Chapter 121: The Ultimate Battle of Cross-Platform APIs

Shen Yan slowly withdrew his fingers from the crystal tablet, as if pulling out a piece of stuck code. He no longer looked at the “Choose or Return” notice, but instead stared down at the terminal interface, typing out a string of new instructions with his fingertips.

“Now is not the time to choose—it’s the time to fight before choosing.”

As soon as he finished speaking, orderly footsteps echoed outside the altar, shaking the earth. Waves of Spiritual Power rippled from afar, like a system being forcibly injected with a virus. Bai Guizhen stood at the forefront of the Mystic Gate army, his robes billowing, his jade thumb ring glowing with an eerie green light under the moonlight.

“Shen Yan!” His voice was loud, carrying a mesmerizing resonance. “The blood of the Demon Lord flows within you. If you do not seal it voluntarily, once the awakening is complete, it will be a calamity for all realms! Hand over your body, and I will ensure your Spirit Soul remains intact!”

Shen Yan sneered, tracing his fingers through the air to activate a hidden process—【Environment Perception Script】 initiated. Lines of Data Stream flashed across his vision, eventually locking onto the fleeting demonic pattern fluctuation near Bai Guizhen’s neck.

“Ye Zhao.” He whispered through telepathy, his tone reminiscent of discovering a bug during debugging. “I’ll draw his attention later; you find the chance to break his heart-protecting Formation Eye. That thing is hidden near his Dan Zhong Point, disguised as a meridian node, but it’s actually a data interface.”

Ye Zhao didn’t speak, only causing the Frost Soul Sword to tremble slightly, its tip pointing at Bai Guizhen’s throat with chilling coldness.

Bai Guizhen laughed, raising his hand and waving it. Nine golden talisman rings appeared in the air, layered and overlapping, encircling the altar, each inscribed with suppression incantation scripts.

“Nine-Layered Demon Seal Formation, activate!”

Instantly, Shen Yan felt a buzzing explosion in his mind, as if countless threads forcibly seized CPU resources. Yu Xiaotang groaned softly, leaning into Luo Li’s embrace, the demonic pattern on her clavicle flashing intensely, simulating a disrupted bloodline output.

“No… can’t hold on anymore…” She gasped, her face pale.

Shen Yan gritted his teeth, his Mental Power surging like tides toward the terminal, forcibly stabilizing the running frequency of 【Source Code Spiritual Root】. He knew this wasn’t just a battle; it was a life-and-death compatibility test between cross-platform systems.

“You’ve been questioning my identity, haven’t you?” He suddenly raised his head, grinning at the Mystic Gate crowd. “Then today, I’ll show you what real API integration looks like.”

With that, he retrieved four items from his chest one by one: a piece of ice flower residue, a fragment of a jade hairpin, a drop of dark red blood bead, and a piece of burnt talisman paper ash.

“Authentication Key loading.” He murmured.

The terminal interface suddenly expanded, with black-background green-text command lines scrolling wildly. Four different attributes of energy were parsed, encapsulated, and tagged one by one—

“Sword Sect ‘Frost Sky Slash’, connected!”

“Medicine Valley ‘Bone-Corrosion Poison Guide’, bound!”

“Demon Clan ‘Heart-Burning Formation Diagram’, authorized!”

“Devil Clan ‘Blood Pact Echo’, synchronized!”

The air abruptly twisted, four-colored Data Streams soared into the sky, intertwining into a spiral-shaped energy pillar high above, resembling a colorful fiber optic cable reaching toward the heavens. The entire Abyss altar resonated.

“This is impossible!” Bai Guizhen’s pupils contracted sharply. “Cultivation Technique systems are mutually exclusive; how can they possibly merge?!”

“You say it’s impossible?” Shen Yan chuckled while stabilizing the program. “That’s because you don’t understand cross-platform compatibility. Your Cultivation Realm’s APIs are all closed-source relics, while I—” He pressed down sharply with his fingertip, “—I write open-source protocols!”

The energy pillar crashed down, striking the Nine-Layered Demon-Sealing Array. Three golden rings shattered, and seven or eight Mystic Gate disciples collapsed on the spot.

Bai Guizhen roared in fury, forming hand seals as he activated the Soul Resonance Curse once more. In the void, the figures of a man and a woman materialized—precisely the likeness of Shen Yan’s parents from his memories.

“Child, come back… don’t walk this path…”

Shen Yan’s heart trembled, but the Terminal immediately flashed a warning: 【Detected memory forgery, authenticity below 60%】.

“Again with this trick?” He sneered, fingers flying as he input a reverse-tracing command. “Let me see where this data really came from.”

The Code flowed backward, instantly piercing through Bai Guizhen’s protective spiritual light and drilling deep into his Consciousness Sea. The next moment, a holographic projection appeared above the Altar—

The Image showed Bai Guizhen implanting fragments of Ye Shi’er’s Data into cultivation chambers, labeled beside them: “Seventh-Generation Puppet Body · Emotion Module Testing.” Then the scene shifted to him personally slaughtering dissidents, blood splattering onto a jade thumb ring, absorbed by some unknown force.

The Mystic Gate camp erupted into chaos.

“Is that… the Sect Leader’s privately stored experimental records?!”

“He was contaminated by Data long ago!”

Bai Guizhen’s face turned ashen as he crushed the jade thumb ring in his hand.

Boom—!

The fragments exploded, releasing hundreds of Data bodies of Ye Shi’er from within. Each wore a Bronze Mask and wielded a Blood-Colored Scythe, surrounding the Altar.

“You can replicate the Code…” Shen Yan did not retreat but instead stepped forward, pressing the Terminal directly toward the explosion’s epicenter. “…but you can’t replicate what they gave me.”

He pressed the confirmation key: 【Emotion Weight Authentication, Initiate】.

A stream of light swept across the scene, scanning all Data bodies. Most twisted and vanished upon contact with the light, like malicious Plugins failing security verification.

Only three remained standing.

They slowly removed their masks, revealing not killing intent but smiles—the same dimpled smiles Ye Shi’er had shown Shen Yan in childhood memories.

“So… you still remember,” Shen Yan murmured.

The three Data bodies did not attack. Instead, they turned to face Bai Guizhen, their scythes pointing in unison.

“Traitor,” they spoke as one. “What you stole was never power, but bonds that never belonged to you.”

Bai Guizhen roared, activating his final defense, only to be pierced through the chest by three scythe shadows. Staggering backward, his eyes filled with disbelief. “I only wanted to control fate… why… why do all of you possess such things…”

Before he could finish, his body turned to ashes, scattering with the wind.

The Altar fell silent once more.

Shen Yan slowly knelt, the Terminal Interface still running but its edges already beginning to pixelize and collapse. He knew all too well what this meant—Mental Power depletion, the System about to force a shutdown.

Luo Li knelt on one knee, her Fox Tail firmly shielding Yu Xiaotang. The Contract markings on her arm had dimmed, like indicator lights running out of power.

Ye Zhao held her sword, scanning the surroundings. The Frost Soul Sword remained unsheathed, her gaze sweeping over the lingering, un-dispersed Data Shadows, vigilance unwavering.

Yu Xiaotang leaned against Luo Li’s embrace, her breathing faint, yet she mustered the strength to lift her hand and gently touch Shen Yan’s cheek.

“Did you… secretly modify my Code again?” Her voice was as light as a Comment.

Shen Yan wanted to smile but found his facial muscles stiff. He could only use his last ounce of strength to press the Terminal into her hand.

On the Screen, the final line of Code flickered quietly:

【Guardian Process Never Terminates】

His eyelids grew heavier, his consciousness fading like a Program cleared from the Cache, gradually sinking into darkness.

Just as he was about to slip into complete unconsciousness, hurried footsteps echoed from the distance.

A familiar voice pierced through the air:

“Step aside! He is the one our Medicine Valley Saintess traded her life for—no one is allowed to touch him!”

(End of Chapter)