The difference between the Desire Realm and the real universe was that, aside from those who came to visit, there were no beings above the Fourth Rank in the Desire Realm other than those of the demonic path.
In other words, the real universe had such beings protecting it.
In the real universe, the divine path had always been doing this. Li Qi had known that, and he had mentioned things like "the divine path protecting the world" many times before. (There were too many, so he would not specify which chapters.)
Li Qi naturally knew that the Heavenly Gods and Earthly Deities maintained the world. He had heard it in many places.
But only after reaching the Third Rank and beginning to fight had he realized so clearly for the first time just how remarkable the divine path truly was.
This universe, this reality, had been able to persist, to become a history that continued onward—one could even say that the divine path had maintained it single-handedly.
Haotian regarded all living beings and all things as "equal." Under his cultivation, even illusory seeds had blossomed into real flowers.
When all living beings and things lacked substantial reality, they had been just like Li Qi and that spirit-path cultivator in their current battle—able to be fabricated and twisted at will, destroyed one second and reborn the next, altered by all kinds of rules without realizing it themselves.
Yet the Heavenly Gods had continuously maintained the state of reality for the sake of such illusory things, carefully treating the survival of all beings as a matter of importance. Thus, they formed a "history" that could be traced back.
Otherwise, this universe would have fallen into complete chaos long ago.
After all, even a battle between Third Ranks could easily affect such