On a certain street corner in Divine Capital, ten-year-old Li Xiaomeng sat blankly at the roadside, smiling foolishly. Right now, she was sitting under a street sign, surrounded by a circle of people, the vast majority of whom wore the same expression as her.

Of course, they hadn't lost their minds. They were simply immersed in a virtual world. This was just like Earth People checking their phones while waiting for the public bus. Before long, a carriage pulled by specially bred demon beasts rumbled by. Li Xiaomeng automatically disconnected from the Void Illusion Realm. Together with her partners, she boarded this fully enclosed beast-drawn vehicle.

These demon beasts, restricted by their modified bloodline, were incapable of breaking through the upper limit of the Qi Storage Stage, but they had developed demon energy and could nourish themselves with nature's spiritual energy, consuming very little food. For those people with low mana, the beast-drawn carriage was much more convenient than the Spirit Transmission Mechanism Car.

Li Xiaomeng had also vaguely heard that Thousand Mechanism Pavilion seemed to have launched a cooperative project with Tianling Ridge and Spirit Beast Mountain, Jiyin Valley, to research and integrate demon beasts with mechanisms. An anonymous True Disciple of Wanfa Sect even contributed a brilliant idea to this plan—combining the Dragon Clan, Cat Demons, and carriages. It was hard to understand where he got such a wild idea from.

In the past year, the previously unapproachable Immortal Sects actually became a part of people's lives. The daily activities of these Immortals started to spread through every street and alley.

What was more important, people actually gained a bit of "Mana"—although the Immortals repeatedly clarified that what they had was not Mana but "Spell Power," and encouraged everyone to cultivate their own Mana. But in the eyes of mortals, there wasn't much difference between the two.

Such a thing was previously unimaginable!

Now, this "Spell Power," had thoroughly integrated into every aspect of their lives. In Divine Capital, everyone could find work through a system called the "Supreme Heart Net." These jobs were either participating in production, assisting in research, or getting involved in empirical evidence. Every ten days, each person could earn thirty to eighty units of Spell Power through this. And even if you were lazy, you could obtain one unit of Spell Power every three days, enough for daily expenses.

Spell Power was the foundation for driving Magic Artifacts and also the basis for driving Mana, which could support the lighting for a family all night long, cook food without needing firewood, and many more wondrous Magic Artifacts, the functions of which she could never have imagined.

Besides, there was the "Supreme Heart Net"...

That was a miraculous universe. There, countless books could be read freely. Among them were many Qi Cultivation Rhymes, Guiding Skills, Visualization Methods, previously owned only by nobles and wealthy merchants. In addition, saintly books, skills from all walks of life, and various popular resources on Immortal Dao were readily available. There were also Mirage images of strange landscapes and precious items from all over the world, immersing people as if they were experiencing historical events...

Even the marketplace existed here, with even more and better goods than before!

A year ago, an evil Immortal detonated the whole city, destroying the vitality of many, including Li Xiaomeng's family. When most of the Divine Capital People had fallen into despair, the Righteous Immortals descended from the skies and bestowed upon them such a thriving paradise!

For this, Li Xiaomeng always felt grateful. She aspired to become a Righteous Immortal, to change the entire world as her seniors did.

Yes, becoming an Immortal! This thought had never even crossed the minds of Li Xiaomeng's ancestors. Even in a city like Divine Capital, where Immortals and mortals lived together, the class divide between "Cultivators" and "mortals" was still sharply defined. Since the Immortal governance era, there had been a wide distribution of good seeds, and barely anyone died of starvation or freezing. But that was about it. Rarely would oil stains be seen on the dinner table, clothes were washed until they whitened, and new pieces were hardly added throughout the year. Sometimes a piece of clothing could be passed down from sibling to sibling for many years. Being literate and educated was a luxury.

But now, "Spell Power" had become a part of her life, no longer unreachable.

Now, she was following a certain Immortal, learning the basics of cultivation!

The public bus was fast, crossing half of Divine Capital in no time. Ever since the Immortals reconstructed Divine Capital, residential areas had been consolidated, and most people had moved into apartment buildings. She used to live only a few steps away from that teacher, but now it took a long ride to get there, which made Li Xiaomeng unhappy.

She had completely forgotten that half a year ago, horses and carriages had still been a rarity for her.

After entering the Charitable School, Li Xiaomeng obediently began learning to read and write with the teachers. This was an essential step before becoming an Immortal. However, this lesson seemed too easy for her. When it came to free writing, she snuck into the Void Illusion Realm of the Supreme Heart Net and read some books she liked.

Perhaps she was too engrossed; her forehead received a knock.

The little girl shrank her neck and politely saluted, "Mr. Chen…"

Chen Feng nodded slightly. For him, interacting with children was one of the ways to relax his mind. Although he did not come to this school every day, he would come every other day to teach these children some principles of Modern times or tell them stories.

"Miss Li, do not connect to the Heart Network during class."

Li Xiaomeng had been one of Chen Feng's neighbors and was also one of the first children he had taught. When he first arrived in Divine Capital, the parents of those children, unaware of his remarkable abilities, saw that he didn't mind talking to children in his free time. Believing this young Immortal Master to be good-natured, they boldly asked Chen Feng to look after their children. Chen Feng, indeed patient and kind, eventually developed a fondness for it.

Watching the children who were eagerly connecting to the Supreme Heart Net during break, Chen Feng shook his head slightly. Because of the addiction to the plans of the Supreme Heart Net, it helped boost the children's interest in cultivation in the short term, so the average teacher wouldn't intervene too much. However, Chen Feng felt this might not be beneficial in the long term. He planned to conduct a couple of decades-long follow-up research, with the intention of publishing a paper after reaching the stages of Primordial Spirit and Void Refining, using the results to guide the Immortal Alliance's new education system.

These little devils... If they knew the real name of the "Supreme Heart Net" was "Supreme Heart Demon Network Virtual Realm," would they still dare to connect?

After his usual class, Chen Feng returned to his Empirical Department. The building of his original department had been one of the few that survived the war in Divine Capital and had been endowed with a special cultural significance. Consequently, the Immortal Alliance requisitioned it for use as a "Righteous Path and Compassionate Education Base," and then they provided him with a larger and better one in the research district of the New Divine Capital. He and Ai Qinglan now lived there.

As a cultivator who had achieved significant advancement in his practice, he didn't need to squeeze onto public buses; he could simply use his Flying Escape to fly directly home.

As expected, Ai Qinglan was sitting in front of a calculator, completely immersed in the Ten Thousand Immortals Illusion Realm. There were three culture dishes in front of her.

Chen Feng walked past them as if nothing were unusual and went to the experiment table, where he took out a half-number sample that was highly contaminated by the Heart Demon Curse and executed it according to procedure. He extracted its soul and dissected its brain. Although their two areas of expertise were both in biology, they focused on different branches, so they seldom actively enquired about each other's research. Ai Qinglan seemed to have hit a snag, but since she hadn't mentioned it, it meant that Chen Feng could hardly help her.

However, looking at Ai Qinglan's defenseless and quite adorable face made Chen Feng feel a bit itchy inside.

An honest person's bad thoughts are hard to suppress. The so-called explosion after repression is exactly this.

Ai Qinglan was still unaware of what was about to happen to her physical body. At this moment, she was looking at her teacher with eager anticipation, hoping he would provide an evaluation.

Before her, one of the contemporary pinnacle figures known as "Mr. Wo Shen," one of the Dual Sprial Immortals, Mr. Wo Shen [James Watson's Otherworldly Analogues], took a dumbfounded gulp of virtual liquor and then exploded with a curse: "Bloody hell... girl, you've really done it now."

Chen Feng didn't really understand the progress of Ai Qinglan's research. At least, he didn't know that Ai Qinglan had actually completed the final stage of her research work just yesterday.

Despite her master's amazement, Ai Qinglan still didn't take things seriously, smiling cheekily. Both of the Dual Spiral Immortals had a trait – they were both loose-lipped and utterly tactless. Mr. Wo Shen, despite being one of the strongest Carefree of the age, still couldn't make a name for himself; his unpopularity was evident. As for the reason behind his poor popularity, it was mostly due to his reckless mouth. Over time, even his own disciple had stopped believing him.

Mr. Wo Shen held his forehead: "You don't believe it?"

"Not a single word you say can be trusted," Ai Qinglan replied decisively: "Don't I know about you and your brother's character? One day you vividly proclaim you're onto a new theory that will overturn everything we've learned, and then the next day you find a flaw in your own argument but are too proud to mention it because of all the big talk."

Mr. Wo Shen looked heartbroken: "Girl, as you grow up, the bloodline within you seems to change... where's the sensible cuteness when you were a disciple..."

"Master, just tell me what's going on, will you? I've got private matters to attend to tonight."

"Ah... Young people these days, no longer know how to respect their elders, eager to marry and leave this old man behind..." Mr. Wo Shen teased her for a bit until Ai Qinglan looked impatient and then he got serious: "Girl, this thing you've created, it's made from the sample Urad Heavenly Armor 991871, isn't it?"

Ai Qinglan nodded: "It's a new release, of course, I had to use it..."

"That's a special sample that Mr. Mai of 'All Laws Return to One' brought back half a month ago. Teacher Feng from the Wanfa Sect even changed the strategic deployment of the West Sea for this sample just five days ago."

"Which specific ancient remnant life form is from the Ancient Cave Heaven?" asked Ai Qinglan. "Or is it the tissue of a powerful Demon Creature? Wait, that's a plant's, isn't it? There haven't been any particularly powerful demonized plants in the last thousand years, have there?"

"That's why I'm saying, it's very special. Tianling Ridge will have an urgent project this half-year concerning the sample Urad Heavenly Armor 991871. Completing this project will allow our Immortal Alliance to dominate the Sea and then beat down all the Sea Demons." Mr. Wo Shen looked at the Mirage image that Ai Qinglan uploaded, "If your report isn't fluffed up, then this little thing in your culture dish is actually even more special..."

(To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to the starting point (qidian.com) to vote for recommendation tickets, monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users can read at m.qidian.com.)