Chapter 212

"About 1,500 standard cycles ago, our deep space probe array discovered a phenomenon." The Imperial Head of State pulled up a holographic star map of their territory, and at the edge of the star map, a large area was marked with a continuously expanding dark red shadow.

"We call this area the ' Tide of Ignorance '."

On the star map, dark red shadows, like ink drops into water, are slowly and steadily eroding the bright star fields.

"Any probe that enters its range will gradually transmit data that becomes meaningless gibberish, eventually leading to a complete loss of connection... Even more terrifying is that the records of these probe missions themselves become blurred and contradictory in our world, and are eventually forgotten."

"It's as if that area never existed, or rather, it refuses to be 'understood' by us."

Upon hearing this, not only were the high- Phase Creation Civilization present in an uproar, but Wen Jing's attention was also completely drawn.

Is this phenomenon due to her lack of understanding of higher technology, or her understanding of... supernatural power?

The reaction of the Phase Creation Civilization was within the expectations of the empire's high command; their attention was focused on the unmoved figure at the head of the throne.

The Imperial Head of State continued, "We have exhausted all our resources in research and exploration, yet we still don't know where the 'center' of this Tide of Ignorance is; we've only come to one conclusion..."

"Although its spread is slow on a cosmic scale, on a civilizational scale, we don't have much time left."

The star chart switches, revealing another set of complex data flows and models.

After more than 100,000 years of separation, the technological paths of the two civilizations with the same origin have diverged. Many of the people present were completely bewildered, while those who had been studying Analysis Personality in seclusion for ten years were completely engrossed.

Through this model, Wen Jing saw the origin of the Empire's concept of 'breaking boundaries'.

Their strategy is to gather enough matter and energy to create an extremely strong spacetime disturbance at the tidal front. This is a method they have researched that could theoretically tear open the Tide of Ignorance and reveal its true nature.

"Tide of Ignorance is spreading across the borders of our civilization. We want to know whether this is an unknown cosmic phenomenon or a trace of a Type III civilization."

Regardless of the type, it is a fatal temptation for any civilization seeking a breakthrough at the second-tier peak.

"Capturing it and studying it is the only way for our civilization to break through."

"However, we spent over five hundred standard cycles trying to break through this bottleneck until we discovered the pulse signals from the Phase Creation Civilization, which mentioned your existence..."

The rest of the developments are self-evident.

When the technological resources of the Boundary-Breaking Civilization were tied up in the research of the ' Tide of Ignorance ', they suddenly learned of the existence of Wen Jing, an individual suspected to be from a Level 3 civilization, and naturally chose to take a desperate gamble.

Therefore, they brazenly launched a war, wanting to capture Wen Jing, this 'reconnaissance aircraft,' for research purposes at any cost.

Upon hearing this, the Imperial Head of State, as if all his strength had been drained, trembled slightly as he faced Wen Jing: "My lord, as the defeated party, we willingly offer up all our information about civilization, and we are willing to follow your rules in the future. We are not negotiating with you, but rather making a request—"

"In view of our persistence, could you please tell us what exactly this Tide of Ignorance is?"

Faced with this question, Wen Jing, who had been posing as a 'Level 3 Civilization Individual' for a long time, paused slightly.

Do Type III civilizations truly exist in the universe?

*

With Wen Jing's permission, the human form of Xu Yuan, now dressed in clothes, reappeared within the Mind Palace.

It's worth mentioning that the clothes he manifested were Ocher Soil school uniforms.

In reality, Wen Jing had one Clone fighting in the Ancient Wilderness Era, another Clone listening to reports in the Phase Creation Civilization, and at the same time, he also sent out a thread of thought to find out more information from the other side.

"Speaking of which," Wen Jing, somewhat puzzled, "Why do you appear as a man?"

Xu Yuan replied in Huaxia, "Because you are heterosexual."

Wen Jing choked up. "... This has nothing to do with whether you're a man or a woman, right?"

"Yes," Xu Yuan affirmed.

"If you transform into my appearance, I will be killed; if you transform into the appearance of anyone you know, I will also be killed."

"This is the result of adaptive evolution." He looked at Wen Jing: "Because you killed me thirty-two times before, the information you left behind has made me adapt to an image that is not easy for you to kill."

Wen Jing fell silent.

The previous points made by Xu Yuan are indeed reasonable. If she were to encounter another version of herself in the Ancient Wilderness Era, it would immediately trigger a sense of crisis in her absolute self, causing her to believe that the other person is an illusion that has corrupted her.

Transforming into the appearance of any Wen Jing wouldn't work; transforming into the teacher's appearance would only infuriate her even more.

But now, with this evolution... is she really such a superficial person who judges people by their looks?

"It's not superficial; from the perspective of sociobiology and cognitive psychology, an individual's judgment of a stranger of the same kind is largely based on the visual information obtained within the first seven seconds."

Analysis Personality Analysis reveals that "a person's appearance has a far greater impact on others than commonly believed. When information is insufficient, the brain uses appearance to quickly determine friend or foe, assess threat levels, and estimate potential value."

"Conforming to or even exceeding the perceived image of a friendly, valuable, and communicable person can significantly reduce human wariness towards unknown threats."

Of course, the above is a scientific, written explanation.

In layman's terms, to avoid being killed again, Xu Yuan's appearance was modeled after Wen Jing's XP...

This realization immediately enraged the Dominant Will: "What a joke! My XP has classic white hair and red eyes!"

"It's just a feeling. Actually, I have a wide range of interests, but I mainly like white hair, and I'm quite fond of different eye colors..." the Analysis Personality said.

Will this affect our future behavioral decisions?

Analysis Personality: "No, none of our traits are inferior to the ' Constant Self '."

"Never mind then." Wen Jing decisively gave up on pondering the question further and instead asked Xu Yuan, "Why didn't you answer when I asked you who you were here earlier?"

Xu Yuan: "The Insect Race have no language."

Wen Jing paused, no wonder he'd been doing gymnastics all this time; it turned out it was because gymnastics was all he had...

However, she immediately frowned. "Then why weren't you in human form when you were first here?"

"Without the permission of ' Constant Self,' I cannot link with the Dominant Will, nor can I appear here. Only in the Ancient Wilderness, where there is Information Singularity, can I condense a form," said Xu Yuan.

Wen Jing became even more puzzled. "Then what was your original insect form when you entered?"

"It's my ability; I can integrate into any civilization and become a member."

"... any civilization?"

"Yes."

Upon receiving this reply, Wen Jing's eyes immediately lit up. "How exactly do you plan to blend in? What are the chances of being discovered?"

Xu Yuan was stunned by the question, looking like his brain was overloaded.

"What's wrong? Are you going to shut up when you encounter a difficult question?"

After several seconds, he finally spoke, "The chance of being discovered is 0.000000..."

"... stop!"

Wen Jing interrupted him, just like before in the Ancient Wilderness Realm, and used the same trick to transfer some Skill Points to his own perception information.

Fortunately, although Xu Yuan was a fake human, he had no problem understanding things. He immediately sent a complete user manual through Wen Jing holding his hand.

"Good, very good..."

Before long, Wen Jing, who was deciphering the information, couldn't help but break into a hearty smile.

Because the Xu Yuan possesses the characteristic of being able to integrate itself into a civilization, it is at the rule level.

When he uses his ability to integrate into a civilization, he will automatically acquire the identity of a member of that civilization, even if he is clearly an outsider who appears out of nowhere. He will automatically have an identity, experience, and even connections within that civilization.

This involves directly altering information at the cognitive level.

Previously, in the material universe, before entering the Ancient Wilderness, he could appear in the Mind Palace in insect form, which was the effect of this ability.

Because Wen Jing's Personality Network is a miniature Insectoid Civilization.

Even during the process of changing the consensus, she didn't immediately notice that there was an extra person. It wasn't until she saw the Skill Points on the panel increase after the event that she realized something was wrong.

It's not that this characteristic is weak, but rather that ' Constant Self ' is superior to everything else in Wen Jing's entire set of characteristic information, including the abilities of Xu Yuan.

He couldn't answer the probability question just now because this ability shouldn't have been discovered, but Wen Jing was an exception, hence the conflicting and contradictory information.

But other civilizations are not Wen Jing's, which was formed by a single person.

This also means that the existence of the Xu Yuan can fill the biggest gap in her current return puzzle—infiltration.

Chapter 212

And the surprises don't stop there.

In addition to integrating into the characteristics of a civilization, the Xu Yuan also possesses a powerful special ability.

The Information Singularity is the sum of all the information that human civilization has developed to this point.

This is a terrifying concept that encompasses all information about all ordinary humans and Awakened who have existed throughout history and are still in existence.

Status, experience, skills, characteristics... all information.

Wen Jing can use the Xu Yuan to 'exchange' this information from it using the Fire of Civilization.

Unfortunately, this ability has limitations; otherwise, it would be considered omniscient and omnipotent on a human level.

Because information itself can only exist in two states: 'known' and 'unknown'.

The Xu Yuan exists based on the Wen Jing. Even if it can connect to the Information Singularity, the information that can be extracted from it must be the part that the Wen Jing already knows.

This capability has two applications, one of which is information expansion.

Once Wen Jing has had a general understanding of a 'term', he can use this ability to unlock more detailed and even fundamental information.