Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Li Yao bulged his eyes and added some vinegar into his bowl. “How so?”

“Lei Yuqin is not just a random specialist of crystal processors and algorithms. Her main study field is artificial intelligence, or to be more precise, ‘simulated artificial intelligence’,” Long Yangjun said. “It is better to call her a dual specialist in human brains and crystal processors than to call her a simple algorithm specialist. The ‘algorithms’ that she studied were to perfectly simulate the mind of human beings through crystal chips, synthesized neurons, and spiritual energy circuits.

“To be more straightforward, the purpose of her studies is to replace a human brain with a crystal processor!”

Li Yao added more and more vinegar into his bowl. “I didn’t know much about her. At that time, my main target was Professor Mo Xuan. I only noticed her as his ‘mistress’ from gossip, which mentioned that she was a worker of the ‘control center of the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus’.”

“Her work is indeed related to the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus,” Long Yangjun explained. “Replacing a human being with a crystal processor has a lot of applications in the federation today.

“First of all, regarding the patients whose brains are seriously damaged due to epilepsy, schizophrenia, dementia, bipolar disorder, and various kinds of accidents or battles, the main treatment in the federation right now is either to inject active materials to make the brain cells to proliferate and repair themselves based on the biochemical technology of the Blood Demon Sector, or to implant a chip or part of a crystal processor to fill in the damaged area as an ‘artificial brain’.

“How to combine the original brain of a human that is made of flesh and blood and an artificial brain that is made of metals and crystals perfectly, making them serve as a ‘fortress’ and ‘home’ for the soul without altering the previous character, memory, habit, and soul of the patient—that is what the ‘algorithms’ that Lei Yuqin studied were for!

“Therefore, you may consider Lei Yuqin a specialist to treat brain damage. She is a brain doctor!”

Li Yao frowned.

Although he knew that replacing part of the brain was essentially the same as replacing limbs or internal organs, he still felt that it was a little bit repulsive.

“Her studies have another application field that is more important, which is to build crystal processors for the ghosts,” Long Yangjun said. “If we get to the bottom of it, a ‘ghost’ is just a cluster of highly-condensed spiritual waves. Their mind and self-awareness are compressed to the minimum, and they are manipulated by their persistence from when they are still alive. In the end, they risk turning into devastating poltergeists who have no thinking ability but only natural instincts to feed on the brainwaves of living people.

“If their memory and self-awareness are maintained when they are in such a state, their longevity will be even shorter. In only a few hours, they will completely collapse, unable to maintain the condensed state anymore. At least, for most people whose level is not high, that will be their outcome.

“Even Divinity Transformation Stage Cultivators such as Wu Suiyun and Meng Chixin greatly lost their Cultivation after losing their physical bodies. It took them decades before they finally regained their memories and self-awareness, but still, they had to hide inside war puppets and carry out their thinking ability with the computational ability of the puppets.

“It was quite fortunate that their souls left their bodies in the Nuwa warship deep underground. The shell of the warship resisted most of the radiation and interference for them. If they were on the ground, the remaining souls of the two Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators would’ve been obliterated in the storm and sunlight after only a couple of years.”

Li Yao nodded. “The brain is like an ocean, and the self-awareness and soul are like the ship on it. Without the ocean, the ship will not be able to set sail at all no matter how big and firm it is.”

“Exactly,” Long Yangjun said. “The soul can live inside a tiny storage chip, but such a status of living is nothing more than ‘storage’. It is not real self-awareness but more like a program that is not activated yet.”

“Precisely,” Li Yao said. “To regain the memories and computational ability that they had when they were alive, they require the help of special crystal processors. I once studied some artificial bodies before. The greatest difference between artificial bodies and crystal suits lies in their crystal processors. The crystal processors of artificial bodies are specially designed for ghosts. The precision of a lot of key units is sometimes ten times higher than the ancillary crystal processors on the crystal suits. It is safe to say that the most advanced small crystal processors of the federation are basically developed for ghosts.”

“But nothing can be done if you only have crystal processors and not algorithms,” Long Yangjun said. “That’s exactly what Lei Yuqin studies. The art of integrating the soul and the crystal processor!

“Her job in the ‘control base of the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus’ was a doctor who treats the brain damage resulting from going online for too long.

“You know that the last thing that the base was short of was specialists of crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus. They are the people who spend the longest time online and are most mired in the entire federation. Some of them suffered brain injuries after their brain vessels exploded because they spent too much time in cyberspace and used too much of their computational ability. Lei Yuqin was supposed to treat that.

“Years ago, after Professor Mo Xuan’s Virtual Spirits Sector project failed, Su Changfa’s self-awareness vanished in the shattered Virtual Spirits Sector, and his real body degenerated into a level-5 vegetative patient. He was diagnosed with brain death, true death in the legal sense.

“Professor Mo Xuan and Lu Qingchen luckily survived the disaster, but they suffered brain damage of different levels, too, and were delivered to Lei Yuqin for treatment.

“According to the information that I found earlier, Professor Mo Xuan gradually fell in love with Lei Yuqin during the procedures. Then, the affair somehow leaked, causing the divorce of him and his wife.

“I didn’t think much of it when I first read the information because it is quite common for doctors and patients to develop feelings for each other after spending a long time together. Besides, your professor was ‘liquid metal’. The functioning mechanism of his soul must be very different from that of the normal people and normal spectral Cultivators. Since Lei Yuqin was passionate about the brain, mind, and self-awareness, it was perfectly normal for her to grow interested in your professor.

“But now that I think about it… something must be greatly wrong with the woman!”

Li Yao narrowed his eyes, with cold brilliance beaming out of his eyes. He was deep in thought while he moaned, “Wu…”

“This is your oiled tofu. Sorry for the long wait. There are too many customers at noon!”

The waiter delivered a dish that was soaked in red oil and placed it right in front of Li Yao.

Long Yangjun stared at Li Yao in silence without blinking.

“As infiltrators in the darkness, we must take the tiniest details into consideration,” Li Yao said. “The oiled tofu in this restaurant is their most famous specialty. Many people come to the restaurant not for the noodles but for a dish of tofu! Look around. Most customers here have ordered the food. Wouldn’t it be too odd if neither of the two customers on the same table ordered it?

“Don’t look at me. Turn around and focus on your noodles!

“Don’t bother about such details. Let’s continue. Now that you put it in such a way, my professor’s lover Lei Yuqin is indeed somewhat suspicious.

“However, if she works in the ‘control center of the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus’, it should be a strategic location of national significance. My professor couldn’t have pulled any tricks inside such a place, could he?”

“Lei Yuqin has the ‘control center of the Spiritual Nexus’ a long time ago, probably decades ago,” Long Yangjun said. “She is now operating a hospital.”

Li Yao was slightly dazed. “A hospital?”

“Exactly,” Long Yangjun said. “The Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital, which specializes in brain injuries, mental diseases, and sustenance of vegetative people. It is right in Hundred Flowers City and a private hospital solely funded by her. She can do whatever she wants inside. That’s everything I know about her.”

Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital… Li Yao and Long Yangjun looked at each other. Highly anxious telepathic thoughts almost surged out of their brains at the same time. “Search now! Collect their public files online! I’ll investigate Lei Yuqin, and you will investigate Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital. Let’s see if we can find any more problems!”

Shua! Shua! Shua! Shua!

The two of them sat in a corner of the restaurant where they could block the surveillance cameras above and the eyes of other people with their backs. Also, the customers in the restaurant were mostly browsing the light beams of their crystal processors, too. Nobody noticed how astonishingly fast they were reading the pages that they needed at all.

A moment later, the two of them finished the collection and analysis of the public files.

“Lei Yuqin, a hundred and thirty-two years ago, from the Flying Star Sector, at the peak of the Core Formation Stage in public,” Li Yao said. “She is a renowned psychologist, psychiatrist, Meditation Healer, and algorithm specialist in simulated artificial intelligence. She is particularly good at treating brain diseases such as cerebral atrophy with interventional therapies that involve crystal chips and crystal processors. She also participated in the production and upgrade work of several crystal processors that were specially designed by ghosts.

“When Professor Mo Xuan was operating the Virtual Spirits Sector project, she was the doctor and Meditation Healer specially hired by the control center of the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus. After the collapse of the Virtual Spirits Sector, she was responsible for the treatment of Professor Mo Xuan and other injured members of the team.

“Three years after the collapse of the Virtual Spirits Sector, Professor Mo Xuan officially withdrew from the development team of the game Civilization and acquired the Monument Plan before renaming it the Tinder Plan. At exactly the same time, Lei Yuqin left the control center of the grand-unified Spiritual Nexus and established Deep Blue Super Brain Hospital!

“There’s a lot of gossip and rumors about the relationship between Professor Mo Xuan and Lei Yuqin. It is said that Professor Mo Xuan divorced because of her, but no matter how close they were back then, they did not have much interaction in the following decades. It was probably because Professor Mo Xuan involved her in the divorce, causing her to be derided as a despicable ‘mistress’. She was quite a famous celebrity herself. Naturally, she found such rumors unacceptable. Therefore, her relationship with Professor Mo Xuan soon turned cold. They never talked to each other in the decades that followed and simply minded their own business.

“It is exactly because of their awkward past that Professor Mo Xuan’s Tinder Plan gathers many soul, Spiritual Nexus, and Medication Healing specialists in the entire federation but simply ignores Lei Yuqin, who is right inside Hundred Flowers City.

“Many people in the circle are aware of the incident and understand Professor Mo Xuan’s attitude. But judging from everything we have learned, it is very possibly their disguise. Just like Jin Xinyue and Guo Chunfeng have probably reached a secret strategic alliance off the stable, Professor Mo Xuan and Lei Yuqin might be in the same gang despite their indifference to each other on the surface!”