The Wizard of Truth: Starting with Analyzing All Things

The shift in rules is like falling from boiling lava into an absolute zero ice sea.

One moment, consciousness was being torn apart and swept away by a chaotic storm of logic, on the verge of annihilation. The next moment, all the sharp, cold noise of rules was abruptly severed by an invisible giant hand and vanished instantly.

Instead, there is a deeper, grander, yet more lifeless background of humming and pulsation of rules. It is not sound, but the rules themselves, the information structure, the very foundation of this space, breathing and operating with extreme slowness, regularity, and yet with immense heaviness, naturally emanating an echo of information.

Luo Wei's consciousness slowly and laboriously re-condensed and awakened from the extreme chaos and nothingness that had been completely scattered and was about to be formatted.

The first thing restored is the most basic perception of existence itself.

He could sense that the three-ringed Star Speaker's soul crystal cluster structure still existed within him, although its condition was worse and more on the verge of collapse than before he crossed the rift.

Those pale golden, three-dimensional crystal clusters, representing the power and characteristics of different rule-based knowledge modules, were covered with deeper and denser rule cracks that threatened to completely tear the clusters apart. The edges of many clusters had completely peeled away, leaving only incomplete and unstable rule cores. The pale golden rule radiance emanating from the entire soul structure was so dim and weak that it was almost imperceptible, as if a slight breeze could easily extinguish it.

The pain emanating from the depths of the soul was no longer sharp and intense, but a deeper, more complete and utterly depleted, numb emptiness and stagnation of rules. Every subtle fluctuation of consciousness seemed to be struggling to turn the gears of thought within solidified asphalt of rules, consuming the last bit of vitality within itself.

However, the deeper understanding and anchoring of the essence of its own existence brought about by the three environments, as well as the ancient imprint of the core knowledge of the Origin Garden about existence and rules that has just been imprinted, still act as the last backbone or root of rules, forcibly supporting this soul framework that is on the verge of complete collapse.

He forcefully concentrated his remaining sense of rules, slowly scanning his current state and the new rule-based information environment outside, like the most sophisticated detector about to lose power.

My own status:

The physical imprint of the "Stargazer" has completely vanished. All that remains is this wreckage of a cluster of rules and information, barely held together by a core of soul consciousness and a last vestige of ideological resonance. Even the form of this cluster has become thinner and more unstable, as if it might dissolve completely into its surroundings at any moment.

personnel:

He sensed Airi. Her consciousness imprint was like a small, more chaotic, and murky vortex of rules, close to his core. The vortex's rotation became extremely slow and sluggish, the internal color conflicts seemingly temporarily subsided into an eerie calm or exhaustion due to excessive consumption and impact. Her presence was faint, but that peculiar quality of harmony and connection still stubbornly existed, becoming one of the last adhesives holding this wreckage together. She could vaguely sense Luo Wei's awakening, receiving a faint, chaotic yet deeply dependent ripple of rules.

Verna and Annie's consciousness imprints exhibited a state of silence and compression following extreme overload. They seemed to have forcibly compressed and sealed away the last of their computational power and the massive stream of knowledge data they had received during their frantic deductions in the storm of rules into the deepest recesses of their consciousness, entering a self-protective state of information stasis deeper than deep hibernation to reduce consumption and potential data corruption. Their presence was faint, but their technocratic traits, interwoven with dark gold and ice blue, remained firmly established like cold, solid foundational elements of the rules.

Lilith and Anderson's consciousness imprints also fell into a deeper state of stagnation. Lilith's emerald green glow almost extinguished, with only a faint life-preserving obsession still entwining and connecting Barton and Lina. Anderson's dark gray, reef-like imprint, however, remained silent and stable like a real reef, providing the entire aggregate with a final sense of balance.

Barton and Lina remained in the worst condition. The embers of their indomitable fighting spirit within Barton's grayish-white mark, nourished almost entirely by Lilith, flickered weakly, like the last spark of a candle in the wind. Lina's self-enclosed, stagnant ice shell seemed to have been affected by the storm of rules earlier; fine cracks appeared on its surface, but the core of her consciousness remained deeply dormant.

Everyone was in a state of weakness and on the verge of complete dissipation, even more so than in the graveyard of logic. The brief storm of rules they had just passed through had almost exhausted their last bit of rule activity and energy.

And the external environment...

Luo Wei slowly extended the hard-won perception of rules outwards from the aggregate, like the finest tendrils.

The first thing one senses is the vast, heavy, and rhythmic hum and pulsation of the underlying order. This hum is not a single sound, but a complex collection and echo of countless extremely low, slow, and rhythmic sounds of mechanical operation, energy flow, stress release from metal structures, and even the vibrations of some deeper, rule-based string. Its frequency is so low that it is almost imperceptible to conventional perception, yet its weight and scale seem to permeate every corner of the space, forming the most fundamental rule-based background and tone of this environment.

Then he saw it.

It's not with the eyes, but with the remaining rules that one perceives.

Their information aggregate remains were suspended in mid-air in a space whose vastness and grandeur were indescribable.

Below is a vast forest or mountain range with a regular geometric structure made of dark silver and dark gray metal.

It was truly colossal. Each structure, even the smallest, was comparable in size to a small mountain. They varied in shape: some were towering cylinders, like giant pagodas reaching to the heavens, their surfaces covered with neatly arranged honeycomb-like energy matrices or heat dissipation grids; some were enormous hemispheres, like inverted bowls, their curved surfaces smooth as mirrors, faintly reflecting the cold glow of distant, unidentified light; some were complex, massive linkages composed of countless pipes, rods, gears, and bearings, most of which were currently in a state of absolute stillness, yet their precision and complexity were still awe-inspiring; and there were many more combinations of geometric shapes whose regularity defied description, interconnected, stacked, and extended in a seemingly chaotic yet subtly imbued with a mathematical and logical beauty that transcended comprehension, forming this boundless ocean of metal structures.

All these structures are made of the same or several similar materials—not simple metals, but a base material with an extremely dense, hard, and cold texture that exhibits a dark silver or dark gray sheen, a unified state of matter, energy, and information. It is similar to the dark silver, regular information matrix inside the Myriad Structures Hub, but seems to be older, heavier, and more silent.

The surfaces of these enormous structures are mostly covered with cosmic dust accumulated over countless millennia, and traces of weathering and subtle, regular information. Many structures still show clear, regular geometric patterns of energy circuits or information interfaces, but at this moment, the vast majority are dull and lifeless, devoid of any energy activity. Only in the deepest parts of a very few exceptionally large structures, or at certain key energy nodes, faint, slow, and regularly flickering dark red or ice-blue lights shimmer, like the last few beats of a sleeping behemoth's heart.

The background hum and pulsation of those grand rules seem to originate from the deepest part of these massive structures, from the echoes of information generated by the operation of the systems that are still maintaining a basic standby or silent maintenance state with extremely low power consumption.

The space wasn't entirely dark. Far in the distance, towards the dome of this sea of ​​metal structures, a faint, uniform, cold, dark silver canopy emitted a weak but sufficient, chilling glow to illuminate the vast space. The source of this canopy didn't seem to be a star, but rather more like the residual effect of some enormous, regular energy barrier or information projection device.

The temperature here is extremely low, close to the temperature of the cosmic microwave background radiation. There is no air, no gravity (or rather, gravity is balanced or canceled out by some uniform, regular force field). There is only absolute cold and a slow hum in the vast, heavy, regular silence.

Where is this place?

Was it an abandoned shipyard of a mega-civilization? An energy hub? A computing matrix? Or the internal framework or structural skeleton of some enormous facility?

Its style differs from the extreme precision and logical fluidity of the Wan Gou Ji Shu (万构機枢). The structures here are more solid, more ancient, and emphasize physical stability and macroscopic scale, as if built to bear some unimaginable mass or energy. It is also completely different from the style of the Cradle Civilization, which is full of life and psionic beauty. Here, there is only cold metal and absolute, logical rules.

Could it be the Court of Origins? An even more ancient predecessor of that cradle civilization? The remaining area of ​​its secondary beacons?

Guided by that last ancient thought, they were led here by the Deep Echoes Protocol. But what they saw before them was less the site of a beacon or a relic, and more the interior of a vast, abandoned industrial or military facility.

Moreover, environmental regulations have been severely distorted and polluting...

Lowe's sense of rules scanned his surroundings more carefully. He quickly detected the anomaly.

On the surfaces and joints of those massive metal structures, in the patterns of many energy loops, and even in the background hum of the regularity of the entire space, there is a faint but unmistakable discordant note of regular information.

It was a dark purple stain or crack filled with the aura of erosion, chaos, and annihilation, a kind of rule-based information.

Unlike the active, devouring pollution of the Maw, the pollution here seems older, more stagnant, and more inert, as if it has coexisted with this massive metal structure for countless years, becoming part of its structure. Yet its inherent chaotic and annihilating nature remains, continuously and slowly eroding and distorting the surrounding, which should have been orderly, and radiating a background radiation of unsettling, soul-stirring information about the rules of the environment.

This is a manifestation of how environmental regulations have been severely distorted and polluted.

They are now suspended in the interior space of this enormous, abandoned megastructure, polluted by old chaos.

It is on the verge of disappearing. The environment is cold, desolate, and fraught with unknown pollution risks. There is no energy source. There is no clear way out.

But at least for the time being, there seem to be no active threats here (such as the Maw Tentacles or the Myriad Structures Defense Protocol). The background hum of the grand rules, though heavy and oppressive, seems to constitute a relatively stable rule environment.

They need time. They need to recover as much as possible in this brief period of relative safety, and then find a way to leave this place, or explore any clues to the possible legacy of the Court of Origins.

"Velna...Annie..." Lowe's thoughts struggled to connect with the two technologists, who were in a state of deep information stagnation, at the level of rules. He needed their knowledge and analytical abilities.

There was no response. Their state of stasis seemed deeper than expected.

"Airi..." He turned to the chaotic vortex beside him.

"I...am..." Airi's thoughts were weak and chaotic, but they did respond. Her harmonizing nature seemed to prevent her from fully entering a deep state of stillness. She maintained only a minimal level of passive perception and connection.

"Use your eyes..." Luo Wei's thoughts lingered, "Sensing this vast metallic forest around us, searching for any anomalies in the rules or areas with relatively active energy fluctuations, even if they are very faint..."

He needs a target. A point that might contain a little bit of resources or information. He can't just wait blindly like in a graveyard of logic.

"I... I'll try..." Airi closed her eyes (a conscious action) and slowly extended her chaotic, passive structural visual perception toward the boundless forest of metal structures below.

What she could see was a vast, desolate canvas, suffocatingly vast, composed of countless cold, dark silver and deep gray lines and planes. A faint layer of dark purple, regular stains and cracks permeated the canvas, like old bloodstains and rust. In most areas, the regular lines were frozen, lifeless. Only in the extremely distant places did one or two faint specks of dark red or ice-blue light flicker slowly, like phosphorescence in a grave.

Her senses scanned slowly. This process was a tremendous burden on her weakened state. Each extension made the chaotic vortex spin more sluggish and its colors dimmer. But she gritted her teeth and persevered, filtering her senses inch by inch through the lifeless, metallic sea below, like the finest sieve.

Time flowed slowly in this vast, deathly silence. Perhaps several minutes had passed, or perhaps longer.

Just as Ai Rui's senses were about to completely cease due to overexertion—

At the edge of her vision, deep within that forest of metal structures, in an extremely distant corner, she caught a faint yet unique ripple of rule-based information.

Those were not dark red or ice blue energy spots.

Instead, it was a more restrained and stable, yet indescribably ancient, heavy, and sorrowful pale golden pulse of regulated information. It was extremely faint, so faint that it was almost indistinguishable from the dark purple pollution radiation in the background. But its essential rhythm caused the last trace of pale golden resonance deep within Ai Rui's soul, connected to the Star Key, the Fire Seed Crystal, and Luo Wei, to tremble slightly.

A resonance born of the same origin!

The pale golden rhythmic pattern originates from the same source as the Core of Eden, the Key of the Star, and the Spark Crystal!

Although faint and distant to the point of being almost imperceptible, its very existence in this desolate world filled with cold metal and old pollution is like the last glimmer of light from an ancient lighthouse in the dark depths of the sea that has not yet been completely extinguished!

"There..." Airi's thoughts trembled violently with excitement and weakness. She forced the faint sense of direction and vague distance she had perceived to Luo Wei through that final connection. "Very far away... down below... very deep... there is a... very faint... golden 'light'... dancing... and it... feels... very similar to our 'key'..."

Luo Wei's soul core jumped the moment it received this information!

A pulsating, pale golden aura of the same origin! Deep within this area, suspected to be the remnants of the Court of Origin!

Is it another beacon similar to the Core of Eden? Or the true repository of the legacy of the Garden of Origins? Or perhaps... the last remnant of a homologous structure that has not yet been completely consumed by corruption?

Whatever it was, it was the only clear anomaly and possible target they found in this despairing silence!

"Can you judge the distance...?" Luo Wei suppressed his excitement and asked calmly.

"Very far...maybe...thousands...tens of thousands...the distance of 'our size'?" Airi's perception of distance was vague, but at least she gave an order of magnitude.

A distance thousands to tens of thousands of times the size of their aggregate. In this environment of governed information, this is likely a considerable distance. Given their current state of near dissipation, it would be virtually impossible for them to actively move there.

But at least we have a direction.

"Velna! Anne!" Rowe tried calling again, this time with a stronger surge of mental energy, attempting to awaken their most superficial consciousness. "Signal of shared origin detected! Direction locked! Path analysis and environmental assessment required!"

This time, the two dark gold and ice blue technical officer markings seemed to show an extremely faint reaction. Like an animal in deep hibernation being stimulated by a slight external disturbance, its outermost layer of conscious defense mechanisms was triggered.

Verna's thoughts rang out extremely slowly and indistinctly, like rusty gears barely turning: "Receiving...signal coordinates...analyzing...warning...insufficient computing power...incomplete environmental database...analysis result reliability...extremely low..."

"Prioritize analyzing...the stability of the regular structure along the path from the current location to the signal source...and the pollution concentration gradient..." Luo Wei quickly issued the instruction.

"...Establish a simplified model...Invoke fragments of knowledge from the underlying structure of the Myriad Structures...Invoke the basic rule framework of the Court of Origins..." Verna's thoughts were fragmented, but one could hear the professionalism and focus of a technologist instinct forcefully driving her forward. "Scan the directional perception data provided by Airi...Perform...Preliminary interpolation and deduction..."

The few seconds of silence felt like centuries to them.

"...Preliminary deduction complete..." Verna's thoughts carried a weakened state of exhaustion. "The general direction of the path...the regular structure is relatively...complete...the pollution concentration...is non-uniformly distributed...there are several...theoretical 'channel' regions with relatively low pollution concentrations...but...all channels...exhibit...intermittent...regular stress fluctuations...the source...is suspected to be...the residual periodic activity of the deep sustaining system of the giant structure below...fluctuation period...unknown...intensity...unknown..."

"The area where the signal source is located..." Annie's thoughts continued, even fainter, "The background... is abnormal... the pollution reading... in the model... shows a local... depression... but... the edge of the depression... the pollution gradient... is extremely steep... there is suspected... high concentration of pollution... clustering or... a conflicting interface of rules... the risk is very high..."

In short: There is a path, but it is difficult to traverse, fraught with unknowns and uncertainties. The destination may be relatively clean, but it is surrounded by highly polluted areas, making it feel like entering a tranquil point in the eye of a storm, and crossing the storm wall is extremely dangerous.

Moreover, in their current state, they are struggling to even maintain their existence, let alone make any purposeful moves.

Just as Lowe was rapidly weighing his options and considering how to best utilize this limited information—

Mutation and regeneration!

This time, it didn't come from them, nor from the metal forest below.

Instead, it came from the far distance of this vast space, from the direction of that dark silver sky!

hum-

The grand, resonant hum of rules that had been present in the background suddenly increased by several orders of magnitude without warning! It was as if some sleeping behemoth had been startled and was letting out a deep, angry roar!

Immediately afterwards, the regular background field of the entire space began to fluctuate violently! The faint specks of light remaining on the surfaces of those distant metal structures suddenly increased their flickering frequency! From some of the massive structural joints came a teeth-grinding, regular, creaking sound, as if the metal hadn't moved for billions of years!

"Detected...high-energy rule field disturbance!" Verna's thoughts suddenly sharpened. "Source direction...the celestial region! Disturbance nature...from the same source as the current environmental background rules...but...more active! It carries...clear...information encoding characteristics! It is...an active rule scan or...awakening protocol!"

"We've been discovered?!" Lilith's mind was filled with terror.

"No...it doesn't seem to be targeting us..." Anderson's thoughts were hoarse but carried the intuition of an old navigator. "The disturbance range...is too large...too widespread...it's like...something larger...system...has been triggered...we might just...been affected..."

As if to confirm Anderson's judgment, a dazzling, cold, silvery-white light suddenly shone from the direction of the sky! It was as if a huge, cold, inanimate, and orderly "eye" had opened on this dark silver sky!

The silvery-white light was not constant, but flickered in a complex and rapid pattern, emitting waves of clear and intense pulse beams containing specific information codes, sweeping across the huge metal structure forest below!

Where the pulsed beam passed, the dark purple contamination marks on the surface of the metal structures rippled and twisted even more violently, in a regular, dark purple pattern, as if a pebble had been thrown into the water! Some dark red or ice-blue light spots remaining deep within the structures suddenly brightened under the stimulation of the pulsed beam, and some structural surfaces even lit up large areas of previously extinguished, regular, geometric energy circuit patterns, emitting an unstable, cold glow!

The entire desolate metal forest seemed to briefly and partially "awaken" under the stimulation of this sudden pulse of rules! Although this awakening was filled with chaotic, unstable, and polluted reactions, the resulting drastic change in the rules of the environment was fatal to their fragile aggregate remains suspended in mid-air!

"Rule Turbulence! Impact is imminent!" Verna screamed.

"Fixed! Everyone!" Lowe roared, using his last bit of strength to transform the power of his third ring's rule guidance into the most basic protective and anchoring field, while forcibly linking Ariel's Harmony, Lilith's Guardian Connection, and Anderson's Balance Perception together!

next moment--

The surging turbulent pulses of rules and the resulting violent fluctuations in environmental rules crashed against their aggregate like a tsunami!

"Ugh—!"

Consciousness was once again plunged into violent shock, tearing, and chaos!

But unlike the absolute logical storm when crossing the rift before, this impact was mixed with clear, regular information encoding contained in the silver-white pulse beam!

On the verge of his consciousness being shattered, Luo Wei's soul core forcibly captured and recorded a segment of it—a recurring, regular, information-encoded fragment.

The logic language used in the encoding was ancient and cold, but some of the basic rules and structures contained therein were somewhat similar to the knowledge fragments of the Origin Court that he had just obtained, as well as some of the symbols in the underlying protocol of the Myriad Structures Hub.

He didn't understand its specific meaning.

But he could vaguely sense that the code seemed to be conveying some kind of instruction or status query, its target seemingly the massive metal structure itself. And the chaotic reactions and contamination ripples produced by the structure under the pulse stimulation seemed to be some kind of erroneous, out-of-control response.

Just as he was trying to analyze more—

Below, deep within that forest of metallic structures, in the general direction from which Airi had previously detected the pale golden, homologous signal—

A brilliant, pure, warm pale golden light burst forth without warning!

The light did not originate from a specific point, but rather seemed to emanate from within a relatively large area, penetrating layers of metal structures and pervasive dark purple pollution. In this space, which was chaotic and turbulent due to the silver-white pulses, it tore open a clear, stable, pale golden, and regular path of light!

Immediately afterwards, a gentle, inclusive, firm, and rule-based informational thought, filled with ancient wisdom and sorrowful guardianship, traveled along the path of pale golden light, traversing a vast distance, precisely enveloping, connecting, and drawing upon this aggregate of remnants that was about to completely dissipate in the turbulent currents of rules!

A calm, aged, weary, yet undeniably powerful male voice resonated deep within everyone's soul:

"Same-origin spark imprint detected...and external forced wake-up protocol interference..."

"Meets the triggering conditions of the 'Origin Asylum' protocol..."

"Starting the final boot process..."

"Those who come later...seize the light..."

"Come to me..."

"Time...is running out..."

With that sound, the pale golden light path suddenly became more solid and bright, radiating a powerful yet gentle pulling force, slowly but firmly dragging their remains towards the source of the light, into the deepest part of that metal forest!

The surrounding turbulent currents and silver-white pulses, upon contact with this pale golden light path, seemed to encounter some higher-level barrier of rules, and were forcibly pushed aside, purified, and dissolved!

Like a small boat about to capsize in a stormy night, they were suddenly enveloped by a warm beam of light that descended from the sky, and were dragged along the beam of light towards a safe harbor.

"Is it... that voice from before... what the Watcher said... the endpoint guided by 'Deep Echo'?" Verna's thoughts struggled to process amidst the tremors.

"Never mind all that... just... get there!" Luo Wei gritted his teeth, no longer resisting the pulling force. Instead, he concentrated his last bit of willpower and, in coordination with the pull, accelerated his movement toward the source of the pale golden light path.

Consciousness gradually blurred under the pull.

Finally, what was perceived was the source of that pale golden light path, the very depths of that metallic forest. It did not seem to be a simple structure, but rather a relatively independent, spherical space enveloped by some powerful pale golden rule field.

And, just before entering that spherical space, out of the corner of my eye (the peripheral vision of rule perception), I glimpsed that in the direction of the silvery-white sky, that cold rule "eye" seemed to have locked onto this suddenly appearing path of pale golden light, emitting even more rapid and intense pulses, and there seemed to be some huge, shadowy outline slowly emerging and coalescing behind that sky...

Then, a pale golden light engulfed everything.

Consciousness sank completely into the warm darkness.

Falling towards that unknown, final, and shared sanctuary.