Chapter 764: Celestial body

In just two days, Shen Shuibi had made rapid progress.

To reach Fourth Rank within a thousand years means she has already grasped the Dao Foundation, and only needs a thousand years to construct the corresponding 'Dao' before she can Breakthrough to Fifth Rank, gaining independent reality, transcending the rules of the Reality Universe, and from then on, only needing to follow her own 'Dao' without having to follow anything else.

And now Shen Shuibi only needs a thousand years, which can be said to be incredibly fast.

However, this is actually very normal. One must know that Shen Shuibi first honed herself at Fifth Rank for a long time, having already reached the Peak of Fifth Rank. She then experienced great ups and downs, received guidance from Empress Luofu, listened to the sermons of White Chen Fox King Bodhisattva, witnessed the residual creation sound emanating from the Second Rank Great Power Yao Wanchi in the outer domain, and was finally personally enlightened by the Second Rank Divine Dao Grand Director of Music Shi Yan.

With this series of events, if it were an Opportunity, it would be enough for her to stumble into several Immortal Caves of deceased Fourth Rank cultivators who were solitary, without friends, descendants, or relatives, thus having no one to inherit from, and were also particularly stingy, not spending any of their treasures.

These Opportunities and encounters, combined with her own efforts and deep foundation, make it natural for her to rapidly Breakthrough to Fourth Rank.

"Did you find it long ago? Senior is truly humble. The zither music Senior played was probably Dao sound, right?" Shen Shuibi speculated.

Shi Yan put away his zither and said noncommittally, "Whether it's Dao sound or not doesn't matter. Since you've gained some insight, leave quickly. I can tell you're quite nervous right now."

Yes, although Shen Shuibi was now imitating Li Qi's usual manner and tone when dealing with Great Powers, trying to act as much like Li Qi as possible because Li Qi was very good at dealing with Great Powers.

But in reality, she was still essentially a socially anxious rabbit, merely putting on a brave front.

"......Then, thank you, Senior." The rabbit shrunk her head, then prepared to head towards the ghost carriage behind her.

Shi Yan watched her retreating figure, and suddenly, unable to resist, he asked again, "Shen Shuibi, could you stay and tell me about Li Qi?"

Shen Shuibi immediately showed a look of horror and turned to look at Shi Yan.

Speaking of Li Qi, could it be—

Shi Yan's expression was a bit awkward, but he still said, "Don't worry, I will never harm him. It's just... the Heavenly Emperor once noticed him. As a Heavenly Court Divine Official, I'm a bit curious about this person, and it just so happens that Zhu Fengdan sent you here to me... Hmm, I think his purpose might not be that simple. What do you say? Are you willing to talk to me? If not, just leave."

Shen Shuibi originally intended to leave directly.

But when she heard the phrase 'Zhu Fengdan's purpose is not that simple,' she was secretly shocked.

Indeed, it was very possible.

Master sending her over couldn't be that simple, otherwise, sending her to the Grand Director of Music would have sufficed, and there would be no need to return a door.

A Second Rank's door, presumably, must be very expensive.

So, after two seconds of thought, she said, "We can talk... but, Senior really just wants to hear about Li Qi's deeds? You should know much more about these deeds than I do, right?"

"How could you possibly know more clearly than I do? Many things, knowing the details doesn't necessarily mean knowing the true situation. It's like I know how he won the Human-Shaman War, but I don't know what he was thinking. You should know these things much more clearly than I do," Shi Yan said.

"Then... when Senior asked me this question, or even when you saw me, you should have already known the answer, right? Why ask it aloud?"

"I don't read minds, don't worry," Shi Yan said. "Then sit down and let's talk about those things properly."

"Okay." Shen Shuibi sat down and began to honestly recount the past events.

Shi Yan also asked many very ordinary questions, such as some details of the Human-Shaman War, as well as some events experienced in Guangyang, Shaman God Mountain, and Human Dao Chang'an.

But generally, there were no secrets; they were all things one could inquire about from Chang Qiao.

Chang Qiao's intelligence was even better than this Second Rank Music God.

Shen Shuibi even suspected for a moment that the other party might be 'unaware of worldly affairs,' but upon closer thought, it seemed unlikely.

But no matter what, this information, which anyone could obtain by going to Chang Qiao, was by no means a 'secret,' just like someone asking for directions; giving directions is not considered leaking military intelligence.

However, Shi Yan listened very attentively.

After listening for about an hour, Shi Yan stood up and said, "It seems I'm quite clear now. Thank you."

"Senior's enlightenment is a kindness; there's no harm in speaking. It's just... these things are all insignificant, why must I learn them from your mouth?" Shen Shuibi asked her doubt.

"Sometimes, the same thing, when spoken by different people, is not the same," Shi Yan replied.

Then, he continued, "By the way, there's one more thing I want to say. I've made some deductions and found that... in the future, you and Li Qi will face a tribulation. I cannot say the specifics, but I have a method to resolve it: if you separate now, both of you can be preserved without having to go through the tribulation. Since you told me these things to help my deduction, as a return, I will also tell you the result of my deduction, although heavenly secrets cannot be revealed... I cannot say much more than that."

This statement clearly had a different flavor.

"...Divination and deduction are merely predictions, not to be taken as truth." Shen Shuibi frowned slightly and said so.

This answer made Shi Yan shake his head helplessly and say, "Even if you know the final outcome is separation, would you still be willing to continue?"

Shen Shuibi replied, "That is a future separation, not a present separation. I can clearly die later, but Senior wants to kill me now?"

"Indeed. The task is complete, please return." As Shi Yan spoke, he waved his hand, and Shen Shuibi was directly dismissed, forcefully pushed out of the bronze palace.

However, at the very instant she was dismissed, Shen Shuibi's body instantly dematerialized, then was pushed directly out from within the wall.

But, in that fleeting moment, she suddenly saw the energy pipeline network of this palace.

This was also normal; her body dematerialized and was pushed into the wall of the bronze palace, naturally integrating into it, allowing her to see the internal energy flow.

All things must be related to energy transportation, because all spells and Divine Abilities involve these things. For energy to have a real impact, it needs a method, and this method is called 'Art'.

Dao is the principle, Art is the way of realization.

Dao is the physical rule, Art is the machine created using physical rules.

When Shen Shuibi left the bronze palace, she discovered... that the spatial dimension within the bronze palace was different.

This bronze palace was also a fractal! It was also 'one is all'.

This was the 'farewell gift' given by Shi Yan!

The form of a fractal, so-called, is 'one is all, all is one'; the characteristics of a part are the characteristics of the infinite whole.

Shen Shuibi had only speculated in her heart, but at this moment, she personally witnessed this form.

She saw 'infinite' lines, and all these lines reflected a certain property of how complex shapes occupy space. What all the lines showed was a measure of the irregularity of the complex shape.

These lines themselves are actually a kind of dynamic System, and precisely because of this, the fractal and the chaotic theory of dynamic Systems intersect and combine, complementing each other, forming a certain 'one is all' characteristic.

This characteristic, or rather, this 'Dao', declares that the local parts of the world, under certain conditions or processes, in terms of form, structure, information, function, time, energy, etc., can locally exhibit similarity with the whole. It recognizes that the change in spatial dimension can be both discrete and continuous.

She saw that these energy wires themselves surged with powerful Qi, but this Qi did not cause energy loss.

Whenever these pipelines needed to branch, that is, split into two, the sum of the cross-sectional areas of the two branches was exactly equal to the area of the main line.

In this way, with equal cross-sectional areas, energy would not cause rebound and turbulence, thus eliminating energy loss. This was a facility for optimizing energy.

To ensure these pipelines covered the entire body, each time they branched, the length of the branch lines became shorter and shorter. Ultimately, the length of the main line was √2 times the length of the branch lines, which was also the result of mathematical optimization.

Considering the previous two properties, these are actually a fractal structure.

Fractaling all the way to the terminal, these energy pipelines are meant to fill all parts of the entire bronze palace. This filling means that this fractal has an entire extra dimension—just like the line that fills a plane we mentioned earlier. The original three-dimensional blood vessels, due to the fractal structure, are actually equivalent to transcending three dimensions, but in reality, they are slightly lower than four dimensions and cannot reach it.

But this is enough to store and operate 'infinitely large' energy within a finite volume.

Shen Shuibi had originally wanted to construct such a form herself, but now, she saw these energy lines herself.

In this instant, she opened all her perceptions.

Then, she suddenly discovered... this difference between 'main lines' and 'branch lines' was not only within this bronze palace.

Following her perception upwards, all the way up—

She saw... 'Heaven'!

Heaven is the form of the trunk.

The trunk is the function of Heaven.

The form of Heaven, its color appears azure when viewed, the southern pivot enters 36 degrees below the ground, and the northern pivot exits 36 degrees above the ground, shaped like an upright pestle; this is the form of Heaven.

Speaking of its function, it travels over 900,000 li within a day and a night. A person's single inhalation and exhalation is called a breath. Within a single breath, Heaven has already traveled over 80 li. A person's day and night contain over 13,600 breaths, therefore, in a day and night, Heaven travels over 900,000 li, thus the vigorous function of Heaven is evident.

The stars on the upper rule are often visible, the stars on the lower rule are often hidden. The sun, moon, and five planets are in the middle rule, with the twenty-eight lunar mansions distributed among them, half covering the ground and half circling underground. By knowing the degrees of their movement, one can observe the movement of Heaven, and thus see the image of the heavy trunk.

Round after round, like a repeating image.

Heaven is like a projectile, rotating day and night. Its north and south ends, with the back high and the front low, are its fixed pivots. Its rotation also has no physical form, but is like the swirling of a strong wind. During the day, it rotates from left to right; towards evening, it descends from front to back; during the night, it rotates from right to left again; and towards dawn, it ascends from back to front. It rotates infinitely, ascending and descending ceaselessly; this is the celestial body.

She saw—all these energy pipelines, extending, extending, extending, from the bronze palace all the way to the sky.

That was the 'celestial body'!

Observing the stars at dusk and dawn, and the positions of the sun and moon, to understand the changes of the four seasons and the cold and heat. Spring is the time of Zhen and Qiu is Dui and Tai, Summer is Li and Winter is Kan and Ben. Tai changes to Ben, the four seasons change mutually, showing the image of changing times.

Li has Kan, the sun descends and the moon rises; Kan becomes Li again, the moon descends and the sun rises. This is the qi of Heaven, forming patterns on the Earth's topography.

Observing Heaven, all forms on Earth, generating the Two Principles, Four Phenomena, Eight Trigrams, forming 384 Yao, and 11,520 strategies, all originate from within this Heaven.

Observing its latitudes, examining the cloud diagrams and trigrams, Qi arises from Zhongfu, thus Li, Kan, Zhen, and Dui each govern one direction. The remaining sixty trigrams, each trigram has six Yao, and each Yao governs one day, totaling 360 days. The remaining five and a quarter days are divided into 80 parts per day. Five days are 400 parts. A quarter of a day is 20 parts. Thus, there are 420 parts. Divided by 60 trigrams, each trigram gets seven parts, meaning each trigram gets six and seven-tenths days.

The difference between the intersection of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes with the equator and the lunar path begins from the initial intersection and the middle of the ecliptic. The sun's entry and exit from the equator is 24 degrees, and the moon's entry and exit from the ecliptic is 6 degrees. The ecliptic retreats by one-sixtieth of a degree per cycle, which is called the precession. The lunar path retreats by one degree, 89,772 parts of a degree, or 43,500 and 3 fewer than half of 21,915 years, and the precession cycle is 221 months and 1,753 parts, and the intersection path is complete. The equator is a belt around the middle of Heaven, and the solar and lunar paths intersect obliquely inside and outside the equator. Their circumference and length are no different from the equator, and the daily movement of the sun and moon also has no increase, decrease, advance, or retreat.

This was the 'structure of Heaven,' which is the design blueprint for all energy distribution and operational lines of the Divine Dao Heavenly Court!

Just as she wanted to continue looking, she was already pushed out of the bronze palace, returning to her physical form.

Everything that had just appeared seemed to be fake.

But Shen Shuibi had already seen clearly that it was not fake; she just didn't see it very precisely, because it was only for an instant, less than a microsecond.

But it was precisely this 'imprecision' that gave her infinite possibilities for imagination, rather than just following the map or copying it exactly.

Obviously, these were also within Shi Yan's calculations.

"Is this also part of Master's plan?" Shen Shuibi immediately thought of Zhu Fengdan.

But as soon as she thought of this, she immediately recalled the 'tribulation' that the experiment had just mentioned.

Although she had given a firm reply, could a Second Rank's warning truly be ignored?

Hmm, never mind, I'll go back and discuss it with Li Qi. He's best at this kind of planning ahead.

As for Shi Yan's suggestion to avoid the tribulation...

She hadn't even considered that possibility.

That possibility simply didn't exist.

Shen Shuibi set up her ghost carriage, started her journey, broke through the heavens, and returned to the location of Mystic Radiance Mountain.

However... at this very moment, in Baiyue, Great Deer Kingdom, an earthquake suddenly occurred. (End of Chapter)