Chapter 14: The Evil Cultivator Appears: Zhang Huaiyuan’s Blood Soul Curse

Shen Yan clutched the strawberry candy as he walked toward the west side of the city, the neon lights making the wrapper gleam. He hadn’t yet decided whether to go check under the Ferris wheel to see who had sent that mysterious photo with the little drawings and code when his phone vibrated in his pocket.

It wasn’t a call or a message notification.

It was the Terminal heating up.

He halted his steps, and the screen lit up automatically. A line of green text scrolled rapidly: “Warning: High-level Blood Soul fluctuations detected. Source—Medicine Valley direction, distance 3.2 kilometers, spreading.”

The next second, the entire night sky seemed splashed with red ink. A dark red glow seeped from beneath the clouds, and the air carried a metallic, rusty scent.

“Pei Yue is still in Medicine Valley!” He spun around abruptly, his plaid shirt flapping loudly in the wind, his mind buzzing. “First, someone immobilizes me for three hours, and now someone’s attacking right after? This timing is way too precise.”

As he sprinted, he pulled up the Terminal Interface, swiping across the screen to remotely connect to Medicine Valley’s protective formation. But the signal was cut off as soon as it connected, leaving only a string of garbled code.

“Messing with my System? How rude is that?”

By the time he rushed to the mountain gate of Medicine Valley, the ground had already begun to crack. Crimson patterns spread like blood vessels, and thick blood mist billowed from the center. A man in a black robe slowly rose from beneath the earth, wearing half a Bronze Mask and holding a dripping blood talisman plaque in his hand.

“Shen Yan, tonight I’ll take your life soul to sacrifice to the formation,” the man said hoarsely. “Zhang Huaiyuan is here, waiting for you.”

Before the words faded, the ground exploded violently. A giant serpent formed from blood energy burst from the earth, its snake eyes crimson, and its scales actually displayed Shen Yan’s face—features twisted, mouth stretched wide, like some kind of malicious curse’s substitute puppet.

“Damn! Even my ID photo got stolen?” He instinctively stepped back, but his Mental Power hadn’t fully recovered from the earlier immobilization, and his reaction was a split second too slow. The serpent’s tail swept toward him, slamming him flying.

His phone slipped from his hand, skidding two meters away and landing at the edge of the stone steps.

Gritting his teeth, he scrambled up and lunged for the Terminal. The Blood Python was right behind him, its fangs inches from the back of his neck when his fingertip finally touched the screen. He frantically pressed the activation key, and a circular Code barrier instantly expanded, barely holding back the crushing force.

“Emergency protection protocol initiated… Damn it, battery’s only at twenty percent!” He gasped for breath, watching as the barrier sparked and crackled under the Blood Python’s assault. “Why is this thing so tough?”

Suddenly, a sharp whistling sound cut through the air from afar.

A streak of silver light tore through the blood mist. The Frost Soul Sword descended like a shooting star, slashing fiercely into the serpent’s vital point. Sword Qi erupted, blood scales flew everywhere, but the serpent merely shook its head and whipped its tail, striking Ye Zhao squarely in the chest.

She was sent flying backward, the Frost Soul Sword slipping from her grasp and embedding itself three inches deep into the bluestone pavement, its hilt trembling violently. She knelt on one knee, a trickle of blood seeping from the corner of her mouth, yet she still looked up, her gaze fixed on the Blood Python.

“This kind of evil technique… can’t seal Sword Intent,” she murmured softly.

Shen Yan scanned the formation’s structure through the Terminal, Data Streams scrolling wildly before his eyes. A few seconds later, his pupils contracted. “I get it now. This isn’t a Talisman Array—it’s a living Program! Using the caster’s essence blood as fuel, running a self-destructive recursive Loop… Conventional methods won’t break it.”

He looked up at Zhang Huaiyuan, who stood at the center of the Formation Eye, hands forming seals, a cold smirk on his lips.

“Unless… I can inject a higher-level Permission Command in reverse,” he murmured. “But once Mental Power Overloads, at best I’ll fall unconscious, at worst I’ll suffer a cerebral hemorrhage on the spot.”

The Blood Python lunged again, the barrier emitting a piercing Warning.

He took a deep breath, bit his right index finger hard, and let blood drip onto the Screen, beginning to write Code.

“Import Heavenly Dao Core Module… Overwrite Blood Soul Process… Execute forced takeover!”

Blood from his fingertip intertwined with green light, lines of characters appearing:

“Introduce Heavenly Dao Core, designate as ‘Divine’;

Invoke highest Permission, overwrite ‘Blood Soul Loop’ Process;

Execute—force termination and Format.”

The Terminal erupted with blinding light, the Code Flow surging up his arm against the current, heading straight for the Formation Eye.

In an instant, the Blood Python let out a shrill shriek, its scales exploding one by one, and Shen Yan’s reflection in its eyes began to distort and shatter. Zhang Huaiyuan suddenly screamed, blood seeping from his seven orifices, the talisman tablet in his hand cracking with a snap.

“No… impossible! How could you… read my Blood Soul?!”

Before he could finish, the entire Formation collapsed with a roar, the bloody mist swirling back into the ground fissure, the giant python transforming into a rain of blood that scattered everywhere. Zhang Huaiyuan staggered backward, a Command Token falling from his waist, blown by the wind to Shen Yan’s feet.

He braced himself on his knees, barely standing, and looked down. The front of the token was engraved with “Mystic Gate,” and on the back was a small character—”Right.”

The Terminal’s final line flickered:

“Warning: Detected Mystic Gate Command Token Signal, source: Right Protector.”

He reached out to pick it up, but as his fingers just touched the edge of the token, his body suddenly went limp, and he collapsed onto the stone steps. The phone screen cracked with a snap, going completely black.

“Hey… can it still turn on?” he weakly poked the screen, but there was no response. “Fix it… I still have to submit Code tomorrow…”

A slender hand reached over to support him.

Ye Zhao had somehow walked to his side, her face pale but her back still straight. With one hand pressing on his shoulder and the other gripping the hilt of the Frost Soul Sword, she slowly drew it.

“Don’t speak,” she said. “You owe me three explanations.”

In the distance, the mountain shadows loomed heavily, the wind stirring her ponytail, strands of hair brushing against Shen Yan’s cheek.

He wanted to laugh but only managed to squeeze out, “Next time… I’ll treat you to strawberry candy.”

She didn’t respond, her gaze fixed over his shoulder, staring intently in the direction where Zhang Huaiyuan had disappeared.

Shen Yan leaned against her and slowly sat down, still clutching the shattered Terminal in his hand. The night wind blew, and a candy wrapper drifted from his pocket, swirling twice in the air before landing on the blood-stained stone steps.

Ye Zhao’s sword tip lightly touched the ground, a drop of blood sliding down the blade and dripping onto the token, precisely covering the character “Right.”

(End of Chapter)