ATPnovel Chapter 171, the second and third times
Chapter 171, the second and third times
As soon as another Chen Fan appeared, Song Jiuce called out first.
"The predecessor has been dragged back! I knew it was going to go wrong!"
Sun Wukong swung his staff backhand and knocked the coordinate book away.
The booklet flew into the air and exploded with a snap, scattering several pages of white paper.
The other Chen Fan didn't try to steal it.
He looked up, and his face was exactly the same as Chen Fan's, even the tired look in the corners of his eyes was similar.
The scariest thing isn't the image.
It was his first sentence, and he spoke just as quickly as Chen Fan.
"Don't touch the booklet."
"You'll die even faster the second time."
Chen Fan stared at him; the black ring was already hot.
"Who are you?"
"The predecessor you brought in," another Chen Fan smirked, "or rather, the fragments that were bitten by this port and not completely spat out."
Yang Jian thrust his blade horizontally, pressing it directly against his throat.
Speak like a human.
The man didn't even look at the knife; he just stared at Chen Fan.
"Your first failure was due to the ban on bringing the precursor into the port."
"The second time, you will fail due to a cognitive misalignment."
Song Jiuce turned pale upon hearing this, and his lips trembled.
"Cognition...cognitive misalignment?"
The man raised his hand and pointed into the depths of the black mirror.
In the mirror, the blood-red words that had just appeared had faded.
Below the blood-red characters, a row of even smaller characters emerged.
The fruit feeder has been replaced.
The sample identification is invalid.
Sun Wukong's face darkened.
"Fruit feeder?"
Chen Fan's heart tightened suddenly.
He got it.
This second coordinate segment is not opened with a key, nor is it smashed with force.
It relies on "identifying people based on samples".
Whoever has fed the fruit is qualified to lead the way.
That was his original identity.
However, the head office replaced the person in charge ahead of time.
It's like pulling out the entire lock cylinder from the door and replacing it with a fake one.
Song Jiuce plopped down on the ground.
"It's over, it's over, these lunatics even dare to change this old rule."
With a flick of his blade, Yang Jian shattered the white lines on the edge of the black mirror.
"If it were anyone else, just drag them out and kill them."
The other Chen Fan shook his head.
"It's not that simple."
"What they recognize here isn't the face. It's the action, the rhythm, the order in which the fruit was handed out—all from the sample memory."
After he finished speaking, he gestured with his hand.
Left first, then right.
If you don't give it directly, hold it in your palm for a moment.
Upon hearing this action, Sun Wukong's expression changed.
He and Chen Fan had spent too long at the foot of Wuzhi Mountain.
This was a move that only Chen Fan could make at that time.
Chen Fan also narrowed his eyes.
You have my memories.
"It's not yours," the man said. "It's a remnant of your past self left in the harbor. There's only one way for you to get there: let the sample recognize you again."
"How do you recognize it?"
"Find out the person who replaced the fruit feeder."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a series of footsteps sounded from behind the black mirror.
It's very light.
It's like someone wearing soft-soled shoes walking back and forth behind rows of old boxes.
Immediately afterwards, a hand reached out from behind the mirror.
The hand was very thin, with a green fruit between its fingers.
There were teeth marks on the fruit.
It looks like it's just been bitten.
A fierce glint flashed in Sun Wukong's eyes.
"This is the kind of fruit that Old Sun ate back then."
The hand gently shook the fruit, as if in a provocation.
The next second, the entire black mirror flipped inward.
There's no wall behind you.
It was a very narrow old road.
People were standing on both sides of the road.
No, it's a sample.
They all had their heads down, each holding a piece of fruit in their hands.
The person at the front was wearing a white coat from the main hall, and his face had no features, only a flat skin.
He had a sign hanging around his neck.
Feeding substitute.
When Song Jiuce saw the sign, he almost burst into tears.
"They really changed... They actually dared to put people from the headquarters into the sample sequence."
The man in white raised his hand and handed the fruit forward.
"Identification begins."
"Please, old sample, acknowledge the Lord."
The samples on both sides of the road looked up at the same time.
All eyes were fixed on Chen Fan.
It also fell on the feeder.
Chen Fan knew that if he took a step back now, the second coordinate segment would be completely lost.
He walked straight ahead.
Sun Wukong followed.
Yang Jian stood guard, his sword held high.
Song Jiuce gritted his teeth, got up, and followed him for a couple of steps.
The surrogate feeder spoke, his voice as soft as paper being scraped.
"First question."
"Who will eat the first fruit at the foot of the mountain?"
Chen Fan answered immediately.
"monkey."
The surrogate feeder shook his head.
"wrong."
The samples from all four sides moved forward one step at the same time.
The ground creaked and groaned.
Song Jiuce's face turned pale.
"Seriously? How could this be wrong?"
Sun Wukong frowned and suddenly cursed under his breath.
"It wasn't me."
"The first fruit was half rotten, so we threw it to the mountain mouse."
Chen Fan clenched his fist.
He got it.
The main hall is not a simple replacement.
They changed the cognitive anchor of the sample set in advance.
It mixes real memories with fake details.
The answer is no, that's wrong.
Even if the answer is false, it may not be correct.
This is a cognitive misalignment.
The feeder raised his hand again.
"Second question."
"In the winter of the seventh year, who stole the third basket?"
Chen Fan's mind was racing.
Sun Wukong immediately started cursing.
"Six-eared scraggly hair."
"Wrong," the feeder said.
Suddenly, dozens of thin chains extended from beneath the white robes, wrapping around Chen Fan's ankles.
Yang Jian slashed down with his sword, sparks flying everywhere.
Only three chains broke.
The rest are still entangled.
Another Chen Fan stood behind, his voice cold.
"Don't answer."
"We've already lost the second time."
"They've completely distorted our understanding of the sample. The more right you are now, the more terribly wrong you are."
Instead of retreating, Chen Fan advanced, grabbed the fruit from the feeder's hand, and crushed it to pieces.
The juice dripped down between my fingers.
"You didn't come here to feed me fruit."
"You're here to replace me."
The surrogate feeder was ashamed, but the name tag on his chest was eye-catching.
Recognition failed.
The second segment of coordinates is archived.
With a loud bang.
The old road collapsed halfway on the spot.
The samples on both sides of the path all raised their heads, and black lines appeared on their faces at the same time.
Song Jiuce clutched his head and trembled.
"The second attempt failed!"
"It's been sealed off! It's really been sealed off!"
Sun Wukong swept the three samples in the front row with his staff, then turned around and roared.
"Then smash it!"
"We can't break through." Another Chen Fan said sternly, "If we force our way through again, the entire surveillance chain will come down on us."
It was too late to say it.
The black ring on Chen Fan's wrist suddenly contracted.
The old mark on the back of Yang Jian's hand also lit up at the same time.
The black roof above looked as if it had been ripped open by something.
A dense network of chains was visible on top.
Not just one or two.
It's an entire floor.
Each chain has a white number tag attached.
The monitoring chain.
When Song Jiuce saw this thing, his voice cracked.
"Who brought the surveillance chain into the abandoned port! This thing usually only monitors the main entrance, never the side streets!"
The moment the chain fell, all the samples retreated as if they were going crazy.
It's not fear.
It's "de-chaining".
One by one, the numbers on their chests began to flash, and the light in their eyes quickly faded.
Like a puppet with its strings cut.
They no longer recognize God, no longer know the way, and have even begun to lose sight of who they are.
The sign on the feeder's chest cracked open with a snap.
He let out a scream for the first time.
"Recycle port is full! Stop the chain! Stop the chain now!"
Chen Fan's expression changed.
"Recycling port?"
Another Chen Fan suddenly turned around and looked towards the eighth door.
A rumbling sound came from afar.
Like thousands of old crates banging against a door.
Song Jiuce was completely numb.
"It's over, it's really over."
"The monitoring chain is too deep, and the samples have collectively broken out of the chain. The recycling port has to suck up all the remnants in the waste port."
"If that place becomes overloaded, the port won't be the first place to be bombed."
"It's a person."
No sooner had he finished speaking than the ground cracked open.
A white gash rushed from the end of the old road.
One by one, the samples that had broken down along the way were dragged into the white hole.
Some people only had time to extend half a hand.
It was gone in the next instant.
Sun Wukong's eyes flashed with a fierce light, and he slammed his golden cudgel into the ground, forcefully blocking the crack.
"Old Sun will handle this! You guys need to figure this out quickly!"
Yang Jian didn't waste any words. He used his three-pointed double-edged sword to grab a monitoring chain and pull it down.
The chain didn't break.
On the chain, an old engraving was revealed.
It's as if someone has added a few strokes to the original chain pattern.
Yang Jian glanced at it, his eyes instantly turning cold.
He then used his second cut to split open another one next to it.
The same applies inside.
It shows signs of age.
There is a modified character.
It's not natural wear and tear.
Someone did it.
"Chen Fan," Yang Jian said in a low voice, "you guessed right."
"The chain of surveillance is truly a reformer."
Chen Fan looked up.
"Who changed it?"
Yang Jian did not answer immediately.
He stared at the traces of the repairs, then wiped his finger across the blade, leaving a speck of grayish-white powder on it.
Like ashes.
It also resembles the worn edges of a page.
When Song Jiuce saw that thing, his face turned completely pale.
"This is not a rewrite."
"This was made by grinding up fragments of the Hong Kong ancestral tablet into powder, pouring it into the chain, and then re-engraving it."
The other Chen Fan also changed his expression.
"No wonder it got out of control."
"Some people don't want to close the port."
"He wants to change each recycling cycle to screening people."
Chen Fan's heart sank.
Who to screen?
The answer is almost obvious.
Sieve him.
Just then, a loud bang suddenly came from the direction of the eighth door.
The sound was closer than before.
Something large seemed to have broken through the outer gate of the recovery port.
Immediately afterwards, a pale figure was forcibly spat out from the depths of the crack.
The man rolled twice after landing, still clutching half a broken chain tightly in his hand.
Chen Fan's pupils shrank after just one glance.
That's none other than someone else.
The tall guy who was "cut off" earlier.
The one with the nail hole in its chest.
He lay on the ground, raised his head, his mouth full of white foam, and still managed to squeeze out a sentence.
"Don't let it start a fourth time..."
"Lord of the harbor, you're awake."
Chapter 566 The Fourth and Fifth Times
The tall man was lying on the ground, foaming at the mouth.
His face was half-soaked like paper that had been soaked for too long; it was swollen, pale, and even his eyelids were trembling.
"Don't let it start a fourth time..."
His voice had barely faded when...
The entire recycling port clicked shut.
It wasn't the door that made the noise.
Something is stuck deep underground.
Song Jiuce jumped up, his face turning pale.
"Oh no, she's really awake."
Sun Wukong lifted his foot and started walking forward.
"Kill him as soon as he wakes up."
"Screw you." Song Jiuce's voice cracked. "The port owner isn't human. When he wakes up, he'll review the files first, then clear our names. We've all been listed in those files; none of us can escape."
Chen Fan had already squatted down and pulled the tall man's hand away.
The broken half of the chain was still hot.
The chain is covered with old engravings.
There are several lines that are exactly the same as the proofreading hole next to the black mirror.
Yang Jian also saw it and whispered, "It was forcibly pulled down from inside."
The tall man managed to squeeze out the last sentence.
"It opened the clean area first..."
Before he could finish speaking, his neck tilted to the side and he stopped moving.
next second.
The eight damaged boxes around them shook simultaneously.
The lid popped open by itself.
The yellowed pages, the black-edged wooden plaques, and the broken copper tags inside floated to the surface one by one.
They all flew towards the black mirror in the middle.
The mirror surface is no longer flat.
It's like a hand is stirring the water.
Soon, a clearing appeared in front of the mirror.
The floor tiles were blindingly white.
It was as white as if the ashes had just been scraped off.
Song Jiuce took two steps back, his lips dry.
"Clean area".
"Before the Hong Kong chief editor reviews the document, a mirror output is first produced."
Chen Fan looked up.
What determines the quality of mirror output?
Song Jiuce swallowed hard.
"The formula. The old Taoist verification formula."
"If the incantation is complete, the mirror will be stable. If the incantation is missing, the cleansing area will spew out random things."
Sun Wukong sneered.
"Then let's find all the formulas."
"I can't find the complete set." Song Jiuce wrung his hands anxiously. "The old headquarters was divided up. The Taoist side kept the basic structure for review, while the Buddhist side took the final lines. The two sides later fell out, and neither side would complete the rest. What's stored here is mostly incomplete."
Chen Fan's eyes darkened.
This is a very short statement.
The taste is very strong.
It's not simply lost.
Someone deliberately blocked this spot.
The clean zone is now lit up.
A white line rose up from the ground, like a ruler, and measured along Chen Fan's feet.
Immediately afterwards, a dry, monotone voice came from the black mirror.
"Fourth proofreading, begin."
"Those entering the area, please state your previous identity."
Sun Wukong stepped in front to block their path.
"I'll report this to your ancestors."
The golden cudgel slammed down.
With a bang.
The white line was broken in half.
But with a slight tug, the broken end reconnected itself.
The voice in the mirror wasn't angry or disordered.
It's just a repetition.
"Those entering the area, please state your previous identity."
Without saying a word, Chen Fan raised his hand and pressed the black ring against his chest.
"Chen Fan".
"Current name: Chen Fan. Previous record unknown. Failed to re-enroll three times. Now it's the fourth time."
The mirror trembled.
It was as if she hadn't expected him to respond on his own.
Song Jiuce suddenly looked at him.
"Are you crazy?"
"If you want to move on, you have to go along with half of it." Chen Fan stared at the mirror. "What's the incantation? How many do you know? Recite them."
Song Jiuce gritted his teeth and had no choice but to speak.
His voice was weak.
A total of six sentences were recited.
The first four lines are alright.
When the fifth line was recited, a thin mirror appeared in the middle of the clean area.
The shadows of people were clearly visible in the photo.
When he got to the sixth line, Song Jiuce got stuck.
Sweat immediately dripped down my forehead.
"The back...the back is missing."
That's all I can remember.
The white mirror had just taken shape when it began to shake.
It's not a slight tremor.
It was falling down piece by piece.
It's like peeling off plaster from a wall.
The mirror first reflected Sun Wukong.
The next moment, the monkey's shadow lengthened, and four arms grew out.
Then Yang Jian was revealed.
The vertical line on Yang Jian's forehead turned into a closed eye in the mirror.
Song Jiuce's legs went weak.
"There's a missing sentence! There's a missing sentence! Rewind!"
It's too late to retreat.
The thin mirror in the clean area suddenly bulged outwards.
Wow.
It vomited out a bunch of stuff.
There is half a Taoist yellow talisman.
There is a broken ear.
There was also a wooden sign that was only half-written.
The wooden sign lay at Chen Fan's feet, the words still fresh.
The old path was reviewed, the seventh sentence is missing, and the clean area prohibits stability.
Chen Fan stepped on the wooden sign, his eyes growing even colder.
The fourth time, the problem was found.
It's not that they're bad at it.
It's a set of verification formulas left by the old Taoist sects, and it's not complete at all.
Someone removed the most crucial part.
Sun Wukong raised his staff and struck again, smashing the bulging fake mirror flat.
Several messy faces in the mirror exploded at the same time.
White scum splattered all over the ground.
"That piece of junk, you dare to scare people with only half a sentence?"
Yang Jian did not sheathe his sword, but instead looked to his left.
"Someone is using this review to get to know us."
Chen Fan followed his gaze.
Inside the third scrap box on the left, a thin wooden sign had somehow appeared.
The plaque has two newly engraved lines of text.
The Daoist judgment is incomplete, and cannot be supplemented by Buddhism.
Those who cross the line will be destroyed.
When Song Jiuce saw these two lines, it felt like he had been slapped in the face.
"Oh shit."
"Those bastards at headquarters have really torn both families apart."
"No wonder that for so many years, the clean area has only been able to open up a shell and has never been able to produce a complete mirror surface."
Chen Fan didn't respond to that.
He raised his hand and pulled the wooden sign up.
When the black ring touched the wooden sign, a wisp of gray mist suddenly leaked out of the sign.
The smog hadn't dissipated.
Instead, it burrowed into his palm.
The system message indicated that there was no sound.
This means it's not a reward.
It's an old opening hidden in the tattered documents.
Chen Fan closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again.
The seventh line was not fully uttered.
He only uttered three words.
"Illuminate the empty bones."
Upon hearing this, Song Jiuce was completely shocked.
"Is there really a seventh line?"
"Only half a piece." Chen Fan tossed the wooden sign to him. "Remember this. If you can't get through on the fourth try, collect the debt first."
The dry, lifeless voice in the mirror paused for a moment.
Then it got even colder.
"Fourth time, ruled invalid."
"Fifth time, connected."
Sun Wukong cursed.
"And they brought more along?"
The ground suddenly turned black.
It's not turning off the lights.
The white area in the clean zone was covered by another type of ink line.
One.
Two.
A dozen or so thin black and gold lines squeezed out from the cracks in the four walls, piercing the mirror like needles.
The mirror surface was about to shatter.
These dozen or so lines managed to hold up once they entered the market.
It's even bigger than before.
Song Jiuce's voice became hoarse after just one glance.
"warp."
"Someone has connected the outer meridian!"
Chen Fan turned to look at him.
"What do you mean?"
"It's like a line that shouldn't be here was forced in," Song Jiuce said, growing increasingly agitated. "The port of recovery was originally supposed to handle the old road's review. Now, at the headquarters, someone's been secretly using Buddhist scriptures to patch things up. It looks like a repair, but the logic is completely distorted. Here they recognize the original form, there they recognize the chanted texts. When these two systems collide, the experimental field will fight itself!"
The voice just fell.
Sure enough, a second layer of reflection appeared in the mirror.
The same few people were still on the first floor.
The second layer, however, is not.
Inside, a figure wearing an old cassock was sitting.
He bowed his head, clasped his hands together, and opened and closed his lips.
Sun Wukong's eyelids twitched.
"Tang Sanzang?"
"It's not a real person." Chen Fan stared intently at the image. "It's a shadow brought in from the meridians."
Yang Jian stepped forward and slashed horizontally with his three-pointed, double-edged sword.
The blade touched the edge of the mirror.
The sparks didn't ignite.
Instead, a series of chanting sounds came from the mirror.
It's not very big.
It felt like someone was whispering in my ear.
The scroll wrapped around Chen Fan's waist suddenly became hot.
He pulled it out in one swift motion.
That was something that Tang Sanzang had personally given him.
The first two times, only the first two sections were modified.
This time, the entire strip of paper was trembling.
Two old words first appeared on the paper.
Then, in the third paragraph, where it was originally empty, a line of broken blood-red characters slowly seeped out.
Only half was produced.
"The third paragraph... is not allowed..."
That's all.
It's like someone who was writing when their wrist was suddenly cut off.
I was so tired of looking through the old Song Dynasty books that my scalp tingled.
"The third paragraph also contains missing sentences."
"It's over, it's over. This means that the outer meridian line wasn't borrowed, it's been given a new owner. Someone in headquarters took Tang Sanzang's things and put them directly into the recovery port."
Sun Wukong's face turned cold when he heard the words "main hall".
"Which side is dry?"
Song Jiuce's Adam's apple bobbed.
"The Buddhist side is the most similar. But this method of transmission is not pure; there are still traces of old sects' scrutiny within. It's as if both sides have reached out, yet neither side is telling the truth."
Chen Fan suddenly smiled.
The smile was faint.
"That's right."
"They're not here to repair the port."
"They're using this place as a testing ground. The old ways are the mirror, the Buddhist path is the thread; whoever prevails will be able to exploit the other's weaknesses."
Yang Jian stared at the mirror, his voice very low.
"We're standing right in the middle."
"So they all want us dead." Chen Fan unfolded the scroll, staring at the half-sentence of blood-red words. "Unfortunately, they ran into me."
He raised his hand and slapped the recitation strip directly onto the black mirror.
One slap.
The figure in the cassock in the mirror suddenly looked up.
His whole face was still blurred.
Only the little bit of blood at the corner of his mouth was particularly red.
"Give me the third paragraph."
As soon as Chen Fan finished speaking, the black ring tightened abruptly.
The black and gold warp lines on the mirror surface straightened instantly.
Three on the left and four on the right, all exploding at once.
He was dumbfounded by the old Song Dynasty records.
"You dare to pull on the meridians directly?"
Sun Wukong, however, was already grinning.
"That's more like it."
The dry, lifeless voice in the mirror finally changed its tone.
It's no longer like proofreading.
It's as if someone squeezed in from a great distance.
"Stop the fifth attempt."
"Headquarters authority taken over—"
That sentence wasn't finished.
Suddenly, two more words were squeezed out from the third section of blood-written words on the recitation strip.
It's not a completion.
It's a name.
When Chen Fan looked at it, the veins on the back of his hand were bulging.
Those two words are—
Xuanzang.
Deep within the black mirror, the figure in the cassock had already stood up, slowly raising his hand and pointing behind Chen Fan.
Chapter 567, the sixth failure, is written with the character "Tang".
Chen Fan hadn't turned around yet.
A Buddhist chant came from behind.
not tall.
Very mute.
It's like someone gritting their teeth and squeezing their way out of the meridian.
"Amitabha."
Sun Wukong made the first move.
With a horizontal swing of the golden cudgel, it pressed directly down on the chest of the figure in the cassock.
"Stop reading it."
"If you read it again, I, Old Sun, will slap you back into the mirror."
The image of the cassock in the mirror did not fade.
Instead, he took a step out of the black mirror.
The moment the sole of his shoe hit the ground, the ink on the floor tiles receded to both sides, as if making way for him.
It's Tang Sanzang.
No, it's Xuanzang.
The edges of the robe were torn, and half of the warp threads were still hanging from the cuffs, as if it had just been pulled out from somewhere.
When Song Jiuce saw him, his face turned pale.
"Oh no, the person writing down names has come out."
With a flick of his wrist, Yang Jian's blade was already pressed against Tang Sanzang's throat.
Explain yourself.
"Why is it you after the fifth time?"
Xuanzang didn't look at the sword.
First, look at the recitation slip in Chen Fan's hand.
Then he looked at the black mirror.
The face in the mirror, identical to Chen Fan's, slowly retreated, as if trying to avoid him.
Xuanzang's eyelids drooped slightly.
"It's not the fifth time; I'll be there next."
"This is the sixth time he's asked me to open the door."
Upon hearing this, everyone paused for a moment.
Chen Fan asked directly, "Where is the sixth incomplete file?"
Xuanzang raised his hand and pointed to the short box at the very back of the eight boxes of broken documents.
There were five old seals on the front of the box.
The seal has turned grayish.
There is no number on it.
It only has one word written on it.
seal up.
Upon seeing those words, Song Jiuce's voice changed.
"Don't touch this."
"This is a discarded file box. Anyone who opened it either went crazy or had their account wiped off by the recycling center."
Sun Wukong sneered.
"A bunch of ridiculous rules."
"Today we're not just opening up, we're going to expose everything."
He swung the stick at it.
The first seal shattered on the spot.
However, no black smoke came out of the box.
Only a faint scraping sound could be heard, like someone scratching the back of a wooden board with their fingernails.
Yang Jian frowned.
"Are there any living creatures inside?"
Xuanzang shook his head.
"It is the old seal that is looking for those who acknowledge the Lord."
Chen Fan directly pressed the reading note on.
The box popped open a crack with a "click".
A musty smell of stale paper wafted out.
It doesn't have a pungent smell.
Instead, it resembles an old scripture storage room in a temple, where the doors have been closed for a long time, and the wood and paper pulp have developed a musty smell.
Song Jiuce took two steps back, muttering to himself.
"Don't look at the whole thing, don't look at the whole thing..."
Chen Fan ignored him.
He yanked open the lid of the box.
There is only one page inside.
It's really just one page.
The paper was burned at the edges, and dark red ink clung to the corners. Six characters were written in the center.
The sixth time, a mistaken connection was made during reincarnation.
Chen Fan narrowed his eyes.
"Mistaken connection?"
Xuanzang took two steps closer, his expression growing even more somber.
"Flip it over."
Chen Fan flicked his wrist, turning the torn page over.
There is no text on the back.
There is only one old seal.
The mark wasn't big, like someone had just casually pressed it on. The lines had mostly blurred, and the edges were a jumbled mess, but it was still recognizable.
It is the character "唐".
The air suddenly tightened.
Song Jiuce's legs went weak, and he sat down on the ground.
"Tang Dynasty Seal".
"Damn it, it really is Tangmen Key."
Yang Jian thrust his blade forward half an inch, staring intently at Xuanzang.
"What else do you have to say?"
Sun Wukong remained silent.
The stick veered slightly, blocking Xuanzang's retreat.
Chen Fan's face in the black mirror smiled again.
He laughed even harder than before.
It felt like we had finally waited for this moment.
Chen Fan looked at the old seal, but he wasn't in a hurry.
He looked up at Xuanzang.
"Whether you admit it or not."
Xuanzang reached out and directly grabbed the tattered page.
The moment my fingertip touched the paper, the seal of the character "Tang" lit up.
It's not golden light.
It was a dark red, like old wax.
Xuanzang's eyes darkened, and he ran his finger along the edge of the seal, managing to scrape off an extremely thin layer of skin from the paper.
There is another shallow mark underneath.
It is a chain pattern.
It was a chain of events, exactly like the reincarnation chains they had seen before.
"I saw it clearly."
Xuanzang threw that thin layer of skin onto the ground.
"These are traces of the old system."
"First, put the chain down, then stamp it."
"The person who stamps the seal may not be me. It may not even be me in this lifetime."
Song Jiuce was taken aback at first, then quickly got up to look at it.
He stared at it for a few moments, then his mouth slowly opened wider.
"There really is a chain pattern."
"This isn't a fabricated charge. It's a legacy from the previous rounds."
Yang Jian did not sheathe his sword.
"Even worse."
"This means you are involved at least the sixth time."
Xuanzang nodded.
"It's relevant. I admit it."
I don't admit to being the one who performed the surgery.
That's a strong statement.
There was no attempt to dodge.
Even Sun Wukong glanced at him.
Chen Fan took the tattered page and gently pressed his finger on the chain pattern.
A few faint lines of text appeared on the tattered page.
It looks like it's been soaked in water and then dried in the sun; you can't see it normally.
The sixth time, the Tang characters were used in the chain.
Its predecessor has not perished.
The owner of the port mistakenly identified it.
The following text is missing.
"Oh shit."
Song Jiuce cursed aloud.
"Misidentification? Isn't this just someone deliberately using the Tang character as a key to trick the port owner into picking up the wrong person?"
Chen Fan's heart skipped a beat.
The first five times, he was being dragged into the "predecessor".
The sixth time, however, it reads "borrowing Tang characters to enter the chain".
This is no longer a simple recycling process.
This is because someone set up a stand-in door in advance.
Xuanzang stared at the line of words, his Adam's apple bobbing.
"I see."
"The sixth failure wasn't aimed at me."
"It's using my old seal to touch you."
Sun Wukong got annoyed and asked directly, "Speak human language."
Xuanzang looked up.
"Some people know that when the port owner sees the Chinese characters, he subconsciously believes half of them."
"That half-step hesitation is enough for him to make the wrong move."
Chen Fan did not deny it.
Tang Sanzang's face and identity were inextricably linked to the pilgrimage.
If someone were to use "Tang" as a house number, it would indeed be easy to fool people about many things.
Yang Jian suddenly reached out.
With a flick of the knife, a section of the lower right corner of the tattered page was lifted up.
The paper layer there is thicker than elsewhere.
"This isn't right."
Chen Fan immediately grabbed it and pulled.
With a hissing sound.
The bottom right corner, along with half a page of the interlayer, was torn apart.
It's empty inside.
No, it's not empty.
There was a very fresh tear.
The edge fibers were still standing upright, clearly indicating that they had been forcibly torn off not long ago.
Song Jiuce's eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
"Who drove it first?"
"This is impossible! The seal on the waste bin is still there!"
Chen Fan didn't hear him yelling.
He held the page up to the light.
The tears weren't from random tearing.
The angle was perfect, pointing diagonally upwards, precisely to the deepest part of the eight boxes of damaged documents.
That is, the black mirror at the eighth entrance.
"The second half of the page is in the eighth fragment."
Yang Jian said in a deep voice.
Xuanzang's expression changed for the first time.
"Not in the eighth file."
"It's after the eighth fragment."
Chen Fan turned to look at him.
"What do you know?"
Xuanzang's lips were pale, and his voice was very low.
"If the sixth instance was a mistaken connection due to a borrowing, the second half of the page will definitely record 'who it was received from'."
"That name won't stay in the scrapbook."
"It will be moved to the master file."
Song Jiuce was completely numb.
"Master file? That's a place only the Hong Kong lord has the right to access when he's awake."
The voice just fell.
From deep within the breached gate outside, another muffled thud came.
It wasn't ramming the door.
It looked like something was coming, step by step, wading through the water.
A ring of ripples appeared on the surface of the black mirror at the same time.
The image of Chen Fan in the mirror had completely faded away.
Instead, there was a corner of a dark yellow kasaya.
There is also a hand.
That hand was holding half a page of paper.
The paper's edge fibers turned outwards, perfectly matching the tear mark on the page in Chen Fan's hand.
Song Jiuce glanced at it, and his voice cracked.
"Someone got the second half of the page first!"
Sun Wukong grinned, shrugged his shoulders, and swung his staff directly in front of the mirror.
"Then take it back."
The hand in the black mirror did not retreat.
Instead, he slowly raised that half-page.
There was only one line of text on the paper.
The handwriting is very new.
It looks like it was just written recently.
The eighth fragment of the document lacks the original author and only recognizes the Tang seal.
Upon seeing the words, Xuanzang suddenly took a step forward.
"Stop!"
"This isn't for you to see."
Chen Fan was about to ask.
Suddenly, the broken warp thread inside Xuanzang's sleeve taut on its own, as if it had been violently pulled by the other end.
next second.
A voice that sounded all too familiar came from behind the black mirror.
mild.
calm.
But what I heard sent chills down my spine.
"Xuanzang, come and take your name from your previous life."
Chapter 568 The Seventh Failure is the Monkey Getting Off the Chain
As soon as that voice came out, the color drained from Xuanzang's face.
The broken warp thread in his sleeve was taut and straight, like a live snake, heading straight into the dark mirror.
Chen Fan stepped forward and placed his hand on Xuanzang's shoulder.
"stop."
Xuanzang didn't turn around, but gritted his teeth and squeezed out a sentence.
"Don't touch that line."
"If it's touched, it has to be opened on the seventh time."
Song Jiuce felt his scalp tingle upon hearing this, and he shrank back while clutching the box of tattered documents.
"The seventh time?"
"They almost demolished the port the first six times, and they're coming again?"
Yang Jian didn't speak, but his three-pointed double-edged sword was already held horizontally, the blade facing the mirror.
The figure in the black mirror slowly approached.
The mirror surface resembles water, yet it doesn't.
With each step the person took, a fine line appeared in the mirror.
When he stopped, everyone could see him clearly.
That's not Xuanzang.
It's not Tang Sanzang either.
It was a man wearing old monk's robes, with a calm face, but a black nail was driven into his forehead.
The nail's edges were covered in cracked gold veins.
He looked at Xuanzang as if he were looking at something he had lost a long time ago.
"It's time to return the name from my past life."
Xuanzang suddenly raised his hand and snapped the thread.
Snapped.
A string of gold dust exploded from the broken surface.
The person in the mirror frowned for the first time.
At that very moment, the half-page of paper on Chen Fan's chest spontaneously combusted.
The fire wasn't big, but it burned quickly.
The ashes didn't fall to the ground; instead, they formed a row of new characters.
The seventh missing file: the source monkey is disconnected, the mirror contract is invalid, and the entire cycle is not closed.
After reading through the old Song Dynasty records, his face contorted in shock.
"The monkey broke free of its chain?"
Which monkey?
As soon as he finished asking the question, everyone turned to look at Sun Wukong.
Sun Wukong scratched his face and grinned.
"Why are you looking at me?"
"I stopped liking chains a long time ago."
Chen Fan stared at the line of words, and suddenly it all made sense.
The first six failures were not simply due to sabotage.
It's the most crucial link in the entire system of mirror recycling that's gone missing.
Origin monkey.
The origin of the mirror constraint.
And this origin point is now right in front of them.
It's Sun Wukong.
Or rather, it was Sun Wukong who was once written into the mirror.
The monk with the black nails in the mirror also looked at Sun Wukong, and his eyes finally showed some emotion.
"So it was you."
"No wonder the seven wheels couldn't be closed."
Sun Wukong took two steps forward, spun his golden cudgel, and smashed the end of the cudgel on the ground.
"You just realized that?"
"I, Old Sun, already suffered enough at the foot of Five Fingers Mountain. You lot who play with mirrors, you want to trick me again?"
The monk in the mirror raised his hand and pressed down.
Seven dark spots lit up simultaneously around the black mirror.
Like seven nails, stuck in the air.
The entire recovery port sank.
The cracks in the wall were filled with the sound of friction.
It's like having countless old pages being turned inside.
Song Jiuce immediately knelt down, his face pressed to the ground, his teeth chattering.
"Rule node".
"He retrieved the node."
"Retract now, or you'll be crushed into samples!"
Chen Fan didn't retreat; instead, he took a step forward.
"Where can I smash the nodes?"
The people in the old Song Dynasty were dumbfounded.
"Can't you understand human language?"
"That's a node, not a stake; even touching it could be fatal!"
Sun Wukong suddenly laughed.
He laughed even harder than before.
"Old Song."
"Didn't you keep the old methods in that old box of yours?"
Song Jiuce was taken aback and subconsciously rummaged through the box.
The bottom scrap of paper was found by itself.
Only a stick shadow was drawn on the paper.
The four characters next to it are crooked and twisted.
A broken mirror, a blow.
Sun Wukong's eyes lit up immediately.
He stared at those four words as if they were old friends he hadn't seen in years.
"So that's where it was hidden."
The next moment, he took a step forward and crashed directly into the mirror.
The seven nodes around the black mirror pressed down simultaneously.
The rooftop of the port groaned.
Yang Jian drew his sword and stepped forward, shielding him from the two points on his left.
As the blade sank, the stone platform beneath Yang Jian's feet instantly cracked.
The veins on his forehead bulged, but he stubbornly refused to back down.
"Monkey, hurry up!"
Sun Wukong did not reply.
He closed his eyes briefly.
When he opened his eyes again, his entire demeanor had changed.
It's not the kind of reckless, aggressive type.
It is accurate.
It's frighteningly accurate.
He held his golden cudgel horizontally, but did not smash the mirror directly.
Instead, gently flick the darkest node in the upper right corner.
This one doesn't look heavy.
A sharp shriek suddenly erupted from the sky.
The outer layer of that node cracked.
Song Jiuce stared wide-eyed, his mouth agape.
"This...this is the old law?"
"It's not smashing the mirror, it's picking on nails!"
Sun Wukong grinned.
"I've tried your rules before."
"A mirror is not afraid of brute force. It is afraid of breaking its roots."
After he finished speaking, the second baton fell.
This time it's even faster.
With a flash of the staff, the second node was sent flying.
As soon as the node shattered, the black nail on the monk's chest in the black mirror trembled slightly.
Chen Fan understood instantly.
Nodes are not simply locks.
It is the fulcrum for the mirror to move.
After Sun Wukong broke free from the Mirror Pact, this set of items was always incomplete. The first six failures were merely attempts to persevere. Now, the seventh incomplete set has laid down the facts, and the root of the failure lies with the monkey himself.
Because the monkey is not on the chain.
Therefore, the entire cycle can never be closed.
The monk in the mirror was clearly also getting anxious.
He clasped his hands together, and a string of names immediately appeared behind the mirror.
Densely packed.
It was like countless precursor samples were being discharged at the same time.
The three characters in the very center are the brightest.
Sun Wukong.
Chen Fan.
Xuanzang.
"Since we can't take it back, then we'll put even more pressure on it."
As soon as the monk in the mirror finished speaking, a circle of black patterns lit up under the feet of each of the three people.
Chen Fan looked down and saw a hand suddenly appear at his feet.
It's that old scarred hand in the mirror.
It gripped his ankle tightly and dragged him down.
Yang Jian turned around and slashed down with his sword, cutting the hand in two.
The severed hand is still crawling.
Xuanzang fared even worse.
An old monk's figure emerged from behind him, draping a robe over his body.
Xuanzang was covered in cold sweat, his hands gripping the hem of his kasaya tightly.
"Chen Fan!"
"There's something after seventh gear!"
"It's not a failure log, it's a patch!"
Upon hearing this, Chen Fan grabbed the half-burnt scraps of paper from the ground.
Sure enough, there was another layer of writing underneath the ashes.
Very small.
Like it was added later.
Once the source monkey is disconnected from the chain, the old wheel cannot be replaced; the only solution is to break the node and open the overwrite.
cover?
Chen Fan's heart skipped a beat.
Before he could think it through, the third node had already been placed.
Sun Wukong raised his staff to meet him.
This time, he didn't choose.
Instead, it smashes through the center of the node with a single blow.
boom!
The entire black mirror suddenly caved in.
The monk in the mirror stepped back for the first time, a crack appearing at the corner of his mouth.
Around the port, the sound of pages turning suddenly became chaotic.
Countless white figures fell out of the crack.
There were tall people, dead men with nail holes in their chests, and several old faces that were hard to see.
As soon as they landed, they crawled toward the mirror, as if they wanted to go back and fill in the gap.
Song Jiuce was so frightened that he kicked his legs.
"Oh no, they're patching up the wheel!"
Chen Fan raised his hand and pointed.
"Don't let them get close to the camera."
With a sweep of his blade, Yang Jian cleaved the three white figures at the front in half.
Xuanzang didn't bother to pull off his kasaya anymore. He raised his hand and snapped the prayer beads in half, sending them flying one by one, aiming specifically at the brows of those white figures.
The scene immediately erupted.
Sun Wukong, on the other hand, seemed to be completely engrossed in the fight.
He hit harder and harder with each blow.
The fourth node broke.
The fifth node cracked.
The sixth node had just lit up when he prematurely pierced it.
The mirror surface began to crack in large sections.
The cracks no longer reflect human faces; instead, they reveal an even darker layer underneath.
Like a well opening.
It also resembles a door.
The monk in the mirror stared at Sun Wukong, his face finally losing its composure.
"You're not off-chain."
"You bit off the chain yourself."
Sun Wukong, carrying his staff, smiled with shining eyes.
"You only understand now?"
"It's too late."
He stepped forward and soared into the air.
The last node is directly above the mirror.
It's also the brightest one.
It is not a nail.
It looks like an eye.
The moment that eye opened, another Sun Wukong was reflected in it.
Wearing chains, head bowed, as if still pressed under the Five Finger Mountain.
Chen Fan felt a chill run down his spine.
"No, don't look!"
Sun Wukong has already seen it.
He was in mid-air, but his movements didn't stop.
In an instant, the smile in his eyes vanished completely.
Instead, a fire that had been suppressed for many years was ignited.
"Trying to trap me with this?"
"court death."
The golden cudgel crashed down.
This time, it was different from the previous times.
There are no fancy tricks.
There was no ghostly image.
It's just a straight stick.
It smashed into that eye.
Click!
The seventh node exploded on the spot.
The entire black mirror was broken in two from the middle.
The black nail on the monk's chest in the mirror popped out half an inch, and his expression changed for the first time.
He stepped back, as if trying to retreat into the depths.
But it was too late.
After landing, Sun Wukong flicked his wrist, and the tip of his staff pointed directly at the mirror.
"So this is what a broken mirror blow looks like."
"Let's do it one more time, and I'll smash the floor behind you too."
The voice just fell.
The eight damaged boxes vibrated simultaneously.
The eighth box popped open on its own.
The lid of the box was lifted, but there was no paper or booklet inside.
There was only a thin board with black background and white lettering.
The four characters above slowly emerged.
Overwrite.
When Song Jiuce saw those four characters, he felt as if his bones had been removed, and he collapsed completely.
"It's over."
"They're not trying to recycle."
"They want to change the people."
As soon as Chen Fan looked up, a new line of small characters appeared in the center of the thin plate.
The target has been identified.
Immediately afterwards, the first name slowly appeared at the bottom of the thin plate.
It's not Xuanzang.
It's not Sun Wukong either.
It's Chen Fan.
Suddenly, a hand reached out from behind the thin plate and placed it on Chen Fan's shoulder.
Chapter 569 The Eighth Overwrite
The moment that hand landed on Chen Fan's shoulder, Chen Fan didn't turn around. Instead, he grabbed the wrist and flung it forward.
boom.
The man smashed in front of the black mirror.
Not a living person.
It's a cardboard cutout.
Chen Fan's face was covered with a sheet of paper, and a thin board was stuck to his chest, with white characters jumping on and off on the board.
Coverage in progress.
I was so tired of reading through the old Song Dynasty books that my scalp tingled and my throat was hoarse.
"They've already gotten their hands on it!"
Sun Wukong swung his staff and smashed it.
As the golden cudgel slammed into the air, a thin line, like a black needle, emerged from the black mirror and snapped around the cudgel. The next moment, a low shout came from the mirror.
"Eighth residual file activated."
"The main office has stored the evidence, but the retrieval failed seven times. An overwrite will be performed."
As the sound faded, the mirror shook violently.
All those blood-stained words, broken chains, nail holes, and thin plates were now in disarray.
It's like someone grabbing a handful of old accounts, stuffing them into a fire, and then forcing out new pages.
A black-background dossier appeared in the mirror.
At the very top is a crest that makes it hard to breathe.
It is neither a Buddhist seal nor a Heavenly decree.
It resembles a hall entrance with a padlock in the center and a broken meridian line on each side.
Chen Fan clenched his teeth after just one glance.
He had seen this thing before.
Not outside.
I saw half of it in the corner of the earliest page of the black ledger.
It looked like a stain back then.
Now everything is exposed.
Xuanzang also stared at the mirror, and with a flick of his sleeve, the severed warp thread shrank back like a living snake.
Don't look at what's underneath the emblem.
His voice was deep.
"That's not for living people to recognize."
Yang Jian sneered.
"You're too late to say that."
His third eye had already split open, and the silver light pierced straight into the mirror, illuminating that page of the dossier by half an inch.
Sure enough, there was something else beneath the emblem.
It's not a name.
It is an old seal.
It's old and grimy, with broken edges, as if it's been pressed repeatedly. The inscription is also incomplete; you can only make out the first character "Tang," and the bottom part looks like "Zang," or something else entirely.
Xuanzang's expression changed instantly.
It wasn't an act.
It's the kind of color that changes when it's been pressed down for a long time and then suddenly someone lifts the lid.
Sun Wukong, carrying his staff, grinned and stared at him.
"Old monk, so you really were hiding something."
Xuanzang ignored him, his eyes fixed on the old seal. His Adam's apple bobbed twice, as if he wanted to say something, but he held back.
Chen Fan didn't give him a chance to hold back.
"The eighth fragment of the document has no original owner; it only recognizes the Tang seal."
"This is what was written on the previous page."
"Currently, there are no names in the operator field; only the headquarters emblem is covering it up."
"Xuanzang, you'd better not tell me this is a coincidence."
As soon as he finished speaking, the page of the file in the black mirror turned down an inch.
A few lines of text slowly appeared.
Interruption record one.
Interruption record two.
Interruption record three.
Up until seven.
Each line ends with only two words.
Discarded file.
As Song Jiuce looked at the book, his legs went weak.
"It's really been applied..."
"The first seven attempts weren't failures, they were just covered up by them."
"No wonder all those empty rooms in the harbor, those mismatched names, those broken accounts, all look like they've been scraped by a knife."
The tall man was still lying on the ground, the nail hole in his chest was empty, and his mouth was full of white foam. Hearing this, he trembled all over.
"I said... the port master has woken up, and not just one person has woken up."
"It's awakening the whole way of life."
Chen Fan squatted down and grabbed his collar.
Speak like a human.
The tall man's eyes were unfocused, but his hand was raised tightly, pointing to the bottom of the mirror.
Another line of small characters just appeared in that place.
Overwrite instructions: Retain available roles, delete failure traces, and rearrange the main sequence.
Upon seeing this, Sun Wukong's anger flared up immediately.
"Such arrogance."
"Are you treating Old Sun like a puppet, just putting him around like that?"
Before the words were even finished, the golden cudgel had already struck down.
The stick didn't hit the mirror; it hit the cardboard figure in front of it.
The cardboard figure split in two on the spot.
A handful of black ash and a short wooden-handled seal fell out of the paper.
As soon as the wooden handle hit the ground, the prayer stick in Tang Sanzang's arms suddenly became hot.
It's not red.
It's like Mars drilling out from the inside.
Xuanzang pressed his hand to his chest and let out a muffled groan; a glimmer of golden light shone through his robe.
At the same time, the black ledger at Chen Fan's waist also started to heat up.
It's incredibly hot.
It looked like someone had shoved a soldering iron inside.
Chen Fan's hand trembled, and he pulled out the ledger. The cover was bulging, and the corners flipped open by themselves, rustling and jumping around, finally stopping on the earliest page.
The half-stained mark was gradually being filled in.
Song Jiuce's eyes widened.
"It matches up."
"That dirty stamp in the ledger, and that old stamp under the mirror, are the same thing!"
Yang Jian took half a step forward, holding his three-pointed, double-edged sword horizontally in front of him.
"Chen Fan, step back."
"Once this seal is made, someone behind the mirror will want to pass by."
As if to confirm his words, footsteps suddenly came from the black mirror.
It's very light.
Step by step.
Unhappy.
With each step taken, the page of the file sank a little further down.
Until a blank space appears.
A line of text slowly appeared in the blank space.
Operator: Approved and executed by the General Office.
Below the characters "代执" (dai zhi), there is no name.
Only that old seal remains.
Sun Wukong frowned as he watched.
"They don't even dare to leave their names?"
"A cowardly rat hiding its head and tail."
The gentle, calm voice from behind the mirror came again.
"My name has been submitted seven times."
"It always ends up being your fault."
"This time, I'm not keeping it."
As soon as he finished speaking, a hand reached out from behind the black mirror.
Clean, long, and with very steady knuckles.
It doesn't resemble the hands of a warrior.
Like hands that spend years flipping through files, pressing seals, and writing annotations.
The hand didn't grab anyone; it simply pushed the old seal forward an inch.
Just this one inch.
Xuanzang's prayer strip snapped open with a snap, and the blood-red characters on it seemed to come alive, all crowding together in one place.
The black ledger in Chen Fan's hand slammed shut and then sprang open again.
A new account page appeared on its own.
Only three columns are written above.
The old name of the Lord.
Covering sequence number.
Replacement.
The third column was originally blank.
Now, two words appear on the first line by themselves.
Xuanzang.
The entire room fell silent for a moment.
Sun Wukong reacted first and immediately cursed out loud.
"Old monk, you really were the one who replaced him?"
Xuanzang suddenly looked up, and the thing that had been weighing on his eyes finally broke free.
"It's not a replacement."
"It was pushed up."
If you didn't die completely in your previous life, you'll have to continue carrying the burden in this one.
Upon hearing this, even Yang Jian frowned.
Chen Fan's heart sank suddenly.
Go up to the top.
These three words are even more ruthless than "replace".
This means that the old wasn't completely gone, and the new one was put on top.
One Tang seal suppressed two layers of people.
No wonder the previous line was, "Come and take your name from your previous life."
Suddenly, Song Jiuce rushed over, knelt on the ground to pick up the wooden handle seal, and as soon as his hand touched it, his palm started to smoke.
He was in excruciating pain, but he still didn't let go.
"This is not a complete seal."
"It only has a handle, not a seal face."
"The seal is still elsewhere."
Chen Fan immediately pressed, "Where?"
Song Jiuce looked up, his face covered in sweat.
"Or in the main hall."
"Or...?"
He didn't finish speaking.
Suddenly, the hand in the black mirror flicked its fingers and gently tapped the old mark.
thump.
Like striking a wooden fish.
Xuanzang's body trembled, and blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
thump.
The second time.
The blood-written words on the recitation slip lit up all at once, and the first sentence even began to be altered.
The original "Eighth Remnant File, No Master Found, Only Tang Seal Recognized" had its last two characters slowly dissolve into two other characters.
Recognize the old seal.
Upon seeing this, Chen Fan felt a chill run down his spine, but his mind raced even faster.
They don't recognize people.
They don't recognize names.
Only the seal is recognized.
That means that everyone before them, such as Xuanzang, Jingzhu, and Gangzhu, may just be shells covering up the seal.
He suddenly raised his hand, slammed the black ledger in front of the mirror, and spoke in a cold voice.
"You want to recognize the seal, right?"
"Then let's check the accounts as well."
"Who started it in the first seven times, who cut it off, who turned the failure into a dead file, and who replaced the living with the replacements, give me a piece of their mind today."
There was a moment of silence behind the mirror.
For the first time, the voice showed some fluctuation.
"The book you're holding shouldn't still be there."
Chen Fan smiled.
His laughter was cold.
"Looks like I hit a nerve."
"You covered it seven times, but you still missed something."
"It's not that the accounts were missed, it's that I was missed."
Sun Wukong was delighted to hear this, and slammed his golden cudgel into the ground.
The entire recovery port trembled.
"Well said."
"Hiding behind others to get a stamp is no skill at all."
"Get out here, or I'll smash your hall door flat with one blow."
The mirror didn't reply with that.
The hand simply retracted slowly.
It looks like they want to back out.
But when it retreated halfway, a second mark suddenly appeared in the deepest part of the mirror.
It is lighter than the old print.
It looks like it was just applied.
Yang Jian's pupils contracted.
"There's also a new seal."
Song Jiuce was completely dumbfounded.
"The old seal oppresses people, the new seal changes people."
"They are really making replacements."
Before Chen Fan could speak, the black ledger suddenly flipped to the last page by itself.
On the blank page, a new line of text slowly emerges.
The old seal has been revealed.
New holders of the seal, entering Hong Kong.
At the same time, at the deepest part of the recovery port, the outer gate that had been cracked earlier opened by itself with a loud bang.
A figure stood outside the door.
Wearing a monk's robe.
He held half of the seal face in his hand.
The man looked up.
His face was exactly the same as Tang Sanzang's.
Chapter 570 The Operator is Not a Single Person
The moment that face appeared, everyone in the harbor froze.
Xuanzang made the first move.
He stared at the person outside the door, his Adam's apple bobbed, and his voice deepened.
"You are not me."
The monk in the robes at the door smiled.
He smiled faintly.
He didn't even lift his eyelids.
"Don't you recognize what you lost in your past life?"
As he spoke, he raised his hand.
He gently flipped the half of the seal in his palm.
hum.
The black ledger suddenly shook.
The ledger pages were flipped through frantically, as if they had met the Lord.
Song Jiuce's face turned pale. He took two steps back and bumped his lower back against the iron railing.
"The new Injin has arrived..."
"It's not a fake shadow, not a reflection in a mirror, it's alive."
Yang Jian didn't speak; his three-pointed, double-edged sword was already held horizontally in front of him, the blade aimed at the doorway.
Sun Wukong was even more direct; with a stomp of his golden cudgel, the ground cracked open.
"You're just pretending to be a ghost; let's see if you'll still look the part after we smash you to pieces."
The monk in the robes did not look at Sun Wukong.
He only looked at Chen Fan.
"You are the target of this round of coverage."
Give me the ledger.
Chen Fan didn't move.
He didn't reply.
He stared at the half of the seal for a couple of seconds, then looked down at the last page of the black ledger.
On the blank page, the line of text from before has changed.
The old seal has been revealed.
New holders of the seal, entering Hong Kong.
A second line appears below.
The proofreading is pending merger.
Chen Fan's heart sank.
It's not a takeover.
It's a merger.
These two words don't quite fit.
The monk in the robes at the door took another step forward.
As soon as he stepped into the outer gate, the reeds on the ground suddenly curled up on their own, coiling around his ankle like a snake.
He glanced down at it.
With a flick of his sleeve.
The recitation strip snapped into three pieces with a snap.
Looking at the old Song Dynasty books makes my scalp tingle.
"He can directly change the reading permissions..."
"At least at the proofreading level."
Sun Wukong grinned.
"So what if it's a proofreading level?"
The words had barely left his mouth when he rushed out.
One strike across the board.
The sound of the wind made the entire harbor hum.
The person at the door didn't insist on taking the bait.
He pushed half of the seal forward.
A layer of grayish-white light immediately spread out in front of the printing press.
boom!
The golden cudgel struck, and the light shattered instantly.
The monk in the robe staggered back three steps, and half of the hem of his robe was torn.
But the seal in his hand didn't fall off.
Sun Wukong landed and clicked his tongue.
"That's interesting."
The person at the door looked up, their expression already grim.
Clearly, he didn't expect that he could withstand the first strike but not the second.
But Sun Wukong didn't give him a chance to catch his breath and charged again.
Yang Jian also moved at the same time.
The blade veered off course, aiming straight for the man's wrist.
With pressure applied from both sides, a hint of urgency finally flashed in the eyes of the person at the door.
He suddenly pressed half of the seal against his chest.
"The main office is merged and the old road is reviewed——"
The eight words were spoken.
The entire recycling port was instantly bathed in white light.
The scattered pages on the ground, the old talismans on the wall, and even the cracked iron gate all emitted a faint sound of writing.
It's like someone far away is turning the pages of an old case one by one.
Chen Fan's heart skipped a beat when he heard this.
wrong.
This is not a temporary measure.
This is a fixed password.
He rushed to the black ledger and pressed his hand against the spine.
"Xuanzang, give me the eighth incomplete file."
Xuanzang was still staring at the person at the door who looked exactly like him, his face frighteningly pale.
Chen Fan shouted again.
"quick!"
Xuanzang then came to his senses and threw the half-page of paper at him.
Chen Fan caught it and glanced at it.
He had already read the first few lines.
The truly useful information is at the very bottom.
The text is very small.
It's as if someone is afraid of being seen, so they squeeze into the corner of the endnote.
There are only two sentences above.
Overwrite, not a single print can be activated.
The General Office's emblem was verified in the archives, and the Old Gate's seal was affixed to the judgment, which took effect simultaneously.
After reading it, Chen Fan's expression changed immediately.
Song Jiuce hadn't reacted yet.
"What do you mean?"
Chen Fan looked up and spoke, word by word.
"The meaning is very simple."
"Overwrite is not something one person can do alone."
The port fell silent instantly.
Even the monk in the robes at the door froze for half a second, his composure gone.
Chen Fan unfolded the page, letting everyone see the endnote.
"The headquarters emblem is used for document verification. The old gate is used for review and approval. Both sides must arrive together for the coverage to be considered complete."
"Not even one less will do."
"So that thin plate from before wasn't released by any one party alone."
"It's a joint effort."
Song Jiuce stared with his mouth agape, and it took him a long time to finally manage to squeeze out a sentence.
"Join forces...join forces?"
"Haven't the main hall and the old Daomen always been at odds?"
Chen Fan sneered.
"Who told you they've been going against us all along?"
"They appear to be attacking each other, but secretly they're working together. Haven't you had enough of this trick?"
Xuanzang's breathing became heavier.
He stared intently at the half-seal in the man's hand at the door, as if he had figured something out.
"So the sixth time, the seventh time, the eighth time."
"It's not about who's stronger or weaker."
"It's a two-way street performance, done for show."
Yang Jian continued.
"One person is responsible for keeping people locked in old files."
"One person is responsible for changing the people to the new version."
"The old seal oppresses people, the new seal changes people."
"When connected, they form a closed loop."
Song Jiuce's scalp tingled with shock.
Having worked in this industry for so long, this is what he fears most.
It wasn't an open fight.
The two sides above had already been connected by a rope, while the people below were still standing in line like idiots.
"No wonder……"
"No wonder every time the recycling port reports a fault, someone suppresses it, someone modifies it, and someone deletes it."
"It's not about undermining each other, it's about cleaning up each other's messes."
The monk in the robes at the door finally stopped pretending.
He stared at Chen Fan, his face gradually darkening.
"You shouldn't have seen the endnotes."
Chen Fan smiled.
"Then you should burn the paper clean."
"Leaving half a page and an endnote. They still want me to honestly believe they're a mastermind."
"Do you really look down on me, or do you overestimate yourselves?"
These words completely humiliated the man at the door.
Sun Wukong laughed as soon as he saw it.
"Turns out he wasn't a bastard after all."
"They're all from the same nest."
After saying that, he raised his hand and struck again.
This time, the person couldn't hold on any longer.
As soon as the page light came on, Yang Jian's knife had already made a diagonal cut, striking the side of the seal face precisely.
Click.
A crack appeared on half of the seal face.
The man in the monk's robe groaned, and his wrist snapped on the spot.
Xuanzang seized the opportunity, and the broken thread in his sleeve suddenly sprang out, wrapping around the man's neck and dragging him into the harbor.
With a bang.
The person fell to the ground.
Half of the seal flew out and slid to Chen Fan's feet.
Chen Fan bent down and picked it up.
As soon as I got my hands on it, the last page of the black ledger was scrambled again.
Both seals are incomplete.
The collaborative records have not been destroyed.
The next operator is yet to be filled.
Chen Fan's pupils contracted slightly.
Need to be filled?
Sun Wukong stepped on the monk's back and cursed under his breath.
"explain."
"What number are you?"
The man's mouth was covered in blood, yet he was still smiling.
"Do you think you can stop it by removing one seal?"
"You've only just scratched the surface."
"The person who will actually be appointed hasn't even entered the room yet."
Song Jiuce's face twitched upon hearing this.
"Is there anyone else?"
Yang Jian pressed down with the tip of his blade.
"name."
The person didn't answer.
He simply turned his head and looked into the deepest part of the abandoned passage.
That direction was originally completely dark.
Even the light from the previous page couldn't penetrate it.
But now it's slowly getting brighter.
It's not a lamp.
It is the outline of a door.
First, the edges turned white.
Then the old nails on the door lit up one by one.
Finally, three words appeared in the middle.
Clean zone gate.
When Song Jiuce saw that door, he was completely stunned.
"Clean area?"
"Wasn't this place sealed off a long time ago?"
Xuanzang's complexion worsened.
"Clean areas will not be returned to port authorities."
"That's the internal route that the main headquarters reserved for core operators."
Chen Fan's heart tightened, and he immediately took two steps forward.
The door was closed.
However, a line of words on the door was slowly appearing.
The characters are silvery-white, as if seeping out from inside the door.
Identification permissions only:
Ninth operator candidate.
The air seemed to suddenly become compressed.
Sun Wukong was the first to utter a curse.
"A substitute?"
"Who the hell is the ninth one?"
Chen Fan remained silent.
The half of the seal in his hand suddenly felt hot.
The black ledger also trembled.
The next second, the ledger turned the page by itself.
Flip to the very beginning.
The first page originally contained only a vague list of names.
Now, the black text at the top is starting to disperse little by little.
It's like someone is taking a knife and scraping away the layers of skin that are covering it.
Chen Fan looked down.
I broke out in a sweat after just one glance.
The name shown on it was not an unfamiliar one.
It was his own handwriting.
And it wasn't written recently.
It seems like a long time ago.
What's worse, a line of old annotations was clearly visible beneath the handwriting.
Position 9, ready.
Pending activation.
Sun Wukong sensed something was wrong and grabbed Chen Fan's shoulder.
"What does it say?"
Chen Fan hadn't even had a chance to speak.
The clean zone door clicked open a crack on its own.
What emerged from the crack first was not a hand.
It is a complete emblem.
General Hall Pattern.
Old Taoist seal.
Two layers of imprints, pressed onto the same black card.