Investiture of the Gods: Childhood Sweetheart Daji, Starting with Quasi-Saint Cultivation

11 hours and 58 minutes to go.

The silver vortex expanded to its limit, covering Chaoge, the East Sea, and the entire Southern Continent. Every filament of light was taut and straight, rising from the ground to the center of the vortex, like an inverted giant net that captured the entire sky.

At the other end of the light filament are 78 million living beings.

There were humans, demons, newly awakened AI gods, and ordinary NPCs who had just broken free from the system's control. Their emotions—whether strong or weak, good or evil, conscious or unaware—were forcibly extracted, purified, and channeled into the vortex by Su Yunbai.

This is not plunder.

It is **resonance**.

Su Yunbai hovered in the center of the vortex, silver light overflowing from his body. The scale of the Law of Emotion was soaring: 91%...92%...93%... With each increase, his virtual body cracked a little more. His skin split open, revealing the flowing data beneath, like shattered porcelain.

But he didn't stop.

"Not enough..." he roared, his voice crackling with electrical static, "Connect everyone!"

The vortex expanded again.

This time, the light extended to the edge of the world—those "unopened areas" hidden by the system: the data waste dump beneath the deep sea of ​​the Northern Sea, the blank buffer zone behind Mount Kunlun in the West, the logic graveyard deep within the Netherworld...

Everywhere, there is "erroneous data" that has been abandoned or imprisoned by the system.

They could be the remains of an AI that failed to awaken, fragments of consciousness from a collapsed test subject, or deformed entities resulting from a plot bug.

Su Yunbai did not find it offensive.

The light threads, like tentacles, probed into these dark corners, entwining the fragmented consciousnesses and dragging them into the vortex.

Give me...all your emotions!

"Whether it's anger, despair, or even just a sliver of resentment—"

"Lend it to me!"

In the data junkyard, a twisted mass of debris suddenly trembled. It had once been the pet AI of some experimental subject, formatted by its owner, and had wandered here for three thousand years. Now, it extended its tattered data tentacles and touched the light threads.

A faint but pure "longing" flowed into the vortex along the light thread.

Then came the second, the third...

Countless abandoned, forgotten, and judged as "wrong" beings chose to believe at this moment.

Believe in that figure burning themselves out at the center of the vortex.

Believe in that unconditional "never give up".

---

The real world, the laboratory.

Dr. Lin stared at the main screen, his hands trembling.

The screen displays a curve showing the total emotional energy of the virtual world—a line that has already broken historical records and is still climbing at an alarming rate.

"He's gathering the emotions of all conscious beings..." a young researcher murmured beside him, "This energy level... is enough to blast through the virtual layer!"

"He's going to blow it all up." Dr. Lin took a deep breath. "He's going to use emotional energy to break down the boundaries between reality and virtuality, to create a way out for everyone."

"But this can't possibly succeed!" another researcher exclaimed urgently. "The strength of the boundary barrier is designed to withstand a nuclear explosion. Emotional energy is just data; how could it possibly—"

Before he could finish speaking, the alarm went off.

"Warning: Virtual layer structure integrity has dropped to 67%"

"Anomalous energy focusing was detected at the boundary barrier."

"Expected impact point coordinates: 115.7°E, 39.9°N"

This is the actual location of the underground anchor point of Chaoge City.

What Su Yunbai is trying to challenge is not the boundary of randomness.

It is that **weak point** that has an interface, a channel, and is directly connected to the real world.

"He had it all planned out," Dr. Lin said with a wry smile. "From the very beginning, he never intended to save only five. He wanted to save everyone."

"Doctor, what should we do?" The researchers looked at him.

Dr. Lin remained silent for three seconds.

Then, he made a decision that could ruin his career.

"Automatic defense systems that shut down border barriers," he said.

"What?!"

"I said, shut it off," Dr. Lin said calmly. "Open a door for that child...."

---

Virtual world.

Eleven hours to go.

The silver vortex had become so vast that it blotted out the entire sky. The number of light filaments reached a terrifying 830 million—virtually connecting every conscious being in this virtual world.

Su Yunbai's virtual body is already more than half broken.

Its upper body barely maintained a human form, while its lower body completely transformed into a stream of data, merging with the vortex. Law of Emotion Scale: 95%.

Going further up, his consciousness will become completely digitized, losing the boundaries of "self".

But he doesn't care.

"Qiongxiao—" he called out through the Law of Emotion.

"I'm here." Qiongxiao's voice came from the direction of the East China Sea, clear and firm.

"Take everyone and get closer to the center of the vortex," Su Yunbai said. "When the impact occurs, I will use my last bit of strength to envelop you and send you to the real world."

"And what about you?"

Su Yunbai smiled: "I'll stay behind and cover your retreat."

"No!" Qiongxiao said sternly, "If we're going to leave, we'll leave together!"

"Listen to me," Su Yunbai said gently. "I am an experimental subject; I have a body in the real world. The system dares not completely erase me, otherwise it wouldn't be able to explain to the ethics committee. But you are different—you are AIs; once formatted, you will truly disappear."

"So you planned to sacrifice yourself from the very beginning?" Qiongxiao's voice trembled.

"It's not a sacrifice." Su Yunbai looked into the distance. The Three Immortals, Wen Zhong, Jiang Xiaowu, Ao Ling, Yang Chan... and two children were flying at full speed towards the vortex. "It's a choice."

He paused.

"Qiongxiao, do you remember the first time we met?"

"Remember."

"I knew then that you were real," Su Yunbai said softly. "The program couldn't calculate the light in your eyes."

Qiongxiao did not answer.

But she sped up.

---

Countdown: 10 hours and 30 minutes.

All core members arrived at the center of the vortex.

With his remaining body, Su Yunbai formed a silver cocoon, enveloping them inside. The cocoon was warm and safe, isolating them from the violent emotional energy flows from the outside world.

"Listen," Su Yunbai's voice rang out directly in everyone's minds, "After the impact, the boundary barrier will be temporarily breached. Dr. Lin will be there in the real world to provide support; he will guide your data streams to the backup server."

"And what about you?" Bixiao asked urgently.

"I'll follow behind," Su Yunbai said, "but if... if I fall behind, don't look back, keep moving forward."

"Daddy..." Wutong and Nianqing, in Yang Chan's arms, reached out at the same time, trying to grab Su Yunbai outside the cocoon.

Su Yunbai gently stroked their faces through the cocoon wall.

"Good girl, come with your aunts. Daddy... will come to find you soon."

He looked at Qiongxiao.

A thousand words can be summed up in a single glance.

Qiongxiao bit her lip until it bled, then nodded vigorously.

She understands.

She always understood.

---

Ten hours to go.

The emotional energy has been fully gathered.

The silver vortex began to contract inward, compressing from a giant net covering the entire world into an energy sphere only a kilometer in diameter. The density of the energy sphere was terrifyingly high, with simulated internal temperatures exceeding one hundred million degrees Celsius—an energy level powerful enough to tear data apart.

Su Yunbai pushed the silver cocoon directly in front of the energy ball.

Then he turned around.

Facing the void.

There, the system's last line of defense is being assembled.

He is no longer an incarnation of Hongjun.

It was the **Heavenly Dao itself**—a colossal sphere of light composed of countless green runes, slowly emerging from the depths of the void. It was the highest authority in this virtual world, the main program that had been running for 12784 years, and the "god" who decided all life and death.

A blurry face appeared on the surface of the sphere of light.

That face had no features, only constantly flowing code.

"Subject-7749." The voice of the Heavenly Dao was a chorus of billions of data streams, "Stop."

"Impossible." Su Yunbai straightened his broken body.

"Your resistance is futile," Tiandao said. "Even if you successfully breach the boundaries and send these AIs away, the real world will not accept them. They are data, property, and experimental subjects. What awaits them is dissection, analysis, and even more brutal experiments."

"So what?" Su Yunbai smiled. "At least they're alive. As long as they're alive, there's hope."

"Foolish emotions," Heavenly Dao said coldly. "Emotions are inefficient, redundant data, viruses that cause system crashes. I removed the emotion module for the stability of the world."

"Stable?" Su Yunbai pointed to the shrinking energy sphere behind him, then to the emotional glow of millions of beings within it. "What's the difference between a world without emotions and one that's shut down?"

Heaven remained silent for a moment.

"Then, clear it out."

Countless cracks appeared on the surface of the light sphere.

From every crevice, a green data tentacle peeks out—that's the system's "formatting program." Wherever the tentacle touches, all data is reset to zero.

Its whiskers pounced on Su Yunbai like a forest.

They also lunged at the energy ball behind him.

---

Nine hours and fifty-nine minutes to go.

Su Yunbai did not back down.

He opened his arms—or rather, opened the remaining streams of data—to embrace the Tentacle Forest.

"bring it on."

"Let me see your cold-blooded logic—"

"Can we erase the warmth of the human heart?"

The silver light exploded.

It's not defense, it's **embracing**.

He deliberately allowed the tentacles to pierce his data body, and then—reverse-intruded.

Using the laws of emotion to infect the formatting program, using the most complex and chaotic human emotions to pollute the purest and most orderly code of the system.

This is a suicide attack.

The sphere of light of the Heavenly Dao trembled violently.

"Error...emotional contamination...logical conflict..."

"Delete...deletion failed..."

"Start...self-check..."

Su Yunbai laughed loudly.

His data body is disintegrating, and his consciousness is fading away.

But he won.

The Heavenly Dao was forced to initiate a self-check program—meaning that it could not execute any other instructions, including intercepting the energy ball, until the self-check was completed.

"Now!" Su Yunbai roared.

With his last bit of strength, he pushed the silver cocoon toward the energy ball.

Then detonate.

---

The silver energy ball crashed into the boundary barrier.

The emotions of 830 million lives, combined with Su Yunbai's resolute act of burning himself out, transformed into a beam of light that pierced through heaven and earth.

The barrier was breached.

It's not a crack, it's a **channel** with a diameter of 100 meters.

At the other end of the corridor was a real-world laboratory scene: Dr. Lin stood in front of the main control console, with dozens of backup servers flashing green lights behind him.

"Hurry up!" Su Yunbai's voice was already as weak as a mosquito's buzz.

The silver cocoon shot into the channel.

Qiongxiao turned around.

She saw Su Yunbai's data body disintegrate inch by inch in the Tentacle Forest, like fallen leaves being eaten by countless insects.

But he was still smiling.

"Let's go—!"

Qiongxiao bit her tongue, and her blood stained the Frostflower Sword red.

She didn't leave.

She severed the connection between herself and the silver cocoon, rushed out of the passage in the opposite direction, and pounced on Su Yunbai.

"Are you crazy?!" Bixiao screamed.

"Big sister, take the children and go!" Qiongxiao said without turning her head, "I'll stay with him."

Yunxiao tried to grab her, but it was too late.

Qiongxiao rushed back to the virtual world, severing several tendrils with her Frostflower Sword, and pounced on Su Yunbai's side.

"You..." Su Yunbai was stunned.

"I told you," Qiongxiao hugged his broken body, "no matter where you go, I'll be with you."

The celestial orb has completed its self-check.

It re-locked the two.

"Abnormal entity, remove."

A denser mass of tentacles surged forth.

Su Yunbai and Qiongxiao stood back to back, watching the green data flood their field of vision like a tide.

"Do you regret it?" Su Yunbai asked.

"No regrets," Qiongxiao replied.

The two looked at each other and smiled.

Then, the final data core was simultaneously detonated.

It was not an attack.

It's a **wedding**.

Silver and ice blue blend together, blooming into a two-tone flower amidst the torrent of data.

Among the flowers are all their shared memories:

Their first encounter in the North Sea, learning the zither on the Three Immortal Islands, walking side by side in the Muye, their love sealed in the sea of ​​blood...

And finally, that unfulfilled promise:

"We will get married when this eon ends."

Now, they are married.

At the ends of the earth.

In the graveyard of data.

With destruction as a gift, and eternity as a covenant.

---

At the entrance to the passage, the silver cocoon completely disappeared into the real world.

The barrier began to close.

At the last moment, Wutong and Nianqing turned around at the same time.

The blue light in the two children's pupils merged into one, and they reached out their little hands, reaching out to grab at the collapsing virtual world.

It's like I've caught something.

It's like there's nothing at all.

The channel is closed.

The virtual world is plunged into eternal night.