In the western side chamber of the Chén Clan estate, at the Third Watch of Mao (around 6:00 AM):
Chuntao knelt before the writing desk, a stack of yellowed silk-bound volumes resting on her knees. Beads of sweat dotted the tip of her nose. "You always loathed these ancient texts, Young Master, and used to say they were far less interesting than arithmetic... Where shall I start copying from in this *Spiritual Plant Cultivation Manual*?"
Chen Mo pinched a wolf-hair brush, letting the tip fall onto the Xuan paper to strike his very first stroke. The moment the brush touched the paper, he "saw" the spiritual qi seep into the fibers like a stream of green data, sketching out a three-dimensional model of a plant right across the page. This was no ordinary copying—in the original host's memories, outer disciples of the Chén Clan had to sense the flow of spiritual qi through copying cultivation methods, while his "Code Cultivation System" was translating those words directly into compilable instructions.
"Start from Chapter One: 'Spiritual Rice Cultivation'." Chen Mo flicked his wrist, and the ink bloomed across the paper. Yet it was not neat regular script, but lines of Python code. Chuntao's eyes widened as she watched those tadpole-like symbols glow faintly on the page, bearing a striking resemblance to the "quantum talismans" she had once seen in the black market at the City God Temple.
"Y-Young Master, what are you writing?" The young maid instinctively reached out to touch it. The moment her fingertip brushed the surface, a particle of spiritual qi condensed like a pixel, transforming into a miniature ear of rice in the palm of her hand before instantly vanishing.
"Comments." Chen Mo blew on the ink, and a prompt popped up on his retinal interface: [Spiritual qi visualization writing detected. Establishing cultivation method-to-code mapping relationship.] He opened the main text of the manual and saw the description: *"Spiritual qi must be channeled along the Ren-water meridian into the spiritual field."* A flowchart automatically surfaced in his mind—the Ren-water meridian corresponded precisely to the Conception Vessel in the human meridians, while the spiritual field was the position of the Dantian.
The system's mechanical voice sounded once more: "Double-Slit Experiment Dao Enlightenment countdown: 68 hours and 53 minutes. Host is advised to acquire the materials needed for the experiment as soon as possible: spirit butterfly wings, quartz prisms, and a vacuum pump."
Chen Mo frowned. Such items were standard laboratory issue in the twenty-first century, but in this cultivation world, a vacuum pump was equivalent to "mortal clever craftsmanship and heterodox skill," while spirit butterflies were spiritual plants accessible only to outer disciples. He turned to look at Chuntao. "Does the estate have a storage room for sundries? Like... foreign curios and the like?"
The young girl tilted her head in thought. "A few days ago, the Second Madam cleaned out the storeroom, and some 'useless things' the Master brought back in his youth were thrown out and piled in the woodshed of the western courtyard. Is the Young Master looking for..."
Before she could finish her sentence, the chamber door was suddenly pushed open. A young girl dressed in a moon-white ru skirt stood with her hands behind her back, the golden hairpins in her hair swaying slightly with her movements, followed by two maidservants holding swords. She swept her gaze over the code on the writing desk, the corners of her lips curling into a sneer. "A concubine-born son is a concubine-born son, actually writing ghost-scratch symbols while copying scriptures. If Father knew you were desecrating cultivation methods like this—"
"Greetings, Eldest Sister." Chen Mo rose and bowed, his gaze falling upon the jade plaque at her waist. That was the token of an inner disciple of the Chén Clan, carved with the two characters "Qingyue." Yet on his retinal interface, the jade plaque was surrounded by a pale blue data stream—the spiritual qi field of a Golden Core Stage cultivator.
Chen Qingyue raised an eyebrow. "You actually recognize me?" She had only returned from seclusion in the Laoshan secret realm two days before, assuming this sickly, concubine-born half-brother should have long forgotten the existence of the legitimate branch.
"Naturally I recognize you." Chen Mo looked straight into her eyes, deliberately releasing a trace of spiritual qi fluctuation. It was a "Qi Refining Level 3" aura simulated by the system, yet it appeared abnormal in Chen Qingyue's perception—the trajectory of the spiritual qi flow resembled some sort of complex algorithm rather than ordinary circulating cycles.
"You..." The Eldest Sister's pupils constricted slightly as her hand pressed against the hilt of her sword. "What sort of heretical art are you practicing?"
Chuntao dropped to her knees in a panic. "Eldest Miss, please clear your mind! Ever since the Young Master woke from his coma, he has been spouting nonsense about 'programs' and 'algorithms.' It must be that deviation in his cultivation has damaged his brain..."
"Silence!" Chen Qingyue barked, but at that exact moment, she caught sight of the skin exposed at Chen Mo's cuff—there was a pale pink scar there, and its shape was identical to the electrode burns of the "quantum entanglement instrument" in her mother's chamber.
The air suddenly froze. Chen Mo keenly captured the suspicion hidden deep in her eyes, suddenly recalling a fragment from the original host's memories: ten years ago, his legitimate mother, Su Ruoxue, had accidentally spilled spiritual tea in the study, and he, as a young child, had been splashed on the arm. And the person present at the time... was a twelve-year-old Chen Qingyue as well.
"Qingyue, do not be rude."
A deep male voice came from beneath the veranda. A middle-aged man in a dark robes stood with his hands behind his back, the jade pendant at his waist carved with the ancestral precepts of the Chén Clan. It was Chen Mo's father, Chén Tiānhóng. He swept his gaze over the code on the writing desk, his eyes lingering for half a second on the line reading *print(spiritual qi condensation)*. The fingers in his sleeve moved slightly, and the ink on the paper automatically reorganized itself into neat regular script.
"Father," Chen Qingyue saluted. "The cultivation method this person is practicing is bizarre; I fear there may be something amiss..."
"He is your younger brother." Chén Tiānhóng interrupted her, his tone flat yet carrying a palpable pressure. "The outer disciple grand competition is in three days; you ought to concern yourself more with your Foundation Establishment Pill." He turned to Chen Mo, and a jade slip flew out from his sleeve. "This is the *Basic Tunaling Art*. Study it well."
The moment the jade slip touched his palm, Chen Mo's retinal interface erupted with a blinding golden light. That was no ordinary cultivation jade slip, but an encrypted data stream. He saw countless chains composed of zeros and ones entangling the core of the jade slip, and at a certain hidden node, the Ouroboros logo of Tianyan Group was unmistakably present.
[Warning] Quantum encrypted cultivation method detected. Immediate parsing of underlying code is recommended.
Chen Mo's fingertips trembled slightly as he raised his eyes to meet his father's gaze. There was no ordinary paternal concern in those eyes, only scrutiny, much like looking at a program glitch that might explode at any moment.
"Thank you, Father." He tucked the jade slip into his sleeve, noticing that as Chén Tiānhóng turned away, a corner of paper slipped from his cuff—upon it were the words "Quantum Bit Collection Protocol," bearing a serial number that matched his past life's corporate project completely.
Only after the father and daughter had departed did Chuntao dare to stand up, her little face pale as paper. "Does the Young Master know just how dangerous that was? The Eldest Miss achieved her Golden Core just last year; she could crush the two of us with a single finger... Why on earth did you deliberately reveal your spiritual qi?"
"Because I need her 'observation'." Chen Mo muttered to himself, suddenly finding a clue to the "Double-Slit Experiment Dao Enlightenment" in the system prompts. In quantum mechanics, the act of observation affects particle trajectories, while here, the "observation" of high-tier cultivators might just help him stabilize his spiritual qi fluctuations.
He opened the *Spiritual Plant Cultivation Manual* to the chapter on "Spirit Butterfly Rearing," and the retinal interface automatically generated a three-dimensional model: the scale structure on the wings matched an optical prism to absolute perfection.
"Chuntao, take me to the western courtyard woodshed." Chen Mo stood up, catching a glimpse of himself in the bronze mirror—the youth's brow ridge was similar to his past life's, but his eyes now held the faint glow of flowing code. "We are going to conduct an experiment regarding light, and... fate."
Western courtyard woodshed, Sishi (around 9:00 AM):
Dust danced within the shafts of light as Chuntao held up a candle to illuminate the corner. "Look, Young Master, these are all the 'clever crafts and heterodox skills' the Master brought back from overseas in his early years..."
Chen Mo's pupils contracted sharply. Before him sat a rust-covered vacuum pump, piled alongside glass test tubes, metal prisms, and even half an unassembled photolithography machine. He was far too familiar with the models of these equipment—they were precisely the discarded items from Yunxiao Technology's laboratory in his past life.
"Help me wipe the prism clean." He put on a pair of white gloves of unknown origin, retrieving the spirit butterfly specimen he had swiped from the pharmacy out of the system space. "What comes next might completely subvert your understanding of cultivation."
Chuntao swallowed hard as she watched him place the spirit butterfly's wings in front of the prism, using the vacuum pump to draw out the air inside the wooden box. When the first ray of sunlight refracted through the prism into a colorful halo, Chen Mo formed hand seals—the "binary sword art" gestures he had adapted based on the *Basic Tunaling Art*.
[Constructing double-slit interference setup. Spiritual qi particle stream detected.]
A virtual oscilloscope popped up on his retinal interface. Chen Mo watched as the spiritual qi particles passed through the double slits in the form of waves, forming alternating bright and dark interference fringes behind them. But the moment he concentrated his mind to "observe" the particle trajectory, the fringes suddenly vanished, and the particles assumed a definite particle state.
"It worked..." he whispered, finally understanding what the system meant by "Dao Enlightenment." So-called Foundation Establishment was nothing more than making a cultivator understand the wave-particle duality of spiritual qi, thereby enabling them to actively choose their method of observation.
Chuntao's eyes widened as she saw two flowers of spiritual qi appear out of thin air inside the wooden box—one blooming in a wave-like form, and the other condensing into crystals like a particle. Right at that moment, footsteps suddenly sounded outside the woodshed. With a light flick of Chen Mo's fingertips, all the equipment instantly vanished into the system space, leaving only the spirit butterfly specimen resting quietly in his palm.
"Chen Mo!"
Lǐ Míngxuān's voice carried anger. The youth in a blue gown barged in, wearing the outer disciple identity plaque hanging from his waist. Catching sight of the spirit butterfly in Chen Mo's hand, he sneered, "I heard you went mad from a cultivation deviation and lost your mind? What, stealing a spirit butterfly specimen to sell on the black market for wine?"
Chen Mo raised an eyebrow. In the original host's memories, this cousin was arranged by his father to "take care" of him, but in reality, he was a watcher. He noticed the red string exposed at Lǐ Míngxuān's cuff—that was the hallmark of a low-ranking member of Tianyan Group.
"Cousin misunderstands." He opened his palm, and the spirit butterfly suddenly fluttered its wings and took flight, the interference fringes on its wings flashing past in an instant. "I was merely studying... the nature of light."
Lǐ Míngxuān's pupils constricted as his hand pressed against the hilt of his sword. "Do you know what you're saying? That is the 'Photon Dao' that only those in the Golden Core Stage need to comprehend! You, a mere concubine-born son, actually dare to..."
"Enough." Chen Mo interrupted him, stepping half a step forward as spiritual qi flowed around his body like code. "Pass along a word to Father for me: the double-slit experiment has been completed." He leaned close to the other's ear, lowering his voice, "And next time, tell him to use a more covert method of encryption. Those binary chains... I've cracked them."
Lǐ Míngxuān's expression changed drastically, and he took two steps back, knocking over a wooden rack. As Chen Mo brushed past him, he deftly lifted a jade slip from his waist—that was the entry credential for the Chén Clan's outer disciple grand competition. The retinal interface indicated that the jade slip contained a piece of encrypted information: "At the full moon, City God Temple Underground Palace, quantum bit transaction."
Walking out of the woodshed, Chen Mo raised his head to look at the sky. The flying vessels in the direction of Lujiazui were arranging themselves into a certain formation, and he recognized it as his past life company's "quantum encryption array." The countdown on the system interface had sixty-five hours remaining, and right in the palm of his hand, a particle of spiritual qi was pulsing according to the Fibonacci sequence—that was Lin Xiaoman's spiritual message frequency.
"Chuntao," he said softly, "go help me prepare a set of clean outer robes. At the grand competition in three days, I am going to let the entire Chén Clan... see the power of code."
The young girl looked at the data stream flashing in his eyes, suddenly recalling the bizarre sight she had witnessed in the woodshed moments before—when the Young Master had formed those hand seals, she had distinctly seen a Taiji diagram composed of zeros and ones floating behind his back, and those binary codes were actively re-weaving the spiritual qi meridians all around his body.