Chapter 796: Chronology

The news of the Two Clans of Chong and Li's arrival stunned Zhu Fengdan.

Then, his remaining half-brain thought for a moment and asked, "What rank?"

"Seventh rank," Li Qi replied honestly.

"Seventh rank... Tsk, that's a bit awkward," Zhu Fengdan clicked his tongue, his remaining eye furrowed in displeasure.

It was normal, because the seventh rank was indeed very awkward.

If it were the eighth or ninth rank, then they could be said to be passing by, merely assigned to this battlefield as ordinary low-level soldiers.

If it were around the fifth or fourth rank, then it could almost certainly be confirmed that they were indeed targeting Li Qi and Zhu Fengdan's origins.

But the seventh rank was right in the middle, making it difficult to judge.

However, Zhu Fengdan's personality wasn't like Li Qi's, who would be overly worried. He thought for a few seconds, pursed his half-remaining lips, and said, "But it's only the seventh rank. Don't act like a startled bird, trembling at the twang of a bowstring before the arrow even reaches you. Do what you need to do. I'll handle this. Oh, and since your inner body spirits are like this, have you considered giving up your Inner World?"

"Give up my Inner World?" Li Qi looked confused. "All my Cultivation is in my Inner World. If I rely solely on my spirit and Spirit Soul, my Divine Ability and spells, and even my Dao path, cannot be fully deduced. How can that work?"

"I'm not saying give it up forever, but give it up now. This current Physical Body is completely dragging down your Nascent Soul. Just give it up, let it die. Turn into a Yin Ghost. Although your combat power will drop by seventy to eighty percent, you'll still be able to kill hundreds of fifth-rankers. Want to try?" Zhu Fengdan suggested.

...Is that necessary? Has it come to this point already?" Li Qi's expression was somewhat reluctant.

Giving up the Physical Body sounded simple, but once he truly became a Yin Ghost, there would be no turning back. If he wanted to recover his Physical Body afterward, the only path left would be Reincarnation.

Although Teacher Zhu spoke very lightly, with a casual "Let it die," Li Qi felt that he could still be saved.

"You won't truly die. In your current state, even if you undergo Reincarnation and re-Cultivate, you'll return to the Peak in less than a few hundred thousand years," Zhu Fengdan said with a relaxed expression.

"Teacher, I haven't even Cultivated for a few hundred thousand years yet," Li Qi reminded him.

"What are you putting on airs for? Isn't the time spent in Reincarnation still time? We calculate by perceived time, perceived time, understand? And at this level, does time still have any meaning for you and me? What has meaning for us is 'sequence,'" Zhu Fengdan said casually.

With Zhu Fengdan's casual remark, a sharp glint suddenly flashed in Li Qi's eyes.

Time is not important, what is important is sequence.

This sentence directly jolted many fragments of inspiration in Li Qi's mind, then they lined up to form a brand new inspiration.

In other words, this was called an 'Epiphany.'

Zhu Fengdan glanced at Li Qi.

Oh well.

Alright, we Geniuses are like this. Epiphanies happen once a day, just consider it daily training.

Zhu Fengdan turned his head and left, continuing to assemble his Materials that looked like building blocks. He didn't know what they were, but they made him work even without healing, with only half a head.

Meanwhile, Li Qi began to ponder... the so-called 'sequence.'

Sequence, in fact, is its literal meaning: the chronological order of time.

Then, what about time?

Time seems to be a number line, a straight line extending from a starting point towards an infinitely distant shore.

And sequence is the numbers on this number line.

On a number line, the size of a number is fixed, whether it's a rational or irrational number, it's always the same.

Then, the sorted order of these numbers is the node where events occur.

These nodes must be unique, because time can actually be infinitely divided. Irrational numbers are infinite decimals, so there are infinite time points, and these time points must not overlap.

Infinite time points can be allocated to infinite events, just like Hilbert's Hotel, where infinite guests can each get their own room.

Therefore, every event has its own sequence.

From the beginning of the Universe's creation to the present, every event has its own unique 'order.'

Similar to a turn-based game's 'action bar,' you can only act when it's your turn, one after another. When this one is completed, it's the next one. Every event has its own 'order.'

From the creation of the Universe to the end of time when all things return to nothing, every event has its place arranged in 'sequence.'

And the manifestation of sequence, a certain appearance that this sequence displays, is 'Karma.'

This can be seen from the 'sequential nature' of Karma. Karma is also the same; from the moment of the 'First Cause,' cause becomes effect, and effect becomes cause again, and cause becomes effect again, in an infinite loop, extending backward with a structure that possesses a typical 'sequence.'

Therefore, Karma is very likely a manifestation of sequence.

However, it is well known that a third-ranker already has the ability to influence Karma, and although a fourth-ranker cannot influence Karma, they are no longer affected by the law of Karma themselves, possessing initial substantiality. They can exist without relying on 'causes.'

In other words, if you remove the 'my mother gave birth to me' part from the sentence 'My mother gave birth to me, and I Cultivated to become a fourth-ranker'—the cause of my existence—a fifth-ranker would immediately disappear, but a fourth-ranker would still exist, because fourth-rankers are 'self-existent'; they can maintain their own existence purely by themselves.

Li Qi is a special case. When Li Qi was a fifth-ranker, he possessed the characteristics of a third-ranker, gaining the ability to influence Karma.

Then, since Karma could be one of the manifestations of sequence, is Li Qi's 'choosing the future' backtracking ability an ability to influence sequence?

Not necessarily.

No... one could say, definitely not.

Because, after the law of Karma is broken, things like 'effect preceding cause' or 'cause after effect' are essentially direct modifications of reality, forcing reality to conform to the new Karma.

For example, a person is stabbed.

Li Qi acts to remove the cause, the knife that stabbed him, then this person will immediately come back to life. At this point, Karma is still valid; it's just that in the eyes of an existence with 'substantiality,' Karma has been changed, but in reality, from the perspective of the world itself, Karma is still valid.

It's just that the event happened again.

At this point, from the perspective of 'sequence,' Karma is truly inverted.

Because, for 'time,' the order of events is: first Karma, Karma reversal, second Karma.

Everything is clear, all marked in the sequence.

Therefore, Karma itself is unrelated to sequence, because no matter what, time does not move.

If you backtrack time, you will find that time is still moving forward, only with some 'backtracked' repeated memories added.

For you personally, time never goes backward; it always moves forward, an endless one-way street.

Moreover, time is absolutely subjective; everyone has their own individual timeline, which is also the reason for the emergence of unique cosmic light.

So... Karma can be reversed, but sequence cannot be reversed.

Sequence is the true, unchangeable and irreversible thing hidden behind Karma.

Just as Li Qi had previously realized.

The future and the past do not exist; everything is the present.

And sequence, on the other hand, is a blueprint, marking all past events, writing all present events, and also having infinitely wide space, awaiting all future events.

The Great Powers' infinite backtracking, perhaps for the parties involved, is backtracking, but for the Great Powers themselves, those are real, tangible histories that have occurred time and again.

If sequence cannot be changed, then... what is the importance of sequence?

Li Qi pondered.

However, he suddenly realized that it wasn't the time for him to ponder. He looked up and found that half an hour had already passed, and Zhu Fengdan was still doing his own thing.

Since he had already received Zhu Fengdan's approval that he would handle the matter, Li Qi gave up on further questioning and said, "Sigh, in that case, I'll take my leave first. Oh, Teacher, what are you doing here?"

"Buddha says, it cannot be spoken, it cannot be spoken," Zhu Fengdan hummed, thus speaking.

...Then why don't you restore your body? I see that your Inner World is not severely damaged, and restoring your body doesn't seem like a difficult task, does it?" Li Qi was somewhat puzzled.

Li Qi naturally ignored the words 'Buddha says,' as it would be normal for Zhu Fengdan to blurt out "Sage says" any day.

But it was also a good thing, at least it showed that both Buddha and the Sage had good tempers.

If he ever dared to say 'The Emperor decrees,' that would be news; he'd probably die then.

"The damage isn't severe, but that doesn't mean there's no damage. That scoundrel cut off the connection between my Physical Body and Inner World before he lost, so I can't use too much Cultivation now. But he's a bit worse off than me. As for him... he can probably be declared retired for the duration of this war. It's just a pity I couldn't kill him directly, otherwise we would have won directly," Zhu Fengdan said casually.

"Since that's the case, why doesn't Teacher just go and kill the opponent directly? Now that the third-ranker is powerless and the fourth-ranker is seriously injured, the rest... shouldn't be your match, right?" Li Qi asked again.

"You're half-dead yourself right now. If that Lieutenant Colonel from the other side came over now, could you drag him down with you? Why are you still asking such questions? Not being able to make a move doesn't mean you can't fight to the death! Alright, stop bothering me while I work, hurry up and get out!" Zhu Fengdan rolled his eyes and then urged Li Qi to leave quickly.

Li Qi shook his head, said nothing more, bowed, and sped away in his wheelchair.

When Li Qi left, the entire Baiyue Kingdom was also undergoing reforms with great fervor.

Bai Di retreated from the front lines and joined the ranks of supervision.

Supervision was a position recently established.

The hundreds of countries in Baiyue, each roughly the size of a planet, some even two or three times larger, meant that reforms of this scale were not so simple to control.

A single riot could easily escalate into a complete civil war, eventually turning into a struggle between hundreds of factions within the country, like the late Republic of China.

What was called reform was actually the near collapse of the entire nation, effectively splitting into dozens of warlord-ridden states, with various factions fighting everywhere.

If things developed to that point, the Baiyue Kingdom Lord of this country would certainly not sit idly by. At that time, Li Qi would lose another fifth-rank combat power.

If Li Qi's reforms affected the core interests of the Baiyue Kingdom Lords, they would certainly not follow Li Qi. Li Qi had to win them over.

Therefore, to prevent the escalation of the situation, a supervisory body needed to be established to ensure that the reforms and the innovation of the production system were controllable and would not affect the foundation of Dao and interests of the Kingdom Lords.

The supervisory body was thus born. They were responsible for ensuring that the reforms in Baiyue would not affect the true stakeholders—the Baiyue Kingdom Lords.

Although Li Qi very much wanted to chop up all the Baiyue Kingdom Lords, it was obviously impossible with the war imminent. He could only tacitly approve such things and then try his best to transform the current situation in Baiyue.

After the scouts from the front line retreated, Bai Di joined the ranks of supervision. His ability as a Xiezhi made him exceptionally effective in this position.

Moreover, his years of martial arts training and experience in demon-slaying made him very decisive, just as he was when facing that Human Dao Shaman: he would fight when it was time to fight, and run when it was time to run, without any delay.

In the matter of supervision, his habit was not to prove his innocence by disemboweling himself and showing how many bowls of noodles he ate, but to dig out the opponent's eyes and eat them, making the opponent see for himself.

Therefore, Bai Di could easily supervise those who tried to use this reform for their personal gain.

And people like Bai Di were exactly what Li Qi needed most now.

Li Qi was not afraid of others' opposition; he had absolute force to push through this reform. What he needed was someone with enough ability to push the reform, who must be firm enough and also have some means, so as not to be overwhelmed or succumb to temptation.

Fortunately, there was the Chamber of Commerce he established jointly with Mount Luofu.

Li Qi didn't pay much attention to this Chamber of Commerce, basically leaving it to Mount Luofu to manage. At this moment, it came in handy.

Aside from a few outsiders like Bai Di, the current supervisory team was basically handed over to Li Qi's direct confidants from the foreign Chamber of Commerce.

Calling them confidants wasn't entirely accurate, as Li Qi barely knew them. Yang Ning was usually in charge, and Li Qi's only role in this Chamber of Commerce was to provide the title of 'Young Master.'

However, this title could be said to be the foundation of the entire Chamber of Commerce, extremely important, almost like a mining permit for a mining company; without this permit, the entire Chamber of Commerce would fall apart.

At this moment, Bai Di was in contact with his colleagues from the Chamber of Commerce.

"Zhang You, right?" Bai Di looked at the woman in front of him. She looked very young, but the age of a Cultivator, well, you couldn't take it seriously.

Although Bai Di himself had the appearance of a fifty-something-year-old, his actual age was only a few hundred years different from Zhang You's.

He had heard that this Zhang You was quite famous.