[Current Coordinates: Primordial World · Earth Orbit]
[Target Locked: Lunar Base]
[Mission Codename: Upload]
...The night after the crash of the ten suns was exceptionally still.
The earth was charred black, with only embers flickering in the wind, like pairs of eyes that refused to close.
Atop Mount Yao, Hou Yi had collapsed from exhaustion. Shen Qingqiu stood atop the ruins, gazing up at the flawless full moon that had just risen in the night sky.
It wasn't a satellite, nor a rock.
It was a massive, high-dimensional observatory emitting a chilling white light. It was the largest "camera" in this primordial world, and the final convergence point for all data.
"You want to escape too?" Shen Qingqiu whispered.
Her hand tightly clutched the cracked Abyss Soul Crystal, the remains of Seventeen, cold as ice.
At the edge of her vision, a woman dressed in a plain white gown, cradling a jade rabbit (actually a data acquisition terminal), slowly floated into the air.
That was Ling'e.
Or rather, a **[Recycling Program · Number CE-01]** deployed by a higher-dimensional civilization.
What she stole wasn't the elixir of immortality.
But rather, the core gene pool of primordial beings, yet to be uploaded, from the ten mechanical eyeballs that Seventeen had just shot out.
"We can't let her go!" A-Ling's weak voice echoed in the soul crystal.
"That's the data Dad risked his life to protect… If she takes it back to the moon, we've completely lost this round! She'll restart the server and format everything!"
"She can't leave." Shen Qingqiu straightened her blood-red dress.
Her hair danced wildly in the night wind, obscuring the crazed glint in her eyes.
"Since it's about going to the moon…" Shen Qingqiu lightly leaped into the air like a red butterfly.
"Then I'll go...join the fun."
...
[Altitude: 3000 meters...10000 meters...]
[Gravity System: Malfunction.]
Ling'e flew very fast.
She stood on a "pillar of ascension light" composed of data streams, her body weightless, like a soulless puppet, expressionlessly flying towards the cold moon.
"Who?" Ling'e suddenly sensed something amiss.
Her silver eyes, which had previously only held data, turned slightly downwards.
A red figure was seen, defying gravity, tightly gripping her long, cloud-like white ribbon.
It was Shen Qingqiu.
She wasn't riding a sword, nor was she riding a cloud.
She used **[Concept Overwrite]** to "sew" her red dress to Ling'e's ribbon.
"Take me with you." Shen Qingqiu raised her head; in the thin air, her face was pale, but her smile was breathtakingly alluring.
[Warning: Illegal mounting detected.] [Execution: Discard Program.] Ling'e didn't speak, only mechanically waving her sleeve.
The white ribbon instantly transformed into a sharp laser cutting blade, attempting to slice Shen Qingqiu down from the sky.
"Too slow."
Shen Qingqiu extended her other hand, a strange red light gleaming at her fingertips.
That was the **"Red Lotus Virus"** left by Seventeen.
"If I let you go back so cleanly, wouldn't my husband's blood... have been shed in vain?"
She suddenly pulled the ribbon, using the force to rise, like a coiling red snake, instantly closing in on Ling'e's back.
*Thud!*
Shen Qingqiu's fingers pierced Ling'e's smooth, jade-like back without resistance.
No blood.
Only blue sparks and chaotic data streams.
[Access Successful.]
[Virus Injection: A-Zero (Trojan Horse Version)] "Ah..." For the first time, a twisted expression of pain appeared on Ling'e's perfect face.
Her flight path began to sway, and the beam of light that had been straight towards the moon flickered.
"Who...are you?" Ling'e's voice was no longer a clear, cold female voice, but a gender-neutral, synthesized electronic voice.
Shen Qingqiu whispered in her ear, like a lover's whisper:
"I am...a vengeful ghost seeking revenge."
...
[Location: Far side of the moon · Guanghan Palace (Server Center)]
This was a massive palace constructed of silver-white metal and transparent crystals.
There was no legendary osmanthus fragrance, only countless enormous, blue-glowing data cables (the legendary osmanthus trees), connecting to servers deep within the Earth's core.
The so-called "Jade Rabbits" were a group of white, spherical maintenance robots busily working on the ground.
Boom!
Ling'e, carrying Shen Qingqiu, crashed heavily onto the cold metal floor of Guanghan Palace.
"Warning! Carrier damaged! Data leak!" The surrounding Jade Rabbit robots immediately swarmed around her, their red laser eyes locking onto Shen Qingqiu.
Shen Qingqiu slowly stood up.
This was a vacuum environment, devoid of air.
But she was a Dimension Weaver, having long since rewritten her own survival logic.
She glanced around.
This was the Moon Palace.
Desolate, deathly silent, filled with a chilling, high-tech beauty.
Here, all the joys and sorrows of the primordial land were merely strings of flowing data code.
"Is this… the place Seventeen has always wanted to pierce?"
Shen Qingqiu looked down at the dim soul crystal in her arms.
"Seventeen, we've arrived."
"Intruder! Eliminate!" Hundreds of Jade Rabbit robots opened fire simultaneously.
A dense laser net sealed off all hiding places.
Shen Qingqiu didn't dodge.
She simply raised her hand slightly, assuming a dancing pose.
[Concept Overwrite · Rainbow Feather Dance (Collapse Version)] "How can there be no dance in this Moon Palace?"
She twirled.
Her red dress, like fire, became the only color in this silvery-white world.
With her dance, countless red data lotuses bloomed out of thin air.
The lasers that struck her did not cause harm; instead, they were refracted and distorted by the red force field surrounding her, becoming the accompanying lights.
"First dance... Shattered Rainbow Robe." Shen Qingqiu's long sleeves flicked out.
Struck a jade rabbit.
Crack!
The robot instantly exploded, turning into countless flying parts. And those parts reassembled in mid-air, transforming into metallic red lotuses.
"Second dance... Severed Cassia Branch."
She leaped onto the giant "Cassia Tree" (data cable tower).
The peach wood hairpin in her hand transformed into a sharp blade, slashing fiercely.
Sizzle—!!!
The thick fiber optic cable was severed, and blue data gushed out like blood.
The entire Moon Palace began to tremble violently.
Alarms blared through the sky.
[Warning! Server overheating!]
[Warning! Virus is spreading... System logic is being rewritten...]
Ling'e had already gotten up from the ground.
Half of her body had been digitized; it was A-Ling taking control of her from within.
"Stop..." Ling'e screamed, "You'll destroy the backup of this world! Once the backup is destroyed, the Primordial World will truly be unable to restart!"
Shen Qingqiu stopped dancing.
She stood atop the severed "Osmanthus Tree," looking down at Ling'e.
The Earth (the Primordial Continent) behind her emitted a ghostly blue light, beautiful like a teardrop.
"Restart?" Shen Qingqiu sneered.
"We don't need to restart."
"What we need is... to continue."
"Even if it's incomplete, even if it's painful."
"As long as it's a path we've forged ourselves, we don't need you to press the enter key!"
She raised the Soul Crystal in her hand.
The red light within sensed the massive energy source surrounding it and began greedily devouring the overflowing data stream from the Moon Palace.
"Ah Ling! Buffet time!"
"Yes, Mom!!!" Cheers erupted from the Soul Crystal.
The small crystal, like a black hole, frantically extracted energy from the entire lunar base station.
The once silvery-white Moon Palace began to dim rapidly.
The floor cracked, the walls crumbled.
The "life data" stolen by Ling'e was forcibly decoded and released by Ah Ling.
It transformed into countless streams of light, piercing the atmosphere and returning to the primordial land.
It returned to the bodies of every living being.
…
"No—!!!" Ling'e watched this scene in despair.
Her mission had failed.
Not only that, her core code had also been stolen and swallowed by Ah Ling.
Thump.
Ling'e collapsed to the ground, losing all her luster, becoming a real, cold mechanical doll.
The Moon Palace collapsed.
The once perfect full moon, its energy core drained, now bore massive cracks on its surface.
It resembled a shattered jade plate.
[Lunar Base Station: Offline.]
[Monitoring Network: Completely Paralyzed.]
Shen Qingqiu stood atop the ruins.
Her red dress remained frozen in the vacuum, like a solidified sculpture.
The soul crystal in her hand was no longer a dull black.
It had absorbed the energy of the entire Moon Palace, transforming into a dazzling silver heart.
Red lotus patterns flowed across its surface, and a powerful, thunderous beating sound emanated from within.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
That was Seventeen's heartbeat.
Stronger and more vibrant than before.
"Seventeen..." Shen Qingqiu pressed the "heart" against her face; the warmth finally relaxed her tense nerves.
Tears slid down, turning into icy crystals that scattered.
"We won."
"I'll take the moon from the sky… and use it as your heart."
She turned, looking at the distant blue planet.
Without the monitoring of the lunar base station, the "pixelated" phenomena on the primordial land were ceasing, and color was returning.
But she knew this was just the beginning.
The higher-dimensional civilization wouldn't give up easily.
They destroyed their cameras (the sun), dismantled their servers (the moon).
Next time… it will probably be a real fleet.
"But so what?"
Shen Qingqiu clenched the silver heart.
A domineering glint flashed in her eyes.
"Since you like playing with dimensional reduction attacks."
"Then I'll build a… Tower of Ascension on these ruins."
She lightly touched the ground with her toes, stepping on the collapsed lunar fragments, transforming into a red meteor, plummeting towards Earth.
Stepping on the moon's shadow, shattering the vast moon.
That night.
The primordial creatures looked up and witnessed a wondrous sight: The eternally high, round moon had a shattered piece.
And a red shooting star, carrying a sky full of silvery light, returned like a goddess descending to earth.
Ling'e had failed to reach the moon.
But that woman in red had… stolen the moon back.