Chapter 752: Take action

The now-demonized Er Gou has already reached Sixth Grade Golden-Winged Bird, the same Rank his mother once belonged to.

Thoroughly corrupted, he has become the Puppet of the Heavenly Demon; even his mind is nothing but a toy for it to manipulate at will.

This reveals a terrifying possibility.

Any cultivator who walks the Demonic Dao of the Heavenly Demon is very likely its Puppet.

The instant you fall into devilization your free will becomes a joke; you may still believe you can think for yourself, but that is merely an illusion granted by the Heavenly Demon.

It is actually easy to understand.

To fall into devilization is to let demonic thoughtss seize control, to acknowledge and accept them.

And... the Heavenly Demon is the source of every demonic thoughts.

Acknowledging and accepting demonic thoughtss is acknowledging and accepting the Heavenly Demon.

The Heavenly Demon will not stand on ceremony.

Still... there must be limits; Li Qi does not know, but he guesses they exist.

If there were none, it would be too horrifying.

Though, by rights, it should be this horrifying.

In any case, at this moment Li Qi believes the other party is constrained; after all, going by its usual style, the Heavenly Demon would never linger outside the barrier Li Qi set up.

Unless... it simply cannot enter. What stands before him is not the Heavenly Demon but Er Gou.

Even if corroded by the Heavenly Demon, in essence she is still Er Gou.

demonic thoughtss are the Heavenly Demon, yet they are also Er Gou.

Hearing Li Qi's words, Er Gou blinked. “Why would you think that?”

“Then come inside and see.” With one hand Li Qi kept the Dream-Illusion alive while focusing every ounce of attention on her.

Before his words faded, the Dream-Illusion suddenly boiled.

An inexplicable force invaded the dream Li Qi controlled.

If the dream had been a script written solely by Li Qi, now a second author had descended with equal authority, rewriting his settings.

“When it comes to demonic thoughtss, Li Qi, every trick you know was taught by me~. Why ever would you believe I can't enter?” the Heavenly Demon said with a giggle.

Li Qi offered no reply.

Talking to the Heavenly Demon is pointless; one prepares to fight.

Were its true body here, death would be certain and unavoidable—but that is impossible. The Universe is not its private domain, and Li Qi trusts completely in the suppressive might of the Heavens of the Formless Realm.

The Heavens of the Formless Realm has held the Heavenly Demon at bay for so long that its schemes are limited; otherwise the entire Universe would already be its playground.

Spell formations layered one upon another as Li Qi divided part of his mind to keep the Dream-Illusion under control.

Suddenly, countless temptations appeared in Chen Jilang's life.

All manner of pleasures.

Fame and success, untold riches, beautiful wives and concubines, silken clothes and fine food, a name remembered through history, the fulfillment of grand ambitions.

From the most basic creature comforts to vanity to self-realization—every conceivable enticement was laid before Chen Jilang.

What did he want? What was his path?

If practicing martial arts could swiftly make you the unrivaled champion of the Martial Forest, bring fame and fortune within easy reach, would you abandon the Four Books and Five Classics you had loved for years, even after a decade of failed exams?

Few would choose the latter.

After all, clinging to something you love yet have no talent for is agony; love itself will eventually be worn away.

Yes, martial arts is not wrong; it too is a way out.

But... is it truly what you want?

Do you desire martial arts itself, or merely the fame and fortune it brings?

If it is only for success, then anything that brings success would do; do you not really love the Four Books and Five Classics?

These doubts began to surface.

At the same time, all kinds of temptations unfolded.

Have you noticed the common thread?

All these things set before him are ‘delusions.'

To dispel and break through delusion is the task of wisdom.

Wisdom can discern what you truly want, what you must do, how to accomplish it, and can map out every step.

Yet knowing the path and walking it are two different things.

Everyone knows diligent study is right; how many persist in doing it?

Back then, Xiao Gou failed, and in her whole life never achieved Breakthrough.

Now, Chen Jilang—her Reincarnation—can he succeed?

Li Qi and the Heavenly Demon seized simultaneous control of the Dream-Illusion, guiding Chen Jilang in opposite directions.

Each displayed their power, weaving divergent futures before him; to Chen Jilang these stories were utterly real, without the slightest falsehood.

Both Li Qi and the Heavenly Demon could turn the Dream-Illusion into reality in an instant; neither possessed the slightest falsity.

“What's wrong? Cat got your tongue? Talk to me; you might spot a flaw~,” the Heavenly Demon continued, invading the dream even as it spoke.

Li Qi calmed his mind, refusing all dialogue; whatever tricks it used, he need only remember his goal—to keep Sariputra's wisdom unsullied.

About an hour passed—

To Chen Jilang it had been more than a century.

Li Qi racked his brains battling the Heavenly Demon with storylines, vying for the fate of ‘wisdom,' each seeking to guide it toward their desired end.

Throughout, Li Qi believed this contest favored him.

For in essence, bewilderment and temptation are whetstones for wisdom; the trials the Heavenly Demon imposes ultimately nourish it. Their struggle was sharpening Chen Jilang's mind.

Wisdom can be clouded, but it can also be trained; the more it endures, the brighter it burns—just as an elder's wisdom generally surpasses a child's.

Yet watching the Heavenly Demon—

At that thought, Li Qi suddenly realized something.

Wrong, all wrong!

Xiao Gou could not endure; if Chen Jilang can, then his Dao Heart is equally steadfast, for trials temper more than wisdom.

If both Xiao Gou and Chen Jilang fail, then wisdom will still be dimmed.

Chen Jilang had done it, proving he had surpassed Xiao Gou. At this point, something like the Awakening of past-life wisdom could hardly shake Chen Jilang anymore. Li Qi's plan to use this to rouse Xiao Gou and thereby influence the even more ancient Sariputra—so that Sariputra would take back his own Dao Heart and Buddha-nature—was ruined.

If Sariputra couldn't awaken, what was the point of obtaining an awakened Chen Jilang? If Chen Jilang refused to acknowledge he was Sariputra and couldn't accept his previous life, then Sariputra would truly be dead.

In other words, as long as he kept wrangling with the Demonic Overlord, no matter the outcome, he was the one who lost.

The moment he began competing with the Demonic Overlord to guide Chen Jilang, defeat had already been assured.

Through endless words and subtle guidance, the Demonic Overlord had already steered Li Qi into an unwinnable endgame—yet Li Qi couldn't simply walk away.

If he did, and Chen Jilang's final spark of wisdom dimmed or even fell to the Demonic Dao, the Demonic Overlord would instantly possess Sariputra.

Li Qi's eyes snapped open as he glared at the Demonic Overlord outside.

‘Li Qi, look—' The Demonic Overlord had still been chattering, but shut up the moment he caught Li Qi's gaze.

He fell silent, continuing to watch Li Qi with that ever-present smile.

It seemed Li Qi had thought of something.

But whatever it was, it wouldn't help.

Because… Li Qi simply couldn't beat him. In the Demonic Overlord's game, only the Demonic Overlord could win; the only question was by how much.

Li Qi kept resisting, but what good did it do?

Yet Li Qi's mind raced, countless thoughts flashing through his head as he pondered why the Demonic Overlord had appeared at this moment.

He could understand—when the Demonic Overlord stood before him, it meant certain defeat. It was only natural he couldn't out-calculate or out-fight the Demonic Overlord.

He had read many Buddhist scriptures; the Buddha had once explained the essence of the Demonic Overlord. Combining that with his own speculation, Li Qi now inferred the Demonic Overlord was ‘other-creation at will,' a thing of infinite change. But now, having ascended to First Grade, the Demonic Overlord had become the totality of all reality, a perfect entity.

And a perfect entity has no change, so the Demonic Overlord was stuck, unable to free himself. He could no longer transform, nor could he ‘create at will.'

That was why he needed to seek the Buddha—someone like Li Qi—to explore possibilities beyond ‘all reality,' things untouched by the Demonic Overlord.

Thus, every game between the Demonic Overlord and Li Qi was essentially about this.

Li Qi had to prove he wasn't the Demonic Overlord.

If he couldn't, he would be the Demonic Overlord, fall to the Demonic Dao, and become part of the Demonic Overlord; the Demonic Overlord would win.

If he succeeded, he would no longer be the Demonic Overlord, and the Demonic Overlord would have found his target—so the Demonic Overlord would win again.

Either way, the Demonic Overlord won, because he made the rules. All Li Qi could hope for was to lose less badly.

Much like now: the matter of Sariputra and Li Qi was itself a rule set by the Demonic Overlord in advance.

No matter how he thought it through, defeat was inevitable.

The Demonic Overlord before him seemed to know exactly what Li Qi was thinking. Controlling Er Gou's body, he kept that gentle smile, looking at Li Qi like a friendly older brother.

But in the next instant, Li Qi suddenly abandoned Chen Jilang.

He released the Dream directly, handing it wholly to the Demonic Overlord, then burst forth at maximum speed—far faster than light—closing the distance to the Demonic Overlord in a flash!

All the spells he had prepared erupted at once!

In a single heartbeat, one of the ‘pearls' strung along the world-ring split open—and exploded!

The world ruptured at its center. A blazing light sliced the world-ring in two, spewing out a disk-shaped nebula in furious eruption. Then countless blasts flickered within the nebula like a star vomiting fire.

With this final, deathly outburst, the specks of light faded and the host of stars began to die.

In moments, space was strewn with their corpses; the remnants of giants drifted apart.

Myriad Demon Reservoir World immediately exerted its Second-Grade self-healing power, quickly ejecting the shattered world from the ring and flinging it into the Universe.

The world-ring promptly re-knit itself, as if nothing had happened.

But the expelled matter cooled with unnatural speed.

Such cooling was impossible. Normally a sun-like heat could dissipate only by sluggish radiation in the empty void; a star should need billions of years to die.

But vast waves of Demonic Qi poured forth.

In an instant the sun born from the collapsed world was crushed into a white dwarf, fading into the dark depths of space.

Occasional flickers of light appeared among the star-stuff, only to be swallowed by Demonic Qi and sink back into darkness and cold; pinpricks of light vanished in the blink of an eye.

Those flashes were actually planet-sized clumps of matter colliding, friction compressing them until they burned, but the Demonic Qi devoured the fire at once.

A star-system's worth of matter disintegrated. Under gravity, random collisions clumped debris into new bodies, each promptly swallowed by Demonic Qi—like a giant Demonic Overlord gulping candy pills.

The relentless process left the star-field even darker.

These demonic claws reached between lone stars, stretching space until the remnants of the newborn sun were isolated inside its own cosmic horizon. Within the solar Universe only the sun itself remained, and its light would soon be extinguished.

Beside the Demonic Qi, Li Qi's spellwork raged on. He had brazenly struck at the Demonic Overlord; the battle continued. Though the Demonic Qi smothered light, it could not hide his power!

From the black Universe came a soft crackling, as though two leviathans wrestled in the abyssal dark—no sound, no light, no sign—yet enough to terrify any witness.

‘You've got guts,' said the Demonic Overlord.

Li Qi merely smiled.

He truly couldn't beat the Demonic Overlord.

But the question was… why was the Demonic Overlord even playing this game?

Was Sariputra really that important to him?

‘So you're not the Demonic Overlord, are you? Trying to scare me by wearing his face? You think that'll work?'