The dead jade slip felt heavier than a mountain in Li Wei's palm. It was a key to a locked door, and he was stranded on the wrong side, starving.
[ZERO: OKAY, LISTEN UP, GLITCH-BROTHER. WE CAN'T ABSORB QI. FINE. WE DON'T WANT THEIR CLUMSY, IMPURE ENERGY ANYWAY. BUT ALCHEMY? ALCHEMY IS JUST APPLIED CHEMISTRY WITH SPIRITUAL PROPERTIES. THAT'S JUST FANCY PHYSICS. AND PHYSICS IS DATA.]
[APEX: THE PROPOSAL IS ILLOGICAL. HOST LACKS THE FURNACE, THE FLAMES, THE SPIRITUAL CONTROL, AND THE INGREDIENTS TO PERFORM ALCHEMY. PROBABILITY OF SUCCESS: 0.00012%.]
[ZERO: WE'RE NOT DOING *THEIR* ALCHEMY. WE'RE DOING *OURS*. HOST, REMEMBER THAT QI-GATHERING PILL WE SCANNED? WE HAVE ITS BLUEPRINT. A TERRIBLE, INEFFICIENT BLUEPRINT. SO LET'S FIX IT.]
A new window popped into Li Wei's vision. On one side was the original scan of the Qi-Gathering Pill, its formula highlighted in red with dozens of inefficiency markers and toxicity warnings. On the other side was a blank slate.
[PROJECT: 'XINXI CATALYST' - VERSION 0.1]
[OBJECTIVE: SYNTHESIZE A BIO-COMPATIBLE ENERGY SOURCE USING LOCAL, LOW-GRADE MATERIALS AND HOST'S CONCEPTUAL AUTHORITY.]
[STATUS: AWAITING HOST INPUT.]
Li Wei's mind, once a vessel for theoretical physics, now became a digital alchemy lab. He focused on the flawed recipe.
The Greenwillow Root's purpose is to act as a spiritual conduit, but its cellular structure creates friction, wasting 22% of the energy, he thought. If I could find a substitute with a smoother, more helical internal structure...
As he mentally visualized the problem, the System responded. The image of the root was replaced with a spinning, 3D molecular model. A list of common sect plants scrolled down beside it.
[SCANNING BOTANICAL DATABASE...]
[MATCH FOUND: 'TWINING VINE MOSS'. STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS: SUPERIOR FLUIDITY FOR SPIRITUAL TRANSFER. EFFICIENCY INCREASE: +18%.]
A thrill, purer than any he had felt since arriving here, shot through him. This was science.
He worked through the night, hunched in the dim light of his hut. The Sundew Grass was too volatile; he replaced it with Sun-bleached Lichen for stability. The Spirit Stone powder was the core power source, but its energy release was explosive and hard to control.
[ZERO: THAT'S THE BIG ONE. WE CAN'T CHANGE THE INGREDIENT, BUT WE CAN CHANGE HOW IT'S USED. INSTEAD OF GRINDING IT, WHAT IF WE... ETCH IT?]
An image flashed in his mind: using a finely-sharpened piece of bone, he could carve a microscopic formation onto a sliver of Spirit Stone—a data pattern designed not to contain energy, but to regulate its release, turning a bomb into a steady battery.
[APEX: THE REQUIRED PRECISION IS BEYOND MORTAL CAPABILITIES.]
[ZERO: GOOD THING WE'RE NOT MORTAL. WE'RE A WALKING SUPERCOMPUTER WITH FINGERS. HOST, YOU'VE DONE NANO-LEVEL SIMULATIONS. THIS IS JUST MACRO-SCALE NANOTECHNOLOGY.]
By the time the first rays of dawn painted the sky, Li Wei had a new recipe. The "Xinxi Catalyst." It required common, easily pilferable materials from the sect's gardens and refuse piles, and one tiny, low-grade Spirit Stone—the kind an inner sect disciple might drop and not bother to retrieve.
His mission was clear. He was no longer a cripple waiting for a beating. He was a researcher on a data-gathering expedition.
He spent the morning skulking around the sect's periphery. He gathered the moss, the lichen, and a handful of other weeds his System identified as suitable. The final ingredient, the Spirit Stone, proved trickier. He found one near the training grounds—a pale, cloudy chip of rock, its energy faint. It was perfect.
Back in his hut, the real work began. Using a stolen needle, he began the painstaking process of etching the data-regulation pattern onto the stone's surface. His hands, which had trembled from weakness, were now preternaturally steady, guided by the System's live holographic overlay. It was like performing surgery on a grain of sand.
Sweat beaded on his forehead. This was the moment of truth. He crushed the other ingredients into a paste with a drop of water and carefully coated the etched Spirit Stone.
[SYNTHESIS READY. INITIATE CONCEPTUAL FUSION?]
Li Wei took a deep breath. He had no furnace, no flame. His only tool was his will, channeled through the Paradox Core.
Initiate.
A silent command. A surge of mental strain, like trying to lift a boulder with his mind. The System's energy reserves, already low, plummeted.
[SYSTEM POWER: 3.1%... 2.8%...]
The paste-covered stone began to glow. Not with the vibrant green of a Qi-Gathering Pill, but with a soft, steady, silvery light. The chaotic spiritual energy within the stone was being tamed, structured, translated into a form his data-based constitution could interface with.
[CONCEPTUAL FUSION SUCCESSFUL.]
[XINXI CATALYST (PROTOTYPE) CREATED. ESTIMATED ENERGY YIELD: 150% OF BASE SPIRIT STONE. EFFICIENCY: 89%. TOXICITY: 0%.]
He held the glowing, silver-pearl in his hand. It was cool to the touch, humming with a potential he could actually feel.
[ZERO: WE DID IT! WE BREWED OUR OWN JUICE! CHUG IT, HOST! CHUG IT!]
[APEX: WARNING. UNTESTED SUBSTANCE. CONSUMPTION COULD INDUCE CATASTROPHIC SYSTEM FAILURE.]
Li Wei didn't hesitate. He was out of options. He placed the Xinxi Catalyst on his tongue.
It didn't feel like consuming anything. It felt like... connecting to a power source.
A wave of clean, cool energy flooded his system. Not heat and power, but clarity. It was the feeling of a lagging computer suddenly receiving a massive processor upgrade. The world snapped into sharper focus. The faint tremor in his hands vanished. The gnawing hunger in his gut was replaced by a profound sense of satiation.
[HOST PHYSICAL CONDITION: STABILIZING... MUSCLE ATROPHY REVERSAL INITIATED.]
[SYSTEM POWER: 15%... 20%... STABILIZED AT 22%.]
[PARADOX MODE: NOMINAL.]
He felt stronger. Not cultivator-strong, but human-strong. It was the most incredible feeling in the world.
But the true test was yet to come. His fingers closed around the blackened jade slip.
[INITIATING DECRYPTION OF 'SCHEMA OF REASON - FRAGMENT 1'...]
[ENERGY SIGNATURE CONFIRMED. BOOTSTRAPPING...]
The silvery light from the Catalyst flowed down his arm and into the slip. The dead jade began to warm. Faint, ghostly lines of light, like circuitry, appeared on its surface.
A torrent of pure information, untainted by Qi or spiritual intent, blasted directly into his mind.
It was not a cultivation technique. It was a proof.
A mathematical and philosophical proof that reality was, at its most fundamental level, a complex information structure. That what cultivators called "Laws" were simply deeply embedded, self-reinforcing lines of code. And that with the right key, one could... edit them.
The fragment contained the first key: a foundational algorithm for perceiving and interacting with the "Source Code" of localized reality. It was called The First Glimpse.
Li Wei opened his eyes. He looked at the wall of his hut. He didn't just see wood and plaster. He saw data. Faint, shimmering lines defining its structure, its history, its place in the world. He could see the weak points, the seams in its existence.
He raised a finger, focusing his will, channeling the newfound energy. He didn't push. He... suggested.
A single, small knot in the wooden wall unraveled. Not splintered or broken. It simply ceased to be a knot, the wood grain flowing around the now-smooth spot as if it had always been that way.
He had not used force. He had corrected an error in the local data-set.
A slow, genuine smile spread across Li Wei's face for the first time.
The path was open.
Outside, a bird took flight from a tree. Its wingbeat, for a single, impossible moment, was a perfect sine wave.
To be continued...