Xia Li could only understand half of what Lin Ye said.

  He felt he needed to ask the Heavenly Dao Computer about this, though the Heaven Chip's database might also have relevant information.

  【Heaven Chip, do you know what the Great Era is?】

  【The Great Era is considered a conceptual macro-causal law】

  【Theoretically speaking, the essence of all things is entropy increase, but the nature of living beings is entropy decrease】

  【When living beings forcibly maintain entropy decrease to a certain degree, it triggers the Great Filter】

  The Great Filter—this was a term from Xia Li's era.

  For example, for life to emerge, a suitable environment was needed. This was the first Great Filter.

  To develop sufficient intelligence was the second Great Filter.

  Before environmental catastrophes caused mass extinction, developing civilization to resist the environment was the third Great Filter.

  Human civilization was believed to have passed through three filters and now possessed the qualifications to pass the fourth.

  【In simple terms, if any phenomenon remains unchanged for too long, it will encounter change caused by multiple factors.】

  【For example, age. Aging represents entropy increase. The older one becomes, the more easily the body heads toward inevitable death from various causes—this is life's Great Filter】

  【Spirit energy and technology currently each have methods to pass through this Great Filter】

  The Heaven Chip's response was relatively easy to understand. In other words...

  Those great sects had grown old.

  About to die of old age!

  But they refused to accept defeat. They wanted to maintain everything as it was, so they began devising ways to prevent the Great Filter—that is, the arrival of the Great Era.

  "These great sects... As they say, a man's words are kind when death is near. But these sects? The closer they get to death, the crazier they become."

  After understanding the concept of the Great Era, Xia Li replied to Lin Ye. This was his view—spring departed, autumn arrived, old replaced by new. Why couldn't they simply accept reality?

  When he had learned he was terminally ill, he hadn't tried to resist. But after trying everything that wouldn't burden his family, he had calmly entered the cryogenic chamber.

  At that time, he could have actually gone abroad for treatment, tried more expensive technologies.

  But his family's circumstances were ordinary. To grasp at a sliver of hope, should the whole family go into debt? Should his sister not even attend university and have to work immediately? Was that what he wanted to see?

  Even if he survived...

  His family's subsequent life would certainly be extremely difficult. He might as well have died.

  "Those who would be destroyed must first be driven mad. Madness can seize a chance at survival, or accelerate destruction. Let's wait and see how they end up."

  Lin Ye seemed completely unsurprised by those great sects' mad behavior.

  "Let's not talk about this anymore. Brother Lin, do you have any leads on earning spirit stones?"

  Xia Li couldn't be bothered to care about those great sects' fate. As long as they didn't bite him like Xuan Dan Sect did, he'd be fine.

  "Actually... I have quite a lot of spirit stones..."

  Lin Ye knew Xia Li was an alchemist with peculiar techniques.

  Yes—to him, Xia Li's techniques were simply peculiar, completely different from existing alchemy methods. The supreme Foundation Establishment Pill Xia Li had given him could actually have been even higher quality.

  But Xia Li hadn't done that, probably to precisely control pill output.

  Rather than refining two better supreme Foundation Establishment Pills, better to refine three slightly inferior supreme Foundation Establishment Pills.

  He had observed the one Xia Li gave to Liu Jingfeng and discovered that the two pills were virtually identical in size, weight, and appearance—as if they'd been replicated.

  This completely overturned Lin Ye's alchemy knowledge.

  So he hoped to use spirit stones to buy rare items from Xia Li that even great sects didn't have.

  "What do you want?"

  "I haven't used the supreme Foundation Establishment Pill you gave me yet. After observing the pill, I deduced that you must have even better Foundation Establishment Pills. I want those!"

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  Lin Ye intended to walk the path of the pinnacle, so he placed extreme importance on his foundation. The supreme Foundation Establishment Pill was excellent, but if he could go even further, he absolutely wouldn't refuse.

  "Oh?"

  Xia Li was quite surprised. This Lin Ye was truly remarkable—he had actually discerned that the pill's potency had been held back.

  "Brother Xia, will you agree? I'm willing to pay ten thousand spirit stones!"

  Ten thousand spirit stones—double the price of a supreme Foundation Establishment Pill.

  "No... twenty thousand!!"

  As if afraid Xia Li wouldn't agree, Lin Ye continued to raise the price.

  "Where did you get so many spirit stones?"

  Xia Li hadn't expected Lin Ye to be so wealthy. It seemed that if Xuan Dan Sect hadn't deliberately cut off the circulation of supreme Foundation Establishment Pills, he might not have caught Lin Ye's eye at all.

  "Well... personal opportunities."

  "Alright, I didn't mean to pry—just curious. Since you have spirit stones, why don't we do bigger business?"

  "What do you mean, Brother Xia?"

  "Give me a location. Let's talk in person."

  Xia Li was generous by nature and naturally preferred dealing with equally generous people.

  "Then let's meet at Heavenly Eagle Peak. I'll head over immediately."

  "Good."

  Xia Li and Lin Ye agreed on a meeting place, then immediately pulled out a map to search for Heavenly Eagle Peak's location.

  It wasn't far from Wind Crane City. Flying on the wind, it would take about a day and a night to arrive.

  "Heaven Chip, proceed to target location."

  Xia Li directly let the Heaven Chip take over his body for travel while he relaxed and watched videos on virtual screens to pass the time.

  Though he hadn't specifically downloaded anything, the Heaven Chip still came preloaded with many videos—mainly documentaries. Xia Li could learn some knowledge along the way. His understanding of the new era was still far from sufficient.

  The next day at noon.

  Xia Li arrived at his destination—a mountain peak with a massive eagle-shaped rock formation at its summit. Among the other unremarkable surrounding peaks, it stood out conspicuously, recognizable at a glance.

  Below the eagle-shaped rock, Lin Ye sat cross-legged in meditation. He had clearly arrived long ago.

  "Brother Lin."

  Xia Li approached and initiated the greeting.

  "Brother Xia, the incident you caused this time is no small matter. Xuan Dan Sect issued a kill order on you not long ago. Your bounty is now one hundred thousand spirit stones."

  "Only a hundred thousand? What I robbed from the Myriad Treasures Pavilion Master alone was more than that."

  Xia Li wasn't particularly afraid of being hunted now. As a member of Hidden Wing, he had become quite skilled at fleeing.

  Nothing else mattered—just the divine ability Realm Fusion alone could prevent even Earth's Soul Transformation cultivators from catching him, let alone here.

  "Speaking of which, Myriad Treasures Pavilion and the Rogue Cultivator Alliance have also placed bounties on you. You're impressive—sects, merchant associations, rogue cultivators—you've offended them all."

  "Let's not talk about these annoying matters. Let's do business instead. Want treasures that can instantly kill Golden Core cultivators?"

  Xia Li planned to act as a middleman, importing goods from Earth for Lin Ye. Earth's weapons—he wouldn't dare sell to just anyone. Only trustworthy people could buy them.

  And Xia Li now trusted Lin Ye quite a bit.

  "You mean the things you used in Wind Crane City? I'm only at Qi Refining. Can I fully unleash the weapons' power?"

  "Even at Qi Refining level one, you could. Though the charging time might be somewhat long."

  "Let me see them first."

  "Sure."

  Xia Li smiled slightly and directly took out the Star Gleam sniper rifle, the Kinetic Blade, and the remaining grenades and shield.

  He wouldn't sell to Lin Ye just yet, but he could let Lin Ye try them first. Next time he returned to Earth, he'd procure goods for Lin Ye.