Chapter 58: Truth Confrontation: The Righteous Path in the Classics

The Medicine Boy’s shout still echoed in his ears as Shen Yan’s fingertip slid across his phone screen. The crowd in the square was restless, the stewards’ eyes shifting uneasily, while Xie Wujiu stood at the edge of the high platform, the pitch-black jade slip in his sleeve trembling faintly, like a snake lurking in the shadows.

Shen Yan didn’t look at him. Instead, he imported the data from the recently collected demon crystal residue into the System while simultaneously pulling up the record of the “Authentic Imprint of the Classics” awakened by Pei Yue’s bloodstain. He whispered to the pale-faced Pei Yue beside him, “The blood trace you just made is the only Key capable of unlocking the underlying Protocol of the ancient texts.”

Pei Yue didn’t speak, only nodded gently. Her hand was still oozing blood, but her eyes shone brighter than ever.

The Code Flow rapidly reassembled in Shen Yan’s mind. He initiated the “Decompilation Divine Skill,” a faint green light glowing at his fingertips. A translucent screen rose from his palm, Floating in the center of the square. The screen displayed two sets of Programs side by side—on the left were the formulas from Xie Wujiu’s modified Lingshu Prescription Annotations, and on the right was the original Algorithm from the Taisu Medical Canon.

The System automatically highlighted the discrepancies:

【Warning: The left side lacks the loop Variable i. Running this will cause Spiritual Energy overload, triggering pill explosions or Meridian reversal.】

The crowd erupted in uproar.

“This… isn’t this the copy we distributed today?” a young Disciple stammered, his voice trembling. “I just prepared medicine according to this formula!”

“Don’t refine it!” Shen Yan raised his hand sharply. “The dosage of the three main ingredients is doubled, but the temperature control rhythm hasn’t been adjusted—this isn’t for healing, it’s for courting death!”

Before his words faded, a muffled boom came from the direction of the distant pill chambers, followed by a plume of black smoke shooting into the sky.

The entire square fell deathly silent.

Someone lowered their head to examine the copy in their hand, fingers trembling. “I… I also refined according to this… My furnace hasn’t exploded yet. Is it because the heat wasn’t sufficient?”

Shen Yan sneered, “Give it another half-incense stick’s worth of burning, and you’ll be blown into fireworks by the pill you refined yourself.”

Xie Wujiu’s face turned ashen, and he suddenly shouted sharply, “Nonsense! This is an illusion created by evil arts! He’s trying to bewitch people with demonic magic!”

Several stewards immediately raised their Magical Artifacts upon hearing this, Spiritual Energy pressure gathering once more.

Shen Yan couldn’t be bothered with empty talk. He directly pulled up the Log from the Medicine Boy’s use of the automated Alchemy Program yesterday and projected it below the screen. The Image clearly showed: twenty Pill Furnaces operating simultaneously, heat precisely controlled, with a pill success rate as high as ninety-seven percent.

“Look, this is the correct Parameter flow,” he pointed at the Log. “But the copies you’re holding now are like modifying an autonomous drive into a manual drift and cutting the brakes—pure suicidal operation.”

An old steward narrowed his eyes for a closer look and suddenly gasped sharply. “This temperature control curve… it’s exactly the same as the foundational model of the ‘Cold Marrow Powder’ left behind by the Saintess back then!”

Xie Wujiu’s pupils constricted abruptly.

Shen Yan caught the change in his expression and inwardly sneered, but his tone remained unhurried. “By the way, your ‘loyal and devoted’ Steward Xie not only altered the formula but also secretly implanted an Encrypted Signal—care to guess if it was meant to remotely detonate those Pill Furnaces?”

“Bullshit!” Xie Wujiu roared, suddenly flinging a handful of dark purple poisonous powder from his sleeve straight at Shen Yan’s face!

Before the toxic mist even reached him, Shen Yan caught a whiff of a foul odor mixing rotten wood and rust. He knew that if this stuff touched his phone screen, the entire System would crash on the spot.

But just as the poison powder was about to hit, an ice-blue barrier materialized out of thin air, firmly blocking the toxic mist.

Pei Yue stepped forward.

With her left hand forming a seal and her right palm still dripping blood, she forcefully condensed a shield of ice. The poisonous powder vaporized upon contact with the ice, revealing faint runic traces that sketched the pattern of an ancient forbidden technique in the air.

Shen Yan recognized it at a glance—it was the “Reverse Meridian Poison-Drawing Art,” lost to Medicine Valley for many years, specifically used for assassinating fellow disciples.

Pei Yue stared at Xie Wujiu, her voice cold as frost: “Twenty years ago, you secretly learned my mother’s formula for ‘Cold Marrow Powder,’ and after being exposed, you were expelled from the sect. Now you’ve returned in disguise, just to destroy the foundation of Medicine Valley?”

Xie Wujiu trembled all over, a flicker of panic flashing in his eyes.

Green text flashed on the System Terminal:

【Detected karma_loop.exe Initiate】

【Associated Characters: Xie Wujiu, Pei Yue’s Mother】

Shen Yan’s heart skipped a beat. This was the first time the System Notice involved karma from a past life. But he had no time to dwell on it, feeling only a buzzing in his head—high-intensity decompilation was draining his Mental Power.

The phone casing began to heat up, even developing fine cracks.

But he couldn’t stop.

“Everyone, look,” he forced himself to point at the light screen. “Steward Xie didn’t just tamper with the prescription; he altered the Underlying Logic of the entire medical system. He deleted key Variables, turning everyone who practices medicine based on this into blind pilots. Why? Because only by creating chaos could he conceal his true purpose.”

He paused, sweeping his gaze over the crowd. “He’s waiting for a purge. As long as someone suffers Qi Deviation due to the erroneous prescriptions, he can conveniently shift the blame onto outsiders—like me. And then? Medicine Valley falls into turmoil, elders are replaced, and certain individuals can rightfully take over the Legacy.”

“Slander!” Xie Wujiu roared, the Jade Slip in his hand trembling violently as if receiving some Command.

Shen Yan sneered, “Then tell me, why does the Encoding in the Demonic Energy crystal match the Backdoor Code in the Alchemy Jade Slip by over seventy-eight percent? You’re not a Devil Clan spy—you’re a professional scapegoat and technical outsourcing!”

The crowd erupted completely.

Several stewards who had originally supported Xie Wujiu stepped back one after another, their faces filled with shock and shame. The disciple who had nearly caused an alchemy explosion knelt on the ground, clutching a copy of the text and weeping, “I almost killed my fellow disciples…”

Xie Wujiu stood on the high platform, surrounded on all sides. He glared at Shen Yan, his eyes as if he wanted to devour him alive.

Shen Yan took a breath, his head throbbing faintly. He knew this counterattack had succeeded, but at a considerable cost. The phone was about to give out, and his Mental Power was nearing its limit.

He turned to look at Pei Yue.

She still stood by his side, the blood on her palm not yet dried, her breath weak, but she hadn’t taken a single step back.

“Aren’t you foolish?” he asked softly. “Showing off again.”

Pei Yue smiled, her voice almost inaudible. “You said it yourself—Code can be changed, documents can be lost, but someone must always guard the original Version.”

Shen Yan was taken aback.

She had said this before. But this time, it sounded profoundly different.

The wind swept across the square, lifting charred scraps of paper from the ground like a silent funeral.

Xie Wujiu finally moved. He slowly retreated, his eyes sinister, the Jade Slip in his hand flickering uncertainly as if awaiting the next Command.

Shen Yan gripped the overheating phone, staring at that figure, and suddenly spoke, “They believe the formula now, but they still don’t know… who wrote this Bug.”

Pei Yue looked toward the depths of the library pavilion and whispered, “Someone will come to clean up soon.”

At that moment, Shen Yan’s Terminal popped up with a new message:

【Unknown Signal Detected】

【Source: East bookshelf, third floor of the library】

【Signal characteristics: Same origin as Ye Shi’er’s residual Code】

His gaze abruptly shifted toward the tightly closed carved wooden door.

Through the crack, the shadow of a copper coin hair tie flashed past.

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(End of Chapter)