Chapter 703: Vessel capacity

Amidst the Guanghan Palace, a beautiful scene unfolded, accompanied by countless small boats, the Celestial River, and a colossal silver tree.

Beneath the silver tree's branches, innumerable Lunar Orbs hung, their tranquil, cold Qi transforming into streams of light dust and gentle breezes, swirling beside the Celestial River that flowed through the Void Realm, accentuating the countless small boats, their destinations unknown.

These small boats occasionally transformed into fleeting shadows and vanished, their destinations unknown, perhaps to the Lunar Orbs of other worlds, but they always returned.

Unveiled in the sky, no mortal flowers fall.

So cold and desolate, together in the lofty chill.

Watching celestial flowers descend completely, a floating raft on the Silver River, the sky high and the dew cool, the ice wheel casting shadows, cold light seeping in, layer upon layer, making one forget where one is, the moonlight like scattered snow, shining with clear radiance, the toad's ripples growing brighter, the fragrance of the Osmanthus Palace congealing, Guanghan's faint chill, the clarity of snow and frost.

Amidst such scenery, the banquet commenced within the Guanghan Palace.

A Fifth-Rank Great Power from Mount Luofu clapped his hands, and immediately, various fruits and dining utensils materialized, forming mountains, the banquet ready, flowers like brocade, shining with morning splendor.

Then another person rose, took out scissors, and with two snips on a Talisman, cut out paper figures, which he then tossed into the sky, instantly transforming into countless maidservants and attendants, serving the fragrant banquet, a scene of immortal splendor, all harmonious and vibrant, attendants moving with colorful banners, all in red makeup and jade sashes, the embroidered banquet just beginning, incense rising from golden censers, colorful robes gently swaying, offering wine in jade cups.

Yet another person displayed a Divine Ability, and countless musical instruments floated into the air: bells, chimes, drums, zithers, yu, panpipes, pipa, and guqin, among others.

The instruments played themselves, swaying in the air and producing melodious music, the strings plucked with a subtle Dragon fragrance, the sound echoing like orioles beneath the flowers, the sounds of metal, stone, silk, and bamboo resonating throughout the mountaintop, their rhythm and style all graceful and flowing, the clear and turbid notes shifting, the melodies summoned, resounding above the pond, the sound waves stirring the water, as if fish were leaping.

Then, Chang Xi gently tapped her finger.

With a soft sound, the Lunar Orb in the sky directly above the Palace suddenly tilted.

Moonlight, like water, fell from the sky, but halfway down, a faint scent of wine was already discernible, and a Celestial River, precisely on cue, flowed to meet it, merging with the moonlight, instantly releasing a rich aroma; some of the less cultivated attendees immediately flushed red from the wine, their faces veiled in fragrant mist, already feeling tipsy.

Then another Fifth-Rank Great Power rose, his belly rotund, looking prosperous and kind, dressed in a Daoist robe, holding a gourd in his hand, with a red nose and large drooping ears, his body began to swell, becoming as large as a star, and the gourd in his hand naturally also grew, then he received the river of wine falling from the sky, a river large enough to submerge a world.

The gourd seemed boundless, collecting an entire sea of wine.

Below, however, someone complained, shouting loudly: “Old Wang, are you going to hog it all?”

The portly Daoist laughed heartily: “This is wine brewed by Empress Luofu, infused with the thoughts and sorrows of all beings carried by the moonlight! How can I not drink my fill this time?”

But as he said this, others also rose, vying with him for the wine, several Fifth-Rank Great Powers rising to engage in a magical duel, various harmless but amusing Divine Abilities flashing in the sky, though intense, it felt like a drinking game.

After much effort, they finally drove away the portly Daoist, and then several others scrambled for the wine, even playing games like Divine Ability drinking forfeits.

The juniors below, however, did not need to worry; the remnants of the wine river as it fell were already enough for them to enjoy; the scrambling was a matter for the adults.

Fourth-Rank Great Powers like Granny Mei were not in a hurry either; they had their own special arrangements.

Since Chang Xi had already made her move, Empress Luofu was not stingy; she also waved her sleeve, and a surge of Life Qi burst forth.

Yin and Yang transformed and generated, Qi entered the layered sky, and thus, trees swayed and fell, the wind-swept marsh banks widened, the water became clear and fish startled, and in an instant, ten thousand golden lotuses bloomed in the air, dense forests and tall bamboos soared to the sky, Spiritual Plants blossomed, their tender buds at the right season, crimson calyxes nourished by dew, urging forth abundant blooms, subtly diffusing a faint fragrance, as if one had arrived in an otherworldly realm.

Spiritual Plants, Spiritual Plants, Spiritual Ganoderma, Spiritual Bamboo, all kinds of plants bloomed, some bore fruit, some flowered, some unfurled leaves, some grew stems, all edible raw, bamboo shoots peeled and sliced themselves, Spiritual Plants danced, fruits were washed clean, a table, far from meager, indeed, one could say extremely extravagant, a completely vegetarian banquet was laid out, everyone could reach out and eat.

The banquet began, and everyone below joyfully indulged, even Li Shiwei was trying to defeat other Seventh-Rank Disciples and compete with others for the wine falling from the sky; many Seventh-Rank young people flew through the air, weaving through the gravitational rings of the Lunar Orbs near the Great Powers' Dharma forms, as if on an adventure, and if successful, they could obtain these wines and Spiritual Materials, receiving cheers and envious glances from everyone.

Yang Ning was not idle either; she also joined the Fifth-Rank Great Powers' drinking game, and her skill was quite high, and she could drink a vast amount, others couldn't out-compete her and even teamed up to drive her away.

Shen Shuibi did not go to compete; she just sat beside Empress Luofu, occasionally speaking, as always, a peripheral figure.

As for Empress Luofu and Chang Xi, these two looked at Li Qi beside them.

Li Qi seemed to have entered a vast and boundless misty void; his expression was as if he had fallen into some… inexplicable sorrow.

Unlike the joyous atmosphere of the banquet, Li Qi was currently experiencing the emotions he had felt when recounting many past events to Chang Xi; those feelings were now resurfacing.

It was as if he was reliving those events, which he had already experienced, but like wine that had been brewed, the raw Materials were the same, but the taste was different.

The 'happiness' and 'joy' of those times, tasted again now, carried a… faint sadness.

Because Li Qi realized that these joys seemed so insignificant.

They could truly only be described as insignificant.

The ecstasy when Shen Shuibi accepted him, their many affairs in Chang'an, the peace of Shen Shuibi teaching Li Qi to play the flute in the Holy Flame World, even almost missing something due to oversleeping, including his experiences in the Underworld, the tension when Li Shiwei was born, so many, so many things, so many accumulated emotions…

These emotions had not changed; how Li Qi felt then was how he felt now; Chang Xi's wine perfectly replicated Li Qi's emotions at the time, allowing Li Qi to personally feel and recall every single psychological activity he had experienced then.

Yes, these emotions at the time had not changed; what had changed was Li Qi.

Those intense emotions, felt again now, only made him feel… that the matters were too small.

Yes, the matters were too small.

Even the moment Shen Shuibi agreed to be with Li Qi, the ecstasy Li Qi felt, now felt again, could no longer stir any ripples within him.

The emotions hadn't changed; it was just that Li Qi's world had grown larger.

Children would cry and rejoice over arguments with the little girl next door, but as they grow up and think back on it, they will probably just smile with relief.

Students become impulsively infatuated with entertainment stars for a time, but middle-aged office workers rarely do.

It's not because one is smarter than the other, but because for a child, the little girl is half their world, and for a student, that star is all of their entertainment life.

His world is only so big, and when such a large world experiences fluctuations, the reaction is bound to be significant.

An office worker may not be more discerning than a student, but an office worker's world is larger than a student's, so these matters naturally occupy a smaller proportion of his world.

Li Qi suddenly realized that this was 'capacity'.

To speak presumptuously, all human emotions, in the final analysis, are due to insufficient capacity.

These emotions and events themselves haven't changed, but their proportion in your world has diminished. After a few more times, you'll find that emotions that once moved you 100% now fail to excite you, including so-called suffering and hatred. This change can be called numbness, but that's roughly what it is.

The Earth can accommodate everyone's joys and sorrows.

But many people cannot even contain their own joys and sorrows, which is why there are so many problems.

As for Li Qi, his capacity had grown considerably without him realizing it, to the extent that he could not only contain all the joys and sorrows of a certain person, but it wouldn't even cause the slightest ripple within him.

In other words, his emotions were no longer compatible with his capacity.

The longer Li Qi spent in the twisted spacetime, and the more time was traced back, the less important his brief life, with all its loves and hates, became.

Li Qi truly realized one thing: time can heal all emotions, whether love or hate.

Moreover…

The current him lacked enough love and hate to support his hollow capacity; his entire life, excluding the retraced and twisted spacetime, was only about a thousand years.

How could a thousand years of accumulation compare to the nearly one hundred thousand years of experience from retraced and twisted spacetime?

Li Qi looked up, suddenly startled awake.

The drawback of twisted spacetime was not just self-contained development; it also smoothed out one's Dao Heart, leading to Li Qi's current state.

Li Qi didn't want this; what was the difference between this and a walking corpse? The so-called 'Supreme Forgetting of Emotion' was not, in essence, forgetting emotion.

But at this moment, Empress Luofu made another move, this time not gently, but by tapping Li Qi's head with her finger.

This tap was quite heavy, not a joke, but genuinely carried a hint of anger; she repeated: “Li Qi, stop thinking about those things. This is a family banquet.”

Li Qi was terrified and immediately stood up to apologize.

But Shen Shuibi then tugged at Empress Luofu's sleeve.

Empress Luofu glanced at the rabbit, then sighed: “Alas, Li Qi, you are a clever child, but too stubborn. You always like to force yourself with irrelevant things, and Zhu Fengdan doesn't like to manage you….”

“I don't want to say too much, but I hope you can seriously consider: can being fixated on one thing truly allow you to see the full picture of the world? If you cannot see the full picture of the world, how can you speculate about this world?”

“Just like now, you are fixated on the thoughts in your mind, but do you think what you are thinking about is more important than this family banquet?” Empress Luofu asked.

Li Qi didn't know the answer, but at least he knew he shouldn't consider these things now.

So, he cast aside these thoughts and instead rose, inviting Shen Shuibi to go watch the juniors' chase; Li Shiwei and other Seventh-Rank Disciples were soaring and traversing the gravitational rings of the Lunar Orbs in the nearby sky, competing to catch the wine drops that naturally condensed and shrunk in volume as they fell.

Of course, though their volume was reduced, each wine drop was still about the size of a human head, and thousands upon thousands falling together, like a heavy rain, combined with the overwhelming aroma of wine, made it quite challenging for the Seventh-Rank Disciples.

On one hand, they didn't even need to drink; just the scent made them dizzy and flushed, yet they still had to find a way to collect the wine drops, which was indeed quite difficult; every now and then, someone would be hit by a wine drop and instantly pass out, falling to the ground, where the unconscious piled up in a row, becoming objects of ridicule.

But there were also some who opened their Spiritual Artifacts and displayed their Divine Abilities, collecting the precious wine, and some even fought over it, because the density, speed, and even quality of the wine varied in different places. Good and high-quality spots naturally attracted more people, while some difficult spots only had a few takers.

This was fine wine personally brewed by Chang Xi; even if they didn't drink it, they had to collect more to take back. Third-Rank items were not easy to acquire.

The atmosphere was quite lively, and no real anger flared up; everyone was just playing around, laughing, and some who were not strong enough were knocked out by the wine and fell into beautiful dreams.

Shen Shuibi also didn't hesitate; she simply rose and walked over with Li Qi.

Li Qi and Shen Shuibi excused themselves and went to a nearby spot to watch Li Shiwei's performance.

This feeling was somewhat like Parents attending their child's school sports day.

Watching the two leave, Empress Luofu's expression seemed a little helpless.

“A grown daughter is hard to keep. You'll get used to it. You have another one, you know,” Chang Xi teased.

“Another one? Forget it,” Empress Luofu said, looking at Yang Ning, who was already drunk and punching people nearby, her expression of helplessness deepening.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Shen Shuibi and Li Qi walked side by side, found a small boat provided by Guanghan, sat in it, and observed the banquet's farce from the side.

Even now, they both remained peripheral figures at the banquet.

However, Li Qi looked at the boisterous scene and suddenly said, “Yu'er… your weight in my heart has lightened.”

“It's everything that has lightened in your heart, not just me,” Shen Shuibi replied.

This answer made Li Qi suddenly turn and look at Shen Shuibi.

This was truly… did she know all along?

However, Shen Shuibi then leaned against Li Qi: “But, don't mind these small things. Everything eventually returns to tranquility. You've been out for too long, it's quite normal. Just stay at home more, and it will be fine.”

“Is that so? All right then, I've made a great contribution this time, it should be enough for our family to be out of combat for a long time. When that time comes, we will go to Yunfang Great Shaman's place. After all, he is Shi Wei's mentor, and although she hasn't formally become his Disciple, his guidance has been very meticulous. We will stay there for a good period of time and teach Shi Wei,” Li Qi said.

“If you've decided, then that's good,” Shen Shuibi did not object; she was indifferent to such matters.

That's good. (End of Chapter)