Sparks that spread across the prairie
The demonic energy outside the mountain protection formation receded like a tide. The remaining roars and cheers from within the sect were separated by a long distance and turned into vague background noise, eventually sinking completely into the dead silence of Jintian Realm.
The warmth of victory failed to touch Xiang Jinyang at all.
He closed his eyes, his face a pale pale from exhaustion, colder than the silver glow of the Jintian Realm. The forced, "live" sharing of perceptions had not only drained his already dwindling strength but also hammered a chilling realization into his core: he, the embodiment of the Heavenly Dao, had become both a springboard and an accomplice for an alien virus to spread freely throughout this world.
Humiliation, powerlessness, and a slight wavering sense of his own existential value wrapped around him like poison ivy.
The culprit, however, was obviously in a very good mood.
He Yuan stretched, his joints crackling with pleasure, his face a look of laziness and satisfaction after a full meal. "Nice harvest," he smacked his lips, savoring a feast. "That demon's energy signature is quite interesting. It's quite efficient at converting negative emotions, but the algorithm is a bit crude. With some optimization, it might make a good 'stress testing tool.'"
He actually began to think about how to use the enemy just now!
Xiang Jinyang pinched his palm with his fingertips, causing a sharp pain, which barely suppressed the fishy and sweet taste surging in his throat.
"Oh, yes, there's this." He Yuan seemed to suddenly remember something and raised his hand to casually draw in the air.
A few weak but pure energy flows, mixed with some broken rule fragments with demonic characteristics, were extracted from the void by him - those were the "trophies" from the outside battlefield that he had just intercepted.
Without even looking at them, he casually threw these energy and rule fragments, which might be extremely precious to ordinary cultivators but were not completely compatible with his own attributes, at Xiang Jinyang.
"Here, I picked this up while cleaning up the trash. It's a bargain for you."
Those energies and fragments merged unimpeded into Xiang Jinyang's weakened body. The chilling demonic energy and the purity of the Heavenly Dao's origin should have clashed violently, but under the strange power of He Yuan's icy order, their harmful properties were forcibly stripped away, leaving only the most essential nourishment, which rapidly replenished his consumption.
Xiang Jinyang's body trembled, and a faint blush of blood uncontrollably appeared on his pale face. The comfort brought by the recovery of strength was so real that it clashed fiercely with his inner resistance, almost tearing him apart.
He felt like he was being force-fed poison wrapped in honey. Even though he knew it was dangerous, his body shamefully craved the sweet taste.
"Look," He Yuan leaned over and moved closer to him, his eyes gleaming with all-seeing understanding and a touch of wicked amusement, "You say no with your mouth, but isn't your body very honest?"
His breath brushed against Xiang Jinyang's earlobe, carrying with it a cold, otherworldly sense of order.
"Admit it, 'Administrator'. You need me. Just like this broken place needs energy, just like the outside world needs rules." His voice deepened, carrying a bewitching charm. "Without me, you'd be finished. Your sect would be finished too."
"Cooperate with me, and you can get what you want—power, order, and..." He paused, his eyes sweeping across Xiang Jinyang's still frightened eyes, "...the possibility of untying those messy shackles on your body."
Xiang Jinyang suddenly opened his eyes, his glass-colored pupils suddenly filled with ice, and he said sternly: "Don't even think about it!"
Collaborate with the virus? Covet taboos? Absolutely not!
"Tsk, so stubborn." He Yuanzhi stood up, looking a little disappointed, but his eyes were full of interest. He loved to chew on such a hard bone.
He stopped pressing and began to sort out his "harvest." He raised his hand and pointed in the air. Countless streams of code, gleaming silver, intertwined, combined, and evolved like living things, analyzing, reconstructing, and optimizing the stolen magic data, magical weapon structures, and even the fragments of combat experience of the cultivators.
Soon, several completely different but astonishingly efficient improved versions of the magic technique compendium appeared, all pointing directly to the origin of the Dao; several highly effective countermeasures against the energy structure of the Demon Lord's bone banner; and even a set of stealth techniques optimized based on the magic cultivator's concealment techniques, which were enough to deceive the Heavenly Dao's perception, condensed out of thin air!
These creations exude a cold and powerful aura, completely transcending the categories of good and evil, leaving only pure and efficient "practicality".
He Yuan casually tossed aside these compendiums of secret techniques, enough to cause a bloody storm in the outside world, like trash, and began to work on something else with great interest. He tried to forcefully fuse a faint trace of demonic energy with the spiritual energy of the Jintian Realm, observing the reaction. He also intercepted a section of the Heavenly Dao's rules and tried to use the negative emotional energy of the demonic Dao to drive it...
He was like a child who got a new toy, recklessly conducting all kinds of dangerous and crazy experiments without considering the consequences.
Xiang Jinyang watched with trepidation! Any of those modified magic skills, those strange techniques, would be disastrous if leaked out! And the other party's attitude of casually toying with and wantonly blending the forces of good and evil completely overturned his millions of years of cognition!
He wanted to stop it, but he was too weak to even speak. Even more terrifying was that, deep down in his heart, in a tightly sealed corner, a shameful feeling of... curiosity arose.
The efficiency of those optimized exercises, their understanding of the essence of power, are indeed... incredible, yet damn effective!
Just then, there seemed to be a "small" accident in He Yuan's experiment.
He attempted to inject a highly compressed, "purified" magic essence into a small area of the newly repaired Jintian Realm rules, observing its assimilation reaction. However, the stability of the magic essence far exceeded his expectations. The moment it came into contact with the Heavenly Dao rules, a violent rejection explosion occurred!
"boom!"
A small area of space suddenly twisted and collapsed, and silver fragments of rules mixed with dark demonic energy flew everywhere! Although the explosion range was limited to a very small area by He Yuan in time, the chaotic, rebellious aura of destruction instantly stung Xiang Jinyang's perception!
More importantly, at the core of the explosion, a tiny but extremely pure energy dust that combined the characteristics of demonic elements and the order of heaven, splashed out like a spark, ignoring the spatial barrier of Jintian Realm and disappeared in an instant!
"Huh?" He Yuan raised an eyebrow, seeming a little surprised. "One escaped? Never mind. It's just a trivial piece of data."
Xiang Jinyang's heart suddenly sank!
That tiny speck of energy... though faint, it contained the embryonic form of a completely new, undefined law, a fusion of both good and evil! If it escaped the Jintian Realm, where would it end up in the outside world? Who would obtain it? What kind of chain reaction would it trigger?
The unknown. The huge unknown. The unknown that is completely out of our control.
And all of this stems from the alien soul beside him who does whatever he wants without any scruples!
Panic, like an icy tide, overwhelmed him again.
He looked at He Yuan, who seemed to be completely unconcerned and even thought the little explosion just now was a little interesting, and an unprecedented chill emerged from the depths of his soul.
This person doesn't care what the world will become. All he cares about is his curiosity, his experiments, and his "fun".
I am his object of observation, his source of energy, his experimental assistant, and may even be a part of his future plans.
The only thing is... that it is not an existence that needs to be cared about.
This realization made Xiang Jinyang feel colder to the bone than any direct harm.
He slowly lowered his head and looked at his hands which still had a trace of strength left.
This strength stems in part from the other party's "feeding." This recovery relies on the other party's "interest." This existence is maintained by the other party's "temporary unwillingness to destroy."
How sad.
In the Jintian territory, the only sound left was the subtle crackling sound made by He Yuan fiddling with the dangerous energies.
After an unknown amount of time, He Yuan finally seemed to have lost interest in the demonic energy and casually destroyed the dangerous experimental debris. He turned around and his gaze fell on the silent Xiang Jinyang again.
Looking at the other person's distraught and cold appearance as if abandoned by the whole world, an imperceptible glimmer flashed in his eyes.
He walked over and squatted in front of Xiang Jinyang again.
This time, he didn't say anything, but just stretched out his finger and very slowly, almost tentatively, pointed at Xiang Jinyang's chest - the place that carried the ancient shackles and had just experienced pain and fear.
Xiang Jinyang's body trembled violently, fear and resistance instantly surged in his eyes, and he subconsciously wanted to retreat.
"Don't move." He Yuan's voice was surprisingly devoid of his usual playfulness. Instead, it was strangely calm. "There was an explosion just now, and some debris seemed to have splashed over you. Let me see if there's any residual damage."
His fingertips fell without any power, just brushing the collar of Xiang Jinyang's chest very gently, as if he was really checking something.
That movement could even be described as... gentle.
Xiang Jinyang was completely frozen, his mind going blank.
The expected pain did not come, nor did the expected peeping happen.
Just a slightly cool, slightly clumsy touch.
The temperature was almost unnoticeable through the fabric.
But it was like a spark that fell into a wasteland that had been frozen for thousands of years.
It burned so hard that his soul trembled.
He Yuan quickly withdrew his hand and shrugged: "It seems to be okay."
He stood up and returned to his lazy look, as if the abnormality just now was just an illusion.
"Alright, stop looking so deadpan." He yawned. "Hurry up and restore it. Your 'server' is so unstable that many large experiments can't be run. It's holding me back."
After saying that, he no longer paid attention to Xiang Jinyang, walked aside, and started thinking about new things. This time, it seemed that he was trying to weave some gadget using rule codes.
Xiang Jinyang froze in place, one hand unconsciously covering his heart that had just been touched.
There, it's still cold.
Yet, it seemed as if something, along with that spark-like touch and the complaint of "delaying my progress", quietly and stubbornly...
The prairie fire spread like wildfire.
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