Chapter 721: Meeting a celebrity

Li Qi observed the society of these Insectoids.

They seemed to practice complete socialized rearing, as Li Qi saw a large number of schools while traveling through their territory.

Or rather… they could be called ‘hatching nests’.

Large quantities of insect eggs and undeveloped larvae were gathered together and raised by specialized Insectoids.

It could truly only be called rearing… When those larvae, densely packed in piles, squirmed in the hatching nests, Li Qi, passing overhead, felt the scene was somewhat unsuitable for humanoid viewing.

However, the Insectoids seemed accustomed to it; those larvae apparently weren't considered ‘people’. They likely undergo a strict screening mechanism, killing most of them, and only the remaining ones are allowed to grow into adults.

It’s just… in this screening, Li Qi seemed to vaguely perceive the will of the Heavenly Dao.

It seemed that what appeared to be a coincidence was actually predestined.

Interesting. Does getting involved with the world naturally lead to these influences? Or is this ship actually the territory of some major power?

Li Qi looked at these Insectoid Martial Artists, a sense of curiosity stirring within him.

The martial arts they cultivated were not low-level; in fact, they could be said to be… quite advanced. If Li Qi hadn't been a Fourth-Ranker with a high-level perspective, he might not have been able to win in a direct confrontation with these Insectoid Martial Artists of the same rank.

In other words, the martial arts they cultivated could absolutely not have been created by themselves; they must have been taught by others.

So… how many powers in the world possess martial arts of this caliber?

Powers like Orthodox Sword Palace or the Baiyue Kingdom Lord certainly couldn't achieve this. Going further up, it would have to be at the level of the various Dragon Kings and Devil Kings, wouldn't it?

Those should all have Fifth-Rankers or higher guarding them.

Hmm… this world-class giant ship has a deeper background than I imagined.

Thinking while traveling quickly, about an hour later, Li Qi delved into one of the five cores of this world-class giant ship.

This is where the Mother Nest is located.

Here, Li Qi could see massive amounts of insect eggs being expelled.

This place truly felt like an ‘insect nest’. All around were flesh-and-blood structures made of large amounts of biomass. Due to the enormous size of the world-class giant ship, it could easily accommodate this blood mass, which was as huge as a city.

It truly was as large as a city. This was a separate compartment within the world-class giant ship, reaching a height of two hundred li and a length and width of three hundred li each.

And this ‘Mother Nest’ filled this compartment to the brim, seemingly about to overflow. At least twenty million different pipelines pierced into the Mother Nest from all sides.

Some transported nutrients and various substances, some were for excretion, drawing away various metabolic wastes, and others were oviducts, from which large quantities of insect eggs were drawn out and then transported to the ‘rearing rooms’ outside.

How should I put it? Although it looked very modern, at its core, this was still a hive civilization. The basic underlying structure still revealed their meticulous social division of labor.

Moreover, Li Qi could feel that the surrounding ‘world’ was being subjected to some strange distortion.

Yes, under normal circumstances, such a Mother Nest could not possibly survive, but now, under this distortion, the Mother Nest was able to exist perfectly in the world, and was even very powerful.

“Spiritual Energy… or rather, Demonic Dao? Or perhaps Martial Dao Divine Intent?” Li Qi felt this power, somewhat感慨.

He was still very young, so it was his first time seeing such an extreme spiritual energy race that developed absolutely no material technology; all material technology was externally provided, and they focused solely on ‘seeking inward’.

Through self-hypnosis, or something else, in short, by unearthing the potential of ‘pure spirit’, their minds were like an endless hyper-realistic plane, where anything was possible.

This was the power of mind over matter.

The Demonic Dao, Martial Dao Divine Intent, Spirit Dao, and even a portion of the Dao of Reason and Dao Orthodoxy, could skillfully utilize this power, using their inner self to change the external world.

Shaman Dao was not very adept at this; the Inner World they constructed was actually a very objective and real substance. Influencing the outer world through the Inner World was itself very realistic.

Shaman Dao and the Human Dao were not good at using pure ‘intent’ to change reality, and Li Qi dealt most with the Human Dao, so he was not very familiar with this power.

This could also be considered the disadvantage of ‘youth’; cultivating too quickly always leads to superficiality.

This superficiality isn't necessarily what's called ‘shallow foundation’. If your talent is good enough and your Opportunities are plentiful enough, then a purely cultivated foundation won't be shallow. The truly shallow part is the experience accumulated over time, the precipitation of a long life.

So, now is Li Qi’s process of precipitation.

Conversing with a pure spiritual energy race was also a form of accumulation for him.

Li Qi looked at the Mother Nest.

He knew that this entire Mother Nest was a living organism…

No, not a living organism, but a living brain.

This was a massive city-sized brain, but this brain possessed a reproductive System. Her body was even larger than some small countries in the world. Such a volume would normally be enough to crush her, but with the support of spiritual energy, she was able to maintain her existence, and even live quite comfortably.

“Alright, that’s enough. You may leave.” Li Qi waved his hand and stopped.

The other Insectoids immediately turned back, looking at Li Qi with displeasure, and made hoarse sounds with their mouthparts: “You must enter to converse with the Mother Nest.”

“That’s for you, not for me.” Li Qi said, then he sat down cross-legged on the spot and closed his eyes.

The moment he closed his eyes, the other Insectoids suddenly felt a dizzy spell.

Then, a phantom appeared before their eyes. That phantom then solidified, transforming into an Insectoid appearance.

This was not real, but a ‘hallucination’.

However, this was a hallucination that everyone could perceive, a hallucination that could affect reality.

In the face of the Mother Nest’s powerful mental energy, this hallucination distorted objective reality, causing it to appear in this world.

Li Qi could also do the same thing now, but he couldn't when he was a Fifth-Ranker.

And this Mother Nest was an anomalous Fifth-Ranker.

It couldn’t really be called anomalous… it could only be said that there was some difference from the orthodox cultivation of the world. But looking at the entire Outer Domain, nothing is abnormal; given the boundless vastness of the Outer Domain, anything is normal.

The other Insectoids unconsciously fainted, and the Insectoid that was ‘fantasized’ into existence by the Mother Nest’s will stood before Li Qi.

It spoke in a very normal voice: “You are also from the world, aren’t you? Why are you here?”

“Oh? You saw that I was from the world, so you made a move and invited me up?” Li Qi asked.

“That’s right. You seem to be in poor condition, with no cultivation. Have you fallen into the outside world? If you need, we can send you back to the world.” The Mother Nest said, appearing very friendly.

Li Qi smiled; he already knew the other party's intention.

Clearly, while they said they could send Li Qi back to the world, what they actually wanted was to use Li Qi’s identity so they could follow him to the world without the Heavenly Dao of the world blocking them outside.

Smuggling in using Li Qi’s identity? Oh, it can’t be considered that, because then it would be legal entry.

Ascension to the world is very difficult. Either one is brought in by a great Dao Orthodoxy, or one is brought in by a resident of the world. To truly Ascend, the requirements are far too many.

“No need, I haven’t fallen outside. I’m just undergoing a… cultivation.” Li Qi said, “However, you are now also a part of my cultivation, I’m curious about what exactly this power you are using is about.”

“I see. So you sealed your cultivation, and your destination is the Illusion-Reality Domain?” the Mother Nest asked.

“Illusion-Reality Domain? Oh, I understand what you mean.” Li Qi immediately realized the other party’s meaning.

Speaking of ‘consciousness distorting reality’, is there any place more powerful than the Illusion-Reality Domain?

This is an area where ‘thought is reality’! Why hadn't I thought of it before? If I want to understand spiritual energy, isn't going directly to the Illusion-Reality Domain the best choice?

Although Li Qi had been there before, at that time, Li Qi was only thinking about the Illusion-Reality Domain’s manifestation in the material realm. But now, Li Qi could…

Then Li Qi immediately asked: “So, your invasion of this area and your devouring of the Advancement Alliance are also for the purpose of heading to the Illusion-Reality Domain?”

“Yes, is Your Excellency not the same?” The Mother Nest seemed somewhat surprised.

“Hmm… I’m certainly not, but now that you mention it, I think I can give it a try. Thank you for the reminder.” Li Qi stroked his chin.

In that case, wouldn’t it be hitting two birds with one stone?

“You… aren’t you afraid of danger? Since you say this is cultivation, then you must have sealed your cultivation and then come to do these things. Wouldn’t that easily lead to trouble?” the Mother Nest asked.

“It certainly is very easy, but sometimes, one needs to take some risks when doing things.” Li Qi replied.

The Mother Nest seemed to want to say something else—

Li Qi actually wanted to have a good conversation with the other party as well.

However, at this moment, abruptly, the Mother Nest stopped.

A terrifying aura descended!

Under the pressure of this aura, it seemed even the flow of time was distorted. In an instant, it was as if the entire world had suddenly fallen into a temporal quagmire, everything becoming slow. The movements of the other Insectoids became like a series of fragmented action shots, as if a film reel had gotten stuck in a frame!

Li Qi immediately looked up.

A handsome man in a Martial Artist’s combat suit stood in the sky, as if standing on solid ground.

This was very unusual.

Generally speaking, Martial Artists do not have the ability to fly without special operations. They might be able to ‘swim in the sea of air’, or directly jump out of the atmosphere and smash through world barriers, but they just can’t fly.

The reason is simple: the simplest form of flight usually involves manipulating external matter, such as manipulating air to lift oneself, or using spells to control other things to carry oneself, and some lift their own bodies, such as a Shaman who can control the repulsive force of their Inner World to take off.

But the nature of a Martial Artist, the nature of Martial Dao Inner Qi, inherently lacks the ability to manipulate other substances. Martial Dao Inner Qi only has destructive capabilities; it is extremely extreme.

However, Martial Artists are not without ways to fly. For example, as mentioned earlier, swimming in the ‘sea of air’, relying on high-speed air-treading, can also allow a Martial Artist to take to the sky, but this is very different from ‘flying’ in the usual sense.

And the Martial Artist before him, Li Qi saw, was ‘commanding’ the air with his Martial Dao Divine Intent.

Yes, Li Qi could only describe it that way.

He commanded the air to become solid, and the air ‘obeyed’.

Such terrifyingly domineering Martial Dao Divine Intent, to the extent that all things submitted to him, as if with just one command from him, all beings would allow themselves to be manipulated.

The body condensed by the Mother Nest directly disintegrated, and that huge city of flesh and blood actually assumed a ‘bowing’ posture.

Everything around, whether living or inorganic, all ‘bowed’ towards him.

Li Qi even felt that his own mecha suit had this tendency; the mecha was forcing Li Qi to bow his head.

Li Qi simply took off his mecha helmet, maintained an upright posture, and said, “I’ve long admired you… Your Excellency’s prestige, even in the world, is among the top of the younger generation. May I ask your esteemed name?”

“Not as good as you, Li Qi.” The handsome and domineering man actually called out Li Qi’s name directly.

“That’s natural, there are few who can compare to me.” Li Qi smiled.

With Li Qi’s disrespectful remark, the five-foot radius around Li Qi seemed to no longer ‘submit’.

Li Qi was not affected, so the oppressive feeling around him was lifted.

This immediately made Li Qi realize something, and he then said to the man in the sky: “Your Dao foundation… was it shattered? These are traces after repair. You can’t oppress those who are unaffected? Can’t even permeate them?”

“You truly live up to your reputation as the Shaman who defeated Liu Junyi in the Human-Shaman War. I heard you also exchanged blows with Zhang Zong, what was the result?” The man walked towards Li Qi step by step, as if climbing stairs.

The closer he got, the more Li Qi could feel the oppressive force washing over him, and also… the weakness behind that oppressive force.

So, Li Qi said: “The result was quite good… I didn’t lose. Also, you… were you beaten by the Demonic Prince? You are Shou Yu?”

Li Qi called out the other party’s name.

The strongest among the younger generation of Martial Artists, the Little Overlord who was ranked among the foremost in the Seventh-Rank when the Demonic Prince was there, his name was ‘Shou Yu’.

“It is I. To meet you here, it truly is… I don’t know what to say.” The Martial Dao Divine Intent that enveloped the surroundings gradually subsided, and Shou Yu patted his Martial Artist’s combat suit, saying so.

Li Qi, meanwhile, scrutinized the other party.

Observing closely at such proximity allowed for a clearer view.

The feeling of weakness after the Dao foundation shattered, even after reaching Fifth-Rank, Shou Yu still hadn’t managed to shake it off.