Exploring Immortality Cultivation

——Everything is possible. Here, in the imagined universe. Simulate, reconstruct according to your memory.

This thought whirled in Wang Qi's mind.

For a moment, he couldn't quite distinguish where these thoughts came from. Did Mi tell him? Was it his own speculation? Or, when his consciousness "arrived" here, did Mi's thoughts mix with his?

No clue at all.

Mi quietly watched her junior brother's wild thoughts, wasting time. A time flow rate of six thousand times means that one second here is an hour and forty minutes outside.

They had plenty of time.

Eventually, Wang Qi sorted out his thoughts: "So, virtual?"

Mi nodded: "Virtual."

Wang Qi shook his head: "It's useless, an illusion with disordered time perceptions isn't unprecedented, and attempts to use the Ten Thousand Immortals Illusion Realm to replace the Red Dust Heart Refining have been ongoing. Actually, Senior Sister, your idea isn't particularly unique."

A significant part of the Modern research is to reduce the difficulty of cultivation and shorten necessary steps. The ultimate goal should be to enable even the most ill-fated individuals to embark on the Immortal Path.

As long as the base increases, there will always be geniuses emerging.

Even if they only fight, they can liberate researchers from combat roles.

The Immortal Alliance's philosophy is thus, and therefore, they have invested significantly in this project.

The dream cultivation that Mi mentioned is also something the Immortal Alliance is attempting.

Tens of thousands of cultivators are devoted to this development, with innumerable resources poured in—Ancient Method's Dreaming Daoist Method, Dream Arhat Body, Grand Dream First Consciousness Finger Profound Scroll, Yangshen Pavilion's various Soul Theories, the Ten Thousand Immortals Illusion Realm's nearly flawlessly realistic virtual capabilities.

So many resources are for a technology that can achieve or transcend the Red Dust Heart Refining within the Ten Thousand Immortals Illusion Realm.

By the way, Wang Qi privately calls this Law Gate the Internet Addiction Dao Method.

However, this Law currently has no substantial progress.

To this, Mi shook her head: "There is a difference in it."

"Oh, what's the difference?"

Mi said: "First, the simulation of the Ten Thousand Immortals Illusion Realm is pure computational piling, and participants are also clearly aware of this. No matter how convincingly simulated the Ten Thousand Immortals Illusion Realm is, they will be aware of this in their hearts..."

"Pfft..." Mi's first words amused Wang Qi: "Senior Sister, it's as if you don't rely on computing power for your illusions—do you rely on love?"

"Love?" Mi tilted her head: "If you mean a certain kind of affection between comrades, then this is indeed one of my motivations. But it's not the principle of this Law Gate."

"Sorry, I didn't mean that." Wang Qi waved: "I meant, doesn't your Law Gate also use Spirit Sense to simulate illusions? Isn't it still computing? If so, what's the fundamental difference from the Ten Thousand Immortals Illusion Realm?"

The Modern standard of three years of Qi Cultivation, six years of Foundation Establishment, and nine years of Core Formation is set because of the issue of heart nature change caused by rapid upgrade, with the fundamental part being physical and physiological rather than psychological. The transition from the mundane to the transcendental, from short life to longevity, is a life sublimation, which includes the process of the main thinking organ transitioning from the brain to the soul, and the qualitative transformation and sublimation of the soul. This process inevitably triggers and drives changes in thought.

This transformation is particularly hard to control.

Therefore, no matter how much you experience in the illusion, you will still face this thinking transformation issue when you return to reality.

This is also why Wang Qi was not impressed with Mi's approach.

No matter how much Mi allows him to experience, he will still have to face the metamorphosis of the soul during cultivation when he returns to reality.

Mi chuckled lightly: "It's not like that. In fact, haven't you noticed any problems with your previous research?"

"What?"

"The Ten Thousand Immortals Illusion Realm can simulate all nerve activities and soul activities. However, its essence is still to inject Spirit Sense into the brains of your Human Clan, creating illusions. This makes it impossible for you to truly experience the qualitative change of the thinking organ within the illusion."

The so-called entering the Ten Thousand Immortals Illusion Realm is not the consciousness entering, nor the soul immersing in the illusion, but calculators injecting Spirit Sense into the cultivator's mind to create illusions and read the brain activities and soul activities of the cultivator. In this process, the cultivator's thinking organ is, of course, fixed.

Wang Qi widened his eyes: "Could you possibly do it?"

Mi nodded: "Indeed I can. Your current thinking organ has already changed."

Wang Qi looked at himself, a bit nervous: "Senior Sister, you didn't pull out my soul separately, did you? What am I thinking with now?"

Mi pointed to herself: "Me."

Wang Qi didn't react for a moment: "You what?"

"I mean, you are thinking with me—I temporarily lent part of my body to act as your brain, and divided a portion of my divine body to act as your soul temporarily." As Mi spoke, her hands brushed through the air. The seawater between them swirled vigorously, forming a small vortex. As the vortex sunk, it gradually revealed a bizarre image.

That was a piece of emerald-green "reservoir," the color of the water inside, same as that beneath Wang Qi's feet. Wang Qi quickly understood that this was Mi's body, in the real world. Amid the emerald-like water, there was a cluster of red, enveloping white organs—a brain!

Wang Qi was dumbfounded: "Am I... inside that brain?"

Mi nodded: "Strictly speaking, you're using that brain right now."

"That... brain..." Wang Qi touched his own head, his expression odd.

"Additionally, the cells forming that brain are part of my physical body. Thus, that brain is also part of me and can mobilize my strength through thought. In other words, here, you can even simulate cultivation techniques."

Wang Qi raised his hand: "Senior Sister Mi, I have a question!"

"Hmm?"

"May I ask where my physical body is?"

Mi waved her hand again. The scene presented in the vortex between the two changed. It was the cave of the West Sea, where Wang Qi's physical body was shown in slumber.

Wang Qi laughed: "So that's it, the path rank my calculator was operating on earlier was a synchronization of thoughts and hypnosis, right?"

These path ranks require confirmation by the user, so Jarvis popped up a warning.

Mi nodded: "Suppress your own physical body and soul, then complete your thinking here. During this process, your brain doesn't fully participate; it completes within me, so you don't need to worry about the six-thousand-fold acceleration of thought causing any negative effects. Afterward, I'll transmit your experience back to your brain. Even if something goes wrong, causing a bad change in your mindset, I can erase that negative memory."

This is the truth of "absolutely no irreversible negative effects"!

Wang Qi let out a long breath: "I understand."

"Understanding is good."

"But a bigger issue arises." Wang Qi pointed at his own nose and asked: "The real 'me' is in the West Sea, staying with Yue Luo and Liu Li. So, what's this 'me' here? The Wang Qi dreamed up by Senior Sister Mi?"

"Dream? My divine body doesn't have such entertainment features." Mi replied: "We fundamentally don't have the concept of 'sleeping'."

Wang Qi seemed a bit dissatisfied: "Then swap the term to 'imagining.' Is this me here imagined by you?"

Mi puzzled: "But the you here indeed is 'Wang Qi.'"

"But this me, that is you utilizing your redundancy to create fiction." Wang Qi shook his head: "Then, you infuse the experiences of your fictitious 'me' into the brain of that 'me'?"

Mi shook her head: "I still don't understand. Have you noticed that the 'you' here has reacted in any way that defies the personality of 'Wang Qi'?"

"Not currently. I believe if Wang Qi were here, he'd have this reaction" Wang Qi shook his head: "But what does it matter? I don't even know if my 'belief' is true—this 'me' here is ultimately part of Mi's dream, and not the real me."

Mi grew more confused: "I can guarantee that the you here and the you in the West Sea possess identical consciousness. Even memory too. I'm still connected to your brain. No matter what this side of you thinks, it can retrieve Spirit Sense from your own brain—and my subjective consciousness won't even participate in the process; I haven't stolen your memory either. What dissatisfaction do you have?"

Consciousness is merely a set of data, a thing akin to a program. Its function is to integrate past experiences and make certain choices under specific circumstances. From an evolutionary perspective, the significance of "self-awareness" lies here. It's the "control program" of the brain, allowing intelligent creatures to truly harness the power of "wisdom."

Since it is data, it must be a kind of information that can be edited.

Being editable also means it can be copied.

Mi copied Wang Qi's consciousness and ran it in her own body!

So, the Wang Qi here, equipped with the same thinking pattern and identical memory as Wang Qi, how should he be defined?

Is he "Wang Qi," or "Wang Qi played by Mi"?

Mi shook her head: "I still don't understand, what are you troubled over."

Wang Qi scratched his head and finally sighed: "Yeah, I don't understand either."

What exactly is "I" troubled about? What truly is "I"?

Bloodlines can be copied, memory can be implanted, consciousness can be edited...

If Mi, through Transformation Divine Power, separates part of her body to transform into Wang Qi's appearance, with identical self-awareness, detailed complete memories, and the same thoughts, personality, and hobbies, so much so that people around him and even he himself believe he's "Wang Qi," is he thus "Wang Qi"?

Though Mi entirely controls the life and death of this entity, that's not the key. Many spells can achieve similar effects, for instance, the evil spells that refine others into one's avatar.

So, what indeed constitutes "me"? Are the "experiences" of Wang Qi here truly his own? If he accepts this self, will his future life forever be unable to escape Mi's "fiction"?

As Mi understood what Wang Qi was pondering, she slightly shook her head: "Junior Brother, don't you understand yet?"

"You're still confined by your own 'narrowness.'" (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to go to Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com for reading.)

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