Chapter One Hundred Eleven: The Cause

As usual, at night, Wei Hua began absorbing electricity, but this time something was different. Most of the electricity vanished, and only a small portion scattered wildly within his body. The communicator did not guide this electricity to strengthen his body or activate his brain domain. It was then that Wei Hua realized the harsh truth: he had never truly practiced the cultivation method modified by Sophia. He had no comprehension of these techniques—the electricity was beyond his control. How could he possibly possess powers like Xuan Yi, the Celestial Emperor? Even the “Soul Seizing Technique” required a powerful divine consciousness to wield. Sophia was harming him! She must have designed the communicator’s program to siphon electricity for herself after acquiring Xuan Yi’s memories. She didn’t care if he lived or died!

Fury burning within him, Wei Hua went to confront Sophia.

“Yes, I designed it,” Sophia admitted. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t care about your life. Am I really that cruel? Even this tiny communicator can calculate the risks involved—do you think I couldn’t foresee them? You’re underestimating me. In truth, you’re not in great danger; it’s just that the first couple of days are a bit rough. Now the communicator is under your control, but I’ve deleted the programs that guided electricity to strengthen your body and activate your brain domain. You won’t be able to use it for that task anymore. From now on, it’s up to you. You’re a cultivator now, and I’m eager to see the difference between cultivation powers and advanced technology. After these years of brain domain activation, your soul energy—what you call your divine consciousness—has grown strong. Soon you’ll fully control the electricity in your body. Once you master it, you won’t suffer from any spiritual backlash. Moreover, controlling this electricity will rapidly increase your divine consciousness. Perhaps one day, you’ll have powers as formidable as Xuan Yi’s. Then, maybe I can escape this strange space.”

“So all of this was calculated by you?” Wei Hua asked dumbfoundedly after hearing Sophia’s explanation. She rolled her eyes and then asked, “How’s the work on the fusion reactor coming along?”

“I’ve stopped! I’ve studied all the data thoroughly, but our world’s technology still cannot produce it. First, our smelting technology isn’t advanced enough—we can’t refine the materials we need. Second, even if we bought a steel mill and spent a great deal of time and effort upgrading the technology, we still couldn’t process the materials into the parts we require. The hardness of these materials is too high for processing. Moreover, we can’t meet the precision standards needed. If we want to upgrade our smelting and processing technologies, it’ll conservatively take thirty years.” Wei Hua responded.

“Sigh! How difficult! Your technology level is so low! Seems like we have to find another way. Let me think… Oh, right! I remember Xuan Yi had a special ability to process some rare materials into strange tools. Maybe we can use that method!” Sophia, the mad scientist, was as unconventional as ever, immediately thinking of Xuan Yi’s forging technique.

“That’s called forging! It’s not just ‘processing tools.’ Xuan Yi forged his own divine instruments, which were celestial artifacts. To reach his level, I wouldn’t even dream of it in tens of thousands of years. But as long as I cultivate true fire, I can perform ordinary forging. I wonder if the materials you mentioned can be forged with true fire?”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s try it and see!”

“You say it so easily! Do you think I can just try? I haven’t even cultivated true fire yet. Wait until I do.”

“Then hurry up and cultivate!” Sophia pushed Wei Hua out. Curious whether true fire would really enable forging, Wei Hua spent the following time as a recluse, never stepping outside his door, solely focusing on absorbing electricity and storing it within his body. He also bought many Taoist classics from He Xiaoya and Ding Peng to study, because from the experiences shared by the great writers at Qidian, cultivation required insight, and the best way to gain that was through these classics.

Two months passed quickly. Though Wei Hua felt no breakthrough in comprehension, his divine consciousness expanded greatly. Now it covered a radius of one thousand meters. A purple golden core appeared in his dantian, and Wei Hua finally cultivated true fire. The price was that Sophia absorbed no electricity for two months. Through this, Wei Hua realized the fusion reactor was vital to him as well; without sufficient electricity, his cultivation would not progress. Clearly, the fusion reactor had to be built.

After spending half a month mastering his true fire, Wei Hua began attempting forging. He took a small piece of alloy that his butler, David Scorsese, had procured and threw it into a purple flame before him. The alloy melted quickly. Wei Hua used his divine consciousness to observe the changes between the atoms inside the alloy, attempting to alter the distances between atoms with his divine power. Now, he could easily manipulate atomic distances, meaning although the basic composition of the alloy remained unchanged, it had effectively become a completely different alloy.

That evening, Wei Hua relayed this news to Sophia. Her immediate reaction was to show Wei Hua atomic structure diagrams of over thirty materials used in manufacturing fusion reactor containment shells. Wei Hua could only commit these diagrams to memory.

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