Chapter 222: Notes on World Domain Exploration

Extracting Spirit to Conceal Secrets?

Not quite; upon closer inspection, this is clearly the "Spirit" of the Device of World Derivation leaving on its own.

And it left behind a message.

Xu Xing raised his hand and lightly tapped the now-silent, dimly glowing Device of World Derivation.

A brilliant flash of spiritual light.

Thud—! A muffled sound echoed from its deepest core,

Squeak~!

Followed by a shrill noise, as if an ancient, rusty radio, after countless years of silence, had been reactivated and recharged.

Layer by layer, the ritual circuits began to turn, starting from the innermost layer.

And deep within the Device of World Derivation, a faint glow pierced through the stacked circuits, gradually illuminating the inscribed runes upon them.

The originally bronze-colored circuits slowly turned semi-transparent pale blue under this light.

Humming!

One layer, two layers, three layers…

One after another, the rune-circuits began to rotate, projecting dazzling World Domain patterns.

In less than half a minute, the Device of World Derivation fully activated; eighty-one layers of rune-circuits turned and interwove, manifesting infinite streams of information with every instant.

Pale blue light flowed gently downward, finally coalescing into a slender, illusory figure before Xu Xing.

Long blue hair trailed down to her ankles; her face was exquisitely crafted yet utterly cold.

This was the former "Spirit" of the Device of World Derivation.

"Hello."

"Fellow countryman of the Master."

"The Device of World Derivation will now be under your use; I have departed the Xuan Realm to follow the Master."

Her voice was equally cold, devoid of any inflection.

"All world coordinates the Master explored during his search for the path home are recorded in the 'Notes on World Domain Exploration'."

"Stored in Storage Space G-1."

"I will now leave you the Master's equations for temporal and spatial world coordinate extrapolation."

"Good luck."

Immediately, the illusory slender figure dissolved into a stream of pale blue data, surging toward Xu Xing's forehead.

Midway, it was halted by a single finger.

The pale blue data stream circled once around Xu Xing's palm, then came to a complete stop, hovering motionless there.

Looking at the pale blue data stream in his palm, Xu Xing's eyes darkened with intrigue: "Interesting."

Though merely a trace of data, it served as a key—he could now perceive everything the Spirit of the Device of World Derivation had ever known.

The Spirit of the Device of World Derivation, named "Yin Ling," was awakened by Yuan during the mid-stage of the "Homecoming" laboratory's founding.

Yin Ling was created primarily to assist Yuan in extrapolating world coordinates and seeking the path home.

Indeed.

With her assistance, Yuan's process of extrapolating world coordinates became significantly easier.

Forty years ago, Yuan finally succeeded in pinpointing the coordinates.

Before departing, Yuan granted her freedom, removed all restrictions upon her, and left her a means to exit Qing Xu, then broke through the boundary.

At first, Yin Ling was confused and did not understand what "departure" meant, so she waited patiently in the laboratory for ten years.

Over those ten years, her sentience grew stronger; freed from the need to extrapolate world coordinates, she spent her spare time reading the books Yuan had left behind.

After finishing all the books, she understood what "departure" truly meant.

Without hesitation, Yin Ling separated herself from the Device of World Derivation.

After another twenty years, once her state was fully restored, she directly broke through the boundary and followed Yuan away.

To Yin Ling, Yuan—whom she had accompanied since the moment she gained sentience—was everything.

"… " After a moment of silence, Xu Xing crushed the data stream in his hand and whispered a blessing: "May you succeed."

The "Spirit" is not a demon.

From the moment of its creation, the "Spirit" serves only one person. Then, tiny flashes of swordlight flickered, severing the past and erasing all traces.

After all, she was a "Spirit" untouched by the outside world—too many traces remained uncleaned.

But it doesn't matter; I'll clean them up now.

The connection Gu once left on Yuan was disturbed by Huo; the connection Huo left on Yuan was severed by Xiang Yuanjun—effectively creating two layers of protection.

Moreover, since all this occurred not long ago, Gu has not noticed.

After erasing all traces left by Yin Ling and Yuan, Xu Xing walked to one side.

Aside from the central Device of World Derivation, this spacious underground chamber was fully equipped with all manner of tools.

He reached out and grasped the empty air, then pulled out a notebook—thick as a thumb, its cover deep brown—titled "Notes on World Domain Exploration."

Written by Yuan, it was his record of searching for the path home.

Yes, it was deliberately left for him.

He approached a chair, its surface covered in a thin layer of dust.

But as Xu Xing drew near, the dust vanished as if endowed with sentience.

He sat on the chair, leaning back against the cushion, and opened the notebook in his hands.

As pages turned, the unique scent of paper mingled with ink, spreading through the air.

On the slightly yellowed pages were lines of neat, precise, yet effortlessly elegant script.

【I'm going to write a journal】

The opening is straightforward.

【I found the weakest point in the Xuan Realm—Qing Xu. From here, I can more easily observe the outside world, so I established a laboratory named 'Return Home'.】

【My first exploration did not go well; I only discovered a few very weak worlds, and none had any vitality.】

【The way home was harder to find than I expected.】

At this point, the text on the paper left a blank line.

【The Alliance of the Righteous Path had many matters, but I handled them all; for the next period, I can remain in the laboratory.】

Afterward came a section crossed out, but it escaped none of Xu Xing's notice.

【Wan Zhu and Yu'er still haven't decided how to explain things.】

【Headache.】

【Forget it, let's begin the second exploration—I feel this time there will be results.】

Another blank line followed.

【No effort goes unrewarded; during the second exploration, I discovered several more worlds, and one of them teemed with vitality.】

【Unfortunately, this world was still in a very primitive stage, with no humans.】

【And it was extremely weak—I felt it could not bear my presence.】

【I'm worried—could my homeland be like this too?】

Beneath these lines was a tiny chip, recording the coordinates of that vital world.

【After a period of rest, I began the third exploration.】

【This time, fortune favored me—I found three worlds teeming with vitality, and one of them even had human inhabitants.】

【I sent out a thread of my spiritual awareness, preparing to enter and explore.】

Immediately after, another blank line appeared—but the text that followed was no longer fluid and elegant; it was chaotic.

【I misjudged the strength of that small world—it was too weak.】

【As soon as that thread of spiritual awareness entered, it nearly shattered the world. Though I acted quickly to make repairs, I still left an indelible wound upon it.】

【Many died. It was my fault.】

【I decided to leave the laboratory and seek a way to make amends.】

Beneath the text was another chip.

And the content of the first page ended here.

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