8: Chapter 8 Zhongzhou City Gate

When the city walls of Zhongzhou emerged at the end of his vision, Lin Xu felt a certain pressure.

It wasn't physical. The walls were hundreds of feet high, built of green bricks with flowing talismans, a miracle in the eyes of Mortal. But in Source Text Vision, it was a fortress. Not military, but informational. Filtering, classifying, controlling.

[Object: Zhongzhou City Wall Outer Defense System] [Type: Composite Array Physical Defense + Identity Verification + Behavior Prediction] [Status: Operating Normally] [Note: Multi-layered nested structure detected; layer-by-layer analysis recommended]

"Master," Su Xiaoman stood on her tiptoes, "is that Zhongzhou? Is it a thousand times bigger than the Marquis Mansion?"

"Ten thousand times," Lin Xu said, "and it's not just big."

He pointed toward the top of the city wall. Something invisible to ordinary people was suspended there. A golden light screen, like a dome, a lid, or the user interface of some massive system.

"That's the Heavenly Net Array," an old man from a nearby caravan interjected. "No one below the Golden Core stage can fly in, and no one below the Nascent Soul stage can tunnel in. Zhongzhou is a place of rules."

Lin Xu smiled. Not in agreement, but in reading. It was the excitement of seeing the code of the rules.

"Rules," he said, "are for those who follow them."

"And we are here to learn the rules."

The city gate was an interface.

Not a metaphor, but literal. Lin Xu stood in line, watching every person entering the city being scanned, classified, and tagged.

[Object: 7th in the queue of entrants ahead] [Identity: Rogue Cultivator, Mid-Foundation Establishment] [Tag: No abnormalities, passage permitted] [Aura Tax: 3-day portion prepaid]

[Object: 4th in the queue of entrants ahead] [Identity: Merchant, Mortal] [Tag: No abnormalities, passage permitted] [Aura Tax: Exempt (Mortal Quota)]

[Object: 2nd in the queue of entrants ahead] [Identity: Sect Disciple, Early Golden Core] [Tag: VIP-3 Fast Track] [Aura Tax: Annual prepayment, no on-site payment required]

Hierarchy. Not hidden, but public and flaunted. A design meant to let everyone see the disparity.

"Next!"

It was Lin Xu's turn. He walked toward the scanning array, not with nervousness, but with preparation. He was entering a debugging state.

[Scan Initiated] [Object: Lin Xu (Self-declared identity: Concubine-born son of Zhenbei Marquis Mansion, Founder of Open Source Sect)] [Surface Cultivation: Early Foundation Establishment] [Deep Scan:]

The critical moment.

Lin Xu felt something penetrate him. It wasn't physical; it was information extraction. The system was reading his logs.

But he was already prepared.

[Object: Lin Xu's Behavior Log (Past 72 hours)] [Content: Large amount of normal NPC behavior patterns] [Includes: Obedience to authority, desire for resources, fear of death] [Includes: Abnormal, contradictory, frantic, incomprehensible behaviors] [System Evaluation: Mentally unstable, low threat, low value]

[Comparison: Anomalous Data No. 9527-001 Historical Records] [Similarity: 23%, below the 50% threshold] [Conclusion: Not the same person, or target has lost anomalous characteristics]

[Anomaly Tag: None]

Success.

Not a deception, but an accepted performance. A logic bomb's delayed activation.

"Pass," the gate-keeping cultivator said lazily while flipping through a jade slip. "Lin Xu of the Zhenbei Marquis Mansion? The Alchemist Guild sent a record three days ago and arranged a temporary student status for you. Go in, and don't cause trouble."

Lin Xu nodded and took the jade slip. Not out of gratitude, but for analysis.

[Object: Temporary Student Jade Slip] [Type: Identifiable and Traceable] [Note: Actively provided by the Alchemist Guild; suspected to be an investment, a gesture of goodwill, or a probe]

"Alchemist Guild?" Su Xiaoman asked softly.

"The 'Spirit-Devouring Insect Dormancy Technique' has been indexed," Lin Xu said. "In exchange, they gained the rights to disseminate and observe it."

"This is the price of open source," he added, "and also the power of open source."

"They need our knowledge. We need their passage."

"This is a transaction, not trust."

Entering the city gate, the pressure doubled.

Not hostility, but density. Density of spiritual energy, density of information, density of possibilities.

Source Text Vision was nearly overloaded.

[System Prompt: High-density spiritual energy nodes detected] [Quantity: Approximately 12,000 miniature Gathering Spirit Arrays] [Distribution: Extremely uneven; concentration in the core area is 50 times that of the slums] [Note: Obvious traces of artificial optimization; suspected physical implementation of a resource allocation algorithm]

"Fifty times," Lin Xu murmured to himself, "the same model as the market."

"But larger, more exquisite, and more unshakable."

He looked toward the core area. There were golden towers, the academy, and her.

[Distant Scan: Firewall signature signal detected] [Source: Zhongzhou Cultivation Academy Core Area] [Status: Long-distance tracking, not yet locked] [Identification: Yun Qingyi, Descendant of the Heavenly Dao Firewall]

"She is waiting," Lin Xu said, not to Su Xiaoman, but to himself.

"Or, she is hunting."

The temporary cave dwelling they rented was on the edge of the slums.

Not out of poverty, but strategy. Establishing a base on the edge of the system's blind spot.

"Master," Su Xiaoman said as she arranged the simple furnishings, "where are we going first?"

"First, we audit," Lin Xu said, sitting cross-legged in the center of an array, "this city."

Source Text Vision expanded to its full extent. Not to attack, but to read. To become a reader of the system, rather than just being read.

[Scan results are shocking]

Spiritual Energy Allocation: The concentration in the VIP area and the academy core is 50 times that of the slums. It's not naturally formed but artificially optimized. The miniature Gathering Spirit Array nodes floating in the air are like countless Wi-Fi signal boosters.

Technique Dissemination: All public cultivation techniques have backdoors embedded. Upon reaching a specific realm, cultivation data is automatically uploaded to the central server.

Heavenly Tribulation Warning: Not a natural phenomenon, but an artificially triggered authority assessment. The pass rate is artificially regulated.

"This isn't a cultivation city," Lin Xu said to Su Xiaoman, "it's a massive Test Server."

"Testing what?"

"Testing which cultivation system is more efficient." Lin Xu pointed toward the golden towers outside. "Someone is collecting data and optimizing algorithms. We cultivators are all experimental subjects."

Su Xiaoman shuddered. "Then why did we come here?"

"Precisely because it is a Test Server," Lin Xu's lips curled up, "there must be bugs to exploit."

He unfurled the admission invitation obtained from the Alchemist Guild. Zhongzhou Cultivation Academy, Talisman Department, special recruitment slot.

"The assessment is tomorrow," Lin Xu put away the invitation. "Let's see the level of these seeds cultivated by the GMs."

Late at night, his meditation was interrupted.

Not a danger, but an invitation.

[Object: Alchemist Guild Representative (Anonymous)] [Type: Encrypted Projection Communication] [Content: Proposal for a meeting to discuss cooperation] [Note: Unofficial channel, suspected individual action]

Lin Xu accepted.

The projection appeared as an old man, but the underlying data showed a young woman. A disguise?

"Fellow Daoist Lin," the projection spoke, "the Alchemist Guild's higher-ups are very interested in your 'Spirit-Devouring Insect Dormancy Technique'."

"'Interested,'" Lin Xu responded, "is that a euphemism for wanting to control it?"

The projection flickered—an unexpected reaction to an expected situation.

"Blunt," the projection stabilized, "good. Then let's be blunt."

"The Guild wants exclusive dissemination rights. In exchange, they will provide core resources, access permissions, and protection."

"Protection," Lin Xu repeated, "protection from what?"

"From the upcoming purge."

The projection lowered its voice—not physically, but through protocol-level encryption.

"You've been tagged," it said. "Not by the system here. Higher up. A certain player or similar entity is interested in you."

"Such interest is not always benevolent."

Lin Xu remained silent. Not out of ignorance, but confirmation of what he already knew.

"I refuse exclusivity," he said. "The core of open source is that it cannot be monopolized."

"But I accept dialogue. Continuous, open dialogue."

"And information exchange. You provide details about the purge. I provide technical updates."

The projection was silent for a longer time.

Then it dissipated.

Not a refusal, but another form of acceptance.

The darkest hour before dawn.

Lin Xu stood alone by the window.

Source Text Vision captured a certain fluctuation in that direction. Not a projection, but something real, approaching.

Silver hair, shimmering in the moonlight.

Data pupils searching, locking, delaying.

Yun Qingyi. She was no longer at a distance. She had entered the same block.

Did she know he was here? Or was it just a guess?

Lin Xu did not hide. It was an invitation to his presence.

He wrote a line of text on the mist on the window. Not a spell, but a comment.

// I am here. // Read, or be read. // The choice is yours.

Then he took a step back, letting the mist dissipate and the words vanish.

But something remained. In the system logs, at the intersection of two consciousnesses.