Consciousness is information, data that can be read, manipulated, and rewritten.

This has always been Wang Qi's view.

However, this "operating system" is extremely complex and fragile, and for now, it's still part of the unknown. Forced rewriting may easily cause the system itself to undergo unpredictable and irreversible mutations.

You see, the development cycle of "consciousness" is counted in hundreds of thousands of years. Even the design time for the "operating interface" of the "superficial consciousness" and "self-awareness" spans thousands of years [on Earth], the "developers" include all individuals from at least one cultural circle, the "development cost" is perhaps the GDP of a nation over several hundred years, and the "installation time" is as long as fifteen years.

And the most famous operating system on Earth, Windows, its development for each version only takes about three to five years, and the installation time is so short that it's measured in minutes. In it, Windows Vista has a mere 50 million lines of code, which is 40% more than XP, with 60% being new parts, that's 30 million lines. A development period of 5 years, costing 7.5 billion dollars with more than 6000 research and development personnel, 30 million lines of source code was already a fantastical figure at the time.

Compared to "consciousness," it's laughably inadequate.

This is also the reason why Wang Qi hasn't started messing with his own self-awareness. As an innately science-minded male, he has a mindset that venerates "technology" and believes there's nothing that technological development can't achieve. However, he only worships technology, not blindly believes in it.

As for the process of this experiment, well, it's best done on others.

For someone with such thoughts, Divine Separation Stage Cultivators are simply the best experimental material. Divine Separation Sense Transformation allows the long-term bearing of thoughts and ideas using ordinary mana, with the will to control, creating avatars from mere contemplation. Their mana system and soul are highly connected, with consciousness and mana already beginning to merge into one system. Wang Qi believes they could even be operated using an "interface."

After being deeply infected by the Heart Demon Curse, Nie Tianren became an existence akin to a half-cursed spirit. In the final mutation, the newly born Netherworld Fire Spell became uncontrollable by Wang Qi, temporarily allowing Nie Tianren to break free from Wang Qi's clamp. His consciousness and the Heart Demon System were highly integrated, resembling a Divine Spirit System.

Fortunately, the three Heart Demon Spells within him had not yet been completely eradicated. For Wang Qi, this was akin to an unguarded port! Having written many Divine Spirit Programs, Wang Qi naturally followed this connection, installing an "operating program" for the new Netherworld Fire Spell System to bring it under his control.

At the time, Nie Tianren was still attempting to attack the Yellow Robed King. "In order to quickly dismantle the enemy's resistance," Wang Qi "had to" "use some special offensive measures", injecting special codes into Nie Tianren's consciousness, transforming him...

"Having the experience of writing Jarvis and having purchased the authentic 'Acquired Will Editing Toolkit' from Thousand Mechanism Pavilion, I have some experience with these matters. My original idea was to completely disassemble that consciousness using mathematical methods, transcode it, and turn it into an operating program for the Heart Demon System, integrating it thoroughly. It seems to fail though... the reason is unclear for now..."

With this, Wang Qi ruefully extended his hand, within which lay a Spirit Rhinoceros Bottle: "This is a small part I directly copied out..."

You could say that I've transcoded .exe into .txt, and when I manage to turn it into .avi, that'll be considered an initial success...

The final outcome was Nie Tianren's Nascent Soul becoming one of the hardware components for the Heart Demon System, and half of his consciousness merged into the operating system, while the other half maintained self-awareness, constantly resisting Wang Qi's control. This process actually only lasted a few short minutes, because Wang Qi didn't type out the code line by line but rather copied in the pre-written codes and executed them.

In these mere few minutes, Nie Tianren was transformed by Wang Qi into a half-human, half-divine creature.

Since he still possessed self-awareness, and this self-awareness harbored deep animosity towards Wang Qi, Wang Qi had no intention of keeping him around. So, seizing the opportunity, Wang Qi obliterated Nie Tianren and then looked for the chance to reinstall the system. To thoroughly eradicate Nie Tianren, Wang Qi even infused palm power from the Silent Annihilation Sky Burning Palm into his Nascent Soul, inducing chaos in the system.

And it was precisely because of the presence of the Silent Annihilation Sky Burning Palm that Ai Changyuan sensed Wang Qi's intentions.

Mao Zimiao still didn't understand: "But that Heart Demon Curse seems very dangerous and doesn't seem fit to serve as a fundamental cultivation method... Xiao Qi, what are you experimenting with it for?"

Wang Qi patiently explained: "The essence of my cultivation is about fitting mana with a system; I hope ultimately to integrate even my own consciousness into it. Isn't this similar to installing a 'Divine Spirit' to the Heart Demon Curse Power and refining a living person into an operating system?"

For Wang Qi, this was a step to be taken sooner or later. His cultivation was essentially programming his own mana system. The function of the program was like the "gameplay of a game," determined by physics. But the foundation of the game was the code and hardware—if applied to Wang Qi, that would be mathematics and biology. Using mathematics and biology as a foundation, he would write Divine Skills based on physics. Eventually, his consciousness would also become part of this system.

Ai Changguang was rendered speechless by Wang Qi's madcap scheme. Ai Changguang, however, seemed indifferent. He simply pointed out the flaw in Wang Qi's idea, "Immortals don't suddenly come up with a way to leave behind 'Spiritual Treasures' [Self-Awareness] in mana after a breakthrough. With the transformation of the essence of life, they have thousands of years to complete this transformation. It's a gradual process."

Wang Qi nodded. He had once asked Zhen Chan about the approach for life essence enhancement in the Ancient Method Cultivation Method. Zhen Chan was only one step away from becoming an Immortal, having traversed the entire path, and thus naturally had a clear understanding of these matters. Qi Cultivation, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation—all were merely physical breakthroes. During this process, the soul grew gradually stronger, taking over the duty of thought from the brain. With the Nascent Soul, a "Spiritual Power organ" was cast, allowing the Nascent Soul to contain the soul, and integrating the soul with the mana system. With Divine Separation Sense Transformation, the mana system began to undertake thought. Unification was about incorporating the physical body into this system, making the mana system a primary part of the life system.

This whole process took a very long time. It took approximately three to five hundred years to go from Qi Refinement to Nascent Soul, and at least a thousand years from Nascent Soul to Divine Separation. Reaching Unification in three thousand years was already considered fast.

Such an extended period gave cultivators enough time to slowly adapt to the changes in their thinking organs and to adjust their self-awareness.

However, the Modern Cultivator's research on the fundamental nature of heaven and earth lowered the difficulty and increased the speed of advancing. Thinking organs were continually changing, and sometimes these changes were uncontrollable.

It was as though the brains of Earth People were undergoing organic changes, which could potentially alter their personalities.

Therefore, Modern Cultivators placed even greater emphasis on maintaining a steady mind. This wasn't because Modern Cultivators had loftier pursuits, but rather because, in theory, Ancient Method Practitioners didn't need to specifically take time out to refine their hearts. They ascended too slowly, having plenty of time to adapt to it all.

"The goal of Red Dust Heart Refining is to prevent the transformation of the soul from affecting one's disposition, and yet here you are researching how to link the soul with mana…" Ai Changguang really didn't know what to say to that.

Wang Qi snorted, "That's a substitute method that would only be used when technical means are primitive. If technology can solve all this, then the process of 'Red Dust Heart Refining' can be completely discarded…"

Mao Zimiao timidly suggested, "Actually, everyone is different, so using that kind of method… I always feel it's a bit odd…"

"I'm giving everyone the freedom to master their own minds!" Wang Qi shook his head, "There are always people who treat some of their bad habits as personality traits and regard the vices they've inadvertently picked up as their self—when in fact they want to get rid of those vices. Yet, when others advise them, they always feel their freedom is being infringed upon. This is clearly a manifestation of the mind being constrained by material conditions."

"The development of a person's character, the formation of personality, is forever disturbed by the material world. The 'personality' you perceive is, in reality, a collection influenced by the external environment. Don't you think that many people's bad habits show a tendency to converge? My idea is to bring that absolute freedom to everyone, allowing everyone to completely dictate their own personality according to their own thoughts!"

"I am what I am, a different kind of spark." Making rebellion a personality trait, considering going against the mainstream as autonomy, treating vices as the manifestation of self-awareness awakening, and then belting out "Nature will always make room for my talents." To Wang Qi, this was all the result of being spoon-fed too much motivational nonsense.

If you ask a criminal if they would like to be a good person given the chance, eight or nine out of ten would say "yes"—of course, the vast majority of them, if truly given a second chance, would likely end up down the same path. Perhaps it's because of greed, perhaps due to loving ease and hating labor. However, apart from a very few antisocial personalities, no one inherently chooses to do evil without reason; it's all due to material conditions fostering negative desires, and the inner self not having sufficient resistance against these desires.

If one could edit their own character, to have the willpower to combat these "negative emotions," that would be the greatest freedom of the mind.

For freedom is not doing whatever you want, but rather the power to refrain from doing what you don't want to do.

If you obtain strength and then act as you please, that is not freedom of the mind, but rather complete subjection of the mind to materiality.

"So what you're saying is, your plan is to give everyone the power to be a Saint…" Ai Changyuan softly applauded, "If you succeed, remember to let me have a go…"

It took a good while for Ai Changguang to finally exclaim in admiration, "You really are…"

Remarkable.

Ai Changguang actually wanted to say this. Although Wang Qi's approach was something he couldn't accept for the moment, if Wang Qi's idea did come to fruition, wouldn't that mean anyone could acquire some of the Immortals' features even in the Qi Refinement stage?

By then, the only limiting factor to a person's realm would be their mastery of theoretical knowledge. Perhaps at that time, true geniuses could achieve Immortality around the age of twenty…

That would be the ultimate freedom of the mind, completely unshackled from the binds of materiality! (To be continued. If you like this work, please visit qidian.com to cast your recommendation votes and monthly tickets, your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.com.)