Chapter 137: Talisman Array Shock Reveals Demon Lord’s Claws

Before Shen Yan could wipe the drop of blood from his shoulder, the ashes of the Talisman Paper in the crack beneath his feet suddenly trembled. His pupils contracted as his phone automatically popped up an interface: 【Detected high-level Talisman Array activity fluctuations】.

“They’re here so fast.” He gritted his teeth, his fingertips swiftly swiping across the screen to pull up the environmental spectrum scanning program.

Dark red patterns seeped from the gaps between the bricks on the warm pavilion floor, pulsing slowly like blood vessels. Thirty-six Purification Talismans hung in mid-air, their originally bright vermilion Runes gradually glowing with a bloody light. The Spiritual Energy was so chaotic that even his Source Code Spiritual Root experienced latency in response.

“This isn’t a purification formation… This is a reverse summoning ritual.” He cursed under his breath, “Yu Xiaotang, what exactly have you done?”

Before his words faded, the first Talisman Paper suddenly flipped over, revealing twisted ancient Devil Clan script on its back—Clone Creation Guide.

Immediately after, the second, the third… All Talismans simultaneously restructured, their patterns intertwining to form an inverted pentagram Projection, its center pointing directly deep underground.

Shen Yan’s fingers paused, cold sweat trickling down his temple: “The entire Formation has been tampered with? Who could complete a reverse Compile without destroying its structure?”

Just as he was about to manually inject a segment of interference Code, he suddenly heard a soft sound from above.

Looking up, he saw Yu Xiaotang flipping down from the crossbeam. Her goose-yellow ruqun was covered in dust, one of her twin ponytails was askew, and she still clutched half an uneaten Candied Hawthorn in her hand.

“Brother Shen!” She stumbled upon landing, nearly falling flat on her face, “Don’t touch those talismans! They’ve already…”

Before she could finish, her entire body suddenly stiffened.

Her pupils instantly flushed crimson, and her fingertips uncontrollably traced through the air. A bloody mark materialized out of thin air, outlining a complete Devil Clan sacrificial text.

“Damn it!” Shen Yan rushed forward to pull her back but was repelled by an invisible force.

He watched as the Talisman Papers in her Cosmic Bag ignited one after another, transforming into crimson chains that bound her limbs, slowly lifting her into the air. Those eyes, which always stuck out her tongue while drawing talismans, now looked hollow, as if her soul had been sucked away.

“Permission Override Protocol, load!” Shen Yan ignored the pain, slamming his palm onto the ground. His phone screen exploded with a mess of garbled Code.

Suppressing the turbulence in his Consciousness Sea, he pushed his Source Code Spiritual Root to its limit, attempting to simulate a high-level Talisman Master’s Command Key. But just as the Program ran halfway, Yu Xiaotang suddenly struggled violently. She bit through the Tip of her Tongue, spraying essence blood into the air to draw a crooked yet clear Warning Talisman.

“Brother Shen, run!” Her voice trembled, as if fighting something for control of her body, “They’re using my blood to summon the Demon Lord’s Clone! This isn’t a purification formation… It’s a sacrificial gate!”

The moment the last word left her lips, the entire Talisman Array collapsed with a roar.

The ground split open into a gaping maw. A bloody vortex, howling with fierce winds, swept up and sucked her whole body inside.

“Yu Xiaotang!” Shen Yan lunged to the edge, only managing to grab a charred fragment of Talisman Paper.

The wind stopped.

The warm pavilion returned to deathly silence.

But his phone was still vibrating.

【Warning: Detected cross-dimensional summoning array. Immediate evacuation recommended】

“Evacuate my ass.” He wiped his face, directly shutting off the safety Notice and opening the unlocked functional area. “If I leave now, she’ll truly never come back.”

He sat cross-legged, pressing his right hand against the edge of the fissure while his left hand rapidly coded the “Reverse Decompilation · Deep Probe” Program.

Lines of code scrolled past, the meridians beneath his skin beginning to burn as if molten lava surged through his blood vessels. He knew this was the side effect of overusing the Source Code Spiritual Root—it could blow up on the spot if mishandled—but there was no time to worry about that now.

The moment the probe program connected to the underground energy flow, his vision abruptly went dark.

Not truly dark—his consciousness had been forcibly dragged into the data space.

A panoramic map unfolded before his eyes: the entire palace foundation had been transformed into a massive blood curse formation. Nine dragon vein nodes pulsed like nine beating hearts, each Earth Vein entwined with blood threads as fine as gossamer, all converging toward the central altar.

And beneath each node, a small vial of dark red liquid was buried.

He zoomed in, making out the handwriting on the label: Extracted from Sample T-09, Purity 98.7%.

“Yu Xiaotang’s blood… collected in advance?” His throat tightened. “No wonder she said, ‘That’s my life.'”

Just as he prepared to dig deeper, the terminal suddenly displayed an encrypted message.

The source identifier flashed “T-09,” and the content was only one line of speech-to-text:

“Don’t let them get the third ingredient—that’s my life!”

The signal cut off abruptly.

Shen Yan stared at that sentence for a full three seconds, then suddenly laughed.

“You really… always leave me a backup at the most absurd times,” he murmured, his finger striking the Enter key heavily on the screen. “Fine, this time, I’ll be your cheat.”

He reopened the decompilation module and began reverse-engineering the core logic of the blood curse formation.

The more he saw, the more alarmed he became.

This formation was not merely a summoning ritual but a cross-dimensional identity authentication system—using Yu Xiaotang’s bloodline as the key to activate resonance across the nine dragon veins and open a passage to the Demon Lord’s true form.

Once the final node was injected, the Demon Lord’s clone could be reborn through possession.

And the location of the ninth node…

He zoomed in on the coordinates, his pupils contracting sharply.

Right beneath the dragon throne in the Hall of Golden Chimes.

“So Xie Wujiu summoned me to the palace not to hold me accountable,” he sneered. “It was to make me watch them complete the ritual.”

As he was about to close the interface, he suddenly noticed a hidden subroutine quietly running in the corner.

Clicking into it, the code structure looked extremely familiar.

It was an automatic backup script he had written half a year ago, specifically for recording combat data.

But this version… had a few unfamiliar lines of comments.

He read them word by word, his heartbeat quickening.

“If you see this code, it means I’m already gone.”

“I’ve hidden memory fragments in every bug you wrote.”

“The third ingredient isn’t a medicinal herb… it’s my heart.”

“Save me, or kill me—it’s up to you.”

—Xiaotang

Shen Yan’s fingers froze.

He remembered the first time he met Yu Xiaotang, when she grinned while munching on candied hawthorn and said, “Brother Shen, your code is as ugly as my talismans, but it works pretty well!”

Later, she would secretly stuff candy into his bag, saying programmers shouldn’t suffer too much.

Later still, to help him modify the combat program, she stayed up for three nights straight, finally falling asleep on the keyboard with strawberry jam smeared at the corner of her mouth.

So she had been writing her own epitaph all along.

In the language he knew best.

He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, only resolve remained.

“You want to be the sacrifice?” he whispered. “Sorry, but the program I wrote doesn’t allow users to exit without permission.”

He deleted all safety restrictions, pushed the Source Code Spiritual Root’s output power to two hundred percent, and began writing an unprecedented antivirus code.

Not defense, not interference.

But Format.

A destructive attack directly targeting the core protocol of the Blood Curse Array.

Frenzied characters scrolled across the screen. His arms had already begun to tremble, and blood seeped from his nostrils, but he didn’t stop.

Until the final line of code was entered.

【Program Name: God-Slaying Patch.exe】

【Function Description: Forcibly terminates all illegal summoning processes, with soul-level cleansing effects】

【Risk Notice: May trigger chain collapse; host survival probability below 17%】

“Seventeen is still better than zero.” He grinned and pressed the execute key.

In an instant, all his meridians felt as if struck by lightning.

A dull roar echoed from underground as nine dragon vein nodes simultaneously erupted with blinding red light. From the direction of the Golden Luan Hall, the faint tolling of bells could be heard, as if some ancient ritual was being forcibly initiated.

He knelt at the edge of the fissure, his right hand still pressed against the ground to receive data feedback, while the screen on his left hand continuously refreshed the decryption progress bar.

The code flow flickered at his fingertips like dying fireflies.

Gasping for breath, he stared into the darkness that had swallowed Yu Xiaotang, his voice hoarse yet resolute:

“Wait for me. I’ll write a bug that can kill the System.”

Deep underground, crimson runes slowly rotated, like the opening eyes of a colossal beast.

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(End of Chapter)