Chapter 38: Qi
In the morning, Li Qi didn't go to eat. Instead, he ambled around, testing his ability to observe "qi."
He saw that there was water qi in the river.
This qi flowed through the city, carrying the city's yin qi with it into the river, and then carried away together.
He could see the coughing beggars sleeping on the streets; their bodies and breath were mixed with illness qi.
It should be illness qi. He didn't recognize it; he was just guessing.
Normal people all have yin and yang qi, as well as wei qi, ying qi, life qi, and so on, many kinds of qi mixed together, but he simply couldn't distinguish them.
It was like a forest; it looked lush and green, just a swath of green, but only by venturing deep inside would one realize that a forest is actually an ecosystem, harboring countless species, animals, and plants in innumerable quantities. It was impossible to distinguish every single one.
Qi seemed like the atoms of another world, the fundamental building blocks of all matter in this world. Everything was composed of qi, and the nature of qi determined the nature of matter.
Unfortunately, the book "Zhu" did not elaborate on the principles of qi. It only described the properties of qi commonly used in sacrifices or cultivation and how to utilize them.
According to the book, the Daoist school were the experts in studying qi, while the Shamanistic path was relatively inferior in this regard.
Li Qi strolled along, simultaneously studying the book in his mind, eagerly absorbing its knowledge. He knew this was the foundation of his future life and livelihood, so he dared not slacken in the slightest.
And he could also see the progress bar for his reading of this book…
Of course, it was very, very, very, very slow.
After three hours of urgent reading upon waking up in the morning, and another two hours of careful reading outside, the progress bar was still at 0%.
In other words, he hadn't even finished 0.1% of it.
How much content did this book actually contain… Was it really a massive database?
He estimated it would truly take at least a year and a half to read.
He read like this until the sun had fully risen.
Then, the entire city came alive.
Hustling and bustling crowds, some leaving the city, some entering from outside, carriage drivers, delivery boys bringing goods to various shops, curling wisps of cooking smoke. The whole city suddenly sprang to life.
Weavers started their looms, farmers emerged with hoes on their shoulders, shops opened their doors, government offices rang their bells. Everyone woke up, busy with their day's livelihood.
The city at night was like a slumbering giant beast, and now, it awoke.
Li Qi was deeply shaken by this scene!
Qi! Qi soaring into the clouds!
He didn't know how to describe it, but it was just so incredibly awe-inspiring.
It was as if an earth-shattering giant beast was awakening. The qi emanating from it was so magnificent, so terrifying, directly piercing the clouds.
The qi of the constellations in the sky could not compare, and the qi of the Earth Deities on the ground could only yield. The qi of countless people formed a unique, indescribably pressurized qi that belonged to itself.
What should this be called… Human Qi?
Li Qi seemed to see: laws, norms, human hearts, vitality.
These qi, operating slowly according to certain norms, supported a "city!"
A city was not just a collection of buildings put together.
A city is for holding people, like millet and grain in a vessel.
For the first time, Li Qi so directly understood the words "sheji¹" and at the same time, he understood more clearly what a "city" was.
"This… this, this is, the Human Dao?" Under such power, Li Qi couldn't help but murmur to himself, yet he unconsciously stammered.
He was very clever. Almost immediately, he gleaned clues from the books he had read and from the previous conversation with Mister Zhu about the conflict between the Human Dao and the Shamanistic Dao.
He guessed, perhaps he could call it realizing…
This, was the Human Dao.
This qi, was the power of the Human Dao!
At this very moment, as a shamanistic priest, he was profoundly shaken by the power of the Human Dao.
And this was just a county town! Feng County had only about two hundred thousand people!
What then was the concept of Li Prefecture City?
What was the concept if it were a prefecture city of the Tang Dynasty? And what kind of sight would it be if it were the capital of the Tang Dynasty, which could be called the center of the Human Dao!?
Li Qi wiped away the Azure Dragon divine qi attached to his eyes.
Everything before him immediately returned to normal.
Carriages and horses bustled, people surged, and a perfectly normal day began in Feng County.
Every day was like this.
But Li Qi's heart remained unsettled for a long time.
This was… the world of cultivators?
The power of just one county town was so immense, what if his guess from last night was true?
What level would the nine-rank classification system be, which standardized all cultivators in the world?
If he could see it, what kind of sight would that be?
And the laws that bound the entire Tang Dynasty, if he could see them, what would they look like?
Li Qi didn't even dare to imagine. He felt that all of this had already surpassed the limits of his imagination.
He began to feel a little nostalgic for Li Prefecture City.
The morning market opening of a normal county town was already so spectacular.
What kind of grand spectacle would the annual river-opening ceremony be if he were to see it now!?
"This is the world of cultivation?" He took a deep breath.
If he couldn't see it now, would he also be unable to see it in the future?
As long as he climbed up step by step, there would eventually be a day when he could see it with his own eyes!
At this moment, Li Qi had never been so eager to cultivate. It was as if all his motivation had ignited; he was impatient to become stronger.
Not for glory or wealth, not to become a superior person, nor for deep-seated grudges or ancient injustices, neither oppressed nor facing impending disaster.
There weren't so many strange things.
He just wanted to see.
He wanted to see the "Dao" that lay beyond!
The Human Dao of a small, peripheral county town was already so magnificent.
What about the others then!
He wanted to climb up and see, climb to the peak of the mountain, climb to the very top, to take in the "Dao" of the entire world!
Li Qi, filled with excitement, felt his heart pounding.
His blood was boiling.
He clenched his fists, trying hard to calm himself.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
No matter how grand his dreams, he was currently just an unranked minor ritual priest, probably at the level of a village witch doctor.
Perhaps even worse; village witch doctors had a lifetime of experience, while he had nothing. He even had to meticulously follow the book step by step for cultivation and sacrifices.
"I still need to study, read, and make progress every day," he thought.
Unfortunately, daily cultivation only needed to be done once; more was useless and provided no benefit.
So, if he wanted to improve quickly, he would have to rely on other things.
"A horse doesn't get fat without night fodder; a person doesn't get rich without unexpected fortune," Li Qi muttered to himself. To improve quickly, at this stage, he would have to cling tightly to his powerful patron, Mister Zhu.
Then, if he found Lady Luofu early, she was also a powerful figure; perhaps he could also gain some benefits.
He had to set off soon!
(Chapter End)
¹Sheji: A very important Chinese idea. It refers to the gods of the land and of food. Because having good land and enough food was vital for people's survival and for a strong government, thus "Sheji" came to mean the entire nation itself. It's like the very foundation of a state.