The Qingyun Sect, Scripture Pavilion.
This nine-story tower has been the repository for the sect's thousands of years of cultivation techniques, array formations, and ancient secret records. To the outside world, it is a holy land for disciples to enhance their cultivation; to Ye Chen, however, it is nothing more than a "Level 2 cache" stuffed with massive amounts of redundant, ineffective data.
Ye Chen stepped through the main entrance, his token in hand. Layers of defensive barriers swirled around him—ancient runes drifting slowly through the air, remnants of encryption algorithms left by the sect's ancestors to prevent intruders.
But in Ye Chen's eyes, the essence of these barriers was transparent.
[Detected multi-layered defensive logic: Xuanwu Heavy Water Array + Void Binding Array] [Vulnerability Assessment: Low] [Parsing Path: Access key for current authority acquired]
He did not falter, nor did he expend even a shred of spiritual energy. As he brushed against the light curtain of the barrier, he precisely traced his fingertip across three nodes of the array. The formidable formation, capable of crushing a Foundation Establishment cultivator into dust, melted away like snow under the sun, leaving a gap wide enough for one person to pass.
He walked straight through. The elder guarding the entrance was meditating with eyes closed and failed to notice a single ripple of disturbance, as if Ye Chen were merely a breeze passing through the air.
Inside the Scripture Pavilion, silence reigned. Ye Chen looked up, surveying the countless jade slips and ancient books displayed on the shelves. He headed directly for the lowest level of the pavilion—the forbidden zone rumored to contain the "origins of the sect."
This space was entirely isolated from the outside world, and the air was thick with ancient, obscure data debris. Ye Chen slowly closed his eyes, and the "compiler" within his consciousness began to run at full speed. He was no longer reading with his eyes; he was interfacing directly with the "low-level protocol layer" of this space.
In Ye Chen's mind, the entire Scripture Pavilion transformed into a massive geometric model flickering with cold blue light. Every book and every jade slip corresponded to a data packet within the underlying code.
He realized that the Qingyun Sect was not the original developer of this world. The so-called "Tao" of the Qingyun Sect was merely a "crippled patch" downloaded from a much older system.
"So that's how it is," Ye Chen whispered. "No wonder all cultivators encounter a Heavenly Tribulation upon reaching the Nascent Soul stage. It's not a punishment from Heaven; it's a forced 'system reset' command. Whenever an individual's processing power exceeds a certain threshold, the system automatically triggers a cleanup process to prevent a server overflow."
Ye Chen's heart raced. The truth of this world was nothing more than a mass harvest conducted to maintain server stability.
Suddenly, his brow furrowed.
[System Warning: Illegal access, alarm process triggered...] [Abnormal processing power detected: Locating access source...]
The logic of the Scripture Pavilion began to disorder, and countless red warning characters flashed wildly around Ye Chen. This was the pavilion's built-in "automatic response logic." It wasn't human-controlled; it was an automated defense process left by the original developers. Once someone touched the underlying protocol, the system would initiate a self-check mode.
"Trying to track me?" Ye Chen sneered.
He chose not to retreat. Instead, he pushed his own access authority to the maximum and constructed a temporary "logic shielding matrix" in the void. It was a highly advanced technique that disguised his signal as a "maintenance log" from the pavilion's system, causing the defense process to identify him as an "administrator performing routine maintenance."
The hair-raising alarm sounds vanished miraculously under his disguise.
Taking advantage of the moment, Ye Chen proceeded to interface directly with the core data terminal of the Scripture Pavilion. He sought the hidden backdoor protocol, sealed away for a thousand years, that led to the "World Control Room."
Just as he was about to reach the core entrance, he spotted a strange string of characters.
They were not characters of the cultivation world, nor were they code, but a familiar, modern logic command: sudo su.
A storm erupted in Ye Chen's heart.
In that moment, every logical loop seemed to snap into place. This world hadn't just been written; it had been created—perhaps by another modern person like himself—as a simulated environment with high-level permissions. And this "backdoor" was the key left behind by that developer.
"As long as I can fully parse this command, I will no longer be limited to passive modifications. I will truly have the possibility of seizing the highest administrator authority."
Ye Chen took a deep breath. He knew that once he mastered this command, he would shatter the rules of cultivation and even change the "harvesting" logic of the world itself.
Beep.
A crisp chime sounded in his consciousness.
[Core access request: Accepted] [Loading hidden Scripture Pavilion instance: Primordial Forbidden Zone Underlying Protocol]
The scene of the Scripture Pavilion shattered instantly, replaced by a massive space with a metallic, cyberpunk aesthetic. At the center of the space hovered a translucent crystal—the foundation of the Qingyun Sect's thousand-year inheritance, and the "logic core" that controlled the world.
Ye Chen walked toward the crystal. He could feel it: the moment he held it in his hand, the gates to the entire cultivation world would be thrown wide open to him.
But just as he was a few steps away, he stopped.
Because sitting in front of the crystal was a person. They sat with their back to him, wearing a dark robe with strange patterns that looked utterly out of place in this world.
"You finally made it," the person said without turning around. Their voice carried a hint of unfathomable weariness. "I've been 'debugging' here for five hundred years. Young man, are you truly prepared to take over this 'mess'?"
Ye Chen's pupils constricted. He looked at the figure before him, his voice cold and resolute: "This is not a mess. This is the code I am meant to rewrite."