Forced to become a top influencer, I rely on my tu cao to ruin the cultivation world.

On a clear morning at Luoxia Peak, the air was filled with the acrid smell of burning diesel fuel.

Jia Zhuang stood on the makeshift observation platform, holding a glass of strong liquor mixed with industrial alcohol, his brow furrowed.

At his feet lay the entire view of the Luoxia Peak Industrial Zone.

The once towering chimneys no longer belched black smoke, the massive gears ceased turning, and mountains of spirit stone slag piled up on the conveyor belts. The entire industrial zone lay limp on the wasteland, like a steel behemoth drained of its strength.

"Chairman Jia..."

Elder Wang Teng, dressed in oil-stained work clothes and holding a crumpled report, said in a tearful voice, "It's no use, it's really no use."

"That so-called 'environmental protection patch' is nothing but a death sentence!"

Jia Zhuang took a sip of strong liquor; the spicy liquid slid down his throat, but it couldn't warm his cold heart.

"Data." Jia Zhuang's voice was hoarse.

"GDP... no, it's the 'Gross Production Value of the Cultivation World,' it's plummeted!" Wang Teng pointed to the red line on the report that had plunged to its lowest point. "Ever since that 'spiritual energy rollback' mechanism took effect, all the factories have stopped production. Cultivators dare not cultivate, for fear of consuming spiritual energy and having their merits deducted by the Heavenly Dao's 'environmental tax'; mortals also dare not cook, for fear of exceeding carbon emission standards."

"At present, the unemployment rate in Luoxia Peak has reached 90%. The workers are rioting, saying that they would rather become bandits than starve to death here."

Jia Zang put down his wine cup and looked at the gray sky in the distance.

That "environmental patch" was a compromise he proposed in order to deal with the Heavenly Court hearing.

He naively believed that as long as the concept of "environmental protection" was introduced, and as long as it was proven that industrialization could be "cleaner" than traditional cultivation of immortality, he could convince the Heavenly Dao and the Jade Emperor.

But he was wrong.

He underestimated the rigidity of the Heavenly Dao system and overestimated the resilience of the vested interests in the cultivation world.

"This isn't environmental protection, it's locking down," Jia Zang muttered to himself. "The Heavenly Dao System doesn't care about the environment at all; it's just performing a cleanup procedure before 'formatting'."

Just then, the holographic projection screen in the sky suddenly started flickering.

It was no longer that soft blue, but a glaring scarlet that represented the highest level of alert.

【warn!warn! 】

[The energy circulation system in plane 073 has collapsed.]

[The detection of an "environmental patch" has caused productivity to stagnate, but the rate of dimensional entropy increase has actually accelerated.]

[Judgment: This dimension is beyond repair.]

[Initiate the final command – "Format".]

The cold, mechanical sound was like a death knell, heralding the end of the entire cultivation world.

"Format?" Jia Zhuang looked up abruptly, a flicker of fear in his eyes. "System, what does this mean?"

[System Explanation: "Formatting" means erasing all carbon-based life forms in the plane, restoring the planet to its initial state, and allowing it to evolve anew.]

[Countdown: 23 hours and 59 minutes.]

Jia Zhuang felt his heart skip a beat.

Eliminate all life?

Isn't this... the end of the world?

……

Meanwhile, in the Heavenly Court, at the Lingxiao Palace.

The Jade Emperor sat on the golden throne with nine dragons, looking solemnly at the immortals below.

"My beloved ministers, you have all witnessed the situation in Plane 073," the Jade Emperor said in a deep voice. "The 'industrialized cultivation of immortality' proposed by Jia Zang seems wonderful, but in reality, it is a dead end. He tried to use mortal logic to repair the Heavenly Dao, but he did not know that the Heavenly Dao is ruthless and cannot tolerate even the slightest imperfection."

Venus stepped forward, bowed, and said, "Your Majesty, since Jia Zang's 'patch' is ineffective, why not follow the will of Heaven and perform a format? In any case, the spiritual energy of plane 073 is already depleted; keeping it around would only cause trouble."

"Yes, Your Majesty, after formatting, we can release a new batch of pure 'seeds,' which may cultivate a more perfect plane," Li Changqing echoed, a hint of pleasure flashing in his eyes.

Clearly, he was still upset about Jia Zhuang's performance at the hearing.

The Jade Emperor remained silent for a moment, his fingers lightly tapping the armrest.

"Formatting... is too costly."

"Those are billions of lives."

"Your Majesty is merciful!" all the immortals cried out.

"But the will of Heaven cannot be defied." The Jade Emperor sighed. "Since that plane is beyond redemption, then..."

Before he could finish speaking, a strange tremor suddenly came from the dome of the Lingxiao Palace.

"Buzz—!!!"

That wasn't thunder, nor was it the roar of a magical artifact.

It was a kind of... electrical sound.

Immediately afterwards, a crack suddenly appeared in the void in the center of the Lingxiao Palace.

It wasn't a spatial rift, but rather... a video call window.

A face covered in grease appeared in the window.

It was Jia Zang.

"Old Jade Emperor, don't be in such a hurry to destroy the world."

Jia Zang's voice clearly echoed throughout the entire Lingxiao Palace through that window.

"You...how dare you directly connect to the Lingxiao Palace?!" Li Changqing exclaimed in shock. "This is a serious crime! It's hacking!"

"Hacker?" Jia Zhuang sneered. "Li Changqing, you're too naive. When your system is rotten to the core, anyone who knows a little bit of coding can just walk in and take a look."

He pointed to the background behind him.

The Jade Emperor squinted and realized that what was behind Jia Zang was not the industrial area of ​​Luoxia Peak, but a huge machine room made up of countless cables and screens.

"Where is this place?" the Jade Emperor asked.

"This is the 'core server' of dimension 073." Jia Zhuang grinned, revealing a set of white teeth. "Or rather, this is the... source code of this world."

"Jade Emperor, you just said you wanted to format it?" Jia Zang crossed his arms, a defiant look on his face. "Then let me ask you, do you really know the consequences of 'formatting'?"

"The consequences?" The Jade Emperor frowned.

"That's right." Jia Zang held up one finger. "The reason the Heavenly Dao System needs to format is because it determines that the 'entropy increase' of this plane is irreversible. But it overlooked one variable."

"What variable?"

"I."

Jia Zang suddenly turned around and pressed a red button.

"System! Initiate the 'Formatting' counterattack plan!"

[System notification: Instruction received. Activating all computing power of the Earth Internet... Connecting to the Earth's core in plane 073... Injecting "virus" code...]

"A virus?" The Jade Emperor's expression changed. "What have you done to the Heavenly Dao?!"

"I didn't do anything." Jia Zhuang shrugged. "I just patched this rigid system with a... 'logic loop'."

……

Luoxia Peak is located 3,000 meters underground.

This is Jia Zang's secret base.

Here, there are no cultivators, no spiritual energy, only countless supercomputers running at breakneck speed.

The core of these computers is powered by CPUs that Jia Zang brought from Earth, as well as spirit stone batteries that he plundered from the cultivation world.

At the center of these computers is a massive metal probe that leads straight to the Earth's core.

That was Jia Zang's trump card—the "Gaia Protocol".

"Chairman Jia! The temperature in the Earth's core reactor is skyrocketing!" an engineer shouted. "The energy output has reached criticality!"

"Very well!" Jia Zhuang shouted into the microphone, "Release that thing...!"

"yes!"

The engineer pressed the Enter key with trembling hands.

The next second, the entire Sunset Peak began to shake violently.

It wasn't an earthquake, but rather a...regular tremor.

In the sky, the scarlet "formatting countdown" suddenly stopped ticking.

Instead, lines of code flooded the screen.

[Error! Error!]

[Unknown logic virus detected!]

[Logical Conflict: To format, Jia Zang must first be deleted; to delete Jia Zang, the Earth Internet must first be deleted; to delete the Earth Internet, the Heavenly Dao System itself must first be deleted...]

[Infinite loop! Infinite loop! Infinite loop!]

The Heavenly Court, the Lingxiao Palace.

The Jade Emperor suddenly stood up, looking at the dome above him in horror.

There, the starry river pattern that originally represented the majesty of the Heavenly Dao was now twisting and deforming, turning into a jumble of random characters.

"What's going on?! The Heavenly Dao System has gone out of control?!" Venus screamed.

"No..." Li Changqing's face was ashen. "It was that Jia Zang... he... he... blocked the Heavenly Dao System!"

……

Sunset Peak.

Jia Zhuang looked at the crazy rain of code in the sky, and a crazy smile appeared on his lips.

"Jade Emperor, do you see this?"

He shouted at the video window.

"The Heavenly Dao System is now stuck in a vicious cycle. It can neither be formatted nor have its commands undone. Unless…"

"Unless what?!" The Jade Emperor's voice came from the window, trembling slightly.

"Unless you authorize me to take over the highest authority in this plane!" Jia Zhuang's eyes gleamed with ambition, "let me be the... administrator of this plane!"

"You're insane!" Li Changqing roared. "How could a mortal like you possibly control the Heavenly Dao?!"

"I cannot control the laws of Heaven, but I can control people's hearts!" Jia Zhuang pointed behind him. "Look at all this!"

The scene shifts.

Tens of thousands of workers were gathered in the square of Luoxia Peak.

They had no weapons, only placards.

We need to work!

[Reject the destruction of the world!]

Long live Chairman Jia!

Behind them were the once high and mighty sect leaders.

The patriarch of the Taixu Sword Sect was leading a group of sword cultivators to help move cables; the sect leader of the Hehuan Sect was directing his disciples to distribute food to the workers.

Even those ordinary people who originally opposed Jia Zang joined the parade.

Because they knew that only Jia Zang could stop the catastrophe that would destroy the world.

"Jade Emperor," Jia Zang's voice became deep and powerful, "look, this is my bargaining chip. It's not a magic weapon, not supernatural power, but... the will of the people."

"Although the Heavenly Dao System is rigid, it has one supreme command—'Follow the Heavenly Dao'."

"And now, I am the Way of Heaven."

"If you don't grant authorization, I'll let this vicious cycle continue indefinitely, until the Heavenly Dao System collapses, until this plane is truly destroyed."

"You... are you threatening me?!" The Jade Emperor gritted his teeth.

"No, this is negotiation," Jia Zang laughed. "Besides, I still have one last card to play."

"What brand?"

Jia Zang took a deep breath and pulled a black box from his pocket.

That was the last "divine artifact" he brought from Earth.

A... nuclear button.

"Jade Emperor, do you know what this is?" Jia Zang shook the box. "This is the switch for 'mutual destruction'."

"As long as I press it, the core of plane 073 will be detonated. At that time, not only will it be formatted, but the entire solar system will be destroyed."

"You...you dare?!" The Jade Emperor was shocked.

"You'll see if I dare." Jia Zhuang's finger hovered above the button.

The entire room fell silent.

The celestial beings of Heaven, the bigwigs of the cultivation world, and the workers of Luoxia Peak all held their breath.

Time seemed to stand still.

one second.

two seconds.

three seconds.

Finally, the Jade Emperor's helpless voice echoed from the sky.

"……allow."

"I hereby authorize you as the proxy administrator of plane 073."

"The deadline... is until the crisis is over."

[System notification: Permission change successful.]

[Jia Zang has obtained the highest administrative authority in dimension 073.]

The "format" command has been revoked.

As the Jade Emperor finished speaking, the frenzied rain of code in the sky gradually stopped.

The scarlet countdown disappeared, replaced by a line of green text:

The system has returned to normal.

Jia Zhuang let out a long sigh of relief and slumped into the chair.

He won.

But he knew that this victory had only just begun.

Because the real challenge is yet to come.

"Family members," Jia Zhuang said to the camera, a tired but confident smile on his face, "the crisis is temporarily over. But our journey is still long."

"What we need to do next is rebuild this broken world."

"And the first step in reconstruction..."

He pointed to the nuclear button.

"It's about turning this thing into real... energy."

"We want to achieve nuclear fusion!"

"We will illuminate the entire cultivation world!"