Chapter 13: Auction Storm: The Sweet Trap of Strawberry Talismans

As Shen Yan stuffed the “Nameless Sword Manual” into his backpack, his phone vibrated. A notice popped up on the Terminal Interface: “High-level Sword Intent residue detected. Recommended fusion progress: 17%.” He narrowed his eyes, swiped his finger across the screen, and muttered under his breath, “This is just the beginning. I’ll need to get some real hardcore stuff later.”

He didn’t return to Medicine Valley, nor did he head to the bamboo forest. Instead, he went straight to the old industrial district in the east of the city. There was an underground auction house there, hidden behind an abandoned substation. The entrance was connected to a drainage pipe, forcing you to duck your head every five steps—it was like crawling through a dog hole. Such places were a mixed bag, but Magical Artifacts were cheap and full of Vulnerabilities, perfect for a technical player like him who relied on modifying Code for Opportunistic Acquisition.

The auction list for tonight had just been pushed through. Shen Yan scanned it once and immediately locked onto his target—Black Tortoise Armor. The starting bid was thirty thousand Spirit Stones, and its Spiritual Energy Fluctuation showed a slight tremor, as if the built-in Formation had been tampered with. His Terminal automatically analyzed an anomalous waveform: “Suspected nested anti-piracy lock. Triggers self-destruction upon activation.” A smirk tugged at his lips. “Isn’t this just an encrypted Driver? Just dismantle and reinstall it.”

He put on his headphones, aimed his phone camera toward the display platform, and activated “Recursive Perception Mode.” Instantly, the Image was deconstructed into countless Data Streams. The Runes on the armor’s surface scrolled slowly before his eyes like lines of old Code. As he walked, he observed, already drafting a Decompilation Script in his mind.

“As long as I can snatch it on-site and flash a firmware right there, its defensive power will at least double,” he calculated. Just as he was about to enter, he suddenly caught sight of a young girl standing in a corner.

She wore a goose-yellow ruqun dress, with copper coin hair ties on her twin ponytails, and half a Candied Hawthorn stick dangling from her mouth. She was standing on tiptoe, peering at the display platform, while her brush swiftly drew something on her sleeve. Shen Yan’s gaze sharpened—the trajectory left by the brush tip carried faint Data disturbance, almost identical to the anomalous waveform captured by his Terminal.

“Someone’s already scoped it out?”

Before he could think further, the girl turned her head and gave him a sweet smile, casually handing him a cup of hot tea. “You must be tired, sir. Have something warm.”

Shen Yan instinctively reached for it, but the moment his fingers touched the cup wall, the System Alert exploded: “Warning! High-frequency Spiritual Power injection detected! Type: Talisman trap—Immobilization·Sweetheart Freeze Technique! Evasion failed!”

“Damn it, this tea is poisoned?!”

Before the words fully left his mouth, a pink light shot up from his fingertips, and his entire body instantly stiffened. His vision remained, his consciousness was clear, but his body was completely shut down, like a robot with its power cord pulled.

He watched helplessly as the girl bounced closer, pulled a small slip of paper from her sleeve, and stuck it on his forehead, giggling as she said, “Happy Debugging, Source Code big brother~” Then she turned and disappeared into the crowd.

Time ticked by, second by second.

Trapped within his own consciousness, Shen Yan’s Terminal Interface went black and dormant; he couldn’t even force a Restart. All he could do was stare blankly, his mind frantically scrolling: “What kind of Talisman is this? It can actually seal the Source Code Spiritual Root?! No way, I have to Reverse Analyze this when I get back, see if it uses API hijacking…”

Three hours later, the Restriction Seal within his body finally loosened.

With a click, like a Program ending its Loop, he staggered violently, almost falling to his knees. Most of the people around had long since dispersed, and the auction was nearly over.

He leaned against the wall to catch his breath, then raised his hand to look—a strawberry-flavored lollipop now rested in his palm. A sticky note was attached to the wrapper: “Source Code Candy~ Happy Debugging! —Xiaotang”

“Yu Xiaotang?” He muttered the name, his brow furrowed. “That troublemaker from the Talisman Dao family?”

Before he could react, a shout came from the auction stage: “Black Tortoise Armor, starting bid three hundred thousand! Any higher offers?”

Shen Yan looked up and saw a Mystic Gate elder personally stepping in, calling out a bid of a million in one breath. The other cultivators shook their heads and backed off, none daring to challenge.

He patted the phone in his backpack and sneered. “You’re fighting over the shell—I want the Core.”

He pulled up the Terminal, pretending to initiate the Decompilation Program while rapidly tapping on the screen. In reality, he was running a pre-set simulation Script. The surface of the armor immediately developed fine cracks, and its Spiritual Energy became chaotic, as if its Core had truly been breached.

The entire hall erupted in uproar.

“Who’s interfering with the Magical Artifact?!” the host exclaimed in shock.

Shen Yan calmly raised his bidding paddle. “Thirty thousand, Low-Grade Spirit Stones.”

Everyone froze. This price didn’t even meet the starting bid—it was pure disruption.

But just as the crowd began to question it, the armor exploded with a “pop,” releasing a cloud of pink smoke that filled the entire hall with a sweet, strawberry-like fragrance, reminiscent of air freshener.

As the smoke cleared, countless tiny hearts appeared in the air, slowly drifting downward. At the same time, everyone’s phones vibrated, their Screens displaying an anonymous message:

“Tonight at eight, meet at the Ferris wheel in the amusement park?”

The hall fell silent for two seconds before bursting into laughter.

“Who sent this?”

“What kind of prank is this?”

“The Ferris wheel? A hookup?”

Shen Yan stood rooted to the spot, clutching the strawberry lollipop, his face darkening. He recognized at a glance that the smoke’s diffusion pattern wasn’t caused by the armor self-destructing—it was a pre-embedded Talisman Array: “Strawberry Illusion Fragrance Array.” A classic Yu Xiaotang style—flashy, utterly harmless, but exceptionally annoying.

“She deliberately provoked me into making a move, then used a Talisman Array to hijack the communication Protocol and mass-send a message…” He gritted his teeth. “Is she using me as a test dummy?”

What was even more infuriating was that the message wasn’t just sent to everyone present—it also included location-sharing. He had already received over a dozen private messages from strangers: “Hey man, are you really going?” “Take me with you?” “What’s your relationship?”

Just as he was about to shut off his phone and block the entire network, he suddenly noticed that his Terminal had automatically captured a residual Signal—from the source of the message. Its Encryption method was extremely unusual, carrying a faint tremor characteristic of a Talisman Brush, as if the electronic Command had been written with a brush.

“Interesting,” he narrowed his eyes. “Talisman Dao + Data Stream, and the ability to remotely control communication links… This girl probably thinks of herself as a ‘human-shaped cheat.'”

He stuffed the lollipop into his pocket and turned to leave. Since she wanted to play, he’d play along to the end.

Just as he reached the street corner, his phone vibrated again.

A new message, unsigned, containing only a blurry photo: a rotating Ferris wheel under dim yellow lights, one of its gondolas half-open. Inside lay an open notebook, on which was drawn a crooked little figure holding a sword. Next to it was written: “if slash, debug successful!”

Shen Yan’s footsteps halted.

Wasn’t that his Code Comment?

He remembered clearly—that page of notes was tucked inside the layers of the Nameless Sword Manual. No one else had ever seen it.

The wind blew from the street corner, swirling a piece of candy wrapper into the air, where it spun twice.

He stood under the neon lights, staring at his phone screen, and murmured, “This Bug… is a bit sweet.”

He took a step forward, heading toward the amusement park.

With his left hand in his pocket, the tip of his finger brushed against the tin foil of the strawberry candy, still slightly warm.

(End of Chapter)