Abnormal variables
Xiang Jinyang's arrival was silent, but it was as heavy as a thousand pounds.
Like a piece of invisible ice dropped into a boiling pot of oil, the clamor of fear within the mourning hall was instantly extinguished, leaving only a dead, icy silence. The disciples kneeling on the ground dared not even breathe, as if all strength had been drained from them, their bodies trembling instinctively. The majesty of the Heavenly Dao could not be directly observed; this was a reverence etched into their instinctive cultivation.
However, in the center of this absolute suppressive force field, the only abnormal point is still conspicuous.
He Yuan even adjusted his sitting position to make himself more comfortable against the uncomfortable coffin. He looked at Xiang Jinyang, who was floating three feet above the ground, with great interest, his gaze bold and direct, as if he were evaluating a very interesting creation.
The closer we get, the stronger the sense of déjà vu of the "super server" becomes.
Against the backdrop of the rough, chaotic, and noisy ambient code flow, the power of rules circling Xiang Jinyang's body was pure, efficient, and incredibly rigorous. Countless intricate, silver, fundamental rule runes loomed on his body, forming a flawless yet extremely closed circulatory system. He was breathtakingly beautiful, his glass-like eyes reflecting the birth and death of stars and the trajectory of all things, yet also cold and lifeless, like a supreme work of art crafted to absolute standards, lacking the chaos and vitality that should be found in life.
"Continuous scanning by a high-privilege process detected," He Yuan's brain automatically translated and filtered the other party's behavior. "Attempting identity verification and threat assessment... Tsk, the verification protocol is ancient but effective, but the method is too crude and lacks flexibility."
Xiang Jinyang's gaze fell on He Yuan, cold and penetrating, as if he wanted to dissect him thoroughly, from his physical structure to his soul. An ordinary cultivator under such a gaze would likely have their very soul frozen, disassembled, and completely read.
But He Yuan simply felt like he was being scanned by a high-precision scanner with an outdated algorithm. It was a bit annoying, but not overwhelming. His "firewall"—his soul essence, emanating from another world and seemingly fundamentally different from the underlying principles of this world—automatically filtered and refracted most of the Heavenly Dao's pressure, transforming it into harmless background noise. He even had the leisure to reverse-analyze the composition and frequency characteristics of this "scanning wave."
"Who are you?" Xiang Jinyang asked, his voice cold and steady, devoid of any emotion, like a standard system notification. The feedback from the rules told him that this body was undoubtedly his Daoist companion whose soul had dissipated. There was nothing amiss on the physical level. But at its core, an inexplicable fog enveloped it, constantly emanating abnormal fluctuations that distorted, interfered with, and even overwhelmed the rules. This paradox caused a slight delay in his internal "logical calculations."
"He Yuan." The young man in the coffin answered straightforwardly with a lazy smile, as if he thought everything in front of him was very funny. "As you can see, I just came back to life. Do I need to die again to show you the process?" His tone was frivolous and his posture was relaxed. He didn't look like a mortal who had just come back to life and was facing the incarnation of the Heaven. He looked more like a naughty child who found a new toy in his backyard.
A few suppressed gasps were heard from the kneeling disciples, who were obviously frightened by the outrageous and almost suicidal words. Some even began to secretly make hand gestures, trying to send a message to the elders outside the hall, but found that their spiritual power was like a drop in the ocean, completely isolated by the invisible field.
Xiang Jinyang's eyes did not move, as if he had not heard his almost blasphemous ridicule at all. He just continued to ask questions according to his own inherent logical process, trying to clarify this anomaly: "How did you do it?" - He was not referring to coming back to life, but to disrupting the rules.
"You mean this?" He Yuan raised an eyebrow, as if he found the question amusing. He raised his right hand and casually snapped his fingers.
Another imperceptible silver light flashed across his fingertips and disappeared into the surrounding "environmental system".
In the corner of the mourning hall, a copper incense burner, previously knocked over by a panicked disciple, suddenly stood upright. The scattered incense ash drifted back onto the floor like a video played in reverse, landing precisely back into the burner. Inside, three previously extinguished incense sticks spontaneously ignited, sending plumes of smoke rising, straight as threads, no longer drifting in the wind.
Again, it wasn't a spell, and it didn't trigger any spiritual energy fluctuations. Instead, the parameters of that tiny area, such as the "object state" and "combustion rules," were directly and minutely rewritten, like directly editing a backend database.
The aura surrounding Xiang Jinyang suddenly grew colder, the temperature in the mourning hall plummeting, and even a thin layer of frost formed on the ground. For the first time, a faint flicker of...stagnation and confusion crossed his eyes. This defied all his core understandings. All laws in this world require the activation of spiritual energy, operating through spiritual roots, techniques, hand gestures, talismans, and other media, following the established laws of heaven. Yet, this person before him seemed to be... bypassing all intermediaries and directly writing over, overwriting the underlying laws? How could this be possible?
"How did you do it?" Xiang Jinyang repeated the question, his tone still steady and cold, but the air around him emitted a subtle, teeth-grinding hum, as if space itself could not bear the weight. This was a sign that the power of rules was highly concentrated, foreshadowing the impending forced analysis or even violent erasure. The elimination protocol was being prioritized.
He Yuan accurately sensed the sudden surge of "system pressure" and the underlying "aggression." His smile deepened, a hint of amusement and challenge. The more powerful the defense system, the more sophisticated the rules and logic, the more alluring it was to a top hacker like him.
"You want to know?" He tilted his head, his eyes startlingly bright, like the snake that tempted Eve to eat the apple, full of pure curiosity and a desire to destroy. "Come closer, and I'll tell you." He patted the edge of the coffin, inviting her.
Xiang Jinyang's flawless face remained expressionless, yet the humming rhythm of the laws surrounding him strangely dropped in frequency. Internal calculations were intensively in progress: eliminating unknown risks, estimating the immense cost of confrontation and the potential for uncontrollable chain reactions. Leaving it alone would be extremely risky, and the variables would continue to proliferate. The optimal solution: obtain more information and reassess the threat level. Closer observation was a viable option; his own defenses were sufficient to handle known threats... except for the unknown before him.
Three breaths later, amidst the horrified, near-despairing gazes of everyone, the lofty, inviolable incarnation of the Heavenly Dao slowly descended to the ground, his snow-white robe brushing against the cold earth, untainted by dust. He walked step by step towards the nanmu coffin.
His steps were steady and his demeanor remained flawless, but with every step he took, the regular runes circulating around his body seemed to brighten a bit and circulate faster, indicating that extraordinarily large calculations and risk assessments were taking place inside.
He stopped three steps away from the coffin. For him, this distance was already extremely close to an unpredictable and extremely dangerous "abnormal variable." Invisible barriers of rules piled up in front of him, layer upon layer, impenetrable.
"Speak." He uttered a single word, his command clear.
He Yuan smiled, seemingly pleased with the other's "cooperation." He suddenly leaned forward, half of his body sticking out of the coffin, instantly closing the already short distance between them. A faint, strange scent, neither sandalwood nor spiritual energy, wafted across his face, carrying a hint of the cold, electronic scent.
Some of the disciples kneeling on the ground finally couldn't bear it anymore, their eyes rolled back and they fainted.
Xiang Jinyang did not retreat, but his eyes narrowed slightly, and chains of rules flashed rapidly in his glass-colored pupils, as if he was trying his best to assess the intention, trajectory, and possible attack mode of the other party's sudden action.
Then, he saw the young man in front of him raise his right hand, and an extremely faint silver light condensed at the tip of his index finger. It was no longer an illusory code shadow, but almost tangible, emitting a strange texture that made Xiang Jinyang's core rules feel stinging and repulsive.
That finger, slowly, even with a hint of leisurely provocation, pointed towards his brow - that was one of the core intersection points of his power and rules, and one of the most important interfaces of the "system".
The power of the Heavenly Dao within Xiang Jinyang instantly surged, forming an invisible, intangible, yet absolutely solid barrier of laws an inch before his brow. This barrier was strong enough to easily crush an ancient spiritual treasure and isolate all worldly laws.
but--
That finger, however, encountered no obstruction.
It was like penetrating a layer of empty water curtain, or in other words, like a piece of malicious code with the highest authority, it easily bypassed all system defense mechanisms, firewalls, and security verifications, and accurately and gently touched the skin between Xiang Jinyang's eyebrows.
Cold.
A soft touch unlike any coldness in the world.
And… a vast, chaotic, yet strangely ordered, alien “information flow” forcibly broke through all defenses and instantly poured into Xiang Jinyang’s core of consciousness! This wasn’t an attack, not an energy shock, but something more fundamental… cognitive indoctrination, the forced sharing of authority!
Xiang Jinyang "saw" it.
He "saw" the perfect rules that he was proud of flowing around him. Under the unique perspective of that alien information, they were instantly disassembled and compiled into countless lines of clear, cold, constantly scrolling and flashing basic codes. He could even see the comments after certain code segments (Article xxx of the Rules of Heaven and Earth, Version yyy of the Energy Conversion Protocol...).
He "saw" how the other party read the flow of spiritual energy around him, the hidden meaning of the runes, and even the energy composition and working principle of the pressure he had just tried to exert, just like reading lines of open source text.
He "saw" the other party's seemingly miraculous little movements just now, and the truth behind them was so simple and crude - it was as if he had casually located himself in the background of the vast world system, and then typed in a few extremely short new commands - [Coordinates (X, Y, Z) Object State: Upright], [Coordinates (X1, Y1, Z1) Particle Collection: Return], [Specific Target (Incense Stick) Burning State: True]...
Simple, direct, brutal, and terrifyingly efficient.
Completely bypassing all established and complex "cultivation" processes, it directly points to the ultimate authority for interpreting the operation of the world. This is a kind of authority that he cannot understand, but it really exists... a higher level of authority?
Xiang Jinyang stood frozen in place, his unprecedented experience washing over his cognitive system. Those eyes, as cold as a thousand years of ice, clearly reflected the playful smile of the young man before him. But deeper, they saw the phantoms of countless rules collapsing and attempting to reform, a violent storm of core computing caused by overload and contradiction.
The foundation of the world, before his eyes, was shattered by that light touch, revealing the cold, coded real structure underneath.
Or perhaps... this strange soul revealed to him another unprecedented, terrifying "truth" about the nature of the world.
"...That's how it's done." He Yuan retracted his finger, the silver light on his fingertips quietly fading. He looked at the Dao Ancestor, who seemed to have completely shut down, with even the regular light around him becoming chaotic and flickering. He smiled and kindly added, "It seems your 'system' is not very compatible with this method of operation?"
Xiang Jinyang took a sudden step back, his movements even tinged with a rare hint of haste, as if burned by the cold touch of the fingertips and the terrifying meaning it represented. The touch between his eyebrows had long since disappeared, but the alien "cognition" was like the most powerful virus, replicating and spreading crazily within the core of his consciousness, challenging his unchanging beliefs that had existed for billions of years.
For the first time, the usually clear, cool and steady voice was filled with extremely subtle, almost imperceptible tremors and fluctuations, which were the external manifestations of the extremely unstable system.
"What...are you?"
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