99: Data deluge and clues in "garbled text"

Having obtained what was likely an "encrypted USB drive" (chaotic jade slip) and a "super power bank" (complete star core fragment), Wen Youyi's life became even more "fulfilling."

During the day, he had to handle the daily affairs of the Mutual Aid Society, supervise the expansion of the "ark" network and the production of "source crystal," and at night, he locked himself in the quiet room, obsessively wrestling with that Jade Slip that could blow a person's brains out.

This thing was simply an information black hole!

Every time he cautiously probed it with his Mental Energy, it felt like standing on the edge of a torrential flood; one moment of carelessness would leave him disoriented by the chaotic data stream.

Those shattered patterns, twisted runes, and broken energy trajectories... they were like fragments of a nightmare spanning eons, frantically flooding into his Sea of Consciousness.

Several times, he suffered nosebleeds from information overload, his vision went black, and he was forced to sever the connection, collapsing on the floor and panting like a dead dog.

"Boss, how about... we take a break?"

Zhao Iron Pillar looked at Wen Youyi's increasingly heavy dark circles and occasionally dazed eyes, unable to help but advise, "This thing is wicked; don't ruin your brain."

Wen Youyi waved his hand and downed a gulp of refreshing medicinal tea, his eyes shining unusually bright: "It's fine, I can handle it! Your boss doesn't have many virtues, but I'm stubborn and resilient!"

He had a strong premonition that this Jade Slip must contain crucial information!

It might be about the truth of this world, the weaknesses of the "Creation Heavenly Court," or perhaps even... a way to escape this "Ranch"!

This temptation made it impossible for him to give up.

However, brute-forcing it was not the solution.

Wen Youyi began to leverage his expertise as a programmer, attempting to use more "scientific" methods to process this data.

He no longer tried to understand the meaning of every single fragment, but instead, like handling garbled code, he began to "classify" and perform "pattern recognition" on the incoming information.

He gathered a large number of blank Jade Slips and recorded the recurring or structurally similar patterns and rune fragments separately.

He tried to find the correlations between these fragments, even if it was just the most subtle pattern.

This process was extremely tedious, like finding a needle in a haystack.

But Wen Youyi enjoyed it; it allowed him to regain the feeling of staying up all night debugging programs in his past life.

Hard work pays off.

After experiencing countless failures and brainstorming sessions, he gradually discovered some clues.

Among those seemingly chaotic rune fragments, some structures had a startling similarity to the basic waveforms of "Star Language" that he had comprehended from the star core fragment!

Although they were more complex and ancient, the core "grammatical logic" seemed to originate from the same source!

And in those shattered patterns, some similar scenes appeared repeatedly: massive structures like the net covering the heaven and earth; stars falling, the earth cracking; and also... some blurry ritual images that seemed to be constructing some kind of channel or barrier.

What made his heart race even faster was that in those broken energy operation trajectories, he pieced together several extremely fragmented cyclic paths that seemed to exist independently of the existing Cultivation System!

These paths felt faintly resonant with the energy operation mode of the "ark" network!

"I understand!"

Late one night, Wen Youyi suddenly lifted his head from a pile of Jade Slips, his bloodshot eyes flashing with ecstatic light!

"What is recorded in this Jade Slip is not some specific Cultivation Technique or history at all! It records a kind of... 'underlying architecture'! It is the 'source code' fragments regarding this world's energy rules, spatial structure, and even the principles of how the 'spirit net' itself is constructed!"

It was just that because of the long passage of time, or because it had suffered massive destruction, these "source code" became fragmented and difficult to recognize.

But even so, the value of these fragments was immeasurable!

This was like, he was originally just a programmer cautiously finding vulnerabilities and applying patches on someone else's operating System (spirit net), but now he had unexpectedly obtained the core, albeit fragmented, "source code" of this operating System!

Although he couldn't understand it all, as long as he could comprehend even a little bit of it, he could understand the operation mode of this "System" more deeply, find more, more fatal "BUGS," and even... have the opportunity to write his own "independent operating System"!

This discovery made him tremble with excitement.

He no longer tried to decipher all the information, but locked his target onto those fragments that were similar to the "Star Language" waveforms and resonated with the "ark" energy cycle!

He wanted to concentrate his firepower and first conquer this part of the "source code" that might relate to an "independent network" and "secure communication"!

With a clear direction, the decryption work, while still difficult, was finally no longer a purposeless shot in the dark.

Wen Youyi felt as if he had returned to the coder of his past life, who would stay up all night for a technical problem, suffering and happy at the same time.

He vaguely felt that when he truly deciphered these key "garbled codes," it would be the moment their "ark" would usher in another technological explosion!

Meanwhile, good news also came from Senior Brother Li.

The long-term mission issued in the name of "clearing out the remnants of evil cultivators" began to show initial results.

Successively, some Disciples and Loose Cultivators traveling outside sent in some evil objects of various shapes but with energy properties similar to "blood crystal."

Although the quantity was not large and the quality was uneven, this proved that the idea of "sustainable robbery" was feasible!

Lijian Valley, this "BUG" base hidden in a corner of the Qingxuan Sect, was secretly charging up while trying to crack the "administrator password" of this world, silently accumulating strength.

(End of chapter)