Chapter 67: Spirit Energy Code Fundamentals: From Beginner to Paradise

The corner of Lu Yan’s mouth twitched slightly. He couldn’t help but grumble inwardly:

“As expected of the Cyberpunk version.”

Green Ivy, who was already used to all this, led the way ahead. Along the way, some passersby cast fearful glances at Lu Yan. Before long, they arrived at a peculiar building.

The structure resembled a heavily modified cannon tower. Most of its components had been dismantled, leaving only a rusted barrel pointing into the distance.

Lu Yan noticed the barrel’s orientation—it seemed aimed directly at the lavish City Tax Bureau.

Green Ivy pushed open the door and shouted cheerfully:

“Boss Quentin! I brought you a customer!”

Lu Yan scanned the room. Inside was a chaotic mix of electronics and devices, most of which appeared abandoned. Discarded monitors were stacked haphazardly against the walls.

The man addressed as Quentin sat behind a counter. He appeared to be in his forties, a white man whose body was mostly normal—except for his grotesquely muscular right arm, nearly as thick as his waist.

The asymmetry made his body look like a badly assembled toy, both strange and jarring.

Lu Yan also noticed that Quentin’s oversized right arm was covered in Spirit Energy tattoos. But unlike the chaotic symbols on most Lower District residents, the markings on Quentin’s arm gave off a sense of order—like a mathematical formula, or a string of executable code.

Quentin initially looked Lu Yan over with sharp eyes, then his expression stiffened. He turned to Green Ivy and said:

“I’m not open today. Try somewhere else.”

Green Ivy frowned. “Come on, Boss Quentin! I went through so much trouble to bring you a big customer.”

“I said I’m closed. Now get out.”

He waved them away, clearly wanting nothing to do with them.

Green Ivy sighed and was about to leave with Lu Yan when she noticed he had already stepped up to the counter.

Lu Yan’s eyes narrowed slightly, his voice calm and weightless as he asked with a gentle smile:

“What did you see?”

As soon as the words landed, a chilling aura began to spread from Lu Yan’s body. The lights in the room flickered, dimming dramatically.

Something unseen devoured the brightness around the counter. Green Ivy’s vision blurred for an instant, and she thought she saw vague, ghostly figures surrounding Lu Yan.

But when she rubbed her eyes and looked again—nothing.

Quentin swallowed hard. His body began to tremble uncontrollably.

When that dark and icy pressure descended just now, his combat instinct had activated his Spirit Energy–mutated right arm. Once the Spirit Energy code was triggered, it would unleash over a ton of raw force.

But Lu Yan hadn’t even moved.

Yet in the next instant, that bone-chilling cold had frozen his right arm solid—snuffing out the activation of his Spirit Energy code a mere second before it triggered.

He couldn’t even understand what had just happened. In front of this man, he was as fragile as a child.

“R-r-respected sir, I…”

“I asked you, what exactly did you see?”

Quentin’s face flushed. After a long moment of hesitation, he finally lowered his voice and replied:

“I… I couldn’t detect any Spirit Energy code on your body. I grew suspicious of your identity and didn’t want to take the risk, so I refused to do business.”

“Spirit Energy code?”

Lu Yan’s eyes fell on the runes tattooed on Quentin’s arm, a thoughtful glint appearing.

“Green Ivy said you’re a Compiler?”

“That’s just her hearsay. I’ve only dabbled in some basic Spirit Energy coding. Enough to perform low-level Spirit Energy mutations.

“Advanced mutations require biological surgeries and special drugs. What I offer is just enough to trick a few people in the Lower District.”

With that, Lu Yan finally gained a rough understanding of the so-called Spirit Energy system.

Its most basic form started with Spirit Energy tattoos—codes inscribed into the body, allowing limited Spirit Energy manipulation.

Most Lower District residents had jumbled, inefficient tattoos, barely able to summon any power. Quentin was the only one Lu Yan had seen so far with a full, structured Spirit Energy code.

Lu Yan could faintly tell that Quentin’s complete code granted him Spirit Energy roughly equivalent to First Layer Qi Refining—weak by Lu Yan’s standards, but already enough to step into the extraordinary.

Beyond that were Spirit Energy users who had undergone mutation surgeries—but Lu Yan had yet to encounter one, so he couldn’t gauge how they compared to the Cultivation hierarchy.

“I heard you can forge identities?”

Quentin answered honestly:

“If it’s just a Lower District ID, I can bribe the local precinct to create a file. But if it’s related to Spirit Energy user certification… that’s controlled by the Heavenly Brain. Someone like me wouldn’t even know where to start.”

Lu Yan nodded and said calmly:

“Get me an identity.”

Quentin immediately pulled three watch-like personal terminals from beneath the counter and explained:

“These all come with pre-registered identities. But they’re only valid within the Lower District.”

Lu Yan casually picked up a black one and strapped it on. Immediately, he sensed a faint pulse of Spirit Energy from the terminal’s embedded chip—it scanned his entire body.

His expression shifted slightly. He cut off circulation to his dantian and halted internal flow. Once the scan completed, the terminal finished binding to him.

Quentin grimaced as he reluctantly took out a small blue battery, about half the size of a fingertip, and handed it to Lu Yan.

“This is a second-gen Spirit Energy battery. It’s already mostly used up, but the remainder can still power your terminal for over ten years. In a pinch, it can even jumpstart low-tier Spirit Energy code.”

Lu Yan took it, noting that this Spirit Energy battery looked strikingly similar to a spirit stone, just much larger.

Under cover of his sleeve, he pulled out an actual spirit stone battery from his storage pouch and tossed it on the counter.

Quentin’s eyes lit up instantly.

“Is this… a sixth-gen Spirit Energy battery!?”

“A battery like this can power exoskeletons or mid-tier Spirit Energy weapons! One of these goes for at least 100,000 credits in the Upper District—and even if someone wanted to buy it in the Lower District, it’d be impossible to find!”

Quentin’s excitement made Lu Yan even more contemplative.

By normal logic, spirit stones in the Cultivation version were a currency. In the Cyberpunk version, that same item evolved into Spirit Energy batteries.

But in truth, spirit stones weren’t valuable because they were currency—they were valuable because of their inherent energy.

Their supply was limited.

In contrast, the Cyberpunk world’s credits were issued by the PanCosmic Corporation. If the Corporation wanted to—at the risk of economic collapse—they could print infinite credits.

In that sense, spirit stones far exceeded credits in value. The two weren’t even comparable, not here—and not in the Urban version either.

That was why, with each version update, spirit stones were redefined as more precious, rarer Spirit Energy batteries.

“If that’s true of spirit stones… then what about cultivation manuals?”

A thought struck Lu Yan. Ignoring the wide-eyed Quentin still clutching the Spirit Energy battery, Lu Yan took out the USB drive he had obtained after the version update.

He plugged it into his terminal.

A document directory appeared on the screen.

《Spirit Energy Code Fundamentals: From Beginner to Paradise》

He opened the file—and pages upon pages of Spirit Energy code spilled across the screen.

Lu Yan’s eyes widened in shock.

He recognized most of them.

These so-called Spirit Energy codes were none other than… the formation patterns from Arcane Formations: Mysteries of the Dao!

(End of Chapter)