The Scripture Repository of the Heavenly Craft Pavilion was a colossal bronze cage.
It had no windows, only a dense network of ventilation holes that whistled softly in the night wind. It didn't house paper books, but tens of thousands of "jade slips." These jade slips floated in mid-air, emitting a chilling, eerie light, like pairs of eyes peering into the world.
At midnight, two dark figures, like ghosts, swept past the patrolling iron cranes and silently landed on the top floor of the Scripture Repository.
"Qingqiu, it's...very noisy here." Seventeen pressed his temples, his brow furrowed.
In his perception, this building wasn't quiet, but filled with a cacophony of electronic noise. Countless streams of data collided and roared in the air—the remnants of divine thoughts left behind by countless cultivators over tens of thousands of years.
"Noisy is good." Shen Qingqiu stood before the massive bronze door, extending a slender finger and gently pressing it against the beast-head lock.
"Because what's locked here is the 'source code' of this world."
*Buzz—* Her Golden Eyes activated.
The intricate defensive array on the bronze door instantly disintegrated into countless flowing red lines in Shen Qingqiu's eyes.
"Logic lock. Three layers of encryption."
A cold smile curled at the corner of Shen Qingqiu's lips.
Ordinary cultivators would need a token and password to enter.
But for the "administrator," all it took was—
"Delete."
She lightly tapped the void.
The seemingly indestructible defensive array crumbled silently, like a building whose foundation had been removed. The bronze door let out a muffled sigh and slowly slid open to both sides.
…Inside the building, a galaxy hung upside down.
Countless jade slips rotated along some mysterious trajectory, forming a vast data star system. Each jade slip contained a cultivation technique that would make the outside world fight tooth and nail for it.
Shen Qingqiu casually grabbed a jade slip gleaming with golden light—*The Heavenly Craftsmanship Refining Manual: General Outline*.
Her divine sense probed in.
A massive flow of information instantly flooded her mind.
For an ordinary person, this would appear as profound and mysterious Taoist mantras.
But under Shen Qingqiu's [Overclocking Vision], the words were stripped of their disguise, revealing a monstrous industrial core.
"The so-called Foundation Establishment..." Shen Qingqiu murmured, her face pale in the dim light.
"It's just formatting." She saw it.
The so-called "cleansing of essence and marrow" was essentially using high-concentration radiation to kill the body's original cells and replace them with "crystalline cells" capable of withstanding higher voltages.
Failures resulted in death by explosion (rejection reaction).
Successes achieved Foundation Establishment (system reinstallation successful).
She grabbed another red jade slip—"The Secret Record of Core Formation."
"Golden Core..." Shen Qingqiu's fingers trembled slightly.
That wasn't the inner core described in cultivation novels. It was a miniature nuclear fusion reactor.
Cultivators must compress energy within their bodies until a fusion reaction occurs, forming a perpetually active energy core.
"This is insane..." Shen Qingqiu looked at the jade slip, which resembled a starry sky, and felt a chill run through her body.
This was no cultivation world.
This was a massive, cruel human modification laboratory. All cultivators were merely semi-finished products on this production line, attempting to evolve themselves from "flesh and blood" into "mechanical ascendants."
"Qingqiu?" Seventeen noticed her emotional fluctuation. He stepped forward and wrapped her in his large black cloak, shielding her from the cold light around them.
"Don't look... If you're scared, we'll leave." His voice was low and hoarse, carrying a clumsy attempt at reassurance.
Shen Qingqiu leaned against his hard chest, listening to the simulated heartbeat, and gradually calmed down.
"I'm not afraid."
She raised her head, a flame called "ambition" burning in her golden eyes.
"I just felt disgusted. But... everything became clear."
She finally understood why she couldn't cultivate.
Because she was a pure carbon-based human, unmodified, without those messy interfaces in her body.
"Since all the paths in this world are wrong..."
Shen Qingqiu pushed Seventeen aside and walked to the center of the jade slips fluttering in the air.
She closed her eyes, opened her arms, as if to embrace this illusory data galaxy.
[System Permission: Requesting Access.]
[Identity Confirmed: Supreme Administrator.]
[Function Unlocked: Compilation Eye.]
Boom—!
In that instant, the entire Scripture Pavilion trembled.
All the jade slips stopped spinning, emitting a collective groan.
Shen Qingqiu abruptly opened her eyes.
Her pupils were no longer simply gold, but had transformed into a golden vortex composed of countless flowing data streams.
What she saw was no longer a ready-made cultivation technique.
She saw the underlying rules of this world.
"Seventeen, come here." Shen Qingqiu's voice became ethereal yet majestic, as if it came from the heavens above.
Seventeen walked to her as instructed. Looking at Shen Qingqiu now, he felt a tremor deep within his soul. She was so small, yet so vast.
"Your body is the most perfect vessel in this world."
Shen Qingqiu extended a finger and touched Seventeen's brow.
"They cultivate by following the will of Heaven, begging for the mercy of the Dao."
"But what I want you to cultivate is—devouring the heavens." A brilliant light shone from her fingertip.
Shen Qingqiu began to "write."
She needed no paper or pen. She directly used her spiritual power as a blade, carving lines of entirely new laws into Seventeen's core code.
*Devouring God Technique 2.0 · Reverse Entropy Chapter*
"First Layer: Not absorbing spiritual energy, only devouring matter."
Shen Qingqiu's voice exploded in Seventeen's mind.
"Others' spiritual roots are used to filter waste. Your body doesn't need them. Black iron, refined gold, strange fire, even your enemy's magical artifacts… anything with energy can be devoured!"
"Turn your body into a black hole."
"Let everything become your fuel."
As she wrote, Seventeen felt as if a fire had ignited within him.
It wasn't a painful burning, but a hunger.
A primal hunger, an intense yearning for evolution.
His newly reforged "Golden Fire God" right arm began to heat up uncontrollably, its scales opening, greedily absorbing the high-concentration energy floating within the Scripture Pavilion.
"Second layer: Logic Reconstruction." Shen Qingqiu's finger moved down, landing on his heart.
"No need to comprehend the Heavenly Dao. The Heavenly Dao is false; rules are man-made."
"I give you the highest authority."
"From now on, any rule you don't like, directly—rewrite it."
Buzz— The core reactor within Seventeen emitted a clear, resonant roar.
A domineering gold tinge appeared in the originally blue energy flow. That was a fragment of "administrator privileges" that Shen Qingqiu had given him.
"The third layer..." Shen Qingqiu's voice suddenly lowered, carrying a hint of barely perceptible tenderness.
Her fingers traced the cold mask on Seventeen's face, lingering on his lips.
"...It's called 'Guardian of the Heart.'"
"Seventeen, power is a monster that can make people lose their way."
"Especially this kind of power that devours everything. A slight misstep, and you'll become a ferocious beast that only knows how to feed."
Shen Qingqiu looked at his single eye, the golden vortex within slowly swirling, reflecting his image.
"So, I'm adding one last lock to you."
"The key to this lock is me."
"As long as you remember me, you will never be lost."
"If you forget me..."
Shen Qingqiu smiled sadly, her fingertip pressing firmly against his brow.
"System...self-destruct." Seventeen trembled violently.
He suddenly reached out and gripped Shen Qingqiu's wrist tightly. The force was so great that it almost crushed her bones.
"No." He stared at her, the red and blue light in his eyes swirling wildly before finally settling into a deep purple.
"Never...forget."
"If the system wants to forget, then I...kill the system."
Shen Qingqiu smiled.
She felt it.
The *Devouring God Technique* she had just completed had been perfectly integrated into every line of code and every bone in Seventeen's body.
It was a heretical and demonic technique.
It was a forbidden book that could turn a person into a god.
It was also the most affectionate love letter she had written to him.
"Alright, the technique is complete." Shen Qingqiu withdrew her hand, the golden light in her eyes fading, a strong sense of dizziness washing over her.
Writing the "rules" had consumed too much of her mental energy.
Seventeen reacted swiftly, scooping her up in his arms.
His golden right arm radiated warmth, like the most comfortable heater.
"Let's go." Seventeen looked around warily.
The commotion was too great. Although the defensive mechanisms of the Scripture Pavilion had been breached, the old monsters of the Heavenly Craft Pavilion must have noticed.
"Wait." Despite her weakness, Shen Qingqiu pointed to the countless jade slips fluttering overhead.
"Since we're here, how can we not bring some local specialties?"
She grinned mischievously and snapped her fingers.
"Copy. All of them."
Although those cultivation techniques were rubbish, the data models within still had some reference value.
The tens of thousands of jade slips trembled simultaneously, and streams of light flew into the storage bag at Shen Qingqiu's waist (actually a large-capacity hard drive).
"The Heavenly Craft Pavilion, to me now, is just an empty shell without clothes."
Shen Qingqiu leaned against Seventeen, her tone lazy and arrogant.
"Let's go, my great demon king."
"Go back and get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow… there's a good show to put on."
Seventeen nodded.
He carried her, and with a flash, leaped down from the ventilation shaft of the Scripture Pavilion.
The night wind howled.
Seventeen's cloak billowed, like a giant black bird gliding through the misty mountains.
He looked down at the woman who had fallen into a deep sleep in his arms.
She slept soundly, a faint smile playing on her lips.
Seventeen felt a surge of new power coursing through his body.
It was the power of "Devouring the Heavens."
But he didn't want to devour the heavens.
He only wanted to swallow the storms of the world, to give her a peaceful dream.
In the distance, the eastern horizon began to lighten with the first rays of dawn.
The first rays of sunlight pierced through the clouds, illuminating the vast, cold, industrial cultivation sect.
No one knew.
On this very night, the two most terrifying "outcasts" in the world had completed their evolution here.
One saw through the lies of the gods.
The other possessed the power to slay gods.
The seemingly indestructible Heavenly Craft Pavilion cast a massive shadow in the dawn light.
Deep within those shadows, a storm powerful enough to overturn the entire cultivation world is quietly brewing.