Chapter 125: Eternal Bonds in the Data Torrent

The smile on Shen Yan’s lips hadn’t yet faded when his entire body froze as if someone had pressed pause. Data Streams scrolled frantically in his pupils, the silver-purple light threatening to dissolve his consciousness entirely. He felt himself slowly melting into this sea of Code, his limbs growing lighter, his memories beginning to jumble—a battlefield from a thousand years ago suddenly flashed before him, broken swords of the Celestial Clan floating on a river of blood, while he himself stood atop a mountain of corpses, still clutching a blood-dripping blade.

“No… this isn’t the right script,” he tried to say, his throat moving, but the words were swallowed by the Data Torrent.

Deep within his mind, the Terminal Interface continued to run, lines of Commands automatically popping up: “Detected Host personality fluctuations, initiating Purification Protocol… Executing…” Immediately after, a segment of self-destruct Code quietly generated: 【If humanity value falls below threshold, clear current user】.

He was about to be erased.

Just as the Pointer was about to confirm deletion, a “ding” sounded in his mind—a Backup Program buried long ago was activated. It was a Memory Fragment left behind by Yu Xiaotang during her last Devil Blood rampage, which he had casually packaged into a Patch and stored in the System Underlayer. He never expected it would actually save his life.

“Load emotional anchors, highest Priority!” he roared in his consciousness.

The next second, memories flooded his Screen like pop-up ads:

On a rainy night, Luo Li held up a Demon Power Barrier, her hair soaked, stubbornly shielding him as she said, “You’re not a tool. Don’t always carry everything alone.”

That day under the moonlight after sword practice, Ye Zhao sheathed her sword and, looking at the garbled Code on his phone Screen, didn’t scold him. Instead, she said, “I trust every line of Code you write.”

Pei Yue jabbed a needle into his arm, making him grimace in pain, but she just rolled her eyes. “Idiot, you don’t even know to cry out when it hurts. Do you think you’re made of iron?”

And Yu Xiaotang, with Talisman Paper blowing half his bangs away, still holding a Candied Hawthorn stick, grinning like a sunflower: “Bro, next time don’t use if statements to write Fireball Spells—they’re too easy to blow up!”

These Segments rushed headlong into his core system, forcefully shoving the self-destruct Program back. The Code Interface shuddered violently, and the line “Clearing user in progress” abruptly turned into a red Error Reporting: 【Insufficient Permission, operation denied】.

Shen Yan gasped for breath, his eyes slowly opening.

The void before him was no longer a cold waterfall of Data. Instead, three faint chains of light emerged, winding toward him from three different directions. He looked down to see his left wrist already tightly bound by a fluffy Fox Tail, cool Demon Power seeping into his Bloodline. He didn’t need to look to know who it was—even on the verge of dissipating, Luo Li refused to let go.

His right palm suddenly felt heavy as a sword pressed steadily against it. The Frost Soul Sword remained sheathed, but the moment its hilt touched his skin, a clear, sharp Sword Intent surged straight into his Consciousness Sea, suppressing the churning demonic thoughts within him. He knew Ye Zhao was still there.

His chest suddenly grew warm, as if branded by something. Looking down, a dark red Rune materialized from the void, slowly embedding itself into his flesh. The pattern was crooked and childlike, carrying a familiar sense of youthful innocence—it must have been drawn by Yu Xiaotang with her last ounce of strength before she lost consciousness.

“You guys… are harder to shake off than the Bugs I write,” he muttered softly, his fingers gently tracing the Rune on his chest.

As soon as the words fell, a command prompt echoed in his mind: “Multiple energy sources detected. Initiate co-execution protocol?”

“Nonsense, of course!” He waved his hand through the void. “Establish four-dimensional binding, equal permissions—no one gets to monopolize administrator privileges!”

Boom!

Three streams of power instantly connected with his Source Code Spiritual Root. There was no devouring, no suppression—it was more like four programmers logging into the same server simultaneously, each responsible for different modules. Luo Li maintained the stability of the Blood Pact, Ye Zhao suppressed the backlash of devilish thoughts, Yu Xiaotang’s Devil Blood transformed into a Firewall, and he became the final scheduling Central Hub.

The Data World shook violently, and the collapsing trend began to reverse. But he knew this was only temporary. The Spiritual Energy tide triggered by the System upgrade had already begun affecting reality. If he didn’t respond soon, the entire Cultivation Realm would suffer.

He closed his eyes, compiling the bond between the four into a permanent module and writing it into the System Underlayer: “//Define eternal constantnIndestructiblenNon-overwritablenRead-only mode activated.”

Then, in the last line of the Terminal, he typed: “Echo command: I’m still here.”

At the same time, thousands of miles away in Medicine Valley, Pei Yue knelt before the bell array, the Silver Needle at her fingertip broken. She hadn’t slept for three days, all to maintain this faint connection channel.

Suddenly, the wind stirred.

All the copper bells chimed in unison, their crisp sounds merging into one. An extremely faint voice drifted with the wind, like a whisper or a dreamlike murmur: “Don’t forget, you still have us.”

Pei Yue trembled all over, jerking her head up as tears unexpectedly fell to the ground. She clutched her Medicine Pouch tightly, her voice trembling: “You dare try to leave? I’ve prepared all the medicine for you, the syrup is still warm… You still want to run?”

Within the data space, Shen Yan seemed to sense something, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly.

A new Warning suddenly popped up in the Terminal: “Energy Fluctuation detected in the Devil Clan ancestral grounds. Estimated activation within seventy-two hours.”

He ignored it.

Instead, he raised his hand and gently tapped, changing the entire Interface theme from black background with green text to light pink. The icon corners were rounded, and a small rabbit ear decoration appeared—exactly like the version Yu Xiaotang had secretly modified.

“Next stop… time to meet ‘them’.” He gazed at the constantly refreshing code rain before him, his voice soft yet carrying undeniable resolve.

Four figures gradually turned transparent within the Data Stream, only the Floating Terminal remaining bright, with a line of text repeatedly flashing on the Screen:

【System upgrade completed. Next destination: Devil Clan ancestral grounds.】

Shen Yan’s finger hovered in the air, about to call up the next Command, when the Devil Blood Rune on his chest suddenly burned intensely, as if something deep within was awakening. He frowned, but before he could speak, an extremely faint humming of a Children’s Rhyme reached his ears—this time not from the depths of the Altar, but crawling out from the cracks of his own Memory.

“The new moon approaches… the Bloodline awakens…”

His pupils contracted, his fingertip frozen mid-air, as the Terminal Interface suddenly displayed a line of Notice he had never seen before:

【Warning: Hidden Protocol activation detected. View encrypted file ‘Parents’ Last Words’?】

(End of Chapter)