Chapter 571: What do you mean you understand?

The pressure was growing ever greater.

Jie Ming's soul was trembling, struggling frantically on the verge of collapse.

That grand voice still echoed in his mind, every word like a great mountain, pressing down until he couldn't catch his breath.

The golden light of the Fate System had dimmed to the point of near-extinction. Although the torrent of consciousness from the billions of Black Giants was still pouring in, in the face of absolute silence, it was merely a slightly more tenacious stream that would sooner or later be frozen.

Yet, strangely, Jie Ming's consciousness was becoming increasingly clear.

That clarity was eerie.

It was like a person about to freeze to death in a snowy wasteland, who, just before the end, experiences a strange warmth and clarity.

He knew this was a sign of impending death, but he couldn't control it.

The information around him was still trying to drill into his mind, wave after wave.

Every piece of information was an invasion; every invasion was an assimilation.

They wanted to read his memories, parse his knowledge, and then replicate and spread it.

Jie Ming could clearly feel that he was now entirely one man standing against the entire world.

And in the midst of this world, there existed a civilization,

a civilization that had evolved for millions of years, possessed infinite computing power, and could violate the law of conservation of energy.

The grand voice sounded once more, but this time, for the first time, a trace of doubt appeared in that eternally calm tone.

"Why..."

Jie Ming's whole body shuddered.

That trace of doubt was like a beam of light, piercing through the chaotic fog in his mind.

He suddenly smiled.

The smile was light, faint, but carried an indescribable realization.

"So that's how it is..."

Jie Ming muttered to himself.

In the process of constantly confronting the other side, he had figured many things out.

The so-called "entropy-reduction cycle" of those information-based lifeforms was something wizards had long studied.

The conclusion was astonishing: they violated the law of conservation of energy, forming an existence similar to a perpetual motion machine.

Under normal physical laws, wanting to maintain entropy reduction in a small area would inevitably cause more entropy increase in a larger area.

Just like a refrigerator cooling; the internal temperature drops, but external heat dissipation increases, so the overall entropy must increase.

But these information-based lifeforms were different.

Their entropy-reduction cycle not only failed to cause additional entropy increase, but even continuously absorbed entropy increase from the outside world, converting it into their own entropy reduction.

This defied the second law of thermodynamics.

But in the Supernatural World, this was not impossible.

Using their racial talent, they achieved "something from nothing" without reaching Tier 9, gaining infinite power. It was only because of the limitations of their racial nature that they had absolutely no desire to expand.

They simply existed, maintained, and remained silent, like a pool of eternally stagnant dead water.

In a sense, what the Supreme Consensus Algorithm had said to persuade Jie Ming earlier was not wrong.

If placed in the world Jie Ming came from in his previous life, a world without supernatural power, an existence like these information-based lifeforms would be a "deity" saving the universe. They could absorb chaos, maintain order, return everything to balance, and avoid the doom of the universe's heat death that was destined to arrive.

Unfortunately.

This was not that world.

This was a world with supernatural power, a world with existences capable of gaining infinite power.

And even more unfortunately...

Inside Jie Ming, there was the supernatural knowledge of another world.

"So that's how it is..."

Jie Ming muttered again, his voice carrying an indescribable clarity: "I understand..."

He felt those streams of information constantly trying to drill into his soul, felt that silent power of assimilation, and suddenly, everything was clear. "The so-called answer to the riddle has always been right in plain sight."

He raised his head; although he couldn't see anything, his gaze seemed to pierce through this void, looking directly at the Supreme Consensus Algorithm hidden behind it.

"The foundation of everything you are is the entropy-reduction cycle."

"You exposed this thing to us a long time ago."

The grand voice sounded again, this time with an eerie temptation.

"Join us, and you can attain eternity."

"Merge into the silence, and you will no longer suffer the torment of chaos."

"Your knowledge, your memories, your existence will be preserved forever in the perfect entropy-reduction cycle."

Jie Ming did not respond.

He just continued to mutter to himself, as if speaking to himself, or perhaps to some unseen existence.

"The so-called silent black..."

"Turns out they are just living beings trapped in an entropy-reduction cycle."

He remembered the wizards Martin had shown them who had fallen into silence when they first arrived at the battlefield.

Those people were not dead, nor were they unconscious.

Their minds were still running, their spiritual seas were still active, but all their information could not be transmitted outward; all their output ports were blocked.

They were trapped within their own consciousness, forever unable to have any influence on the outside world.

That was silence.

That was the state of being pulled into an entropy-reduction cycle by information-based lifeforms.

And at this moment, what the Supreme Consensus Algorithm was doing to him was exactly the same as what those wizards had experienced.

Jie Ming took a deep breath.

"Fortunately."

A smile curled at the corner of his mouth.

"Fortunately, I have a higher level of order within me."

Things that normal wizards couldn't figure out, he had figured out.

Power that normal wizards couldn't resist, he could resist.

Not because his spiritual power was stronger, not because he had the Fate System, but because...

He had the knowledge system of another world within him.

The information-based lifeforms used their own nature to simulate "chaos" to pressure him, attempting to pull him into the entropy-reduction cycle.

In essence, this was using stronger order to oppress weak chaos.

Just like using an iron hammer to smash an egg.

But Jie Ming, besides being a wizard, was also a cultivator.

And cultivators were an existence inherently more greedy than wizards.

Wizards thought about self-improvement, exploring the unknown, and mastering laws.

Cultivators thought about plundering the heavens and earth for their own use.

The so-called "acting against the heavens" was not for destruction, but to take everything in this world—spiritual energy, laws, causality, destiny—and bring it all under their own control, ultimately transcending this world.

But the plundered world did not disappear.

It became an "internal cycle" within the cultivator, becoming a world that coexisted with him.

This also meant...

The cultivator himself was absolute entropy reduction.

An entropy-reducing existence that could claim the entire world for its own use.

Jie Ming's consciousness became clearer and clearer.

He felt the cultivation methods within him constantly exerting their effect.

The Incense Divine Path was running frantically, absorbing the beliefs of believers; the internal cycle cave-heaven was trembling violently, maintaining its connection with the outside world; the Body Refining Method was adaptively evolving, desperately increasing its resistance to silence.

These were all "stronger order."

They were resisting the invasion of external order in a way unique to cultivators.

The stronger the resistance, the deeper the insight.

The deeper the insight, the stronger the resistance.

Jie Ming felt like he was stepping on his own left foot with his right, climbing upward step by step under that terrifying pressure.

His understanding of the Incense Divine Path grew deeper, his manipulation of the Fate System became more precise, and his application of the Body Refining Method became more ingenious.

Even his cognition of the cultivation system itself underwent a qualitative change at this moment.

So that's how it is...

This is the essence of cultivation...

The grand voice continued to tempt, but Jie Ming could no longer hear it; he was completely immersed in his own world.

Finally, at a certain moment, he woke up as if struck by a flash of inspiration.

The first thing he did upon regaining his senses was to suddenly laugh.

"Ha."

That laughter carried a trace of absurdity, a trace of emotion.

"Looking at it this way, I really am of the same lineage as my mentor and senior sister."

Once upon a time, he had envied Senior Sister Wei Aola for relying on the Flame Frost Plane to strengthen herself, or perhaps envied Mentor Clark for using a super-large abandoned plane to verify his own Dao.

And now, he had unknowingly experienced such a thing himself.

As soon as the words fell...

Boom!

The virtual space trembled violently.

Countless cracks spread through the void, and blinding light poured in from the fissures.

That grey-white flame capable of turning everything into an elemental soup represented Martin leading the high-tier wizards, killing their way in!

"Jie Ming!"

Martin's roar resounded through the heavens and earth.

The power of an 8th-tier wizard was like a monstrous wave, instantly drowning everything.

The virtual space collapsed completely.

Jie Ming felt a blur before his eyes, countless lights flickering around him.

When his vision recovered, he had already returned to the Information Plane, back in front of that absolute zero barrier that was gradually dissipating.

Martin stood beside him, grey flames burning around his body.

Surrounding them were over a dozen 7th-tier wizards, hundreds of 6th-tier wizards, and dense swarms of cannon-fodder creatures.

And opposite them, in the area once isolated by the barrier, countless information-based lifeforms were retreating frantically.

Jie Ming took a deep breath.

The feeling of being alive is truly good. ===== CHAPTER 572 =====