A headache.
A dull, echoing ache pulsed deep within his skull. Each throb tugged painfully at his temples, as if an ancient, broken bellows wheezed and strained inside his head.
Consciousness felt submerged in thick, icy tar. Every struggle to surface was agonizing. Cold, unyielding hardness pressed against his bones from below – some kind of smooth, utterly temperatureless surface.
Lin Shu forced his heavy eyelids open.
His vision was a blurry mess, obscured by layers of frosted glass. Shifting, murky halos swam before his eyes, their outlines indistinct. He blinked hard, the sound of his eyelashes scraping almost audible. Only after several seconds did the halos settle into discernible shapes.
The ceiling above… dark wood? Coarse, gnarled grain suggested untrimmed branches of some ancient tree, radiating a primal roughness. The air held a complex scent: dry dust, the faint residue of burnt herbs, and an elusive hint of… corroded metal? Weird.
"What the…" His throat was parched, voice rasping like sandpaper. "Last night… server room duty… did we block that last DDoS attack…" Fragments of memory churned chaotically – the hum of server racks, logs scrolling frantically on screen, blinding lightning tearing through the ink-black night sky outside… followed by an all-consuming, pure white light and a deafening roar.
He tried moving a finger. It responded. The cold, hard, smooth texture beneath his fingertips felt alien – not like lab terrazzo, nor the tiles at home.
He painfully turned his stiff neck, trying to see his surroundings. Rough-hewn log walls met his gaze, hung with strange dark robes. Nearby sat a clumsily shaped earthen basin. Dim light came only from a primitive stone oil lamp in the corner, its wick flickering weakly, edges still rough from carving.
A wave of intense unease gripped Lin Shu's heart. This was definitely not the server room, nor his ramen-and-cola-strewn apartment.
"Hall… hallucination? Or some psycho's immersive VR prank?" He muttered instinctively, his voice unnaturally loud and clear in the silence, tinged with a barely perceptible tremor.
Just then, a semi-transparent box with a faint blue glow materialized abruptly in the air directly before him.
Its edges shimmered with flowing, pixel-like light points, constantly blinking. Inside the box, stark black English characters were clearly visible:
[Error 404: Location Not Found]
Beneath it, smaller text:
[System Initializing... Standby...]
Lin Shu's breath hitched.
404? System Initializing? Location Not Found?
An icy current shot down his spine. This wasn't a prank! He stared fixedly at the floating, ominous blue prompt box. His mind buzzed as code snippets and server error messages flooded his thoughts. An absurd yet terrifyingly logical idea smashed through his confusion like an icebreaker.
Could that damned lightning bolt… have fried him into… some kind of… game world?! And one with a crashed server?!
The thought was so horrifying he instinctively reached out and poked the floating blue error box. His fingertip passed through the insubstantial light like air.
"Damn it!" he cursed under his breath, the frustration of a programmer facing an unknown bug mixed with a sense of… cosmic mockery.
Creak—
A soft sound shattered the room's silence.
The heavy, plank-like door was pushed open a crack from outside. Cooler, brighter light streamed in. A slender figure in pale green robes slipped cautiously through.
A girl. Sixteen or seventeen, her hair in simple twin buns, stray strands framing a smooth forehead. Delicate features, but her face was unnaturally pale, lips bloodless, as if recovering from severe illness or haunted by something deep. She carried a crude wooden basin, steam curling faintly from its rim.
Head bowed, she walked unsteadily towards where Lin Shu lay. She seemed oblivious to his open eyes, lost in her own world, brow deeply furrowed, a sheen of sweat glistening on her temples. Her breathing was shallow, unnaturally quick, each inhalation seeming labored.
When she was just a few steps from his bed, it happened!
Her body jerked rigid! The basin in her hands shook violently, hot water sloshing onto her skirt and the floor. A choked, guttural groan of agony escaped her throat, as if struck by an invisible hammer. She stumbled forward, collapsing!
The basin crashed to the floor, shattering, water and shards spraying everywhere.
"Xiao Mei!" A panicked cry came from the doorway. Another maid in similar attire, slightly older, rushed in, face equally pale. She moved to help but hesitated, frantic. "It… it's happening again! The signs of Qi Deviation!"
In the instant Xiao Mei collapsed, convulsing in agony, a brand-new window popped up beside the blue error box on Lin Shu's visual field!
This window was different. Larger. Framed in flashing, alarm-red! Bold black text screamed urgency:
[Critical Status Alert: Target - "Xiao Mei"]
[Affliction: Qi Deviation (Critical)]
[Cause: Meridian Pathway Conflict - "Azure Cloud Art" (Modified Ver.), Line 17, Char 3-9]
[Recommended Action: Immediate System Rollback or Parameter Adjustment]
Small text below: [Debug Console Accessible? Y/N]
Lin Shu's heart clenched as if gripped by an invisible fist, nearly stopping. Qi Deviation? Meridian conflict? Line numbers? Character positions? Debug Console?
The state of this suffering girl before him was presented by this damned "system" in the cold, precise language of code errors and debugging tools – a language he knew intimately! The absurdity made his scalp prickle, yet it felt bizarrely, professionally "familiar."
"Get… get away!" Xiao Mei writhed on the floor, body spasming uncontrollably, making choked sounds in her throat, her eyes rolling back. "Don't… touch me… meridians… exploding…"
The older maid recoiled in terror, utterly helpless, reduced to despairing whimpers.
Lin Shu locked onto the glaring red status window, focusing on the line: [Meridian Pathway Conflict - "Azure Cloud Art" (Modified Ver.), Line 17, Char 3-9].
Conflict? Line 17, characters 3 to 9?
A near-instinctive thought overwhelmed all fear and absurdity – BUG! This was a classic logic conflict BUG! Exactly like the ones he fixed daily for five years! The core programmer within him snapped taut at the sight of this raw, critical "system error."
Whether this was a game, a dream, a living person was breaking down! And that red debug window was the only console!
Powerful professional instinct instantly crushed his fear. Lin Shu sucked in a breath, mustering all his strength to lift his heavy arm towards the floating red status window. His fingers trembled with tension and weakness, but his eyes were locked onto the shimmering [Debug Console Accessible? Y/N] option.
With desperate resolve, he jabbed his finger at the glaring "Y"!
Buzz—
A strange, faint electric tingle shot up his finger upon contact. Not painful, but cold, precise, activating.
The glaring red alert window instantly morphed! Like rippling water, the red borders and text distorted, warped, faded… Within a breath, a completely new, vastly more complex interface replaced it!
Deep tech-blue formed the backdrop, covered in a dense grid of semi-transparent lines dividing the window into countless tiny squares. At its core, a glowing, intricate 3D model of human meridians, constructed from countless light points, hovered! Colored streams representing different elemental spiritual energies flowed, clashed within it.
Right now, a raging azure-blue stream (Water Element Qi) violently assaulted a key node. A verdant green stream (Wood Element Qi), meant to converge and fuse with it, twisted and forked unnaturally just before the node, forming a glaring, flashing red zone of data corruption! Beside it, a small label: [Azure_Cloud_Art.17:3-9].
Around the interface's edge were columns of concise command buttons and draggable parameter sliders labeled: [Qi Flow Rate], [Node Resilience], [Cultivation Art Params]… Tiny, flickering real-time values accompanied each.
Indescribable exhilaration surged through Lin Shu! Absurdity and fear vanished, replaced by pure, technical fervor facing a complex puzzle. This was familiar! This was his battlefield – the debug console!
His gaze locked onto the core corruption zone: [Azure_Cloud_Art.17:3-9]. His fingers (intent) flew in the virtual space, inputting commands like frantic keystrokes:
SELECT Azure_Cloud_Art.17:3-9
ANALYZE CONFLICT (Water_Meridian_Node_7, Wood_Meridian_Flow)
// Water Node 7 & Wood Qi Flow expected convergence point misaligned, parameter overflow
MODIFY Wood_Meridian_Flow.Destination = Water_Meridian_Node_7
ADJUST Flow_Rate -30% // Wood Qi flow too high, violently impacting node
SET Node_Resilience_Temp +15% // Temporarily reinforce node resilience, buffer impact
EXECUTE PATCH
The instant the command executed, the raging green Wood Qi stream in the meridian model froze! Its torrent visibly slowed, as if an invisible hand choked its source. Simultaneously, the target node glowed brighter, its structure seemingly more solid.
The Wood Qi stream, once savagely attacking the node and causing violent energy turbulence, instantly became docile! Its speed reduced noticeably, its violent force diminished. Crucially, its twisted, forked path was forcibly corrected, guided by precise navigation to merge smoothly with the azure-blue Water Qi node!
Emerald green and azure blue finally ceased their battle. Like harmonious streams, they fused at the node, forming a stable, balanced spiral.
On the floor, Xiao Mei's agonized screams ceased!
Her violently spasming body froze mid-convulsion. Then, muscles tensed to breaking point instantly relaxed. Her ragged, chaotic gasps rapidly smoothed into deep, even breaths, like a sea calming after a storm. The deathly grey pallor receded from her face, replaced by an exhausted, yet profoundly peaceful pallor. Her unfocused eyes regained clarity, blinking in confusion, unable to comprehend how the agony that nearly tore her apart had vanished without a trace, leaving only deep, post-crisis fatigue.
"Xiao Mei! Xiao Mei, are you alright?" The older maid rushed to her side, voice trembling with tears and disbelief, frantically checking. "The pain's gone? Truly gone? Heaven has mercy!"
Xiao Mei weakly moved her lips, trying to speak, but only managed a faint, confused whimper. She instinctively raised a hand, pressing it lightly to her chest where the excruciating pain had been. Now, only a warm, smooth flow remained.
Lin Shu stared fixedly at the deep blue debug interface. The red conflict zone was gone, replaced by soft, healthy green light. Water and Wood Qi flowed harmoniously within the meridian model.
Success! The thought burned into Lin Shu's mind. Looking at the two shaken, bewildered maids, an unprecedented sense of near-total control stirred within him. In this strange, perilous world, he seemed to hold a unique key?
Almost unconsciously, his fingers traced the complex debug interface. The 3D model, flickering parameters, flowing commands… it felt perversely comforting. He focused, opening a sub-menu in the corner labeled [Environment Params].
Options appeared: Gravity Factor, Ambient Qi Density, Local Temp…
Lin Shu's gaze, drawn by programmer-like curiosity, settled on [Local Temp]. The value read [21.5°C]. Almost on autopilot, he swiped his finger upwards on the temperature value.
Intent command: SET Local_Temp = 25.0
Buzz.
A faint, barely perceptible warmth, like the first thawing breeze of spring, brushed precisely over Lin Shu's exposed skin. Fleeting, gone in an instant, almost like a trick of the senses.
"Hiss…" The older maid seemed to feel it too, looking up in confusion, scanning the crude stone room. For a moment… it felt less cold? But Xiao Mei's miraculous recovery dominated her mind; the minor change was instantly forgotten.
Lin Shu's heart skipped a beat. He looked at his fingertip, then at the debug interface showing [25.0]. An indescribable chill crept up his spine, instantly dispelling the sense of control from fixing the "BUG."
This feeling… was wrong. Very wrong.
If this were a game world, modifying environment params was GM territory. But that warmth… the tactile sensation on his skin, the subtle friction of air movement – it felt too real, beyond anything VR could simulate. More chillingly, he distinctly "felt" a subtle "resistance" or "texture" when the command executed, as if space itself had been minutely disturbed.
This wasn't tweaking game data. This felt like… prying at the very fabric of reality!
Profound absurdity and icy fear seized him. He jerked his hand back as if burned. The deep blue debug interface now looked less like a tool, more like a Pandora's box linked to an unknown abyss.
What had he just done? Fixed a "game bug"? Or… altered some incomprehensible facet of "reality"?
Cold sweat instantly soaked his thin underclothes. Looking at the weeping maids, he felt the first bone-deep chill of fear towards this "transmigrated" world.
Time crawled in eerie silence. Only Xiao Mei's weak gasps and the older maid's muffled sobs broke the quiet. Lin Shu leaned against the cold stone bed, the phantom sensation of the non-physical interface lingering on his fingertips, his mind a frozen whirlpool.
Where was he? What was this admin privilege?
Suddenly, rapid, heavy footsteps echoed like war drums down the stone corridor, shattering the stillness. Each step carried power, vibrating the stone beneath Lin Shu faintly.
The heavy plank door burst open again, far more forcefully. It slammed against the rough wall with a thud.
Light flooded in, outlining several imposing figures blocking the doorway.
The leader was immensely tall, nearly brushing the low ceiling. He wore an ancient-style deep cyan robe, its wide sleeves shimmering subtly with a metallic sheen in the dim light – clearly extraordinary. His face was gaunt, sporting a wispy goatee, now slightly disheveled, stray hairs escaping his topknot. He appeared around sixty, his bearing naturally authoritative, but now overlaid with shock, anxiety, and a barely contained fervor. His deep-set eyes burned like searchlights, instantly locking onto Lin Shu on the bed.
Behind him stood two men in similar, paler cyan robes. Their faces were grim, eyes sharp as hawks, sweeping over Xiao Mei and the older maid before fixing on Lin Shu with intense scrutiny and open wariness. Their hands rested instinctively on the hilts of ancient swords at their waists, posture taut as bowstrings.
Powerful pressure flooded the small room like a tidal wave. The air thickened; the oil lamp's flame seemed to cower.
"Elder Xuan Yun! Elder Qing Ye! And… Sect… Sect Master?!" The older maid recognized them and nearly fainted, her voice a terrified stammer.
Sect Master?!
Lin Shu's heart seized. He stared at the imposing, gaunt elder blocking the door. The deep cyan robe bore intricate cloud patterns that seemed to flow. The highest authority of this "server"? His throat went dry; he instinctively tried to shrink into the bed's shadow.
The Sect Master ignored the maids. His gaze, like red-hot brands, bored into Lin Shu. It churned with shock at Lin Shu's complete lack of Qi (a mortal!), and deeper shock at the sudden, terrifying Qi disturbance he'd felt moments before!
"You…" The Sect Master's voice was low, gravelly, holding thunder. He took a step forward; the room seemed to tremble. He ignored everything else, his gaze sharp as a blade, piercing Lin Shu. "Just now… what did you do?"
Lin Shu felt stripped naked in a blizzard. Every pore screamed. He opened his mouth, only a dry croak escaping: "I…" His mind blanked. Programmer logic failed utterly before this incomprehensible being.
"Sect Master! It… it was this… this Young Master!" The older maid pointed at Lin Shu, voice trembling with tears and awe. "Xiao Mei… she was Qi Deviating! She was dying! This Young Master! He just… just raised his hand… and Xiao Mei was fine! Truly! It was divine magic! It must have been!"
"Raised his hand?" Elder Xuan Yun, the cold-faced man behind the Sect Master, frowned deeply. He stepped forward, appearing beside Xiao Mei in a blur. He knelt, fast as lightning, two fingers pressing her wrist. A surge of pure, potent Qi washed out.
Elder Xuan Yun's face shifted dramatically during his probe! First confusion, then disbelief, then utter, bloodless horror! He snapped his head up, looking at Lin Shu as if he were a primordial beast in human skin!
"Meridians flowing normally… conflict resolved… even… even that innate meridian blockage… it's… it's gone!" Xuan Yun's voice trembled uncontrollably, each word forced out. "Impossible! The 'Azure Tide Surging Spring' critical juncture in the 17th cycle of the 'Azure Cloud Art' is our sect's core heritage! Since the Founder passed it down, no one has fully grasped it! The slightest error is catastrophic! Her Qi was raging violently, clearly damaging her foundation! Unless… unless…"
His gaze snapped to the Sect Master, filled with tsunami-like shock and a near-mad hope: "Unless… it was touching the source! Was it… Heavenly Dao Patching?!"
"Heavenly Dao Patching!" The words exploded like thunder in the small room!
The Sect Master jolted. His deep cyan robe billowed without wind! The fire of shock and fervor in his eyes blazed to an inferno! He lunged forward again, crossing the distance to Lin Shu's bedside in a step that left a faint cyan afterimage!
Overpowering spiritual pressure crushed down on Lin Shu like a mountain! His bones groaned; breathing became agony. He saw the Sect Master's eyes burning with near-insane light – the desperation of a drowning man clutching his last straw!
"Young Friend!" The Sect Master's voice was hoarse with overwhelming excitement. He reached out – a powerful, bony hand – but not towards Lin Shu. Instead, with extreme reverence, he withdrew something from his deep sleeve.
A scroll. Bound with pale gold thread, material neither silk nor paper. It emitted a faint, incredibly pure, soft glow, like swirling stardust. Yet, near its middle, a horrifying patch of scorched black marred its surface! Like it had been licked by invisible flames, edges ragged, corroded like wormholes. The blackened area revealed tangled, damaged spirit patterns beneath, radiating decay, chaos, and a heart-stopping aura of doom.
"This is my Azure Cloud Sect's supreme secret inheritance, the 'Nine Heavens Star Summoning Record'… a fragment!" The Sect Master's voice quivered with near-religious fervor. He held the decaying scroll as if it were the sect's lifeblood, his burning gaze fixed on Lin Shu, filled with desperate supplication. "But… the inheritance is flawed! This core Dao Pattern is shattered! The spirit pivot is inverted! Generations of predecessors exhausted their lives, unable to comprehend its secrets! Those who tried to cultivate it… all suffered backlash, perishing!"
His knuckles whitened with the force of his grip, his voice heavy with blood and tears: "This is… a flaw in the Heavenly Dao! Beyond mortal remedy! Elder Brother Xuan Yun says your earlier method… resembles 'Heavenly Dao Patching'! I… this old man dares to beg, Young Friend, please examine it! If… if you can glimpse a sliver of heaven's intent, restore this Dao Pattern… the Azure Cloud Sect… will honor you as…"
He left it hanging, but the implication was clear. The room was deathly silent. Elders Xuan Yun and Qing Ye held their breath, their gazes complex – awe, doubt, but mostly desperate, near-hopeless anticipation.
Lin Shu stared at the decaying "supreme secret," then at the Sect Master's burning, desperate eyes. His throat felt like sandpaper.
Flaw in the Heavenly Dao? Shattered Dao Pattern? Inverted Spirit Pivot?
The words were gibberish. But the scorched, chaotic aura of the scroll… tugged at his programmer's instincts.
He focused.
Buzz!
The deep blue admin interface snapped open, overlaying his vision like a semi-transparent layer. Countless data streams representing fundamental rules flowed like a starry river.
When his focus landed on the scroll, the entire interface shuddered! Myriads of data streams swarmed towards it, wrapping, analyzing!
Instantly, a massive warning window, edged with jagged, blood-red lightning, exploded across his vision like a maw!
[FATAL ERROR: Artifact Integrity Breach!]
[Target: "Jiu Xiao Yin Xing Lu" (Fragment)]
[Corrupted Sector: Core Dao Pattern - "Stellar Resonance Array"]
[Error Type: Logical Paradox / Structural Collapse]
[Damage Level: Critical (Irreparable by conventional means)]
[Error Trace: Line 1024, Char 1 - End : Unstable recursive loop detected!]
[WARNING: Attempting direct modification may trigger catastrophic cascade failure!]
Below the warning, a segment of complex, writhing, flashing code. Lin Shu's gaze locked onto the coordinates: [Line 1024, Char 1 - End].
Line 1024? Characters 1 to End? The entire tail structure was a crashing recursive deadlock?!
Lin Shu's pupils constricted! Ice shot up his spine!
This wasn't a damaged cultivation manual! This was a structurally collapsed, logically paradoxical, ticking time-bomb of a program! The Core Dao Pattern (core data structure) was shattered, nested with an infinite loop deadlock! Direct modification? More like detonating a logic bomb!
"Sect Master… this thing…" Lin Shu rasped, voice thick with undisguised dread. "It's not 'flawed'… it's… utterly 'corrupted'! Core structure disintegrated, with a deadlock… this…" He wanted to say it was hopeless, that trying would blow them all sky-high.
"Corrupted? Deadlock?" The Sect Master blinked, confusion flickering. He clearly didn't grasp the "strange words," but he perfectly captured the immense horror and negation in Lin Shu's tone! Like icy water dousing the flames of "Heavenly Dao Patching" in his eyes.
Despair! A bottomless, soul-crushing despair flooded the Azure Cloud Sect Master! His hands holding the scroll shook violently. The decaying fragment felt unbearably heavy. His proud posture visibly slumped. The last light in his eyes died, replaced by hollow desolation and utter despondency.
"Indeed… indeed it cannot be done…" His voice was a sandpaper rasp, each word heavy with blood and tears. "The Heavenly Dao has flaws… mortals cannot reach… Heaven wills the end of the Azure Cloud legacy…" He staggered back a step, seeming to age ten years instantly. The deep cyan robe lost all luster.
Elders Xuan Yun and Qing Ye also turned deathly pale, eyes equally vacant with despair. The air in the stone room solidified, suffocatingly heavy.
Seeing the Sect Master instantly drained of all vitality, seeing the profound despair and sorrow in his eyes, something struck Lin Shu's heart.
"Wait!" Lin Shu sucked in a sharp breath, forcing down the massive alarm and fear. Programmer stubbornness and the near-obsessive drive to conquer impossible bugs surged. "It's not completely hopeless! But you absolutely cannot touch that corrupted core! That's suicide!"
His mind raced at unprecedented speed. Elimination, boundary testing, security sandboxes… countless debugging strategies cascaded through his consciousness.
"Show me… other parts! The front of the scroll! The intact section!" Lin Shu's voice was urgent, commanding. His eyes locked onto the scroll as if it were his ultimate challenge.
The Sect Master snapped his head up, a spark of almost invisible hope igniting in his dead eyes! He trembled, handling the scroll with extreme care, as if it were fragile crystal, presenting the intact front section again.
Lin Shu held his breath. His intent, like a precision probe, scanned the intact, stable spirit patterns through the deep blue admin interface.
The data model for the "Nine Heavens Star Summoning Record" lit up again. Lin Shu avoided the deadly red core corruption zone (post-line 1024). His intent sliced like a scalpel into the stable, harmonious data streams at the scroll's front.
On the grid-like background, countless semi-transparent data streams representing fundamental rules flowed like galaxies. As Lin Shu focused on a specific stable area near the front, these streams became vivid and active! They resolved into distinct shapes – "streams" of countless light points flowing along specific paths.
Lin Shu's gaze, hawk-like, followed these streams. He needed an "anchor point"! A stable, well-bounded "function module" as a safe entry point!
His eyes scanned rapidly, skipping complex nodes, finally settling on a relatively isolated area with clear data convergence, safely distant from the corrupted core (line 1024). The admin interface tagged it: [Sec 3, Subroutine "Spirit Tempering - Lv1"].
That's it! A foundational, well-defined "Level 1 Spirit Tempering Subroutine"!
Lin Shu's intent crystallized into commands:
SELECT Sec_3_Spirit_Tempering_Lv1
CREATE SANDBOX INSTANCE (Isolated_Env)
COPY STRUCTURE TO SANDBOX
// Copy the subroutine structure to the sandbox
MODIFY SANDBOX: OUTPUT_REDIRECT -> [Stable_Node_A]
// Modify the sandbox copy's output to point to a stable Node A (avoiding corruption zone)
SIMULATE RUN (Low_Intensity)
// Low-intensity simulation run
The commands executed. A miniature, barrier-encased sandbox environment appeared in a corner of the admin interface! It contained a clear replica of the "Spirit Tempering" structure. Lin Shu carefully rerouted its output, bypassing the core corruption, and initiated a low-power simulation.
Within the sandbox, light points representing Qi flowed along the new path, slow and steady. No anomalies.
Success! Sandbox secure! Modification effective!
Lin Shu's eyes blazed! His heart pounded! Now!
His intent locked onto the real scroll in the Sect Master's hands! Target: the exact [Sec 3, Subroutine "Spirit Tempering - Lv1"] he'd just modified! He would apply this verified "patch" directly to the real artifact!
TARGET REAL_ARTIFACT: Jiu Xiao Yin Xing Lu
LOCATE Sec_3_Spirit_Tempering_Lv1
APPLY PATCH (From SANDBOX_MOD)
OUTPUT_REDIRECT -> [Stable_Node_A]
COMMIT CHANGES
As the final command executed—
Hiss!
A sharp, distinct sound came from the ancient scroll in the Sect Master's hands!
Under the Sect Master's, Xuan Yun's, and Qing Ye's horrified gazes, a tiny, almost imperceptible strand of spirit light at the edge of a stable spirit pattern representing basic tempering techniques… shifted!
It deviated minutely from its original flow! Then, it merged with an adjacent, previously tenuous spirit pivot in a smoother, more harmonious manner!
The change was lightning-fast. Only their profound cultivation and focus allowed them to perceive it. But it was real! The spirit light in that area on the scroll momentarily brightened! A minuscule, almost negligible sense of obstruction vanished completely! The pattern's flow achieved unprecedented harmony and… perfection!
"Urk…" The Sect Master froze as if struck by lightning! His hands jerked, nearly dropping the sect treasure! His eyes bulged, fixed on the "corrected" spot, expression petrified as if witnessing creation's most impossible miracle!
Shock! Ecstasy! Bewilderment! Awe! Emotions erupted, collided, fused on his face! His lips trembled violently, unable to form words. Only his eyes, locked on the corrected micro-pattern, burned with the fervor of a zealot witnessing divinity!
Xuan Yun and Qing Ye fared worse. Xuan Yun gasped, staggering back to thud against the rough wall, face drained of blood! Qing Ye choked, making guttural sounds, finger trembling as he pointed at the scroll like seeing a ghost!
The stone room was tomb-silent.
Only that tiny, corrected section on the "Nine Heavens Star Summoning Record" glowed, harmonious, silently proclaiming the "miracle" beyond their comprehension.
The Sect Master whipped his head up. His eyes, bloodshot from shock and ecstasy, burned into Lin Shu with pure, worshipful fervor!
"Heaven… Hand of the Dao!" The Sect Master's voice was a ruined whisper, each word trembling from his soul. "This… this is truly the Hand of the Dao! Adjusting the Dao Patterns, mending the laws!" He trembled uncontrollably, hands shaking like leaves. He looked at Lin Shu as if he were the Heavenly Dao walking among men!
"Young Friend… No! Venerable Senior!" Elder Xuan Yun finally found his voice, thick with awe. "Your skill defies heaven! This method… unheard of! It… it reverses fate, remakes the cosmos!" His gaze transformed utterly – looking upon a deity.
Elder Qing Ye nodded frantically beside him, too awed to speak, bowing deeply at ninety degrees.
Lin Shu looked at the three awestruck cultivation giants, at the pure adulation in their eyes. A wave of indescribable emotion – pride, absurdity, and a touch of smug superiority – bubbled uncontrollably within him.
Admin privileges! This was the power! What they saw as an insurmountable "Heavenly Dao Flaw" was, to him, just a program bug needing the right patch! This sense of dimensional superiority, this worship as an "Avatar of Heaven"... it felt amazing!
His earlier fear melted away under this massive ego boost. He felt light-headed, floating. He subconsciously straightened, trying to maintain an "aloof master" demeanor, but a smirk tugged at his lips.
"Ahem," he cleared his throat, striving for calm profundity. His gaze swept over the three, landing on the scroll – still decaying, but with one tiny spot "healed." "Such 'Heavenly Dao Flaws' are difficult to mend. What you saw was but a minor test, fixing a small 'logic conflict.'"
He deliberately used "logic conflict," watching their confused yet utterly convinced expressions. The sense of control intensified.
"As for that core 'corruption zone'…" Lin Shu paused dramatically, seeing their renewed tension. A mischievous urge to show off surfaced. He tilted his chin slightly, adopting an air of detached superiority (or so he thought). "Though structurally collapsed, nested in a deadlock, highly risky… it is not… entirely without remedy."
As he spoke, partly to bolster his claim, partly to satisfy his swelling ego, he instinctively focused again, summoning the deep blue admin interface.
This time, he didn't target anything specific. Driven by a near-showoff mentality, he reached for the deepest, untouched button on the interface – one framed by flowing dark-gold sigils: [Creative Mode (Beta)].
Creative Mode (Beta)!
His intent touched the button—
BOOM!!!
An indescribable, incomprehensible wave of terror erupted from Lin Shu!
Not a force blast, but a… tremor in the rules! As if the foundational logic binding reality itself had been violently shaken! The entire stone room – people, objects, light, even air currents – flickered and distorted for an infinitesimal moment!
The oil lamp's flame stretched and shrank grotesquely. The Sect Master's expressions froze and blurred. The stone walls rippled like water… as if the world momentarily lost its form!
The tremor lasted less than a tenth of a breath.
But in that instant—
Outside, the gloomy sky turned pitch black!
An unseen hand ripped away all light! Oppressive darkness engulfed the Azure Cloud Mountains!
Then, at the center of the suffocating black void, a point of pure, indescribable light ignited!
Not sun, not star, not any known source. It resembled… a colossal, cold eye slowly opening!
No pupil, no sclera. Only a field of indifferent, endlessly rotating, infinitesimal spirit runes and geometric lines forming an "eye"!
This "Eye" hung in the Nine Heavens, cold, merciless, radiating absolute disdain for all beneath it! Its gaze, like tangible shackles weighing billions of tons, pierced the crude roof, locking precisely onto Lin Shu! Onto the "anomalous" aura that had just shaken reality's foundations!
Unspeakable pressure, like billions of tons of crushing water, slammed down!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The weaker maids, Xiao Mei and the other, blacked out instantly without a sound!
Elders Xuan Yun and Qing Ye, Golden Core cultivators, turned ashen with despair! An invisible hammer slammed their chests. They choked back blood, bodies shaking violently, knees buckling! Only by pouring all their power into resistance did they stay upright, eyes filled with primal terror at the sky falling!
The Sect Master fared slightly better, but only just! He jolted as if electrocuted, all color draining from his face. He stared at the ceiling as if seeing the terrifying Eye beyond, throat making guttural sounds. His hands shook violently, the scroll trembling like a candle in a gale!
"Law… Law's Eye! Heav… Heavenly Dao… wrath?!" The Sect Master's voice cracked with soul-shattering fear. "Senior! What… what did you do?! Provoked… Heaven's Execution?!"
Lin Shu's mind blanked!
On the admin interface, the [Creative Mode (Beta)] button flashed frantic, danger-red! Ear-splitting, soul-rending alarms shrieked in his mind!
[CRITICAL ALERT: UNLAWFUL ADMIN ACCESS DETECTED!]
[VIOLATION: CREATIVE MODE ACTIVATION (UNAUTHORIZED REALM)]
[SOURCE: PRIMORDIAL LAW ENFORCEMENT ENTITY - "THE EYE OF ORDER"]
[THREAT LEVEL: EXISTENTIAL]
[COUNTERMEASURE: IMMEDIATE TERMINATION INITIATED]
Below the warning, a madly ticking countdown:
[TERMINATION SEQUENCE: ENGAGED]
[ETA: 3... 2...]
The countdown ticked down mercilessly!
At the center of the rune-formed "Law's Eye" in the sky, a point of pure violet light ignited! Not lightning, but pure destructive will incarnate! Pinprick-sized, it expanded and condensed in a millionth of a breath into a pillar of absolute annihilation spanning heaven and earth!
Within the violet pillar, not energy, but countless infinitesimal runes representing "erasure," "nullification," "existence negation" spun and collapsed madly! Space silently disintegrated into primal void where it passed! No sound, no heat, only soul-freezing, absolute silence!
Heaven's Execution! True, ultimate erasure from the world's foundational rules!
Time lost meaning, stretched infinitely.
Blood rushed to Lin Shu's head, then froze solid. Primal terror pierced every cell. Admin privileges? Ego? Smugness? All crushed to dust! Only one raw, instinctive thought remained—
Block it! Survive!
Survival instinct screamed. Muscle memory and programmer frenzy took over. On the frantically alert admin interface, his hands (intent) flailed like mad!
Target: The annihilating violet light!
Command: Highest priority! Overwrite! Negate! Nullify!
Code! The most direct, brutal, unreasonable code!
GENERATE BARRIER (MAX PRIORITY)
CONTENT: "404 NOT FOUND"
APPLY TO TARGET: PURPLE_TERMINATION_BEAM
EXECUTE! EXECUTE NOW!
The instant the command formed, Lin Shu felt all his spirit, will, even soul ripped away! Billions of needles seemed to pierce his brain!
As the violet pillar of absolute negation was about to touch the Azure Cloud Peak, to erase the entire Azure Cloud Sect and Lin Shu from existence—
Buzz!
A thin, almost transparent barrier, edges flickering and distorting like bad signal static, materialized barely thirty meters above the peak!
At its center, massive, jagged, shimmering English characters formed from unstable light points:
404
Below it, smaller, equally flickering text:
NOT FOUND
The barrier was ludicrously fragile, absurd, utterly out of place! Like a glitched webpage error projected onto this life-or-death cultivation world!
BOOOOOOM—!!!
The annihilating violet light, the concentrated will of Heaven's execution, carrying the absolute law of erasure, slammed squarely into the flimsy "404 NOT FOUND" barrier!
Time froze.
No earth-shattering explosion. No dazzling energy clash.
Only a bizarre, grating, teeth-chattering sound—as if billions of panes of glass were simultaneously pulverized into dust!
Zzzzzzzzzzz—CRACK-K-K-K-K-K-K!!!
The pure violet light, embodying "existence negation," upon touching the "404 NOT FOUND" barrier, plunged into incomprehensible chaos!
Like precise code hitting unparsable gibberish!
Like absolute "existence" colliding with defined "non-existence"!
The violet light halted abruptly! Then, it didn't explode or penetrate. Instead… it began to dissolve? Disintegrate? Like ice thrown onto white-hot metal?
The countless violet runes composing the pillar flashed, twisted, conflicted violently before the barrier! They tried to execute "erase," but the target was defined as "non-existent (NOT FOUND)"! A logical paradox deadlock formed instantly!
KABOOOOOOOOOM—!!!
This time, a real, deafening explosion! But not of energy—of runaway law itself!
The annihilating violet light, strained by the ultimate logical conflict, finally ruptured like an overfilled balloon!
No flames, no shockwave. What exploded were fragments of shattered, meaningless violet law! Like billions of mad violet fireflies carrying erasure, they shot out chaotically in all directions! Each fragment left a fine, persistent black void-scar on space!
The sky filled instantly with these uncontrolled violet streams! A grand, bizarre, yet utterly annihilating… firework show of broken laws!
The "fireworks" lasted less than a breath.
The thin "404 NOT FOUND" barrier, having endured the violet light's impact and the ensuing paradox explosion, finally reached its limit!
It cracked like glass under a billion blows! The light points forming "404" and "NOT FOUND" flickered wildly!
CRACK!
A crisp, soul-shattering sound echoed across heaven and earth!
The barrier shattered completely!
But as it shattered, it didn't vanish. Instead… it collapsed into an infinitesimal point radiating infinite suction!
A point of absolute darkness—no light, seemingly capable of swallowing the very concept of "existence" itself!
Instantly, this tiny "dark point" expanded!
Silently, yet faster than time could perceive!
A colossal black hole, its edges flowing with fractured data streams and chaotic color blocks—as if pieced together from shattered mirrors—replaced the barrier's position!
Irresistible suction, like billions of invisible hands, seized the entire Azure Cloud Peak!
CRRRRUMBLE…!
The earth groaned! Mountains trembled!
The Sect Master, Xuan Yun, Qing Ye, the unconscious maids, the grand main hall, surrounding pavilions, the giant cauldron on the plaza… everything! Tore free from the ground under this force that defied physical law, born of logical collapse!
Time, space, light… all perception stretched, twisted, shredded!
Lin Shu felt tossed into a high-speed spin cycle. He forced his eyes open against the stinging gale, gazing into the data-streaming maw of the black hole swallowing everything!
In the final instant before consciousness shattered—
Deep within the chaotic, data-fractured darkness of the abyss, a point of cold reflection stabbed into his vision!
Not a star. Not natural light.
A massive, angular, geometric logo, forged of cold metal!
Its lines were stark, industrial, futuristic. Beneath it, metal-cast letters glowing faintly like an epitaph were etched onto the black hole's "inner wall":
NEXUS REALMS INC.
Lin Shu's mind froze on those words.
Game company?