After safely and efficiently leaving the Autumn Mountain Secret Realm without any loose ends, Xia Li didn't rush back to Fenghe City. Instead, he purchased a map from someone on the spirit vessel and chose to disembark midway.

  It was time to refine the Lightning-Struck Wood and Spectral Crystal Lotus!

  After searching through the uninhabited wilderness, Xia Li found a cave and set up four layers of sealing at the entrance.

  Unfortunately, he hadn't downloaded any formation techniques. Otherwise, setting up some formations would have been even safer.

  "According to the Heaven Chip's weather forecast, there'll be a thunderstorm tonight. That's the perfect time to refine the Lightning-Struck Wood!"

  After setting up, Xia Li waited for the nighttime thunderstorm.

  Half a day later.

  Deep night...

  As rumbling thunder echoed from the sky and the sound of pouring rain came from outside the cave, Xia Li decisively took out the Lightning-Struck Wood.

  Not all lightning-struck wood qualified as Lightning-Struck Wood.

  There were many criteria for evaluation, but the Lightning-Struck Wood ranked eighth among Qi Refining spirit treasures could only form one way:

  The refined essence left behind after a spirit tree failed its tribulation.

  As for ordinary lightning-struck wood—just mundane trees destroyed by lightning. They didn't even count as spirit treasures, at best good for firewood.

  Gripping the Lightning-Struck Wood, Xia Li took a deep breath and activated the Heaven Chip's refinement program.

  Refining treasures required considerable skill. Cultivators in this world might struggle with how to optimally refine a spirit treasure, but the Heaven Chip would automatically analyze and determine the optimal refinement process.

  Closing his eyes, refinement began!

  The Lightning-Struck Wood in Xia Li's hand began to flash with lightning. Electric arcs crackled around him.

  "Temporarily—temporarily cut off pain sensation!"

  Xia Li now felt like his entire body was being stabbed with needles. Cultivators here might say enduring pain was a form of training, and blocking pain would reduce refinement effectiveness.

  But Xia Li had tech cheats. Why suffer when he didn't have to? The end result was the same anyway. He wasn't a masochist.

  The spirit wood essence and tribulation lightning power contained in the Lightning-Struck Wood were easily refined by Xia Li.

  As for comprehending the balance between life and destruction to refine Lightning-Struck Wood—for the Heaven Chip, it was merely balancing the ratio of two energies.

  The Heaven Chip could ensure perfect balance, and the Spirit Core's precision was several times that of a normal dantian.

  If a mediocre talent carelessly refined spirit treasures, they might even die.

  And Xia Li's comprehension ability...

  Was worse than mediocre.

  But the Heaven Chip's comprehension ability was terrifying.

  The spirit wood essence neutralized the tribulation lightning's destructive force, leaving only the mysterious tribulation source power to be continuously refined into his dantian, becoming power Xia Li could control.

  Lightning now radiated from Xia Li's entire body. After a tremendous thunderclap, the Lightning-Struck Wood in his hand lost all its power, turning to tribulation ash that flowed through his fingers.

  Opening his eyes again, a flash of lightning passed through Xia Li's gaze. The powerful force contained in the Lightning-Struck Wood had also raised his cultivation another level.

  Ninth-level Qi Refining!

  But this wasn't the peak of Qi Refining.

  "What's my probability of achieving Nine-into-One now?"

  〖Drawing heavenly thunder to temper body and refine spirit, probability of Nine-into-One: 100%〗

  "So I need to leave the cave?"

  Xia Li felt troubled. He really didn't want to leave the safe cave. Cultivating outside while drawing heavenly thunder would easily attract attention.

  〖Note: Refining the Quantum Lotus during Nine-into-One will also maximize its effects〗

  〖Your neurons currently store large amounts of spiritual matter, which can also be converted simultaneously〗

  "Large amounts?"

  Xia Li thought for a moment, remembering the unlucky ghost who'd been killed as an electronic virus, and the pill the Cloud Mountain Sect's Second Elder had fed him.

  Adding the Quantum Lotus—the Spectral Crystal Lotus (the Heaven Chip used Earth's terminology for items unless Xia Li specifically told it to change)...

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  This wasn't just enhancement for his divine soul. It was a stroke of fortune.

  What was fortune?

  Seizing heaven and earth's power, turning the mundane into the miraculous. Among all opportunities between heaven and earth, fortune was the greatest.

  "Looks like I have no choice but to leave the cave."

  Staying in the cave was safe but would mean missing much.

  But Xia Li had to do it.

  He remembered how the Company had casually sent one armed operative who'd nearly killed him, and the Company had plenty more like that.

  Rising to prominence on Earth wouldn't be easy.

  Without words, Xia Li left the cave and sat cross-legged in the open space outside. He took out the Spectral Crystal Lotus from his storage ring.

  Examining it closely again, Xia Li couldn't see what was so miraculous about it. Was this really a physical entity composed of quantum energy?

  And why was it shaped like a lotus?

  The "spirit" in Spirit-Tech didn't just refer to spiritual energy.

  Spiritual energy was the "spirit" of Spirit-Tech.

  While quantum vacuum zero-point energy was the "tech."

  Spirit, soul, consciousness, cognition...

  These phenomena were classified under the domain of quantum vacuum zero-point energy.

  "The vastness of heaven and earth holds endless wonders. The primordial universe creates miracles..."

  Xia Li gripped the crystal lotus, then raised it high.

  "Let me see what the Dirac Sea looks like!!"

  Xia Li didn't say "sea of consciousness" but used Earth's Spirit-Tech terminology. This showed his preference for Earth's cultivation tradition.

  The next moment...

  Multiple bolts of heavenly thunder converged into a beam, forming a pillar of lightning that struck Xia Li. Yet the pillar connected heaven and earth, resembling more a light of ascension!

  Everyone within a thousand li of this wilderness saw that lightning pillar!

  Spectators and those with ulterior motives all rushed toward the pillar. After all, stealing others' opportunities was the easiest way to gain opportunities.

  Within the lightning pillar, Xia Li's Spirit Core spun at extreme speed. His Spirit Core, which prioritized conversion efficiency, now proved its worth.

  The heavenly thunder's power was rapidly converted to spiritual energy to support the energy requirements of Nine-into-One.

  Nine-into-One was a step calculated by the Heavenly Dao Computer. It wasn't mandatory, but doing it only made one stronger.

  This step was also called the Qi Refining Pinnacle. Nine refined strands of acquired qi would transform into one strand of innate source qi.

  And Xia Li's divine soul was now undergoing a transformation like rebirth.

  His life experiences replayed in his mind.

  As if dreaming, after a moment of haziness, Xia Li found himself on a busy city street with flowing traffic.

  The broad, bustling city seemed full of vitality, but everyone around him was lifeless, their spirits and dreams stolen by something.

  As the traffic light turned green, Xia Li stepped forward, walking past countless people.

  Then...

  Xia Li stopped in the middle of the road.

  Because his phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and answered.

  "Hello? Is my brother there?"

  "Brother, I passed! The professor agreed to let me join the consciousness digitization project."

  "Brother, wait for me. In our lifetimes, we must meet again—even if we're no longer human."

  His sister's voice was excited and tearful. She knew that technology to defeat late-stage cancer was still far, far away, so she desperately sought every possible hope.

  Human cryogenic technology was one option. Consciousness digitization technology was another.

  Then...

  The skyscrapers vanished. All the bustling noise disappeared. Only pitch darkness remained. Xia Li felt his whole body growing cold, ice gradually forming on his body.

  He was being frozen...

  No...

  Had he really broken free from the ice?

  Then let him open his eyes.

  In a gray, misty space, on the faceless divine soul, a pair of eyes grew and opened, revealing golden pupils that seemed almost solid.

  Divine Soul Awakening!