Chapter 1072: Chapter 1070: Li Qizi: I Endure Through the Ages in the Mortal World 6
Dream Dao Attainment, Opening Scheme Against Cultivators
Dream-Making Expert
When living had a goal.
When life itself possessed meaning.
Then no matter how long the years, they seemed to become vivid.
If Li Qizi's first six million years were spent in the company of darkness and loneliness.
Then the following 1.296 billion years.
Li Qizi more or less felt that living still had meaning.
Because he had recorded far too much weighty and fulfilling history.
Because he had collected far too much beautiful and ugly Red Dust.
He recorded the entire history of a race from rise to extinction, collected this race's sincere love from the birth of its civilization, and also collected this race's hysteria at the destruction of its civilization.
He recorded the birth of a Star, and collected the destruction of a Star.
He witnessed the rise of a civilization, and also watched the fall of a civilization.
He wrote down the life of a mortal, and also took in the passing of a cultivator.
He recorded the Red Dust, he collected the Red Dust.
In that bottle known as the Red Dust Vessel, he stored the rolling Red Dust affairs of the Myriad Realms for a full 1.296 billion years.
But today, he stopped his footsteps that had continued for 1.296 billion years.
Because he was going to do something, to see some people.
Not to see Lin Qi.
Because the time to see Lin Qi had not yet come.
The Spacetime Era barrier jointly sealed and isolated by all the Supremes had not truly been triggered.
What he was going to do, who he was going to see.
Was something he had already resolved to do when he first begged for this task before the Heaven-Abandoning Emperor.
…
The Departing Fire Macrocosm.
This was a macrocosm not considered distant from the Heavenly Immortal Macrocosm.
In the history that once was.
After most cultivators of the Heavenly Immortal Macrocosm completed the Golden Core realm's thousand-year task of guarding the Cultivation World.
If they still had not broken through to the Nascent Soul realm.
Then nearly all of them would choose the Departing Fire Macrocosm as the first stop of the Foreign Realm Trial.
Because the Departing Fire Macrocosm was exactly as its name suggested.
The entire Cosmos was filled with endless flames.
The living beings of the Departing Fire Macrocosm were also lifeforms similar to Fire Spirits.
It was a macrocosm that nurtured infinite flame power and developed flames to their peak.
Its unique cultivation system was also entirely related to flames. Even the cultivation realm divisions were Fire Practitioner, Fire Master, Great Fire Master, Fire Spirit, Fire King, Fire Saint.
Such a Cosmos was, for any cultivator who wished to refine pills, undoubtedly a holy land.
So pill-refining cultivators from many Cosmos would come drawn by its fame, seeking a single stalk of Divine Fire.
Wang Huaigu and the others were no exception.
They set the first stop of their Foreign Realm Trial in the Departing Fire Macrocosm.
At this moment.
Wang Huaigu, Qiuyun, Ye Zijun, and Ye Sanshu were curiously studying the Departing Fire Macrocosm before them.
This was their first time participating in the Foreign Realm Trial together after successfully cultivating their Golden Cores.
They were full of curiosity toward the Alien Cosmos beyond the Heavenly Immortal Macrocosm.
But before they could rub their fists and carefully begin their first Foreign Realm Trial.
Suddenly, a familiar figure appeared before them.
The four were first stunned, then unable to hide their delight.
"Lao Qi?"
"How are you here?"
"Did Lin Qi send you?"
"No way, no way. You really treat us like kids, huh. Sending you here to look after us?"
The four were wild with joy, joking back and forth, surrounding Li Qizi in the center, expressing the happiness of old friends reunited.
Li Qizi said nothing.
He merely smiled as he gazed at the Fellow Daoists he had not seen in so long.
"Everyone, stop crowding around."
"Qiuyun, go prepare some tea and wine."
"You two, hurry and help as well."
Wang Huaigu was meticulous, and seemed to have sensed something. He immediately smiled and sent Qiuyun and the others to prepare tea, wine, and fruit.
After the three of them left, smiling, to prepare.
Wang Huaigu's expression turned serious as he asked Li Qizi, "Is there something on Lin Qi's side he needs to tell us? Just say it, don't be polite with me."
"No, it has nothing to do with him."
Li Qizi's voice was hoarse, likely because he had not spoken with anyone for a very, very long time.
His voice had become awful, like rusted iron scraping.
"So it's you yourself who has something to tell us?"
Wang Huaigu asked softly. Seeing Li Qizi nod, he smiled and said, "Then say it. I'm listening."
"I want you to promise me."
"When your lifespans end, you must sacrifice yourselves to enter the Dream Bubble Shadow and live out a Second Playthrough."
Li Qizi spoke, his tone firm, allowing no refusal.
Wang Huaigu was first stunned, then abruptly realized something. He drew a sharp breath, gazing at Li Qizi before him, and said, word by word, "You are not the Li Qizi of now."
Li Qizi was silent. He did not refute, nor did he admit.
He only looked at Wang Huaigu and repeated.
"Promise me. You are not allowed to die."
"When your lifespans end, you must go to the Dream Bubble Shadow and live out a Second Playthrough."
"You will not cause trouble for Lin Qi."
"It is only if you do not live out a Second Playthrough in the Dream Bubble Shadow that you will cause trouble. Very great, very great trouble."
"So the you of the future lives very badly?"
Wang Huaigu asked.
Li Qizi nodded, then shook his head.
He was not certain whether the Lin Qi of the future lived badly, whether there was ever a moment when he regretted not persuading Wang Huaigu to live out a Second Playthrough in the Dream Bubble Shadow.
But he lived badly. Whether in the future or the past.
He regretted it deeply.
Regretted not acting on his own will, not doing everything he could to make Wang Huaigu and the others live out a Second Playthrough in the Dream Bubble Shadow.
If Wang Huaigu and the others could have lived out a Second Playthrough in the Dream Bubble Shadow.
Then he simply dared not imagine how happy he could have been.
Perhaps there would not have been that long 1.296 billion years he walked alone.
"In short, you must live on."
"You must live on."
"Just as you once hoped I would live on."
"I lived on, so none of you are allowed to die."
"Not a single one of you."
Li Qizi spoke again, repeating his warning.
Wang Huaigu did not agree. He only quietly looked at Li Qizi and said softly.
"You must have lived very hard. You must have spent a very, very great effort to come see us."
"I do not know what exactly happened to you."
"But I have never seen you so weathered."
"Lao Qi, how did you become so aged?"
"Just treat it as though I walked a very, very long road and finally reached you."
Li Qizi had no intention of playing the pity card.
Of telling Wang Huaigu and the others how he had truly spent those past 1.296 billion years.
He only repeated once more.
"In short, you must promise me."
"You absolutely must not die. You must live on."
"Fine, I promise you. We will not die. On the day our lifespans end, we will obediently enter the Dream Bubble Shadow and live out a Second Playthrough."
Wang Huaigu finally nodded and agreed.
Qiuyun and the others had returned at some point. Hearing the conversation between Wang Huaigu and Li Qizi.
Feeling the weathering of 1.296 billion years upon Li Qizi.
They could not help but redden their eyes.
"Then swear it."
A smile finally appeared on Li Qizi's face once more.
Like a child, he urged Wang Huaigu and the others to swear.
After Wang Huaigu and the others, under his urging, finally raised their hands and made their vows.
Li Qizi was completely relieved.
This long journey that had continued for 1.296 billion years had finally reached completion at this moment.
What remained was only waiting another ten or twenty thousand years.
Until the time he formally met Lin Qi.
Then this journey of years long enough to drive any sentient being mad could finally come to an end.
So.
"I should go."
Li Qizi was somewhat reluctant to leave, but he knew he had to go.
He had already obtained Wang Huaigu and the others' vows.
He had already changed the fate of Wang Huaigu and the others.
He could not further interfere with the fate of Wang Huaigu and the others.
Because he was only a ghost within this long span of years.
He could not interfere too much. He needed to prioritize the greater picture.
Wang Huaigu and the others actually still had many doubts they wanted to ask.
But in the end, they held back.
Watching Li Qizi leave with reluctance.
Though they did not know that Li Qizi had spent a full 1.296 billion years to reach them.
They could detect Li Qizi's agedness.
Perhaps even Li Qizi himself had not noticed.
The current Li Qizi was exactly like an old man at death's door.
"He must have walked a very long road."
Wang Huaigu sighed, feeling sorrow for this Li Qizi.
"Yes, I felt it too."
"It seems he not only walked a very long road, but also lived alone for a very, very long time."
"So what exactly happened to him?"
Qiuyun said, eyes red, shedding tears for this Li Qizi.
"I do not know what exactly happened to him."
"But I know one thing."
"He truly, truly hopes we can live."
"Perhaps so long as we live, he will no longer become so weathered."
After Ye Zijun said this softly.
The four all fell silent, then continued their journey.
Only this time, something was different.
They seemed to be able to sense Li Qizi always watching them in the shadows.
Hoping they would keep their vows.
And so history seemed to change.
When Wang Huaigu and the others once again reached the end of their lifespans.
Looking at Li Qizi, who had come to persuade them to sacrifice themselves, enter the Dream Bubble Shadow, and live out a Second Playthrough.
The Li Qizi without weathering, without agedness, made Wang Huaigu and the others suddenly smile in relief.
So it was our deaths that turned you into that appearance?
Then this time, we won't die.
After all, we swore before you.
Wang Huaigu and the other three thought, and then, amidst Li Qizi's persuasion, sacrificed themselves into the Dream Bubble Shadow and lived out a Second Playthrough.
Everything was complete.
Li Qizi, who had walked alone through 1.296 billion years, smiled in relief, then closed his eyes, quietly awaiting the day of reunion with Lin Qi.
It was probably about another ten thousand years later.
On this day, Li Qizi clearly detected the fault in spacetime and the shift of Eras.
After a brief hesitation.
Without a shred of hesitation, like a flying fish leaping out of the sea's surface.
The winds of the Fourth Era wrapped around him, and he descended upon the Heaven Demon Macrocosm.
He lowered his head and saw Lin Qi sitting in a wheelchair.