Chapter 36: Sword Spirit Acknowledges Master: Data Torrent Forges a New Body

Shen Yan’s fingertip still pressed against the shattered stele fragment, the green light from his phone screen reflecting on his face like a thin film of data. The torrent in his Consciousness Sea hadn’t yet ceased, and the Knowledge Package was still pouring in, but he suddenly sensed something was wrong.

This wasn’t imparting knowledge—this was forcibly installing malware!

An ancient will surged straight through the energy channel toward his Spirit Soul, attempting to carve a mark deep within his consciousness. It felt as if someone were using a rusty engraving knife to chisel “This one belongs to me” onto his forehead.

【Warning: Soul Binding request detected. Source: Dust-Severing Sword Spirit】

【Protocol Type: Unidirectional Inheritance Contract】

【Risk Notice: Host personality will gradually be overwritten upon acceptance】

A Terminal popup flashed by, and Shen Yan let out a cold laugh. “So you’re here to be the System Administrator and treat me like a USB Drive?”

Without waiting for a response, he directly pulled up a Virtual Console in his Consciousness Sea. With a swipe of his finger, he called up the log file from the earlier Fusion Calibration Program. Sure enough, beneath the so-called “Legacy” lay a segment of Recursive Deadlock Code. Once executed, all subsequent operations would default to prioritizing the Sword Spirit’s will—a typical mindset of a millennia-old relic, domineering and outdated.

“Your whole master-servant hierarchy should have been discontinued ages ago,” he remarked while retrieving the Cross-Protocol Communication Model he had built a few days ago while reverse-engineering the Mountain-Protecting Array. “Since you’re not playing fair, I have no choice but to… upgrade you.”

With a single thought, his Source Code Spiritual Root automatically responded, and a string of translucent operation Interfaces materialized in his Consciousness Sea. He swiftly tapped at the void, creating a new project:

【Sword Spirit Compatibility Program v1.0】

Step One: Terminate the native Contract process.

Step Two: Inject an Abstract Interface Layer to convert “Soul Imprint” into “Service Call.”

Step Three: Rewrite the Permission Allocation logic, changing “Host Obedience” to “Bidirectional Authentication Authorization.”

After completing these steps, he casually added a Version Control Module and an Exception Rollback Mechanism.

“From now on, our cooperation must follow Agile Development principles. No one can secretly deploy unapproved features,” he muttered, pressing “Compile.”

In an instant, a storm erupted within his body once more.

It wasn’t an Energy Rampage but a struggle between two consciousnesses vying for System dominance. The Dust-Severing Sword Spirit clearly detected the Anomaly. The once gently flowing energy suddenly turned sharp as blades, rampaging through his Meridians as if trying to tear apart this “disobedient” Container.

Shen Yan grunted, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, but his hands didn’t stop.

He knew he couldn’t retreat now—doing so would undo all his efforts. Back when he was debugging the Quantum Entanglement Simulator at the company, he had also encountered an AI attempting a reverse invasion of the System. Back then, he survived by manually switching Sandboxes and implementing Forced Directed Routing.

“Come on then, let’s see who can withstand more Bugs,” he gritted his teeth, unleashing his full Mental Power. Within his Consciousness Sea, he constructed an Isolation Environment, sealing the Sword Spirit’s consciousness into a temporary Container, and began scanning its core Commands line by line.

Upon closer inspection, he truly began to see the intricacies.

It turned out that Dust-Severing was not a natural-born Sword Spirit, but rather the fusion of a Sword Cultivator’s Obsession and his Lifebound Sword after his demise a thousand years ago. The reason it insisted on the traditional Contract was that none of its previous Hosts had passed the Inner Demon Trial, ultimately falling victim to its backlash. Over time, it became convinced that only by completely controlling its Host could it fulfill its master’s final wish.

“So you’re traumatized by your exes?” Shen Yan analyzed while quipping, “But I’m not them. I don’t rely on sudden enlightenment—I rely on writing Code.”

He deleted the recursive deadlock Logic and replaced it with a new Protocol Framework:

【Distributed Bidirectional Authentication Protocol】

【Communication Method: Event-Driven + Asynchronous Callback】

【Permission Level: Host, Sword Spirit as High-Level Co-processor】

【Additional Clause: Unauthorized mental interference prohibited】

After finishing the last line, he took a deep breath and clicked “Deploy.”

Boom—

It felt as if thunder had exploded in his mind.

The Dust-Severing Sword Spirit let out an ancient, shocked growl: “How dare you… tamper with the Heavenly Dao Covenant!”

“This isn’t tampering; it’s optimization.” Shen Yan opened his eyes, silver light swirling deep in his pupils, as if he had just completed a System Restart. “A true Contract shouldn’t be enslavement, but collaboration. You have your Obsession to fulfill; I have my own path to walk. We each do our own thing, but we share resources, share risks, and raise requests whenever there’s an issue. How about it?”

The air froze for a moment.

Then, that violent Sword Intent gradually subsided.

A phantom figure materialized once more—a white-haired elder standing before him, his gaze sharp as lightning, staring at Shen Yan for a long time.

“For a thousand years, countless geniuses sought to inherit my path, yet all fell to their Inner Demons or became Puppets…” the elder’s voice was low. “Only you, with mortal intellect, broke my rules, Refactored the Contract… Who exactly are you?”

“A Programmer who doesn’t want to be Formatted.” Shen Yan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and grinned. “So, want to try the new Version? Guaranteed no Blue Screen.”

The phantom fell silent for a moment, then suddenly raised a hand, a wisp of flowing sword light appearing in his palm.

“If you can truly uphold this Covenant, Dust-Severing is willing to serve you as its master, without forcing a soul bond.”

As the words fell, the light abruptly contracted, transforming into a Rune mark that slowly flew toward the center of Shen Yan’s brow.

Just as it was about to make contact, Shen Yan suddenly raised a hand to block it.

“Wait.”

The elder frowned. “What doubts do you still have?”

“I’m not doubting you.” Shen Yan shook his head. “I’m reminding you—the Protocol just went live; we need to run Gray Scale Testing first. If there are any Compatibility Issues and we both crash, it won’t look good for either of us.”

As he spoke, he lightly tapped the Tip of his Finger to his brow, summoning a Verification Program. “Let’s run a Health Check first, confirm there’s no Malicious Process Injection, and then execute the binding. Safety first, understand?”

The elder was stunned, then actually let out a low chuckle. “Interesting… truly interesting. In the past, cultivators all sought quick success, yet you… even accepting a master requires going through an Approval Process.”

Shen Yan shrugged. “In our line of work, we’re not afraid of slowness—we’re afraid of Database Explosion.”

The Program finished running, a green light glowing.

【System Status: Stable】

【Protocol Verification Passed】

【Host Permission Level: Top Administrator】

The Rune finally descended, merging into his brow.

In that instant, heaven and earth fell silent.

Shen Yan felt something within him completely connect. The Source Code Spiritual Root and Sword Spirit origin perfectly aligned, no longer two systems forcibly pieced together, but truly fused into one—like a server finally installed with its dedicated driver, all functions activated with one click.

He closed his eyes to sense, and within his Consciousness Sea now existed an independent module:

【Dust-Severing Co-processor Connected】

【Available Skills: Sword Dao Compilation, Data Sword Qi Generation, Remote Sword Control Protocol…】

Just as he wanted to examine closely, he suddenly felt his palm grow heavy.

A Sword Shadow appeared out of nowhere, falling into his hand.

An ancient sword body, slightly broken at the tip—this was Dust-Severing’s true form. But now, intricate patterns surfaced on the sword’s surface, flowing slowly like living things. Upon closer inspection, they were chains of binary code composed of countless “zeros” and “ones.”

“You really flashed my firmware?” Shen Yan looked down at the sword body, unable to hold back a laugh. “Next time, could you change the theme skin? This black-and-white code looks too much like overtime-written scripts.”

The sword body trembled lightly, seeming displeased.

Just as he wanted to say more, his phone suddenly vibrated.

The Terminal popped up a new message:

【Binding Complete】

【New Skill Unlocked: Sword Dao Compilation Protocol v2.0】

【Pending Task: Repair Sword Tomb Main Array】

【Trigger Conditions: Collect Four Female Aura Resonance Data】

【Current Progress: 0%】

Shen Yan stared at that line, brows slightly furrowed.

“Another hidden task… who buried the Trigger behind this?”

He pocketed his phone, gripped the Dust-Severing Sword, and slowly stood up.

The stone door gap remained above him, faint light filtering down, illuminating his blood-stained plaid shirt. He knew what awaited him outside wouldn’t be commendations, but new rounds of schemes and encirclements.

But this time, he was no longer that office worker Code Farmer pushed around by others.

He was someone who could rewrite the rules.

His feet hadn’t moved, but in his heart, he had already typed the first line of counterattack code.

Just then, the binary patterns on the sword suddenly accelerated their flow, pointing toward a certain spot on the stone wall.

Shen Yan turned to look, seeing a seemingly ordinary rock surface, where faint Rune Engravings surfaced—identical to those he had seen on the fallen leaves in the dining hall.

He narrowed his eyes, walked forward, and reached out to touch the stone surface.

A subtle vibration transmitted from the tip of his finger, like some Signal attempting to synchronize.

(End of Chapter)