At the exact moment his virtual body was about to disintegrate, Dugu Lu felt the hundreds of thousands of spiritual power points within him cease their chaotic rampage. Instead, they were forcibly seized by a presence far more ancient and vast.
"Argh—!"
A low, guttural roar tore from his throat. Black-gold light pierced through his pores like countless razor blades. Under this impact, his Qi Sensing Stage meridians should have shattered instantly.
Yet, the spiritual energy was suddenly drawn out by a steady, osmotic suction, invading the ground beneath his feet. It was as if his body had become transparent, a mere conduit for something else.
At that moment, deep within the summit, a dark core that had been buried for eras was thoroughly ignited.
BOOM!
The scorched mountain began to tremble violently. Vein-like "Chaos Codes," pulsing with fluorescent green and deep purple, erupted from the earth, instantly linking with the black-gold light inside Dugu Lu.
The horizon was engulfed by a sudden data tsunami. A storm composed of infinite garbled code centered on Dugu Lu, rippling outward in a massive shockwave. Wherever it passed, even the spatial parameters of the world were forcibly restructured.
"This fluctuation..."
Purple-Gold Black Cat, who had remained indifferent until now, showed shock in his eyes for the first time beneath his hood.
He abandoned his plan to erase Dugu Lu and retreated hundreds of feet, staring intently at the heart of the storm. "An Epochal Cache... is manifesting here!?"
Suddenly, Dugu Lu, Purple-Gold Black Cat, and the entire surrounding space were swept up by the massive black data storm.
The solid earth of the summit was pulverized like tofu. Strangely, neither Dugu Lu nor the Black Cat were torn apart; instead, they were tossed and whirled through the air by the storm's violent currents.
Reality – Shen Can's Operations Room
The crimson warning lights of the monitors reflected off Shen Can's grim face. The data streams scrolling before him were moving faster than the human eye could track. He didn't panic; instead, his fingers blurred across the keyboard, leaving afterimages.
"Ah Lu! Hold on! Your neuron activity is breaking past the limit! The data is too chaotic—this isn't standard Domain of Cultivation code. This is Chaos Code forcibly reformatting your entire data structure!"
Shen Can rapidly compiled a new set of code modules based on his own custom templates.
"Listen to me! I'm using a unique program to construct a temporary path. I'll use my permissions to grab stable logic nodes within that garbled storm. You must move along the green path I give you, or you'll be assimilated into junk signals by that primordial code!"
Following Shen Can's intervention, a faint, flickering emerald-green path extended into Dugu Lu's blurred vision. In a world of surging spiritual energy and chaotic data, it was his only lifeline.
Dugu Lu's consciousness was already fading, but his trust in Shen Can was absolute. Instinctively, he stepped onto the green path.
With every step he took, the violent power of the Black Fang Pill fused deeper with the Chaos Code surging from the earth.
The frantic data streams began to coalesce behind him, forming a pair of black wings composed of infinite 0s and 1s—wings so deep they seemed to swallow light itself.
[System Prompt: Mysterious Program Injection Detected] [Program Identification: Epochal Cache — Chaos Sequence Fragment] [Fusion Progress: 1%... 5%... 15%...] [Current Neuron Activity: 3,600 (Exceeding Early Golden Core Threshold)]
"You want to leave? Stay right here!"
Purple-Gold Black Cat snapped out of his shock, his eyes gleaming with killing intent.
He realized this was a variable that could jeopardize The Organization's entire plan. He threw his right hand open, a pitch-black cube appearing in his palm, and slammed it down toward Dugu Lu in the storm.
"In this area... all programs... are hereby ERASED!"
A purple-gold cat claw, large enough to blot out half the sky and carrying the power to shatter space, descended from above.
However, at the center of the storm, Dugu Lu slowly lifted his head. His eyes, now overflowing with pitch-black data streams, locked onto the Purple-Gold Black Cat in the sky. The black wings behind him snapped open, and an ancient pressure—one that did not belong to this era—slammed directly into the descending claw!