The summons didn't come by parchment or messenger. It arrived as a sharp, psychic intrusion that felt like a [SYSTEM_INTERRUPT].
At dawn, the very air in the Trash Dwellings began to hum with a frequency that made Lu Chen's teeth ache. A pillar of white light—a manifestation of pure spiritual pressure—descended from the Main Peak, carrying an authority so immense that the group of disciples he had been training scrambled away in terror.
[ ALERT: MASSIVE_INBOUND_SIGNAL. ]
[ SOURCE: 'SECT_LEADER_LEVEL_ENCRYPTION'. ]
[ ACTION: 'COMPLY_OR_TERMINATE'. ]
"Lu Chen," a voice boomed from the sky, sounding less like a human and more like the roar of a high-voltage transformer. "The Main Hall awaits. Bring your 'Thunder' with you."
"AIDA," Lu Chen thought, standing up and brushing the dust off his coarse, grey robes. "Status check on our current body. Can we survive a meeting with the man who controls the source of this sect's power (Root Admin)?"
[ STATUS: BODY_REFINING_STAGE_4_PEAK. ]
[ QI_STABILITY: 98%. ]
[ NOTE: THE_SECT_LEADER_OPERATES_ON_A_DIFFERENT_ARCHITECTURE. HIS_POWER_OUTPUT_EXCEEDS_YOUR_CURRENT_BUS_SPEED_BY_800%. ]
"Then we won't fight him with raw strength," Arthur whispered to himself. "We'll fight him with [COMPATIBILITY]."
***
The Main Hall of the Cloud Fist Clan was a masterpiece of ancient construction (Legacy Engineering).
The floor was paved with spirit-jade that functioned as a massive cooling system (Heat Sink) for the mountain's natural energy. Hundreds of Inner Disciples stood in two perfect rows, their spiritual auras synchronized to create a crushing field of pressure (Force Field) designed to break the will of any visitor.
At the end of the hall sat Sect Leader Zhang, a man who looked like he was carved from granite. His eyes didn't just see; they seemed to analyze everything down to the molecular level (Scanned). Every breath he took seemed to draw the very energy (Bandwidth) out of the room.
"Lu Chen," Zhang said, his voice dropping the temperature of the hall by several degrees. "I have heard reports of a disruptive force (Virus) in my Outer Sect. A boy who ruins the cultivation of Enforcers and teaches forbidden theories (Heresy) to the trash. A boy who somehow bypassed the library's protective barriers (Security)."
Lu Chen walked down the center of the hall. He didn't bow until he was exactly ten paces away—the minimum distance required to avoid Zhang's passive aura of disruption (Interference).
"Sect Leader," Lu Chen said, his voice calm and steady. "I am no disruptive force. I am merely a necessary improvement (Patch Update). The Clan's current methods are failing. I am proving that even 'Trash' can process energy if the mental instructions (Syntax) are correct."
A murmur of shock went through the Inner Disciples. To talk back to the Sect Leader was like trying to delete the most vital files (System32) while the world was still running.
"An improvement?" Zhang's eyes narrowed, flickering with a dangerous gold light. "You claim our Ancestral Ways are inefficient. You claim to have made our manual better (Optimized). Prove it."
Zhang gestured to a young man standing to his right. It was Fang Wei, the undisputed genius of the Outer Sect. He was at the Peak of Stage 6, his body already glowing with the metallic sheen of a perfected physical base (Foundation).
"Fang Wei will test your theory," Zhang commanded. "If you survive, you are a genius. If you fail... you are a broken piece of junk (Corrupted File) that must be deleted."
***
Fang Wei stepped forward, his movements like liquid steel. He didn't waste words. He launched himself at Lu Chen, his fist encased in a swirling vortex of white energy—the Cloud-Mist Heavy Strike.
[ COMBAT_MODE: ACTIVATED. ]
[ TARGET_ANALYSIS: STAGE_6_PEAK. ]
[ ATTACK_VECTOR: LINEAR_BRUTE_FORCE. ]
[ LOGIC_GAPS: 14_POINTS_OF_FAILURE_DETECTED. ]
"Arthur," AIDA's voice rang in his mind. "He is using the original, unrefined version (Un-Optimized) of the manual. His energy flow is powerful, but it's leaking 15% of its potential into the atmosphere as wasted heat."
"Then let's catch the overflow," Lu Chen thought.
As Fang Wei's fist arrived, Lu Chen didn't block it directly. He moved his body in a strange, zigzagging pattern that looked erratic to the spectators, but was actually a calculated path to avoid the direct flow of energy (Data Flow Bypass). He let Fang Wei's energy brush past him, and as it did, Lu Chen used his own energy channels as a storage unit (Capacitor).
He wasn't just dodging; he was collecting fragments (Stacking Packets) of Fang Wei's wasted energy.
"Why don't you fight back?!" Fang Wei roared, his strikes becoming faster and more violent. The hall echoed with the sound of his fists breaking the air, but Lu Chen was always a millisecond ahead.
"I am fighting back," Lu Chen replied, his eyes turning a deep, sapphire emerald. "I'm just waiting for you to hit your maximum capacity (Max CPU Usage)."
Fang Wei grew desperate. He gathered all his energy into his right arm, intending to end the fight with a single, devastating blow. The air around his fist turned into a miniature hurricane. It was a Stage 6 peak technique, a complex maneuver (High-Priority Task) that demanded every ounce of his concentration.
"Now, AIDA! Trigger the forced increase in speed (Inject the Overclock)!"
***
Lu Chen didn't move away this time. He stepped into the strike.
As Fang Wei's fist connected with Lu Chen's palm, Lu Chen didn't use a defensive wall. He used his own body as a connection (Logic Bridge). He opened his energy center wide and acted as a high-speed conduit (Unlimited Proxy) for Fang Wei's energy.
But he didn't just take the energy. He sent it back (Re-Sent) into Fang Wei's arm, but with a self-repeating error (Recursive Modifier).
"What... what are you doing?" Fang Wei's eyes bulged. He felt his own power returning to him, but it was moving ten times faster than his veins (Meridians) could handle. It was an overwhelming surge of forced speed (Overclock Attack).
Fang Wei's arm began to glow a violent, angry red. His energy was moving so fast that his biological cooling system could not keep up.
"Your technique has no limit on its speed (Throttle Control), Fang Wei!" Lu Chen shouted. "You're burning out your own body (Hardware)!"
With a loud crack, Fang Wei's energy base broke down (Crashed). The power he had spent years cultivating suddenly backfired, knocking him backward across the hall. He collapsed in a heap, his energy channels temporarily burnt (Fried) by his own over-amplified power.
[ BREAKTHROUGH_DETECTED! ]
[ SYSTEM_HAS_HARVESTED_RECURSIVE_DATA_FROM_TARGET. ]
[ LEVEL_UP: BODY_REFINING_STAGE_5. ]
[ LEVEL_UP: BODY_REFINING_STAGE_6. ]
Lu Chen stood in the center of the hall, the sapphire glow in his eyes slowly fading. He had used the genius's own power to jump two levels in the span of a single fight.
***
The hall was deathly silent. The Inner Disciples looked at Lu Chen as if he were a ghost. He had just defeated the top genius of the Outer Sect without even landing a traditional punch.
Sect Leader Zhang stood up. The pressure in the room became so heavy that the jade floor began to crack. He walked down the steps, his gaze fixed on Lu Chen.
"You didn't use strength," Zhang said, his voice a low rumble. "You used his own flow against him. You... you found a weakness (Vulnerability) in the Cloud-Mist way."
"The 'way' is flawed, Sect Leader," Lu Chen said, his breathing now steady. "It relies on the user being a natural-born genius. My way—the improved way (Optimized Way)—works for everyone. It makes the whole system more stable."
Zhang looked at Fang Wei, who was being carried away by healers, then back at Lu Chen. A slow, terrifying smile spread across his stone-like face. It wasn't a smile of kindness; it was the smile of a man who had just found a new tool (Upgrade).
"You call it improvement," Zhang said. "I call it a master key. If your new instructions (Patch) can make trash into geniuses, then what can it do for someone like me?"
[ WARNING! THE_ROOT_ADMIN_IS_ATTEMPTING_TO_CLONE_YOUR_SOURCE_CODE! ]
[ ACTION: 'INITIATE_ENCRYPTION_PROTECTION'. ]
"I'm afraid my methods are private (Proprietary), Sect Leader," Lu Chen said, his hand tightening around an invisible thread of energy. "You'll find that I am very difficult to... copy."
Zhang laughed, a sound like grinding tectonic plates. "We shall see, Lu Chen. The Inner Sect Trial begins in three days. If you can update the entire Outer Sect by then, I might just let you live. If not... I will clear your existence (Wipe your drive) myself."
***
Lu Chen walked out of the hall, his mind already spinning with new formulas. He was now a Stage 6 Body Refiner, but he knew Zhang was at a level of power (Legacy Immortal) far beyond his current processing ability.
"AIDA," Arthur thought as he reached the Trash Dwellings. "We need more processing units (Cores). We need to turn every single disciple in the Outer Sect into a node. We're going to build a super-powered network (Supercomputer) out of these kids."
[ CALCULATING_SUCCESS_RATE... ]
[ PROBABILITY: 64%. ]
[ NOTE: WE_REQUIRE_A_MASSIVE_INPUT_OF_RESOURCES. THE_CLAN_TREASURY_HAS_A_SECURITY_LEAK. ]
"Then let's go steal some data (Data Mining)," Lu Chen smiled.