Chapter 888: The first battle of the three-grade

Carrying his newfound understanding of the Desire Realm, Li Qi subtly adjusted his strategy.

However, such adjustments also brought many problems.

One of them was that the number of things to deal with seemed to be increasing.

So much so that Li Qi's thinking speed could no longer keep up.

In the Endless World, to exhaustively traverse all the properties of the entire Desire Realm, this required more than just a little bit of computing power. Li Qi had already deployed trillions of Dharma Bodies, receiving an uncountable amount of information every minute and second, to the point where he had a headache.

He could only tell himself to do his best, but even so, Li Qi still had to face trillions of problems simultaneously and make decisions to solve them. However, he quickly discovered that every decision he made would generate new problems for him to decide upon, making him feel as if he had become very indecisive.

In a sense, a person who is truly good at making decisions will never procrastinate, because if they do, the matters waiting for their decision will snowball, and one bad thing can easily lead to dozens of others.

But how can you manage to turn big problems into small ones and small ones into nothing without careful deliberation?

Especially since Li Qi also possessed the ability to manipulate probability, which made the situation he faced even more complex.

Admittedly, even for a Third Grade, the future is uncertain.

But… an uncertain future doesn't mean the future isn't destined.

Because an uncertain future can also be 'infinitely many certain futures,' just as there are infinitely many numbers between one and two, but none are less than one or greater than two.

The future is uncertain, but it can indeed be confined within a certain possible region, and the 'possibility' of this region can be described by a function.

Li Qi used this method, little by little, to adjust the 'future' of the entire Desire Realm.

If no one came to stop him, then the history of the Desire Realm would be completely rewritten by him.

If someone did come to stop him, that would be perfect; Li Qi needed more communication with the high-ranking members of the Demonic Dao.

He repeated the same thing countless times, continuously investing trillions of Dharma Bodies, carving his mark into the cycle of the entire Desire Realm.

Everything a Third Grade does influences the Endless World. Li Qi only then realized how fragile reality would be when a Third Grade wanted to intervene in it.

The future was covered, possibilities were constrained, and the 'choices' of lives in the Endless World were influenced by Li Qi; they walked the path Li Qi wanted them to walk.

Such Great Power is what 'metaphysical' existences possess.

Yet, Li Qi was not awestruck; instead, he felt fear.

The power of a Third Grade was already so immense; Li Qi even felt 'omnipotent.' So… what exactly was holding back the First Grades?

For them, must they constantly experience a feeling of power yet helplessness? So, though powerful to the point of being invincible, they are helpless throughout their lives, invincible yet powerless and frustrated, possessing great strength and will, yet having an even greater ideal, and thus trapped in the vortex of power and Dao?

Li Qi felt it, carrying this fear, and finally, in the sixteenth thousand year, everything roared.

It was like a turning gear suddenly jammed by an iron rod.

Or like a river flowing downstream suddenly hitting a dam.

The originally calm and smooth changes were blocked.

“Oh, has it finally arrived?” Li Qi’s spirit lifted.

After ignoring him for so long, it was bound to come, wasn't it? He was preparing to blow up the Desire Realm.

Li Qi did not rush to converse with the other party but began his contest with them.

What would a battle between Third Grades look like?

If it was a hot war, Li Qi had actually witnessed it before; Zhu Fengdan had personally fought in front of him. He couldn't understand it, but he had an impression.

A hot war between Third Grades, unlike the kind where Fifth Grades fight for several years, would almost instantly determine the victor. Even if it dragged on, it would be at most a few minutes.

Because everyone's reactions were too fast, they could treat a second as a very long time, and thus the battle wouldn't last very long.

But if it was a cold war…

That would be endless.

The so-called 'cold war' is when both sides avoid direct conflict, using indirect means to interfere with the other's actions and prevent them from achieving their goals.

Like now—

Thoughts collided, and probabilities also began to collide.

The future, in fact, is a kind of 'probability.' For example, if the probability of an event occurring is 100%, meaning it will definitely happen, then if plotted on a graph, the probability location of that event is completely determined. At this time, the shape of the function graph should be an infinitely high and infinitely thin peak, indicating that the probability of finding this event anywhere else is 0. If it were Li Qi, then this function, in essence, could be seen as the superposition of infinitely many different probability plane monochromatic waves, with the final result tending towards non-convergence.

But what if, what if the shape of this function graph was no longer infinitely high and infinitely long?

Then, a function graph with finite height and finite width would represent that all possibilities for the event's occurrence are distributed within the range of that function's shadow.

Then, within this range, the occurrence of things will change.

Many things Li Qi had arranged, things that propelled the Desire Realm to move, suddenly became 'possibly not happening.'

Some predetermined Children of Destiny were not born, and some predetermined disasters were avoided.

For the beings of the Desire Realm, some of them suddenly became aware of the existence of 'Heavenly Dao,' and thus, organizations resisting 'Heavenly Dao' began to be established in large numbers.

The concepts Li Qi had originally spread suddenly faced opposing concepts, and Dao contention began to emerge. Large numbers of worlds spontaneously engaged in ideological clashes, and world wars or even world group chaotic battles erupted due to differences in cognitive concepts.

Amidst the 'common thought' that Li Qi pushed forward with trillions of worlds as units, chaotic and discordant noises rose and fell. The originally highly ordered '1' was disrupted, and the probability of events returned to Chaos.

Some worlds even self-destructed directly. Don't ask; if you ask, it's 'coincidence.'

In reality, it was indeed a coincidence; no one interfered. These worlds inherently had the potential to self-destruct, just as quantum tunneling can indeed occur.

For Mortals, this is the case; they cannot find any evidence, because these things just happen out of thin air.

But for 'metaphysical' existences, even probability itself is one of their forms of existence.

There are no coincidences in the world.

Because the probability of a coincidence occurring, from the very beginning, is the manifestation of a Great Power.

When 'numbers' are part of someone else's body, how can mathematics be just simple symbols?

Metaphysical, metaphysical indeed.

Amidst this collision, the cosmic constants of the Desire Realm began to become chaotic.

A large number of bizarre worlds were born.

These worlds were utterly beyond normal comprehension; their cosmic constants were chaotic, physical rules did not hold, and they were a chaotic mess from the very beginning.

This disorder is difficult to describe.

Some were worlds composed of lines, because their three-dimensional structure was destroyed, and lines were the only way matter could exist.

Various chaotic rules emerged, such as a sudden appearance of abnormal abilities across an entire world, or the addition of some killing game, or a world suddenly plunging into extreme freezing, or the laws of thermodynamics failing, or a certain fuel disappearing, or even the entire world's air turning into something else, or everyone's Bloodline Awakening turning them into certain beasts.

Countless strange, unpredictable, and unimaginable rules emerged.

Some even couldn't receive information from the Universe, unable to obtain nourishment from Heaven and Earth. Normally, after a world gains a certain observational capability, it should be able to see the remnants of the Universe's birth, the remnants of the Big Bang, from the cosmic microwave background radiation. But they couldn't see it, because the chaotic cosmic constants prevented them from seeing evidence of future expansion from the receding distant galaxy clusters, and their technology was thus locked.

So for these worlds of distant epochs, they could no longer replicate any discoveries about the Universe; they could no longer glimpse the past or the future.

Though they were still alive, not yet old and turned to dust, playing, frolicking, cultivating, and exercising under a sun not yet burnt out, all of this was fleeting.

Because, in the end, this was all they had. After that, they would completely disappear.

For the Universe, this was actually like worlds millions of billions of years in the future coexisting with present worlds. Because spatial expansion was affected by chaotic rules, distant galaxies would accelerate their retreat and leave their line of sight. They would be completely enveloped in cosmic voids, with no companions left. For them, the expansion of the Universe would no longer be visible, and at the same time, background radiation would decay to a faint level undetectable from the interstellar medium.

But some lucky ones benefited from this; from the chaotic changes, they discovered these fundamental characteristics of the Universe, its past and future.

What brings peace in the long night are the vast stars, and what is unfathomable are those ever-changing specks of silver light. They are actually very far away; even the faint silver light from the nearest neighbor that penetrates the night sky might travel for more than ten years before being received by other worlds. However, the chaotic cosmic constants and the battles of the Great Powers could transport these worlds across such vast distances in just a few minutes.

For them, all of this was like a 'Spiritual Qi resurgence,' and their world's grade rapidly increased as a result.

Most crucially, all this Chaos led to even greater Chaos in thought.

The Desire Realm is a place where subjective consciousness reigns supreme. The variables brought about by random changes in cosmic constants affected the mind, and the mind in turn affected the Universe itself, like a chain of dominoes, spreading widely with a single fall.

Li Qi's intricate arrangements were almost half destroyed in an instant.

Of course, this 'instant' actually spanned about four thousand years.

The Third Grade's concept of time was still quite terrifying; Li Qi even felt that these four thousand years had passed 'unconsciously.'

Dealing with too many things.

Solving too many problems.

But even after doing these things, nothing changed, and he still had to continue.

So much so that as he kept working, he suddenly looked up and realized that he had been focused on offense, defense, and dismantling for four thousand years.

“Tsk, troublesome, my processing power can't keep up.” Li Qi clicked his tongue in displeasure.

It was the first time he encountered a situation where his proud data processing ability lost to an opponent of the same grade.

Indeed, after reaching the Third Grade, the influence brought by all Dao Resonances, cultivation, Divine Abilities, and spells diminishes. Under the nature of the Third Grade, these minor details are not of much help.

But it can't be said that way; in reality, the effect they can achieve is still very significant, but… everyone has reached the Third Grade, who doesn't have some family background?

Everyone who has reached the Third Grade, who doesn't have some super Spiritual Artifacts, sect elders, mysterious Dao Resonances, and the like?

Moreover, besides that, Li Qi's 'Dao' itself was not adept at this kind of confrontation.

He recognized that everything in the world was real, so he was unwilling to rewind. But many Dao Orthodoxys believed that the world itself was illusory, so they could flip the table and restart at will.

In this situation, Li Qi was at a disadvantage in offensive and defensive confrontation.

Furthermore, while the True Knowledge Dao Resonance was powerful, it wasn't invincible. As far as Li Qi knew, there were quite a few even more exaggerated Dao Resonances. For example, his teacher, Zhu Fengdan, possessed the Four Symbols Dao Resonance, which she and a shamanic deity personally obtained by signing a contract with the Four Symbols. That thing was called a Dao Resonance, but in reality, it was practically equivalent to the Four Symbols acting personally, which was quite terrifying.

Not to mention even more terrifying things, for example, although Yao Ji was only a Sixth Grade, she held a wisp of the Heavenly Dao Resonance… that thing was even more outrageous.

Li Qi had used it before. He used the Heavenly Dao Resonance to directly connect with the Heavenly Dao, gaining its consent and temporary 'Heavenly Punishment' authority.

During the period when the Little Celestial Master and Li Qi were in Body Integration, the power of Heavenly Punishment even allowed them, as Fifth Grades, to contend with a former Third Grade. Although they ultimately lost, upon closer inspection, merely being able to directly contend for hundreds of rounds without dying was already indescribably terrifying.

So, in the end, it all comes down to the level of 'Dao.'

Whoever's Dao can extend further, interpret more comprehensively, and cover more explanations will be stronger.

As for Spiritual Artifacts, spells, and Dao Resonances, they are all just auxiliary. Everyone will have them, and even if they truly lack them, if you're a Third Grade, earning some yourself isn't difficult.

Fighting to the death for Spiritual Artifacts and such is what idiots do; it's impossible for 'metaphysical' Third Grades. In fact, even Fifth Grades would find such matters undignified.

For Third Grades, both their goals and abilities far surpassed those things.

“If this continues, I'll lose. Let's change my approach.” Li Qi twisted his neck.

Fighting with the 'no rewind' buff was indeed difficult to win.

Then let's fight a hot war.

After four thousand years of battle, it was time to find the opponent's true body.