“Headmaster? The status… did it succeed?”

Elder Ye Luo leaned forward, his eyes burning with an intensity that bordered on desperation. He looked like a man waiting for a lottery number to be called.

Sun Yi opened his eyes and offered a calm, professional nod.

Without a word, he retrieved two High Grade Spirit Stones. He initiated the Five Elements Art, drawing power into his system. The newly installed Water Gate in his left kidney hummed to life, eagerly devouring the energy and converting it into dense, fluid Water-attribute True Qi.

Moments later, Sun Yi raised his right hand.

Whoosh.

A stream of cerulean energy spiraled out of his pores, dancing atop his fingertips. It shifted forms fluidly—a sphere, a needle, a miniature wave—obeying his commands with zero latency. The energy felt heavy, cool, and incredibly dense.

“Heavens…” Elder Ye Luo breathed, staring at the display. “The purity is absolute. It matches the quality of your Gold Gate’s True Qi perfectly.”

“Let’s test the output,” Ye Luo urged.

Sun Yi nodded. With a thought, the Red Gold Sword shot out from his Gold Gate, hovering before him. He funneled the blue Water Qi into the blade.

Hummmm.

The sword vibrated violently, emitting a confused azure glow. The edge rippled with unstable power.

“Execute: Water Sword Art,” Sun Yi muttered.

The blade slashed forward, transforming into a streak of blue light. It slammed into the reinforced wall of the cultivation chamber, gouging a deep, jagged scar into the stone.

Sun Yi recalled the sword, frowning as he inspected the blade.

Suboptimal, he analyzed. The Red Gold Sword is constructed from Metal-attribute materials. Forcing Water-attribute energy through it causes resistance. It’s like trying to run high-end graphics software on a text-only terminal. I need compatible hardware.

“The damage output is decent, but the efficiency loss is unacceptable,” Sun Yi noted aloud. “I will need a dedicated Water-attribute spirit sword to maximize this driver.”

“Indeed,” Ye Luo agreed, though he was still beaming. “But the fact remains: The Water Gate is online! Headmaster, why stop now? Strike while the iron is hot. Open the remaining three gates!”

Sun Yi checked his internal diagnostics. His body was stable. His reserves were full.

“Agreed. Proceeding with the installation sequence.”

He repeated the process, this time targeting the heart—the seat of the Fire Gate.

Sun Yi proceeded with caution. The heart was a critical component; a hardware failure here would be fatal. However, his physical chassis had been tempered to an absurd degree. The explosive force of the Dantian opening was easily contained by his reinforced tissues.

Fire Gate: Online.

A seed of pure heat ignited within his chest. Every beat of his heart now pumped not just blood, but explosive fiery essence. He felt a surge of raw horsepower.

He didn’t pause. He moved to the liver.

Wood Gate: Online.

Vitality surged. The Wood-attribute Qi felt like a constant regeneration buff, soothing the minor strains of the process.

Finally, the spleen.

Earth Gate: Online.

A heavy, grounding sensation settled in his gut.

Sun Yi exhaled a plume of turbid air. The process was complete. Five Gates. Five Elements. The pentagonal architecture of his internal energy system was fully constructed.

“Headmaster…” Elder Ye Luo watched with wide eyes, sensing the terrifying fluctuations radiating from Sun Yi. “It feels as though you have birthed a new universe within you.”

Sun Yi smiled faintly. “Let’s run the integration test.”

He triggered the Five Elements Art, attempting to network the Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth Gates together with his primary Dantian.

Click.

The moment the Earth Gate linked into the circuit, Sun Yi’s body convulsed.

Warning. System Override.

Suddenly, the cultivation technique broke free from his manual control.

“What?” Sun Yi’s eyes snapped open.

The energy inside him began to spin wildly, accelerating on its own. It wasn’t a malfunction—it was an automated takeover.

“Headmaster! What is happening?” Ye Luo cried out, seeing Sun Yi’s skin flush and his aura turn chaotic.

“Stand back,” Sun Yi gritted out. He fought to regain administrative privileges over his own body, but the flow was too strong.

However, after the initial panic, he realized the ‘chaos’ was actually a high-speed defragmentation. The energy wasn’t rampaging; it was optimizing. The friction between the different elemental energies vanished, replaced by a seamless, frictionless loop.

An hour passed.

The turbulence subsided. The system returned control to Sun Yi.

He inspected his internal state and nearly gasped. The Five Elements Art had fundamentally evolved.

It was no longer a linear process. The five gates now acted as turbochargers for the central Dantian, creating a perpetual motion engine.

Sun Yi tested a manual cycle.

Whoosh!

The cultivation speed had increased by 1000%.

“This efficiency…” Sun Yi muttered, staring at his hands in disbelief. “It’s a tenfold increase in throughput.”

“Tenfold?” Elder Ye Luo’s jaw dropped. “What happened?”

“The software patched itself,” Sun Yi explained, struggling to find the words to explain a ‘system update’ to an ancient cultivator. “The five elements have achieved perfect equilibrium. They are now mutually reinforcing. Even without my active input, the cycle continues to generate power.”

“The True Qi in all five gates has been purified further,” Sun Yi continued, analyzing the data. “More importantly, my total energy capacity has skyrocketed. I have effectively installed five auxiliary batteries.”

He looked at Ye Luo. “We will update the sect’s standard Five Elements Art to this version immediately. Even without opened gates, the improved circulation logic is superior.”

“I will see to it,” Ye Luo said, bowing deeply. Then, he looked at Sun Yi with anticipation. “Headmaster, your foundation is now terrifyingly solid. Will you proceed with the Breakthrough to Foundation Establishment?”

Sun Yi shook his head. “Not yet. I have one more patch to install.”

“The Split Spirit Technique?” Ye Luo’s face fell. “Headmaster, that technique is notoriously dangerous. It splinters the very soul.”

“I have run the simulations,” Sun Yi said calmly. “My soul strength is currently dozens of times higher than the average cultivator thanks to the Transmigration… er, thanks to my unique constitution. The risk is within acceptable parameters.”

“I need to master this before I ascend. The utility of a parallel processing mind is too high to ignore.”

Ye Luo sighed but nodded. He knew there was no stopping Sun Yi once he had decided on a course of action. “As you command. We will stand guard.”

“Good. I need three days to prep the environment.”

Three days later.

The cultivation chamber was sealed tight. The air was thick with the scent of Calming Tea.

Sun Yi sat cross-legged in the center of a protective formation. He took a sip of the tea, letting the cool clarity wash over his mind.

“Time to reformat the drive,” he whispered.

He closed his eyes and dove into his Sea of Consciousness.

In this mental space, his soul existed as a glowing, humanoid avatar. Sun Yi focused, dissolving the avatar into a vast, formless cloud of data-mist.

Phase One: Partitioning.

He didn’t just rip his soul in half—that was brute force. He needed precision. He began to condense a portion of the mist, compressing it tighter and tighter until it formed a sharp, glittering object.

A Soul Blade.

It was a tool designed for self-surgery.

Thanks to his monstrously high soul stats, the process was efficient. Within seven days, a massive, crystalline blade hovered in his mind, humming with the terrifying potential to sever the self.

Sun Yi looked at the blade mentally.

“No pain, no gain,” he thought.