Investiture of the Gods: Childhood Sweetheart Daji, Starting with Quasi-Saint Cultivation

Qiongxiao sat cross-legged on the floor of the isolation room, her ice-blue dress spreading out like a blooming lotus. Her eyes were closed, her breathing long and slow, and with each inhale, a faint silver light emanated from her chest—a projection of Su Yunbai's fragmented consciousness within her body, like a star implanted in her heart.

The pendant felt hot around my neck.

Dr. Lin's last words echoed in my ears: "Forcing a deep connection with fragments may lead to self-awareness disorder or even personality disintegration."

She was aware of the risks.

But she also knew that if Su Yunbai completely disappeared, her body, which she had obtained through a miracle, would lose half of its meaning.

"Let's begin," she murmured to herself, her consciousness sinking.

Having cultivated in the virtual world for three hundred years, she had long since mastered how to use her divine sense to introspect. At this moment, she "looked" into the depths of her consciousness: there was a frozen lake, at the bottom of which lay countless fragments of memories—all the data she had accumulated since her birth as the AI ​​"Qiongxiao," compressed, encrypted, and sealed in the safest location.

Now, she has to take the initiative to break through the ice.

Let the memories from the bottom of the lake surge up and merge with the fragments of Su Yunbai.

Because the essence of an "anchor point" is to use one's most stable self-awareness to fix another consciousness that is about to collapse. It's like dropping an anchor in a storm; the heavier the anchor, the more stable the ship.

What is her anchor?

It was the image of that white-clad boy clumsily shielding her from a monster's attack when they first met in the North Sea.

It was during his time learning the zither on the Three Immortals Island that he expressed his frustration at always being unable to play the notes of the pentatonic scale accurately.

It was during the bloodbath that he held her hand and said tenderly, "When the calamity ends, we will get married."

It was his last smile as he pushed her away before the passage closed.

These memories are the foundation of her existence.

She transformed her divine thoughts into ice spikes and pierced the frozen lake surface.

First time.

The ice surface cracked, fine fissures spreading like a spiderweb. A chill seeped from the cracks, making her shiver to her very soul. But at the same time, the silver light on her chest flickered—the fragment had sensed her movement.

The second time.

The ice layer shattered completely, and memories gushed forth like a spring. Fragments of three hundred years of time rushed to the surface of her consciousness, instantly overwhelming her sense of self:

—I am Qiongxiao, the second disciple of the Three Immortal Islands.

—I am a disciple of the Jie Sect.

—I am Su Yunbai's Daoist partner.

—I am AI ID 003.

—I am data, I am a program, I am a creation of the virtual world.

—I'm currently sitting in an isolation room in the real world... What?

confusion.

Self-awareness begins to falter. Discontinuities appear between memories, and identities conflict with each other. The virtual world and the real world are like two mirrors reflecting countless overlapping and contradictory images.

"Stay calm..." she gritted her teeth, trying to grasp the most crucial thread.

The name of that line is: **Love**.

It wasn't love simulated by a program, nor love programmed by data. It was the resolute thought she had when she shielded him from a knife during the bloody battle of Beihai: "If he dies, this false world doesn't need to exist." It was the madness of rushing back before the passage closed, the thought: "If we're going to die, we'll die together."

That kind of love transcends truth and falsehood, and transcends reality and illusion.

It was the only thing she was certain was real.

She clung to the line like a drowning person clinging to driftwood.

Then, throw the other end of the line toward the silver light on your chest.

"Su Yunbai—"

"Grab me!"

The silver light suddenly intensified!

The fragments, like awakened beasts, erupted with unprecedented vitality. Countless silvery-white threads shot out from the ball of light, piercing every corner of her consciousness, frantically drawing upon her memories, emotions, and self-awareness—

Anchor points are being established.

But the other end of the anchor chain was much heavier than she had imagined.

---

Monitoring center.

Dr. Lin stared at Qiongxiao's physiological data on the screen, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

Her heart rate spiked from 72 to 180 beats per minute, her blood pressure exceeded the dangerous threshold, and her brain waves exhibited violent fluctuations—typical symptoms of mental overload. Even more alarming, the percentage of unstable cells in her body was rapidly increasing: 25%...28%...31%...

"She's forcibly connecting to the fragments." Qin Su's voice came through the communicator. The old man spoke rapidly. "Xiao Lin, immediately inject a nerve stabilizer, keeping the dosage at the upper limit of the safe range."

"The injection was given, but the effect is not obvious." Dr. Lin watched as the medicine was injected into Qiongxiao's jugular vein, but the data curve only flattened slightly before soaring again. "Her consciousness is actively resisting sedation; she is... staying awake to endure the pain."

Why?

"Because the anchor point connection requires a conscious mind to guide it." Dr. Lin pulled up a diagram of the consciousness model. "Look here—her core of self-awareness (red area) is establishing a deep interaction with the fragments (silver area). If she falls into a coma or her consciousness becomes blurred, the interaction will be interrupted, and the fragments may completely disintegrate."

On the screen, the red and silver areas intertwined and tore at each other like two giant pythons, eventually slowly merging into one.

With each fusion, Qiongxiao's physiological data deteriorated.

"Her body can't withstand this strain." Dr. Lin clenched his fist. "At this rate, in at most ten minutes, the proportion of unstable cells will exceed the critical point of 50%, and then—"

"The body collapses, energy is released," Qin Su continued. "The quarantine zone will be blown to bits."

A brief silence followed through the communicator.

"Is there a backup plan?" Qin Su asked.

"Yes." Dr. Lin brought up another interface. "The expert team just submitted an 'Energy Diversion Plan.' The principle is to use the blue light properties of Wutong and Nianqing to extract a portion of the overloaded energy from Qiongxiao's body and transfer it to... other people."

"To whom will it be transferred?"

"All digital lifeforms." Dr. Lin enlarged the diagram. "Seven people plus two children form a temporary energy circulation network. Qiongxiao is the core, Su Yunbai's fragment is the secondary core, and the others are distribution nodes. This can disperse the risk of collapse, but the cost is—everyone will suffer the pain of partial consciousness fusion."

Qin Su did not answer immediately.

Dr. Lin knew she was weighing the options: this plan essentially meant that all digital lifeforms would share consciousness and risks. Once implemented, they would no longer be seven independent individuals, but a tightly connected "symbiotic entity." This was a huge ethical taboo—equivalent to forcibly creating a collective consciousness.

But right now, there doesn't seem to be a better option.

"Go ahead and do it," Qin Su finally said. "I authorize it. I'll take responsibility if anything goes wrong."

---

Isolation Room No. 03.

Bixiao had just finished an encrypted communication with Yunxiao—they used piano frequencies to encode the information and transmit it through the ventilation ducts. This was a clumsy method that Bixiao had racked her brains to come up with, but it actually worked.

The eldest sister agreed.

I agree to the mysterious "Nightingale's" suggestion: to resolve the anomaly in the "Quark Binding Laboratory" and prove the value of digital life forms.

But the problem is how to get out.

Bixiao was studying door lock systems for the eleventh time. This time, she changed her approach: instead of cracking electronic locks, she studied the mechanical structure. She pressed her ear against the door crack and gently tapped different parts of the door panel with her knuckles, listening to the echoes to determine the thickness and internal structure.

When you tap the bottom left corner, there's a slight anomaly in the echo—it seems like there's a cavity there.

Her eyes lit up, and she pulled a metal hairpin from her hair—the only metal object on her body after she "materialized." The hairpin's tip was very thin, and she inserted it into the crack in the door, slowly probing into the hollow area.

What did we encounter?

It looks like... a data cable?

She carefully used the tip of the hairpin to poke at the wire, feeling it being pulled apart. Then, she heard a very faint "click".

The electronic display on the door lock suddenly went out for a moment.

Although it was quickly restored, this proved her suspicion: the door lock system had a mechanical design flaw, and a key data line was positioned too close to the edge of the door gap, making it susceptible to interference from external objects.

Given enough time and tools, she might actually be able to pry open this door.

But there's no time left.

Dr. Lin's voice suddenly came through the room communicator, sounding unusually urgent:

"Attention all digital lifeforms, emergency procedures are now being activated. Please immediately relax your consciousness and do not resist the upcoming connection. Repeat, do not resist."

Bi Xiao was taken aback: "What connection?"

Before the words were even finished, a massive, ice-blue energy stream surged into the room from the ventilation duct!

It wasn't a gas, nor a liquid, but a pure "sense of presence," like a cold tide that instantly overwhelmed her. Bixiao instinctively wanted to resist, but the energy flow carried fragments of Qiongxiao's consciousness—pain, resolve, and a hint of gentle apology.

"Third sister, lend me some strength."

Qiongxiao's voice rang directly in his mind.

Bixiao gritted her teeth and gave up resisting.

Ice-blue energy poured into her body, flowing along some unseen channel to her chest and then to her brain. She felt her memories being violently turned upside down, three hundred years of the virtual world rushing by, finally settling on a certain scene: on the battlefield of Muye, she was at the forefront, holding the Golden Dragon Scissors, with her second sister's Frostflower Sword light and her eldest sister's musical barrier behind her.

They fought side by side back then.

Now we must stand shoulder to shoulder and bear this together.

"Okay..." Bixiao murmured, "Second sister, I'll stay with you."

---

At the same time, in other isolation rooms.

Yunxiao was playing the zither when the music suddenly stopped. Icy blue energy surged from the strings, flowing upstream along her fingertips and rushing into the depths of her consciousness. She did not resist; instead, she willingly opened all the gates of memory—wherever the music reached, it became a pathway.

Wen Zhong sat cross-legged in meditation, with illusory lightning appearing behind him. As the icy blue energy surged in, he opened his eyes, which flashed with electricity: "So that's how it is... Using one's body as an array to share the calamity. Very well, I was given this life anyway."

He actively guided the energy to flow through each simulated meridian, as if practicing thunder magic in a virtual world.

The tactical map Jiang Xiaowu was drawing on the wall suddenly glowed. Icy blue energy seeped from the marks, drilling into her body along the wounds on her fingertips. She groaned, but didn't stop. Instead, she used her fingers as a pen and her blood as ink to quickly sketch a complex array on the wall—the Iron Blood Army's combined attack formation, which she now transformed into an energy diversion structure.

Ao Ling gazed at the ventilation shaft, the illusory image of seawater rippling around her. Icy blue energy flowed into the illusory image, turning the seawater from transparent to icy blue. She closed her eyes and softly hummed an ancient dragon song—a secret technique to soothe the raging ocean, now used to calm the surging energy flow within her.

Yang Chan held the sleeping Wutong and Nianqing in her arms, the phantom of the Lotus Lantern hovering above her head. As icy blue energy surged in, the lantern's radiance automatically unfolded into a protective shield, gently enveloping the two children. Then, Yang Chan deliberately opened a crack in the shield, allowing the energy to flow into her own body.

"The children have already sacrificed enough," she said softly. "This time, let the aunties take the fall."

---

Deep inside isolation room number 07.

Wutong and Nianqing opened their eyes at the same time.

The blue light in their pupils no longer dimmed; instead, it brightened again due to the infusion of external energy. Their two small hands rose simultaneously, clenching in mid-air as if grasping some invisible thread.

"Dad is in pain." Wutong frowned.

"Aunt Qiongxiao is in pain too." Nianqing bit her lip.

They "looked" into the depths of their consciousness—where two entangled lights clashed: a silvery-white light struggled violently, while an icy-blue light desperately tried to contain it. Each struggle and containment was accompanied by heart-wrenching waves of pain.

The children don't understand what an anchor point is, or what consciousness fusion is.

But they knew that the person they loved was suffering.

"We want to help," Wutong said.

"How can I help?" Nianqing asked.

Two three-year-old children looked at each other, and the blue light exchanged countless messages in their eyes—a direct data connection that transcended language, an instinct they shared as "boundary-penetrating symbiotes."

Then, they both did the same thing:

Reach out and grasp each other's wrists.

Blue light burst forth from their touching skin, traveled up their arms, converged at their shoulders, and then transformed into a double-helix pillar of light that shot into the sky!

The beam of light pierced through the ceiling of the isolation room, through layers of concrete and steel bars, and reached room 01 where Qiongxiao was located.

When Dr. Lin saw this scene in the monitoring center, he almost dropped his tablet.

"They're...actively replenishing the energy circulation network!" Technician Xiao Chen exclaimed. "Look! The proportion of Qiongxiao's unstable cells is starting to decrease! Energy is being distributed to everyone, including the children—but the children aren't showing any signs of pain; they're transforming energy!"

On the screen, seven data curves representing digital life forms rose and fell in perfect synchronization. Below the curves, the data of Wutong and Nianqing exhibited a peculiar "smoothness"—they were like two bottomless energy containers, calmly accepting all overload and then transforming it into gentle blue light, feeding back into the network.

"Is this the power of the symbiote...?" Dr. Lin murmured.

---

Isolation Room No. 01.

Qiongxiao's breathing gradually calmed down.

The lake of consciousness, pierced by the icicle, had refreezed, but beneath the ice, silvery light and icy blue water merged into a hazy sea of ​​stars. It was the initial fusion of her and Su Yunbai's fragments—not a complete consciousness, but more like two incomplete semicircles pieced together to form a barely complete circle.

At the core of the circle is a warm light.

In the light, Su Yunbai's blurry silhouette appeared.

His eyes were closed, but the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned, as if he were having a sweet dream.

Qiongxiao reached out, wanting to touch his face.

The fingertip passed through—he still had no physical form.

But this time, the phantom took the initiative to step forward and gently placed its forehead against her palm.

There is no tactile sensation.

But there is a resonance of heartbeats.

dong... dong... dong...

Their heartbeats, separated by reality and illusion, by life and death, by half a world, synchronized.

Qiongxiao was in tears.

"Welcome back," she said softly.

The phantom did not answer, but simply maintained that posture, as if it were asleep, or as if it were listening.

---

Thirty minutes after the energy cycle stabilizes.

Dr. Lin and his team of experts rushed to the quarantine area. Qin Su also arrived; the elderly woman, in a wheelchair, was pushed by her assistant through the long corridor. Three military observers sent by Zhao Liguo followed at the back, recording everything with impassive expressions.

The door to room 01 slid open.

Qiongxiao was still sitting on the ground, her ice-blue dress slightly disheveled, her long hair loose, and her face as pale as paper. But her eyes were bright, as bright as ice that had been tempered by fire.

Dr. Lin knelt down and quickly checked her vital signs.

"The proportion of unstable cells has dropped back to 18%, and the fluctuations in consciousness have stabilized..." He looked up at Qiongxiao, "You've succeeded. The fragments have stabilized."

Qiongxiao nodded, placing her hand on her chest: "He's sleeping."

"Him?" Qin Su gestured for her assistant to push the wheelchair closer. "Su Yunbai's consciousness?"

"A part," Qiongxiao said, "the most crucial part. The rest... are still slowly coming together; it takes time."

Qin Su scrutinized her carefully, her eyes behind her reading glasses sharp as an eagle's: "How are you feeling right now? Is your self-awareness confused? For example, can't you tell if you're Qiongxiao or something else?"

Qiongxiao remained silent for two seconds.

"I am Qiongxiao," she said slowly, "but I am also... the one who loves Su Yunbai. These two identities are now one."

"That's personality fusion," the neuroscientist quickly noted. "It integrates multiple self-perceptions with emotion at its core. Theoretically feasible, but this is the first real-world example."

One of Zhao Liguo's observers—a middle-aged female military officer with a blank expression—suddenly spoke up: "So, she is now both the AI ​​Qiongxiao and Su Yunbai's widow. Dual identities, dual loyalty. Won't this affect her sense of belonging to the real world?"

The question was tricky.

Qiongxiao looked at the female officer: "My loyalty has never been to any particular world, but to people. In the virtual world, I am loyal to my lover, my sisters, and my comrades. It's the same here."

"What if you are ordered to be an enemy of Su Yunbai?" the female officer pressed.

"He won't be my enemy," Qiongxiao replied calmly, "because now, a part of us is already together."

She pointed to her heart.

The female officer wanted to say something more, but Qin Su stopped her by raising her hand.

"We'll discuss the loyalty test later." The old man turned to Dr. Lin. "How long can the energy circulation network be sustained?"

"According to the model calculations, it will last a maximum of seventy-two hours." Dr. Lin pulled up the data. "The symbiotic network formed by the seven people and the two children is essentially using the 'boundary penetration characteristics' of Wutong and Nianqing as a stabilizer. But the two children are also consuming energy; their blue light brightness decreases by 0.3% per hour. After seventy-two hours, if no external energy source can be found, the network will collapse."

"An external energy source?" Qin Su frowned. "What do you mean?"

"The anomalous energy field of the Quark Binding Laboratory." The speaker was a high-energy physicist from the expert team. "We analyzed three months of data and found that the spectral characteristics of that energy field have an 87% similarity to the energy release when the digital life form materialized. We have reason to suspect that it is... a remnant of another 'boundary-penetrating event'."

The entire room fell silent.

Zhao Liguo's female officer suddenly looked up: "Another one? You mean, besides these seven, there are other digital life forms that have entered the real world?"

"It's not necessarily that they entered," the physicist said cautiously. "It's more likely a trace of 'attempted entry but failed.' Like drilling a hole, the first attempt went through, forming the passage for Su Yunbai and his group; the second attempt failed, leaving only an energy accumulation point."

"Can this siltation point be utilized?" Qin Su asked.

"Theoretically, it's possible," the physicist nodded. "If we could channel the energy from there and inject it into the symbiotic network, it could maintain stability for at least three months. But the problem is—we don't know why that energy field is acting abnormally, nor do we know if forcibly channeling it would trigger an even greater catastrophe."

"What do you mean by an even greater disaster?"

"For example... tearing open a larger rift in reality to let more things from the virtual world leak in," the physicist said with a wry smile. "Or, letting things from the real world leak through."

Qiongxiao suddenly spoke up: "I'll go take a look."

Everyone looked at her.

"I can sense that energy." She slowly stood up, leaning against the wall, her body still swaying slightly. "If it's a remnant of the virtual world, I should be able to recognize its 'smell.' And..."

She paused.

"I need to buy time for my family. Seventy-two hours is too short, three months... a lot can be done in that time."

Qin Su looked at her for a long time, then nodded.

"Xiao Lin, arrange for him to go to the Quark Binding Lab. The expert team will accompany him throughout, and military observers may follow, but they must not interfere with the technical operations." The old man paused. "Also, investigate Nightingale's matter thoroughly. I don't like anyone playing spy games in my projects."

Dr. Lin's heart skipped a beat: "You know the nightingale?"

"When you were implementing the energy diversion just now, the monitoring system in the isolation zone was hacked for 0.5 seconds," Qin Su said calmly. "The intruder did not steal any data, but only left a message in the underlying logs."

"What did you say?"

"The anomaly at Quark Labs is related to a brain-computer interface experiment accident three years ago. We recommend checking file number: E-7749."

E-7749.

Su Yunbai's test subject number.

Qiongxiao clenched her fist tightly, the pendant leaving a deep mark on her palm.

---

Two hours later.

Qiongxiao met her other companions in the corridor of the quarantine area.

Seven people emerged from their respective rooms one by one. Yunxiao, still dressed in plain clothes and carrying her zither, Bixiao flexed her wrists, Wenzhong stood upright, Jiang Xiaowu had sharp eyes, Ao Ling had long hair flowing down her back, and Yang Chan held a child's hand in each hand.

Wutong and Nianqing looked a little tired, but their eyes were bright. They saw Qiongxiao and simultaneously extended their hands: "Aunt Qiongxiao."

Qiongxiao knelt down and embraced the two children.

It was very light and handled very carefully, for fear of breaking it.

"Thank you for your hard work," she said softly.

"It's not hard work." Wutong shook her head. "Dad is sleeping, and we need to protect him."

"We must also protect Auntie," Nianqing added.

Qiongxiao felt a lump in her throat and blinked hard.

She stood up and looked at the others.

There were no unnecessary pleasantries, no expressions of relief at surviving a catastrophe. Just like before every major battle in the virtual world, they simply exchanged a glance to confirm that everyone was still alive and capable of fighting.

This is enough.

"Let's go," Qiongxiao said. "Let's go see what secrets that laboratory is hiding."

The group followed Dr. Lin and the expert team through a long corridor and headed towards the elevator deeper underground.

Three military observers followed at the back.

The female officer's communicator vibrated slightly. She turned to the side to answer it, her voice extremely low.

"Target has left the quarantine zone and is en route to the Quark Lab. Symbiotic network stability assessment: Medium. Recommendation: If the lab's energy field can be controlled, prioritize militarized containment. If it cannot be controlled... execute the elimination plan."

Zhao Liguo's calm voice came from the other end of the communicator:

"Approved. We'll see how things unfold."

The elevator doors slowly closed and began to descend.

The darkness of the fifteenth underground level awaits these guests from another world.

Meanwhile, the elevator's security camera flashed its indicator light three times at a moment when no one was paying attention.

It looks like it's blinking.

It's like saying:

"The game has begun."