Time flew like a white colt through a crack, and before anyone knew it, another month had passed.
Xia Li stood on the top floor of the library hall, expressionless and intensely focused as he flipped through a book. He turned pages quickly, scanning hundreds of lines at a glance.
The Heaven Chip was not recording the text word by word. It simply used his artificial eye to photograph the two open pages at once, then performed text extraction and comprehension.
[Task complete. All books recorded.]
[Remaining local storage capacity: 54%.]
[This recording process has increased brain-development rate by approximately 8%.]
The moment the Heaven Chip completed the task, it woke Xia Li's consciousness. When his mind resurfaced, the first thing he felt was a splitting headache and a heavy sense of mental exhaustion.
He had overused his brain during this period. He needed actual sleep now, the kind that would let his brain truly go dormant.
"Which parts developed exactly?"
[New neural pathways have been established in the left hemisphere. Language function, logical reasoning, and memory function have all been strengthened. They will activate after sleep.]
"Mm."
Even after regaining consciousness, Xia Li remained expressionless. Brain development had once been a popular technology in the era when first- and second-generation Heaven Chips dominated.
At that time, the Heaven Chip's functions still depended rather heavily on the brain itself. Even its storage function linked directly to the hippocampus and relied on human memory as hardware.
Once third-generation Heaven Chips were released, however, their functions became integrated, and they no longer depended on the human brain. The speed of brain development also failed to keep up with later Heaven Chip iteration.
After Heaven Chip technology entered the fourth generation, brain development as a dedicated technique faded into history. Now it had become merely a side effect that naturally accumulated over time from long-term Heaven Chip use. There was no longer any need to deliberately pursue it.
Now that the soul, in other words a coherent aggregate of magnetic energy, had already been proven to exist, people's view of the brain had also changed. The brain was nothing more than the factory-standard part one was born with. Between integrated optical brains and Heaven Chip technology, the only thing the brain could still boast was perhaps its latent developmental potential.
Under the influence of spiritual energy, the upper limit of the brain's functionality had also risen to an extremely high level. Long-term development did not necessarily make it weaker than an integrated optical brain.
[According to materials from the Telekinesis Society, you may train the prefrontal cortex in a targeted manner and spiritualize the pineal gland, which would greatly enhance control over Divine Soul telekinesis.]
"How do I train it?"
[Perform complex multidimensional geometric-model calculations. During the process, no other work can be carried out.]
"Then let's leave that for later..."
Xia Li would run that data when he had the time. It was basically brain-mining, not only tedious but exhausting. Under the Heaven Chip's guidance, his thoughts would be forced to keep imagining all kinds of pointless transformations of complicated shapes.
He slowly walked downstairs.
Xia Li discovered that the library hall was unusually quiet right now. No other disciples were present. It was probably because of that old man he had met earlier. After arriving at the library hall, the old man had merely looked at him once and then thrown every other disciple out. Who knew what the man had been thinking?
When Xia Li reached the ground floor and pushed open the doors of the library hall, his eyes, long unaccustomed to daylight, immediately ached. The sunlight was too bright, making him instinctively raise a hand to shield them.
"Your Highness Ninth Holy Son, may I ask..."
A voice sounded beside Xia Li's ear at that moment. It was a woman's voice, soft and delicate, with a trace of deliberate coyness.
The instant Xia Li turned toward the sound, the woman suddenly twisted her steps and fell toward him. Without thinking much about it, Xia Li reached out and caught her.
"Be careful. You have Golden Core cultivation too, don't you? How are you still stumbling like a mortal?"
Xia Li lowered his head and looked at the female disciple in his arms. The first thing he noticed was that her scent was too strong. Once fragrance became that heavy, it only turned unpleasant.
And in terms of clothing, she was not wearing the standard robes commonly seen in the Holy Land either. Her gauzy short robe looked much more like something from the Hehuan Sect.
"My apologies. I only suffered internal injuries from a cultivation deviation before. My name is Li Yue. Thank you for supporting me, Ninth Holy Son!"
Li Yue's gaze on Xia Li was practically syrupy. Hearing her answer, Xia Li merely nodded expressionlessly. He could tell that her aura was indeed unstable.
Stolen from NovelBin, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
"So why were you looking for me?"
"Could I become your personal attendant? I truly have no other purpose. Some people in the Holy Son Palace have inexplicably begun treating me as an enemy. My strength is too weak, so I can only seek your protection."
Li Yue smiled shyly, as if embarrassed.
Every pose and gesture of hers dripped with a sort of practiced charm. Xia Li understood almost instantly what she was trying to do.
But she was already a disciple of the Holy Land. Why was she still this shallow?
When he had first entered the Holy Land, every disciple he saw had worn that same indifferent, emotionless facade. Logically speaking, none of them should have been doing this sort of thing.
Or was it...
like Kang Renquan's situation? Had they all been suppressing their inner selves for so long that once restraint disappeared, their desires only rebounded harder?
"I'm used to being alone. I don't like having people around me. As for the trouble you've been facing, if you have the strength, strike back. If you don't, endure it. If you can't endure it, then leave."
"That's all for now. I have other things to do."
Xia Li released her and walked away. He had no intention of joining Qiu Fu in her messing around. Qiu Fu had recruited these people, so Qiu Fu could deal with them herself.
After Xia Li left...
Li Yue stared at his retreating back. There was not a trace of disappointment on her face. How could a dignified Holy Son be won so easily? This contact had merely been a beginning.
She believed the final victor would be her.
After all, she came from a small cultivation kingdom, and she herself had been a princess of that kingdom. She had grown up in the imperial harem under the teachings of her mother-consort, and through constant exposure she knew exactly how to make men fall for her.
Among the Holy Land's female disciples, plenty came from backgrounds better than hers.
But when it came to scheming in the shadows, there were probably not many who understood it better than she did.
Some were proud, some naive, some too direct. They simply did not understand all the twists and turns.
Every background had its own advantages.
And the Holy Son Palace was her home ground.
Only...
there was one thing Li Yue perhaps did not know.
One of the reasons Qiu Fu had selected her in the first place was precisely because of her background.
For Qiu Fu, seeing Li Yue move exactly as predicted gave her such a strong sense of control that she could hardly get enough of it.
All the way to the main hall.
Every disciple Xia Li passed along the road lowered themselves and looked up at him with reverent respect. In the eyes of a few, however, there was also deeply concealed battle intent, the desire to replace Xia Li and take his place.
Just as Xia Li was about to step into the main hall...
"May I trouble you for a very short while, Your Highness Ninth Holy Son?"
An incomparably confident voice sounded from behind him. Xia Li felt annoyed, but a smile still appeared on his face as he turned around.
Standing behind him was a tall young woman with elegant bearing. Her makeup, her clothes, her hairstyle...
all of it made Xia Li think of one person.
Lin Ge.
Other than the difference in aura and looks, she was seven-tenths similar to Lin Ge. If he only caught a hurried glance from behind, he might genuinely mistake one for the other.
Interesting.
So they were pulling this on him too, were they?
"And you are?"
"My name is Wei Hongyin. At present I am the Fifth True Transmission. The Seventh Holy Son is my kinsman."
"Then why aren't you at Seventh Holy Son's palace being looked after by your kinsman? What are you doing here?"
The privileges of a True Transmission disciple were already higher than those of a follower under a Holy Son. That was even more so for one ranked near the top. A disciple like this was someone Holy Sons and Holy Maidens normally had to take the initiative to recruit.
"I once wanted to obtain everything I deserved through my own strength... at least that was what I thought before I saw you. Now I've changed my mind."
"I've been helping manage quite a few affairs in the Holy Son Palace lately. Would you like to hear a report on the situation over this recent period?"
Wei Hongyin stepped toward Xia Li with warm confidence. That personality of hers made Xia Li think of Lin Ge all over again.
Was it deliberate?
Was it accidental?
Or was it truly just that uncanny?
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