Chapter 889: The fierce battle of the three-grade

What does a third-rank hot war look like?

It's actually quite straightforward.

Because, for 'metaphysical' existences, even 'history' itself seems insufficient in weight before a third-rank, and Reality will change because of their appearance.

Concepts and Reality inherently influence each other; this is also a manifestation of the Dao Orthodoxy's Yin and Yang Taiji.

Unification of opposites, such as life and death, existence and destruction, success and failure, gain and loss, benefit and harm, misfortune and fortune, right and wrong, straight and crooked—all encompass both extremes and combine into one, with larger examples being Heaven and Earth, motion and stillness, Yin and Yang, beginning and end.

Although it is said: "That which is metaphysical is called Dao; that which is physical is called Dao Artifact."

However, in reality, Dao and Dao Artifact are spoken of together, also belonging to one body; the metaphysical and the physical are actually two extremes, with form as their center. The so-called 'grasping both extremes' means that when speaking of affairs, one must speak of things; when speaking of Dao Artifacts, one must speak of Dao, just as when speaking of Heaven, one must speak of Earth, and when speaking of virtue, one must speak of deeds.

Thus, the metaphysical and the physical must be spoken of together to show their unity; Heaven, Earth, and all things undergo infinite transformations, and it is within these infinite transformations that the true meaning of 'Dao' is seen.

In other words, the 'Dao' battles of third-ranks will be directly reflected in the material world.

It's also normal; when 'Dao' changes, the Universe will naturally change with it.

But in an abstract sense, this battle has no 'battlefield' to speak of, because both sides are affecting the fine-tuning of the entire Reality.

For third-ranks, beings involving any kind of possibility, the spatial scope limited by physical constants is too narrow; they engage in direct combat by advancing changes and repairing the Reality Laws upon which all beings depend for survival.

For example, Li Qi is now directly interfering with the physical properties of the Universe on a large scale to accomplish what he desires.

At this moment, the Universe 'curled up'.

As is well known, under normal circumstances, apart from a few macroscopic dimensions—three spatial dimensions and one temporal dimension—most other dimensions of the Universe are extremely small, curled up at extremely tiny scales.

One of these curled-up dimensions unfolded.

After it unfolded, it became relatively larger, about one millimeter.

One can imagine the now unfolded dimension as a blanket woven from spacetime, extending billions of light-years into the past, with the same width, and a thickness of one millimeter.

It's somewhat like the page of a book.

And because of this, the unfolded dimension became the centerline, and the Universe itself began to fold, using the previously unfolded dimension as the fold line.

Many worlds and sentient beings would not feel anything; for them, the change in dimension would not cause any form of change to their own existence, nor would they even be able to perceive it, because they are inside the book, and whether the book is open or closed doesn't affect them at all.

As an ant crawling on a Mobius strip, whether the Mobius strip is open or curled up does not affect the world in its eyes, nor does it affect its continuous crawling.

However, for existences outside the Mobius strip, they can clearly feel that the structure of the Universe has changed.

This change directly led to the inability of energy to intercommunicate due to the folding of the Universe.

Among the many fundamental forces, only 'gravity' can propagate to other dimensions; other forces cannot cross dimensions. They can only propagate between matter, and matter relies on spatial dimensions as indicators for movement.

Therefore, in this unfolded dimension, gravity strengthened.

In this dimension, the strength of gravity is a billion times stronger than in the normal region.

Even something as small as a person would generate a significant gravitational field; if one person stood opposite another, they would feel the gravity generated by the other.

If people are like this, celestial mechanics are even more absurd; if the solar system were moved here, the newly added gravity would instantly accelerate Earth's rotation speed to seventeen minutes per revolution, like spinning a top.

Such a situation could almost instantly crush all celestial bodies into 'Ruins', and indeed it did.

Massive amounts of Ruins thus collapsed and were born.

Then, gravity replaced electromagnetism.

Gravity is the weakest force at short distances, so electromagnetism plays the primary role in the bodies of living beings. However, in the currently unfolded dimension, a large number of Ruins combined with a billion times stronger gravity directly led to macromolecular substances bound together by gravity... This is a completely different form of creation.

It is not composed of electromagnetic force, nor strong force, nor weak force, but entirely of compounds brought about by gravity.

Based on the new rules of gravitational chemistry, incredibly compact.

But through the special property of gravity, namely: the characteristic that gravity can propagate to all dimensions, Li Qi's power, through strengthened gravity, spread into all dimensions.

The next instant, gravity had already spread throughout the entire Desire Realm; with no one interfering, gravity's dimension-ignoring property was maximized.

In the Void Realm, a third-rank's Physical Body was directly shattered.

Just now, Li Qi, by folding the Universe, used the gravitational disturbance during the Universe's folding to find his trace.

However, after the opponent was shattered, he quickly recovered.

To be precise, he didn't die at all.

"Oh... immortality different from mine." Li Qi immediately noticed the difference between himself and the opponent; their Dao Paths were different, and the source of their immortality was also different.

Li Qi's immortality stems from his being a part of the Reality foundation at this moment.

The so-called metaphysical is that which is clear and cannot be imaged; Dao Artifacts have formation and destruction, but that which cannot be imaged resides within the Dao Artifact to function, never formed, nor can it be destroyed; though the Dao Artifact decays, the Dao never ceases.

If likened to the operation of Heaven and Earth, spring and summer are for life, autumn and winter for killing; and the Life Qi of autumn and winter is hidden deep within the earth, though branches and leaves wither, the roots remain strong and flourishing, meaning that autumn and winter do not simply vanish without a trace.

The essence of 'spring and autumn' will not disappear due to the passage of a year.

The steam from a pot of rice, hot and moist, vigorously rising, must have a destination; if the lid is tightly sealed, it will be suppressed and not disperse. These things transform into each other, seemingly going nowhere, but ultimately returning to the earth. In reality, the burning flame, once intense, is gone, becoming flame, smoke, and ash, yet the wood returns to wood, water to water, earth to earth, merely becoming subtle and unseen.

Matter gathers to form, disperses to return to the Great Void; Qi is still Qi.

Gathered, it is visible; dispersed, it is invisible. How could its essence be disobedient or arbitrary?

Therefore, gathering is also my body, scattering is also my body; one who knows that death is not oblivion can speak of nature.

This is the root of Li Qi's immortality.

But the opponent was not like this.

"So fast, truly formidable, and so sensitive; just a touch and you discovered the difference, and you're even probing my Dao Path, but... it's fine to tell you." A voice reached Li Qi's ear.

To be precise, it wasn't a voice, but information.

"Even things with form are like this, let alone that which is nebulous and formless, never having accumulated years of arduous effort, yet once it all turns to naught, it is clear. Therefore, we speak of coming and going, bending and stretching, gathering and scattering, darkness and light, but not of birth and death."

Li Qi frowned: "Oh, this overturns the very foundation of Buddhism. If you say so, then you are not of the Demonic Dao."

Buddhism and devils have very similar fundamental aspects; the two are like humans and witches, though their views are completely opposite, they are actually built on the same foundation.

"Birth and death are merely the crude sayings of Buddhism. If it were truly a matter of complete dissipation, then within this primordial Chaos, where would be the place for its absorption and return? And it is said that creation is renewed daily without using its past, but I am different. Within this Great Void, whence comes this endlessness, constantly tending towards extinction without depletion? This is immortality that transcends yours." The third-rank replied.

"Hmm... then why are you stopping me?" Li Qi merely nodded, then continued his struggle with the opponent, while simultaneously asking for the reason.

He had already realized that this was about two different understandings of whether the Universe's Origin is "being" or "non-being"; this is actually the perspective of the 'pro-being' faction in the 'debate of being and non-being'.

Is there a fundamental ultimate existence above all things in Heaven and Earth? This is a point of contradiction for many Dao Orthodoxy views.

And based on the opponent's immortality, plus his contempt for both Buddhism and devils, Li Qi could draw a conclusion.

The opponent is not of the Demonic Dao, but of the Spirit Dao!

He was indeed somewhat surprised; he hadn't expected that after stirring up trouble in the Desire Realm for so long, it wasn't the Demonic Overlords who came to stop him, but the Spirit Dao, which seemingly had nothing to do with it.

No sooner said than done; although it seemed a long time had passed, and even the Reality Universe of the Desire Realm had been folded by Li Qi using gravity as the centerline, in reality, all of this happened within ten picoseconds.

Then, these ten picoseconds.

Were rewound.

Everything, everything, had not happened.

Immediately after, it repeated again.

Then, rewind.

Repeat, rewind, repeat, rewind, repeat, rewind—

Within these ten picoseconds, the basic composition of the Universe, the sudden changes of Yin and Yang, life and death, past and present, all reversed thousands of times.

But these thousands of times combined amounted to less than a millisecond.

Offense and defense continuously occurred within this millisecond; whether it was Li Qi or the opponent, their respective carriers were shattered hundreds of times—this was simply 'mutual instant kills'.

As long as one was touched by the opponent, it meant the death of the Physical Body. When the Physical Body disintegrated, it would inevitably require the use of the main 'Dao' to reshape it, because a carrier existing in Reality is necessary for interfering with Reality and performing spells, even if it's not a Physical Body, it must interfere with Reality through other means.

It's just that Li Qi is more accustomed to the Physical Body, while the opponent constructs his method of interfering with the world in a way similar to 'pure spirit'.

In this process, both sides continuously learned about each other through fluctuations and information, analyzing and understanding their enemy's perception and construction of the world's Origin in each exchange of offense and defense.

For a third-rank battle, physical damage doesn't matter anyway; it doesn't affect anything.

The real key is to find loopholes in the opponent's cognitive system for constructing the world.

However, at the third-rank, the strictness of their structure makes it impossible to easily find flaws. Therefore, this kind of hot war will inevitably develop into 'fighting until you expose a flaw.' In terms of specific manifestations, it means creating various extreme environments that one is good at, and then, within those extreme environments, finding 'paradoxes' in the opponent's interpretation.

For example, the super gravity caused by Li Qi's previous folding of the Universe, and the use of gravity to replace the aggregation method of compounds, is an extreme environment. It is testing whether the opponent can interpret this situation; if they cannot, or if their interpretation is problematic, then Li Qi will launch an attack from that aspect.

This is what both sides were doing during the rewinding.

In thousands of attempts, they not only encountered super gravity but also many other issues such as stellar tides, Chaos soup, and anomalous constants.

Sometimes it was the summation of harmonic series that could not be valued, sometimes analytic continuation could not be expressed; if the old Laws no longer held, then in the Domain originally constrained by them, what would be the new mode of operation?

Li Qi and this Spirit Dao in front of him were waging such a war.

This is even impossible to describe, because they are constantly reshaping Reality every moment, and the beings of the Desire Realm Universe are completely unaware of this.

Because... when Reality is reshaped, they will also be reshaped along with it.

They cannot realize that they have changed, because in their eyes, there was no change to begin with.

The Universe should be like this; it is naturally like this.

A world where the White King was originally the Sovereign, and then suddenly, the world line was reshaped, and it became the Black King.

Then, in the Black King's eyes, he has ruled the world from the very beginning, and has nothing to do with any White King. What is that?

Although their world only appeared a second ago, in terms of 'setting', everything has always been like this.

Due to the setting, past memories are also bestowed; although the beginning of their lives officially appeared only a second ago, and all past is fictional, in their own view, it is clearly not so.

One must stand from a fourth-rank perspective or higher to see all of this; otherwise, one will only believe oneself to be 'real'.

This is the difference in Reality.

A world suddenly appearing in the Void Realm, with a complete history and Legacy, where everyone has their own memories, but did these memories... truly happen? How can they ensure they weren't created a second ago?

This difference in Reality is the reason why a large number of fifth-ranks experience Dao Heart collapse when touching the fourth-rank.

Li Qi is now truly experiencing... how much a third-rank battle, if unrestrained, will affect and involve...

The battle between Li Qi and this unknown third-rank existence has reshaped the Desire Realm's Universe thousands of times; no innocent person has died because of it, but they have been constantly twisted, and it's even hard to describe whether they are still their original selves...

All existence appears so Void Realm; everything these beings cling to and love is annihilated and reshaped under the power of the third-ranks, yet they are completely unaware.

Then, inferring from this perspective, the reason why the war in the material Reality Universe didn't turn out this way, allowing everything to develop stably... there's probably only one reason.

Heavenly God.

It is the Heavenly God protecting this world.

But there are no Heavenly Gods in the Desire Realm.

The Demonic Overlords also couldn't be bothered at this moment.

So the battle will only continue to spread to the Mortal world.

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