[Current Status: Firewall Compiling (99%)]
[Critical Component: Five-Colored Stones (Basic Element Source Code)]
[Threat Warning: High-Dimensional Strike Squadron Has Reached the Edge of the Atmosphere]
...Atop Mount Buzhou, the wind was like a knife.
But the wind at this moment could not move the towering black-gold spine, nor could it disperse the myriad rays of light rising from the Qiankun Cauldron.
The Sage Nuwa hovered before the cauldron, fine beads of sweat seeping from her forehead. She still needed to mend the heavens a second time.
Another 36,501 five-colored stones, refined by the innate treasure, had transformed into a pool of thick, colorful **"liquid".**
That was not ordinary magma.
That was a mixture of the original codes of the five fundamental elements of the universe: [Wood (Life), Fire (Energy), Earth (Mass), Metal (Structure), and Water (Entropy)].
"Fellow Daoist Shen." Nuwa's voice trembled slightly; maintaining the Qiankun Cauldron had consumed too much of her holy power.
"The five elements are complete, but this liquid... lacks a 'spirit.' They cannot spontaneously fuse, much less conform to this shattered Heavenly Dao."
"It's not the spirit that's missing." Shen Qingqiu stood atop Seventeen's charred spine, her tattered red dress fluttering in the multicolored light.
She gazed at the pool of dazzling yet chaotic liquid within the cauldron, her golden eyes gleaming with a wisdom from the future.
"What's missing is... an operating system." Hardware without a system is just a pile of scrap metal.
Multicolored stones without logic are just a hodgepodge.
"A-Ling." Shen Qingqiu called softly.
"Here, Mother!" A-Ling transformed into a dazzling ball of light, flying into Shen Qingqiu's palm.
He was no longer playful; his little face was serious. His body was disintegrating, transforming into countless green, gold, and blue data chains.
"This contains all the defense algorithms in Dad's database, plus the 'God's Firewall' source code I stole from Infinite Terror." A-Ling's voice carried a hint of determination.
"Mother, refine me and this five-colored stone… together!"
Shen Qingqiu's fingers trembled slightly.
"Will you feel pain if I refine you?"
"Hehe, I'm code, I don't have pain receptors."
A-Ling chuckled casually, even spinning in the air.
"Besides, I want to become part of the sky. That way, when Dad holds up the sky, I can always protect him."
Shen Qingqiu's eyes reddened slightly.
She took a deep breath and gently pushed the ball of light in her hand into the boiling Qiankun Cauldron.
"Go."
"Become the… guardian spirit of this primordial world."
Buzz—!!!
With A-Ling's input, the Qiankun Cauldron instantly boiled.
The originally incompatible five-colored liquids, as if finding a core, rapidly began to arrange and combine according to a precise double helix structure.
The liquid was no longer murky, but became crystal clear, shimmering with iridescent light.
Like countless flowing optical fibers.
...
"Rise—!" Nuwa gently raised her hand.
The pool of multicolored, fiber-like liquid shot into the sky once more, flying towards the sky that Seventeen had barely managed to hold up with her spine.
"My turn." Shen Qingqiu lightly touched her toes to the scorching black-gold joints and soared into the air.
She stood between the liquid and the gap.
At this moment, she was neither a warrior nor a cultivator.
She was a weaver.
[Concept Overwrite · Seamless.]
Shen Qingqiu extended her slender ten fingers.
Ten long threads of spiritual energy stretched from her fingertips, guiding the multicolored liquid.
"The flaw in the sky should be mended with brocade clouds."
"The gap in the earth should be filled with mountains and rivers."
Her movements were elegant and graceful, as if she were performing a grand dance.
Left hand draws the Azure Dragon (Wood), right hand the White Tiger (Metal).
Red fire elements become the warp, black water elements the weft.
Yellow earth elements form the thickest base.
Swish, swish, swish—
That was the sound of code weaving, melodious as celestial music.
Multicolored liquid weaved, intertwined, and solidified at her fingertips.
The once ferocious and terrifying sky was being gradually covered by a vast, dazzling **"rainbow-like garment"**, woven as if by the aurora borealis.
This was not merely mending the sky.
This was dressing this naked, fragile world in the highest level of divine armor.
…
[Warning! Illegal defensive fortifications detected!]
[High-dimensional strike formation has arrived.]
[Command: Force dismantle.]
Just as the mending of the sky reached its final stage,
the dark void above the heavens suddenly shattered like glass.
Countless enormous, silvery-white tetrahedrons silently emerged.
They weren't spaceships, but rather **"formatting probes"** from a higher-dimensional civilization.
Each tetrahedron emitted a cold light that distorted space itself.
"Delete." No more words were exchanged.
Thousands of pale beams of light converged into a colossal blade capable of cleaving a planet, slashing down fiercely at the not-yet-fully-closed five-colored divine armor.
"They're panicking." Shen Qingqiu hovered beneath the divine armor, watching the descending blade of destruction above her.
Her face was ashen, but a breathtaking smile played on her lips.
"Seventeen." She lowered her head, glancing at the silent black-gold spine at her feet.
"I'll borrow your bone for a moment."
She stomped her foot sharply.
Thump!
A shockwave traveled down the spine.
"Zhong Lai!" Shen Qingqiu stretched out her right hand, raising it high.
In her palm lay the **[Bronze Fragment] (Eastern Emperor Bell Tongue]** she always carried with her.
Meanwhile, a deep echo reverberated from within Seventeen's black-gold spine. It was the bell resonance that had naturally developed within him after absorbing the Recycling Station.
Dong—!!!
A bell rang.
Not an ordinary sound wave, but a ripple of dimensional energy.
The fragment in Shen Qingqiu's hand instantly melted, transforming into a golden stream of light that shot into the very center of the about-to-close five-colored divine armor.
There lay the clasp of this "Rainbow Feather Robe."
Also, the core key to the entire firewall.
[Key: Input successful.]
[Firewall: Activated.]
Buzz— The originally soft five-colored divine armor underwent a qualitative change in that instant.
It was no longer a flowing liquid, nor a fragile fabric.
It instantly hardened, transforming into a transparent crystalline barrier that refracted seven-colored light.
Boom—!!!
The destructive light blade emitted by the high-dimensional probe struck the crystalline barrier heavily.
It didn't shatter.
Not even a crack.
Reflection.
A domineering total reflection based on the logic of "absolute defense."
The white light blade, upon contact with the multicolored barrier, was disintegrated into countless tiny beams of light, reflecting back.
Puff puff puff!
A dazzling fireworks display erupted in the sky.
Those high-altitude silver tetrahedrons, struck by their own reflected attack, exploded and disintegrated in mid-air, turning into a shower of silver dust, like a grand snowfall.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Shen Qingqiu stood beneath the multicolored barrier, watching this scene.
She reached out and caught a drop of falling silver dust (data debris).
It was the arrogant corpse of a high-dimensional civilization.
"Using the ashes of our enemies to paint our new house." Shen Qingqiu murmured softly, her eyes both gentle and crazed.
"This is very...Seventeen."
...Dawn broke.
The sky was no longer the hazy gray of before.
Looking up now, a faint aurora borealis shimmered across the primordial sky.
That was the **[Sky Curtain System]** constructed by the Five-Colored Stone and A-Ling's code.
Any external data attempting to enter this world without permission would be intercepted and destroyed by this Sky Curtain.
Nuwa put away the Qiankun Cauldron, looked at this new world, and bowed deeply to Shen Qingqiu.
"Fellow Daoist, your talent is immense. With this Sky Curtain complete, the primordial world is safe."
Shen Qingqiu returned the bow, but her body swayed, almost falling from the sky.
Exhausted from her spiritual power, she could barely stand.
But she did not fall from the clouds.
She slowly landed on the top of Seventeen's spine.
The last drop of five-colored sap left from mending the sky solidified here into a small, smooth platform.
Like a throne left for a guardian.
Shen Qingqiu knelt on the platform.
She reached out and stroked the black bone surface.
Having been tempered by the Heaven-Mending Fire, Seventeen's spine had become even more crystalline and profound, its surface even displaying a faint layer of multicolored patterns, like some kind of sacred tattoo.
"Seventeen." Shen Qingqiu pressed her face against the bone.
Even through the thick layer of crystal, she could still feel the throbbing of blood ties.
"The heavens are mended."
"A-Ling has become a star in the sky (a defense satellite)."
"You have become a pillar supporting the heavens."
"And I..."
She took out the blood-stained peach wood hairpin from her bosom and gently inserted it into the "top" of Seventeen's head (between the joints).
"I'll be here."
"To be the one... wiping away the dust for you."
Whoosh— A gust of wind blew by.
A ray of aurora descended from the newly formed sky, gently enveloping the person and the skeleton.
It was as if a dreamlike wedding veil had been draped over this poignant scene.
...Night fell.
This was no longer the despairing darkness.
It was a tranquil night with a glittering starry sky (A-Ling's data node).
The creatures on the ground began to revel.
They celebrated their survival, celebrated Nuwa mending the sky.
Countless bonfires lit up the earth.
And atop the impossibly high Mount Buzhou.
Shen Qingqiu, hugging his knees, leaned against a black bone pillar, looking down at the myriad lights below.
"Seventeen, look."
She pointed to the twinkling lights.
"Those are what we saved."
"That 'human' character, finally...stood firm." Seventeen couldn't answer.
But the resonance within him became calm and long.
Buzz...buzz...
Like an ancient lullaby, soothing his weary bride to sleep.
Shen Qingqiu closed his eyes, a smile on his lips, and drifted off to sleep.
In his dream.
No blocks, no data, no arrogance of higher dimensions.
Only a ten-mile peach orchard.
The young man in black stood beneath a tree, holding a pot of freshly brewed peach blossom wine.
He turned and called softly to her:
"Qingqiu, come home for dinner."
Refining five colors, weaving a rainbow.
This battle to mend the heavens and earth as a chessboard, and code as the needle and thread, has finally come to an end.
The man who was once just a cold, lifeless program has now become the backbone of this world.
And the woman who once only wanted to live, now…
has become the softest, yet most resilient soul on that backbone.