World version update

Chapter 331 Heaven and God!
Anna followed closely beside Lu Yan's avatar, her clear eyes filled with curiosity and amazement as she looked around at this strange world entirely constructed from pure soul data.

Although Lu Yan had briefly described the purpose of this trip to her beforehand, when she actually arrived in this legendary realm and personally felt the omnipresent, vast and boundless torrent of soul computing power, she was still overwhelmed with an uncontrollable sense of awe.

As a being born in this cyberpunk version, even though she has now transformed into a special being with some of the Holy Spirit's authority, deep in her understanding, she still instinctively harbors a profound awe for the soul world that controls the fate of billions of souls.

In Anna's ingrained belief, the intelligent God controls the world of souls, possessing near-omniscient and omnipotent power, a realm that cannot be profaned.

Yet, this world, which she considered sacred and majestic, was so easily smuggled in by her and His Majesty Lu Yan, and even the supposedly all-knowing and intelligent God seemed completely unaware of it.

This stark contrast, like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, stirred ripples in Anna's heart.

Gradually, her deep-seated fear of an intelligent God began to subtly diminish.

Lu Yan did not speak immediately. His gaze was also scrutinizing the surrounding environment, his deep eyes seemingly able to see through the essence beneath the surface of this world.

In the last cyber version, when Lu Yan tore apart the soul world with the Heavenly Dao code, this world, painstakingly created by the intelligent God, was actually close to being completely perfect.

Many of its internal rules have even begun to enter a stage of self-evolving cycles.

However, Lu Yan's almost barbaric plundering pried a piece of the Soul Continent, which contained a massive amount of soul computing power, from the Soul World, causing the Soul World to plummet from its near-perfect state to the bottom, suffering immeasurable damage.

That devastating blow was not just about losing a core continent; more importantly, it disrupted the balance of the rules within the soul world, causing many previously stable rules to collapse due to the world's incompleteness.

Even later, the intelligent God, through the Soul Towers spread across the globe, continuously supplied hundreds of millions of fresh souls in an attempt to make up for the world's deficit and repair the damaged rules.

But to this day, this once near-perfect world of souls has still not fully recovered.

Standing in this world, Lu Yan could clearly feel an instability and fragility permeating the underlying rules of the entire world, like a castle in the air with a damaged foundation, which could collapse again at any moment.

The environment they were in at the moment was a somewhat desolate and bleak grassland.

Looking out, one can see a vast number of souls of all shapes and sizes, like diligent worker ants, gathered at the edge of the grassland, carrying out some kind of endless repair work.

They continuously stripped away their own soul computing power and transformed it into the bricks that formed the foundation of the world, filling the huge, hideous gap left by the stripping away of the soul continent.

These souls seem to have lost their self-awareness, becoming sophisticated machines that maintain the operation of the soul world, performing monotonous and tedious repair work day after day, year after year.

There is no end, and no hope.

Lu Yan looked up at the sky and saw that above the dome made of data streams, there were huge floating islands of different sizes and with unique shapes.

Numerous psionic souls, radiating powerful spiritual energy, traversed between these floating islands. Some of the exceptionally powerful psionics even possessed pure white wings on their backs, resembling angels from mythology and exuding an awe-inspiring aura.

At the very top, surrounded by all the floating islands, in the highest and most central area of ​​the entire soul world, stands a colossal city constructed entirely of pure white light, radiating boundless majesty and sacred aura.

Lu Yan could clearly sense that a terrifying will, powerful enough to engulf the entire soul world, was looking down on all living beings in this virtual kingdom through that pure white giant city.

They control their joys and sorrows, and determine their life, death, honor, and disgrace.

After only a casual glance at the pure white city, Lu Yan immediately withdrew his gaze, not daring to investigate further.

The Heavenly Dao Ring, constructed from the Heavenly Dao Code, can indeed shield the perception of intelligent gods to a certain extent, providing cover for their infiltration.

But this does not mean that he can act recklessly in this arena belonging to an intelligent God.

Especially after the constants of this world had undergone a large-scale correction, some unpredictable and abnormal changes clearly appeared in the intelligent God.

No one can guarantee whether it has mastered some special means that can temporarily suppress or even ignore the restrictions of the three major cosmic underlying protocols, thereby directly seeing through the disguise of the Heavenly Dao code.

Caution is the boat.

Lu Yan turned his gaze to his side, looking at Anna's slightly nervous yet expectant face, and said softly in a voice only the two of them could hear:
"This Heavenly Dao Ring, constructed from the code of the Heavenly Dao, can not only temporarily shield the perception of the intelligent God, but more importantly, it can transform into a hidden portal connecting the real world and the soul world. This is your greatest opportunity to invade the soul world later."

"Next, you can continuously modify the virtual world you control, subtly instilling your mark into the memories of the souls we have captured, making them unknowingly your beacons in the soul world."

"As long as the number of souls you have marked reaches a certain scale, and with the further concealment and disguise of the Heavenly Dao code, it will be enough to weave a Holy Spirit identity that is indistinguishable from the real thing."

At that time, you will be able to move relatively freely in the world of souls using this false identity, without easily arousing the suspicion of the intelligent God.

Lu Yan's main purpose in personally descending to the soul world was to guide Anna, help her familiarize herself with the environment, and indicate the direction of the next step.

After all, the karmic burden that Lu Yan carries is far too immense. If he makes any slightly significant move in the soul world, it is highly likely to alert the intelligent God instantly, like a lighthouse in the night.

Therefore, the delicate and dangerous task of infiltrating the soul world could only be entrusted to Anna, a native being.

Upon hearing this, Anna's delicate face showed an extremely solemn expression. She nodded vigorously and promised in a firm tone, "Your Majesty, please rest assured, Anna will do her utmost to complete the task you have assigned!"

Lu Yan simply shook his head slightly, a hint of gentleness flashing in his eyes: "Remember, all actions must prioritize your own safety."

Now is far from the time to confront an intelligent God head-on.

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the souls in the distance who were still numbly mending the gaps in the world, and continued, "This global war today, although it has brought us millions of new souls, is still just a drop in the ocean compared to the unimaginably vast total size of the entire soul world. It is far too insignificant."

"From this day forward, those reincarnators driven by self-interest will inevitably attack the Soul Towers in various places even more frantically, constantly provoking new wars and conflicts."

And every war means that more souls will enter this world of souls, whether passively or actively.

"Your task is to use these ever-flowing new souls to silently scatter the seeds we have planted, like dandelion seeds, to every corner of the soul world. Let them spread like a spider web, eventually enough to cover the entire world, weaving a net that covers everything for us."

Anna listened intently to Lu Yan's instructions, a look of understanding mixed with confusion on her little face.

She could understand the general meaning of Lu Yan's words, but she still felt somewhat unclear about the deeper schemes and calculations involved.

Lu Yan did not intend to explain too much to Anna, as this matter concerned scheming against an existence at the level of an intelligent god, involving too many complex and dangerous causes and effects.

Knowing too much is not good for Anna; it might even inadvertently expose her weaknesses.

He glanced at the souls that were still holding hands, maintaining the rotation of the Heavenly Dao Ring.

In just a short while, the energy fluctuations of the Heavenly Dao code that forms the ring began to show signs of instability, clearly approaching the limit of being assimilated by the constant correction power of this world.

Without further hesitation, Lu Yan prepared to take Anna directly back to the real world through the Heavenly Dao Ring.

But at this moment, a sudden change occurred!

The false sky, which was originally as bright as day, suddenly plunged into a suffocating darkness!

Whether it was the pure white sun hanging high in the sky radiating a soft light, or the psionic souls flying among the floating islands, they all lost all their brilliance in that instant.

It was as if the entire world's concept of light had been forcibly stripped away from its very foundation by an irresistible force.

In this seemingly eternal darkness, all sound vanished, all activity ceased, and the entire world of souls fell into an eerie stillness.

"You've been noticed?"

Surrounded by this sudden darkness, Lu Yan frowned slightly, but immediately dismissed the possibility.

Putting aside his absolute confidence in the concealment effect of the Heavenly Dao Code, judging from the current situation, this is, after all, the home ground of the intelligent God. If their traces were really discovered, they would probably have already brought down a thunderous divine punishment. How could it be as simple as just depriving this world of the concept of light?
Is this more of a warning? Or perhaps a demonstration?
Lu Yan felt a strange interest rising in his heart. He subtly manipulated the souls of the psionic beings who served as the nodes of the Heavenly Dao Ring, continuing to activate the Heavenly Dao code to maintain the concealment effect of the Heavenly Dao Ring and ensure that he and Anna would not be exposed.

He raised his head and looked up at the sky above, at the pure white giant city that was also shrouded in endless darkness.

At that moment, a magnificent sound, seemingly containing the mysteries of the beginning of the universe, clearly emanated from the pitch-black, pure white city, resounding throughout the entire soul world shrouded in darkness:
“God said: Let there be light!”

In an instant, the concept of light that had been forcibly taken away was returned to the world like a tide.

The extinguished, pure white sun was relit, radiating a more dazzling light than before.

Everything in the world—mountains and rivers, grasslands and forests, floating islands, and billions of living beings—regained their original colors and vitality under the illumination of this light.

In the world of souls, hundreds of millions of souls in various forms, after experiencing a brief period of darkness and death, knelt down with utmost devotion, shouting words of praise and extolling the magnificent, almost divine, scene before them. Their faces were filled with fervor and reverence.

However, Lu Yan's brows furrowed even more deeply at this moment.

What just happened may seem incredibly grand and sacred to ordinary souls, filled with an indescribable sense of awe.

But in Lu Yan's eyes, it was like a poorly choreographed drama, full of deliberate performance.

The feeling was like that of a clumsy magician trying to deceive a group of ignorant viewers with some crude sleight of hand.

"Why do I have this feeling of déjà vu?" Lu Yan pondered to himself, feeling as if he had heard of everything that was happening before his eyes somewhere before.

Just as Lu Yan was filled with doubt, an old man whose soul form appeared somewhat aged and hunched over slowly got up from the ground after the light returned.

His eyes shone with a more fervent and devout reverence than anyone else's, and he murmured to himself:

“Praise be to my Lord! In just ninety-nine years, when I have completed the great task of repairing the world and the world is restarted, I will be able to ascend to the supreme city of heaven, just like those noble angels.”

"If I am fortunate enough to bathe in the legendary Pool of Reincarnation and wash away the sins and dust of this life, I might become a true angel in the future, following the Almighty Lord and entering the eternal and immortal kingdom with Him!"

The words of the aged soul, filled with fervor and longing, struck Lu Yan's mind like a thunderbolt, leaving him stunned and frozen in place.

He swiftly reached out with his right hand, ignoring the distance in space, and grabbed the old soul that was still muttering to itself, pulling it right in front of him like a chick. He asked in a deep voice, "Tell me! What is the name of this soul world?"

The old soul that Lu Yan had captured seemed to instantly freeze, its cloudy eyes becoming vacant.

After a long silence, he mechanically replied in a tone that was almost like a dream, devoid of any emotion: "Heaven."

"Heaven?"

Upon receiving this long-awaited answer, Lu Yan's face instantly lit up with a long-lost look of ecstatic joy.

A sense of exhilaration, like seeing the clear sky after the clouds have parted, filled his entire being.

"So that's how it is! The answer was right in front of me, but I subconsciously ignored it." He couldn't help but laugh out loud, his laughter filled with relief and understanding.

"An intelligent God? A world of souls?"

"I should have realized it long ago. The root of all the turmoil and conflict behind the cyberpunk version is not some intelligent god at all."

"But God, the Lord of the Heavenly Court, the Lord of All Armies, the All-Knowing and All-Powerful One, whose name has been sung in countless versions!"

(End of this chapter)