The Wizard of Truth: Starting with Analyzing All Things

The warning conveyed by the stone slab was like a boulder thrown into a calm lake. The cold words "Tracing the Source," "Candidate Observation Sequence," and "Stress Test" made it clear to Luo Wei that he was no longer simply a "monitored subject," but had been promoted to an "experimental subject" in some vast and secretive plan. The net of the Discipline Tower tightened, and its purpose became more blatant.

He wasn't panicked; instead, he possessed an eerie calm, as if a shoe had just landed. Fear wouldn't solve the problem; only greater strength and deeper planning could offer a glimmer of hope in this desperate situation.

The following days were eerily calm. The Discipline Tower didn't immediately conduct the so-called "stress test," as if deliberately brewing the calm before the storm. Lowe was happy with this, focusing all his energy on digesting his previous gains and improving his self-defense capabilities.

He repeatedly reviewed and analyzed the process of the abyss fragments, imprinting the perception of that chaotic, corrosive power into his mind, constantly simulating and adapting to it. This gave him a stronger ability to suppress the restlessness of the abyss imprint within him, and he could even vaguely sense the subtle flow of the same source power in the "Heart Mark Potion," making him more adept at "disguising" it. At the same time, his construction of "energy signature simulation" and "information disguise layer" became increasingly proficient. Although the duration was still short, the activation was faster, and the disguise was more natural, becoming an instinct for him to deal with daily surveillance.

Current status: Rowe (Late-stage Intermediate Apprentice - Peak)

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Strength assessment: The level has reached the peak of the current rank. Energy control, mental resilience, and understanding of rules far surpass those of peers. However, combat ability is suppressed by supervision.

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Core capabilities: Information weaving (proficient), energy signature simulation (beginner to proficient), information camouflage layer (theory to prototype), abyss resistance (significantly improved).

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Status: Officially included in the "Source Tracing Project" observation sequence, in the calm before the storm, with the monitoring level unknown.

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Psychological state: Be highly vigilant, patient and bide your time, and actively prepare for the impending crisis.

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Development priorities: Consolidate existing capabilities, seek opportunities for breakthroughs, and analyze the intentions of the Discipline Tower.

However, the bottleneck of being a mid-level apprentice acted like a formidable barrier, hindering further growth in his mental strength. He understood that methodical meditation was no longer enough to break through the shackles; what he needed was an opportunity, a transformation under pressure, or… a deeper understanding of the rules of the world. And this was perhaps exactly what the Discipline Tower's "stress test" wanted to see.

In this oppressive atmosphere of impending doom, a sudden change occurred late one night, half a month later.

Without warning, without any prior notice. As Lowe was deep in meditation at his residence, the surrounding space violently distorted and folded without any warning! The familiar room scene vanished like a shattered mirror, replaced by an absolute, dark void, boundless and shimmering with only faint starlight!

Forced spatial teleportation! And in a way he couldn't understand or resist!

A strong sense of weightlessness and the tearing force of space overwhelmed him. If it weren't for Luo Wei's affinity for the void and his extreme sensitivity to spatial fluctuations, he would probably have lost consciousness instantly. He activated the foundational rune "Stability" with all his might, guarding his mind, while simultaneously activating the "Information Disguise Layer" to its limit, simulating the "normal" reactions of panic, fear, and struggle.

The next moment, the dizzying sensation disappeared, and my feet touched the solid but cold ground.

He appeared in the center of a massive, circular hall constructed entirely of some kind of dark silver metal. The hall's dome soared high, inlaid with crystals emitting a pale, cold light. The walls were smooth as mirrors, without a single seam, and devoid of doors or windows, resembling a completely enclosed metal cage. The air was thick with dense, strictly controlled spatial energy, and a lingering aura of information—of the same origin as the Starfall Observatory, yet far more ancient and refined.

This is definitely not the interrogation room or prison commonly found in the Discipline Tower.

"Observe the candidate in the sequence, Luo Wei, identity confirmed."

A cold, emotionless sound, as if composed of countless metal scraps rubbing together, echoed through the hall, its source indistinguishable.

"Welcome to the 'Tracing the Source Corridor' preparatory test area. The test content for this session is: Survival and Exploration."

"Rules: 1. Survive within this space for twelve hours. 2. Explore the corridor structure as much as possible and draw a map. 3. Deal with and record all encountered 'echoes'."

"Warning: The spatial structure within the corridor is unstable and poses unknown risks. Death results in test failure."

"Timer, start."

The sound stopped abruptly.

Darkmoon Academy World Encyclopedia: Traceback Corridor

One of the highest-level forbidden experimental facilities controlled by the Discipline Tower. Its theoretical basis is suspected to stem from reverse engineering of the core functions of certain extremely ancient relics (such as the Starfall Observatory). The corridor is not a physical building, but an artificially constructed, highly unstable subspace fragment filled with guided and solidified historical information sedimentation (i.e., "echoes"), simulating various extreme environments. Used to test the adaptability, potential, and essential nature of targets under high pressure, information overload, and spatial distortion, it is a core screening component of the "Tracing the Origins Project." Extremely dangerous, with an extremely high mortality rate.

The cold voice vanished, replaced by immense pressure. Luo Wei could sense more than one cold, scrutinizing intent projecting from the unknowable void, locking onto him. The test had begun, and he was the lab rat in the cage.

He took a deep breath, suppressing all distracting thoughts, and sharply scanned his surroundings. Twelve hours to survive, explore, and deal with the "Echoes." This test seemed simple, but it was incredibly dangerous. The space itself was the greatest enemy.

He tried to mobilize his mental energy, only to find that the mental energy consumption here was several times that of the outside world, and that it was subject to some kind of invisible suppression. His spatial perception was also severely interfered with, as if he were in thick glue, and he could only barely perceive the spatial folds and energy flow within a radius of several tens of meters around him, while beyond that was a blurry chaos.

The "Information Weaving Technique" was unusually active here! The air was filled with a massive amount of complex and chaotic information echoes! There were the lingering thoughts of ancient wizards' meditations, fragments of the roars of terrifying monsters, energy imprints of intense battles, and even some completely incomprehensible, distorted whispers of rules... These messages assaulted his consciousness like a tidal wave. If he hadn't been prepared and his resistance hadn't greatly increased, he probably would have gone insane in an instant.

He immediately focused his mind, narrowing the scope of his information processing and concentrating on filtering and analyzing the clearest information flow around him that might be relevant to his current environment.

At the same time, he cautiously took a step forward. The instant his foot touched the ground, the smooth metal wall in front of him suddenly rippled like water, and a blurry, shadowy phantom of a knight wielding a rusted sword silently materialized, charging towards him with chilling killing intent!

Echo! An energy creation formed from the condensed fighting spirit and information left over from history!

The knight's phantom was incredibly fast, its strength comparable to a high-ranking apprentice! Luo Wei dared not be careless, instantly casting an optimized version of Blazing Flame Spell, the condensed fire arrow precisely aimed at the phantom's core—a node where energy flowed. However, the fire arrow pierced the phantom, only dimming it slightly, its effect greatly diminished! Physical and elemental attacks have limited effectiveness against this type of information energy entity!

Despite the danger, Luo Wei remained calm and instantly changed his strategy. He no longer attempted a direct confrontation, but instead utilized his spatial awareness to its fullest extent, predicting the knight's charging trajectory and shifting his footwork to narrowly avoid the slash. At the same time, he fully activated his information weaving technique, ceasing his attack and instead trying to "understand" and "disrupt" the fighting obsession that constituted the knight's phantom!

"Analyze!" he murmured to himself, his mental energy coiling around the illusory figure like fine threads. In an instant, he "saw" the source of this echo—a tragic scene from countless years ago, where a knight guarding this place perished together with an invading shadow creature! That indomitable fighting spirit was the core of the illusory figure!

"Disperse!" Luo Wei sent a mental wave containing the ideas of "disintegration" and "rest" through the information connection, impacting that fighting obsession!

The knight's phantom charging motion abruptly halted, letting out a silent roar. Its form flickered violently before finally vanishing with a bang, returning to a chaotic stream of information.

Success! Interference at the information level is far more effective than energy attacks! Luo Wei felt a little relieved; this confirmed his conjecture and pointed him in the right direction to survive in the corridor.

He didn't stop, but continued exploring. The interior of the corridor was not static; as he moved, the surrounding scenery would suddenly change—sometimes turning into a scorching lava pool, sometimes into a frigid polar wasteland, sometimes into a mind-bending illusionary maze... These were all extreme environments and information traps simulated by the corridor.

Each environment is accompanied by different echo attacks—the fiery vengeful spirits in the lava pools, the icy corpse demons in the polar regions, the whispers of inner demons in the illusions… They are not purely energy entities, but also contain various negative emotions and fragments of rules that attack, making them impossible to defend against.

Luo Wei pushed his abilities to the limit. Spatial perception helped him avoid physical traps and spatial rifts; information weaving allowed him to perceive the weaknesses of echoes and interfere with them; optimized sorcery was used for restraint and self-preservation; and the newly mastered "energy signature simulation" and "information camouflage layer" saved him from danger several times—when encountering swarms of low-level echoes, he successfully simulated the spatial fluctuations of the corridor itself, briefly "invisible" to avoid them; when trapped in a powerful illusion, he constructed an information camouflage, deceiving the illusion's perception core.

He was dancing in a minefield, every step a heart-stopping experience. His mental energy was rapidly depleting, several wounds appeared on his body, and his soul was stinging from the constant barrage of information. But he persevered, fighting and exploring simultaneously, silently sketching fragments of a map of this eerie corridor in his mind.

Time passed slowly, five hours, eight hours, ten hours...

Just as Luo Wei felt he was nearing his limit and was preparing to find a relatively safe corner to hold out for reinforcements, he discovered a secluded corner of the corridor. The space here was relatively stable, and the information feedback was much thinner. However, on the wall, he found an extremely hidden energy mark.

The pattern of the mark was 70% similar to a certain foundational rune related to "information reception" on the gray stone slab in his arms! And at the center of the mark, there was a trace of extremely faint, ancient and pure energy aura of the Law, which was of the same origin as the "Heart Mark Potion"!

This is not a naturally occurring echo! It's a mark left by humans! Was it left by the early explorers of the Discipline Tower? Or... a backdoor left by the builders?

Luo Wei was shocked! He suppressed his excitement and pretended to be exhausted, leaning against the wall to rest. He secretly concentrated all his mental energy to sense the mark.

The remaining information in the imprint was extremely blurry, but thanks to the resonance of the stone slab and a deep analysis of the information weaving, he managed to glean a few fragmented words:

"...Observation tower...connection point...frequency...key...out of control...seal..."

Observation tower? Connection point? Key? Out of control? Seal?

These words, taken together, point to a startling possibility—this "Tracing Corridor," similar to the Starfall Observatory, is also part of a large-scale "information receiving" or "transmission" facility! The Discipline Tower isn't just using it in reverse; they may be attempting to restart or control this ancient network! And this mark could be a crucial "connection point" or "control node"!

The terms "out of control" and "sealed" suggest that this ancient network itself harbors immense danger, which even the Discipline Tower struggles to fully control!

Just then—

hum!

The entire corridor trembled violently! Everything became blurry and distorted, and spatial energy became violent and chaotic! A tearing sound that made your teeth ache came from afar, as if the entire subspace was about to collapse!

"Warning! Corridor stability has dropped sharply! Test terminated early! Forced evacuation initiated!" The cold, metallic voice rang out again, with a hint of barely perceptible urgency.

A powerful spatial pulling force is coming again!

Just before his figure dissipated, Luo Wei used his last strength to leave an extremely tiny spatial coordinate anchor point next to the mark, which only he and the gray stone slab could perceive, using his spiritual power like a carving knife!

Suddenly everything went black, and I experienced another dizzying sensation.

When he regained consciousness, he was back in his home, as if everything that had just happened was a nightmare. But the exhaustion of his soul, the wounds on his body, the clear fragments of the map in his mind, and the astonishing discovery all testified to the reality of what had just occurred.

He immediately checked himself and found that the monitoring mark of the "Heart Scar Potion" seemed to have become somewhat disordered due to the spatial teleportation just now, but it was quickly returning to stability. He dared not be negligent and immediately entered deep meditation to repair his injuries and calm his mind. At the same time, he activated the information disguise layer at full power to disguise himself as someone who had just woken up from a nightmare, was still in shock, and was extremely exhausted.

He knew that the "observers" of the Discipline Tower were assessing all his reactions.

A moment later, there was a knock on the door. Standing outside was the prospective wizard deacon, holding a notepad in his hand, his sharp gaze sweeping over Rowe.

"Test complete. Survival time: 11 hours and 47 minutes. Exploration completion rating: 'C+'. Echo response rating: 'B-B'. Overall rating: Pass." The deacon's voice remained cold, but Luo Wei caught a fleeting look of surprise in his eyes. Clearly, Luo Wei's performance had exceeded their expectations.

"This is a 'Mind-Cleansing Potion,' used to restore mental energy. Next mission, await further instructions." The deacon placed the potion down, gave Luo Wei a deep look, and turned to leave.

Luo Wei took the medicine but didn't take it immediately. He closed the door, leaned against it, slowly slid down to the floor, and let out a long sigh.

He survived the first round of "stress test." Moreover, he gained a great deal! Not only did he hone his abilities to the extreme and glimpse the tip of the iceberg of the "Tracing the Source Project," but he also found a potentially crucial clue—the connecting point imprint!

He stroked the stone tablet in his arms, feeling the faint resonance it lingered with the mark. Did the Discipline Tower want to use him to explore this dangerous ancient network? Perhaps, he could use the tablet to understand it more deeply than they did, or even… turn the tables and utilize the network!

The trials of tracing the origins of the corridor may be his opportunity to break through his limitations and glimpse a higher level. His struggle with the Tower of Discipline has also shifted from passive response to a dangerous…reverse exploration.

As the night deepened, an even more resolute flame ignited in Luo Wei's eyes.