Chapter 68: Truth Revealed: The Bloody Case Twenty Years Ago

Shen Yan stared at the dark blue crack, the log on his phone screen still flashing: 【Historical Operation Traceback: Twenty years ago, a “Tribulation Inheritance Ceremony” was executed at the same coordinates.】 His fingers trembled, nearly dropping the phone.

“This thing can rewind?” he muttered, immediately typing code in his mind. “Come on, let me see what you wrote back then, you bug left by the Old Ancestor.”

Pei Yue grabbed his wrist. “Don’t be reckless. You just crawled out of mental exhaustion. Reading high-level memory fragments now could lead to Qi Deviation at best, or turn you into a vegetable on the spot at worst.”

“That depends on who wrote the program.” Shen Yan grinned. “My Source Code Spiritual Root is the illegitimate child of the Heavenly Dao’s low-level code. If we’re talking seniority, it should call me daddy.”

As he spoke, he pressed the phone against the ground, using the cold jade rock layer for heat dissipation. Then, his fingertips swiftly moved, rapidly constructing a “Spacetime Cache Reading Program”—using his own bloodline as the key to reversely parse the encrypted contaminated segments.

Golden Code seeped into the ground crack like a spiderweb, tracing back along the residual Data Stream from twenty years ago. The air suddenly grew still, and an invisible pressure surged toward them.

【Warning: Karma-level Seal Detected】

【Forced reading will trigger mental shock】

【Recommendation: Abandon】

“Abandon my ass.” Shen Yan gritted his teeth. “I’m digging up this dark history today no matter what.”

He turned to Pei Yue. “Help stabilize the output environment. Use your cold meridians as a heat sink.”

Pei Yue glared at him but still sat cross-legged, pressing her palms against his back. A cool energy slowly infused, suppressing the restless Source Code Spiritual Root within him.

“If you die, I’ll turn you into a specimen and hang you at the entrance of the Medicine Hut,” she whispered.

“Fine. Write a label—’The First Genius in History Killed by His Own Code.'”

Before the words faded, the light and shadows before him abruptly changed.

Snow and wind filled the sky. At the center of the Formation Eye knelt a young cultivator, drenched in blood. A golden talisman floated above his head, stripping away his cultivation base inch by inch. The image was blurry, but the copper coin hair tie fluttering in the wind was clearly visible.

Text appeared on the System Terminal: 【Event Restored: Celestial Clan Outcast executes Heavenly Dao judgment, abolishing Xie Wujiu’s cultivation base】

Shen Yan’s pupils contracted sharply.

“Xie Wujiu?!”

He wanted to dig deeper, but Pei Yue suddenly exerted force, severing the energy connection.

“Enough!” Her voice trembled. “If you dig any further, you’ll see things you shouldn’t.”

Shen Yan turned and stared at her. “You know who he is?”

Pei Yue closed her eyes, speaking only after a long pause. “That day, I was twelve. My master took me to observe the ‘Tribulation Inheritance Ceremony.’ But after that person was crippled, his heart meridian was about to fail… I secretly used a Forbidden Technique to keep him alive.”

She opened her eyes, her gaze heavy. “He survived, but from that moment on, he hated everyone related to the Heavenly Dao—including you later.”

Shen Yan froze.

“So this contamination is his revenge against the Heavenly Dao’s inheritor?”

“More than that.” Pei Yue shook her head. “He doesn’t want to kill; he wants to drive the entire Medicine Valley into madness, proving that so-called ‘righteousness’ is nothing but a cage suppressing human nature. And you… you are the new Container chosen by the Heavenly Dao. He must destroy you.”

Shen Yan fell silent for two seconds, then suddenly laughed. “So I’m just an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire? I’m just a code-writing corporate drone—how did I end up becoming the Heavenly Dao’s spokesperson?”

“Because every spell you write is refactoring the rules,” Pei Yue looked at him. “And he only wants to smash the rules to pieces.”

Shen Yan adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose and sighed. “So, I’ve been dragged into another middle-aged revenge story as cannon fodder?”

As he spoke, a cold laugh echoed from beneath the ground.

“Cannon fodder? Hah… You’re the ones who’ve been tamed into puppets by the rules.”

From the edge of the shadows, Xie Wujiu slowly emerged, his robes stained with dust, his eyes burning with a twisted flame. With a wave of his hand, the residual Demonic Energy underground surged violently, and the black crystals trembled once more, threatening to shatter and spread.

“You think you’re purifying?” he sneered. “You’re only accelerating the awakening! When all the disciples in this valley are consumed by their Inner Demons, they’ll finally understand—so-called righteous cultivation is nothing but deceptive shackles!”

Shen Yan didn’t even blink. His fingers were already swiping rapidly across his phone.

“I knew you’d show up,” he said softly. “So I planted an Easter egg in advance.”

As his words fell, golden light erupted from the ground.

Countless chains of Code burst forth from the earth, coiling around Xie Wujiu’s limbs like living snakes, instantly pinning him in place. The surface of the chains shimmered with the “Karmic Cycle Closed-Loop” Rune, sealing his Spiritual Power, Spiritual Consciousness, and even his emotional fluctuations.

【Detected high-risk hatred Variable, Main Process isolated】

【Warning: Target possesses self-destruct Protocol, recommend continuous monitoring】

The System Notice had just appeared when Xie Wujiu abruptly raised his head, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth as he continued to laugh maniacally. “You think this is over? Let me tell you, that ‘righteous’ massacre twenty years ago was never the end! They slaughtered my sect, crippled my Dao foundation, but no one ever asked me why I was there that day!”

Shen Yan looked at him coldly. “You can hate the Heavenly Dao, but you shouldn’t use innocents as test subjects for your poison.”

“Innocents?” Xie Wujiu roared. “Who has ever seen true innocence! That day, I was there to save someone! My master discovered that the Tribulation Inheritance Ceremony would trigger backlash from heaven and earth, and he tried to stop it, but he was branded a traitor and executed on the spot! And that Celestial Clan Outcast presiding over the ceremony didn’t even spare him a glance!”

Shen Yan’s heart trembled.

He remembered the fragmented file in the Terminal—the woman’s back with the copper coin hair tie.

Could it be…

“Your master… did he have a daughter?” he suddenly asked.

Xie Wujiu froze, his eyes flickering violently.

“She wore a copper coin hair tie, didn’t she?” Shen Yan took a step closer. “She disappeared later, leaving only a Star-Shattering Token Imitation behind?”

Xie Wujiu stared at him intently, his voice hoarse. “How could you know… That was my sister… To protect that Token, she was drained of her lifeblood… And you—you carry the same Bloodline as those butchers!”

Shen Yan said nothing.

He finally understood why his Source Code Spiritual Root had Resonated with that copper coin hair tie.

This was no coincidence.

This was the echo of Bloodline.

It was the bloody massacre from twenty years ago, Restarting in another form within him.

He glanced down at his phone. The progress bar was still ticking: 【Pollution Purification: 97.3%】. The remaining 2.7% was the toxic core Xie Wujiu had encrypted with his resentment.

“You want everyone to go mad?” Shen Yan asked coldly. “But have you ever considered that the one who’s truly mad is you?”

“Crazy?” Xie Wujiu grinned, blood dripping down his chin. “If being sane means submission, then I’d rather be crazy for a lifetime!”

Shen Yan wasted no more words. With a flick of his fingertip, the Code chains tightened, severing his connection to the demon crystal.

“You can hate, curse, or cry,” he said calmly. “But you cannot touch my people.”

Pei Yue stood up and walked to his side, asking softly, “What now?”

“First suppress, then purify.” Shen Yan watched the flickering data on the screen. “This poison core holds too much Obsession. Forcing it open will cause an explosion. We must take it slow.”

Pei Yue nodded, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t push yourself too hard. I’m still here.”

Shen Yan smiled. “With you here, I can afford to be reckless.”

Just as he was about to close the Program Interface, his phone vibrated.

A new message popped up:

“Every line of Code you write echoes the blood-written letters of the past.”

Sender unknown.

Shen Yan stared at the words, silent for a long time.

Pei Yue noticed something was off and was about to look, but he quickly locked the screen and tucked the phone into his pocket.

“It’s nothing,” he said. “Just another hacker seeking attention.”

He stood up, flexed his wrist, and looked at Xie Wujiu, bound by chains. “Old Xie, we have plenty of time to catch up.”

Xie Wujiu sneered. “You think you can judge me? You don’t even know who you are.”

“I don’t need to know,” Shen Yan adjusted his glasses, the faint glow from the screen reflecting the sharpness in his eyes. “All I know is that anyone who harms those close to me will pay the price.”

He turned and walked toward the Formation Eye, preparing to initiate the second phase of purification.

Pei Yue followed a few steps, then suddenly whispered, “Just now… were you hiding something?”

Shen Yan paused.

“No,” he said without looking back. “It’s just that some truths are better learned later than sooner.”

Pei Yue didn’t press further.

The wind and snow gradually subsided, leaving the water source area in silence.

Only the Golden Code continued to flow slowly across the ground, like an unending river of data.

Xie Wujiu remained firmly pinned to the ground, muttering something under his breath, his voice growing fainter.

Shen Yan crouched down, reopened his phone, and pulled up the unfinished log.

【Related Person: Female with copper coin hair tie (data incomplete)】

【Note: 89.4% Bloodline compatibility with Host, suspected to be a direct relative】

He stared at the string of numbers, his fingers trembling slightly.

Just then, a faint clicking sound came from the distance.

As if someone had stepped on and shattered the ice.

Shen Yan turned sharply, looking toward the corner of the mountain wall.

A flash of goose-yellow figure darted past, twin ponytails swaying before disappearing around the corner.

He froze.

“Xiaotang? When did she get here?”

Before he could finish speaking, his phone vibrated again.

A New Instruction automatically loaded:

【External Device connected successfully】

【User Permission: Yu Xiaotang (Temporary Administrator)】

【File uploaded: “Anti-Demon Water Loop Patch_v1.0″】

(End of Chapter)