"Huu."
Appearing in the room, Li Wei adjusted the game's time-flow rate and checked on the clan's situation. The Ancestral Spirit Tablet lit up.
Li Kuangren's figure appeared in the Ancestral Hall.
"Please give your instructions, Old Ancestor."
Seeing the respectful appearance of the "game character," Li Wei suddenly found it amusing.
In the game world, he was interacting with living, breathing people, yet right now, that same living person was just an image on a 2D screen.
Immediately, Li Wei inquired about the clan's situation.
Small characters began to float continuously above Li Kuangren's head.
"Please rest assured, Old Ancestor. The clan is stable. Last time, Zhao Qingguang of the Immortal Zhao Clan learned of our Li family's enormous backer. They absolutely do not dare to make a move against our Li family. At most, they will only engage in overt and covert struggles with our family from behind the scenes, and nothing more."
"With Yunlin and Yunbing overseeing Duravia Trade Prefecture, and myself, Chang'an, and Changyao in Eternal Sun Prefecture.... Even Xinnian can stand on his own now, so no trouble will arise."
Li Wei nodded slightly.
He left an avatar in his place and immediately opened a search website.
[Why did Earth cultivators' cultivation realms increase so rapidly after the Spirit Qi revival?]
This was not the first time he had searched for this, but this time, he read even more intently.
Soon, all kinds of results appeared on the website.
[After the Spirit Qi revival, the Heaven and Earth Spirit Qi on Earth became exceptionally dense, and monsters appeared in the world.
As long as humans killed these monsters, the Heaven and Earth Spirit Qi would enter their bodies.
In the first hundred years, humans even had things like experience panels.
According to rumors, this was a power of Heaven and Earth deployed by the Will of Earth itself, in order to save humanity from peril, which is how humans were able to break through so rapidly...]
Li Wei was stunned for a moment. Back then, wasn't it just like an online game, killing enemies to get experience?
"No wonder human cultivation levels rose so quickly at first. Earth's Will was practically feeding them."
Li Wei stroked his chin. Much of the subsequent information was the same as his previous search, but then another entry caught his eye.
[In addition to this, the many secret realms passed down from ancient civilizations, and the legacies of the powerful, also allowed the Human Race to grow rapidly.
Humanity's first batch of cultivators able to fight alien civilizations was thus born. The Human Race re-established dominance over Earth, and campaigned among the stars.]
[At the same time, it is suspected that great powers and experts from ancient civilizations used various methods to be reincarnated, or their divine souls possessed others in this world.
In this great era, they rapidly obtained fortuitous opportunities to strengthen themselves.]
"Ancient civilizations, secret realms, legacies of the powerful..."
Li Wei's eyes narrowed slightly. He pondered for a long time before finally typing.
[Who was the first person to break through to the Void Refining realm?]
[Dongfang Qingshi, the first person to reach the Void Refining realm.
Led the Human Race's great army against the Mystic Civilization, beheaded the Great Mystic Master of the Mystic Civilization, and forged the illustrious might of the Human Race. Suspected to be a reincarnation...]
"Dongfang Qingshi? That was his own breakthrough. Completely useless (to me)."
Li Wei took a deep breath and simply pulled out a telegraph machine.
This was the new method of contact the two had established after meeting Boss Qi that day.
The older the method, the better it worked. Ancient Morse code was truly timeless.
"Beep beep... beep beep beep beep..."
As Li Wei raised the antenna, he began tapping out the Morse code.
...
In a luxurious room deep within a filthy California sewer, Boss Qi was wearing headphones and watching the news on TV, bored out of his mind as he had an 80-year-old puppet prepare milk tea.
"I never thought that I, Boss Qi, would actually fall to such a state."
Boss Qi sighed with deep emotion, fondly reminiscing about the good life just a few days ago when he was a second-hand dealer earning Spirit Stones.
But now... Fuck, he was a wanted man.
Suddenly, he froze. Morse code was coming in from the telegraph machine.
[Boss Qi, how to quickly break through to Void Refining?]
"..."
Boss Qi was stunned for a moment, then cursed, "You damn rebel leader, what do you take me for? A know-it-all? If I were a hundred years younger, just see if I wouldn't give you a good spanking!"
Tap tap... tap tap tap...
[Dear Young Master Li, there are many methods to quickly break through to Void Refining: receiving an enlightenment-infusion from an ancient senior in a secret realm, a senior's remnant soul using its last bit of power to help you break through, a secret treasure...]
[Do you have a way? I have a friend who wants to quickly break through to Void Refining.]
"You motherfucker!"
Boss Qi gritted his teeth, "'If your 'friend' needs to take a shit, am I supposed to wipe his ass for him too?'"
[My respected Young Master Li, please send my heartfelt congratulations to your friend in advance. This humble one is sincerely delighted.
As for this question, you can go ask the Fifth Maiden. She was once among the first batch of Human's experts to break through to the Void Refining realm and was also the Chief Instructor of Cultivators back then; countless experts were trained by her.]
[Thank you. Where are my anti-matter bombs?]
"Anti-matter my..."
Just as Boss Qi was complaining, his expression suddenly changed. He expertly destroyed the telegraph's wires buried in the ground and concealed all traces.
He saw the 80-year-old puppet in the luxurious room run over expressionlessly. "Master, your 'guest' has arrived again."
"Guest my ass! You artificial idiot! That's the National Security Department here again!"
Boss Qi cursed loudly, stuffed the 80-year-old lady into his storage ring, and instantly turned invisible.
He slipped past the numerous cultivators bursting into the sewer. After emerging back into the light of day, he gazed at the prosperous buildings in the distance, choked with despair.
"In all of this huge California, where is there a place for me to hide?"