62: Chapter 62 Old Friends

On the night he returned from the Ancient Archives, Shen Ye reorganized the reference list Jiang Yue had given him in his dormitory.

There were four archival records, all with asterisks as suffixes to their catalog numbers. They corresponded respectively to the Ancient Artifact Repository at the golden spire of Shenyu University, the High-Risk Sealing Zone in the silver-white tower of Cangqiong University, the Core Heritage Pavilion at the dark green top of the Eternal University tower, and the Ancient Archives at the top of the deep blue Wanxiang Giant Tower.

Four keys, four universities, and four restricted areas that required special clearance to enter.

His finger stopped on the catalog number for Wanxiang University.

The catalog prefix for this file was "Twilight Civilization," belonging to the most core, undisclosed area of the Ancient Archives, requiring B-level borrowing clearance—internal researcher or core student.

His current temporary student ID card only allowed him entry into the ordinary reading areas of the Ancient Archives, let alone borrowing privileges, not to mention the core archives at the top of the deep blue giant tower.

Outside the window, on the surface of the lake, the reflection of the Wanxiang Giant Tower swayed gently in the ripples.

The lights were on at the top of the tower; the Ancient Archives were right there.

A knock on the door interrupted his train of thought.

It wasn't a knock on the door, but the sound of knuckles tapping very lightly against the metal door frame. The rhythm was even, like some kind of academic etiquette—not urging, not hesitating, just announcing someone was outside.

Shen Ye opened the door. The sensor light in the hallway had already turned on, and a girl wearing glasses stood at the doorway.

She wore a deep blue school uniform, the customized version for core students of Wanxiang University, with the badge of the Law Analysis Laboratory pinned to her collar.

The eyes behind her glasses were very bright. It wasn't the calmness of a businessperson like Su Wanqing, nor the fervor surging beneath the ice like Gu Qinghan's, but a pure, unprejudiced observation—like a researcher seeing a long-awaited experimental sample for the first time.

"Lin Tianyin."

Shen Ye said.

Qin Shu's list of seeded players contained information about her—a core student of Wanxiang University, with an SS-rank Law Analysis talent, and a Eye of Law that could see through the law structure of any skill.

A participant in the National Competition, and also the youngest researcher at the Wanxiang University Law Analysis Laboratory.

"You know me."

Lin Tianyin's voice was not loud, but every word was clear, as if she were reading an abstract of a paper. "Good, that saves me the self-introduction. I saw in the intelligence reports that you are a key focus of Wanxiang University—not because you won the Provincial Tournament, but because of your familiars."

She pushed up her glasses. "I have watched all your match recordings. In the City-level Competition against a spell-casting opponent, Elder Quan created the Spiral Water Flow; in the Provincial Tournament against the Mystic Ice Domain, your familiars independently developed the Cavitation Cloud tactic. This level of independent innovation is extremely rare among known S-rank Awakened samples."

She paused for a moment.

"My research topic is 'The Correlation Between Familiar Autonomy and Combat Power Limits.' Your familiars are the best sample I have seen so far."

Shen Ye leaned against the door frame.

Gu Qinghan had also studied his familiars, using the Ice Domain to analyze many of his Kingdom Projection battles.

But Gu Qinghan was a tactical analyst; her research was for practical combat.

But Lin Tianyin's Eye of Law was for law analysis. What she saw in his combat recordings was different from everyone else—not tactics, not combat power, but the structure at the level of laws.

She could see through the law patterns of the Spiral Water Flow, analyze the energy conversion efficiency of the Cavitation Cloud, and even isolate the fusion ratio of the Twilight Sword Qi and the golden dragon patterns from Jin Lin's sword intent.

"You want to study my familiars."

Shen Ye said.

"To be precise, I want to verify an academic hypothesis."

Lin Tianyin pulled up a draft of a paper from her data pad, the screen filled with dense diagrams of law structures. "The news that you used Twilight energy to activate a fragment of the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist was recorded in yesterday's catalog access records at the Ancient Archives. That is not a reaction that can be triggered by ordinary spiritual power—the Twilight text in the fragment requires resonance at a specific frequency of Twilight energy to become visible. In the entire Wanxiang University, currently, only your familiars can stably provide this resonance frequency."

She looked up. "My hypothesis is simple: the energy system of the Twilight Civilization and the Twilight Sword Qi independently evolved by your familiars are homologous in their law structure. If we can verify this through rigorous academic experiments, we will be able to reverse-engineer the lost core technology of the Twilight Civilization from the level of laws—this would be a breakthrough for both your familiars and the research at Wanxiang University. In exchange, I can help you apply for borrowing privileges for the Ancient Archives."

Shen Ye was silent for a moment.

"You aren't interested in the Ancient Archives; you are interested in my familiars."

"Both. But my research requires raw data on the 'Twilight Energy Decay Curve' from the Ancient Archives—that file is in the same collection area as the one you need. By applying for access once, I can retrieve both. This is not called using someone; this is called academic cooperation."

When she said the four words "academic cooperation," her tone was as flat as ever, but the movement of pushing up her glasses was a beat faster than usual.

Shen Ye didn't speak.

He was thinking about something else.

Lin Tianyin was the youngest researcher at the Wanxiang University Law Analysis Laboratory, and her Eye of Law could see through the law structure of any skill.

If she could provide technical support for Jiang Yue, the speed of deciphering the Twilight text fragments would at least double.

Jiang Yue's archaeological methodology could construct a complete linguistic genealogy, and since she came from a background in paleography, she had a deep study of the grammatical structures and semantic evolution of extinct languages, allowing her to more quickly locate the semantic boundaries of those obscure symbols on the fragments. However, deciphering ancient texts was not enough with just a linguistic genealogy; the large amount of extremely weak residual Twilight energy attached to the fragments required technical means at the level of laws to strip away noise and extract effective signals—this was exactly Lin Tianyin's field of expertise.

Outside the window, on the surface of the lake, the reflection of the Wanxiang Giant Tower was shattered by the night wind, then gathered again.

Shen Ye leaned against the door frame, suddenly recalling the back of Jiang Yue crouching in front of the ruins of the secret realm stone gate, tracing the ancient carvings with her fingers.

During the match against Sandstorm and the battle against the Mystic Ice Domain, his familiars were able to independently develop counter-tactics under extreme pressure, but Gu Qinghan could only perform analysis at the phenomenological level from the Kingdom Projection and could not delve into analysis at the level of laws—and this was exactly what Lin Tianyin excelled at and what his team currently lacked the most.

After the National Competition, whether it was continuing to delve deeper into the Sea of Thousand Realms Mist to find the location of the Twilight Shelter, or deciphering the Devouring Abyss law patterns of the Ash King to perfect the Spiral Purification foundation establishment pill, he needed a core team that could exert effort from both the linguistic genealogy and law analysis ends.

Jiang Yue was the left end, and Lin Tianyin could be the right end.

If these two cooperated, the deciphering efficiency would double.

"Do you have Jiang Yue's contact information?"

Shen Ye asked.

Lin Tianyin pushed up her glasses.

"No, but I have her academic file. She published a paper on the evolution of ancient text genealogy in a provincial journal, which I have read—her inference regarding the homology between the Void Race royal sacrificial texts and the Twilight text is the research closest to the truth in the academic world currently."

She paused for a moment. "If you wish for me to join your team, I will contact her as soon as possible."

Shen Ye turned sideways to clear the doorway.

Moonlight shone in from the corridor window, spreading a layer of pale gold between the two of them.

Strengthening the end of the team was always something to look forward to—but he was also clear that the foundation of this cooperation was built on mutual trust, and trust required time and the test of actual combat.

With the National Competition imminent, he would have plenty of opportunities to observe whether this top researcher could truly turn her Eye of Law into a guiding sight for the team's advancement.