Chapter 214: Truth Gradually Revealed: Signs of Betrayal

Shen Yan walked at the forefront, his phone screen still displaying the notice about the encrypted Data Packet. He rubbed his fingers along the edge, replaying that fluctuation in his mind—it wasn’t a random Signal; someone was communicating with him using the language of the Source Code Spiritual Root.

“The Formation was tampered with beforehand,” Yu Xiaotang followed behind him, her compass still trembling slightly. “Like… someone didn’t want us to uncover what’s beneath.”

Luo Li’s ears twitched, her tail sweeping across the rubble on the ground. “This place is unnaturally quiet. Devil Clan camps shouldn’t be so empty.”

Pei Yue held the little fox demon, her breathing somewhat hurried. “The injured need treatment. Let’s find the Medicine Hut first.”

“Not urgent,” Ye Zhao suddenly spoke, her gaze falling on the fissure between the half-collapsed stone house and the Medicine Hut ahead. “There are Rune remnants there.”

Shen Yan crouched down, lightly touching the ground crack with the Tip of his Finger. A faint Resonance came through, like some Program running at a low frequency. He closed his eyes and concentrated, simulating Spiritual Energy into a Data Stream, slowly pushing it along the crack.

【Detected hidden Rune chain, activating…】

A flash of green light, several almost invisible patterns emerged from beneath the dust, arranged in a circular formation, faintly pointing underground.

“Found it,” Shen Yan opened his eyes. “There’s a Secret Chamber below.”

Yu Xiaotang took out her compass and spun it; the Pointer sharply deviated. “Five elements reversed, metal pressure suppressing wood—this is a Seal Formation disguised as a collapse!”

“I’ll open it,” Luo Li raised her hand, Purple-Red Demonic Flame gathering in her palm, pressing it onto the ground. The stones emitted a piercing cracking sound, a stone door slowly rose, revealing descending stairs.

The air was filled with the scent of aged paper and ink.

The five cautiously descended the steps, entering a well-preserved stone chamber. Bronze shelves lined the four walls, piled with bamboo scrolls, jade books, and animal hide scrolls. On a stone table in the center lay a faded ancient Classic, its surface glowing faintly with a bloody light.

“Careful,” Ye Zhao reached out to stop Yu Xiaotang who wanted to approach. “There’s a Spiritual Awareness trap.”

Pei Yue leaned closer to look, her brows furrowed. “This handwriting… the lost ancient Celestial Clan script of Medicine Valley.”

Shen Yan didn’t speak, directly opening his phone camera to aim at the scroll. The Interface displayed a line of text: 【OCR recognition Initiated, matching…】 The progress bar slowly climbed.

“I’ll help stabilize it,” Yu Xiaotang tore two Talisman Papers and attached them to both ends of the scroll. “Adding a Buff with soul-calming talismans, don’t let it explode.”

Ye Zhao stood before the table, Sword Intent released outward, forming an invisible barrier isolating external interference.

A few minutes later, the phone vibrated.

【Keyword matching successful: “Outcast,” “Star-Shattering Token,” “Heavenly Dao authority”】

Shen Yan quickly swiped the screen, a translated passage appeared:

“In ancient times, there was a Celestial Clan Outcast, tasked with guarding the boundary. However, his trusted aide stole the Star-Shattering Token, falsely accusing him of treason. At that time, the Heavenly Dao was about to collapse, various sects fought for power, thus using the Outcast as a sacrifice to conceal the truth entirely. Only one volume of legacy records remained, hidden in the old site of the Abyss, awaiting descendants to uncover it.”

His pupils contracted.

Trusted aide betrayal?

This wasn’t simple framing; it was a power purge within the higher ranks.

“The Star-Shattering Token is the Key to unlocking the Heavenly Dao core,” Ye Zhao’s voice grew cold. “Sword Sect Classics mentioned it disappeared a thousand years ago, always thought lost during wartime chaos.”

“Now we know who took it,” Shen Yan stared at that line of text. “It was his ‘own people.'”

Pei Yue flipped through the other documents and suddenly froze. “There’s a record here… ‘If you see this record, destroy it immediately. Those who know become evidence of guilt and must not remain in this world.'”

As soon as the words fell, crimson liquid seeped from the edges of the scroll, quickly converging into a line of blood-red characters:

“Those who know become evidence of guilt; those who see must be executed.”

The temperature in the entire secret chamber plummeted.

Shen Yan immediately closed his phone and shut down all programs.

The next second, with a deafening roar, all four walls exploded simultaneously, and eight dark shadows leaped into the room, landing without a sound. They wore Devil Clan attire, but their auras were strange—unlike living beings, more like manipulated puppets.

Ye Zhao drew her sword and stood in front of Shen Yan, sweeping the blade to force back two charging figures.

“Something’s wrong!” Her eyes sharpened. “The flow of their spiritual veins is reversed—they’re fakes!”

Luo Li waved her hand, unleashing demonic fire to seal the exit. Under the flames’ illumination, the faces of those figures twisted slightly, as if wearing thin human skin masks.

“Not the Devil Clan,” Shen Yan gritted his teeth. “They’re impostors.”

Yu Xiaotang swiftly pulled out three talisman papers and slapped them onto the ground, chanting an incantation: “Triple warning, activate!”

Golden light flashed as the talisman array formed, protecting the five of them at the center.

But there were too many enemies, and in the blink of an eye, they had formed a circle, closing in step by step.

“Who sent you?” Shen Yan stared at one of them, trying to activate the scanning program, but the system was only 12% restored and couldn’t run high-level functions.

No one answered.

A black-clad figure suddenly raised a hand, revealing a black command token in their palm, its shape strikingly similar to the “Star-Shattering Token” described in the documents.

Shen Yan’s heart jolted.

How could this thing be in the hands of these people?

“They’re here to seize evidence,” he realized instantly. “These people are here to silence us!”

“Then don’t let them get close!” Ye Zhao’s sword gleamed like lightning, forcing back three enemies, but the opponents showed no fear of casualties, surging forward one after another.

Luo Li reignited her demonic fire, burning off the arms of two enemies, yet black mist emerged from the severed stumps, rapidly regenerating.

“They can’t be killed!” she shouted.

Pei Yue helped the injured little demon retreat to a corner, quickly taking calming powder from her medicine pouch and swallowing it, ready to provide support at any moment.

Yu Xiaotang bit the tip of her finger and drew a life-saving talisman on her palm. “This time… we can’t rely on Brother Shen Yan to bear it alone anymore.”

Shen Yan leaned against the stone table, his mind racing. The system was unusable, and a direct fight would mean certain death. They had to find a way to escape, or at least take the documents with them.

He quietly slipped his phone into his inner pocket, casually pulling out a previously backed-up replication talisman—a simple information storage talisman Yu Xiaotang had taught him to make, capable of temporarily preserving a segment of text.

Amid the chaos, he dipped his fingertip in blood and quickly wrote the key passage on the talisman paper: “Trusted aides stole the token, framed the scapegoat, seized power, and usurped the throne.”

Just as he finished writing, a dark shadow lunged at him!

Ye Zhao blocked horizontally with her sword but was knocked back by the opponent’s palm, slamming into the wall. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, yet she still gripped her sword tightly.

“Are you okay?” Shen Yan rushed over to support her.

“Don’t worry about me,” she gasped. “Protect the evidence.”

Luo Li roared, her demon tail bristling as she swung her claws, unleashing flames to force back two enemies. Her ears perked up, and she suddenly shouted, “They have traces of foreign spiritual energy on them! They’re not from this spacetime!”

Shen Yan froze.

Not from this spacetime?

Could it be… people from the future?

Or were higher-dimensional beings manipulating all this?

He had no time to think further as another wave of attacks surged forth. Ye Zhao forced herself up, Sword Qi crisscrossing as she barely held the defensive line. Yu Xiaotang detonated Talisman Paper one after another, blasting several enemies back, but her stamina was clearly failing. Pei Yue’s face had turned pale—the side effects of the medicine were evidently beginning to take effect.

“I can’t hold on anymore,” Yu Xiaotang leaned against the wall, her voice trembling.

Shen Yan backed against the stone table, the five of them gathering together, forming a defensive circle back-to-back. The enemies pressed closer and closer, sword glints, talisman flames, and Demonic Flame intertwining into a chaotic melee.

He glanced down at the Talisman Paper in his arms.

The evidence was here.

As long as he lived, the truth would not be buried.

“Listen,” he whispered. “I’ll draw them away in a moment. You take the documents and go.”

“No!” Ye Zhao said sharply. “If you die, who will write the Program?”

“I can hold them off,” Luo Li sneered. “This life of mine has long been unwanted anyway.”

“Enough nonsense,” Pei Yue suddenly spoke up. “We survive together.”

Yu Xiaotang looked up at him, her eyes frighteningly bright. “Brother Shen Yan, remember last time when you blew up the furnace? You said, ‘This line of Code should run,’ and ended up blasting the cafeteria roof off.”

Shen Yan smiled. “And then you drew me an ‘Anti-Explosion Talisman’ and stuck it on my phone.”

“I still believe it now,” she gripped her Talisman Brush tightly. “Your Code will definitely run.”

Ye Zhao looked at him, her voice soft. “My sword will always be wielded for you.”

Shen Yan took a deep breath, his fingers slowly reaching for his phone.

Even if the System was incomplete, even if his Mental Power was nearly depleted, he had to try one more time.

He whispered, “Get ready… I’m powering it on.”

The phone screen flashed, and a Terminal Interface with black background and green text slowly appeared.

【System loading…】

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”web.js”></script>

(End of Chapter)