Chapter 634: The war of the second rank

Li Qi was ordered to return to the rear, without even a chance to say much to Shen Shuibi and Li Shiwei; he could only hastily entrust Li Shiwei to Shen Shuibi, give a few quick instructions, and then leave.

He didn't even have time to celebrate the victory of the Vanguard Battle, and his agreed conversation with the Demonic Prince had to be cut short as he immediately embarked on his journey.

If he had to guess...

Could it be related to the Demonic Dao?

It was very likely, especially since he was the one who directly bore the gaze of the Heavenly Demon.

But... he was a little worried, after all, after the war ended, Li Shiwei and Shen Shuibi, the mother and daughter, were still on the front lines.

Although the Vanguard Battle was over, the Human-Shaman War had just begun...

Carrying this worry, Li Qi embarked on his journey.

This journey wasn't long, only two or three days, but during those two or three days, two Star-Mansion Array shattered.

It was the first time Li Qi knew that Star-Mansion Array' transmission also had a distance limit.

Because in the past, when Li Qi interacted with Star-Mansion Array, although Star-Mansion Array had a carrying limit, it was basically a limit on the number of people and quality; transmitting tens of thousands of worlds would severely overload them, and the Star-Mansion Array in Li Qi's possession couldn't really handle transmissions above Fourth Rank.

It seemed that this was considered during the design; they never thought of letting existences above Fourth Rank use them.

But transmitting one person, the Star-Mansion Array' ability seemed limitless, capable of directly transmitting from the world to the Dipper constellation, and without any pressure at all.

The distance in between was calculated in hundreds of billions of light-years... yet Star-Mansion Array felt no pressure.

But at this moment, Li Qi finally realized that if the transmission distance was too far, Star-Mansion Array would also collapse.

He didn't even know where he was transmitted to; this direction had no trace on the Star-Mansion Array' star map, but the distance was far enough to make Star-Mansion Array collapse.

After two Star-Mansion Array collapsed, he finally arrived at the Shaman Dao's ultimate command center.

It was truly... ultimate.

Even Zhu Fengdan wasn't qualified to command here.

Here, a First Grade Shaman God personally presided, with Second Ranks serving as advisors to process information.

There were many, many war zones; this wasn't referring to Li Qi's kind of war zone, which was merely a small area under Zhu Fengdan's command.

The war zones mentioned here were those of Zhu Fengdan's level.

To be honest...

Li Qi's legs felt a bit weak.

Even though he could already stand straight and speak in front of a Third Rank, when he thought that he would be meeting a Second Rank Ordained Invoker this time, and that he was in the Shaman Dao's main base, and even that this place was the ultimate goal of humanity, the place where the Sun-Moon True Lead Cauldron would awaken...

He still had to hold himself together a bit; he couldn't lose too much face.

Thinking this, Li Qi raised his head and encouraged himself.

Upon arriving here, no one greeted Li Qi.

In fact, no greeting was needed; merely arriving at this place, all information about it naturally emerged in Li Qi's mind.

This was all directly transmitted to him by the 'Alliance'.

The surroundings were not quiet; in fact, people came and went, and everyone who came here had matters of the same Rank as Li Qi to deal with.

This made Li Qi recall his time in the war zone.

During the period he served as a commander, he was constantly dealing with 'the one great event in life' from the worlds below, such as world destruction, species extinction, and civilization wandering; Li Qi handled thousands of such cases every day.

And now it was the same.

For Li Qi, a super major event that happened only once in a lifetime was just daily work for the Ordained Invoker here.

This place didn't seem to be in the Reality Universe; it should be a certain grotto-heaven.

A grotto-heaven is an independent space, similar to a small Universe within the Universe.

As soon as Li Qi arrived here, he felt an immense pressure.

The surroundings were very simple, just ordinary buildings, like an independent Mortal city, with nothing special about them, and no Divine Ability or spells, but the people walking around, except for those like Li Qi who came to do business, were all Fourth Rank.

Li Qi was awestruck, feeling insignificant.

Within this grotto-heaven, everything seemed to be mundane, but Li Qi could feel that nothing existing in this space could be mundane; it was just that he couldn't perceive their divine will.

True Knowledge Dao Resonance was ineffective here.

It wasn't suppressed and rendered ineffective, but rather... True Knowledge Dao Resonance couldn't see through anything here, not even the dust on the ground.

The only things Li Qi could scan for information were himself and the items on him.

This gave Li Qi an unexpected sense of... tranquility.

At least, he could truly observe things optically, instead of having his vision filled with a flood of information.

However, he was here for a serious matter after all.

He walked along, joining the crowd, appearing completely inconspicuous.

Separating from the flow of people, he arrived at a small room.

According to the messages from the 'Alliance', here he would encounter a Ordained Invoker's spirit clone, who would explain the specific matters.

Yes, it would only be discussed here; it couldn't be discussed outside.

Because everything outside could be monitored, everything could be leaked.

Only within this grotto-heaven was it safe.

There wasn't much in the small room: a table and a chair, nothing else, not even a Mortal's home was worse than this.

Li Qi sat on the chair, sitting upright, quietly waiting.

He didn't have to wait long; soon, a phantom condensed before him.

Li Qi held his breath.

This was the Ordained Invoker's spirit clone?

He couldn't detect any abnormality at all; there was no divine will, just a mass of light condensed into a human form, probably just for the purpose of speaking.

This Ordained Invoker was also very ordinary, like someone you could meet on the street at any time, wearing coarse clothes, with an ancient aura, as if dug out of the ground.

As Li Qi observed, the Ordained Invoker spoke.

"Li Qi, right?" he asked.

"Yes, it's me," Li Qi immediately replied.

The Ordained Invoker calmly said, "The decision regarding you has been made. You need to be confined here for three hundred and fifty years. During this period, you can move freely, but you can only stay in this grotto-heaven, cannot contact the outside world, cannot Breakthrough your cultivation, and cannot leave written or visual records."

"Is this a punishment? What did I do?" Li Qi immediately frowned.

He had won the Vanguard Battle; not only was there no reward, but why would there be a punishment?

"Hmm? Oh, the war zone you were in charge of was Zhu Fengdan's sector, so he probably didn't tell you... Tsk, that scoundrel." The Ordained Invoker glanced at the information and immediately understood what had happened.

Then, he began to explain, "This is not a punishment, nor is it because of your current actions, but because of the future."

"The future?" Li Qi was bewildered.

"Yes, the future," the Ordained Invoker said. "Because of your daughter's arrival, you will, three hundred and forty-two years from now, openly defy Lord of Warfare Zhu Fengdan's orders and choose to cooperate with the Demonic Dao, ultimately saving your wife and daughter, but causing one-seventh of the front line to be destroyed by humanity, with over sixteen million four hundred thousand war zones directly falling. This event has already occurred, so it must be prevented."

"Therefore, you must be confined here for three hundred and fifty years. All your interference with the outside world must cease. Here, destiny and Karma cannot interfere; only pure material probability remains."

Upon hearing this, Li Qi opened his mouth, seemingly unsure of what to say.

"Understood?" the Ordained Invoker's spirit clone asked.

Li Qi stood up from the chair: "No, I still don't understand. Is Shaman Dao going to punish me in the present for a future mistake? I haven't done such a thing! After you tell me, I won't do such a thing either. I know you can foresee the future, but since you've stopped me, the future will be changed..."

Li Qi was originally indignant and wanted to say something, but when he got to this point, he suddenly froze.

He himself realized something was wrong.

If they could truly change the future, and the Ordained Invoker saw a future war that would suffer heavy losses, then they would prevent it. A simple decision by them could save thousands of lives.

Then, this event would be prevented from the very beginning.

But once this event was prevented, it would be as if it never happened.

How then, could the Ordained Invoker see and interfere with something that never happened? And they also explicitly stated that this event had already happened.

The Ordained Invoker knew the future and obtained information about future battles, but they also intended to change the future, so the battle would never happen...

Then, what about this suddenly appearing information?

Would it just suddenly disappear?

Now the Ordained Invoker already possessed the outcome and even the details of a future war, but that war would never happen after Li Qi's confinement.

So, where did the intelligence about that war come from? And how should the fact that this event had already happened be interpreted?

This was a time paradox.

In Li Qi's imagination, perhaps... this information, this event, occurred in another parallel Universe, just like the parallel world theory.

In that Universe, the war would happen, but not in the Universe Li Qi was in, because different choices led to different worldlines. Was it such worldlines that the Ordained Invoker saw?

But reason told Li Qi that it was far from that simple, because he deeply understood the world's definition of 'Universe'.

All space and time, combined, were called the Universe.

So... what exactly was going on?

Seeing Li Qi become confused as he spoke, the Ordained Invoker's spirit clone was originally about to leave, but he suddenly saw the Karma lines on Li Qi.

This made him decide to say a few more words, because this was a Genius, a young man who had seen the lines of Karma by the time he reached Sixth Rank.

So, he said, "If we can truly see the future, perfectly divining what will happen, let's not discuss whether this divination is through calculation or something else."

"Then, do you think humanity has this ability?" he asked.

Li Qi thought for a moment and nodded.

That's right, humanity should also have it.

So, both sides could see the future and could also interfere with the future...

Then... how would such a war be fought?

Li Qi's expression was blank.

Seeing Li Qi's expression, the Ordained Invoker continued, "You see, if both sides can do it, and our wisdom is perfect, there will never be any failure or victory."

"You see the future, you modify the future, I modify the future you modified, you modify the future I modified; this war will become a rough sketch, and both we and humanity can modify it, or even erase it, then the war will no longer have any meaning."

"Therefore, the fact that we can fight means that war is not what you imagine. You can start understanding from the phrase 'it has already happened'." The Ordained Invoker said.

"In other words... I indeed did that; this is something that has already happened." Li Qi forced himself to calm down and asked carefully.

"That's right, you did do it; this event has happened, it's just that... we made everything, start over." The Ordained Invoker said.

Li Qi felt his heart stop.

But the Ordained Invoker ignored him and continued, "No one can predict the future, because the future itself is the present. Regardless of past or future, it is all the present. Since the present is uncertain, the future must certainly be uncertain."

"The divinations you perform are essentially deductions of possibilities, not predictions of the future, because the future cannot be predicted."

At this point, Li Qi could barely take a breath. He immediately said, "Then... if I've already done such a thing, you... turned back time?"

"We have never turned back time, or perhaps you should ask... what exactly is time? You should know, the relativity of the time axis. You often travel at speeds approaching light, and Star-Mansion Array itself moves super-universally. Many worlds even possess special cosmic light. You should realize that time doesn't exist, right?"

Li Qi was forced to think carefully, and finally came to a counter-intuitive conclusion.

"Yes..." He opened his mouth with difficulty and said, "Time doesn't exist... Time is merely our subjective perception of matter."

"You see, it's that simple. We reorganize matter, regret, and make everything start over. We don't know what the future holds; we can only try again and again, you, and us, try together."

"This is also why I'm telling you so much. You are a very good young man. I've seen many of your accomplishments; they are all things you truly did, but you don't know, because to you, they haven't happened." The Ordained Invoker's expression softened slightly.

Before Li Qi could react, he continued, "So, you should understand our decision-making process. We want to win a war, not just a battle."

"We cannot focus on individual battle events; we must consider the overall picture. That's why we often send you out to fight a battle that is destined to be lost, why we let our descendants sacrifice themselves, even though we know their deaths won't yield any immediate benefits, and may even turn a winning battle into a defeat. But all of this is for long-term victory."

"We are constantly trying out the future. This is the war of the Second Ranks."