Chapter 864: Equality

Feeling the warmth of Li Qi’s hand on her head, Li Shiwei was speechless for a moment.

“Why… didn’t you tell me? Was it because I was in the way?” She tightly clutched Li Qi’s wrist, her voice choked with emotion.

“At that time… I desperately tried to recall all those happy memories with you all…”

She said so.

Her mother’s laughter, the touch of her hand, her silhouette, the scenery they walked through together… only beautiful memories kept surfacing in her mind.

If she hadn’t done that, she would have felt unable to accept reality.

She would have felt that she had to live alone…

To not be filled with sorrow, she desperately… to not forget the memories with her mother, she desperately…

But now, her father said he had always known.

What did he know!?

Perhaps sensing that his daughter’s emotions were once again in turmoil, and demonic thoughtss were again brewing, Li Qi merely withdrew his hand from her side and said, “You’ll know later. Later… I promise.”

“And also, if you really made a move on me, the Demonic Lords might have won.”

“However… from the very beginning, I believed in you.”

Li Qi smiled, like his Master and elders whom he used to detest the most, speaking nonsensical riddles to fob off Li Shiwei.

He knew Li Shiwei was truly entangled by demonic thoughtss, but he also believed his daughter wouldn’t act against him because of it.

Moreover, this wasn’t a riddle; Li Shiwei couldn’t know any of this.

Li Qi detested riddle-tellers, but riddle-tellers were truly unavoidable.

Li Qi himself didn’t even know his initial plan. As mentioned before, he had only set up a series of fragments with Chongnian Great Shaman, guiding his future self to make decisions according to the plan, so as to ensure the smooth progress of the plan without being spied upon by the Demonic Dao.

And now, Li Qi’s ‘heart,’ the open void, had closed.

All eleven Demonic Lords were within his body.

Then… the inner body spirits he had previously cut off had found their destination.

One must know that Li Qi possessed the Devouring Method of the Buddhist-Demonic lineage.

Eliminate the discriminating mind—

He would refine the Demonic Lords into inner body spirits.

Eleven Fourth Grades, plus the Demon of Death’s Dao Resonance, and his deeper understanding of reality, using the entire City of Dreams as a wedge to refine them—

Through this, he would Breakthrough to Third Grade!

Li Qi’s plan only unfolded here!

In the past, there was the Dragon Lord of the East Sea. He was both the Dragon Lord and the Sea God of the East Sea, and he also cooperated with the Human Dao, being granted the title of ‘Dragon King’ by the Human Dao. The two sides cooperated to ensure favorable weather, and finally he attempted to refine the East Sea, playing all three sides, but was ultimately shot dead by the Human Emperor who went out to sea. (For details, see Chapter 434)

Li Qi had always known this allusion.

Now, he too would emulate this Dragon Lord.

Li Qi didn’t know what his plan was; he only made the initial arrangements, and this planning actually had the help of Chongnian Grand Diviner.

This was also a common form of cooperation on Shaman God Mountain: Invoker would seek out Diviner, Diviner would help with the planning, then both sides would finalize the details, and finally Invoker would execute it.

Li Qi no longer remembered what plan was finalized back then; he completely didn't know why he was doing this, all to prevent leakage of information.

To ensure the secrecy of the plan, he shattered all his perceptions of the plan, and then the Grand Diviner acted, embedding them in an unknown place according to a special method.

This was everything he told Jing Wuzhen.

Thus, under the arrangement of Chongnian Grand Diviner, Li Qi knew when to do what, but didn’t know why he was doing it. Only in this way would his ‘heart’ truly reveal a void, would he truly produce demonic thoughtss, and only then could the Demonic Lords fail to find his trace and ultimately fall into the trap.

Of course, this was very dangerous, no less dangerous than Li Qi’s attempt to help Zhong Minglou, a Fifth Grade, Breakthrough.

And this was one of the reasons why Chongnian Great Shaman would help.

Li Qi gave Zhong Minglou guidance for his Breakthrough, so Chongnian also allowed Li Qi to Breakthrough—!

Anyway, life and death are fated, wealth is in the hands of Heaven. If he lost, it wouldn’t be Chongnian’s fault; Li Qi brought it upon himself.

As for success?

See, Zhong Minglou also succeeded, didn’t he?

Li Qi’s power surged. Using the Demonic Lords’ control over this place, he would devour City of Dreams!

He would turn this place into his ‘Dao Field’!

— — — — — — — — — —

Li Shiwei was horrified to realize that her power was being drained.

Not just her power, but the entire City of Dreams below, all the demonic thoughtss, all the ‘thoughts,’ the eleven Demonic Lords, plus the Demon of Death’s Dao Resonance on her.

Li Qi was going to devour everything!

As early as Fifth Grade, he already possessed Third Grade characteristics. (For details, see Chapter 615)

Almost in an instant, Li Qi’s Dharma Manifestation ascended.

Reality changed with it!

Dust of reality… or so it could be described.

Compared to Li Qi’s Dharma Manifestation at this moment, reality was merely dust.

Reality… was more than just one.

Every time ‘future selection’ occurred, it essentially created a new world line.

Every choice, every regression, was like a world node, a grain of dust on a beach.

However, from a low grade perspective, each node was a complete world.

At this moment, on the endless beach, countless grains of sand were piling up, gradually being covered by the slowly rising tide.

This tide was—Li Qi.

Li Qi’s power submerged countless ‘histories.’

Present, past, future, merged into one at this moment.

Perhaps it’s a bit difficult to understand, but… sometimes, certain things that are separated are inherently one.

For example, the basic logic of reality is that Great Power creates miracles. At 10^-36 seconds after the birth of the Universe, the Four Greats fundamental forces had not yet appeared, and everything was one. At this time, talking about physics is nonsense, until later when the Universe underwent symmetry breaking, and gradually gravity, electromagnetism, the strong force, and the weak force each separated.

If you could make the current Universe exactly like it was at the very beginning, all ‘forces’ would cease to exist, dimensions would disappear, and only the unique ‘superforce’ would remain in the Universe.

Li Qi was the same; the timelines were unified at this moment, leaving only ‘now.’

Everything was ‘now.’

All things were happening ‘now.’

In fact, there is no such thing as ‘past’ and ‘future’; past and future are merely the powerlessness of those without reality. In reality, if one must describe it, only ‘information’ exists.

After superluminal speed, the world becomes illusory, and even ‘information appearing out of thin air’ may occur.

For example, The Axis of All Realms.

A war broke out in the Human Dao, and then The Axis of All Realms sent the information about this war to a Third Grade far away. Then, the Third Grade from afar took action and erased this war.

Thus, this war never happened.

Then, since the war never happened, where did The Axis of All Realms get the battlefield information from?

Li Qi now had his answer.

That is, the war happened, it definitely happened.

Even if it was erased, what happened, happened.

All beings are like this; nothing is illusory. All things are ‘real.’

Mortals are also real.

Matter and spirit are just real information.

What is information?

Information is ‘description,’ a description of external things, whether material or spiritual. Through this description, the Universe ‘knows’ what appearance it should present.

Yes, no matter which kind, it is an ‘appearance’; its essence is ‘description.’

Then, Li Qi suddenly understood.

The ‘information flow’ seen by the True Knowledge Dao Resonance was actually the ‘description’ of things.

From the very beginning, Li Qi was in contact with deep descriptions of things; True Knowledge had always provided him with the ‘information’ of this world.

And this information was not objectively real; they did not inherently possess ‘reality.’

This was also the ‘real world’ that was most often seen.

And changing the world was actually changing this information, or rather, re-‘interpreting’ this information.

As for where the information came from…

I don’t know.

This question is like asking where matter and spirit come from; Li Qi has no answer, because all his conclusions must be built upon these. You cannot deduce your own foundation, you cannot question your Dao foundation, even if this foundation is hypothetical.

For example, the constancy of the speed of light is the ‘Dao foundation’ of relativity. This is completely hypothetical. Even if it was later empirically proven that the speed of light is indeed constant under certain circumstances, it doesn’t change the fact that it is a hypothesis.

Because, how do you know the speed of light is constant?

We can only ‘assume’ the speed of light is constant, not ‘determine’ it, just like a turkey scientist in a farm who can only experiment that food will arrive at nine o’clock every morning.

But he can never ‘determine’ that food will arrive.

Things that can be ‘determined’ are only those that can be ‘self-proven,’ such as divination and so on. They can prove themselves without relying on ‘assumptions’ to prove themselves.

Self-proof, that is, self-sustenance, which is ‘reality.’

What is self-proof? It is the self-proof of a priori categories, proving that the categories are not subjective, but the properties of the self-existent thing itself. This property is ‘reality.’

Moreover, this self-proof must be “unconditional,” because if there are conditions, then those conditions need to be proven, and then it will continue to become a turkey scientist.

And becoming Third Grade.

Is the process of ‘self-proof.’

Self-proof, eternal proof.

Self-existent, eternally existent.

This is the meaning of ‘self.’

Something universal, necessary, unconditional, Innate, a priori, absolute—able to exist independently without relying on any assumptions, and able to become the ‘assumption’ for others.

Yes, if the speed of light is constant, then Third Grade is the ‘constant speed of light.’

Third Grade is an absolutely a priori existence.

The eleven Demonic Lords, plus the Demon of Death’s Dao Resonance, became the ‘fuel’ that helped Li Qi reach his full potential. Then, using the world’s true form as a foothold, Li Qi explored all his power upwards.

This was complete reality.

No longer the incomplete reality of Fourth Grade.

Although Fourth Grade can exist independently, it cannot become an attachment for others.

It can exist independently without relying on causality or other hypothetical things, but it cannot become a hypothesis for others.

Third Grade is different; Third Grade… can exist independently of experience, and even independently of all sensory impressions, possessing universality and necessity, not in space-time, and even unknowable.

Power that is independent of experience, and even independent of all sensory impressions, people call such knowledge Innate, which is what ‘Innate Treasure’ refers to.

Furthermore, they distinguish them from those empirical powers that have Acquired origins, that is, those whose origins lie in experience.

Li Qi was touching this layer of power!

All Fourth Grades around stopped their actions.

They all watched this scene.

This, a heart-shaking, utterly astonishing scene!

Can it succeed?

This question arose in the hearts of all Fourth Grades.

There will be Third Grade interference, right? The Patrolling Envoys thought so.

After all, this was the Demonic Dao’s territory. Li Qi wanted to use this place to turn a part of City of Dreams into his Dao Field; it probably wouldn’t be that simple. High-grade Demonic Dao cultivators would intervene.

However, to the Patrolling Envoys’ surprise…

No high-grade Demonic Dao cultivators made a move.

“This power is… Prince Changqin.” The Patrolling Envoys felt something and looked up at the sky.

A clear, melodious zither sound softly echoed in the sky.

“The agreement has been made, oh. No existence above Fourth Grade from either the Demonic or Shaman sides can interfere.”

Prince Changqin’s joyful voice appeared.

This voice, the Patrolling Envoys could hear, but in reality… only the Patrolling Envoys could hear it.

Patrolling Envoys possess special authority, allowing them to directly connect to the Heavenly Dao of the world, thereby patrolling the heavens. Through this authority, they could hear the voice here.

“Tsk, you played a trick on me. How did you make that judgment?” At the same time, another voice appeared.

The Patrolling Envoys had high authority, so they could immediately recognize who this was through the Heavenly Dao.

Demonic Dao Second Grade, Yin Demon.

“Hmm… a feeling?” Prince Changqin said softly.

“Does a Shaman’s sixth sense still work at Second Grade?” Yin Demon seemed unconvinced.

“It works, don’t talk about me, it works even at First Grade.” Prince Changqin said in a light tone, “I’ve always believed it, you see.”

“Li Qi believed in Li Shiwei, even if his memories were gone, he still felt it was part of the plan.”

“Similarly, although I really don’t understand anything and haven’t interfered, I think he can win.”

“You’re being unreasonable now.” Yin Demon’s voice carried a hint of playfulness.

“Were you ever reasonable? What’s happening here… isn’t prepared for Li Qi.”

“Alright, let’s stop here. Let’s call it a draw.” Yin Demon interrupted Prince Changqin’s words.

The voice disappeared.

The Patrolling Envoys suddenly felt a chill.

It was almost certain that a Great Power was manipulating things behind the scenes; they weren’t surprised. There were no coincidences in the world; everything was inevitably arranged by Great Powers.

At most, it was arranged layer by layer. For example, now, the Fourth Grade Demonic Lords planned the arrangements below for Mortals, and the Second Grades also made a small move not to interfere.

Since they weren’t surprised, where did this chill come from?

“Hey, you guys stopped… did you feel it too?” At this moment, Jing Wuzhen, who had been fighting fiercely earlier, looked at the still-enemy Patrolling Envoys with a solemn expression.

No sooner had she spoken than a furious roar was heard.

That voice growled furiously: “You actually… want to widen the gap by two grades for me!?”

“Unacceptable!”

“All four of you, come at me!” A figure in a black cloak descended here!

The cloak fluttered, and the Demonic Prince, with a gloomy face, pointed at the Patrolling Envoys and Jing Wuzhen, roaring!