Chapter 134: Memory Fragments in the Frost Soul Sword

Shen Yan felt as if he had been stuffed into an old-style printer, his entire body repeatedly pulled and stretched within a data stream until his bones were nearly falling apart. Just as he thought he was about to be formatted into raw code, a hand clamped tightly around his wrist.

It was Ye Zhao.

Her hand was cold as ice, yet she gripped him fiercely, her sword qi surging back through his meridians, shaking his internal organs until they trembled. Then came a sharp “crack,” as if something had shattered.

The Frost Soul Sword had fractured.

Not broken in two, but from the tip, inch by inch, it dissolved into fine points of light, floating in the air like stardust scattered by the wind. But these fragments did not fall; instead, they slowly began to rotate, forming a ring of light that projected an image—

A mountain valley filled with wind and snow, a figure in a tattered cloak sprinting while clutching a bundle of swaddling clothes, pursued by a dark shadow, blade flashes slicing through the snowy veil. The figure turned to block, revealing half a face—unmistakably a young Xie Wujiu!

Shen Yan’s pupils contracted sharply.

The image flashed by in just seven seconds, but it was enough to see a hidden pattern embroidered on the hem of the cloak: an inverted triangle, identical to the Mystic Gate command token in his pocket. Even more absurdly, a line of small text appeared in the corner, a crooked rune structure he recognized at a glance—the “Oath-Keeping Rune” Yu Xiaotang loved to use when drawing talismans.

“Holy…” He was about to speak when his phone suddenly lit up on its own.

A recording emerged, a deep, hoarse male voice: “When the ice lotus appears, give her my source code… She is the only one who can bear the ‘Heavenly Dao Compilation Authority.'”

The moment the words fell, Ye Zhao trembled violently.

Frost energy exploded from beneath her feet, the ground’s blue bricks instantly freezing over, spiderweb-like ice patterns spreading outward. Above her head floated a lotus flower, its nine petals fully bloomed, each one formed of pure sword intent, crystalline and translucent, yet so sharp they could slice through space.

“This is… an awakening?” Yu Xiaotang’s eyes widened, the candied hawthorn in her hand nearly dropping to the ground. “I thought the sword qi lotus in the legends was made up!”

Luo Li’s ears twitched, her tail stiffening. “Something’s wrong. This aura shares the same origin as the sword intent in that memory just now, but her body has clearly been under a seal all along.”

Shen Yan didn’t have time to explain. He grabbed Ye Zhao’s wrist. Her pulse was chaotic, spiritual power rampaging through her meridians—if this continued, she would surely explode.

“Don’t force it. Let me guide it.” As he spoke, he mobilized his source code spiritual root, sending a gentle stream of data into her body.

The instant their palms touched, the terminal interface flashed a notice:

【High-Level Spiritual Root Resonance Detected】

【Initiate Coordinated Operation Mode?】

Without hesitation, he confirmed.

In the next second, Ye Zhao’s aura stabilized, the ice lotus’s radiance receding as it slowly rotated above her head. But her gaze remained somewhat vacant, her lips moving: “That child… was it you?”

“Most likely.” Shen Yan gave a bitter smile. “Seems I didn’t awaken because of a car accident; someone arranged this script for me a thousand years ago.”

Yu Xiaotang stepped closer, staring at the still-dissipating memory fragments. “Wait, my dad said the Oath-Keeping Rune is our family’s ancestral contract mark, only activated by a blood oath… Could my old ancestor have been involved too?”

Luo Li narrowed her eyes. “There’s a fluctuation of the Demon Clan’s Forbidden Technique in that image, very subtle, like an interference formation used to obscure space-time coordinates. Who could have tampered with something like this a thousand years ago?”

“Pointless to ask now,” Shen Yan shook his head. “The key is, who is the ‘she’ mentioned in the recording? It can’t be referring to you, can it?” He looked at Ye Zhao.

Ye Zhao frowned. “I don’t know. But the jade pendant my mother left behind has been heating up recently.”

The three fell silent simultaneously.

The blue light at the well’s mouth continued to flicker, the residual waves of the Data Stream rippling like water. Shen Yan looked down at his phone; the Terminal was parsing the final scene frame by frame, the progress bar stuck at 97%.

“Just a little more…” he gritted his teeth, forcibly calling upon his remaining computational power to initiate a reverse frame capture program.

The image finally froze.

In the snow, the Celestial Clan Outcast holding the infant turned slightly, her profile clearly visible—the brow bone, the bridge of the nose, the curve of her lips, almost identical to Shen Yan’s.

“Is this my father?” His throat felt dry.

And in that moment of his stunned silence, a faint tremor came from deep within the well, as if something had been awakened. A thin crack split the ground, releasing wisps of cold air that resonated with the ice lotus above Ye Zhao’s head, humming and buzzing.

“Not good!” Luo Li hissed. “The underground formation is waking up!”

She immediately flung out three chains of Demon Power, wrapping them around the well’s edge to set up a Barrier. Yu Xiaotang reacted just as quickly, tearing off a strawberry-scented Talisman Paper and sticking it over the crack. A sweet, cloying Spiritual Energy spread out, neutralizing the overload of cold.

Shen Yan continued parsing the data while pulling Ye Zhao back a few steps. Her hand was still trembling, but he didn’t let go.

“If you had been a second later just now, I really would have been sucked in,” he said quietly.

“That’s why I didn’t let you go,” she looked up at him, her gaze clear. “You said it yourself—no matter how real the world of Code is, it can’t replace the bonds in reality.”

His heart trembled at her words.

The Terminal suddenly chimed.

The final frame was parsed.

In the corner of the enlarged image appeared a blurry figure—a woman standing on a distant cliff, quietly watching everything unfold. She wore a light green robe in the Medicine Valley style, with a jade hairpin in her hair.

“Pei Yue?” Yu Xiaotang exclaimed. “Didn’t her senior sister disappear twenty years ago?”

Shen Yan stared at the hairpin, suddenly remembering something.

Every time Pei Yue treated his injuries, she would hum a Children’s Rhyme. That day outside the medicine furnace, he had heard it once too.

And now, the same melody faintly drifted up from the bottom of the well, light as the wind, yet sending chills down all four of their spines.

“This isn’t a coincidence,” Luo Li lowered her voice. “Someone is using memories as a Key to open a door.”

Shen Yan took a deep breath and put away his phone. “The door is open, but we’re not ready to face what’s coming.”

He turned to Ye Zhao. “How long can you hold on in your current state?”

“As long as you don’t let go, I can hold on until dawn,” she said calmly, though the corner of her mouth lifted slightly.

Yu Xiaotang rolled her eyes. “Oh, for goodness’ sake, if the Code Warrior and the Ice-Faced Sword Maiden want to flaunt their affection, fine, but can we first figure out how to shut this well that’s spewing memory attacks?”

Before she finished speaking, the blue light at the well’s mouth suddenly intensified.

A new Data Stream shot up into the sky, forming three large characters in mid-air:

【Verification Passed】

Immediately after, all the Runes on the well walls lit up, arranging themselves into a spiral staircase that extended downward into the deep darkness.

Shen Yan stared at the steps, his heartbeat quickening.

He knew this was more than just a channel restart.

It was an invitation.

And also a trap.

But he had no way back now.

“Are we going or not?” Yu Xiaotang poked his shoulder.

“Going.” He flexed his wrist and pulled out a Programming Pen. “But this time, we’ll follow my pace.”

Luo Li’s ears twitched: “There’s breathing below—not at a human frequency.”

Ye Zhao stood up, the ice lotus slowly rotating: “Then let it witness what true compilation execution efficiency looks like.”

The four of them formed a circle. Shen Yan grasped Ye Zhao’s hand, Yu Xiaotang clutched the hem of his clothes, and Luo Li’s tail gently coiled around their ankles.

He opened the Terminal and entered the final line of the Command:

【Initiate: Cooperative Leap Protocol】

【Executor: All Bound】

【Target: Underlying Data Core】

As the pillar of light rose, he heard himself say:

“Ready?”

Ye Zhao tightened her grip on his hand in return: “Anytime.”

Yu Xiaotang grinned: “Let’s just charge ahead!”

Luo Li whispered: “Don’t forget the way back.”

The staircase began to ascend, energy surged at the well’s mouth, and blue light swallowed all their figures.

The last frost flower fell on the empty ground, slowly melting away.

(End of Chapter)