War of the Second Rank

Li Qi was ordered to return to the rear. He didn't even have a chance to say much to Shen Shuibi and Li Shiwei. He could only hurriedly hand Li Shiwei over to Shen Shuibi, give her a few words of advice, and then leave.

He didn't even have time to celebrate the victory in the vanguard battle, and his agreed conversation with the Demon Prince had to be abruptly ended before he hurriedly embarked on his journey.

If he were to guess...

Could it be related to the Demonic Path?

It's highly likely, after all, he was the one who directly bore the gaze of the Heavenly Demon.

But... I'm a little worried, after all, Li Shiwei and her daughter Shen Shuibi will still be on the front lines after the war ends.

The vanguard battle has ended, but the Human-Shaman War has only just begun...

With these concerns in mind, Li Qi embarked on his journey.

The journey was short, only two or three days, but in those two or three days, two Liesu crumbled.

This was the first time Li Qi had known that the teleportation of the Liesu also had a distance limit.

In the past, Li Qi had encountered Liesu, and although Liesu had a carrying capacity limit, it was basically the upper limit of the number and quality of people. If he were to teleport to ten thousand worlds, it would be severely overloaded. The Liesu that Li Qi had at hand were not very able to withstand teleportation of those of the fourth rank or above.

It seems that this was the design in mind, and it was never intended for beings of the fourth rank or above to use it.

But when it comes to teleporting a person, the power of the Liesu seems to be limitless. They can teleport directly from the heavens to the constellations without any pressure.

The distance between them is measured in hundreds of billions of light-years... even the Liesu have no problem with it.

But at this moment, Li Qi realized that even the Liesu would collapse if the teleportation distance was too far.

He himself didn't know where he had been teleported to. This direction had no trace on the Liesu's star map, but the distance was far enough to cause the Liesu to collapse.

After the collapse of two Liesu, he finally arrived at the final headquarters of the Shaman Path.

It really is... the end.

Zhu Fengdan isn't even qualified to give orders here.

Here, a first-rank sorcerer personally oversees the operation, while second-rank officials serve as a staff to process information.

There are many war zones, but this is not the kind of war zone that Li Qi was referring to. Li Qi's war zone was just a small place under Zhu Fengdan's control.

The "war zone" mentioned here refers to the level of someone like Zhu Fengdan.

To be honest...

Li Qi's legs felt a little weak.

Even though he could already stand up straight and speak in front of a third-rank official, the thought that he would be meeting a second- Ranked Shaman this time, that he was coming to the stronghold of the Shaman Path, and that this place was even the ultimate goal of Human Path, the place where the Sun Moon True Lead Cauldron awakened...

Let's try to hold on a little longer; we can't afford to lose face.

Thinking this, Li Qi raised his head and cheered himself up.

Upon arriving here, Li Qi was not greeted by anyone.

In fact, there was no need for reception. Just by arriving at this place, all the information about this place naturally popped into Li Qi's mind.

This was all transmitted directly to him by the 'Alliance'.

The surroundings were not quiet; in Perfected Person. Everyone who came here had matters to attend to, just like Li Qi's.

This made Li Qi recall his time in the war zone.

During his time as commander, he was constantly dealing with the "one-in-a-lifetime events" of the world below, such as the destruction of the world, the extinction of species, and the extinction of civilizations. Li Qi had to handle several thousand such cases every day.

And it's the same now.

For Li Qi, it was a once-in-a-lifetime, momentous event; for the Ranked Shaman here, it was just routine work.

This place doesn't seem to exist in the real universe; it must be some kind of hidden paradise.

A grotto-heaven is an independent space, similar to a microcosm within the universe.

As soon as Li Qi arrived here, he felt an immense pressure.

The surroundings were very simple, just ordinary buildings, like an independent mortal city. There was nothing special about it, and no Divine Ability or Technique Method existed. However, apart from people like Li Qi who were there on business, everyone else was a fourth-rank official.

Li Qi was stunned and felt insignificant.

Everything in this grotto seemed ordinary, but Li Qi could sense that nothing that existed in this space could be ordinary; he simply couldn't perceive their divine intent.

True Knowledge Dao Charm was ineffective here.

It wasn't that it was suppressed and rendered ineffective, but rather... True Knowledge Dao Charm couldn't see through anything here, not even the dust on the ground.

The only information Li Qi could scan was about himself and the items on his person.

This gave Li Qi an unexpected... sense of tranquility.

At least he can actually observe things using optical methods now, instead of having his eyes filled with a deluge of information.

However, we came here on official business.

He walked on and joined the crowd, appearing completely inconspicuous.

Separated from the crowd, he came to a small room.

According to information from the 'Alliance', he will come into contact with the spirit of the Ranked Shaman here, and the other party will explain the specific matters.

Yes, we'll only talk about it here; we can't say it outside.

Because everything that happens outside can be monitored and leaked.

Only inside this cave is it safe.

The small room had very few things: a table, a chair, and nothing else. Even an ordinary person's home was better than this.

Li Qi sat down in the chair, upright and attentive, waiting quietly.

He didn't have to wait long; soon, a phantom materialized in front of him.

Li Qi held his breath.

Is this a fragment of the spirit of the Ranked Shaman?

There was nothing unusual about it; there was no divine intent involved. It was just a ball of light condensing into a human form, probably just for the purpose of speaking.

This Ranked Shaman was very ordinary, just like someone you might encounter on the street at any time. He wore coarse cloth, which had an ancient feel to it, as if he had been dug out of the ground.

While Li Qi was observing, Ranked Shaman spoke.

"Li Qi, right?" he asked.

"Yes, it's me," Li Qi replied immediately.

Ranked Shaman calmly said, "The decision regarding you has been made. You will be confined here for 350 years. During this period, you are free to move around, but you can only stay in this cave. You cannot contact the outside world, you cannot break through your cultivation level, and you cannot leave any written or pictorial records."

"Is this a punishment? What did I do?" Li Qi frowned immediately.

He won the vanguard battle, so why should he be punished instead of being rewarded?

"Hmm? Oh, you're in charge of Zhu Fengdan's battle zone, so he probably didn't tell you... Tsk, that bastard." Ranked Shaman glanced at the data and immediately understood what was going on.

Then he began to explain, "This is not a punishment, nor is it because of what you are doing now, but because of the future."

"The future?" Li Qi was dumbfounded.

"Yes, the future," Ranked Shaman said. "Because of your daughter's arrival, three hundred and forty-two years from now, you will openly disobey Si Rong Zhu Fengdan's orders and choose to cooperate with the demonic path. In the end, you will save your wife and daughter, but this will lead to the destruction of one-seventh of the Human Path line and the direct fall of more than 16.4 million war zones. This has already happened, so it must be stopped."

"Therefore, you must remain here for three hundred and fifty years. All your interference with the outside world must cease. Here, fate and cause and effect cannot interfere; only the probability of pure matter remains."

After hearing this, Li Qi opened his mouth, but seemed unsure of what to say.

"Do you understand now?" said the divided spirit of Ranked Shaman.

Li Qi stood up from his chair. "No, I still don't understand. Why would the Shaman Path punish me now for future mistakes? I've never done such a thing! Even after you told me, I won't do it. I know you can foresee the future, but since you've stopped me, the future will be changed..."

Li Qi was about to say something with righteous indignation, but when he got to this point, he suddenly froze.

He himself realized that something was wrong.

If it were truly possible to change the future, then the Ranked Shaman, seeing a future war that would result in devastating losses, would stop it; their simple decision could save thousands of lives.

Therefore, this matter would be prevented from the very beginning.

But once this was prevented, it was as if it had never happened.

How can the Ranked Shaman see and interfere with something that has never happened? Besides, they have made it clear that this has already happened.

The Ranked Shaman learned of the outside world and gleaned information about the future battle, but they also planned to alter the future so that the war would never happen...

So, what should we do with all this suddenly added information?

Should we make it disappear suddenly?

The Ranked Shaman now possess the outcome and even the details of a future war, a war that will never happen after Li Qi is confined to his quarters.

So where did the intelligence about that war come from? And how should we comment on the fact that this event has already happened?

This is a time paradox.

In Li Qi's imagination, perhaps... this information and this event occurred in another parallel universe, just like the parallel world theory.

In this universe, wars will occur, but not in the universe where Li Qi himself is. Different choices have given rise to different world lines, and the Ranked Shaman has witnessed such a world line.

But reason told Li Qi that it was far from that simple, because he knew all too well the world's definition of the 'universe'.

All of space and time combined together constitute the universe.

So... what exactly happened?

Seeing Li Qi becoming confused as he spoke, Ranked Shaman's divided spirit was about to leave, but he suddenly saw the causal threads on Li Qi's body again.

This prompted him to say a few more words, because this was a genius, a young man who had seen the thread of cause and effect when he reached the sixth rank.

So he said, "If we could really see the future and perfectly predict what will happen in the future, let's not talk about whether this divination is done through calculation or something else."

"So, do you think Human Path has this capability?" he asked.

Li Qi thought for a moment and nodded.

Yes, Human Path should exist.

Therefore, both sides can see the future and can interfere with it...

So... how do we fight this kind of battle?

Li Qi's expression froze.

Seeing Li Qi's expression, Ranked Shaman continued, "You see, if both sides can do it, and our wisdom is flawless, there will never be any failure or victory."

"You see the future and modify it. I modify the future you modified, and you modify the future I modified. This war will become a rough sketch that we and Human Path can modify or even erase. Then the war will no longer have any meaning."

"So, the fact that we're fighting means that war isn't what you imagine. You can start to understand it from the phrase 'it has already happened,'" Ranked Shaman said.

"So... I did do it, it actually happened." Li Qi forced himself to calm down and asked carefully.

"Yes, you did it, it did happen, but... we're going to start all of this over and over again," Ranked Shaman said.

Li Qi felt like his heart had stopped.

But Ranked Shaman ignored him and continued, "No one can predict the future, because the future itself is the present. Whether it is the past or the future, it is the present. Since the present is uncertain, the future must be uncertain."

"The divination you do is essentially deducing possibilities, not predicting the future, because the future cannot be predicted."

At this moment, Li Qi could barely catch his breath. He immediately said, "Then... if I have already done this, you... have turned back time?"

"We have never reversed time, or you should ask... what exactly is time? You should know about the relativity of the timeline, your frequent near-light-speed travels, the extraterrestrial nature of the Liesu, and the unique cosmic light of many worlds. You should realize that time does not exist, right?"

Li Qi had no choice but to think carefully and finally came to a conclusion that went against his intuition.

"Yes..." He opened his mouth with difficulty and said, "Time does not exist... Time is just our subjective perception of matter."

"You see, it's that simple. We recombine the matter, reverse our decision, and start all over again. We don't know what the future holds, so we can only try again and again. You and we will try together."

"That's why I'm telling you so much. You're a very good young man. I've seen many of your achievements, all of which you've actually done, but you don't know about them because they haven't happened to you." Ranked Shaman's expression softened slightly.

Before Li Qi could react, he continued, "So, you should understand our decision-making process. We want to win a war, not just a battle."

"We cannot focus on individual battles; we must consider the overall picture. That's why we often send you out to fight battles we are destined to lose, and why we sacrifice our younger generation, knowing that their deaths will bring no immediate benefit and may even turn a victorious battle into a defeat. But all of this is for the sake of long-term victory."

"We are constantly exploring the future; this is the war of the second rank."