Chapter 924: Hundreds of schools

The Rank Three hot war began.

For some unknown reason, a Human Dao Rank Three Cultivator actually took the initiative to intercept Li Qi.

Logically, this shouldn't have happened, because after Li Qi made a move, counterattacking would give him an advantage; Li Qi's initial move exposed a part of his existence first.

The essence of a Rank Three battle is an intelligence war, where everyone mutually infers the weaknesses of the opponent's Dao, and through deduction, calculation, and attempts under extreme conditions, continuously destroys the opponent's Dao itself, like Zhu Fengdan being directly inserted with conflicting Dao Resonance by others, leading to her self-collapse.

Although this won't lead to a life-threatening situation, because Rank Three Cultivators don't die, it will bring about another consequence.

In the most severe cases, it's like the Human Dao Rank Three Cultivator Li Qi fought in the Immortal Heaven; the opponent didn't die, but merely lost consciousness and the ability to interfere with reality, entering a deep sleep, awaiting revival.

If one falls into this state, then, if there's no one to protect them, or if their protection is forcibly breached, and their possibility of 'awakening' is locked down, then they might have to sleep forever; this situation is called 'possibility zeroed'.

Traversing all future possibilities, observing every event that happened in the past and will happen in the future, and then, no matter what happens, you can't wake up—that is a manifestation of 'possibility zeroed'.

Besides this, there are many other manifestations; one doesn't necessarily have to fall into a deep sleep for possibility to be zeroed.

For example, trapping the opponent in an inescapable nested Reincarnation, like a corrupted save file in a game, no matter how they struggle, no matter what they do, they will fall into an inevitable outcome and cannot move into the future.

Or, for example, making the opponent inevitably encounter something they absolutely don't want to encounter, something more painful than death; to reverse this 'inevitable future', the Rank Three Cultivator will also continuously backtrack, actively trapping themselves in the past, forever unable to escape until they figure out a solution—this is also a kind of 'possibility zeroed'.

Wanting to correct the past, and thus being forever trapped in the past, constantly thinking of solutions, yet unable to escape the endless loop—this is the essence of possibility zeroed.

Therefore, possibility zeroed isn't that profound; in fact, it's simply making it so that a Rank Three Cultivator, under any circumstances, does not possess the ability to move into the future; any attempt they make is futile; they are trapped in a prison of events and spacetime, forming a complete closed loop, and even if they make trillions of attempts, it will only lead to a single outcome.

After all, the so-called possibility zeroed is essentially 'possibility one'.

Your possibility of moving into the future is zeroed, so your possibility of being trapped in the past is necessarily one.

A possibility of one, meaning 100% will happen; one hundred percent, this thing will definitely happen; you will inevitably be trapped in place.

Limiting the opponent's ability, temporarily affecting their ability to interfere with reality, then slowly eroding, slowly modifying the opponent's past, regulating the events the opponent encounters, and finally weaving a prison of spacetime and possibility to trap the Rank Three Cultivator inside, ultimately forming a dead loop of Reincarnation, never to be liberated.

This is the entirety of a Rank Three hot war.

To achieve this, the first thing needed is to 'understand the opponent'.

You must know what the opponent can do to be able to restrict them one by one; if the opponent can't swim, you can use the ocean to limit their possibility of escaping.

If they can't fly, you can dig a pit and throw them in.

If they are not good at dealing with a specific Qi, then use that specific Qi to limit their actions. And so on and so forth.

So, in this situation, the advantage brought by intelligence, foundation, and Dao information goes without saying; even an advantage of just one move can very likely bring great battle results.

Sacrificing a Rank Four Cultivator in exchange for Li Qi making the first move and the opponent making the second is an extremely worthwhile thing.

However, this Human Dao Rank Three Cultivator did not do so.

Why?

However, for this Rank Three Cultivator, the answer is simple.

Human Dao will not abandon a person.

It was mentioned before that Human Dao had done things like a Rank Nine Cultivator encountering danger outside, calling for help from a terminal, and then a Rank Seven Cultivator going out to rescue them.

Clearly, this Rank Three Cultivator was also like this.

He would not sit idly by and watch a person be killed by Li Qi, so he chose to act, giving up possible advantages, and directly confronted Li Qi head-on.

Their powers intertwined.

The opponent's power also manifested, just like what just happened…

If the word 'infinite' appears, then anything with a non-zero probability will inevitably happen.

In reality, everything in the Universe 'repeats'; boring things happen one after another, and they don't change at all; every event will repeat millions of times, no matter how rare it is.

P = NP problem: any event with a non-zero probability will inevitably occur.

Therefore, around Li Qi, some extremely rare decay phenomena occurred.

Energy levels decreased around Li Qi.

The transition from high energy levels to low energy levels releases enormous energy.

At the location of Li Qi's Physical Body, a spherical space composed of a 'true vacuum' rapidly expanded around his body, erupting with incredible energy levels.

One must know that the 'vacuum' we usually inhabit is not a true vacuum, but rather has constantly fluctuating probabilistic energy.

And now, all these energies have been released.

Ten to the thirteenth power joules per cubic centimeter of energy, after complete decay, brought about an absolute vacuum and destructive power that almost instantly annihilated Li Qi's Physical Body.

“Legalist School?” Li Qi immediately realized the source of this method.

This violent alteration of the laws of heaven and earth, dominated by 'force', where commands are obeyed and prohibitions are upheld, is very similar to the Human Dao Legalist School.

Therefore, Li Qi immediately struck the Yellow Bell, responding with the 'rules' of the Yellow Bell.

His Physical Body rapidly returned, using a chaotic manifestation of a non-linear System, influencing our three-dimensional space through the three-dimensional manifestation of Qi in the high-dimensional space obtained from the Celestial Pole Golden Elixir Method, thereby changing the spacetime metric.

Vacuum decay was restricted by the altered spacetime metric.

In their initial exchange, both parties sensed the source of the other's power.

Li Qi immediately made his next deployment in a manner that countered the Legalist School.

And the opponent seemed to have noticed the chaotic nature of Li Qi's Cultivation, and based on this, began to corrode Li Qi's interior.

The second move.

Heaven and earth moved in unison, and natural itself began to sweep around, suppressing Li Qi's Yellow Bell and crushing its rules.

Li Qi suddenly frowned.

Absurd, this is not a Legalist School method; the Legalist School's Dao can absolutely not destroy the rules themselves, but the opponent seems to completely disregard the rules.

This is a Daoist method, the Huang-Lao School?

Buddhism has Four Greats, and Dao Orthodoxy also has Four Greats; this is a method of the Daoist Manifested World Faction.

The Four Greats of Buddhism are earth, fire, wind, and water, referring to the four basic constituent elements that make up the world.

And for the Daoist Manifested World Faction, it is Dao is great, Heaven is great, Earth is great, and man is also great; there are Four Greats in the domain, and man is one of them.

If it's a Daoist Manifested World Faction method, then what was that Legalist School method just now?

Could this person be like himself?

The battle continued.

After several picoseconds, dozens of exchanges had already taken place, with both sides unleashing Divine Abilities, creating various extreme environments, attempting to expose flaws in the opponent's Dao.

However, no victor had been decided yet.

Li Qi pondered the opponent's situation, judging their foundation and methods of restraint.

Li Qi's Dao was mixed and difficult to trace, using various methods; this was his disadvantage, as it was easy for others to exploit problems and affect the balance within his body, but it was also his advantage, as his numerous methods made it more possible to inflict harm on others.

And the opponent also seemed to possess this characteristic.

The opponent's Dao was also extremely chaotic.

The opponent also had an extremely large number of methods; Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian, Legalist, Yin and Yang, Nominalist, Rationalist, Martial, various schools, various types of methods emerged endlessly, as if there was no end.

Fortunately, Li Qi could also handle it.

Life is a series of choices, and their battle was countless lives, with various choices and various dilemmas constantly unfolding before them.

The expanding Universe spread their power, and one extreme environment after another repeatedly spoiled the environment, causing many Observable Universes, created by the light speed barrier, to undergo distinct changes.

“Oh… I understand, Human Dao, Eclectic School.” Li Qi finally figured out the opponent's origin.

If it was the Eclectic School, then such methods would be understandable.

The Eclectic School, one of the Hundred Schools of Human Dao, is known as “all schools flow together, inclusive and eclectic.”

They are inclusive, absorbing the characteristics of other branches of Human Dao, and even other Daos, and incorporating their ideological characteristics and even cultivation methods into one.

It doesn't matter where the methods and ideas come from; as long as they are useful for my current situation, I will directly learn them; if I'm not allowed to learn, then I'll steal, or even cheat, as long as the goal is achieved.

Of course, to establish oneself as a school, merely stealing and robbing is not enough; one must possess one's own philosophy.

And the fundamental philosophy of the Eclectic School lies in the idea that as long as the goal of replacing Heaven with man can be achieved, the means are not important.

In the eyes of Li Qi or the Confucian School, to achieve a goal, one must use appropriate means.

To uphold justice, one must use righteous means; if evil means are used to maintain justice, then it's putting the cart before the horse.

Similarly, to pursue Human Dao, one must naturally use Human Dao methods; if one chooses to use Shaman Dao methods to pursue Human Dao, then what exactly are you pursuing?

It's like earning money to pursue the Dao, because money can help pursue the Dao, but in the end, one becomes obsessed with money, and is instead bound by money, unable to pursue the Dao.

But in the eyes of the Eclectic School, these are not issues; dwelling on them is a waste of time.

All things in the Universe are for human use.

The countless things under heaven are all for human life.

There is nothing in this Universe that doesn't belong to humans, so naturally there is nothing that cannot be used.

This gave Li Qi the feeling of those 'Sword Saints' in Mortal worlds without extraordinary powers.

The Eclectic School is like those Mortal Sword Saints, the unranked kind, who boast about their philosophy and swordsmanship, creating a myriad of schools, claiming that through sword practice one can comprehend life, and reaching the Peak can even lead to ascension to immortality, but on the battlefield, swords are not used; five-meter-long spears are used with great proficiency, completely forgetting their title of Sword Saint.

You can say it this way, but you can't do it this way.

They all talk about replacing Heaven with man, but in their actual actions, their methods are despicable.

Just in this battle, Li Qi had a profound understanding.

The Eclectic School Rank Three Cultivator in front of him was truly troublesome—

The battle continued, and Li Qi finally couldn't help but speak, starting a conversation with the opponent.

“Eclectic School, how do you manage not to fall into depravity? It must be very difficult for you to maintain your own Dao Orthodoxy with your methods?” Li Qi transmitted the message.

Unexpectedly, this Eclectic School Rank Three Cultivator actually replied.

She said lightly: “Compared to you, Li Qi, what are my methods? I've always been curious how you haven't died yet. Speaking of Chaos, your Dao Orthodoxy is much more chaotic than mine. I've always wanted to learn your methods.”

Her phrasing, tone, and voice all sounded like a woman's.

“You've already learned, haven't you? I saw it; you applied the idea of the ultimate Dao, and the source of this idea, Yu Zao, right? Are you Yu Zao? No, that's not right, I feel it's different.” Li Qi said.

Yu Zao was an artificial human of the Eclectic School, an experimental product of the Eclectic School that appeared like building blocks. (For details, see Chapter 394)

A 'human' whose talent and body were entirely controlled and created by the Eclectic School.

The Eclectic School Old Ancestor believed that humans don't necessarily have to be born natural, and that being human has nothing to do with race, so… why not just create perfect humans from the start?

Thus, the experimental product Yu Zao was born. She grew up normally in Chang'an, studied at the Imperial Academy, and was Li Qi's classmate for a period of time.

From the clash with the Eclectic School Cultivator in front of him, Li Qi felt Yu Zao's 'patchwork' aura, and thus recognized that this was from the Eclectic School.

“Yu Zao? Oh, you still remember, I am Yu Zao, oh, what's wrong, Li Qi?” The opponent suddenly changed her voice.

It was indeed Yu Zao's voice.

Li Qi shook his head slightly and said: “Stop pretending, I've figured it out. You are Yu Zao, but Yu Zao is not you. The Eclectic School's artificial human project… succeeded, ah, truly impressive, was it constructed with a Rank Three Cultivator as the prototype?”

She was Yu Zao, but Yu Zao was not her.

This meant that the Eclectic School's artificial human project was not merely about creating perfect humans; they even infused the will of a Rank Three Cultivator into the artificial human's body.

An artificial human, as a body, doesn't necessarily have to develop its own consciousness; if it's crafted skillfully enough, it's normal for it to be used as a consumable by a Rank Three Cultivator, according to the structure of such artificial humans…

“Artificial humans, Lord of Pestilence… Is Human Dao about to use this to fill its low-level combat power? No wonder.” Li Qi immediately realized something.

Human Dao no longer needs Mortals to fill the front lines.

Then someone else will likely fill the lines.

“You're really troublesome, you figured it out as soon as we met.” The Eclectic School Rank Three Cultivator said: “Having studied in Chang'an really makes a difference.”