“Status report! Did the integration hold?”

Elder Ye Luo flickered into existence beside Sun Yi, his hand clamping onto the Sect Leader’s shoulder. A pulse of True Qi shot into Sun Yi’s body, running a frantic diagnostic scan.

Ye Luo withdrew his hand, his expression a mix of horror and awe. “It… it actually stabilized. You opened a second Sea of Qi. Sect Leader, this is… a miracle. Even the Golden Core elders of the past failed at this. How did you bypass the body’s rejection?”

Sun Yi dusted off his robes, looking like a CEO who had just successfully merged with a rival company. “It wasn’t magic, Elder. It was engineering. I’ve finalized the documentation for the procedure. We’ll call it the ‘Dual-Core Protocol’.”

He held up three fingers. “There are three system requirements for installation. First, the chassis—the physical body—must be reinforced to at least 800% of the standard baseline. Anything less, and the internal pressure will cause a catastrophic containment breach.”

Ye Luo nodded slowly, absorbing the wisdom.

“Second,” Sun Yi continued, “you need the proprietary bio-matter from the Mi Luo Beast, refined to 95% purity. No generic substitutes. Third is the installation script itself, which is actually the easiest part.”

“So if we meet these specs, this is replicable?” Ye Luo asked, his voice trembling with excitement.

“Theoretically scalable, yes,” Sun Yi confirmed. “But I haven’t stress-tested the output yet. I need to verify the difference between the legacy Dantian and this new expansion slot.”

“Test it,” Ye Luo urged. “Let’s see the Dao.”

Sun Yi nodded. He grabbed two top-grade Spirit Stones, grasping them like external battery packs. He initiated the Five Elements Art, but this time, he rerouted the energy flow. Instead of the central reservoir, he directed the traffic into his right lung—the new node.

He cycled the energy for an hour. When he opened his eyes, his expression was complicated.

“Issues?” Ye Luo asked, leaning in.

“Let’s call it a compatibility error,” Sun Yi muttered. He raised his right hand, summoning the Dragon Roar Sword.

“Engage output.”

Sun Yi flooded the blade with energy from his lung. Instantly, the sword didn’t just glow; it screamed. A blinding, pure gold aura erupted from the steel, vibrating with a frequency that made the air hum.

The energy density spiked past the Qi Refining limit. It tore through the Foundation Establishment barrier, hitting mid-tier benchmarks in seconds.

CRACK.

The Dragon Roar Sword groaned. Spiderweb fractures raced down the blade.

“Abort!” Sun Yi shouted, but it was too late.

PING!

The sword disintegrated. Shards of high-grade steel exploded outward, raining down on the cultivation floor like shrapnel.

Ye Luo stood frozen, staring at the empty hilt in Sun Yi’s hand. He blinked, looking at the debris, then back at the Sect Leader.

“That… that was mid-Foundation Establishment power,” Ye Luo stammered. “You’re still in Qi Refining. That shouldn’t be possible.”

“Hardware failure,” Sun Yi sighed, tossing the hilt aside. “My output voltage is too high for the peripheral. The Dragon Roar Sword is a legacy device; it couldn’t handle the throughput of the new core.”

“Explain,” Ye Luo demanded, looking at Sun Yi like he was a monster.

“It’s the signal purity,” Sun Yi said, analyzing the data in his head. “When I run the Five Elements Art through my main Dantian, it’s a mix—integrated graphics. It processes all five elements simultaneously, which dilutes the potency.”

He tapped his chest. “But the lungs correspond to Metal in the Five Elements cycle. This new Dantian? It’s a dedicated graphics card. It filters out everything except Metal Qi. It’s 100% pure, single-threaded power.”

He held up a finger, condensing a ball of golden energy. It was small, dense, and terrifyingly sharp.

“Pure Metal Qi,” Ye Luo breathed, mesmerized. “That quality… it rivals the essence of a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. And since it’s single-attribute, the offensive power of your Golden Sword Art will be exponential.”

Ye Luo looked at Sun Yi with renewed envy. “Sect Leader, with this upgrade, you’ve essentially hacked the cultivation levels. Once you hit Foundation Establishment, could you… could you fight a Golden Core?”

Sun Yi laughed, shaking his head. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. You’re a Golden Core, Elder. You know the gap in raw processing power is too wide to bridge with just efficiency. I’d be an optimized hatchback racing a tank.”

“Still,” Ye Luo insisted. “The potential is terrifying.”

“The bottleneck is the supply chain,” Sun Yi said, shifting back to business mode. “We need more Mi Luo Beasts. That bio-matter is the key component. For now, this procedure is classified. Top secret. It stays in the R&D division.”

“Understood,” Ye Luo agreed solemnly. “The Myriad Demon Forest is the only source. We’ll have to wait for the next expedition to source more units. Perhaps… we could look into domestication? Breeding them for parts?”

“Scalable farming,” Sun Yi nodded approvingly. “I like where your head is at. We’ll put a pin in that for Q3.”

“I must return to the Miscellaneous Arts Hall,” Ye Luo said, bowing slightly. “The logistics are piling up. I will keep your secret, Sect Leader.”

Ye Luo vanished, leaving Sun Yi alone in the wreckage of his sword.

Sun Yi sat back down, running a full system diagnostic. The upgrade was a success, but the terminology was getting messy. calling everything a ‘Dantian’ was bad for branding and clarity.

“Rebranding initiative,” he decided.

“The node in the Lungs is for Metal. Let’s call it the Gold Gate.”

He visualized the roadmap for his body’s infrastructure.

“Heart corresponds to Fire. That will be the Fire Gate. Kidneys are Water—Water Gate. Liver is Wood—Wood Gate. Spleen is Earth—Earth Gate.”

Five dedicated cores. A fully distributed computing network within his own body.

He picked up the Spirit Stones again. “Time to charge the battery. The Gold Gate is only at 50% capacity.”

He closed his eyes. The factory began to hum.