522: Chapter 166: Waiting in Silence 522: Chapter 166: Waiting in Silence Traps could exist in established modules.

Traps could also exist in open-source code.

Even in the textbooks you use to learn Inner Strength, there could be traps.

The final trap might not even be any actual code, but rather, by means of induction, it makes learners form a certain mental model.

When dealing with specific problems, they would unconsciously expose weaknesses—and they wouldn’t even realize it.

Imagine an Internal Martial Artist in this era, downloading over two hundred similar open-source modules online.

Among them, nearly a hundred are understandable to him.

If these nearly one hundred modules all have similar structural issues, even if he instinctively outputs a structure without problems, he will most likely feel something is wrong with himself and strive to correct his “bad habits.”

In this regard, older hackers have an advantage.

Zhu Xinyu was one of the most advantaged.

“The embryo of Inner Strength” indeed originated from the hackers of the first generation Benchmark Man era, whom explored it on their own, but Zhu Xinyu systematized it during her rebellion against the “Tyrant” Yawgmoth.

She was one of the earliest to develop her own brain and focus on the “conflict between people” as a hacker.

She also proposed the system’s theory of Inner Strength.

Because of this, for the next ten or twenty years, the field of “Inner Strength” was sculpted as Zhu Xinyu wished.

At this stage, Zhu Xinyu even consciously controlled the Inner Strength skills she taught others.

When Internal Martial Artists emerged within the “Tyrant’s” faction, this path had already matured.

The Tyrant’s minions could only imitate and make slight innovations in different directions within this field.

And over these two hundred years, Zhu Xinyu had merely concealed her name.

Controlling the direction of technology development was definitely something she had done—after all, it was also a common business warfare tactic used by Xiang Shan in the 21st century.

Not to mention how much her disciples and grand-disciples had done online.

Even if the network was built by Yawgmoth’s subordinates and personally managed by Hartman, they couldn’t completely eliminate Zhu Xinyu’s influence.

Unless they could “reinvent the wheel,” blocking all their own experiences and manually typing every line of code from a novice’s perspective.

Therefore, the “Cyberspace” domain would definitely be biased towards Zhu Xinyu.

The Eighth Martial God and Zhu Xinyu shared a view of the world.

So, this “domain favor” would also be shared with the Eighth Martial God.

Xiang Shan, who held the power of the Eighth Martial God, felt the same.

Xiang Shan thought quietly.

He merely changed his Personality Mask to search for traces of Zhu Xinyu and transform them into strength.

He logged out just in time before Hartman came online.

It was somewhat regrettable that he hadn’t actually fought Hartman.

—But, judging from that data flow…

near the satellite network, I could only achieve a slight advantage…

—The discrepancy in equipment was still too significant.

His brain had undergone deep modifications, and he could monopolize supercomputing power.

And even after I upgraded, I still only had a quantum chip.

—However, he couldn’t completely eliminate the backdoors left by Xinyu.

That was the biggest opportunity at the current stage.

Cain didn’t know about the sinister ideas rolling in Xiang Shan’s mind and simply exclaimed, “To survive from Indra’s hands is extremely formidable.

It’s been many years since anyone has achieved such an impressive record.

Nameless Hero, your name will surely echo throughout the Solar System!”

Xiang Shan smiled.

It was a good thing he was still wearing his vest, preventing others from confirming his real name.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t just be about “echoing through the Solar System.”

Cain asked, “What’s next?”

Currently, the three of them were tucked inside a hole.

This hole had been temporarily dug out by Cain, who was a Burrow Dragon.

The entrance was very small, yet the space inside was enough to conceal three Heroes.

Xiang Shan shared a data stream.

A map materialized in front of Cain with several dots on it.

“When I was at the satellite station, I also downloaded some data on the side.

This is surveillance footage of an envoy from the Six Dragons Sect,” Xiang Shan explained.

“These guys also have plenty of resources—they’ve even created two sets of ‘decoy targets’ moving around the nearby area.”

But as mentioned earlier, the Six Dragons only operate in the shadows, they wouldn’t go too far.

So Daijiu Tai’a and those spare Prosthetic Bodies providing cover were also being discreet, disguising themselves as they moved.

Their trails were intermittent.

“Although they’re very cautious and have made multiple directional changes, randomly meandering, their destination is always certain.

The ‘starting point’ and ‘target’ are always clear,” Xiang Shan said.

“After ruling out the interference, by plotting a curve, we can roughly determine their direction of travel.”

As he spoke, a curve appeared in front of Cain.

Xiang Shan looked at Cain: “Friend, do you have any leads on this?”

This was why he had temporarily spared Daijiu Tai’a.

By that time, Xiang Shan had already planned to use a base station built by the Hermit of Heavenly Machine.

And if Daijiu Tai’a returned to the territory of the Six Dragons Sect, he could follow the trail all the way there.

Cain pondered for a moment: “I can’t tell yet.

But I noticed… Hero, shall we first remove this curve?

It’s interfering with our thinking.”

Xiang Shan snapped his fingers, removing the plotted line: “You’re more familiar with this area; you make the call.”

Cain pondered again: “They’ve deliberately avoided cities and settlements… and also most of the highways.

This may indicate that they don’t want direct contact with the Protector’s army?”

With such a big incident in the Pacific Coast Mountains, even King Aqini had to intervene personally, the ground Protectors would definitely mobilize to investigate.

Without saying anything else, they would definitely surround the mountain area near the Righteousness Hall from all sides, and even establish blockades on the plains.

And Daijiu Tai’a’s goal was probably to return to some place before these blockades were established, at least to reach an area with less vigilant security.

Xiang Shan nodded: “Indeed, that’s quite consistent with the usual style of the Six Dragons Sect.”

“Then, this direction…” Cain thought for a while, then shook his head: “You said he is a Scientific Knight, if his field of expertise was appropriate, he could easily use ‘field research’ as an excuse to dive into any settlement.

We need more data to make a judgment.”

Xiang Shan looked outside and said, “Let’s wait a while longer… Right now, some surveillance satellites are transmitting incorrect surveillance information.

It will take a while before they determine these satellites as unreliable.”

“How long do we have to wait?” asked the Solo Kill King.

“At least until the frequency of the Space-Based Weapons falls,” Xiang Shan replied.

No sooner had Xiang Shan spoken than he felt the ground tremble slightly beneath his arm.

It was probably some misreported data triggering the Heavenly Punishment.