Chapter 184: Comprehending Heaven and Earth

"What!?"

A scream rang out inside the house.

Judging by the voice, it was likely a fat middle-aged man of forty or fifty. Soon, the sounds of chirping birds and swallows vanished, replaced by the sound of hurried dressing.

After a while, the door opened with a *pop*.

Strutting out from within was a very wealthy-looking, fat middle-aged man wearing the official robe of a Nine Grades County Magistrate, looking somewhat disheveled.

"What you said is true? They really are from the Demon Exorcist?"

The fat man asked hurriedly.

"Reporting to you, sir, that is likely the case. They are wearing the uniform of a Demon Exorcist, so it is highly probable, though perhaps we should confirm it further?" The Guard was also unsure, answering in a tone that was half-true and half-false.

"Where is he now?"

"It seems he went to the Tongfu Inn..."

At this moment, in the Tongfu Inn, Li Heng sat on the bed in a guest room, sensing slightly, and knew that after the arduous struggle and hard work of his Divine Dao clone, the Great Sun Visualization had already reached seventy percent.

Then it was also time to spend Source Power to upgrade it!

With a thought, he burned four thousand points of Source Power to empower the Great Sun Dharma Image, bringing it to the Great Innate level! Instantly, he felt his entire body was different, undergoing an even deeper transformation.

Although he was currently in a city and it was inconvenient to unfold the Great Sun Dharma Image, Li Heng could still feel the explosive growth in the Dharma Image's power; if manifested, it could illuminate an entire county!

He sighed slightly in admiration; this was the Great Innate.

Great enough to reach the farthest corners!

His own Great Sun Sacred Body also underwent a further transformation, his blood boiling, and his connection with the Haohan Dari in the sky deepened continuously, allowing him to borrow even more powerful strength.

At the same time, something seemed to be faintly sprouting within his body.

He sensed it slightly; it was actually his own Fleshly Body Divine Ability. At this moment, the Great Sun Dharma Image had reached the Great Innate level, which had already faintly triggered it; if he went one step further, he would surely be able to evolve it out.

Although Li Heng could not yet feel what this divine ability was.

But thinking about it carefully, with the formidable nature of the Great Sun Sacred Body, the divine ability evolved by itself would absolutely not be bad.

Now that the Great Sun Dharma Image had advanced further, his own combat power had skyrocketed. Li Heng estimated that even if he had not yet comprehended the Heaven and Earth Principles, with a full-power outburst, he could contend with those mysterious and elusive Dharma Aspects!

After upgrading the Great Sun Dharma Image.

He shifted his gaze to the aspect of rule comprehension.

Now that the Data Panel had the function of comprehending rules, he could try to comprehend the Heaven and Earth Principles and the Heaven and Earth rules. However, what Heaven and Earth rules should he comprehend?

Li Heng fell into deep thought.

Time, space, Yin and Yang, Reincarnation, Life and Death...?

Various concepts flashed through his mind, but he felt they were inappropriate. These were merely individual concepts; if he only comprehended a single concept, it would be a bit of a waste of talent and would not do justice to his Source Power.

It would be better to choose to have them all, starting from Heaven and Earth itself.

His eyes lit up at once; time and space, Yin and Yang, Life and Death, Fate—these were actually the constituent parts of the complete Heaven and Earth. Rather than comprehending these individual concepts, it was better to comprehend Heaven and Earth itself.

Heaven and Earth, or rather the objective external world, was the collection of everything!

Others comprehended individual rules because their own strength was insufficient. But he, Li, was a cheater; if he was going to comprehend, he should comprehend the strongest, directly encompassing everything and taking it all.

This could not be blamed on Li Heng being greedy.

It was because he was deeply aware of the dangers of this World. The Sun, as the source of light in this realm, had black spots, and it was eight-tenths likely that a mutation had occurred. And beneath the earth, there were also arrangements made by others, an ocean of Yin Qi; it could be said there was not a single clean place.

One simply could not play in this kind of world without a bigger cheat!

One had to jump out of the shackles of this World to play.

Moreover, this also conformed to his path.

Visualize the Sun, cultivate the Taiyuan Scripture, use Original Qi as a base to achieve the supreme and highest Heaven, and attain the Haotian. Visualize the Boundless Earth to achieve the land that carries everything, and attain the Houtu.

The Haotian and Houtu here referred to Heaven and Earth!

Li Heng made up his mind and intended to use the rule comprehension function to test the waters, to comprehend the entire Heaven and Earth and all Heaven and Earth Principles. Then he was stunned, because the price required was something he could not afford.

The Qi and Blood required to be consumed was ten times his own Qi and Blood!

One had to know, this was still just a Standard Innate level of comprehension.

He thought for a while and felt it was only natural.

Because this was actually cheap.

This involved the comprehension of the entire Heaven and Earth, encompassing everything—time and space, Life and Death, Causality, Reincarnation, the Five Elements, Yin and Yang, and everything else was included; logically speaking, he could not afford to comprehend it even if there were countless of him.

It was only because his Visualization Divine Ability was too strong and his Source Power was omnipotent that it forcibly added a rule comprehension function and forcibly defined and graded the Heaven and Earth comprehension; otherwise, there would be no possibility of comprehending the entire Heaven and Earth at all.

Let's put it this way.

If an ordinary person wanted to comprehend the entire Heaven and Earth, they would need to start from individual rules, comprehend the Five Elements, then comprehend Yin and Yang, then comprehend others...

Combining them one by one until all rules were comprehended.

Only by combining all rules could one call it Heaven and Earth.

Moreover, it was highly likely that omissions would still occur. After all, Heaven and Earth did not refer to one world or one space-time, but the true objective external world, containing himself and everything that existed outside.

But Li Heng's rule comprehension function did not care about these; it did not matter what time and space, Yin and Yang, or the Five Elements were, they all fell under the concept of Heaven and Earth, and comprehending Heaven and Earth was equivalent to comprehending all rules.

Others started from the individual to then comprehend the whole.

But Li Heng did not care; he started directly from the whole, and all the individuals within the whole would also be comprehended.

For example, if Li Heng obtained a Standard Innate level of Heaven and Earth comprehension, then he would have a Standard Innate level of comprehension of all rules within Heaven and Earth, including time and space, Yin and Yang, Fate, and everything else!

After figuring out these key points, Li Heng gasped.

What kind of heaven-defying function had he created? No wonder it required ten of him just to start. If he went further, he feared that astronomical numbers would not be enough to describe it, and even Graham's number would be nothing but a mere decimal.

In the end, he feared that simple Qi and Blood could not be used as the price.

Li Heng began to ponder: what should be done about this?

He simply could not produce ten times his own Qi and Blood.

Unless... he himself also needs to perform Visualization of Heaven and Earth.

Just like visualizing the Sun, or visualizing the Earth.

Li Heng is very clear about the power of his Visualization Divine Ability; in essence, it does not require any Visualization Diagram. As long as he has enough Source Power to pay the price, he can manifest it entirely through empty imagination and delusion.

But the problem is that he is a poor man with insufficient Source Power, which is why he needs various Visualization Diagrams to learn and construct, thereby reducing the consumption of Source Power. This insight into Heaven and Earth follows the same logic.

Through insight into Heaven and Earth, he reduces the consumption of Qi and Blood.

Or perhaps he could continue to improve this rule-insight function and upgrade it. But clearly, he does not have enough Source Power. This version of the rule-insight function is already the most useful version he has.

After all, what he has the most of is Qi and Blood.

If even Qi and Blood are insufficient, then other costs go without saying.

Moreover, currently, only the consumption of Qi and Blood does not harm his foundation.

Unless he uses Source Power directly to improve... but that would be like taking off one's pants to fart. What was his purpose in creating the rule-insight function? It was precisely to reduce the consumption of Source Power, allowing things that originally required Source Power to be shared with other things.

Therefore, this method is also not advisable.

Unless he first gains one-tenth of the insight?

This thought popped into Li Heng's mind, but he immediately shook his head, feeling it was not advisable. Although he was the one who added this rule-insight function and he could fully adjust the degree of insight to reduce the cost of consumption,

insight that is too shallow has no meaning at all.

Heaven and Earth Principles and rule-insight require not a quantitative change, but a qualitative change. If it were merely a quantitative change, it would at most turn him into a great philosopher, but it would be impossible to sway the rules.

Should he just give up on this idea?

Li Heng is unwilling.

A ten-thousand-foot tower rises from the ground; if one does not develop well in the early stages, there will be nowhere to cry when the foundation is unstable in the later stages.

Forget it, he will walk the path first and see; if it doesn't work, he will talk about it later.

It seems he really must gain insight into Heaven and Earth along the way.

Or he could go to the Prefecture to see if there are any Visualization Diagrams regarding Heaven and Earth left behind by great experts, and learn a thing or two from them.

Various thoughts flashed through his mind as he set his plan.

His mind gradually calmed down, and distracting thoughts were removed.

He sat on the bed, closed his eyes to meditate, and shifted most of the threads used by his Divine Dao clone for visualizing the Great Sun toward visualizing the Earth, allowing it to quickly visualize the Earth and reach the Innate Level.

His true self was in a state between sleep and wakefulness, quickly recovering his spirit.

At this moment, on the main street of Bai Feng Cheng.

An official sedan chair stopped outside the Tongfu Inn. The sedan carriers placed the somewhat overburdened sedan on the ground, and a man looking like a private secretary quickly lifted the sedan's curtain.

"Master, we have arrived at Tongfu Inn."

"Mm."

The person inside the sedan responded, bent slightly, and walked out of the sedan, revealing a wealthy, massive, and obese body. The pedestrians nearby were startled to see that it was the County Magistrate.

This County Magistrate's surname is Hong, and he was originally a wealthy man in the city.

Later, he inexplicably became the County Magistrate of the city.

There were rumors speculating that this wealthy man Hong went to the Prefecture to buy his office and managed to become a County Magistrate, but for lack of evidence, these rumors and gossip have gradually subsided.

Most people have some complaints, but they no longer say much.

Because this Master Hong is quite diligent in holding court.

It is not to say that he is a mirror hanging high, acting for the people, or a blue-sky official, but he is not too greedy and has not created many unjust cases, which is much better than the previous County Magistrate.

There is no help for it; this is an era of comparing who is less rotten.

"Is that Demon Exorcist staying here for the time being?"

"Yes, My Lord, right here."

This County Magistrate Hong nodded and slowly stepped into Tongfu Inn. The innkeeper hurriedly stepped forward, "Master Hong, what brings you to my humble inn?"

It was clear that the innkeeper was not accustomed to Master Hong's status as County Magistrate.

Master Hong snorted, not minding the innkeeper's offense, and said, "Did someone come to stay at your inn just now? Which room are they in? I wish to pay a visit."

The innkeeper was stunned, immediately thinking of the man and woman from earlier, and hurriedly led Master Hong upstairs to the second floor, walking to the room where Li Heng and Kong Que were staying.

Master Hong knocked lightly on the door.

"Baifeng County Magistrate, may I ask if the Demon Exorcist is in?"