Qi

Li Qi did not go eat breakfast that morning. Instead, he took a stroll and tested his ability to observe "qi."

He saw that there was water qi within the river.

That qi flowed through the city, stirring up the yin qi within it before merging into the river and being carried away together.

He could see that the beggars sleeping on the streets and coughing had sickly qi mixed within their bodies and breaths.

It should have been sickly qi. He did not recognize it and was merely guessing.

Normal people all possessed yin and yang qi, as well as defensive qi, nutritive qi, vital qi, and so on. So many kinds of qi were mixed together that he could not distinguish them at all.

It was like a forest. From afar, it looked lush and verdant, nothing more than a patch of green. Only by venturing deep inside could one realize that a forest was actually an ecosystem, home to countless species and more plants and animals than one could count. There was simply no way to tell every single kind apart.

Qi seemed like the atoms of another world, the fundamental component of all matter in this world. Everything was made of qi, and the properties of qi determined the properties of matter.

Unfortunately, the book "Zhu" did not explain the principles of qi in detail. It only recorded the properties of certain kinds of qi commonly used in rituals or cultivation, along with methods for using them.

According to the book, the Daoist sects were the experts in researching qi. The Shaman Path was rather inferior in this regard.

As Li Qi walked, he studied the book in his mind, ravenously devouring its knowledge. He knew this would be the foundation upon which he would survive and build his life in the future, so he did not dare slack off in the slightest.

He could even see the progress bar for reading the book...

Naturally, it was very, very, very, very slow.

He had spent three hours urgently reading after getting up that morning, then another two hours carefully studying outside, yet the progress bar was still at 0%.

In other words, he had not even finished 0.1%.

Just how much did this book contain...? It was practically a massive database, wasn't it?

He would probably need at least a year or half to finish reading it.

He kept reading until the sun had fully risen.

Then, the entire city came alive.

Streams of people surged through the streets. Some headed out of the city, while others entered from outside. Coachmen drove their carts, shop assistants delivered goods to every store, and cooking smoke curled upward. In an instant, the entire city sprang to life.

Weaver Girl started up her loom, farmers emerged carrying hoes on their shoulders, shops opened their doors, government offices rang their bells, and everyone woke to bustle about earning their living for the day.

The city at night was like a slumbering colossal beast, but now it had awakened.

Li Qi was profoundly shaken by the sight!

Qi! Qi that soared straight into the clouds!

He did not know how to describe it, but it was simply that shocking.

It was as though an earth-shaking colossal beast were awakening. The qi upon its body was so magnificent, so terrifying, that it shot straight into the heavens.

Even the qi of the constellations in the sky could not compare. The qi of the Earthly Deities upon the ground could only yield. The qi of countless people formed something uniquely its own, a qi possessing an indescribable pressure.

What should this be called... human qi?

Li Qi seemed to see laws, rules, human hearts, and vitality.

That qi moved slowly according to certain rules, supporting a "city"!

A city was not simply a pile of buildings placed together.

A city was a vessel for holding the people, just as a container held Millet and Grains.

For the first time, Li Qi understood the words "Altar of Earth and Grain" so directly, and understood even more clearly what a "city" truly was.

"This... this, this is... the Human Path?" Under such overwhelming majesty, Li Qi could not help muttering to himself, though he began to stammer without realizing it.

He was clever. Almost immediately, he found clues in the books he had read, as well as in what Young Master Zhu had previously said about the conflict between the Human Path and the Shaman Path.

He guessed, perhaps even realized...

This was the Human Path.

This qi was the power of the Human Path!

At this moment, as a Shamanic Priest, he was deeply shaken by the power of the Human Path.

This was only a county town! Feng County had merely some two hundred thousand people!

Then what kind of concept was the prefectural city of Li Prefecture?

And what kind of concept would a prefectural city of the Tang Kingdom be? If it were the capital of the Tang Kingdom, a place that could be called the center of the Human Path, then what sort of sight would that be!?

Li Qi wiped away the Azure Dragon Spirit Qi attached to his eyes.

Everything before him immediately returned to normal.

Carriages and horses flowed through the streets, while crowds rolled like waves. Another utterly ordinary day had begun in Feng County.

Every day was like this.

Yet Li Qi's heart could not calm for a long time.

So this was... the world of cultivators?

The power of a mere county town was already so immense. Then what if his guess from last night... what if it was true?

What level was the Ninth Rank Classification Method that governed cultivators across the entire realm?

What kind of sight would it be if he could see it?

And the laws and decrees that bound the entire Tang Kingdom—what would they look like if they could be seen?

Li Qi did not even dare imagine it. He felt that all of this had already surpassed the limits of his imagination.

He began to miss the prefectural city of Li Prefecture.

Even the morning opening of an ordinary county market was so spectacular.

Then the annual River Opening sacrifice—if he went to see it now, what a magnificent sight would it be!?

"So this is the world of cultivation?" He took a deep breath.

Then, if he could not see it now, would he be unable to see it in the future as well?

As long as he climbed upward step by step, there would surely come a day when he could see it with his own eyes!

At this moment, Li Qi had never wanted to cultivate so urgently. It was as though all his motivation had burst into flame, and he could not wait to become stronger.

Not for glory and wealth, not to become someone above others, nor because of any blood feud or ancient grievance. He was neither oppressed nor chased by some looming calamity.

There were none of those strange and bizarre reasons.

He simply wanted to see.

He wanted to see the "Dao" above!

The Human Path of a small county town on the borderlands was already so magnificent.

Then what about everything else!

He wanted to climb up and see it, climb to the mountaintop, climb to the very highest point, and take in the "Dao" of the entire realm at a glance!

Filled with surging emotion, Li Qi could only feel his heart pounding wildly.

His blood boiled.

He clenched his fists and tried hard to calm himself.

A journey of a thousand miles began beneath one's feet.

No matter how grand his dreams were, he was currently only an unrated little Shamanic Priest, probably about as capable as a village spirit medium.

Perhaps even less capable. Village spirit mediums had a lifetime of experience, while he had jack shit. Even for cultivation and rituals, he had to flip through the book and follow it step by step.

"I still have to study, read, and accumulate progress every day," he thought.

Unfortunately, daily cultivation only needed to be done once each day. Doing more was pointless and brought no benefit.

Then, if he wanted to improve quickly, he would have to rely on something else.

"A horse does not grow fat without night grass, and a man does not grow rich without windfall wealth," Li Qi muttered. If he wanted to improve quickly, then at this stage, he needed to cling tightly to his own thigh—namely, Young Master Zhu.

Then he needed to find Lady Luofu sooner. She was also a big shot, and perhaps he could get a little something from her as well.

He had to set out as soon as possible!