Lu Lu's consciousness felt as if it were being forcibly dragged back from a bottomless abyss. He didn't open his eyes immediately. Instead, he maintained a state of meditative introspection, hovering on the precipice of his inner world.
Deep within his Neural Sea, the network of thoughts—originally composed of countless shimmering blue fragments—was now occupied by a foreign, encroaching darkness.
A card, flickering with a faint, ominous light, rotated slowly in the depths of his mind. It no longer looked like the translucent phantom he had seen in the Net-Domain. Instead, it possessed a crushing weight, reminiscent of an ancient monolith.
The card, known as the "Three of Clubs," hung silently at the center of his consciousness. Its texture was that of black jade, and with every slow rotation of the trefoil pattern on its face, Lu Lu felt a heavy, primordial aura washing over his nerve endings.
The three black trefoils on the card acted like three bottomless singularities, slowly devouring the scattered neural signals around them. His mind became preternaturally clear. With every revolution of the card, a strange pulsation reconfigured his consciousness into more efficient pathways. He could feel his neural activity spiking to an unprecedented level.
He attempted to touch the card with his intent, only to encounter a law that was cold, desolate, and absolutely exclusionary.
This was the "Epochal Archive"—primordial code that had existed long before the laws and regulations of the Net-Domain's cultivation world were ever written.
"If you're awake, stop playing dead. Your neural activity almost fried my firewall just now. It looks like I'll have to spend a fortune upgrading the interface equipment and your cranial implant."
Shen Shen's voice, laced with exhaustion and a hint of relief, crackled through the comms in the war room.
Lu Lu opened his eyes and pushed back the capsule lid. He was drenched in cold sweat. Turning his head toward the main monitor, he saw Shen Shen frowning at a chaotic stream of jumping hexadecimal code. The distorted strings of data seemed to vaguely outline the silhouette of a trefoil.
Shen Shen pulled up an incredibly complex data model—the variables generated after the "Three of Clubs" had been mounted.
"Lu, look at this."
Shen Shen tapped the keyboard, projecting an analysis report in front of him.
"This card... it's not equipment, nor is it a medicinal pill. From a technical standpoint, it's a 'High-Level Privileged Instruction Set.'"
"Privilege?"
Lu Lu rubbed his aching temples.
"Yes, and it's the kind of private privilege that the current Net-Domain authorities don't recognize." Shen Shen's expression turned solemn. "I tried to parse its underlying logic. The neural permission level it corresponds to is absurdly high. This 'Three of Clubs' grants you an ability called 'Critical Insight.'"
Shen Shen explained: "To put it simply, it utilizes the high-dimensional computing power of the 'Epochal Archive' to forcibly intervene in the Net-Domain's physics engine. As long as your neurons can take the strain, it can pre-calculate the flow and trajectory of all spiritual energy within a hundred-meter radius in a millisecond. In your eyes, the techniques of cultivators far stronger than you will be decomposed into 'code streams.' You'll be able to see the 'glitches' in their energy output with your naked eye."
Shen Shen's gaze grew cold. "It's a combat hack that allows you to leapfrog ranks and dismantle powerful moves. However, every activation seems to drain a massive amount of spiritual energy and mental focus."
Lu Lu exhaled slowly, processing the analysis.
"Then what exactly is my neural activity level now? For a second there, I felt like my brain was going to explode."
He closed his eyes, adjusted his breathing, and precisely docked the slightly overheating implant on his forehead into the interface of a nearby precision sensor. With a crisp click, the sensor's ring light turned from red to blue, flashing rapidly.
Shen Shen held his breath, staring intensely at the waveform on the screen. The curve representing activity shot up like an arrow released from a bow, instantly shattering the peak value of the Qi Sensing Stage.
[Neural Activity Diagnostic Results]
Subject: Lu Lu (ID: LoneWolf_Lu) Current Max Activity: 2677 Neural Status: Stability 59%, Recovery 12%
Even with Shen Shen's vast experience, he couldn't help but gasp. His voice trembled with excitement.
"Lu... this isn't just 'crossing the threshold.'
A normal cultivator going from the Qi Sensing Stage to the Golden Core Stage needs multiple bone-marrow cleansings and realm breakthroughs for their activity to grow exponentially. But you... between the Black Blade Pill and the forced mounting of this 'Three of Clubs,' you've pushed your neural development directly to the peak threshold of the Late Foundation Establishment Stage!"
Lu Lu opened his eyes. A faint, dark shadow of the trefoil flickered in his pupils before vanishing. He could feel it—even though his physical body was in the real world, his five senses had become incredibly sharp. He could even discern the micro-frequency of the air flowing from the ceiling's vent.
"Even if my activity meets the standard, the Net-Domain system still displays my account realm as Qi Sensing Stage, Level 12."
Lu Lu stood up and unplugged the interface cable, his gaze freezing over.
"That means others will see me as a sheep... but I can rip their throats out whenever I want."
"Exactly. But don't forget what I said,"
Shen Shen reminded him gravely. "'Critical Insight' is powerful, but it's high-dimensional computing. With your current 2677 points of activity, you probably can't sustain it for long. The drain will leave you incapacitated instantly. In a real fight, this can only be your 'Trump Card' to decide victory or death."
Lu Lu nodded and looked out the window. He knew that powerhouses like the "Violet-Gold Black Cat" would never let go of any clues regarding the "Epochal Archive."
While Shen Shen's hacking could mask them to an extent, "The Organization" was not to be trifled with.
He had to master this power before they came knocking.
(End of Chapter)