Chapter 34: The Stolen Sword Canon: The Hidden Hand in the Data Chain

Shen Yan had just stuffed the reverse beacon program into Xie Wujiu’s formation cache, the silver talisman bean Pei Yue gave him still in his mouth, the metallic taste lingering on the tip of his tongue.

The next second, his phone vibrated violently, and the terminal interface exploded with glaring red text:

【Warning: High-level permission breakthrough detected! Target protocol—complete structure of the Dust-Severing Art is being remotely copied】

【Transmission medium: Earth Vein spiritual flow】

【Data flow direction: Secret chamber on the east side of the third floor of the Scripture Pavilion】

His pupils contracted, fingers swiping across the screen in a blur.

“What the hell, who’s running data crawlers at this hour?”

The monitoring view instantly expanded, revealing a hidden IP infiltrating the Sword Sect’s internal network with extremely low-frequency fluctuations, disguised as routine spiritual power inspection logs, while quietly packaging the core spell modules of the sect’s treasured Sword Canon. The download progress bar had already reached 98%; three more seconds and the entire secret canon’s mirror image backup would be complete.

“Using spiritual energy as fiber optics?” Shen Yan sneered. “You’re treating the Cultivation Realm like a local area network, aren’t you?”

He immediately pulled up the architectural topology map and locked onto the signal source’s location—the third floor of the Scripture Pavilion, a place usually accessible only to high-ranking members of the Punishment Hall and the Council of Elders. The guard formations there recorded even the flight path of a mosquito. Yet now, the system logs were completely blank, as if someone had cleared the recycle bin directly with administrator permissions.

“An inside job.”

He kicked off his slippers and rolled out of bed, not even bothering to button his plaid shirt properly, grabbed his phone, and rushed out the door.

On the way, he casually picked up a fallen leaf from the corner of the wall, injected a line of code with a flick of his fingertip, and the leaf instantly transformed into a miniature signal amplifier, rolling along the ground ahead to scout the path for him.

Outside the Scripture Pavilion, the guard Sword Array was quiet as usual, not triggering any alarms.

“Which means the intruder has legitimate credentials, or… permissions higher than mine.”

Shen Yan narrowed his eyes, Xie Wujiu’s folding fan flashing in his mind.

Half an hour ago, he had been planning to plant a timed bomb on that thing, and now the guy was stealing the Sword Canon?

“You’re moving way too fast, old Xie.”

He circled around to the east-side ventilation shaft, pressed his phone against the wall, and initiated “spiritual energy harmonic penetration scanning.” A few seconds later, an internal structural diagram appeared on the terminal. At the center of the third-floor secret chamber was a faint energy vortex, continuously drawing spiritual flow from the Earth Vein as a transmission carrier.

“Physical and spiritual dual-channel simultaneous transmission?” Shen Yan clicked his tongue. “Pretty professional.”

Without another word, he pulled out a backup phone, connected it to a homemade spiritual energy coupler, and wrote a “cache hijacking script” to retrieve the last segment of operational records from the Earth Vein node.

Just as the program was halfway through running, a popup window suddenly appeared on the terminal:

【Warning: High-level seal interference detected. Critical logs have been encrypted and locked】

“Already prepared for this?”

Shen Yan gritted his teeth, forcibly switching to the underlying mode to manually restore the last 0.5 seconds of cache fragments. The image flickered, and a line of spiritual energy signature appeared—sharp strokes with hooked endings, exactly the rune style Xie Wujiu habitually used.

“It really is you.”

Just as he was about to take a screenshot for evidence, footsteps sounded behind him.

Unhurried, as if deliberately keeping to a rhythm.

Shen Yan whipped his head around.

Xie Wujiu stood at the stairwell, his black robes making his face appear pale. In his hands, he held an ancient tome with a dark gold cover, three characters engraved on its spine: 《Dust-Severing Art》.

A faint smile curled at the corner of his mouth as he leisurely opened his folding fan. “Junior Brother Shen, still investigating this late at night?”

Shen Yan didn’t move, his gaze fixed on the book in the other’s hand. “Here to return the Sword Canon?”

“No.” Xie Wujiu gently waved his fan. “I’m here to catch a thief.”

Before his words faded, rapid footsteps echoed outside the Scripture Pavilion. Seven or eight law enforcement disciples, swords drawn, closed in, led by a Steward from the Punishment Hall.

Xie Wujiu turned, his voice suddenly turning cold. “Everyone, behold! Outer Sect disciple Shen Yan, sneaking into the Forbidden Land late at night, attempting to breach the core Formation of the Scripture Pavilion to steal the sect’s secret canon!”

He pointed at Shen Yan. “Caught red-handed.”

The crowd erupted in murmurs.

Shen Yan sneered. “You’re putting on quite a show.”

“Am I?” Xie Wujiu opened the Sword Canon in his hand, pointing to a page of Runes. “Then tell me, why does this Restriction Seal pattern still carry traces of your Spiritual Power Frequency?”

Shen Yan’s eyes sharpened.

That was a faint strand of Code Flow he had accidentally leaked while debugging the reverse beacon earlier. He hadn’t expected it to be intercepted and spliced onto the Sword Canon.

“Clever,” he said. “Framing someone with the feel of an API Interface call.”

“What did you say?” the Steward frowned.

“I said—” Shen Yan raised his phone. “I have the original Data Stream records here, which can prove who the real thief of the Sword Canon is.”

He tapped the Terminal, preparing to retrieve the logs from the cache recovery Program.

The Screen flashed, but a red Notice popped up:

【System Permission insufficient. Critical evidence has been Sealed.】

Shen Yan’s heart sank.

Xie Wujiu chuckled softly. “External tools are ultimately unreliable.”

The law enforcement disciples stepped forward, gripping Shen Yan’s shoulders. “Come with us.”

Shen Yan didn’t resist, only staring at Xie Wujiu. “You think you can Seal my Code?”

“I don’t need to Seal it.” Xie Wujiu closed his fan. “I just need everyone to believe you’re the culprit.”

As Shen Yan was escorted away, his fingers subtly brushed the side of his phone within his sleeve.

A faint, almost imperceptible green light flashed.

【Data traceability Backup · Uploaded to offline Node】

He knew this trap wasn’t about stealing a book from the start.

It was about silencing him.

About kicking him completely off the board.

But they forgot—what Programmers excel at is never direct confrontation.

It’s planting Easter eggs.

It’s waiting for the Trigger Conditions.

As they passed through the long corridor, a gust of wind swept by, lifting the hem of his robe.

In the distance, the bell tower sounded the fifth watch drum.

Ye Zhao stood at the end of the veranda, clad in moon-white martial attire, the Frost Soul Sword hanging at her side. She didn’t speak, her gaze resting on Shen Yan’s face before slowly shifting to the Sword Canon in Xie Wujiu’s hand.

Their eyes met for a fleeting moment.

She frowned slightly.

Shen Yan tugged at the corner of his mouth, remaining silent.

He knew she was suspicious.

But he also knew nothing he said now would matter.

The law enforcement disciples escorted him toward the other end of the mountain path. Ahead, mist churned, and a massive stone gate stood tall—the Sword Tomb had been reached.

The cold wind caused his glasses to slip slightly; he reached up to adjust them.

His phone screen lit up within his sleeve:

【Pending Trigger Conditions: Sword Tomb deep-layer Formation activation】

He closed his eyes.

The next moment, the stone gate rumbled open.

Two disciples shoved him inside, iron chains clattering.

Just as the gate was about to shut, Shen Yan suddenly opened his eyes, looking at Xie Wujiu standing outside.

“Do you know why Programmers never panic?”

Xie Wujiu raised an eyebrow.

Shen Yan smiled. “Because… we always have a Backdoor.”

As his words fell, the stone gate slammed shut with a heavy thud.

In the darkness, his fingers lightly tapped twice on the phone screen.

A faint “beep” sound spread through the silence.

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

(End of Chapter)