Chapter 1: The Broken Jade
Chapter 1: The Broken Jade
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[Opening Cinematic]
`[Frostblade Sect Archives - 10 Years Ago]`
The ice mirror shimmered with twelve-year-old Lin Ji's reflection. His fingertips danced through the Frostblade Mantra's seals, each movement crystallizing the training hall's humid air into snowflakes.
"Core Formation at twelve!" Elder Wu's teacup shattered against the jade floor. "The Azure Phoenix prophecy is true!"
Outside the window, a lightning storm raged—though no one noticed the violet bolt etching a scar across the boy's palm.
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[Present Day - Bone-Carving Gorge]
`[WARNING! Spiritual Root Corruption: 99.9%]`
`[建议立即终止修炼循环]`
Lin Ji's fingernails tore through permafrost as he crawled. The system prompt burned through his vision, its crimson glyphs searing worse than the wound where his Icebloom Core used to pulse. Three days. That's how long it took the Sect to reduce their "celestial prodigy" to a bloodied husk.
"Still breathing, Senior Brother?"
Ironbone Boots crunched behind him. Lin Ji didn't need to look up to see Lu Chen's smirk—the Outer Disciple's reek of cheap wine and envy was identifier enough.
"Grand Elder says you have until moonpeak to beg for euthanasia." The boot connected with Lin Ji's ribs in a sickening crack. "Personally? I hope you choose suffering."
Snow began falling in hexagonal patterns, each flake imprinted with the Frostblade Sect's insignia. *Surveillance spell.* They wanted to watch him die in real-time.
Lin Ji's hand closed around the obsidian orb in his sleeve—the forbidden relic he'd stolen from the Sect's crypt. Its surface pulsed like a trapped thunderstorm.
---[Flashback - 12 Hours Earlier]
`[Restricted Area: Celestial Tombs]`
Alarm talismans shrieked as Lin Ji pried open the coffin. The corpse inside wore armor forged from neutron star fragments, its skeletal hand clutching the orb.
"Thief!" Ghostly sentinels materialized, their spears crackling with annihilation energy.
Lin Ji dove between collapsing spacetime folds, the orb burning his palm with fractal-shaped scars. He didn't notice the corpse's eyelids flicker.
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[Present - Combat Initiated]
"Let's make this educational." Lu Chen's sword ignited with stolen frost qi—*Lin Ji's* qi, siphoned during the Core Extraction Ceremony. "Lesson one: how gutter rats die."
The blade descended.
`[!] Ancient Defense Protocol Activated`
`[Parrying with 0.0001% Thunder Sovereign Power]`
Time dilated.
Lin Ji's body moved on its own. His mangled hand shot up, two fingers precisely intercepting the sword's harmonic node. The frost qi reversed polarity, crawling up Lu Chen's arm like crystalline spiders.
"W-What black magic—?!"
The scream was cut short as Lin Ji's palm connected with the bully's chest. Not a martial technique, but something older—a primeval lightning algorithm etched into his DNA.
`[Execute: Five-Core Overload]`
Lu Chen's body arched like a fried circuit board before collapsing, his frozen heart now a glowing plasma orb.
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[System Override Sequence]
`[Bloodline Authentication: 0.0001% Match]`
`[Emergency Authority Granted: Level 0 User]`
Reality glitched.
Lin Ji's vision split into three perspectives:
1. Physical Layer: His body convulsing as violet lightning rewrote muscle fibers
2. Spiritual Layer: A neon-blue dantian forming black hole-style accretion disks
3. System Layer: Glowing terminals streaming code:
`>> Welcome, Candidate #9,999,999`
`>> Initializing THUNDER EMPEROR v.7.82...`
`>> Warning! Host physique incompatible`
`>> Compromise detected: Hybrid cultivation enforced`
The Frostblade Sect's surveillance snowflakes evaporated mid-air, boiled by sudden ionospheric disturbance.
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[Boss Fight: Elder Wu]
"Heretic!" The elder descended on an ice phoenix, his beard crackling with static. "You dare defile the Sect's teachings?"
Lin Ji tasted copper and ozone. The system HUD highlighted vulnerabilities:
- Weak Point: Elder's prosthetic left arm (Mooncore alloy)
- Suggested Tactics**: Electromagnetic pulse + Close-quarters discharge
`[Skill Unlocked: Railgun Fist (Basic)]`
Their palms collided—Frostblade's Nine Frozen Palms versus the Thunder Emperor's prototype combat algorithm.
Physics Log:
- Kinetic energy output: 8.7 gigajoules (Equivalent to tactical nuclear warhead)
- Temperature differential: -196°C vs 15,000°C
The resulting explosion vaporized the gorge's eastern ridge.
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[Post-Battle Decision Tree]
`[Achievement Unlocked: Sect's Most Wanted]`
`[Bounty Added: 50,000 Spirit Stones (Dead or Alive)]`
The Thunder Emperor's Seal projected a holographic map, its UI blending Taoist talismans with quantum topology:
Survival Options:
1. Ghost Lightning Marsh
- 78% compatibility with current cultivation
- Risk: Lightning tribulation every 3 hours
2. Starforge Citadel (Locked)
- Requires Void Affinity (Unlock at Thunder Core Stage)
3. Crimson Rain Auction House
- Suggested disguise: Disabled merchant (Infiltration difficulty: Hard)
Lin Ji's finger hovered over Option 1 when a new alert flashed:
`[Incoming Message: Anonymous]`
`Content: THEY KNOW ABOUT THE CORPSE. RUN.`
---[Chapter End Hook]
As Lin Ji leapt into the storm, the camera pulled back to reveal:
- The neutron star coffin now empty
- A shadowy figure watching via quantum entanglement mirror
- Glitch text flickering in the moon's craters:
`[THIS IS NOT YOUR FIRST LIFE.]`
---[Post-Credits Scene]
`[Thunder Emperor's Private Log - Decrypted]`
`Date: ??? Galactic Cycle`
"All Candidates failed. Hypothesis: Mortal flesh incompatible with divinity. Final experiment: Implant seal in low-tech civilization (Designation: Earth-792). Let the Darwinian games begin."
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