Chapter 152: The First Resonance Between Sword Intent and Demonic Fire

Shen Yan felt as if his internal organs had been stuffed into a meat grinder. His vision was filled with chaotic, garbled streams of light, and a deafening roar echoed in his ears. His left hand gripped Ye Zhao’s wrist tightly, while his right hand slashed fiercely through the void. He forcibly dragged the terminal interface out from his Consciousness Sea, suspending it before the distorted spatial rift.

“System loading failed… Retry!” he growled through gritted teeth, his fingertips flying as he called up the waveform diagram of Ye Zhao’s Sword Qi. The silvery-white light was spontaneously forming a protective barrier, like an antivirus program automatically writing code, frantically cutting through the alien energy within the chaotic flow. Yet, with each slash, space trembled, as if issuing a warning: Don’t touch, or it will collapse.

At the same time, something was wrong with Luo Li.

Purple-red Demonic Fire surged around her body, the phantom images of her nine tails exploding within the chaotic flow. The flames actually resonated in sync with the spacetime vortex, like a loop script maliciously injected, burning brighter and fiercer, threatening to drag everyone into a self-destruction process.

“Warning! Conflict between dual high-dimensional energy sources. System incompatible!” The terminal flashed red frantically.

“Seriously? One runs on ice-type code, the other on fire-type threads, and they just have to collide?” Yu Xiaotang huddled in a corner clutching her Cosmic Bag, flinging Talisman Papers one after another, only for them to be shredded into pieces by the chaotic flow. “If this goes on, we’ll be roasted and then frozen before we even land!”

Pei Yue’s face was pale, the silver needles at her fingertips trembling slightly. “Her Demon Power is awakening… It’s a stress response from her royal bloodline. It can’t be suppressed.”

“Don’t suppress it, redirect it,” Shen Yan suddenly spoke, his eyes fixed on the underlying Data Streams of the two energies. “Haven’t you noticed? The Execution Logic of the Sword Qi and the Demonic Fire—they look like siblings.”

Everyone was stunned.

He quickly began writing a “Spiritual Power Frequency Coordination Protocol,” his fingers flying like typing on a keyboard. “Old Ye, don’t retract your Sword Qi. Let it follow my Source Code! I’ll act as middleware, building an API Interface for you.”

Ye Zhao frowned, but seeing the determination in his eyes, she closed her eyes and allowed the Sword Qi to transform into a silver serpent, slithering along the data chain flowing from Shen Yan’s palm.

“Execute—Sword-Fire Synchronization, Version 1.0!” Shen Yan pressed the Enter Key.

In that instant, silvery-white and purple-red intertwined, as if two mutually exclusive Programs had suddenly found a common language and began running in sync. The spatial tremors drastically decreased, and a semi-transparent energy membrane appeared at the edges of the chaotic flow, enveloping the five of them.

But just then, an anomaly occurred.

A blinding purple-white light erupted from the convergence point, and an illusion materialized out of thin air—a Wasteland with stone piles standing tall, a woman in white lying in a Pool of Blood, clutching half a Star-Shattering Token in her hand. Curled in her arms was an Infant, the inside of its wrist bearing a mark identical to Shen Yan’s.

Complete silence fell.

The terminal automatically displayed a Popup Window: “Biometric match successful: Target identity—suspected mother (name unknown). Bloodline correlation: 97.6%.”

“Is that…” Yu Xiaotang’s voice trembled, “…you as a child?”

Shen Yan’s throat tightened, unable to utter a word. He wanted to rush in, to pick up that child, but he knew this was a fragment of Memory—untouchable, unmovable.

“This is no time to watch this!” Pei Yue suddenly opened her eyes, silver needles shooting out and precisely piercing three inches into Luo Li’s glabella, forcibly cutting off the overload output of Demonic Fire. Immediately after, Yu Xiaotang flung out an “Anchor Talisman,” sticking it to the edge of the illusion, solidifying it into a translucent image suspended in midair.

“Remember it… we’ll look later.” Shen Yan finally managed to squeeze out a sentence, his voice so hoarse it didn’t sound like his own.

Suppressing the immense turmoil in his heart, he refocused on the Terminal Interface. The Co-Frequency Protocol had just stabilized when suddenly—

A deep male voice pierced through the chaos, directly drilling into everyone’s minds:

“Brother… we’re finally going to meet.”

The voice carried an eerie echo, like a Virus Program implanted into consciousness, instantly causing Terminal Code to malfunction, delaying the Co-Frequency Protocol by 0.3 seconds.

“Holy shit! Is this a mental invasion?!” Yu Xiaotang screamed, “And one with root Permissions at that!”

An Image simultaneously surfaced in everyone’s minds—beneath a Bronze Mask, a crimson eye slowly opened.

“Ye Shi’er!” Ye Zhao’s eyes snapped open, Sword Qi surging wildly, weaving a “Deafness Barrier” above everyone’s heads. With a slash through the air, the soundwave path shattered on the spot.

Pei Yue immediately acted, lightly tapping Shen Yan’s Temple with a silver needle to help him steady his mind. Yu Xiaotang bit the Tip of her Finger, using Talisman Paper as a medium to trace the sound source frequency in reverse, quickly drawing a “Reverse Shield Array” and slapping it onto the back of the Terminal.

Seizing the gap, Shen Yan’s fingers flew across the keyboard: “Restart the Co-Frequency Protocol, add a Firewall—all external consciousness connections are to be judged as hostile Programs!”

“Ding.”

The System Notification Tone sounded: “Co-Frequency Protocol V1.1—Running stable.”

The chaos finally began to subside, the surrounding streams of light shifting from frenzied to orderly, as if a Server on the verge of collapse had finally completed a hot fix.

“Phew… we survived.” Yu Xiaotang slumped to the ground, still clutching the last unmelted Candied Hawthorn in her hand, grinning, “Next time, can we have a gentler landing method? Like a cloud cushion?”

No one responded.

Shen Yan stared at the solidified Memory Image, silent for a long time. He saw clearly that before the woman fell, her lips moved slightly, as if she had said something. Unfortunately, the sound was swallowed by Spacetime, leaving only a silent farewell.

Ye Zhao quietly stood by his side, shoulder to shoulder, her sword tip lowered to the ground but never sheathed. She didn’t speak, only gently raised her hand to brush away a piece of charred Talisman Paper ash from his shoulder.

In that moment, Shen Yan suddenly felt that the chaos of this world and the collapse of Spacetime were nothing. As long as these people around him remained, the Code would not break, and the road would not come to an end.

Luo Li leaned against the phantom remnant of a stone wall, panting, blood seeping from her temple, the Nine Tails phantom gradually dissipating. She glanced down at the tip of her tail wrapped around the corner of Shen Yan’s clothes, paused for a moment, and tried to pull it back, but he subtly hooked it with his finger.

“Don’t move,” he said softly, “This… is quite warm.”

The tips of her ears flushed red, and she didn’t struggle anymore.

Pei Yue put away her silver needles, her fingertips still trembling, yet she insisted on quickly checking everyone’s pulse: “Check your Meridians immediately after landing. The Spiritual Power resonance just now might have left hidden injuries.”

Before her words faded, the space beneath their feet suddenly shook violently.

The chaotic vortex began to contract, forming a spiraling light path descending at its center, like an inverted celestial ladder. In the distance, the outline of an ancient ruin loomed faintly through the mist, its inscriptions weathered, with only four large characters faintly discernible—

“Heaven’s Secret Returns.”

“We’re about to land.” Shen Yan took a deep breath and tightened his grip on the Terminal.

Ye Zhao raised the tip of her sword slightly, her gaze fixed on the void ahead, as alert as if facing a formidable enemy. Yu Xiaotang stuffed the last piece of Talisman Paper into her mouth to prevent it from falling, while Pei Yue placed a hand on Shen Yan’s shoulder, ready to administer acupuncture at any moment. Luo Li’s tail remained wrapped around his wrist, refusing to let go.

The five figures plummeted rapidly toward the depths of Shadowbone Valley, following the final trace of light.

Just as they were about to touch the ground, Shen Yan caught a glimpse from the corner of his eye—

At the base of the stone stele, a line of extremely small characters was carved, as if someone had secretly added it later:

“Source Code has a spirit; those who see it shall inherit.”

(End of Chapter)