Virtual Spirit Transformation

Hearing Doctor Sun say that, Hu Mang immediately realized why he had been so energetic that morning.

The "lightning power" in his body had actually disappeared!

"Yes, why is that?"

Doctor Sun asked curiously, "Do you have a Law Artifact like a Lightning-Absorbing Pearl at home?"

"The lightning power produced by an artificial lightning tribulation tower has a higher voltage than ordinary electricity. Only a specialized Law Artifact like that can handle it, and those are generally installed only in 'large-scale cultivation projects.' Oh, right, you're in civil engineering."

Doctor Sun seemed to understand all at once.

Hu Mang nodded silently.

But inwardly, he was muttering that he had hurried back to Heavenly Gate for treatment with nothing but an industrial-grade Spiritual Qi detector on him.

Where would he get a Lightning-Absorbing Pearl?

Even so, he had a vague inkling of something.

After "getting to know" the situation, Doctor Sun soon stopped concerning himself with it.

Instead, he smiled at Hu Mang and said:

"Lie down, little brother."

Speechless, Hu Mang lay down inside a large monitoring Law Artifact and let the doctor fiddle with him.

He had no choice. This was part of the deal too: selling his body and cooperating with the doctor's acupoint examination.

But what if the doctor discovered his "Demon Race bloodline"?

For one thing, Hu Mang didn't think the doctor's imagination could stretch far enough to realize that part of his Demon Race bloodline had been inherited from the Crimson Moon Fox clan a thousand years ago.

Besides, even taking ten thousand steps back, what if he did find out?

He would merely have discovered a rare-grade "Demon Race recessive gene."

Uncommon, but not unheard of.

After all, plenty of people in ancient times had played around in rather wild ways.

A small number of cultivators really did have such bloodlines, and some even passed them down through their Lineages.

Hu Mang's thoughts wandered. What he wanted more now was to finish cooperating with the examination and head straight to the public library.

Then he could see whether his "stepdad" could really come up with something.

But when the light from the examination Law Artifact struck the back of Hu Mang's left hand, Sha Qi flashed in his eyes, and he instinctively swiped with his claws.

"Huh?"

"Hm?"

Both of them were a little stunned.

Doctor Sun reacted first. Immediately demonstrating the abilities of a Golden Core cultivator, he appeared at Hu Mang's side in an instant and cradled his palm as though it were a precious treasure.

"There really is one!"

"On the Yang Linking Vessel among the extraordinary meridians, there really is a hidden 'Demon Acupoint'!"

"I knew your 'Spiritual Qi output speed' was noticeably higher than an ordinary person's. There was a reason for it!"

"Wonderful! My paper for this year is settled!!"

Hu Mang looked at him, somewhat speechless.

"Doctor, isn't this position a little suggestive? You're half-kneeling on the floor—what, are you proposing to me?"

Doctor Sun coughed awkwardly and stood up, but he still couldn't bear to let go of Hu Mang's little hand, staring fixedly at it with burning eyes.

His scalp tingling, Hu Mang pulled his hand back and examined himself.

He hadn't registered it just now, but now that he had, he realized it wasn't the "back of his hand" that had been activated, but his "wrist."

"So it's at the intersection of the Yang Linking Vessel and the Yang Heel Vessel at the wrist, not an acupoint on a single extraordinary meridian?"

"One primary and one secondary, and that's why it's dominant! A dominant Demon Acupoint!"

Hu Mang examined his hand from every angle and found that, after the "Demon Acupoint" was activated, the joints in his hand had clearly grown thicker. At the same time, his claw tips were cloudy and yellowish, almost hook-shaped. With a casual swipe, he carved five deep gouges into the metal tabletop.

"Damn, they're pretty sharp. Feels like they're as strong as a 'high-grade Law Artifact.'"

"Big brother, stop staring. You can stare all you want, but I can't chop my hand off and give it to you."

"All right, all right. Come on, hurry and help me collect some data. Quickly, quickly."

Hu Mang had no "electrotherapy" scheduled that day. He had planned to drop by, let himself be studied, and then go home.

But unexpectedly, they really had discovered a "Demon Acupoint."

As a result, Doctor Sun kept him busy for most of the day. If he hadn't repeatedly stressed that he needed to go home, he might even have had to spend the night there.

Even so, when he left, Doctor Sun reminded him over and over not to tell anyone where the "Demon Acupoint" was, especially before his paper was published.

Judging by his condition, he wished he could put a "chastity lock" on Hu Mang's hand.

If this "bloodline activation" couldn't be switched on and off, the doctor probably would have done just that.

Hu Mang hurried along and finally headed straight for the library before the sun went down.

According to the receptionist, the collection of this sacred land's library alone was equal to the scripture repositories of ten ancient cultivation sects.

But when Hu Mang went to borrow a stack of books, he received another piece of unfortunate news.

"What? I can only borrow three at a time?"

"...I'll bring them back when I'm done. Fine."

As an overseas country bumpkin, Hu Mang still didn't know the rules of this new library very well.

Fortunately, he still got to borrow three books for free-Evolution of Acupoints, Detailed Explanation of the Five Elements, and The Future of Daoist Magic Intelligence.

Hu Mang had deliberately borrowed the last one.

He wanted to see how his "dad" would react to it.

In the end, there was no reaction.

Thus, over the next few days, Hu Mang shuttled between the library, the hospital, and home.

He went back and forth to the library in particular, practically "farming the map."

By the time the young woman working as the librarian had come to recognize his familiar face, he had finally finished collecting the information Father Hu needed.

"...So, are you sure you want to incorporate the phenomena from the River and Mountain Inheriting Truth Chapter and the Cloud Billows Pure Mystery Instruction into it?"

Father Hu asked.

"If possible, I'd like to give it a try," Hu Mang said seriously.

These two mountain and water techniques inherited from the Jiangzuo Xie Household were standard "ancient methods."

Hu Mang had practiced them before, only to find they were a huge trap.

Put it this way: he had spent nine years cultivating the Heavenly Gate General Qi Refining Instruction to the level of Qi Refining Great Perfection.

But to cultivate these two techniques to the same level, he felt that even nineteen years wouldn't be enough.

By modern standards, these two methods were the textbook sort that were both useless and difficult.

But the two techniques weren't without merit. Their advantage was that, compared with "modern methods," "ancient methods" placed greater emphasis on comprehension and phenomena.

For example, there was the true mountain form phenomenon of the River and Mountain Inheriting Truth Chapter, or the water, clouds, mist, spiritual light, and immortal air of the Cloud Billows Pure Mystery Instruction.

But nowadays, Heavenly Gate's natural Spirit Vein blessed lands had either been developed into artificial immortal abodes or were charging admission and selling grilled sausages.

Hu Mang had also climbed some spirit mountains to gain insight into these "phenomena of heaven and earth."

But apart from gaining the insight that there were a fucking lot of people, he hadn't comprehended any phenomena.

He was genuinely curious about what this was all about.

Father Hu nodded silently.

Then he closed his eyes.

Hu Mang had thought Father Hu would have to keep his eyes closed for at least three days and three nights. Instead, he closed them, opened them again, and then began writing furiously.

Isn't that a bit too efficient...?

Soon, a new "Heavenly Gate General Qi Refining Instruction: Qi Vessel Phenomena Supplement" was complete.

"...Thanks, Dad. I'll study it."

"Do you need me to explain it to you?" Father Hu asked with a smile.

"No, I'll study it first."

That evening, Hu Mang leaned against the headboard, carefully leafing through this freshly produced "third-creation cultivation method."

He flipped back and forth, but couldn't find anything lacking in the cultivation method.

In theory, it was an excellent cultivation method.

It was even exceptionally brilliant.

It didn't overturn the "first creation," nor did it alter the "second creation." Its foundation lay in using the principle of the Three Powers combining into the Two Aspects to pair the three Qi vessels, "Chonglou," "Heavenly Toad," and "Divine Mandate," with one another, evolving two minor celestial-phenomenon Qi vessels.

What they produced were the "true mountain form" and the "water-mist spiritual light."

The mountain and water phenomena took root in his Earth and Wood Spirit Roots. They could hardly have been a better match.

"Since there's no problem, I'll give it a try while I can still get free checkups from the 'Golden Core doctor.'"

And so, before long, Hu Mang's schedule changed once again.

Aside from his regularly scheduled "electrotherapy" and "human model" tests,

He also headed straight for the Hundred Herbs Spirit Hall during the intervals, freeloading off the high-grade Spiritual Qi inside the artificial lightning tribulation tower.

Apart from going home late at night to rest and recover, he spent nearly the entire day there.

And for a Foundation Establishment Great Perfection cultivator recultivating a Qi Refining method, the efficiency was extremely high.

In just three days, spiritual light flowed and flickered around Hu Mang. Riding the momentum, he broke through the bottleneck and steadily entered the Qi Refining Sixth Layer.

After just five days, the Spiritual Qi in his body surged and stirred once more, giving rise to azure and yellow Qi. The azure Qi rose upward, while the yellow Qi sank downward. As the Qi cycled, he broke through again, stepping into the Qi Refining Seventh Layer.

Hu Mang opened his eyes and remarked,

"High-grade Spiritual Qi really is something else. In ancient times, I'm afraid only the legendary 'High Antiquity blessed lands' could mass-produce high-grade Spiritual Qi."

"That depends on what kind of High Antiquity blessed land you're talking about. If it was on our planet, then that's certainly true."

"But in some legendary cultivation worlds, like the Immortal Realm, it's actually nothing special."

Doctor Sun spoke without even looking up.

"There are other cultivation worlds? Haven't we explored dozens of planets out there without finding any traces of Spiritual Qi?"

Hu Mang asked casually.

"Huh? You're out of seclusion? Weren't you in seclusion writing your paper these past few days?"

"Mm, I submitted it. I don't know whether it'll be accepted, though it probably will be."

Doctor Sun looked perfectly relaxed.

Hu Mang glanced at the thing he was playing with in his hand and gave a little exclamation.

"Spirit Pivot No. 1?"

"So you know about this thing too. All newly released phones now have a 'divine-sense internet access' function."

"Everyone's obsessed with 'divine-sense internet access' now."

Doctor Sun looked at him and chuckled.

"Oh, I forgot. People who haven't completed nine years of compulsory education can't access the internet with their divine sense. Well, that's convenient—no need to turn on underage cultivator mode."

Hu Mang rolled his eyes.

"Is it fun?"

"Actually, it's pretty fun. Cultivators online are all checking streamers' looks now. With one sweep of divine sense, the beauty filters streamers use are useless, no matter which streaming app they're on. Who knows how many top-spending big brothers have fled overnight."

"But for now, it's still just a toy."

"Once the cultivation method cloud, Spiritual Qi cloud, and even the realm cloud go online, the entire modern cultivation system will undergo a major transformation!"

"Spirit Transformation on a virtual level should be ready for mass production."