Chapter 638: Preaching the world

Li Qi, who had just descended from the Star-Mansion Array and was now in the Void Realm, was somewhat astonished.

What's going on?

He looked around.

Beneath his feet was a spherical world, its world barrier like a smooth glass dome, and the world operated steadily, with the Star-Mansion Array rooted upon it.

All around was the boundless Void Realm, where many flying ships and large vessels could be seen transporting strategic materials.

In front of him was a relatively large flying ship, and the five-grade Commander from earlier stood at its bow, looking at Li Qi curiously: "Hm? Gongzi Qi, why are you spacing out?"

"No... wait, let me think..." Li Qi reached out, stopping the other party from continuing.

What's going on?

But just then, Li Qi found that his body had returned to its previous state.

And the local five-grade Commander said for the third time: "Welcome, Gongzi Qi."

He seemed completely normal.

But Li Qi took a deep breath.

Damn it... what the hell is going on? Am I... stuck in a time loop? Are you kidding me? There's such a bizarre thing?

Li Qi was puzzled.

But he still reacted, and for the third time, he began to reply normally: "Commander Bai..."

However, after he spoke a few times, the world would rewind again, returning to the moment he had just emerged from the Star-Mansion Array.

Li Qi frowned slightly, but... it was alright.

Although this world was trapped within these few seconds, and he couldn't even do anything, constantly repeating, which would drive most people insane, Li Qi was a five-grade after all; his mind was extremely resilient. A few hundred repetitions would at most make him numb, and it was unlikely to cause a breakdown.

If this was the so-called pain, then... it didn't feel too bad?

Li Qi began to try other methods.

As soon as he descended from the Star-Mansion Array, he immediately fled, leaving the battle zone Commander stunned.

But after a while, Li Qi returned to his original spot.

After experiencing such things a total of two hundred and forty-six times, Li Qi was numb.

At first, he kept trying to escape, but later he found that he couldn't leave no matter what, so he simply gave up on that nonsense and instead just stood still, pondering why this was happening.

His mind raced, but... he couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he thought.

What's going on? Was he being controlled by a Great Power? Was this section of the world cut off by someone?

Li Qi secretly timed it and found that time always rewound after about thirty seconds, but there wasn't an exact time; it was just around thirty seconds, and a rewind would inevitably occur.

After the two hundred and forty-seventh time, time finally moved forward.

Li Qi had been standing still, spacing out and waiting, ignoring the Commander.

The other party seemed puzzled as to why Li Qi was spacing out, so he stepped forward and patted Li Qi: "Gongzi Qi, what's wrong? Are you injured?"

"Ah?" Li Qi looked up.

Thirty seconds had passed, but no rewind was triggered again.

What's going on? Had he escaped?

"Commander Bai..." Li Qi tried to speak again. He had already realized that the five-grade Commander in front of him hadn't noticed that time was a bit off.

"Hm? What? Oh, sorry, I have a message, let me listen first." The five-grade Commander suddenly stopped, and then the patterns of the World Group Formation appeared around him.

Li Qi didn't disturb the other party; he also knew that as a Commander, one needed to process a large amount of information at all times.

He saw Commander Bai's face light up with joy, and then he burst into laughter, pulling Li Qi and saying: "Ah, we won!"

He seemed to have received some particularly good news and clapped his hands happily: "Gongzi Qi is truly lucky! As soon as you arrived, we achieved a great victory!"

A great victory? Li Qi was astonished.

Then he asked: "May I ask where this great victory took place?"

"It was a joint operation between us and the adjacent battle zone, aimed at destroying the human Dao's vanguard. If successful, it would prevent the establishment of war fortresses and force humanity back at least three battle zones."

"Now that we've won, and with Gongzi Qi here to help, it's truly a double blessing! Gongzi Qi, please follow me, we will go see the young Lord of Warfare together." After his exclamation, the other party immediately got to the point.

Li Qi, of course, smiled, then bowed, and stepped onto the other party's flying ship, leaving the place.

However, as he left, he was deep in thought.

Li Qi was pondering.

There was indeed a connection between 'victory' and 'rewind'.

A Great Power was constantly using the SL method, repeatedly resetting, trying to achieve victory.

And he, possessing 'substantiality,' would therefore not be affected.

What is substantiality? It means that something does not depend on the perception of other things, existing and having properties independent of all known existence.

In other words, it means that even if everyone... no, it should be said, even if all Dao disappeared, you would still not disappear, would not die.

Physical rules disappear, the Four Greats fundamental forces disappear, high-level observers vanish, yet one can still self-sustain, still exist independently by oneself—this is 'substantiality'.

Substantiality means that your 'Dao' can exist independently, perfectly self-consistent, and can support your own continued existence even after all external 'Grand Dao' have disappeared.

For ordinary lives, they are far from this level.

For them, if the external 'Dao' disappears, their existence also disappears.

For example, if the physical rules of an area are eliminated, Mortals will immediately dissipate; the matter that makes up their bodies will directly collapse, and they will be unable to maintain their existence.

For a five-grade, this is not a problem; no matter how the external physical rules change, a five-grade can rely on themselves to stabilize their own physical rules, allowing themselves to continue existing for a long time.

So, moving to a higher level, higher than five-grade...

It's like, space-time...

The space-time he had just experienced was constantly rewinding.

A five-grade still cannot exist independently of space-time.

Their existence has a timeline, and they also need to rely on space to provide themselves with a location.

Therefore, once space-time is extracted, even a five-grade will dissipate along with it, and even if time is merely manipulated, a five-grade will not perceive it at all.

Because to perceive changes in space-time, you can only observe from outside space-time.

To use spatial dimensions as an example, a one-dimensional line has only one spatial dimension.

Now, there is a one-dimensional person walking on this one-dimensional line, and he appears to be walking in a straight line.

But what if a two-dimensional being wraps this line into a circle, making it a loop?

The one-dimensional person would not perceive it; he would keep going in circles, but he wouldn't know it. In his eyes, he would always be walking in a straight line. To know that he is going in circles, he would have to jump out of one dimension and enter two dimensions.

Only in two dimensions can one see that the line he is walking on is actually a loop.

Similarly, at this point, if a three-dimensional being makes the two-dimensional world into a sphere, the two-dimensional people can only move on a flat surface, and they cannot possibly perceive that they are walking in circles.

Because in their world, in their dimension, this is a straight line, this is a flat surface; they are distorted in a higher dimension, but in their own dimension, there is no change.

This is true for space, and it is also true for time.

To perceive changes in space-time itself, one can only observe from outside space-time.

And how can one come to be outside space-time?

The answer naturally emerged in Li Qi's mind.

The answer is that your own Grand Dao is sufficient to support you in acquiring 'substantiality,' enough for you to self-sustain, enough for you to be completely independent in any situation.

Only then can you detach from space-time itself, yet remain completely unaffected.

It's the same now.

Li Qi... his thoughts were detached from space-time.

No, it's not that he detached from space-time, but rather, he detached from the external grand space-time. His thoughts at this moment... the space-time he was perceiving, was the space-time of the Shaman God's Inner World.

He understood.

This was the 'pain' the Shaman God spoke of.

Li Qi's perspective already possessed 'substantiality.' This was not his own, but rather... he and the Shaman God shared the same perspective. He was observing this constantly changing space-time through the Shaman God's perspective.

It was at this moment that Li Qi suddenly realized what the Demonic Prince's expression and his constant talk of 'ruins' truly meant.

The entire Universe is a ruin of Dao struggles!

Ordinary civilizations are like cockroaches in the ruins; they are too weak to even discover this war, which has escalated to modifying the fundamental rules of the Universe. They cannot realize... that the Universe they inhabit, Boundless Outer Domain, is itself a wreckage.

So many worlds are merely barely safe corners in the ruins, fragments of moss hidden beneath rubble.

They don't even know they live in ruins, and Li Qi didn't either.

Until now, he finally understood what 'ruins' meant.

Such a fragile space-time, such a constantly rippling Universe...

To true Great Powers, such a world is like a porcelain object about to shatter, as if one more push would break it completely.

Therefore... humanity wanted to replace heaven with man.

Therefore, the Divine Dao would shrink back.

Therefore, Shaman Dao would try its best to stop it, and even maintain the current balance, even if it meant sacrificing the lives of many great witches.

The entire Universe is a giant ruin, and the great Dao Orthodoxy are the contenders upon these ruins.

This reminded Li Qi of something...

'Spreading the Dao throughout the World.'

Shen Shuibi and Li Qi had talked about it back then. (See Chapter 58)

The great Dao Orthodoxy of the world had joined forces, wanting to widely spread the Dao so that everyone could pursue the Dao.

The result it brought...

Is this shattered Universe.

What kind of chaotic era was that?

Li Qi dared not even imagine.

If all worlds, all natives, countless races, all had the selfless propagation of the great Dao Orthodoxy, all had the most top-tier Legacy, and everyone could directly hear the Shaman God, Sages, True Immortals, and Buddhas preach the Dao...

How magnificent would such a Universe be?

And what kind of scene would the Dao struggles unleashed by such a Universe be?

The Human-Shaman War was already the most brutal war Li Qi had ever seen, but presumably... compared to that war of the past, the Human-Shaman War could only be considered an extremely restrained skirmish.

That was the true Dao struggle. Everyone, whether for personal gain, for the Dao path, or for the ultimate truth of the Dao... in any case, they all had to truly contend.

The Universe is merely a ruin.

Perhaps even the worlds themselves are just fragments from that time.

Just as it was said back then.

Earth has rainforests, oceans, glaciers, deserts, hot springs, grasslands...

So, are all these things naturally meant to be there?

No, none of this is naturally occurring; it's even 'precarious.' All this existence is merely 'the current coincidence.'

The world is not naturally so.

Therefore, Li Qi understood.

But he was not in pain. Although Li Qi knew that he would be forced to experience things from a perspective that was not his own.

From this moment on, Li Qi could perceive himself being rewound and reassembled, but he could not control it. He merely possessed the Shaman God's perspective, but could not truly 'detach from space-time.'

According to Li Qi's own thoughts, it was like... The Matrix.

Those who do not possess 'substantiality' are like people with tubes plugged into their heads, who can only exist in a virtual world and can be modified and reset at any time.

And those who possess 'substantiality' are the Awakened who exist in the real world.

Li Qi would be stuck between them, becoming someone who realized his own nullity and was constantly rewound and played with.

He would possess the Shaman God's perspective, but could only be played with by the constantly rewinding space-time, just like other five-grades.

This was the 'pain' the Shaman God spoke of to him.

But it was fine, Li Qi felt... it didn't seem like much, just consider it more hallucinations.

Thinking this, he actually didn't feel anything.

This so-called 'nullity' doesn't mean the Universe isn't real. In fact, this Universe is very real, and the existence of people like Li Qi is also very real.

But... beings with 'substantiality' can transcend reality; they themselves can achieve the same level as reality.

Mortals depend on reality to exist because reality itself possesses 'substantiality.'

Yes, the first thing in the world to possess 'substantiality' is reality itself; reality is something that can exist independently without relying on anything else.

And cultivators who possess 'substantiality' transcend this reality that gave birth to them, becoming its equal. They themselves are another reality.

For a Great Power who is equivalent to reality and possesses 'substantiality,' ordinary Mortals... are probably like the fantasies in their minds, capable of being extinguished or brought into existence with a single thought. The 'existence' here does not refer to life and death, but to 'being' itself.

Thinking of this, Li Qi shivered.

This characteristic reminded him of a Great Power he was familiar with.

The sum of all realities, all things are its very existence—

Heavenly Demon.

To the Heavenly Demon, this reality is his illusory dream; besides him, all else is nullity, a customizable game that can be arbitrarily altered.

Therefore, he also created another illusory dream, which is the well-known 'Desire Realm,' or 'Heaven of Others’ Emanations.'

Li Qi looked up.

Simply possessing the Shaman God's perspective and sharing the Shaman God's 'substantiality,' he gained a deeper understanding of this Universe.

But such an Opportunity... perhaps only he had it.

After all, sharing the Shaman God's substantiality...

As he was thinking this, Commander Bai next to him suddenly patted Li Qi: "Gongzi Qi? Guanghan has departed."