Chapter 852: There is no illusion in this world

At this moment, on Li Qi's side.

Li Qi was handling matters in City of Dreams, preparing to uproot many of the Demonic Dao's arrangements there, but he still felt some lingering concern.

Having Li Shiwei act as bait, deliberately exposing her weakness to allow the Demonic Dao to 'take advantage,' was originally part of the plan.

However, he couldn't help but feel uneasy.

“Alas,” he sighed.

“What, do you still feel that doing these things is meaningless?” Jing Wuzhen asked.

She had more or less understood Li Qi's attitude; in his eyes, everything they were doing now would immediately revert once those Demonic Lords returned, making it as if nothing had been done.

Meaningless.

But Jing Wuzhen was different; she felt that no matter what, it had meaning.

“No, I no longer feel that these things are meaningless,” Li Qi shook his head and said.

“Oh? Is that the result of that Epiphany?” Jing Wuzhen asked curiously.

For a Fourth Realm, things they firmly believed in weren't so easily changed; Li Qi's sudden change in attitude was likely related to that Epiphany.

Li Qi sighed, “Yes, it’s related to that Epiphany. By the way, do you know about ‘temporal order’?”

“Temporal order, that’s the sequence in which things happen, right? What about it?” Jing Wuzhen was a bit confused.

Li Qi put down his work, looked at Jing Wuzhen, and said, “In this Universe, for a Great Power, everything is actually void, and it has been this way from the very beginning. Think about it… the Universe itself is something that spontaneously arose from nothingness.”

“The birth of this Universe has no purpose, our existence has no purpose, the existence of all things has no Innate definition or ‘mission,’ so… we need to pursue the Dao, because when we live, we must have a goal.”

Living beings must have a goal.

This goal could be the very abstract ‘living,’ or it could be appetite or other desires driven purely by instinct, or it could be the noble journey of pursuing the Dao.

But it doesn't matter, these goals are essentially the same; they are all motivations given to oneself by higher intelligence, finding a reason for one's continued existence.

Life itself is meaningless; what is meaningful is ourselves.

Human Dao reinforced this view, believing that all things are meaningless, and only ‘humans’ have meaning, which is why Human Dao treats things outside of ‘humans’ as resources.

This is not discrimination; it stems from a very realistic reason, which is that this Universe is indeed meaningless, and meaning is bestowed upon this Universe by ‘humans,’ so this Universe should naturally be defined by ‘humans.’

From this perspective, one finds that the logic of Human Dao is actually quite coherent.

Of course, in the Nine Lands Under Heaven, no Dao Orthodoxy has incoherent logic; every Dao Orthodoxy's ‘Dao’ has many books and wise individuals who argue for them from various angles, it's just that… these coherent logics, once they collide, create conflict.

“So, what does this have to do with temporal order?” Jing Wuzhen didn't quite understand what Li Qi was lamenting about.

Li Qi raised a finger: “Think about it, if this world is all void and meaningless, then what is the only thing that exists?”

“According to the Demonic Dao, the only thing that exists is ‘subjective will’ itself; this is undeniable, everything else can be questioned. Similar views are held by the Buddhist and Daoist schools.”

“Buddhism speaks of ‘emptiness,’ Dao Orthodoxy speaks of ‘truth.’ Dao Orthodoxy’s concept of ‘Nascent Soul and Divine Sense’ emphasizes that Divine Sense knows but does not cling, and only when the true nature of the Nascent Soul is mobilized can one reach the Realm of ‘true everywhere without action,’ which refers to the ‘Dao of the Grand Supreme,’ where that sole supreme Dao is real, and everything else is derivative.”

“And Buddhism says that the Four Greats are empty, and the boundless Realm of emptiness; this world is inherently void, and sentient beings need to realize this, and then, even in nothingness, still affirm their own meaning; this is ‘enlightenment’.”

“Spirit Dao is similar, but Spirit Dao acknowledges the existence of other thoughts, and through the ‘non-existence of private language’ it proves the ‘existence of public language,’ thereby confirming the existence of other subjective consciousnesses, constructing a world belonging to ‘pure thought’.”

“At the same time, according to Human Dao, all things in this world are real and not false, but only after ‘humans’ have given them meaning do these things escape from the abyss of meaninglessness.”

“And Shaman Dao is similar; Shaman Dao acknowledges the reality of this world, and also acknowledges that every higher intelligence has the right to interpret and perceive this world. All of this combined is ‘natural’ itself.”

Li Qi narrated what each Dao Orthodoxy considered ‘real’ within this void world.

These may not be the true meanings of the major Dao Orthodoxys, but they are indeed what Li Qi understood at his current stage.

Li Qi continued: “Every Dao Orthodoxy has something it considers ‘real,’ but behind all these ‘realities,’ there is a common thread.”

Yes, Li Qi had already realized this; during his last Epiphany, he had already perceived this point.

All the ‘realities’ mentioned above, even including the Demonic Dao’s ‘absolute subjectivity,’ are built upon a solid foundation.

“This foundation is ‘temporal order’.”

“Everything, everything, must be built upon the premise of ‘what has happened’.”

“A world is born; even if it is rewound, it has still been born.”

“A perfect romance, even if it is erased from its origin, once it has happened, it has happened; that story will not disappear. It’s like a game where you can choose different paths; even if you initially chose a certain path, when you rewind to the beginning of the game and start a new story, it doesn't mean that the previous events never happened.”

“Everything is fixed by ‘temporal order,’ isn’t it? All these realities are built upon ‘temporal order’.”

Li Qi said this to Jing Wuzhen.

This kind of discussion was actually quite dangerous, because it was equivalent to discussing the ‘Dao’ with the other party. If their ‘Dao’ aligned, they might become close friends, but if their words didn't resonate, they might even end up fighting.

However, Li Qi’s words clearly piqued Jing Wuzhen’s interest.

She also fell into deep thought.

Although for Martial Dao, thinking about these things seemed useless, she was still a Fourth Realm, so her slowness was only relative to others in the Fourth Realm.

“Interesting… Is this the path you’re going to take next?” Jing Wuzhen thought for a while and then gave up. This didn’t overlap with her Dao, and of course, it didn’t go against it either, so she was somewhat indifferent.

“Hmm, if it works,” Li Qi said.

“Sounds very powerful, but there’s a question, why are you so obsessed with pursuing ‘commonality’?” Jing Wuzhen looked at Li Qi curiously.

She was genuinely a bit puzzled; from the power Li Qi displayed, he had always pursued the ‘commonality’ between various Dao Orthodoxys, which was actually quite thankless.

Why pursue commonality? Many Dao Orthodoxys are inherently incompatible; blindly pursuing commonality is itself a gamble and can make the Inner World unstable.

However, only Li Qi himself knew…

If one were to talk about instability, his Inner World could basically be called a bomb.

“Why? Then why do you walk the Martial Dao?” Li Qi asked.

“Me? Hmm… I haven’t thought that much,” Jing Wuzhen shook her head: “I’ve practiced martial arts since childhood, started boxing at three, practiced sword at seventeen when my boxing was refined, and at thirty-five, when my sword was perfected, I practiced intent, and then I just kept going. I never thought about why, nor did I need a why. Thinking too much is useless, it only adds to the trouble.”

“That’s very much in line with Martial Dao,” Li Qi nodded.

The Dao of Martial Arts requires sincerity.

Sincere to the heart, sincere to oneself, pure yet powerful.

Martial Dao is not a complex major Dao Orthodoxy; the birth of Martial Dao had a very simple purpose, which is: “combat.”

Whether it's conquest or defense, its essence boils down to the simplest act, which is combat, and Martial Dao pushes combat to the extreme.

They learn the philosophy of combat, train in combat techniques, and everything they do and pursue is merely for combat itself, for the sake of achieving victory in conflict.

This is also why people with overly complex minds generally do not practice Martial Dao.

If you are too clever, you will start to ponder ‘what are you fighting for?’ When you start to consider this question, any answer is possible.

You might very likely be led to other Dao Orthodoxys by that answer.

However, Li Qi heard that high-ranking Martial Dao practitioners, after figuring out this answer, still adhere to Martial Dao itself.

Jing Wuzhen should be like this; they don't care what the truth of the world is, and they also know that this world itself has no purpose. For them, being able to use the combat abilities mastered through Martial Dao to implement their own ideas and survive in this world is enough.

Just like this City of Dreams, Li Qi would consider what to do about changes, and how to achieve ‘root cause treatment,’ ‘Dao transformation,’ but for Jing Wuzhen, it was like her original purpose for coming…

She was here to cause trouble, meeting Li Qi was an accident, and since she could cause trouble better with Li Qi's help, she didn't mind. As for more things… why bother thinking, it wasn't important.

Such people, one would think, should be the bane of the Demonic Dao; those who think too much have more demonic thoughtss.

Li Qi smiled and said, “Then let’s get to work first. Since temporal order won’t change, and what has happened has happened, then so-called ‘symptomatic treatment’ is absolutely meaningful.”

“You’re right, it seems you’ve also figured it out.” Jing Wuzhen was slightly invigorated: “Your previous thoughts were too ethereal; it’s better to be grounded. You people just think too much and do too little.”

“Well said… Thinking too much, doing too little. Thank you for your guidance.” Li Qi stood up, performed the Disciple's bow, and accepted these words.

Indeed, it was so.

Li Qi thought too much, constantly contemplating those things, countless schemes, calculations, and various deductions, but he rarely truly interfered with anything, always remaining a high-and-mighty observer.

Because he knew that this world was void, changing some things was actually meaningless, so he didn't bother to change them. After all… assuming a Third Realm came now, with a gentle wave of a hand, City of Dreams would revert to its original state.

Everything was void, what they were doing was actually meaningless, Li Qi realized this, so he had no motivation to change anything.

If everything that happened was so illusory, merely a phantom, how could one be motivated to change this world?

If it were a beloved, cherished phantom, then so be it, but it's normal not to care about an unfamiliar phantom.

These words were indeed very true, but…

After realizing ‘temporal order,’ it's not necessarily the case.

What has happened has happened.

That is not a phantom; even if everything is reset, it is still real and not false. What has happened has happened; all of this is real.

Once, Li Qi was puzzled by something, which was… how exactly did the Human-Shaman War, a superluminal future war, even happen? (See Chapter 631 for details)

For example, a Third Realm receives a string of information about a future war, obtains combat data from it, and plans to change the future, completely altering the past so that the war will never happen…

Then, what about that information?

Does it suddenly disappear? Now you have data about a future war, and that war will never happen. So, where did the intelligence about that war come from?

At that time, Li Qi was only a Fifth Realm and was puzzled by this.

He was so astonished by the power of the Second Realm that he couldn't comprehend it; manipulating spacetime on such a scale seemed incredibly inconceivable.

Although, in practice, Li Qi also knew that Human Dao also possessed such abilities, which led to the Human-Shaman War not only failing to shorten but instead becoming a stalemate and prolonging.

The deeper the object of manipulation, the more complex the manipulation itself. Sometimes a single decision could cause tens of trillions of people to disappear, or rather—

Make these people never exist, never to exist.

After reaching the Fourth Realm, Li Qi had already grasped the mysteries of reality. He already knew that it wasn't so profound.

It could actually be explained with common sense.

If such superluminal communication caused a spacetime paradox, then so be it.

In fact, nothing unusual would happen; it would simply be the sudden appearance of some information out of nowhere, and such information is constantly appearing or being erased in the Universe.

For beings with reality, they can produce such information at any time, even though this information can easily affect the external world.

So this information is meaningless and can be rewritten at any time.

And now, Li Qi's understanding of this has deepened by another layer.

Every bit of this information is undeniably real.

They are all real. (End of this chapter)