Walking out of the Red Crowbar general store.

  Xia Li had no intention of going to the Monster Hunting Association. Earning resources on Earth was too difficult—Earth was only suitable as a place to spend.

  As he walked, Xia Li connected to the Heavenly Dao Network, experiencing the technology of the new era.

  He first searched for what Spirit Cores and chips were available at similar prices on the market. The purpose was to see whether the Hidden Wing organization was genuinely sincere toward new members.

  After seeing the results, Xia Li was quite satisfied. This was the entry ticket he had earned by risking his life to blow up the mine.

  The Spirit Core he was now using typically cost twelve spirit stones or more on the market, but the organization had only charged ten.

  As for the Heaven Chip, the organization's discount was truly substantial.

  Even the lowest-spec fifth-gen chips started at thirty spirit stones.

  The Hidden Wing Type-2 the organization provided wasn't top-tier in specs, but it was still a tier above the worst—definitely worth the fifty spirit stone market price. And he had only paid ten.

  "This new era is quite interesting..."

  Xia Li couldn't help but mutter to himself. Through online information, he discovered that not everyone could install fifth-gen chips.

  Second-gen chips could connect to the network. Third-gen chips came with AI.

  The power of fourth and fifth-gen chips clearly lay in combat enhancement, so most ordinary people used the affordable third-gen chips.

  For the same price, rather than buying an entry-level fifth-gen, it was better to buy an advanced third-gen with visibly more technique and storage slots.

  "Most ordinary people can only earn one spirit stone per month..."

  "My recent spending equals nearly two years of an ordinary person's savings without eating or drinking."

  Understanding this now, Xia Li also understood why people passed up the latest technology to pursue third-gen Heaven Chips.

  No money!

  They were truly poor. Earth was overflowing with cultivators but severely lacking in spiritual energy. Ordinary people had to carefully calculate every bit of energy.

  And in Earth's environment, wanting to stand out came back to competing on talent.

  With the same spirit stone, someone with poor talent might only improve slightly, while someone talented could improve significantly.

  Because the floor had been raised so high, talent—which determined the ceiling—became especially important.

  But...

  This had nothing to do with Xia Li. Even if his talent was garbage, he had a way to obtain spiritual energy. He could outcompete Earth's local geniuses.

  Next, Xia Li began selecting techniques.

  He had thirteen technique slots total. One storage slot could be locked as a passive, typically used for cultivation method training.

  Higher-grade Heaven Chips had multiple lock slots. Unfortunately, his only had one.

  But it was enough. At least the first-gen he had used before had zero lock slots—he could only use the Spirit Core's built-in basic cultivation method.

  "I need to earn spirit stones on the other side, and pills have the highest profit margin, so..."

  Xia Li began selecting cultivation methods that would help with alchemy—ones that allowed fine control of spiritual energy. He really wanted to just buy an automatic pill furnace, but the price made him balk.

  One hundred thousand spirit stones!

  This price meant many poor people could only honestly practice traditional alchemy, since using major factions' automatic furnaces also required fees.

  Browsing while walking.

  Xia Li looked through both the public technique network and Hidden Wing's internal network, and the options truly dazzled him.

  In the other world, cultivation methods and techniques were closely guarded secrets with few acquisition channels. But on Earth, hundreds of thousands of methods and techniques were posted online for direct download.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  Of course, better ones required spirit stones to unlock download permissions, and some were faction-exclusive techniques that verified Heaven Chip identity.

  Each faction's proprietary Heaven Chips served not only as internal benefits but also as authentication.

  Accessing internal networks and using faction-exclusive techniques all required Heaven Chip verification.

  "This Thousand Refinements Art on Hidden Wing's internal network is good—focuses on precise spiritual energy control."

  "That's settled for the cultivation method. As for techniques..."

  Xia Li continued selecting. He even went to the public network and cracked one technique's download permissions. His Heaven Chip could crack security level one permissions—unfortunately, this function had a cooldown, and he'd have to wait ten days before using it again.

  After downloading all the cultivation methods and techniques, Xia Li ducked into an empty dark alley.

  Then he took out the mysterious ring from his waist pouch and put it on his left hand.

  "Go..."

  He began imagining the scenery of the other world, imagining the small courtyard he had rented.

  He still hadn't fully figured out how to activate the ring, but considering he had returned because of homesickness, wanting to go there should also work through intention.

  As the ring began to warm slightly, Xia Li understood this was working. He focused harder on his memories.

  Remembering the bedroom from before he transmigrated, remembering the details of the room.

  Then...

  The ring glowed with white light!

  "It worked!"

  Xia Li prepared himself and closed his eyes. The crossing was very quiet, as if entering a completely silent, dead world.

  Only when he heard wind again, heard the rustling of leaves, did Xia Li reopen his eyes.

  And sure enough, he had arrived in the other world—back in the bedroom where he had been before transmigrating.

  "So the arrival point for crossing is based on the previous location..."

  Understanding this, Xia Li thought he should find a safer spot next time. If someone was present when he appeared, things could go very wrong.

  "Now then..."

  Xia Li prepared to begin cultivating immediately. A voice sounded in his mind.

  【Detected current spiritual energy concentration at 2%. Cultivation method activation threshold met. Initiate automatic Spirit Core cultivation?】

  His AI assistant reported that the current environment's spiritual energy concentration was high enough for automatic cultivation method training.

  【Begin cultivation】

  【By the way, what was the spiritual energy concentration where I was before?】

  【Report: Linguang City Lower District spiritual energy concentration is approximately 0.001%】

  【Holy shit】

  Xia Li was speechless, only able to curse internally. On Earth, cultivation required either entering a spiritual energy chamber or using spirit stones. Absorbing spiritual energy from the air was simply impossible.

  0.001% concentration was barely enough to maintain Spirit Core operation and prevent cultivation from declining. This concentration had clearly been deliberately designed.

  For real cultivation, this world was the place!

  Even a small city like Fenghe City, not built on any spirit vein, had 2% spiritual energy concentration. Xia Li didn't dare imagine how much concentration those sects built on spirit veins had.

  Of course, while this concentration was high, it still wasn't enough for the rapid cultivation Xia Li wanted.

  So he crawled under the bed, moved aside a floor tile, and retrieved a pouch.

  That was his little treasury—all the spirit stones he had earned over nearly two months. After necessary expenses and tribute payments, over two hundred remained.

  With such high spiritual energy concentration combined with spirit stones, his progress would be terrifyingly fast.