Chapter 114: The Hypocrite's Final Trump Card

Shen Yan knelt on the ground, his fingers still resting on the cracked copper coin. The Terminal had just flashed the words “Bloodline Resonance · Beginner” when his entire body felt as if all strength had been drained. A sweet taste rose in his throat, and he swallowed another mouthful of blood. The programming pen had long become a half-broken piece of scrap metal; only by plugging it into the phone’s Interface could he barely keep the System from crashing.

Gritting his teeth, he forced himself up, swiping his fingertip across the screen twice to activate the 【Low-Power Monitoring Protocol】. The Image lagged like an old television, but at least it could detect a faint Energy Fluctuation in the ventilation duct in the southeast corner—not Yu Xiaotang, nor Ye Shi’er, but the rhythm of a living person’s breathing.

“Someone’s listening,” he rasped, his voice like sandpaper scraping against tin.

Luo Li immediately moved Yu Xiaotang behind the remnants of the mirror array, her movements as gentle as handling fragile glass. Black energy seeped from the wound on her right arm, with only a few scattered sparks of Demonic Fire remaining. She barely managed to cast a visual concealment Barrier, so fragile it swayed with the slightest breeze.

“How much longer can you hold on?” she whispered.

“Don’t know,” Shen Yan grinned, a crack running across his glasses. “But I’ve always been tough. The number of times my Code crashed halfway through running is more than the number of living cultivators I’ve met.”

Before his words faded, a figure emerged from the shadows—a man in a moon-white robe, lightly waving a horsetail whisk. It was Bai Guizhen, the sect master of the Mystic Gate. He held a scroll in his hands, his expression sorrowful, as if he had just finished weeping in the ancestral hall.

“Shen Yan,” his voice was so gentle it could drip water. “Your parents have been trapped in the Spirit Prison for a thousand years, their Souls unable to rest in peace. If you are willing to hand over the Source Code Spiritual Root, I can use a secret technique to defy Heaven and alter fate, allowing them to return to the mortal world.”

Shen Yan’s pupils contracted sharply.

The Terminal Interface instantly popped up an analysis box: 【Target portrait authenticity detection in progress… 91%】

Ninety-one percent? That Data almost made him believe it.

His fingers trembled uncontrollably, nearly inputting the authorization Command. But just before his fingertip touched the screen, a cold laugh echoed in his ears.

It was Luo Li.

Staring at the painting, she suddenly raised her hand and tore off the Star-Shattering Token Imitation she wore on her right ear—a prop she had prepared years ago to infiltrate the Mystic Gate. Blood trickled down her earlobe, dripping onto the edge of the scroll.

Sss—

Like hot oil splashing on snow, the edge of the scroll instantly corroded into spiderweb-like cracks. Then, the Image distorted. The originally benevolent and kind illusory figures of his parents suddenly transformed, revealing the true scene: the two were chained to bronze pillars, their faces gaunt, their lips trembling slightly.

“Yan’er… don’t believe him…” his mother’s voice came intermittently. “He is… the Heaven Thief… long ago betrayed the Celestial Clan… only wants to steal your Spiritual Root…”

Bai Guizhen’s expression finally changed.

“Audacious demoness!” He flicked his horsetail whisk, and a Silver Needle shot from his jade thumb ring, swift as lightning, aimed directly at the space between Shen Yan’s eyebrows!

Luo Li reacted faster. Her Fox Tail swept horizontally, forcefully knocking Shen Yan half a foot to the side. The Silver Needle grazed his cheek, leaving a bloody gash that made him gasp in pain.

“You’re no sect master at all,” Luo Li stood in front of him, her tail bristling like a dandelion. “You’re the traitor expelled by the Celestial Clan a thousand years ago, surviving by stealing others’ destinies!”

Bai Guizhen sneered. “A mere Half-Demon dares to speak of destiny? What I want is the core that can Restart the Heavenly Dao—the Source Code Spiritual Root. All of you are nothing but tools to help me collect the Devil Clan’s Bloodline.”

Leaning against the control console, Shen Yan caught his breath for a moment, then suddenly laughed.

“So all these incidents before were arranged by you?” he said while discreetly inserting the remains of the programming pen into his phone’s charging port. “Yu Xiaotang’s Tracking Talisman, Ye Shi’er’s memory trap, even the illusions of my parents… were they all NPCs in your script?”

“Clever,” Bai Guizhen slowly spread his arms. “But it’s too late. This power plant has long been set up with a Spirit-Sealing Formation. You can’t escape, nor can you write any Code.”

Shen Yan didn’t respond, instead tapping three times on the screen to initiate the preset program: 【Short-Range Electromagnetic Pulse】.

Boom!

The old circuits instantly overloaded, lights crackling and exploding one after another, plunging the entire space into brief darkness. A few seconds later, emergency lights flashed red, illuminating the chaotic mess on the floor.

The Terminal took the opportunity to update the report: 【Detected residual Demon Clan essence blood DNA sequence on the painting, match rate one hundred percent—confirmed as a forgery】.

“Ha,” Shen Yan wiped the blood from his face and laughed. “You actually dared to use demon blood to impersonate familial affection? If my parents knew someone was using them as a billboard, they’d crawl out of the ground just to curse you.”

Luo Li seized the moment to hold Yu Xiaotang tighter, whispering, “Can you still fight?”

“Even if I can’t, I have to,” Shen Yan stared at Bai Guizhen. “Right now, I hate two kinds of people the most—those who pretend to be saints, and those who use family as bargaining chips. You, on the other hand, managed to combine both.”

Bai Guizhen’s face darkened. With a wave of his whisk, Formation Patterns emerged on the ground, sealing off all eight directions.

“Since you refuse to see reason, don’t blame me for being ruthless,” he raised his hand, a bronze Key appearing in his palm. “You think the Source Code Spiritual Root is a Talent? It’s a forbidden Key that was Sealed. Only I can guide it, and only I can free you from loneliness.”

Shen Yan almost laughed out loud.

“Loneliness?” He glanced back at the unconscious Yu Xiaotang, then at Luo Li, who was shielding him with her own body. “Do you understand what it means to have someone waiting for you to come home for dinner? Or what it’s like to buy milk tea for someone even after her hair gets blown up by Talisman Paper? Someone like you doesn’t even know how to write the word ‘trust.'”

He took a deep breath and tapped the screen again, calling up a hidden module: 【Emotional Parameter Injection · Beta Version】.

This was a Patch he had secretly written last night, originally planning to test it only after Yu Xiaotang woke up. Now, he had no choice but to deploy it early.

“Luo Li,” he suddenly spoke up. “I might do something really stupid later.”

“Like what?” she frowned.

“Like… rushing forward to take a hit, or saying something like ‘You guys go, I’ll hold them off.'”

“Then you’d better pray you can run fast enough,” she said coldly, though her tail quietly wrapped around his wrist. “Otherwise, I’ll drag you back and beat you up myself.”

Shen Yan laughed, this time genuinely.

He abruptly stood up, pouring the last of his Mental Power into the program. The phone screen erupted with a blinding blue light.

“Bai Guizhen, have you ever heard this saying?”

“What?”

“True Code never runs on copy and paste.”

As the words fell, the energy pillar at the center of the power plant trembled violently. A Data Stream shot into the sky, forcibly synchronizing the undispersed Devil Blood Signal within Yu Xiaotang’s body with Shen Yan’s Source Code!

Bai Guizhen’s face paled. “You’re insane! This will burn out your Spirit Soul!”

“Maybe,” Shen Yan coughed up a mouthful of blood but was still smiling. “But you’re wrong about one thing—I’m not writing this Code alone.”

Luo Li instantly understood his intention, pouring out Demon Power recklessly. Her Fox Tail ignited with Purple Flame, charging straight for the Formation Eye.

Boom—!

The Sealing Spirit Formation cracked.

Bai Guizhen roared in fury, transforming his whisk into a blade and slashing forward.

Shen Yan dodged sideways, but a deep, bone-exposing gash still tore across his shoulder. Staggering a step, he reached out and grabbed Luo Li’s wrist.

“Trust me this once,” he said.

Luo Li didn’t speak, only tightened her grip in return.

The next second, both leaped up simultaneously, crashing toward the energy core.

Panic flashed in Bai Guizhen’s eyes as he tried to stop them, but he was thrown to the ground by a sudden surge of chaotic Data.

The Terminal finally displayed a line of text: 【Bloodline Resonance Protocol activated successfully. Source Code Spiritual Root entering collaborative mode】

The power plant lights flickered on and off, the air thick with the smell of scorching and blood. Bai Guizhen pushed himself up from the ground, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, yet his eyes were as sinister as a ghost’s.

“You think you’ve won?” he sneered. “But you’ve forgotten—the Tracking Talisman inside her hasn’t been removed yet.”

Shen Yan’s heart sank.

Looking down, he saw the copper coin hair tie on Yu Xiaotang’s ring finger glowing with an eerie red light.

(End of Chapter)