After hanging up, Ji Qinglin had no desire to sleep at all. He sat up and continued studying the apps.
At present, the one he had basically mastered was the Big Dipper Map.
It was just that he currently lacked the necessary movement techniques. If he could equip a Ladder Cloud Leap or Divine Travel Steps module, his mobility would probably improve by a great deal.
But his body could not install them directly. He would likely have to use Divine Sense Observation to watch others employ lightness skills before he could learn them.
Since the Big Dipper Map could make no further progress and Divine Sense Observation had nothing to scan, Ji Qinglin could only turn his attention to the Cloud Qi Sea.
Based on his experience, cloud storage was nothing more than a place to upload and download massive amounts of data. What did that have to do with a qi sea? He vaguely remembered that, in the Old Era, he had stored quite a bit of material about the grand harmony of male and female life in the cloud. But it had all been wiped out during the internet cleanup later on.
Using it for the first time, Ji Qinglin tapped "Register." Out of caution, he naturally would not use his real name, so he casually typed the three characters "Huang Silang" into the nickname field.
But after he tapped register, it actually prompted him to bind a personal ID number. Ji Qinglin first entered Bangkok's fifteen-digit ID number.
"Sorry, your ID number format is incorrect."
After hesitating for a moment, Ji Qinglin experimentally entered the eighteen-digit ID number from his previous life, one he knew by heart.
"Registration successful!"
This "phone" really was something from the Old Era.
If that was the case, then perhaps only the Old Era version of himself could use everything related to it as well.
In other words, only he counted as a user to this program.
The Qi Sea Cloud Disk gradually opened, its clean interface backed by drifting white clouds.
The empty homepage contained only four words: "Connect Qi Sea."
Unable to find any feature instructions, Ji Qinglin tapped it experimentally, and a first-use prompt appeared before him.
"Please sit somewhere quiet and level. When ready, tap confirm."
After closing the door, Ji Qinglin turned and sat on the old sofa. He took a deep breath and tapped "Confirm."
Immediately afterward, Ji Qinglin noticed everything before him gradually dimming. Yet the lighting in the room itself had not changed, so it was clearly the Qi Sea Cloud Disk connected to his body that had brought a strange sensation to his senses.
By the time his surroundings had completely turned dark, Ji Qinglin felt as though his body were floating in the cosmos.
Soon, light appeared above and ahead of him. Looking up, he discovered it was a liquid shining with dazzling colors, like golden rays from a setting sun falling upon a river as it surged toward him.
The liquid poured down from above like a waterfall. Ji Qinglin instinctively raised his hands to block it.
But when it reached him, the liquid suddenly split apart, dividing into two rivers that swept past either side of his body without touching him.
What was this? Curious, Ji Qinglin reached out to touch it. Ripples spread across the dazzling liquid at the brush of his finger, and then he noticed that his finger had changed into the same state.
He raised it for a closer look. The colors on his finger were still shifting, as if a curved-screen phone had been wrapped around it.
And the resolution on this finger was not low, either. The tiny modules covering its skin each displayed different content—text, pictures, even videos.
This was data!
The boundless sea of data carried by the cloud disk!
Ji Qinglin wanted to inspect it more closely, but he could only vaguely make out a few simple lines of text:
"Sexy dealer, dealing cards online." "Late-night livestream, video chat." Hiss, this was ancient data from his era.
Just as he was wondering how to use this data, another usage prompt popped up before him:
1. You may absorb the qi force in the Sea of Data within the cloud disk by meditating or raising both hands. The data qi force will be distributed throughout your body in scientifically calculated proportions. 2. Once the data qi force absorbed into the qi sea has been released, it cannot regenerate and may only be absorbed again. 3. Your body's absorption speed and the amount of data qi force it can absorb will continuously increase with repeated absorption. 4. Data qi force can be released through the body and can destroy programs built by opponents or their original databases.
Hiss—
Reading the explanation, Ji Qinglin sucked in a sharp breath.
This was data?
In a martial arts world, wouldn't this damn thing be called internal energy? In a cultivation world, calling it qi would be more fitting.
Although he had not installed any cultivation components, he had studied the principles behind many cultivation techniques.
If he directly released data through his palm and destroyed an opponent's cultivation modules or original database, then it would be no different from shattering their meridians with a single palm strike.
He did not know whether it could be used to hurt people. In theory, since it was a program, it should have complete safeguards and would not let him use it for evil.
But that probably did not matter to him. To this program, only he, a remnant of the Old Era, counted as a user. The identities and personalities of everyone else likely could not be recognized by it.
He just did not know whether this data had other uses, or whether it could be converted into specific techniques.
With that thought, Ji Qinglin slowly raised both arms according to the program's instructions. Part of the flow of data sliding past his sides was intercepted by his hands and began pouring into his entire body.
Though it was only data, as it flowed over him, it still gave him the sensation of clear water washing across his body.
There were also ten small white figures in the upper-right corner of the program, which appeared to be the limit for data absorption.
His body also began filling with all kinds of information like his finger had, but Ji Qinglin never lowered his guard.
If he could keep filling himself endlessly like this, there would not have been such detailed usage instructions earlier.
At that thought, Ji Qinglin tried moving his body, only to discover that the body wrapped in those streams of data felt as if it had been encased in a shell of cement. Moving was extremely awkward.
The moment he sensed something wrong, Ji Qinglin immediately lowered his arms and stopped absorbing the data stream.
As the absorption ceased, the chaotic streams of data on his body also began to slowly...
The disorderly data streams covering his body slowly began to sort and arrange themselves, becoming orderly. The sensation of his movements being obstructed gradually faded as well.
Only then did Ji Qinglin understand: he could absorb data from the Sea of Data to fill himself, but that power was chaotic and disordered. After absorbing a certain amount, he had to regulate his breath and organize it, smoothing it out before he could make it his own.
After trying several times in succession, Ji Qinglin had basically figured out how to use the program.
Just like a cultivator, one moment he stretched both arms toward the sky to breathe in and out, the next he sat cross-legged on the bed to regulate his breath, slowly turning more and more data into his own strength.
Though he had yet to truly use it, Ji Qinglin could already feel the strange heaviness in his body after absorbing a large amount of data.
Whether because he had finally found a method of cultivation or because this qi sea could also dispel fatigue, Ji Qinglin did not rest all night. He continuously absorbed the data within until the eastern sky began to pale.
Now that this wave had clearly introduced the feature, the next chapter would properly get the plot underway.
Before you continue