Chapter 77: Resonance Between Code and Demon Marks

Blue light still danced chaotically before his eyes, and Shen Yan’s head felt as if an entire compiler had been stuffed inside, running loops and buzzing incessantly. Leaning against the crystal pedestal, he unconsciously tapped a rhythm on his thigh with his fingers, as if typing out an emergency repair code in the dark.

【Stack Overflow Warning: Recursion depth too high. Recommend terminating current thread.】

The Terminal Interface flashed with frantic green text, but he ignored it, closing his eyes instead and shutting down all Background processes—including the subroutine still scanning the Jade Slip fragments. Now wasn’t the time to cast a wide net; he needed to focus his computing power on the task at hand.

“You really plan to touch that thing?” Luo Li stood three steps away, her tail rigidly straight, ears twitching slightly, clearly sensing the increasingly intense Mental Power pressure in the air.

“How else will I know if it’s usable?” Shen Yan opened his eyes, a smirk curling his lips. “I’m the kind of guy who can handle clients changing requirements at 3 a.m.”

With that, he directly summoned the most basic spell template in his mind and began writing Code.

A beginner-level skill like the “Fireball Spell” was as simple as “Hello World” to him. But this time, he didn’t follow the traditional hand-seal process. Instead, mimicking a network Request, he constructed an extremely concise Command:

“GET /DemonicFireball?target=void”.

Enter.

In an instant, the Floating crystal shuddered violently. Blue light surged back like a tidal wave, and the Demon Marks on its surface, previously still, lit up one by one, as if automatically filled Function Parameters. Immediately, a message returned:

【Status: Success, Data: Ancient Memory Unlocked】.

“Holy shit?” Shen Yan’s eyes widened. “This System is pretty smart?”

Before his words faded, a vast Star Map exploded open at the center of the crystal, dense Data Streams pouring down at a speed the naked eye couldn’t follow. The entire hall seemed to transform into an Overclocked server room, the very air trembling.

Luo Li instinctively took half a step back, her Nine Tails instantly spreading to shield her front, Demon Power condensing into a barrier. But as soon as she steadied herself, she heard Shen Yan curse under his breath: “Can’t hold on! This isn’t a Star Map—it’s a DDoS attack!”

His Terminal Interface had already begun to distort, green text turning into garbled code. Within his Consciousness Sea, it felt as if thousands of Threads were simultaneously running Infinite Loops, his Mental Power draining frantically.

“Don’t force it!” Luo Li urged urgently. “Shut it down!”

“If I shut it down, there won’t be another chance!” Shen Yan gritted his teeth, swiftly switching to debug mode. He manually broke the Star Map into frame sequences, loading only one frame per second. “Take it slow. We’ll see the truth eventually.”

As he operated, he caught sight of Luo Li, a bead of blood seeping from her Tip of the Finger, about to drip onto the crystal.

“Wait!” He grabbed her wrist. “If you do that, the Permission might activate, but it could also trigger a Countermeasure Program.”

“Then what do you plan to do?” she frowned.

“We cooperate,” he grinned. “You handle authentication, I’ll handle visualization. Dual-thread parallel processing—double the efficiency.”

Luo Li was taken aback, then sneered. “You really think you’re a Server?”

“No, I’m a full-stack engineer,” he released her hand, his expression serious. “Trust me this once.”

She stared at him for two seconds, then suddenly raised her hand, tracing a blood sigil in the air. At the same moment, Shen Yan typed the final line of Code in his mind.

Their actions were almost perfectly synchronized.

The moment blood light and Code converged, the Star Map suddenly became clear.

It was a projection of the real starry sky from a thousand years ago, with stars arranged into a massive Seal array. At its center, an unknown coordinate was marked, and beside it, a line of ancient text appeared:

“When my Bloodline reunites, the gate-opener shall live, the defier shall perish.”

“Is this… the message left by our ancestors?” Shen Yan murmured.

“More than that,” Luo Li’s voice trembled slightly. “That’s the location of the ‘Western Wasteland Gate.’ Legend says whoever deciphers the Star Map’s mystery can control the fate of the entire Demon Clan.”

Shen Yan didn’t respond. Instead, he lowered his head to glance at the silver pattern on his palm, which was faintly glowing with heat. Suddenly realizing something, he looked up at her. “The Token your mother asked you to give me… did it also mention a ‘shared pact’?”

Luo Li’s pupils contracted slightly, as if a secret had been exposed.

After a moment of silence, she finally nodded. “She said only those connected by Bloodline can touch the Star Map together. Otherwise, the consequences range from losing one’s mind to complete soul dispersion.”

“So here’s the problem,” Shen Yan flexed his wrist, grinning a bit roguishly. “Do you want me to go up there alone and die, or… shall we try it together?”

“Aren’t you afraid of death?” she stared at him.

“Of course I am,” he shrugged. “But I’m even more afraid of missing you.”

The air seemed to freeze for an instant after those words.

Luo Li’s ear tips twitched lightly, her tail unconsciously curling before immediately straightening again, feigning composure. “Stop with the sweet talk. If something goes wrong, I won’t be responsible for you.”

“Don’t worry,” he extended his hand, palm facing upward. “My Code never has Bugs.”

She looked at that hand, hesitated for a moment, and finally placed her palm over his.

The instant their fingertips touched the Star Map—

The silver pattern on his palm and the Star-Shattering Token Imitation on her earring simultaneously erupted with blinding light. An indescribable force surged through their Bloodline pulses into every limb, as if countless fragments of Memory exploded in their Consciousness Seas.

A pillar of light shot upward, piercing through the temple dome and soaring into the sky.

The entire Western Wastes trembled.

An Image emerged: a rainy night a thousand years ago, atop an Altar, a woman held two Infants in her arms, her tears forming symbols as they fell. She whispered a wish:

“May you meet in this life, no longer as enemies.”

Memory Fragments flooded their consciousness like a torrent. Shen Yan felt a dull ache in his chest, as if something had been forcibly awakened. He tried to speak but found his throat tight, unable to utter a word.

Luo Li was half-kneeling on the ground, relying on his arm for support to keep from collapsing. Her eyes swirled with Memory lights and shadows not belonging to this lifetime, her breathing rapid, her face pale.

“Are you okay?” Shen Yan barely steadied himself, asking softly.

“I’m fine…” she gritted her teeth. “Just… a bit dizzy.”

“Understandable. After all, it’s our first time linking up online,” he tried to lighten the mood but found himself trembling too. “But this operation definitely counts as an epic-level update.”

She looked up at him, her expression complex. “You already guessed, didn’t you? From the moment you said we should ‘cooperate,’ you knew it required dual activation.”

“A Programmer’s intuition,” he smiled. “And… you’re too important to me. I couldn’t let you bear the risk alone.”

Those words were like a Key, gently unlocking something in her heart.

She didn’t speak, only tightened her grip on his hand.

The Star Map had yet to dissipate, the pillar of light still piercing the heavens, bathing the entire sanctuary in a blue-white radiance. In the distant mountains, faint tremors could be felt, as if some slumbering power was awakening.

Shen Yan’s Terminal suddenly displayed a new notice:

【Detected high-level Permission Protocol pending confirmation. Bind Co-Covenant Partner?】

He glanced at it but didn’t rush to confirm. Instead, he turned to look at the girl beside him.

“If I said I want to stay connected with you forever, would you think I’m too greedy?”

Luo Li froze.

The next moment, she suddenly reached out, pulling him close and gently pressing her forehead against his.

“Silly…” Her voice was as light as the wind. “You’re the Patch I’ve waited a thousand years for.”

(End of Chapter)