Chapter 943: The silhouette of the Dao struggle

Li Qi soon left Zhu Fendan.

His teacher told him to just do it, and Zhu Fendan didn't even ask him how he planned to do it.

But that didn't matter; Zhu Fendan's words were filled with a sense of, "What can you, Little rabbit, possibly achieve?"

It was like a Parent taking a child to a large shopping mall.

Then, inside the large shopping mall, the child was timid and dared not buy anything; everything seemed so expensive, as if one purchase could bankrupt their family.

Then, the Parent waved a hand: "Just buy it, pick anything you want. If your dad can't afford this much, then what's the point of living?"

What more could be bought? Could they even buy out the store?

So the child relaxed and started to shop.

What? Did you think they went to a supermarket?

You're thinking too much.

Li Qi was an adult after all, and like his teacher, he was a Third Rank; he wasn't afraid of going to a supermarket.

He went to the real estate office.

He wasn't buying snacks, chips, or milk tea.

Instead, he was buying large sea-view villas.

Hopefully, Zhu Fendan could handle it; he said he'd buy them, after all.

Li Qi went back and immediately notified La Qi, stating that he would help him unseal, but it would take some time to study the structure of the Five Emperors' Platform to avoid any incidents.

In an instant, Li Qi believed that all forces in the entire Heavens would immediately send this news to the attention of the important figures.

Zhu Rong's grand-disciple unsealed Gonggong's subordinate; what did this imply?

Had Zhu Rong and Gonggong reconciled?

Was this a sign that the conflicts among the Heavenly Gods were beginning to dissipate? How did Haotian view this? Was Haotian willing to accept or even help those Heavenly Gods slaughter Mortals?

But what Li Qi was doing was far from simple.

Next, Li Qi began cultivating the Desire Realm.

He had a Desire Realm seed given to him by Shamansan, which the Heavenly Demon had asked Shamansan to transfer to Li Qi.

Li Qi had been afraid to touch it before.

But now, why worry?

If the sky fell, his teacher would hold it up, so he might as well go for it.

Cultivating the Desire Realm was impossible to hide from anyone; any existence above Third Rank could clearly feel the tendrils of the Desire Realm beginning to spread.

Many people started asking Li Qi what he was doing.

Li Qi replied to all of them: "I'm cultivating the Desire Realm. I'll use it when I need to, and if it really doesn't work, I'll use it as a bomb."

Then—

Actually, there was no 'then'.

After doing these two things, Li Qi was surprised to find that, apart from 'undercurrents surging,' nothing much had changed outside.

As for undercurrents surging...

Are you kidding? This Universe had been like this for a long time. Since the Human-Shaman War began, countless conspiracies and open schemes had already been in motion.

At most, Li Qi had added two more fish to the muddy water; it didn't really matter at all.

After doing these things and seeing the consequences, Li Qi realized something—

One of the easiest mistakes an arrogant and conceited Third Rank could make was... to believe they could make a memorable mistake.

In reality, Li Qi found that he couldn't.

At least, it was very difficult.

Of course, he could do some big things, like insulting Haotian, fighting with the Shaman God, or seeking a life-or-death battle with the Heavenly Demon; those would definitely count as big.

But... would the outcome really be severe?

Were these truly 'mistakes'?

Aside from Li Qi being killed, would these things truly have any consequences?

Moreover, was Li Qi himself being killed considered a 'severe mistake'?

Once he understood this, Li Qi relaxed a lot.

A Third Rank's influence on the Human-Shaman War was negligible.

The scale of this war was so vast, and its duration so long.

Even just to become a small, accompanying name in future war histories was extremely difficult, though Li Qi had managed it once when he personally ignited this powder keg.

So, he loosened his constraints a bit.

Just as he had thought before, in reality, apart from making the water a bit muddier, nothing much had changed.

At least for now.

Thus, about ten thousand years passed.

During these ten thousand years, Li Qi was basically on vacation, cultivating the Desire Realm, and setting up contingency plans.

Because the Shaman Dao side had already realized that Li Qi would become a focal point for the Human Dao, they felt Li Qi should make good preparations and not go to the front lines anymore, letting him find his own defenses.

To be honest, it was very difficult. Li Qi set up many, many contingency plans for himself, but he didn't know which ones would be effective. He would just try them out.

The Desire Realm was also growing vigorously. Li Qi planned to cultivate it into a usable Spiritual Artifact, and if that failed, he could use it as a bomb. If even that didn't work, he'd give it to Shamansan.

If the Desire Realm could truly grow to Second Rank, he might even be able to ascend to heaven in one step.

But these were all just jokes; the gap between a Desire Realm seed and a Desire Realm was too vast.

Even the Desire Realm meticulously cultivated by the Heavenly Demon was only Second Rank; if the Desire Realm he cultivated could reach Fourth Rank, that would already be remarkable. The true value of this thing lay in its ability to provide new possibilities.

It offered Li Qi... a path to retreat into the Demonic Dao, which might have miraculous effects at critical moments.

He didn't necessarily have to enter the Demonic Dao, but with this thing, the Human Dao's attempts to restrain Li Qi would have to involve the Demonic Dao, making it more troublesome and drawing in more elements, leading to more variables.

The more variables there were, the harder it would be to kill Li Qi.

Li Qi wanted to unseal La Qi for this very reason.

Now that La Qi was unsealed, a branch of the Divine Dao was also implicated by Li Qi, adding another retreat path towards the Divine Dao.

Li Qi had thought everything through very well.

While he was arranging these matters, he didn't neglect his family affairs either.

During these ten thousand years, La Qi advanced to Fifth Rank, aligning with Li Shiwei and Yao Ji.

Li Shiwei showed no signs of Breakthrough.

Although the Little rabbit had once relied on the Demonic Dao to climb to Fourth Rank, that was merely a Puppet-like state, something used to target Li Qi's Dao Heart; her role in it was merely to provide a name and form.

If it weren't absolutely necessary to use a real person to affect Li Qi's Dao Heart, shaping something else would have worked too.

As for Yao Ji... her cultivation was inherently slow, with a slowness peculiar to Heavenly Gods. Li Qi was too lazy to manage her; he just let her be, as Yao Ji was like an accessory by his side now.

She seemed to know that she needed to rely on Li Qi to avoid the Demonic Dao's interference, so even though it was boring and Li Qi often stopped her from doing many things, she didn't leave casually.

As for Shen Shuibi...

The rabbit almost got pregnant for the second time.

This matter is not mentioned for now, but due to the impending Human-Shaman War, it was ultimately decided that it was better not to.

They would talk about it later.

After everything settled down.

Yang Ning also returned to the Human-Shaman War, and Mount Luofu was said to be rejoining the battle.

Regarding this, Li Qi also investigated the extent of the Human-Shaman War in the history of this Universe.

Which forces participated in the Human-Shaman War? How wide was the scope of the Human-Shaman War in the history of this Universe?

The answer was that it was an unanswerable question. If there had to be an answer, one should look up at the sky.

Every star, every civilization, every person.

From the obvious participants, such as the armies and soldiers directly fighting on the front lines, engaged in fierce combat.

To the less noticeable participants, such as many ordinary civilizations that weren't even aware of the war outside; they simply received occasional orders from extraterrestrial civilizations, but clearly, they were providing supplies for the war in their own way.

Then to those completely incomprehensible things, impossible to imagine how they participated, such as the Zhongwei Birds, or the Return to the Void Demons; these guys didn't look like they were involved at all.

But in reality, they all played their part in this Dao struggle.

In short, any life living in this Universe had, to some extent, participated in this vast Dao struggle.

Such an important matter could not be easily ignored; it was utterly impossible to 'stay out of it'.

In the legends of many civilizations, this war was like a law of physics, something akin to the 'essence of the Universe's existence'.

For them, the war transcended their Observable Universe, spreading throughout the entire Multiverse, even becoming the main theme of the Multiverse!

Even if not the main theme, it at least held an extremely important position.

The prolonged duration of this war meant that every civilization born in the Universe bore the scars, or rather, the 'imprint,' of this war in their very essence.

In the legends of countless worlds, this war began even before life was born and would continue until the end of time, not stopping even at the moment of all things' demise.

From the beginning of the Universe, with the birth of those super-powered races, to the final heat death of the Universe, this war would permeate all of the Universe's history, and the history books of all civilizations would record its existence.

If they delved a little deeper into the war, these civilizations would find that their societies and economic systems were inevitably revolving around this war.

The Dao would influence all things. Since they were deeply involved in the Dao struggle, the 'Dao' governing their societal operations would inevitably be subjected to the pressures of both the Human and Shaman sides.

Once, Baiyue was the first place name in the world, the borderland between Humans and Shamanes.

But now... this entire Universe has become Baiyue, becoming the battlefield of the Human-Shaman War.

The enormous scale of the war made countless civilizations either become rich overnight or perish overnight. The war was like the ebb and flow of an ocean tide, sweeping in and slowly receding each time.

The battlefield was a beach, and civilizations were like the sand beneath.

Every grain of sand on the beach was a complete civilization; some even occupied several Observable Universes, while others merely reigned supreme within their own stellar systems, but there was no difference. The gradually rising tide swallowed them, then slowly receded, only to return again next time.

Along with the tide came crabs, fish, seaweed, and even colossal creatures like sea lions and seals.

A crab, eating seaweed, moved sideways, and with just one side-step, it could overturn countless grains of sand. Even its crab legs would be stained with countless specks of dust.

But suddenly, a pufferfish appeared and crunched the crab to pieces and ate it. During this process, countless grains of sand naturally flew and scattered.

Then a group of seals passed through. In front of the seals, the pufferfish was nothing but a tiny speck. Dozens of seals swept past the pufferfish, scaring it into a ball.

But the seals were not there for the pufferfish; they were speeding through because a killer whale was chasing them from behind. The currents from their escape stirred up many grains of sand, seaweed, crabs, and small fish, but they didn't even glance at them; escaping was paramount.

As for the killer whales behind them? They were even actively stirring up the tide, creating large waves by moving the water, which then surged towards the beach. With a powerful surge, they rushed far onto the sand, bit a seal, and tore it in half.

Then, waiting for the next tide to come in, the killer whale leisurely returned to the great sea with the water.

But killer whales were only one part of the war; compared to the Human and Shaman sides, their power seemed so insignificant.

As for the Human and Shaman sides—

They were, on one side, the ocean, and on the other, the land.

It was the collision of the ocean and the land that stirred up this endless great tide, which would even wash away to the end of time.

Perhaps one day—

When the ocean completely dries up, and the land becomes the main theme.

Or when the land is swallowed by the sea, and water inundates all land.

Only then will all of this truly end.

This war had already merged into a single entity with this Universe, such that any changes and developments within it would shake the very foundations of all living beings. Every living person lived under the shadow of the war, even though they might never have heard what this war was about.

No one could be sure how many people would be swallowed by the great tide in the next minute.

"So, you see, Dipamkara Buddha, in such circumstances, how can you stop me?" a little girl with black clothes and long black hair said in the Void Realm.

The place she was in was an abstract space-time, seemingly not existing in the Reality Universe, but rather a long-closed timeline.

If a Third Rank were here, they would be declared dead, as there was no possibility of going to the outside world.

But this was merely their battlefield.

"What exactly did the Heavenly Demon say to you, that made you fight like this? You look very unaccustomed," a Monk with a solemn and dignified appearance asked at this moment. Around him was Buddha light, everything as bright as a lamp.

"Just a transaction," the Demon of Death, transformed into a little girl, replied coldly. "Sentient beings are like dust, one dust, one kalpa. You have already endured hundreds of thousands of millions of nayuta asankhya kalpas on behalf of each of them. I'm too lazy to count how many sentient beings there are. Should we retreat now?"

"Yes, it's time to retreat," Dipamkara Buddha smiled.