Chapter 235 – The Real and Fake Lu Yan, and the Version Fragment

With his thoughts settled, Lu Yan suddenly experienced a flash of insight.

Coming to this Great Collapse Version was part of a deal between Jiang Zhiwei and Lu Yan. But Jiang Zhiwei had never assigned Lu Yan any specific task.

Lu Yan had originally thought that once he joined the Alliance of Immortals, this representative of the Immortal cultivation version would assign him missions—perhaps helping the alliance resolve crises or expel invaders.

But judging from the current outcome, Jiang Zhiwei’s lack of directives was because he had long foreseen that Lu Yan would proactively collect the shattered Dao rules scattered throughout the Great Collapse Version.

And once he began to collect these fragments, friction with version powers holding those rule resources would be inevitable. Coupled with Lu Yan’s identity as a True Disciple of the Taiyi Sect, it was equivalent to him actively expanding territory and fighting off external threats on behalf of the Alliance of Immortals.

As this thought occurred to him, Lu Yan imagined Jiang Zhiwei’s smiling face and couldn’t help but curl his lip.

“That old fox conned me again!”

Still, Lu Yan held no resentment. Jiang Zhiwei had helped him a great deal, and entering the Great Collapse Version was, after all, a win-win.

Besides, if Jiang Zhiwei truly had ties to Zhao Huowang, then Lu Yan owed him a tremendous favor—this could just be the first installment of that debt.

His gaze swept over the steel wreckage strewn across the land. Lu Yan waved toward the five ghost gods hovering in the sky.

“The sub-core brains of the secondary war fortresses were incomplete, but among the ones we just destroyed, there should be relatively intact core brains. Extract whatever you can.”

The five ghost gods immediately entered the satellite-grade war fortresses to begin searching for the core brains.

Soon, the Titan God brought back a piece of news that surprised Lu Yan.

“The algorithms of the satellite-grade fortress brains have been specially optimized. These can be used to enhance the Ghost God Computation Engine.”

Lu Yan’s eyes lit up instantly. He asked without hesitation,
“How long would that optimization take? And what kind of improvements can we expect?”

The Titan God answered with reverence,
“Master, the greatest strength of the core brain lies in its control over the massive war fortress and its ability to interface with rule-based modules. All satellite-grade brains include algorithmic adjustments designed specifically to manage the forces of the rule modules.

“This level of rule manipulation is precisely what the Ghost God Computation Engine lacks. Its original design only focused on psionic-level calculations, never touching upon rule-level forces.

“If we use these core brain algorithms to upgrade the Ghost God Engine, it could gain limited access to interfere with and manipulate rule-level power.

“With that, the ghost gods could gradually reconstruct the broken Dao patterns within the Soul Realm, eventually transforming it from a soul-type plane into a fully-formed minor world.

“By the standards of the Divine Nation, this Soul Realm would then be a nascent god-realm—enough for a demigod to ascend into the Astral Realm and become a lesser deity.”

Lu Yan’s expression finally shifted.

During the siege from the satellite fortress and the Divine Nation’s demigod, Lu Yan had once summoned the Soul Realm to intimidate demigod Cairns—but he’d known all along that it was just a hollow shell.

Pure soul weight alone wasn’t enough to crush a demigod.

But if the Soul Realm evolved into a full minor world, it would go from illusion to reality. Summoning the Underworld’s micro-world, spanning eight hundred miles, would be enough to destroy any being beneath the Nascent Soul stage—and even those at that level would find it hard to resist.

“Good! The Ghost God Engine’s upgrade will be the top priority!”

Lu Yan gave the order immediately.

The Titan God acknowledged gravely and then added,
“The only issue is that the satellite-grade core brain algorithms are highly specialized. The current data isn’t enough to complete the full optimization. We’ll need more samples.”

Lu Yan smiled in response.

“Looks like I have another reason to assault the Mechanized City.”

Half an hour later, the five ghost gods finished collecting the algorithms and data from the two satellite-grade brains.

With their higher permissions compared to sub-fortress cores, Lu Yan quickly obtained a wealth of critical information—layouts of major Mechanized City bases, war fortress models and deployment regions, surrounding version forces, and more.

As he reviewed the compiled data, Lu Yan pointed toward the nearest resource base.

“Next stop—the Titanium Crystal Mine.”

He drew the imperial qi back into the Human Emperor Banner, leaving only the five ghost gods at his side.

The Abyssal God tore open a rift in space, and the group strode into it.

Five hours later, above the Titanium Crystal Mine, one satellite-grade war fortress and three secondary war fortresses plummeted from the heavens.

The spatial storm created by the battle ravaged dozens of miles, erasing the titanium crystal vein and the entire base from the face of the earth.

Nine hours later, one of the Mechanized City’s top resource sites—the Solar Lake—was ignited by a blazing sun.

Two satellite-grade fortresses and three secondary ones sank into the burning waters.

The inferno consumed everything. The Mechanized City’s technomancers later reported that the flames could not be extinguished through conventional means and would likely burn for over three thousand years.

A day later, the military base stationed along the Divine Nation’s border was annihilated.

One satellite-grade fortress was set ablaze in the skies. Its anti-gravity systems lasted until the end, causing molten metal to rain down from the heavens and forge a new steel landscape over ten miles wide.

Using the Yinli God’s divine art, Lu Yan merged into the wildlands and sped toward his next target.

In just a day, including the ruins of the Dongxuan Blessed Land, Lu Yan destroyed several of the Mechanized City’s resource bases.

The core modules of the satellite fortresses greatly accelerated the gestation of his Supreme Divine Arts seeds. The algorithms advanced the Ghost God Engine’s optimization.

This harvest outstripped even his massacre of zombies in the Apocalypse Version.

After all, zombies were scattered and took time to track and kill. Even with ghost soldiers, the slaughter had limits.

In contrast, every base had just one or two satellite fortresses. Once he breached the rule-based defenses, Lu Yan could destroy them with ease—easier even than hunting zombies.

But he knew this storm of destruction would provoke the Mechanized City to act. So he gave up on space teleportation.

Teleportation was fast but left spatial traces that risked exposing him.

Flying stealthily at a slower speed was much safer.

As the wastelands faded, Lu Yan approached his next target—the Mechanized City’s third-largest metropolis: Chain Axis City.

It was the information hub of the Mechanized Domain, its networks spanning the entire territory.

More importantly, Chain Axis City was one of the few settlements where the Machinekind lived.

There were only a few hundred, but for the machine-worshipping species, that was a massive population.

In contrast, Lu Yan had encountered only dozens of Machinekind across four destroyed bases, most of them commanding the satellite fortresses.

Drawing closer to Chain Axis City, Lu Yan slowed down and set his sights on the two satellite-grade fortresses above the city.

Records showed that Chain Axis was not a strategic stronghold and usually housed only one satellite fortress.

The second one was clearly deployed to guard against Lu Yan.

“What a pity. Completely worthless.”

Concealed in the void, Lu Yan crept closer to the fortress.

With his repeated attacks, he had already tested the detection limits—so long as he stayed outside a 10-kilometer range, he would remain undetectable.

At the edge of that threshold, he began preparations.

Just like before, he would first use Heavenly Gang: Yin Talisman Triple Kill to take out the unshielded sub-fortress, then go all in on the satellite fortress.

As he formed the incantation, the intent of Triple Kill silently activated between heaven and earth.

He pointed to a sub-fortress—and his expression instantly changed.

His usually unstoppable Yin Talisman Triple Kill had been intercepted by an unseen force. The sub-fortress actually had rule-level defenses.

“Not good—it’s a trap!”

Lu Yan immediately tried to tear open space and escape.

But in that moment, the entire world paused.

The void cracked with fine lines, like a shattered mirror. Each crack shimmered with frozen time. Space itself turned crystalline, reflecting eerie light.

Then—a radiant divine beam split the frozen void like a sword cleaving reality.

A colossal demigod emerged, his presence warping space.

With a mere curl of his fingers, he clasped the world in his palm, sealing all space and snuffing out Lu Yan’s escape route.

From the sub-fortress, a humanoid figure rose.

A silver-white mech body adorned with mystical runes—a Prophet Mech.

The Mechanized City didn’t specialize in individual combat power, but that didn’t mean they had none.

Over millennia, they had collected many shattered rule sets. Using the most precious—rules of causality—they created the ultimate warrior: the Prophet Mech.

Its inner system carried a causal synergy module that could simulate futures. Its eyes flickered blue, seeing every possible outcome and eliminating flawed paths.

The Mechanized City had reacted the moment Lu Yan attacked the Dongxuan ruins and had quickly identified him—thanks to the highly recognizable Yin Talisman Triple Kill.

Initially, they planned to trap him with military forces across their territory.

But after witnessing his destruction of four key bases and six satellite fortresses in a single day—plus earlier losses—they gave up.

In a direct war, seven satellite fortresses could have broken the Alliance of Immortals’ frontlines.

Now, all lost to Lu Yan. The entire council was gripped by fear.

They realized: Lu Yan’s terrifying edge lay in countering their fortresses, not in absolute personal power—his retreat from Cairns was proof.

So they paid a heavy price to hire a peak demigod from the Divine Nation and paired him with the Prophet Mech to simulate the future—then ambushed Lu Yan at Chain Axis City.

The demigod feared no Triple Kill. The Prophet Mech, smaller and shielded by causal rules, was immune.

“Reveal your true identity!”

The demigod’s voice thundered through the skies.

“This world is locked. You cannot escape.”

The Prophet Mech raised its arm, weaving beams of energy into a dense causal web.

In every predicted future, Lu Yan was obliterated.

Yet Lu Yan showed no fear. Instead, he curiously observed the cloaked demigod.

“From a benefit standpoint, the fall of the Mechanized City would serve the Divine Nation’s interests.

“You rank among the top three demigods—why help the Mechanized City?”

The demigod didn’t answer. His power intensified, pressing Lu Yan to kneel.

“You have no right to ask questions.”

Lu Yan resisted, his body cracking like porcelain under the pressure.

Death qi surrounded him. The demigod hesitated briefly, then said coldly:

“Hand over the incomplete Divine Kingdom, and I’ll let you live.”

Lu Yan’s smile widened.

“So that’s what you’re really after.”

He summoned the Human Emperor Banner.

The demigod lunged in greed—only to watch the banner vanish like an illusion.

Space trembled.

“You—what did you do?!”

Lu Yan only smiled.

In the eyes of the demigod and Prophet Mech, his body became translucent—like a dream dissipating into glimmering stardust.

In the Demon Version, Lu Yan had once awakened the Nameless True Intent from the Dreaming Scripture of the Nameless World—a vision of a thousand worlds, eternal reflections.

Though the Gate of Mystery Womb had been destroyed, Lu Yan could still use the Nameless Intent to power a supreme divine art—A Dream of the Great Thousand Worlds—and manifest a dream avatar.

From the beginning, the Lu Yan in Chain Axis was a dream clone—illusory and real, seamlessly blurred.

The Mechanized City had simulated futures to ambush him, but Lu Yan had prepared too.

The Prophet Mech’s causality rules, though powerful, were cobbled together—nowhere near the level needed to pierce through the Heavenly Gang Divine Art of Dream of the Great Thousand Worlds.

As he vanished, the demigod and Mech screamed:

“Where is he?! Where did he go?!”

But no one knew.

Far beyond the Mechanized Domain’s core, in an inconspicuous cave deep underground, Lu Yan opened his eyes.

His consciousness returned from its long slumber, power rising like a swelling tide.

He tore through space, returned to the surface, and gazed out at the steel-forged land in the distance.

That was the realm of data and machines—the version fragment of the Mechanized Version. The true heart of the Mechanized City.

A version fragment contained the complete rules of a version. Any outsider would be suppressed by those laws. It was the final defense of any version power.

The Mechanized City had foreseen countless futures.

But they had never considered that Lu Yan might simply attack their core directly.

Because, even if an entire version’s strength were poured into an assault, no one could breach the core fragment under rule suppression. That was the iron law of the Great Collapse Domain.

But Lu Yan, with the Unchanging One trait, had never been affected by version rule suppression.

With a faint smile on his lips, Lu Yan stepped boldly into the heart of the version fragment.

(End of Chapter)