Chapter Seventeen: A Troubled Era

"That Zhen Yunzi was the last successor of the Jun Tian Monastery. Presumably, before crossing over, he must have already sent everyone away," Wang Ling thought to himself as he made his way to the main residence in the rear courtyard. It was likely the abode of the monastery's abbot, and the door was, once again, securely locked.

But that was hardly a problem.

Most locks of this era served only to deter the honest, not the dishonest. With a little brute force, there was no door that could not be opened.

Zhen Yunzi was already dead, and this place had long been ownerless. Why should Wang Ling stand on ceremony?

"After all, I tried to save Zhen Yunzi once, though I didn’t succeed. If I poke around here for something to help me get home, I doubt he'd mind. And if he did, what difference would it make? To die at the hands of the authorities, his soul scattered, is already the best ending. If they'd captured his spirit and cast him into ghostly prison, suffering day and night, that would be far more tragic!"

Muttering to himself, Wang Ling had already opened the door and stepped inside.

It was indeed Zhen Yunzi's dwelling, though the place was piled high with unsorted belongings—even dirty laundry was strewn about. Open books and all manner of clutter lay everywhere.

Wang Ling even spotted what appeared to be a computer. It looked far more advanced than anything he'd seen before his reincarnation; the screen was made of a flexible material, capable of being rolled up or stretched out.

Before Wang Ling's rebirth, such screens existed only as a concept, supposedly still in laboratories. Yet here, they were commonplace, indicating that the technology of this world was somewhat more advanced than in his previous life, though not by much.

At the very least, everything here was still recognizable. It was like someone from the era of button phones traveling ten years into the future and seeing touchscreens—astonishing, perhaps, but not incomprehensible. Or someone from the age of black-and-white TVs seeing a flat-screen after thirty years—they wouldn’t think it was from another world.

So Wang Ling could handle these devices with ease.

He switched on the thing—TV or computer, he couldn't say for sure—and the news began to play immediately.

"...Frankfurter, former Chief Justice of the Federal Court, has committed suicide. The position of Federal Justice was once a lifelong appointment, but since artificial intelligence replaced judges and lawyers, most in these professions have lost their jobs. Seven years ago, the largest Harvard Law School closed its doors..."

Wang Ling's expression became a tapestry of emotions.

Before his reincarnation, artificial intelligence was all the rage, with experts optimistically proclaiming that it would take another twenty or thirty years to achieve true AI. He never imagined that in this world, it had already come to pass.

Back then, many predicted that the rise of AI would only lead to mounting unemployment. Countless professions, once lucrative and prestigious, would be wholly replaced. Even before AI matured, Wang Ling had heard that Israel was developing a legal AI platform that competed with top human lawyers. In terms of speed, AI far outstripped its human counterparts—AI could review five contracts in just twenty-six seconds, while the average human lawyer took ninety-two minutes. AI’s accuracy reached ninety-two percent, compared to eighty-five for humans.

And that AI had still been in its infancy!

So, Wang Ling didn't find it strange that true AI would put all lawyers out of work.

In fact, he suspected that not just the legal field, but also real estate, finance, and many other industries had been largely taken over by AI. Even the news report he was hearing now was probably written by an AI.

Back when AI was just budding, it could already draft standard news articles.

"What a terrible era," Wang Ling muttered. "Good thing I died early and didn't have to see this."

He had always been pessimistic about artificial intelligence. Why? Had he not seen "WALL-E"? Once all human work was replaced by AI, the best outcome was for people to be kept like livestock. Worse yet, they might not even be afforded that.

Shaking his head, Wang Ling was about to turn off the disheartening broadcast, but just then another news item caught his attention.

"Titan Corporation has announced a major breakthrough in longevity gene modification surgery, which is now in clinical trials. It is expected to be widely available within ten years. Reports say that those who undergo the procedure will see their lifespans extended to three hundred years..."

Wang Ling was shaken to his core, left speechless for a long while.

At last, he sighed deeply. "In an age when technology can grant near-immortality, what need is there for cultivation?"

He suddenly understood why Zhen Yunzi had chosen to close the Jun Tian Monastery and cross over completely. Judging by his actions, Zhen Yunzi seemed determined never to return, to abandon this despairing world altogether.

Fate had shifted, the path to immortality severed. Instead, science flourished, accomplishing feats once attainable only through cultivation. In such circumstances, how many could persist in their spiritual practice? How many would remain unmoved?

If Wang Ling himself had been in Zhen Yunzi’s place, he might have abandoned cultivation long ago.

"Well, I have nothing to do with Jun Tian Monastery. I’m only here by chance. What does its decline matter to me?"

Yet even as he said this, a faint melancholy lingered in his heart—a kinship with the vanquished, sorrow for those whose kindred had fallen.

His previous world had fared little better; a lifetime's hard cultivation brought him only to the threshold of transcendence, and even then, a misstep cost him his life.

Fortunately, his ancestors had blessed him—his soul was not destroyed, but instead he was reincarnated into this world. That, too, was fate.

After witnessing these depressing things, Wang Ling had no further interest in lingering here. He resolved to return at once. In a world ruled by technology, a cultivator was as helpless as a fish in a desert—a sheep in a slaughterhouse.

He made his way back to the secret chamber of Jun Tian Monastery, preparing to return to his cave abode, to cross back.

With the benefit of previous experience, it was much easier this time as Wang Ling focused on visualizing his inner mirror.

The heart-mirror gradually widened, transforming into a calm inner lake.

Yet as he gazed at the tranquil lake within his sea of consciousness, a sudden, inexplicable sense of unease rose up within him.

For the heart-lake reflected a bright moon—none other than the power of Wang Ling’s protective pearl.

But now, the pearl was being torn apart by the rippling waves of the heart-lake, scattered into fragments of moonlight, leaping and flickering across the surface like golden-scaled fish.