Chapter 739: The world of demons

Three months later, Li Qi sat in the Crystal Palace, looking out at the boundless Deep Ocean.

He was conducting a routine civilization survey to pass the time.

Large amounts of self-luminous seawater released a great deal of heat, and the temperature of this world seemed to have risen again.

A self-luminous world is indeed very beautiful.

When you first see it, you'll think the whole world is filled with this splendid, radiant, luminous world… It's incredibly shocking; the continental shelf, and even the more distant underwater forests, all emit a crystalline light.

Massive amounts of Spiritual Qi are condensed beneath this sea, stirring up waves of Spiritual Qi, layer upon layer, like a thousand-layer cake of stacked, semi-solid Spiritual Pools, which are typical landmarks here.

Many sea monsters and peculiar life forms gather around these Spiritual Liquids, using them as their nests and habitats, much like the relationship between clownfish and coral reefs.

These semi-solid Spiritual Qi emerge every so often; viewed from a distance, they resemble the bustling lights on land, and if the seabed is considered the sky, one can even see the magnificent star river within this Deep Ocean Abyss.

The self-luminosity of this world originates from this; it's beautiful, but… staying too long can still become tiresome.

But it was indeed a bit hot; Li Qi hadn't gotten used to it even after three months.

It was somewhat similar to… heating iron to several hundred or even a thousand degrees, at which point the iron would become ‘glowing malt candy’.

Or, melting glass into that soft form, at which point the glass would “look delicious”.

This temperature couldn't harm him, but it still made him feel a bit… subtle, as if he were being slow-cooked at a low temperature by this great sea, a feeling of being gently simmered.

“Hoo.” Li Qi exhaled a turbid breath; the moment the gas emerged, it was compressed into a small dot by the pressure, then rapidly floated towards the surface of the water.

The civilization survey Li Qi was currently conducting was, in fact, observing a small underwater civilization from afar.

This was still a very primitive civilization; in this Second-Rank world, their strongest individual was only Eighth-Rank, belonging to the kind of roadside weeds, barely surviving in this Deep Ocean, secretly gathering a little Spiritual Qi in their unique ecological niche.

They were like some kind of ocean voles, secretly hiding to eat some seeds, though they actually looked like ten-legged fish with strong climbing abilities.

But it was still very interesting, because they possessed high intelligence, and… although they lived in the deep sea, they couldn't swim.

Yes, a deep-sea civilization that can't swim!

They are cave creatures, living in caves; to them, the seabed is the sky, and they have air bladders in their bodies, so buoyancy constantly pushes them upwards, allowing them to stand safely on the cave ceiling.

It's like humans standing on the ground.

Buoyancy is their gravity, the cave ceiling is their ground; they believe they live on a mountain, and if they jump off a cliff (the cave entrance), they will fall into an bottomless abyss (float to the surface).

How to put it, from the principle of relativity, their view has no problem at all; jumping out of the cave, in their eyes, is jumping off the ground, falling downwards, and under some magical gravity (buoyancy), they will keep falling until they reach the surface.

At that point, the buoyancy disappears…

Only then will they discover that gravity actually points upwards.

That's why Li Qi enjoyed observing this small cave-dwelling race; what kind of flame of civilization would develop from such a worldview, completely different from the surrounding world?

Their strongest individuals are currently only Eighth-Rank, so they dare not leave the cave at all; this is the Deep Ocean of a Second-Rank world, anything could come along and eat them all, they rely entirely on the cave for protection.

Later, when someone among them achieves a Breakthrough to Seventh-Rank and gains basic self-preservation ability, and leaves that cave, how will the world in their eyes change?

How curious!

However, Li Qi still restrained himself and did not directly appear to impart knowledge, elevating them to Seventh-Rank.

That would be like pulling up seedlings to help them grow; arbitrarily interfering with the natural progression of a civilization could very likely destroy some future possibilities; it’s better to let everything take its natural course.

After all, Li Qi is still a Shaman.

Li Qi was making records of the civilization, but at this moment, Chang Qiao suddenly appeared beside her: “Young Master, still watching? You’ve already recorded six civilizations these past few days.”

“The demon race’s Second-Rank world is incredibly wondrous, it’s truly hard to stop,” Li Qi put down his pen and paper, looked at Chang Qiao, and said.

Yes, it’s hard to stop.

The demon race’s Second-Rank world is truly too complex.

Here, it seems that everything in the myriad things possesses the quality of life, hence there are massive numbers of small civilizations, and the ecology is extremely peculiar, with all sorts of strange and monstrous life forms struggling to compete.

At the same time, perhaps due to Chang Qiao, the competition nearby is also quite fierce, and natural selection also shows considerable influence here.

“Oh…” Chang Qiao nodded, then she also began writing on her own paper and pen.

Li Qi observed the civilization; she observed Li Qi.

As mentioned before.

The person watching the scenery is often also the scenery in others’ eyes.

Li Qi found this situation somewhat amusing, so he completely put away his pen and paper, turning to Chang Qiao: “Is Miss here to tell me about the progress? Or is there nothing to report?”

Li Qi’s tone was somewhat teasing.

Because in the past three months, Chang Qiao had almost constantly used the excuse of ‘reporting progress’ to strike up conversations with Li Qi, and Li Qi found it hard to refuse, often being asked many questions by her, but in reality, true progress only occurred once a month, and most of Chang Qiao’s reports were ‘no progress’.

In fact, Li Qi himself knew that such an exploration would be difficult to make great progress, and could only proceed slowly; one must know that it was the power of the Demon Dao that was obscuring Sariputra’s existence.

This obscuration was enough to render all investigations ineffective, severing all methods of Karma, leaving only physical search as an option; probably only someone like Li Qi could find Sariputra.

Yes, it was that magical; Li Qi went to find Xin Ming and asked him to use his Celestial Eye, and he could find him.

But a Bodhisattva with vast Divine Ability, personally using the Celestial Eye, simply couldn’t find him, no matter what.

It was that magical.

This was the strangeness of the Demonic Dao.

Furthermore, there might not even truly be a Heavenly Demon controlling it behind the scenes; it’s very possible it was ‘spontaneous’.

The mere existence of a Heavenly Demon was enough to cause such things to happen.

But regardless, since a ‘world’ as small as this area has been confirmed, a carpet search is already sufficient.

Although a Second-Rank world is vast, with the power of a Fourth-Rank Great Power, it would at most take a few months to roughly survey everything; he believed Chang Qiao’s forces could certainly achieve this.

Chang Qiao saw Li Qi put away his pen and paper, and she also put hers away, then said: “This time is different; we’ve found a possible target, he has Buddhist nature.”

“Buddhist nature?” Li Qi raised an eyebrow.

“The Middle Way and True Form, illuminating the Two Truths, self-nature is eternally abiding; even if he isn't Sariputra, he possesses great wisdom, a true super Genius, but we didn’t rashly approach him. Firstly, we wanted to leave him for Young Master, and secondly, that place is, after all, the territory of a Fourth-Rank Yao King, and I am beyond my reach,” Chang Qiao said.

“Good, since there’s a clue, that’s good. Thank you for your trouble, Miss. Please continue to look for new possible candidates. As for this one, I’ll go take a look first,” Li Qi replied, then confirmed the coordinates.

“Alright, Young Master, take care,” Chang Qiao immediately waved goodbye.

Li Qi nodded, his body vanished, turning into a streak of light disappearing into the sky.

In just an instant, he had already rushed to an unknown distance away.

But Chang Qiao, though she was in human form at the moment, still had Dragon characteristics, such as vertical golden-green pupils, Dragon horns, and a tail wagging excitedly beneath her long robe.

She immediately took out a large stack of record files, and upon closer inspection, they were numerous records generated during Li Qi’s stay in this place.

With… an indescribable expression, or perhaps what could be called an ‘auntie smile,’ she began to spread these items out and organize them; these were valuable first-hand materials!

If posted on the Prodigy Pavilion, her post would be stickied as a premium item for at least seven thousand years!

Meanwhile, Li Qi had already arrived at the coordinates.

The speed of a Fourth-Rank is simply that fast; he is now completely unaffected by the Heavenly Dao’s limits, so his actual location is many links away from the world chain, yet he arrived in the blink of an eye.

However, the moment he landed, Li Qi suddenly looked up.

The surrounding space-time began to slow down.

A surge of Yao power twisted the surroundings, and Li Qi could clearly feel that he had entered a spatial-temporal prison.

Hmm, as expected.

He hadn't hidden his tracks, so it was natural for the local big shots to come looking for him.

So, Li Qi stood still, waiting for his opponent.

Soon, a strange beast appeared before Li Qi.

Its Qi was cold, its bones rattled, and its piercing gaze darted like lightning.

It was a tiger, but not just a tiger.

It had a tiger’s body, but seven tails, a human face, and tiger claws.

Its cultivation should also be Fourth-Rank, and a sense of ‘justice’ enveloped its surroundings.

“Lu Wu?” Li Qi was surprised.

But he immediately shook his head and said: “No, then Your Excellency is?”

“As expected of the Young Master of Shaman God Mountain, truly knowledgeable. Lu Wu is my ancestor, and I merely possess some of the Lu Wu Bloodline. I already know why Young Master is here; Chang Qiao has already told me. However… I still need Young Master’s personal assurance that you will not cause trouble here, as this is my Dao field,” the mixed-blood Lu Wu said.

“I am merely here to find someone and will not easily cause trouble. Should there be conflict, I will notify Your Excellency in advance and seek permission,” Li Qi cupped his hands and humbly said.

Li Qi’s attitude made the mixed-blood Lu Wu feel respected, so he nodded: “Then Young Master, do as you please. As long as you don’t turn the world upside down, anything else is fine.”

“Your Excellency, rest assured,” Li Qi said.

As the conversation ended, the mixed-blood Lu Wu disappeared.

Li Qi also emerged from the spatial-temporal prison and looked around.

The surroundings… were a ‘Yao City’.

It truly was a Yao City, very peculiar; it had typical architectural styles from across the world, as it was a Second-Rank directly under the Demon Dao, so it was normal for it to be influenced by the world.

Therefore, Li Qi felt almost no difference here compared to being in the world.

The only problem was that everyone here was a Yao.

All kinds of Yao.

There were inorganic ones, such as mineral Yao, gem Yao, and even flying anvils and Spiritual Artifacts everywhere.

There were also beasts, various wild beasts; some Li Qi recognized, like the Mi Gu, White Ape, Lu Shu, Chi Ru, Yuan Chu, and Xi Bian, along with many other exotic beasts Li Qi didn't recognize at all, not knowing what species they were, but all of them were Yao.

There were also many plants, Huang Guan, Gao Ji, Zhu Jian, Du Heng, Wu Jiu, and so on, as well as many more exotic plants that Li Qi couldn't distinguish.

Bizarre and grotesque, that pretty much described this place.

Li Qi could see an iron pillar monster boiling a pot of fiery red soup, with a line of firebirds queuing to buy.

But they weren’t buying the soup, but the burning charcoal beneath it; the iron pillar monster would occasionally kick out some charcoal, and the firebirds would throw their feathers into the soup, then queue up to receive the charcoal, eating with great relish.

As for the soup, once boiled, it was sent to several eight-headed demon monsters; although the demon monsters had eight heads, they had no mouths, so they poured the soup onto their heads, and sprouts actually emerged.

Upon closer inspection, they weren't eight-headed demon monsters, but several trees with eight branches, and the reason they looked like eight heads was because there were skulls on the branches… These trees were oddly shaped, looking like that, who knows who they were trying to scare.

After the firebirds finished eating the charcoal, they ran to those few trees; the ‘heads’ on the trees were actually the firebirds’ nests.

After burrowing in, two streams of Qi merged, and those trees suddenly became full of vitality, pulling up their roots and walking, and with every step, a puff of mist would rise.

Looking elsewhere, even stranger things were happening; a Tai Sui was selling its own flesh, and a pile of carnivorous monsters were ravenously gnawing.

Several un-transformed insect Yao were on the street delivering messages to the Great Yao.

A few Anomolus Spirits were on the street bestowing blessings on people; they seemed to be spirits representing ‘good fortune’, and some mournful ghosts avoided them like the plague.

Various different living customs, various bizarre commodity exchanges; the habits of the Yao creatures were all different, so these differing habits instead brought about a particularly magical chemical reaction, making this entire street seem extraordinary.

Li Qi had seen many worlds, but the uniqueness of this place ranked quite high.

No matter what, those worlds all had their own dominant species.

But, the Demon Dao did not.

Yao have no dominant species; it could even be said that every single monster is unique, the cultivation path of the Demon Dao is too independent.

Perhaps this is the origin of ‘Yao’.

‘Yao’ itself refers to things that are ‘uncommon’ or ‘strange and rare’.

The so-called Yao creatures, on this strange street, presented a very stereotypical but standard image.

Thinking this, Li Qi looked towards his target for this trip.

That was a…

Uh, a Buddha statue?

A Buddha statue that became a Anomolus Spirit?

Is it that hip-hop? No wonder they called him a Buddhist Disciple.

(Monthly votes—)