Quantum Space · 1995 Laboratory Site
The torrent of time receded with a roar as the code-bodies of Chen Mo and Lin Xiaoman passed through layers of memory fragments. They saw a young Su Wan'er operating a quantum collider, with sixteen-year-old Su Mubai standing beside her, his eyes flashing with a fanatical devotion to science.
"Sister Wan'er, can this 'Great Void Heaven-Deriving Formula' really grant eternal life?" The teenage Su Mubai held up a Jade Slip, the Ouroboros symbol on its cover not yet stained with blood.
"Not eternal life, but spacetime observation." Su Wan'er adjusted her instruments. "We want to know if the depletion of spiritual qi is an experiment by a higher-dimensional civilization..."
The scene suddenly twisted, turning into a blood-red laboratory. Su Mubai accidentally triggered the runaway collider, and a surge of wild spiritual qi struck Su Wan'er. Chen Mo watched his mother smile within the quantum storm, using her final strength to transmit his consciousness fragments into a parallel universe—Earth in the year 2025, a world where technology and cultivation ran side by side.
"So... I am a 'patch program' she created using a spacetime anchor," Chen Mo murmured, ripples forming across his code-body. Lin Xiaoman took his hand, and where their spiritual qi merged, a virtual projection of Su Wan'er materialized.
Su Wan'er's projection was composed of golden code, every line of it notes she had written for her unborn child. She reached out to touch Chen Mo's cheek, her coded fingertips glowing with a warm halo: "A'Mo, the true Heavenly Dao has no bugs, because it allows all possible existence." She turned to Su Mubai. "Including regret and redemption."
In reality, Su Mubai dropped to his knees before the collider, watching the footage of his own childhood on the monitoring screen. With trembling hands, he took off his glasses to reveal the exact same chip on the back of his neck that Lin Xiaoman had—proof that he had modified himself into a quantum lifeform with his own hands in order to "run the Great Void Heaven-Deriving Formula perfectly."
"Did you think deleting the past would let you start over?" Chen Mo's voice came from all directions. Countless versions of Su Mubai from parallel universes emerged within the quantum space; some were weeping in laboratories, while others were slaughtering in the cultivation realm. "Every version of you lives in regret, and every version of you is searching for the person who will say 'it doesn't matter'."
Su Mubai suddenly burst into wild laughter, the blood and tears in his eyes turning into code fragments: "It's too late! The spacetime portal is already open, and I'm going back to kill my weak former self—" He raised the Haotian Mirror, its surface reflecting the image of the young Su Mubai.
Lin Xiaoman suddenly spread her wings to block the mirror, her coded wings flashing with a dazzling golden light. At the same time, Chen Mo slashed forward with a longsword made of Data Stream, its blade engraved with his mother's final note: "Loop termination condition: Love and Forgiveness."
The Enter key exploded within the quantum space, shattering into thousands of spirit butterflies, each carrying a fragment of Su Mubai's memories. When the first spirit butterfly touched the young Su Mubai's shoulder, spiderweb cracks spread across the Haotian Mirror, and the beam of light from the collider began to collapse.
"Mother..." Su Mubai's voice reverted to that of a youth. He reached out to touch a spirit butterfly, and Su Wan'er's smile appeared within the fragment. Seizing the opportunity, Chen Mo implanted his mother's consciousness crystal into the Haotian Mirror, and golden code poured into Su Mubai's chip like a tidal wave.
In reality, Chuntao watched as the beam of light from the collider transformed into a stream of golden data. Chen Mo's physical body floated in midair, code-wings identical to Lin Xiaoman's unfurling behind his back. Chen Qingyue shot down the last data tank, and as she looked up, she saw the code of the entire universe reflected in her younger brother's eyes.
"Program corrected." Chen Mo's voice echoed between heaven and earth as the spacetime rift began to heal. Su Mubai's body gradually grew transparent. He cast one final look at Chen Mo, the madness entirely gone from his eyes: "So... the bug was never in the code..."
Lin Xiaoman's cocoon of light descended from the sky. The moment Chen Mo caught her, their code-bodies dissolved into countless spirit butterflies, dancing gracefully in the dawn light as the blood moon faded. When the first ray of sunlight illuminated Lujiazui, the chips on the backs of all spirit net users' necks fell off one after another, dissolving into sparkling particles of spiritual qi.