Ming Dynasty, New Rome, and Infinite Divine Machine

"So what does breakthrough mean?"

It's literally social engineering. Breaking through highly confidential information is particularly difficult. This is because the information that truly needs to be kept secret is often linked by a single thread. You have to find the specific chain and break through it layer by layer to find the information you need. The Romans were very knowledgeable about this, and while the six degrees of separation theory only worked 48% of the time, important secrets could be broken through seven or even nine layers.

"Huh? So, how does this theory work to retrieve information? Aren't private information records not uploaded by the Akashic Records?"

The Akashic Records don't upload private information, but they can be used to locate identities, motivations, and actions. Knowing this solves all problems. For example, the Three-Body Problem is unsolvable, right?

"To be more precise, the three-body problem has no analytical solution. Just by observing it, there's no way to find the underlying patterns. This is because the three-body system is chaotic."

Is chaos truly unpredictable? Yes, there's no way to predict it, but you can keep observing, observing the One. If you observe the moment the three bodies move from rest to creation, you simply need to keep observing. By following the layers of identity, motivation, and action, you can observe the information you need.

"In other words, if we want to establish a sympathetic shield, do we also build it based on identity, motivation, and action? What about time and place?"

The Akashic Records don't contain time, but identity, action, and motivation do. By building upon identity, motivation, and action, layer by layer, you can achieve synaesthesia. For example, the connection between you and Lao Shang was severed from that day on. From that point on, you were disconnected, so you can't tell me his whereabouts. Do you want me to simulate this for you?

"Well, try it."

Putting aside your story with Mr. Shang, let's simulate this relationship: Xiaohong goes to Xiaoming's house looking for him. Xiaoming's mother says he went fishing in the river. However, Xiaoming lies and says he went to the mountains to pick walnuts. Can Xiaohong find Xiaoming this afternoon based on his mother's narration?

"Probably not, so the distance between the mountain and the river is quite far."

So here's the key: Xiao Ming and his mother actually have a sympathetic barrier, a mask. The closer the relationship, such as a parent-child relationship, the easier it is to maintain this mask. Trust between parents and children is often unconditional. Xiao Ming's mother will unconditionally believe his motives for "slacking off," unaware of his true motivation for "picking walnuts." Of course, if Xiao Ming constantly lies to his mother, that trust will be short-lived. In time, Xiao Ming's mother will start looking for him, and the mask will wear off.

"So if Xiao Ming isn't lying and he says he's going to the river, then he's going to the river. Then I can find him there?"

That's it. This is the attack and defense of the sympathetic barrier. You can see that Shang Buhuan left suddenly, and you have no idea of his motives. Because the connection is broken at that point, where did Shang Buhuan go next? What did he do? You have no way of knowing these actions. Therefore, the sympathetic link is broken at you. There is no way to find him through you.

"Is there a flaw? There's no such thing as an impenetrable wall in this world."

There are flaws, and many of them. And it's not just simple social engineering; there's magic involved here—for example, the sympathetic link between twins is unbreakable. Therefore, the Romans usually exclude twins from such plans. Furthermore, while the Akashic Records themselves won't leak secrets, your 'silhouette' might. And protecting the silhouette requires nighttime protection. In short, the information war is a visible war in Rome, fought with all odds. The branch-breaking ritual is part of that. It seems the Romans are struggling. But during the dive just now, I seemed to be able to dive normally?

"Yeah, you can talk in there too."

"Five people can enter, right? So, this time, let me go. Tell Titus you've found the fifth person."

Chapter 137 Training

In the afternoon, Shangluo was in the workshop all the time.

"Hand over wrench number two."

Leaning against the skateboard, Shangluo reached out from under the bike, and Qi Yuan, squatting beside him, handed him a wrench. He tightened the screws one by one with the wrench, completing the inspection of oil filter No. 5.

"I thought you only relied on luck to get your job, but I didn't expect you have good skills too."

"This is something I've learned through hard work every day. Hand me the filter wrench."

Qi Yuan found a wrench in the toolbox and handed it to him.

"By the way, when the gearbox arrives, can you assemble it?"

"Adding Han Xingzhi should be enough. Just have the blueprints—I've found this quite convenient. Let him memorize half of the blueprints after a nap, and then use him as a walking dictionary to look them up. While he can't give you the specific answers right away, he can tell you where to look."

"Oh~~ That's great! Finally, there's someone who can keep up with his work pace. You don't know, that guy is always nagging and complaining about this and that."

"Hey, hey, hey, I haven't even left yet." Han Xingzhi started complaining again at the other end of the workshop. "I can't do anything about it. I'm not a Lei Xiu. My hand speed can't keep up with my brain, so of course I complain. Tsk, sometimes I wonder if I went through the wrong door."

"Do you have to think it through before you take action?" Shangluo, who was under the car, asked him with his head tilted.

"Yeah, I'm different from a Thunder Cultivator like Wen Yuan, so it's very troublesome. Because of this, there isn't a single Mysterious Cultivator among the four Imperial Clan Celestial Beings. The last one who cultivated Mysterious Cultivators was over a hundred years ago. And that Master Linyou has now retired to the mountains and forests. I don't know if he's still alive. I can't even ask him if I want to. Tsk, I feel like our team's fate is the same. They're great at talking, but their performance has always been lackluster."

With a "bang", Qi Yuan threw the wrench into the toolbox. Although he was very angry, he was also telling the truth.

"Oh, right." Shangluo suddenly remembered, "Captain, that continuously variable transmission is almost here, right? If I remember correctly, it's driven by a steel belt."

"Yes, that's right. Because it uses a steel belt for transmission, it wears very badly and has a mechanical lifespan of only four hours. Theoretically, it hasn't entered into actual use yet, but they sent us some test machines when we asked for them."

"When the steel belt is delivered, is it delivered disassembled or as a whole?"

"Theoretically, it should be disassembled and packed. But since it's right next door, they only need to remove the main components and won't tear it apart into pieces. However, we still have to do the installation and debugging ourselves - this aircraft engine was originally a disaster. When the Army Aviation sent it to us, it was disassembled into a large wooden box with broken pieces. If you didn't know, you might think they were playing a joke on us. Later, I asked the Wuhu team, and they also started from the broken pieces, which is in line with the rules."

"So this isn't legal, is it?"

"Ahem," Qi Yuan coughed. "Our gearbox is highly integrated. We can just apply for approval later—and it can't be disassembled. If something as sophisticated as a gearbox were truly disassembled into its basic components, we wouldn't have to do anything for the next three months. We could just assemble it according to the blueprint."

"That's true. Well, that's enough for today." After finishing the last job of the day, Shangluo pushed on the ground and slid out from under the car.

After receiving the inspection form from Qi Yuan, he ticked the boxes on the right row one by one and signed at the end.

"Oh~~Super fast." Qi Yuan glanced at the time. It was not yet time to get out of school. "Since you came, our work here has more than doubled in speed."

"Is there any work tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow, I'll take a look. That's all. One drill this week will suffice. The rest will have to wait until the gearbox arrives. If you come tomorrow afternoon, we can play some board games."

"I might have to take a day off tomorrow afternoon. The Royal Guards have a training mission."

"That's easy." Qi Yuan put the inspection form into the folder. "How you work needs to be arranged, but how you play is up to you. You can go after class tomorrow at noon. We'll study the rule book first."

noon the next day.

Shangluo was hungry. Although he had eaten ice cream "at night" the previous night, and it had tasted delicious, Titu was right. What he ate at night was only eaten at night; he hadn't actually eaten anything.

He ate, and then he didn't. There was a lingering taste in his mouth, but nothing in his stomach. Still in a state of fasting, he finally waited until the last day.

After the morning class ended, Shangluo, who was half-starved, dragged himself to the martial arts hall of the training center next door after lunch.

He was now thankful for the hole in the middle. If he had gone in through the main gate, he would have collapsed from hunger on the side of the road. If someone offered him a mung bean cake, he would have eaten it without hesitation.

"Hey, the sword master of the Imperial Palace, you're here to practice sword fighting~" Wen Yuan greeted him at the door of the martial arts gym.

"If you have the guts, let me pull out my sword, and if you have the guts, don't do it when I'm so hungry."

"Tsk tsk, don't worry. You can eat today. There are only a few days left before you go to Zhezhi. My master said that he needs to help you strengthen yourself intensively, otherwise he wouldn't have to let you fast. After training today, you can eat normally. By the way, have you asked for leave?"

"I went back to work yesterday afternoon. I'm a professional and I can't forget my job."

"That's good, because this afternoon's training may be quite long. Let me tell you about the training content-"

He flipped his hand and pulled out a 1.7-meter-long Royal Guards sword from his back. The sword was nearly as tall as a man when swung, and in its scabbard it looked more like a stick.

"Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing?!"

"Practicing with the sword. This afternoon, I'll be here with you for training. I'm the chief of this generation of thunder cultivators, and no one younger than me is as powerful as me. This Royal Guards broadsword in my hand has been with me since I was eight years old. Back then, this sword was much taller than me, but I still practice with it."

"Wait, wait! Aren't you supposed to help me train my Qi now? What's the point of taking out your weapon?"

"Do you remember how Lu Liang digested radish? The answer is to circulate the Circulation of the Heavenly Qi. If you are a celestial being, the Circulation of the Heavenly Qi will run automatically, so of course you don't have to worry about it. But before you reach celestial being, Circulating the Heavenly Qi is the best practice. This may not help you improve your cultivation, but at least it can help you improve your combat state a little, so that you won't stand there in a daze when you go into battle. The best way to practice combat awareness is to practice sparring! Don't worry, I know my men are well-trained. I will definitely not hurt you with the protective gear on. Come, drink two tubes of glucose first, then perform Taizu Changquan three times. After warming up, use the bottle of Qi Hai and start practicing."

Chapter 138 Golden Core Yuanying

The martial arts training hall looks like an unremarkable steel and concrete building from the outside, and the same is true inside.

The wooden floor was laid out to form several basketball court-sized areas, and people were already practicing in each area.

There was an empty space with a sign on it against the wall. Wen Yuan walked over, took it down, and laid the knife across the ground.

"This piece of land is ours for the afternoon. You've been fasting for the past few days for this afternoon's practice. But be prepared, it might be a bit hard."

He handed the glucose to Shangluo: "Are you very hungry now? Is your stomach empty?"

“I felt like I was going to collapse at any moment.”

"That's right. I'll explain the training plan to you first, and then you'll complete it according to the indicators. First, this bottle of glucose isn't to quench your hunger, it's just for warming you up. During the warm-up, you need to use up all of this glucose, and then work harder, ideally draining all your energy. Then, I'll give you the bottled Qi Hai to drink, allowing you to rely on your true Qi instead of food for energy—this is called fetal breathing. In theory, this is the normal state for immortals in the Jindan stage. Only immortals in this stage can use the Jindan to replace their internal physiological circulation. According to modern theory, even if thrown into a vacuum, they can continue to move."

"Thrown it?"

"How could it be possible? It's only theoretically possible. In reality, not to mention the immortals in the Jindan stage, even the celestial beings in the foundation-building stage will be born on their own after a few hundred years of being born, and won't stay in the world for too long. So we don't know how many celestial beings are alive now, nor do we know how many immortals in the Jindan stage are alive, and we have no idea how many are alive above that."

"So the imperial court actually has a method for cultivating to the Golden Core stage?"

"There are those who have reached the Nascent Soul stage and even higher. But at my level, I can only know these. Perhaps after becoming a celestial being, I will know more, and maybe my interest will be drawn to join a celestial being group."

"Well, it's possible. After all, the things that need to be discussed between celestial beings are different. But after Qigong practitioners advance further, are there any specific breakthroughs? Besides the difference in strength level."

"You can tell from the name. During the Foundation Establishment stage, the Qi Sea has just been opened, and spells can be cast. At the Golden Core stage, the Golden Core's internal circulation can replace external physiological needs, and its existence is no longer affected by the external environment—that's the realm of indestructibility, impervious to water and fire. If one reaches the Nascent Soul stage, they will enter a higher spiritual level. We've had some exchanges with Rome on this aspect, because the highest achievements in alchemy here are the same as ours."

"You mean, the man in the bottle?" If there is anything in alchemy that is close to the concept of Nascent Soul, the first thing that comes to his mind is the man in the bottle.

"Yes, it's the Man in the Bottle, one of the ultimate pursuits of Roman alchemy. Alchemists, like us, believe that 'innate' is closest to the Great Dao - but not all innates are equally powerful. When chaos first began, the purple gold gourd under Kunlun Mountain was divided into the gourd grandfather and the gourd grandson. As far as cultivation is concerned, although even I have an innate body, it is not enough, because the Great Dao cannot be touched with a physical body. This is the role of the Nascent Soul. The so-called refining of Qi to transform into spirit, you must transform into spirit through the Nascent Soul, because the spirit is not outside, but within."

"If we look at it from an alchemical perspective, can the little man in the bottle be innately omniscient?"

"Hmm, I don't know." Wen Yuan shook her head. "But logically speaking, if one could use spiritual consciousness to perceive everything, then one could indeed answer all questions. However, there's a fundamental difference between the Nascent Souls created through alchemy and our own. Our Nascent Souls are still ourselves, but the Man in the Bottle created through alchemy is a completely different entity. I personally have some doubts about whether such a thing can be called a 'human,' even though it is indeed a human in terms of its attributes."

"Did the Romans really make it?"

"No, at least not as far as I know. I have heard that some alchemists have gone astray in their attempts to create Man in a Bottle, hoping to use lightning to condense wisdom in the bodies of the assembled people. In the end, they condensed some terrible artificial people, who were eventually dealt with by the Internal Security. But if they can really succeed and really can refine a proper Man in a Bottle, it should be of great use. For example, they can ask for the formula of the Philosopher's Stone - if they were here, they could ask for the formula of the Foundation Establishment Pill."

Apollonia popped out in a flash:

"Don't let your imagination run wild. I'm not a flawed creature like the Man in the Bottle. I have my own form. Although a real Man in the Bottle is terrifying, the Romans haven't yet created one."

"Are there any artificial humans or something like that?"

In your mind, that would be a Frankenstein-like monster—yes, there were, and they were dealt with. Those artificial humans, limited by their imperfect forms, had uncontrollable flaws, and their mere existence posed a significant problem. Therefore, they were immediately eliminated by the Internal Guard. So, the Internal Guard had a tough time. This was the path Rome had chosen. The more they expanded beyond the boundaries of the outside world, the greater their karma, and the more likely they were to create uncontrollable karma.

“They really work hard.”

[Ha, they've worked hard, but they've always gotten something in the end. Even among the Frankensteins, there's also knowledge rained down from the lightning, which is like a treasure chest running around everywhere. And they generally lack the will to fight, making them easily subdued. They probably want more of these easy missions, rather than constantly encountering the thorny Golden Branch Ritual. But then again, this is the first time I've heard the specifics of the Golden Core and Nascent Soul stages. It's nice to have an obedient little man in a bottle.]

"So do you count?"

"I do count, so you're effectively enjoying some of the Nascent Soul Stage's privileges. And Nascent Souls can leave their bodies, right? I can, too. But I do need some kind of support to unleash my power. You can lend me that divine chrome armor, and then just follow me and refuel. One bottle of water will give me ten minutes of running time. As long as I have enough carrots, I can keep running."

"So this is the fifth person, right? Then why don't I wear it myself?"

"Because it's a bit tiring. There's still too much divine chromium, and it's very difficult for me to control it. It's enough to use as a human shield, as a Jindan stage physique is only so good. But if I were to break branches or climb a tree, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to do it. I don't want to waste my bottled Qi Hai. So I can draw fire for you, and you'll still have to score the final points yourself."

Chapter 139 Sword Skills

"What about the sword?"

Don't worry, my real body is still right beside you, ready to draw its sword whenever you need it. I don't need to be embedded to operate; a function like a human shield can be accomplished with a small program. Besides, I don't want to be too far away from you. Now that I can see again, I cherish my life even more. Today is the first day I've had sight. It seems like it's been four or five days now. I don't want to go back to darkness. If heaven and earth don't respond, then it's the same as not existing in this world.

"Alright, Miss Apollonia, I'll rely on you to micromanage the tank. By the way, is your hand speed reliable?"

[Hmm] Apollonia fell into a long silence.

Without access to the armor, I can only operate it through some switches. I'll simulate some buttons here. You can share it on your phone and try it yourself. There's no other way around it. Simulators are like that; you have to run through a compatibility layer, and it's never as efficient as the native system.

Shangluo finally understood that while he could get a lot of help up front, he would still have to rely on himself to break the branches. Even if he asked Apollonia to draw the sword and chop, he would still have to swing the sword himself.

"Okay, I'm ready." He breathed a sigh of relief and took the glucose from Wen Yuan's hand. "I know that building a foundation is important, but how can I practice it most effectively this afternoon?"

"Leave it to me. Lei Xiu is an expert in this area. I'll tell you the general process: in addition to the warm-up, I will spar with you later. My sparring method will guide you to react accordingly: every time you sense a threat, the circulation of the meridians will be accelerated. Because you are fasting, your stomach is empty, so after breaking through the limit, you will reach the state of fetal breathing. The longer you persist, the greater the benefits will be - of course, this is the ideal state."

"What if it's not ideal?"

"The worst-case scenario is that you still can't improve your cultivation, but that will at least give you some combat awareness. You can then compare me to the Forest King. You'll know whether to fight or run. Think of this as a practice run. At least you'll know your opponent's strengths when you go on stage. After all, this isn't a board game. How do you know their current level? I'll spar with him, and you'll know their level."

"Yeah, that makes sense. So when the time comes, you'll be at the front? Please."

"It's okay, it's okay. When you come back, just get me a 'Shaoping First Year Summer Limited Edition 'Invincible Wang Lingguan' Collaboration Nendoroid Wang Shan Wang E' Combination Hidden Edition'."

"So you want it too?"

"I'm being very considerate, okay? He wants to pay for one upfront, and I'll pay afterward. No matter how you look at it, I'm the more considerate. Don't you know the Eight Great Benefactors? It doesn't matter if you do one or two, just let him make an extra one. Has he finished yet?"

"No, he couldn't find the blueprints."

Yes, Zhu Xianxun couldn't find the blueprints, otherwise he would have finished it this morning. However, he had found the video data, so he could still deliver it tomorrow.

"Then wait a moment, I'll be back soon."

It was dinner time. Shangluo went out to make a three-minute phone call. When he came back, he gave Wenyuan a thumbs-up:

"No problem, I'll make one for you too, number 502. You don't have to give it to me after work, I'll give it to you tomorrow."

"So you can get it with just a phone call! If I had known it was so easy, I would have been at a loss if I had added Master Sa Tianshi."

"Let's talk about it later, okay?"

"Tsk, alright. So let's start training? Drink when you're ready."

Shangluo opened the ampoule without saying a word and drank it all in one gulp.