Leaving the secret realm this time was extremely dangerous.

  Among the methods—blood aura detection and storage ring inspection were minor concerns. The most troublesome was soul searching.

  The Heaven Chip could certainly protect him from soul searching, but if they couldn't search his soul, wouldn't that increase suspicion?

  So...

  Over the next few days, Xia Li focused on processing his memories. He realized that just handling memories from after entering the secret realm wasn't nearly safe enough.

  What if they searched beyond just his time in the secret realm?

  His journey here had been suspicious, and he had memories from Earth. If local cultivators saw those memories, it would be disastrous!

  For safety's sake, he decided to abandon the cut-and-splice approach.

  Instead, he would fabricate from scratch!

  Using scenes from his memories as raw material, he would reshape his life history like writing a story.

  Born in a small town...

  Daily life, plain and ordinary...

  Then discovered by a mysterious cultivator who took him as a disciple...

  Advised to train in the Autumn Mountain Secret Realm...

  A simple life story with a touch of immortal destiny was fabricated.

  After entering the secret realm, his luck was decent—he'd found some spirit herbs, but nothing more valuable. As his stay was about to expire, he prepared to leave.

  After finishing, Xia Li reviewed the fabricated memories and refined a few illogical spots to make them more like genuine experiences.

  Distant past memories couldn't be verified, so they could be roughly assembled from incomplete fragments.

  But recent years' memories had to be fabricated in detail. Xia Li only needed to handle the details; the AI would fill in the rest.

  "Alright, ready to leave."

  After thorough preparation, Xia Li even put the mysterious ring and Song Yu's storage ring on his toes before confidently heading toward the secret realm exit.

  Two hours later...

  At the rippling membrane leading to the outside world.

  Xia Li began his final preparations.

  "From now on, maintain complete silence. Reactivate original memories only when at least a thousand li from this place."

  "Load identity: Zhao Yue!"

  "Personality switch!"

  Xia Li stepped forward...

  Then suddenly felt dizzy.

  "Sigh... this trip has somewhat disappointed Master's expectations. I only found some spirit herbs."

  Xia Li looked at the secret realm exit with some reluctance. Even though his master had struggled to produce one thousand spirit stones, he'd hoped to find excellent spirit treasures. Unfortunately, his fortune was too shallow.

  After leaving the secret realm...

  Several people suddenly approached and surrounded him.

  An elderly man whose face bore both grief and anger walked toward him.

  "Open your sea of consciousness. I need to inspect it."

  "Senior? May I ask what I've done wrong?"

  Xia Li was now quite alarmed. He'd been minding his own business in the secret realm, offending no one. Was picking some spirit herbs now a crime?

  "Enough noise. Either open your sea of consciousness, or die!"

  "I... alright..."

  Xia Li had no choice but to relax and let the elder search his soul.

  "Don't worry. We of the Cloud Mountain Sect don't harm the innocent. I'll be careful not to damage you. If there is damage, I'll compensate with pills to restore your divine soul."

  The Second Elder couldn't be too heavy-handed with so many people watching outside the secret realm. He could overstep, but only within reason.

  He could search souls but couldn't use brute force that would damage the target. That was the line.

  Then...

  The Second Elder placed his hand on Xia Li's head.

  Before long...

  "Hm?"

  The Second Elder made a sound of surprise. Though unrelated to his granddaughter, something about Xia Li was quite intriguing.

  This young man from a small place had remarkably good luck—he'd actually joined a mysterious tradition that could forge artificial dantians.

  Though that artificial dantian seemed limited to Foundation Establishment, it was still something countless mortals dreamed of.

  The moment he'd placed his hand on Xia Li's head, he'd noticed the little device in Xia Li's dantian. It was extraordinarily intricate and remarkable.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  He'd initially thought of seizing it, but after seeing Xia Li's master in his memories, he had to abandon that idea.

  Xia Li's master in his memories was no simple figure...

  And of course not simple—Xia Li had the Heaven Chip fabricate the image based on peak Divine Transformation realm strength. In fact, the Heaven Chip didn't have much data on Divine Transformation cultivators, so it could only make things up to seem as powerful as possible.

  This actually intimidated the Second Elder.

  "Implanting an imprinted soul crystal in the brain can actually cure mental disability?"

  The Second Elder soon discovered another curiosity. There was a thumb-sized crystal chip in Xia Li's head, placed there by his master, because Xia Li had previously been mentally disabled.

  But he'd been easily cured by a soul crystal.

  This kid's sect had some interesting things...

  However, methods to cure mental disability were plentiful in the cultivation world, so the Second Elder didn't dwell on it.

  Soon...

  Soul search complete. The Second Elder sighed and released his hand, reluctantly producing a Cloud Soul Pill and personally feeding it to Xia Li.

  "This is a Cloud Soul Pill. It not only repairs divine soul injuries but also strengthens the divine soul. Consider it my apology."

  The Second Elder feared Xia Li would go back and complain to his master. The Cloud Mountain Sect couldn't withstand the wrath of a Divine Transformation powerhouse.

  Soul searching inevitably damaged the divine soul—it was just a matter of severity.

  If the target had no significant background, he could suppress them. But encountering someone with such backing meant he couldn't be careless.

  "So I'm free to go now?"

  "Yes. You may leave."

  The Second Elder waved his hand. Xia Li's history was clean. The inspection had found no suspicious blood aura contamination, so there was no need to check his storage ring.

  Originally, soul searching was meant to be last...

  He'd only searched Xia Li's soul directly because he'd seemed to have no significant background. Who knew Xia Li's background would turn out to be the most impressive? What a waste of his Cloud Soul Pill!

  But he had to give it as an apology.

  "May I ask what happened, Senior?"

  "My granddaughter was murdered."

  Speaking of this, the Second Elder truly couldn't hold back his tears.

  His granddaughter wasn't the type to cause trouble. Though a bit willful and spoiled, which talented young person with backing wasn't willful and spoiled?

  Why did it have to be his granddaughter who was killed?

  "My condolences, Senior. I believe the villain who murdered your granddaughter will definitely be caught. May he die a horrible death!"

  Xia Li now felt like he'd been caught up in someone else's crime. It was all that damned killer's fault. Though he'd taken the pill, his head still hurt terribly.

  "I hope so..."

  Without further words, the Second Elder continued guarding the secret realm entrance. The innocent Xia Li, having passed the soul search, openly and legitimately left as a cleared suspect.

  Then...

  Boarding a spirit vessel, he departed Cloud Mountain City with regret at not having found anything good.

  One day later, a thousand li away.

  Xia Li was standing on the spirit vessel's deck, gazing at the distant scenery and thinking about his future path, when he suddenly felt dizzy...

  Countless memories surged from the depths of his mind like a flood.

  He...

  Who was he?

  Zhao Yue, born in a small town?

  Or... Xia Li, Earth's tech cultivator?

  After a while, a smile slowly curved Xia Li's lips.

  "Heh. Soul searching?"

  "Looks like next time I return to Earth, I need to download some movie-making software. Next time someone searches my soul, I'll show them a feature film."

  Xia Li could see that people in this world completely trusted results from soul searching.

  But on Earth, even three-year-olds knew that anyone with a Heaven Chip in their head—their memories couldn't be trusted at all.

  Even a random blade of grass in their memories might be AI-generated.