Chapter 898: Desire Realm Collapse First-class War

Li Qi stared at the scene in stunned disbelief.

The Desire Realm's true form—something he could do nothing against—had simply folded into a closed cycle of Reincarnation; its probability dropped to zero and it marched into total annihilation.

It wasn't even a matter of Divine Ability itself; no arts or spells had been involved.

It was just… a single ‘blow'.

A golden cudgel was swung, and the four fundamental forces reverted into the Superforce.

Force had always existed; at temperatures above unification, electromagnetism and the weak force are one and the same. Only after symmetry breaks can we tell them apart.

Just like macroscopic forces such as friction and elasticity—after symmetry breaking they behave differently, yet before that breaking they are all, at root, repulsion between electrons: one single force.

The same is true of the Universe's energy source. Originally cosmic space rested in a stable, high-energy state in which energy could not exist in any form—energy simply was that state. Then, at some moment, the stable high-energy state was broken; cosmic space inevitably and spontaneously fell to a lower, more stable level, and energy was released.

Exert a might great enough, and you can restore everything to the instant the Universe first opened.

The Superforce erupted; every physical element was reduced to its primordial state, exactly as at the beginning—dimensions, space-time, all of it gone.

Time is the continuous change of matter; space is the coexistence of matter. Neither exists objectively; they are merely attendant states of matter. Even if inflation blew a grain of sand into a hundred thousand galaxies in an instant, it would not alter the essence.

Once everything returns to that age of symmetry, all other possibilities naturally collapse.

From this moment Li Qi beheld power on another plane.

That… was Second-Grade power.

Li Qi stood rooted, reading the torrent of information carried by that single blow.

It seemed the strike had been brewing for eons.

In a distant past beyond memory the cudgel should have fallen, but a Great Power froze everything, let Monkey Mind be born, then used the golden cudgel to suppress him, holding the blow in place so long that it could not descend.

And so the standoff endured.

Until today.

Monkey Mind awakened at Li Qi's two words; ‘the monkey mind was tethered', letting the Great Power finally break free of that state. Then, with the body Li Qi had brought, the cudgel was grasped once more—only to land after who knew how many billions of years.

One strike shattered the Demonic Dao's stronghold: the entire Desire Realm.

demonic thoughtss shrieked forth.

Yet nothing spilled out.

Because, in that instant, a lotus bloomed.

From the vacuum myriad illusions arise; without emptiness no illusion is born; without illusion how can we know emptiness? Form and emptiness are one, the Ultimate is form-emptiness.

Contemplating the union of form and emptiness within boundless vision, measureless Buddha-light shone in the Void Realm, wondrous and majestic. Even ten thousand scrolls of words could not convey its marvel; only the enlightened nature can behold it, the self-born Tathāgata's sublime majesty.

Li Qi had once seen such radiance. (See Chapter 171.)

In Guangyang, when Li Qi was only Ninth Grade.

Back then, atop Chan Zhi's pagoda, he had witnessed an indescribable spectacle: a light that severed all things yet bound them together, a light that pierced every space and time, measureless and infinite.

That lotus was the very source of Buddha-light, the ‘lamp' of the radiance.

The lamp is the essence, the light its function; the light illuminates and reveals forms, yet it cannot feel or reflect them. The lamp-body itself is indestructible; the light, being function, is unique and wondrous, endowed with wisdom, awareness, and response.

When the self-born Tathāgata merges with the boundless vacuum, the same as the vacuum, he universally illuminates and perceives. The Three Realms and ten directions, sky above and earth below, are wholly contained—vast yet omitting nothing, minute yet missing no detail. Sun, moon, mountains, rivers, every blade of grass shines within the wondrous light of wisdom; hence the name: Karma of boundless Buddha-light.

The spirit-light shines alone, the light of wisdom universally illumines; every natural image is imprinted within it. The mind embraces all forms, forever bright as the vacuum itself, without shape yet generating birth and death, beginning and end—this is called: measureless Karma.

This was power from a First Grade—

Amitabha!

That First Grade had appeared here!

Only his presence could quell the aftershock of the Desire Realm's collapse.

And yet there was more.

Almost simultaneously Li Qi sensed another force.

A different First Grade had made a move.

Though the Heaven Devil himself did not respond, another power had indeed arrived; if Li Qi was not mistaken… it was the Demon of the Five Aggregates.

He had once met that First Grade.

As the Demon of the Five Aggregates's might descended, the surroundings began to warp.

Endless illusions of impermanence: every essence lacks form, every phantasmal shape arises and perishes in cycles, dissolving of itself, rising and falling at random.

Reality ceased to be real.

Yet Amitabha opened his eyes.

Those were the eyes of a Buddha.

Awareness can reveal forms; seeing is of the mind, not the eye. The awakened nature is constant, and so—

When the mind is not in the eye, one looks yet does not see; when the mind is not in the ear, one listens yet does not hear. The five eyes are all perceived by the mind; this is called the single unified vision. Shatter the marks of the five eyes, restore the Spiritual Root's brightness—that is the unified vision.

Thus, through the mind reflecting all things in heaven and earth, every image is imprinted within without distortion; it responds to myriad causes yet is not swayed by the five aggregates.

But that battle was not something Li Qi could enter.

He had only stolen a glance when something else seized his attention.

For in that single instant far too much had happened.

Li Qi broke the seal; the Golden Monkey emerged and with one blow smashed the Desire Realm. The sound of its shattering was like the starting gun of a race—suddenly everyone made their move.

Amitabha appeared; the Demon of the Five Aggregates answered.

Then… the Grand Protector, one of the Three Dukes of the Human Path, struck. Two witch-gods Li Qi did not recognize also appeared; when the two sides clashed, the very concept of ‘nature' cracked.

In the next instant a First Grade True Dragon joined the fray.

It was the first time Li Qi had ever seen it.

It was… the Yellow Dragon.

The Yellow Dragon: the chief of the four directions, their true color, the essence of gods and spirits—the ‘Fifth Symbol'.

The Four Symbols guard the four quarters; the center is the Yellow Dragon. To ‘drive straight to the Yellow Dragon' means to strike at the very heart.

The Yellow Dragon, a First Grade among True Dragons, the ‘center' of all things.

To match it, the Grand Tutor, another of the Three Dukes of the Human Path, also struck.

The Human Path opened two wars at once.

Yet Li Qi's eyes widened; surprises did not end there!

The Demon Dao had made a move.

Moreover—

The Demon First Grade was not what Li Qi had guessed… it was Taiyi!

Lord of the Star Officials, Taiyi! The most exalted among Heavenly Gods—was actually a demon!

At that moment, acting together with Taiyi, came the Yao Wanchi, the primordial Ruins of Return Li Qi had once encountered, the one connected to Sariputra.

The realization jolted Li Qi; on second thought, it made perfect sense.

They had said it many times: the Demon Dao has always been devoted to “awakening the stars.” Whether it was Heaven-Devouring Demon Lord's stellar form or the primordial Yao Wanchi, the goal was identical.

So, as sovereign of the Star Officials and the ultimate culmination of the billions of stars, Tai Yi being a demon was only natural.

The instant Tai Yi struck, the one who intercepted him was a being Li Qi had never imagined.

It was… Haotian.

Renowned for gentleness and impartiality, Haotian was also the “Celestial Emperor,” head of the “Host of Emperors,” and the absolute leader of countless Heavenly Gods.

Haotian stirred and personally blocked Tai Yi.

The entire Universe blossomed open with a single crash.

As a Third-Grade entity, Li Qi could clearly feel the battle's aftershocks.

From the moment the Universe was born—across every timeline, every dimension, every place of existence—a First Grade war had begun.

The Universe was changing.

Every instant birthed endless timelines; boundless possibilities collided and annihilated one another.

Cataclysms on the scale of the Desire Realm's destruction now erupted in swaths.

In that instant, a torrent of information exploded.

All of it was received by Li Qi.

At last Li Qi understood what death beyond Third Grade truly meant.

For beings above Third Grade, so-called death equaled “zero possibility.”

They had no concept of death; in other words, they could not die at all. They were simply trapped inside their own closed loops.

Every possibility for them had been erased, so whatever they did only led back to the time-loop formed by their own past and future. Thus they could never again influence anything or explore any “unknown.”

Because their possibility was zero, they could never create new history beyond the segment that already existed.

To Mortals, this amounted to “complete disappearance,” for they would never again appear in anyone's history.

Though the Third-Grade being's consciousness remained, it might as well be dead—eternally locked within its own history, imprisoned in a cage stretching on without end.

Possibility: zero.

All futures converge; no matter how one interferes, the future will affect the past, the past the present, until everything closes into a loop.

This is the final death for those Third-Grade beings who can tamper with history and future: every act becomes history, the road ahead vanishes, and they forever circle back to themselves.

Suppose Li Qi slapped Demonic Prince; after Demonic Prince reaches Third Grade he uses Divine Ability to return and teach Li Qi a lesson, easily accomplishing it. Precisely because Li Qi was taught that lesson in the past, he chooses to slap Demonic Prince.

Thus Demonic Prince's act of going back to teach Li Qi causes Li Qi to slap him, and Li Qi's slap causes Demonic Prince to go back—an enclosed spacetime loop.

The two events determine each other, forming a Reincarnation Ring.

In practice, such rings are unimaginably complex, weaving billions of years of history and countless choices into mutual determination until every future possibility is “zeroed out,” forcing the victim back to the starting point.

Death at Third Grade means being irrevocably locked within such a ring, all futures lost.

By interfering with an opponent's history and twisting their past, one creates this loop for them.

That is the essence of the Human-Shaman War.

Back then, Li Qi was summoned by Shamansan and witnessed that endless retroaction with his own eyes.

You alter the future; I alter the future you altered; you alter the future I altered—on and on without cease.

At the time, a mere Fifth-Grade Li Qi was terrified; he could not sleep, his fear nearly shattered his Dao Heart, and he had no idea how such a war could end.

The Second-Grade answer given then was:

We can't focus on individual battles; we must consider the whole. That's why we often send you to fight battles foredoomed to fail, why we let our juniors die without any immediate gain, even why we turn victories into defeats—all for long-term triumph.

We are ceaselessly testing the future; that is the Second-Grade war.

(See chapter 621 for details.)

Now, when Li Qi savored those words again, he felt only grandeur.

What terrifying power.

All of it is aimed at sealing off “possibility”; reality and spacetime are rewritten again and again until a Reincarnation Ring forms and the Third-Grade is locked inside—slain.

That is the Second-Grade war.

And now the First Grade beings themselves have struck.

Li Qi could see many Third-Grade experts—perhaps a dozen or twenty—sealed in the instant of engagement.

He could not begin to grasp the method; he only knew it had happened.

But that was enough.

To Li Qi, the First Grade war ended in a single moment; he saw only the opening move, nothing more.

Then… the Universe was utterly twisted.

Guang Han, the Great Fire, the Stellar Fountain, and the other “outer-realm wonders” familiar to Li Qi had changed beyond recognition.

More precisely—

the concept of a “world” had vanished.

Yes, the very thing called a “world” was gone.

The Universe's structure dissolved and rebuilt; past history disappeared, replaced by an entirely new form.

The Universe had become a partitioned structure.

The notion of an “outer realm” no longer existed.

The cosmos now resembled a honeycomb, or bubbles beneath water—a “cosmic sea.”

Interior spaces and worlds were wrapped by these shells into closed, individual Universes, each containing “heavenly bodies” and galaxies.

In other words, apart from entities of true substance and those under their protection, the entire Universe had been rewritten from the instant of the primordial explosion.

Now there was a brand-new history!