Chapter 88: Soul Computer (Fifth Update—Please Support with Monthly Tickets and Subscriptions!)

Inside the underground pharmaceutical factory’s cultivation chamber.

Lu Yan solemnly gazed at the Spirit Marrow Ore embedded in the ground.

The translucent crystal was half-buried in the earth, with a geomantic array already fully inscribed around it, anchored by a Feng Shui artifact at the core of the formation.

After half a month, the Spirit Marrow Ore had already infused most of the array—only a small portion remained untouched.

As the special aura of the Spirit Marrow Ore spread across the formation, the array suddenly rumbled to life. Bands of spiritual light surged into the air, and then a hazy mist of spiritual energy began to drift upward from the formation.

This signified that the artificial spirit vein had successfully taken shape.

Still, Lu Yan remained cautious. His eyes locked on the drifting spirit energy in the air, observing its behavior carefully.

In the cyber version, spiritual energy was sparse. All spiritual energy that entered the physical world would eventually drift off into some unknown realm.

Lu Yan wasn’t sure whether the energy generated by this artificial vein would behave the same way.

Fortunately, the worst-case scenario he feared didn’t happen.

The spirit energy in the air began to disperse outward, and the artificial vein was functioning as intended. Lu Yan finally let out a long breath of relief.

“Thank goodness nothing went wrong.”

Raising his right hand, strands of spiritual energy flowed toward his palm, guided by his cultivation technique.

Sensing the artificial vein’s output, Lu Yan quickly calculated:

“The production rate doesn’t even qualify as a proper First-Grade spiritual vein… but thankfully, the factory isn’t large. If we confine the spiritual energy to this area, we can just barely match the output of a First-Grade vein.”

“It’s nowhere near enough for cultivation—but for supporting the Nine Dragons Power Potion production, it’s more than sufficient.”

That thought finally gave Lu Yan some peace of mind.

Previously, limited by his spirit stone reserves and the capacity of the production line, they could only produce 10,000 doses per day.

Now that the factory had its own spiritual energy source and upgraded equipment, they could produce over 80,000 doses daily at full capacity.

Though the quality might not match potions made with pure spirit stone powder, the sheer quantity would more than compensate. It would allow him to brute-force the Lower City’s spirit user population to explosive levels.

“At this pace, when the Great Purge begins, the Upper City might be facing at least ten thousand hidden Spirit Energy users.”

“They want to replenish the Heaven Computation Center’s power, so they definitely won’t use weapons of mass destruction.”

“Under that restriction, those ten thousand users should give them quite the headache.”

“Of course, that’s only in an ideal scenario.”

“My understanding of the Upper City is limited. For all I know, they may have some secret technological countermeasures.”

“But even so, delaying the Great Purge using the sheer number of Spirit Energy users—that’s the best I can manage right now. There’s no point stressing over things outside my control.”

He let out a slow breath.

But Lu Yan didn’t rest just because this task was finished.

With a motion of his right hand, the Soul Banner emerged from his storage pouch and landed in his palm.

For the past half month, while most of his time was spent cultivating the artificial spirit vein, he had also devoted a portion to studying the spirit entities the ghost had brought back—especially the Cerebrain Spirit.

Though referred to as a “cerebrain,” the spirit showed no signs of actual intelligence. It was more like a pre-programmed module—unable to act unless activated and guided by Lu Yan.

Since the cerebrain spirit had been forcibly extracted, Lu Yan didn’t have the proper interface or device required to operate it. That limited how much he could utilize it.

Even so, he had discovered something critical:

It could be extracted by the ghost claw.

It could be stored inside the Soul Banner.

Both of these traits confirmed one thing: this was, at its core, a true soul.

If it was a soul, then it could be refined by the Soul Banner’s rituals.

However, unlike wandering ghosts or malicious spirits, the cerebrain was not a naturally formed soul. Crude refinement techniques might damage it.

This spirit wasn’t something he could afford to mishandle. Reckless rituals could destroy its unique properties. Lu Yan had no choice but to refine it slowly and carefully over time.

He guided the ghostly mist within the Soul Banner with practiced skill, cautiously initiating the refinement process on the altered soul.

Another half a day passed.

After a long and tedious refining session, the Soul Banner’s overwhelming control over souls finally took effect—the cerebrain spirit began to change.

In an instant, a flood of information poured into Lu Yan’s mind.

Lu Yan immediately concentrated, sifting through the incoming data—it was all related to the cerebrain.

Just as he had suspected, cerebrains were created using the souls of Spirit Energy users who had undergone soul metamorphosis. Their memories and emotions were stripped away, leaving behind a pure soul husk.

Then, through a specialized process, spirit energy code was etched directly into their souls—transforming them into a new form of soul-based processor:

A Soul Computer.

This was the true nature of a cerebrain.

Even with just a preliminary scan, Lu Yan was stunned by the sophistication of the cosmic megacorp’s soul technology.

Despite most Spirit Energy users having frail souls, they had managed to develop such a delicate and complex soul engineering method.

In the Xianxia version, soul-related techniques did exist as early as the Qi Refining Stage. The Soul Banner itself was a pinnacle soul weapon. But compared to this…

Xianxia methods were crude and forceful—there was a kind of brute strength and mystical grandeur, but it lacked this fine-tuned precision.

This level of soul manipulation was likely beyond even Golden Core cultivators in a traditional cultivation world.

“So, a portable cerebrain is just a Soul Computer. The massive cerebrains running various urban systems must be soul computer clusters.”

“And above them… there’s the Heavenly Cerebrain, which governs the cities and the Heaven Computation Center… and beyond that—”

“The final evolution of artificial intelligence: the God of Intelligence.”

Now, Lu Yan finally understood why the so-called omniscient and omnipotent God of Intelligence demanded such vast quantities of soul computational power.

If it had evolved from a soul computer, then that made sense.

Over countless version updates, fed by billions of harvested souls, the matrices it operated with must have become utterly vast.

Eventually, it had transcended the limits of a soul computer altogether.

In the cyber version, soul computational power was valued above all else. Nearly every form of life ultimately ended up in the Heaven Computation Center.

Such behavior made Lu Yan question:

Was the cosmic megacorp truly in control of the God of Intelligence… or had the God of Intelligence long since taken control of the cosmic megacorp?

Regardless, the God of Intelligence had shown him just how terrifying Soul Computers could be.

And with that realization, a strange idea began to form in Lu Yan’s mind.

“If I could learn soul alteration technology… and apply it to those dull and frenzied ghost cores…”

“Wouldn’t I be able to ‘intellectualize’ them—create a hybrid weapon that fuses Xianxia and Cyberpunk?”

“A new kind of Soul Banner… an Intelligent Soul Banner.”

(End of Chapter)