Chapter 702: Chang Xizhi wine

Before the banquet began, Li Qi fell into a certain contemplation again because of Yang Ning's words.

The fifty thousand years in the distorted time-space were longer than all of Li Qi's previous life, but he did not feel it was that long; in fact, he even felt it was a bit short.

If Zhu Fengdan had not pulled him out and forced him to face this fantastic, magnificent, and exquisite world, he would have probably been completely immersed in the beauty of constructing that world.

During that time, he 'reinvented the wheel' and constructed countless possible worlds.

Some were worlds with broken symmetry and anomalous constants, which were the most numerous he created.

Some were static worlds, meaning finite, static worlds where starlight could fill the entire night sky.

Some were closed worlds with positive spatial curvature, some were flat worlds with zero spatial curvature, and others had changes in the fine-structure constant, which is the strength of the electromagnetic interaction.

For example, if the fine-structure constant changed, then the strength of molecular bond electromagnetic forces gathered together would decrease, the speed at which electrons combine to form atoms would slow down, and the speed at which atoms combine to form molecules would also slow down.

This led to lower melting and boiling points; for instance, the most common stars are composed of gas and tend to collapse due to their immense self-gravity. However, the heat generated by thermonuclear reactions in their core produces outward jets of gas and radiation, and the pressure from these jets neutralizes gravity, allowing stars to remain stable.

But if such a change occurred, the balance would be broken, gravity would gain the upper hand, and stars would become brighter, rotate faster, and undergo supernova explosions more quickly.

If the speed of light were a little faster, all the hydrogen in the Universe would be unable to fuse into helium; only hydrogen would exist, unable to gather into stars, and unable to produce other, more complex chemical reactions.

Conversely, if the speed of light were a little slower, hydrogen fusion would become too easy; all hydrogen would fuse into helium, and no hydrogen would exist, nor would most compounds, such as water.

This impact is very far-reaching; on a small scale… a rubber band would lose its elasticity in such an environment, and on a large scale, the Universe would lose over ninety percent of its light elements.

All of this was a world Li Qi created according to his own ideas, drawing from his experience on Earth.

He also knew that the foundation of the world was not atoms, but ‘Qi’; Qi formed all things, and a world composed of Qi was even more magnificent and grand than a world composed of atoms.

The reason is also simple: the number of types of Qi far exceeds the dozens of common elements, their properties are even more bizarre, and some even possess perpetual motion characteristics, meaning that Qi, as the most basic material component, can construct more miraculous and divine macroscopic substances, and can even break the so-called thermodynamics.

Moreover, Qi itself seems to be infinitely divisible; in other words, the most basic material classification of 'quantum' does not exist for ‘Qi’.

This property allows the changes in the world to become even more exquisite.

This level of exquisiteness and complexity was something Li Qi could not touch, and it was something he revered at this moment.

The character 'Hao' in Haotian means vast, and now that he saw it, it was indeed extraordinarily vast.

However, however, this was not the reason why Li Qi fell into contemplation.

What he was truly contemplating was the relationship between this grand, subtle, and beautiful spectacle and Shen Shuibi and Li Shiwei.

For fifty thousand years in the distorted time-space, except for the very beginning, after he settled in, he actually... had not thought about Shen Shuibi and Li Shiwei.

This really was...

So, Li Qi looked up at Chang Xi, Empress Luofu, and Shen Shuibi, who was sitting next to Empress Luofu and saying something.

Li Qi decisively got up, left Yang Ning, and walked towards them.

If he couldn't figure something out himself, he would ask the elders.

Yang Ning watched Li Qi not hesitate at all, standing up directly and walking towards Empress Luofu, and could only sigh softly.

Unconsciously, Li Qi had grown from that little kid into a Rank Four cultivator.

A sense of fear even arose in her heart because of this.

This was too...

Terrifying, horrifying, and unnatural—this was Yang Ning's current impression of Li Qi, and... she felt a chilling coolness emanating from Li Qi.

It was a sense of cold indifference, a gradual loss of humanity; Li Qi's mind was becoming more and more like the Dao and less and less like a mortal compared to when he was younger.

Coupled with his promotion speed, which seemed to have no brakes, Yang Ning felt a sense of helplessness.

Alas, Li Qi was only Rank Nine a thousand years ago.

Leaving those thoughts aside, Li Qi quickened his pace and arrived next to Empress Luofu and Chang Xi; Shen Shuibi was also there.

After reaching Rank Four, Li Qi's thought organs were no longer easily seen through; he could now finally retain a bit of privacy in front of Rank Three cultivators.

"Greetings, Niangniang, greetings, Senior Chang Xi." Li Qi stepped forward and first bowed: "This junior has come to visit, hoping to receive guidance from both of you—"

"Li Qi, this is a family banquet," Empress Luofu interjected.

The meaning of her words was clear: it was family gathering time, everyone from Fu Mountain, including Li Qi, the son-in-law, had arrived, and they were happily gathered to eat a meal, so there was no need to talk about cultivation matters; those could be discussed later.

"Niangniang, what I want to say is precisely related to this matter." Li Qi did not stop but continued: "You are already Rank Three, but you still seem normal and approachable, but I am not like that."

"I am only Rank Four, but... just now, prompted by Yang Ning, I suddenly realized that, unconsciously, I have developed a sense of detachment from this real world. The so-called family banquet doesn't seem to move me either."

Yes, detachment—this was Li Qi's summary of himself.

Towards family, towards friends, towards this real world, he seemed to find it difficult to muster any enthusiasm. Shen Shuibi was still his beloved, but that... sense of reality was gone.

He still loved the Little rabbit and the Little rabbit, but was this 'love' merely a 'habit,' an inertia that continued with time, or did he still maintain this love?

Li Qi couldn't distinguish it anymore; he was horrified to find that his interest in constructing this world had surpassed his interest in talking to Li Shiwei.

This made it very difficult for him to accept, because he had no idea when this transformation had occurred.

So he chose to come to Chang Xi and Empress Luofu, to ask these elders if this situation was normal.

After all, for them, they must have encountered such a situation, right? Especially Empress Luofu, how did she maintain her mental stability?

Hearing this question, Empress Luofu and Chang Xi exchanged glances, then smiled at each other.

After that, Chang Xi asked Li Qi: "Li Qi, looking at your Lifespan, there's a discrepancy with the actual time you've experienced. You must have used distorted time-space to advance to Rank Four, right?"

"Yes, is it a side effect?" Li Qi frowned.

The essence of using distorted time-space was to reinvent the wheel, to detach from the real world, and to infer everything purely by thought and existing knowledge in an independent time-space.

Would such an approach lead to a disconnection from reality?

As Li Qi wondered, Chang Xi answered: "Distorted time-space doesn't have side effects; it just increases the difficulty. When you encounter such things, it's actually still your own reason."

"You are too obsessed with pursuing the Dao. After all, the power of Rank Four is very easy to get addicted to. You seem to have lost your direction and no longer know what you are using these powers for."

Chang Xi continued: "I remember reading a sentence in your memory once. At that time, you believed that cultivation was not just for fighting and killing; cultivators would definitely fulfill their own responsibilities based on their power."

"So, now, I ask you, what is the responsibility you must fulfill with the power you pursue, that power to manipulate reality and distort matter?"

Chang Xi's words made Li Qi fall into contemplation.

He began to search his mind, looking for memories of saying those words.

He remembered that he had indeed thought that way.

At that time, he thought: "Cultivation is not simply for personal power, but rather like mastering more skills, more weapons, so that one can better implement the cultivator's own thoughts and ideals." (For details, see Chapter 78)

At that time, Li Qi would run around all day mediating the relationships between humans, gods, and ghosts, just like a community director, communicating with the mountain and water gods through sacrifices, with village residents through words, and with ghosts through rituals.

Through this method, Li Qi, who was unranked at the time, quickly reached the point of communicating with Rank Eight ghost gods and rapidly mastered his power.

But, as of today, Li Qi understood more and more. He understood more and more the principles behind those rituals, how to modify them, how to customize suitable sacrificial methods, and so on and so forth. Because he had completely understood the specific operational logic, he was not cooking according to a recipe, but rather understood the characteristics of various ingredients and then assembled suitable dishes himself.

The power and knowledge he possessed grew stronger and stronger; he had even begun to delve into the Universe constants, able to create his own parallel worlds.

Li Qi was immersed in such great power, although he knew that as a Rank Four cultivator, the powers he possessed were still based on the real world.

His modifications of constants were essentially 'secondary creations'; he did not have the ability to write a world view independently. He could only use the real world as a template and then make fine adjustments to create his own 'secondary creations'.

Only at Rank Three was it possible to write original works.

But he still enjoyed it tirelessly and had devised many wonderful uses, such as the dimensionality reduction strike just now, and reducing an object's dimension then raising it again to make it lose information and thus destroy its structure.

But after doing all this, what was he going to use these powers for?

Was pursuing the Dao about getting closer to the Dao, or about using these powers to do what he wanted to do?

And what was it that he wanted to do?

Did it include his family? Or... should he just keep moving upwards?

Looking at Li Qi, who was lost in thought, Empress Luofu reached out and pinched his ear.

Li Qi immediately snapped out of his contemplation and quickly bowed, awaiting her instruction.

However, he saw Empress Luofu merely smiling and saying, "This is a family banquet. Think about these things when you go back."

"Yes." Li Qi didn't dare to say anything more.

But he still realized that Empress Luofu's words were actually a kind of reminder.

It seemed that, for Empress Luofu, family was still very important.

However, the moment Li Qi thought about this, Empress Luofu repeated again: "Think about it when you go back."

Li Qi was startled and immediately bowed in acknowledgment.

Then, he decisively dispelled the idea of continuing to discuss this issue and instead focused on the family banquet.

Chang Xi didn't say much, just chuckled softly, then brought out a pot of wine: "By the way, Li Qi, do you remember that I once said I used your experiences to refine something you never imagined?"

Li Qi immediately recalled the corresponding experience; that was the first time he met Moon Mother Chang Xi. (For details, see Chapter 637)

At that time, Li Qi thought that his experiences were being used to produce something he couldn't understand, and his wisdom and knowledge couldn't keep up with the Great Shaman, so the Great Shaman couldn't tell him what it was.

"This is what I couldn't imagine back then?" Li Qi looked at the pot of wine.

Chang Xi then said: "The bright moon naturally inclines the heart. As the Moon Mother, I naturally have some Divine Ability in this regard. Speaking of which, Yu'er seems to know these tricks too, why has she never used them?"

Shen Shuibi shrank her head: "These things are meaningless."

Upon hearing this conversation, Li Qi immediately felt something was amiss.

Wait, this statement, Shen Shuibi, this Moon Essence, and Moon Mother Chang Xi, they couldn't be related, could they?

But thinking carefully, the Sun-Moon True Lead Cauldron itself is the controller of the Sun-Moon Orbit's Great Dao, and Shen Shuibi, this generation's Moon Essence, it seems hard not to link her to the Moon Mother...

"How can it be meaningless? Look at Li Qi now, isn't that the meaning?" Saying that, Chang Xi poured a cup of wine for Li Qi.

The wine was like moonlight, held in the cup, formless and insubstantial. One could see the translucent, glowing liquid when shaken, but when picked up, it felt like an empty cup, without any weight, just like a ball of light.

Li Qi picked up the cup: "This is the wine brewed from my experiences?"

He muttered to himself in confusion, then without hesitation, he drank it in one gulp.

The moment he drank it, Li Qi suddenly felt his own feelings.

Yes, it was very strange.

He felt his own feelings.

People constantly have their own feelings, but the feelings people can perceive are basically limited to the present moment.

Few people can truly experience their past feelings; even when recalled later, these feelings often become distorted, turning into a 'vague impression in memory'.

But after drinking this cup of wine, Li Qi very clearly felt his past feelings.

Those were... the things he had once told Chang Xi about the Little rabbit.