Chapter 35: Sword Tomb Forbidden Land: The Source Code of the Millennium Formation

The moment the stone door closed, Shen Yan’s finger was still lightly tapping on his phone screen.

Beep.

That soft sound spread through the dead silence, like a line of code dropping into a deep pool. He leaned against the cold stone wall, surrounded by pitch-black darkness so thick it seemed to swallow even the sound of his breath. Inside the Sword Tomb, there were no Spiritual Energy fluctuations, no light—only countless broken ancient swords thrust into the ground and between the rock walls, like abandoned program remnants quietly decaying.

But he knew—this place was off.

There was an extremely subtle tremor in the air, not Spiritual Power, but more like a fixed-frequency signal stream, whispering in his ear, like the hum of an old server chassis cooling.

“It really is a living system,” he murmured under his breath.

His fingertip slid across the screen again, and the cracked phone actually lit up. Green text appeared in the darkness:

【High-density rune field detected… Initiate passive listening mode?】

He didn’t hesitate. “Initiate.”

A waveform graph began scrolling, streams of Spiritual Power pulses converted into visible Data Streams. Shen Yan narrowed his eyes, staring intently, and suddenly noticed these fluctuations had a pattern—one cycle every three seconds, repeating the same rhythm, like an initialization Script being executed in a Loop.

“This isn’t a defensive Formation,” he muttered. “It’s a storage device, and an old-version firmware with Self-Check functionality at that.”

No wonder Xie Wujiu had locked him in here. To outsiders, a place like this would be incomprehensible; they’d only be driven mad by the illusions of lingering resentment. But for him, it was like entering an Open Source project without documentation—troublesome, yes, but as long as he found the entry point, he could reverse-engineer the entire Source Code.

He bit his fingertip, and a drop of blood fell onto the screen, seeping into the circuitry along the cracks.

“Forced load: Reverse Decompilation Module.”

Hum—

The Terminal jolted violently, its Interface exploding into a waterfall stream as countless ancient Runes frantically scrolled and decoded. The ground, walls, and dome—all the engraved marks instantly reconstructed into Data links in his eyes, layered Nesting, nine layers of Encryption in total.

The first layer: basic Spiritual Power verification, equivalent to a login verification code. He casually forged a set of Response packets and bypassed it.

The second layer: identity authentication, requiring a Bloodline imprint. He sneered, called up the secretly backed-up Spiritual Power sample of a Sword Sect Disciple, synthesized a disguised Protocol, and sent it over. The System paused for half a second, then granted passage.

“You treat the Heavenly Dao as a black box,” he muttered while debugging, “and I… I’m here to write the Driver.”

The third to seventh layers were all redundant checks and Permission hierarchies, like some ancient sect’s multi-layered Approval Process to guard against internal threats. Shen Yan directly used a recursive Function to skip them in batches, the progress bar soaring.

Until the eighth layer.

【Warning: Inner Demon verification mechanism detected. Must pass willpower test to proceed.】

He frowned.

The next second, the scene before him abruptly changed.

It was no longer the Sword Tomb, but the top floor of an abandoned office building. Glass shards littered the floor, computer Screens were Blue, and the Host Machine fans were still spinning, emitting a piercing noise. He stood by the window, holding a dead phone in his hand.

Xie Wujiu’s voice came from behind him: “You’re nothing but a keyboard-tapping waste. Without this thing, you’re nothing.”

Shen Yan looked down at his hand. The phone remained motionless. He pressed the Boot-Up Key—no Response. Pressed it again—still a black screen.

That sensation came—the familiar suffocation, as if the code world was collapsing, rules failing, logic breaking. He once thought he could control everything, but once the System refused to run, he was just an ordinary person, not even knowing how to flee for his life.

His Mental Power violently shook, the Terminal Interface froze, and the Decompilation progress regressed by fifteen percent.

But he smiled.

“Ever since the day of the car accident, when I heard ‘Warning: You are attempting to modify Heavenly Dao.exe’…” He closed his eyes, recalling the mechanical voice from when his soul was torn apart. “I never intended to run safely.”

Opening his eyes, he no longer tried to wake the phone but manually deleted the entire illusion Process.

Then, deep in his mind, he input a line of Command:

【Override all security protocols—I am the root user】

A drop of blood fell from the tip of his finger, forming a flickering checkmark on the screen.

The eighth layer, broken.

The air trembled slightly, the Rune links rearranged, and the final layer appeared.

The ninth layer had no Formation, no mechanisms—only a solitary stone stele standing in the center, its surface covered in ancient seal script no one could decipher. Shen Yan approached, scanning was ineffective, Decompilation stalled.

He crouched down, staring at those lines for a long time.

Suddenly realizing—this wasn’t text.

It was visualized Source Code.

Just like early Programmers used punched paper tape to record Programs, every stroke on this stele was a concrete expression of binary Logic. It offered no Interface because it was waiting for someone who could understand it.

He pressed the phone against the stele’s surface, called up the image recognition engine, inverted the contrast, and magnified the texture details.

The symbolic lines instantly reorganized.

A sequence of zeros and ones flowed out, forming a complete initiation Protocol.

“So… you’ve been waiting all along for someone who could read you.”

He took a deep breath and input the final Command:

【Execute—Release Seal】

Boom!!

The stele shattered, Sword Qi soared skyward, and before the fragments could hit the ground, they were crushed into dust by an invisible force. Amid the dust, an aged figure slowly rose, hair white as snow, eyes sharp as lightning, holding a broken blade, surrounded by Sword Intent that had not dissipated for a thousand years.

“For a thousand years, only you have seen through my true form!”

The voice rang like a bell, striking directly at the Spirit Soul.

Shen Yan stood in place, the phone still pressed against the broken stele remnants, the Terminal Interface frantically refreshing:

【Core Protocol unlocked】

【Permission Level elevated】

【Detected high-level Sword Spirit consciousness entity, establish binding connection?】

The old man’s gaze was piercing as he examined him. “You are not a Sword Cultivator, yet you use Code as your blade, breaking through nine layers of Restriction Seals… Will you bear my will?”

Before the words finished, that stream of light shot toward the space between his eyebrows.

Shen Yan had no time to react, instinctively raising his hand to block.

But at the moment of contact, the Source Code Spiritual Root within him suddenly Resonated, his Meridians exploded and reformed, Spiritual Energy poured into him like a flood, and his entire body felt as if it had been rewritten.

Foundation Establishment, early stage!

His Cultivation Base climbed steadily, Data Streams and Sword Qi intertwined, forming spiral patterns of light on his body’s surface. He staggered back a step, his back against the stone wall, chest heaving violently, but his consciousness was swept into a storm—countless sword techniques, Formations, and secret knowledge poured into his Consciousness Sea like a torrent of Code, automatically categorizing, Compiling, and generating a callable Function Library.

His fingers twitched unconsciously, as if typing on an invisible keyboard.

A Popup Window suddenly appeared on the Terminal:

【Warning: Detected unknown compatibility conflict】

【Sword Spirit Protocol and Source Code Spiritual Root have underlying Logic differences】

【Recommend initiating Fusion Calibration Program immediately】

Shen Yan gritted his teeth, sweat beading on his forehead.

He knew he couldn’t stop now, nor could he retreat. If the fusion was interrupted, the best-case scenario would be Qi Deviation, and the worst—complete Collapse of his Spirit Soul.

He forced himself to stay calm, treating the flood of incoming information as Data Packets awaiting processing. He parsed them layer by layer, marked conflict points, and manually applied Patches.

“I wasn’t scared when I debugged quantum entanglement Algorithms back in the day…” he panted, yet a smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. “You think you can Blue Screen me now?”

He closed his eyes, focusing his last reserves of Mental Power to construct a virtual Sandbox environment within his Consciousness Sea. There, he isolated the Sword Spirit’s consciousness from the Source Code System for testing, repeatedly adjusting Parameters until he finally found the optimal matching path.

【Fusion Calibration Program—Initiate】

In an instant, the storm within his body subsided.

In its place came an unprecedented sense of clarity, as if every cell had been redefined. He slowly opened his eyes, a flash of silver light flickering deep within his pupils—like the first frame of an Image after a Terminal Restart.

His phone screen flickered on and off before finally settling on a line of green text:

【System Status: Stable】

【New Skill Unlocked: Sword Dao Compilation Protocol v1.0】

【Notice: External synchronization Request Detected, source unknown】

Shen Yan looked down at his hand.

A faint glow of Data Stream shimmered at the Tip of his Finger. With a light swipe, a translucent Code box materialized in the air, containing a brief spell:

【Generate·Micro Sword Qi·Power Coefficient: 30%】

He tapped “Run.”

Sss—

A hair-thin strand of Sword Qi shot out, precisely slicing off the tip of a broken sword three meters away.

“Holy shit…” He froze for two seconds, then burst out laughing. “Isn’t this just a remote IDE paired with a local Compiler?”

He looked up at the fading phantom of the old man.

“When you said ‘ambition,’ you didn’t mean I’d have to fix your Bugs every day from now on, did you?”

The phantom didn’t answer, only dissolving into a speck of flowing light that sank into his chest.

Shen Yan stood still, the Energy within him still circulating slowly, as if the System was still loading resource packets in the Background. He knew this hurdle was over, but bigger troubles were just beginning.

His phone vibrated once.

A new Log entry appeared:

【Pending Task: Repair Sword Tomb Main Array】

【Trigger Conditions: Collect Aura Resonance Data from four women】

【Current Progress: 0%】

He stared at the words, his brow furrowing slightly.

“Who scheduled this timed task…?”

(End of Chapter)