Chapter 906: Life

An indescribable beauty captured all of La Qi's attention.

Many Manifold Race members were also drawn to the 'low-level shadow' and gathered there, but after studying it for a while and finding no substantial gains, they left.

Many people had talked to La Qi, and they all thought he was strange, indulging in some nonsense whose truth was unknown.

Those things could not be verified or applied to reality; they were merely empty, ethereal slogans.

He was considered a madman.

A passing Manifold Race member commented that he was awestruck by an incredibly powerful force.

This force combined with his inner concept of fear, preventing La Qi from forgetting the disaster he had experienced.

This indicated that La Qi was still afraid, and those ethereal concepts always evoked depressing thoughts in his mind.

Therefore, this Manifold Race member said to La Qi, the most harmful thing in this world is to persuade people to believe in the existence of a supernatural being, before whom reason must remain silent, and to be a happy person, one must sacrifice everything worldly for this being.

He urged La Qi to abandon this pursuit of the ethereal, saying it was not worth dedicating everything to an imagined 'supernatural entity'.

He believed that people like La Qi lived in the gaps of the real world, in meaningless tranquility, listening to no pleas, caring neither for others nor for the world, and that everyone should not learn from La Qi.

His remarks gained some followers, and soon, all those studying the shadow in the vicinity concluded that current technology could not thoroughly investigate it, so they came to persuade La Qi.

After their persuasion proved fruitless, everyone left.

Since there were already fanatics willing to die for a non-existent god in their hearts, then no matter how much other rational people tried to persuade them, they couldn't be stopped, could they?

Thus, the area around the shadow became desolate again; everyone had left.

Time flowed once more.

Unbeknownst to him, he had already reached his 'limit'.

However, in the last moments of his life, another Manifold Race member suddenly appeared.

It was the one who had tried to persuade him earlier.

He touched La Qi and transmitted: "You really... stayed here for an entire lifetime? Haven't those garbled messages been explained yet?"

"No," La Qi said, "There's too much information, but I believe someone will help me complete it in the future."

"It seems you haven't woken up yet... Alas." The other party merely sighed and then left.

La Qi said nothing more.

He just continued to study, completely disregarding the passage of time.

He grew weaker and older.

This even surprised La Qi, because the Manifold Race had no concept of 'getting old'; they were born adults and would not weaken until the moment of their death, but would instead directly reach their 'limit', their entire body losing the ability to fold, and then they would simply disintegrate.

However, he clearly felt that he had grown old.

Strange, truly strange.

But it didn't matter; thinking didn't require a body anyway, so he could continue to delve into those messages.

A selfless pursuit.

The information on a Third-Rank being was thus gnawed away, bit by bit, by an Eighth-Rank being, until it was all consumed.

During this period, La Qi didn't even feel the passage of time.

Until... a very, very long time later, another Manifold Race member came before La Qi.

He seemed very shocked, touched La Qi, and then transmitted a message.

Strangely, La Qi couldn't understand what the other party was saying.

That's not right, he wasn't an idiot, how could he not understand what was being said?

So, La Qi and the other party began to communicate, trying to transmit their respective language methods to each other.

At this point, La Qi was surprised to discover that after he had deciphered the other party's language, he found that... the other party told him that the language he was using had ceased to be used eighty thousand generations ago.

The current language was new, more efficient, and easier to fold.

La Qi learned the other party's language and then said, "How many generations ago did you say?"

"Eighty thousand generations, to be precise, eighty-six thousand four hundred and thirty-four generations," the other party replied, "How long have you been here? Is the flow of time around here strange? How could so much time have passed?"

"No, the flow of time around here is very stable, with no unusual fluctuations. Is something wrong on your end?" La Qi was also somewhat puzzled by this bizarre situation.

"No, we haven't experienced any time disruption."

As they spoke, both felt very confused.

Since neither side's time had been disturbed, then the best method... would be to share memories, right?

This was also something the Manifold Race often did.

Within this chaotic high-dimensional space, the Manifold Race frequently encountered such situations, and at such times, they only needed to fold together to share memories.

So they did just that.

But after doing so, the other party was shocked.

La Qi's memories, so many!

So many that they were indescribable; how long had he actually lived?!

"How long have I lived?" La Qi felt the other party's memory, and then recalled his own subjective sense of time.

He seemed to have lived for ninety thousand generations.

According to Li Qi's subjective sense of time, he had lived for nearly two thousand years.

Could this be possible?

This had already far exceeded the lifespan of the Manifold Race; why hadn't he reached his limit? Was his folding endless?

Both sides were shocked.

La Qi was shocked by his own lifespan, while the other party was shocked by La Qi's antiquity.

Time is the abstract form of sensual perception; therefore, human sensibility is formalized time, the self-reflection of the existent in the sensual world.

So, living a long time also indicated that the other party's perception had already far surpassed that of ordinary Manifold Race members.

How did he do it?

To be honest, La Qi himself wasn't sure.

If he had done anything...

Then, it was only the study of those materials.

Clearly, both realized this, and so, the other party strongly urged La Qi to proclaim his power.

This would certainly make history, and it was also La Qi's wish.

However, at this moment, La Qi refused.

He told the other party to proclaim it themselves, while he would stay here and continue.

His former dream had been accomplished so easily, but La Qi's heart was unexpectedly calm.

Because, compared to what he pursued, what he had strived for his entire life, these empty reputations seemed meaningless.

He continued to work diligently.

Later, many more people came to him, all wanting to learn this method, because they had already verified that it could indeed prolong life and allow them to live longer.

Although they couldn't live as long as La Qi, it could greatly extend their lifespan, and even strengthen their ability to traverse low-energy areas, and some had even developed abilities of destruction and slaughter.

This was a new technical direction!

It had already been named after La Qi.

However, it was unlikely that La Qi would know about these things, because... by the one hundred thousandth generation, he had already deciphered everything.

He was going to enter and find the shadow.

Plunging back into the energy-level vacuum shadow, La Qi walked forward with single-minded focus.

Unbeknownst to him, these shadows could no longer harm him; he had learned to lock his own boundaries, changing his boundary Manifold Race from 'divergent' to 'convergent'.

As a result, his energy level would not leak out, and he would not be harmed by low energy levels.

In Li Qi's words, La Qi had achieved 'no leakage'.

That is, he had reached the Seventh-Rank, which was also why he could live so long.

Without any cultivation method, and without even realizing it himself, simply by reading a part of the information on Li Qi, he had broken through to the Seventh-Rank.

However, he felt nothing about it; nothing mattered anymore.

He just wanted to know more.

This time, he found Li Qi even faster.

Li Qi was still there.

In fact, these few thousand years were but a flick of a finger for Li Qi, but Li Qi had already observed enough data and had almost understood everything about the Manifold Race.

Their entire civilization history and racial characteristics were already imprinted in his mind.

La Qi clung to Li Qi's hand.

Continuing to fold himself, he transmitted information: "I have finished deciphering, and... my life has not ended."

"Your life will not end. Unbeknownst to you, you have already broken through the limitations of lifespan. Now you will only succumb to injuries, not time," Li Qi replied.

"Those aren't important. I just want to say that I find it strange; many things are clearly logical, but I cannot agree with them, which causes me great pain. Shadow, can you tell me why?" La Qi directly asked what he wanted to ask.

There were no pleasantries, no inquiries about the shadow itself; his mind was only filled with the confusion from reading the information.

Li Qi smiled and replied, "Confused? Perplexed? Then I tell you, reading these Dao Resonance is like being a sandbag that cannot resist. Even if you are punched and kicked by a large amount of information, you cannot talk back, because that is my Dao, not yours."

"You are now like someone who has been beaten up and cannot talk back, which is why you feel confused."

"Then how do I solve it?" La Qi asked.

He already knew that the shadow before him would answer his questions, and was very friendly, with no hostility.

Therefore, there was no need to worry so much.

No matter what kind of existence the other party was, or what he intended, it didn't matter; La Qi just wanted to know the answer.

"It's simple. Find your own answer, and then use that answer to interpret more. This will be a counterattack to my Dao. Of course, this might evolve into a Dao conflict, but it's also possible that you will find our paths are the same, or that we are strangers, completely unrelated. All of this depends only on your own answer," Li Qi replied.

Li Qi had completely mastered the Manifold Race's language; he could now edit messages through his skin. If possible, Li Qi even felt a hint of the White Fox King Bodhisattva's Dao Resonance in himself.

The so-called 'beauty' was merely the folding of outer topological forms; all information expressed by the human body originated from the folding of a donut embryo.

Therefore, as long as one mastered this, beauty approaching the level of Dao was merely effortless.

Of course, Li Qi had no dissatisfaction with his own appearance, nor would he use this for cosmetic surgery.

"My own answer... I don't think I'm at the point of having my own answer. Can I do it?" La Qi asked.

He indeed felt this way.

Many things, he only 'intuitively felt were wrong', but if La Qi were truly asked what problems they had, he actually couldn't articulate them. His knowledge, experience, and thoughts were insufficient to support him in refuting Li Qi's Dao, and it was precisely because of this that he was plunged into confusion and perplexity.

"I don't know if you can do it; only you can answer that," Li Qi replied.

"I hope to gain more knowledge; this knowledge is not enough," La Qi immediately requested, "With enough knowledge, I can find my own answer."

"The knowledge you seek later does not need to be obtained from me. Go out and explore; the world is vast, and your world, in particular, is immense," Li Qi said.

"I will try my best," La Qi said, "How should I address you, Shadow?"

"Let's talk about it after you find your own answer."

"After this, I will temporarily cut off communication. Your society is enough for you to study for thousands of years, and you are destined to walk a path different from your kin. Searching for truth and knowledge in space-time is an arduous path, but it suits you well," Li Qi said, folding his skin.

He was indeed leaving; the Manifold Race's data had been collected. They were an interesting race, definitely useful for next time.

La Qi said to Li Qi, "I think I understand what you mean. It seems this will be a permanent farewell, because I am in a world dominated by high energy, and you are the complete opposite. Your world, which is this low-energy dominated world, we are opposites."

"But I will not despair. Perhaps our speed of life and death is faster than yours, but the fundamental truths in the Universe are limited, so we will eventually catch up."

"At the end of time, I think we will eventually meet, provided neither of us falls along the way."

La Qi calmly bid farewell to Li Qi.

This greatly astonished Li Qi.

So, he put aside his previous thoughts and replied again, "You... are indeed different. Are you willing to leave this place with me?"

"What do you mean? Do you mean... there's something outside the Universe? Why choose me? Is it because of my effort?" La Qi was not overjoyed, but still calmly questioned.

Li Qi replied, "Not effort, but talent. Your talent makes you stand out. Effort, anyone can do it, but talent, if you don't have it, you just don't have it."

"Of course, being able to make a special, special effort is itself a kind of talent, but you haven't reached that level yet."

La Qi was somewhat stunned now. He said, "I haven't? I've put my whole life into it."

"Putting in your whole life is just the basic entry requirement. If you can't even put in your whole life, then it's better to give up this path," Li Qi replied casually.

"Then it seems... I have no choice. So, please take me away," La Qi said, "But... Shadow, what exactly do you want to do?"

"Let's talk about it when we're out," Li Qi smiled. (End of chapter)