Chapter 580: Power of Star Officials

In the boundless Void Realm, the stars in the four directions twinkled, their light flashing, causing the surroundings to ripple like the thunderous beat of mountain drums, yet there was no sound, or rather… no mechanical waves.

A magnificent stellar shell condensed, forming a giant eye that watched Li Qi from a great distance, like an enraged lion. Empty flowers cast shadows, and solar flares surged, seemingly encompassing a Dharma Realm, its majestic power reaching its zenith!

If one were to say that the Dao Orthodoxy’s ‘pot-in-cave’ grotto-heavens and Buddhism’s ‘mustard seed world’ represent seeing the grand in the small, emphasizing a spirit of “a cauldron boiling mountains and rivers with profound imagery, a gourd containing a world of boundless wonder”…

Then the Divine Dao is completely different; it doesn’t bother with such abstract concepts.

Big is simply big; there’s no such thing as seeing the grand in the small.

A common Star Official, whose cultivation should be Fifth-Rank?

His body was half a light-year in size; he was a world cluster himself! Not something refined, his true form was a world cluster.

No wonder it’s called ‘Divine Dao,’ no wonder they’re called ‘Innate Gods.’

…Li Qi felt that the Divine Dao’s combat power was probably ridiculously strong. It would be very difficult for Cultivators of the same rank to contend with these Heavenly Gods in terms of raw power, wouldn’t it?

Truly, just in terms of the depth of their magic power, the opponent’s immense power was probably… uh, let’s calculate, it should be a hundred to two hundred million times that of Shen Shuibi?

No joke, the difference in the depth of magic power was truly that vast. The magic power of this Star Official could reach over a hundred million times the depth of a common Cultivator’s magic power pool of the same rank.

However… combat power isn’t solely dependent on magic power, and his body is too large, which could also be considered a disadvantage.

After all, moving such a massive body is difficult; the consumption along the way alone would be immense. If the Divine Dao’s body is like a human body, then in a fight, other Cultivators would be like bacteria or viruses.

Though the human body is large and strong, it may not necessarily defeat a virus.

It’s just… the Divine Dao should have a way to compensate, right?

Looking at the opponent’s magnificent body, Li Qi seemed to understand why he hadn’t seen many orthodox Divine Dao Cultivators.

The Divine Dao Cultivators he had seen before were all ‘Mortals attempting to become Gods.’ They were originally Mortals, but they tried to become Gods by gathering faith or occupying geographical positions.

For example, the most common Mountain and Water Deities ; some were human, some were demon race, but none were naturally born Gods. They expelled or suppressed unawakened Gods, then sat upon the divine throne themselves, usurping the true divine position of a region’s mountains and rivers.

And becoming a God through faith was even more ethereal, by transferring something like ‘collective consciousness’ onto themselves, thereby condensing a golden body and achieving the Divine Dao.

This method is truly… how to put it…

A shortcut.

It can never truly touch even a fraction of the orthodox Divine Dao.

Gods are Gods because… they are born that way.

They don't need faith; Mortals actively plead to believe in them to receive blessings, not the other way around.

They don't need to occupy geographical positions, because they are the geographical positions themselves.

Now, looking back, what exactly is the ‘Heavenly Dao’?

When refining the Lingchou Realm’s Heavenly Dao before, Li Qi had already analyzed it: the Heavenly Dao is actually the sum of collective consciousness plus natural power.

Isn’t faith the manifestation of collective consciousness?

And geographical position, to put it plainly, is the power of the world itself.

All the Divine Dao Cultivators Li Qi had seen before were merely clumsy imitations of these two methods.

But for the true Divine Dao, those ‘orthodox Gods,’ there is no such need; they don’t need to imitate, they are the objects that other Mortals imitate.

Gods are the Heavenly Dao of a world that has achieved Dao, all Gods are the Heavenly Dao itself that has awakened its spiritual intelligence!

And higher-ranked Gods are the Heavenly Dao of more than one world. For example, this Star Official before him, he is the collective will of a small world cluster! The lives within his body don’t need to communicate with the outside world; they don’t even need their own will, which is why these worlds are sealed off.

One only needs to be devout, only needs to worship, because ‘God’ is objectively existent, the supreme power that transcends everything in this world.

After witnessing a True God, Li Qi took a deep breath.

No wonder they all say ‘Innate Gods.’ Indeed, only those who exist Innate can be considered Gods. Mortals cultivating to become Gods… truly laughable. How can Mortals become Gods?

It’s merely a clumsy imitation.

Then… are all the world clusters around the Great Fire True Gods?

The two Dao Orthodoxy lineages of the Divine Dao: one is the Celestial Court Lineage of Ziwei, and the other is the Star Official Lineage of the Primordial Era…

Here and now, the God Li Qi faces is certainly a Star Official. So, the meaning of the Star Official Lineage is that they are all genuine stars and world Heavenly Dao who have achieved Dao?

Then what do the Gods of the Celestial Court Lineage look like?

Li Qi became curious, but he didn’t stop what he was doing. He maintained the God-invitation ritual and said to the Star Official, “Greetings, Star Official. May I ask your esteemed name?”

“My name is Xin Zhao. Why does Invoker summon me?” the Star Official replied.

Standing in his position, Li Qi could only see an enormous eye, pieced together from several worlds and nebulae. Faint illusions were visible within it, just like… the famous photograph “Eye of God” he had once seen.

As for more, he simply couldn’t see it; it had already exceeded Li Qi’s visual limit.

Li Qi first bowed, then said, “Star Official Xin Zhao, I am Li Qi, from Shaman God Mountain, of the Invoker Lineage. I have come to visit the Great Fire, but I am unfamiliar with the etiquette and the path. Thus, I specially invited a God for an audience, hoping for guidance from the Star Official.”

“So, it’s someone from Shaman God Mountain. Then, a small favor is naturally nothing to speak of. Oh, I also have a question for Invoker: Do you… know why Shaman God Mountain has the character ‘God’ in its name?” Star Official Xin Zhao’s attitude was very good, but he suddenly asked a strange question.

This question made Li Qi pause; he hadn't reacted yet.

However, the next second, Li Qi came to his senses. This was a test; he wanted to see if he was truly of the Shaman God Mountain orthodox lineage.

So, Li Qi replied, “Just like the inner body spirits, Shaman Dao takes the self as a world, which has a similar effect to some methods of the Divine Dao. This character ‘God’ and the title of Shaman God both implicitly align with the Great Dao’s manifestation of forming its own world.”

This answer, though not necessarily entirely correct, clearly touched upon some deeper information, which was enough to prove Li Qi’s identity.

Star Official Xin Zhao nodded slightly upon hearing this. Then, an unusual gravitational fluctuation appeared in the space around Li Qi.

The moment the gravitational fluctuation appeared, a golden body of a God slowly emerged there; it should be Star Official Xin Zhao’s Incarnation.

Seeing this Incarnation, Li Qi suddenly understood the meaning of the ‘golden body’ method and how the Divine Dao compensated for the disadvantage of its enormous main body.

It was by relying on the golden body.

Li Qi also knew the method for creating golden bodies, but the golden bodies he created were very weak. If he divided too many, his own main body would become weak, and the golden bodies wouldn’t be very strong either.

But… with the immense magic power of these True Gods, creating millions of Divine Dao golden bodies is as easy as eating!

No wonder the Divine Dao can respond to prayers; as long as someone sets up an altar, they can descend anywhere in the Heavens at will, and they even have agreements with other Dao Orthodoxy, such as the Dao Orthodoxy’s God-invitation spell, which can summon a True God’s Dharma body to the Lower Realm with a single word.

It’s not that the God-invitation spell is powerful; it’s that the True Gods’ magic power is incredibly vast, so much so that they have too many Dharma bodies and can easily appear in millions of places simultaneously!

Their main bodies might not be skilled in combat, as the Heavenly Dao, though strong, is easily influenced by others. These endless golden bodies are the true combat method of the orthodox Divine Dao!

This is truly amazing.

Li Qi watched the golden body take shape, sighing with admiration.

The golden body gradually formed, becoming a majestic and valiant man, who then cupped his hands at Li Qi: “Invoker wishes to visit the Great Fire but does not know the way. Then please follow me; I will guide Invoker.”

“Thank you, Star Official,” Li Qi quickly replied.

“Follow along.” Star Official Xin Zhao showed little deference but also no disrespect. After saying these words, he silently led the way.

Li Qi quickly followed, also remaining silent and solemn, flying all the way.

Who knew, this flight lasted a full three and a half years.

In the Void Realm, the silent God’s Dharma body flew forward, with Li Qi following behind without a moment’s pause.

He could have flown faster, but in this vicinity, Li Qi discovered that although it was still Outer Void, the Dao principles were more than one-tenth stronger, and the Heavenly Dao’s limit could only expand to 1.5 times.

Beyond that number, even Li Qi couldn’t achieve further improvement. One must know that in a place like the Lingchou Realm, Li Qi could easily distort space by thousands of times.

A solid and majestic pressure weighed down on the space around the Great Fire. This pressure could even be said to rival the pressure of the Great Dao under heaven.

It came from the Great Fire… not necessarily, it could be the pressure from all the ‘Star Officials,’ which had forcibly solidified the Great Dao in this vicinity, making it impossible for Li Qi to distort it.

In these three years, Li Qi passed by dozens of similar Star Officials. They did not reveal their true forms but all greeted Li Qi and Star Official Xin Zhao.

Li Qi discovered that the Divine Dao had no conventional social system or form.

Because there was no need.

The number of true ‘Gods’ was too small.

This extra-territorial wonder, the Great Fire, only had a few hundred Star Officials, all of whom knew each other, and most were not very talkative.

The lifespan of a world is too long, and for ‘Gods’ who appear as the awakened consciousness of the world’s Heavenly Dao, time is completely meaningless.

These Star Officials were at least Seventh-Rank, which is considered the infant stage. Longevity was a natural thing for them; no Heavenly Dao ever died of old age.

However, Li Qi was a bit confused.

What was the relationship between these ‘Divine Stars’ and the ‘demon star’ formed by the demon race’s enlightenment of extra-territorial stars?

These two seemed to have many similarities; there must be a reason for it.

However, besides the interpersonal relationships of these Star Officials, Li Qi also discovered some less favorable points.

Sometimes, long journeys always require rest. After all, Li Qi wasn’t a perpetual motion machine, nor did he have hundreds of millions of times the magic power reserves like the Star Official before him.

If it were ordinary Void Realm, Li Qi could easily achieve perpetual motion, but here, the Void Realm was suppressed by the Great Fire, even suppressing the Heavenly Dao limit to 1.5 times, so it required hundreds or thousands of times more power to achieve this speed.

So sometimes, the Star Official would open the world barrier and let Li Qi enter to rest and recover his Qi.

Once inside, Li Qi also witnessed the worlds and civilizations within the Star Official’s body.

The worlds that made up the Star Official’s body… indeed had life within them.

But the lives within seemed to have their desires stifled—no, not stifled, but rather… these lives were born into a world with a true ‘God,’ and by simply worshipping the God, they could receive blessings, thus naturally losing the desire to explore the outside world.

Devout followers of the Divine Dao? One could understand it that way, right?

Anyway, it was pretty much like that.

If you insist on asking if they were unhappy? Li Qi didn’t think so.

Compared to worlds like the Lingchou Realm or the Holy Flame World, these Divine Dao worlds were certainly very happy. They were absolutely abundant in material terms and very rich in spirit.

There were probably no people happier than them, were there? They were stable and peaceful, with neither overly burdensome worries nor potential crises.

The God enveloped the world, gently blocking all dangers and hardships from outside. The beings in each world were like creatures steeped in a honey pot, carefree.

Spiritually, they had faith to support them; materially, they had the God to fulfill their needs.

They didn’t even need to cultivate, because the God could directly ‘bestow blessings,’ forcibly elevating their ranks, just as the Heavenly Dao did for the Child of Destiny.

No, in fact, this was the Child of Destiny, because the Cultivators of the Star Official Lineage were, in themselves, the world’s Heavenly Dao after Awakening consciousness.

Everything was so… dreamlike.

Compared to indigenous worlds, the lives within the Divine Dao worlds were typical rich second-generations, and the kind of prodigal sons who didn’t need to work hard themselves, just enjoyed the God’s efforts.

Everyone thinks rich second-generations are useless, prodigal sons, who gain without effort, but how many people don’t want to be a rich second-generation?

If you advise them to go out and strive on their own, they might even call you crazy for disturbing their normal lives.

How to put it, each has their own blessings. Li Qi couldn’t say much. For them, why wasn’t this kind of life good?

If they left the embrace of the God and went out to be self-reliant, would they truly live well?

Thus, several years of travel passed uneventfully, and Li Qi drew closer and closer to the Great Fire.

Another ordinary day passed, but Li Qi was on tenterhooks.

Because the Great Fire was already within reach, only tens of thousands of miles away.

Tens of thousands of miles sounds far, but in Outer Void, it’s basically face-to-face.

And here, the pressure of the surrounding Great Dao was even stronger than under heaven.

Of course, it wasn’t actually stronger than under heaven, but the pressure under heaven was more subtle, strong but imperceptible.

But here, the oppressive feeling of the Great Fire had already caused Star Official Xin Zhao’s Dharma body to begin to dissipate.

However, Li Qi was fine.

Nothing else, he was used to it.