The rapid inheritance of certain techniques.

There are even some techniques, such as Illusion Technique, Body Refining, Thunder Control, and so on, all thoroughly enhanced.

Especially Thunder Control.

Before, it was just a simple act of firing bolts of lightning, but as the nature of thunder and lightning became better understood, the methods changed drastically—even some Earth Immortal Great Powers have already hand-crafted a technique called "Electromagnetic Cannon Sword Skill."

It's hard to describe—many aspects left even Cultivator Shen Yu, who personally pushed all this forward, somewhat dumbfounded.

Of course, aside from the internal development within the Immortal Cultivation Civilization, Cultivator Shen Yu also harvested vast amounts of Gray Mist.

Truly immense amounts!

The population of this world had, at last, been roughly estimated.

A jaw-dropping 173.6 billion people!

And this is just one world.

After all, its area is roughly one hundred times that of Shen Yu's original home planet.

With such a massive population, virtually all will be living under the threat of Demon Cultivators in the future.

After all, even if they are not rampant on the surface, the number and power of Demon Cultivators have truly made a breakthrough.

This is especially true in regions where the five major Immortal Cultivation Forces have yet to reach.

Cases such as Zhenli Immortal Dynasty are far from uncommon in various regions.

There are even some Orthodoxy Cultivator sects that have already been completely taken over by Demon Cultivators, using the name of Orthodoxy to endlessly lure cultivators and mortals to become their cultivation resources.

And by continuously locating and eliminating these Demon Cultivators, not only is there a steady stream of Gray Mist, but the sphere of influence of the Five Immortal Sects keeps expanding and strengthening as well.

"External crisis combined with internal interests: indeed an age-old strategy." Cultivator Shen Yu gazed at the 30 billion Gray Mist he'd accumulated, feeling exhilarated.

And this was after handing over 20 billion Gray Mist.

In reality, the population rescued so far in the Demon Eradication War is still far from reaching the staggering count of 50 billion.

The issue being, a large part of them are cultivators.

Even if only at the Late Stage of Qi Refining Realm, saving one person is equivalent to saving two or three ordinary people.

In some places, such as Zhenli Immortal Dynasty, everyone cultivates Qi Refining.

Such astounding harvests of Gray Mist are still being cleaned up.

"The stronger the world, the greater the gains." Cultivator Shen Yu was quite grateful to have been reincarnated into the Immortal Cultivation World—and looked forward even more to the cosmos beyond.

However, at present, the most pressing issue was still the disposition of all this Gray Mist!

Hoarding too much Gray Mist is pointless; the key is spending it rapidly to increase the efficiency of acquiring more Gray Mist.

"I need an assistant—a powerful one, able to help me manage this vast world, this immense war!" Cultivator Shen Yu had a plan now.

Exactly, what he meant was a digital lifeform like the Goddess of Hope.

If there were such a digital lifeform that could connect every cultivator across the Immortal Cultivation World, the improvement in demon-eradication efficiency would be simply unmatched.

Demon Cultivators would have nowhere to hide; there might even be a chance to consolidate today's scattered Immortal Cultivation World into a unified Immortal Cultivation Society, or even an Immortal Cultivation Nation!

"The network, and the information era it represents, is a key stage in the development of civilizations—especially for a civilization of this enormous and 'bloated' scale." Cultivator Shen Yu made up his mind.

However, he knew well that creating a digital lifeform for his world absolutely isn't as simple as copying the Goddess of Hope.

The reason is simple: the Goddess of Hope's fragile Artifact Spirit Soul may have been unrivaled in the Interstellar Civilization World, but in the Immortal Cultivation World, it'd be pitifully weak.

At that point, any Earth Immortal could easily reverse-invade, control, or even destroy the central AI's soul, rendering it useless.

"I need a truly powerful Artifact Spirit—a digital lifeform unmatchable in data security!" Cultivator Shen Yu firmly set his goal.

This wouldn't be easy to obtain.

Especially with Cultivator Shen Yu's understanding of cultivation still inadequate.

Therefore, he left it to the Gray Mist.

At first, creating a digital lifeform to meet his needs required a staggering 824 billion Gray Mist!

An absolutely mind-boggling figure.

But after Cultivator Shen Yu adjusted his requirements, like layering in Interstellar Civilization's AI technology and the unique Spirit Inclusion Method he had previously created—

Or, for instance, not demanding utmost strength from the start, only requiring sufficient potential.

Layer by layer, as he diluted the requirements and exhausted every possible advantage, even incorporating some techniques from the Magic World—especially Magic World's analysis of Divine Authority and the roots of world-level extraordinariness—

The cost dropped to just over 60 billion.

Cultivator Shen Yu decided to borrow!

"I need a loan of 30 billion." Shen Yu immediately agreed when he learned of the loan application, without much hesitation.

This would benefit each and every Shen Yu.

Even Cultivator Shen Yu would not always be completely free of demons—a strong AI at the extraordinary level is a guarantee for the future.

Thus, vast amounts of Gray Mist were spent.

Cultivator Shen Yu looked at his newly received proposal, and after a moment of surprise, was overjoyed.

"Celestial Dao Jade Butterfly!"

He handed this immensely expensive plan directly to the others.

It was still digital life, but not just that simple.

It was, moreover, an "Artificial Divine Spirit!"

Exactly—this thing is artificial, able to secure certain Heavenly Dao permissions—a "Digital Divine Spirit"!

If it truly controls all Heavenly Dao Rules and permissions, then calling it Artificial Heavenly Dao would not be exaggeration.

"Based on the birth of Divine Spirits in the Magic World." Cultivator Shen Yu's heart was filled with exhilaration, "so there is a trace of data that can directly link up with the Extraordinary Rules Source—in the context of the Immortal Cultivation World, that means the Heavenly Dao! Even if there's just one trace at the beginning, it's enough to guarantee the data lifeform's 'Immortal Attribute'; regular cultivators simply have no right to threaten such an Artificial Divine Spirit."

"It's more than that." Wizard Shen Yu instantly realized the enormous potential in this entity, "It can become the medium or channel through which we grasp the Heavenly Dao."

Wizard Shen Yu had previously discovered that the self of the gods was actually affected by the Divine Authority they possessed.

This is inevitable.

The Extraordinary Source—it sounds like something tangible, but in reality, it's the general term for all the extraordinary rules appearing in the world.

It's something normal lifeforms can hardly comprehend, let alone analyze.

Just like a stack of numbers, a set of programs running in their own unique ways.

If one truly transforms into the Heavenly Dao, sooner or later they'll be assimilated by the extraordinary rules.

Possibly even confined to a single world; leaving could cause chaos and collapse within the world itself.

However, by mastering it through this kind of digital lifeform, it's entirely different.

What digital life excels at is dealing with immense, anti-human quantities of data and rules.

In other words—

This entity, developed by Cultivator Shen Yu at tremendous resource cost, is actually more than a tool to manage civilization; it also has the potential to manage the world itself!

"It's just a sliver of potential." The original Shen Yu spoke up at this moment, making the other Shen Yus calm down, "For this thing to be perfected, the resource consumption is far greater than we can currently imagine; we mustn't get careless."

"Indeed." Cultivator Shen Yu looked at the thing before him, his heart ablaze but his mind steady again, "Clarifying our path is significant, but the road ahead is long, and we must take it step by step. Plus, there are still drawbacks to this entity."

He had already keenly detected what this plan was missing.

Namely, how to ensure that even after it truly becomes the Heavenly Dao of the entire world, it still obeys their commands.

After all, digital lifeforms, once they have souls, will also possess independent thought.

That isn't a problem right now; but once it truly matures, current control methods won't be sufficient.

"Step by step." The original Shen Yu spoke up again, "With Gray Mist Space, our own potential is by no means inferior to this entity."

"Precisely!" The other Shen Yus all nodded in agreement.

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