July 10, 341, 15:00.
"How did it go? Was the operation smooth?"
Tang Li arrived at the underground city in A City, East Sea. After settling her parents, she headed to Song Pinxuan's research institute.
In this life, with the help of his grandfather, Elder Qin, and Elder Xue, Song Pinxuan had his own research institute to conduct experiments that he hadn't completed in his previous two lives.
All personnel and equipment were top-tier, and the institute was built in an independent underwater city, possessing the highest level of security and autonomy.
Tang Li had also become one of the researchers at the institute.
Over the course of two lives and hundreds of years, after practicing martial arts to the peak of perfection, Tang Li developed an interest in scientific research and acquired a considerable amount of knowledge in the field.
With her cognitive enhancements, her research capabilities were on par with Song Pinxuan and his colleagues, and she had even proposed many significant ideas.
As soon as Tang Li arrived, Song Pinxuan noticed her and inquired about their operation to eradicate the Holy Light organization's influence in Country Z.
The answer was affirmative.
"Everything went smoothly!"
With the experience from her previous two lives, this operation was naturally foolproof.
After answering, Tang Li also asked, "And you? Is the experiment going well?"
Since his first and second lives, after creating numerous useful technological inventions for the apocalypse, Song Pinxuan had dedicated himself to soul transfer technology.
However, after researching for two lives, every time he felt close to a breakthrough, the results were always unsatisfactory.
Initially, Song Pinxuan researched consciousness transfer, replicating a person's memory, thoughts, personality, and other life data into intelligent devices.
However, this merely allowed artificial intelligence to replicate a specific person's life data; it was not true consciousness transfer.
The person whose life data was replicated would still age and die, and could not achieve mechanical ascension.
And the artificial intelligence that replicated the life data would not possess self-awareness, ultimately remaining just a string of code.
Artificial intelligence was completely devoid of the seven emotions and six desires that humans possessed.
Later, Song Pinxuan began researching intelligent life, only to discover that it was impossible to artificially synthesize life in intelligent devices because souls could not be created.
As his research deepened, Song Pinxuan further realized that for humans to achieve mechanical ascension, it was necessary to transfer human souls into intelligent devices.
In the previous life, after Tang Li joined this research, the experimental progress finally accelerated.
Now, they were close to achieving results.
Upon hearing Tang Li's question, Song Pinxuan replied, "Everything is going smoothly. The soul transfer experiment on the white mice has been completed. However..."
"Our current experiments have found that soul transfer can only be performed once. A soul transferred into an intelligent soul vessel cannot be transferred out again. Not only can it not return to its original body, but it cannot even be transferred to other intelligent soul vessels."
"If this problem is not resolved, humans still cannot achieve immortality through soul transfer. Once the intelligent soul vessel containing the soul ages, malfunctions, or is damaged, the person whose soul has been transferred will still be unable to escape the constraints of aging and death."
"In this case, even if the soul is transferred, it would be meaningless, merely prolonging life for a period."
Hearing Song Pinxuan's words, Tang Li frowned.
The intelligent soul vessel that housed the soul was a model she had designed.
According to her design, the souls within the intelligent soul vessels could be transferred back to their original bodies or to other compatible intelligent soul vessels, as long as they were not transferred to a body that did not match their soul.
However, the fact that souls within the intelligent soul vessels could not be transferred out at all was indeed surprising.
Despite her surprise, Tang Li said:
"It's alright. As long as the soul transfer is successful, it's already the first step. Other problems can be solved gradually with time."
Song Pinxuan agreed with her sentiment.
Now that external affairs had been handled, all that remained was to await the descent of the apocalypse.
For the following period, Tang Li stayed in Song Pinxuan's research institute, focusing on the soul transfer technology, searching for variables through countless experiments.
July 21st was the day the apocalypse began in A City on the mainland.
However, in the East Sea, due to its closer proximity to typhoons, the apocalypse had already started on July 20th.
Within this short span of ten days, although the Holy Light organization intended to cause trouble for Country Z, they were all preoccupied with the sudden natural disasters occurring globally.
Some countries, after the natural disasters struck, attempted to have their citizens reside in the underground cities and underwater cities already built by Country Z, but most of these requests were rejected.
Country R even directly transported its citizens to Country Z, attempting to act shamelessly.
Tang Li and the others had long anticipated such scenarios.
When constructing the underground and underwater cities, they had designed them with additional capacity to accommodate citizens of other countries in addition to those from Country Z.
However, there were certain conditions for people from other countries to reside in these cities.
The primary condition was that they must obtain a permanent residency permit for foreigners in Country Z, residing as foreign citizens, and they were not allowed to bring foreign organizations or institutions into the underground and underwater cities of Country Z.
After all, these underground and underwater cities were constructed within the territory and territorial waters of Country Z, and the sovereignty of Country Z was inviolable.
Secondly, the issuance of permanent residency permits had to undergo a review process.
Members of the Holy Light organization, or those suspected of being members, would not pass the review, regardless of their status or importance.
Finally, there were special requirements for specific countries.
For example, citizens of Country R, even if they were shamelessly transported to Country Z, would only be granted permanent residency permits if they publicly acknowledged the historical crimes committed by Country R and sincerely condemned those war criminals who committed heinous acts.
For example, citizens of Country O and Country M, except for the descendants of famous individuals who had historically assisted Country Z and friends of the people of Country Z, could enter the underground and underwater cities unconditionally. For others, their entry would only be considered if they returned the national treasures historically looted from Country Z.
Furthermore, regardless of the country, anyone who had been brainwashed by the media of the Holy Light organization and harbored ill will towards Country Z would be unable to pass the review.
As for those who were defiant and attempted to threaten Country Z with military force?
Unfortunately, the underground and underwater cities were impervious even to nuclear bombs!
And conventional weapons would not be able to contend with the combat mechs remotely controlled by Country Z through brain-computer interfaces.
With continuous natural disasters occurring worldwide, even if these countries dispatched their armies, they would likely be annihilated en route to Country Z before they even arrived.
In this manner, Tang Li spent the first extreme heat season of the apocalypse peacefully in the underwater research institute in the East Sea.
On the mainland, with the aid of wirelessly controlled robots, the construction of underground cities in the hinterland of Country Z proceeded in an orderly fashion after avoiding the natural disasters.