People are in reality, transcending the other side

Chapter 547 The Invisible Demon (Sixth Update! 15600 Monthly Tickets Received! Please Vote!)

At this moment, within Li Qi's true self, memories of his past and present lives flowed, converging into a river of memories, within which various scenes were clearly visible.

But this river of memories is not the key to the true self. Memory is just an illusion. What shapes the true self is experience, not memory. Memory is a result, while the true self is built up from the process.

If a person uploads their memories into a machine, and if that memory determines a person's existence, that person is undoubtedly still alive. However, if the true self is the determining factor, the personality constructed from the memories in the machine is nothing more than a false person.

"I am who I am..."

“To illuminate oneself is the only prerequisite for all selves.”

"If one does not see clearly, no matter how much matter and energy one accumulates, it is all in vain!"

"The true self moves without moving, and thus all things are transformed and in motion..."

"This is something that I cannot achieve at my level. In fact, there is no way to cultivate the true self. Even the inheritance of human form, which seems to involve the path of the true self, is still separated by a layer in reality."

"My current achievements are entirely due to cheating. I relied on the tempering of the Sea-Slaying Ceremony, and the water overflowed naturally. I proved the Dao through force. I didn't cultivate any methods at all. I relied entirely on my own accumulation, grinding it out little by little. This is the most foolish method, but it is also the most reliable method."

"In this way, the self is illuminated most thoroughly, and is most pure and stable!"

With this realization emerging, Li Qi's true self then witnessed the natural changes and evolution of the river of memories, revealing that the true self moves while remaining still, and that all things move in harmony.

For the first time, Li Qi felt a strange drowsiness. Then, at this moment, the river of memories within his true self formed a wondrous dream.

……

In the classroom, Li Qi snapped out of his reverie and found the history teacher lecturing on the podium, saying that while the First Emperor's conquest of the world was indeed glorious, it was not the achievement of the First Emperor alone, but rather the result of the accumulated power of six generations of Qin emperors...

At this moment, Li Qi was not paying attention to what the teacher was saying, but was thinking about where his thoughts had just started.

He's a big fantasist, living in his own fantasy world where he battles against heaven and earth, cultivates immortality, and acquires all sorts of divine artifacts and skills—basically, he'll do whatever makes him invincible.

However, he often gets so engrossed in his thoughts that he completely forgets what he was thinking about. Once he comes back to his senses, he always forgets what he was thinking about.

This time was no exception. Even several minutes later, when the teacher said get out of class was over and left the classroom, Li Qi could only recall some fragmented memories.

"Old Li, you look so troubled. Have you forgotten what you were thinking about again?!"

Just then, a person came to Li Qi's desk and winked at him. He was a handsome young man dressed in white, but because of the hot weather, some parts of his clothes were slightly transparent due to sweat.

This is July, the summer vacation. It should be a time for rest, but because they are in the grueling transition from the second to the third year of high school, they need to attend extra classes, which is why they are in the classroom.

However, what troubled Li Qi was not the tutoring sessions, but the fact that there was no air conditioning in the classroom, only a few electric fans blowing, which was undoubtedly a torment.

As for the boy who came over at this time, his name was Zhao Cheng, and he was Li Qi's good friend.

"Old Zhao, you really know me. I originally imagined a really exciting story: another world where extraordinary beings exist, and I, through my own efforts and with a tiny bit of help from a cheat code, grinded myself to the limit and destroyed the world..."

"I had only just started thinking when I forgot where I was in my mind."

"It has to be said that this world called reality is truly cruel. Nearly 10 billion people are trapped on this planet, and what's even worse is that 99% of them are trapped in a corner of the world, forever going around in circles in a small place, never climbing mountains, never seeing the sea, and the farthest place they've ever been is just the next city..."

"That's right, I'm talking about myself!"

"If only there were a next life, I would want to be Superman, I would want to be an ancestor, and I would be the only one who is supreme!"

At this point, Li Qi got so excited that he even stood up, pointing one finger to the sky and the other to the ground, striking a pose similar to that of Buddha.

"Not bad, not bad. As expected of my good friend, your fantasies are almost the same as mine. But you only want to be an ancestor. I can only say that your vision is too narrow. If it were me, I would definitely beat the whole world with one hand and become the king of the world!"

"Don't ask me what my other hand is doing. Of course, I'm putting it behind my back, because it looks cooler that way!" At this moment, Zhao Cheng had one hand behind his back and the other hand making a fist gesture.

"But seriously, Lao Li, if you ever do time travel, please take me with you. Don't forget me when you're rich and powerful. Our current version of this world is so boring. No aliens, no Superman, no informational life forms, no future people, nothing at all... sigh..."

"I wasn't even nominated for the city's Top Ten Handsome Men."

Zhao Cheng let out a long sigh.

"???"

"What the hell is this 'Top Ten Handsome Men' thing? Do we even have such things in our city?!"

"However, I agree with your first statement, and I would also like to say, 'If you become rich and powerful, don't forget me.'"

Li Qi responded, and then the two of them laughed.

The two teenagers chatted and laughed freely in the stuffy classroom.

"But Lao Zhao, this morning I seemed to dream that you would use a nuclear bomb to blow me up someday. Do you think that's a dream about the future, a kind of precognitive dream?!"

Suddenly, Li Qi thought of something and said this.

"Old Li, are you kidding me? How could your life be more valuable than a nuclear bomb? Do you think I'm that kind of person who wastes time?!"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Cheng quickly shook his head, indicating that he did not accept such slander.

Time flies. In the blink of an eye, I graduated from high school, then from university, and then entered society, becoming a qualified ox or horse.

Li Qi and Zhao Cheng had always kept in touch, but after leaving their student days, they had more and more things to do, and their contact was not as frequent as before.

In his early twenties, Li Qi was on a business trip to an island. As he looked at the night view, a thought suddenly popped into his mind: "What if this place gets bombed by a nuclear bomb tonight?"
Originally, it was just a random thought, but for some reason, Li Qi took it very seriously. As if possessed, he found an air-raid shelter to spend the night, but nothing happened overnight.

Ten years, twenty years, thirty years...

In the blink of an eye, Li Qi had turned ninety. In fact, many years ago, Li Qi stopped having all sorts of inexplicable fantasies, such as superheroes, monsters, Godzilla, or transforming himself by walking against the crowd.

Time waits for no one, until the end of life. Then Li Qi awoke. In his spiritual world, his dream shattered and transformed back into a long river of memories, flowing continuously. Li Qi's true self, however, became even brighter, its radiance even more intense, with a tendency to liquefy.

This is just the beginning. Afterwards, the river of memories converges again, and the dream returns once more.

This happened nine times in a row, each time starting at a different point in time, and even the world background would change. Li Qi's memories contained many fantasy elements, and sometimes these elements would actually appear.

Such an encounter is somewhat similar to the grand dream of the cicada's nine transformations, but in essence they are completely different.

Until the end of the nine great dreams, his transformation was finally complete. The radiance of his true self had, at this moment, become eternal, illuminating countless times and spaces.

But the biggest change was in Li Qi's mindset and perspective. All his thoughts and ideas were illusions. He believed that he was who he was and that he was the Tathagata.

Only then did Li Qi's mind finally turn back, and he was able to look outside. At this moment, the Black Sky and Blood Land were completely annihilated, and what appeared in its place was a completely blank space, or even a void.

There was nothing here, all was empty, but Li Qi knew that things were not so simple.

In the darkness, he sensed an invisible demon approaching, a being filled with boundless greed, seemingly wanting to devour him completely, bit by bit.

The real terror seemed to arrive only at this moment!

　I'm still writing four chapters; I'll release them all together once they're finished.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)