Chapter 905: Folded Power

When La Qi, the Manifold Race member in front of him, touched his hand, Li Qi already knew what he wanted to do.

By perceiving the shape and surface texture of his hand, they could read 'information.' Of course, such information was meaningless, as Li Qi's hand wasn't conveying any message.

Unlike the Manifold Race, who communicate by folding surfaces, Li Qi, as a Human Race member, found his three-dimensional structure largely useless.

However, that's not entirely true. Li Qi's three-dimensional topological structure, or his 'appearance,' can also convey some information, including 'expressions,' 'complexion,' 'body posture,' and 'looks.' These are all pieces of information expressed through three-dimensional topological structures.

Essentially, a person's three-dimensional topology is equivalent to a donut.

Because a person's shape can be folded into the form of a donut; the human body has two main connecting holes, top and bottom, which is topologically homeomorphic to a donut. If you 'unfold' yourself along the digestive tract from your mouth outwards, you'll find that the human body is a donut.

But, by folding the exterior of this donut, meaning differentiating into fingers, faces, muscle lines, and so on.

As previously mentioned, 'folding' can convey information.

When the human body, this donut, is folded into a shape with a specific structure, it can appear 'handsome' or 'beautiful.' But if the folding is poor, it's 'ugly' or even 'hideous.'

This is the information conveyed by the folding of topological structures.

It can even be said that all aesthetics in three-dimensional structures are merely different topological structures. It's hard to imagine how much information such folding can convey.

However, the human body is, after all, only a three-dimensional topology, and the information it can convey and its rate are limited, roughly confined to this: 'body language,' 'models,' and 'beauty and ugliness' are the highest forms of such transmission.

But the Manifold Race is different.

The Manifold Race... their essence is a high-dimensional manifold of a super-multidimensional set. When they fold, they can even directly 'speak' the true meaning of Dao.

This race can transmit memories and even share perceptions merely by touch. Therefore, when he touched Li Qi's skin, he had already fully incorporated the topological structure of Li Qi's arm into his mind.

This is actually quite terrifying.

Li Qi's body is not that of a Mortal; his physique is essentially a construct of Heavenly God and Di Qi (Earthly Qi). Even his blood or hair contains a vast amount of Dao Resonance; his topological structure is naturally the same.

Compared to his 'essence,' this information seems insignificant, just Li Qi's scraps.

But for an eighth-rank being, this information is enough to make him self-destruct.

The fingerprints of a third-rank being are enough to astonish a fifth-rank, a rare and precious treasure for a fifth-rank, let alone the entire topological structure of a hand.

This information was consumed by an eighth-rank being.

Almost instantly, La Qi's body swelled up.

He temporarily lost all ability to fold, his body inflating like a balloon, transforming into a high-dimensional sphere.

A sphere represents the topological space of a ball as the set of all points, which is the 'possibility' of all topologies.

For a Manifold Race member, a high-dimensional manifold, to display this posture indicates that he has temporarily lost the ability to fold.

La Qi became a 'hypersurface'; all the points on his edges were stuck together.

However, he persevered.

La Qi was not destroyed; instead, relying on the Manifold Race's incredibly powerful information processing capabilities, he fully accepted the information expressed by Li Qi's palm!

After an unknown period, La Qi, who had lost consciousness, finally regained his senses.

The moment he recovered, his body once again felt information.

The three-dimensional object he had previously embraced had unfolded.

Li Qi's hand had also transformed into the style of the Manifold Race.

In La Qi's eyes, he suddenly encountered a fellow being in the darkness, and was able to perceive and communicate.

Then... what about the 'sound' he had just felt? The thing he had embraced earlier clearly shouldn't speak his language, right?

However, that voice said: "This is my 'hand.' I don't speak through that, but actually, I can do that too."

Thinking this, La Qi felt his counterpart folding on him.

For a Human Race, this is similar to 'seeing a person appear before you.'

While surprised, La Qi's heart was also filled with vigilance. He folded, transmitting a message: "Who are you? Why are you here?"

La Qi thought he saw a fellow being... or at least a hallucination that should be able to communicate, right?

However, in reality, this was just one of Li Qi's hands.

This gave Li Qi a strange sense of empathy.

When he was very young, when those Great Power appeared before Li Qi in their Dharma bodies, it must have felt something like this.

He thought he was face-to-face with the other party, but in reality, the other party was merely a facet of the Great Power.

Li Qi had also spoken to Mortals with his Dharma body, but he hadn't felt this way then.

Perhaps it was because... this Manifold Race member named La Qi completely understood the information emanating from Li Qi's hand.

Although he couldn't decode it, and it appeared as gibberish, he undoubtedly carried the entire Dao Resonance of one of Li Qi's hands.

It's truly astonishing. Is the Manifold Race's talent too strong, or is he personally that formidable?

Perhaps it's both.

The combination of these two made Li Qi interested in formally conversing with the other party.

Originally, he just wanted to observe the basic activities of the Manifold Race, as this race was indeed very peculiar, and given time, they might become a high-ranking race, similar to the Zhongwei Bird.

But now, he had developed some interest in the individual 'La Qi.'

So, he replied: "I am, this shadow itself."

"Can shadows have 'human form'?" La Qi immediately asked.

Why would a shadow look like a 'person'? It even speaks human language and is almost identical to the Manifold Race, completely indistinguishable.

"If I wish it, it will be so," Li Qi replied.

"I see, you've disguised yourself like this, haven't you? So, what exactly is this shadow, and why have you come to find me?" La Qi immediately asked.

Li Qi could feel that the constantly squirming high-dimensional manifold he held in his palm was very afraid, but he still mustered his courage and conversed with Li Qi as if nothing was amiss.

"? You seem to have said it wrong. I didn't come to find you; you came to find me," Li Qi replied.

La Qi thought about it, and it seemed to be true.

He had voluntarily entered the shadow; from beginning to end, the shadow actually had no desire for external communication.

"My apologies, I misspoke. So, why did you respond to me?" La Qi asked again.

He was filled with curiosity at this moment; La Qi desperately wanted to communicate with the existence before him.

What is the shadow? What is the existence before him? Why is this a low-energy vacuum, and how does this voice exist in a low-energy vacuum?

"You asked a question, so I responded to you," Li Qi said. "Is there anything else you want to ask?"

"How can I understand everything I felt before?" La Qi spoke bluntly. Since he had discovered that the existence before him had no hostility and seemed willing to answer questions, he might as well go straight to it. Every question asked was a gain.

"You can decipher everything using this method, but it might take your entire life," Li Qi sent La Qi a decoding method that could help him interpret the information brought by those structures.

Or 'comprehend' would be more appropriate.

"After I finish decoding, can I answer my current doubts?" La Qi immediately asked again.

"I don't know, and I don't understand what your doubts are," Li Qi replied.

Then, Li Qi immediately added: "However... do you even know what your own doubts are?"

This question stumped La Qi.

"I understand. Well then, I'll go back and decode your message first. After that, I will return," La Qi said.

He had already gained enough; that information was even enough to crash La Qi's cognitive organs. He knew in his heart that no matter what, he couldn't take any more; any more, and he wouldn't even remember it.

"If you can return within your lifetime," Li Qi said.

La Qi showed respect and joy, then withdrew from the shadow.

He knew he had found a way to unravel the shadow.

As for whether he could finish decoding in his lifetime?

It didn't matter; he was confident.

La Qi began his decoding outside the shadow, entering a state of 'dead seclusion,' curling himself into a point and continuously decoding within it.

After that, Li Qi continued to observe the social development of the Manifold Race and their physiological dynamics.

He knew that this wouldn't last too long, because the place where the Manifold Race lived was actually just a special spacetime extended from the Celestial Pole Golden Elixir Method displayed by the Wu Tu Sisters.

Once the Wu Tu Sisters complete their enlightenment and choose to end, everything will fall, the 'Universe' as perceived by the Manifold Race will instantly collapse, and everything will fall into a 'low-energy vacuum.'

They would face extinction.

Therefore, this moment was the only window of opportunity.

But he also didn't forget to continue observing La Qi.

This Manifold Race member had left some impression on him; he was curious about what La Qi would become after decoding that Dao Resonance.

After that, approximately 'six hundred generations' passed.

The lifespan of the Manifold Race is quite strange; it cannot be calculated in 'years' because time is relative, and the flow of time in each part of their body is not quite the same due to different dimensions. Their life and death are only related to 'limits.'

But it wouldn't be too long; for ordinary Manifold Race, the limit would arrive imperceptibly.

However, in La Qi's case, according to Li Qi's sense of time, it was approximately forty-five years.

For the Manifold Race, this was already a very long life.

And the calculation of these six hundred generations was also very simple: La Qi did indeed find someone to have a child with.

The reproduction of the Manifold Race is quite strange; they do not reproduce sexually, nor do they have the concept of gender. The basic structure of all Manifold Race is the same.

Instead, they gather all available Manifold Race in a high-energy region, then they synthesize into one body, after which all Manifold Race together perform a specific frequency of folding, or what could be called 'resonance.'

After that, with such vibrations, new Manifold Race would be born in the adjacent high-energy region.

They have no growth period; they are born as adults. After this, the newcomers integrate into the 'resonance,' and the Manifold Race's innate super-strong information transmission ability transfers all knowledge to the newcomers.

With just one instance, the new Manifold Race becomes a complete adult, then begins their own story, requiring no upbringing and having no concept of family.

Since that time, six hundred generations had passed for the child La Qi had conceived.

But La Qi was still in dead seclusion.

He was comprehending the information he had received from a mysterious existence; he wanted to fully grasp it because these things made him feel something more important than 'carving his name in history.'

He couldn't describe what that something was, but merely understanding a glimpse of it was like being enchanted.

La Qi participated in reproduction only once; after that, he abandoned everything except 'survival necessities.'

He was wholeheartedly immersed in that information, even though he didn't even know what it was.

This information was so magnificent.

It seemed to describe 'truth,' seemed to explain what this world was like.

Despite being so bizarre, those things didn't exist in this world, yet unexpectedly, they felt incredibly real.

This world is a constantly rotating world composed of high-energy regions and low-energy regions.

Energy is the sole main theme; matter does not exist here, or rather... 'macroscopic matter' in the usual sense does not exist here.

The mutual erosion and transformation of high-energy and low-energy regions, and the switching of different dimensions, would annihilate all macroscopic matter; only microscopic particles, such as protons and neutrons, exist here.

And if broken down further, the various 'Qi' that compose things are therefore scattered, unable to synthesize the basic elements of earth, fire, wind, and water.

Even molecules cannot form because chemical bonds cannot take shape here.

However, that's true; the essence of particles is Qi, and Qi is infinitely divisible, tormented to death by various dimensions and high-energy level transformations, so it's naturally impossible to form stable macroscopic matter.

However, in the world, it would be even more extreme; there are no particles there, and Qi would directly form matter.

This knowledge was 'naturally' decoded by La Qi.

Even though he didn't know what 'Qi' and 'the world' were.

But he just understood these things, and even the appearance of 'the world' emerged.

It was simply another world.

No...

That was another world.

Marvelous, truly marvelous.

How to interpret such beauty?

Words are hard to emulate, precise words cannot reach their extreme;

Forms are elusive, grand rhetoric cannot describe their truth.

Therefore, if words are lofty, then Mount Song is as high as the sky.

La Qi wouldn't normally speak like this, but after reading those, he learned. (End of this chapter)