The Spirituality of Soldier's Qi

Li Qi is going into seclusion.

He didn't want to deal with either the Witchcraft Silkworm or the strangeness of that cave for the time being.

Li Qi, caught in a flash of inspiration, now only wanted to seize this glimmer of light and push his understanding of the Dao even further forward!

Li Qi began his seclusion.

However, he didn't go into seclusion. He simply reduced the time he spent learning other things, suspended his research on the Witchcraft Silkworm, and focused all his energy on two things.

First, I will attend one Military School class every day as usual. As for the other courses, I will give them up for the time being and make them up later. Anyway, they are not difficult.

Secondly, we need to return and study how to explore the existence of this boundary.

Li Qi envisioned several practical explorations and verifications, and he himself began to comprehend the Dao, pondering the underlying reasons, and attempting to summarize a rule that could be used at present.

The so-called enlightenment is actually about summarizing usable and suitable rules based on existing discoveries.

Li Qi did not expect to discover absolute truth on his own, but to directly and correctly understand the infinitely developing objective world in one step, such as discovering the formula for a square.

But he hopes that this time, at least, he can achieve a near-correct understanding of specific things to a certain degree and level, so that the Dao can be used for his own purposes.

Having set his goals for the coming period, Li Qi began to take action.

First, he experimented with a lot of gas, gradually condensing it little by little, observing the moment when the gas gradually became matter, and finding the boundary in the middle.

This is hard work. Different types of qi have different boundaries, and they are extremely difficult to detect. Often, these qi are piled up, and as they are piled up, they suddenly turn into matter.

How it changed, when it changed, is completely imperceptible. Even if you use your True Knowledge Dao Charm to observe the reaction at that moment, you still can't find it.

In the instant that the ethereal became real, there was no trace of it. It simply transformed from qi into matter, acquiring a physical existence and beginning to influence other matter.

He couldn't pinpoint the exact time either. Li Qi's perception could be accurate to the millisecond level, but that was all. There was no trace of any changes in between; there was neither any pre-event reaction nor any subsequent change.

Moreover, this thing has no commonalities.

Water vapor, mountain vapor, Fire Qi — Li Qi tried over a hundred different types of vapor, both inside and outside the body. Each of them required a different amount of time to condense. Even for the same type of vapor, the time it took for it to condense into matter was different in two tests under the same conditions.

This boundary was right there, in that instant, but Li Qi couldn't touch it or observe the specific process.

This caused him constant inner turmoil and inexplicable pain, yet he could only continue trying.

If we cannot find the commonalities in how these gases transform into matter, we naturally cannot analyze any patterns, let alone find the underlying 'Tao'.

Li Qi also considered looking for the answer to this question in other people's classics. Since he couldn't figure it out himself, he might as well just copy someone else's work. Maybe the answer was in the classics?

As a result, he searched through a large number of ancient books and countless materials, but could not find a single relevant record.

This 'boundary,' the boundary between the virtual and the real, seems to have been erased from the classic texts.

Li Qi even considered the Technique Method on Shen Shuibi's body. She was a fifth-rank cultivator, so perhaps she knew more and might have some application in this area in her Technique Method.

Upon further thought, Li Qi discovered that Shen Shuibi often used the Taiyin Qi to condense a physical crescent moon, which she would hang beside her to perform Technique Method.

However, after reviewing the situation several times, he still couldn't find the key to this crescent moon shape, how it was formed, or what the underlying mechanisms were.

Finally, he even considered asking the rabbit directly to see if she could enlighten him.

But for some reason, the terminal could not connect to Rabbit temporarily. All that could be heard was her message, saying that Li Qi should contact her again in a while, as she was busy.

Li Qi had no choice but to wait and see.

Time passed little by little, and in the blink of an eye, half a month had gone by.

In the past two weeks, Li Qi felt that his hair was turning white.

During the two weeks he was in seclusion, his daily schedule was very regular.

I wake up in the morning, start thinking, collect data, and try to 'understand the Tao'.

In the evening, the Military School class would begin, and he would attend for a Chen. Then he would rush back to continue his contemplation and meditation until late at night before going to sleep, and continue the next day.

This has been the case for the past two weeks; meals have been eaten haphazardly, since it doesn't really matter.

It was another new day. Li Qi was scratching his head and pulling at his hair, wishing he could slam his fist on the table.

He shouted angrily, "Damn it... how are we supposed to find a pattern? We've tested it over six hundred times, and not a single result is the same!"

Without commonalities, there are no patterns!

Surely this limit can't be a variable value, right?

If it's a variable value, does that mean my previous inspiration was just a pile of crap?

Or is it that there are too many variables?

There are too many variables, causing the boundary to constantly change.

How many variables are there that I haven't eliminated?

Is it due to the surrounding environment? Are the surrounding earth veins affected? Even one's own observations might be affected? Is it True Knowledge Dao Charm, or a suppression by the natural Heavenly Dao of the world?

There are too many variables that could be questioned.

"Let's try them one by one, reducing them a little each time. Perhaps it's a combined effect of certain variables." Li Qi rubbed his temples.

He had absolutely no idea about it.

Without a clear strategy, the result is quite simple.

To find the answer, we need to exhaustively search for all possibilities.

Try it little by little, and you'll eventually find it.

Li Qi continued to work, throwing himself into the task.

Today was another fruitless day. Apart from eliminating some wrong answers, it was basically a wasted effort.

Then, he went to study at the Imperial Academy.

If you only attend one class, that class will be Military School class.

The main thing is that there should be something related to this, and Li Qi is also spending some of his energy exploring the strangeness that True Knowledge Dao Charm felt.

Unfortunately, there have been no results so far.

Even on the road, Li Qi was thinking about these issues.

Li Qi hadn't seen the other young masters of Wushen Mountain for a long time and didn't know what they were busy with, but he didn't plan to go to them, since everyone had their own things to do.

As he was walking, suddenly, someone patted him on the shoulder.

Li Qi looked up and saw that it was Liu Shenzhi.

"Brother Li, are you done with your work? As for the Witchcraft Silkworm..." Liu Shenzhi asked.

"I'm sorry, Brother Liu, I haven't made any progress yet. Next month, next month for sure," Li Qi said immediately, then continued walking forward with his head down.

Liu Shenzhi looked helpless; there was nothing he could do.

Li Qi's delirious state has lasted too long, and he is quite different from the polite and learned young master of Wushen Mountain he was before.

Moreover, Li Qi's recent strike has slowed down the research and development of the Witchcraft Silkworm.

Li Qi's research was extremely useful. With his help, the progress of the Witchcraft Silkworm was much faster. If Liu Shenzhi had done it on his own, the progress would have been much slower.

But there was nothing that could be done, Liu Shenzhi could understand.

Li Qi may be at some extremely important juncture, so much so that he simply has no energy left to do anything.

We'll just have to wait until he finishes dealing with what he's doing.

Well.

Meanwhile, Li Qi entered the classroom.

Classrooms are now nearly empty.

Previously, including those who audited the classes and those who came to try out the introductory courses, there were dozens of people in the classroom.

But now, with round after round of eliminations, and some people feeling that they are not suitable for or do not like Military School strategy, they stop learning, resulting in only eight people still persisting in learning this course.

The Imperial Academy's curriculum was quite relaxed; it only required a certain number of subjects for graduation. How you studied at the academy was entirely up to you and didn't matter.

Li Qi entered the classroom.

The same Ranger General served as the teacher.

In the past half month, Li Qi and the others have studied for more than ten Chen in that cave, and have undergone sufficient pre-battle training.

The pre-battle arrangements, supplies, morale, training methods, identification of supplies, terrain, and formation of troops had all been rudimentarily studied, and half a month had been spent in that cave.

By now, all preparations for the war have been completed.

They were just waiting to head to the front lines so the two armies could face off.

As Li Qi sat in the classroom, he heard the teacher say, "Today we will learn the art of marching. You each have your own regular soldiers, auxiliary soldiers, and laborers, and they have all been trained. You also have the supplies and weapons prepared for them."

"At this time, your task for the next three days is to organize your troops and transport them to the front lines, where the two armies will face off."

That's what the teacher said.

"The method of marching is of utmost importance. It is easy for one person to march a hundred li a day, but it is extremely difficult for ten people to do so. If a hundred people march a hundred li a day, one or two out of ten will die. If ten thousand people march a hundred li a day, there will be no order and it will inevitably be ruined."

The difficulty of marching varies depending on the number of people.

Walking together with 10,000 people, ensuring no one falls behind, no chaos, no deserters, and no unexpected problems—that's incredibly difficult.

Let alone marching, even queuing up for a couple hundred people to use the toilet would be a big problem.

When tens of thousands of people march, there are one or two hundred people queuing to use the toilet every moment, not to mention other unexpected problems.

Therefore, there must be a system in place to ensure that tens of thousands of people can coordinate with each other so that they can go far and avoid falling behind or making mistakes along the way.

"The techniques have been taught to you. Now it's time to put them into practice. Let's see who can reach the border first. The first to arrive will have the advantage and endless benefits in the war."

Li Qi and the others listened quietly until the end.

After stating today's requirements, the teacher began the lesson as usual.

He talked about the methods to pay attention to during a march, the things to be careful about, what methods to use to avoid difficulties, how to distinguish between mountains and rivers, and how to use the terrain to create an advantage for oneself.

He spoke at a rapid pace, and the students listening below were completely focused. He finished explaining a large amount of knowledge in less than ten minutes, which was basically crammed into the students' brains.

It doesn't matter if you understand it or not, just memorize it.

You'll gradually understand later.

After finishing his speech, he decisively led the remaining eight students into the cave, instructing them to each lead their former soldiers on a journey to the border.

Whoever arrives first can set up their territory in advance and seize important terrain.

Li Qi temporarily put aside the questions in his mind and prepared to study military strategy seriously for a Chen.

During these days, he also gained a deeper understanding of these grottoes.

The people in these grotto-heavens all possess a certain indescribable Dragon Qi. It is precisely because of this that so many ninth-rank beings can be born in this ninth-rank grotto-heaven.

Normally, it would be quite good if a Ninth Rank World had two or three nine-rank individuals, but here, the overall quality of the population was raised in this way, resulting in the emergence of tens of thousands of nine-rank individuals.

Apart from that, Li Qi didn't obtain any other valuable intelligence.

To be honest, other things like local customs and traditions are unnecessary. Once the class is over, that's it.

According to Li Qi's guess, this strange Dragon Qi should be the problematic thing that True Knowledge Dao Charm had detected. Unfortunately, he couldn't find the source of this thing, nor could he ask.

How can I ask? He's the young master of Wushen Mountain; that's a trade secret for him.

Moreover, he dared not ask too many questions related to Dragon Qi.

He himself was carrying the Dragon Soul, although he had already handed it over, it was still related to dragons...

I have a feeling this isn't a good thing.

While these trivial matters were on his mind, Li Qi arranged for the initial Deputy General to begin deploying troops and marching in formation.

He also learned the name of this Deputy General: Jiao Xing.

"Jiao Xing, relay my orders: today we will travel seventy li to the foot of that mountain range, where there are enough trees to live in. Send the scouts ahead to notify those in front to clear the way. Use the formation I arranged beforehand. Before we leave, make sure everyone takes care of their personal hygiene and sanitation. Do not eat or drink much water before we set off, and do not leave the group without permission."

Li Qi waved his hand and gave the order.

"Yes, General." Deputy General Jiao Xing immediately bowed and left.

Then, Li Qi began to organize the team.

After dealing with a host of trivial matters, the troops began to line up in front of Li Qi.

Military equipment and weapons were stored for future use.

In military uniform, holding a halberd, he adjusted his weapons.

Everything is ready.

Looking at the soldiers, Li Qi suddenly thought of something.

He had previously wondered how individual people could form an army.

And where does the army get its Soldier's Qi and soul?

Does this contain the mystery of the large and small that I have been trying to understand for so long?

The nature of qi Great Profundity; we don't know when it transforms into matter.

Could he observe these armies and see what makes individuals become a cohesive group?

Thinking of this, Li Qi immediately stood up and shouted, "Raise the troops!"

The army, which he had trained to obey orders without question, immediately sprang into action, quickly moving into a square formation before him.

Then, Li Qi suddenly struck the military drum to boost Soldier's Qi.

But then they saw that the soldiers' auras merged into one, and the phantom of a lizard appeared on their military formation.

Li Qi suddenly frowned.

How can this phantom have a spirit?!