Eyes opened.

  Xia Li awoke from deep slumber, but couldn't control his body. A voice from the artificial intelligence echoed in his mind.

  【Consciousness revival detected】

  【Establishing neural connection】

  【Brain bridge connected】

  【Establishing connections with other devices】

  【Setting device parameters】

  【Devices starting up...】

  【All device calibrations complete. Startup finished】

  As all his body modifications activated, the world before Xia Li's eyes transformed. Countless data entries appeared in his field of vision.

  "Awake? Get up and move around."

  Ke Xiao sat in a chair beside the modification pod, watching Xia Li. When Xia Li looked at her, he frowned—a framed annotation interface had actually popped up over Ke Xiao's body.

  Her body data had been analyzed and directly visualized.

  "Hey, what are you looking at? Don't scan me!"

  Ke Xiao seemed to realize something and immediately activated Divine Sense Hacking: Defense Protocol. The data in the annotation frame quickly turned into question marks.

  This was Xia Li's ocular embedded modification—the Sky-Eye Retina.

  He could now view people in X-ray and thermal imaging modes. His eyes had essentially become surveillance cameras with extremely high definition and numerous functions.

  "My breathing..."

  Xia Li noticed his breathing was automatically following his cultivation technique's breathing method, making his automatic cultivation speed even faster.

  His heartbeat frequency had also synchronized with his Spirit Core's operation, causing his qi and blood to surge in harmony with his spiritual energy, accelerating his body tempering progress.

  As for other wonders, words couldn't fully describe them. Every organ and body part was operating in regulated harmony under the Heaven Chip's coordination, like a symphony playing the melody of the Dao.

  "You noticed? To achieve this step through one's own effort requires reaching the microscopic mastery level of body control—an extremely advanced Martial Dao realm. But with just one modification session, it's done instantly."

  Ke Xiao was quite satisfied with her modification choices. When selecting the various embedded modifications, she had specifically focused on Martial Dao enhancement.

  The essence of the Martial Dao was body refinement—developing the body's hidden potential. Xia Li was a rather old-fashioned person, and continuing this way would eventually lead to major disadvantages in physical strength.

  Nowadays, everyone carried technology and hidden tricks. Xia Li couldn't be without them, or he'd be far weaker than his opponents.

  "Truly an unprecedented feeling... it's as if my body completely obeys my will."

  The sensation of high-level body control was wonderfully mysterious. Combined with his powerful divine sense, he could direct his body to truly focus all its power on a single point.

  "One last thing. Take this."

  Ke Xiao smiled and tossed a data crystal chip to Xia Li.

  This was equivalent to a USB drive from the old era, but with incomparably higher storage security and reliability.

  "What's this?"

  "Decode it with your prosthetic and you'll see."

  "Alright..."

  Xia Li immediately opened the integrated port on his prosthetic wrist and inserted the data chip, discovering it contained a cultivation technique.

  *Mountain Sea Scripture: Foundation Chapter*

  "Mountain Sea Scripture? Isn't that a book recording various divine beasts and strange creatures? When did it become a cultivation technique?"

  "After the spiritual energy revival, people found the true Mountain Sea Scripture. It's actually an ancient technique aimed at forging the physical body to the level of primordial strange beasts."

  "Currently only fragments exist, but if you can master it thoroughly during Foundation Establishment, the benefits are enormous. Once you reach Golden Core, switch to the Sword Dao."

  Ke Xiao had already planned Xia Li's path. During Qi Refining, consolidate qi and spirit. After Foundation Establishment, practice Martial Dao to temper the body. At Golden Core, wield the sword to slaughter in all directions.

  "Is this technique rare? Can't find it online?"

  "Not on the public net or internal net. The organization's upper echelons have their eye on you and gave this to you directly as a reward. Don't feel any psychological pressure—if the organization gives it to you, just accept it."

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  After speaking, Ke Xiao patted Xia Li's shoulder. Because of his Heaven-path Foundation Establishment, Xia Li had already attracted attention from the Hidden Wing Organization's upper ranks. Naturally, they would bring out good things to cultivate him.

  "So what grade is this technique?"

  "Since it's only a fragment, it's roughly rated as Upper-Tier Superior Grade."

  Upper-Tier Superior Grade corresponded to Profound-Grade Upper-Rank on the other side—not bad at all.

  In Earth's understanding of cultivation, techniques weren't necessarily better at higher grades. The evaluation criteria were multidimensional.

  Compatibility was most important. If you could fully unleash a Profound-Grade technique's power, you could crush someone who could only bring out ten or twenty percent of an Earth-Grade technique's power.

  The learning difficulty and execution difficulty of the two were completely different. Forcing yourself toward higher grades without the ability would only result in flashy but useless fancy moves.

  "Upper-Tier technique is good enough. Sis Ke, introduce me to somewhere I can buy weapons. I'm planning to check out the deep danger zones next."

  "Looking to die?"

  Ke Xiao rolled her eyes at Xia Li. The deep danger zones were the territory of great demons and monsters, with countless illegal organizations entrenched there.

  Though Xia Li was now armed to the teeth, walking around ordinary danger zones would be fine, but the deep zones meant certain death.

  "I won't get myself killed. Just give me the connection first."

  "I have weapons here."

  "Your weapons... are average."

  Ke Xiao wasn't a dedicated weapons dealer after all—she just stocked some weapons on the side, which didn't meet Xia Li's standards.

  "Fine. But since you're asking me, you must want to go to the black market. The black market stuff is good, but most of it can't see the light of day. If someone catches you with it, that's big trouble."

  "Doesn't matter."

  Xia Li wasn't buying weapons to use on Earth anyway, nor would he go to the danger zones. He'd use them on the other side—people there couldn't possibly recognize them.

  "Alright, let me contact them..."

  After speaking, Ke Xiao fell into brief silence. She was directly contacting the other party through her Heaven Chip.

  Shortly after...

  "Done. I'll send you the entry key."

  "Got it. Thanks."

  After receiving the black market key, Xia Li transferred spirit stones to Ke Xiao. His full set of modifications had cost over six thousand seven hundred spirit stones, but he gave seven thousand, including the previous facilitation fees.

  If he didn't pay Ke Xiao, there was no way she'd let him leave.

  "Thanks for your patronage. You really rounded it up for me."

  Ke Xiao was happy to receive the payment. Rounding up was just something she'd said casually, but if Xia Li really wanted to give it, she wouldn't refuse.

  Nobody ever had too many spirit stones.

  "By the way, any suggestions on weapons? What should I choose?"

  "Up to you. I can't help with that—I'm not a weapons expert."

  Ke Xiao indicated she wasn't all-knowing. She was fine with modifications, but didn't know much about weapons.

  "But since you asked, I'll give you one immature suggestion."

  "Don't listen to people rambling about 'ancient forging methods.' I admit things forged with ancient methods aren't bad—they have higher ceilings."

  "But Spirit-Tech weapons are the real killers. Don't be foolish enough to fall for the trap of blindly pursuing ancient methods."

  "Beyond a hundred paces, use a focused-energy sniper rifle. Beyond fifty paces, use an electromagnetic rifle. Within seven paces, use a Gale shotgun!"

  "And don't buy into the 'one sword for all situations' myth. Even after you become a Sword Cultivator, don't use ancient swords—use Spirit-Tech swords. Beware the ancient method scam!"

  "Technology keeps advancing. Yet there are always people who think older things are more powerful—it's ridiculous. Don't touch anything that starts with 'primordial' or 'ancient'! They're just trying to scam you out of your spirit stones."