Chapter Thirteen: Bewildering Reversals

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This world was far larger than the Blue Star of his previous life, its landmass more than a hundred times greater. Its population, meanwhile, was roughly sixty times larger. Li Qi remembered that the figures from five years ago had stood at around six hundred billion.

Out of six hundred billion people, how many prodigies could emerge?

When it came to population, quantitative change truly did make qualitative transformation more likely.

From the people Li Qi had encountered in his daily life, many of those whose names appeared on the Heaven, Earth, and Human Lists had entered the Dao within a hundred days.

What did it mean to enter the Dao within a hundred days?

It meant not cultivating before the age of fourteen. Instead, one tempered the body with potent medicines, consuming them as though they were ordinary food, while reciting all kinds of scriptures and contemplating their deeper meanings. One continued in silence until the sinews, bones, spirit, and vitality had become preliminarily stable—only then beginning formal cultivation.

It was called a hundred days, though in truth it did not take a full hundred.

One cultivated naturally, ascended the stages step by step, and ultimately entered the Dao directly.

And this was what was called a genius—not an unparalleled genius.

As for unparalleled geniuses, they entered the Dao in a single day.

Such people were extraordinary in every conceivable way. They could genuinely train for twenty-four hours a day, recovering their strength even as they exercised—more biomechanical than any biomechanical human.

Of course, unparalleled geniuses were exceedingly rare. Even with a population of six hundred billion, no more than three or five might appear in an entire century. And there was no guarantee that they would grow to maturity. There were simply too many accidents in this world.

Yet even unparalleled genius was not the end.

The highest form of talent was known as a Natural Sage.

According to legend, such people could become sages at around twenty years of age. They could even advance in cultivation while asleep.

Ordinary people slept merely to sleep. When such a person slept, it was practically enlightenment within a dream—a talent dedicated to expanding the diversity of the human species.

Unparalleled geniuses might still appear three or five times in a century, but the emergence of a Natural Sage depended entirely on destiny.

It was said that the Lord Yu, who had opened up civilization several thousand years ago, had been a Natural Sage. He had begun as a slave, without even a broken bowl to his name, yet before the age of twenty, he had already become a sage.

As for “opening the heavens and earth,” he had not opened a material world. He had opened a civilization.

Unparalleled geniuses might still perish, but a Natural Sage was one upon whom Heaven’s mandate had descended. Such a person was destined to become a sage.

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“One’s fate comes first, fortune second, and feng shui third. Such is the mandate of Heaven!”

Of course, Li Qi believed that the cheat he possessed was actually even more formidable than the gift of an innate sage. It involved concepts themselves, after all, and nothing belonging to the conceptual realm was ever weak. The only weak link was himself.

But a cheat was a cheat, and he was still himself.

The Demonic Tribulation was an exceedingly advanced phenomenon. To encounter it, one had to be at least a genius breaking through a major realm. At such a time, a person’s mind and spirit became extraordinarily active, allowing him to perceive information normally beyond his senses. Thus did the so-called Demonic Tribulation arise—not because invisible demons truly existed in the world.

The essence of the Demonic Tribulation was merely this: a person with a powerful and keen spirit, through some fortuitous coincidence, reached a level of life that resonated with a particular frequency and was consequently disturbed by it.

This world was absolutely materialist. There were no demons, monsters, ghosts, or spirits, nor were there gods or Buddhas.

If one insisted that gods or Buddhas existed, then they could only be oneself.

I alone am supreme. I am the Tathagata.

“Perhaps reincarnation awakened memories of my previous life, causing some subtle, positive mutation in my spiritual power…”

Li Qi pondered.

Tribulation and fortune followed one another. The Demonic Tribulation was a good thing, naturally—provided one could break through the demonic obstacle.

According to the information Li Qi had read, as long as one could overcome that obstacle, one’s spirit, heart, and will would receive what could only be described as a cleansing in every aspect.

After all, the essence of the Demonic Tribulation was a form of special information that the human mind was capable of receiving.

If one failed to break through it, everything depended on the level of one’s cultivation.

At lower realms, even failure in the tribulation would at most leave one dazed and disoriented for a period of time. After sufficient rest and recuperation, one would recover. At higher realms, however, the danger grew increasingly severe.

It was said that a Great Adept had attained the Sacred Path and entered a state in which one dream contained an entire world. Reality and illusion became inverted and indistinguishable, and he remained submerged for more than twenty years before finally breaking through the delusion. By then, however, it was too late. He had missed his opportunity and squandered his years; his life was no longer at its peak, and he could not become a sage.

What that Great Adept later described was even more like a myth.

He had entered a world resembling the present one, yet not quite the same. There, he cultivated the Dao, wielded flying swords to slay demons, and transformed into a sword immortal, living freely and unrestrained. In the end, he became invincible throughout the mortal realm for three thousand years. Yet because of the limits imposed by Heaven and Earth, he could not transform into a true immortal and could only die when his lifespan ran out.

But unexpectedly, what he had believed to be death was merely awakening.

According to the records, for the rest of his life, that Great Adept remained haunted by longing for the dreamlike world. Yet he never again had the chance to return.

Aside from this tale, the most famous example in the world was probably the story of Shakyamuni attaining enlightenment beneath the Bodhi tree.

A Demon King of Heaven had come to assail him, conjuring countless worlds of bizarre and dazzling splendor in an attempt to confuse him. Shakyamuni, however, shattered them with a single great hand seal. After a hundred days of enlightenment beneath the Bodhi tree, he ultimately became both Buddha and sage.

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There was also the Confucian Sage, who had once been trapped between Chen and Cai. The force confining him had not been ordinary men, but a Demonic Tribulation. Otherwise, how could a man standing on the verge of the Sacred Path—one strong enough to lift a city gate with one hand and perform squats—possibly have been held captive by a group of soldiers?

“One dream containing an entire world, reality and illusion inverted and indistinguishable… It seems I too may have the chance to experience something like what that Great Adept went through. But if a dream can contain an entire world, then having reincarnated here, might this life itself be a great dream from the perspective of my previous one?”

Li Qi’s thoughts stirred, but he shook his head soon afterward and stopped himself from thinking further. There was no benefit in dwelling on such matters.

The omens of the Demonic Tribulation had already appeared. From this point onward, it would surely grow more intense until the moment he broke through his realm, when it would fully manifest. If he shattered it, it would vanish.

The Demonic Tribulation would appear only when a talented person’s life form was on the verge of sublimation.

Under normal circumstances, the human spiritual world was exceedingly stable—virtually impervious to every malign influence.

Li Qi was somewhat wary of the Demonic Tribulation, but he was not afraid.

…

In the bathroom, Li Qi dried himself and put on a loose-fitting set of pajamas. Then he turned off the light. He did not go straight to sleep. Instead, he walked to the head of the bed and took a coil of sandalwood incense from the bedside drawer.

It was a kind of incense used to nourish the spirit and accelerate mental recovery. Even ordinary people could improve their sleep with it.

In fact, during the early stages of cultivation, incense was commonly used to aid one in entering a state of stillness. Li Qi had used it continuously until his blade art reached the third level. After that, he no longer needed it.

External aids were merely auxiliary, after all. They could never serve as the principal means.

Li Qi turned off the light again and lay down on the bed. He closed his eyes, gradually emptied his mind, and fell asleep. The entire process took less than half a minute.

That was one of the effects of cultivation.

As his heart and spirit gradually grew stronger, the quality of Li Qi’s sleep also continued to improve. Ordinary people generally had sleep-quality scores between seventy and eighty. If the score fell below seventy, they would feel exhausted upon waking the next day, as though they had barely slept at all.

If it exceeded ninety, they would wake refreshed and invigorated, their minds clear and their bodies light. As for a score above one hundred, that signified deep sleep. Such sleep was generally called a once-in-a-decade rest. The next day, one would feel as though the entire world had changed.

If measured with professional equipment, Li Qi’s sleep quality would currently score above ninety. He was still some distance, however, from achieving deep sleep.

That threshold was not easy to cross. Only some experienced practitioners who had entered the realm could accomplish it.

The benefits of deep sleep were almost too numerous to count. Not only did it reduce the amount of sleep required—four or five hours a day would be enough to leave one bright-eyed and energetic—it could also stimulate a second phase of bodily development and accelerate the growth of vitality.

It was practically equivalent to cultivating and growing stronger while asleep, with benefits beyond measure.

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