Is This Legit?

The middle-aged Scavenger revealed the secret, then looked at Qu Jianlei with a curious expression.

However, after blanking out for a moment and slowly exhaling, the other man showed no reaction at all.

About half a minute later, the fool slowly opened his eyes, turned, and left.

"Hey, Little Qu," he could not help calling out. "Where are you going?"

"Where?" Qu Jianlei turned back and gave him a suspicious look. "Back to rest, then back to work, obviously."

"Um..." The middle-aged man glanced at the Scavengers and Hunters at the scene. "You're not taking part in wrapping things up?"

"No." Qu Jianlei shook his head decisively and left without looking back.

He had already gained three weapons and searched two corpses. Too much was as bad as too little.

Most importantly, the failed Gene Serum still posed a potential threat to him.

He did not know how genetic warriors before the Doomsday had trained, but it was different from the methods recorded in the Taoist Sect manuals he knew.

He planned to study the difference carefully. If possible, he would still start with Blue Star's body-tempering methods.

In any case, he could not just let the mutation start from his Xiphoid Process—five percent was still far too low.

As his figure grew smaller and smaller, the Scavengers and Hunters exchanged glances.

In the end, someone snorted softly. "He really is a fool."

What had happened today should have been Silly Qu's Turning Point.

In the past, anyone could bully him whenever they pleased, without any concern.

Now that he had the backing of a tiger's hide, he should have used the opportunity to establish some rules and secure some benefits for himself, yet he had simply walked away?

Others did not care what Qu Jianlei thought and impatiently said, "We should discuss the other items..."

Someone muttered quietly, "What a bunch of greedy idiots!"

Qu Jianlei walked quickly and soon vanished from everyone's sight.

Then he bent over and broke into a sprint. Having suffered from chronic malnutrition, his body was exceptionally light, and he ran very fast.

Yet as he ran, his body grew hotter and hotter, while his skin became increasingly red.

Just as he felt he could no longer endure it, several uneven little mounds appeared ahead. Finally, I'm here!

Qu Jianlei ran to the side of one mound, scraped at the ground twice with his hand, then gave it a hard push.

A crack appeared before him, over twenty centimeters wide and about a meter long.

He checked the few hairs hidden in the gap. Finding nothing unusual, he immediately crawled inside.

This was not his residence, merely a temporary shelter he had dug in the wilderness.

Qu Jianlei was extremely thin and weak. For him, this had been a major undertaking, but he lacked any sense of security.

Even though he often went hungry, he had still dug three temporary shelters in the wild.

Each shelter was pitifully small, but for Qu Jianlei, having one was better than having none.

This was currently the largest of them, yet even so, it was still somewhat difficult for him to crawl inside with the Gauss Automatic Rifle.

He crawled diagonally downward for nearly three meters before reaching a narrow space.

The space was about a meter beneath the surface, two meters long, sixty centimeters wide, and roughly one and a half meters high.

It was about the size of two coffins stacked atop each other.

Inside, he had hidden a small canteen of water, half a tube of Nutrient Solution, and half a candle.

It was not that his sense of security was poor for no reason. He had already transmigrated once for no apparent reason, and he did not want to transmigrate a second time.

Setting aside the question of survival odds, could he guarantee that next time, he would transmigrate into a human body?

But he had no time to think about that now.

He pushed the entrance shut from inside, took out the flashlight he had just acquired, checked that it worked properly, and entered the Underground Cave.

Then he quickly sat cross-legged and began examining the Qi and Blood throughout his body.

Because he had exerted himself too much just now, his breathing was rapid, and he could not Enter Meditation for a long while.

Still, he could feel soreness in every muscle of his body, and it was not the sensation of excessive lactic acid buildup.

Qu Jianlei wanted to meditate, but unfortunately, he did not know any method for circulating qi.

Before transmigrating, he had learned Five Animals Play and Eight Section Brocade. As for Tai Chi... he was not particularly proficient.

But in such a cramped space, he could not perform any of those body-tempering techniques at all.

Then... he could only reluctantly practice a standing stance?

His standing posture was quite standard. Back in Shenzhou, he had hired someone to instruct him.

Unfortunately, after coming to the Wasteland, he had become too poor. He had only tried this physically demanding form of training a few times.

But now, he had rare chance to indulge himself a little, and his body was burning with heat. It was the perfect time to give it a try.

As he held the stance, he sank his qi into his dantian—the Lower Dantian, not the Middle Dantian.

This body's foundation was still a little too poor. Before even two minutes had passed, his waist and back were already beginning to ache.

Then, a miracle happened. The burning heat at his Xiphoid Process began to diminish, and the heat throughout his body gradually weakened as well.

At the same time, his Lower Dantian began to grow hot.

The heat throughout his body flowed continuously into his Lower Dantian, like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea.

Qu Jianlei was instantly invigorated. His waist no longer hurt, nor did his back ache.

But what exactly had I cultivated?

The failed Gene Serum was actually helping me cultivate internal energy?

This burning heat was becoming internal qi. Was it guaranteed ripe... was it legit?

The next moment, a phrase suddenly surfaced in his mind—where on the human body is not a dantian?

So this heat might be guaranteed ripe... legitimate... after all?

However, as he recalled those words, his mind suddenly jolted, and the outline of an image appeared.

It was a cartoon little Butterfly with a large head and a small body, its wings so tiny that they looked like Stick Figure legs that had grown a little muscle.

Yet although the image was blurry and indistinct, Qu Jianlei's entire body shook violently.

He muttered softly, as if in a dream, "Xiao Hu... is that you?"

Xiao Hu was the artificial intelligence he had created in Shenzhou.

At the time, he had been somewhat weary of the world, so he chose the image of a butterfly—even if I only live for one summer, I will still bloom beautifully.

But when naming it, he felt that Xiao Die was too common a name, and it was also homophonous with "dad."

No one could take advantage of him so casually, not even an artificial intelligence!

So a butterfly was named "Xiao Hu." Was that not perfectly normal?

Xiao Hu was highly intelligent, and Qu Jianlei, its "dad," was not short of money. He had spared no expense on hardware, so its processing speed was also very fast.

Furthermore, with support from the Shenzhou authorities, it had access to vast amounts of data. Its learning ability was formidable, and its training was highly complete.

Other than not having developed independent consciousness, Qu Jianlei felt it was not much different from an intelligent lifeform.

As for granting it intelligence? Qu Jianlei had not seriously considered it, even though he did have such an impulse.

First, he estimated that he would find it difficult to accomplish. Although his IQ was extremely high, he was not arrogant enough to become insane.

Second, allowing artificial intelligence to develop intelligence was inherently an antisocial notion. Who could guarantee that it would not turn against humanity?

No matter what, he was still overjoyed to finally see Xiao Hu again.

Unfortunately, the cartoon butterfly trembled slightly twice before abruptly scattering into specks of starlight.

The starlight did not even last a second before fading away completely.

Immediately afterward, another sharp pain came from his head—the familiar swelling pain.

"Then let it hurt." Qu Jianlei remained in his standing stance, but his hands had already reached for his waist and pulled out a tube of Nutrient Solution.

After drinking one tube of Nutrient Solution, the swelling pain intensified.

Without a second thought, he took out another tube.

Earlier, Mr. Sai had paid him ten tubes of Nutrient Solution as wages. He had also looted twelve tubes from Tie Tou and Third Master.

Now, he could afford to be slightly extravagant, and he was certain that this swelling pain was most likely improving his brain's processing power.

After about ten minutes, he had consumed three tubes of Nutrient Solution before the swelling pain in his head stopped worsening.

However, he truly could not continue holding the stance. After all, this body had barely ever practiced one before.

He plopped down onto the ground, picked up a waterskin, and began gulping down water.

Holding the stance had consumed quite a bit of energy, and his brain had consumed even more. After three tubes of Nutrient Solution, he had no choice but to drink water!

This waterskin should have been carried by Tie Tou, and the water was surprisingly clear and sweet.

However, despite his intense thirst, Qu Jianlei restrained the urge to drink his fill.

Reason told him that he had no idea how long his body's abnormal condition would continue. Properly rationing food and water was essential.

Sometimes Qu Jianlei's mind could not control his body, but under normal circumstances, his self-control was extremely strong.

It was not simply a matter of obsessive-compulsive disorder. In this perilous place, he would not be given much room for error.

After taking six large gulps, twelve small mouthfuls in total, he decisively set down the waterskin.

Then, naturally, he assumed the Five Hearts Facing Heaven posture.

He was not sure whether doing so would bring him any benefits, but was cultivation not always like this?

His breathing calmed somewhat, but the swelling pain in his head remained intense.

About ten minutes later, he took out another tube of Nutrient Solution.

This time, however, he did not drink any more water. Water resources were simply too precious.

Over the next hour, he consumed another two tubes of Nutrient Solution and drank three large gulps of water.

Just as he was worrying about when this enhancement would end, the swelling pain in his head gradually began to weaken.

Five minutes later, the pain had become negligible. Qu Jianlei was not even sure whether any residual pain remained.

Then, a cultivation chant suddenly appeared in his mind—the Nameless Qi Refining Art!

Was this... a cultivation technique? Qu Jianlei was stunned.

After transmigrating here, he no longer remembered much of Blue Star's knowledge clearly. For the most part, he knew what it was but not why it worked.

After all, his specialty had been supercomputing, not supermemory.

But he was absolutely certain that he had never encountered such a cultivation technique on Blue Star.

Even if cultivation techniques truly existed, there was no way one would be named the Nameless Qi Refining Art, right?

So my transmigration cheat has finally arrived. Is this... the system activating?

(A new week has begun. This new book needs all kinds of support, and Recommendation Tickets don't cost anything.)