Myriad Paths

The outline of the object gradually appeared, full of color.

A certain kind of power was also growing around, until it turned into a song.

Yes, a song.

The steady, magnificent music sounded around, as if it was singing about everything, making Li Qi close his eyes and indulge in it.

It is well known that Haotian likes music.

In the rituals of worshiping Haotian that the witches and shamans now retain, music is also an extremely important part, and even the human world has retained the position of "Grand Music Master".

In the music, when things changed from nothingness to a scene outlined by many simple and clear lines, Li Qi finally met Haotian.

Under normal circumstances, if Li Qi came to visit Haotian, the other party would not necessarily pay attention to him.

However, this time he came so smoothly, and there was no one outside to stop him. It can be seen that Haotian actually knew that Li Qi would come.

Yes, of course he knew, after all, he personally stopped Li Qi from destroying the demon.

Facing Haotian in front of him, Li Qi took a deep breath and then said: "Emperor of Heaven."

Haotian looked at Li Qi quietly.

"You know, right? Yao Ji, Di Jun, and Di Hundun are planning to kill you and replace you. They want a Heavenly Emperor who is not as domineering as you."

Yes, Li Qi used the word domineering.

Haotian is gentle, there is no doubt about that. His magnanimity is so broad that he is called 'Hao', and he can even tolerate the birth of other first-grade people.

If it were Li Qi, when Li Qi became a first-grade person, would he tolerate others being promoted to the first-grade in front of him?

Not to mention the first-grade person.

Suppose there is only one third-grade person in the world, that is, there is only one real existence.

So, when the second third-grade person is born, how many people will choose to give in instead of waving their hands to knock the other person down?

To give in is to give up one's authority, from the supreme and only true god, to an ordinary existence.

Give up half of your own power, or even take the initiative to hand over the knife that can kill you to the other party.

The other party will truly have the ability to kill you, and will also have the qualifications to be on an equal footing with you.

To accept this, one must have extraordinary capacity.

But at the same time, Haotian's tyranny is also hidden under such gentleness.

You can become a first-class, but you cannot disobey Haotian.

The Emperor of Heaven still has the power to suppress the emperors.

Even as strong as human beings, they still choose to lie dormant under the power of Haotian, unwilling to face the wrath of the Emperor of Heaven. They even maintain the existence of the ceremony of offering sacrifices to the heaven, which is presided over by the Ministry of Rites every once in a while.

In any case, Haotian is still the only candidate to maintain the exquisite structure of this real universe. No one except Haotian can take on this important task.

And Haotian borrowed this authority to stop the plans of countless people.

Huanglong... or Huangtian, Huangdi, the former Emperor Xuanyuan, tried to occupy the center of the sky after leaving the mortals, and the war between him and Taiyi was also suppressed by Haotian.

Li Qi's plan to destroy the devil, human beings' use of humans to replace the sky, the gods' attempt to exterminate mortals, and so on, all kinds of big plans were suppressed by Haotian.

How many people can only choose to bow their heads under Haotian's oppression.

Even if it is gentle, it is irresistible.

Li Qi is the one who was pressed down.

Facing Li Qi's question, Haotian gave his own answer: "Then let them do it. This is also a possibility, isn't it?"

"Don't you mind?" Li Qi asked.

"I never care about these little things. There are more wonderful things in this universe to maintain and create. Why bother about these? Besides, what they want to create is also a kind of beauty." Haotian replied calmly.

Li Qi listened to Haotian's answer and seemed to feel Haotian's attitude from it.

This is not obvious, but he still noticed it.

Was this kind of resistance expected by Haotian?

Faced with Haotian's suppression, some people just sighed obediently and despaired of the future.

Others struggled for a while and then lost hope.

There are also some people, such as Li Qi, who are one of them, and those cruel gods are also the same. They never give up.

Continuously fight, fight, fight, no matter how much the next battle costs, no matter how much loss we will suffer, no matter how impossible victory is, we must fight, and fight to the end. This is not a question of courage, but an innate ability to not give up.

Maybe this is just a kind of stupidity that desires life.

But this stupidity, in Haotian's eyes, seems to be necessary.

"So, they won't succeed, right?" Li Qi confirmed: "They swear, is it because of ignorance? But Yao Ji is a part of you. If Yao Ji is so determined to participate in it, is it really that simple?"

"You are so worried, do you have any ideas? Or do you want to use this as a bargaining chip to exchange for the privilege of destroying demons?" Haotian asked back.

Li Qi didn't hesitate, and nodded: "Maybe I can help you in this matter, just let me destroy the remaining insignificant demons."

The rest are some mortals, the highest is no more than the fifth grade, and they can be destroyed with a flick of the finger. If it weren't for Haotian's blessing, they would not have survived until now.

"No need, Li Qi, you still don't understand what this world is like. Maybe... you should understand the whole picture before shaping this world, and you will have different gains." Haotian said.

"Understand the whole picture? The whole picture of the devil? Or understand the whole picture of this world." Li Qi asked.

"Neither." Haotian shook his head: "You don't need to worry about these. The struggle between the gods has nothing to do with you. Go and do your own thing."

Haotian's riddle man behavior made Li Qi frown, but Li Qi knew that many times the riddle was just because his level was not enough, so he was not angry, but said again: "Do my own thing? My thing has been stopped by you, and now I can't go to the next step, but I still don't choose to join those gods... Tiandi, you should know."

"I know, but your choice has nothing to do with me, Li Qi, let's stop here." Haotian said, and waved his hand gently.

With Haotian's wave of his hand, Li Qi was directly repelled. His body retreated uncontrollably, quickly left the heaven, and finally returned to the void.

Looking at the nothingness around him, Li Qi sighed.

Obviously, Haotian was unwilling to accept Li Qi's "help". He was even too lazy to pay attention to the rebellion from the inner gods and his own debris.

Yao Ji was Haotian's "remnants", or in other words, Haotian's dandruff, a part of the impurities that were excluded, and then became Haotian's daughter.

So, how to face the demon now...

Wait?

Where did this idea come from? It came from-

The moment Li Qi just reacted, another voice sounded from the bottom of his heart.

"Ah, so sharp, I want to see how you think about facing me." A calm and peaceful voice appeared, and the gender could not be heard.

In just a moment, Li Qi's cold sweat came down.

Fear began to attack his consciousness in an all-round way. Li Qi's instinct had already realized that something very wrong was happening.

Every part of his inner world collapsed in the way that best matched it.

A virus, gangrene, began to spread in Li Qi's inner world and thinking space.

In just a moment -

Look, Li Qi defeated himself.

Fear is just an impression. Without any power or magical power, he defeated a second-grade in a moment.

This matter is difficult to express in words.

Because fear, real fear, fear that shakes someone fundamentally, the fear you feel when you face the most terrible thing in yourself, has built a nest and taken root in Li Qi's memory like a virus.

This virus wants to rot everything, even the language that talks about it.

Li Qi was defeated in an instant, even though he had never really fought against the opponent who defeated him.

However, he did not choose to give up, but immediately cheered up.

Clear the evil thoughts, then push away the heavy fear in his heart, and "look" into his heart.

Li Qi's inner world is unusually clear.

A black sphere hangs in his inner world, with a very clear outline.

This black sphere flashes dazzlingly and calmly. Although it is called a black sphere, it seems a bit absurd to say that this sphere is black.

But, no matter how hard you look at it, you can't tell what color it is.

This sphere is quietly hanging in the sky, bathed in light, it is a beating and swaying black, stretching infinitely around Li Qi's inner world.

There are so many things around that Li Qi feels overwhelmed.

He feels that he can see the entire universe, everything, in this darkness.

Pain appears silently at this time, quietly appears in this magnificent and solemn environment, and begins to cover Li Qi's entire body.

Under this pressure, Li Qi can't help but want to merge his life with the life of the universe.

This is the only way.

At this moment, life becomes a small hole in this "infinity" that is open to the outside, and it is the only small hole leading to the vast universe.

There is a wall between the universe and Li Qi.

And Li Qi's life is a small hole in the wall, through which people's self-consciousness can secretly see the appearance of the universe.

Therefore, Li Qi could only stare at the brief and narrow scenes that he could see, after all, this peephole was all he had!

But... the moment this thought appeared, Li Qi extinguished it.

To devalue life as a peephole, to isolate self-consciousness from the universe, to separate the self from the universe, and to regard the universe as an external landscape rather than one of the components of the self, this is the way of magic.

If Li Qi really regarded life as a small hole in order to suppress pain, then this is "demon possession".

Obviously, Li Qi, who is already a second-grade, will not be destroyed so easily.

Although he is trapped in a distressing circle by the devil's thoughts.

Imagine being in the center of a circle, trapped by geometric figures, struggling to fight against fear, anger, madness, helplessness and indifference, trapped between the gloomy and exhausting opposites.

There is not even much operation available. The powerful computing power and various magical powers of the second-grade seem so useless here, just like a chess endgame, there are not many pieces for you to play chess.

The environment couldn't be simpler, and winning or losing wasn't that complicated. It just brought you extreme hardship and made you feel exhausted.

All this took two seconds, maybe three seconds.

Three seconds later, Li Qi opened his eyes forcefully, and gave the Heavenly Demon the answer he deserved in his violent panting: "This trick can't defeat me... Heavenly Demon."

"Don't worry, I'm not going to defeat you. I still want to have a good chat with you. You've done a lot in recent years. To be honest, you've done a lot. You and Shang Fan, both of you are worthy of being created by me directly. Those inferior demons can't be your opponents at all." The Heavenly Demon said so, with a hint of pride in his tone.

Whether it's Li Qi or the Demon Prince, they are tools created by the Heavenly Demon to fight against the Tathagata, the Human Emperor, and Wu Xian.

In a sense, the talents of Li Qi and the Demon Prince were all given by the Heavenly Demon.

However...

Li Qi holds a different view on this: "If the first-grade can create the second-grade at will, then why do other people need to practice? Don't flatter yourself, Heavenly Demon, our power has nothing to do with you."

If the first-grade can really create the second-grade that may become the first-grade at will, then the second-grade itself has no meaning to exist, and even everything below it no longer has any need to exist.

So, Li Qi does not think that everything the Demon Prince and himself have is given by the Heavenly Demon.

The Heavenly Demon can't give so much, he can't show it, the Heavenly Demon is not omnipotent.

"It doesn't matter, let's get back to the present, anyway, Haotian rejected you, and you also rejected those gods, now things are stuck here, you can't go to the next step, what should I do?"

"These are my things, so don't bother with you. I'm just curious about another thing. When I was fighting with the inner demon, I felt the existence of an observer. I have always been curious about what that observer is. Is it you?"

"It's me. In fact, the whole place is mine." The Heavenly Demon did not hide it, but directly admitted it.

Maybe he had other purposes, maybe he only said half of it, but he did admit it.

Li Qi let out a long sigh and nodded.

In other words, the world at that time was an illusion of the demon. Although he didn't know what it was, the demon did have such a real memory, and the inner demon used this memory to target Li Qi and let Li Qi experience the strong emotions in this memory.

Now, many things make sense. (End of this chapter)