Taoist Master, wishing for a sacrifice-based system

Chapter 39: Three incense sticks burn, resulting in disgrace; a dark web hacker accidentally intercepts top-secret information.

Four million three hundred thousand online viewers held their breath.

Tangtang closed her eyes.

But it only closed for a second.

Because the image with eyes closed isn't visually appealing.

She opened her eyes again, letting a strand of curly hair fall naturally beside her cheek.

The angle is perfect.

Then she spoke.

The sound wasn't loud.

But every word was spoken clearly.

It's like reciting lines to a camera—

In fact, she had rehearsed these words in her mind at least ten times on the way here.

I made a wish.

The corners of her mouth turned up slightly.

There was an undisguised excitement in his eyes.

"Let me tonight—"

'

"It immediately became the most popular topic across the entire internet."

"Every platform is talking about me."

"Let my name 6"

She emphasized the last few words.

Every word seemed to be being bitten.

"A nationwide sensation."

The words fell.

The smoke from the three incense sticks rose straight up.

There is no bend.

There is no rotation.

It's perfectly straight.

Straight as a needle.

It pierced the ceiling.

Then "buzz."

The air seemed to sink for a moment.

The temperature in the main hall seemed to drop by half a degree.

Not obvious.

But everyone's hair stood on end.

The photographer behind Tangtang's hand trembled slightly, causing the image to shake for a frame.

Qin Du sat in a grand chair.

He didn't move.

She didn't even lift her eyelids.

He simply placed the enamel mug on the table with his right hand.

A message popped up silently in the corner of his field of vision.

[Ding—Your wish has been granted.]

[Wisher: Tang Tiantian (online name "Tangtang", extremely vain)]

[Wish: Tonight I want to be the most talked-about person online, discussed on all platforms, and my name to become a nationwide sensation.]

The most positive trending topic across the entire internet is its popularity.

What about the negative aspects?

"Every platform is talking about me."

Praise her for the discussion.

Are you going to scold her?

"The name became a nationwide sensation."

Its reputation is that it's incredibly popular.

What about infamy?

This woman made a wish that she thought was very clever.

But she forgot one thing—

In the dictionary of the Way of Heaven.

"Fire" and "burning".

They use the same radical.

Tangtang then inserted three incense sticks into the incense burner.

He turned around.

She smiled brightly at the camera.

"All done! Family, wait for my good news tonight!"

She winked playfully at Qin Du.

"Master, do you think my wish can be granted?"

Qin Du looked at her.

There was a two-second silence.

Then he picked up the teacup and took a sip.

lay down.

"able.

""

That same evening after making the wish.

Eleven forty-seven.

Tangtang was lying in the presidential suite of a five-star hotel in downtown Yunzhou.

The bathrobe was loosely draped over his body, and his hair was still wet; he had just taken a shower.

Outside the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, the city lights flowed through the night.

She held a glass of red wine in her left hand and scrolled through her phone with her right.

The "Outdoor Ghost Hunting and Exposing Fakes" live stream filmed at Qingyun Temple today has been edited into more than a dozen clips on various platforms, with a total of over 80 million views.

-

The number of followers increased by 120,000.

Several business managers from various brands have already contacted her via WeChat, tentatively asking if she's available next week to "discuss collaborations."

.

Tangtang took a sip of red wine and then crossed her legs contentedly.

"This is a sure thing."

She turned over, tossed her phone onto the pillow, and closed her eyes.

As for the wish expressed by those three incense sticks, it became the most popular wish across the entire internet.

She doesn't believe it.

Of course I don't believe it.

She never believed it from beginning to end.

Those three incense sticks were just for show.

It was a show for over four million viewers in the live stream.

She doesn't need a miracle.

What she needs is the gimmick of "I made a wish at Qingyun Temple".

Whether it works or not doesn't matter.

As long as there's something to talk about.

Tangtang had her eyes closed, a smug smile still playing on her lips.

Sleepiness is creeping in little by little.

Under the combined effects of alcohol and a hot bath, her consciousness began to blur.

She'll fall asleep in about ten seconds.

Then-

On the other side of the earth.

Eastern Europe.

A dimly lit room with curtains drawn on all four sides, illuminated only by the light from a screen.

Five monitors are arranged in an arc.

The keyboard clicks were as rapid as a machine gun.

A hooded figure sat in front of a screen, with the code scrolling at a visible speed.

This person has no name.

Or rather, he has many names.

On dark web trading forums, his ID was "Phantom".

The two most wanted transnational hackers on the global cybersecurity agencies' wanted lists.

Specializing in cloud data and mobile devices.

tonight-

To be precise, at this moment he is performing a routine "scanning" operation.

The so-called "net sweep" refers to using automated tools to randomly scan cloud servers with security vulnerabilities around the world, like casting a net to catch fish, to see what valuable things can be caught.

It's not directed at anyone.

It's purely random.

Probability problem.

It's like casting a fishing net into the ocean; you never know what kind of fish will catch it.

It might be a sardine.

It could also be a great white shark.

The automated scanning tool ran for a full hour across 370,000 vulnerable accounts worldwide.

Most of the content in these accounts is worthless.

Selfie. Emoji. Screenshot of food delivery.

Rubbish.

However, at the 53rd minute of the scan, the tool popped up a red warning box.

【HIGHVALUETARGETDETECTED】

Phantom's fingers stopped on the keyboard.

He pushed up his hood and leaned closer to the screen.

An account from the China region.

This account's data encryption level is standard.

Advanced data protection is not enabled.

There wasn't even a two-step verification.

Like an unlocked safe.

Phantom's lips curled into a slight smile.

He clicked "EXTRACTALL".

Extract all.

The data stream, like a silent river, begins to flow from one end of the Pacific Ocean to the other.

Twenty-two gigabytes.

Photos. Videos. Memos. Chat logs. Files.

They poured everything into the "Phantom" hard drive.

He started flipping through the pages randomly.

The first thing that popped up was hundreds of meticulously edited selfies.

The filter is so thick you could scrape it off and use it as putty.

"Another internet celebrity," he muttered in Russian, preparing to turn it off.

Then he saw a folder.

The folder is named —

"Do not delete!!! Backup!!!"

Three exclamation marks.

"Phantom" raised an eyebrow.

Experience told him that the more a folder is marked "Do Not Delete," the more interesting the contents are.

He clicked on it.

Then-

He lifted his hands off the keyboard.

My eyes are fixed.

The list of files displayed on the screen made even this professional hacker, who was used to the darkest corners of the dark web, gasp in shock.

Blyat...

""

He muttered a Russian swear word under his breath.

Then he sat up straight.

I put my hands back on the keyboard.

I started browsing through the files one by one, very carefully.

The more he looked, the brighter his eyes became.

It's not the kind of discovery that brings a treasure.

It's the kind of light that appears when a predator locks onto its prey.

Because of the value of the things he possessed—

It far exceeded his expectations.

Far, far beyond.