187: Chapter 187: The Rating Black Box Exposure Plan

The night was as dark as ink. Inside the dilapidated Audit room of Hengchuan Peak, only a few dim blue spirit lamps flickered.

Wen Xi sat cross-legged in mid-air, a waterfall of crazily flowing data before her. This was not just data from Qingheng Sect; what she was doing was staging an unprecedented "home invasion" within this Immortal Realm, which was tightly monitored by the War Debt Bureau.

"External data access level: Advanced."

The System's red alert buzzed in Wen Xi's ears, as if a Heavenly Dao thunderbolt would strike down the very next second.

[Warning] Attempting cross-Sect access to the historical rating database... Potential trigger: Highest-level lockdown by the Evaluation Bureau.

"Lockdown, my ass."

Wen Xi let out a cold snort, her fingers moving so fast in the Void Realm that they left only afterimages. "Since you don't play by the rules, don't blame me for stripping you down to your underwear. As long as the data stream is large enough, they won't be able to distinguish between my requests and normal Karma echoes."

As she slammed the enter key for the final time, a muffled roar exploded in the Void Realm.

Massive charts, like ancient scrolls, unfurled within the Audit room. These were not ordinary paper; they were the bloodiest truths of the Nine Provinces Immortal Realm from the past few decades.

The left column listed those glamorous, prestigious Sects: Liujin Peak, Tianyin Valley, Myriad Beast Villa...

The right column listed those obscure, or even extinct, small Sects.

"Look at this." Wen Xi pointed to the top left corner of the screen. "Liujin Peak, war casualty rate over the past ten years: 0.5%. Rating: S+. Loan interest rate: Extremely low."

She then dragged out a piece of data from the right side that looked like a ruin: "Chixiao Sword Sect, ten years ago, to protect a Mortal city, eighty percent of the entire peak died. Rating: D. Afterward, because they couldn't pay the interest, they were forcibly subjected to a merger and exterminated."

"Is this the logic of the Heavenly Dao?" Shen Xingzhou looked at the two sets of data, feeling it was absurd to the extreme. "Not having people die makes a good Sect? Having people die makes them trash?"

"No, this isn't just a logic problem."

Wen Xi's eyes sharpened, and she pressed her palms together. "System, build a 'War Casualty – Rating Rationality' dual-variable model. Input all sample data and perform a regression analysis."

Hum—! In the center of the Audit room, a massive three-dimensional coordinate System formed instantly. Countless points of light were distributed within it, which should have formed a regular curve—that is, "the higher the war casualty rate, the lower the rating."

However, reality was cruel. Two distinct curves clearly split on the screen.

One was the "Normal Curve": high war casualties, lower ratings. This line was densely packed with those small, extinct Sects, like a pile of abandoned corpses.

The other was the "Abnormal Curve": war casualties were unbelievably low (some even 0.01%), yet ratings soared all the way to S-rank. This line hovered high above, floating overhead; that was the position of those top-tier major Sects.

"Zero casualties is impossible." Shen Xingzhou stared at that abnormal curve. "Unless they never go to the battlefield at all, or... someone is helping them erase the data."

Below the abnormal curve, the System added a shocking annotation:

[Model Analysis Result] Anomaly Judgment: Suspected: War Casualty Transfer (shifting casualties onto affiliated Sects or Loose Cultivator Alliances). Suspected: Algorithmic Favoritism (the rating System contains weighted parameters targeting specific factions). Conclusion: Credit rating is not evaluating 'credit' at all. It is evaluating 'who is helping the War Debt Bureau harvest leeks.'

Once these words appeared, the entire Audit room fell into a deathly silence.

This was the black box. This was the fundamental reason why Sects like Qingheng Sect, which desperately saved people, were rated C-, while those major Sects that only knew how to survive by cowardice were placed on pedestals.

"Evidence is conclusive." Su Ciyao had drifted in at some point, holding a handful of melon seeds, cracking them with a crisp sound. She looked at the two split curves, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

"Now it's easy. Since they don't play by the rules of martial virtue, we'll do something big."

Su Ciyao clapped her hands, and the melon seed shells scattered into the air. "Come, come, let's start a livestream planning meeting."

She waved her hand, and a huge virtual whiteboard appeared before everyone.

"This data is too professional. Those Disciples from Mortal backgrounds won't understand it, and those old fossils who only know how to Cultivate behind closed doors won't bother looking at it. What we need to tell is not a report, but a story."

Su Ciyao picked up a pen and wrote a few large question marks on the whiteboard: "Who decides you have 'High Credit'?" "Who decides you are 'Loss-Making and Awaiting Death'?"

She turned around to face Shen Xingzhou and Wen Xi, her eyes bright. "We'll do a special program. We won't talk about complex algorithms; we'll just ask a few questions: Why do those who fight with their lives die? Why do those who lie live? Why did our life-saving money become their so-called 'Demon Race interference'?"

"We need to translate this pile of dry data into every wronged heart."

The System immediately responded to her plan and automatically generated a gleaming program outline.

[Special Livestream Proposal] Title: "What Exactly Is Nine Provinces Credit Evaluating?—An Open Audit on Life and Death." Core Content: Display the "Double Curve" comparison chart to expose rating double standards. Announce the absurd comparison between Qingheng Sect's real war casualties and their downgraded rating. Launch a "Real War Casualty Mass Report" for all Sects (and even the entire Nine Provinces). Expected Effect: Public opinion explosion. The credibility of the credit rating System drops to zero.

Meanwhile, ten thousand miles away, at the headquarters of the War Debt Bureau. In the surveillance hall, an officer on duty ran in panic before Lord Bai Heng.

"My Lord! Over at Qingheng Sect... they have released a livestream reservation!"

"Oh?" Lord Bai Heng held his teacup, his movements pausing slightly.

On the big screen, that shocking title was displayed prominently. Lord Bai Heng looked at the title, his face devoid of any anger, instead revealing a meaningful smile.

"'What Exactly Is Nine Provinces Credit Evaluating'... What a bold claim." He took a light sip of tea, the aroma of the tea curling in the air.

"My Lord, should we cut off their Spirit Network signal? Ban the spread of such rumors?" The officer on duty asked anxiously.

Lord Bai Heng waved his hand, signaling him to withdraw. "Cut it? Let them broadcast."

Lord Bai Heng looked at Shen Xingzhou's calm face on the screen, his eyes deep. "This Immortal Realm is too quiet, quiet like a stagnant pool. Since these young people want to throw a stone, let them throw it. I want to see if this stone can stir up waves or if it will drown them instead."

"Monitor the data trends closely. Especially... see how many people will respond to them."

Back to Hengchuan Peak. The moment before the livestream started, the System interface suddenly underwent a violent tremor. It wasn't a malfunction, but an evolution.

Shen Xingzhou felt that the System seemed to have awakened from its passive "Recorder" state into an active "Connector."

[System Upgrade: Public Opinion Linkage Mode] Status: Enabled. New Features Unlocked: All-Channel Broadcast: Ignore geographical Restrictions, force push to the eyes of all Cultivators with Karma markers. Audience Interaction: Allow audience to perform real-time data voting and feedback. Anonymous Data Collection: Open a temporary channel to allow external Sects/Loose Cultivators to anonymously submit real war casualty data. Note: The larger the data volume and the richer the samples, the stronger the impact on the existing rating algorithm.

This was not just a livestream; this was a "coup" launched with data.

Shen Xingzhou took a deep breath, looking at that huge "Start Broadcast" button. Once pressed, there would be no turning back. He would not only be an enemy of the War Debt Bureau; he would become the public enemy of the entire vested interest group.

"Whatever." Shen Xingzhou's finger fell heavily. "Start broadcast!"

As the livestream signal started, a visible torrent of information instantly burst through the poverty-stricken Restriction of Hengchuan Peak, spreading toward the entire Nine Provinces Immortal Realm.

And in that dimension invisible to Mortals, in the gloomy and dark Yellow Springs Backend. In that massive palace piled high with books of life and death, the little ghost responsible for maintenance suddenly stopped the abacus in its hand. The "Human World Karma Monitoring Mirror" before it, which had always been calm, suddenly rippled violently.

On the mirror surface, a line of bright red warning text emerged. [Event Marker: Public questioning of the "Karma Rating System" in the human world.] Risk Assessment: The fundamental logic of "Karma = Credit" is being shaken. May lead to large-scale disconnection of Karma chains. Handling Suggestion: Immediately report to the Heavenly Dao Audit layer. Should the "Sample Observation Program" be enabled? To confirm if there is intervention from a higher-dimensional will.

The little ghost looked at this suggestion tremblingly; it dared not make a decision on its own and could only tremble as it presented this dossier.

At the end of the dossier, where a signature was awaited, a string of blurred divine names appeared. The handwriting was vigorous and archaic, bearing a mottled sense of being eroded by time. Vaguely, it looked like the handwriting of some long-fallen Old Gods.

And right next to that blurred name, a tiny point of light was quietly lighting up in the darkness of the Yellow Springs. That was Shen Xingzhou's livestream signal, reflecting into the abyss of death.