefits, then the temptation of the Spiritual Artifact assembly line is too great. This kind of thing is like a poisoned wine for a world without Dao, a poison that you can't stop drinking once you've had a cup."

Envoy Pang nodded slightly. This was also why he was so certain he would win, so he could understand Li Qi's desire to launch a surprise attack and win with a strange move.

But he still didn't understand how his Dao Orthodoxy's origins, and his current position, were exposed. And also... how did a Sixth-Rank silently refine a Fifth-Rank Heavenly Dao?

Lingchou Realm Lord should have intervened to stop him. How was all of this accomplished?

What he wanted to hear was precisely this.

Li Qi naturally understood what the other party was curious about, so he said: "Refining the Heavenly Dao is actually not difficult. The Heavenly Dao has two sides: one side is the embodiment of natural rules, clouds, rain, wind, clear skies, mountains, water, sea, and land. The other side is the desires of all living beings, the collective consciousness of all life in the entire world, which can also influence the Heavenly Dao."

Envoy Pang heard this and suddenly realized: "So, the recent chaos in thoughts was not only my doing, but you were also fanning the flames, using it to disrupt the Heavenly Dao?"

"That's right. While you were stirring up thoughts, I was also behind the scenes, using the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact to erode the native species of this world. After all, collective consciousness is not just civilization; it actually includes all life. You hid too far away and didn't realize that many species in this world have already gone extinct, and many landforms have also changed."

"The extinction of species, the changes in the natural environment, and the tearing and chaos of civilized thoughts have weakened the local Heavenly Dao to its limit. And this was done by both you and me. If you hadn't fully pushed for civil war, I couldn't have completed the tearing of thoughts so quickly. I can only say that Your Excellency is indeed formidable in manipulating thoughts. I, Li Qi, am ashamed to be inferior."

Truly, if Li Qi had to do this himself, he wouldn't have been as smooth as the other party.

However, this move of borrowing strength to strike successfully weakened the Heavenly Dao.

Envoy Pang shook his head slightly, never expecting... his team's efforts were all for someone else's benefit.

He then said: "But even so, it's still impossible for a Sixth-Rank to refine a Fifth-Rank Heavenly Dao. You must have other tricks."

"It's not that mysterious. It's very difficult, but... I'm used to it, and I'm very strong," Li Qi said.

Back then, in the world where Li Shiwei stayed, Li Qi refined the Heavenly Dao in just an instant.

This was not an outburst in an emergency, but something Li Qi did casually.

Now, it was the same principle for a Fifth-Rank.

To refine the Heavenly Dao, one must withstand the impact of the Heavenly Dao's collective consciousness. The collective consciousness of a world itself has discernible patterns; these patterns are "consensus."

In a civilized society, there are certainly certain consensuses, such as 'moral concepts,' 'customs,' or even 'specific life pursuits,' and so on. These things will all prompt the Heavenly Dao, an existence with knowledge but no awareness, to resist.

But at this moment, the collective consciousness was already chaotic, so the intensity of resistance was naturally lower. Plus, these things became noisy...

This was where Li Qi's strength lay.

He was best at enduring noisy and disordered information flows.

So, in a highly risky attempt, he withstood the impact of the entire world and completed the silent refinement in six years.

The full cooperation of the Human Dao, Envoy Pang using all the wisdom of his team to weaken this Heavenly Dao, plus Li Qi's own strength, resulted in this surprising suppression.

Envoy Pang sighed, then said: "Indeed formidable. Then, how were my origins exposed? This couldn't possibly be something I exposed myself, could it? I remember my actions were very clean, and all traces should have been undetectable."

"Of course, no traces could be found, but didn't you send messages to Chang'an through the terminal?" Li Qi blinked.

Envoy Pang instantly erupted, shouting angrily: "Impossible!"

Envoy Pang's reaction was surprisingly strong! Just now, when Li Qi pointed out that he had been misled by himself and had done Li Qi a favor, he was only regretful and could still accept the defeat.

He could accept one or two failures.

But at this moment, when Li Qi mentioned the terminal, he immediately became furious, even losing control of his emotions and shouting angrily!

Then, he continued to refute Li Qi: "The terminal is a Second-Rank Spiritual Artifact, a sub-body of The Axis of All Realms. You... even everyone on Shaman God Mountain, cannot affect The Axis of All Realms!"

Li Qi rolled his eyes: "Nonsense, I know that too. But The Axis of All Realms won't have problems, which doesn't mean you won't have problems."

"What do you mean?" Envoy Pang asked, suppressing the fear in his heart, waiting for Li Qi's explanation.

What did he mean by 'you won't have problems'? Did he really do something stupid? But he had always acted meticulously and couldn't have made any mistakes.

"Nothing special. Why do you think I would so openly expose the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact?" Li Qi asked back.

The implication of this statement was that Li Qi deliberately used the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact to lure Envoy Pang. With the guidance of the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact, Envoy Pang would naturally find Liu Canzhi...

Envoy Pang understood Li Qi's implication but shook his head and said: "You mean Liu Canzhi helped you? Absolutely impossible! Although Mr. Liu and you are close, he wouldn't fail to distinguish between right and wrong. He would never help you."

"Your Human Dao is indeed very united, but that's true, Liu Canzhi wouldn't reveal intelligence to me, nor could he have any contact with me. But the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact... is alive," Li Qi said.

Yes, the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact was alive.

Li Qi slowly explained: "You see, in order to understand the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact, and its impact on thoughts, you would definitely purchase Shamanic Silkworm Artifacts from the Human Dao and Lingchou Realm for research, obtain intelligence, and then make your next judgment."

"We have eliminated all spells and inactivated them before bringing them in; there won't be any problems," Envoy Pang said.

He was always cautious in his actions and had naturally considered this point.

"Yes, you certainly know that eliminating the spells inside the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact and inactivating them must be done by someone. But when facing Shamanic Silkworm Artifacts from the outside world, you might be fully dedicated, but when facing the comparative samples of Shamanic Silkworm Artifacts sent by Liu Canzhi, you probably wouldn't be so diligent, would you?"

"The result of not being so diligent is that the two types of Shamanic Silkworm Artifacts combined, triggering the spell on them, and you probably didn't expect that spell, did you?" Li Qi said with a smile, snapping his fingers.

At this moment, one person in Envoy Pang's team gasped, and a demonic thoughts suddenly arose in his mind!

He immediately reached out and extinguished his demonic thoughts, but then saw a wisp of Demonic Qi emerge from his body.

"Demonic Dao methods... So that's it. I never thought a Shaman would have such profound Demonic Dao methods. I miscalculated. Then there's only one last question: how did Young Master Li know my origins? Even with Demonic Qi as a guide, you shouldn't have known my origins," Envoy Pang asked, his tone respectful, and he also began to address Li Qi as Young Master.

He was truly convinced of his defeat. Fortunately, he had a means of self-preservation, otherwise, it would have been very difficult to escape.

Li Qi continued: "As for your origins, they were indeed well hidden, but I didn't rely on any tricks outside the game for this. It was simply... recognizing it."

"The Legalist measuring line, from the Guanzi lineage, further with the Pitch Pipes and Yellow Bell, to determine Yin and Yang, heavenly timing, primal stars, and correct the five pitches."

"The length of your Yellow Bell. Taken from the middle of the black millet, one millet width, one change per completion, half for a clear sound, double for a slow sound, the bell length is two feet two inches and a half. The bells also calculate their own pitches, doubled and halved. The standards of measurement all originate from it."

"Seven tones make one mode, twelve modes and eighty-four tones make the grand complete. Declining in Chou, the pitch standard is renewed, from seventeen degrees of Wei to four degrees of Kui—"

This was not over yet, Li Qi continued to speak eloquently, revealing the other party's origins one by one.

It wasn't some strange method, nor any intelligence work; it was purely knowledge.

Because Li Qi himself had absorbed the Dao Resonance of a Third-Rank Legalist Cultivator. In terms of understanding Legalist Dao, he was probably stronger than the other party.

Moreover, Li Qi was originally a bookworm, and now, having avidly read so many books in the Shaman God Mountain's library for so many years, his profound scholarship and broad perspective meant it was probably no problem to say that he had no equal among his peers.

"So, under these circumstances, you lost on this. You didn't underestimate the enemy, but you underestimated your opponent," Li Qi said.

"I am thoroughly convinced. If Young Master does not kill me today, should we meet again in the future, I will retreat three paces to show my gratitude," Envoy Pang said respectfully, bowing courteously. "Please return my companions, and we will withdraw from this world cluster. I will also resign from my position, and this place will be handed over to Young Master."

Li Qi nodded: "That is natural. Farewell."

Saying that, he handed over the true spirits he had captured, and then watched the other party bow again before leaving.

After seeing them leave, Shen Yijun walked over and scoffed: "Is this what you call fighting? It's simply children playing house. Children playing rough can get angry and see some blood, but you formal disciples fighting is truly laughable."

Li Qi shook his head: "Alas, aristocratic wars are like this. Do you think I don't want to kill people? The problem is I can't. You saw that Pitch Pipes Qi; can the old man break through it?"

Shen Yijun snorted coldly and said: "No way, but even if you can't break through, you can't be so polite. That's an enemy. Enemies must fight to the death. What kind of tender sentiment is this? When you fought that Demonic Prince, it was also a struggle to the death."

Li Qi shook his head: "It's pretty much the same. Everyone's lives are very valuable; they can't easily die."

Shen Yijun pouted, and the old man was straightforward, saying: "Yes, direct descendants of great Dao Orthodoxy cannot easily die. So why do you fight? Or is it that only your lives are valuable?"

The logic of aristocratic warfare was that simple: lives were precious, and no one wanted to die. So, it was better if no one died. It was agreed that it would be a contest of skill, and winning or losing was the aristocrats' business, while life and death were the commoners' business.

Just like the chaos of thoughts in Lingchou Realm and the extinction of species brought about by the Shamanic Silkworm Artifact invasion, countless people died for the chaotic thoughts of this Heavenly Dao. Li Qi even personally eliminated dozens of animal and plant species, disrupting the entire ecosystem, just to refine the Heavenly Dao here and turn Lingchou Realm into a sacrificial ground. This way, he gained the advantage of timing and terrain, winning by three points.

Thus, with the support of the Shen Yijun, two people could launch a surprise attack and break through the opponent, winning with a decisive move.

This victory was gradually established over six or seven years of struggle. Envoy Pang left, but the damage to Lingchou Realm... that was irreversible.

That's why Shen Yijun scoffed at Li Qi. If there wasn't even the will to fight to the death, what kind of fighting was it?

Li Qi merely waved his hand gently: "It's not time for a death match yet. This is just a prelude; everyone is just trying to gain a geographical advantage. Sparing their lives won't break the rules, to avoid equal retaliation from the other side."

Shen Yijun nodded at this; he could accept this reason. Indeed, killing would break the rules, and it wasn't that Li Qi didn't want to kill.

It was just that, if the Human Dao was spared this time, then if the Human Dao won in other world clusters, they would also spare the defeated Shaman Dao side. This was an unspoken agreement.

Not harming captives was because they didn't want their own comrades to be harmed if they became captives.

As for after the war began...

Once the battle lines were drawn, there would be no talk of etiquette then.

At that time, even a Third-Rank would fall, and a Second-Rank would not be able to protect themselves.