Chapter 190: Ye Shi'er's Madness

Ye Shi’er raised his scythe, black energy churning, as rune formations spread wildly across the ground.

Shen Yan leaned against the rock wall, his fingers still trembling. The phone screen was cracked like a spiderweb, but the green light hadn’t gone out. He could feel it—the air had changed. Spiritual Energy was no longer flowing smoothly but had been torn into fragments of garbled code, like a crashed program repeatedly reporting errors.

The “Formatting” had begun.

Ye Zhao’s Sword Qi was the first to fluctuate, its silver light flashing once before dimming. The silver needles Pei Yue had driven into the ground emitted piercing shrieks as the spiritual net began to distort. Luo Li’s Demonic Fire shifted from purple to gray-white, like a television image with poor signal. The Talisman Papers Yu Xiaotang had attached to her wrist ignited one after another, completely unstoppable.

“Not good!” Shen Yan looked up sharply. “He’s rewriting the rules! He’s not attacking us—he’s reinstalling the entire world as a system!”

Gritting his teeth, he pushed himself up, his fingertips tracing several afterimages across the screen. The Terminal finally displayed a line of text: 【Detected same-source code intrusion. Initiate common-frequency recognition?】

“Yes! Now!”

The Interface flashed, and thousands of lines of crimson code scrolled past. Shen Yan’s pupils contracted—he recognized this language. It was the most primitive version of the Source Code Spiritual Root within him, but it had been tampered with, infected with a Virus module.

“Damn… is this a fragment of the compiler left by the Old Ancestor?” he muttered under his breath. “And it’s been turned into a bomb?”

He immediately opened the shared channel with the four women. Unable to speak, he could only send simple codes using the phone’s vibration patterns. Three short, one long for Ye Zhao; two long, two short for Pei Yue; three consecutive vibrations for Luo Li; five urgent vibrations for Yu Xiaotang.

Ye Zhao understood instantly. Her sword tip struck the ground sharply, condensing Sword Qi into a data chain that plunged into the chaotic Spiritual Flow, forcibly anchoring a stable Node.

Pei Yue gritted her teeth, pulled out a silver needle, and stabbed it into her own shoulder acupoint to forcibly sharpen her focus. With her other hand, she arranged the remaining silver needles into a circular formation, injecting stabilizing Spiritual Flow into the ground.

Luo Li’s ears twitched, her tail bristling as her Demonic Fire abruptly contracted, transforming into a circular barrier that stood before them like a Firewall.

Yu Xiaotang trembled as she pulled out the last blank Talisman Paper from her Cosmic Bag, bit her finger, and swiftly drew a redundant Backup Talisman Pattern, sticking it onto Shen Yan’s phone case.

The connection among the five was reestablished.

The green light brightened again, and the Terminal popped up a Notice: 【Dynamic anti-interference array activated. Crash Latency: 37 seconds】

“Enough,” Shen Yan gasped for breath. “Just hold on a little longer, and I can find a breakthrough.”

But at that moment, dense crimson code lines materialized around Ye Shi’er, each connected to a soul imprint deep within the Puppet Pool. His left hand had completely mechanized, the skin splitting open to reveal a metallic skeleton. His left eye had transformed into a rotating data crystal, and he chanted ancient phrases no one could understand.

“He’s using his own life as the operational cost…” Shen Yan’s heart sank.

Suddenly, Ye Zhao erupted into action. Her sword light flashed like lightning, aiming straight for Ye Shi’er’s right wrist. She knew that as long as she interrupted the code transmission, the spell would cease.

But just as the sword was about to strike, a Memory Flood surged out from within Ye Shi’er and crashed into her Consciousness Sea.

She saw—a woman standing amidst flames, smiling at her, then turning to ashes.

In that instant, Ye Zhao froze.

Her sword strike veered off by half an inch.

Ye Shi’er sneered coldly. Swinging his scythe backward, black energy exploded, blasting her directly away. She crashed into the rock wall, her left arm dislocated, her entire body sliding to the ground, yet she still stubbornly gripped the hilt of her sword.

“Ye Zhao!” Shen Yan’s heart tightened.

The next second, Pei Yue charged forward. She carried no weapon, only a handful of silver needles. She threw herself beside Ye Zhao, pressing her palm against the other’s back, chanting a low incantation.

“Pain drawn as substitute, wounds returned to my body.”

As the words fell, her face instantly turned deathly pale, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. But she didn’t stop. With a backhand, she drove three silver needles into the ground, using the Earth Vein as a conduit to sketch out a “Clear Spirit Return to Meridians Diagram.” Golden threads spread, forming a protective barrier that shielded the others from Memory Contamination.

“You’re insane!” Shen Yan roared.

Pei Yue looked up at him, smiling faintly. “I said… as long as you live, that’s enough.”

After speaking, darkness clouded her vision, and she collapsed onto Ye Zhao’s shoulder.

Shen Yan’s fists clenched so tightly they creaked.

At that moment, space began to collapse. The air folded layer upon layer like a compressed file, the ground bulged with Code blocks, and gravity shifted erratically up and down. His phone kept alarming: 【Local time flow Anomaly detected】 【Physical laws reloading】

“Only three seconds left…” He stared at the Countdown. “If we don’t stop it now, we’ll all be deleted.”

Luo Li suddenly stood up.

She took the silver bell from her waist and crushed it in her hand.

“A hundred years of Cultivation Base—burned all today.”

She bit the Tip of her Tongue, spraying a mouthful of vital blood onto the outer layer of her Demon Core. Purple Flame erupted violently, transforming into eight spiral chains that entangled the collapsing space folds. Each chain trembled violently, as if ready to snap at any moment.

“Boss…” She glanced back at Shen Yan. “This time… don’t forget to roast me marshmallows.”

Before the words faded, three of the chains snapped. She was sent flying by the shockwave, the Demonic Fire extinguished, her cat ears drooping weakly.

“Luo Li!” Shen Yan’s eyes turned red.

Yu Xiaotang lay slumped on the ground, watching her companions fall one by one, and suddenly laughed.

“You’re all fighting so hard—how can I just sleep?”

Struggling to her feet, she pulled a yellowed Talisman Paper from her inner pocket. On it were drawn twisted Talisman Patterns, the edges charred black, as if burned and restored.

“Grandpa said… this talisman must not be used. Using it will shorten your lifespan.” She chuckled darkly. “But now, who cares about that?”

She bit her tongue and smeared the blood fiercely onto the talisman.

“Reverse Fate Cycle Draw—activate!”

The talisman ignited without wind, golden light exploding, carving an arc-shaped barrier above everyone’s heads. Ye Shi’er’s Clearance Command stuttered, the progress bar pausing for 0.8 seconds.

Now!

Shen Yan seized the opportunity, his fingers flying frantically over his phone. He pulled up the Source Code Editor, preparing to forcibly Decompile Ye Shi’er’s core Code.

But just as he entered the first line of the Command, Ye Shi’er opened his mechanical eye.

His gaze locked onto Shen Yan.

“Brother…” His voice was hoarse. “Tell me… which of us is the real Bug?”

Shen Yan’s fingers paused.

The Terminal suddenly popped up a new Notice: 【Deep-layer Protocol awakening Detected. Connect?】

Before he could react, Ye Shi’er raised his scythe, aiming at the five of them.

“Format, final execution.”

Black energy surged violently. Space compressed to its limit, the air solidifying into walls of Code that pressed inward step by step.

Ye Zhao knelt on the ground, propping herself up with her sword, her gaze fixed unwaveringly ahead.

Pei Yue, unconscious, twitched her fingers slightly, the silver needles still not released.

Luo Li curled up on the ground, her tail gently resting on Yu Xiaotang’s fallen candied hawthorn stick.

Yu Xiaotang lay face up, blood staining her lips, her right hand still clutching half a burnt talisman paper.

Shen Yan leaned against the rock wall, his phone screen covered in cracks, the green light flickering intermittently.

He looked down at the notice, his finger hovering above the confirm button.

Ye Shi’er floated in mid-air, half flesh and half machine, murmuring incomprehensible code.

In the last second before the countdown reached zero, Shen Yan pressed confirm.

(End of Chapter)