After he finished questioning the giant clam, Qi Suian tossed it back into the pool, adding some security measures at the same time.

This was to prevent the giant clam from running off after he left.

The creature was truly dishonest. While it said, "Kill me or carve me up, do as you please," it was actually just playing mind games.

However, Qi Suian didn’t care. It could play all the tricks it wanted, as long as it didn’t interfere with him carving it up.

After dealing with it, Qi Suian headed to King Zhen Ao’s so-called treasure vault.

On the way, the Tai Sui God’s armor value finally reached 26 points, completing its twenty-second evolution.

The next evolution required its armor value to reach 28 points.

The reason it was so late was because after the previous Sun Puppets were burned up, it was still a bit short on armor value.

Qi Suian hadn’t had time to find more fuel for the Tai Sui God, so it could only level up slowly by idling.

It was normal for there to be a margin of error. After all, the Tai Sui God was a Gold-devouring Beast; even a small discrepancy in its case represented a significant amount of evolutionary energy.

After that, Qi Suian installed the translation module as planned.

[SSS-Tier Universal Civilization Comprehension Core]

A single comprehension core might just be a simple translation module. But when combined with a communications module and a language module, and coordinated with the smart brain, it could directly decipher various codebooks, classical texts, obscure code phrases, and more.

Of course, these were just minor abilities. Its true power was to produce an effect similar to comprehending all spoken and written languages.

From now on, even if the Doomsday Game stopped providing translations for Qi Suian, he would only need a little time to perform real-time language translation and wouldn’t have to worry about language barriers.

Moreover, this was just the foundation. If he continued to install the corresponding modules, he could even understand the languages of animals and plants.

Firstly, he didn’t have enough modules, and secondly, the Tai Sui God’s evolutions were limited, making it incapable of achieving that level.

However, it was enough for Qi Suian for the time being. After all, he didn’t really need to communicate with animals and plants; there was no point.

Currently, his primary activities were still killing and research.

Communication was rare.

And even when he did communicate, it was selective.

’Next is the signal module. This set of modules now has a solid foundation.’

Qi Suian muttered to himself. And it certainly did count as a foundation.

The more modules you have, the more modules you need.

Take the smart brain—the Chaotic Quantum Intelligent System—for example. A single intelligence module is strong on its own, but its effects are amplified when augmented and reinforced by related modules like the quantum dynamic structure chip.

Therefore, module slots were always in short supply; there was never such a thing as having plenty.

And this was only for tech-related modules. As the Doomsday Game progressed, the Doomsday Worlds were not limited to a single genre.

However, the changes Qi Suian had wrought caused a massive shift in the Doomsday Game’s progression, so he couldn’t rely on a reincarnator’s memories as a guide.

If foresight isn’t updated in real-time, it can’t compete with the butterfly effect.

Thus, Qi Suian only used it at the start and basically stopped relying on it later.

This was not only because it could easily mislead him, but also because that foresight was no longer usable.

Fortunately, Qi Suian didn’t rely on this foresight, but on his protagonist halo and his own abilities.

This could, in a way, be considered breaking free from his shackles.

Before long, he arrived at the location of King Zhen Ao’s treasure vault.

[The treasure vault has already been opened. The items inside have likely been taken.]

"When did this happen?" Qi Suian asked.

It was true he had a protagonist halo, but if the vault had been opened a century or so ago, he couldn’t just make the treasure reappear out of thin air.

[Estimated time: two days ago. The tracks are untraceable, having been covered by snow.]

The moment the smart brain finished speaking, Qi Suian’s eyes narrowed.

He could have understood if it had been a hundred years ago, or even a month or two ago.

But for someone to have snatched his prize from under his nose just two days ago... that was truly remarkable.

Of course, it might have been his own fault. After all, he hadn’t interrogated the giant clam immediately after capturing it, choosing instead to continue researching his virus talent.

"Let’s go in and take a look." After Qi Suian spoke, the Tai Sui God smoothly entered through the existing passage.

The smart brain, meanwhile, began analyzing the tracks and quickly reached a conclusion.

[There was only one intruder. They appear to possess some form of spatial technology, which they used to take everything.]

[The vault originally contained a large quantity of items. Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible to carry everything away in a single trip, even with sufficient strength.]

The vault was sealed, so the snow couldn’t get in, which meant tracks were left behind.

The smart brain used these tracks to quickly reconstruct the entire event and create a virtual simulation.

It showed a single person walking in and, with practiced ease, storing everything away into some kind of spatial storage.

Then, they simply swaggered out.

’It must be a special ability born from cold energy.’

’But the problem is, given the current ambient concentration of cold energy, possessing such a large space shouldn’t be possible.’ Qi Suian voiced this question.

[Insufficient data. Unable to deduce the reason.]

"Could it be the protagonist of the Cold Winter World?" Qi Suian said softly. "Aside from him, I really can’t think of any other possibility."

’My own protagonist halo, maybe because it’s devoured the halos of too many other protagonists, seems to have an instinct for getting us entangled with each other.’

[It’s possible. However, it could also be an existence similar to Chunyu Hu. After all, there are still dormant beings from the previous Cold Energy Era in the Cold Winter World.]

The smart brain was being objective, not just pinning the blame on the protagonist for everything.

"That’s true. But whether it’s him or not isn’t very important now."

"They’ve already taken everything. Let’s see if there are any scraps left," Qi Suian said.

Since it was already a done deal, Qi Suian wasn’t particularly angry, nor did he yell and scream.

To him, this was always a windfall. Getting his hands on it would have been great, of course.

But it didn’t matter if he couldn’t. The treasure had just been sitting here; for someone to get to it first was a testament to their own skill and luck.

’I can’t just expect only me to be lucky and no one else, right?’

’Besides, with my luck, it’s unlikely I came all this way for nothing. Maybe I can still find something good.’

[The reconnaissance network has already scanned the area. Nothing was left behind.]

[The intruder was extremely thorough in their collection. They are very experienced.]

The smart brain stated bluntly, an area in which it excelled.

Hearing this, Qi Suian could only nod. "What a pity. Let’s go, then."

He had come all this way for nothing, but he could just chalk it up to a relaxing trip.

What else could he do? If he could find the person who took the vault’s contents, Qi Suian could still hunt them down and make them cough it all back up.

But since he couldn’t find them, there was nothing to be done.

As the Tai Sui God left, it unleashed a Ghost Energy Storm that disintegrated the entire treasure vault.

Since he’d come all this way, he figured if he couldn’t get any benefits, he should at least leave something behind.

"By the way, how do you think the giant clam knew about the Treasure Vault of Zhen Ao?" Qi Suian suddenly noticed a blind spot.

It was true that the giant clam was one of King Zhen Ao’s Iron Armor Generals, but from its speech, it was easy to tell it was hardly an important figure.

Its role was basically that of a security guard, at most.

And yet, it somehow knew about the Treasure Vault of Zhen Ao. That was truly incredible.

[That is indeed rather inconceivable. However, if you attribute the matter to your protagonist halo, then everything becomes logical.]

The smart brain’s answer was perfectly reasonable and well-founded.

"Well..." Qi Suian couldn’t argue with that.

[Of course, if you were to interrogate it, you might be able to learn some secrets.]

[However, there is a significant chance it would be some eye-searing old gossip, not the intelligence you’re looking for.]

[Even if it were important intelligence, it would be useless after all this time.]

In other words, he could definitely get an answer if he asked, but that answer wouldn’t necessarily be of any use. It would likely just be a waste of time.

Previously, while its intelligence was lowered, it had already divulged all the important information. Anything it hadn’t said was likely useless junk.

"You make a lot of sense." Qi Suian listened to the Tai Sui God’s analysis and decided to ask it casually anyway.

It was a ’better safe than sorry’ situation.

Besides, it wasn’t like the giant clam couldn’t talk while he was researching it.

-----------------

"I’ve finally mastered the basics." A joyful expression appeared on Tang Qing’s face.

He had been practicing the Taiyin Refining Technique for a while with little progress.

This was partly due to his poor aptitude, and partly due to a lack of resources.

Poor aptitude wasn’t a huge problem. As long as he had enough resources, he could brute-force his way up.

That’s why he thought of a fairly famous rumor from his past life: the Treasure Vault of Zhen Ao.

He even took a huge detour for it, forgoing killing the Ice Dragon first.

He never expected it to be real, and he’d managed to snatch it up ahead of schedule.

After using up more than half the resources from the Treasure Vault of Zhen Ao, he was finally able to master the basics.

’It’s a shame my aptitude is so poor.’

’Otherwise, these resources would have been enough for me to break through to the third level of the Taiyin Refining Technique.’ Tang Qing’s eye twitched at the thought.

’I consume a full portion of resources but only get one percent of the benefit.’

’But it’s fine. I remember from my past life that there are many treasures that can improve one’s aptitude. They were only rumors, but there’s a good chance they’re real.’

’As long as I can get my hands on them, I can improve my situation.’

’Even if I can’t, it doesn’t matter. The Treasure Vault of Zhen Ao wasn’t the only such place mentioned in the rumors of my past life.’

’With my foresight, once they’re in my hands, I can become a powerhouse just by piling up resources.’ Tang Qing was very confident in himself.

However, he had also clearly noticed something. Because of his various actions after his rebirth, the advantage of his foresight was slowly fading.

Aside from the fact that he had only lived for three months and everything he knew was hearsay, every action he took was also changing a critical juncture in the future.

So, the further along he went, the fewer opportunities he would likely be able to snatch.

He was contemplating his next steps.

After all, Tang Qing wasn’t so arrogant as to believe he could ignore all consequences just because of his three-month head start.