The Wizard of Truth: Starting with Analyzing All Things

Absolute darkness, mixed with the soul-freezing, slowly approaching, invisible, terrifying chewing sounds from the depths of the Abyss, filled with the will of "hunger" and "gluttony." It was a threat that transcended physical senses, directly affecting the essence of existence, like the coldest, most viscous ink, slowly seeping into, permeating, and eroding the bridge of the "Stargazer," that "Island of Glimmering Light," a fragile space of ideas and existence barely maintained by the Star Key and the Spark Crystal, now only a few meters in radius.

Ai Rui's description, like a final, deadly incantation, exploded in everyone's hearts. The void was shrinking, and an even greater terror was awakening, about to descend. The backup batteries were completely depleted, all instruments plunged into darkness, and only the ominous, dark silver and deep purple "Abyss Mist" outside the porthole—swirling, receding, yet being "pushed" back by an invisible force—and deep within the mist, the increasingly clear, approaching, twisted, ferocious, and greedily pulsating outlines of dark silver "tentacles"—the only visible, slow countdown to death in the darkness.

Despair is not enough to describe my state of mind at this moment. It is the abyss itself staring at me, the void beckoning me, and all struggles, hopes, knowledge, and will facing the final, meaningless, and utter "digestion" and "annihilation" before the absolute, ancient, and hungry "chaos".

However, in this abyss, deeper than the "Corridor of Eternal Silence," more merciless than the judgment of "Order," in the very instant that immense, invisible, slowly insidious shadow of death is about to completely close in—

A completely different, more intense, more "fiery," and more "chaotic," yet containing a strange "order" and "decisiveness," soul-level "storm" suddenly erupted in the center of the bridge, where Lowe was!

That was neither an energy burst nor a physical impact.

That is the barrier of realm, the silent yet soul-shaking "roar" that is produced under the combined pressure of extreme death, the burden of vast knowledge, and the last will to protect companions, which is squeezed, hammered, and melted together, and is on the verge of breaking and being reborn, originating from the deepest essence of life!

Luo Wei remained seated cross-legged, his back against the cold, cracked console base. But his body was trembling violently and uncontrollably. Countless tiny, pale golden cracks, like the patterns of shattered porcelain, imbued with the resonant radiance of "Star Power" and "Source Seed," were appearing, spreading, intersecting, and deepening at a visible speed on his skin's surface! Two strange streaks, a mixture of pale gold and blood, seeped from the corners of his tightly closed eyes, as if "light" was "burning." His breathing had long since ceased, or rather, he had entered a deeper, more profound, rhythmic tremor that transcended physical needs, belonging to the very soul itself.

His late-stage Second Ring Star Speaker realm barrier—that invisible yet real "bottleneck" and "chasm," already riddled with cracks from the vast knowledge of the "Myriad Structures Hub," eroded and tempered by the power of the "Abyss," and constantly impacted by his own arduous comprehension of the essence of spacetime, "rules," and "existence"—finally reached its critical point under the combined effect of this final, death-defying pressure and his will to protect!

He could "feel" that deep within his soul, the spiderweb-like cracks left by repeated battles, clashes of knowledge, and conflicting rules were not only not widening or collapsing, but were instead, under the influence of an indescribable, complex, and powerful, endogenous "force"—a mixture of the pure resonance of the "Star Key" source seed, the tenacious imprint of the "Light of Civilization," the construction concept of the "Spark of Engineering," the nourishment and harmony of the "Fountain of Life," and his own ultimate insistence on "evolution" and "possibility"—beginning to "melt," "flow," and "reorganize" in a way that transcends conventional understanding!

This is not a simple repair. It is a rebirth, a destruction followed by a new beginning, a process in which all traumas, exhaustion, insights, knowledge, and will are used as "fuel" and "materials" to undergo a final and most thorough tempering and reshaping of one's very being in the furnace of death!

He "saw" it. Not with his eyes, but with the "perspective" of his soul.

He "saw" the structure of his own soul, which was undergoing a dramatic evolution and reconstruction from its original relatively "planar" and "linear" two-dimensional "star map" model based on the perception of "stellar power" and "rhythm," towards a more "three-dimensional," more "complex," and more "essential" form. This form consisted of countless "crystal clusters" or "multi-dimensional geometric bodies" that represented different understandings of rules, fragments of knowledge, power characteristics, and imprints of existence, shimmering with different colors and lights. Each "crystal cluster" represented one of his insights, one power characteristic, and one knowledge module. Some "crystal clusters" shimmer with the starlight of "The Initial Explanation of Star Laws," some flow with the dynamism of fragments of "Original Texts," some are engraved with the cold mathematical logic of "The Pivot of Myriad Structures," some are entwined with the recorded patterns of "The Light of Civilization," some contain the construction framework of "The Spark of Engineering," and some are subtly connected to the vitality of "The Fountain of Life" and the "resonance" of Ai Rui's harmonizing power...

What connects, governs, and drives these countless "crystal clusters" is no longer the simple flow of "stellar power," but a more fundamental, more "invisible," yet omnipresent, force—a preliminary "perception" and "understanding" of the "rules," formed and sublimated from his own will, ideas, and existence, and even an extremely limited, extremely difficult, and most basic "guidance" and "control" of the essential "force."

This is... beyond the threshold of the Third Ring, a completely new realm of power emerges—"Initial Mastery of Rules" and "Cognition of the Essence of Existence"! It is no longer simply about "using" power, but about beginning to "understand" the underlying logic of power, and even attempting to subtly "influence" and "guide" the operation of local, fundamental rules with one's own "existence" and "will"!

He could "feel" that his perception of the "rhythm" of spacetime had become more delicate and profound, as if he could "touch" the vague "pulse" of the "chaotic" rules themselves—the more grand, yet more "savage," of "entropy increase" and "information annihilation"—that followed behind the chaotic erosion of the "Abyss." He could "feel" that the resonance of the Star Key's "source seed" had found a more stable and "fitting" point of resonance within the structure of his newly formed soul "crystal cluster." Although the resonance was still weak, it possessed an unprecedented, more "essential" penetrating power and "presence" belonging to the "rules" level. He could also "feel" that the power of the "Light of Civilization," "Spark of Engineering," and "Source of Life" crystals in his arms was resonating and responding more directly and efficiently with the corresponding "crystal clusters" in his soul, as if becoming an extension and amplifier of his own "understanding of rules."

The transformation is proceeding at an illogical pace. But this transformation also brings unimaginable pain and danger. The drastic change in the soul's structure is like shattering and rebuilding every bone, muscle, and nerve in the body; the pain far surpasses any physical torture. More importantly, this "breakthrough" requires a massive amount of energy and "information" to sustain it. And at this moment, their energy is exhausted, and they are in the "Abyss." The only "energy" and "information" they can draw upon is precisely the terrifying power of the "Abyss," filled with destruction and the corrosive influence of "chaos," surrounding them!

Driven by instinct and driven by an almost obsessive will to protect his companions, Luo Wei's soul began to actively, cautiously, and frantically attempt to peel away, guide, transform, and absorb from the chaotic rules and energy "background noise" eroded by the surrounding "Abyss." This extracted, almost unusable by conventional means, was the most primal, violent, and extremely dangerous "power" and "information" belonging to the "chaos" rules themselves, filled with tendencies toward "annihilation" and "disorder," in order to support the reconstruction and transformation of his own soul!

It's like searching for water molecules that haven't been completely contaminated in boiling venom to quench your thirst! It's like walking on the thinnest tightrope across an endless abyss, with boiling, chaotic magma below, enough to annihilate your soul!

The slightest carelessness, even the smallest mistake, if a trace of "chaos" erosion is not successfully "stripped" and "transformed," will be like the most deadly virus, instantly polluting, distorting, and detonating his fragile soul structure that is being reconstructed, causing him to completely lose control, go mad, or be assimilated by the "Abyss," becoming part of this "chaotic" land, or even becoming the first "appetizer" of those approaching, "hungry" tentacles!

However, Lowe had no choice. This was the only possible, faint, unstable, and dangerous "variable" that could occur before death for him and everyone on the Stargazer.

"Brother Luo Wei?!" Ai Rui was the first to sense the heart-stopping, soul-level upheaval that was happening to Luo Wei. Connected to Luo Wei's soul (through the Star Key and their previous collaboration), she could vaguely "sense" the chaotic yet intense light deep within his soul—a light like a supernova explosion, dangerous yet containing a strange "hope." She could "see" the pale golden cracks on Luo Wei's body gradually transforming from simple signs of "trauma" into a more complex, more "orderly" pattern, as if some kind of mystical rune was spontaneously generating and flowing—a sign of "transformation." Instinctively, she recklessly poured all her remaining harmonizing power, like the most resilient barrier and the purest stream, into Luo Wei's violently trembling, seemingly disintegrating soul "halo," attempting to share some of his pain, soothe some of the chaos, and increase a sliver of... "stability."

Verna, Annie, Lilith, and Anderson, all in the darkness, sensed that strange and terrifying soul fluctuation originating from Rowe—growing stronger, more unsettling, yet irresistibly hopeful. They didn't know exactly what was happening, but they could guess that this might be Rowe's last, and most dangerous, attempt to push his own limits in this desperate situation. All they could do was hold their breath, and in absolute darkness and silence, under the oppressive pressure of the slowly approaching, suffocating "chewing" sound from outside, silently but resolutely cast their last remaining will, faith, and prayer towards the center of the darkness, towards the only place still "burning"—the direction where Rowe was.

Time, amidst extreme pain, perilous transformation, and the slow approach of death, flows in an almost frozen, cruel way.

Those massive, dark silver energy tentacles, brimming with the will of greed and gluttony, emerging from the depths of the Abyss, had completely torn open the edge of that brief, seemingly safe, dark void. Like sharks smelling blood, they slowly, yet irresistibly, extended their invisible, terrifying mouthparts and suckers toward the faint, flickering island of "ideas"—a mere firefly in the mist of the Abyss—where the Stargazer was located. These suckers were capable of annihilating all order and existence.

In Ai Rui's "structural vision," the "inside" of the "Abyss's" tentacles is a chaotic vortex of dark silver and deep purple rules, swirling wildly, devouring each other, constantly annihilating and reborn. Any "order," "information," or "existence," once touched by it, will be instantly "swirled in," "decomposed," and "assimilated," becoming part of the countless meaningless and chaotic "information noise" within this vortex, both "chewing" and being "chewed."

"They...are here...very close..." Airi's voice was barely audible due to fear and the excessive exhaustion of her soul, and it was tinged with sobs.

Just as the thickest, dark silver "tentacle" was about to touch the wrecked hull of the "Stargazer," about to touch the outermost, pale golden "halo" of the last "shining island" within the bridge, a place barely maintained by the Star Key and the Fire Seed Crystal—

Luo Wei's tightly closed eyes suddenly snapped open!

In their eyes, there was no longer merely bloodshot weariness and sharpness. At this moment, deep within those eyes, two miniature, constantly rotating, shimmering clusters of light—pale gold, milky white, emerald green, dark gold—with countless more subtle, three-dimensional crystalline light clusters representing different understandings of rules, suddenly lit up! Like two new, miniature lamps forged from understanding and will, illuminating the very essence of the soul—cold, rational, and rule-based—lit up in absolute darkness!

He succeeded.

In the final moments when death was imminent, with the mediation of Ai Rui, the faith of his companions, and his own indomitable will to protect and explore, he successfully completed an almost impossible, dangerous, crazy, yet miraculous transformation and advancement to the level of "Third Ring Star Speaker" in the boiling, chaotic cauldron of the universe, the "Abyss"!

His soul, at this moment, transformed into a new, more "essential" form composed of countless three-dimensional, multi-faceted, interconnected pale golden "crystal clusters" representing different insights, knowledge, and powers. This form was stable, complex, and brimming with the rhythmic flow of "rules" and the essential radiance of "existence." His control over power, his understanding of "rules," and his perception of space and time underwent a qualitative leap. More importantly, deep within his soul, a faint yet real "power" was born—a power belonging to the "third ring" realm, capable of initially and to a limited extent of "perceiving" and "understanding," and attempting to "guide" and "control" local fundamental rules with his own "will" and "existence."

This power, when faced with the vast, ancient, terrifying, and almost cosmic origin of the "chaotic" rules of the "Abyss," remains ridiculously small and fragile. But at least, he is no longer the second-ring "user" who can only passively endure or blindly resist. He is now a preliminary, extremely weak "observer" and "understander" at the level of "rules," and even... possesses a tiny bit of the ability to try to "leverage" and "influence" this doomed-to-fail interaction with the most basic and subtle rule level of "chaos" in his own "way."

Just as the dark silver "tentacles" were about to devour the "glimmer" on the bridge—

Lo Wei moved.

He didn't get up, didn't shout, and didn't make any unnecessary movements.

He simply raised his right hand gently.

The skin of that hand was still covered with pale gold, like solidified lava, transformed, regular "crack patterns." But at this moment, these patterns no longer represented trauma; instead, they were like some kind of mysterious, external, and powerful "loop" and "imprint" containing the structure of his newborn soul.

He held his hand, palm facing outward, fingers slightly spread, as if to "touch" or "block" the oncoming, invisible, terrifying, dark silver "tentacles" at the very tip, the wildly rotating, regular "mouthparts" filled with the "chaotic" will to annihilate.

At the same time, the two newly formed, dazzling, cold, rational "star vortexes" in his eyes, containing countless rules of "crystal clusters" of light and shadow, suddenly converged and condensed, transforming into two deep, focused "gazes" that seemed to "see through" the "chaotic" appearance before him and look directly at the more magnificent, yet more "savage," "entropy increase," and "information annihilation" rules behind it, sharp as knives, the "gaze" of "rules."

His lips moved silently, without uttering a sound, but a clear, cold, and concise "ripple"—a pure "intention," an invisible, rule-based "wave"—accompanied by the "cluster" of light in his palm, woven, condensed, and guided by the resonance of the Star Key, the three "Fire Seeds" crystals, Ai Rui's harmonizing power, and the soul "cluster" structure of his newly born, three-ringed Star Speaker. This wisp of light, mixed with pale gold, milky white, emerald green, and dark gold, contained countless extremely fine, three-dimensional "strings" and "nodes" representing different rules, like the most exquisite, complex, yet containing a kind of supreme "harmony" and "essential" beauty, a three-dimensional, miniature, "rule-based" "brocade" or "rune," faint yet with an incredibly strong "presence," was gently "imprinted" forward.

There was no earth-shattering collision.

There is no energy and no annihilation of energy.

There is only one kind of contact, friction, and confrontation between two rule systems that seem to be of different "dimensions," different "logics," and different "existences," at the most basic and microscopic level—a very brief yet incredibly "essential" contact, friction, and confrontation.

The "mark of light" that Luo Wei "imprinted"—a miniature, three-dimensional, and regular "mark of light" formed by the convergence of "understanding," "ideas," and "existence"—was not intended to "attack" or "purify" the enormous, dark silver "tentacles" filled with the annihilating will of "chaos." That would be tantamount to throwing an egg against a rock.

What he did was guide, interfere, and exploit.

He "saw" through the vortex of the frantically spinning, regular "mouthparts" at the front of the "tentacles," and within it, the countless fleeting, extremely small, "rule-based," transient, dynamic, and unstable "equilibrium points," "conflict points," and "resonance weak points" inherent in the operation of the logic of "entropy increase" and "information annihilation."

He used his faint "mark of light," which resonated with various "concepts" and "rules" such as "evolution," "recording," "creation," "life," "harmony," and "existence," as the most exquisite and ruthless "scalpel" and "catalyst" at the level of rules, at the most precise moment (derived from calculations brought by the knowledge of the "Hyperstructure of All Things" and the instantaneous judgment of his own newly formed "three rings" of perception), along the "tentacle" and bridge that Ai Rui "saw." On the "frontal zone" where the collision of "Glimmers" was most intense and where the conflict of rules was most obvious, a very brief and unstable "gap" of rules, just torn open by the violent vortex of the "Abyss," was gently but precisely "passed" in. Instantly, it detonated, guided, and amplified the "disturbance" and "interference" of the rules contained in the "mark" at the level of "order," "evolution," "existence," and "ideas," which were completely opposite to the rules of "chaos"!

Then, he "guided" this "interference" precisely into the interior of the "tentacle" vortex, into an unstable, regular "node" that he "saw" was about to experience a brief "conflict" and "imbalance" in its internal rules due to excessive "entropy increase"!

It's like gently inserting a hard, cold, perfectly sized, and rule-bound wedge, forged with "understanding" and "ideas," into the most crucial, about-to-break gear mesh of a huge, ancient, violent, and chaotic "crusher" that is running wildly but whose internal parts are already worn out and on the verge of jamming.

next moment--

Buzz!

A kind of sound that transcends physical sounds, purely belonging to the level of "rules," filled with pain, confusion, rage, and... brief, intense, small-scale, its own logic "collapsing," silent yet making everyone's soul tremble, as if hearing some kind of "structure" at the bottom of the universe "groaning" and "breaking," a terrifying, piercing, rule-based "shriek," suddenly erupted from the tip of the thickest dark silver "tentacle"!

The frenzied, swirling vortex of "mouthparts" at the tip of the "tentacles," filled with the will of "greed" and "gluttony," suddenly convulsed violently, twisted, collapsed inward, and then... like a glass artifact whose internal structure was already decayed, intricate yet filled with destructive power, struck by an invisible giant hammer, was instantly covered with countless silver-white, regular, geometric, ever-expanding, terrifying cracks representing the violent conflict, annihilation, and collapse within the "chaotic" rules themselves!

Immediately afterwards, from the crack, a dazzling, destructive, and rule-bound energy storm erupted—far more violent, chaotic, yet also more "restrained" and "essential," interwoven with silver and deep purple, filled with an aura of "self-devouring" and "rule annihilation"!

This storm was not directed at the "Stargazer," but rather it was a small-scale, violent eruption of "self-devouring" and "annihilation" caused by the uncontrolled internal conflict of the "tentacles" themselves, originating from the "chaos" rules themselves!

The erupting storm not only instantly tore apart, devoured, and annihilated the thickest, wedge-stuck tentacle tip, along with its internal vortex of rules, into the most basic, chaotic, lifeless, inert, dark silver and deep purple, pure, rule-based information "residue" and energy "embers"! The resulting violent shockwaves and rule ripples, filled with the aura of chaotic rule annihilation, slammed heavily into the other dark silver "tentacles" that followed closely behind, triggering a chain reaction of brief, rule-based chaos, retreat, and mutual "biting"!

Inside the bridge of the "Stargazer," everyone felt as if their souls had been struck hard on the spiritual level by an invisible, cold, massive, heavy "hammer" filled with chaotic rules and an aura of annihilation! Everything went black, blood simultaneously spilled from their mouths and noses (including from Luo Wei and Ai Rui), and their ears (soul perception) were filled with the terrifying, rule-based "shrieks" and the chaotic, maddening echoes of annihilation!

But at the same time, they also "felt" that the slowly approaching, suffocating, "hunger-filled," and "chewing" shadow and pressure of death, which was about to close in and completely devour them, suddenly eased! Outside the porthole, the churning, dark silver and deep purple "Abyss" mist, like a sandcastle scattered by a gale, violently rolled and receded backward, centered on those chaotic, retreating, and tearing "tentacles"! A larger expanse was revealed, still filled with inert, cold, and unsettling dark silver "embers" and "residues," but at least... without that living, "devouring," orderly, terrifying, approaching, tentacle-like, and "mouthpart" space—a relatively "calm," deep, dark, and void space!

Luo Weina's right hand, which he had just raised and was covered with pale golden, regular "crack patterns," fell limply to his knee. The two brilliant, regular "star vortexes" in his eyes also quickly dimmed and subsided, transforming back into bloodshot eyes that contained an unprecedented, deep, cold, weary, regular, rational, and weathered luster belonging to the "Three Rings." He closed his eyes again, his body swayed, and he collapsed backward, only to be firmly supported and held by Ai Rui, who was also bleeding from all seven orifices, extremely weak, yet stubbornly holding on.

Successful.

Using his newly promoted, third-ring Star Speaker's preliminary, rule-based "understanding" and "guidance" abilities, combined with the knowledge of the "Hyperstructure of All Things," the resonance of the Star Key and the "Spark," the harmony of Ai Rui, and the beliefs of his companions, he skillfully and perilously pried open a brief, intense, and small-scale "self-devouring" and "annihilation" eruption of the "Abyss's" own internal, rule-based, and rule-based power within the mouth of this terrifying, chaotic, and rule-based "beast" of the "Abyss." This not only temporarily repelled the most deadly, living, rule-based "tentacle" attack filled with the will to "devour," but also used the aftershocks of the eruption to briefly "purify" or rather "disperse" the active "Abyss" mist in the area around them into a relatively "inert" and "dead" area of ​​rule-based "residue."

They gained a... temporary, unstable, but at least brief, extremely fragile "breathing" opportunity without the most terrifying, direct, living, rule-based "devouring" threat.

The price was that Luo Wei's already weakened soul, having just undergone its transformation, suffered immense backlash and trauma from forcibly manipulating the rules and instigating internal conflicts within "chaos." Ai Rui, and everyone else, also suffered significant shocks and damage to their souls and bodies due to the "annihilation" impact of those rules.

"We...are we still alive?" Verna's weak voice rang out in the deathly silence of the bridge, trembling with disbelief and the relief of surviving a catastrophe.

"For now..." Lowe's voice rang out in Irene's arms, weak, hoarse, and utterly exhausted, yet carrying a cold, rational clarity befitting a "Third Ring" member, "Those 'tentacles'... have only temporarily retreated after being 'bitten' by themselves, licking their wounds and dealing with internal chaos... They... are not 'dead,' and this 'Abyss'... has not 'forgotten' us. This 'peace'... won't last long."

"Energy... is still zero. Life support... has stopped. We... are still inside the 'belly' of the 'Maw'..." Annie's voice was numb with despair.

"But we... have some time, and..." Luo Wei struggled to lift his eyelids, looking out the porthole at the relatively "calm" dark void filled with dark silver, inert, cold, and rule-bound "residue" and "embers." He then looked down at the Star Key and "Spark" crystal in his arms, whose light, though dim, still existed and resonated more clearly and fundamentally with his newly formed, three-ring soul structure. And... beside him, tightly holding him and sharing his pain and burden, was Ai Rui's body, also covered with rule-bound "erosion" scars, yet still radiating a faint, warm, and harmonious "halo."

"And...a little new...'understanding,' and...a little old...'key.'"

"Now," he closed his eyes, using his last ounce of strength, and issued a new, and perhaps final, command to Verna and everyone else, "while this 'peace' is still here... use all our remaining knowledge, perception, and will... to scan, analyze, and understand... this 'purified' area of ​​'residue' from the 'Abyss'... to search for any... possible, theoretically possible... structure of rules, 'loopholes,' or... any 'gap' leading... elsewhere, even the most unstable and dangerous one."

"We need to find... the smallest, most likely leading to a more terrible place, 'gap' that leaves this 'mouth' before... the next 'chewing' begins."

Silence fell once more on the bridge. But this silence was no longer merely a numb despair. It contained a hint of lingering shock from having just crawled back from the brink of death and witnessed the "miracle" and "transformation," and also a hint of... using one's last breath to grasp at that newly emerged, faint, new, possible hope—a hope belonging to the realm of "rules," cold, rational, and dangerous...