Chapter 148: Four-Element Fusion to Slash the Inner Demon Clone

The blood-colored scythe swung down, but Shen Yan did not dodge.

When the blade was only half an inch from his brow, the wind and sand suddenly froze. He raised his hand, pressing the phone against his chest. A faint light seeped from the cracks in the screen, like red-hot wire piercing flesh.

“System, execute the final protocol—not deletion, but refactoring.”

The moment his words fell, the terminal jolted violently. His father’s figure appeared once more, lips moving without a sound. Yet Shen Yan understood.

It was the silence before code compilation, the loading frame during a version update.

He knew this strike would not land.

Because the real battle was never at the tip of the blade, but in the background processes.

Four streams of energy fluctuations pierced through the void, like four independent threads forcibly connecting to the main core. Sword Qi coiled around his left arm like chains, the scent of herbs transformed into icy thorns sprouting from his shoulder, demonic fire condensed into a frosty net enveloping his back, and talisman thunder crackled above his head.

Ye Zhao’s Sword Intent arrived first.

She stood atop the ruins of the imperial palace, her fingertip tracing the edge of the Frost Soul Sword. A bloodstain bloomed. As the sword hummed, all metal in the city resonated. She closed her eyes and whispered, “I believe in every line of code you write.”

In the next instant, Sword Qi tore through space, heading straight for Soul-Severing Cliff.

Pei Yue knelt in the center of the herb field, ten silver needles inserted into the pulse points of her own wrist. Blood flowed along the needle tails into a jade vial. Biting her lip, she injected the last drop of Dark Jade Cold Pulse blood into the talisman array and murmured, “You said bugs can be fixed, but people cannot be lost.”

The power of medicine and poison transformed into thousands of icy thorns, surging upward against the current.

Luo Li sat cross-legged on the Demon Clan altar, all nine of her tails ablaze with purple flames, the demon marks on her right arm cracking inch by inch. Gazing into the distance, she murmured, “You said you’d take me to see the sea… You have to return alive for that.”

Demon Power froze spacetime, carving out a path of light.

Yu Xiaotang stood at the highest point of the imperial garden. Her Cosmic Bag burst open, and hundreds of talisman papers automatically rose into the air, arranging themselves into an array. She took a bite of candied hawthorn, grinning widely. “Brother, this time it’s not a fried chicken recipe—it’s a map home!”

Talisman thunder erupted with a deafening roar, illuminating the sky.

The four forces converged into the light shield, and Shen Yan’s body began to glow. Flowing patterns surfaced beneath his skin, resembling the interface in his mind when he wrote code—black background with green text, scrolling with countless function calls.

【Warning: Multi-source Spiritual Power synchronization in progress. Risk of collapse detected.】

【Recommend terminating fusion program.】

Shen Yan laughed. “Recommendation? Since when have I ever listened to the System’s suggestions?”

He closed his eyes, no longer watching the data stream, but feeling with his heartbeat.

One beat, two beats… like the rhythm when practicing swordplay with Ye Zhao; three beats, four beats… like the children’s rhyme Pei Yue hummed during acupuncture needling; five beats, six beats… like the warmth of Luo Li’s tails wrapping around his hand; seven beats, eight beats… like the day Yu Xiaotang blew his hair flying, his heart racing like a fool’s.

“Sword, medicine, fire, talismans… none of them are the key.” He opened his eyes, a light sword coalescing in his palm. “The key is, they’re all waiting for me to come back for dinner.”

The moment the light sword took shape, Ye Shi’er froze.

The scythe halted mid-air, unable to advance another inch.

He stared at the weapon woven from four types of energy—the blade flowing with runes, the spine entwined with herb-scented vines, the hilt burning with demonic fire, and the tassel shaped like the copper coin hair tie Yu Xiaotang loved most.

This was not a spell—it was the manifestation of bonds.

“You lied to me.” Ye Shi’er’s voice trembled. “You said you’d take me back… but you were actually going to use their power to erase me completely.”

“I didn’t lie.” Shen Yan took a step forward. “I want to take you back as ‘family,’ not under the name of ‘Inner Demon.'”

“Family?” Ye Shi’er sneered. “Who would want a monster who only knows how to kill as a brother?”

“I would.” Shen Yan raised his light sword. “Even if you’re a flawed version full of Error Reporting, I have to fix you.”

Ye Shi’er roared, his scythe unleashing a thousand layers of Dark Shadows, each one representing Shen Yan’s deepest fears—being abandoned by the four women, falling alone into the abyss, his Code spiraling out of control and destroying everything…

But as soon as these illusions took shape, they were swept away by the light sword and instantly disintegrated.

Because Shen Yan never looked at them.

His eyes remained fixed on Ye Shi’er’s face.

“You think I’m not afraid of loneliness?” he said as he advanced. “I’m terrified. Every time I finish writing Code and no one understands it, I feel like a joke. But later, I realized someone was willing to brew medicine for me, someone took a blade for me, someone smiled and wiped the dust from my face, and someone insisted that the Script I wrote was like a love letter.”

He paused, his voice softening. “You say you’re my dark side? But do you know? It’s precisely because you exist that I understand what light is.”

The light sword rose high, the energy of the four systems converging into a single point at its tip.

Ye Shi’er was finally moved.

He didn’t flee, nor did he retaliate. He simply watched Shen Yan quietly, as if observing a doomed Compile.

“Your bond…” he murmured, “is a Program I can never replicate.”

The sword fell.

Silently.

As the radiance dispersed, Ye Shi’er’s figure began to fade, like a Process permanently deleted, slowly losing its color.

Shen Yan sheathed his sword and stood still.

He knew this wasn’t a victory—it was redemption.

“You’re not a Bug,” he whispered. “You’re my beginning.”

The wind and sand gradually subsided, but the Rift on Duanhun Cliff remained unsealed. A faint light fell, illuminating the spot where the two had confronted each other. Shen Yan looked down—his phone Screen was completely shattered, the fragments merging into his body, leaving behind a faint trace of Code.

He raised his hand, the residual warmth of the light sword still lingering in his palm.

In the distance, the four streams of Energy did not withdraw; instead, they grew clearer. They formed a faint halo around him, like some kind of Guardian Protocol waiting to be Restarted.

Shen Yan suddenly felt a tightness in his chest.

He looked down—the “Never Uninstall” brand was glowing hot, its color shifting from red to gold, as if something was awakening.

At the same time, an extremely faint call echoed from the void.

It wasn’t Ye Zhao, Pei Yue, Luo Li, or Yu Xiaotang.

It was a woman’s voice, gentle and distant, carrying the scent of a rainy night.

“Yan’er…”

Shen Yan looked up abruptly.

Deep within the Rift, a blurry figure slowly emerged, cloaked in a hood, holding an Infant, and reaching out toward him.

His breath caught for a moment.

It was the Image from his Memory—the most familiar, yet the one he dared not recall.

A stormy night, outside a dilapidated temple, a bamboo basket drifting away with the stream…

The woman’s lips moved, and this time, he finally heard the words clearly—

“Live on, and take him with you.”

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(End of Chapter)