Ke Xiao didn't disturb Xia Li afterward. He took out a healing pill from his storage ring, swallowed it, then swapped in a healing technique and began treating his injuries.

  Nearly two hours later, Xia Li finally stood up from the floor and went to find Ke Xiao.

  In a room filled with holographic screens, Ke Xiao sat in a chair, staring at one screen and scrolling through something.

  "Recovered? What's with the phase ring on your hand? I saw you pulling stuff out on the surveillance feed. That's not from this era, is it?"

  "Wait... you have two?"

  Ke Xiao turned to look at the rings on Xia Li's hand. He wore one on his left index finger and one on his ring finger.

  One was the storage ring. The other was the mysterious dimension-crossing ring.

  "Got lucky and found two."

  "From that ruin, right? Looks like that's where your resources came from too. Nice luck."

  Ke Xiao now had to admire Xia Li's fortune. When she'd sent him to blow up the mine, he'd happened to hit the shaft with a ruin, and he'd found treasures.

  But surviving disaster brings good fortune. For a mortal to survive a premature bomb detonation was already a sign of heaven's favor.

  "I still have to thank you, Sis Ke. You're the one who assigned me to Shaft Three."

  "As long as you know."

  Ke Xiao smiled but didn't press the advantage.

  "Sis Ke, am I really that weak..."

  Xia Li still didn't know how many powerhouses existed on Earth. The one he'd encountered today had left him completely helpless.

  And what was worse...

  Before, facing Ke Xiao, his cultivation had been too low to sense anything. Now he could feel the powerful, pure spiritual energy within her.

  The Heaven Chip's assessment of Ke Xiao's strength:

  Foundation Establishment, but couldn't determine the exact level.

  "You're not that weak. It mainly depends on what you're comparing to. He was fully mechanized, specialized in firepower—a pure combat operative."

  "And you? You joined our organization. You're technical personnel. How strong did you expect to be?"

  "Well..."

  Xia Li didn't know what to say.

  "Earth has many cultivation traditions, each with different focuses. For example, sword Spirit Cores paired with sword Heaven Chips—with your seventh-level Qi Refining cultivation, you could use sword formations to kill him."

  "Martial Spirit Cores let you match mechanized bodies with flesh and blood. Martial Heaven Chips can calculate blood and qi tides in real-time, making every punch carry tremendous force. You could punch through him."

  "The Eastern Islands' Yin-Yang Ninja Path may be a minor path, but it has its merits. Killing that mechanized fighter would be just as easy."

  "As for the West... that's the true land of the Mechanized Path. You could control hundreds or thousands of drone bodies to form an army and crush him."

  "Is that what you want?"

  Ke Xiao asked Xia Li in return. Cultivation tradition was the path one should choose.

  Hearing about these branches, Xia Li couldn't help but feel excited. But he still didn't underestimate Hidden Wing.

  Because Earth's cultivation was about using technology to harness spiritual energy.

  Technology was the foundation of spiritual power.

  "As for us... Divine Sense Hacking, Spirit Core interference, virus implantation. As long as the enemy has a Heaven Chip and Spirit Core, we have a natural advantage."

  "The Divine Sense Hacking you learned is just the basics. Your mental power is too low. If it were sufficient, a single thought could paralyze their entire body."

  After Ke Xiao finished, Xia Li suddenly realized something.

  In the other world, cultivation traditions were mainly divided into three paths.

  Soul cultivation, body cultivation, qi cultivation.

  It seemed Hidden Wing belonged to the soul cultivation path.

  "I understand now. It's not that the road is too long—my legs are just too short."

  He hadn't even touched Hidden Wing's core yet. No...

  He hadn't even scratched the surface.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Good that you understand. Any plans for what's next? Like how you're going to establish your foundation? You should be close."

  "What do you mean 'how'?"

  "Standard Foundation Establishment—just break through when your realm is ready. Human-path Foundation Establishment requires Empowerment Base Fluid, what ancient cultivators called Foundation Establishment Pills."

  "Earth-path Foundation Establishment requires refining at least one top-ten ranked Qi Refining spirit treasure."

  "Heaven-path Foundation Establishment—after meeting the above conditions, pay a large sum to connect to the Heavenly Dao Computer, letting it serve as your temporary Heaven Chip. The Heavenly Dao Computer will help you achieve Heaven-path Foundation Establishment."

  Ke Xiao explained the different methods for achieving Foundation Establishment at various strengths. The strongest was undoubtedly Heaven-path Foundation Establishment.

  And it sounded...

  Not that difficult. Just needed enough spirit stones. Completely different difficulty from Heaven-path Foundation Establishment on the other side.

  Over there, only those with transcendent talent could achieve it.

  One in ten thousand was a genius.

  One in ten thousand among geniuses was a prodigy.

  Only prodigies could achieve Heaven-path Foundation Establishment—a one in a hundred million chance.

  "I understand. I'll work hard."

  Xia Li thought he could absolutely aim for Heaven-path Foundation Establishment.

  "Human-path Foundation Establishment would already be good for you. The base fluid is expensive, but our organization has it internally. Complete one D-rank mission or ten E-rank missions and you'll get one."

  "The difficulty of Earth-path Foundation Establishment isn't anything else—top-ten natural spirit treasures are too rare, and competition is too fierce."

  "Heaven-path Foundation Establishment seems like you just need to meet Earth-path conditions, but it also requires sufficient mental power. Otherwise, you can't handle the Heavenly Dao Computer's data flood, and your brain will instantly fry."

  After Ke Xiao finished, Xia Li felt somewhat discouraged, but still wasn't willing to give up.

  Top-ten spirit treasures—he should be able to get those in the other world.

  The key was how to improve mental power.

  "Sis Ke, how do I quickly improve mental power?"

  "Simple. Mining."

  "Mining? But I used to..."

  "Not with your hands. With this."

  Ke Xiao pointed at her own head.

  "I'll send you a special computation program later. When you have nothing to do, use your Heaven Chip to make your brain run data. If you're lucky and mine a data coin, one is worth a hundred spirit stones."

  Hearing this, Xia Li understood. So it was crypto mining—something that existed in the past. Not exactly new.

  He just hadn't expected the new era to still do this.

  "So I really am fated for mining. Got rescued from a physical mining corporation by a digital mining organization, just to mine in a different way?"

  Xia Li was speechless.

  "Mining isn't the point. Mine something and you make a little money. Don't mine anything and it doesn't matter. The main purpose is training mental power. If we really wanted to mine, we'd use machines. Who specifically uses human brains?"

  "Alright, got it."

  Xia Li nodded. Wasn't this just an alternative soul cultivation technique?

  "So how many spirit stones do you have left? Not going to buy a prosthetic arm from me?"

  Ke Xiao looked at Xia Li's empty right shoulder. His expression immediately soured—he really didn't have many spirit stones left.

  "Sis Ke, can I put it on credit?"

  "Sure. Ten percent monthly interest, compounding."

  "That's loan sharking!"

  Xia Li thought he'd just given Ke Xiao ten spirit stones as a small tribute. Couldn't she just give him one for free?

  "Hehe, just messing with you. Seeing as you'll probably have plenty of trouble ahead, come on. I'll hook you up with something fierce."