Chapter 105: Triple Traps in the Hotel

Shen Yan leaned against the wall, the blood from his right ear not yet fully dried, trickling down his neck into his shirt collar and sticking uncomfortably to his collarbone. He tapped his fingers lightly on the table three times, a habitual gesture as if pressing the Enter Key.

The Terminal Interface lit up silently, black background with green text floating deep within his pupils: 【Environment Scan Protocol Initiate】.

“Something’s moving,” he said.

Luo Li’s ears twitched, her tail instantly stiffening like a live wire. Yu Xiaotang, about to turn on the water dispenser’s faucet, paused at his words.

“Don’t touch the water,” Shen Yan lowered his voice. “There’s a living signal inside.”

Before he finished speaking, Yu Xiaotang had already let go and stepped back, but the half-filled cup of clear water still spilled onto the floor. From the cracks in the floorboards, a red thread as fine as a hair suddenly writhed, like a startled insect, and vanished into the corner.

“Nine Nether Soul-Guiding Gu Worm?” Luo Li sneered, sweeping her Fox Tail to overturn the entire water dispenser. “Xie Wujiu really thinks highly of you, even stealing memories.”

Shen Yan remained silent, his fingertips swiftly sliding through the air as if inputting Code. The next moment, he pulled a fragment of a Spirit Stone from his sleeve and stuffed it into the socket.

【Gu Worm Signal Shielding Program · Inject】

【Executing…】

The wall circuit board emitted a faint hum, a flash of blue light passing through. The Terminal displayed a Notice: 【Interference successful, target communication link disconnected】.

“How much did it transmit just now?” Yu Xiaotang asked.

“At least three minutes,” Shen Yan narrowed his eyes. “Enough for them to know we’re here.”

The atmosphere instantly grew heavy.

Yu Xiaotang bit into the strawberry lollipop in her hand with a crisp crunch, as if chewing on an enemy’s bones. Luo Li leaned against the door, her tail quietly winding around Shen Yan’s wrist, carrying a hint of warmth and a touch of Warning—don’t act recklessly.

Shen Yan raised his hand to wipe his face, not caring that blood smeared onto his forehead. He stared at the bedside table for two seconds before suddenly saying, “Open that drawer.”

Yu Xiaotang paused. “How did you know there’s a mechanism?”

“This hotel is too clean,” he said. “Clean enough that it doesn’t seem like no one has stayed here.”

Yu Xiaotang reached out and pulled. As the drawer slid open, a flash of golden light sprang out.

It was a gilded invitation, with embossed gold characters reading: “Sincerely inviting Young Master Shen to attend the Talisman Dao Conference to appreciate the wonders of programming.”

“This writing style is so sour it could pickle radishes,” Yu Xiaotang rolled her eyes.

Shen Yan took the invitation. The moment his fingertips touched the paper, the Terminal immediately displayed a Notice: 【High-frequency Illusion Sound Talisman Pattern Detected, prolonged exposure will cause cognitive deviation】.

He sneered. “This isn’t an invitation; it’s a brainwashing device.”

Flipping to the back, a line of small characters written in invisible ink appeared: “You can’t escape, brother.”

The room temperature seemed to drop by ten degrees.

“Again with this?” Shen Yan scoffed. “The twin trope is overused, and they still have to add some brother-obsessed plot?”

Luo Li stared at the line of text, the tip of her tail slightly bristling. “He’s guiding you to the Talisman Dao Conference.”

“Not guiding,” Shen Yan slapped the invitation onto the table. “Forcing my positioning. Gu Worm in the water, invitation hidden in the room, cameras embedded in the walls… the entire building has been set up as a script.”

Yu Xiaotang suddenly crouched down, pulling back a corner of the carpet. “You said cameras? Where?”

Luo Li’s tail pointed toward the wall’s inner layer. “Three fragments, all aimed at the bed and the door. They want to see how we react.”

“Performing tricks on my stage?” Shen Yan grinned, but his eyes were cold as ice. “Then I’ll just change the set.”

He suddenly bit his finger, letting blood drip onto the wall. His right hand swiftly traced patterns, as if writing code.

The bloodstains seeped into the wall, emitting a layer of blue-gray grid-like light. The entire hotel began to tremble slightly, as if being pulled into some virtual space.

【Architectural Data Refactoring Protocol v1.0 · Deploying】

【Warning: Mental Power consumption excessive. Recommend halting operation.】

“Shut up,” Shen Yan cursed and continued inputting commands.

The floor, ceiling, doors, and windows all began to display intricate Data Streams, like countless glowing snakes crawling across them. Every window became a sensing Node, every door a warning radar.

“Now, I can see anyone who enters,” he gasped, leaning against the table. “And—”

With a tap of his finger, a new Window popped up on the Terminal: 【Detected energy fluctuations from three Spirit Transformation stage cultivators. Estimated arrival in six hours.】

“They think I’m the prey,” Shen Yan laughed. “But actually, I’m the administrator.”

Yu Xiaotang stared in disbelief. “Is this even Cultivation? You’re basically doing system maintenance!”

“Pretty much,” he wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. “Except this time, the Firewall is written in my blood.”

Luo Li watched his pale face, her tails tightening slightly. “Can you hold on?”

“I won’t die,” he said. “At worst, the Code crashes and I explode on the spot.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a clear Sword Qi swept past the window, slicing through the night sky. The distinct hum of the Frost Soul Sword shattered the silence.

Then, a soft sound came from the windowsill.

A silver-white figure stood under the moonlight, her longsword still sheathed, yet an icy chill already filled the air. Ye Zhao stood there, her gaze sharp as a blade, piercing straight toward Shen Yan’s brow.

“Shen Yan,” she spoke, her voice cold as ice. “The Demonic Energy concentration in your body has exceeded the limit.”

Shen Yan didn’t move, his fingertip still hovering over the Terminal Interface, the bloodstains not yet dry.

Luo Li instantly stepped in front of him, Demon Power surging, her Fox Tail raised high, her purple-red hair flowing without wind.

Yu Xiaotang took half a step back, her hand reaching for her Cosmic Bag, still chewing on that strawberry lollipop with a crunching sound.

“How did you find this place?” Shen Yan asked.

Ye Zhao didn’t answer, only slowly raised her hand. In her palm appeared a string of flickering Binary Numbers, their Encoding format completely identical to Shen Yan’s Terminal Interface.

“Your Sword Array,” she said. “The Data remnants you left at the amusement park last night, they extended all the way here.”

Shen Yan’s pupils contracted.

He remembered that battle—the roller coaster turning into blades, the tracks becoming sword paths. That was the 【Orbital Sword-Control Protocol】 he had rewritten with his essence blood.

But that Code shouldn’t have been decipherable.

Unless… the other party understood programming.

“When did you learn to read Code?” His voice lowered slightly.

Ye Zhao looked at him coldly. “I didn’t need to learn. Your Sword Qi comes with its own Comments.”

The air in the room froze.

The Data Cubes still slowly rotated, reflecting the different expressions on the four faces—alert, guarded, puzzled, scrutinizing.

Shen Yan’s right hand was still stained with blood, the Terminal Floating mid-air, the last line of Code not yet fully executed.

Luo Li’s tail wrapped around his wrist, Yu Xiaotang bit her candy stick without daring to let go, and though Ye Zhao’s sword remained sheathed, it had already locked onto the entire scene.

In the distant sky, the first hint of dawn quietly approached, shining on the silver hair by the windowsill, casting a faint glow.

Shen Yan suddenly smiled.

“Since you’re here.” He lightly tapped with the tip of his finger, a drop of blood falling into the air and splashing into the Terminal Interface, “Then let’s see together—”

“Whose cage this building truly is.”

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(End of Chapter)