Confinement

That question, with a slight tremor, was like a stone thrown into an ancient well, creating a circle of invisible ripples in the cold and silent mourning hall, which was then swallowed up by the deeper silence.

The disciples kneeling on the ground had already lost their souls. No one dared to speculate on the meaning behind this unusual scene, and no one dared to look up to see any expression that might appear on the incarnation of the Heavenly Dao at this moment, which might be beyond the "rules".

He Yuan withdrew his hand, and the disturbing silver light at his fingertips completely disappeared. He looked leisurely at Xiang Jinyang, who seemed to be caught in some kind of logical storm, as if he had just casually demonstrated an interesting little program, rather than revealing the terrible truth that subverted the foundation of the other party's existence.

"Me?" He tilted his head, his smile pure, but for some reason it made people feel a chill in their hearts. "Didn't I just say it? He Yuan. A... uh, a tenant who is staying here temporarily?" He patted the coffin lid under him, his tone as relaxed as if he was talking about the weather.

The regular flow of light around Xiang Jinyang was disordered for a moment, and those precisely running silver runes were like a program attacked by a virus, with brief confusion and overlap, but soon they were forced to regain stability with a strong inertia, but the flow speed was obviously accelerated, revealing a sense of tension of high alert.

The stars in his vision seemed frozen, leaving only He Yuan's face, smirking, and the "code perspective" that continued to replay in his mind, impacting his core cognition. The reality of the world, the truth of its rules, was brutally and irrationally torn from its disguise, revealing itself nakedly before him.

Eliminate? How? The very nature of the other party's existence seemed to transcend the "rules" he could understand and control. Forcibly eliminating it could lead to the collapse of the entire "system." He couldn't afford that risk.

Let it go? Absolutely not. The very existence of these abnormal variables is the greatest threat to order. Allowing them to operate freely is like watching a virus with supreme authority and no constraints roam freely in the core program area.

Then, the only remaining option quickly emerged in Xiang Jinyang's rule-based and logic-based computing core and was marked as the current optimal solution -

Control. Isolate. Observe. Analyze.

Until a way is found to understand, assimilate, or ultimately safely remove.

All the subtle fluctuations of shock in Xiang Jin's glazed eyes were forcibly suppressed, returning to a bottomless, icy calm. However, beneath this calm lay a surging undercurrent and a highly concentrated computing power.

Instead of trying to understand “how to do it,” he shifted his focus to “how to respond.”

"Your presence has disrupted order." He spoke to Jinyang, his voice returning to its previous calm and steady state, even lacking even more emotion, like the most efficient machine stating its conclusion. "Until this matter is clarified, you must remain under supervision."

He avoided using emotive words like "imprisonment" and "detention," opting instead for the more logical "supervision." The moment his words fell, the invisible force of rules took hold.

He Yuan immediately felt that the surrounding "environmental parameters" began to change dramatically.

The space within the mourning hall seemed to be ripped from the rest of the world by an invisible force, forming layer upon layer of complex "isolation barriers." These barriers weren't simple energy shields; they directly modified the rules of space, energy transfer, and even information exchange. They fell silently, forming a completely closed "sandbox environment."

Within this "sandbox," everything seemed normal, but He Yuan could see that all external "data exchange" channels had been forcibly cut off or filtered with the highest level of authority. Air still circulated, light still filtered in, but the deeper interaction of spiritual energy and the resonance of laws were completely isolated.

At the same time, several extremely complex chains of rules with powerful constraints - which appeared in his eyes as dynamic code streams that were constantly self-encrypting, verifying, and changing - were generated out of thin air, silently wrapping around him, aiming directly at his limbs and torso, trying to completely imprison him.

"Tsk, 'Sandbox Isolation' plus 'Dynamic Encryption Lock'? Pretty quick response." He Yuan raised an eyebrow, his tone even tinged with admiration, as if he were evaluating a peer's technical skills. "Unfortunately, the encryption algorithm is a bit old-fashioned, and the key strength is average."

He didn't even make any obvious resistance, just moved his mind slightly.

The moment the entwined chains of rules were about to reach his body, the code streams they formed suddenly underwent an extremely strange distortion and disorder. The previously seamless encryption logic inexplicably conflicted and looped, its trajectory becoming chaotic. Several chains even collided and canceled each other, emitting a subtle, piercing noise like data overflow.

They finally hovered powerlessly an inch away from He Yuan's skin, trembling violently, unable to move forward at all, and unable to execute any confinement instructions, as if they had become a pile of invalid code trapped in a logic bug.

Xiang Jinyang's eyes narrowed. He clearly sensed that the chain of rules he had constructed had lost control, and its internal structure was instantly disrupted and destroyed by some force, becoming ineffective.

Once again. Straightforward rewriting of the rules.

This time, the confinement order he issued was violated face to face and in real time.

This has gone beyond the scope of "abnormality" and is a trampling and mockery of the "rules" themselves.

The chill around Xiang Jinyang intensified once more, and the thin frost on the floor of the mourning hall began to transform into ice. The vast power of the Heavenly Dao within him began to operate at a higher efficiency, attempting to analyze the mechanism and principle of the other party's interference with the rules.

"It's useless." He Yuan seemed to see through his thoughts and yawned lazily. "Your 'language' and 'compiler' versions are too old. They can't understand my 'operation method'. It's like a two-dimensional creature can't understand three-dimensional space."

He paused, looking at Xiang Jinyang's perfect yet cold face, and suddenly laughed again, with a hint of mischievous interest: "However, seeing that you are trying so hard to 'lock' me up...Okay, I'll give you some face."

After saying that, under Xiang Jinyang's slightly surprised gaze (if that extremely subtle change in his pupils could be called surprise), He Yuan actually reached out his hands and grabbed those rule chains that were frozen in mid-air and trembling constantly due to logical errors, and then casually put them on his wrists and ankles as if he were wearing handcuffs and shackles.

As soon as the chains touched his body, they immediately tried to reactivate the confinement function, and the cold power of rules penetrated inward.

However, He Yuan just moved his mind slightly again.

The code flowing on the chains' surfaces suddenly froze, and then their operating mode fundamentally changed. No longer attempting to imprison or destroy, they became... docile? They even began automatically adjusting their tightness to ensure they wouldn't hurt him. The light flowing through their surfaces also softened, as if they had transformed from instruments of torture into some kind of harmless decoration.

"Is this okay?" He Yuan raised his "chained" hands and shook them. The chains made a crisp clanging sound, but his face was full of a relaxed smile. "I promise not to tamper with anything casually - probably."

He showed Jin Yang a "confinement" that was completely tamed and possibly even controlled in reverse.

Xiang Jinyang was silent.

He clearly sensed that the supreme control over those rule chains had been transferred to another person without anyone noticing.

All he could do now seemed to be the most basic "observation." Even "confinement" had become a formality.

This feeling of being completely out of control was an unprecedented experience for the incarnation of Heavenly Dao. An extremely unfamiliar, cold, and stagnant feeling spread deep within his computing core.

He looked at the young man in the coffin, who had an innocent yet dangerous smile on his face. The other party was looking back at him with a look that said, "I'm curious about what you will do next."

After a long while, Xiang Jinyang spoke again. His voice was unremarkable, and he simply gave the next logical step: "Leave here."

He needed to take this "abnormal variable" out of the public eye and into a more controlled environment for in-depth observation. This funeral hall was no longer suitable.

He turned, his sleeves fluttering, and walked out of the mourning hall first. The layers of spatial isolation barriers automatically opened a passage as he moved.

He Yuan nimbly climbed out of the coffin and stretched his arms and legs. The docile chains dragged on the ground, making a subtle jingling sound that sounded both comical and eerie. He didn't mind the fact that he was still wearing his glaring shroud. He curiously surveyed the isolated "passageway," like a tourist perusing a uniquely designed secret chamber.

None of the disciples kneeling on the ground dared to move, and no one even dared to look up at the monster that had "come back to life" and followed the Taoist Patriarch away.

Walking out of the mourning hall, light from the outside world poured in.

The main peak of Tianyan Sect was a magnificent sight, with billowing clouds, cranes calling, and a rich spiritual energy that almost materialized. But in He Yuan's eyes, all this was still a torrent of code, only more massive and complex than that within the mourning hall.

Xiang Jinyang walked in front, his back tall and solitary, resonating harmoniously with the rules of the entire world, as if he was the center of the world.

He Yuan followed him a few steps away, his eyes fixed on Xiang Jinyang's seemingly perfect flow of rules, and a barely perceptible curve appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"Hey," he suddenly said, breaking the silence, "didn't you notice?"

Xiang Jinyang did not stop but did not respond.

He Yuan didn't care and continued to talk, his voice filled with the excitement of discovering a new toy: "Your 'system' is running perfectly, but isn't it a little too perfect? ​​All the rules are seamless, all the energy flows are precise and accurate, there is no 'redundancy' or 'buffer' at all, it's like a string that's been stretched too tight..."

He quickened his pace and walked to a position side by side with Xiang Jinyang. He tilted his head to look at his cold and perfect profile and lowered his voice as if sharing a secret:

"Tell me, if someday a slightly more intense 'abnormal data' hits you, will your string just snap?"

Xiang Jinyang's footsteps paused almost imperceptibly.

He didn't turn around or answer.

But the regular runes that flowed perfectly around him seemed to be extremely subtly and imperceptibly... disordered for a moment.

It's like a supercomputer that never makes mistakes, suddenly encountering an overflow warning that cannot be ignored.