Chapter 155: The Medical Legacy of Silver Needles Deciding Fate

The scraping sound deep within the stone wall abruptly ceased, the air congealing like a frozen program. Shen Yan’s fingers still hovered above the terminal, streams of code light dancing at his fingertips like a queue of awaiting commands.

Pei Yue suddenly stepped forward, three silver needles already arranged between her fingers.

“Your meridians are in chaos,” she said softly, yet with an unyielding firmness. “During that last battle, your Source Code Spiritual Root and Mental Power were forcibly synchronized. If they aren’t stabilized now, the next time might burn straight through your Consciousness Sea.”

Shen Yan wanted to say he was fine, but before the words could leave his mouth, a sudden tightness gripped his chest, and the taste of iron rose in his throat. He coughed once, and dark red bloomed again on his sleeve.

Ye Zhao frowned. “Let him rest.”

“Rest won’t save his life.” Pei Yue had already leaned in to place the needles, her movements so fast they left afterimages. The first needle pierced the inner gate of Shen Yan’s wrist, the second aimed at his shoulder well, and the third went straight for the wind mansion at the back of his neck—precisely the long-lost “Meridian Return to Origin Needle Technique” of Medicine Valley.

The moment the silver needles entered his body, it felt as though two forces within Shen Yan began to clash. One was the familiar torrent of code, the other an ancient, gentle yet overwhelmingly oppressive Spiritual Power Fluctuation.

【Warning: Detected Spiritual Power Residue from the Founder of Medicine Valley! Match: 93.7%】

The terminal interface instantly flooded with red popup windows, as if the system had been forcibly injected with an unfamiliar driver.

Immediately after, the image distorted, revealing a fragmented vision—

A woman in green robes fled through a sea of flames, clutching a bundle of swaddling clothes, as halls and palaces crumbled behind her. Coughing blood, she whispered, “Protect the Heaven’s Secret Holder… the survival of the Three Realms depends on this.The scene zoomed in, revealing a half-piece of jade pendant faintly visible on the swaddling clothes, with the characters “Heaven’s Secret” carved in intaglio at its center.

The vision flashed and vanished.

Pei Yue abruptly withdrew the needles and stepped back, her face deathly pale. Her medicine pouch slipped from her hand and hit the ground with a soft thud, the half-piece jade pendant rolling out. Its patterns, characters, and position were identical to those in the vision.

Yu Xiaotang was the first to rush over. “What’s this? A piece of a treasure map?”

Just as she was about to pick it up, the jade pendant suddenly emitted a faint glow, a gentle Spiritual Power gently pushing her away.

“It only recognizes her,” Luo Li narrowed her eyes. “This thing has a Spiritual Awareness screening mechanism.”

“You knew who I was all along?” Shen Yan propped himself up against the stone wall, his voice hoarse.

Pei Yue’s lips trembled slightly, but before she could speak, images surged into her mind—

Her master’s trembling hand on his deathbed, pressing the jade pendant into hers, his breath faint as a thread: “Child, you are the only hope… Find him. Protect him with your life.”

And the infant wrapped in those swaddling clothes had a faint mark between his brows, identical to the one on Shen Yan’s forehead when he was young.

Her breath hitched.

Yu Xiaotang sensed something was wrong. “Sister Pei? What’s wrong?”

Pei Yue didn’t answer. Instead, she slowly knelt down, her fingers tracing the edge of the jade pendant as if touching a forbidden memory.

Luo Li’s ears twitched, and she suddenly sniffed the air. “This jade pendant… carries the aura of the Demon Emperor’s bloodline. Faint, but definitely present. Someone from the Western Wastes has handled it.”

“So this is no coincidence,” Shen Yan stared at the pendant. “From the moment I awakened my Source Code Spiritual Root, everything has been pushing in one direction.”

“Not pushing,” Pei Yue finally looked up, her eyes clear and bright. “Guiding. That night twenty years ago, when Medicine Valley was bathed in blood, Master risked his life to take this pendant, all for this day.”

“Then why didn’t you say so earlier?” Yu Xiaotang grew anxious. “What if he’s a villain? What if the ‘Heaven’s Secret Holder’ truly is a harbinger of calamity?”

Before her words had fully faded, a cold glint flashed.

Ye Zhao’s longsword was already leveled at Pei Yue’s throat, Sword Qi condensed but not yet released, yet it caused the temperature in the entire stone chamber to plummet.

“The ‘Sword Sect Forbidden Records: Calamity Star Chronicles’ records: When the Heaven’s Secret Holder appears, the Three Realms will be overturned.” Her gaze was sharp as a blade. “You knew his identity, yet still treated his wounds, altered the formation, shared your medicine pouch… Did you plan all along to lead us into this tribulation?”

The air seemed to freeze.

Yu Xiaotang stepped in front of Pei Yue: “Ye Zhao, have you gone mad? She meant well for us!”

Luo Li’s tail stiffened, Demon Power quietly gathering, Purple Flame swirling between her ankle chains.

But Shen Yan raised his hand, pressing it against the flat of Ye Zhao’s blade. The tip of his finger glimmered with fine Code Flow, spreading along the sword’s body, forming a transparent Data Chain that firmly fixed the sword in place.

“If I am a calamity,” his voice was calm, “then I am merely a Bug that can be corrected by a Program.”

He paused, looking at Pei Yue: “You said Master wanted me to live, so I’ll live. You said I am hope, so I’ll be that hope. If fate slaps a label on me, I’ll just rewrite the factory settings.”

Ye Zhao’s eyes flickered slightly.

Shen Yan released his hand, and the Data Chains dissipated. He bent down, picked up the jade pendant, and placed it in his palm: “Since this thing chose you, it means you are the key figure. I won’t ask about the past, only the present—are you still willing to stand by my side?”

Pei Yue took a deep breath, reached out, and covered his hand, fully placing the jade pendant into his grasp: “I only know that the child Master traded her life for back then should not bear the name ‘cataclysm.’ If there truly is a calamity, I am willing to bear it with the way of medicine.”

The stone chamber fell into brief silence.

After a long while, Ye Zhao sheathed her sword, saying coldly: “I can trust you once. But if there is any anomaly, I won’t need a reason.”

After speaking, she turned and walked toward the door, her back straight as a sword, yet pausing almost imperceptibly for a moment as she passed Shen Yan.

No one noticed the slight trembling in the tips of her fingers within her sleeve.

Yu Xiaotang sighed in relief, secretly pulling out a yellow Talisman Paper and sticking a protective charm on Shen Yan’s backpack. After drawing it, she even blew on it, muttering: “My Programmer, no prophecy gets to sentence him to death.”

Luo Li leaned against the wall and sat down, her tail swaying gently. She stared at the jade pendant for a long time before suddenly whispering: “Before Mother disappeared, she also mentioned ‘Heaven’s Secret’… She said that night, the Barrier in the Western Wastes trembled, and someone used Medicine Valley’s secret art to awaken the slumbering Key.”

Shen Yan lowered his head, rubbing the jade pendant. The Terminal Interface still flickered with unknown Encoding, as if some ancient System was attempting to connect.

“The Source Code Spiritual Root was no accident,” he murmured. “It was designed.”

Pei Yue looked at the faint mark on the inside of his arm, recalling the anomalous rhythm she felt while applying the needles earlier—it was no ordinary Spiritual Root at all, but some kind of nested Core Program, layered with Encryption, so deep that even her Silver Needles could only probe the surface.

“There’s more than just Code inside you,” she said softly. “There’s also blood.”

Shen Yan was taken aback.

“The resonance with the Founder’s Spiritual Power wasn’t because of the jade pendant, but because of your blood.” Pei Yue’s expression was complex. “That great fire twenty years ago took away not only secrets, but also a Legacy. And you… might be the only living vessel.”

Yu Xiaotang’s eyes widened: “So you’re an orphan of Medicine Valley? Then you’re… Sister Pei’s…”

“No,” Shen Yan shook his head. “I’m just a container. The true legacy is this ‘operating system’ that can rewrite rules.”

He looked up at the group. “Are you willing to continue with me? Ahead, there may be no answers, only more questions.”

Ye Zhao stood by the door, not turning back, and simply said, “A sword doesn’t ask its master where they’re going. It only cuts through whatever stands in the way.”

Luo Li smiled. “Anyway, my tail has already wrapped around your wrist three times. Can’t untangle it now.”

Yu Xiaotang jumped up. “Of course! You’re the lead programmer of my first collaborative development project!”

Pei Yue didn’t speak, only picked up her medicine pouch again, took out a new silver needle, and lightly passed it over the candle flame.

Then she walked up to Shen Yan. With cool fingertips, she brushed aside the stray hairs on his forehead and gently pinned the silver needle inside his collar.

“This is my mother’s calming needle,” she said. “She used to say that as long as the person wearing it doesn’t give up, the lights of Medicine Valley will never go out.”

Shen Yan froze.

The terminal suddenly displayed a new notice:

【System Suggestion: High-dimensional emotional protocol detected. Enable “Bond Verification Module”?】

He smiled and manually closed the notice.

“No need to verify,” he said, gripping the jade pendant tightly. “I’ve already compiled it.”

The five of them stood quietly in the stone chamber. The red line on the map still pointed three hundred paces southeast, the path to the Demon Clan’s barrier clearly visible.

Shen Yan took one last look at the jade pendant in his hand and turned to walk forward.

Just then, the jade pendant suddenly grew slightly warm. On its surface, the characters “heavenly secrets” slowly cracked open, revealing an extremely fine line of small script inside:

“Mother’s blood as the key, child’s soul as the guide, restart the Abyss Gate.”

(End of Chapter)