Zhangjiang Technological Cultivation Park · Yisi Peak, Snake Hour
A hovering flying car passed through an aura-constructed security gate. Chen Mo looked through the car window toward the distant "quantum spiritual plant greenhouse," where spiritual rice was growing frantically under an AI lighting system, each ear of grain shimmering with the faint light of data fluctuations. In the passenger seat, Chen Qingyue remained silent, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the jade token at her waist—the "Technological Cultivation Park Access Token" she had stolen from her father's study yesterday.
"Why help me?" Chen Mo broke the silence, his gaze sweeping over the dark circles under her eyes. Last night in his conscious space, he had seen that when his elder half-sister argued with their father, a yellowed photograph slipped from her sleeve—a young Chén Tiānhóng embracing a woman in a white lab coat, none other than his mother, Su Wan'er.
Chen Qingyue slammed on the brakes, sending the flying car sliding half a meter across the lawn. She turned to stare at him, her eyes burning with anger and pain: "You think I want to help you? I just don't want to see the Chén Clan's spiritual roots destroyed in the hands of Tianyan Group!" She pulled open the collar of her tunic, revealing an Ouroboros tattoo below her collarbone: "Three years ago, they planted a 'quantum Gu' in me, saying your mother's *Chaos Code Scripture* could cure it..."
Chen Mo's pupils constricted. His retinal interface automatically analyzed the tattoo's structure, discovering it was actually an encrypted piece of biological code, transmitting signals to the outside world at his heartbeat's frequency. He reached out and pressed down on her shoulder, his spiritual qi transforming into a data stream that seeped into her skin: "Don't move, I'm helping you locate the Gu worm's coordinates."
"Are you crazy?!" Chen Qingyue tried to push him away, only to find herself completely immobilized. She saw code light patterns flowing in Chen Mo's eyes and heard him murmuring to himself: "The loop statement is in the vein, the conditional branch is in the artery... Found it!"
A needle of spiritual qi flickered from his fingertip, piercing precisely into the "Quze acupoint" in the crook of her elbow. Chen Qingyue shook violently all over as she saw a small snake composed of binary code crawl out from beneath her skin, twist into the word "ERROR" in midair, and dissipate. At the same time, the jade token at her waist emitted a piercing alarm, and the Chén Clan's ancestral precepts carved upon it actually morphed into Tianyan Group's monitoring program.
"They know we're here." Chen Mo pulled out the chip from the jade token. "There's a mole in the Zhangjiang Park."
Technological Cultivation Park · Quantum Medical Laboratory
Lin Xiaoman's consciousness floated and sank in the data stream until she suddenly heard that familiar voice: "Xiaoman, can you hear me? It's Chen Mo."
She snapped her eyes open, finding herself in a pure white space surrounded by countless lines of code formed from spiritual qi. Not far away, Chen Mo's conscious body was building a "conscious bridge"; his outline was composed of 0s and 1s, yet it glowed with a warm halo at the edges.
"How did you get in? Su Mubai planted a 'segmentation fault' program in your spiritual root, and in 36 hours your body will explode..." She lunged forward, only to find her hands passing straight through his shoulders.
"Su Qing gave me the backdoor." Chen Mo displayed the blue spirit butterfly tattoo on his wrist. "Look, this is the quantum communication protocol she rewrote. Xiaoman, do you remember the Twin Butterflies we raised in the lab in our past lives? The patterns on their wings are actually in a quantum entangled state—"
Memories came flooding back like a tide. In 2024, in the underground laboratory of Yunxiao Technology, they used spiritual qi crystals to cultivate two genetically identical spirit butterflies. When one wing vibrated, the other would swing in sync no matter how far apart they were, as if connected by invisible code.
"You mean..." Lin Xiaoman flicked her fingertips, and a holographic projection of the Twin Butterflies emerged in the pure white space. "We can use spiritual qi resonance to establish a secure channel, bypassing Tianyan Group's surveillance?"
"More than that." Chen Mo's conscious body sat down and began writing a complex matrix. "I need you to help me analyze the underlying logic of the *Great Void Heaven-Deriving Formula*. Su Mubai wants to use it to reverse spacetime and return to the ancient era of abundant spiritual qi, but according to my mother's notes, this technique has a fatal Bug—"
Before he could finish, the pure white space suddenly shook violently. Lin Xiaoman watched in horror as countless black antivirus programs surged forward like a tidal wave. Chen Mo hurriedly constructed a firewall, but exposed a flaw during the code clash—red cracks of a "segmentation fault" appeared at the edges of his conscious body.
"Go!" Lin Xiaoman pushed him toward the conscious channel. "Your physical body can't hold out! Remember, the Bug is in the 'time loop' module, you need to use..." Her voice was drowned out by static, and what came through last was a string of Morse code composed of spiritual qi fluctuations: "π/2, Fibonacci, recursive call."
The Real World, Third Quarter of the Snake Hour
Chen Mo bolted upright from the treatment capsule, and the monitoring talisman on his chest shattered with a "pop." An old cultivator who was tuning the quantum acupuncture instrument cried out in alarm: "Extraordinary! This spiritual root is actually repairing itself, as if countless little hands are stitching up the meridians..."
Chen Qingyue pressed down on his shoulders: "Don't move around! The 'segmentation fault' program in you has already eroded three spiritual veins. If not for the 'quantum spiritual fluid' of the Zhangjiang Park..."
"There's no time." Chen Mo ripped off the electrodes on his chest, and his retinal interface showed the countdown had only 34 hours left. He looked out the laboratory window, where a massive "spiritual qi collider" was being assembled—the very core equipment Su Mubai was using to blast open the spacetime channel.
Chuntao suddenly rushed into the laboratory, clutching a carved wooden box in her arms: "Young Master! This is the 'Western exotic device' you asked me to find from the storeroom... and this!" She handed over a yellowed photograph showing a young Su Wan'er and Chén Tiānhóng, with a bespectacled teenager standing right between them—strikingly, a young Su Mubai.
"So they used to be classmates." Chen Qingyue frowned. "There is a book called *Introduction to Quantum Cultivation* in my father's study, with an inscription on the flyleaf reading 'Presented to Brother Tiānhóng, to jointly journey into the Great Void,' signed by 'Mubai'."
Chen Mo took the photograph, his fingertips brushing across Su Mubai's face. On his retinal interface, lines of code emerged at the edges of the photo—coordinates recorded using steganography: "City God Temple Underground Palace, Zone B-7, remnant scroll of the *Great Void Heaven-Deriving Formula*."
The laboratory suddenly suffered a power outage, and all the lights went out. In the darkness, Chen Mo saw red warnings reflected in Chen Qingyue's pupils—Tianyan Group's quantum surveillance had locked onto their location.
"Take Chuntao and go first." He shoved the photograph into her hands. "I'm going to the underground palace to retrieve the remnant scroll, and at the outer sect competition three days from now..." He clenched his fists, spiritual qi condensing into a binary sword array in his palm. "I will run this fate-reversing code in front of everyone."
Chen Qingyue wanted to say something, but Chuntao pulled her away. The young maid's eyes held tears as she shoved the wooden box to Chen Mo: "Young Master, be careful! Inside is the vacuum pump you wanted, and... and this spirit butterfly specimen I secretly kept!"
Watching them leave, Chen Mo opened the wooden box. The spirit butterfly specimen fluttered its wings in his palm, and the interference fringes on its wings resonated with the code on the photograph. The retinal interface automatically generated a navigation route, passing through the secret passage of the City God Temple Underground Palace straight to the bottom of Tianyan Group's headquarters in Lujiazui—where the core of the spiritual qi collider was located.
Quantum Space, Monkey Hour
Lin Xiaoman curled up inside the light cocoon, suddenly feeling a burning pain transmitted from the chip at the nape of her neck. Su Mubai's figure appeared on the surveillance screen, smiling as he held up a crystal: "Congratulations, Miss Lin. Your qubits have finally gathered their final digit—now, let's see how many rules Chen Mo can break for you."
She wanted to scream, but could not make a sound. Through the light cocoon, she saw countless spirit butterflies flying in from outside the window, their wings flashing with the code light patterns of Chen Mo. The leading blue butterfly crashed into the protective wall, transforming into tens of thousands of lines of golden code that burned a direct-access vulnerability straight to the core on Tianyan Group's servers.
"Xiaoman, catch!"
In the conscious space, Chen Mo's voice carried a desperate resolve of burning the boats. Lin Xiaoman saw him toss over a ball of burning code, a "virus program" woven from his own spiritual qi fragments. When the program was injected into her chip, the Ouroboros tattoo on the back of her neck suddenly burst with blue light, forming a perfect quantum entanglement with the spirit butterfly tattoo on Chen Mo's wrist.
"This is..."
"Our Twin Butterflies." His voice carried a smile, yet also a trace of a tremble. "Using my spiritual root as the server and your consciousness as the terminal, now... it's time to let Tianyan Group taste the flavor of being hacked."
Lin Xiaoman closed her eyes, feeling the two streams of spiritual qi merge within the quantum space. When she opened her eyes again, what flowed in her pupils was no longer the red light of the chip, but the golden hue of Chen Mo's code—the color of freedom, and the color of vengeance.