Chapter 31: Sword Flight Re-examination: Binary Sword in the Script

When Shen Yan tucked the copper coin hairband with rune engravings into his inner pocket, his fingers were still trembling slightly. Not out of fear, but excitement.

At the moment the smoke in the kitchen formed the character “return,” he knew that the people hiding in the shadows had grown impatient. They wanted him to panic, to become frantic, ideally to suffer a mental breakdown before the examination and withdraw automatically.

But he insisted on taking the test.

And he intended to win, silencing them all.

At dawn in the Sword Sect’s training grounds, the mist had not yet dissipated. The stone platform stood tall, with thirty-six disciples lined up, each with a solid aura and sharp eyes. Today was the final sword flight examination; those standing here were the elite from each peak.

Shen Yan stood at the end, wearing a borrowed plain white training robe over his checkered shirt, with sleeves still stained with ashes from the woodpile last night.

The examiner strode forward, clad in purple robes with a jade belt, his voice booming like thunder: “For this examination, talisman artifacts, magical artifacts, formation disks, and all external aids are prohibited. Sword flight must be guided by spiritual consciousness. Violators will be expelled from the mountain.”

The entire field fell silent.

All eyes swept toward Shen Yan.

Some sneered, some shook their heads, and some even snorted outright.

“Heard this guy used a phone for sword flight before. Isn’t he stupid?”

“Probably thinks he can cultivate immortality just by writing an app.”

Shen Yan ignored them. He quietly reached into his pants pocket, touching the phone with its screen cracked like a spiderweb.

Not to boast.

To confirm—the program was still there.

He closed his eyes briefly, recalling the last line of code he had written in the woodpile last night: “Sword Qi Resonance → Compile Binary Stream”

Now, it was time to execute.

“First task: sword flight through the air, replicate the first three forms of the Dust-Severing Art.” As the examiner commanded, everyone leaped upward, sword lights like rainbow arcs slicing through the sky.

Shen Yan did not move.

He was waiting.

Waiting for an opportunity—one that would make everyone see clearly that “code is also a path.”

Only when the third round of trials began, with several people having completed it, did it come to his turn.

He stepped onto the platform slowly, his pace neither hurried nor sluggish. Walking to the center, he drew the borrowed Frost Soul Sword—Ye Zhao’s sword.

The blade trembled slightly, as if possessing spirit.

He did not rush to wield it. Instead, he gently pressed the phone against the sword hilt.

No one saw that moment when the terminal interface silently popped up:

【Initiate: Sword Qi Binary Compilation Protocol? Y/N】

He tapped “Yes.”

Hum—

The sword suddenly vibrated fiercely. The silver-white sword qi twisted and decomposed in the air, transforming into countless fine green light points, reassembling like a data stream.

The next second, in the void, a spiral trajectory composed of “0”s and “1”s appeared prominently!

“Cloud Sever—(Qi Lock)→ Sever!”

With a thought from Shen Yan, the program automatically parsed the sword intent, converting the basic moves into conditional judgments. Where the sword light reached, the binary stream precisely cut through the air, each strike landing on spiritual power nodes.

“Wind Return Nine Turns—Sword Qi Rotation}”

The sword momentum flowed continuously, the data stream rising like a whirlwind. In the air, “0”s and “1”s tumbled incessantly, actually piecing together the embryonic form of the Dust-Severing Art’s sword seal in the void!

The entire field fell dead silent.

The examiner widened his eyes, his beard trembling: “You… you are tampering with the Heavenly Dao?!”

Shen Yan did not answer.

He knew that at this moment, tradition and rules were being torn open.

He retrieved the furnace-bottom formation remnant pattern collected yesterday, using it as a verification key to input into the program core.

【Cross-Protocol Compatibility Mode: Activated】

The Frost Soul Sword suddenly erupted with a blinding azure light, its tip tracing a complete opening seal in the air. Each node of the sword stance corresponded to a segment of source code verification.

The terminal’s notification tone quietly sounded:

“Protocol authentication passed, Sword Dao logic chain complete.”

The examiner staggered back a step, his face deathly pale.

This was not dark sorcery.

This was—a reverse analysis of the Way of the Sword itself!

Shen Yan sheathed his sword, the data stream slowly dissipating until only a faint glimmer remained at the tip.

He glanced down at his phone; the run log had automatically cleared, leaving no trace.

Then, he looked up, meeting the examiner’s gaze directly. “I did not use external amplification. I only wrote a program with my spiritual consciousness, just as you all control your swords with your thoughts. The only difference is—you rely on intuition, while I rely on logic.”

With that, he turned and walked away.

A furious shout came from behind him: “Halt! How can such heresy be allowed to pass the assessment!”

Shen Yan’s steps did not falter, leaving only a soft remark in his wake:

“The true Way of the Sword should not reject any form of awakening.”

As he descended the stone platform, the tips of his fingers still burned.

Not from nervousness.

But from—exhilaration.

He was finally no longer hiding.

From now on, if anyone dared say that code was not a path, he would use his sword to carve “0” and “1” into the crowns of their heads.

At the edge of the training ground, Ye Zhao had been standing all along.

She did not speak, nor did she intervene.

But from the moment Shen Yan stepped onto the stone platform, her fingers had tightly clenched the sword tassel hidden in her sleeve.

Only when he sheathed his sword and left did she slowly release her grip.

Her fingertips trembled slightly.

Not from shock, but from emotion.

She suddenly recalled the moment last night at the cliff’s edge, when their spiritual powers had merged as they fell—in his code, there was no killing intent, no schemes, only a single line of commentary repeating in a loop:

“To protect, no conditional judgment is needed.”

She pursed her lips and turned, disappearing into the crowd.

But just as she left, the corner of her eye caught a glimpse—Shen Yan’s retreating figure was being watched.

Xie Wujiu stood on the other side of the viewing platform, his black robes sweeping the ground, his gaze cold and sinister.

He was not looking at Shen Yan’s sword, nor at the strange data stream.

What he was fixated on was—Shen Yan’s phone.

Even though it had already been tucked away in his pocket.

“Investigate,” he whispered to the attendant beside him. “Find out which room he lives in, whether he goes out at night, who he meets—keep him under close surveillance.”

The attendant bowed and left.

But Xie Wujiu did not move.

He watched Shen Yan’s receding figure, a cold smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

“You think using code can break the rules?”

“But the rules… have always been written by the victors.”

Shen Yan knew nothing of this.

All he knew was that he needed to return to his room immediately.

Though he had passed the assessment, the real battle was only just beginning.

He touched the copper coin hair tie in his inner pocket and glanced at his phone—the terminal had just displayed a new message:

【Anomalous signal residue detected. Source: Sword Sect Internal Affairs Corridor B-7】

His steps halted.

B-7 was exactly the corridor he had to pass through to reach his quarters.

Without hesitation, he turned into a side corridor, his fingertips swiftly swiping across his phone to initiate the “Passive Tracking Countermeasure Script.”

Three minutes later, he entered his small courtyard.

As soon as the door closed, his phone vibrated.

【Countermeasure successful. Captured unknown signal source lingering record: 3 minutes 17 seconds】

Shen Yan sneered.

“Right on time.”

He placed his phone on the table and was about to examine the data details when footsteps suddenly sounded outside the door.

Very light.

But not the rhythm of patrolling disciples.

He quietly slipped his phone under the pillow and had just stood up when the door was knocked.

“Shen Yan?”

A woman’s voice.

Cool and detached, yet carrying a trace of concern that was hard to detect.

His heart skipped a beat.

Opening the door—

Ye Zhao stood at the doorway, holding a celadon medicine bottle in her hand.

“Your injuries haven’t healed yet,” she said. “This is a calming tonic. Don’t forget to drink it.”

Shen Yan froze.

He looked at the medicine bottle she offered, then raised his head to meet her gaze.

Moonlight slanted in, her brows slightly furrowed, but her eyes avoided his stare.

He took the bottle, his fingertips accidentally brushing against her hand.

At that moment, the Terminal suddenly popped up a Notice:

【High-Level Sword Qi Fluctuation Detected. Emotional Compatibility: 87%】

Shen Yan nearly laughed out loud.

He held it back and whispered, “Thank you.”

Ye Zhao hummed in acknowledgment and turned to leave.

But just as she lifted her foot, Shen Yan suddenly spoke:

“Earlier… at the training ground, why didn’t you help me?”

Ye Zhao paused in her steps.

The night breeze brushed past, lifting a strand of her silver hair.

She didn’t turn around, her voice soft:

“Because I knew—you didn’t need it at all.”

With that, she left.

Shen Yan stood at the doorway, clutching the medicine bottle, his heart beating a little too fast.

He glanced down at his phone—

The Screen was lit, the last line of Code still flashing:

“Execute Confession Program”

But she hadn’t looked back.

So he deleted that line of Code.

Then he placed the medicine bottle in the drawer, opened his computer, and created a new folder.

Named: “Binary Sword Qi Model_V2.0”

Outside the window, the moonlight gradually faded.

At the end of the corridor, a Dark Shadow slowly withdrew its prying gaze.

(End of Chapter)