Chapter 881: The monkey's claw

Moreover, feeling this indifferent voice, Li Qi shook his head.

It was the first time he had heard such a terrifying side of a Heavenly Demon.

In previous direct encounters with Heavenly Demons, their voices were either amiable or charming, basically never making Li Qi feel afraid.

And for some unknown reason, except for a few instances where the Heavenly Demon appeared before Li Qi as a male, in most other situations, he would appear as a female.

Perhaps they thought this would not make Li Qi nervous?

However, in the information at that moment, the Heavenly Demon's form was neither male nor female, just an indescribable shadow.

And the voice it emitted only made one's heart turn cold, with a genuine fear袭ing the heart, completely devoid of any tenderness.

It was clear that when leaving this information, the Heavenly Demon was serious; anyone who tried to approach this place would face the Heavenly Demon's retaliation.

But then…

The Heavenly Demon's retaliation?

Li Qi could only scoff.

Other Third Rank cultivators in the Desire Realm might be very afraid, but Li Qi had long been unafraid of anything, like a dead pig unafraid of boiling water. How much more could the Heavenly Demon stare?

So many Demon of Death’s Dao Resonances, it would be a waste not to take them. These things would definitely be very useful for studying the nature of high-level Demonic Dao, and even if he didn't use them himself, giving them to Shaman God Mountain would be good.

Those clan members and Diviner who specialized in research would surely be able to concoct some good things specifically targeting the Demonic Dao for Li Qi.

Thinking this, Li Qi walked to the hand.

He gently grasped the hand.

Almost instantly, the Demon of Death’s Dao Resonance frantically burrowed into Li Qi's body, like living worms.

But Li Qi formed a hand seal, remaining as still as a mountain, while simultaneously digesting and circulating, disassembling these Dao Resonances.

Dao Resonance, this kind of thing, possesses quite peculiar properties.

If a Great Dao is broken down into one hundred wisps of Dao Resonance, the power is not equally distributed; one wisp of Dao Resonance does not contain 1% of the power, but rather a minuscule amount, perhaps even one-hundred-millionth.

However, if two wisps of Dao Resonance are combined, they might possess one-ten-thousandth of the power, with efficiency multiplied ten thousand times. The specific increase depends on the specific Dao Resonance, but generally, that's the principle.

Li Qi gained five more wisps of True Knowledge, and the power of True Knowledge increased by the fifth power.

If the original power of True Knowledge was assumed to be 100, then after adding five wisps, the power would become 10,000,000,000.

From one hundred to ten billion, it increased by one hundred million times.

Whether a Great Dao is complete is a very important indicator. A complete Great Dao can interpret the entire world, while an incomplete Dao Resonance might only be able to interpret a stone.

It's like design blueprints for an alien super high-tech spaceship. If there are a hundred million sheets in total, and for Earthlings, if there's only one sheet, it can only be used for reference and has no practical meaning.

Even if only one sheet, the design of a screw, is missing, the value will be greatly discounted, because without the screw, the spaceship simply cannot be assembled. If one were to complete it with their own screw, that screw might cause the spaceship to disintegrate.

What's more… most users of Dao Resonance are not even qualified to complete the Dao Resonance; they can't even understand it and can only use it.

But if it's a complete set of spaceship blueprints, then its value is unparalleled.

What Li Qi was doing now was precisely this.

He used the Divine Ability of True Knowledge to analyze the composition of the Demon of Death’s Dao Resonance, and then used his own spell to disassemble it.

He didn't even need to acquire these Dao Resonances; the process of disassembling the Dao Resonances, left undisturbed and without interference from the Demon of Death's main body, was enough to greatly benefit Li Qi.

During this process, Li Qi's eyes gleamed with brilliance.

By disassembling the Demon of Death’s Dao Resonance, he obtained a massive amount of information regarding the 'Death of All Things'.

This information allowed him to gain a deeper understanding of this aspect of the world, as if the Demon of Death itself was lecturing him, which was a tremendous Opportunity.

Compared to these, even the Demon of Death’s Dao Resonance itself seemed insignificant.

An aircraft carrier is certainly valuable, but the design blueprints of an aircraft carrier are clearly more useful to Li Qi.

Because… to Li Qi, after seeing them, he could build one himself.

However, correspondingly, for a Mortal, it would obviously be more impressive to directly give them the Dao Resonance, because they couldn't build it themselves.

Li Qi continuously disassembled the Dao Resonance. With no one interfering and the Dao Resonance itself offering no resistance, he began to acquire a large amount of information about the Dao Resonance and continuously dissolved its power.

The process of breaking it down was continuously weakening the Demon of Death’s Dao Resonance.

After approximately five hundred years, Li Qi finally completed the disassembly work, which left him drenched in sweat.

Of course, the harvest was also abundant.

He disassembled eleven wisps of Demon of Death’s Dao Resonance, and adding those already in his body, he now had thirteen wisps of Demon of Death’s Dao Resonance.

Thirteen… what an unlucky number.

After all the Dao Resonances were disassembled, Li Qi took out the withered hand.

“This… isn't the Demon of Death's hand.” Li Qi looked at the hand, frowning slightly.

He had previously seen this place surrounded by Demon of Death’s Dao Resonance and thought this hand belonged to the Demon of Death, but now that the Demon of Death’s Dao Resonance had been removed, he realized that this was definitely not the Demon of Death's hand.

As for the reason…

Because, this was a monkey's paw.

How to put it, this reminded Li Qi of an unpleasant story.

“Wishing on this thing won't come true, will it?” Li Qi thought self-deprecatingly, then wrapped the withered, even hairy, monkey's paw and placed it in his mustard seed bag.

Normally, Li Qi's belongings were stored in his Inner World, but he wouldn't dare to put something like this in his Inner World, so the mustard seed bag would do.

Because he simply couldn't see through this thing.

The kind that even True Knowledge Dao Resonance couldn't penetrate.

Even the current True Knowledge Dao Resonance couldn't penetrate it!

It was simply unheard of.

However, it wasn't without gain. Previously, after discovering that True Knowledge couldn't penetrate it, Li Qi prepared to slice it for research.

He hammered and knocked for a while, only to find that with his cultivation, he couldn't damage this monkey paw.

It is known that this thing is almost impenetrable by True Knowledge Dao Resonance and also almost impossible to destroy, and these two properties seem to stem from the same nature.

That is 'Indestructible'.

So-called detection is actually entering the interior and then returning.

And destruction is the same, just more violent.

For example, the most common method of detection is 'light'.

Sending out a beam of light, and then waiting for the light to hit something and bounce back to be received, that's a detection.

If the power of the light is high enough, it will become an 'attack', which is a high-energy laser beam, or high-temperature strong light or something.

Detection and destruction are essentially the same; both involve touching the target and then collecting the returned information.

And this monkey's paw is almost impossible to destroy; it simply cannot be moved.

So the question arises.

The monkey's paw itself is immovable; Li Qi couldn't even budge a single finger. So… who cut this monkey's paw off?

Li Qi dared not imagine.

It's probably another great secret.

However, the more secret it was, the more Li Qi liked it. He still hadn't figured out the foundation and secrets of the Third Rank, and he needed all kinds of secrets to broaden his horizons.

At this moment, Li Qi was like when he was at the Ninth Rank. At that time, he was proficient and familiar with various sacrificial methods and operations, but he was completely ignorant of the underlying principles, not understanding why doing so would produce these effects.

Similarly, he now possesses a portion of the Divine Abilities of the Third Rank, and in the coming days, he will gradually advance to the true Third Rank, mastering these extraordinary powers, becoming a truly substantial being with a priori abilities, yet he doesn't even know how he achieved it…

Currently, Li Qi's Dao foundation is divided into two parts: one is his Dao Heart, and from his Dao Heart and understanding of the Dao Path, his Inner World has extended.

Li Qi's Inner World has now expanded to an unbelievable extent, even more magnificent than the so-called 'real world', and its area is incredibly vast. If fully unfolded, it would be a single Universe, and all of this was created out of nothing, formed by Li Qi's 'creation of the world'.

Regarding this part, Li Qi fully understood it, and this was the foundation for his promotion to the Third Rank.

However, the other half came from his characteristic of being 'half Heavenly God, half Di Qi (Earthly Qi)', plus the Dao Field located in the world. These combined, like a platform, pushed Li Qi from the Peak of the Fourth Rank to the Third Rank.

This Dao Field is actually quite terrifying. This is half of City of Dreams, which is one-eighteenth of the world!

Li Qi devoured all the Demonic Lords of City of Dreams, refining them into inner body spirits, taking the symbol of City of Dreams as part of himself, and then, using the Demon of Death’s Dao Resonance as a guide, killed himself, integrated into the world, and with his divine characteristic, became a part of the world, swallowing one-eighteenth of the world as a stepping stone to ascend to the Third Rank.

It all sounds quite normal, but the problem is…

…Why could having a Dao Field lead to promotion to the Third Rank? What exactly is the purpose of a Dao Field? What role does it play?

Where did his Third Rank power come from? What played a key role in it?

How did the divine characteristic function in this process, and why couldn't the power of the Dao Field be utilized without doing so?

There are many questions, for example… the eleven Demonic Lords should have been the controllers of City of Dreams, but after Li Qi refined them, he should have gained the entire City of Dreams. But now, why is it only half?

Who controls the other half?

Too many questions, difficult to handle, but fortunately, by analogy, there aren't many things at the Third Rank. By interacting more, he will definitely find the answers, which is also Li Qi's purpose in coming to the Desire Realm.

Li Qi used the extreme southern hot sands of the Demonic Dao, along with the eleven Demonic Lords, and the Demon of Death’s Dao Resonance as his stepping stones, and coming to the Desire Realm was also for these reasons.

It seems he has gained quite a lot.

“If these Dao Resonances are further disassembled, I should be able to find the position of the Demon of Death’s Dao Resonance within them, right?” Li Qi thought this, then looked at the monkey's paw again.

“As for this Indestructible thing, I'll keep it, and then I can just wait for people to come looking for it.”

Thinking this, Li Qi prepared to leave.

The surroundings had already quieted down, turning into ordinary Void Realm.

After the monkey's paw and the Demon of Death’s Dao Resonance on it were taken by Li Qi, this area would transform from a 'wonder' into an ordinary place. Presumably, the worlds born here would have a better time in the future.

However… this is the Desire Realm. No matter how good it gets, that's as far as it goes.

The beings of the Desire Realm are naturally food for the Demonic Dao.

It goes without saying that the Demonic Dao harvests here in cycles.

There is only one way to stand out here, and that is to cultivate one's spiritual power and join the Demonic Dao from the very beginning. Perhaps one can join the Demonic Dao and transform from food into a harvester.

The only way, the sole way.

They simply have no choice, unless they can secretly cultivate to the Fourth Rank without the Demonic Dao knowing, and then escape the Desire Realm.

But the difficulty of that…

Saying it's 0 is a bit incorrect.

But saying it's possible… is also not very likely, it's roughly that meaning.

Li Qi had realized this early on.

In the world, the most precious thing is 'choice'. Having choices is the greatest happiness.

In many situations, you simply have no choice; being unable to control oneself is the best explanation of the current situation. Sometimes, those who live in their native worlds, who have not yet come into contact with worlds outside their domain, are happier.

Of course, while ignorance and bliss are happy, are they truly good? That is also a question.

In short, it depends on the individual.

Of course, the best way is to not only know the truth but also have choices, but that requires you to become a Great Power, like Li Qi is now.

After reaching the Third Rank, Li Qi finally became someone 'with choices', instead of being pushed along by others.

However… the extent of this freedom of choice is still debatable, but at least there is no longer absolutely no room for choice.

Then, let's go.

Just as various thoughts swirled in Li Qi's mind and he was about to leave this place—

At this moment, the surrounding space was suddenly filled with dense Demonic Qi.

The Demonic Qi manifested, immediately revealing fierce creatures from all directions, and various demons, filling rivers and valleys. All around in the Void Realm, blood accumulated into abysses, bones gathered into mountains, blood solidified into stone, bones whitened into ash, fat flowed into springs, and ghost blood and corpses transformed into elixirs and stones, coalescing into a continent.

On the continent, stars fell like rain, and night was as bright as day.

Li Qi stepped onto the continent and laughed, “Oh, welcome, welcome. I thought no one from the Demonic Dao would see me. So there is someone after all.”

A Third Rank Demonic Dao cultivator from the Demon of Death lineage appeared before Li Qi.

“Young Master Li Qi… Oh, no, you're Third Rank now. You're no longer a Young Master. You should be called Great Shaman Li Qi.” This Demon of Death stretched out its strange limbs, then gradually curled up, transforming from its previously indescribable form into a normal 'Human Race' appearance.

“Just call me by my name. You're here because of the Demon of Death’s Dao Resonance, aren't you?” Li Qi said with a smile.

“That's right. The Heavenly Demon has spoken, forbidding anyone from taking those Dao Resonances. However… since you've already violated the taboo, I'll just come to you. Tell me, what reward do you need to agree to give those Dao Resonances to me?” The Third Rank Demon of Death said.

As she spoke, the other party had completely transformed into a human form, appearing as a cheerful and lively young girl.

I don't understand why Demonic Dao cultivators always turn into females when they see Li Qi.

“Why should I give them to you?” Li Qi asked.

“Because you need a breakthrough point in the Desire Realm, and I can help you,” the Third Rank Demon of Death answered.