Chapter 184: Ye Zhao's Dilemma

Ye Zhao slid along the rock wall, her boot soles grinding over gravel without making a sound. Her sword tassel swayed gently in the cold wind. Just as the terminal signal lit up with a green dot, eight cracks suddenly split the surrounding rocks.

Gray shadows darted out, and blade light sealed off her retreat both front and back.

She spun around and drew her sword, Sword Qi sweeping across the wrists of two attackers. The hand bones beneath their black cloaks snapped out of place with a crack. A third person pounced from above. As she looked up, she saw a bronze bell hanging from their waist.

The bell swayed lightly, its sound crisp and clear.

The Spiritual Power within her body felt as if it had slammed into an invisible wall. Her sword strike veered half an inch off course, only slicing off a corner of the attacker’s clothing. The remaining five guards immediately closed in, their blades crisscrossing, forcing her back against the stone platform.

The surface of the stone platform was carved with Runes, and a blood-red Interface protruded from its center—that was the data Node.

Her fingers were only ten centimeters away from the Interface.

But that bell rang again.

Her Meridians felt as if they were being twisted by iron wire. An old injury on her left shoulder tore open, blood flowing down her arm to the tip of her finger. Gritting her teeth to suppress a groan, she used the tip of her sword against the ground to steady herself.

Far away at the center of the pool, Shen Yan stared at the Terminal Interface, his brow suddenly twitching.

【North side: Spiritual Power Fluctuation intense, frequency abnormal】

He activated the shared perception, and his vision instantly switched to Ye Zhao’s eyes. The Image shook slightly, showing water dripping from the rock ceiling and that swaying bronze bell.

“Damn, a Spirit-Sealing Bell?” he muttered under his breath. “Wasn’t this thing supposed to be extinct long ago?”

He immediately began typing Code in his mind, lines of green characters scrolling rapidly. An anti-interference shield Program took shape in three seconds, and he attempted a remote injection.

Half the Signal passed through, then the bell rang again.

The Program loaded to seventy percent before exploding outright.

A Popup Window appeared on the Terminal: 【Injection failed, target area Signal attenuation 92%】

“No good,” he clenched the remnants of his phone. “Too far away, can’t penetrate the Magical Artifact suppression.”

He switched Protocols, forcibly triggering a vibration. Ye Zhao’s sword tassel trembled once.

This was the signal.

She silently recited in her mind: “Buy thirty seconds, I’m adjusting frequency for support.”

Ye Zhao closed her eyes, slowing her breathing. The sound of the bell rang rhythmically in her ears: once, twice, a pause of three beats, the fourth interval slightly longer.

She opened her eyes, the corner of her mouth twitching slightly.

Shen Yan had told her that any Anomaly signal has a cycle. As long as she caught the gap, she could break the situation.

She deliberately loosened her grip, letting her sword clatter to the ground.

The guards exchanged glances, slowly advancing. The one holding the bell had already reached the edge of the stone platform, reaching out to touch the Node Interface.

The moment he raised his hand, Ye Zhao erupted into action.

Using the last of her strength, she leaped up. Sword Qi burst from her palm, severing her own sword tassel. The severed tassel, carrying Spiritual Power, propelled her backward onto the top of the stone platform.

Her fingertip finally pressed against the Node.

Blood seeped into the cracks of the Runes as the System began reading her identity.

【Verifying…】

The guards roared, blade light slashing toward her.

She knelt on one knee on the platform, her left hand shielding the Interface, her right fist smashing toward the face of the nearest attacker. Bone met bone; the other’s nose bridge collapsed as he was sent flying backward.

But the other three had already surrounded the platform’s edge.

The bell shook once more.

Her entire body stiffened. Her knee slammed heavily onto the stone surface, her knuckles turning white as she dared not let go. Blood dripped from her shoulder onto the Node, one drop, then another.

【Verification passed, Permission unlocked】

The Screen flashed with a green progress bar: 【Cut Connection Countdown 30 seconds】

Success.

She gasped for breath, catching a glimpse from the corner of her eye of the guard holding the bell raising a short blade, aiming to stab her neck.

She couldn’t dodge in time.

Just then, the ground trembled slightly.

Not an earthquake.

It was a phone vibration.

Shen Yan had sent a new signal.

She didn’t move, but the vibration traveled through the ground to her feet, like some kind of reminder.

The blade was five centimeters from her neck when she suddenly smiled.

“You’re late.”

Shen Yan stood by the pool, his fingers hovering mid-air, the Terminal Interface refreshing wildly.

The northern signal had stabilized, and the progress bar was running normally. But his expression didn’t relax at all.

“Something’s off,” he muttered. “Too smooth.”

He played back the shared perception Image from earlier, dragging it frame by frame. When he saw Ye Zhao severing the sword tassel, his pupils contracted sharply.

The break was too neat.

Like it had been prepared long ago.

Moreover, her landing position was precisely in the shadow of the stone platform, avoiding all the guards’ blind spots.

“This woman…” He tugged at the corner of his mouth. “She actually wrote a fake death Script herself?”

He quickly entered a Command, trying to add a Firewall to the north side. But just after typing the prefix, the Terminal suddenly issued an alarm.

【Warning: Hidden Process access Detected】

He abruptly looked toward the northern area.

Ye Zhao had indeed severed the Node connection, but the overall defense value of the System hadn’t dropped.

Instead, it had risen.

“What the hell?” His fingers paused. “She severed a bait Port!”

The true main Node was still running.

At this moment, Ye Zhao leaned against the stone platform, panting, blood flowing uncontrollably from her shoulder. Four guards surrounded her, none rushing to attack.

The one holding the bell crouched down, looking into her eyes and said, “You think you’re destroying? Actually, you’re activating.”

Ye Zhao sneered, “You knew we’d come.”

“Of course,” that person stood up. “Every Node you sever, the remaining three automatically upgrade their defenses. When you finish severing all four, the entire Puppet Pool will fully awaken.”

She couldn’t speak.

The wound was too deep, her Spiritual Power nearly exhausted.

But her fingers still clung tightly to the edge of the stone platform, as if she would charge forward again the next moment.

“Don’t waste your effort,” that person shook the bell. “You won’t survive the third time.”

The bell rang.

Her body trembled, fingers twitching, nearly slipping down.

Just then, the Terminal vibrated again.

Shen Yan’s signal.

This time, it wasn’t vibration.

It was temperature.

Her palm grew hot, as if something was crawling upward through her Bloodline.

She looked down, the blood flowing from her wound shimmered with a faint green light.

Was that… the resonance of the Source Code Spiritual Root?

Shen Yan gritted his teeth at the pool’s center, sweat beading on his forehead.

He had secretly inserted a micro Program into the synchronization Protocol earlier. Originally just a contingency measure, but now he had to Initiate it early.

“Don’t blame me for not warning you,” he stared at the northern Image, whispering. “This thing burns nerves.”

Ye Zhao suddenly looked up, gazing toward the pool’s center.

The two looked at each other across dozens of meters of darkness.

Her lips moved, but no sound came out.

But he understood.

“Half a minute is enough.”

She pushed herself up from the stone platform, kicked over the nearest guard, pulled out their short blade with a backhand motion, and turned to charge toward the Hidden Door in another direction.

“Stop her!” the bell holder shouted.

Blade lights flashed everywhere, another wound added to her left shoulder, her whole body staggered, but she didn’t stop.

She rushed into the narrow passage, footsteps of pursuers closing in behind her.

The Terminal progress bar flickered: 【Locating the true northern node…】

Shen Yan stared at the changing numbers, his fingers tapping incessantly.

“Faster… just a little faster…”

Ye Zhao pushed open a stone door to find densely packed copper pipes inside, with a dark red crystal embedded in the wall.

That was the true node.

She raised her short blade, ready to strike.

A bell rang from behind.

Her entire body stiffened, the blade tip veering off course and scraping across the crystal’s surface.

Sparks flew.

A crack split the crystal.

【Warning: Core breach detected. Initiating self-destruct countdown.】

Red light began to flash.

She slid down the wall to sit on the ground, still clutching the blade.

Footsteps drew closer outside the door.

She glanced up at the crystal, then looked back the way she had come.

Pressing the blade tip against the floor, she pushed herself up.

She couldn’t die here.

Shen Yan was still waiting for the signal.

She had to make it back alive.

She raised her hand, using the blade to cut her palm, then pressed her blood against the crack in the crystal.

【Identity verification passed.】

【Local Permission successfully taken over.】

She closed her eyes and whispered, “Now, it’s my turn to write the Program.”

The blade lifted, aimed at her own heart.

(End of Chapter)