Ke Xiao was still trying to persuade Xia Li even now.

  She personally pitied Xia Li—a frozen individual from five hundred years ago, truly alone in the world with no relatives.

  Since he'd encountered some opportunities, why not take it slowly and safely live out this lifetime? Even in today's world, Xia Li belonged to those who could enjoy prosperity.

  Yet Xia Li still wanted to fight.

  "Perhaps it's because I want to write a complete epitaph."

  An epitaph for Ning Ge, and also for himself.

  Some people arrive in a completely unfamiliar environment and might initially fall into temporary depression, but as time passes they gradually become bold, even actively seeking thrills.

  Xia Li was exactly this type of person.

  Moreover, he also wanted to meet his sister ahead of schedule. The Heavenly Dao Computer only said they would definitely meet, but who knew how many years later, or when, or under what circumstances?

  What if he only met her right before death?

  So, he needed to advance!

  To step onto the stage, to increase his influence, to raise his information content.

  The more impact an object could have on its surrounding environment, the higher that object's information content. Increasing information content was the fastest way to make strings vibrate.

  In human terms—he needed to become famous!

  "Alright then, I recommend you first purchase a life support suite."

  "What for?"

  "If you end up missing arms and legs, lacking a few organs, or with half your head gone, it can keep you alive until suitable prosthetics arrive. You can't possibly be thinking of checking into a legitimate medical facility after serious injuries, can you?"

  "How many spirit stones?"

  "One thousand spirit stones."

  "You really don't pass up any chance to earn spirit stones from me."

  "I'm just thinking 'what if'? Better safe than sorry."

  Without further objection, Xia Li transferred a thousand spirit stones to Ke Xiao. He truly did have a significant risk of serious injury—this he had to admit.

  After that, Xia Li directly began cultivating while Ke Xiao returned to watch the shop.

  The second day, in the early morning hours.

  Ke Xiao brought a girl wearing a white shirt and gray short skirt into the underground modification station. The girl looked very demure, seemingly like a middle schooler from Xia Li's era—but Xia Li didn't dare underestimate organization members. The more harmless they appeared, the more ruthless they were.

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  "Brother, the mission rewards are pretty generous, but you don't have to give them to me for free, right? Of course, I'm happy to accept."

  The girl thought: why not take what's free? She'd love it if people stole her missions every day—free rewards, how sweet!

  "I care about the mission process. I have a grudge against Qiming Mining."

  "I see. Then I wish you success—if you don't succeed, I won't get the rewards either."

  The girl approached Xia Li, then produced several items from her phase ring and placed them on a table beside him.

  "Spiritual artifact Thousand Faces, identity forger, signal jammer. Use these as you see fit—the organization covers expenses."

  "Now this thing..."

  The girl picked up a black bullet—a physical bullet.

  "This is an antimatter bullet. Kill radius of ten meters, core kill radius about zero point three meters. The center can cause instantaneous black hole evaporation."

  "Anything with material form... whoosh, compressed into fundamental matter and ejected. Theoretically, it could blow up even a Soul Transformation cultivator's head."

  To help Xia Li complete the mission and collect free rewards, the girl even offered up one of her prized possessions.

  "Chigusa, this contraband is a bit too contraband..."

  Ke Xiao couldn't watch any longer and hurried forward to block Xia Li.

  "Xia Li, this bullet absolutely cannot be used within city limits. It can only be used when you're confident of killing the target with no witnesses present, and you must do large-scale battlefield cleanup afterward."

  "Also, don't believe everything she says. Power is one thing, accuracy is another. Nukes can kill Soul Transformation cultivators too, but Golden Core can easily dodge them."

  "This bullet is a physical round. Flight speed is far lower than spiritual energy bullets—even slower than bullets from five hundred years ago. If the firing force is too strong, it'll implode and vaporize you first."

  Ke Xiao told Xia Li not to blindly worship weapon power. In combat between cultivators, accuracy exceeded everything—otherwise, why would Heaven Chip have head-locking?

  "Sister Ke, your courage is too small. What trouble can one bullet cause? A few antimatter bullets go missing every year anyway."

  "If you want to die, don't drag me down with you!"

  Ke Xiao glared at the girl named Chigusa.

  "Oh right, let me introduce you. This is Yagyu Chigusa, from Yagyu Arms. Although she's from Corporate Union, she's a defector like me—except she's a covert defector."

  Covert defection meant she hadn't been discovered by Yagyu Arms yet. But judging from her surname, she seemed to be a direct bloodline member of the controlling family?

  "You betrayed your own family's corporation?"

  Xia Li looked at Yagyu Chigusa. Family-style corporations... very much the style of that country from five hundred years ago. Only in this new era, there were no longer national distinctions—ideological allegiances of factions mattered more.

  "There are easily eighty to a hundred thousand people surnamed Yagyu in Yagyu Arms. If you're not core bloodline, you're no different from an outsider. If this surname weren't still useful, I'd have changed it long ago."

  "Then you must be a fairly responsible person."

  Helping the Democratic Government showed she wasn't rotten to the core.

  "Wrong. I'm a merchant—earning spirit stones trumps everything. If I had the ability to sell out Yagyu Arms, I'd sign the contract immediately."

  "This..."

  This blunt?

  Only to be expected from someone raised in Corporate Union.

  "Oh right, I have plenty of black market goods too. I can get my hands on Yagyu Arms internal items. Contact me if you're interested."

  "Definitely!"

  Xia Li was very interested in illegal arms dealers. Yagyu Chigusa's goods were definitely more powerful than the black market shops by the garbage dump.

  "Also, you'd better complete the secondary objective too. The main reason I accepted this mission was to take that guy out."

  "Seize the target's Heaven Chip?"

  Seizing someone's Heaven Chip meant killing them first.

  "Who's the target anyway?"

  "Qiming Mining General Manager, Kim Soo-tae."

  This was Ke Xiao speaking. Xia Li immediately checked the mission information.

  Kim Soo-tae...

  A man who liked wearing suits daily, with gold-rimmed glasses.

  It was him!!

  Xia Li recognized this old enemy at a glance.

  "Alright, if there's nothing else I'll head out. Waiting for your good news. If you really can take that guy out, I'll waive the mission rewards—and I'll give you something nice."

  With that, Yagyu Chigusa produced a katana from her phase ring.

  "Demon Sword Muramasa—Replica."

  "Although it's only a replica, it's still a genuine ancient artifact forged from demon body parts using traditional methods. Wounds it inflicts cannot heal, and the blade carries spiritual poison—even alloy prosthetics will quickly corrode!"