Cao Xianming

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Before the apocalypse, Cao Xianming worked as a data analyst at a gaming company. After awakening the Data Analyst Sequence, he gradually learned its functions while escaping danger. He left his original survivor group and formed a convoy of his own, trusting his calculations despite remaining uncertain whether leaving had been the right choice 15.

As captain of the Survival Convoy, he controls travel arrangements, coordinates supply searches, and negotiates with other groups. Old Zhang and Xiao Ma handle daily management under his direction. Among the four Transcendents present when Yang Yong joins their ranks, Cao assigns himself and Wang Ying thirty percent each of the centrally distributed supplies, with Yang Yong and Zheng Xiaofeng receiving twenty percent each 8 9.

Lao Zhang is a distant uncle on his mother’s side and his only surviving blood relative. After Lao Zhang witnessed his grandchildren’s deaths, Cao repeatedly talked him through his despair, helping him abandon his wish to die and take responsibility for managing the convoy 98 458 459.

At Sky Base, Cao chooses to join the base while leaving his companions free to remain independent. Within days, he becomes Commander Ye’s personal secretary, a position whose existence is unknown to many of the base’s Transcendents. He nevertheless continues to assist the Survival Convoy, secretly passing cultivation methods to Yang Yong and warning him about human experimentation 190 193 213.

His later responsibilities extend to Mechanical City’s military and technical systems. Yang Yong appoints him a strategist and commander-in-chief during the zombie assault, and subsequently brings him into the Core Control Room, where he occupies the Third Elder’s seat and demonstrates a strong aptitude for optimizing the city’s magic-array infrastructure 585 622.

Appearance

• Gold-rimmed glasses: Frequently adjusts them while speaking or considering a decision 8 30 37.
• Wig: Conceals a bald crown surrounded by a ring of hair. This hair loss is presented as the price of his Sequence power 8.
• Notebook: Commonly seen bent over it, writing calculations and drawing diagrams 8 15 17.
• Signs of overwork: Prolonged calculations leave him with bloodshot eyes, dark circles, and visible exhaustion 123 136 449 803.
• Improved condition in Mechanical City: After two comfortable weeks working there, he has visibly gained weight and color in his face 642.

Personality

Cao Xianming places exceptional trust in data. His conviction that “data never lied” shapes decisions ranging from leaving his original group to choosing the convoy’s route. He also actively seeks unfamiliar information, supporting entry into an unknown world partly because the merger offers an opportunity to collect valuable data 15 16.

His leadership combines caution with calculated risk-taking. Before meeting Zou Wei, he predicts a peaceful exchange but still moves his vehicle beside Wang Ying’s for protection. At the Coffin Temple, he delays intervention because his calculations indicate that approaching too soon would cause deaths 30 45.

He is secretive about his abilities and accepts that his companions have secrets of their own. After noticing that Yang Yong lacks the physical enhancement associated with Sequence awakening, he does not insist on exposing the source of Yang Yong’s powers 14.

Cao also enjoys impressing others and is a shrewd negotiator. He visibly savors the reaction to his new analytical powers, flatters Xiao Liao before bargaining for tea, and uses the prospect of strengthening Yang Yong’s banner to persuade him to fight an Eerie 23 39 49.

His calm manner conceals a ruthless strategic streak. During a later breakout, he deliberately provokes Shang Kai into separating from the main group, allowing the departing party to draw away much of the Eeries’ aggression. Yang Yong consequently recognizes that Cao can account for terrain, enemies, and human behavior with considerable mercilessness 104.

Despite his faith in calculation, he can act on a Transcendent’s intuition when his models provide no warning. After repeatedly finding the neighboring women’s trades reasonable, he still orders the convoy to cut contact because he senses danger and notices disturbing gaps in his memory of their faces 449.

His composure breaks most visibly when Lao Zhang is endangered. Faced with the consequences of trading with the women’s convoy, he becomes furious, blames himself for failing to prevent contact, and nearly cries over his inability to save his last relative. When Yezi’s developing Ghost Domain creates a chance of survival, he smiles through tears 458 459 460.

He is acutely aware of his poor fighting ability and values practical means of survival. He immediately pockets a Shadow Escape Talisman upon learning that it can transport its holder through shadows, and readily seeks protection from stronger companions or surrenders when confronted by overwhelming power 101 217 412 548.

Abilities & Skills

Probability Calculation

His original Data Analyst ability calculates the likelihood of outcomes, forming the basis of the convoy’s survival planning 8.

• Awakening assessment: Calculates each newcomer’s probability of awakening. Yang Yong registers at 100%, while Xiao Xuan registers at 69%, compared with ordinary survivors’ odds of less than 30% 8 38.
• Route selection: Identifies routes with better survival prospects or a higher chance of encountering another convoy 9 16.
• Risk assessment: Determines that leaving Mirage Lake’s shore would guarantee an attack within the calculated three-day period 14.
• Combat forecasts: Gives Yang Yong a 98% chance of defeating the love-letter Eerie, but later warns of a 98% chance of being killed once the Blood Moon rises 49 50.
• Resource planning: Evaluates prospective supply searches and checks whether trade prices are reasonable 41 46.
• Information verification: Calculates 98% credibility for the claim that the giant mutant rat’s flesh and blood can enhance supernatural abilities 53.
• Changing battle conditions: Watches the proposed rat battle’s success probability fall to 55% and later fluctuate around 50%, an instability he has not previously encountered 56 58.
• Extremely narrow escape routes: Locates a possible exit from the Tombstone Sea despite an escape probability of less than 1%; the successful variables ultimately depend on Yang Yong 87.
• Whale Lord assessment: Calculates that the Whale Lord is 83% affected by Eerie will, then spends thirty minutes assessing a joint suppression-and-evolution plan with a 68% success rate 307.
• Identifying connections: Calculates an 87% chance that an approaching powerful Eerie is connected to someone in the convoy, then concludes that it is probably associated with Jiang Chen 489.
• Expedition losses: Predicts a 90% chance of death for everyone in Konghai’s Bone City contingent except Konghai himself 658.

Data Model and Light Screen

As a Sequence Two Analyst, Cao manifests a miniature, rapidly processing data model. It can produce a Light Screen displaying entity information or a three-dimensional spatial reconstruction 22 23.

• Entity analysis: Reconstructs the Red-Clothed Female Ghost from Yang Yong’s account, identifying her conversation-based temporary contract, teleportation, and combat abilities 22.
• Spatial modeling: Models the lake and transparent boundaries, establishing that the convoy has entered an independent Small World rather than an entire new world 23.
• Biological analysis: Separates the giant rat’s evolved strength and damaging screech from its colony-commanding instinct 43.
• Navigation: Processes terrain, mountains, and the sun’s position to calculate a route to a fuel-filled tanker 43.
• Energy observation: Collects information about the Blood Moon Energy surrounding Yang Yong during cultivation 40.
• Cultivation analysis: Examines a Screaming Wax Apple and discovers that, at that time, only Wei Yu’s elder immortal can cultivate its tree 56.
• Dream-realm reconstruction: Builds a complete model of the Tombstone Sea using its rules, spatial fluctuations, and energy flows, identifying its endlessly repeating structure and a minute potential escape coordinate 87.
• Environmental analysis: Incorporates mountains, terrain, wind direction, temperature, yin-energy concentrations, and Eerie movement patterns into travel calculations 100.
• Threat mapping: Produces a map of surrounding Buddhist Cultivator Society forces and Eerie, using Wang Ying’s Sequence Two strength as a baseline to estimate other presences’ levels 170.
• Life-sign monitoring: Tracks individual points of light representing living presences and confirms when two observers have left the convoy’s vicinity 407.
• Restricted visibility: In Mechanical City, only Survival Convoy members can see his Data Model; the Second Elder repeatedly observes only Cao’s raised, apparently empty hand 520.
• Spatial misdirection detection: Analyzes Mechanical City’s flight data to expose a closed-loop barrier in Bone City and provides a data-marked route through a bone tower concealing its boundary 677.

Although Yang Yong sometimes compares his power to divination, Cao’s particular manifestation of the Data Analyst Sequence is described as relying on computing power and data analysis rather than mysticism 291 520.

Scanning and Sequence Analysis

His model emits pale blue light to examine people and assess their condition 37.

• Identifies Zheng Xiaofeng’s shattered arm, broken ribs, and superficial wounds 37.
• Confirms that Wang Ying is exhausted rather than injured after attacking the treant 37.
• Deduces that the Armorer Sequence advances through repeated armor destruction, which tempers its life-bound liquid and strengthens subsequent armor 37.
• Scans Zheng Xiaofeng’s Iron Armorer form after his advancement to Sequence Two 48.
• Analyzes the Heavenly Dragon Slash’s combined-attack and formation-amplification abilities 100.
• Recognizes Xiao Xuan’s newly awakened Sequence Transcendence from the supernatural power emanating from her 160.
• Assesses the exhausted plant-Sequence woman clinging to Yang Yong, concluding that she has likely gone without sleep for a long time and now regards him as the person closest to her 411.
• Reports that an examined man’s bones are seventeen times denser than an ordinary person’s and his muscle fibers approximately twelve times stronger, making ordinary weapons theoretically ineffective 791.

Eerie Rule Deduction

Cao studies the conditions governing supernatural attacks and turns his findings into practical instructions 22 23 49.

• Establishes three warnings: do not respond to uncanny entities, do not obey their instructions, and do not let them aboard 23.
• Determines that only people who read the love letter can see or be attacked by its Eerie 49.
• Monitors the increasing danger while Yang Yong remains affected by the letter and orders Wang Ying to strike him awake 50.
• Recognizes the Buddhist origin of the array associated with the underground Eerie Domain and the manifested material used to forge Brown Blood Beads 161.
• Concludes that the Nameless Island is itself a living Eerie and that its savage inhabitants are apocalypse survivors who degenerated through worshipping it. Warns against entering its body, where people could be transformed into Eerie 239.
• Identifies the Whale Lord’s role in swallowing dangerous Sources of Eerie to prevent their spread, while recognizing the danger that her loss of control poses to everyone in her Small World 299.
• Notices that no one can remember how the neighboring women originally introduced their convoy or tribe, exposing a shared gap in the group’s memories 454.
• Warns that the intensified Black Mist can completely transform an invaded person into a deranged monster within three seconds, leaving no opportunity for rescue 503.
• Scans the Bloodflame Flower on an alloy door and recognizes it as Jiang Chen’s bloodflame, concluding that he has blocked their intended exit 506.

Strategy and Command

Cao coordinates stronger fighters, ordinary survivors, transport, and supplies rather than relying on personal combat 30 37 217.

• Coordinated attacks: Identifies three concealed structural points and has Yang Yong, Xiao Xuan, and Zheng Xiaofeng strike them simultaneously, opening a hidden passage 161.
• Intelligence gathering: Assigns survivors equipped with Semi-Curios to gather information about the underground world and directs Mang Dabiao and Xiao Xuan to search for missing convoy members 164 165.
• Escape planning: Uses his iPad to collect information across three hundred kilometers and repeatedly revises the underground escape plan, reaching version 10086 before finalizing it 172.
• Emergency adaptation: Organizes the Warship’s defense against aerial Eerie. After Chen Chunyan abandons the group and Wang Ying becomes unresponsive, he orders Du Weizhen to raise an ice wall at the stern to catch the wind 217 221 222.
• Supply operations: Divides the Tuanjie Village search into routes, assigning Yang Yong, Wang Ying, and Liu Hong to the Song Family Ancient House and its twelve warehouses while Zheng Xiaofeng and Xiao Xuan accompany ordinary survivors elsewhere 346.
• Information pressure: Announces the suspension of Yang Yong’s Curio commissions after thirty-one convoy members are trapped, provoking public complaints against Mechanical City’s leadership 554.
• Citywide defense: Takes command of Mechanical City’s troops, turrets, and defensive systems with the highest-priority access privileges available for the battle 585.
• Harvest organization: Explains the Ideal Grain Seeds’ twenty-four-hour maturation period and instructs Lao Zhang to organize workers and track harvesting and storage 799.

Mechanical City Systems Operation

Upon entering Mechanical City’s Core Control Room, Cao rapidly understands its magic-array operating principles and begins optimizing the system. He sorts and reorganizes energy lines, identifies a three-percentage-point output-frequency drop associated with a twelve-percent efficiency loss, and proposes using parallel branch connections and a Tier Three Buffer Magic Array to stabilize fluctuations 622.

His expanded wartime model gives him a detailed view of streets, buildings, mechanical soldiers, and approaching zombies. Mechanical City supplies the supernatural power needed to sustain this greatly enlarged operational picture 585.

Limits and Advancement Requirements

• Finite supernatural power: Investigating the contents of Mirage Lake exhausts his power, temporarily preventing further calculations 14.
• Incomplete information: Admits that he lacks the data needed to make precise judgments about the unknown world beyond the mist 16.
• Undisclosed usage limit: Refuses to reveal how many times per day he can use his ability 14.
• Sequence cost: Suffers substantial hair loss 8.
• Further advancement: Frequent deductions and a richer collection of data samples accelerate his ability’s evolution. Analyzing the mutated rats contributes toward Sequence Three, but he is still explicitly a Sequence Two Analyst during the later Mechanical City crisis 43 607.
• Minimal combat capability: His abilities are primarily supportive, and his physical capabilities are only slightly above an ordinary person’s. Multiple Eerie women can physically restrain him despite the restoration of his Analyst powers 101 147 158 217.
• Mental attacks: A dream Eerie imprisons him in nested, endlessly repeating dreams. Modeling an apparent escape route does not allow him to free himself without outside help 86 87 93 96.
• High-level interference: An indescribable being can directly interrupt his calculations, injure him, and leave a suppressive eye in his mind that blocks his Sequence Two abilities 118 120 137.
• Mist suppression: The Nameless Island’s mist blocks detection and disables his analysis after contact. Brown Blood Beads provide only temporary restoration 228 232 233.
• Overexertion: Attempting to calculate matters concerning the Whale Lord leaves him drenched in sweat and nearly collapsing; divining the name “Abyss-Swallowing Mystic Whale” almost drains his supernatural power and causes severe head pain 246 302.
• Recovery resources: Brown Blood Beads can sustain his supernatural power, while the energy-rich sweet potatoes provide a substantial restorative effect. Eating five pieces rapidly replenishes him after overexertion 302.
• Unprojectable entities: His model cannot display something lying outside the conceptual boundaries of what it can project, regardless of its precision. He encounters this limitation when the suited man later identified as Jiang Chen appears 477 482.
• Limits despite external power: Even Mechanical City’s continuous power supply cannot sustain a superficial calculation concerning the City Lord. He must stop when consumption outpaces replenishment and causes severe physical distress 603.
• Fundamental interference: At Ancient Well Village, an unknown force blocks his deductions in a manner he distinguishes from an Eerie presence, describing it as interference at a more fundamental level 803.

Equipment / Items

• Notebook and pen — Used for probability calculations, diagrams, and recording observations. He returns to intensive handwritten calculations when his Sequence Two powers are suppressed 8 16 22 123.
• Map — Used to identify the lake’s location as the former center of Qing City; Cao warns that altered terrain makes old maps unreliable 14.
• Wig — Covers the baldness caused by his Sequence 8.
• Vehicle-mounted loudspeaker / megaphone — Relays navigation instructions, warnings, and evacuation orders 16 42 44.
• Off-Road Vehicle — Serves as his transport and frequently leads the convoy along his chosen routes 30 55 356 506.
• Shadow Escape Talisman — A life-saving Curio capable of relocating its holder three hundred meters through shadows. Cao keeps one for himself and distributes two others to Wang Ying and Zheng Xiaofeng. An Eerie later snatches his talisman away, but he retrieves it with sticky thread while Yang Yong pulls him to safety 101 158 159.
• An iPad That Loves Melodramatic Romance Stories — Forged by Yang Yong from a mirror Cao purchases from Rose for fifty jin of rice. Cao pays another fifty jin of grain, seasonings, cooking wine, and miscellaneous goods for the support-oriented forging commission. The resulting iPad requires him to tell melodramatic romance stories; he uses it to show gathered videos and later collect information over a three-hundred-kilometer area 132 135 136 172.
• Bone Dagger — Carries one for protection, including during the Warship’s aerial Eerie attack and the Mechanical City confrontation 217 544.
• Semi-Curio Bone Whip — A personal defensive weapon. He uses it to test Chen Chunyan’s false image and later restrains Ye Zhenwei by wrapping it around his waist 217 221 558.
• Brown Blood Beads — Values them for increasing supernatural power and improving awakening odds; also uses one to temporarily restore analysis suppressed by the island’s mist 160 233.

Relationships

• Yang Yong — Recruits him into the convoy’s supernatural leadership after previously ordering his protection. Recognizes him as the key to escaping the Small World, though withholding information and delaying assistance repeatedly provoke Yang Yong’s anger 8 14 30 37 50. His Tombstone Sea simulations again identify Yang Yong as essential to survival. Yang Yong’s furnace-related intervention helps wake him from the dream prison, and Yang Yong later personally rescues him from the bewildering grounds 87 96 159. Cao suspects the Artificer Sequence identity is an act but recognizes the extraordinary reality of Yang Yong’s forging ability. Their cooperation expands into the Whale Lord plan and Mechanical City’s defense and operation 100 307 585 622.
• Wang Ying — Relies on the convoy’s strongest fighter for protection and precisely timed attacks. Reserves Wang Ying’s accumulated saber strike for the escape from the Ghost Domain 8 18 30 36. Later warns that her possible connection to powerful Eerie and the risk of losing control can determine the convoy’s survival. He eventually allows her to leave in search of her brother after calculating that her journey’s risks are not fatal 110 657.
• Zheng Xiaofeng — Directs his defensive assignments, diagnoses his injuries, and explains the advancement mechanism of the Armorer Sequence 30 37. Zheng cries with relief when Cao wakes from the dream prison. Cao also seeks safety in Zheng’s quarters after an unnerving visit from a mysterious little girl in Mechanical City 96 548.
• Old Zhang / Lao Zhang — Convoy manager responsible for organizing ordinary survivors and implementing arrangements 8 15 49. Cao’s distant maternal uncle and only surviving blood relative. Cao helps him recover a sense of purpose after his grandchildren’s deaths, while Lao Zhang preserves convoy order during Cao’s unconsciousness. Lao Zhang’s later danger causes Cao exceptional distress and self-reproach 98 458 459.
• Xiao Ma / Little Ma — Convoy assistant who reports supply levels and is ordered to refuel Yang Yong’s stranded bus 8 30 37. Saves Cao from a Micro Owl Bat’s attack at the cost of a severe wound through his right hand 220.
• Xiao Liao — Recognizes his architectural knowledge after the discovery of a hidden compartment; trades five packets of instant noodles for its premium tea 39.
• Li Min — Captain of the Drifting Boat Fleet and a trading counterpart. Cao’s later calculations warn that the fleet intends to double-cross the convoy 9 10.
• Zou Wei — Magician Sequence trader from the Never-Ending Steam Train. Cao negotiates for three kinds of refining materials at a final cost of one third of the convoy’s supplies 45 46. Later transfers the living Ghost Hand Mushroom to him after offering dried slices and attempting to negotiate a different arrangement 407.
• Wei Yu — Shamanism Sequence practitioner and temporary collaborator against the mutant rats. The previously unidentified visitor to Cao’s tent is revealed to have proposed this alliance. Cao initially rejects it because of the poor odds, then visits Wei Yu’s cave and challenges him over the concealed difficulty of cultivating Screaming Wax Apples 53 55 56.
• Mang Dabiao — Entrusts him with scouting and rescuing scattered convoy members, but also pressures him to use the Evil-Slaying Blade when needed. Cao once stops an attempted calculation about Mang Dabiao after immediately sensing overwhelming danger 165 182.
• Xiao Xuan — Welcomes her awakening as an important improvement to the group’s survival prospects and assigns her both coordinated attacks and rescue duties 160 161 165.
• Commander Ye — Cao serves as his personal secretary after joining Sky Base 193 213.
• Du Weizhen and Zhang Qiang — Combat collaborators during the Warship crisis. At the Nameless Island, Cao exchanges the Warship for their Azure Dragon Team training methods, allowing them and most survivors to depart toward South Sea Base 220 222 228.
• Whale Lord — Cao identifies both her world-protecting mission and the danger of her worsening corruption. Proposes using Yang Yong to suppress her Source of Eerie while she evolves, and later secures an agreement to transport the departing convoy close to Shanghai 299 307 310.
• Qi Peiliang — Consults him on supply destinations and verifies his choice of Tuanjie Village through the Data Model 326.
• Yezi — Her developing Ghost Domain creates hope for people endangered by the women’s convoy, including Lao Zhang. Cao is also directly threatened by her vines when she awakens beside Yang Yong and immediately surrenders 412 460.
• Jiang Chen / Corpse Ancestor — Initially encounters him as an unprojectable suited stranger and treats him with extreme caution under his overwhelming pressure. Later recognizes his bloodflame blocking an intended exit and changes the convoy’s route rather than attempting to force passage 477 478 482 483 506.
• Xiao Ying — Uses her formidable combat power in Mechanical City despite her primary loyalty to Jiang Chen and limited obedience to his orders. Flatters her as “boss lady” and asks her to restrain He Jie; she calls him “Little Cao” 588 600.
• Konghai — A dangerous figure whose plans Cao anticipates by leaving the Mirage Caravan with the Survival Convoy midway through its journey. Later investigates the risks surrounding Konghai’s Bone City expedition and reports his exclusion from contention to ascend 652 658.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Drifting Boat Fleet and Mirage Lake

• Guides the convoy to Li Min’s fleet, then warns Yang Yong and Wang Ying of a double-cross and an entity hidden among the fleet’s people. Orders them to remain inside their vehicles until dawn 9 10.
• Identifies their refuge as the former center of Qing City and presents World Drift Theory as a possible explanation for the apocalypse’s transformed geography 14.
• Keeps the convoy near the lake while the two-headed snake patrols outside its shore, then leads the vote to enter the unknown region beyond the mist 15 16.
• Attempts to restrain survivors controlled by the lakeside chant. After the encounter, orders an immediate departure and proposes following the transparent boundary in search of a route home 17 18.

Small World and Coffin Temple

• Reveals his Sequence Two advancement and establishes a schedule of daytime rest and nighttime travel to reduce attacks 22 23.
• Instructs the separated bus to head toward the Blood Moon’s rising position 26.
• Discovers that the Small World is a prison and identifies Yang Yong as their slim chance of escape. Arranges covert refueling of the bus and preserves Wang Ying’s strongest slash 30.
• Orders Wang Ying to cut the pursuing treant’s foot, creating an opening for the vehicles to escape 36.
• Afterward, assesses the injured and confronts dwindling resources: only forty convoy members remain, with approximately two days of fuel 37.

Resupply and the Love-Letter Eerie

• Locates fuel after the rat-swarm pursuit and negotiates the acquisition of black gold, Space Stone, and an unidentified sand-like refining material from Zou Wei 43 46.
• Receives an unidentified visitor in his tent. He initially reacts defensively, then welcomes the man after consulting his model; the conversation is not disclosed at that time 47 48. The visitor is later identified as Wei Yu, who proposed cooperating against the mutant rats 53 55.
• Identifies the love-letter Eerie’s targeting rule, clears the bystanders, and persuades Yang Yong to confront it by revealing its potential benefit to the God-Sealing Banner 49.
• As the Blood Moon approaches and the danger rises toward certainty, orders Wang Ying to snap Yang Yong out of his affected state with an attack 50.

Mutant Rats and the Tombstone Sea

• Reconsiders Wei Yu’s proposal after verifying the value of mutant-beast flesh as a means of strengthening supernatural abilities. Leads the convoy to his cave and learns about the relationship between Shamanism practitioners and spirit immortals 53 55.
• Tastes and analyzes a Screaming Wax Apple, recognizing both its cultivation value and Wei Yu’s omission that only his elder immortal can currently grow it 56.
• Encounters unprecedented fluctuations in the predicted rat battle’s outcome and prepares to preserve whoever can still survive if the situation becomes uncontrollable 58.
• Coughs up blood and falls unconscious. His companions initially attribute his condition to overusing supernatural power, but a Fox Immortal later reveals that an Eerie has imprisoned him in dreams 61 93.
• Names the dream landscape the Tombstone Sea and models its repeating graves, photographs, and mentally polluting Eerie. Finds a minute escape coordinate he calls Escape to Safety, only to discover that the escape variables depend on Yang Yong 86 87.
• Awakens when a yellowed talisman enters the nightmare and suppresses the unknown Eerie. Overwhelmed by relief, he slaps himself to confirm reality before reuniting with his companions 96.
• Resumes assessing supplies and personnel, discovers the convoy is nearly out of food, and explains the promise Wang Ying made to Zhang Bihuang concerning a Curio from Yang Yong 98.

Suppressed Abilities and the Underground Eerie Domain

• Uses his restored leadership to choose the convoy’s course, accepts a Shadow Escape Talisman, and explains that an Old Taoist secretly manipulated the route that brought the group to a dangerous mountain temple 100 101 102.
• Engineers Shang Kai’s separation from the main party during a breakout, allowing the departing group to draw away much of the Eeries’ aggression 104.
• Suffers severe backlash when an indescribable being interrupts his calculations. With Analyst powers suppressed, he spends three days conducting almost sleepless handwritten probability deductions 118 120 123.
• Purchases a mirror from Rose and commissions Yang Yong to forge a support item, receiving the story-loving iPad. Proposes ambushing the Wild Wolf Gang for a Sequence Injection, but reassesses the plan after learning of a nearby forbidden area 132 135 136 137.
• In a bewildering KTV-like realm, deliberately pits its corrupting influence against the suppressive eye in his mind. Recovers his Analyst powers but is restrained by Eerie women and loses access to his escape talisman until Yang Yong rescues him 154 158 159.
• Recognizes the value of Brown Blood Beads, welcomes Xiao Xuan’s awakening, and directs a simultaneous three-point attack that opens a hidden passage 160 161.
• Organizes reconnaissance in the underground world, maps the encircling forces, and identifies a possible Sequence Four or Five enemy presence 164 165 170.
• Calculates that the group’s best chance lies in escaping a week later toward the southeast, first recovering their vehicles from the central building’s underground garage. Prepares to use the Red-and-White Twin Fiends to inspect the garage and repeatedly refines the escape plan with his iPad 170 172.

Sky Base, the Warship, and Nameless Island

• Follows the group encountered during fishing back toward Sky Base, then elects to join the base rather than remain unaffiliated with the other convoy members 184 190.
• Becomes Commander Ye’s secretary, disables surveillance during a private visit to Yang Yong, and supplies complete cultivation methods for Sequences One through Three. Warns that Sky Base is experimenting on people and urges Yang Yong to reunite their companions 193.
• During the Warship’s aerial Eerie crisis, organizes defensive positions and tries to coordinate Chen Chunyan’s weather abilities. Xiao Ma saves him from a surprise attack, and Chen Chunyan’s subsequent abandonment forces another change of plan 216 217 220 221 222.
• At the Nameless Island, admits he cannot determine how to reach the projected survival route’s endpoint beneath the sea. Trades the Warship to Du Weizhen and Zhang Qiang for Azure Dragon Team training methods, while his smaller remaining group brings supplies ashore and hides 228.
• Identifies the island’s mist as the cause of his disabled analysis. Temporarily restores his ability with a Brown Blood Bead, then concludes that the island is alive and its inhabitants have degenerated through worshipping it 232 233 239.
• Proposes blocking one nostril of the island to ambush the inhabitants at the other, warns against entering its body, and guides the group through illusions toward an abandoned town 239.

Whale Lord and Return to the Mainland

• Investigates threats within the Whale Lord’s Small World and warns that people elsewhere may be endangered by Sea Demon Monsters 265.
• Explains that the Whale Lord swallows dangerous Sources of Eerie to contain them, but that her deteriorating condition could expose everyone inside her to catastrophe. Proposes helping her both to support this mission and secure permission for the convoy to leave 299.
• Recovers from the severe cost of divining the Whale Lord’s name by eating energy-rich sweet potatoes 302.
• Presents a plan in which Yang Yong suppresses the rampaging Source of Eerie while the Whale Lord develops the Heaven-Swallowing Mystic Whale Inner Core and evolves. Gives the plan a 68% success rate, after which she demands proof of their sincerity and transports Cao and Yang Yong elsewhere 307.
• Later reveals that he has secured transport to waters near Shanghai. Organizes a choice between continuing with the convoy and remaining in the Whale Lord’s Small World 310.

Shanghai, Tuanjie Village, and the Women’s Convoy

• Verifies Tuanjie Village as a supply destination after consulting Qi Peiliang, then organizes separate search routes through Jiepai Old Street and the Song Family Ancient House 326 346.
• Recognizes that an unexpected Eerie Domain has changed the baseline conditions and seeks help from an old acquaintance capable of dealing with reality and illusion 356.
• Transfers the living Ghost Hand Mushroom to Zou Wei, processes the remaining mushroom into food reserves, and confirms that nearby watchers have departed before considering how to escape Shanghai 407.
• Analyzes the exhausted plant-Sequence woman clinging to Yang Yong and suggests that an earlier incident has made her regard him as her closest person. Immediately surrenders when her awakened vines threaten him 411 412.
• Uses the name “Netherworld Ancient Tree” as an entry point for analysis during the convoy’s escape, calculating that others disturbing the tree can create an opening for them 431.
• Attends the neighboring women’s bonfire and listens to Xiaofang’s melodramatic romance story while concealing his calculations behind sympathetic behavior 448.
• Finds no problem in the women’s proposed trades despite a night of modeling, but orders contact cut off on the basis of intuition and unsettling memory gaps. Later identifies that no one remembers their original introduction 449 454.
• Faces a crisis involving seventeen people who traded with the women, including Lao Zhang. Blames himself for failing to prevent it, then regains hope when Yezi’s embryonic Ghost Domain creates a possible means of survival 458 459 460.

Jiang Chen and the Road to Mechanical City

• Encounters a suited stranger whom his model cannot project, enduring a demonstration of overwhelming pressure. Treats the man, later identified as Corpse Ancestor Jiang Chen, with extreme caution as he joins the convoy 477 478 482 483.
• Orders survivors away from Jiang Chen’s palace and evaluates the danger of the Netherworld Ancient Tree. Later calculates that an approaching powerful Eerie is probably Jiang Chen’s subordinate 489.
• Warns the convoy that the pursuing Black Mist can transform a person within three seconds 503.
• Is blasted away from an alloy door by a blooming Bloodflame Flower. Identifies Jiang Chen’s power in the obstruction and orders the convoy onward rather than spend time attempting to break through while the Goat Eerie approaches 506.
• Negotiates with Mechanical City’s Second Elder over the convoy’s treatment and whether it will stay, eventually arranging for it to settle temporarily in the Outer City 514.
• Warns Yang Yong about surveillance, investigates the city’s food distribution and approximately 2,111 residents, and suspects that a powerful force controls its small population and concentration of Mechanic Sequence practitioners 518.

Mechanical City Defense and Core Operations

• Becomes alarmed by a mysterious high-level little girl and seeks protection near Zheng Xiaofeng rather than attempting to calculate her directly 548.
• Refuses to risk the convoy in a rescue of thirty-one trapped members after recognizing that Yang Yong has tampered with their Bone Daggers. Restricts movement, reinforces security, and publicly suspends Yang Yong’s Curio commissions, triggering widespread criticism of the elders 554.
• Uses his Bone Whip to prevent Ye Zhenwei from leaving and exposing the group to further danger 558.
• Is appointed First Strategist Under the Third Elder and commander-in-chief during the zombie assault. Uses an expanded Data Model and Mechanical City’s power supply to coordinate soldiers, turrets, and defenses while Yang Yong confronts the Eerie 585.
• Assigns Xiao Ying to mobile combat duty despite her limited willingness to follow his orders. Later persuades her to restrain He Jie 588 600.
• Attempts to calculate information about the City Lord but stops when the supernatural-power cost overwhelms even the city’s replenishment. Glimpses a human shadow and another resembling fluid metal, then continues investigating indirectly 603 607.
• Concludes that saving the transformed City Lord is necessary to restore Mechanical City’s strength, though he and Yang Yong initially lack a method. Retreats with the others as the spreading flesh mass overruns nearby buildings 609 612.
• Enters the Core Control Room at Yang Yong’s invitation, takes the Third Elder’s seat, and begins reorganizing and optimizing Mechanical City’s energy and magic-array systems 622.
• Later suggests looking outside the city for Curio materials when its internal stocks are exhausted 642.

Bone City and Ancient Well Village

• Explains that he permitted Wang Ying to leave after calculating that her search for her brother involved no fatal danger. The successive departures of other companions, including Hu Xian’er and Huang Xiaojuan, prompt him to investigate the larger situation more intensely 657 658.
• Warns Yang Yong that his Deputy City Lord position will eventually be erased when a particular event occurs. Explains the planned Bone City expedition and predicts catastrophic losses for Konghai’s contingent 658.
• Detects that Mechanical City is trapped in a closed-loop spatial misdirection barrier. Supplies the data-marked route that allows Yang Yong to escape through a bone tower hiding the boundary and continue toward the Many-Treasured Demon Buddha 677.
• At Ancient Well Village, examines a physically strengthened man and advises Yang Yong that ordinary weapons will not suffice against him 791.
• Learns that Yang Yong has stockpiled enough Ideal Grain Seeds to feed the convoy’s more than one thousand people for over half a year. Explains their rapid maturation and directs Lao Zhang to prepare labor and storage for the harvest 799.
• Fails to calculate an unknown phenomenon as something dark red emerges beneath a threshold. Reports interference at a more fundamental level than an Eerie presence. Yang Yong privately asks whether he has still not made up his mind, but the subject of that unresolved decision is not disclosed in the passage 803.

Notable Quotes

“Everything we knew before can only serve as a reference, not the sole basis for judgment.” 14

“This little world is a prison. You can enter, but you can't leave.” 30

“Wondrous items aren't necessarily a blessing. Sometimes, what looks like a powerful vehicle can also be a moving prison.” 47

“I, Cao Xianming, finally made it back alive!” 96

“This is my ability. The Data Analyst Sequence. It allows me to take calculations about the data and matters I want to know to their utmost limits.” 307

“I can't calculate it. Something is blocking my deductions.” 803

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