83: Chapter 83: The True Story of the Collapse of an Immortal's Dao Heart

Sect Leader Lu Yun's brain had turned into complete mush.

He stood there blankly, listening to the festive melodies drifting up from the plaza below the tower, watching the joyful jets of the fountain in the distance, and then smelling the metallic scent of his own vital blood in the air…

An unprecedented sense of absurdity overwhelmed his reason.

"What the hell… am I even doing?"

"I am a noble Immortal Envoy from the Upper Realm, and I ran to this mortal world just to perform a 'spitting blood to light up the fountain' entertainment act for them?!"

"What is this?"

"What the hell is this?!"

Sect Leader Lu Yun's legs went weak, and he collapsed onto the ground.

His Dao Heart was shattered.

It wasn't defeated by a stronger spell, but rather broken by a reality he couldn't comprehend—one that existed completely outside the scope of his understanding.

The cultivation he was so proud of, the laws he believed in, the Dao he firmly trusted—at this moment, they all became a joke.

Jiang Ning watched Sect Leader Lu Yun, who was slumped on the ground with a vacant stare, muttering "Impossible" to himself, and calmly typed a summary into her data terminal.

"Psychological assessment: Poor."

"After his cognition was impacted, his Dao Heart became extremely unstable and even collapsed. Unsuitable for high-pressure, independent exploration missions."

"Recommendation… after ideological reform and psychological reconstruction, arrange him for a basic teaching position or a repetitive labor position."

She had already unilaterally arranged Sect Leader Lu Yun's future career.

"You… you… what kind of sorcery is this?"

After a long while, Sect Leader Lu Yun finally regained a shred of sanity from his breakdown. He raised his head, looked at Jiang Ning as if she were a demon, and asked in a hoarse voice.

"This is not sorcery." Jiang Ning walked up to him, looked down at him, and corrected him in a calm tone. "This is called science."

"Or, you can understand it as… modernized cultivation."

"Science? Modernized?" Sect Leader Lu Yun's gaze became even more bewildered.

He didn't understand either of these words.

Jiang Ning couldn't be bothered to explain it to him.

She reached out and made a light swipe in the air.

A three-dimensional city map composed of light and shadow instantly appeared before them.

This map was countless times more precise than the sand table in the command center.

On the map, every building, every street, and even every glowing billboard was clearly visible.

Countless streams of gold, blue, and red energy wove through every corner of the map, forming a terrifyingly massive circulation system.

"Do you see?" Jiang Ning pointed at the spectacular sight, like an engineer showing her work to a client.

"This is my work—the Donghai City Psionic City System Version 1.0."

"The tower you are standing on is its central control center and main power station."

"The one hundred and seven basic array points scattered throughout the city are its regional base stations and energy relay stations."

"The power grid, water network, transportation network, and communication network covering the entire city are its neural network and energy blood vessels."

"The entire city is a massive, living, intelligent super array."

With every word Jiang Ning spoke, Sect Leader Lu Yun's face turned paler.

Watching the massive, constantly operating energy system before him, he felt like he was about to stop breathing.

He finally understood that what he was facing was not a single array at all.

It was a beast… a behemoth of steel and energy composed of the entire city!

And he was just a little fly that had blindly flown into it.

"Every attack of yours, every spell you cast," Jiang Ning's words struck his heart like a hammer, "is just an insignificant external energy signal to this system."

"My system will instantly analyze your energy intensity, attributes, and purpose."

"Then, within one ten-thousandth of a second, it will calculate the best solution."

"If your energy is too weak and poses no threat, it will absorb it, convert it into electrical energy, and supplement the city's power grid. Just like what happened earlier."

"If your energy is too strong and might damage a node, the system will instantly channel and divert it to thousands of nodes, letting the entire city bear it together. Just like what you did with your vital blood earlier."

"Therefore," Jiang Ning looked at him and delivered the final conclusion, "you never had a chance to win from the start."

"Because your enemy is not me."

"It is this city, and… everything about modern civilization that supports this city."

Sect Leader Lu Yun was left completely speechless.

He felt that all the knowledge about arrays and cultivation he had learned in his sect over the past few decades seemed so primitive, backward, and ridiculous before the scene described by this girl.

They were still agonizing over what grade of jade or what age of spiritual wood to use to set up arrays.

Meanwhile, she had already started using the entire city, the power grid, and the internet to set up arrays!

This was a generational gap!

It was a dimensional strike between civilizations!

He had lost.

He had lost completely and was utterly convinced, unable to muster even the slightest thought of resistance.

He raised his head and looked at Jiang Ning. In his eyes, there was only deep awe and… a hint of longing.

He wanted to know how this girl had done it.

He wanted to learn this "modernized cultivation" that he had never seen before.

Just then, Director Zhao Lixin, Dongfang Shuo, and the others arrived at the top of the tower by elevator.

As soon as they stepped out of the elevator, they saw Sect Leader Lu Yun slumped on the ground, looking dejected, and Jiang Ning standing in front of him with a powerful aura.

"Engineer Jiang… is… is it resolved already?" Director Zhao Lixin asked, stuttering.

He had thought of many possibilities, such as an earth-shattering battle or a difficult negotiation.

He never expected it to be such a… peaceful, and even slightly comical scene.

"Yes, it's resolved." Jiang Ning nodded, then pointed at Sect Leader Lu Yun on the ground and instructed Director Zhao Lixin, "Take him down."

"Follow the procedure we used for the 'Ghost' squad, lock him up first, and conduct ideological education."

"Oh, right, the clothes he is wearing and that ruler are both decent magical artifacts. Remember to strip them off and send them to my laboratory. The materials are good and can be recycled."

Director Zhao Lixin: "…"

Dongfang Shuo: "…"

They looked at the once arrogant "Immortal Envoy" on the ground, now being hoisted up by two soldiers like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered, and felt a bit of sympathy.

It was too miserable.

This brother might be the first Cultivator to be treated as "recyclable waste."