Chapter 832: Service

Li Qi observed for fifteen years.

In those fifteen years, there were a total of ‘Number Four’.

That’s right, Number One lasted six years, which was already considered long-lasting.

The remaining Number Two, Number Three, and Number Four, combined, only lasted nine years.

“No need for Number Five, I’ve pretty much understood it,” Li Qi nodded slightly; he had completely grasped the basic operating rules of this place.

Of course, this was only the lowest level, Rank Eight and Rank Nine; as for those unranked, they generally stayed within the Grotto-Heaven.

If they came out, they probably wouldn’t even survive a day.

After all, for those miserable Rank Eights outside, they also wanted to earn some extra cash.

However, even living within the Grotto-Heaven, they were definitely not having an easy time.

They lived in a life of hardship, in desperate labor.

The entire civilization, the entire world, all people, had to work desperately.

Ordinary people had to mine Materials; they would become miners or farmers; all productivity had to obey allocation; the Ore mined would be processed and refined, and then the essence of many ordinary Ores would be forged into Rank Nine raw Materials.

This required large machinery, plus millions of workers laboring day and night to achieve.

Yet this was still not enough; they had mined one mining area after another, but Ore alone was not enough; other things were needed, such as special herbs, the juice of which could give Ore new properties.

Thus, large tracts of fertile land also began to cultivate the necessary medicinal herbs.

Factories all had to serve Rank Nine.

Land, mines, all natural resources, except those necessary for people to survive, all had to serve Rank Nine components.

Cities all became industrial cities, frantically extracting their resources, refining their essence, and then forging them into components; a city generally could only be responsible for one component.

Fertile fields were all cultivating the necessary plants, synthesizing the needed medicines; oceans, land, forests, mountains, everything had to be transformed into resources.

For this, everyone had to labor.

The goal of every person from birth was already determined; for these worlds, there was no room for idlers.

Everyone had to participate in forced labor, then forge components; components combined into Rank Nine; Rank Nine combined into Rank Eight; and then things above Rank Eight had value to appear on the market.

Even so, Rank Eight was still an ant, living an extremely hard life outside.

When you arrived at this ‘City of Dreams’, it was destined that you would be in great pain; the design intention here was not for you to enjoy blessings.

But although painful, this city still gave you a little chance.

As long as you could grasp it, you could become Rank Seven, Rank Six, Rank Five! The Demonic Dao truly disseminated many, many Cultivation Techniques; they could be bought very cheaply, and they were good quality and inexpensive; these cultivation methods were all very powerful.

Of course, this cheapness referred to the original value of these cultivation methods.

After reaching Rank Six using the cultivation methods of this world, if you went to the Outer Domain, you could also be considered a figure in the vast Outer Domain.

Unfortunately, Number One, in the end, did not achieve it.

Or rather, the vast majority of people could not.

Only those scattered, top-tier, most high-end zero point zero one percent of people had the possibility.

If calculated by population ratio, zero point zero one was not enough; it probably needed dozens more zeros, as there were too many people here, and the population base was there.

However, Number One was not dead yet.

Li Qi looked at Number One and decided to talk to him.

In a single thought, Li Qi instantly appeared before the other party.

At this moment, ‘Number One’ sat dejectedly beside a waste liquid pool, surrounded by various pipes.

Broken, scattered, and chaotically filled the winding alleys of the entire slum.

Of course, what was called an alley was actually just some passages built on pipes; for Rank Eights, this was still very simple; they could even build the roads very beautifully, although narrow, they were still beautiful.

Of course, this was speaking of “even”.

At this moment, there was no such ‘even’; people here had no such mood; this was not an air-purified pipe, but a hidden place at the exhaust vent above a factory.

Just as there would be cockroaches in the dead corners of walls, the dead corners of these large block factories were also filled with those decadent, lifeless people.

How the street rumbled like a deep pit full of dying beasts; this was the only unguarded place, littered with corpses, yet… full of popularity.

Every minute, every second, people died here; every minute, every second, people joined here.

Some were dejected, some were still unwilling to give up.

However, the possibility of making a comeback after coming here was not high; many people here seemed to know that resistance or defense was useless anyway; there was nothing worth stealing, and many people lay lazily on the ground, waiting for possible death or a worse outcome in the future.

They were already dead, just temporarily lacking the courage to face it.

Number One was here.

Li Qi landed here.

Seeing someone coming, and their cultivation seemed not low, the idle men and women on the ground all looked over, and then, these people swarmed like zombies.

Li Qi’s arrival brought a trace of Life Qi to the Death Qi that permeated the area.

A crowd of people rushed towards Li Qi.

Li Qi gently waved his hand.

Everyone fell to the ground without any resistance, unable to move.

They found themselves unharmed.

And the only person who could move at this moment was ‘Number One’.

Maintaining this state, Li Qi walked in front of Number One and said, “We meet again.”

Number One looked up.

At this instant, he felt his heart begin to accelerate rapidly, almost to the point of bursting, and an unnamed fear he had never experienced before, a fear that seemed to spread from his bone marrow, his partial will wanted to die, wanted to escape the sea of suffering, but he couldn’t, he had to live to take revenge.

Seeing Li Qi appear before him, Number One’s entire body trembled, and flickering beads of sweat constantly appeared on his forehead.

He knew that his journey had reached its end, and he had survived all the way.

Next, either he would make a comeback, or he would be buried here.

No matter the outcome, it was a good thing for him.

However, even though it was such a good thing, the overflowing tears made Li Qi in front of him turn into a gray silhouette.

“Greetings… Senior.” Number One’s voice was somewhat at a loss.

“You still remember me,” Li Qi said.

“I’ll never forget it in my life,” Number One said.

“Do you still think this place is good?” Li Qi asked again.

“…There are good parts and bad parts, but it’s still better than the Outer Domain,” Number One was silent for a moment, then said so.

“In the Outer Domain, you could live, and your clansmen would live; now… they’ve probably been Soul Refining by someone, your clan is extinct; after you die, your civilization will no longer exist,” Li Qi said, “Even so, do you still think this place is better?”

“Yes, it’s better here; at least I know how I died, unlike in the Outer Domain, where suddenly one day… the surrounding world was all gone, and after asking around, I found out it was just two Great Powers passing by coincidentally, touching each other, testing each other,” Number One said.

Now it was Li Qi’s turn to be silent.

Yes, they had ample reason to stay here, ample reason to choose to let the Demonic Dao devour them, precisely because it was better here.

They had no way out to begin with; now, joining this life-and-death tempering was much better than the Outer Domain.

However, to be able to realize this, and to not regret it after losing everything, Number One, among the Rank Eights, could be considered resolute.

One must know that many people whose hearts were not so firm, even if they knew what they were doing was right, was a necessary choice, but after failure, they would still complain about the past, why they had to do it, when clearly they didn't need to.

This is what is meant by blaming heaven and earth.

To be able to know that what one is doing is a necessary choice, to know that there is no turning back, and to calmly admit this, requires great courage.

Especially… this failure made Number One lose everything; his clansmen, his Grotto-Heaven, all of him, the entire world was destroyed because of one oversight on his part.

This was a much heavier burden than losing a job due to a failed decision; to be able to accept even this, it indicates… he truly believed in his judgment.

It’s not my fault, I made no mistake, I just had bad luck; when I came, I knew it was a nine-deaths-one-life situation; now it’s just the bad ending I imagined back then.

Li Qi could read the other party’s surface thoughts; Number One indeed thought this way.

At the same time, his heart was now filled with hope because of Li Qi’s arrival.

A Great Power would never appear casually; being able to appear here indicated that he very likely had the chance to become the other party’s ‘chess piece’.

Li Qi felt the thoughts in the other party’s heart and shook his head slightly: “Unfortunately, I’m not here for you.”

These words instantly stunned Number One.

Number One’s flame of hope was extinguished; in an instant, his heart violently constricted.

Just at this moment, Li Qi reached out.

From the depths of Number One’s Spirit Soul, a wisp of Demonic Qi fled in panic.

But it was impossible to escape; Li Qi gently pinched and captured this wisp of Demonic Qi.

The Demonic Qi came out and transformed into a beautiful woman.

The beautiful woman was charming, her body slender and delicate, only her chest was plump, snow-white and radiant, her face had purple lips and white teeth, appearing pitiful.

She wore a thin veil, vaguely visible, yet seemingly vaguely invisible; she bowed hastily, appearing flustered, but inadvertently exuded charm, and Number One was instantly captivated.

“Senior—do we have any enmity? Why?” The demonic thoughts looked at Li Qi in panic, not knowing why Li Qi was doing this.

“It really is a woman; I thought it was a transformation, but this is just one of your Clones, isn’t it?” Li Qi looked at the demonic woman and asked.

Indeed, she was a demonic woman; her appearance, the aura about her, and the original body Li Qi traced back to, were all female; this appearance was not feigned.

If it were a man, and he used a demonic thoughts to pretend like this, Li Qi would definitely give him a kick.

Disgusting, aren’t you?

“This is just a Clone; it’s somewhat inappropriate to meet Senior like this; I will personally come to pay my respects to Senior,” the demonic thoughts said, her body suddenly melting, and then an invisible ‘thread’ extended, reaching directly to the upper level.

It was only a few thousand miles from here to the upper level, so it arrived very quickly.

After a while, a demonic woman, identical in appearance to the demonic thoughts from before, appeared before Li Qi.

Although identical in appearance, her aura was completely different.

How to put it… although she looked very alluring, the demonic thoughts was merely an illusion; only when her true body arrived could that ‘atmosphere’, that demeanor capable of influencing the surrounding world, be fully displayed.

Simply because she appeared here, the atmosphere of the entire slum changed; almost everyone, except Li Qi, regardless of gender, fell into a daze.

You couldn’t say she was exceptionally beautiful, but she just had a… ‘first love’ aura.

At this moment, all the hatred and anger in Number One’s heart vanished into thin air.

It seemed that as long as he could be with her, nothing else mattered.

The pain of his world being erased, the hatred of his clansmen being killed, all became irrelevant; those were all illusory things, only the demonic woman before him was real.

For her, anything was possible!

She was his very existence; in the past, present, and future, his eyes would only see her.

The unique princess of the whole world.

At this moment, Number One finally recognized his so-called, true ‘self’.

The fire of first love burned in his heart.

He loved her.

Even if he had to burn his life for her, he would not hesitate.

She was everything; he could give up everything else.

He could feel his pounding heart, its sound so melodious; his heart was playing the most beautiful music in the world!

Even his mind, which remained firm even when falling into the abyss and being devoured by the Demonic Dao, was instantly shattered at this moment, seemingly to be forever immersed in love.

Li Qi frowned slightly.

“A lineage of Demon of Affliction, huh? But your trouble is quite interesting,” Li Qi said to the kneeling demonic woman.

Demon of Affliction is about seeking but not obtaining, coveting but being incapable, loving but without result, embracing confusion and being born, following ignorance, seemingly having immeasurable suffering like birth, aging, sickness, and death, lashing out at sentient beings, disturbing body and mind, obstructing true enlightenment, and preventing them from ever achieving the Dao Fruit.

And the demonic woman before him cultivated the trouble of love, which was also a huge flaw in the hearts of sentient beings.

Then, she used herself as bait to lure surrounding things into the predicament of loving but not obtaining, thereby causing the other party to produce demonic thoughtss.

“Senior is joking, so… Senior, why have you come to find me?” The demonic woman was terrified but didn’t know what to do, so she could only say this.

She herself was a Rank Seven, the strongest in this area, so she also got the opportunity to harvest the surroundings.

But she knew that Rank Seven was far from enough to face the person in front of her.

“Nothing, you can go,” Li Qi waved his hand.

At this, the demonic woman immediately prostrated herself, kowtowing on the ground: “Senior, spare my life!”