Myriad Paths

In the sixth hundred years, Beijia broke through to the seventh rank and regained his youth.

And he also stood at the last footprint of Li Qi.

This is the place where all legends converge.

He followed Li Qi's footsteps for six hundred years and witnessed all the traces left by this powerful man.

Li Qi's current power can affect many things. He may just eat a meal, take a photo, and make a "yeah~" gesture, and then this place will undergo special changes and produce various spiritual objects from then on.

Although these spiritual objects are worthless to people of Li Qi's level, they are already a miracle for people of the eighth and ninth ranks.

Not to mention, there is also a real dragon, Changqiao, next to him.

The real dragon is very grand. Once, the third prince of the Jade Dragon in the West Sea urinated in the water, and the fish in the water could turn into a demon dragon after eating it. He urinated in the mountains, and the grass in the mountains turned into Ganoderma lucidum, and eating it would prolong life.

Although Changqiao is not as good as the other party, it is common for his dragon energy to catalyze some dragon beasts.

In addition, Li Qi's occasional spontaneous actions often create various legends of gods and immortals, such as immortal footprints, drawing a prison on the ground, foxes and crocodiles, and killing demons and eliminating evil, eliminating disasters and poisons. Many strange stories are traces left by the other party along the way.

Many places surprised Beijia. Some places were barren, but human beings lived.

Chasing these, Beijia came all the way to the place where Li Qi disappeared, which was also the place where Li Qi decided to observe the entire Arctic in seclusion.

However, when he really came here, he suddenly discovered something.

In the process of chasing Li Qi, he was like a puppet with inhuman sense, out of tune with the surroundings.

Yes, out of tune with the surroundings.

He found that the people around him didn't care much about these so-called "relics", but what did he care about?

Was it the touch of childhood?

But how could that moment of touch drive him to this journey of asceticism for six hundred years?

Beijia was not here for tourism. For Li Qi, the scenery of leisurely strolling in the garden was an extremely dangerous demon cave for him.

Just like a cruise, Li Qi enjoyed the beauty of the sea and the gentle and huge sea beasts.

But Beijia was driving a small boat across the vast sea. Those gentle and huge sea beasts could overturn him just by passing by. In the middle, he had to fight sharks, hunger, and lack of water.

The beauty was great, but he couldn't enjoy it.

So, why do it?

Beijia found a stone to sit down, stretched out his arms, supported his knees, supported his head with his hands, and fell deeply into extremely miserable thinking.

This was the first time in six hundred years that this former child, now an old man, seriously thought about the emptiness of life.

His great emptiness in the past six hundred years!

Now, he is like an old deer with a white head dyed by time. He has lived for a long time. However, despite the vicissitudes of life and deep experience, he has not met a happy person whose dream has not been frustrated, nor has he seen a heart without scars.

Just like him, everyone's dreams seem to have no good results in the end, and even if they get good results, they will repeat themselves in the end.

You have completed a goal, which is great, so... start the next goal.

Sisyphus-like futility.

Goals and desires are nothing more than carrots that push people to make futile efforts. With this, people will continue to work meaninglessly.

But even if you get the carrot, you will soon hang a second carrot. This is called "starting over again."

But... is it really starting over again?

However, Beijia also discovered a terrifying thing.

He has repeatedly hung countless carrots on himself.

His memory is not very good. He found that his pain had actually started a long time ago, but he just forgot it.

For a person, pain will never continue forever. It will end sooner or later.

The reason is very simple, because human hearts are limited. This is also a great misfortune of sentient beings. They can't even maintain a painful mentality for a long time.

You will forget the pain, you will start over, and then get pain again, and the cycle will continue.

Unconsciously, Beijia found that his memory of Li Qi when he was a child had gradually dissipated.

That feeling of being touched was also gradually lost.

In this world, there are indeed things that you understand but still cannot avoid.

Just like the meteor that cannot be stopped from falling is burned up by the friction of the atmosphere and turns into flames and stardust and disappears, the little stone that was regarded as a treasure in childhood will unknowingly find that it has become worthless to itself.

Even this body is the same.

Beijia stood up with a sense of loss.

All dreams, passions and great futures just disappeared in the world!

This life is just a dream in a moment, a painful dream!

People come to the world just to suffer. Even if there is still some value left, it is only because of the indelible sorrow and the eternal torture from the mind.

But at this moment, Li Qi withdrew from the observation, and a Dharma body appeared in front of Beijia.

Beijia has changed from a young child to an old man. He looked at Li Qi in front of him in astonishment, exactly the same as before.

Li Qi said to him: "You seem to have been looking for me for a long time, and now you have found me."

"Ah... Senior Li Qi." Beijia looked at Li Qi, as if sighing, and as if relieved.

After he finished speaking, he froze in his place, silently looking around, and then looked at Li Qi.

After a long while, he finally said: "I just realized... I didn't find you. I'm a little curious. Changqiao should be the same person chasing you as me. Why is she so happy and doesn't feel any pain at all?"

Beijia has never seen Changqiao.

But he accurately described Changqiao's situation. All this is because he once collected those legends very seriously and inferred the personalities of Li Qi and Changqiao from them.

Moreover, he even got a terminal in a place like the Arctic, so that he could connect to those networks and watch the travel records that Changqiao had just made six hundred years ago.

"Curious? I am also curious. The reaction of higher intelligence has not been cracked until now. I know very well how to create higher intelligence, but after it is created, that thing is no longer under my control. I still can't find a way to control the thoughts of higher intelligence." Li Qi smiled.

"Really... But I remember there is a way to brainwash?" Beijia said.

"Maybe you can brainwash them, but that's just killing them and creating a new one, and even... this new one will get out of control after a period of development." Li Qi said so.

"Is that so." Beijia didn't go into the topic, but just packed up his things: "Then, I'll leave first, I hope both of us can find our own answers."

Li Qi said nothing and watched the other party leave.

Very good.

Really good.

The moment the other party chose to say goodbye to Li Qi, Li Qi noticed it.

He saw Beijia in front of him, something in Beijia's heart, overcame his most fanatical feelings and greatest fears.

Li Qi raised his hand gently.

He found the trace of the spirit.

There is a thin man hidden in every fat man.

There is a sculpture hidden in every stone.

The eternal quatrain is there, just waiting for someone to dig it out from the sea of ​​words.

The scroll has always existed in the heart, and what is drawn is just a poor imitation of the pattern in the heart.

That is the 'spirit'.

The word "mind" comes from this. The smartest of all things is called spirit.

"Jing" means the shining essence, which is the core of all things after the impurities are removed.

After the mundane shell fades away, what is left is the manifestation of "eternity", the purest essence.

Li Qi grasped this point.

Then...

His spirit turned at this moment.

The entire Arctic turned upside down.

At this moment, Li Qi came to an indescribable realm.

Here... is it also the heavens?

Or is it just the Arctic?

But it's not quite the same here.

There are the same scenery as the Arctic, but these scenery are a little bit wrong.

Bizarre, Li Qi can only describe it this way.

It's as if the scenes in history, books, and scrolls have been extracted to the present, and the heavy scenery shows its sacredness and greatness!

No one can not be shocked by such a scene, because this scene exists in all history.

Imagine, does everyone have a question, that is, whether history is "repeated"?

Are the scenes of "beauty" actually just the repetition of the same thing?

Legendary heroes, with their magnificent momentum and glory, led the heroes of the great era across the surging sea and through the desert. They were full of passionate desires, the shadow of heaven, and the magnificent history announced the embodiment of miracles.

Are these histories beautiful? Are they magnificent?

However, if they are all the repetition of the same thing, then how beautiful would it be to show this "one thing" in front of us?

At this moment, this is what Li Qi saw.

He saw the "most beautiful essence" among all the repeated beautiful scenes.

How to describe it?

For example, a certain artist has a very obvious personal style in his paintings.

At first glance, everyone knows that "this must be painted by this painter, even if it is not, it is imitated by him."

Why?

Obviously, he painted different contents and different themes, but you can tell at a glance that he painted it.

Because he has a unique "painting style".

What is "painting style"?

The special concept that transforms all the characteristics of a painting into a kind of "spirit" in creation is called "painting style".

So, if we put aside all the "paintings", put aside those "entities", and simply appreciate the "painting style", then... what does "painting style" look like?

And this is what Li Qi saw at this moment.

Things that are combined with soul, concept and logic, abstract to the extreme "thought", as long as the "concept" here is reproduced in the real world, it can create works with the same "painting style", and it can create one hundred, ten thousand or even one hundred million works with the same style.

This is the real "abstraction", abstracting a painting into a concept, abstracting it into mathematics or even logic itself, and abstracting it into a situation that cannot be expressed by all concrete reality.

Many abstract arts pursue the extraction of "beauty" from concrete things and then reproduce it. From this point of view, it is not an exaggeration to say that this moment is the highest end of abstract art. This is the most pure abstraction of the beauty of art.

All the common beauty in all the works of every artist is described here and can be perfectly reproduced. Is there any more artistic abstract work than this?

Such a pure concept, this is the world where the "Spiritual Way" is located.

However, when Li Qi saw all this, he just twitched his mouth.

It's really... nonsense.

He looked around, in this "North Pole" constructed by pure ideas, in this "back of the real North Pole", Li Qi finally found the nest of the Spiritual Way.

This is an abstract North Pole, a place where there is no concrete reality and only abstract concepts.

Eyes, ears, and touch are of no use here, because there is no light, no sound, and no material that can be touched.

Perception here can only rely on the "heart".

What is the "heart"?

Don't ask, if you can ask, it is not the "heart".

This is a priori knowledge that does not require any learning or understanding. It is innate knowledge. Everyone can naturally understand what the "heart" is, and there is no need to explain or teach it.

Li Qi also understood it naturally.

But he still sneered.

Lingdao is still looking for the commonality of things and the essence of things. This is nonsense and meaningless in Li Qi's view.

Things have no essence, or in other words, things themselves are their own essence.

However... it is not completely without merit.

Li Qi glanced around and could clearly find that Lingdao did not pursue such a thing as the "absolute and only ultimate concept".

There are many kinds of "concepts", which can conflict with each other or coexist harmoniously. Although the concept is extracted from things, it is not absolute.

Relying on this extracted concept, Li Qi has understood the existence form of the North Pole.

It turns out that the reason why the North Pole cannot be found is because Li Qi did not extract his existence enough. He is too "concrete".

When he sensed the "power that overcame his most passionate emotions and greatest fears" in Beijia's heart, he finally discovered the existence of the "spirit".

"Have you been looking for a long time?" At this time, a "message" appeared in Li Qi's ears.

"Only six hundred years." Li Qi smiled.

For a second-class, six hundred years is just a nap, which is not a long time.

"What do you think?" The voice asked again.

"Nothing to see, by the way, who are you?"

"My name is Ming Leshan, you are, Li Qi, right?"