Chapter 819: Death intention

Within the Endless Void Realm, there was the Illusion-Reality Domain.

Li Qi returned here.

As one of the wonders of Boundless Outer Domain, this place held immense strategic significance, so a dedicated Third Rank defended it, maintaining its neutrality.

And this Third Rank was Yunfang Great Shaman.

Li Qi once again came here to visit Yunfang Great Shaman, hoping to receive guidance from the wisdom of a Senior.

Li Qi arrived at Yunfang Great Shaman's platform.

As soon as he arrived, the surrounding scenery shifted and changed, and after the transformation, he was already seated before Yunfang Great Shaman.

The surroundings were filled with clear white clouds, birds chasing each other, patches of green shade, and a flying waterfall above, a scene of elegant grace. Beneath this beautiful scenery, a table was set with some refreshments and tea.

“Why have you come to me again? Have you encountered something? I heard you were guarding Baiyue.” Yunfang Great Shaman was as gentle as ever. He invited Li Qi to sit down and poured him a cup of tea.

The tea was fragrant, shimmering with Dao Resonance. Just by smelling it, one knew it was not cheap. Even in an ordinary Fifth Rank world, drinking a cup would probably grant Dao Resonance, suddenly bestowing a certain Golden Finger, and then leading one to the Peak of life.

Dao Resonance is truly that marvelous, capable of bestowing various abilities. Every second in the myriad Universes, someone gains a 'fortuitous encounter', and most of them are due to the work of certain Dao Resonance.

However, for someone like Li Qi, ordinary Dao Resonance was already ineffective; his own Divine Ability was enough to transcend Karma.

Yet, True Knowledge Dao Resonance was still very important to him, and to this day, it remained difficult to break free from this reliance.

The origin of True Knowledge was impossible to ascertain, but its usefulness was undeniable. It was unknown from which great Dao it was extracted.

Facing Yun Fang Senior's inquiry, Li Qi first bowed, then sat down, and sighed, “It has been defended, but it's a bit regrettable that I gave up the Holy Emperor Relic.”

“Was it to win, or for something else?” Yunfang Great Shaman asked.

“It was for Baiyue to defeat its own history. Of course, after doing so, I also won,” Li Qi replied.

“Good. I also wanted to manage the Baiyue matter, but the Holy Emperor Relic is of great importance, and I didn't know how to proceed, so it has been delayed. Now you have the courage to abandon the Holy Emperor Relic using the Human-Shaman War as a pretext. No one will trouble you, and Baiyue will be liberated. Although it seems like a loss, in the long run, it's better this way. At least… it's better for Baiyue,” Yunfang Great Shaman commented.

Li Qi smiled. This reaction indeed matched the Senior's character.

However, it couldn't be said that way. The Holy Emperor Relic certainly had its important aspects, otherwise, it wouldn't have made even the Great Shaman hesitant. But now, by using the major event of the Human-Shaman War to deal with the Holy Emperor Relic, no one would gossip.

If asked, it was a matter of acting expediently due to urgency, with no other options.

“According to Senior's statement, are there still those who advocate for preserving the Relic and then destroying Baiyue?” Li Qi asked.

“Naturally, there are. Shaman Dao is inclusive, asserting that everything in the world has a reason for its existence, so differing opinions are common. But there's no meaning in discussing these things; birds of a feather flock together. You probably won't encounter them normally. Let's talk about serious matters. You must have something to discuss, right?” Yunfang Great Shaman asked.

“Indeed, I do… Alas, Senior, please allow me to explain slowly,” Li Qi said, conjuring a light screen with his hand.

Then, Li Qi began to recount the specifics of the matter.

From Shi Yan's initial prophecy, to sixty years of cold war, then to the final decisive battle, and the process of Li Qi abandoning the Holy Emperor Relic.

Finally, he brought up Li Shiwei's matter.

Upon hearing the news of Li Shiwei's demonic thoughts, Yunfang Great Shaman's expression visibly changed, and he stopped drinking the tea he had been sipping.

Only after Li Qi had finished everything did he finally sigh, “Alas… Demonic Dao.”

“Senior, I came here to ask how to handle such a matter… She wasn't bewitched by anyone, but chose it from her own heart. Now, when I speak with her, it might be very difficult to understand,” Li Qi sighed.

At this moment, Yunfang Great Shaman suddenly said, “It's not necessarily impossible to understand. Although your paths as father and daughter differ, there is only one principle, and there are still things to discuss. It's not necessarily incomprehensible.”

Saying that, Yunfang Great Shaman explained, “The Dao is what happens when one acts; that is, there is a path only when one walks it. But principle is different; the lineage of principle is universally applicable.”

“For example, we or other Dao Orthodoxy propagate teachings, calling it spreading the Dao, but we cannot say spreading principle, because the Dao is walked by people, but principle is not.”

“The words ‘Dao’ and ‘principle’ are clearly distinguished. Principle is the reason why things are as they are, so principle should exist before things. For example, one plus one equals two; this is a mathematical principle, but it cannot be called the Dao of numbers. Similarly, an apple falling to the ground is a physical principle, not the Dao of objects.”

Li Qi nodded slightly; he naturally understood what the other party meant.

The Dao is something to be accomplished; to speak of 'a certain Dao' necessarily includes some kind of undertaking, action, and activity.

As for principle, it does not require undertakings, actions, or activities, but already exists, just like mathematical and physical principles.

Therefore, the Dao can be created. The Sage of the Human Dao once said: “Humans can broaden the Dao; the Dao does not broaden humans.”

If there are no human activities and actions, then there is no Dao. Simply put, roads are opened and built by people. People can open and build a convenient road, so it is said that humans can broaden the Dao. But even if this road exists, if people do not travel on it, it is still as if there is no such road, and this road will eventually become desolate, so the Dao does not broaden humans.

Although this was said specifically for the Human Dao, it can also be applied to other paths, as it is the word of a Sage and naturally has profound depths.

But principle is different; principle is the manifestation of objective things, not dependent on human creation; its initiative is not with humans.

“Oh… that's a thought. Although our Daos are different, principles are interconnected, so Shi Wei and I can communicate through principle, and don't necessarily have to be of the same Dao.”

Yunfang Great Shaman said, “Mm, it's best if you can understand. However… it's easy to say, but very difficult in practice, because although principles are interconnected, to communicate, one cannot do without the Dao. You still need to carefully consider it. Demonic Dao, alas…”

Li Qi knew why the other party sighed, so he changed the subject: “Senior's teachings, I have understood. By the way, last time I obtained Demonic Dao data in the Illusion-Reality Domain. Has Senior gained anything?”

“Speaking of that, I suddenly remembered,” Yunfang Great Shaman put down his teacup and suddenly took out a compass.

“This item can detect high-level Demonic Dao,” he said. “I was worried that high-level Demonic Kings would use their method of controlling demonic thoughts to monitor, so after understanding some of the Demonic Dao's capabilities, I made this.”

“Carry this, and as long as the other party doesn't deliberately evade, you'll probably be able to detect them. And if the other party really tries to deliberately evade… it actually means they've exposed themselves, so it's quite useful.”

Li Qi looked at the compass, somewhat surprised, and said, “Is it useful even for the Heavenly Demon level?”

“Useful,” Yun Fang said.

Li Qi took a deep breath. Impossible, right!?

However, before Li Qi could recover from his shock, he heard Yunfang Great Shaman continue, “But Heavenly Demons can make this thing useless.”

“From a theoretical perspective, the essence of this thing is the pure Spirit Soul I created, somewhere between conscious and unconscious, just like the cocoon in the process of metamorphosis into a butterfly.”

Li Qi nodded; he understood.

Sometimes, they didn't need to speak so complexly. Everyone's knowledge had reached a certain level, and a single symbol might replace a large explanation process.

Of course, the premise was that everyone understood what the symbol meant. If not, it would be like looking at advanced math formulas, unable to even understand the abbreviations within.

Moreover, if the meaning of the symbol wasn't understood, then it would need to be explained, and that would take a long time.

Great Powers having a cup of tea and then discussing Dao for tens of thousands of years was probably this kind of situation. When one understood, a single sentence was enough, but when one didn't understand, to explain the entire complex situation clearly, to elucidate everything the symbol represented for future communication, it might really take tens of thousands of years to complete the lesson.

A simple 'e' in a formula, to explain it in detail, might not be thoroughly understood in a semester, and the more profound it was, the more so.

Although tens of thousands of years was nothing to them.

Leaving that aside, here, Yunfang Great Shaman meant that during the process of a butterfly pupating, the caterpillar's body completely disintegrated, melting at the cellular level into a liquid inside the cocoon, and then gradually constructing the butterfly's body from it.

In this process, it was neither truly alive nor truly dead.

Someone once conducted an experiment where eight pupae were pierced and then connected to each other, allowing the internal liquid to flow freely between them, fusing the liquids of all eight pupae.

To understand it in terms of mammals, it would be like connecting eight placentas, breaking all the infants inside, and then placing them in a single placenta.

Mammals would certainly be dead.

But insects could still hatch into butterflies even with all genetic material and cell fluid mixed, and they could even maintain relatively independent memories between them.

He utilized this property, coupled with the previous data Li Qi provided, which gave him an extraordinary understanding of demonic thoughts, to cultivate Gu insects extremely sensitive to demonic thoughts.

Theoretically, even Heavenly Demons would be detected.

Of course, in practice, it's another matter, because the premise for this thing to work is that its properties are not changed.

And Heavenly Demons modify reality as easily as eating.

But regardless, this thing was more than enough to detect Demonic Kings around the Third Rank.

“Then this thing?” Li Qi looked at Yun Fang Senior, wondering what use he had for it.

“You just won a battle. Generally, there's a period of vacation for you to rest and heal. During this time, you'll surely be worried. Why not take this and investigate Shi Wei's past and present? Perhaps you'll find some clues,” Yunfang Great Shaman said.

“That makes sense. Thank you, Senior,” Li Qi stood up, took the Gu insect compass, and then turned to leave.

However, Yunfang Great Shaman, after Li Qi left, suddenly let out a long sigh.

“Alas… he is, and now Shi Wei is… Could it be that anyone connected to me, Yun Fang, is destined to be targeted by the Demonic Dao? Can the children I teach not escape?”

The gentle old man murmured to himself, looking up at the sky.

In the sky, floating in Boundless Outer Domain, was the Illusion-Reality Domain. Countless worlds revolved around it, and many world-class ships were desperately heading there, hoping to gain new development opportunities and new technologies in this wonder of Boundless Outer Domain, which could benefit their civilizations.

——————

On the other side, Li Qi began his investigation.

Shen Shuibi, on the other hand, chose to enter seclusion. She was in a death seclusion, meaning she locked the door and would not emerge until she Broke through to Fourth Rank.

However, in reality, there was no danger. After all, with the rabbit's current comprehension and level, the Fourth Rank only required time to accumulate.

At most, a thousand years, and she would be able to turn all her insights into reality, transforming inspiration into genuine accumulation, thereby advancing to the Fourth Rank.

It was similar to a logarithm table.

Shen Shuibi had already found the pattern of logarithms, but the logarithm table still required painstaking calculation.

Once she produced a practical and feasible logarithm table, it would signify the end of her seclusion.

This was entirely hard labor, ninety-nine percent effort, of course, still requiring one percent inspiration. Many people were stuck at this one percent, and it was common to be stuck for millions of years.

However, she had already completed that one percent of inspiration; all that remained was hard labor, and for a Fifth Rank, the matter of hard labor needed no further explanation.

Li Qi and his wife each had their own things to do, temporarily withdrawing from the Human-Shaman battlefield, but this did not mean the war was over.

Trillions of worlds were arrayed across a battlefield spanning countless light-years, divided into many war zones. Each war zone had a Third Rank guarding it. Some were fighting fiercely, some were recuperating, and some, like Li Qi's side, had fought so fiercely that both sides were battered and forced to withdraw their troops, allowing the local people to develop on their own.

This war was simply too vast, so much so that every possible scenario would occur in some corner.

For an individual Mortal, they simply couldn't imagine such a war, because what they were dealing with was very likely only their own world's war, a world war that was deeply memorable, a massive war worthy of being recorded in civilization's history, but that was merely a tiny spark in the Great Fire that swept through the Universe.

However, no matter how raging the Great Fire, it was composed of these small sparks.

They were constantly born, then drawn into war, and assigned to death.

Even Reincarnation in the Underworld had been much busier these years.

The deaths in the Universe were too numerous.

So much so that it broke the balance of life and death.

A quiet, easily overlooked, yet immensely powerful death intent spread throughout the Universe, covering the entire world.