Chapter 993: War

The Universe's landscape is now vastly different.

In the chaotic and bustling world, the Universe has once again ignited a relatively minor war.

Of course, it’s minor compared to the Human-Shaman War, but in reality, this is a war involving multiple Second Grades, and for many civilizations, its intensity is not much different from the Human-Shaman War.

In the fast-paced Universe, various flying ships are mobilized and traveling; most are transporting Materials, and some are warships.

These things are galloping, chasing after the Demonic Dao, grinding them into paste, and forcing them into dead ends to crush them.

If anyone tries to resist, they will quickly be suppressed by Great Powers, and many Demonic Dao Third Grades have chosen to retreat, avoiding direct confrontation.

This is because the Demonic Dao Second Grades have not acted, and the First Grades are even too lazy to bother.

The Demonic Dao has never been a monolith, and the Demonic Dao First Grades are almost indifferent to those below them.

No one would hope for a Heavenly Demon to protect them, right? Or perhaps rely on the Demon of Death?

Therefore, without sufficient high-grade power taking action, Li Qi's campaign to eradicate the Demonic Dao City of Dreams was swift, rapid, and incredibly fast-progressing.

This was a long-awaited, well-prepared, and anticipated struggle; now it has simply finally erupted.

On many battlefields, dead bodies lie strewn about, humanoid creatures with missing limbs from being crushed are everywhere, and countless damaged, twisted, and burned vehicles and various machines fill the Universe.

Above the chaotic City of Dreams, various aircraft are circling, and people are attacking others from rooftops and windows with their familiar weapons.

However, the most chaotic part of the battlefield isn't the fighting, but the slogans.

All the walls are plastered with crude, colorful, dazzling placards, with huge, bright red characters, like burning torches.

Some of these slogans call on others to side with the Demonic Dao, oppose the villains and warmongers attacking City of Dreams, and hope everyone will protect their own City of Dreams and their property.

Other slogans have been painted over, with new text urging everyone to Awaken, not to be controlled by the Demonic Dao, and to kill the Demonic Overlords who treat everyone as food.

They urge people to smash their devilish, howling instruments of oppression, saying that these Demonic Overlords have drained every drop of vitality from others through various means, and they don't care about resources; all they want is your suffering and the constantly growing demonic thoughtss.

There are also some strange slogans, calling on everyone to burn down artificial creations, clear out some tormented land, reduce the population, let grass grow on the land, and let the dust-covered City of Dreams once again become beautiful natural environments like forests, grasslands, wildlands, streams, and swamps, where people can live well.

Or they call for a strike, for peace not war, or promote other ideologies.

Many of these placards are beautifully drawn, very elegant, with soft colors and very clever and witty text. These slogans are quite moving, the red and green placards, the words of the slogans are as hot as fire, very eloquent, logically rigorous, making people feel wonderful, and they can't help but firmly believe that these words are correct.

This is also a war.

Moreover, slogans are not only found on the streets; they are also in information networks, newspapers, and various news channels, from personal news aggregators, some pubs and restaurants, to certain forums, online information posts, and so on.

The ideological war quickly evolved into a real-world war.

People would stand for a while before one slogan, then linger before another, though the intense sounds of war constantly disturbed them, urging them: "Don't look! Quickly choose a slogan and join in!!!"

As for Li Qi, as the primary creator of this scenario, while he waited for Maudgalyāyana to continue contacting other great Bodhisattvas, he was also seeking a way to find the Immortal Heaven.

Unlike meeting the great Bodhisattvas, finding the Immortal Heaven is truly... a bit difficult.

To this day, he still has no clue.

The Immortal Heaven is deeply hidden; this cautious First Grade is unwilling to expose himself. As a barbarian beast, he values his life above all else.

It is difficult for Li Qi just to find him.

And now that he is a Second Grade, no one can help him with this matter, unlike finding the great Bodhisattvas, where Maudgalyāyana could help him with the legwork.

So, finding the Immortal Heaven can only be done by slowly entrusting others to search, and he must also pay attention at all times.

However, compared to those things, the current progress is so smooth that Li Qi feels it's a bit strange.

Is the Demonic Dao really not going to intervene?

There are indeed many Dream Cities in the Universe. In reality, creating a City of Dreams is a 'method.' A Ninth Grade Demonic Dao practitioner can also use his influence in the Mortal world to build a Ninth Grade City of Dreams and absorb the demonic thoughtss from it.

There are no thresholds whatsoever; it's almost like the Dao Orthodoxy breathing Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.

To draw a parallel, what Li Qi is doing now is forbidding Dao Orthodoxy practitioners from breathing Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, forcing them to rely on picking herbs and Alchemy to sustain their cultivation.

Demonic Dao cultivators can no longer use the method of City of Dreams to extensively cultivate demon thoughts; they can only go door-to-door, trying to parasitize and stimulate the demonic thoughtss of sentient beings.

This large-scale targeting, yet without any action from the Demonic Dao high-grades, truly made Li Qi feel a bit apprehensive.

For this, he made many preparations. In the intervals of searching for the Immortal Heaven, he was always on guard against a counterattack from the Demonic Dao.

One day, approximately sixty million years later—

Li Qi was having tea with his father-in-law, the Sun-Moon True Lead Cauldron.

While it's called drinking tea, at this stage, when everyone gathers for tea, it's highly likely they're discussing what they're currently working on.

Yang Zhenqian is also a Second Grade. Although his Dao has been cut off, he doesn't show any despair after experiencing the Human-Shaman War.

This father-in-law is naturally one of Li Qi's backup plans.

“Father-in-law, even now, is there still no clue?” Li Qi asked.

They were having tea in a Grotto-Heaven, where the scenery combined the aesthetics of Shaman Dao and Dao Orthodoxy, making it exceptionally verdant and exquisite.

Cranes and pines chimed, and beneath the pine-shaded slopes of the mountains lay hidden some low-lying grasslands, with water seeping through the grass, and streams flowing through dense thickets.

Yang Zhenqian poured a cup of tea: “It is indeed difficult to find. The Immortal Heaven’ whereabouts have always been a secret. If your information is correct, it means the Immortal Heaven is absolutely resistant to the outside world. When you were in the Immortal Heaven before, there was an absolute vacuum isolation zone of three billion light-years around you, which must have been his doing. Now that you are inquiring about the Immortal Heaven’ whereabouts everywhere, he probably wants you to find him even less.”

As he spoke, he gently poured the remaining tea in his hand into the nearby stream.

The tea flowed down the stream into the many plants, and in an instant, all the flowers in the entire grassland, regardless of their season, bloomed.

The flowers all bloomed elegantly and appropriately, with suddenly blossoming snow-white primroses. In the thorny bushes, by the water, clusters and bunches of roses bloomed profusely.

Compared to the flowers in Chang'an Upper Garden, the flowers here appeared simpler, paler, and more delicate, but they possessed a unique beauty. Although they lacked the rich charm of human-cultivated flowers, which made observers easily overlook them, they were more in line with Li Qi and Yang Zhenqian's aesthetic.

“That’s not the problem. The key is, I’m afraid the Immortal Heaven is very foolish... I’m afraid he won’t understand,” Li Qi sighed.

“Although the Immortal Heaven is just a barbarian beast, he has lived for so many years after all,” Yang Zhenqian consoled.

“If living long could grant wisdom, then the wisest thing would be a stone. Wisdom is refined from thought, and I don't think the Immortal Heaven can think. Now that I consider it, he even needs to devour people to learn Fifth Grade spells. It's truly hard to imagine him using his intellect to interfere with the current First Grade scheming,” Li Qi said, somewhat helplessly.

“That’s unavoidable. Why not relax? Which great Bodhisattvas have agreed to your proposal?”

“Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, Mahāsthāmaprāpta Bodhisattva, and Samantabhadra Bodhisattva. Besides them, the whereabouts of Sūryaprabha Bodhisattva and Candraprabha Bodhisattva have not been found, but Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva has refused, and Dizang Wang Bodhisattva has refused to meet with me. Perhaps he hasn't made up his mind yet,” Li Qi recounted his current achievements.

“That’s already very good. With you, me, Zhu Fengdan, Changqin, and the Golden Monkey, we now have eight Second Grades participating in this matter. Unless a First Grade of the Demonic Dao acts, it’s unlikely they can stop us,” Yang Zhenqian said.

“I’m just afraid of a First Grade acting, so we also need a First Grade to stand with us,” Li Qi brought the conversation back.

“That’s why I said, there’s no need to rush. Do you think the Four Demons would care much about the lower Demonic Dao? For the Demonic Dao, nothing matters except the self. What we’re doing is just a small skirmish. You yourself are protected by the Shaman God. As a Second Grade Shaman, it’s unlikely you’ll directly provoke a First Grade to act, and the same goes for the other great Bodhisattvas. Although those Buddhas are in seclusion, they are not dead. You say there’s no First Grade standing with us, but in reality, who doesn’t have a First Grade?” Yang Zhenqian said.

These words slightly comforted Li Qi.

Indeed.

Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva has Amitabha behind her. Although he doesn't know what the latter is doing now, he probably wouldn't sit idly by while a Demonic Dao First Grade kills people.

And behind him is 'Wu Geng,' his Ancestral Master. Although he hasn't met him much, Wu Geng probably wouldn't let him be beaten to death, right?

Even if the action doesn't get support, having someone to back you up is already a good thing.

So, Li Qi continued to discuss with Yang Zhenqian how to act, where to invest power, which key nodes to modify, and how to guide the course of history.

Through this deliberation, they formulated the next step of the plan, outlining the future development of history and necessary past changes, preparing to use the power of eight Second Grades to dismantle the grassroots forces of the Demonic Dao and reduce the demonic thoughtss generated by City of Dreams.

This was a grand undertaking, but its results were immense.

Perhaps Mortals might not realize the fruits of this project, but... their ability to live in an ordinary, albeit somewhat competitive, but not life-threatening world, might be due to this project.

If not for all that Li Qi had done, the civilization they lived in could very well be a brand new City of Dreams.

However, Li Qi also didn't expect their gratitude; he merely calculated what he needed to do, advancing the demon-extermination operation step by step.

Destroying City of Dreams cannot truly destroy the Demonic Dao. Destroying a Dao Orthodoxy is essentially destroying an ideology, and this cannot be achieved through violence.

Even if all Demonic Dao cultivators were destroyed, in the future, there would still be a 'Genius' who, on a whim, would create the ideology of the Demonic Dao from scratch again.

To destroy an ideology, one needs only another ideology. As long as someone conceives of the 'Demonic Dao,' they can immediately use this new ideology to refute the other, and only then can 'Demon' truly be killed.

But...

How does one refute something like 'absolute subjectivity'?

Li Qi didn't know, and he couldn't figure it out, but there would always be a way.

This is the meaning of thinking, isn't it?

————————

And at this moment...

The Immortal Heaven was 'playing a drama.'

Silently, he picked up individual chess pieces with his fingers—all the old men, young men, children, women, all the lively and cheerful, the sorrowful, the strong and the frail, the nimble and the clumsy 'pieces'—and swiftly placed them on his chessboard, arranging them into a game.

He joyfully formed them into groups and families, made them compete and fight, be friendly and hostile to each other, forming a miniature heaven and earth.

He happily exerted his power, making this vibrant and orderly miniature heaven and earth move, making them compete, fight, ally, wage war, and make them propose, marry, and have children.

He staged a vivid and intense drama with many characters.

Then, he revealed an expression of boredom.

The Immortal Heaven had played enough.

Then, he swept his hand across the chessboard, gently pushing the pieces over, and the entire world collapsed with a rumble.

History ended.

Then he quickly started a second game, contemplating, arranging a new game with the same figures, recombining them, forming new complex relationships. The second game was very similar to the first; it was the same world built from the same Materials, but the colors changed, the speed changed, the emphasized themes were different, and the scenarios were different.

Thus, the great existence named Immortal Heaven formed game after game with the same figures. Each of these figures was identical, and from a distance, these games looked very similar, clearly belonging to the same world, originating from the same source. However, it was predictable that each drama was entirely new.

The Immortal Heaven is learning.

He witnessed the Dao contention, so... this barbarian beast is learning how to manipulate history.