About an hour later.

  Liu Sheng Qianzao brought Xia Li to her turf.

  A clinic called Benzoin—and a legitimate modification station at that. Xia Li saw the modification specialist license hanging on the wall.

  However, given that she was Hidden Wing personnel who also dealt in weapons smuggling, Xia Li suspected this "legitimate" modification station was anything but legitimate.

  "Say, your clinic doesn't also have an underground secret chamber, does it?"

  "Ding dong~ Correct, but sadly no prize."

  Liu Sheng Qianzao smiled slightly and led Xia Li directly into her underground chamber.

  The chamber's passage was accessed through her office. Worth mentioning was that her underground chamber actually required an elevator to reach.

  And her underground chamber was much larger than Ke Xiao's—the center was so spacious it resembled a plaza, nearly the size of a football field.

  "You've occupied this much underground space. Haven't your neighbors noticed?"

  Xia Li found it absurd. How could this remain secret?

  "I'm using spatial splicing technology. The boundary here doesn't exceed the clinic's footprint above, and it can only be entered through the correct passage."

  "Alright then. Looks like you've got plenty of spirit stones."

  Xia Li knew about spatial splicing technology. Simply put, it divided space into blocks and combined them like a Rubik's cube.

  For example, by continuously utilizing the space below, you could splice a long strip of space into a large square space.

  But maintaining spliced space required considerable energy expenditure.

  "As long as my income can sustain it. Come with me for modifications first—your Heaven Chip needs changing. Hidden Wing's Heaven Chip can't even perform as well as a regular one here."

  Though Hidden Wing's Heaven Chip had higher confidentiality, in more aggressive network zones it would operate at minimum power consumption to hide its special nature.

  This was why Xia Li suffered so much when paying computing power tax—his Heaven Chip's performance was very low at that time.

  "Then at least give me one with higher security. I don't need to easily hack others—just don't let others, especially corporations, steal my information."

  "It won't happen. Hidden Wing's Heaven Chip just has underlying logic that doesn't match the local network environment. As long as it's a Heavenly Dao-certified Heaven Chip, your information won't leak easily."

  "I see..."

  Xia Li roughly understood. Hidden Wing's Heaven Chip was probably like a hedgehog—oversensitive to certain network behaviors, and being too sensitive could cause problems.

  He needed to do as the Romans do and install a less sensitive Heaven Chip.

  It felt like a well-mannered young lady entering bandit territory—the more she struggled and tried to hide, the more she'd attract the bandits' attention.

  Acting openly and naturally would actually draw less attention.

  "So it's time to choose. Do you want the free option I've prepared, or the paid one?"

  "What's the difference?"

  "Although you're my collaborator, here for a common purpose, and I should support you, that support has limits."

  "If you're willing to spend spirit stones, those limits become much higher."

  Liu Sheng Qianzao looked at Xia Li with a grin. Seeing this, Xia Li just sighed. As the saying goes, you get what you pay for—free things were definitely worse.

  Thinking back, even at Ke Xiao's place, he hadn't gotten anything for free at first.

  "Just give me your recommendation. I'm not short on spirit stones."

  "Great, moneybags!"

  Liu Sheng Qianzao had been waiting for those words. In her eyes, Xia Li was a hidden wealthy person—though unassuming, just his prosthetic arm and its modules were worth quite a bit.

  "Then please let me see your current modification information and body data."

  "I've sent it to you via Heaven Chip."

  "Mm... one moment..."

  Liu Sheng Qianzao began analyzing which Heaven Chip would suit Xia Li best.

  But when she saw his specific data, she was startled.

  "Damn, Heaven-path Foundation Establishment!"

  "Your foundation is excellent! Currently biased toward martial dao modifications—as expected of Sister Ke, great thinking!"

  "Spirit Core and implanted prosthetics don't need changing... compatibility between components is very high..."

  "But the right arm prosthetic modules could be swapped..."

  Liu Sheng Qianzao muttered to herself and quickly determined the most suitable Heaven Chip model based on Xia Li's current situation.

  "Use the Sword Demon X2 Heaven Chip. Two thousand spirit stones—internal Yagyu Military Industries goods. I'll send you the data."

  Liu Sheng Qianzao immediately sent the Heaven Chip's data to Xia Li.

  Seven technique slots, twenty-five storage slots, performance similar to his current Hidden Hack Heaven Chip in most aspects—just more technique and storage slots, no major performance gap.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  However, the generation was 5.1—beyond fifth generation, but still far from sixth generation.

  "This is my first time seeing decimal points after generation numbers..."

  Xia Li had thought all Heaven Chips updated in whole generations.

  "Fifth generation and below all update in whole generations since intermediate models basically aren't produced anymore. But fifth generation and above have intermediate versions."

  "I get it. Since it's currently the latest on the market, incremental releases make sense."

  As a tech enthusiast from the past, Xia Li could understand this release method—exactly what chip manufacturers loved doing.

  Before fully releasing sixth generation Heaven Chips, slowly release 5.1, 5.2, 5.3 models to extract every bit of value from fifth generation first.

  This Heaven Chip still used Intelligence Bridge technology as its main tech. The built-in Intelligent Technique was quite interesting though.

  Its name: Blade Sheathing.

  A counter-technique that could precisely break down opponent moves, find openings, then quickly chain into other techniques.

  Compared to Hidden Hack Heaven Chip's Intelligent Technique "Future Sight," it was somewhat weaker since Future Sight was more proactive.

  But Blade Sheathing consumed very little spiritual energy and computing power, could be activated continuously—depending on battle conditions, it might be more practical than Future Sight.

  "For technique selection, I recommend buying some sword arts, especially iaido-type ones. They combo well with Blade Sheathing."

  "Then regarding your right arm prosthetic modules, I plan to install adaptive blade bones. This module can autonomously coordinate your whole body's strength, instantly transforming you into a sword master."

  Liu Sheng Qianzao's designed attack style almost completely rejected Xia Li's previous habits.

  Xia Li still preferred using shotguns.

  But if it would make him stronger, he'd work to adapt.

  "It's clearly a katana, yet the techniques are called sword arts?"

  "Here, katana and sword are the same thing—we don't distinguish precisely. We also call it the way of the sword, but it heavily specializes in wielding the sword with the body."

  Liu Sheng Qianzao explained the local technique styles. Very specialized—hardly any wielding sword with qi, no sword qi as killing moves, just various close-combat kills.

  "Very martial dao-oriented attack style."

  "Not oriented—almost exclusively specialized in martial dao attack style. So you don't need to think about closing distance—enemies will approach you, and then... you know."

  Liu Sheng Qianzao grinned. The Intelligent Technique Blade Sheathing countered enemy close-range first strikes!

  "Xia Li, this is truly doing as the Romans do—defeating them with their own methods. And regarding sword arts, though I hate Yagyu Military Industries, their internal sword arts are very strong."

  "A thousand years ago, in those days without spiritual energy or technology, the Yagyu family's ancestor was a Sword Saint."

  This was one of Liu Sheng Qianzao's few sources of belonging to the Yagyu family.

  "So could your family's Sword Saint ancestor defeat the Ming Dynasty's firearms back then?"

  The current year was 2532 AD. A thousand years ago, Xia Li's homeland was still in the Ming Dynasty era.

  "This... in sword dueling, you can't use firearms! Regarding cultural heritage..."

  "So I still prefer using guns."

  Xia Li wasn't a person of this new era—he had some cultural purism in his heart. If he really wanted to wield swords with his body, were Shushan Sword Sect's techniques any worse?

  "Please, just use them! I guarantee you won't regret it..."

  "Are you getting commission for promoting these things? Want me to advertise for you while slaying monsters?"

  "Well..."

  "Give me half the commission, and I'll agree."

  "Fine, fine, but when you fight in front of others, you have to shout out the technique names loudly."

  "That's too embarrassing. No."

  "Then why should I give you commission!"

  "Then why should I promote Yagyu Military Industries' stuff?"

  Xia Li and Liu Sheng Qianzao stared each other down, but in the end, Liu Sheng Qianzao backed down.

  "The Heaven Chip is free, sword arts at fifty percent off—but when people ask, you'll have to explain where they came from, right?"

  "Deal."

  "Pleasure doing business!"

  Liu Sheng Qianzao immediately grasped Xia Li's hand. She'd finally convinced him.

  With Xia Li's Heaven-path Foundation Establishment, martial dao modifications, and divine thought—he was visibly powerful.

  Perfect for promoting Yagyu Military Industries' way of the sword. Plus she'd recruited him—when Xia Li became famous, it would elevate her position in Yagyu Military Industries.