At that same moment, within the Information Ocean, the halo emitted an almost nonexistent phantom gleam. The gleam sank, then sank deeper, passing through the Information Ocean and through the very bottom of the Lower World, entering a hidden underlying world.
This world was likewise formless and intangible, without light or color.
That phantom gleam took shape, becoming a hollow humanoid outline.
Before the outline, within the void, data gathered like flowing streams. With a splash, amid the flying spray of data, a human figure condensed into being.
It was Yuan Shu.
Yuan Shu looked at the humanoid outline before him. A smile spilled across his lips, widening and widening until he finally threw back his head and burst into wild laughter.
Yuan Shu had never stopped calculating the situation.
The previous clashes had been manageable, nothing more than a slightly troublesome opponent. But when Shi Tiexin first condensed the Eight-Revolution Golden Ring and smuggled himself into the Virtual World, Yuan Shu had sensed that something was wrong.
As an information lifeform, he instantly felt an immense threat. It was like an overlord of the Old Era catching sight of some newer, higher, more powerful species.
And when Shi Tiexin reforged the Golden Ring and evolved it into the Nine-Revolution Golden Ring, that feeling became even more pronounced.
Sending the Sword Immortals to surround Shi Tiexin had merely been a smokescreen. His true attention had been entirely focused on cracking and counter-cracking the root permissions of the Middle World.
He wanted to use this brand-new information lifeform as his opponent for deduction and simulation.
Old Six cracked the permissions in what appeared to be only a handful of attempts. Yet behind the scenes, their data battles had played out tens of millions, hundreds of millions of times, providing Yuan Shu