Chapter 20: Sword Sect Envoy: The Invitation to the Sword Flight Examination

Shen Yan lay on the bamboo bed, the strawberry talisman paper on his chest still burning hot, as if a heating pad had been stuck there. The Source Code Spiritual Root within him buzzed incessantly, with three external forces—Demon Power, Talisman Spell flow, and his own barely functioning Code—clashing like three programmers fighting over the same Interface, none willing to yield.

“If this goes on, I won’t need enemies to finish me off—I’ll Blue Screen and System Crash on my own,” he muttered under his breath, his fingers tapping in the air as he tried to summon the Terminal Interface.

The Screen flickered, displaying half a line of text: “System loading… Please wait.”

“Wait for what!” he gritted his teeth, sweat beading on his forehead. “Yu Xiaotang, is this remote awakening meant to save me or kill me?”

Just then, a silver light tore through the clouds in the sky, as clean and sharp as a USB Drive plugging into a Host Machine. The light plummeted downward and, with a resounding crash, embedded itself into the stone platform in the courtyard, shaking bamboo leaves loose in a flurry.

It was a Talisman Edict, entirely silver-white, with intricate sword patterns swirling along its edges, strikingly similar to the header of some unnamed Script file on his phone.

“Invitation to the Sword Flight Examination?” Shen Yan squinted to read the small characters, his lips twitching. “And it’s an express delivery?”

He wanted to step forward to examine it, but as soon as he moved, a dull ache shot through his shoulder acupoint—the effects of Pei Yue’s needle sealing technique hadn’t fully dissipated yet, and his Spiritual Energy flow was as choppy as a Lagging video, stuttering intermittently.

To make matters worse, the residual Talisman Spell Yu Xiaotang had implanted suddenly flared with heat, colliding with his Source Code Spiritual Root. The Terminal froze completely on the startup Image.

“I’m done for,” he thought, his heart sinking.

Just as the Talisman Edict began to glow with golden light, seemingly about to self-destruct for an unworthy recipient, a figure in white robes pierced through the air.

Ye Zhao arrived on her sword, robes billowing. With a gentle tap of her Frost Soul Sword, the golden light instantly extinguished. She reached out, took the Talisman Edict, and turned to hand it to Shen Yan.

“Catch it.”

The moment their fingertips touched, Shen Yan’s mind exploded with a “buzz.”

The Terminal Interface abruptly displayed a line of red text: “High-purity Sword Intent input Detected. Establish temporary coroutine? Y/N”

Before he could even choose, the System automatically selected “Y.”

The next second, a spiral-shaped Data Stream surged from his fingertip, intertwining with Ye Zhao’s Sword Qi as it spiraled upward, churning into a cyan-white storm in the air. The wind swept away the scattered clouds, the ground beneath them cracked, and the two were violently yanked into the sky!

“Holy crap! This isn’t a Program I wrote!” Shen Yan shouted, frantically pulling up the Debug window in his mind.

Ye Zhao was also startled by the sudden turn of events, but she reacted swiftly, immediately channeling her Sword Qi to stabilize herself. Yet, the Data Storm only grew larger and more chaotic, like an out-of-control Compile Process, forcibly hurling the two of them higher and higher.

Three hundred meters, five hundred meters, eight hundred meters…

The cold wind sliced across their faces like knives, and the city below shrank into a miniature sandbox.

“Terminate the coroutine!” Shen Yan gritted his teeth, frantically typing commands in his consciousness. “Close all Asynchronous Threads! Reset the Buffer!”

The System finally Responded, but before the gravity compensation Module could finish loading, they had already begun free-falling.

“Hold on!” Ye Zhao shouted, her Sword Qi solidifying in an attempt to form a staircase.

But relying solely on Sword Intent to construct a load-bearing structure simply couldn’t support the weight of two people.

At the critical moment, Shen Yan swiftly pulled out his phone. The screen lit up, green text scrolling: “Generating ‘Cloud Ascension Stairs Algorithm’… Parameter collection: air humidity, wind speed, gravity coefficient, background radiation value… Complete.”

His fingers danced across the screen as he rapidly wrote a path-planning script, pouring all his remaining Mental Power into it.

“Run!”

Transparent stairs materialized out of thin air, generating step by step from bottom to top, each one glowing with a faint blue halo, as if lines of Code were being executed one by one. The two of them stepped onto the stairs in succession, finally halting their fall.

Ye Zhao stood beside him, her gaze falling on the old phone in his hand, her brow slightly furrowed. “Just now… were you writing Code?”

“What else?” Shen Yan gasped for breath, wiping sweat from his forehead. “Did you think I was chanting a spell to summon stairs? That would be so tacky.”

She didn’t speak, just stared at him. That look wasn’t like an interrogation, but more like confirming whether a missing piece of Source Code matched.

The stairs continued to extend upward, slicing the clouds into layers of thin gauze. In the distant sky, dark mist churned silently, as if something was approaching.

“There’s more than one type of foreign Energy within you,” Ye Zhao finally spoke, her voice soft. “Residual Demon Power hasn’t been cleared, Talisman Spells are still running, and now you’re forcibly invoking a high-level spell model… Aren’t you afraid of exploding?”

Shen Yan grinned. “I am, but I’m more afraid of hitting the ground and turning into a QR code.”

She didn’t smile, but her gaze softened slightly.

“This invitation letter is the Sword Sect’s recognition of your potential,” she said. “It’s also your only pass into the orthodox Cultivation Realm. Once accepted, it means declaring your stance publicly—are you ready?”

Shen Yan looked down at the Talisman Edict in his palm, then raised his head to gaze toward the northern mountains.

He knew that from this moment on, the days of hiding were over.

He took a deep breath, slowly raised his hand in the air, and traced an arc with his fingertip, writing a line of Command:

“Accept invitation.”

The Talisman Edict transformed into a stream of light in response, disappearing into the center of his forehead.

A Terminal update Notice popped up: “Sword Flight assessment Permission unlocked. Coordinates locked: Northern Region · Sword Resonance Peak.”

He looked at Ye Zhao. “You said this is the most legitimate path?”

She nodded.

“Then I’ll walk it once,” he smiled. “And while I’m at it, see if this path can let me Recompile the World Rules.”

Before his words faded, a Dark Shadow shot toward them from the distance, moving at an absurd speed. Immediately after, a broadcast-like mechanical voice suddenly echoed across the sky, covering the entire city:

“Announcement: Illegal spell user detected, identification Shen Yan. A Level One warrant is now issued. All Cultivation units are to execute capture immediately.”

Ye Zhao’s expression changed. “The Mystic Gate moves this fast?”

Shen Yan, however, smiled. “Perfect timing.”

He gripped his phone tightly and whispered, “Since you want to see me operate outside the rules… I’ll show you an ultimate Version.”

He raised his hand and waved. The transparent stairs didn’t disappear; instead, they extended downward, piercing through the clouds all the way to the highlands on the city’s outskirts.

As the two landed, the wind whipped up dust. Shen Yan stood firm, his plaid shirt flapping loudly in the wind, his glasses reflecting the constantly refreshing System Notices.

Ye Zhao glanced at him, then turned and stepped onto the Frost Soul Sword.

“Three days from now, at Chen hour, meet outside the mountain gate,” she said. With a flash of sword light, she shot into the clouds.

Shen Yan stood alone in the wind, watching the direction she had left, suddenly feeling a warmth in his chest.

Looking down, the strawberry talisman paper was faintly glowing, as if receiving some kind of remote signal.

Before he could react, his phone suddenly vibrated, the screen automatically lit up, and a new message popped up:

“Brother, I’ve already synchronized a backup of your System~”

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(End of Chapter)