The Heavenly Demon's Tenderness

Li Qi spent a full Chen trying to understand what had happened and then summarizing it.

Li Qi tried countless methods to escape from that endless torment of darkness.

One method is to transmit one's mind through the True Knowledge Dao Charm to the Demonic Energy Clone outside.

But clearly, this attempt failed.

Li Qi transmitted his mind, but his mind did not leave; it remained trapped in the cage, firmly locked by the Five Aggregates Demonic Blood.

He had to look for other ways.

Finally, after losing his sense of time and not knowing how much time had passed, he found a potentially feasible method.

This method originates from Buddhism, specifically from Chan Master Kaiwen said, "Sound, form, and appearance arise from the mind itself. The mind that discriminates falls into the Evil Dao. The Buddha uses non-form, but you mistakenly take it as form. The Buddha uses non-appearance, but you mistakenly take it as appearance."

Since the 'forms' within the Five Aggregates cannot be distinguished or perceived, then let us abandon them and face the real world.

This is difficult because without 'form', he cannot describe or understand the world.

This is similar to...

A person who can read and use language flexibly is imprisoned, or to put it more extremely, is blind and deaf-mute and can only read by touch.

He had a loyal servant who would carve what he saw onto wooden tablets and describe it to him, so that he could understand what he had seen through words.

His only way of understanding the outside world is through writing, and his only way of describing the outside world is through writing. So, when he chooses to abandon writing, how does he understand the outside world?

The answer is, incomprehensible.

Even if you put a red piece of paper in front of him, he wouldn't know it's red.

He didn't know what 'red' was; he had never seen a color before.

The only thing he understood was how to write the word "red." He recognized the word "red," but he didn't know what it represented.

Colors cannot be directly correlated with text.

Li Qi had no idea what this color actually looked like.

This is how Li Qi is now.

Previously, all he could see were the two words 'red', which were carved on a wooden board by his servant Wu Yun. However, ordinary people would take that as reality.

In reality, they had never actually seen the color red; they simply took the shape of the word "red" as the color red itself.

What Li Qi needs to do is abandon his original understanding of the word 'red' and then rebuild his perception of the outside world.

The most important thing is to see red with your own eyes.

But can a blind person see red?

Without a doubt, it is impossible.

But Li Qi was lucky; he had a sixth sense in addition to his five senses. This was his 'eyes,' which allowed him to open his eyes and see, not just 'red.'

He first used Technique Method to reconstruct the eyes.

It's very simple; it can be done with Technique Method. There are many Technique Method in Shaman Path that can observe things through mountains and rivers. The principle is not complicated: create a fictional Technique Method eye, send it out, and use this eye to see things.

Simply using the other eye is meaningless. The information collected by this eye will still be sent to the Five Aggregates, and since the Five Aggregates are suppressed and unable to process it, Li Qi still cannot see anything.

However, Li Qi changed the structure of the Technique Method, transmitting what this eye saw to True Knowledge Dao Charm.

This is also a meaningless act. True Knowledge Dao Charm cannot understand it, so she can only record this information as always.

But the actions that followed had meaning.

Li Qi planned to directly cramm this unprocessed information into his brain.

This is dangerous.

A person who has never opened their eyes and looks directly at the sunlight may see a rainbow, or they may become completely blind, or even fall into a coma or die.

Just imagine, if you stay in a dark cellar for three days, and then come out into the sunlight, a person would faint...

Not to mention someone who has never opened their eyes before, being bombarded with a large amount of information without any warning; that feeling must be much more stimulating than coming from darkness into the sunlight.

But Li Qi was already close to madness at that time, and he was willing to risk his life to try it.

He actually almost died.

The 'true' information was far more terrifying than he had imagined. Only the moment he came into contact with it did he realize the meaning of the existence of the Five Aggregates.

Without the five aggregates, all mortals would die.

The outside world is dangerous, so mortals evolved 'skin' to resist external erosion.

The five aggregates are the skin of the mind.

A person without the five aggregates is like someone walking on the ground with their skin peeled off; even the gentlest touch will bring intense pain.

This is the source of Li Qi's endless torment.

His weak mind could not withstand such an impact, and even though Li Qi was already a seventh-rank official, he almost couldn't hold on.

Red is not just red.

It contains countless rays of light, each ray different, with different wavelengths and images.

This is just one color; the world is made up of countless colors.

That eye received a vast amount of information, so immense it was almost indescribable. The information itself was nothing special, but there was just too much of it.

He almost died from that level of information.

Incredible.

So this is true... its destructive power is unbelievable.

However, Li Qi keenly realized...

This is the same as the Thirty-two Forms of a Buddha statue; it is the second layer of delusion.

What he now believes to be the truth is still not the truth.

Li Qi couldn't understand those information streams at all; they were pure gibberish. Although they could be decoded into 'images' that the eyes could see, it was clear that Li Qi didn't have the ability to decode them. Decoding was something that only the Five Aggregates could do.

Such garbled text can perhaps be understood as 'contamination'.

An unbelievable, incomprehensible, and indescribable stream of information washed over Li Qi's mind, attempting to shatter it into utter fragments.

Fortunately...

For some reason, Li Qi felt somewhat used to it and relaxed.

Years of brainwashing had made him accustomed to the massive flow of information. The information contained in reality was indeed terrifying, but Li Qi was gratified.

It's like a weightlifter being blocked by a huge boulder; it's a perfect match for their major.

Li Qi managed to withstand the flow of information, but he couldn't keep it up forever. Even a weightlifter can only lift a weight for three seconds before putting it down when the lights come on.

If you keep holding it up, you'll die.

He held on for three seconds, then decisively ended the Technique Method.

There's already enough information coming in.

Li Qi plans to encode this information and restore the fragmented information stream into visual information.

The difficulty of doing this is roughly equivalent to translating an English book into Chinese without knowing English.

It's almost impossible to do.

But it wasn't impossible. Li Qi was a smart man, and smart men are best at finding solutions. Before finding this solution, he had already tried many other methods.

First, Li Qi can confirm that these are all image information, because this information was forcibly read from the eyes constructed by the Technique Method by True Knowledge Dao Charm.

What is visual information? It can be broadly categorized into color, shape, spatial depth, and contrast.

Therefore, this information can be regarded as a 'puzzle'.

With the aid of graphics and imagination, we first connect these messy pieces of information with graphic colors to establish a "connection" at the level of meaning.

Arranged from simple to complex, from concrete to abstract, simple and direct information, such as color, is divided into the first level.

Information whose meaning cannot be determined is temporarily abandoned and designated as Level 2.

Based on the results of the first level, we can make simple combinations and explore the basic organizational structure of the second level.

Based on the second-level basic grammatical structure, more meanings are determined by adding meanings, and it is marked as the third level.

By combining the structures of the third level to form the final picture, and examining the logical sequence, the guesses of the first level are verified in this way. If a logical error occurs, it means that the assumption of the first level is wrong. The assumption is then re-formulated so that the final result conforms to the verification of the third level and conforms to common 'logical cognition'.

There may be instances where the meaning is uncertain, but repeated confirmation with multiple samples can likely eliminate most errors.

Repeat this process.

Ultimately, these pieces of 'information' are pieced together to form a picture.

This scene is not real; it was imagined by Li Qi.

All he could see and feel was still a chaotic flow of information.

But he can decipher what these information streams represent and what kind of image each stream represents.

If I had to describe it, in the past there were five aggregates, and he could directly see 'images', just like the patterns on a computer desktop, the mouse, and the visual interface.

But now, he can only see strings of code. He has to use these codes to mentally recreate the entire 'desktop' before he can operate it.

It's very troublesome and extremely difficult, but it's the only solution Li Qi can think of right now.

An ordinary person's brain could never accomplish such a thing, but he was already at the seventh rank, and his intellect far surpassed that of ordinary people, allowing him to complete this extremely difficult thought process like a computer.

Fortunately, this time, he succeeded.

Li Qi this method to successfully reconstruct his vision, albeit a fake one.

He can only imagine what he should see at this moment by relying on real-time translation amidst a chaotic flow of information.

After rebuilding his vision, he then rebuilt his hearing, and with the help of these two senses, he temporarily regained control of his body.

He still has no sense of touch; touching his body only brings incomprehensible information. He also has no sense of smell, cannot taste anything, and can only control his body by relying on his vision.

As soon as he closes his eyes, he can no longer feel his body, and he even walks unsteadily, unable to maintain his balance.

But the good news is... he finally woke up.

However, as is customary, good news is always followed by bad news.

The bad news is that after waking up, the Demonic Energy Clone was gone, and according to the Sovereign of Lingxiao Kingdom, it ran away on its own, and even claimed to be Li Qi.

Li Qi didn't know what to say, but he felt... something was wrong.

"Ahem, so your divided spirit developed sentience and ran away on its own?" the Sovereign of Lingxiao Kingdom said to Li Qi.

These words were transformed into information in Li Qi's ears, and then transmitted to his mind, arranging into a pile of indescribable information.

Li Qi was stunned for a moment. He was spending a lot of energy processing this information. The information flow, which was originally easy to process quickly by the Five Elements, now seemed particularly difficult.

This information is processed into vibration waves, and then the behavior of these vibration waves is simulated to ultimately generate the sound in one's mind.

After a moment of stunned silence, he stiffly manipulated his mouth and said, "That's right, Your Majesty, could you help me cast a Technique Method to suppress the Five Aggregates Demonic Blood?"

Speaking like this is difficult because he doesn't know what's going on with his mouth. He can only forcefully manipulate his tongue and then confirm what he's saying through skull resonance.

This made him speak like a robot, and for the entire Chen, he relied on this inefficient method to communicate with the Sovereign of Lingxiao Kingdom.

Upon hearing Li Qi's words, the Sovereign of Lingxiao Kingdom also noticed that Li Qi's condition was not right, and nodded in agreement. "If you need it, then let's find a secluded place and rent a cave abode."

"Thank you..." Li Qi nodded.

Having completed the conversation and reviewed the prospects, the Sovereign of Lingxiao Kingdom, following traffic rules, stopped the Jade Road below.

Then, she helped Li Qi rent a fifth-grade cave abode.

The price was very high; it cost a top-tier seventh-grade Law Treasure, and I only rented it for one day.

However, it is normal for a fifth-grade cave abode to be a bit expensive.

Upon entering the cave abode, the Sovereign of Lingxiao Kingdom began to cooperate with Li Qi in performing the ritual.

Li Qi instructed her to tell her the specifics of his Five Aggregates and the Five Aggregates Demonic Blood, and to suppress the demon.

It must be said that a fifth-rank expert is indeed powerful. Although he appears somewhat weak in front of Li Qi, his strength is undeniable.

The Sovereign of Lingxiao Kingdom reached out his hand, and saw countless Trumpet Flower blooming on Li Qi's body.

These Trumpet Flower took root in Li Qi 'Li Qi body, their roots piercing into his body and connecting to his nerves, emitting a mysterious fluctuation.

Li Qi knew that this was not Technique Method, but the true form of the Trumpet Flower God.

She personally took root in Li Qi to suppress the Five Aggregates Demonic Blood.

With Li Qi acting as an inside agent and reporting on the Five Aggregates Demonic Blood, the Sovereign of Lingxiao Kingdom began his pursuit.

Li Qi could feel something chasing him around inside his body.

The Five Aggregates Demonic Blood seemed to possess a mind of its own, frantically fleeing, causing Li Qi's body to continuously emit painful groans, while the roots of the Trumpet Flower God continued to spread.

The root system not only traveled through Li Qi's physical body, but also continuously became spiritualized, even taking root in his soul!

Mysterious and profound knowledge, hungry and hungry divine insight.

When Yin vanishes in an instant, Yang has no light.

Wandering freely on Mount Heng in the north, guided by the soaring clouds.

The mist disperses across the vast sky, and the spirit finds tranquility.

With countless stamens taking root, Li Qi was almost turned into a vegetable. The roots entered his blood vessels, surrounding and blocking him, forcibly forcing the demonic blood to have nowhere to go.

Then, the Trumpet Flower God finally encountered the Five Aggregates Demonic Blood, and a flower bloomed on the Five Aggregates Demonic Blood.

She used the Five Aggregates Demonic Blood as a flowerpot and forcibly fixed it in place!

This pursuit seemed to have brought about many changes within Li Qi's personal world.

First, countless flower clusters grow within the microcosm of the human body.

But it did not spread; instead, it gradually formed into sacred peaks.

Lingxiao is the garment, the spirit sheds its skin and rides on the smoke.

Breathe in and out the Six Qi, ascend and descend to the nine heavens.

Wonderful things possess a spiritual quality; absorbing them does not lead to negativity.

Full but not overflowing, concealing one's brilliance and hidden radiance.

Its measure is vast, encompassing truth and cleansing impurity!

Accompanied by Divine Ability Li Qi could not comprehend, countless flowers gathered within his body, then withered.

It blooms and withers endlessly, just like the cycle of life.

That drop of Five Aggregates Demonic Blood was also trapped in this cycle of reincarnation, fluctuating constantly with the cycle of decay and flourishing.

When it withers, its demonic blood dries up and it is powerless to escape.

When it is at its peak, its demonic blood is abundant, and it will inevitably try to escape. However, according to the law of flourishing and decay, it will suddenly wither away when its power reaches its peak.

Meanwhile, the flower bushes outside maintained this state, and the numerous spiritual peaks formed from the flower bushes within Li Qi's body maintained the cycle of withering and flourishing.

It took a full ten Chen to finally complete all of this.

After completing all of this, Li Qi felt that his suppressed Five Elements had returned.

The King of Mind has finally found a loyal servant again.

As the five aggregates recovered, Li Qi's five senses also returned.

He regained a direct perception of the world, only... it wasn't as direct anymore.

This crisis was weathered without major incident, except that the Demonic Energy Clone disappeared.

Even the Sovereign of Lingxiao Kingdom looked exhausted.

She wiped her sweat and said, "Alright... I've temporarily sealed the demonic blood using the Four Seasons Cycle of Life and Death. It should be fine for more than ten years. During this time, you can go find the Great Witch. They should be able to completely remove this thing. Then you'll be fine, young master. So, when shall we set off for Chang'an?"

She was a little anxious because the Five Aggregates Demonic Blood was something she couldn't handle. Suppressing it for a short period of time with all her might was already her limit.

As for the rest, let the young master's background handle it; she has no other options.

"Give me some time, I need to... familiarize myself with it." Li Qi shook his head and stood up unsteadily.

The Sovereign of Lingxiao Kingdom frowned.

To be honest, she still doesn't quite understand what happened to this young master.

It doesn't matter anyway. He said to wait a few days, so let's wait a few days. It's only a few days.

So, the Sovereign of Lingxiao Kingdom said, "Then I will come to find you again in three days... oh, two days later, as we agreed before."

"Who told you it would be three days?" Li Qi asked, looking up.

"You, your clone," said the Sovereign of Lingxiao Kingdom.

She was puzzled. What was wrong with this young master? Had there been a break in his consciousness and memories? Was it because of the demonic blood?

"Oh... I see. Okay, then let's go with the time you suggested." Li Qi nodded, not dwelling on it too much.

Because...

He needs time to make comparisons.

The Sovereign of Lingxiao Kingdom left, while Li Qi moved to an ordinary cave abode.

There's no way around it, I can't afford the expensive ones.

After moving into a new room, Li Qi sat down and began to reminisce about the past and compare it with the present.

In the instant he regained the five aggregates, he had 'intuitive perception' again. However, after experiencing the time he lost the five aggregates, he realized that such perception was so illusory, even unbelievable.

This sensory experience is very intuitive and useful, but it is not real.

This, along with everything he had encountered before, made him realize one thing.

There is indeed a spiritual entity, and it is closely related to the material entity.

"In other words... the spiritual entity exists, but it does not operate in the material world; yet it exists independently of the material world."

Li Qi tentatively touched it, but he sensed a 'boundary'.

The 'boundary' between spirit and matter.

It should be understood that even the soul is essentially material, a physical entity. Li Qi had never truly come into contact with the so-called 'spiritual entity' before.

Now, he has come into contact with it; he has clearly perceived the spiritual entity and touched the 'boundary' between it and matter.

The concept of boundaries now seems to be of particular importance.

Li Qi felt that understanding 'who I am' was of paramount importance.

He never realized that the concept of boundaries could actually work here.

It seems that everything he encountered after reaching the seventh rank was paving the way for 'who I am'.

Coincidence? Or...?

Forget about that.

Once he returns to Chang'an, he will be able to see the boundaries between the material and the spiritual world with his own eyes.

Together with his previous perception of spiritual entities, these elements form Li Qi's current understanding.

With all these things piled up, it seems that only a thin layer of paper is needed; once that layer is broken, the question of 'who I am' can be seen.

Li Qi was very curious about one thing: how did the Demon Dragon, which was dismembered and turned into a grotto in the Tang Kingdom, revive, and how did its physical body reassemble into a 'mind'?

After his fragments were pieced together, how did his mind revive within his body, and how did his spirit break through this boundary?

This is the only answer I'm missing. This is the last piece of my puzzle.

Besides these, this crisis also made him sense something, perhaps even a kind of Heavenly Eye.

He now has two perspectives.

One is the intuitive feeling brought about by the Five Aggregates; the other is the data flow perspective after discarding the Five Aggregates.

There is no distinction between superior and inferior, but it is indeed a heterogeneous sense.

Before Li Qi restored the Five Aggregates, he could not understand what the data flow vision really represented. He could only clumsily use exhaustive enumeration and logical reasoning to barely reconstruct his previous vision.

As mentioned before, when translating an English book into Chinese without understanding English, the errors and omissions are predictable.

Now, Li Qi possesses both the data flow perspective and the perspective brought by the Five Aggregates, which means he can understand both Chinese and English books, making translation between them much easier.

Therefore, he discovered that, as Human Race, he was born unable to perceive and understand a part of the structure of this world, and he had to come into contact with the real world to perceive it.

The Five Aggregates (skandhas) shield and transform this part of the information.

This information might be what the 'Heavenly Eye' sees. Li Qi doesn't know what the Heavenly Eye is yet, but he guesses that this special data stream vision is part of the Heavenly Eye's capabilities.

After all, only through this method can one truly 'see through all forms and colors,' not be hindered by any illusions, and even glimpse the mystery of reincarnation.

Li Qi now felt that all illusions were useless against him, because if an illusion enveloped him, the data stream and what the naked eye saw would not match, and he would immediately realize that he was enveloped by an illusion.

The data flow perspective is what the 'mind' sees.

The intuitive field of vision is what the 'physical body' sees.

Only by combining the two can we depict a more realistic picture, just like Li Qi, who is also an individual composed of both body and mind.

Only...

Currently, the data stream vision still needs True Knowledge Dao Charm as an 'interface', which will consume some of True Knowledge Dao Charm's power and reduce its scanning depth.

But Li Qi felt it was totally worth it, since he had only achieved the streaming of visual and auditory data so far.

I'm just a little dizzy.

The sensory experience resulting from the overlap of the two perspectives, as well as the familiarity with the data stream perspective, all require time; he still cannot process them freely.

But practice makes perfect, and he planned to take a few days to get used to it. Fortunately, he had two days to slowly try it out in this relatively inexpensive cave abode and get used to it as much as possible.

Just as Li Qi put aside all his doubts and prepared to start the habit training, he finally broke free from his fear.

A day earlier, 'he' felt terrified.

He discovered that he might not be Li Qi. Although he had all of Li Qi's emotions, memories, Technique Method, and even his body and thought patterns were exactly the same, there were two things that did not acknowledge that he was Li Qi.

The first one is the Nexus of All Realms, the ultimate mechanism created by Human Path, a second-grade Law Treasure. The fact that 'he' cannot open Li Qi's account indicates that the Nexus of All Realms believes 'he' is another person.

The second is True Knowledge Dao Charm.

Driven by fear and panic, 'he' fled haphazardly to Baiyue. After subconsciously using True Knowledge Dao Charm to scan his surroundings, 'he' discovered—

True Knowledge Dao Charm was missing.

The two pieces of evidence corroborate each other, and neither accepts that 'he' is Li Qi.

He still remembers how he was born.

He originally thought he was Li Qi, but a day had passed and he had figured it out.

Having inherited all of Li Qi's ways of thinking, 'he' possesses the same wisdom as Li Qi, so a day is enough for 'him' to calm down and think about how to deal with the current situation.

The birth of 'him' was because Li Qi, in despair, tried countless ways to save himself. In the most extreme case, Li Qi even thought of abandoning this body, infusing his mind into Demonic Energy Clone, then resolving the Five Aggregates Demonic Blood from the outside, and finally returning to his original body.

It's a very useful approach, but there's been a problem.

True Knowledge Dao Charm can transmit information, but it does not have the 'import and delete' function.

In other words, Li Qi's mind did not leave, but was read and copied by the True Knowledge Dao Charm and transmitted to the Demonic Energy Clone.

Under normal circumstances, this kind of mental activity will not work, because the recipient must also have their own mind. This chaotic 'possession' is meaningless, and even the most ordinary mortal can resist it by relying on the five aggregates.

But perhaps it was a coincidence, these were not among the Demonic Energy Clone.

If it's not there, it's actually not a good thing, because this information won't be of any use.

Information needs a carrier.

Code engraved on a CD can be read and generate power, while code engraved on stone is just a string of patterns.

But... perhaps it really is just a coincidence. Within this Demonic Energy Clone, there is a mind personally copied by the Witch God. This mind is a blank. According to the Witch God, this mind was designed to gradually read Li Qi's mind a hundred years later, eventually activating it and giving birth to another Li Qi.

The purpose of all this was to urge Li Qi to understand 'who I am' within a hundred years.

However, before a hundred years had passed, True Knowledge Dao Charm had completely copied Li Qi's mind just one day earlier.

And so, 'he' was born.

"Am I Li Qi?" He murmured to himself, looking at his hands.

He possesses all of Li Qi's memories and emotions. He even loves Shen Shuibi just like Li Qi, and shares Li Qi's fervent curiosity about the unknown.

"Why is he Li Qi?" he muttered to himself, his eyes even turning somewhat terrifying.

His eyes were filled with resentment and indignation at the injustice.

He has the same body and mind as Li Qi. Even if he stood in front of Shen Shuibi would not be able to detect anything amiss.

The love was real, and the memories were real too.

Then what makes you say 'he' is fake?

Why is the Li Qi sitting on the Jade Road the real one?

No one can tell the difference. If it's demonic energy, then just replace it.

Before long, by frantically absorbing the energy from the outside world, he could quickly transform his personal microcosm into one exactly like Li Qi's, since they both operated on the same 'Dao'.

'He' is Li Qi!

He roared, unleashing his cultivation power and displaying the might of a seventh-grade master. The mountains beneath his feet crumbled, and the mountain and water veins were torn apart. The mountain and water gods fled in panic, but were crushed by his surging cultivation power and shattered into pieces. Countless birds and beasts frantically fled from every corner of the valley, but most of them failed to escape.

For dozens of miles around, it was as if the area had been punished by the gods, and natural disasters began to strike.

When Shaman wants to overthrow a place, he only needs to use his own small world to oppress the existing world. Under the conflict of rules, those weak who cannot resist the aftershocks will naturally suffer a devastating blow.

The mountain range changed course, the water veins were cut off, and the entire mountain lost its vitality.

He sat helplessly amidst the ruins.

Li Qi had never lost his composure like this before. Even after reaching the seventh rank, Li Qi had always been careful to control himself and never did anything that would have a huge impact. After all, doing so in the world was very dangerous and impolite.

But 'he' no longer cared about those things.

The fact that he was able to overcome his fear and not go insane is enough to demonstrate his mental fortitude. If he were an ordinary person, he would probably have already fallen into self-destruction by now.

In fact, it wasn't that 'he' hadn't thought about it.

He took his own life, so that there would only be one Li Qi in the world.

But just as he said a few minutes ago, why is the 'Li Qi' on the other side the real one?

On what grounds?

'He' is no different from Li Qi.

Even if they switched places, 'he' believed that Li Qi would make the same choice as him.

His gaze hardened.

He also has the right and desire to live, and he doesn't want to be a fake.

And then, at that moment, the world around us turned black.

In the darkness, a charming woman appeared in 'his' arms, sat on 'his' lap, and gently stroked 'his' face.

"You are Li Qi, aren't you? I know, I know," the Heavenly Demon said gently.

(We're still a little over two hundred votes short of a thousand votes. Although it's highly unlikely we'll reach the thousand mark, I'll still add an extra chapter for everyone.)