Chapter 360: The Beginning of Qi Cultivation! And the

Continuous mountain ranges undulate like waves, covered in lush, verdant forests.

Long rivers wind and twist, like the blood vessels of the earth, tracing their source to those distant, mysterious snow-capped mountain peaks.

Be it the Vast Sea Glaciers, or the Yellow Sand Desert.

Or even within those prosperous cities where twinkling lights resemble stars in the night sky.

Encompassing the entire world of the Four Oceans and Seven Continents, every place, every space.

Accompanied by Spiritual Energy permeating and spreading across Heaven and Earth, an invisible, unknowable minute change is quietly taking place everywhere.

Reaching the heights of the azure sky, even beyond the Nine Heavens. Extending down to the Nine Earths below, sinking even deeper beneath the Earth's Crust.

——————

On the vast Gobi Desert, a convoy of military vehicles winds forward like a long dragon.

Initially, they were still speeding along the arteries of the National Highway, but at some unknown time, these military vehicles all quietly deviated from the road, driving unwaveringly toward some unknown direction.

The surroundings are a stretch of desolation, no village ahead, no shop behind, only wind and sand for company, desolate and silent.

Driving like this, who knows how long it has been.

Were it not for the soldiers in the compartments having solemn faces and focused eyes, like statues, without the slightest wavering, even the old Taoist priest sitting in the vehicle, with his Immortal Bearing, would inevitably have given rise to doubts.

However, regarding the current happenings, the old Taoist priest also has more or less some thoughts.

After all, this world changes with each passing day; earth-shattering changes are staged almost every day, everyone knows — the heavens are about to change.

Not to mention other things.

Just the fact that not long ago, those Cultivators from Beyond the Heavens descended to the mortal world, fighting fiercely all the way to the United Kingdom mainland in search of something, is enough to shock the world.

Such news spread like wildfire, impossible to suppress, and naturally exploded the world's eyeballs.

Even Ordinary People couldn't help but shout that they also wanted to learn the Dao, to cultivate immortality, displaying an unprecedented, immense fanatical enthusiasm for it.

Then as professional personnel originally in this industry, it is naturally impossible to truly have absolutely no thoughts, not a single idea.

Especially after that turmoil ended, everything seemed to have quieted down, like a lake surface after a storm, ripples gradually subsiding —

Although a minor interlude occurred in the middle...

The darkness of night descended silently, pouring down like ink, covering the skies above London, and even the entire United Kingdom...

Finally, outside the sea domain, it collided with another Unknown Force, triggering a brief but fierce battle, then quickly faded away without leaving anything behind...

To this day, no one can confirm what exactly happened that night, what kind of confrontation it was, and what caused all this.

But after that, the disaster relief work carried out under the banner of Humanitarian Relief proceeded exceptionally smoothly.

Countless volunteers, rescue teams, and international friends extended helping hands one after another, like the winter sun, bringing warmth and hope to the disaster-stricken areas of London.

Even the news broadcasts daily reports, frontline reporters tracking and reporting every day.

Even though every day they report how many disaster victims were transferred, how many supplies were aided, behind the numbers are the efforts and dedication of countless people.

As if while recording the progress of the rescue work, it also sublimated the spirit of Internationalism invisibly, transmitting the concept of a Community of Human Destiny.

However.

Only those very naive, very simple, very foolishly sweet people would believe this really was a selfless, noble, aboveboard, self-sacrificing rescue operation.

One country in distress, friendly nations all extending helping hands...

The entire process exudes full humanitarian brilliance...

— Tsk tsk, sounds especially beautiful.

The reality is that in this world full of interests and struggles for survival, nothing is as simple as it appears on the surface; behind everything lie more complex considerations and calculations.

Especially the direction pointed to by the current various clues and signs is that obvious.

Even Ordinary People can't help but suspect what benefits the country obtained from London, which has already become a Battlefield Wasteland.

Whether they unearthed extremely valuable things from those remaining ruins?

The old Taoist priest had similar suspicions before, but as for now, his suspicions have nearly been confirmed with solid evidence.

Because in almost every vehicle of this convoy, sits a professional personnel like him —

Either experienced, highly respected seniors, or talented young juniors with outstanding talent, basically all are talents meticulously selected from the domestic Religious Circle.

They are also very likely the first batch selected.

From this point, it is very clear that the country inevitably intends to borrow the power of these professional talents to uncover or verify certain things.

And those who could be selected are all not dull-witted people, naturally they have all figured this out one after another.

Some treat it with indifference, some have burning hearts.

They gaze at the boundless Gobi outside the window, as the convoy advances, all pondering secretly in their hearts.

Until the convoy stopped at a certain part of the Gobi Desert, the group entered a hidden Military Restricted Zone, underwent a series of strict inspections, and finally entered a large underground Structure.

Under the support of Manifestation Device Technology, the Restoration Domain has always had achievements.

Those once shattered buildings, collapsed highways, seemingly bestowed with magic overnight, regained vitality anew...

— If not for London being almost razed to the ground, suffering severe disaster, then if it were only partial urban destruction, it would truly not need several days to restore...

Similarly, the application of this Black Technology also provides extraordinarily huge assistance to the Construction Integration field.

Those Large-scale Engineering projects once deemed Incredible, or requiring exhaustive manpower and resources to complete, now only need willingness to invest, and can be easily erected in the blink of an eye.

And the quality is top-grade, completely passable.

The group also all behaved very properly, expressing no opinions or moving about randomly, but following guidance, passing through areas with various Slogans, sentry posts, and layers of Protection.

Finally, they stopped before a brand-new metal gate that was obviously just recently completed.

The Project Leader had been waiting at the gate for a long time.

His Gaze was as sharp as a falcon's, sweeping over that group of old or middle-aged, yet all wearing differently styled Taoist Robes, with temperament and spirit obviously different from Ordinary People "professional personnel".

Considering the tendency shown by the samples, as well as the project's Safety and secrecy, the first batch of recruited test personnel is very limited, and they are all Taoists.

Temporarily there are still no other religious personnel.

Professional alignment, applying what is learned — this is the earnest expectation of this project.

However, if things do not proceed smoothly enough, then later we will also have to consider adding a control group... Of course, he still hopes it can proceed smoothly.

"Everyone, since you have already arrived here, presumably you all more or less already have some understanding, so I will not repeat those precautions..."

The Project Leader cleared his throat and spoke.

He was very direct, cutting straight to the point, and did not say anything like letting everyone think clearly about whether to participate, this is the last chance to withdraw, or the like.

Joke — those able to get here, which one was not screened layer upon layer beforehand, confirmed again and again, now the Confidentiality Agreement is also signed, the Top Secret Base also entered, all the way to this gate...

Where is there still any possibility of saying if determination is insufficient, one can directly withdraw?

"We are to jointly participate in a major project. What is foreseeable is that it will be long-term, arduous. No one can be certain whether results can be produced, or when results will be produced. But I believe, as long as we unite as one, work together..."

The Project Leader spoke while extending a hand to gesture.

Those unsmiling military personnel also stepped forward one after another, distributing classified documents.

Under the Project Leader's gaze, many people's breathing involuntarily grew heavy, as if they could hear the booming of their own heartbeats. They struggled to suppress the complex emotions surging in their chests, slowly turning the first page.

The enlarged, bolded, thick black font on it clearly and distinctly entered their vision —

"Foundation Qi Refining Art."

— A really lame name.

Probably placed in any xianxia novel, it would all feel like that kind of third-rate, commonplace goods.

But, if it is in reality, after layers of screening and secret contact, under a series of paving, arriving at a national-level Top Secret Base...

Then in a state of having some psychological preparation, turning open such a page of documents, seeing such a line of thick black font...

That feeling is completely different.

A mere five big characters, yet carrying a kind of inexpressible power, striking straight to the depths of the soul.

At this moment, even in a psychologically prepared state, this sudden shock made many people almost unable to control themselves.

Their arms began to tremble, their bodies following with a slight quiver, eye rims involuntarily reddening; if not for desperate restraint, they might almost have torn the documents in their hands to shreds.

Even so, those pairs of arms were still subconsciously exerting extreme force, fingers whitening from excessive pressure, causing bursts of faint and bizarre sounds from between the pages.

"This is... this is..."

The Immortal Bearing old Daoist also raised his head, unable to help looking toward the Project Leader's direction.

Seemingly knowing what the old Daoist wanted to ask, the latter nodded: "It's real, although we still aren't certain whether it's useful, but..."

"Its source has no problem."

Because this document comes from a Jade Slip Fragment, it is partial information extracted from within.

In essence it is perhaps a kind of Micro Storage Crystal with extremely complex internal structure, possessing information storage capacity of unimaginably high density.

Merely in the aspect of simple information storage and extraction —

The performance it exhibits has already far surpassed the limits of modern technology by an unknown multiple.

Be it text, images, or abstract and subtle "sensation"-type messages like cultivation insights, all can be preserved and reproduced in this tiny Jade Slip Fragment.

According to relevant experiments and speculation, the current consensus conclusion holds that it necessarily still has a unique Encryption Protection Mechanism under normal circumstances, employing Advanced Encryption Algorithms and unknown storage principles...

Perhaps also a Self Power System, Wireless Transmission, and Resonance Memory and other miraculous Characteristics.

Using a bio-similar neural network Algorithm, establishing associations with participants' inputs, can those "sensation"-type messages be transmitted across space to the depths of the reader's Consciousness.

In short, there are many kinds of guesses regarding speculation on this aspect.

If not for the Jade Slip being damaged, it might have just lost that part of the information security Protection System...

If not for earlier, a recovered Short Sword sample, the Special Energy derived from it, able to resonate with it...

Then...

It might take a very, very long time to produce results.

Or perhaps, fundamentally no chance to produce results at all.

Thinking here, the Project Leader couldn't help but shake his head; he doesn't care whether there's some conspiracy theory in this, or too much coincidence, or the like.

Those Things are not what he should be responsible for; hand them to the Think Tank side to discuss themselves.

What he needs to do is merely be responsible for the current project, which is to verify whether that extracted information is correct.

The World is undergoing massive transformation; those who cannot keep pace will sooner or later be phased out.

— Qi Refining!

— Brooking no delay!

………………

………………

Coincidentally similar.

Across the Atlantic Ocean, similar things are also happening.

And the reason it is said to be similar things, not the same things, is because they believe it necessary to take another Road.

Only thus can they overtake on the curve.

"There are sufficient Clues indicating the Chinese have obtained something, but we have no way to stop it, also no way to confirm..."

"No no no, pressure has no meaning, they don't care about us either. Because China is no longer the former China, and the United States is also no longer the former United States..."

"We must recognize that the coming era is not friendly to us. Those Monsters clearly have connections to their cultural origins, as if they are unimaginable existences that walked out from their legends' ancient times..."

A Professional Personnel with extremely high prestige solemnly reiterated his view.

Even facing the Opposite Side — the President and Politicians, and Senior Military Officials with real power — his attitude was also extremely impolite.

But one must admit, precisely this kind of impoliteness and blunt exposition of stakes instead made those political creatures feel quite Persuasive, seemingly more credible.

"Cultural severance destines that we can hardly directly walk their Road!"

"I have already tried as much as possible to understand their classics. God, even native-born Chinese, steeped in that culture, would probably find it hard to understand those obscure and abstruse metaphysical theories..."

"Compared to that, do we really have even the slightest advantage?!"

"That's why! Gentlemen! We must think of a method!"

"..."

"..."

The President and the other people looked at each other, then all subconsciously looked toward the not-far-away place.

Opposite that observation window, inside the laboratory with layer upon layer of protection, in the cultivation vessel at the very center, was a severed head broken off at the neck...

He looked like a middle-aged man in his thirties, with a head of silver-white hair...

He was also their greatest recovery achievement currently.

"The Wizard Path you spoke of?" The President deliberated a moment, then asked.

"Correct." The scientific bigwig opposite nodded definitely, "The severed head we recovered maintains a certain Mors Vitality; as long as we maintain its activity, give it stimulation, conduct neural reading..."

"We will always be able to obtain useful information from within it."

"I believe the so-called Wizards are more suitable for us."

—Just like a Hell joke.

—Both sides obtained very special "Soul Vessels", and had to walk divergent Roads accordingly.

The President and the other people looked at each other, silently thinking.

"The Realizer technology is ready-made, and Wizards themselves have special aspects; from the current information, the First Great Sky Calamity back then was caused by their Spirit Technique..."

"That was the Strongest Spatial Tremor that killed 150 million people and tore apart the Eurasian Continent; from this point the future looks promising..."

"These are all conditions more in line with our current situation; I believe this is the more suitable Route."

Earnest persuasion was still useful.

Probably because the First Great Sky Calamity thirty years ago was too persuasive, its power too intuitive, making the power-holders' hearts stir.

"Then—"

"Choose this one!"

The President and the other people looked at each other once more, took a deep breath, and waved their fists viciously.

"Since we have the advantage, let's not wait any longer... next, push through the 'Wizard Registration Act' as soon as possible!"

Of course, this is also the same old cliché routine.

Before things are even accomplished, rushing to set standards first, a practice of asserting one's own say.

(Chapter End)