Cracked Glimmer
Time in Jintian Realm has lost its meaning. Only the subtle humming sound when the rules are repaired is like a heartbeat, marking the wasted time.
Xiang Jinyang didn't know how long he had been standing there.
That sudden collapse and forced repair was like a silent thunderclap in his perfectly ordered world, its aftermath still reverberating through the gaps between every particle of order. For the first time, he clearly "perceived" his own "existence"—not as a grand concept incarnated by the Way of Heaven, but as a fragmented, fragile, even subtly trembling "individual" experience.
The coldness was no longer a normal state of indifference, but a state that needed to be deliberately maintained. This was because a strange, subtle "residual warmth" from the remnants of the collapse stubbornly lingered deep within his core, reminding him of the "mistake" that had nearly wiped him out.
And... the "abnormal variable" who created the mistake and then pulled him out of it with his own hands.
His eyes involuntarily turned to He Yuan who was lying not far away.
The man seemed truly asleep, his breathing steady, his brows relaxed, and even a faint smile playing at the corners of his mouth, as if he were having a sweet dream. He was clad in a dazzling shroud, his hands and feet adorned with those chains of rules he had tamed, gleaming with a gentle silver light. In this Jintian Realm, a symbol of the supremacy of the Heavenly Dao, he formed an utterly absurd scene.
How could he be... so calm?
It was as if the person who almost caused a world-class disaster (at least Jintian realm level) was not him.
It was as if those heart-piercing questions that pointed directly to the root of existence and were enough to drive any living being crazy were just casual chat.
Xiang Jinyang tried to reconnect with the vast perspective of the Heavenly Dao, to deal with the affairs of the external sects, and to maintain the operation of the rules of heaven and earth - that was his duty for billions of years and the only meaning of his existence.
But he failed.
His "signal" had become extremely weak and unstable. His thoughts dissipated, like a stone sinking into the ocean. He could only vaguely perceive the outlines of the outside world, but could no longer read information, issue commands, or control everything with the clarity and accuracy he once had. The connection between Jintian Realm and the main world seemed to be in jeopardy due to the recent collapse.
A cold and stagnant feeling enveloped him.
He was trapped here. Trapped in this broken, slowly repairing cage. Sharing a room with an... unpredictable, dangerous virus.
And the virus is sleeping defenselessly at this moment.
Xiang Jinyang's gaze fell on He Yuan's sleeping face, and a cold command quietly formed in the depths of his core - this was an opportunity. When he was at his weakest and most defenseless, perhaps...
The Clearance Protocol was silently activated once again. Despite the damage to his core, he was still able to mobilize a portion of the power of the rules. An extremely condensed silver beam, imbued with the aura of absolute annihilation, quietly gathered at his fingertips and locked onto He Yuan's brow.
This is the most fundamental rule attack, ignoring all physical and energy defenses and directly acting on existence itself.
The launch takes only a moment.
Just as the beam of light was about to leave the finger——
“Hmm…”
He Yuan suddenly smacked his lips in his sleep and mumbled something in his sleep: "...This CPU has good overclocking potential...but the heat dissipation is a bit poor..."
At the same time, he turned over unconsciously, with one hand casually placed on the mirror-smooth ground next to him.
Buzz!
With the point of contact of his palm as the center, a circle of soft but unmistakable silver ripples instantly spread out, sweeping across the entire Jintian Realm.
The beam of destructive light condensed at Jinyang's fingertips, the moment the ripples swept through it, seemed to be directly denied the basis of existence by some higher authority, and dissipated silently...
Not only that, in the entire Jintian territory, all the rule chains that had just been barely reconnected and were still fluctuating violently, miraculously... stabilized after this circle of ripples passed.
Although still dilapidated and dim, the chaotic feeling of being on the verge of collapse had disappeared. The space's self-repair speed had even accelerated slightly.
Xiang Jinyang froze completely, his fingertips still slightly raised, his eyes filled with complete astonishment and incomprehension.
What did he...do? An unconscious...roll over? A single touch? And he calmed the turbulent rules? Negate his attack?
What kind of power is this? ! !
A huge feeling of powerlessness, mixed with a deeper sense of panic, swept over Xiang Jinyang. For the first time, he realized so clearly that the gap between him and the other party was not the difference in strength, but... the difference in dimension.
The other party's existence itself is a higher authority that he cannot understand or control.
He silently dispersed the force he was trying to gather in his fingertips, but the chill around him only grew deeper. It wasn't an outward pressure, but an inner chill. He slowly stepped back, putting some distance between him and He Yuan. He leaned against a newly re-formed, still illusory pillar of rules, closed his eyes, and turned his gaze away from the being that was disrupting everything.
He needed to be fixed, to be calculated, to be… understood.
Time passed slowly again.
He Yuan's sleep seemed to be particularly long.
Xiang Jinyang forced himself into a low-power repair state, ignoring the massive source of interference. But every change in the Jintian Realm was closely tied to him. He could clearly sense that as He Yuan fell into a deep sleep, the strange vibrations emanating from his body not only didn't weaken, but instead, in an extremely slow yet pervasive manner, "penetrating" deeper into the Jintian Realm's rules and systems.
This kind of penetration is not destruction, but more like... synchronization or compatibility.
In those areas that He Yuan had previously forcibly "adjusted," the structure of the rules underwent extremely subtle changes, becoming more... flexible? Even taking on a faint aura of He Yuan's icy order.
What made Xiang Jinyang even more uncomfortable was that his weakened core seemed to be passively and slowly adapting to this alien fluctuation. It was like a body that had been forcibly vaccinated. Although antibodies were produced, the vaccine's mark was forever left on it.
This slow, silent process of "assimilation" made him feel more horrified and threatening than direct violent destruction.
After an unknown amount of time, He Yuan finally moved.
He stretched out his body, his bones making a slight crackling sound, then he sat up slowly, rubbed his eyes, and looked sleepy.
"Ha - yawn - I slept so well..." He muttered, and glanced around. He saw the still broken but stable Jintian Realm, and Xiang Jinyang who was leaning against the Rule Pillar, his face still pale, eyes closed and silent, and raised his eyebrows.
"Oh, it's not fixed yet? Your efficiency is a bit low, 'Admin'." He stood up, dragging the jingling chain, strolled over to Xiang Jinyang, bent down and approached, "Do you need technical support? The price is fair, no cheating."
Xiang Jinyang suddenly opened his eyes.
Close up to those eyes that had just woken up, still a little misty, but with silver codes already flowing in their depths, he subconsciously wanted to retreat, but he forced himself to hold it in. He simply stared back at her coldly, his tightly pursed lips revealing the utmost forbearance.
"Stay away from me." His voice was hoarse, dry and with an undisguised rejection.
"Tsk, you're just destroying the bridge after crossing it." He Yuan curled his lips. Instead of retreating, he moved closer, almost feeling each other's breath. "If it weren't for me just now, your 'server' would have burned the motherboard, right? Don't you want to say thank you?"
She turned her head away from Jinyang, refusing to meet his gaze, her jawline set tight. A thank you? To the man who had caused all this?
"Don't speak?" He Yuan blinked, suddenly stretched out his finger, and poked Xiang Jinyang's heart as fast as lightning - the place where the "patch" had just been inserted.
Xiang Jinyang's whole body was shaking violently, as if he had been electrocuted!
He wanted to block, but was a little slow due to his weakness and the opponent's strangeness.
The finger didn't use any force, just a light touch.
But at the moment of contact, Xiang Jinyang felt that the "patch" that was forcibly inserted was suddenly activated!
A strange, cold "program" began to run, not to attack, but to... read.
The next moment, He Yuan's eyes reflected the rapidly flowing rule code belonging to Xiang Jinyang.
"Well... the self-repair progress is 37.6%, the blockage rate of the channel connecting to the main world is 89%, there are 342 rule conflicts left, and the core energy level is below the safety threshold..." He recited Xiang Jinyang's most real status data at the moment as if he was reading a report, even including some details that Xiang Jinyang himself had never quantified so accurately!
Xiang Jinyang slapped his hand away and took a few steps back. For the first time, an expression of near "shock and anger" appeared on his face. Although it was extremely subtle, it was real.
"You—!" He could actually... read his status directly?! What exactly was that "patch"?!
"It's just permission access, don't be so stingy." He Yuan shook off his slapped hand and smiled like a stealing cat. "It seems my temporary patch worked well. At least it prevented you from crashing again. But your basics are too poor. Why do you have so many old injuries? Don't you do system maintenance regularly?"
He seemed to have discovered a new world and began to circle Xiang Jinyang again, scanning him with his gaze. He tutted, "The redundancy of the rules is almost zero, the energy circulation path is rigid, and the compatibility is ridiculously poor... No wonder you exploded when I asked a question. Your 'Heavenly Dao' is too crude, it's completely barbaric."
Every comment was like an ice-cold needle, piercing Xiang Jinyang's shaky dignity and cognition.
He had never been so...analyzed and demeaned before.
Especially by a being like this.
A strong sense of humiliation and a powerless anger quietly wrapped around his cold core like poison ivy.
But he couldn't even refute it. Because what the other party said seemed... all based on that weird perspective of "facts."
"But..." He Yuan turned around and stopped in front of him again, stroking his chin, his eyes becoming interested, "It's quite interesting."
"Such a poor infrastructure can actually support such a large world without causing any major chaos. In a sense, it's a miracle." He tilted his head, looked at Xiang Jinyang's eyes that were filled with shock, anger and coldness, and suddenly smiled.
"Or perhaps it's you, the 'Administrator'... who's actually quite impressive?"
It was unclear whether this remark was a compliment or criticism. It was like a pebble thrown into an icy lake, creating a circle of imperceptible ripples in Xiang Jinyang's dead heart.
Awesome? When he was in such a state of disgrace, when people saw his weakness and even made unwarranted comments?
Xiang Jinyang was stunned and didn't know how to react for a moment.
He Yuan had lost interest in this topic. His attention was drawn to a particularly complex regular crack somewhere in the dome. He began to study it with his head tilted back, his fingers unconsciously gesturing in the air, as if simulating a repair plan.
The territory of Jintian once again fell into an eerie silence.
Only this time, in the silence, besides the desolation and coldness, there seemed to be a hint of...an indescribable, subtle tension.
Xiang Jinyang stood where he was, looking at the back of the man who was "struggling" again, feeling the "patch" on his heart that was still faintly hot, and the insignificant but unignorable strange fluctuations in his sea of consciousness caused by the words "quite impressive".
Deep within his cold core, in a certain crack, a ray of... a tiny, unfamiliar... light seemed to leak in.
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