Inside the Imperial Palace of Da Lian, Du Baiwu was quietly waiting for something.

He was very old now, an Old Nascent Soul of several thousand years, with his lifespan nearly exhausted, and he had already arranged for his Transcend Tribulation Reincarnation. Transcend Tribulation Reincarnation would result in the loss of some memory and thoughts, but it could also bring about better initial development. For several years, he had been looking forward to the development of his next life. In principle, there was no need for him to appear here.

But now, he had to come.

An accident had disrupted his plans. Now, a curse was taking root and sprouting within his soul. Even if he underwent Transcend Tribulation Reincarnation, this curse would likely be like maggots in one's bones, persisting into the next life. He didn't even understand which part of the soul the power was attached to or how to peel it off.

Of course, Wang Qi didn't know the answer to this problem either.

Human consciousness is not singular or pure, not linear or clear. It is complex, probabilistic, non-linear, and fuzzy. Just as different frequencies of light randomly overlap to produce white light, the "self" that humans are aware of is always just a small part of the massive electromagnetic activity generated by the brain.

After the Heart Demon Curse takes residence in a human body, it naturally becomes part of the consciousness. This is just like how random overlapping colors of light create white. No one can precisely remove a specific color of light without changing the direction in which the light travels.

He had no choice but to rely on the Imperial Family.

Soon, within the Taihe Palace, a figure emerged. He wasn't tall, and his aura was restrained, but Du Baiwu felt as though he was about to suffocate.

This sense of fear did not originate from strength or deeds, but from the natural reverence lower individuals have for their superiors.

The rat race is also a food chain.

Du Baiwu bent down to kneel: "Greetings to my Emperor."

The person who came was none other than the Emperor of Da Lian, Yi Xuansheng, the only Unification Stage Cultivator in the land of Shenzhou.

All the rights of the Da Lian Royal Family had been taken away by the Immortal Alliance, and then devolved to various levels of official mansions. If one were to describe it in terms of political economics, it would be "constitutional monarchy under the Little Asia Minor Model." The Emperor leaving Divine Capital was actually meaningless.

But only here was the majesty of the Emperor fully revealed.

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"Mr. Du, please rise. As a veteran of Da Lian, you needn't do this." Yi Xuansheng calmly lifted his hand, and a surge of mana assisted Du Baiwu to his feet.

The strength of a Unification Cultivator ignited a slight hope in Du Baiwu's heart. He desperately needed some support from a "peer." He opened his mouth and said with a dry, unpleasant voice: "Your Majesty must already be aware of my purpose."

Zhao Qingfeng, dressed in ornate official attire, meticulously followed behind the Emperor Da Lian. Hearing Du Baiwu's words, he handed a jade slip to Yi Xuansheng. The Emperor gently passed the jade slip to Du Baiwu, saying, "Wang Qi has long suffered the torment of the Modern Heretics, and is likely unaware of our Righteous Principles. I bestow this unto you to resolve the calamity of the Du Family, and let this cause and effect be dissipated."

"With gratitude!" Du Baiwu's body trembled slightly with excitement, unable even as a Nascent Soul to suppress his emotion at this moment.

Wang Qi had given him a technique to refine the curse and claimed that with proper cultivation, he might be able to rid himself of the curse. However, he was no fool, how could he entrust his life and fortune to an enemy?

And now, at last, he had a trustworthy technique—a spell he could trust, at least as a fellow Ancient Method Practitioner, the Da Lian Royal Family wouldn't be able to tamper with the magic without him noticing.

Just as Du Baiwu eagerly inspected the jade slip with his Spiritual Sense, Zhao Qingfeng stepped forward, bowed slightly, and said to Du Baiwu, "Mr. Du, please keep this secret when you return home. This brother of mine acts rashly and is prone to excess; please do not... Mr. Du?"

Zhao Qingfeng realized, for some reason, just after speaking a few words, Du Baiwu had a look of utter shock.

"Mr. Du?" Zhao Qingfeng saw Du Baiwu's lips moving, mumbling something indistinct. Wanting to listen closely, Du Baiwu, as if bitten by a venomous snake, leaped up in horror, exclaiming, "Your Majesty, forgive me! Mr. Zhao, do not take offense... I... the old servant was so excited by this wondrous technique that I couldn't contain myself. Please permit this old one to return home and share this secret technique with my close descendants, so as to leave some seeds for my Du Family and not be utterly destroyed by Wang Qi!"

Yi Xuansheng and Zhao Qingfeng did not understand, but Du Baiwu, who was quickly heading towards the palace's exit, only felt a chill in his heart, plummeting into utter despair.

After practicing the cultivation technique bestowed by Wang Qi, a Divine Skill naturally developed within him. He had examined it from an Ancient Method Practitioner's perspective and found the Divine Skill to be perfectly formed, unmodifiable. And now, after a mere initial inspection and deduction of the spell Zhao Qingfeng gave him with his Nascent Soul cultivation, how could he not understand that it was merely two expressions of the same law! Wang Qi presented it in the form of a Divine Skill, using the clear language of Modern Cultivators, while Zhao Qingfeng conveyed to him the mystical insights in the manner of an Ancient Method Practitioner.

Moreover, Wang Qi's Divine Skill was clearly much more profound than Zhao Qingfeng's spell by many multiples!

And when he thought of Wang Qi's ability to speak directly in his mind and read his thoughts, how could he not realize that he too was now under Wang Qi's control.

"I'm not sure whether Wang Qi controlled the thoughts of the Imperial Family and the Banished Immortals, or whether Wang Qi infused the principle of this spell into them..."

Du Baiwu vaguely guessed something, but preferred to know nothing at all.

Despair froze his heart lake. He walked with a dazed expression, staggering slightly. In an instant, the degree of erosion from the Heart Demon Curse reached its maximum value.

The Xia Gai Demon Worm System suddenly became much stronger. And what was enhanced was not the network itself, but the power of a certain terminal had been greatly increased. The Xia Gai Demon Worm immediately sent out a warning signal, and Jarvis then fed the signal back to Wang Qi. Soon, Wang Qi shifted his attention here.

"Hey, hey... what kind of shock has this old man endured?" Through the surveillance network of the Heart Demon Curse, Wang Qi saw Du Baiwu, who was deeply eroded. He found that the old man's thought activity was already quite close to a state of balance, gradually losing its variability. If Wang Qi wished, he could even use Du Baiwu as a Ghost Soldier.

"Despaired? Given up on being human?"

Wang Qi's confusion was quickly resolved. He poured the power of the Heart Demon Curse into the jade slip Du Baiwu was holding, read its content, and soon guessed the cause and consequence of the situation.

"He originally thought the Imperial Family and the Banished Immortals could save him, but it turned out that the Imperial Family and the Banished Immortals had already become my pawns. The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment." Wang Qi sighed, then gave Du Baiwu an order to "no longer care about anything and devote himself entirely to the cultivation of the Refining God-Demon Transformation Technique."

"Such a deeply eroded body is rare, especially a sample with such high cultivation. The Refining God-Demon Transformation Technique, bearing the evolutionary intent of the Heavenly Calculation Atlas, should make rapid progress in its battle against the Heart Demon Curse within him," Wang Qi shook his head and sighed, "Under such levels of despair, only I am the last hope!"

On the other side, Zhao Qingfeng and Yi Xuansheng began another conversation. The indifferent and contemptuous attitude of a beggar had vanished from Yi Xuansheng. In its place was a cautious demeanor. And all the respect on Zhao Qingfeng was gone, his aura becoming more ethereal.

"There's something wrong with Du Baiwu. The expression he had when he saw my spell was definitely not joy," Zhao Qingfeng frowned.

Yi Xuansheng waved his hand nonchalantly, "This Emperor will send the Night Banquet Guard to secretly investigate the Du Family. We should continue discussing 'that matter' you talked about last time."

Zhao Qingfeng shook his head, "No rush on that matter. Du Baiwu's appearance makes me feel somewhat unsafe..."

Yi Xuansheng's tone became noticeably dissatisfied, "Mr. Zhao, do not assume that because you are a Banished Immortal, this Emperor will abandon everything now and follow you in search of the elusive path to Immortal Ascension. You should know, the Demon Emperor was also a Banished Immortal once, but he couldn't convince this Emperor either."

Zhao Qingfeng sneered, "Demon Emperor? A petty person who doesn't even trust his allies and dares not practice the Righteous Skill."

Wang Qi was eavesdropping again. The verbal sparring between Zhao Qingfeng and Yi Xuansheng was intense, and unknown how many times they had fought covertly. But in Wang Qi's hearing, all these words were just uninformative nonsense. Perhaps every sentence from Zhao Qingfeng and Yi Xuansheng implied countless exchanges of Spiritual Sense in secret. But to Wang Qi, there was not even a bit of useful information.

Even more incredulous was that Zhao Qingfeng seemed to be consciously controlling his own thinking, preventing himself from associating in a certain direction.

"It seems he is beginning to doubt," Wang Qi eavesdropped for a little while longer. Then he closed this window and his consciousness returned to his room. At this time, the only table in his room had been replaced with a Mystic Light Mirror, which served the purpose of a three-dimensional projector. The Mystic Light Mirror projected a strange model in mid-air. It was a system composed of numerous flowing talismans, also the "program" of this world.

With a light tap from Wang Qi, part of the structure collapsed and then was replaced by new talismans. This was Wang Qi's recent research achievement, how to build a protocol to connect the ordinary calculator network with the Heart Demon Network. Master Turing of the Thousand Mechanism Pavilion had done the most critical part for him, even providing him with a structural draft.

But in the hands of Wang Qi, it immediately transformed radically.

Shenzhou had yet to straighten out the three key problems of "completeness," "consistency," and "provability" from mathematical logic, so Shenzhou's assembly language was nowhere as advanced as Earth's. Except for geniuses like Feng Luoyi, there were few in all of Shenzhou who could surpass Wang Qi in this area. However, Earth's assembly language and even high-level languages had no significance on the magic layer and could not be applied to the current situation, which caused great difficulties for Wang Qi.

"Alas." Wang Qi shook his head, "Developing a C language with magical effects on my own might take years..."

Just then, Chen Youjia pushed the door open, "Senior Brother, a Cargo Flying Sword for you."

"What is it?"

"Calculator components."

Wang Qi nodded and said, "Put it over there."

He had been continuously purchasing calculator parts these days, in collaboration with Jarvis' ability, to build a conventional network that could connect to the Heart Demon Network. If successful, he could pass off the control of the Heart Demon Curse to the Ten Thousand Immortals Illusion Realm, thereby shifting the blame to Feng Luoyi. Feng Luoyi had been very accommodating to him these days, so Wang Qi had acquired many things that he could not easily buy before. Among them, calculator parts were especially numerous.

However, Chen Youjia's voice sounded a bit strange, "Senior Brother, this flying sword, with a crimson blade and emerald-green hilt, is clearly the standard of Zhifen House." (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)