With the departure of the higher-dimensional visitor.

  A platform slowly rose from the center of the storage vault.

  The last remaining power of this research facility was activated. Spotlights were turned on, a beam of light converging on the rising platform.

  Xia Li suddenly felt as if he were on a pilgrimage.

  He slowly walked over. By now he had begun to believe in destiny. Coming here was coincidence, yet not entirely so.

  Perhaps in some sense it was also inevitable.

  Even if he hadn't come this time, someday he would have arrived here through other means.

  If he guessed correctly, the vision he'd seen earlier in the underground tunnel—if not interrupted later—would have shown information related to this biochemical research facility.

  He would have come seeking it.

  Though he'd been attacked by the Infant Cry and interrupted at the time, not seeing the complete vision, he had still arrived here.

  Fortune...

  Heavenly Dao...

  Karma...

  Xia Li began to understand that what lay before him was perhaps destined to be his.

  If anything could influence spacetime and directly interfere with fate, it could only be that higher-dimensional visitor from before.

  It had perhaps also guided him through some means.

  On the platform, a device shaped like a pistol was placed inside a glass cover.

  But that wasn't a gun—it was a gun-shaped injector.

  Inside the injector, no injection fluid could be seen. The interior was empty—nothing there, nothing existed.

  Xia Li closed his eyes...

  Then reached his hand toward the glass cover.

  To see things beyond cognition, one must first change one's cognition.

  "Life is merely an accident of the universe..."

  "The universe can exist without life, but life cannot exist without the universe."

  "What is the meaning of life?"

  Xia Li silently recited his views on himself, on the world.

  "Observation."

  "Life is the universe's observer, witness, and will surely become the continuator at the time of the end."

  "The universe gives birth to life, life records the universe. From observation, information is born. Light will vanish, but information is eternal."

  Therefore...

  "I observe, I think, therefore I am—and thus the universe is."

  Xia Li opened his eyes. Inside the originally empty injector, a brilliant nebula appeared, drifting continuously within.

  Then...

  It became fire, transformed into wind, condensed into water, both like metal and iron and also like racing thunder.

  Xia Li punched through the glass cover, took out the injector and gripped it tightly, then slowly pressed it against his own temple.

  He had an indescribable feeling—this was how it should be injected.

  This posture was much like holding a gun to commit suicide.

  But more like a farewell to his ordinary self. Kill the old self, and then...

  Rebirth!

  Actually, Xia Li had always felt somewhat inferior. He really couldn't find areas where he surpassed others, and his opportunity to traverse two realms was mainly used for convenient spirit stone earning.

  But the truly topmost things were beyond reach no matter how many spirit stones one had.

  He was ultimately inferior to those peerless prodigies of the cultivation world, and even more inferior to Earth's upper-class people with sixth-generation Heaven Chips.

  When facing those who stood at the era's forefront.

  When facing those favored by heaven and earth.

  What could he do besides feel unwilling?

  When his advantages were exhausted, what could his utterly ordinary self do?

  He didn't underestimate himself, but he even less underestimated the world.

  There were far too many who surpassed him. And what came next would be his true step toward catching up to them.

  Five hundred years of hibernation.

  Whether he'd break from the cocoon as a butterfly or become a monster...

  All depended on this moment!

  Even if born with deficiencies, lacking in later development...

  Even a small ember wished to ignite heaven-burning flames.

  "I, Xia Li..."

  "At this moment..."

  "Awaken!"

  Xia Li pulled the injector's trigger with force. In that instant, he felt his consciousness drawn by something, directly transported to another indescribable space.

  Darkness...

  Endless darkness.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  Then light.

  Indescribable light and heat that illuminated everything in an instant.

  He was one among them.

  Combining and separating with other points of light in that indescribable sea of luminescence.

  After the endless light and heat continued for a time, it began to cool, becoming scalding, bright dust that gave time and space meaning.

  Dao gives birth to One.

  He was one of that dust.

  After an indescribably long time...

  The dust began to gather, to accumulate.

  Until it became an eternally existing enormous luminous mass. The mass began to rotate, began to more violently absorb everything...

  He too was absorbed.

  Until the enormous luminous mass could absorb no more and suddenly erupted with terrifying jets, scattering part of itself outward.

  Those luminous streams cooled as they traveled far away.

  They began to become different, smaller dust particles.

  One gives birth to Two.

  He became part of one of those smaller dust particles.

  That dust particle began to change. With time's passage, he was rock upon that dust, also becoming mountain wind, transforming into flowing water...

  Then becoming...

  Something extremely tiny that could move on its own.

  Life...

  Two gives birth to Three.

  Life began to constantly transform, and he flowed through it as matter composing different life forms.

  He was a flying bird, also a rat or insect. He was an enormous creature, also a seedling taking root in rock crevices.

  He was a branch taken to drill wood for fire.

  He was a person who died in tribal conflict.

  He was livestock slaughtered for sacrifice at civilization's dawn.

  Then became a flying bird sweeping past vermillion high walls, watching ten thousand people kneel below in worship of the Human Emperor.

  Then heaven and earth transformed.

  Artillery fire filled the world. After the world's baptism by flames, he once again formed into a living being.

  A loud cry was the first sound he made as a life form.

  Three gives birth to all things!

  Dao gives birth to One, One gives birth to Two, Two gives birth to Three, Three gives birth to all things!

  "Who am... I?"

  Xia Li suddenly opened his eyes. Hazy starlight appeared in his eyes. His entire body slowly floated upward, arms naturally hanging down and slightly spread—he was becoming light.

  Spacetime was distorted by him. Shadows of his past began to continuously overlap.

  "I am... me..."

  The continuously overlapping shadows finally stabilized Xia Li's form, allowing the Xia Li who was about to dissipate as light to finally stabilize into human posture.

  Then...

  Xia Li landed, using both hands to brace himself as he half-knelt on the ground.

  "Becoming the Dao... is this what becoming the Dao is?"

  Xia Li had just nearly become the Dao. He now understood another great truth—equilibrium.

  Both forgetting the self and transcending the self would lose the self. After all, the True Self is not self; the True Self has no meaning. Returning to the source is both beginning and end.

  He could not yet influence the source's True Self with his current self.

  But he had already established a connection with the True Self.

  He hadn't yet clearly felt the subtleties within, but at this moment he felt his consciousness was unprecedentedly stable.

  It was a feeling of entrusting consciousness somewhere. He could die, but would not perish.

  He could now...

  Reincarnate!

  He could once again become "Xia Li."

  He had left a backup of himself within the True Self.

  Beyond that...

  【Detected that your previous peak computing power reached one-tenth of the Heavenly Dao Computer's】

  【Your current computing power has increased approximately threefold from before】

  【Your psychokinetic power has gained tremendous growth, reaching the minimum level of Perfect Human】

  Perfect Human, the perfect person, was a cultivation realm that could use psychokinesis to directly crush a Nascent Soul cultivator head-on.

  【Allow long-term computing power occupation to achieve beyond-spec performance expansion?】

  "Yes!"

  【Your technique slots expanded to 10, storage slots expanded to 30】

  【Intelligent Technique Sheathed Draw now permits initiating active guaranteed-hit attacks.】