City God Temple Underground Palace, Zone B-7, You Hour
Fluorescent blue light seeped from the damp stone walls. Chen Mo walked forward through the puddles, the spirit butterfly specimen in his hand beating its wings faster and faster. The retinal interface showed strong spiritual qi fluctuations ten meters ahead, mixed with the encrypted signal of Tianyan Group—that was the location of the remnant scroll of the Great Void Heaven-Deriving Formula, and also the trap set by Su Mubai.
"Chen Mo, you really came."
Lǐ Míngxuān's voice came from above. Chen Mo looked up and saw his cousin standing on a stone pillar, the sword at his waist replaced by Tianyan Group's "quantum lightshot sword." What flowed along the blade was not spiritual qi, but a binary Data Stream.
"Hand over the photos." Lǐ Míngxuān raised his hand, and dozens of spiritual qi talismans flew out from his sleeves, arranging themselves into a matrix in the air. "Father says your mother's notes will allow Tianyan Group to rule the entire cultivation world."
Chen Mo raised an eyebrow. "'Father'? Do you mean Su Mubai, or Chén Tiānhóng?" With a flick of his fingertips, the spirit butterfly specimen given by Chuntao suddenly turned into thousands of points of light, each point being a miniature spirit butterfly with golden code flashing on its wings.
Thousands of spirit butterflies hovered around Chen Mo, their wings opening and closing to reveal code light patterns of "foriinrange(1000)." They were arranged using a recursive algorithm, every seven forming a small sword array, and seventy-two sword arrays converging into a Taiji diagram, surrounding Lǐ Míngxuān's talisman matrix layer by layer.
Lǐ Míngxuān's pupils constricted. "You can actually control a swarm of spirit butterflies to attack? This is a 'photon matrix' that can only be mastered at the Golden Core Stage!"
"No, this is a 'Recursive Sword'." Chen Mo formed seals with both hands, and a debugging window popped up on his retinal interface. "Every spirit butterfly is a thread, and they share the same target—" He pressed the virtual Enter key. "Kill the virus."
The swarm of spirit butterflies suddenly accelerated, attacking like a golden rainstorm. Lǐ Míngxuān swung his sword to slash out a Data Stream, only to find that every time a spirit butterfly was shattered, it split into two smaller spirit butterflies, continuing to execute the attack command. This was a proliferation program written by Chen Mo based on the Fibonacci sequence, just like the spiritual message transmitted by Lin Xiaoman: Fibonacci, recursive call.
"You're crazy! This is a technique of mutual destruction!" Lǐ Míngxuān's back pressed against the stone wall, his lightsaber energy about to run out. He saw red cracks spreading across Chen Mo's spiritual root—that was the "segmentation fault" program acting up, but it was continuously repaired by the golden code, resembling a fierce code defense battle.
Chen Mo pressed forward half a step, spiritual qi condensing into a Data Stream longsword in his palm: "Tell me, is Chén Tiānhóng the executor of Tianyan Group's 'Grand Void Project'?"
"You think he's a good guy?" Lǐ Míngxuān suddenly smiled, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. "Back then, when Su Wan'er discovered that the 'Quantum Immortality Project' was going to sacrifice infants, the first person who wanted to kill her was your dear father!"
Before his voice faded, the stone wall suddenly exploded. Chen Mo instinctively swung his sword to block, only to see a familiar figure flash by—Chén Tiānhóng was wearing a laboratory lab coat, holding a quantum pistol in his hand, and the muzzle was aimed not at him, but at Lǐ Míngxuān.
"Father?!" Lǐ Míngxuān's pupils constricted.
Chén Tiānhóng pulled the trigger, and a quantum beam pierced his chest. Before the young man collapsed, his eyes were full of disbelief: "You... didn't you say I was your biological son..."
Chen Mo froze. The retinal interface analyzed Chén Tiānhóng's spiritual qi fluctuations, which actually bore a resemblance to Su Qing whom he had seen in the Quantum Space—that was a "pseudo-spiritual root" replicated using consciousness fragments.
"He was cloned by Su Mubai using my genes." Chén Tiānhóng kicked the lightsaber away and pulled a crystal from his bosom. "The real Lǐ Míngxuān died in a spiritual qi experiment ten years ago." He looked up at Chen Mo, guilt and resolution in his eyes. "Come with me, I will take you to see your mother."
Chen Mo clenched his fists, the spiritual qi longsword trembling in his palm. He "saw" the tattoo exposed at Chén Tiānhóng's cuff—that was the logo of Su Wan'er's laboratory, identical to Su Qing's code tattoo. And on the distant stone wall, the remnant scroll of the Great Void Heaven-Deriving Formula was glowing, with a line of small text engraved beneath it: "Spacetime Anchor: April 30, 2025, when the Lujiazui Quantum Collider starts."
"She's still alive?" Chen Mo's voice was hoarse.
Chén Tiānhóng nodded and shoved the crystal into his hand. "This is Su Wan'er's consciousness backup, which can only be activated when the collider starts. But Su Mubai has gone mad; he wants to go back in time to kill everyone who stopped him, including—"
"Including his younger self." Chen Mo took the crystal, and the retinal interface showed that it encapsulated his mother's last spiritual message: "Amo, remember to add a termination condition to the time loop."
The underground palace suddenly shook violently, and the sound of spirit butterfly swarms beating their wings came from above. Chen Mo saw countless blue spirit butterflies pouring in from the cracks, the code on their wings forming Su Qing's virtual projection: "Host, please note: remaining time for Double-Slit Experiment Dao Enlightenment: 23 hours. Tianyan Group has initiated 'Data Cleansing,' and all consciousness entities related to Chen Mo will be formatted."
Chén Tiānhóng pushed open the secret passage leading to the surface: "Go quickly! I'll hold off Su Mubai's pursuers. Remember, the 'time loop' module of the collider has a Bug, it needs to be..." He suddenly stopped, his gaze falling on the spirit butterfly tattoo on Chen Mo's wrist. "I see, it's the quantum entanglement of the Twin Butterflies."
Chen Mo clenched his mother's consciousness crystal, feeling the faint fluctuation coming from it. That was not a cold Data Stream, but spiritual qi carrying body temperature, like the feel of his mother stroking his hair in the past. Tiny water droplets condensed on the surface of the crystal, refracting a rainbow in the dim light—those were the tears from his mother's last experiment.
"Father..." He turned around as if to say something more, but saw that Chén Tiānhóng had already turned into countless code fragments, dissolving among the spirit butterfly swarm. Those fragments pieced together the word "Sorry" in the air, every stroke carrying trembling spiritual qi fluctuations.
An explosion-like roar came from the ground, and Chen Mo rushed into the secret passage. When he crawled out of the City God Temple, he saw the sky of Lujiazui dyed purple by a blood moon, and the light pillar of the quantum collider had already risen. In the center of the light pillar floated countless light cocoons—those were the Qubits collected by Tianyan Group, and the largest one among them contained Lin Xiaoman's consciousness.
Su Qing's virtual projection appeared once again: "Host, your spiritual root already possesses quantum state characteristics. Now you have two choices: first, use Chén Tiānhóng's permissions to enter the collider control room; second, initiate the 'consciousness upload' program to directly modify the Great Void Heaven-Deriving Formula in the Quantum Space."
Chen Mo looked at his palm, where golden code and red cracks intertwined like a Taiji fish pattern. He remembered Lin Xiaoman's spiritual message and his mother's notes, and finally revealed a relieved smile.
"I choose the third option." He raised his hand to summon the spirit butterfly swarm, and thousands of codes condensed into a sword in his palm. "Using the quantum entanglement of the Twin Butterflies as a bridge, between reality and virtuality... carve out a path."