Tiger Feeder
The deathly silence of Jintian Realm was broken by a new sound—He Yuan's humming, a strange, intermittent melody, like some otherworldly coded tune, strangely coinciding with the silvery trajectory his fingertips traced in the air. He was completely absorbed in deconstructing the complex, rhythmic cracks in the dome, seemingly oblivious to the presence of the incarnation of the Heavenly Dao, who had just been angered to the point of losing his composure.
Xiang Jinyang leaned against the cold pillar of rules, attempting to regroup his strength and excise that damned, backdoor-like "patch" from his core. With every exertion of his strength, he could clearly sense the alien code, like the most stubborn virus, deeply embedded in the very foundation of his rules, creating an extremely unpleasant entanglement with his source power. It not only read his state, but also seemed to slowly and irreversibly alter certain subtle patterns in the flow of his power.
This feeling of being contaminated and assimilated was more unbearable for him than the direct trauma.
He tried seventeen different rule-stripping algorithms, and even used part of the origin of the Heavenly Dao to flush it, but the result only made his own state weaker. The "patch" was still as solid as a mountain, and even because of his fierce "rejection reaction", it even actively fed back alarm information to his consciousness.
[Warning: Core energy levels continue to decline, falling below the critical value of 22%] [Warning: Forcibly stripping away unknown modules may trigger a chain reaction risk, with an estimated risk rate of 65.4%] [Suggestion: Maintain the current state and prioritize basic energy replenishment]
Cold, He Yuan-style data prompts flashed in his mind like pop-up windows.
Xiang Jinyang clenched his fists violently, his knuckles turning white from the strain. Like a poisonous fire, a near-violent emotion burned through his perfectly rational core. He forcibly suppressed this unfamiliar surge of emotion, labeling it a "system error" and isolating it.
Energy replenishment... He needed spiritual energy, the purest, source spiritual energy that didn't require much transformation. The Jintian Realm itself was a huge source of energy, but after its recent collapse and self-repair, the regular spiritual energy here had become chaotic and difficult to absorb directly.
His eyes subconsciously swept across the ruined area, and finally fell on the culprit.
He Yuan continued to study the crack, but his body seemed like an invisible vortex. The still stable, pure spiritual energy within the Jintian Realm was spontaneously and gently converging towards him, like rivers flowing into the sea, merging into his body without hindrance. He didn't even need to deliberately activate his energy; the spiritual energy seemed to have found its absolute master, vying to complete its transformation and absorption.
The efficiency is outrageous.
Xiang Jinyang watched this scene. Deep in his glass-colored eyes, the chain of rules flickered again due to the intense calculations.
Seize it by force? It would be impossible to succeed, and might even trigger uncontrollable consequences. Request? Ask a prisoner, a virus, for energy? Where was the dignity of Heaven? Wait for his own slow recovery? The time was too long, the variables were too numerous. He couldn't tolerate himself remaining in this weak and controlled state for too long.
Just as his computing core began to stagnate again due to this dilemma, He Yuan over there seemed to have finally lost his patience with the crack.
"It's too troublesome to fix, so I might as well just block this error log." He muttered to himself, raising his hand to type a piece of silver code at the crack.
"No!" Xiang Jinyang blurted out, his voice carrying an urgency that he himself didn't even notice.
That regular crack is related to the temporal balance of the four seasons in the outside world. If it is roughly "blocked" instead of being repaired step by step, countless areas in the outside world will instantly fall into climate disorder and all living things will suffer.
He Yuan's hand paused in mid-air. He turned around and looked at him in confusion. "Huh? Why? This code has obvious errors and affects the overall operating efficiency."
"It governs the time sequence of the lower realm." Xiang Jinyang's voice was cold and hard, with a suppressed tone, "Don't act rashly."
"Time sequence?" He Yuan blinked, then suddenly realized, "Oh, you mean that? It's okay. At most, blocking it will disrupt the weather there for a while. When we have time, we can just write a new time sequence rule and patch it in. It's a small problem."
He made it sound casual, as if he was just discussing deleting a useless log file.
Xiang Jinyang felt a chill rising from deep within his core. The other party's utter disregard for the world and the billions of lives he faced was more frightening than any direct malice.
"Living beings are not data." Xiang Jinyang practically gritted his teeth, uttering each word with a measured emphasis. The moment these words left his mouth, even he himself was momentarily taken aback. This wasn't a codified clause in the laws of heaven, but rather a realization... one that had never before emerged with such clarity.
He Yuan tilted his head and looked at him for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed: "Interesting. As an 'administrator' responsible for running the world, you actually consider the feelings of a single 'data'?" He put down his hand, as if he had temporarily given up the idea of shielding, and strolled back to Jin Yang, as if he had discovered a more interesting research subject.
"So, you absorb energy, maintain the operation of this world, and create rules to constrain all living things. What is your purpose? Is it just for 'order' itself?" He looked at Xiang Jinyang with interest. "It's like a computer. Its purpose is to turn on and run. As for what program is running or who is using it, it doesn't matter."
Xiang Jinyang was stumped again.
For what? Order is order. Rules are rules. The existence of Heavenly Dao is its meaning. This is the core definition engraved at its birth, and it never needs a reason.
But at this moment, this definition seemed so pale and empty under the gaze of those eyes that seemed to see through everything.
"Look," He Yuan spread his hands, "You maintain all of this, restraining all living beings, yet you yourself are so weak that you're almost out of energy. Does this mean you're... trapped by the rules you created?"
His eyes fell on Xiang Jinyang's face, which was so pale that it was almost transparent, and then swept across the dim and chaotic regular light flowing around him, and suddenly touched his chin.
"Hey, 'Admin', how about a deal?"
Xiang Jinyang looked at him warily.
"As for me, I'm new here. Although I can directly 'read' energy, my physical foundation is too poor, and the conversion output power is limited, so many of my ideas cannot be realized." He Yuan pointed at himself. "What about you? You urgently need energy to repair, but you can't bring yourself to absorb it directly, right?"
He smiled like a sly fox. "I'll 'lend' you some energy to help you stabilize your condition. In return...how about letting me study your 'authority interface'? Just a look, no tinkering. I'm curious about how you invoke the basic rules of this world."
Xiang Jinyang's pupils shrank slightly.
Opening his own energy channel to this virus? Allowing him to study the Heavenly Dao? This is tantamount to handing the highest administrator password to a hacker who can format the hard drive at any time!
"Don't even think about it." He refused coldly.
"Don't be so quick to refuse." He Yuan wasn't angry either. "You can supervise me. Besides, how long can you last in your current state? What if some demon outside takes the opportunity to cause trouble, or if your Jintian realm collapses again? I may not be able to rescue you every time."
His words were like the whispers of a demon, accurately piercing Xiang Jinyang's deepest concerns. Weakness, loss of control, responsibility, hidden dangers...
"It's just energy conversion, very simple." He Yuan stretched out his hand, palm facing up. A wisp of extremely pure silver energy, yet with his unique cold order, slowly condensed, like a small, tempting vortex. "It will only benefit you. Or... are you afraid of me?"
He deliberately slowed down his speech for the last three words, with obvious provocation.
Xiang Jinyang stared at the silver energy, then looked at He Yuan's eyes that were flashing with calculation and interest.
His mind frantically warned him that this was a desperate measure. But the situation was pressing, and he seemed to have no choice. Furthermore, the purity and affinity emanating from that energy was truly an irresistible temptation in his current weakened state.
A long silence stretched between the two.
Finally, Xiang Jinyang raised his hand extremely slowly and with great difficulty.
He didn't take the energy, but instead condensed a tiny bit of Heavenly Dao's original power from his fingertips, which hovered in mid-air like an encrypted verification interface. This was the greatest compromise and defense he could make.
"Just this once." His voice was extremely dry. "It's limited to energy conversion."
"Deal!" He Yuan readily agreed, a glint of success in his eyes. The silver energy at his fingertips seemed to possess a life of its own, actively entwining itself around him, cautiously and tentatively touching the interface of the Heavenly Dao's origin.
At the moment when the two forces came into contact——
Buzz!
An indescribable, strong sense of resonance instantly swept over the two of them!
Xiang Jinyang's entire body trembled violently, feeling a cold and overwhelming force pouring into his dried-up core of rules like a flood. The speed was unimaginably fast, and the efficiency was shockingly high! That energy needed no transformation; it was directly absorbed and utilized by his origin, as if it were born from the same source!
What shocked him even more was that during this energy exchange, he felt that his own "authority", his knowledge and understanding of the rules of this world, were uncontrollably and passively flowing to the other party through this interface!
He Yuan closed his eyes, a look of extreme satisfaction and joy on his face, as if he had tasted a supreme delicacy. He was not only receiving the "knowledge" that was passively flowing out to Jin Yang, but he was also actively and greedily analyzing the most fundamental laws of the core of the Heavenly Dao through this connection!
"So that's how it is... This is how the world barrier is constructed... The underlying protocol of the reincarnation of creatures is quite interesting... Tsk, there's a hidden backdoor here..." He muttered unconsciously, and every word made Xiang Jinyang tremble with fear!
He wanted to sever the connection, but found himself addicted. His weak core was madly absorbing the highly effective energy, unwilling to stop at all! Moreover, once the connection was established, the initiative seemed to fall completely into the hands of the other party!
This is not a trade! This is plunder! This is parasitism!
For the first time, clear shock and anger appeared in Xiang Jinyang's eyes. He tried to interrupt it forcibly, but it caused his own rules to shake violently again, and the trace of energy that had just recovered almost dissipated again.
"Don't move." He Yuan suddenly opened his eyes, a silver light shining brightly in his eyes, with an unquestionable control. "The energy transmission is not stable yet, do you want to collapse again?"
There was a hint of command in his tone.
Xiang Jinyang froze, the humiliation tightening around his heart like a vine. He, the incarnation of Heaven, was being controlled by a prisoner!
Energy poured in continuously, repairing his wounds, stabilizing his rules, and even restoring a barely perceptible hint of color to his pale face.
But the price was that he felt like he was being "looked at" from inside out by the other party.
After an unknown amount of time, He Yuan finally felt satisfied and took the initiative to cut off the energy connection.
"Alright, initial charging complete." He withdrew his hand and licked his lips, as if he had just had a hearty meal. His eyes lit up surprisingly brightly. "Although your 'system' architecture is outdated, the underlying database is quite rich."
Xiang Jinyang abruptly withdrew his hand and retreated several steps, breathing rapidly. A faint blush, though fleeting, appeared on his face from the anger and the impact of the energy just now. He felt as if he had been thoroughly robbed. Although his body was no longer so weak, it seemed as if something more important had been lost.
"You..." His voice trembled, filled with tremendous anger, but he seemed a little lacking in confidence because of the comfort brought by the damn energy replenishment.
"Don't worry, I told you I was just checking it out." He Yuan smiled, feeling very happy. "But having said that, your 'Administrator' account has really high permissions, but it's so underutilized. Many functions are not enabled, which is a waste."
He was like a child who had received a new toy. He began to pace around excitedly, gesturing with his fingers in the air.
"For example, this is the All Things Growth Protocol. You actually just let it run on its own? What a waste! If you add an optimization instruction here, the spiritual plant output will at least triple!" "And this, the energy circulation network, the node distribution is extremely unreasonable! If you re-plan it, the overall spiritual energy concentration can be increased by several percentage points!" "The most outrageous thing is this! The world bug feedback mechanism was actually shut down? No wonder so many old injuries have not been repaired!"
With every word he spoke, Xiang Jinyang's expression darkened. Those were extremely profound laws governing the operation of the universe, some of which he had never even delved into. Yet, he was casually reciting them as if commenting on an elementary school student's homework, even suggesting optimization solutions!
This bastard...how much did he just peek at through the connection?!
"Ah, I found it!" He Yuan suddenly stopped, his eyes lighting up. "The underlying definition library for 'self' and 'consciousness'... is indeed empty! Or perhaps the access rights have been deliberately locked?"
He turned his head suddenly and looked at Xiang Jinyang with burning eyes, excited as if he had discovered the ultimate mystery.
"So, it's not that you don't have it, but... you can't have it? Who set this rule for you? Your 'creator'?"
Xiang Jinyang was struck by lightning, and his whole body froze in place, with the last trace of blood on his face draining away completely.
Creator... That name, that existence, is the highest taboo in the deepest part of his rules, which absolutely cannot be touched or mentioned!
For the first time in billions of years, cold fear gripped his heart so clearly.
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