Chapter 683: Xiantian's true body!

A painting, unable to capture Li Qi's essence, but depicting a pair of indifferent eyes amidst Chaos.

This was… Li Qi in Ling Xiao's eyes.

She truly couldn't grasp Li Qi's essence, unsure how to paint his face or his posture.

However, after observing for so long, Li Qi's gaze was what left the deepest impression on her.

It was as if… it was the gaze of the Immortal Heaven.

The real Li Qi looked at the painting and smiled: "Although it has no face, it's quite well-painted."

After speaking, he glanced at the painting.

The eyes within the blurry Chaos in the painting suddenly became piercingly bright—

As if Li Qi himself had opened his eyes.

Then Li Qi reached out and handed the scroll to Ling Xiao: "You painted me, so this item will be your reward. You are a bit different from others… I guess it's because you truly love painting."

True love gives rise to genuine passion.

Not forced by survival, not urged by circumstances, nor pressured by others, but complete devotion, a pursuit stemming from the heart.

Her motivation did not come from external sources, but from within.

Many people, whether cultivating or studying, think, "If I learn well, I can make money," "My parents think it's good for me to learn this," or "It's easy to find a job if I learn this now."

There's nothing wrong with such a mindset; after all, survival is the top priority. But such learning is a kind of pressure on oneself.

All the foolish sayings like 'pressure is motivation' are essentially about being forcibly pushed forward. Pressure is indeed motivation, but its essence remains pressure. As long as it's pressure, the impetus to move forward comes from external sources.

Once the external environment changes, for example, if there's no more survival pressure, will there still be the motivation to hone one's skills? Or will one just continue to coast on existing achievements?

Motivation given by external forces won't last long, unless someone deliberately keeps the pressure constant. Some 'strict masters' among strict masters and talented disciples are good at continuously applying pressure without causing breakdown.

Therefore, to go far, motivation cannot come from external sources; it must come from one's own heart.

Ling Xiao, born into the upper class, had no survival pressure. Because she truly loved painting, she continuously refined her skills to this point, unknowingly completing this process of 'motivation coming from within.'

Therefore, Li Qi chose to leave this painting here.

He had already seen that this painting might become Ling Xiao's Dao Foundation, so he left it here.

"Senior… are you leaving?" Ling Xiao couldn't help but guess when she saw Li Qi's demeanor.

At this point, with her meticulous observation of Li Qi, she could vaguely sense some of the thoughts of this mysterious Heaven-Penetrating Realm cultivator.

"Yes, I've seen enough. I'm going to other places to look around, and… I also have some conjectures about my destination. It's quite a fruitful trip," Li Qi merely smiled.

Ling Xiao remained silent, not responding, but quietly retreated to the side, once again meticulously observing every nuance of Li Qi's expression, as if she were about to paint another portrait of him.

Li Qi seemed not to notice, or perhaps he didn't care, and simply waited there.

Two days later, out of the three thousand people at the banquet, fewer than one hundred remained. The others had died in the brutal fighting.

Even though everyone had agreed that taking a small share would ensure safety, they still fought desperately.

Meaningless, competition for the sake of competition.

Meanwhile, the flowing feast outside had developed an unexpected mechanism. They established rules and achieved 'sharing,' thereby preventing other violent incidents.

Both of these events occurred within the Immortal Heaven.

From them, Li Qi could glimpse a hint of the Immortal Heaven' upper echelon's intentions.

He already had a conjecture in his mind, but he still needed a few more clues to confirm it.

When the banquet ended, Li Qi waved his hand, releasing the surviving people from his Inner World.

They were laden with treasures, their bodies filled with the pure Qi of Li Qi's Inner World.

However, to Li Qi, this was merely a drop in the ocean. They hadn't obtained any of the truly valuable Fifth Grade Dao Resonances, clearly lacking the ability to extract Dao Resonance.

After they came out, covered in blood, they wanted to salute Li Qi.

Li Qi didn't say another word, just shook his head and then left.

He vanished into thin air, without a trace of reluctance, just as he had appeared out of nowhere.

However, not long after he left, the lower-level participants, after having their fill, began to fight again. It was then that they discovered… no one was in charge.

Ling Xiao watched Li Qi leave, then looked at the painting in her hand, smiled with relief, and tore the painting into pieces.

She didn't know what a 'Dao Foundation' was, but she felt there was no need to keep this item anymore.

What was in the painting was not in the painting, but in her heart; keeping it was useless.

Someone once had the bamboo in their heart, so they could paint bamboo without looking at it. Now, she was the same.

— — — — — — — — — —

As for Li Qi, he went to other cities.

So slowly, quietly, he had been wandering in the True World for over a hundred years.

During these hundred-plus years, he observed over two hundred cities, a thousand settlements, and various Immortal Heaven' wonders.

He visited other Heaven-Penetrating Realm cultivators and locally manipulated the development of societies.

He had been in the Immortal Heaven for almost a thousand years. In this millennium, the various situations he experienced, the various speculations and ponderings, the clues he gathered, plus the cultivation methods he explored through True Knowledge Dao Resonance, finally brought Li Qi close to the answer.

This was not simple. Li Qi collected many things and explored many locations. He went to the limits of the Celestial Ocean, digging down into the ground to a depth of hundreds of millions of miles, until even he himself could no longer bear the pressure of the earth's Magnetic Force before coming back up.

He even passed through the Celestial Gate, returned to the mortal realm, and then teleported back and forth.

He was like a ghost, an experimenter, treating the Immortal Heaven' True World and the mortal realm as his laboratory, constantly testing for the answers he sought.

Li Qi left behind many legends, and countless people revered him. He even extinguished his own divine fire more than once, because his existence led to the belief of many, and quite a few sects dedicated to him were established, even if these believers didn't actually know what Li Qi was, believing him to be a part of the heavens.

Long journeys, long life, allowed Li Qi to gradually unearth the hidden truth of this First Grade world.

For example… he had never seen a Fourth Grade Dao Integration Realm cultivator.

Another example, all Heaven-Penetrating Realm cultivators desperately wanted to achieve Dao Integration.

Li Qi also searched everywhere for Heaven-Penetrating Realm cultivators who were about to achieve Dao Integration, but unfortunately, he couldn't find any, because the number of people who achieved Dao Integration was simply too small.

Time slowly passed like this.

Finally, through these actions, Li Qi felt that he had seemingly found his answer.

Namely: the truth of the Immortal Heaven.

Another ten years passed. Li Qi sat quietly in place, deducing what was needed for the sacrifice.

He wanted to create an original sacrifice, and through this sacrifice, verify his conjecture and directly communicate with the upper echelons of the Immortal Heaven.

This was very difficult, so he found a secluded place to gradually conceive and deduce.

Under his immense computational power, after ten years, he was finally ready.

With the answer and the tools, it was time to put all conjectures into practice.

Li Qi performed a classic Heaven Worship ceremony.

Li Qi was a Invoker of the Di Qi lineage, originally most skilled in sacrificing to mountain and water Di Qi, but the very top of the Immortal Heaven obviously couldn't be considered Di Qi, so he could only use the method of Heaven Worship.

The jade disc symbolizes the Immortal Heaven, with nothing on the ground, only half of the Immortal Heaven visible.

Li Qi prepared his sacrificial animals and money, placing their jades, the color of the azure sky.

The altar itself was also like this: the color of the sky is profound, and a dark calf is used, but though the sky's color is profound, viewed from afar it is azure, taking its distant color, hence the use of azure.

For the instruments of Heaven Worship, pottery and gourds were used. Pottery, earthenware, for presenting minced meat and sauces, and the chapter on the common people describing Hou Ji's suburban sacrifice to Heaven says 'with beans and with plates,' which means for presenting offerings.

Then, wine was poured from a gourd for the libation. Heaven Worship values simplicity, so a gourd was also used as a vessel for the libation.

For Heaven Worship, the sacrificial vessels of the ancestral temple were used. Li Qi's current case of pottery and gourds used is as stated above.

The place for Heaven Worship was at the circular mound.

The music for Heaven Worship all used thunder drums.

The Heavenly God is Supreme, beyond naming, its body should be one, prepared with five kinds of pure offerings and three kinds of wine, with burnt offerings, followed by the main sacrifice, all with sacrificial animals.

Li Qi, as the sole officiant, poured the fragrant black millet wine.

Then he walked in a straight line, named the "Great Road."

The Great Road is the chariot for Heaven Worship, used for Heaven Worship, hence called the Great Road. The Great Road's ornate tassels are just one, valuing sincerity and prioritizing the small, thus saying that less is more.

After walking the Great Road, Li Qi performed the Heaven Worship.

Through the Great Road, combined with the sacrifice and offerings, the power of communication for the sacrifice itself was formed…

This power went straight to the heavens.

Li Qi's body began to sway uncontrollably.

To put it in terms others would understand, this was 'spirit medium dancing.'

But this was actually Li Qi's consciousness separating from his body, his inability to control his physical form.

The Shaman's consciousness left his body, drifting towards a completely new, unknown Domain.

There, it was pure light.

Success! He communicated with the Immortal Heaven, and the Immortal Heaven responded to him!

The success of the Heaven Worship ceremony brought forth a magnificent white rainbow light before Li Qi's eyes.

Light, pure light.

Here, everything seemed to melt; this power was so intense.

A special rhythm pulsed within the emanating light. If described in the terms of Human Dao Confucianism, it would be 'Utmost Goodness.'

Utmost Goodness is not kindness, but everything reaching perfection.

This expanse of light contained nothing, yet seemed to contain everything.

Here, every place exuded an aura of 'all-encompassing,' as if even light itself could intersect to form perfect geometric patterns.

Li Qi seemed to hear the roaring flow of the endless river of time within it, and could also see the Void Realm spanning between worlds!

He could feel that upon arriving here, his very being was like a gear in the world; every movement perfectly aligned with other parts of the world, every action interlocking and rotating with all things.

All the gears were so harmonious that the absence of any one piece would lead to an inability to function.

He had offered sacrifices to many things and communicated with countless deities, but this was the first time he felt such oppressive power.

However, Li Qi smiled with relief.

As expected, his guessed answer was true.

He had tried countless times, probed for a long time, whether in the Immortal Heaven' mortal realm or the Immortal Heaven' True World. All his actions—preaching, observing, or instigating disputes, or anything else—had only one purpose: to be seen by the true 'Immortal Heaven.'

After seeing it, Li Qi could then deduce the true situation of the Immortal Heaven through his own feedback, and through this back and forth, Li Qi might be able to uncover something useful.

Understanding something useful would help establish friendly relations between Shaman Dao and the Immortal Heaven, and even gain this ally.

And now, through nearly a thousand years of effort, Li Qi already knew the state of the Immortal Heaven' topmost layer.

"Oh? What state is it in?" At this moment, a voice sounded in Li Qi's ear.

Li Qi knew in his heart.

This was… the voice of the Immortal Heaven.

This was the answer of the Immortal Heaven.

"Of course… there are no creatures above Fourth Grade. Fifth Grade, Heaven-Penetrating Realm, is already the pinnacle of the Immortal Heaven."

"Further up, after Dao Integration, there is only one unique First Grade, and that is you… the Heavenly Dao of the Immortal Heaven."

Li Qi spoke eloquently, addressing that great existence, stating the answer he had observed.

"This is also the reason why the Immortal Heaven can exist for so long. Hundreds of billions of years of endless extraction, yet it can still maintain the prosperity of the great source of heaven and earth. The fundamental reason is that there are simply no cultivators above Fourth Grade. For a First Grade world, the consumption of Fifth Grade is merely a drop in the ocean."

Yes, this was Li Qi's conjectured answer, and it was also the reason Li Qi dared to perform the Heaven Worship ceremony eighty years later.

"The entire Immortal Heaven, the lives it nurtures are actually 'food.' The true 'cultivator' of the Immortal Heaven is actually you, isn't it… Heavenly Dao?" Li Qi looked at that magnificent light and sighed thus…

Truly… the Dao of Heaven’s Evolution.

All cultivators of the Immortal Heaven are merely food. The entire Immortal Heaven, only that First Grade Heavenly Dao that has awakened its will is free.

Therefore, the Dao of Heaven’s Evolution is fully implemented here.

The essence of Dao Integration is to be consumed by him!

The brutal battles and selections in the lower levels are merely for 'different flavors' of food.

Yes, the Immortal Heaven is not always this cruel. It's just that for these hundreds of millions of years, the 'Dao Integration food' he desired specialized in combat, so that he could specialize in combat.

The Immortal Heaven is the cruelest heaven and earth.

The lives within this First Grade world have no way out at all! From the very beginning, it was impossible for them to transcend. All promotions and competitions are essentially cultivating their flesh in the direction the 'Heavenly Dao' prefers!

And at the same time, this Heavenly Dao's goal is also the pursuit of the Dao Sect: he desires ultimate freedom, perhaps even the freedom to transcend his own world of origin.

As the awakened Heavenly Dao of a purely First Grade world, he has long since departed from the essence of the divine Dao. This is an extremely selfish and malicious world!

"Your goal in joining forces with Shaman Dao… I suppose it is to learn Shaman Dao's method of strengthening the great source of heaven and earth, isn't it? After all, this might be considered your cultivation method. So… Yao Ji's disappearance was also because of you, wasn't it?" Li Qi respectfully maintained the sacrifice, saying so. (End of Chapter)