Chapter 1 The Transformation Opportunity

“You’re saying that not only did you sense the opportunity for sublimation, but the Soul Transfer Instrument also underwent a change, causing your psychic power to mutate?”

In his private mechanical workshop, Han Xiao turned his head, his gaze strangely fixed on Fording before him, his expression indescribably complex.

“Yes, I was also very surprised. The degree of soul connection increased by a level, and some characteristics of the Soul Transfer Instrument were added to my mental power. Also, I vaguely sensed the existence of a sub-dimension, and my intuition is guiding me there.”

Fording shook his head helplessly.

…What’s with that helpless expression of yours? You’re complaining even after getting a fortuitous encounter? Is this what it means to be a favored child of the heavens? I'm so jealous!

Han Xiao mentally complained, secretly pondering.

Come to think of it, he had previously used [Bold Explorer] to examine the origins of the Soul Transfer Instrument. It wasn't anything particularly rare, being an artificial product. But perhaps when it mutated into a cosmic wonder, it established a connection with a certain sub-dimension.

He guessed that once a suitable person touched the threshold of a Super-A sublimation, it would activate this hidden benefit. The possibility was quite high.

No wonder the Soul Transfer Instrument, that little slut, was so eagerly seeking Fording’s favor. It turned out that it saw in Fording the opportunity to unlock its own new positions.

Han Xiao’s mind raced, and he gave Fording a shot as an aside. The main purpose of Fording’s visit was to receive his “physical examination.”

As the needle went in, the interface popped up with combat information.

Han Xiao glanced at it and discovered that Fording had gained a new ki attribute related to the soul. At the same time, he had two new talents. One was a new bonus from the Soul Transfer Instrument’s mutation, increasing psychic power and a series of other attributes by a very considerable amount. The other talent was a question mark, still in an unactivated, gray frozen state.

Sitting at home, a talent falls from the sky… Tsk, what a world.

Han Xiao felt a pang of sourness. He cleared his throat and said,

“Since your intuition is guiding you to that sub-dimension, then go and take a look. Did you receive directional guidance or specific coordinates?”

“Coordinates.” Fording nodded in response.

“Oh, that’s convenient then. You don’t have to spend too much time on the road. But usually, people only get directional guidance. Your coordinates must be hidden information recorded by the Soul Transfer Instrument. Wait for me to pack up a bit, and we’ll set off.”

As he spoke, Han Xiao prepared to put away the technology he was researching and summon a vehicle.

But at this moment, Fording shook his head, indicating his refusal.

“Black Star, I have a feeling that this is my own personal training. If you come with me, I won’t have a sense of crisis. I should go alone.”

Han Xiao paused his actions and said thoughtfully,

“Since you insist, that’s fine. I’ll give you a set of Emperor equipment, and you can also take another set of King’s Throne equipment with you. If you encounter a problem you can’t solve, just ask me for help…”

Seeing that Fording still wanted to say something, Han Xiao waved his hand, interrupting him.

“You’re my good friend. I can’t possibly let you go on an adventure without any backup. This is the bottom line.”

“…Alright then.” Fording smiled helplessly.

Han Xiao took out the corresponding equipment and also pulled out a small vehicle specially designed for sub-dimensions, asking the mechanical assistant to take it to the starting point. After Fording thanked him, he followed along.

Watching Fording’s back disappear from sight, Han Xiao retracted his gaze and gently shook his head.

For those at the Heavenly Disaster grade, sub-dimensions were still quite dangerous. Han Xiao was worried about Fording’s safety and had originally intended to accompany him, but the other party wanted to solo the dungeon. Since it involved an opportunity for Super-A sublimation, he respected Fording’s premonition.

However, with Fording’s luck, he would most likely turn danger into fortune and disaster into auspiciousness. If he added himself, this lucky black hole, to neutralize things, there might be twists and turns, so it would be better not to go.

However, Han Xiao wouldn’t just sit by and watch this precious treasure go into danger. Just now, he had secretly placed an observation marker on Fording, preparing to monitor the risks at all times. After all, Fording had coordinates, unlike Harrison, and it wouldn’t take him long.

Han Xiao turned his head and glanced at the research equipment that was analyzing the new technology, temporarily freezing the progress and stopping it.

Every Super-A had their own training plan. Han Xiao had brought out more blueprints from the Sanctuary this time, and he had been mainly studying these technologies during this period, as well as washing points and improving his attributes. In the words of a Mechanic, this was called optimizing the allocation of resources, stacking attribute points in places with higher cost-effectiveness, and accumulating small gains to improve combat power.

This time when he entered the First Sanctuary, his permission level had been raised to Level Nine, and the memory capacity had increased compared to the last time. Also, the blank traces on the Sanctuary message board had decreased somewhat, but the last few sections of content closest in time were still largely blank.

Last time, the "Information State Stripping Plan" had appeared in the fourth-to-last section, which was valuable information. This time, however, it was the very last section that revealed content that caught his attention. Han Xiao couldn’t help but recall:

[…The route of the previous iteration ███ plan should be correct, but it failed due to some loopholes. We have decided to add a control valve to the ███ device to reduce the cost of dealing with ███ runaway, but we don't know what form the control valve will take after ███ is alienated…]

Since leaving the Sanctuary, he had been pondering this piece of information. It seemed that the most recent iteration agreed with the plan of the iteration before the last, and made improvements based on it.

Generally speaking, civilizations facing the Great Reboot would not completely rely on the routes of their predecessors, because the failures of the predecessors had already shown that their respective plans were not working and could only provide some experience and lessons.

But the previous iteration was actually willing to believe the plan of the iteration before the last. If this plan wasn’t quite valuable, the subsequent civilization wouldn’t have made this decision. In that case, this plan, which had been improved over two iterations, was very valuable for reference, and Han Xiao secretly took it to heart.

“I have to enter the First Sanctuary a few more times in the future. I wonder how high the permission level has to be to unlock these two latest messages.”

Han Xiao steadied his mind, left the mechanical workshop, and returned to the top-floor office. He first looked down at the practical combat training of the other Heavenly Disaster grades, and then entered the observation marker's field of vision.

…

At the private spaceport terminal, the mechanical assistant was moving in and out of the small vehicle, quickly completing the debugging.

Fording sat in the driver’s seat, recalled, and entered the sub-dimensional coordinates revealed by the revelation into the navigation instrument, then started the shuttle engine and immediately felt the spaceship vibrate slightly.

“Locking sub-dimensional coordinates… Warming up the shuttle engine… Activating internal space stabilization device…”

The spaceship intelligence constantly broadcast, and a large number of navigation parameters scrolled across the operating screen like flowing water.

Fording set the autopilot, took out the Soul Transfer Instrument, pressed it against his chest, took a deep breath, and slowly calmed his emotions.

Before long, the spaceship completed the pre-flight self-check. The vibration suddenly disappeared, and Fording only felt a sudden weight on his body, as if he was pressed into his seat by a strong sense of pushing on his back. The scenery of the terminal outside the window also shattered in an instant, turning into endless streamers, and the spaceship officially entered the shuttle state.

It was unknown how long it had been in terms of perception, but the spaceship shook again and exited the shuttle state, and the scenery outside changed drastically.

This was a dark space of unknown boundaries. A gray nebula vortex of immeasurable area was slowly rotating outside the window, located above the spaceship. He looked up and couldn’t see the full view of the vortex at all, and couldn’t help but feel shocked.

At the same time, a gigantic white beam of light shot out from the center of the vortex, extending beyond his line of sight, and he didn’t know where the end was.

At the same time, wisps of gray gas were constantly drifting in from all directions, being drawn by the nebula vortex, like hundreds of rivers flowing into the sea, all merging into it. This was the main substance that constituted this vortex.

Before Fording could exclaim in surprise, he discovered a peculiar thing. Being in this space, his mental strength seemed to become more active, and the Soul Transfer Instrument was also vibrating slightly, and he didn’t know what it meant.

“What is this place…”

Fording looked around. There seemed to be no signs of life around him. He released his psychic power, which was a little difficult to control because it was too active, and captured a wisp of gray gas passing by him to see what its composition was.

After carefully probing it, Fording’s expression suddenly changed, revealing a look of astonishment.

“This is… a soul?!”

He suddenly turned his head and looked at the endless gray gas, his eyes filled with disbelief.

This nebula vortex was actually made up entirely of souls?!

At this moment, Fording suddenly remembered some information and muttered to himself:

“In the conceptions of some mental power users, when a living being dies, the soul seems to completely dissipate, but in reality, there are still unobservable, fragmented remnants that remain, some of which turn into mental undercurrents, and others drift in the universe.

And there should be some places in this world that accept wandering soul fragments from all over the universe, filter them, crush the fragments, extract the remaining thoughts from them, condense them into a universal pan-consciousness, and continue to sink, flowing into the ‘bottom layer of pan-consciousness’ dimension. Some mental power users call these places ‘Remnant Soul Terminus’, ‘Spiritual Sanctuary’, and ‘Guixu’.

But so far, no one has ever found any similar sub-dimensions. Could the legends be true?”

Fording’s expression was astonished, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt that this place was likely one of the legendary “Remnant Soul Terminuses”.

During the Great Development of the Flickering World, Black Star led a group of cadres to travel around, and Fording had the good fortune to see a Mind Devourer from the “bottom layer of pan-consciousness” dimension, which he turned into his own nourishment and strengthened his psychic power, so he paid special attention to this kind of theoretical conjecture.

The three great civilizations knew the coordinates of the bottom layer of pan-consciousness dimension, but endless Mind Devourers were entrenched there, possessing an extremely strong sense of xenophobia, and it was difficult to establish a stable outpost there with current technology.

And Mind Devourers fed on the universal pan-consciousness, so to speak, the Remnant Soul Terminus was equivalent to their kitchen, and the soul fragments here were all unprocessed “ingredients.”

“The Soul Transfer Instrument actually guided me to come here. Could it be that it has some connection with this dimension?”

Fording secretly pondered.

The effect of the Soul Transfer Instrument had long exceeded the original design, and perhaps the transformation into a cosmic treasure had something to do with the Remnant Soul Terminus, which was why the Soul Transfer Instrument possessed such strange effects…

After speculating for a while, Fording carefully sensed the gray gas around him again, and smiled slightly wryly.

These gray gas were precisely soul fragments, and the center of this nebula vortex was constantly melting the fragments, constantly "serving meals".

Mind Devourers were a great tonic for the mind, but the side effects required a lot of time to resolve.

And these soul fragments were even more mixed and impure. Although he could absorb the soul energy in them to temper his mental power, most of his energy would have to be used to resolve side effects such as schizophrenia and personality disorder.

And the bit of energy contained in the soul fragments had almost imperceptible effects on the improvement of mental power. The conversion efficiency was extremely low, and the input far exceeded the output.

As for the melted universal pan-consciousness, it had already removed the soul energy, and the side effects were not only more violent, but it also had no benefit to him at all.

“Speaking of which, this place is suitable for Hela. Her power of the dead can quickly purify soul energy. This place might be her holy land for cultivation…”

Fording muttered to himself, then suddenly paused.

He almost forgot that he had the Soul Transfer Instrument. If the target was only soul fragments, the Soul Transfer Instrument should also be able to separate the remaining thoughts and soul energy, and refine and purify them, right?

Wouldn’t that mean that I can also absorb these countless soul fragments at will without any side effects?!

Fording suddenly understood and instantly became pleasantly surprised.

Could this be the reason why the Soul Transfer Instrument guided me to come here?!

If I cultivate here in seclusion for a period of time, I might be able to advance. My intuitive revelation did not deceive me. It really is the opportunity for sublimation!

…

“Awesome…”

On the other side, Han Xiao, who was eavesdropping, twitched at the corner of his mouth, his mood complicated.

I thought my cheat was already very powerful, but I didn’t expect you, with your thick eyebrows and big eyes, to be even more outrageous!

The opportunities from decades ago and the current fortuitous encounters actually have a linkage. The power of a high-level lucky halo is terrifying.

Compared to Harrison and Nero, who mainly regarded him as a backer with their lucky halos, Han Xiao felt that Fording’s self-reliant lucky halo was the most impressive.

And not only did he get his own fortuitous encounter, but he also gave his teammates benefits… It was worth it to touch you first before touching others, and to always regard you as the chief mascot!