Perfection

Wei Yuan spread his divine sense across the surviving building and discovered that the main server on the sub-top floor was merely a decoy. The true main server was distributed right inside the research department, its tens of thousands of units embedded within the walls, ceilings, and floors, and even concealed inside the personal terminals of many researchers. Whether ordinary hackers or corporate spies, none would ever have imagined that the Umbrella Corporation lacked a central mainframe room entirely. Wei Yuan returned to where he had first arrived: his own cubicle. His monitor and the computer screen at the adjacent desk were both still lit, meaning that these two terminals were in fact part of the server network. After an unimaginable stretch of years, most of the distributed servers had decayed into ruin, yet these two terminals remained functional. This was by no means a coincidence. Wei Yuan dismantled the terminal on the spot, extracted a motherboard whose thickness defied common sense, and enveloped it with his divine sense to read the data within. In the end, Wei Yuan obtained nearly half of Umbrella's research framework, partial data on two superviruses, and several thousand fragmented research logs. Given the immense scale of Umbrella Corporation's research division, over a hundred thousand research logs were generated every day. Wei Yuan himself had written two or three each day during his time here. In truth, those logs were filled with nonsense from beginning to end; Wei Yuan had merely used them to show he was working hard by submitting multiple daily reports. In any case, the supervisors never opened them to read anyway. At the start of each month, they simply checked the total count of daily reports and ranked everyone by volume to determine baseline bonus weightings. Those writing the reports knew they were producing garbage, and the supervisors knew the reports were full of garbage. The content of the daily reports did not matter at all; the act of writing them did. Though the supervisors were merely wage-earning employees themselves, they demanded docile subjects beneath them, giving themselves the illusion of reigning as emperors. Wei Yuan took four seconds in total to read through all several thousand research logs, only to make an unexpected discovery: one among them was not garbage. The log contained the following entry: "...The headache is worsening. I am certain I have been infected with the leaked supervirus. The pain is unbearable; the company's anesthetics are practically useless. At the height of the agony, a thought suddenly struck me: the supervirus is a conspiracy. Its supposedly hyper-potent genes are actually riddled with flaws and exceptionally fragile. Its sole purpose for existing is to supplant other viruses and microorganisms, and eventually replace the cells of all living things. When that time comes, it will be like swapping a reinforced concrete prison for a cage made of sand, all to unleash the devil locked within. Once the supervirus unifies the universe, it will perish in an instant, and from that moment on, no organic matter will remain in the cosmos..." This log had also been written by that nameless research supervisor long ago. Hidden amidst countless heaps of garbage, it had successfully survived to this day to be found by Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan had an intuition that this, too, was no coincidence. With that, the value of the entire otherworldly realm fragment had been thoroughly mined. Yet Wei Yuan did not recall the Gate of the Many Realms. Instead, he planned to organize the sentient beings from the Splendor of the Many Realms to visit in batches and experience the customs and conditions of this otherworldly realm. Retracting his divine sense, Wei Yuan returned to reality and stepped out of the Grand Array of Reflection into the Return to the Ruins. Inside the great hall, Ji Liuli was seated before a desk, drafting a new formation diagram. Dozens of sheets of jade paper were strewn haphazardly across the table, densely covered in numbers and symbols. Wei Yuan ignored the jade papers completely, keeping his heart of invincibility as pristine as ever. Giving Ji Liuli no chance to speak, he stared straight at her, looking her up and down. This was Wei Yuan's strategy for safeguarding his Dao heart. Once in the past, while Ji Liuli was researching formations, Wei Yuan had come to speak with her, unaware of the peril. With her mind crammed full of numbers and symbols, Ji Liuli had casually scribbled across half a sheet and handed it to him, saying, "I can't quite figure out this part. Take a look for me." Left with no alternative, Wei Yuan took the jade paper and looked at it. It was as if he had looked at nothing at all—his Dao heart instantly shattered into pieces on the spot. Ever since, Wei Yuan had diligently cultivated his mind until he finally managed to forget the incident, restoring his heart of invincibility to perfection. Wiser from the ordeal, whenever Wei Yuan saw Ji Liuli immersed in research, he gave her a wide berth. If he absolutely had to say something, he would first find a way to interrupt her train of thought. Sure enough, Wei Yuan's unblinking stare successfully snapped Ji Liuli out of her research. Covering her chest with one hand, she teased, "I have plenty. You know that." Wei Yuan breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Stand up and let me look at you." Ji Liuli rose, walked over to Wei Yuan, and turned around so he could see her clearly. Frowning slightly, Wei Yuan reached out directly and squeezed her bones to check her frame. After examining her, Wei Yuan found that Ji Liuli had not changed in the slightest. She was identical to how she had been yesterday, the day before, and even several years ago, save for her cultivation growing ever deeper. How could there be no change? Wei Yuan's brows knitted tighter and tighter. In the otherworldly realm fragment, the young girl Ji Liuli had clearly been entrapped and killed by the little monk, which was why the damage and decay in her office were far worse than anywhere else. How could it have left no impact on Ji Liuli's true self? Wei Yuan checked thoroughly, but no matter what technique he employed, he could detect no change in her. Even when karma was erased, trace clues usually lingered behind. For instance, if a person vanished into thin air, a blank void would appear in the mortal world they had inhabited. Though the world would mend the rift on its own, some trace would inevitably remain. Finding nothing after his inspection, Wei Yuan told Ji Liuli about the otherworldly realm fragment. As expected, Ji Liuli was immensely intrigued. She immediately entered the Splendor of the Many Realms and set off to investigate the fragment. Wei Yuan looked forward to the results as well. After all, the foundation of everything in that otherworldly realm was mathematics. While Wei Yuan was not adept at it, having Eldest Senior Sister was more than enough. Wei Yuan then walked out of the hall, flew beyond the sky into the Immortal Heaven, and arrived before Immortal Monarch Yanshi. Yanshi was standing beside a pool of water, watching several koi swim within. Without looking up, he asked, "What brings you here?" Wei Yuan recounted his experiences in the otherworldly realm fragment and concluded, "Yet when I returned and examined Senior Sister thoroughly, I found no change in her whatsoever. It is truly strange." Yanshi said slowly, "She indeed underwent no change at all—and that is the greatest change of all." Wei Yuan was visibly shaken. "His methods are that formidable?" Yanshi nodded. "His methods are indeed formidable; even I consider myself inferior. Liuli has certainly lost her perfection. One does not need to wait until she ascends to immortality to know this. However..." Immortal Monarch Yanshi paused, then continued, "Why must one insist on perfection? For a child like Liuli, imperfection is actually better than perfection; it allows her to endure far less suffering. Isn't it enough that you are perfect? If you bear a bit more of the suffering and tribulations, she will bear that much less." Lost in thought, Wei Yuan nodded slowly.