“Li Yao!”

　　Ding Yin shouted a timely warning, waking him from his stupor: “These blood-colored specks of light are the demonic power left behind by the demon beasts. Only cultivators who have sufficient strength could purify and absorb them through secret techniques! Since you have just broken through, your cultivation is still shallow. If you keep on absorbing this much demonic power, your spiritual energy will only be contaminated by demonic energy, and you will lose your truth, effectively turning into a demon who knows nothing but slaughtering!”

　　Li Yao was terrified. Only now did he come to realize that he was just a step away from embarking on the demonic path. He immediately closed his spiritual root, preventing the invasion of demonic power.

　　However, the demonic energy was spread everywhere and were spread even over the hills and the valleys. It appeared to be as vast as the sea and could be described as inexhaustible. Although there was such a tremendous amount of energy in front of him, all he could do was look. He was unable to absorb it and convert it into his own energy, causing the newly-born cultivator, the “hungry” Li Yao, to become truly envious.

　　It was akin to placing a hot, steaming chicken in front of a person who had been starving for three days and three nights, only to tell him that the chicken was poisonous—this anxious waiting feeling, which was later denied, caused Li Yao to feel as if his heart was being clawed at by a cat. He quickly swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

　　Li Yao was suddenly struck by a thought. Absorbing just a wisp of demonic energy, he tried to send it to the depths of his neural field, where the tree of memories left by Ou Yezi was.

　　Before the wisp of demonic energy had even gotten near the tree of memories, the demonic energy silently disintegrated and turned into the purest of spiritual energy!

　　“There is a way!” Li Yao’s heart started beating rapidly; he was wild with joy.

　　According to Ding Yin, only the strongest of cultivators could purify demonic energy.

　　Although Li Yao was a newbie who had just entered the world of cultivation, the tree of memories in his neural field was congealed from Ou Yezi’s vast spiritual energy. Using it to purify the remnant demonic energies of the Ghost Jellyfish and Ghost Face Silver Mosquitoes was simply akin to using a cannon to kill a chicken and putting fine timber to petty uses!

　　However, Li Yao didn’t want to wantonly absorb the demonic energy. The residual soul of Ou Yezi was his most guarded secret and was something he never intends to reveal. For now, he was still being patient; he was waiting for an opportune moment to return later and completely absorb the demonic energy.

　　“Bo… Bo… Bo…”

　　The soul search squad continued moving forward, searching for the residual souls in this vast wilderness. Although they had still gained nothing after 3-4 hours, everyone was accustomed to it and not a single one of them revealed a dejected look.

　　A residual soul was not so easy to find. If not for some lucky coincidence, good luck that was as large as the heaven, or a strong expert with superb cultivation, then after a cultivator had fallen, the soul would often vanish into a puff of smoke.

　　In the past, even after a hundred cultivators had fallen, sometimes not even a single wisp of residual spirit could be found. Otherwise, in the cultivation world, wouldn’t “souls be floating and filling the sky, and the spectral cultivators would be found walking everywhere”?

　　This time, just converting Ding Yin into a spectral cultivator was already enough.

　　Traversing over a small mound, everyone was a little dispirited and discouraged. The soul search squad’s captain waved his hand to return. Just as they were about to turn back, Li Yao’s heart stirred, and he immediately looked towards the southwest.

　　Towards the southwest, there was nothing, yet he always felt as if something or someone was staring at him.

　　“Check in that direction. I think there is something there,” Li Yao said to the soldier managing the “tuba”.

　　“Quickly, quickly increase the power! A newly advanced cultivator’s perception is often particularly keen. There might be something there!” Ding Yin became excited.

　　“Bo… Bo… Bo…” The tube gradually turned towards the southwest.

　　“Bo… Bo… Bo… BoBoBoBoBo!” The monotonous sound suddenly became rapid like drumbeats, and soon, an extremely faint black point appeared in the upper right corner of the hologram.

　　“Quickly scatter the ‘Revealing Soul Particles’!” the soul search squad’s captain shouted in a loud voice.

　　Two soul search squad members picked up two thick and long steel pipes. The back of the steel pipes flashed with a spiritual radiance before two balls of azure mist shot out with a “Boom!”.

　　“Bang!”

　　The azure balls of mist burst open in the sky before a mist of crystal powder covered the entire sky; it was as though there were a million fireflies flying in the sky!

　　The fluorescent crystal powder, by the virtue of the wind, very quickly spread across a radius of a few hundred meters; the heaven and the earth were painted in an azure color.

　　Amidst this azure world, a light-gray fog suddenly appeared. The fog was extremely hazy and continuously moved. Gradually, the fog congealed into an extremely weak human form that was completely confused as it gradually floated towards the sky.

　　Although it was faintly discernible, with one glance, Li Yao recognized it to be Wei Qingqing—the orchid in a deep valley-like college student who had just graduated from the Sky Fantasia Academy and was preparing to go to a mountain village as a teacher!

　　“We found another!”

　　All the members of the soul search squad were immensely excited. Much to their surprise, out of the seven cultivators who had fallen, two could become spectral cultivators—their luck was truly heaven-defying!

　　Only the soul search squad’s captain had a solemn look; he was still being conscientious and meticulous.

　　He cautiously drove the military shuttle towards the residual soul. In his hands, the huge battle shuttle was as silent as a cat.

　　Everyone held their breath.

　　In the captain’s hand, a round magical equipment, one which looked like a bud that was ready to bloom, appeared. As he infused his spiritual energy into it, the bud slowly bloomed into a tender and beautiful flower.

　　The captain aligned the flower’s pistils towards Wei Qingqing’s residual soul and recited out loud, “I beseech the spirit to come back to us and embark on the road of dark cultivation—come!”

　　Wei Qingqing’s residual soul lightly shook before it turned into a wisp of smoke and was sucked into the flower. The petals of the flower, in the blink of an eye, closed up and had once again returned to a flower bud; however, it was now emitting a weak, azure splendor.

　　“Thanks to you we were able to save another fellow daoist!” Ding Yin patted Li Yao shoulder and said with relief.

　　…

　　When Li Yao returned to the medical treatment tent, Guan Xiong had already left. However, he had left a jade chip behind. Just as Li Yao lightly touched it, Guan Xiong’s heroic voice resounded in his mind:

　　“Little brother, Old Guan is going to return to the Mountain Sea Sect to recuperate. Hahaha! After I have completely recovered, I will come and look for you at the Grand Desolate War Institution. At that time, we will have a blast! You have just entered the world of cultivation, so you are still a newbie who knows nothing at all. In this jade chip, there is something that will be very helpful to you. As soon as you can, install it into your crystal processor—but, you need to find a crystal processor with strong computational power!”

　　Upon inspecting the jade chip carefully, Li Yao discovered that what was stored inside was an extremely huge and immensely dense structure of telepathic thoughts which could not be understood using his brain alone.

　　“What kind of telepathic thoughts are these?”

　　Li Yao became extremely curious. He immediately started up his crystal processor and inserted the jade chip. The telepathic thoughts were copied inside the crystal processor.

　　These telepathic thoughts were as vast as the sea; it took more than ten minutes to completely copy them.

　　Opening the virtual keyboard, Li Yao launched the telepathic thoughts.

　　“Creak! Creak! Creak!”

　　The crystal processor suddenly let out ear-piercing noises; every one of its components was overloaded. Each crystal embedded inside the crystal processor was flickering; it appeared that the crystal processor could not withstand the powerful impacts contained in the telepathic thoughts.

　　Only after five minutes were the telepathic thoughts completely running. After the telepathic thoughts installed inside the crystal processor were completely launched, they had actually used up 3/4th of the computational power of the crystal processor, causing the crystal processor to become extremely hot and incomparably slow.

　　“These telepathic thoughts are so powerful!” Li Yao was shocked.

　　Although his crystal processor was not some high-end stuff that cost a million bucks, it had still been specially modified. Its computational power was far more than any ordinary, personal crystal processor. For this crystal processor, running some huge telepathic thoughts was simply as easy as blowing dust, and its computational speed was as fast as lightning.

　　However, Li Yao didn’t expect that these telepathic thoughts would cause his crystal processor to be like an old bullock pulling a broken cart that was panting at every step.

　　Li Yao carefully observed and found a small icon that was displaying a flying sword soaring amidst the clear blue sky at the center of the hologram, underneath which were four words:

　　“Heaven Origin Cultivators’ Nexus!”

　　Li Yao lightly tapped the virtual keyboard and launched the mysterious website.

　　“Creak! Creak!”

　　The crystal processor was once again wailing from overloading.

　　Apparently, it would be best for him to upgrade its configuration after returning, only then would it be possible for it to run as fast as the wind.

　　“Beep, scanning telepathic thoughts. Your crystal processor does not meet the standard requirements to run the Heaven Origin Cultivators’ Nexus. Closing some of the abilities so as to start at the lowest settings!”

　　“If you want to launch the complete abilities of the Heaven Origin Cultivator’s Nexus, it is recommended that you upgrade the crystal processor. The configuration is as follows…”

　　“If you want to launch the complete abilities of the Heaven Origin Cultivator’s Nexus, it is recommended that you upgrade the crystal processor. The configuration is as follows…”

　　A sweet and tender female voice came.

　　As Li Yao swept a glance, his eyes were suddenly transfixed—what’s the bloody backing of the Heaven Origin Cultivators’ Nexus? Its configuration requirements were too high! Even if I bought crystal processor components to assemble, just the standard configuration would cost me 3,000-5,000 bucks!

　　If it was the top configuration that gave the “best experience”, without a couple million bucks, it would simply be impossible!

　　“It seems that being a cultivator is not that easy. Making money is no doubt easy, but money is also spent like water. Just to log into one site, so much money is needed to be spent!” Li Yao said in his heart.

　　Quickly, the hologram before him burst into thousands upon thousands of specks of light that resembled fireflies and then spread out before transforming into a faint blue light that completely enveloped the medical treatment tent.

　　It transformed into thousands upon thousands of eight-pointed shining golden stars, glyphs, arrays, telepathic thoughts which circled around Li Yao before they gathered into a stream of information that was as vast as the sea, bringing him an immense shock!

　　It was as if a small, orchid-colored world had burst open from the crystal processor, overlapping and blending with the real world, much mixing like milk and water!

　　This kind of feeling was a little similar to the “Great Illusionary Land”.

　　But in the Great Illusionary Land, one would not sense the real world. To be precise, it could be called a “Half-step Great Illusionary Land”!

　　Li Yao was completely immersed in the endless mysteries inside the Half-step Great Illusionary Land. In his heart, he wildly shouted, “If the lowest configuration of the Heaven Origin Cultivators’ Nexus is this cool, how many mysterious abilities would the top-level configurations be able to show?”

　　A dozen rainbow-colored, gorgeous streams of information suddenly floated before his eyes:

　　“Hidden God Valley’s cultivator, Ding Yin (spectral cultivator), confirms that Grand Desolate War Institution’s student, Li Yao, has awakened his spiritual root and has embarked on the road of cultivation!”

　　“Mountain Sea Sect’s cultivator, Guan Xiong, confirms that Grand Desolate War Institution’s student, Li Yao, has awakened his spiritual root and has embarked on the road of cultivation, and has invited Li Yao to join the Heaven Origin Cultivators’ Nexus!”

　　“Congratulations, Fellow Daoist Li Yao! You have already obtained the approval of two Building Foundation Stage cultivators. Your registration for the Heaven Origin Cultivators’ Nexus is complete. From now on, you are are a glorious cultivator of the Heaven Origin Sector!”

　　“Here is your registered spirit brand. This is your proof of identity that is exclusive to you. Please carefully engrave it in your soul.”

　　“Bang Bang Bang Bang!”

　　Countless resplendent fireworks set off in front of Li Yao. It was as if a forest of fireworks was gradually floating before him, one which was followed by hundreds of streams of information that was akin to pouring rain rolling down before his eyes.

　　“The Federation’s President, Xu Haoran, has sent you a congratulatory message. Fellow Daoist Li Yao, congratulations on becoming a glorious cultivator!”

　　“The leader of the Ultimate Heavens’ Dao Clan, Ning Tianyuan, and his 3,000 clansmen, congratulates Fellow Daoist Li! We hope that we can someday travel with Fellow Daoist Li and explore the thousands of great daos in the endless galaxy. We warmly welcome Fellow Daoist Li Yao to come and visit us. The Extreme Heavenly Dao’s forum address is as follows…”

　　“Every member of the Supreme Clan congratulates Fellow Daoist Li. The Supreme Clan is the tenth ranked super-sect in the Star Glory Federation. We have a long line of history and are tremendously powerful. We have many Core Formation Stage cultivators as well as a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator. Moreover, our cultivation techniques are fair and gentle. Cultivating in an orderly way and using these techniques step by step, there will be no risk of Qigong deviation. It is the best choice for newly advanced cultivators! Fellow Daoist Li is, at any time, welcome to inquire. Our official spiritual crane number is…”

　　“Loose cultivator Shui Lianxin, 25 years old, welcomes Fellow Daoist Li to the world of cultivation. I hope I can discuss the true spirit of the great dao with Fellow Daoist Li. My spiritual crane number is… If you are not sincere, then do not bother!”