The exchange meeting held by Luochen Sword Palace was originally convened to facilitate Wang Qi in collecting data.

Now, Wang Qi has long surpassed the stage where he progresses solely from combat experience. For Wang Qi, collecting information, analyzing, and experimenting is the correct path to increasing power. Even if he needs to find opponents to practically test the performance of his cultivation, it's impossible to go after those with the Ancient Golden Core. The Ancient Method of Divinity Splitting is barely sufficient.

To test bullet-proof armor, you cannot use a slingshot as the opponent.

Therefore, at the exchange meeting of Luochen Sword Palace, "Xia Li" did not appear.

In the end, as the recovered Xiao Changgu and Song Zhongqiao achieved impressive results, people were even more in awe of the mysterious "Xia Li". In their eyes, Xiao Changgu had already reached the pinnacle attainable at the Golden Core Stage, and to have a Golden Core stronger than Xiao Changgu was simply unimaginable.

The name "Xia Li" has already become legendary among many lower-stage cultivators.

This exchange meeting lasted for seven days. During these seven days, Wang Qi never showed himself.

He was in the quiet room analyzing the data he collected from those adventure seekers using the Divine Plague Curse Technique.

From that data, he has roughly deduced the cultivation methods those adventure seekers had acquired.

It's undeniable that these cultivation methods acquired through adventures are truly diverse, including Qi Cultivation, Body Refinement, Refining God, Refining Heart, spells, swordsmanship, boxing techniques, movement techniques, and Treasure Control Techniques. Moreover, these are all Law Gates that Zhen Chan can recognize and were once spread throughout Shenzhou.

These results made Zhen Chan gnash his teeth a bit: "This transmitter probably got it from Luofu Xuanqing Palace's Scripture Pavilion... those vile thieves, 80% of these cultivation methods were once archived in the Scripture Pavilion of Luofu Xuanqing Palace. Among this portion, some have already become extinct outside!"

According to Zhen Chan's recognition, each of these all-encompassing cultivation methods has undergone slight changes.

But Zhen Chan couldn't specify where the changes were made.

After all, the Human Clan's Ancient Method emphasizes non-textual transmission; all profound cultivation methods are true intent inheritances. And true intent inheritance could result in one Law Gate being cultivated into a thousand forms by a thousand practitioners.

Modifications in true intent made by the other party are very difficult to discern directly from these practitioners.

If it's possible to directly obtain the inheritance of true intent those people received, then perhaps Zhen Chan could discern which parts of these cultivation methods were altered.

However, Wang Qi's ultimate goal is not to reverse-engineer these cultivation techniques and then cultivate them. Right now, he doesn't have much interest in these techniques—at least, they're not worth the sudden effort and time to learn.

What he wants to do is to analyze the "commonalities" in these techniques.

Additionally, this holds true for the three Great Elders and that Thunder Night Sect Elder who had undergone punishment by degrading their cultivation level.

Wang Qi's aim is to compare the data demonstrated by the four people to find their commonalities and then deduce Holy Emperor Venerable's ultimate goal.

However, this process was not smooth.

"Every Law Gate and every technology's creation leaves traces."

"Even if this universe is highly tolerant of technology black boxes, it's impossible to surpass the logic of development."

"The Immortal Dao Burning Book List recorded most of Shenzhou's cultivation methods. This part of mine is the Divine Tao Scroll, which records more Divine Tao Methods than Luofu Xuanqing Palace and Emperor's Extreme Split Sky Dao. And the old man is also an expert in Ancient Methods."

"A Law Gate related to Divine Tao, yet shows no signs of development, not recorded in the Immortal Dao Burning Book List, and the old man has no impression of it..."

Wang Qi tapped his fingers on the table: "Completely unknown technology... I really don't know which realm it came from."

Zhen Chan asked, "No clues at all?"

Wang Qi shook his head and then nodded, "Not entirely without clues. At least, I can confirm that these cultivation methods have very high consistency in one or two aspects—this is a mark left by Holy Emperor Venerable or someone else. And the convergence these methods illustrate might be a foundation of some... system."

Zhen Chan didn't quite understand: "What do you mean by 'system'?"

"Hmm, to put it this way, they've been turned into human hardware... oh, you can just understand it as a 'Magic Foundation'." Wang Qi tapped the table in front of him, each tap getting slower and more forceful: "The real key is, what kind of cultivation method does Holy Emperor Venerable want to operate on this 'Magic Foundation'..."

After reaching the Great Perfection of the Qi Cultivation Stage, the body's potential has been fully explored, reaching a limit. Generally, the human body can only withstand that level of spiritual power, any higher might disrupt physical balance. If one wants to continue cultivating, they can only condense another "foundation"—the "Magic Foundation".

The cultivation methods after the Foundation Establishment Stage operate on this Magic Foundation.

Different Magic Foundations correspond to different cultivation methods.

Holy Emperor Venerable's Divine Country doesn't exist directly attached to the Human Dao System. Seemingly, he must rely on these special "hardware" to maintain the operation of the Divine Country.

Zhen Chan was encouraged: "So, we just need to kill those people now to disrupt Holy Emperor Venerable's calculations?"

"It's not that simple. Who knows if these 'fragments' of his can't be replaced? Perhaps we painstakingly kill one batch, and he immediately transmits the same methods to another batch, having no impact at all. We, on the other hand, might expose ourselves."

Zhen Chan also realized it wasn't that straightforward, so he asked, "What do you think we should do?"

"Maybe... try something out?" Wang Qi hesitated, "I'm also new to the Power of Human Dao, and I don't really understand this network... this system's precise nature. I'm wondering if I should follow Holy Emperor Venerable's train of thought and replicate once."

"'Replicate once'?"

"I'll also attempt to spread some tampered cultivation techniques to see how it affects my Heart Demon Mysterious Net... no, no, no, perhaps I should go even further..."

…

In the outer perimeter of the Luochen Sword Palace, several Outer Disciples huddled in the corner, shivering.

Recently, the atmosphere in the Sword Palace had not been good. The Elders claimed that Luochen Sword Palace was wholly devoted to training disciples for the upcoming Qionghua Meeting of the Holy Emperor Venerable, and so they had temporarily sealed the palace from the outside world. But this was essentially a form of disguised imprisonment.

Apart from the Elite Golden Cores like Song Zhongqiao and Xiao Changgu, who were firmly controlled by the Elders, the others did not even have the chance to interact with cultivators from other sects this time.

They did not know that this was actually Wang Qi's intention. Wang Qi temporarily did not want the Supreme Heart Demon Curse to leak beyond the Tai Chu Sword God Array. He deliberately suppressed the power of the Heart Demon Curse, forcefully ordering its spell power to halt the infection process. However, this could not entirely stop the spread of the Heart Demon Curse.

Mercury vapor is toxic. If you pour mercury into a room and then lower the temperature, it might be possible to avoid harm. But if a mischievous child runs over to touch it or lick it, they will still be poisoned.

Therefore, Wang Qi simply restricted these cultivators carrying the Divine Plague Curse Technique from contacting cultivators from other factions.

However, this specific reason was unknown to these Low-Level Disciples.

All disciples were living in fear. In such circumstances, some naturally chose to relieve their pressure through violence and fists.

Occasionally, external cultivators sensed this and thought it was Luochen Sword Palace disciples desperately training, and would even praise them silently.

But the real sufferers were the newly entered disciples who had just joined.

Lin Feng was such a bullied Qi Cultivation Stage disciple.

Lin Feng was originally a mortal living on the island surface. A few days ago, because it was discovered that he had talent, he was brought to Luochen Sword Palace, becoming the lowest level of servant disciple.

He originally thought becoming an Immortal was supposed to lead to a dream-like life. And indeed, it was so.

Every day there was food to eat, enough to be full, and fresh water to drink, with as much as needed—this was indeed a dream-like life.

However, there were other aspects in the Immortal Dao that made him feel very frightened.

A cultivator's cultivation determined everything. A high-order cultivator could easily dominate every aspect of a low-level cultivator's life.

Even if there was just a one-stage difference in cultivation, the status gap was as vast as the difference between heaven and earth.

This gap was even more severe and naked than the wealth disparity among mortals.

For the entirely impoverished Spirit Phoenix Island inhabitants, they had no idea that people could interact in such a way.

"I must rise above in this Immortal Dao," Lin Feng thought, clutching his ribs that throbbed with pain, as he clenched his fists tightly.

These injuries were from a Foundation Establishment Stage disciple who found some random excuse to kick him. This was a significant provocation for him.

"That bastard Meng Changhao… someday I'll show him what I'm capable of…"

"And this wretched sect, sneaky and up to no good."

"Those bizarre elders of the sect… they've turned a perfectly fine Luochen Sword Palace into a place of chaos, deserving to be killed!"

"One day, I will shatter this world where people consume each other!"

"Since you haven't killed me, I shall share an eternal life with Heaven and Earth!"

Of course, this was merely venting. He knew it well.

But just then, a mysterious voice penetrated his mind.

"Is this your wish?"

Lin Feng was startled, "What?"

The voice did not respond to him and instead recited a series of inexplicable phrases.

"Initializing command confirmation…"

"System loading begins, 1%, 2%, 5%... 98%... loading successful."

"Collecting main body information, feedback data…"

"Compatibility self-check initializing, Compatibility 1%... 5%... 28%... 69%..."

"Self-check complete, module loading initiated."

"Loading baseline abilities, core mode activated. Beginner mode confirmation…"

"Input complete, compatibility achieved."

Lin Feng felt an inexplicable force suddenly emerge from the void, like a lump of dough forcibly stuffed into his mind. He could only manage to groan and then fainted from the pain.

Others assumed it was an attack of his previous ailments and paid no attention.