Chapter 105: Soul Ascension

“So… that sudden logout wasn’t some kind of safety mechanism—it was just their scheduled break for deep sleep?”

Lu Yan was dumbfounded.

If the average soul were capable of handling twenty-four hours of continuous work, the AI God probably wouldn’t even allow them those two hours of rest.

Moreover, Lu Yan noticed something else—those two hours of deep sleep weren’t nearly enough to restore the wear and tear on a soul, even with the nutritional supplements administered via the rest pods.

That’s where the Sun-Eye in the sky came in.

The sunlight radiated by the golden eye could, to some degree, repair soul damage and acted much like a soul stimulant, enhancing work efficiency and helping each soul endure the daily twenty-two hours of grinding labor.

The reason Lu Yan had found the sunlight warm earlier… was simply because his soul was too strong for the stimulant effect to impact him significantly.

“As expected… I should never have had any hope for this god-awful version.”

Lu Yan couldn’t help but grumble inwardly.

After observing for a while, Lu Yan had a sudden idea. He floated over to the edge of the sky and tried his hand at patching the heavens using soul computation combined with the information compilation technique.

Put simply, the information compilation technique was the application of soul computation to construct special soul-based creations.

This entire Soul World was just a massive aggregation of such creations. While it wasn’t a true world for the living, to a soul, this world was undeniably real.

Imitating what he had seen, Lu Yan manipulated the Fierce Ghost’s soul power to forge a sky fragment.

But because the Fierce Ghost’s soul was several times stronger than that of a normal soul, the fragment he created was the size of a full palm—much larger than the usual fingernail-sized pieces.

Still, against the backdrop of the vast and endless sky, even a palm-sized fragment was a drop in the ocean.

This was just the broken sky—let alone the completion of the entire Soul World, a miraculous creation built from the labor of countless souls over hundreds of years.

Lu Yan faintly sensed that this information compilation technique was likely derived from the same core as the AI’s soul modification tech.

He didn’t use the sky fragment to patch the heavens. Instead, he crushed it in his hand.

Leaving the sky behind, he flew to the broken lands below, witnessing firsthand how the souls were repairing the mountains, rivers, canyons, and glaciers.

Lu Yan could feel it—the Soul World was already over 98% complete. Its full formation was just around the corner.

To accelerate this process—and to ensure every soul could ascend into it—the AI God was determined to send everyone into the Paradise Compute Center.

No one would be spared.

If nothing changed, it was likely that HuanYu Corporation, controlled by the AI God, would soon exert even more pressure. The upper districts of City 14 would begin a high-level military purge of the lower districts.

Following that would be the official enforcement of the 300-Year Soul Energy Tax—a sweeping net cast to ensnare all of humanity.

There were less than two months until the next version update, but it was clear the AI God wouldn’t wait that long.

With the influx of new soul labor, the Soul World’s construction was almost complete.

At most, there would be a month and a half before the true purge began.

“What should I do?”

In the underground pharmaceutical plant of Cavern 71, Lu Yan sat in silence.

He had temporarily withdrawn his control of the Fierce Ghost, allowing it to blend in and pretend to work among the other souls.

And he had to admit, this infiltration of the Paradise Compute Center had been a resounding success.

He’d uncovered the hidden truth behind the AI God’s actions—and even confirmed that Heaven’s Code worked against the AI God, giving him an invaluable trump card.

But with that revelation came immense pressure.

Though the AI God’s methods might be seen as ‘cheap tricks,’ creating a Soul World was still no small feat.

This alone made it clear just how terrifyingly powerful the AI God truly was.

Just thinking about the prospect of going up against such a godlike entity gave Lu Yan a splitting headache.

“I’m just a little Qi Refining cultivator… and I’m supposed to take on the creator of souls?

Three despair-inducing versions before this, and now a Cyber Version with a future that all but guarantees death… is this all because I triggered some variable that caused the Xianxia Heaven’s Will to target me?”

The AI God’s threat was so overwhelming that Lu Yan briefly considered abandoning everything and fleeing the city to hide for two months, relying on Heaven’s Code to stay undetected.

If luck was on his side, and Heaven’s Code continued to work, he might just survive.

But if the AI God completed the Soul World and evolved into a full-fledged Soul Creator, it would likely patch the loopholes in Heaven’s Code—at which point Lu Yan would have no way out.

He wasn’t willing to stake his entire life on that gamble.

After calming his thoughts, Lu Yan began to think things through more logically.

“Actually… this situation might not be completely hopeless.

If you think about it, the reason the AI God is able to enforce these policies so easily is because It controls HuanYu Corporation, the titan of the Cyber World.

And within HuanYu Corporation are numerous directors—the true ruling elite of the Cyber World. With a single word, they can determine the future of cities.

They hold power at the top because the Cyber World’s social structure supports them. Everything they possess comes from that system.

But the AI God’s goal is soul ascension—to move every soul into the Soul World. This would completely collapse the current social structure, stripping the directors of all their power.

There’s no question that the AI God’s agenda directly conflicts with the interests of HuanYu Corporation’s directors.”

“Moreover, the powerful figures in the Upper District are only calmly exploiting the Middle District because they believe the AI God’s axe won’t fall on their own heads.

Once they realize that the AI God intends to send them to the Compute Center to drain their soul power, these wealthy and powerful elites will surely rise up in rebellion!”

Lu Yan’s eyes lit up as his thoughts grew sharper and more focused.

“The AI God will probably target the elites during the enforcement of the 300-Year Soul Energy Tax.

Before, I hadn’t tried spreading the news about the tax law because I had no proof—it wouldn’t have had any real effect.

But if I now spread word of both the Soul World and the 300-Year Soul Tax, with the Soul World serving as irrefutable evidence…

There’s a good chance I can create a rift between the AI God and the elites—and buy myself the time I need!”

(End of Chapter)