Before Li Qi lay the aggregate of countless desires.
Something unbelievable, unimaginable.
It was merely a glass bead, yet Li Qi seemed to see some kind of frozen "spark."
How should he put it...
It was like an uncle who wanted a smoke walking down a country path. He took out a match, struck it with a swish, and the match ignited, releasing light and heat.
In some unknown place, at the tip of that match, in the smoking uncle's hand, a universe erupted because of it and began to blaze fiercely.
The universe on the match tip rapidly developed consciousness through chemical reactions. That consciousness swiftly evolved intelligence, becoming a race possessed of higher wisdom.
After lengthy discussions and experiments, though only four or five seconds had passed in the outside world, the intelligent life in the match universe proved through experiment that a greater universe existed beyond their own.
They realized that they were merely a "universe on a match." They were destined to be unable to stop the flame from vanishing. In another second—which was already an incomparably long time to them—the universe would burn out and march toward destruction.
Since that was so, the intelligent life within the match universe gave their all to thinking and discussing. What could they do in this final, lengthy second?
In the end, after countless discussions among the wisest lives in the match universe, they unanimously decided to gather the strength of the entire universe and seize that final instant for their last and only chance at self-rescue.
The universe inside the match poured everything into the greatest attempt of its life. Beneath the bated, silent gaze of every life in that universe, the universe exploded.
To the uncle's eyes, the flame merely flared suddenly. A tiny red spark burst