Chapter 928: Contacting the cardinals of the worlds

The battle continued.

Evidently, in terms of computational power, Li Qi, empowered by True Knowledge, was far superior to his opponent.

The effects that True Knowledge could unleash were certainly no weaker than a Ruler, and True Knowledge had no risk of being stripped away, as Li Qi maintained a constant defense.

The past Li Qi and the present Li Qi were essentially one.

Interfering with Li Qi at any point in time was equivalent to interfering with Li Qi at this very moment—this was the advantage Li Qi gained after abandoning the ability to rewind.

The advantage of the Dao.

Laws, rules, and even various regulations, or even the laws of physics themselves, would change according to time, place, and environment.

Therefore, it was important to learn to judge for oneself what could be done and what could not.

The basis for this judgment was one's own Dao.

With this, one could navigate the Universe freely and fearlessly.

Everyone's Dao was different, so what they followed naturally varied, and thus the means they could utilize were not entirely the same.

It was clear that in this Third Grade Dao dispute, Imperial Academy’s Chancellor could not completely defeat Li Qi.

However, Li Qi also couldn't win against him.

Just as Li Qi was preparing to advance step by step, securing his basic foundation and then slowly pushing forward, he would discover… that when he advanced to a certain extent, Imperial Academy’s Chancellor's deduction speed would increase exponentially!

The power of the Third Grade was already so terrifying, and an exponential increase was even more frightening; Li Qi couldn't keep up at all and could only retreat.

Li Qi had a pretty good idea of the reason for this.

This was the power of The Axis of All Realms.

A Human Dao Second Grade Spiritual Artifact, a super computing structure capable of extending to all dimensions and connecting all terminals, a super Spiritual Artifact comparable to the Reality Universe.

Every ‘person’ could receive support from The Axis of All Realms; it simultaneously supported all Second Grades, Third Grades, and even all Mortals below who were not even in the grades.

Even if one was ‘not human’, they could, with human authorization, hold a small terminal of The Axis of All Realms and obtain the terrifying computational support of The Axis of All Realms.

However, The Axis of All Realms also had its limits, and after all, wars were not fought by The Axis of All Realms; it was merely a Spiritual Artifact that could be trusted but not relied upon.

Ultimately, the most important thing was still people.

What The Axis of All Realms could do was limited; it could only serve as an auxiliary, and to open up a situation, it always had to come back to ‘people’ themselves.

The Axis of All Realms awaited the ‘people’s’ intuition and will to break through the deadlock.

What a noble and grand idea.

Li Qi had once heard the Second Grades speak about this point.

At that time, the Second Grades commented on The Axis of All Realms, saying: “The Axis of All Realms far surpasses the imagination of Mortals, but even such an existence needs someone standing by its side.”

Did The Axis of All Realms need Mortals?

He didn't know; given The Axis of All Realms's rank, it definitely possessed super-high-level intelligence, but The Axis of All Realms seemed to have never shown ‘subjective desires’.

It always appeared in a cold, machine-like state; as a Human Dao Second Grade, this state was truly very strange.

So, did The Axis of All Realms need someone standing by its side? Did it truly need someone to issue commands for it to move, or was it… that what The Axis of All Realms needed was merely comfort?

“Then, let’s target The Axis of All Realms and probe its depths,” Li Qi thought, preparing to touch The Axis of All Realms while ensuring his own safety as much as possible.

Since remaining in a stalemate was still a stalemate, it was better to seize an opportunity to investigate.

Thus, Li Qi abandoned his offense; he merely guarded the key nodes, not allowing them to be tampered with, and then he began to divert a portion of his spirit to attempt to touch The Axis of All Realms.

As mentioned before, existences of the Third Grade and above could not be ‘recorded’; all records about them could very well turn into nothingness one day, becoming meaningless information that had never happened at all.

Therefore, to understand the nature of these basic units, one had to witness them personally.

So, while the opponent was utilizing The Axis of All Realms’s computing power, he would secretly take a look.

Thinking this, Li Qi decisively began his actions.

He first feigned an attack.

Then, amidst the feigned attack, True Knowledge unfolded, tentatively touching those ‘information’.

In an instant, Li Qi understood a vast amount of information.

This was—

What a marvelous architecture.

It was such a beautiful, super-gigantic intelligent architecture; Li Qi could see countless pieces of information searching for terminals within it, and a large amount of information being rolled back, rewritten, fast-forwarded, and recorded.

Each such change was, in a sense, an accumulation of temporal change.

Wait… this kind of change, it’s a bit like… evolution?

The Axis of All Realms, seemed to be evolving?

No, The Axis of All Realms hadn’t changed; what changed was ‘people’.

‘People’ were the biggest variable in this Universe.

The ‘people’ here were the ‘Dao Seekers’ as defined by the Human Dao, that is, those who had broken free from primitive instincts and animality, and decided how to act with their noble humanity.

Therefore, what could evolve was naturally also people.

No… not people either.

Li Qi was puzzled.

This was truly, difficult to describe.

The constantly changing information of The Axis of All Realms was neither human nor The Axis of All Realms itself, but some… heterogeneous thing completely unrelated to normal ways of thinking.

It was not the main body of The Axis of All Realms, but it could command those pieces of information to act at will, yet the commanded components had their own thoughts, like a person having a smart hand; although the hand was one’s own, it also seemed not to be one’s own, filled with abnormality.

Therefore, what stood in Li Qi’s True Knowledge field of vision was neither human, nor a super-intelligent organization like The Axis of All Realms, nor their symbiont, and certainly not some cliché combination of them.

Li Qi saw fragments of people, fragments of information, fragments of The Axis of All Realms, and some other miscellaneous fragments of things Li Qi couldn't understand.

These things were shattered at The Axis of All Realms, turning into chaotic fragments, then reconstructed by some force, immediately turning into fragments again, and then thrown into a certain vortex.

Within the vortex, the ‘screening’ began.

This screening process was the ‘evolution’ Li Qi had seen earlier.

So-called evolution was actually screening.

Continuous reproduction, mutation, and then through a certain mechanism, the unsuitable were removed, and the suitable were left behind—this was the process of evolution, or ‘development’.

The continuous evolutionary process produced a strange spatio-temporal structure.

This spatio-temporal structure merged with a huge torrent.

That huge torrent… was it a Dragon Vein?

In any case, in this incredibly abstract state, The Axis of All Realms constituted itself.

Even Li Qi could see how dangerous such an architecture was, seemingly on the verge of collapse at any moment, and thus there must be a ‘voltage regulator’ present.

And this voltage regulator was ‘human heart’.

It was the ‘intuition’ of the Dao Seeker.

The Axis of All Realms did not know what to do; its tentacles spread throughout the Universe were inevitably unstable, because the Universe itself was unstable.

Therefore, The Axis of All Realms needed someone to watch over it.

This reminded Li Qi of the past.

Li Qi had once communicated with the Dao of Reason.

At that time, Li Qi asked a Dao of Reason practitioner: “Can The Axis of All Realms interfere with everything?”

At that time, the Dao of Reason practitioner replied:

“You are mistaken; precisely because of this, The Axis of All Realms can do nothing. It is entangled and suppressed by many Great Dao of the Universe, unable even to interfere with the outside world.” (See Chapter 451 for details)

Furthermore, Li Qi also knew that the Dao of Reason had a replicated The Axis of All Realms.

“So that’s it, that’s why the Second Grades would say that The Axis of All Realms needs to stand with people.”

“Really?”

Li Qi was somewhat uncertain; he dared not speculate on the words of the Second Grades, nor dared to speculate on The Axis of All Realms, which inherently possessed Second Grade power.

However, after seeing all this, he also confirmed one thing.

That was, it would be very difficult for him to kill Chancellor of the Imperial Academy, who could command a part of The Axis of All Realms’s power and support.

Since that was the case, then he would retreat.

Li Qi withdrew all his power, completely retreating and only defending those special nodes, which directly led to the war entering another state of ‘possibility being one’.

However… in this situation, Chancellor of the Imperial Academy didn't seem to give up either.

He was still trying.

As these attempts increased—

The Crocodile Dragon also died repeatedly.

The Crocodile Dragon was the Fifth Grade Li Qi observed being resurrected, but he was made into a teaching tool by the Human Dao. After Li Qi pieced him together and resurrected him, he was taken away by the Underworld Messengers. (See Chapter 376 for details)

Only, again and again—

The Crocodile Dragon watched the Underworld Messenger in front of him throw out a hooked chain, and then his steps began to falter. He instinctively resisted, continued to run, constantly running, swinging his arms, stumbling, wanting to escape.

But, Iron City gradually appeared before him.

The Crocodile Dragon watched Iron City draw closer, and the Underworld Messengers also gradually approached. He bent over, spread his legs, hands on both knees, his chest heaving greatly, breathing erratically.

This scene was just like a Mortal.

Only, at this moment, the Crocodile Dragon was somewhat puzzled; he should have been very scared, but he felt an immense confusion.

This Underworld Messenger in front of him, this scene… seemed very familiar.

But after thinking carefully, it was clear that he was seeing them for the first time.

However, the Crocodile Dragon suddenly turned his head and looked over there; in the distance, there was a cold Imperial Academy student.

It was that Imperial Academy student who resurrected him, and then witnessed his resurrection, at the moment the Underworld Messengers arrived.

How to put it… he felt particularly familiar.

But not in this scene; he was sure that in this scene, he was seeing him for the first time.

However, the Crocodile Dragon always felt that this was only for now.

It seemed that in the past, he had seen the other party several times without realizing it.

In various places, he had seen him many times.

He could even recall in his mind him arguing, debating, fighting, conversing, and reading lines with other people.

Yes, reading lines.

He didn't know why, but he always felt that he was reading lines.

Although he appeared, the Crocodile Dragon knew what the other party looked like after changing his hairstyle.

The Crocodile Dragon’s mind seemed to recall him in various forms.

And that Imperial Academy student was looking back at him with the same degree of cold gaze.

This scene at this moment, the scene he had once seen, should not be achievable at this moment.

Where did those feelings of familiarity come from?

The Crocodile Dragon was puzzled by this.

All the hidden things behind him sank into the abyss of oblivion, so, at this moment, the Crocodile Dragon decided to dive into the abyss and recall the details within it.

It wasn't a big deal not to look.

When he plunged into the abyss of memory—

Li Qi suddenly shivered.

Damn it!

An ominous premonition, the Shaman’s sixth sense was ringing.

He immediately wanted to stop it.

The Crocodile Dragon was about to become a variable; he almost broke through to the Fourth Grade. Was Imperial Academy’s Chancellor supporting him?

But at this moment, the disadvantage of his Dao path became apparent.

He couldn't rewind the Crocodile Dragon, because the Crocodile Dragon was ‘real’, so he could only stop the Crocodile Dragon, but couldn't directly rewind the Crocodile Dragon to the past.

But, the next instant.

The Crocodile Dragon’s state suddenly regressed.

Everything that happened was erased.

At the same time, Chancellor of the Imperial Academy also directly withdrew.

Because someone came to help.

Wu Lie appeared; it seemed he had resolved the offensive on his side.

That’s good.

Wu Lie's power appeared, the rewind was successful, and now, the Crocodile Dragon, this last variable, was also neutralized.

Chancellor of the Imperial Academy withdrew, protected by The Axis of All Realms; pursuit was almost impossible, and besides, there was no need.

The Axis of All Realms’s power was not limitless; although it protected the Third Grade’s departure, the power consumed would be earned back by Shaman Dao elsewhere.

Perhaps, in the eyes of a Shaman Dao Second Grade, this Third Grade’s act of wasting The Axis of All Realms’s power to retreat was an opportunity for a Breakthrough?

The battlefield itself was interconnected; all resources were laid out clearly. Every bit of resource used, every combat power lost, would be directly reflected on the overall battlefield.

Therefore, as long as their side won as much as possible, the First Grades and Second Grades would be responsible for regulating the overall battlefield’s power; they knew very well who should go where.

All enemies withdrew.

“Whew, another wave repelled. This time we gained something,” Wu Lie patted Li Qi’s shoulder: “But it’s a bit strange that you needed my help this time; usually, it’s you helping me.”

“I diverted some computing power to contact The Axis of All Realms, and the opponent caught my weakness,” Li Qi didn’t hide it and directly stated the reason.

His distraction in analyzing The Axis of All Realms directly led to the emergence of the Crocodile Dragon as a variable.

If Wu Lie hadn't intervened in time, the Ruler would probably have been resurrected.

If the Ruler were resurrected, Li Qi feared he would lose.

But fortunately.

Wu Lie came very timely; now the death of the Ruler was confirmed. Witnessed by two Great Shamanes, it would be difficult to change unless more Human Dao Third Grades came.

“Contact The Axis of All Realms? You’re really bold. Did you gain anything?” Wu Lie asked.

“I suppose so,” Li Qi said.

“Be careful next time. Touching the information of a Second Grade isn’t how you seek death,” Wu Lie waved his hand, then went on to deal with his own matters.

Meanwhile, Li Qi closed his eyes and began to recall.

The Axis of All Realms’s information flow…

Tsk.