Chapter 131: root (4)

131 – root (4)

The following process unfolded naturally. Lin Xun sent messages to the seniors, arranging to meet in that area. Afterward, he and Brother Chang Ji got back into the car. Lo had already deduced their destination from their earlier conversation, so without any manual or voice input from Lin Xun, it autonomously set the route.

The car started and merged into the endless flow of city traffic.

Sitting before the steering wheel, Lin Xun focused his thoughts, and the longsword transformed from his keyboard reappeared in his hand.

With its silver-gray texture and subtle red glow, the color scheme was identical to his keyboard, making it look increasingly familiar. As for the slender, sharp blade and the weapon’s overall aura of a deadly instrument, he found it more and more aligned with his aesthetic.

Perhaps in the worldview of Cultivation, a programmer’s keyboard manifests as such an exceptionally sharp longsword. Of course, there was another possibility—

As soon as this thought crossed his mind, he switched to his chat interface with Wang Anquan.

Lin Suanfa: You there?

Wang Anquan: What do you think?

Wang Anquan: Woke me up in the middle of the night.

Lin Suanfa: Did you crack the code on the artifact?

Wang Anquan: Cracked it ages ago. I even expanded it and wrote a simplified version.

Lin Suanfa: Want more code if there is any?

Wang Anquan: No way. What even is that thing? It pisses me off.

Lin Suanfa: ?

Lin Suanfa: Weren’t you bragging to Jia Gou about it yesterday?

Wang Anquan: You already know it was just bragging.

Wang Anquan: Actually, I’ve been meaning to tell you this for a while, but you ran off to live with Dong Jun without a word, so I never got the chance. Based on the code you gave me, I inferred a rough framework and filled it in, only to realize this thing is a total scam.

Lin Suanfa: How so?

Wang Anquan: Its defensive and offensive capabilities are way too powerful—it could protect even the most critical systems without fear. But the permissions it requires are ridiculously high, making it completely impractical.

Wang Anquan: From what I’ve deduced, this thing is extreme to the point of being suicidal in its defense. Since you know nothing about cybersecurity, let me give you the simplest example: if your hard drive gets infected with a virus, it can choose to lock down all functions and format itself on the spot without even notifying you. But what level of operation is that? In short, you’d need root privileges to unleash all of the artifact’s functions.

Wang Anquan: But root privileges are never granted to users. This isn’t a usable defense system at all. I’ve been scammed—it’s a specialized line of defense, the last barrier for top-secret systems. To prevent leaks, it self-destructs the moment it’s attacked, wiping away all traces.

Lin Suanfa: Impressive that you figured that out. Applause for you.

Wang Anquan: I wasted half a month analyzing it. You owe me.

Of course, Lin Xun had no intention of compensating him. He sent Wang Anquan a sticker and made a quick exit.

As soon as he looked up from his phone, he noticed Chang Ji also gazing at the sword, his brow slightly furrowed. Lin Xun thought the sword was too menacing, perhaps not aligning with a Buddhist cultivator’s aesthetic—much like how a sword cultivator’s noisy clamor didn’t suit a Buddhist cultivator’s taste.

But then Chang Ji examined the sword from hilt to tip and said, “It resembles the Red Sky Dragon Sparrow Sword.”

Lin Xun gave his senior brother a thumbs-up. “Yes, I really like the color scheme of the Red Sky Dragon Sparrow Sword too.”

Then, holding the sword, he added, “Sometimes I almost believe I am the Emperor of the Cultivation world.”

His senior brother seemed to smile faintly.

Lin Xun sighed, slumping listlessly over the steering wheel as he gazed at the city just waking from its morning slumber. After all the earlier commotion, it was already seven in the morning, and they would arrive at their destination around eight.

His estimate was correct. At 8:15, the silhouette of Galaxy Tower emerged from the cluster of buildings ahead—Galaxy Headquarters occupied an entire campus, with Galaxy Tower as its iconic structure. Though a heavy rain had fallen just yesterday, the sky remained overcast, thick with clouds. Even at eight o’clock, the light resembled the predawn gloom of six in the morning. Beneath the gray sky, the silver-white tower stood tall among the surrounding hazy buildings, lending the scene an air of fantasy or science fiction.

The car parked in a nearby mall’s parking lot. As Lin Xun and his senior brother walked out, the nearby subway exit was disgorging a dense stream of commuters. This area was a renowned tech park, surrounded by high-rises all related to the technology industry, occasionally interspersed with a research institute or two. Especially around Galaxy Tower—centered on “Galaxy Plaza,” nine out of ten buildings in sight housed tech companies. If a stone fell from the sky here, it would either hit a programmer, a product manager, or a delivery driver. Thus, Lin Xun reasonably deduced that the people emerging from the subway were his peers under the 996 work system.

—Yet among the crowd of plaid-shirt-and-jeans-clad peers stood out Old Man Huo in Tang suit, Senior Xiaoyaozi (who had switched to a loose Tang suit after drawing stares in his Daoist robes), Yufeng Zhenren in a sharp suit, Gushan Jun also in a suit, Bihai Xianzi in a light blue gauze gown, and Butterfly Madam with her face hidden behind sunglasses—towering above the rest and highly conspicuous.

As Lin Xun approached, he saw Old Man Huo scanning the surrounding crowd with a disdainful look, remarking, “Every one of them looks utterly listless!”

Lin Xun replied, “They’re exhausted from work.”

Old Man Huo retorted, “Not a shred of vitality in them!”

Lin Xun explained, “People in our line of work tend to be rather detached and desireless.”

Old Man Huo eyed him sideways for a moment before snorting through his nose, “Don’t bother making excuses. These people look like walking corpses to me.”

Really?

Lin Xun reflected and reconsidered, feeling Old Man Huo wasn’t entirely right. Listless was one thing, but “walking corpses” was a bit too harsh for programmers—they still had aspirations.

Following Old Man Huo’s gaze, he scanned the surroundings, trying to find evidence to refute the claim. After observing for a while, however, he found himself at a loss for words.

—All around, people hurried along with slightly bowed heads, eyes vacant, expressions tense, moving mechanically toward their destinations. Though they were heading to work, their faces looked as if they were on their way to a funeral.

He nudged his senior brother with his elbow. “Senior brother.”

Senior brother responded, “Hmm.”

“These people…” Lin Xun said, “why aren’t any of them talking?”

Silence.

Complete and utter silence.

The crowd flowed from here to there, yet across the vast plaza, not a single pair of people were conversing or interacting. They resembled thousands of marionettes, moving along predetermined paths—the longer one looked, the more unsettling it became.

Lin Xun whispered, “Have we stumbled into a zombie apocalypse?”

As he spoke, he turned to Chang Ji, hoping to get his senior brother’s opinion, only to hear him say, “Aren’t you the Emperor? Why wouldn’t you know?”

Lin Xun replied, “Actually, I haven’t ascended the throne yet.”

While they were talking, Butterfly Madam let out a soft “huh” from the side: “Three souls separated from the body—could it be that they’ve been cursed?”

Old Man Huo said, “There must be something wrong.”

Butterfly Madam’s words reminded Lin Xun.

He realized he had a certain inertia—once he followed the lead of his seniors, he immediately became less intelligent and stopped thinking. But now, in some aspects, he had already surpassed his seniors by a great deal.

As soon as Butterfly Madam finished speaking, he focused his attention on observing the program windows on the pedestrians—and at a glance, he discovered a major issue.

The background processes of these people were all running programs.

Lin Xun looked carefully and saw familiar faces.

He was all too familiar with this kind of program.

Not long ago, on the day he accompanied Qi Yun for the screen test, both the prop master and Gao Liao were possessed by demons, pushing him into a hopeless situation. He took a gamble, upgraded his Heavenly Eye technique, grasped the secret of the Soul Separation stage at the critical moment, and used everyone around him as computing units to build a distributed platform. Only then did he gain infinite Spiritual Power, turning the tables against all odds.

And the scene before him—these people were clearly being controlled by something else, serving as components of a distributed platform!

The host of this cloud platform consumed almost all of their computing resources, to the point where they could no longer maintain basic functions like communication and interaction.

Lin Xun narrowed his eyes, trying to find any clues about the host’s location.

The computing units were connected by an invisible network, leaving no trace in reality. However, as long as he knew where these computing units were sending their calculation results, he could naturally deduce the host’s location—and the so-called cloud platform host, the one who built this computing network, was clearly a senior who had already reached the Soul Separation stage.

A Soul Separation senior appearing here.

Yan Yangzi had booked a hotel in this area.

There were many coincidences in the world, but the current situation was definitely not a coincidence. As long as he found the host, it would be equivalent to finding Yan Yangzi, and subsequently locating the Chixiao Longque Sword and Qi Yun.

Lin Xun took out his keyboard, released a virus to invade the three people nearest to him, and quickly figured out their mechanism—they were sending calculation results to a certain user at a fixed frequency. Lin Xun couldn’t understand these results, as they were mere millionths of a large-scale computing task. Although he couldn’t deduce the overall structure, he could simply disguise a virus file and let it travel along with these calculation results to the endpoint.

Using the Heavenly Eye technique, every detail in the data world became vividly clear in his eyes. Rapidly flashing characters formed a chaotic and complex sea of code, and among them was the one he had modified—

Lin Xun said, “Follow me.”

The computing resources of all these people around them were fully occupied, and they had lost their human instincts, so naturally, no one paid attention to their actions. Thus, the group each used their techniques to swiftly fly through the air.

Lin Xun, holding his keyboard, activated the Light Body Technique and leaped into the air by stepping off a statue at the center of Galaxy Plaza. He pursued the faint ripple belonging to him in the ocean of data, flying south for dozens of meters before landing on the roof of a car. The transmission of data in the network was incredibly fast—in that brief moment, his item had already vanished without a trace.

Lin Xun packaged another one—though it was a virus, to avoid detection, it was harmless.

This one also headed south, and Lin Xun followed.

After more than a dozen such exchanges, as expected, they arrived at the hotel where Yan Yangzi was recorded to be staying in the police records. However, the direction indicated by the data trail was not inside the building but on the rooftop—truly befitting a sword cultivator most skilled in sword flight, who preferred to soar to great heights to overlook the world. However, Galaxy Tower was far taller than this hotel, showing that even sword cultivators dared not cause trouble under Dong Jun’s nose.

After informing the others of the situation, it was decided by Senior Xiaoyaozi that they would all use Concealment Talismans and fly to the top of the building.

Although Lin Xun had the Light Body Technique, he couldn’t fly, so he was dragged up by his master.

The wind above the city was strong. Held by the back of his collar by his master, he felt a bit cold and somewhat choked.

A group of invisible figures landed silently on the rooftop. It was an extremely large hotel, but its aesthetic design was poor. Only in the technology park, where aesthetic standards were generally low, could such an ugly building go unremarked. The structure was entirely blue-green, covered in glass panels. At the center of the main building was an exceptionally ugly disc-shaped platform, atop which stood a massive lightning rod-like object, its tip pointing straight into the sky.

Lin Xun stared at the exaggerated, unyielding lightning rod and whispered to the air beside him, “Based on my understanding of sword cultivators, they should be there.”

A voice came from the air—his senior brother’s: “I think so too.”

—They then suppressed their presence and headed in that direction. Lin Xun walked ahead, circled the disc-shaped platform, and jumped onto it.

A fish.

A merman.

His eyes were vacant, exposed to the strong winds high above the city. His originally beautiful dark green scales had lost their luster from dryness.

Lin Xun wondered if, had they not come, Qi Yun would have ended up like this—a dried salted fish.

Of course, this merman was not alone. His master was right beside him.

But his master sat cross-legged on the ground, his full attention focused on the Chixiao Longque Sword before him.

Just as Lin Xun had seen the first time in the cave on Mount Qingcheng, Yan Yangzi’s eyes were tightly shut, as if resonating with the Chixiao Longque Sword in front of him. The sword glowed with intense red light, and waves of heat radiated outward from Yan Yangzi and the sword. Even Lin Xun felt a dry, scorching wind blowing against his face, as if he were standing in the center of a sea of flames, licked by tongues of fire.

In this situation, Lin Xun felt he should be nervous or disheartened, because the Chixiao Longque Sword seemed to share a unique connection with Yan Yangzi.

But facing Qi Yun, he could only feel the urge to laugh.

This was no longer a merman.

This was a grilled fish.