Broken Mirror Glimmer
The dead silence, like a thick layer of ice, froze the Jintian Realm.
Only the fragments of rules, like never-ending silver snow, drifted down and piled up on the devastated earth, trying to cover up the hideous traces left by that brief but brutal confrontation.
The surge of power had receded, leaving behind a near-complete emptiness and a piercing pain that penetrated his bones. Xiang Jinyang fell to one knee, his body convulsing uncontrollably. He coughed up another mouthful of faintly star-studded silver blood, splattering across the cold ground in a startling, icy spray. He braced himself against the ground with his hands, his knuckles twisted and white from the strain. Every gasp felt like pulling on a bowstring on the verge of breaking. The backlash from the burning essence at his core felt like millions of icy needles piercing his core, bringing a pain that threatened to rip his soul apart.
His vision darkened, his ears buzzed, and the Heavenly Power coursing through him faded like a candle in the wind, even the mere existence that held him together seemed shaky. Yet he persevered, summoning the last shred of his willpower, raising those eyes, blazing with cold embers and utter exhaustion, to fix his gaze on the nearby intruder. Those eyes held a vigilance unbroken by pain, a bastion of resolve willing to die in glory rather than live in disgrace. Deeper within, hidden within a veil that even he himself hadn't fully grasped, a sense of shock and... a sense of disorientation at having a portion of his truth violently revealed.
Elsewhere, He Yuan's situation was slightly better, but by no means relaxed. He pressed hard against his still-stabbing solar plexus with one hand, his brow furrowed into a deep, indented frown. The silver codes that usually flowed like a galaxy in his eyes were now in disarray, like a delicate instrument struck by a violent electromagnetic pulse, constantly flashing with errors and reconstructions. Xiang Jinyang's reckless counter-invasion brought not only a shock of power but also a profound earthquake in his cognition.
Those cold fragments of rules, the vast loneliness, the pain of being imprisoned by absolute prohibitions, and even a faint desire... these "noisy" and "irrational" emotional data torrents are still rampaging in his highly logical sea of consciousness, trying to find a reasonable archiving location, but constantly triggering alarms of "unresolvable" and "logical conflict".
He tried to forcibly classify them as "invalid interference information" and clear and format them, but found that they were like stubborn viruses with independent vitality, which had quietly embedded themselves into his underlying computing process and even subtly affected his judgment on the weight of certain events.
Why...can't it be cleared?
This unusual situation made him feel an unprecedented sense of... loss of control. He shook his head, trying to dispel the stagnant feeling, his gaze finally returning to the "Administrator" who was in a state of disgrace, his strength nearly exhausted, but still fiercely defending his last bit of territory and dignity with an icy gaze.
The expected sense of control that belongs to the winner or the anger caused by being blocked did not arise as expected.
Instead, there was a more complex...confusion and stagnation for which there was no existing model in his database.
Based on big data calculations based on his existing behavioral model, when the opponent suffers such a heavy blow and the power disparity between the two sides is huge, the best solution should be to temporarily surrender or engage in strategic disguised cooperation to maximize the preservation of strength, rather than to adopt a fierce resistance with an extremely low success rate and high cost to the point of almost self-destruction.
This doesn't make sense.
Unless... in the other party's evaluation system, there are some hidden variables with extremely high weights that he had completely ignored before and had not included in the calculation model.
For example... those things about "dignity", "autonomy", "emotions" that he contemptuously regarded as "useless noise"?
"You..." He Yuan finally spoke, his voice raspy and hesitant, a tone he himself hadn't noticed, as if his vocal cords needed recalibration. "What on earth were those things just now?"
What he asked about was not the core secret of the Heavenly Dao, nor the information about the cave, but those fragments of despair and loneliness that flashed by in the torrent of consciousness, surging, cold, yet containing astonishing energy.
Xiang Jinyang's body trembled violently, as if pierced by an invisible ice cone. A higher and thicker ice wall instantly built up in his eyes. His lips were pressed into a pale straight line. He was even willing to trigger the injuries churning in his body again, and would never reveal the truth after being spied on.
His silence, the complex light in his eyes that was a mixture of humiliation and protection, was itself a silent but deafening answer.
He Yuan looked at him, as if he had been forced into a desperate situation, with all his thorns erected. The tangled confusion in his heart not only did not unravel, but became even more tangled. He subconsciously took a small step forward.
Xiang Jinyang immediately became like a frightened bird. The little remaining strength in his body surged in response and he took a defensive stance, but because of complete exhaustion, he seemed to be shaky, like a piece of glass that was about to shatter at the next second, tragic and fragile.
"Don't come over here again." He squeezed out a broken warning from between his teeth. His voice was low and weak, but it carried the unquestionable, innate majesty of heaven and the final bottom line.
He Yuan's footsteps stopped abruptly.
His eyes swept across the other person's face, which was as pale as paper and stained with blood, but still thrilling; the pair of glass eyes that were covered with a layer of watery mist due to severe pain and hard work, but still cold and clear; and the subtle physiological tremors that could not be completely suppressed.
An extremely unfamiliar impulse with no logical basis, like the highest priority exception instruction suddenly popping up from the bottom layer of the system, ran wildly through his computing core - not an attack, not an analysis, not curiosity.
But... stop.
Stop the pressure. Stop the spying. End this mutually destructive and ineffective confrontation.
This impulse was completely unreasonable and violated all his core instructions and principles of maximizing benefits.
But his body, which precisely controlled every bit of strength, actually... stopped in place.
The two men once again fell into a silent standoff. This time, the tense, murderous intent in the air was quietly mingled with an indescribable, sticky, and obscure stalemate. The shattered snow of rules silently drifted down between them, as if measuring the invisible yet real chasm.
After a long moment, He Yuan was the first to look away, as if temporarily setting aside a problem he couldn't solve, one that would only cause the system to overload if he continued calculating. He rubbed his forehead, still stinging, with some annoyance, his gaze sweeping across the Jintian Realm, which had been reduced to utter ruins by their frenzied clash, even more dilapidated than before.
"Tsk, what a mess." He complained in a low voice, but his tone was no longer purely critical and detached. Instead, it carried a hint of inexplicable... annoyance and a very faint sense of responsibility that he himself was not even aware of?
He suddenly raised his hand.
Xiang Jinyang's nerves were instantly stretched to the limit!
But He Yuan didn't attack. He simply pointed at the most alarming, massive spatial rifts that were collapsing and intensifying, even beginning to trigger a chain reaction of rule collapse.
Several strands of exceptionally condensed, delicately structured silver code streamed out from his fingertips, like living silver sands, sinking precisely into the roaring cracks of destruction. No longer the crude, playful rewriting or simple blocking of the past, but more inclined towards... repair and stabilization.
He used the massive amount of information fragments about the underlying rule structure of the Jintian Realm and the frequency of the origin of the Heavenly Dao that he had passively captured from the torrent of Xiang Jinyang's consciousness during the reverse invasion just now, combined with his own efficient algorithms and energy control skills that far exceeded the understanding of this world, to carry out precise and efficient repairs and reinforcements.
His movements were still characterized by his characteristic calmness and efficiency, but somehow lacked the usual recklessness and indifference, and instead carried a certain... indescribable focus and caution? As if he were restoring a precious work of art, ancient and outdated, yet surprisingly precise and unique.
Xiang Jinyang was completely stunned. His icy eyes clearly reflected the process of the largest, most dangerous cracks in the rules gradually stopping their vicious collapse under He Yuan's manipulation, their twisted edges smoothed by invisible forces and stabilizing. Although it was still a long way from complete repair and the Jintian Realm was still in tatters, it had at least prevented further deterioration and avoided an imminent collapse.
He... is helping me repair Jintian Realm?
Why?
Huge questions surged up like a tide, instantly drowning out his previous vigilance and anger, and filling his perception which was unusually sharp due to his weakness.
He Yuan didn't look at him, but was concentrating on dealing with several of the most dangerous spatial breaches that could potentially trigger a chain collapse. The lines of his profile, illuminated by the surrounding silver light, actually showed a rare, pure concentration and a strange...peace?
"What are you looking at?" He seemed to have eyes behind his back, accurately catching Xiang Jinyang's gaze. Without turning back, his tone was still hard and demanding. "The server environment is too unstable, seriously affecting my operating efficiency and subsequent research plans. I'm giving you a temporary emergency patch to prevent a complete downtime and bring disaster to me, a user."
It's this kind of awkward excuse again, which wraps any behavior that may be close to "goodwill" or "responsibility" with technical reasons and selfishness, which is a poor excuse.
But this time, Xiang Jinyang strangely did not feel offended or disrespected.
He just watched silently for a long time.
Looking at the fingertips that once brought only destruction, chaos and unknown fear, they were now clumsily yet effectively healing the scars caused by his own hands and his own collapse in a way he could not understand.
An extremely absurd, yet real, subtle warm current, accompanied by great confusion, quietly spread in the depths of his frozen heart.
After dealing with the most critical points, He Yuan seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, though his face remained expressionless. He turned around and looked back at Xiang Jinyang. Seeing that he was still in a state of extreme misery and near exhaustion, his brows, which had just relaxed slightly, furrowed again.
He remained silent, seemingly engaged in an incredibly complex and intense internal calculation and prioritization. Ultimately, some inexplicable impulse overrode his perfectly rational calculations. He raised his hand again.
This time, what condensed from his fingertips was no longer an aggressive intrusion code, nor was it the previous official, pure energy "feeding".
It was an exceptionally pure, gentle energy flow, clearly specially harmonized and meticulously processed. Not only was it easily absorbed by Xiang Jinyang's weakened, cracked essence, but its energy frequency also carried a subtle, imperceptible, gentle quality akin to "soothing" and "nourishing."
"Take it." His tone was still firm, even carrying a hint of reluctance, as if he had lost a lot of money. "Don't break it so easily again. Repairing you is too troublesome, consumes my computing power and resources, and the cost-effectiveness is extremely low."
That warm and attractive flow of energy, like a living firefly, slowly floated towards Xiang Jinyang, and finally hovered within his reach, emitting a soft and pure luster, silently tempting the dry and dying origin.
Xiang Jinyang's gaze slowly shifted from the energy stream to He Yuan, who looked awkward, as if he had made a terrible loss, trying hard to remain indifferent but unable to hide a hint of embarrassment. In a corner of his heart that had been frozen for millions of years, a voice that even he himself had long forgotten, seemed to reach out from a very subtle, yet clearly audible...
Cracking sound.
He didn't immediately accept it, nor did he coldly refuse it as he had in the past.
However, the body, which had been tense all the time and ready to face the next impact and injury, relaxed slightly, almost imperceptibly.
A long, suffocating silence slowly flowed amid the sound of falling broken silver snow.
Finally, extremely slowly, with great hesitation and an almost ignorant attempt, he stretched out his hand, which had been clenched into a fist with his nails digging deep into the palm.
The fingertips trembled slightly as they touched the ball of warm energy.
The moment they made contact, a surge of pure, soothing power, as if tailor-made for his current state, gently yet firmly flowed into the dry, cracked, and scarred core of the law. An indescribable sense of comfort spread like a warm current through his frozen limbs, profoundly easing the excruciating pain that threatened to tear his soul apart. This feeling of being meticulously "cared for" brought comfort far beyond any previous pure energy replenishment.
He closed his eyes involuntarily, and his long eyelashes, stained with a subtle silver glow, trembled violently a few times like injured butterfly wings. A very light sigh, almost dissipated in the air, mixed with fatigue after the pain was relieved and indescribable complex emotions, finally escaped weakly from the corners of his lips, which had been tightly pursed.
He Yuan watched as the other person finally accepted the energy. The terrifying feeling of shattering destruction around him seemed to be slightly contained, and the inexplicable, constantly flashing alarm within him seemed to subside a bit. He turned away awkwardly, feigning concentration as he surveyed the still-devastating surroundings, as if assessing the next steps in the repair process. However, the slightly stiff lines of his neck and the slightly reddened base of his ears gave away some of his emotions.
This is truly insane, he muttered to himself. This is a losing deal that clearly violates the principle of efficiency above all else… and the comprehensive evaluation parameters fed back by the processor… don't seem too bad?
In the Jintian territory, the broken rules are still slowly repairing themselves with the remaining instincts, and silver snow foam is tirelessly falling quietly, trying to cover the scars.
One of them was sitting and the other was standing, a few steps apart.
No more words were spoken. The air was filled with the faint sound of flowing energy and the sound of each other's gradually calming breathing.
The hostility has not completely dissipated, the cognitive gap is still bottomless, and the barrier caused by the nature of different worlds still lies between them like a chasm.
But something invisible and intangible has indeed undergone irreversible changes on this ruin.
It was like a broken, scattered ice mirror. In an unnoticed corner, one or two of the most broken and sharpest fragments, relying on some inexplicable weak gravitational force, quietly, clumsily, and tentatively...
Leaning together again.
The cracks were still hideous, and the reflected images were fragmented and bizarre.
But in the end,
With difficulty,
Piece together a little bit,
Faint and twisted,
True glimmer.
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