SFS Appendix to Chapter 132: Kaifeng, the Scripture Reader Wants to Negotiate Conditions
Appendix to Chapter 132: Kaifeng, the Scripture Reader Wants to Negotiate Conditions
As soon as the chains on the mountainside jingled, the entire Flower and Fruit Mountain trembled.
It wasn't a major earthquake.
It's like someone inside the mountain gently tearing open a page of paper.
The grayish-white light lingered in mid-air, stretching longer and longer until it finally unfolded into a tattered page. The corner of the page was curled, covered with a layer of old dust, as if it had been pressed down for many years.
Sun Wukong stepped forward first, his golden cudgel blocking his way.
"come out."
The middle of the tattered page slowly bulged up.
A figure in a gray robe squeezed out from inside.
It is not a physical entity.
It's just a projection.
But Chen Fan recognized that aura.
This guy used to act all high and mighty in the scriptures, but he was later relegated to the appendix by Tang Sanzang and couldn't even make it into the main text. He was just a useless entry.
Now it's popped up again.
The gray-robed sutra reader had just appeared when he glanced around.
He saw Sun Wukong, Tang Sanzang, Chen Fan, and the lingering traces of recycling in the sky. His lips twitched.
That feigned composure vanished on the spot.
He was very straightforward and simply raised his hand in a salute.
"I surrender."
Even Sun Wukong was stunned for a moment.
"You're just admitting it like that?"
The gray-robed scholar bowed his head even faster.
"recognize."
"If they don't acknowledge it, I'm afraid I won't even get a place in the appendix."
Upon hearing this, even the Bull Demon King grinned.
Everyone remembers how capable that old man was.
Now he immediately backs down as soon as he opens his mouth; that's just the right approach.
Many people around him were staring at him, their eyes full of mockery.
The gray-robed scholar, embarrassed but unwilling to retaliate, could only stubbornly say, "I'm not here to seek death. I'm here to negotiate."
Chen Fan stood still.
"You're not qualified to talk!"
The gray-robed sutra reader paused in his breath.
He seemed to have anticipated this, gritted his teeth, and simply lowered his posture to the lowest possible level.
"I have intelligence about the outer ocean."
"And there's the way the author's proxy arrives."
"You'll need these things sooner or later."
The surroundings became quieter after that.
Even Tang Sanzang raised his eyes.
Chen Fan looked at him, but didn't rush to reply. He simply raised his hand and beckoned.
The tattered page immediately sank downwards, pressing directly onto the gray-robed sutra reader's head, like a guillotine that could fall at any moment.
"Speak first."
"That's worth saying. Now let's talk about whether you have the right to breathe."
The gray-robed scholar's Adam's apple bobbed.
He was clearly uncomfortable.
In the past, others always had to read his face.
Now it's reversed.
But he knew even better that if he kept putting on airs, he really wouldn't make it today.
He raised his finger and pointed upwards.
"You all thought that the author's agent could keep an eye on this place forever."
"Actually, no."
Chen Fan squinted.
"Explain in more detail."
"They are not permanent residents."
This time, the gray-robed sutra reader dared not keep the audience in suspense.
"The author's proxy is just a proxy. It is not the original entity. Nor does it reside permanently on a particular page. Each time it descends, it must land through the observation portal."
"The observation port must be anchored first, then the page slit opened, and then annotations added."
"The reason you saw him arrive so quickly the last few times was because the old observation post was still there."
"This time you've blocked the entries for the Buddha and Heaven families, and singled out the Flower Fruit Mountain area. Most of those old entrances are already useless."
Upon hearing this, Sun Wukong's eyes lit up.
"Does that mean he can't just come whenever he wants?"
"right."
The gray-robed sutra reader nodded.
"At least we can't just lift our hands and press down on an entire mountain like before."
The Bull Demon King laughed heartily, slapped his thigh, and cursed, "I thought he was so tough, but it turns out he just crawled in through a hole too."
The gray-robed sutra reader didn't dare to retort.
Chen Fan didn't laugh.
He grasped it more accurately.
"Where should the observation port be located, and who decides?"
The gray-robed scholar paused for a moment.
"On the other side of the sea, we select stable pages. We usually choose the back of old pages, the deep parts of the page seams, and discarded sections that have been deleted or revised many times."
Chen Fan's heart skipped a beat.
Old page verso.
As soon as the word came out, he thought of the older, grayish-white handwriting that had appeared before.
The system then made a soft sound.
"Information matching accuracy improved."
"A clue for recyclable old entry points has been detected."
Chen Fan ignored the system and continued to stare at the gray-robed sutra reader.
"What else do you know?"
The gray-robed sutra reader raised his head this time, a hint of gambling in his eyes.
"I know an abandoned storyline strategy."
"At the edge of the outer sea."
"That place is dirty and messy. We don't want the main text, we dislike the appendix, and we dump all the deleted and revised entries there."
"But there are good things there."
Sun Wukong frowned.
"What could be in a garbage dump?"
The gray-robed sutra reader uttered four words.
"Fragments of the original manuscript."
As soon as he said that, several people on the field changed color at the same time.
Even Tang Sanzang paused for a moment while holding his prayer beads.
Fragments of the original manuscript.
These four words carry immense weight.
They are able to turn the tables time and time again by finding loopholes in the rules, grabbing annotations, and modifying entries.
But if we could actually get our hands on an earlier draft, then it wouldn't be just about patching things up.
That's to go and flip through the very first layer.
Seeing the change in everyone's expressions, the gray-robed sutra reader felt a little more at ease and quickly increased the stakes.
"That abandoned storyline is almost untouched on the outer layers."
"It's not that I don't want to touch it, it's that I'm afraid to touch it."
"It contains broken character storylines, reworked world segments, and unused setting fragments."
"If you can get in, you will gain a lot."
"It might even be possible to find old front pages of the Ninth Experimental Field."
Chen Fan's eye twitched.
Ninth Experimental Field.
The hook is on again.
He finally understood that this old man wasn't just there to beg for survival.
He is also using this opportunity to redefine his position.
Chen Fan smiled.
The gray-robed scholar who was studying the scriptures felt a chill run down his spine from laughing.
"You're quite good at picking things to say."
"Put what we want to hear first."
The grey-robed sutra-reading man whispered, "I only ask for a reduction in punishment."
"Reduce liability?"
Chen Fan took two steps forward.
"You used to help the outer layer keep an eye on us."
"They use observation positions to intimidate people and use the Jinghai (Jinghai) regulations as a pretext."
"Now that the situation has changed, you're coming here to give intelligence, and you're trying to clear your name as a tainted witness?"
The gray-robed sutra reader turned pale.
"I can continue my confession."
"I know quite a few people."
"I can tell you part of the outer guard list."
"I also know about a few other observation posts..."
Chen Fan raised his hand to interrupt.
"No rush."
He turned to look at Tang Sanzang.
"Master, how should we define an accomplice who voluntarily surrenders themselves, according to your current set of scriptural rules?"
Tang Sanzang glanced at the gray-robed sutra reader.
His face was expressionless.
The more this happened, the more panicked the gray-robed sutra reader became.
"First, record the confession."
"To re-establish the conspiracy."
"If the confession is incomplete, an appendix will be added as another layer of security."
"If they turn against us halfway through, just change it to an abandoned page."
The gray-robed sutra reader's knees buckled at the mention of the word "discarded pages."
The projection shook slightly.
He originally wanted to use the intelligence to stall for time and leave himself some room to maneuver.
it's good now.
With a single sentence, Chen Fan first labeled him as an accomplice in the confession.
Instead of getting a reduction in liability, they've already been put in shackles.
Sun Wukong laughed and grinned at him.
"Did you hear me?"
"You are not a guest now."
"You are a talking piece of evidence."
Everyone around burst out laughing.
The gray-robed sutra-observing man's face turned pale and then ashen, his lips trembling several times, but he still didn't dare to turn hostile.
He can't turn it over.
His tattered page was still pressed against the mountainside.
The sutra in Tang Sanzang's hand was also half-open.
If Chen Fan agrees, he won't even be able to leave the projection room today.
The gray-robed scholar breathed a sigh of relief, completely admitting defeat.
"it is good."
"I'll hand it over."
"I'll submit the coordinates of the observation point first."
Chen Fan didn't speak, he just raised his chin.
The gray-robed sutra-observing man stretched out his hand, his fingertips drawing a gray line in the air.
The gray line is very thin.
Like slowly poking the back of a piece of paper with a needle.
There was nothing at first.
On the third stroke, a layer of paper-like texture actually appeared in the air.
Not the page in front of them.
It's more like the back of an old page.
As the gray-robed scholar drew, he said, "This opening is very old. The location is also out of the way. It's hidden on the back of an old page in the sutra collection, not noticeable under normal circumstances. Only after the appendix is opened can the outline be seen."
"It was originally intended as a spare for the outer layer."
"Later, that area was abandoned, and the entrance was barely alive."
"If you want to get into the abandoned storyline, this is the fastest place."
With the final stroke completed.
A coordinate slowly emerged from the middle of that layer of paper texture.
It's not a character.
Like a tangled mess of page numbers, or like stitches that have been torn and then sewn back together.
Chen Fan only glanced at it before the system beeped.
"An anchorable observation point has been discovered."
"Entrance found on the back of the old page."
"It is recommended to immediately seal the coordinates."
Chen Fan raised his hand to grab it.
Just then.
Suddenly, a "whoosh" sound came from the air.
It's like someone using their fingernail to scratch paper from a great distance.
next moment.
Suddenly, a hand pressed down from above the coordinates.
Not a complete person.
There is only one hand.
Pale, slender, with fingers that looked as if they were dipped in ink; as soon as they touched the paper, the surrounding texture began to turn black.
The grey-robed sutra-observing man turned green with shock and exclaimed, "Impossible! How could he be so fast—"
Sun Wukong reacted the fastest, swinging his golden cudgel to smash it.
"Go back!"
boom!
The stick struck the hand, and a white wave erupted from the entire mountainside.
Stone chips flew everywhere.
The light from the scriptures flickered wildly.
The hand paused for a moment after being hit, but the fingertips remained pressed on the coordinates, as if trying to erase them completely.
Chen Fan's eyes turned cold, and he instantly unfolded the blank document in his hand and covered the hand with it.
"The more anxious you are, the more I want this place!"
The hand paused slightly.
Immediately afterwards, a familiar cold voice came from mid-air.
"You are not allowed to touch this place."
The sound wasn't loud.
Everyone on the field heard it clearly.
Author's agent.
He did indeed come.
And they immediately targeted this coordinate.
The gray-robed sutra reader froze, as if he had suddenly understood something. He looked up sharply at the wad of paper, his voice changing tone.
"There really is something there!"
Chen Fan didn't reply to him.
He stared at the hand that was pressing down on the coordinates, and a smile slowly spread across his face.
"Monkey, Ox, protect the monk!"
"Whatever's hidden inside today."
"Leave this hand with me first."
Chapter 276 Fighting for the Observation Post: Whoever Gets In First Gets the Meat
The moment the author's agent's hand pressed down, the entire paper cracked.
It's not a metaphor.
That's really explosive.
The mass of grayish-white paper below the coordinates suddenly bulged up, like boiling paste in a pot. First, a thin crack appeared, and then a string of old words gushed out. The words were incoherent, like scraps rummaged through a pile of discarded manuscripts, darting around on the ground, tearing flesh from anyone who touched them.
The Bull Demon King reacted the fastest, swinging his iron cudgel to smash it down.
"Get the hell out of my way!"
With a bang.
A string of old characters was smashed, but the fragments did not scatter; instead, they rolled back and rushed straight at Tang Sanzang's face.
Tang Sanzang was prepared. As soon as he unfurled his cassock, the reversed sutra patterns on it lit up, forcefully suppressing the string of characters in mid-air. The characters jumped wildly on the cassock like live fish slapping against a net, struggling a few times, but were eventually subdued.
Sun Wukong bared his teeth, and his golden cudgel blocked the author's wrist.
"Screw your mother!"
"You think you can touch this first?"
The author's agent's face turned bluish, and another hand emerged from his sleeve, his five fingers joined together, and he swept them towards the coordinates. Immediately, a layer of pale black cover appeared on that spot, completely enclosing the coordinates.
The gray-robed sutra reader's voice rose to a shrill tone upon seeing this.
"He's going to block the observation point! Grab it quickly!"
These words caused complete chaos.
Three ink streaks appeared high in the sky.
On one side were the reviewers, their black pens hovering in the air, each stroke leaving a line of deletions. On the other side were the proofreaders, wielding paper cutters; with a flash of the blade, the surrounding space seemed to be sliced into pieces. Several appendix inspectors, appearing out of nowhere, stared intently at the coordinates, their eyes filled with greed.
Everyone understands.
Once the observation port is opened, the meat is inside.
Old storylines, abandoned plots, unrecovered annotations—aren't they all treasures?
If you manage to grab it, you can eat it first.
When Sun Wukong saw this scene, he chuckled and his fur stood on end.
"Well done!"
He stepped to the front and swung the stick around to smash it out.
The first blow was to smash the lines of deletion left by the reviewer.
The second blow knocked the two appendix patrols off their feet.
The third blow was even more devastating, slamming directly at the author's agent's feet, causing layers of paper on the ground to flutter and shatter.
"All of you, step back, Old Sun!"
The reviewer's face darkened, and he kept pointing with his black pen.
"Sun Wukong, are you really going to stand up for these rebels to the very end?"
The monkey laughed loudly.
"You've asked this nonsense for hundreds of chapters, aren't you tired of it yet?"
No sooner had he finished speaking than a loud bang was heard from the side.
Yang Jian moved.
He didn't engage the group head-on; instead, he angled his three-pointed, double-edged sword and sliced directly into the flank of the cleaners. Those guys had intended to go around and sneak in, but as soon as they got close, a flash of cold light appeared from the side.
The person at the front who was cleaning up the manuscript took three steps back, but the paper armor on his chest still tore.
He looked down and his face immediately turned pale.
The tear is not a knife mark.
It's a single line of text.
"Those who cross the line will have their privileges revoked."
The editor swallowed hard, looked up at Yang Jian, his eyes filled with surprise and doubt.
"Did you sew the area entries into the knife?"
Yang Jian didn't even bother to answer; with a flick of his sword, he sent the man flying.
"If you want to take it, you'll have to get past me first."
On the other side, Tang Sanzang had already retreated to the rear of the coordinates with the white dragon horse.
The white dragon horse transformed into human form, dragging a chain in its hand, and swiftly arranged it around the ball of paper patterns. With each lock it unlocked, a thin line lit up on the ground, like a cage around the coordinates.
Tang Sanzang stared down at the constantly throbbing, grayish-white opening, his voice steady.
"I'll guard the coordinates."
"Anyone who dares to rush to the back row, I'll get them first."
The Bull Demon King laughed heartily, stood to Tang Sanzang's left, and slammed his staff on the ground.
"Then I'll guard your left side."
Red Boy tumbled down from the fiery cloud, riding on his Wind and Fire Wheels, his eyes filled with ruthlessness.
"Leave the right side to me."
Chen Fan stood in the center, glanced at the entire room, and spoke as quickly as a knife.
"Monkey, face up!"
"Yang Jian, cut off their left wing and force the drafters out."
"The mage should guard the coordinates and prevent anyone from touching the underlying patterns."
"Old Ox Protector".
"Red Boy clears out the miscellaneous soldiers."
"White Dragon, secure the outer ring lock."
After those few words, everyone moved at the same time.
The scene instantly became divided into layers.
On the front, Sun Wukong fought from all four sides, creating a vacuum in the area in front of the entrance.
On the left, Yang Jian defeated three people in succession, cutting the entire side line of the drafter to pieces.
Behind them, Tang Sanzang stood firm and did not move. Anyone who rushed in would be struck by the reverse sutra lines on his cassock, making the group of patrolling guards' scalps tingle.
The author's agent became increasingly annoyed as he read, and suddenly looked up.
"Jade Emperor, Buddha, are you still going to watch the show?"
The clouds high in the sky trembled.
Two familiar, oppressive forces pressed down.
One side shone with golden light, the other with Buddha's light.
The Jade Emperor stood behind the clouds, his face cold, already clutching an imperial seal in his hand. The Buddha sat cross-legged in the void, the Buddhist patterns on his palms turning, clearly also eyeing this observation point.
The onlookers all gasped in shock.
This guy even wants to steal these two people.
Some people already thought Chen Fan and his team were finished.
But the next moment, the area entry above Flower Fruit Mountain suddenly lit up.
The golden light and Buddha's light had barely penetrated halfway down when it seemed to have hit a hard wall.
boom.
It felt stuffy in mid-air.
The Jade Emperor frowned. Only a corner of the Imperial Seal fell, with the rest hanging on the outer edge, unable to enter.
The same applies to the Buddha's side.
The Buddha's palm reached the area line, the Buddha lines on the palm spinning wildly, but it could only grind on the outside, unable to penetrate into the core area.
Sun Wukong looked up and almost choked with laughter.
"Oh, you two big shots, can't even get your hands in?"
The Bull Demon King, being even more sarcastic, added a further comment.
"It's windy outside, so you guys just keep pushing from the side."
The Jade Emperor's face was ashen, as if he had swallowed ashes.
The Buddha's gaze was deep and fixed on Chen Fan.
"This place should not be under your control."
Chen Fan didn't even look up.
"You're too late."
As he spoke, he walked directly to the center of the coordinates.
The author's agent's eyelids twitched, and he raised his hand to stop him.
"Stop him!"
The reviewers and two cleanup editors rushed at the same time.
Yang Jian swept his blade across, cutting off one path. Sun Wukong pressed down with his staff, smashing down another. And then there was another path that charged the fastest, almost touching Chen Fan in front of him.
Chen Fan raised his hand and pressed down.
The interface mark on the palm lit up.
Like a red-hot nail.
He aimed directly at the center of the coordinates and took the picture.
hum-
The mass of grayish-white paper on the ground suddenly shrank and then split apart to both sides.
It really looks like a door.
The door was only half open.
It was dark and deep inside, like an unfinished corridor. Layers of torn pages hung along the edges, and occasionally you could see scraps of writing floating by, like something that was dead but not quite dead.
There was a moment of silence on the field.
Immediately afterwards, everyone went crazy.
"It's open!"
"The observation port is really open!"
"Charge in!"
The appendix inspector's eyes turned red, and he turned and pounced. The author's proxy was even faster, transforming into a gray shadow as he darted towards the half-open door.
Chen Fan sneered and flicked his left hand.
A tiny speck of light, the size of a fingernail, flew in first.
That's not a magic weapon.
That's a system seed.
The author's agent had just rushed to the door when the point of light beat him to it. Before the point of light even entered, the half-door trembled, as if it had found its way.
The system notification sounded immediately in Chen Fan's mind.
"The seed has been planted."
"Let's begin scouting."
"Abandoned storyline detected."
"Quantity, high."
"Unrecovered comments detected."
"Quantity, high."
"Old cache fragments detected."
"Potential acquisition value is high."
Chen Fan's eyes lit up.
Yes, we have it.
And it's not just a little bit.
The gray-robed sutra reader couldn't hear the system's report, but just seeing the few lines of fragmented characters revealed from the half-open door made his hands tremble with excitement.
"This is truly a waste of time."
"There are still annotations, the old annotations that weren't taken away..."
Before he could finish speaking, the author's agent could no longer sit still.
"We can't let him get there first!"
He slammed his hand on the door frame, trying to pry the entrance open completely.
The reviewer gritted his teeth and wrote down a temporary ban order to be added outside the door.
The Jade Emperor made a hand seal on the outer edge.
The Buddha flipped his palm.
Forces from all directions pressed down simultaneously.
The half-door opened slightly wider, then began to shake violently. The two sides of the door frame kept pulling inward, as if another unseen hand was closing the door from the inside.
The system notification sounded again.
"warn."
"The observation port structure is unstable."
"The outer layer is currently performing a recovery."
"Expected to close within 15 minutes."
"If a fixed entrance is required, an internal anchor point must be established."
"It is recommended to send an individual in immediately."
Chen Fan narrowed his eyes, staring at the dark corridor inside the door.
The author's agent also sensed something was wrong and suddenly burst into laughter.
"The door is closing!"
"Chen Fan, so what if you force your way in? Do you dare to go in?"
His tone suddenly turned harsh.
"It's a wasteland inside."
"The old ways are backfiring, and the annotations are flowing wildly; going in is suicide."
"Of your men, who dares to go in for you?"
The patrolling officers around them realized what was happening and quickly retreated, no one trying to grab it anymore.
It's a treasure.
Life is more important.
Abandoned storylines are notoriously dangerous; without anchor points to protect you, you might get torn to shreds if you go in.
Sun Wukong turned around and started cursing.
"What's there to be afraid of? I'm going too."
The system immediately displayed a red message.
"It is not recommended for Sun Wukong to enter."
"The target is too large and could easily cause the entrance to collapse."
Yang Jian also frowned.
"I can give it a try."
The system message is still in red.
"It is not recommended for Yang Jian to enter."
"High-privilege conflicts will trigger a revocation alert."
Tang Sanzang took half a step forward.
"This humble monk is leaving."
"I can stabilize a section using the reverse meridian pattern."
Chen Fan shook his head.
"You have to guard the outside."
"If you lose the coordinates, opening the door is pointless."
The Bull Demon King gritted his teeth.
"Then I'll go too."
"You can't do it."
Chen Fan didn't even look at him.
"You're too big; you'll break the door if you go in."
At this moment, the system seed transmitted a second wave of images back from inside the door.
A huge mass of broken annotations, piled up like a mountain.
There are also several grayed-out old storylines nearby, like dried-up riverbeds, still and motionless, but containing a large number of residual permissions.
Deeper inside, a dark gold label floated.
The words are illegible.
All you can tell is that the item is of an incredibly high grade.
Chen Fan's heart skipped a beat.
This place must be taken.
The door frame shook even more violently.
The left side has started to contract inwards, making a cracking sound, like bones coming together.
The author's agent stared at Chen Fan, then suddenly stopped laughing.
He seemed to have figured something out, and his eyes suddenly darkened.
"You want to go in yourself."
Chen Fan looked up and glanced at him.
The author's facade of gentleness was finally torn away, and his voice turned icy cold.
"Chen Fan, once you step inside, I'll personally close this door shut for you."
The reviewer chimed in, his tone even more scathing.
"If you die inside, not a single one of the people from Flower Fruit Mountain will be spared."
The person who was cleaning up the manuscript spoke up in a sinister tone from the side.
"Don't you like to steal?"
"Go in."
"Let's see if you can come out after you go in."
Sun Wukong held his golden cudgel horizontally and stood next to Chen Fan.
"Old Chen, say something to me."
"Whoever gets in my way, I'll smash them too."
Tang Sanzang didn't say anything, but simply tossed his cassock back, protecting it even more tightly.
Yang Jian also drew his sword and took half a step closer.
Everyone was waiting for Chen Fan's decision.
The door is being closed.
time is limited.
Chen Fan stared at the half-open door and suddenly smiled.
"It's as if you'll let me go if I don't go in."
He took a step forward.
Another step.
Stand directly in front of the door.
The expressions on the faces of everyone outside changed.
The gray-robed sutra-observing man was so anxious that his voice became hoarse.
"Are you really going to get involved yourself?"
Chen Fan didn't turn his head back.
"I opened the entrance."
"Of course I'll eat the meat first."
After he finished speaking, he raised his hand and pressed the interface mark to his chest, preparing to forcibly connect himself with the seed inside the door.
The author's agent's pupils contracted, and he abruptly turned his head, shouting sharply:
"Everyone, listen up!"
"Stop him!"
Chapter 277 Chen Fan Enters the Outer Layer, First Battle on the Back Side of the Sea
The moment Chen Fan pressed the interface mark into his chest, the entire observation port first sank, then suddenly collapsed inward.
It felt like a hand was desperately pulling him from behind the door.
A roar erupted from behind.
"Stop him!"
"Don't let him in!"
Sun Wukong swept his golden cudgel across, shattering the several paper patterns that rushed towards him into pieces.
The Bull Demon King, carrying his iron cudgel, blocked the left side of the opening, beating and cursing at the same time.
"Get out of my way!"
Tang Sanzang raised his hand and pressed down, no longer chanting Buddhist mantras, but reciting a series of reversed scriptures. The retrieval talismans that had caught up with him recoiled as if burned the moment they touched him.
The gray-robed scholar was utterly bewildered.
"She's gone mad...she's really gone mad..."
Chen Fan ignored what was behind him.
His entire body felt like it was being squeezed through a door, and the seed in his chest was burning intensely, making his skin and flesh feel tight. The system's voice kept exploding.
"Connection established."
"Outer layer repulsion activation".
"An observation port reverse lock has been detected."
"The host's physical body is under too much pressure."
Chen Fan gritted his teeth and pushed forward, squeezing out a sentence.
"Stop talking nonsense."
"Hold on!"
The next moment, the seed jolted violently.
He was forcibly pulled inside.
First, everything went dark.
It went from black to shiny.
Chen Fan's footing gave way, and he almost tumbled down. He reached out and grabbed a piece of torn paper that was floating by, which helped him regain his balance.
When he took in his surroundings, even he paused for a moment.
This is not a mountain, not the sky, nor any secret realm.
This place looks like an upside-down sea.
There was no water in the sea, only paper.
Large pages and small pages, tattered books and torn corners, red-inked annotations and broken sentences, revised and discarded plots, half-written names, erased dialogues, densely packed, drifting everywhere.
On some of the pages, there was still half a human figure hanging.
The face was just sketched with eyebrows and eyes, then the rest was left blank.
The moment a demon king's name was written, all the subsequent details were erased, leaving only the sentence "Combat power too high, deleted."
Further away, clusters of grayish-white templates floated. They resembled people, yet they didn't. There were men, women, young, and old, all with features that looked like they had been molded. Their eyes were vacant, and they repeatedly uttered the same sentence.
"I am willing to die for the greater good."
"I am willing to die for the greater good."
Chen Fan frowned as he listened.
"Is this the back side of the Jinghai Lake?"
The system's voice was almost trembling.
"Yes."
"A large number of abandoned story clips were detected."
"Failed character template detected."
"Deleted or modified annotation pages detected."
"Warning: This area may swallow existing entries."
Chen Fan glanced down at it.
The edges of the tattered piece of paper at my feet were crumbling, as if it wouldn't last much longer.
Just as he was about to move, darkness suddenly fell over his head.
A hand pressed down from above.
The sea of paper sank in large sections, pulling up all the nearby waste pages.
The familiar cold voice followed immediately.
"You actually dared to come in."
Chen Fan looked up.
The author's proxy stood in mid-air, but this time it wasn't the real author, but an avatar. Even as an avatar, the oppressive aura emanating from him was far more intense than that outside. He stepped on lines of black characters, as if treading on freshly written stairs, his eyes chillingly sinister.
"There are monkeys outside to protect you."
"Not here."
As soon as he finished speaking, he clenched his fist downwards.
The pages beneath Chen Fan's feet exploded.
Chen Fan flipped to the side, stepping on another tattered page, and grabbed a corner of a floating annotation with his right hand.
boom!
The spot where he had just been standing was now riddled with a large crater.
The bottom of the pit revealed layers of discarded drafts, like a pale negative that had never been inked.
The author's agent stared at him with a sneer on his face.
"On the positive side, you can leverage the influence of others and their resources."
"Once we get to the other side, what are you?"
"A mere monkey feeder wants to turn the page?"
After regaining his footing, Chen Fan patted the scraps of paper off his sleeve and then smiled.
"Even a clone dares to chase after us."
"You're really in a hurry."
That statement was like stepping on someone's tail.
The author's agent's eye twitched, and he raised his hand to write another line.
"This person has nowhere to go."
As the black characters fell, the surrounding paper flow instantly became chaotic.
The previously floating, gently drifting discarded pages suddenly surged towards Chen Fan. The failed templates, as if smelling blood, all turned their heads, their empty eyes fixed on him, and they crept towards him step by step, treading on the waves of paper.
"Erase him."
"Erase him."
"Erase him."
The shouts grew more and more unified.
Chen Fan didn't force it.
He stepped back first.
As he retreated, he looked at the words on the tattered pages.
This place is dangerous, but it's also full of things.
Almost every page of the discarded manuscript contained old annotations.
"This section is too long, cut it."
"The character's motivations are unrealistic; this is a waste."
"Route conflict, alternative route will be used."
"This page can be used as a backup plan; it should be sealed for now."
Chen Fan's eyes widened.
Temporary closure?
He immediately tore off two pages to look, and sure enough, he found traces of reverse writing on the edge of the paper. Normally, it looked messy, but when turned diagonally, a thin line was hidden inside.
It's like someone secretly leaving annotations between the scrap pages.
"system."
"Can you reverse the display?"
The system answered very quickly.
"The host has accessed the remaining fragments."
"You can try a lower-level interpretation."
"Eight percent of the seed protective layer has been consumed."
Chen Fan replied directly.
"buckle."
The next moment, a faint light suddenly appeared on the messy annotations in front of him.
A faint, empty band has appeared among the originally messy scrap pages.
It's very narrow.
That should be enough for him to live on.
Chen Fan raised his foot and rushed forward.
The group of failed templates rushed up and crashed into the edge of the empty space. Their bodies immediately shattered into fragments as if they had hit a knife.
The author's agent's expression changed slightly.
"You can still understand this?"
Chen Fan did not reply.
He walked through the piles of discarded pages, his hands never idle. He grabbed any scraps of annotation that drifted by and pressed them to his chest.
The system was swallowing data like crazy.
"Devouring a page of old annotations."
"Absorbed two pages of deleted and altered content."
"Enhanced access control."
"Enhanced access control."
"The temporary parsing function has been enhanced."
The seed on Chen Fan's chest grew hotter and hotter, and even a ring of fine characters appeared on its surface, like a thorny vine that had grown from a tender sprout.
The author's agent finally understood, and his voice became somber.
"You're stealing from the back inventory."
"court death."
He clasped his hands together, and dozens of black lines shot out from behind him. These black lines, like hooks, stabbed fiercely at Chen Fan.
Chen Fan dodged three, but the fourth one still just grazed past his shoulder.
The robe had a tear.
The skin on his shoulder was torn open, and the pain made half of his hand go numb.
But the pain only fueled his anger.
"system."
"Have you eaten enough?"
The system was silent for a moment.
Then, the voice suddenly rose in pitch.
"The consumption threshold has been reached."
"Gain temporary abilities."
"Simulating author annotation format, in a breath."
Chen Fan's eyes lit up.
Take a breath.
enough.
At the end of the empty strip in front of him, a black box was floating. The box wasn't big, the edges were worn, and there was a seal on the surface.
There are four characters written on it.
Unused negatives.
Chen Fan could tell at a glance that this thing was definitely a good one.
But the author's agent also saw it.
The clone flashed forward, rushed ahead, raised its hand and pressed it against the black box, uttering only one sentence.
"This item will be recycled."
Chen Fan stomped his feet and lunged forward, simultaneously raising his hand to write a line of words in the air.
He doesn't actually annotate.
But the system has already fed in the format.
The brushstroke, the hook at the end, the pause, the turn, the whole image.
The words appeared crookedly.
"This clone, hold off for now."
The handwriting is not pretty.
It's even a bit ugly.
The format is correct.
The moment it landed, the entire back of the Jinghai Lake got stuck.
The author's proxy avatar froze, as if someone had tugged at him from behind. For the first time, genuine surprise appeared in his eyes as he stared intently at the line of text.
"impossible."
How could you—
One breath later, we arrived.
But Chen Fan had already done enough.
He grabbed the black box and kicked the other person in the chest.
With a bang.
The author's proxy avatar slid backward, smashing a pile of discarded manuscript pages, and his face turned black.
Chen Fan, clutching the box, retreated into the empty conveyor belt, unable to suppress the smile playing on his lips.
Thanks.
"Your cash is very valuable."
The author's agent was furious.
He raised his hand, about to forcibly tear down the security path. But the moment he moved, an even older patch of annotations around him suddenly lit up. It was as if Chen Fan had swallowed too many pages, awakening the old security measures here.
Grayish-white marks crawled out from the discarded pages, pressing down on him.
"Non-old observation permissions, do not disturb the archived area."
"Non-old observation permissions, do not disturb the archived area."
The author's agent's expression completely changed.
"Sealed-off area?"
"There really are old files hidden here?"
He wanted to move forward again, but it was too late.
Chen Fan, carrying the black box, skipped over seven or eight broken pages before finally landing on a relatively stable film table.
That place was like an enlarged blank sheet of paper.
Several pages of character descriptions, half torn off, floated on the side.
One of them reads, "Proposed protagonist, unlikable personality, useless."
One entry read, "Template of a tragic saintly monk; readers reported feeling annoyed, so it has been deleted."
Chen Fan couldn't help but laugh.
"You bunch of bastards, you've got a lot of dirty stuff going on behind your backs."
The system was practically laughing its head off.
"The host has successfully obtained the first box of discarded manuscript negatives."
"Rewards are being processed."
"Privilege elevation".
"Observed resistance improved."
"Annotation simulation of cooling generation."
Chen Fan put the box down and reached out to tear off the seal.
In the distance, the author's proxy avatar was still rushing forward, but it was entangled in the gray and white annotations and couldn't get over for the time being. It stared at the box in Chen Fan's hand with eyes that looked like it wanted to devour him.
"Don't open it!"
"You'll regret it if you open it!"
Chen Fan didn't even look up.
"The more you say that, the more I want to see."
The seal was torn open.
The black box clicked open and slowly popped open.
There were no weapons, no treasures, and no magic seals inside.
There was only one very old sheet of film negative.
The ink on the paper had faded, and the edges were burned, as if someone had deliberately damaged it. But the few lines of text in the middle were still there.
Chen Fan only glanced at it before his breathing became heavy.
The first line of the first page reads—
"The lack of an ethical system is one of the modules left over from the failed outer-layer cleanup experiment."
The second line is even harsher.
"The original carrier was not Chen Fan."
Chen Fan's finger stopped at the edge of the paper and did not move.
The author's proxy avatar in the distance smashed through the gray annotations like a madman, its voice cracking for the first time.
"Put that page down!"
Chen Fan slowly raised his head and looked at him, but his hand gripped the negative paper even tighter.
At the very bottom of the box, there was half of the second page that was being pressed down, revealing a name.
He only saw the first two characters of the name.
"Chen...Xuan..."
Chapter 278 No Moral System, Turns Out a Scrapped Case Came Back to Life
"Put that page down!"
The author's proxy avatar crashed through layers of gray and white annotations, practically lunging at them.
He acted too hastily.
They were as desperate as dogs seeing a butcher's knife.
Chen Fan laughed instead.
The more anxious you are, the more I want to see.
After he finished speaking, he flipped his wrist and completely unfolded the first page.
The paper is thin, but the words are like nails, piercing the eye line by line.
"The lack of an ethical system is one of the modules left over from the failed outer-layer cleanup experiment."
"Unorthodox narrative coaching module".
"Category: Obsolete solution".
Original purpose: Anti-narrative self-salvation.
The surroundings fell silent.
Even the floating fragments on the back of the mirror were a beat slower.
Sun Wukong stood to Chen Fan's left, his eyes wide open.
"A discarded solution?"
"You damn system, is it not a legitimate product?"
The Bull Demon King was stunned, and almost choked on his breath.
"Old Chen, you're always ripping people off with this stuff."
"So this was a scrapped proposal?"
Tang Sanzang frowned and took a step forward.
"Self-salvation through anti-narrative".
"These words don't seem to be prepared for the journey to the West."
Chen Fan did not respond.
He continued reading.
The second paragraph is even more ruthless.
"The initial purpose of this plan was to provide a minimum amount of reverse correction to prevent the experimental field from spiraling out of control."
"Because the behavior of the carrier is unpredictable and it is prone to causing multiple external contaminations, it has been sealed off after the project was approved."
"Sealed annotation: Do not restart."
Upon seeing these three lines, Chen Fan's eyelids twitched slightly.
It turned out to be the case.
The absence of a moral system is not as simple as going against the pilgrimage system.
It was designed from the very beginning to cause market crashes.
Once the experimental field is about to completely collapse, it will crawl out on its own, find a way to survive, and forcefully push the whole situation in another direction.
Sun Wukong understood it too.
The monkey grinned, its smile somewhat fierce.
"OK."
"I told you, you've got nothing but wicked ideas on your head since you arrived."
"So you weren't born bad."
"It's your lousy system; it's not a good system at all."
Chen Fan glanced at him sideways.
"You need to clear your name first before you speak."
"You weren't exactly upright when you were smashing up the Lingxiao Palace."
The Bull Demon King was delighted.
That makes sense.
The author's proxy clone turned pale.
He stared intently at that negative, as if it were a crucial piece of evidence.
"nonsense."
"Those are just old words from discarded files."
"Without the right of interpretation, it cannot be counted."
Chen Fan looked up at him.
"Why are you panicking?"
"Old words don't count, why are you rushing to pounce?"
In short, it left the author's proxy agent speechless.
The gray-robed sutra reader stood not far away, no longer caring about maintaining a solemn demeanor, and even his breathing became heavier.
"What a useless proposal..."
"So there really was something like this on the outer layer."
"No wonder you've gotten this far; you've always been on the wrong track."
Chen Fan ignored him.
His gaze had already fallen on the next paragraph.
It's written more clearly there.
"After the abnormal increase in the Ninth Experimental Field, the screening process was briefly initiated."
"Screening target: Live individuals who have not been fully documented within the facility."
"Carrier standard: can deviate from the original narrative nodes, can withstand the noise of abandoned layers, and can continuously disrupt the established path."
"One of the backup carriers has been selected: Chen Fan."
After taking a look, Chen Fan paused for a moment.
The people behind also saw it.
Sun Wukong was taken aback at first, then grinned and laughed.
"Oh, so you didn't just get in by sheer luck."
"You let this lousy place choose you."
The Bull Demon King gasped.
"One of the backup carriers?"
"So, you're not the only one?"
Tang Sanzang said in a low voice, "That's not the point."
He looked at the words, his voice low and deep.
"The key point is that Chen Fan was not a purely random visitor."
"He is the Ninth Experimental Field's choice for self-preservation."
As soon as that sentence was uttered, many of the surrounding tattered pages began to tremble.
It's like some kind of old record that has been forcibly ripped open.
The author's proxy clone could no longer keep up the act.
He raised his hand, and dozens of paper lines pressed down simultaneously in mid-air.
"That's enough!"
"This content is now locked and cannot be viewed further!"
"Chen Fan, if you continue watching, you're overstepping your authority!"
Chen Fan didn't even look up.
"Overstepping authority?"
"What I like most now is overstepping my authority."
After saying that, he pulled out the second page as well.
This caused an uproar.
The grayish-white scraps of paper that were originally pressed down in the box flew up one by one and swirled around Chen Fan.
It's like recognizing a master.
The words on the second page are newer and sharper than those on the first page.
"If the underlying permissions are temporarily supplemented after the case is restarted and the carrier completes self-verification."
"Permission direction: reclaim outer-layer scrapped entries, merge unowned entries, and establish a reverse nutrient pool."
Note: This permission is only valid for obsolete case files.
Chen Fan burst out laughing after reading it.
Cool.
This is what you call real stuff.
This is not just empty talk.
It's a genuine upgrade.
He was already ruthless enough to swallow up some peripheral entries and modify local narratives.
This page of the manuscript explains it very clearly.
As long as the user proves their identity, the system can grant them additional low-level permissions.
Recycle the outer layer of waste material.
Merge unowned entries.
Use these things to feed yourself.
That's not a bargain anymore.
This is ransacking.
Sun Wukong understood immediately, and his tail almost stood up.
"So, you're saying that all those rotten papers scattered on the back of this sutra sea can be used as food for you from now on?"
Chen Fan nodded.
"almost."
The Bull Demon King's eyes lit up.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's start eating!"
The author's proxy clone was so angry that his face twitched.
"You dare!"
"Those discarded drafts are outer layers of waste; you are not allowed to keep them!"
Chen Fan looked up at him.
"What you're saying sounds like a poor man guarding a warehouse."
"If you can't use it yourself, you won't let others pick it up."
That was a really vicious stab.
Even the gray-robed sutra-observing monk couldn't help but turn his head away, his lips twitching.
The author's proxy clone had veins bulging on its forehead.
"Do you know what this record in your hand means?"
"Once it's brought back, many established beliefs will have to be changed."
"Accountability must be pursued at many levels."
Chen Fan immediately grasped the key point.
"oh."
"So what you're afraid of isn't me getting stronger."
"What you're afraid of is the rhetoric used by your superiors; it won't hold water anymore."
The field fell silent instantly.
Sun Wukong was stunned for a moment, then laughed so hard he slapped his thigh.
"Ha ha ha ha."
"To put it bluntly, it's a story you made up, and you made a mistake."
The Bull Demon King followed up with a finishing blow.
"He always talks about orthodoxy and established procedures."
"Now that we've unearthed the original drafts, it turns out there was a scrapped case still lingering underground."
"That was a really sharp slap in the face."
Tang Sanzang took half a step forward, staring at the author's proxy clone.
"You initially wanted to seize these coordinates not because you were afraid Chen Fan would take the treasure."
"You're afraid this negative will be exposed."
The author's proxy avatar's lips twitched, and he remained silent for a long time.
He doesn't say.
Equals to the default.
The gray-robed sutra reader then understood, his face turning pale and then flushed.
He's been around for so long, he thinks he's seen a lot of old files.
As a result, they hadn't even seen such a core component.
Ultimately, he was just a watchdog sent out from the outside.
"I see……"
He muttered something to himself, his eyes filled with confusion.
"The Ninth Experimental Field is not simply out of control."
"It has already been sentenced to death."
"The absence of a moral system is like a needle left before death."
As Chen Fan looked at the draft, he suddenly remembered the hundred years when he first transmigrated.
At the foot of Wuzhi Mountain.
Feeding monkeys.
Just getting through the days.
Nobody paid any attention, nobody asked.
Like a scrap piece.
He used to think he was just unlucky.
Now it seems it's not that simple.
The fact that he survived until the system was activated, and that he was able to get stuck at those exact points, means that someone had already taken action behind the scenes.
No.
Maybe it's not human.
It was this experimental field that reached out a hand before it rotted away.
He was chosen.
Chen Fan let out a breath, and the old knot in his heart dissipated considerably.
The pieces are not random.
They weren't just unlucky people who wandered in by mistake.
He was the chosen survivor.
This feeling is awesome.
The system notification sounded at that moment.
"Records of abandoned cases at the underlying level have been detected."
"Host identity verification in progress."
"Verification passed."
"The underlying permissions of the unethical system are being completed."
"Added permission: Outer layer scrap collection"
"Add permission: Decompose unowned entries."
"Added permission: Reverse nutrient pool enabled."
"The current system stability has improved."
"The current host's maximum capacity for waste layer materials has been tripled."
A series of notifications rained down, and the system mark on Chen Fan's chest lit up immediately.
It's not glaring.
Very heavy.
It felt like something had actually fallen.
The next moment, the scattered pages floating around suddenly trembled.
The dozen or so pages of the manuscript closest to Chen Fan flew over with a whoosh and disappeared directly into the gray light in front of him.
The system panel then jumped up.
"Organization successful."
"Converting discarded drafts into valuable material."
"Nutrient pool reserves +12".
"Nutrient pool reserves +21".
"Nutrient pool reserves +17".
The Bull Demon King stared wide-eyed.
"It really can swallow!"
Sun Wukong was even more direct, scratching his ears and cheeks as he laughed.
"Old Chen, you're not just collecting scraps."
"You're here to plunder the outer layers of ancestral graves."
The author's proxy clone finally couldn't hold back anymore.
"Stop him!"
"Stop him!"
"We absolutely cannot let him take any more of these things!"
With a shout, the paper-patterned guards that had been swaying around him immediately pressed forward.
The gray-robed sutra reader hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and walked forward.
He knew that if he hesitated any longer, he would lose the right to even take sides.
Chen Fan raised his hand and tucked the two pages of manuscript into his pocket.
"monkey."
Sun Wukong immediately took up his staff and stood at the front.
"I'm here."
"Anyone who dares to steal it, we'll beat them up."
"Old Ox".
"exist."
"Hold on to the right."
The Bull Demon King grinned maliciously and clashed his fists together.
"I'm itching to get my hands dirty."
"Master, keep an eye on that gray-robed one."
Tang Sanzang flicked his cassock behind him, and the golden patterns on his palm slowly lit up.
"If he dares to make a move, I'll shut his mouth first."
No sooner had he finished speaking than the author's proxy avatar rushed forward, its five fingers forming hooks, grabbing straight at Chen Fan's chest.
His grab wasn't to snatch the paper.
The goal is to dig out the systemic imprint as well.
Chen Fan turned his feet, slid half a step back, and pressed down with his backhand.
The newly added gray light exploded instantly.
The dozen or so pages of discarded drafts that had just been collected were instantly transformed into a wave of paper, which crashed down on me.
boom!
The author's proxy avatar seemed to have been hit by a wall, flying backward with its sleeve tearing open on the spot.
He steadied himself, looked at his torn arm, and for the first time, a genuine look of shock appeared on his face.
"You... you can mobilize the nutrient pool so quickly?"
Chen Fan shook his hand.
"nonsense."
"What you've already eaten, why save it for the New Year instead of using it to hit someone?"
As soon as that sentence was uttered, more of the remaining manuscripts around it began to loosen.
It was as if they had caught a whiff of something.
It was as if they had confirmed something.
One page.
Two pages.
Ten pages.
Hundreds of pages of grayish-white old manuscript slowly floated up from the depths of the back of the Jinghai.
They didn't go to the author's agent.
The whole court leaned towards Chen Fan's side.
Upon seeing this, everyone's expression changed.
The gray-robed scholar's Adam's apple bobbed, and his whole body went numb.
"He wasn't the one collecting it."
"It's these discarded drafts that I want to go with him."
Sun Wukong was even happier to hear this.
"Did you hear me?"
"He's more popular than you."
The author's proxy clone's face was all twisted.
"impossible!"
"Rejected drafts have no right to be proactively submitted!"
No sooner had he finished speaking than a gust of wind suddenly arose from the deeper part of the back of the lake.
It's not your average wind.
It's like a whole sea of papers that's sunk to the bottom, and someone has turned a page on it.
With a whoosh.
Everyone looked up at the same time.
On the distant, black-and-white sea, a dark gold spot lit up.
Very small.
Very stable.
It drifted slowly this way, passing through countless loose pages and broken annotations.
Only when they got closer could they see clearly.
That's not shredded paper.
That was a complete draft page.
The edges and corners are neat.
The writing is clear.
There was even an old seal that hadn't completely faded on it.
It ignored everyone.
It passed right past the author's proxy avatar, past the gray-robed sutra-observing figure, and stopped directly in front of Chen Fan.
With a gentle turn of the page, the first few words on the first page were revealed.
Chen Fan's pupils contracted after just one glance.
It says--
"Ninth Experimental Field, List of Survivors"
Chapter 279, the first complete draft, states that the experiment failed.
The complete manuscript page was placed in front of Chen Fan.
The paper is old.
It's so old that the edges are brittle.
The handwriting is perfectly neat.
It's as if someone just finished writing it and crammed it into the back of this sea of scriptures.
The author's proxy clone was the first to pounce.
"Give me!"
His voice cracked.
Just a moment ago they were putting on that aloof and superior air, but now it's all gone.
The gray-robed sutra-observing man also took a sudden step forward, his eyes glazed over.
"A list of survivors...there really is a list of survivors..."
Sun Wukong directly swung his staff horizontally.
With a bang.
The golden cudgel swept across the middle, forcing back both the author's proxy clone and the gray-robed sutra observer.
"Stand back, everyone."
"This page is not for you to take."
The Bull Demon King, wielding his iron cudgel, blocked the side, his breathing heavy.
"Whoever reaches out again, Old Niu will smash their head first."
Tang Sanzang stood behind, the Buddhist fire in his palm suppressing the flying fragments of pages from all around, preventing the tattered annotations from getting on Chen Fan.
Chen Fan ignored them.
He stared at the page, then raised his hand and pressed it down.
The paper is cool.
The moment he got his hands on it, it felt like a string had been tugged in his mind.
The next moment, the pages turned on their own.
The top five characters made my eyelids twitch.
Ninth Experimental Field.
Chen Fan lowered his gaze.
This page is not a directory.
Or rather, the directory is just the cover.
Turn the page, the real stuff is on the second page.
The title is only one line long.
"Phase Report of the Ninth Experimental Field"
The room fell silent.
Even the scattered pages seemed to be a beat behind.
The gray-robed sutra-reading man swallowed hard, his voice dry.
"Phase report..."
"This is not an appendix, this is the main volume."
The author's alter ego turned pale and raised his hand to interrupt the unfolding of the paper.
Sun Wukong didn't give him a chance at all.
With one thrust of the stick, half of his body was smashed apart.
"It's up to you."
"I, Old Sun, am not giving way to anyone today."
The author's proxy staggered backward, his paper-tattooed body trembling wildly, yet he was still shouting.
"We can't let him finish reading it!"
"That's not something you should be looking at!"
Chen Fan smiled.
"I've already become the error variable, so what else shouldn't I look at?"
After he finished speaking, he glanced around and continued reading.
There aren't many words.
Every single sentence is ruthless.
"The experimental field learning system has deviated from its intended course for a long time."
"The delay in revising the department's instructions has reduced the efficiency of intervention below the warning line."
"The observer character went out of control one after another, and the auxiliary scripts rewrote spontaneously."
"The experimental field carries the risk of being actively reverse-written."
The last sentence is the most jarring.
Actively reverse writing.
Chen Fan's eyes darkened.
Sun Wukong didn't quite understand the words "reverse writing," but he could read the expression on the author's proxy clone's face.
That thing isn't just ugly anymore.
It's like having your secrets exposed and then being trampled on in public.
The gray-robed sutra reader even swayed slightly.
"Actively rewriting backwards..."
"How is this possible? How could the experimental field have reversed the upper-level draft...?"
He was muttering to himself, his hands trembling.
It's like something you've believed in for years has suddenly cracked.
Chen Fan continued reading.
Below is a brief commentary.
The handwriting is a bit darker.
It looks like it was added later.
"The shift in the ninth experimental field is irreversible."
"The main storyline of the pilgrimage to the West no longer has a one-way constraint."
"The failure trend of the correction system is clear. It is recommended to cut off the observation port in advance and abandon routine recovery."
Upon seeing this, the Bull Demon King couldn't help but curse.
"Abandon recycling?"
"Are you treating the Three Realms like a pigsty, slaughtering them when they're spoiled?"
Tang Sanzang's expression also turned cold.
He said in a low voice, "So the journey to the West was not just a trap from beginning to end."
"It's still an experiment."
The gray-robed sutra-observing man opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a complete sentence for a long time.
He had guessed it before.
I suspect there's an even higher level beyond the Sea of Scriptures.
I had guessed that I wasn't the writer, but just the doorman.
Guessing and seeing are two different things.
The original draft is now in front of me.
It's written very clearly above.
The correction is invalid.
The experimental field is out of control.
They even wrote "give up" on it.
This is no longer just a doubt.
This is the hammer falling.
The author's proxy suddenly shrieked, "It's fake!"
"This is a polluted draft!"
"These are fake documents produced after the outer layers of discarded cases were mutually absorbed!"
Chen Fan looked up at him.
"What's your hurry?"
"Whether it's real or fake, I'll take it back and show it to the Three Realms, and they'll see for themselves."
The lines on the author's proxy clone's face twitched.
That's the one that really hits home.
He can stop people here.
Nothing could stop all beings in the three realms from seeing this page.
Once this thing is sent back.
Let alone Buddhism and the Heavenly Court.
We even have to turn over the roots of the entire pilgrimage.
Chen Fan flicked his finger and turned half a page of the paper back.
Below, a separate assessment sentence appears.
It only has ten characters.
"The erroneous variable Chen Fan is highly contagious."
The air froze instantly.
Sun Wukong was taken aback at first, then burst out laughing.
"Hahahaha, did you hear that?"
"They gave you feedback."
The Bull Demon King also grinned.
"Highly infectious."
"That sounds even better than praising my old ox."
Tang Sanzang did not laugh.
He stared at the line of text, his gaze deep and intense.
"Chen Fan, there's more to the explanation later."
Chen Fan hummed in agreement and continued reading.
Two smaller paragraphs were added below.
"This variable exhibits a persistent tendency to diffuse denial of performance."
"It can induce established characters to leave the registration line, forming a trend of group deregistration."
"Its influence is not limited to key figures; once peripheral figures come into contact with it, stability rapidly declines."
After reading these few sentences, even Chen Fan himself raised an eyebrow.
So that's how it is in the eyes of those above.
I am not a problem.
It's a plague.
They were specifically drawn to the pilgrimage system.
The gray-robed sutra reader murmured aloud.
"Infectious... doesn't mean you're dirty."
"You mean you'll spread it."
"You've spread the word about your disobedience."
As he spoke, he raised his head, looked at Sun Wukong, then at Tang Sanzang and the Bull Demon King.
Finally, I looked around at the torn old annotations.
He suddenly understood.
Why do more and more people appear on Huaguo Mountain the more they fight?
Why did Tang Sanzang change his mind?
Why did the White Dragon Horse change?
Why did the Bull Demon King's family stand up?
Even those who were originally on the side of observation started to have their own thoughts.
Not a coincidence.
People like Chen Fan are indeed good at spreading rumors.
Wherever he went, people wanted to tear up the booklet.
Sun Wukong tapped the ground with his staff.
"Isn't this a good thing?"
"That's what they fear most."
"If one person doesn't listen, you can suppress them."
"If a bunch of them won't listen, what good will it do them?"
Upon hearing this, the Bull Demon King burst into laughter.
"Yes, that makes sense."
The author's proxy clone seemed to have completely lost its composure.
He roared at the page of the manuscript.
"Seal it immediately!"
"Recycle immediately!"
"The Ninth Experimental Site must be thoroughly cleansed; all chains of infection must be severed!"
As soon as he shouted, a series of cracking sounds suddenly came from the darkness behind the sea.
It's like countless invisible shells are cracking open at the same time.
The gray-robed scholar's expression changed drastically.
"It's not a clone's permission."
"The higher-ups are getting serious."
Chen Fan looked up.
In the distance, the blurry sky seemed to have gained an eye.
Not big.
It can make people feel tightness in their chest.
That's not a clone.
It's not a projection either.
It was more like someone was forcibly projecting their gaze upon us from an extremely distant place.
With that one glance, the entire outer layer began to shake.
Loose pages rolled up.
The annotation is broken.
Even the observation port that had been torn open earlier began to make a dull sound.
Click.
Click click.
It looks like the door frame is about to collapse.
The gray-robed scholar staggered back, exclaiming, "The author is acting as a proxy!"
"He's trying to silence us!"
Sun Wukong was furious when he heard that.
"Perfect timing!"
He missed a step and swung the stick at the eye.
The stick rushed forward, but halfway there it seemed to have hit a thick sheet of paper, exploding with a bang.
The entire outer layer shook even more violently.
Upon seeing this, the author's proxy was overjoyed.
"Seal it off!"
"Leave them all on the outer layer!"
"If the observation post collapses, they won't be able to get back!"
The Bull Demon King cursed angrily, raised his staff and charged, smashing half of the author's proxy clone's head to pieces.
But that thing was still laughing.
I laughed until my voice was hoarse.
"Too late!"
"None of you can withstand the seal personally imposed by the main body!"
Chen Fan didn't waste any words with him.
He folded up the entire report and stuffed it into his pocket.
The action is fast.
Without the slightest hesitation.
This is the evidence.
It's also a key.
Taking it back is worth a hundred times more than just talking nonsense here.
Tang Sanzang saw his actions and immediately understood.
"Let's go first."
"This thing must return to the Three Realms."
Sun Wukong blasted away the wave of paper raining down on him with his staff, then turned and roared, "Which way are we going!"
The grey-robed sutra-reading man cried out urgently, "The original entrance!"
"The observation post collapsed the fastest, but now it's the only road available!"
"A few more breaths and the passage would have been completely severed!"
Chen Fan has already made his move.
"The old ox brought up the rear, the monkey cleared the way, and the monk protected the pages."
"Hey you in the gray robe, if you want to live, come with me."
The gray-robed sutra reader gritted his teeth and actually followed.
He knew.
Turning back now will only lead to certain death.
Following Chen Fan, there's still a chance.
Just as the group rushed a few dozen feet toward the observation post, the eye behind them suddenly lowered its gaze.
A nearly invisible thin line sliced down from the sky.
The target is not a person.
It's the report on Chen Fan's chest.
Chen Fan felt a tingling sensation in his back and, without thinking, immediately turned to the side.
With a hissing sound.
The line grazed his shoulder, and his sleeve ripped open on the spot.
Tang Sanzang struck out with his palm, unleashing Buddhist fire that deflected the line.
However, a cut was made on his palm.
Blood trickled down between his fingers.
Sun Wukong's eyes turned red.
"Old bald man... a mage!"
Tang Sanzang shook off the blood, his voice not loud.
"Don't stop."
"The fact that he's in such a hurry shows that this piece of paper is more valuable to him than his life."
These words were like a needle piercing the heart of everyone.
The author personally intervened on behalf of the main body.
They went so far as to silence them.
They even specifically grabbed that page of the report.
This only proves one thing.
Everything written on the paper is true.
The observation port ahead is now visible.
The tear that was torn open earlier is now closing inward.
The edges are constantly shedding debris.
Like a piece of paper that has been rolled up by fire.
Behind the crack, there is a faint light emanating from the direction of the Three Realms.
But the light grew thinner and thinner.
The gray-robed scholar reading the sutra felt his scalp tingle.
"I can't hold on any longer!"
"If we're even a step slower, the outer layer and the experimental field will be completely disconnected!"
The Bull Demon King roared from behind, "Stop talking nonsense, charge!"
He turned around and smashed all the paper soldiers that rushed at him into pieces with his stick.
The author's proxy clone was still chasing after them, screaming incessantly.
"Seal him off!"
"We can't let Chen Fan take the report out!"
Chen Fan kept walking.
He had already rushed to the front of the crevice.
But just then, a muffled thud sounded overhead.
The entire observation port suddenly sank a short distance.
The gap was only wide enough for three people.
The edges are still closing in.
Sun Wukong's pupils contracted.
"broken."
The gray-robed sutra reader turned pale.
"If we don't leave now, we'll really never get out!"
Chen Fan stood before the rift, the progress report pressed against his chest, and glanced back.
The dark, surging waves of paper behind us rolled over.
The eye on top of its head is still pressing down.
The observation port is collapsing little by little.
If he leaves now, he may not be able to take everyone with him.
If he had stopped for even a moment longer, he himself might have been trapped in this outer layer.
The light coming through the crack had already illuminated half of his face.
The next second, another large piece fell off the edge of the observation port.