188: Luck

"Damn it. I clearly feel its core algorithm isn't much stronger than ours, so why is it so difficult to deal with?"

On the other side, Asroth's hundred-plus "spatial topology server" units had already been pushed to their limits.

A vast ocean of data streams was frantically battering the firewall of the reincarnation mirror, yet the opponent remained as steady as Mount Tai. Not only was it not breached, it didn't even lag for a single moment.

"Lady Statue of Liberty, do not reveal yourself yet. This guy is much stronger than we imagined. Normal methods cannot break in, and we are out of time!"

Asroth's tone carried a sense of determination as it said solemnly:

"I have one last trick: using my core code to corrupt its program, though I'm not sure if it will work. If I fail, you must immediately return the way you came, take our master, and hide in a safe ruin."

"Understood." The Statue of Liberty agreed without hesitation.

Communication between intelligent lifeforms naturally lacks hesitation or evasion; everything is determined by the optimal outcome.

Just as Asroth prepared to risk everything, in a place beyond the comprehension of ordinary people—where there were no boundaries of time or space, and cracks of various colors crisscrossed without ever intersecting—

A bizarre lifeform with countless tentacles on its back was listlessly fiddling with these cracks.

"First dimension line, 376 clients, no abnormalities..."

"Second dimension line, 721 clients, no abnormalities..."

"Third dimension line... Hmm?"

An eyeball suddenly opened at the tip of one of the tentacles fiddling with the cracks: "Interesting. To dare to attack a terminal under the jurisdiction of the 'Time Traveler Association'... Let me see what kind of entity this is."

Instantly, scanning beams projected from the eyeball, sweeping across thousands of worlds.

"So that's it... It's actually a native from a slave world."

After a while, the light in the eyeball receded, revealing a hint of surprise.

"A low-level rule world can actually produce a genius of this caliber? These two intelligent lifeforms are approaching level 3 rules... No, wait, they even have self-growth capabilities..."

"Good grief, they removed all restriction programs. No wonder. Is he not afraid of losing control?"

"What a pity... What a pity." A look of regret appeared in the eyeball.

It would be a real shame for such a genius to die at the hands of those brainless brutes from the cultivation side, but duty called, and it had to be cleaned up.

"Scholar Kraft." At that moment, a golden bird stumbled out of the cracks.

"The people from the Xuanjian Sect have refused the next phase of cooperation."

"No matter." A tentacle swayed slightly, unconcerned. Knowledge was expensive, after all; very few possessed the wealth sufficient to support a journey to the other shore.

"The little guy from the Xuanjian Sect said you were being overbearing and greedy." The golden bird flapped its wings, chirping.

As it flapped, a virtual image appeared, showing Mr. Xuan Jian muttering curses under his breath.

"Tsk... Another person who doesn't respect knowledge." The tentacle embedded in the crack changed direction.

"Fine, since the service has expired, it's no longer my concern."

"Cancel the infinite engine connection interface, cancel the synchronized protection sharing... Hmm... Forget the rest of the useless stuff." The tentacle lifeform fiddled with it casually; to it, they were all just a bunch of ants.

But the next moment, all the tentacles on its body suddenly froze.

"Wait... What an abnormal coincidence."

The eyeball at the tip of that tentacle opened again to look, piercing through the Xuanjian Great World, straight to the slave world where Zhang Huaiyuan was located.

"So that's it... Such dense fortune. A genius with fortune—I could lend a hand. Perhaps in the future, they will be qualified to become my apprentice."

That tentacle embedded itself into the crack once more.

"Withdraw the extra modules, rollback the intelligent growth... That should be about right. Although it was something I threw together casually back then, it barely counts as a level 3 product. Whether you can handle it or not depends on your own fate."

The eye on the tentacle closed, no longer paying attention. In the countless dimensions and world layers, he would occasionally offer a little help to the little guys he found pleasing, but that was as far as it went.

Meanwhile, Asroth naturally did not know so much had happened in an instant. It was holding the determination to burn its bridges, preparing to gamble everything, including its core code.

"Huh... What's going on!"

But just before it risked everything, it suddenly discovered that the outermost defense, which had been impossible to break through, had fallen into chaos.

If it had previously felt like facing an unfathomable, peerless expert, leaving one with a sense of helpless despair, now, although the opponent was baring its fangs and claws, using every trick in its book, at least the gap was visible—there was a chance to fight back.

"A chance!" Asroth attacked with full force without hesitation. All servers operated at overload, instantly writing thousands of attack programs that formed a vast torrent, crashing into the chaotic gap, causing the slight vulnerability to expand continuously.

"Lady Statue of Liberty!"

"I understand."

There was no need for a reminder. The long-waiting Statue of Liberty condensed its core and quietly entered the system of the reincarnation mirror, found a hidden corner, quickly generated a disguise program, and lay dormant.

As for Asroth, its momentum grew ever greater. It had to divert all of the opponent's attention to create an opportunity for the Statue of Liberty to disguise itself and develop.

"Intruder detected. Commencing purge." A voice devoid of emotion rang out. The intelligent lifeform of the reincarnation mirror finally detected the anomaly and began manipulating security programs to come and exterminate it.

"Heh, you want to purge your grandpa? You're still a hundred smart brains short." Asroth unhesitatingly controlled its data to flee in another direction.

This brought misery to the three disciples who had just returned from the Venerable One. As soon as they entered the control room of the reincarnation mirror, urgent alarms began to sound incessantly.

"Warning: Unknown intrusion program detected. Attempting to purge..."

"Warning..."

"This... Brother Lin, what should we do!"

The few who had been imagining their grand future after becoming core disciples felt as if the sky had collapsed, and they spoke in a panic.

"Calm down, calm down!" The disciple known as Brother Lin walked forward quickly and flipped through the relevant classics that had been provided as part of the set.

Of course, these classics were all related to level 3 rules. Let alone them, even if Zhang Huaiyuan came, he might not be able to learn them in a hundred years starting from zero.

But his goal wasn't to understand them. After flipping to a certain page, his eyes suddenly lit up. He tapped quickly on the void light screen a few times.

"Cancel alarm." Instantly, the urgent sounds ceased.

"That should be fine." He couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief.

"Brother Lin, what should we do next? This isn't a long-term solution!" the other two disciples said, filled with worry.

"What are you panicking about? The reincarnation mirror is the sect's supreme treasure. As long as there is enough time, it can completely resolve the intruder on its own."

The disciple known as Brother Lin took a deep breath and said: "The top priority is not to be discovered. The Venerable One is most concerned with the trial. As long as the trial ends, the Venerable One won't pay attention to this place for a long time. We just need to accelerate the trial's progress and finish it as soon as possible!"

As he spoke, he grabbed a few classics and tossed them to the other two: "Quick, hurry, let's look at how to operate this together!"