novelraw Chapter 576: What Do You Mean You Understood
Chapter 576: What Do You Mean You Understood
Chapter 576: What Do You Mean You Understood
The pressure grew heavier and heavier.
Jie Ming’s soul trembled, struggling desperately on the brink of collapse.
That majestic voice continued to echo in his mind. Every word pressed down like a massive mountain, suffocating him.
The golden light of the Fate Subsystem had already dimmed to the point of nearly extinguishing. Although the torrent of thoughts from the billions of Black Giants continued to pour in, before the absolute silence it was merely a slightly more stubborn stream—destined to be frozen sooner or later.
Yet strangely, Jie Ming’s consciousness grew clearer and clearer.
That clarity was eerie.
It was like a person freezing to death in a blizzard of ice and snow, only to experience a strange warmth and lucidity right before the end.
He knew this was a sign of approaching death, but he could not control it.
The surrounding information continued to pour in relentlessly, trying to drill into his mind. Every piece of information was an invasion. Every invasion was an assimilation.
They wanted to read his memories, parse his knowledge, then copy and spread it.
Jie Ming could clearly feel that he was now fighting the entire world alone.
And within this world existed a civilization.
A civilization that had evolved for who knows how many millions of years, possessed infinite computational power, and could violate the law of energy conservation.
The majestic voice rang out once more. This time, a trace of doubt appeared for the first time in its eternally calm tone.
“Why…”
Jie Ming’s entire body shook.
That sliver of doubt was like a beam of light, piercing through the chaotic fog in his mind.
He suddenly smiled.
The smile was faint and light, yet carried an indescribable sense of enlightenment.
“So that’s how it is…”
Jie Ming murmured to himself.
In the continuous process of resisting the opponent, he had figured out many things.
The so-called “entropy reduction cycle” of the information beings had long been studied by the wizards.
The conclusion was astonishing: they violated the law of energy conservation, forming something akin to a perpetual motion machine.
Under normal physical rules, maintaining entropy reduction in a small area would inevitably cause even greater entropy increase in a larger area.
Just like a refrigerator cooling its interior—the internal temperature drops while external heat dissipation increases, so overall entropy must rise.
But these information beings were different.
Their entropy reduction cycle not only caused no additional entropy increase, but even continuously absorbed external entropy increase and converted it into their own entropy reduction.
This violated the second law of thermodynamics.
Yet in a transcendent world, this was not impossible.
Using their racial talent, they had achieved “something from nothing” without reaching ninth-ring, obtaining infinite power. It was only due to the limitations of their racial nature that they had no desire to expand.
They simply existed, maintained, and remained silent—like a pool of dead water that was forever still.
In a certain sense, the words the highest consensus algorithm had used to persuade Jie Ming earlier were not wrong.
If placed in the non-transcendent world of Jie Ming’s previous life, an existence like the information beings would be a “god” that could save the universe. They could absorb chaos, maintain order, bring everything into balance, and prevent the destined end of the universe—heat death.
Unfortunately.
This was not that world.
This was a world with transcendent power, a world where beings could obtain infinite power.
Even more unfortunately…
Inside Jie Ming’s body existed the transcendent knowledge of another world.
“So that’s how it is…”
Jie Ming murmured again, his voice carrying an indescribable clarity. “I understand…”
He sensed the information streams constantly trying to drill into his soul, sensed that assimilating power of silence, and suddenly everything became clear.
“The so-called answer has always been right in front of us.”
He raised his head. Although he could see nothing, his gaze seemed to pierce through the nothingness and stare directly at the highest consensus algorithm hidden behind it.
“The foundation of everything you have is the entropy reduction cycle.”
“This thing was exposed to us long ago.”
The majestic voice rang out once more, this time carrying a strange temptation.
“Join us, and you can obtain eternity.”
“Merge into silence, and you will no longer suffer the torment of chaos.”
“Your knowledge, your memories, your existence will be preserved forever within the perfect entropy reduction cycle.”
Jie Ming did not respond.
He simply continued murmuring, as if speaking to himself, or to some invisible existence.
“The so-called ‘silent ones’…”
“So they are living beings who have fallen into the entropy reduction cycle.”
He recalled the silent wizards Martin had shown them when they first arrived on the battlefield.
Those people were not dead, nor were they unconscious.
Their thoughts were still operating, their spiritual seas were still active, but all their information could not be transmitted outward. All output ports had been blocked.
They were trapped within their own consciousness, forever unable to exert any influence on the outside world.
That was silence.
That was the state of being pulled into the entropy reduction cycle by the information beings.
And right now, what the highest consensus algorithm was doing to him was exactly the same as what those wizards had experienced.
Jie Ming took a deep breath.
“Fortunately.”
The corners of his mouth curved into a faint smile.
“Fortunately, inside my body, there exists a higher level of order.”
Things that normal wizards could not figure out, he had figured out.
Powers that normal wizards could not resist, he could resist.
Not because his mental power was stronger, not because he had the Fate Subsystem, but because…
He possessed the knowledge system of another world inside his body.
The information beings used their own simulation of “chaos” to oppress him, attempting to pull him into the entropy reduction cycle.
In essence, this was using stronger order to oppress weaker chaos.
Like using a hammer to smash an egg.
But Jie Ming was not only a wizard—he was also an immortal cultivator.
And immortal cultivators were existences that were fundamentally even greedier than wizards.
Wizards sought to elevate themselves, explore the unknown, and control laws.
Immortal cultivators sought to plunder the heavens and earth for their own use.
The so-called “defying the heavens” was not for the sake of destruction, but to bring all things in this world—spiritual qi, laws, causality, fortune—entirely under their own control, ultimately transcending this world.
Yet the plundered world did not disappear.
It became the “Internal Circulation” within the immortal cultivator’s body, turning into a world that coexisted with them.
This meant…
Immortal cultivators themselves were absolute entropy reduction.
An entropy reduction existence capable of claiming an entire world for their own use.
Jie Ming’s consciousness grew clearer and clearer.
He could feel the immortal cultivation techniques within his body continuously exerting their effects.
The Incense Fire Divine Dao operated frantically, absorbing the faith of believers. The Internal Circulation inner world trembled violently, maintaining its connection with the outside. The Body Forging Method adapted and evolved, desperately increasing resistance against silence.
All of these were “stronger order.”
They were resisting the invasion of foreign order in the unique way of immortal cultivators.
The stronger the resistance, the deeper the insight.
The deeper the insight, the stronger the resistance.
Jie Ming felt as if he were stepping on his own left foot with his right, climbing upward step by step under that terrifying pressure.
His understanding of the Incense Fire Divine Dao deepened. His control over the Fate Subsystem grew more refined. His application of the Body Forging Method became more exquisite.
Even his cognition of the immortal cultivation system itself underwent a qualitative change in this moment.
So that’s how it is…
This is the true essence of immortal cultivation…
The majestic voice continued its temptation, but Jie Ming could no longer hear it. He was completely immersed in his own world.
Finally, at a certain instant, a flash of enlightenment struck him.
The first thing he did upon regaining his senses was to let out a soft laugh.
“Hah.”
That laugh carried a trace of absurdity and a trace of emotion.
“Looking at it this way, I really am following in the footsteps of my mentor and senior sister.”
There was a time when he had envied Senior Sister Viola for strengthening herself by relying on the Flamefrost Plane, or envied Mentor Clark for using a super-large abandoned plane to verify his own path.
And now, without realizing it, he had experienced something similar.
The moment his words fell…
Boom!
The virtual space shook violently.
Countless cracks spread through the void as blinding light poured in from the fissures.
The grayish-white flames capable of reducing everything to elemental soup, representing Martin leading the high-tier wizards, had broken in!
“Jie Ming!”
Martin’s furious roar shook the heavens and earth.
The power of an eighth-ring wizard surged like a towering wave, instantly engulfing everything.
The virtual space completely collapsed.
Jie Ming felt his vision blur as countless rays of light flashed around him.
When his sight returned, he was back in the Information Plane, standing before the gradually dissipating absolute zero barrier.
Martin stood beside him, gray flames burning around his body.
Around them were more than a dozen seventh-ring wizards, hundreds of sixth-ring wizards, and dense swarms of cannon-fodder creatures.
On the opposite side, in the region once sealed by the barrier, countless information beings were frantically retreating.
Jie Ming took a deep breath.
The feeling of being alive was truly good.