BXBX NOVEL Chapter 216 - 216: Oden Fish, Increasing Quantum Merits,
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
For those once-mighty figures, suddenly losing their power and status was hard to accept.
But for the common people of Yuan Xing, the disappearance of taboos and strangeness was a cause for universal celebration.
Outside the Dayan Dynasty, some quick-witted powerhouses had already started giving interviews and writing books, like “My Years as a War God,” “One Man, One Sword: Ten Years Guarding the Pass,” “Revival of the Forbidden, Slaying Demons in the Human World,” and so on.
Li Cheng, the law-abiding citizen of the Dayan Dynasty and His Majesty the Emperor, earnestly completed the work of reform.
From a “potentially elder-worthy” decorative emperor, he became a “might live peacefully into old age” decorative emperor.
After all this, Lu Xuan and Cheng Lingzhu left Yuan Xing and, having located the last piece of the drive core fragment, arrived in this world.
“Clang, clang, clang…”
An oddly shaped, rundown car approached.
It was an… Open-top truck.
Six wheels, a windshield, but no roof.
Two people, a man and a woman, were in the driver’s cabin.
Lu Xuan waved, intending to ask a local for information.
With a thud, the car stopped, but the two didn’t get out.
Lu Xuan and Cheng Lingzhu walked up.
Considering the language barrier, Lu Xuan decided to communicate directly with their souls, “Hello…”
Suddenly, the man and woman in the car drew guns, aiming them at Lu Xuan and Cheng Lingzhu.
“Bang!”
A gunshot rang out as Gu Ying and Gu Tie simultaneously pulled their triggers.
Gu Ying could even see the shocked expressions on the faces of the man and woman in front of her.
Desperate lovers… Gu Ying thought.
She knew the power of the gun in her hand.
At such a close distance, barely a meter apart, it could pierce steel. The two before her probably wouldn’t have their heads left intact.
The bullets tore through the air, whistling as they flew.
But just a foot from their target, they suddenly halted.
The air turned into a viscous gel, locking the bullets in place, unable to move further.
In that moment, time seemed to freeze.
“…A force field shield, a Golden Core cultivator!” Gu Ying exclaimed in disbelief.
Lu Xuan gasped, realizing the gravity of the situation. The woman had seen through his disguise at a glance; such a formidable opponent couldn’t be left alive…
With two soft thuds, the metallic bullet heads flew back, piercing through the foreheads of Gu Ying and Gu Tie.
Gu Ying was three-quarters correct in her exclamation about the “Force Field
Shield, Golden Core Cultivator.”
Apart from the “force field,” her assessment of the shield and Golden Core cultivation was accurate.
The shield that blocked the bullets was the cultivator’s protective spiritual energy, a sort of passive defense mechanism.
This spiritual energy, intangible and insubstantial, constantly surrounds a cultivator, operating automatically like breathing.
Of course, the spiritual energy at the Golden Core stage can only block some attacks, not tne strongest ones.
At the Nascent Soul stage, this energy can transform into a domain, making the cultivator unaffected by external laws.
And at the Mahayana stage, the cultivator’s internal Dao generates its own domain, capable of altering the laws of heaven and earth, influencing the external environment.
In terms of physical strength alone, bullets cannot penetrate a Golden Core cultivator’s defense, but getting hit in the forehead would look quite foolish. Fortunately, the spiritual energy ensures elegance is maintained.
In the instant before Gu Ying’s death.
Lu Xuan quickly gathered and extracted her memories.
After understanding this world.
Lu Xuan’s expression turned odd.
The planet he stood on was named “Naga,” once a thriving world of life.
Until the “Great Catastrophe” occurred.
A meteorite fell, bringing with it a massive amount of radiation that filled the skies, land, oceans, and even the underground of the entire planet.
In the orally transmitted history, the Great Catastrophe was a major disaster in human civilization, with two-thirds of all life perishing globally.
But from a higher dimension, the Radiation Stone brought a miracle.
After the catastrophe, the surviving humans discovered changes in their bodies.
Their body temperature rose, the lowest being over fifty degrees, and their tolerance to heat reached seventy degrees.
This meant many viruses could not survive, naturally curing many diseases.
Moreover, human physical fitness improved, along with enhanced self-healing abilities, and a significant increase in affinity for metals.
Under these circumstances, the survivors on Naga started to transform their living environment.
First, the global population rapidly migrated to lower latitudes, initiating a global warming plan to make the entire planet habitable for humans.
Second, many countries began research on cybernetic enhancements.
The arrival of the Radiation Stone not only created a “new human race” but also led to new technologies through its study.
The new humans had no rejection response to prosthetics. Using special technology, spinal nerves were connected to prosthetics.
They felt and functioned like natural limbs, but were more flexible and powerful.
The path of mechanical ascension opened before humanity, as the frailty of flesh gave way to the strength of machinery.
As for what happened next…
The woman named Gu Ying didn’t know.
It seemed a global war swept through, leaving Naga scarred and ravaged.
After the war, nations and order collapsed, the old era ended, and humanity entered a new cyber age.
This new era… was peculiar.
It differed significantly from the cyber world Lu Xuan had envisioned.
If he had to describe it, it would be something like:
“Cyber World, where myriad paths compete! Turing Continent, home to powerful sects!”
“In the far north, the Supreme Turing Celestial oversees the end, guarding heaven and earth!”
“In the virtual space, countless incarnations of the Infinite Web Buddha exist eternally!”
“In the Digital Grave, countless progeny of the Yinying Ghost Mother erode the heavens!”
“A youth steps out from a remote town, wielding an ancient computer, nurturing a Quantum Demon Womb, fostering a Cyber Spirit. Watch how he rises with the mysterious chip in his hand, stepping onto…”
“Stop, stop, stop.”
Lu Xuan hit the brakes in time.
The flavor was getting too intense, almost spilling over.
In any case, in this world dominated by cyber technology, there emerged
“Great Sects” and “Cultivators.”
Put in more common terms, these correspond to “Large Corporations” and
“Corporate Workers.”
There are mortals on Naga, like Gu Ying and Gu Tie, as well as most scavengers and the townsfolk of Yellowstone Town they were headed to.
Lu Xuan compared this with Gu Ying’s memories.
Overall, compared to the old era, the proportion of cybernetically enhanced individuals in the new era seemed to have decreased.
At least in Gu Ying’s perception.
Those with cybernetic enhancements were the exalted cultivators.
In this technological world, the path of cultivation was also achieved through technological means.
For example, the first stage of cultivation, Qi Refining.
This involved surgically implanting neural circuits and installing special chips in the brain, connecting to the body’s muscles.
After the surgery, a person’s reaction time and learning ability would greatly improve.
The technological development of the cyber era has reached new heights today.
Leaving creativity aside.
Even the most basic chip far surpasses the smartest natural human in terms of computational and analytical capabilities.
Qi Refining cultivators with chips and neural circuits, even without any training and unarmed, can easily defeat a natural human armed with cold weapons.
The processing power provided by the chip allows Qi Refiners to analyze their opponent’s next move through minute muscle changes, predicting every step of the enemy.
And the neural circuits grant them reaction speeds beyond ordinary humans, allowing them to preemptively strike, a power not achievable through mere training.
However, Qi Refiners have their flaws. After all, they were still human. Under high-speed reactions and chip stimulation, they can’t sustain long battles and may even damage their bodies.
Upon reaching the threshold of Qi Refining, cultivators enter the “Foundation Building” stage.
At this stage, a cultivator’s muscles are entirely replaced with synthetic muscle fibers, stronger and more durable.
Practitioners of this realm can be called superhuman.
Those using top-tier muscle fibers can easily leap onto ten-story buildings, walk freely on glass facades, and if not for the limitations of bone strength, could punch through walls…
But the real cyber cultivation begins with the Golden Core stage..