Chapter 746: Hazy Sariputra

From beginning to end, Li Qi had seen everything clearly. He had even foreseen the death of Er Gou's mother.

However, Li Qi did not intervene.

He was currently working hard to discern any traces of Sariputra within Er Gou.

But... he found nothing.

This failure drove Er Gou nearly insane.

Because, before his mother died, she had used all her strength to send him away.

That's right, just him—

In his mother's eyes, Xiao Gou had no value in being sent away. Rather than wasting power to protect her—which might have allowed the enemy to track them—it was better to send her most promising son to a place where he could never be found.

Xiao Gou and their mother remained where they were, while Er Gou was sent to another link in the world chain, a brand new world—the territory of a Rank Five demon.

After being sent away, Er Gou stood dazed in place, not moving for a long time.

In the blink of an eye, he had lost everything once again.

Li Qi watched him, wanting to see what kind of power he would display under such circumstances and whether he would show a connection to Sariputra.

After all, Li Qi had personally witnessed Er Gou's level of fortitude.

However, the decision Er Gou made this time caused Li Qi to frown deeply.

This time, he simply succumbed to the Demonic Dao.

If one truly enters the Demonic Dao, they can indeed rapidly increase their cultivation. After all... in the early stages, the Demonic Dao has the lowest requirements for one's Dao Heart. It is very easy to effortlessly govern a large amount of Qi; extreme solipsism brings a fast and convenient path to promotion.

Er Gou still suffered from the same problem.

He lacked the wisdom for cultivation and could not find his own path. After his mother and Xiao Gou died, only a precipice remained before him.

To leap off that precipice was to enter the Demonic Dao.

Thus, the moment he succumbed to the Demonic Dao, Li Qi averted his gaze.

It was meaningless. A wasted century of observation. Honestly... he definitely wasn't Sariputra.

An existence like Sariputra would never enter the Demonic Dao under any circumstances. This was the confidence Li Qi held for a Genius of his own caliber; this was, after all, a Buddha-son under the Buddha.

A Personal Disciple of the Buddha, and you're saying he would enter the Demonic Dao? Li Qi felt that whoever said such a thing was the one who had truly lost their mind.

He believed in the Buddha unconditionally, just as he believed in the Shaman God unconditionally. That was trust.

And so, Li Qi shook his head.

"It shouldn't be him; I've mistaken the person. How could Sariputra enter the Demonic Dao?" Li Qi gave a bitter laugh, then said to Shen Shuibi, "That one is ruled out. I'm going to find Chang Qiao. Are you coming with me, or staying here?"

"I'll stay here. I can see from here anyway. At this distance, it's no different from being right beside you," Shen Shuibi said.

Li Qi nodded, stopped watching Er Gou, and flew toward Chang Qiao's direction.

A few moments later, he appeared in Chang Qiao's Sea of Luminous Light.

The surroundings were still filled with water that was nearly compressed into a solid. The pressure was terrifyingly high, and the temperature was extreme. Various sea monsters and aquatic civilizations lived on this seabed.

Chang Qiao was wearing a cyan silk nightgown and nothing else. She was floating face-up on the spiritual liquid, holding a large stack of documents she was processing.

Well... even a fanatical fangirl has to work when it's time to work. After all, processing so much intelligence was no simple task.

Li Qi now knew what Chang Qiao's job was. In reality, she managed a super intelligence agency that spanned the heavens. As a Rank Four True Dragon, she naturally had sufficient ability to maintain this agency and use it to accumulate foundation for her Dao Orthodoxy and cultivation.

Her Dao Orthodoxy seemed inseparable from intelligence, so she was working hard in that direction.

However, she seemed to enjoy it immensely. After all... being able to practice one's own Dao Orthodoxy must involve something one truly accepts and loves from the heart. Just like the fanaticism she showed toward Li Qi, she genuinely enjoyed doing this. It wasn't torture for her; she wasn't forcing herself to chase the Dao Orthodoxy.

In fact, she was very happy during the process, which was a common trait among almost all Seekers of the Dao Orthodoxy.

If you don't find joy in exploring the world and the true essence of yourself, is there anything joyful left in the world?

Setting those thoughts aside, Li Qi descended beside Chang Qiao. Seeing her disheveled appearance, he frowned slightly but didn't look away, instead getting straight to the point: "Chang Qiao, that person isn't Sariputra. Are there any other candidates?"

"Not Sariputra? Has the Young Master confirmed it?" Chang Qiao flipped over and sat up. With a light wave of her hand, the silk wrapped tightly around her, covering her body.

She rose from the spiritual liquid and looked at him: "How did the Young Master confirm it?"

"Er Gou, the one you said was possible—he entered the Demonic Dao," Li Qi said.

Hearing this, Chang Qiao nodded in sudden realization.

That was true.

If he entered the Demonic Dao, he definitely wasn't Sariputra.

Chang Qiao and Li Qi didn't even need to discuss this point; they naturally reached a consensus.

Sariputra could absolutely never enter the Demonic Dao.

They could question Sariputra, but they certainly couldn't question that great World Honored One Tathagata, the Buddha who illuminates all light.

"In that case, well... take a look at this then. This is the second in line, but there's a bit of a problem. This guy, although he has wisdom, is extraordinarily stupid. Sariputra is famous for his wisdom, after all." Chang Qiao seemed a bit troubled. "If this one doesn't work, I'll go look for other possible candidates."

"Alright, sorry to trouble you," Li Qi said as he received the documents for the second person.

Chang Qiao's organization had already helped Li Qi filter out countless millions of 'possible' candidates. Those delivered to Li Qi's hands were the most likely ones.

Take Er Gou, for example. If he hadn't entered the Demonic Dao, Li Qi would have suspected he was Sariputra based on the resilience of his Dao Heart alone; otherwise, he wouldn't have watched him for over a hundred years.

Li Qi read through the second set of documents, memorizing them, then said to Chang Qiao: "Then, I'll have to trouble Miss Chang Qiao to put in more effort."

"Yes, yes, yes, as long as the Young Master is satisfied!" Chang Qiao was as enthusiastic as ever. She rose from the spiritual liquid and landed in front of Li Qi. Her pupils shifted repeatedly, changing from normal human eyes to cyan-gold dragon pupils and back again several times.

This was likely a habit of hers. Although Li Qi didn't know why she did it, it looked quite nice.

Li Qi didn't delay further. He turned to leave and returned to the void outside the world, back to Shen Shuibi's side.

Shen Shuibi tilted her head: "That was fast. It's only been a few minutes. Were you afraid I'd misunderstand?"

"Would you?" Li Qi asked back.

"Why wouldn't I?" Shen Shuibi countered again.

Afterward, the couple didn't continue the dialogue. They both smiled and turned back to their own business. After all, the rabbit accompanying Li Qi to watch Er Gou was just a pastime; her main task was observing the Guixu.

As for the little joke just now—

Shen Shuibi wouldn't doubt him.

And Li Qi wouldn't give her a reason to.

Both understood this perfectly; it was just talk.

Li Qi also began to calculate the person he was to observe this time. He was prepared; if he had to observe for a thousand or two thousand years, it wouldn't matter.

One could even say that if Sariputra could be found in a thousand or two thousand years, that would be wonderful.

However, if it really took that long, Li Qi estimated he would be recalled to the Human-Shaman Battlefield. After all, his leave was limited no matter how you looked at it. Even if it was earned through merit, a few thousand years was about the limit; any more and people would start to complain.

Even though the Human-Shaman war lasted a long time, Li Qi couldn't stay on leave forever. He had to go to work eventually. The long-term absence of a Rank Four combatant had an impact that wasn't exactly small—at least several hundred war zones and trillions of worlds would be affected.

It was better to hurry; even leave must have its limits.

Holding the documents, Li Qi's body flickered, and he arrived at the location of the person mentioned this time.

This location was another world ring belt. It was closer to the Guixu here, so the gravitational pull felt much stronger.

Consequently, although the Terrestrial Magnetism here was very strong, it still couldn't overcome the gravity of the Guixu. Thus, many rocks and organisms were floating in mid-air.

There were many floating mountains and cities here, and almost all life forms possessed the ability to fly.

The ground was pitted and uneven—calling it the ground was less accurate than calling it a series of deep pits. It was evident that these were the remaining fragments after the earth was torn apart by the Guixu, which then floated up. The further down one went, the stronger the Terrestrial Magnetism became, resulting in the current layout.

The local power here was a Rank Five, so Li Qi didn't need to give greetings like before.

A Rank Five had no way of sensing Li Qi's presence.

And this time, the target Li Qi needed to find was an unranked existence. Furthermore, it hadn't even taken human form yet and was still in its original shape.

Yes, unranked... He really didn't know what was going on. Was Sariputra such a loser?

If someone like the Little Heavenly Master were reincarnated, even without memories and unable to see through the Mystery of the Womb, Li Qi believed they could easily return to Rank Five in this amount of time.

The level was there; it wouldn't be too far off. Even relying solely on the residual instincts of the True Spirit, they would be much stronger than most cultivators.

What was going on with Sariputra?

Carrying these doubts in his mind, Li Qi arrived before the second candidate.

The second candidate likely to be Sariputra was a Cloud Whale.

Cloud Whales were a special species at this level. The name 'Cloud Whale' was given by the people of the world because these creatures grew very large and had a body shape similar to a whale.

This could be considered a form of convergent evolution. After all, they all needed to overcome fluid resistance, so growing into a streamlined shape was only natural.

In short, this was a type of giant beast that used the gravity of the Guixu to float freely in the sky.

Their bodies were very light. Li Qi thought they were likely made of some kind of aerogel, but their strength wasn't low. Being metaphysical creations, their interiors were filled with their cultivation and Qi.

When these giant beasts streaked across the sky, they would emit pleasant cries, making them one of the local sights.

However, despite being giant beasts, their rank was still not high. Most were at the unranked level, essentially just ordinary wild beasts with almost no combat power. Their bodies, mostly made of aerogel, couldn't support high-intensity combat at all; any Rank Nine could kill them.

The current target was a Cloud Whale. According to the intelligence, it was a possible Reincarnation of Sariputra.

Li Qi landed on the body of this Cloud Whale.

The Cloud Whale was completely unaware.

Cloud Whales were a particularly miraculous species. They were massive in size yet as light as a feather, riding air currents day and night, traveling the world along the monsoon ring belts.

Their structural organization was similar to a jellyfish in the ocean, though far exceeding the latter in strength, which was enough to protect their long, streamlined bodies.

The entire body was extremely elastic, allowing for size changes of dozens of times. Their density was very low. Under normal circumstances, when a Cloud Whale flew, its entire body was filled with light gases, which effectively lowered its specific gravity. The principle was similar to a hot air balloon, except their bodies were analogous to the 'lungs' of other organisms.

Lungs can easily fill with a large amount of gas and expand in volume, and they won't leak if injured. The Cloud Whale's body was the same.

In most cases, they just went with the flow in this state.

With such massive bodies, their dietary needs were also different. They didn't eat any food in the conventional sense but always kept their large mouths open. Air would blow into their mouths and then emerge from blowholes.

This action produced pleasant whale songs, like a call from ancient times. To Li Qi's ears, it was very beautiful, indeed giving the feeling of a wind instrument playing, but it was actually just the sound of the Cloud Whale devouring the atmosphere.

Peaceful, serene, beautiful, and harming nothing—this was the Cloud Whale, a massive and steady creature.

Or according to a certain saying, this was a 'Buddhist' life form.

Thinking this, Li Qi stood on the back of the Cloud Whale and walked toward its head.

This was a Cloud Whale that had already begun to demonize/spiritually evolve and had its own consciousness, but... it lacked any ambition whatsoever. Like all other ordinary Cloud Whales, all it did every day was keep its mouth wide open, waiting for the wind to blow in and bring it nutrients.

High in the sky, the wind came howling.

Ding-dong, ding-dong. The blowholes on the Cloud Whale's body emitted cheerful sounds. The music gushed from the vents like spring water, scattering across the azure sky and the pure white clouds.

Li Qi could read the surface thoughts of this Cloud Whale suspected to be Sariputra's Reincarnation.

Clearly, he had not awakened his Innate Wisdom from his previous life.

However, according to the display in the shallow thoughts, he had already noticed Li Qi. And... to Li Qi's surprise, within the Cloud Whale's surface thoughts, he saw his own surface thoughts!

This caused Li Qi's pupils to shrink.

This meant that while he was looking at the Cloud Whale, the Cloud Whale was also looking at him!

This unranked Cloud Whale was actually able to peer into Li Qi's heart and reflect Li Qi's own peering into the Cloud Whale.

Evidently, both sides could now read each other's minds.

This immediately made Li Qi sharpen his focus.

To be able to do this, it might really be Sariputra!

Li Qi immediately sat on its head and said, "Cloud Whale, what is your name?"

"Me? I have no name." The Cloud Whale could not speak, but its mind left a voice within Li Qi's mind.

Li Qi immediately realized—

What pure thoughts. Li Qi could not read even a hint of stray thought from the other party!

This also seemed very much like Sariputra...