Chapter 6: Drinking Alone Under the Moon: The Sword Spirit Girl's Secret Observation

Shen Yan was jolted awake by the smell of blood on his own fingers.

He lay amidst a pile of shattered data fragments, like a beached fish. His phone was pressed against his chest, the screen still glowing, with only one bar of battery left, but the program interface was eerily quiet—no error reporting, no warnings, not even a system notification tone. The decompilation defense protocol explosion just now had been too intense, completely shattering the entire spatial logic, more thoroughly than the terrible code his ex had written.

He moved his arm, and a saw-like, dull pain shot through his ribs, as if someone had jammed a USB drive into the gaps between his bones thirty-six times. But he ignored it, first raising the phone to his eyes with his still-functional hand to confirm that the encryption node had automatically logged out and the tracking signal had jumped to a false coordinate. Safe, at least for now.

“Ghost mode initiated successfully,” he gasped, his voice as hoarse as an old-style printer jam. “Next time I pull this stunt, remember to buy a chassis with a cooling fan.”

He sat up straight against the wall, placed the phone on his knees, his fingertips trembling, yet he still opened the source code editor.

This was no time to rest. The previous battle had drained his mental power, and his body was on the verge of collapse, but he knew that without a stable defense mechanism in place, he wouldn’t even have a chance to escape the next time he encountered those Mystic Gate people.

Staring at the blank interface, he took a deep breath and began typing.

No flashy automated scripts this time, no recursive loops or backdoors. Just the simplest thing—a Spiritual Energy Shield.

Line by line, Chinese commands slowly appeared:

【Define Variable: Shield Strength = Low】

【Detect surrounding spiritual energy fluctuation frequency】

【If fluctuation value exceeds threshold, activate energy feedback mechanism】

【Loop detection interval: 0.5 seconds】

Gritting his teeth, he gently swiped his already-scabbed fingertip, reopening the old wound. A drop of blood fell onto the screen. Biometric key verification passed; permissions unlocked.

“Come on, don’t fail me now,” he muttered under his breath. “I don’t have a backup this time.”

The moment he pressed the enter key, his palm grew slightly warm. A faint cyan light membrane emerged from beneath his skin, slowly spreading like a thin veil, enveloping his entire body. No explosion, no garbled code, no system crash.

Finally, the terminal popped up a line of green text: 【Program run successful】【No anomaly error reporting】.

Shen Yan froze for two seconds, then suddenly burst into laughter, the sound as dry as sandpaper scraping against a wall.

“It worked… it really fucking worked.” Leaning against the wall, he tilted his head back and closed his eyes, feeling completely drained, yet the tension that had been wound tight all night in his heart finally loosened by an inch.

Thirty meters away, on the rooftop, Ye Zhao crouched behind the parapet, holding a slender, mirror-like tube formed from Sword Qi, aimed directly at Shen Yan’s direction.

She should have left by now. The mission log was complete, the anomalous spiritual energy fluctuations had been marked, and all that remained was to report to the sect. But she didn’t move.

From the very beginning, she had been watching the man in the plaid shirt. Watching him curl up in the ruins, watching him modify the code over and over despite his severe injuries, watching his fingers get cut again and again, blood mixing with sweat, leaving mottled stains on the phone screen.

When the third debugging attempt failed, he didn’t curse or smash his phone. He just lowered his head, licked his cracked lips, and started typing all over again.

That gaze didn’t resemble a cultivator’s; it was more like a madman stubbornly chasing down a bug.

Just as the shield took form, the Frost Soul Sword at her waist trembled faintly, emitting an extremely soft hum. Immediately after, the sword tassel swayed without any wind, glowing with a faint green light, as if awakened by something.

She looked down, her heart suddenly jolting.

That glow was identical to the patterns that had appeared on the ancient book cover her master had pressed into her hand before passing away.

“If you see the light of origin, do not strike, but protect…” she murmured the phrase she had heard hundreds of times, feeling for the first time that it was no longer an instruction but more like a prophecy.

She instinctively touched her left palm, where an old scar remained from touching a forbidden book as a child. It now felt faintly warm, as if responding to something.

Across from her, Shen Yan was still adjusting the shield parameters, muttering softly, “Shield thickness insufficient, need to add a dynamic adjustment module… otherwise, next time we encounter the scythe guy, we’ll be sliced right through.”

Ye Zhao narrowed her eyes.

Scythe guy? Ye Shi’er?

She didn’t speak or approach. As the Chief of the Sword Sect, she knew what she should do—report, surround, capture, interrogate. But at this moment, she found herself unable to make that decision.

The man was clearly so weak he could barely stand, yet he was still modifying the code. Not to escape, nor to counterattack, but… to make the next spell more stable.

Like someone fixing things, not fighting.

She withdrew her Sword Qi telescope, her fingers lightly stroking the sword hilt. The Frost Soul Sword’s vibrations gradually subsided, but the green light on the tassel continued to flicker intermittently, as if waiting for something.

Over on Shen Yan’s side, the shield suddenly flickered.

He frowned, quickly pulling up the log to check. The Terminal displayed a notice: 【External faint spiritual wave interference, source unknown】.

“Who?” He abruptly looked up, scanning the surrounding high-rises.

The night was deep, with countless lights twinkling—everywhere seemed to hide people, yet nowhere showed any movement.

He held his breath, fingers hovering above his phone, ready to initiate the escape protocol at any moment. But after a few seconds, nothing unusual happened.

“An illusion?” he muttered to himself. “Or is the system too exhausted and giving false alarms?”

What he didn’t know was that the moment he looked up, on the rooftop opposite, Ye Zhao’s fingers twitched slightly, and her Sword Qi quietly dissipated.

She hadn’t gone far. She had merely changed positions, landing in a darker corner, and formed a more concealed observation formation.

She wanted to watch a little longer.

To see if this person could truly turn that jumbled code into light.

Shen Yan found no further anomalies and sighed, tucking his phone into his pocket. The shield was still running, consuming significant energy but at least capable of holding for ten minutes. That was enough.

He leaned against the wall and slowly stood up, his legs a bit weak but still able to walk. Next, he needed to change locations—this building had already been targeted and was no longer safe.

He glanced up at the sky.

The moon was quite full, casting a silvery glow over the city. Suddenly remembering something, he pulled out a half-crushed pack of biscuits from his pocket and took a bite. Only when he was starving did he remember to eat—this was the true instinct of a corporate drone.

“Once this is over, the first meal has to be hotpot,” he thought while chewing. “Double portion of tripe, no cilantro.”

Just as he took a step, his phone suddenly vibrated.

It wasn’t a warning or a tracking signal, but a new message:

【Traceability Protocol_v0.1 Activated】

【Detected homologous Spiritual Root signal: distance ≈ thirty meters】

【Signal characteristics: Sword Intent carrier coding, bidirectional resonance】

Shen Yan halted his steps.

He slowly turned his head, gazing toward the rooftop of the pitch-black building opposite.

The wind was strong, whipping his hair into disarray. Squinting, he seemed to see a slender figure standing at the edge of the moonlight, hand resting on a sword hilt, motionless.

The two stared at each other across the distance, neither moving.

Three seconds later, the figure turned, leaped from the eaves, and vanished into the night.

Shen Yan remained where he stood, still clutching the half-eaten biscuit.

He glanced down at his phone. The final line of text on the Screen was slowly fading:

【Resonance duration: 7.3 seconds】

【Opponent did not initiate attack】

【Assessment: Observer = friendly?】

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(End of Chapter)