262: Chapter 262 Reverse Hijacking of the Heavenly Tree! I Changed the Purification Program to a Membership System

When the countdown for the tree of heavenly dao's "Ultimate Purification" skipped to [23:58:17], Lin Chen's team had already completed their preliminary analysis.

"The core logic of the purification program is 'conceptual erasure'." Future Lin Chen projected a structural diagram of the Heavenly Tree's root system onto the holographic screen. "It releases a type of 'anti-commercial nano-spore' from the roots. The spores disperse with the wind, and any commerce-related concepts they touch—currency, transactions, contracts, ownership—will be erased from the cognitive level. Those affected will forget the existence of these concepts."

The screen simulated the effect of the spore dispersal: a merchant trading with currency suddenly froze, watching the coins in his hand turn into "meaningless metal pieces"; a lawyer signing a contract paused his pen, not understanding what the terms on the paper meant; a shop owner looked at the shelves, confused as to "why these things need to be priced."

Civilization would regress to a primitive state of bartering.

And all the financial systems Lin Chen established in the Dead Silence Star Domain would collapse in an instant.

"Can the spore dispersal be stopped?" Arrogant Dragon asked.

"No." Future Lin Chen shook his head. "The spores are conceptual; physical defenses are useless. Unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Unless we modify the underlying instructions of the purification program before the spores are released." Lin Chen pulled up the Heavenly Tree's contract interface. "We signed a cooperation contract with it, so theoretically, we possess partial administrative rights. If we can hack into its control system—"

Before he could finish his sentence.

The alarm sounded again.

This time it came from the Spiritual Energy Star Domain—the star field allocated to Lin Chen after Qingyunzi's death.

The surveillance footage showed that the star field, originally shrouded in immortal qi with a flourishing cultivation civilization, was currently undergoing a terrifying mutation.

A massive gray vortex appeared in the sky, and white rain fell from it.

That wasn't rain.

It was bone ash.

The bone ash of countless cultivators.

"Qingyunzi activated a 'Bloodline Sacrifice' before he died." Golden Abacus's voice cut in urgently. "He used his own death as a catalyst to sacrifice the bloodlines of all three million disciples of the Qingyun Sect, activating the 'Heavenly Dao Curse' deep within the star field. Now, the entire Spiritual Energy Star Domain is experiencing a 'Cultivation Concept Collapse'—all techniques are failing, all magical treasures are turning into scrap metal, and the cultivation bases of all cultivators are plummeting."

In the footage, a Nascent Soul stage ancestor was in seclusion when he suddenly spat blood and collapsed. His cultivation fell from Nascent Soul to Qi Condensation, then to a mortal, and finally, he died of old age and turned to ash.

In a sword cultivation sect, the flying swords in the disciples' hands shattered one after another, and they forgot the rest of their sword incantations halfway through reciting them.

The cultivation civilization was systematically collapsing.

"A double blow." Lin Chen looked at the monitors for the two star fields. "The commercial concepts in the Dead Silence Star Domain will be erased in 23 hours, and the Spiritual Energy Star Domain is collapsing right now. The Kindling Project requires an increase in civilization preservation rates—it'll be lucky if these two don't drop to the bottom."

The countdown was ticking.

The pressure was like a mountain.

But Lin Chen suddenly smiled.

"Since both star fields have problems," he said, "then let their problems... solve each other."

He pulled up the operation interface and began to execute a crazy plan.

Step one: Establish a Cultivation Debt Exchange in the Spiritual Energy Star Domain.

The rules of the exchange were simple: all cultivators whose cultivation had plummeted could use their "remaining cultivation" or "future cultivation potential" as collateral to apply for a "Cultivation Restoration Loan" from the exchange. The loan amount was calculated based on the value of the collateral, with an interest rate of 30% daily.

"This is highway robbery!" Zhang Hao couldn't help but say.

"This is life-saving." Lin Chen looked at the data. "They are about to die, and I'm giving them money to live. As for whether they can pay it back... they only have a chance to consider that if they stay alive."

Sure enough, as soon as the exchange went online, countless cultivators flocked to it.

A Golden Core stage cultivator mortgaged his cultivation potential for the next three hundred years, borrowing one hundred thousand spirit stones to temporarily stabilize his cultivation and prevent it from falling further.

A master artifact refiner mortgaged all his artifact refining insights, borrowing five hundred thousand spirit stones to keep his sect from disbanding.

In just three hours, the total amount of loans issued by the exchange exceeded ninety trillion spirit stones—roughly nine trillion when converted into dimension points.

And all these loans were packaged into financial products in the form of "debt bundles."

Step two: Lin Chen took these "Cultivation debt bundles" to the Dead Silence Star Domain to sell.

To whom?

To those nature spirits who had just been transformed by the tree of heavenly dao.

These spirits were composed of pure natural energy and were inherently close to spiritual energy. Lin Chen pitched to them: "By purchasing this debt bundle, you can obtain the corresponding 'cultivation profit rights' of the cultivators. For every bit of cultivation they develop in the future, you will have a share. It's like investing in a growth stock."

The nature spirits were tempted.

They used the natural energy proceeds they had just been allocated to buy debt bundles in large quantities.

Money flowed from the Dead Silence Star Domain back to the Spiritual Energy Star Domain to issue more loans.

A cycle was formed.

But it wasn't enough.

Lin Chen initiated step three: Cross-Star Field Conceptual Grafting.

He found the management backend of the tree of heavenly dao and entered a line of modification instructions:

[Redefine 'Cultivation Concept Collapse' as 'Cultivation Business Model Transformation']

[Transformation Direction: Shift from 'Cultivation Upgrading' to 'Cultivation Base Financialization']

[Transformation Reward: Cultivators who successfully transform will obtain 'Commercial Resistance'—immunity to certain conceptual erasure effects]

The instructions took effect.

The cultivators of the Spiritual Energy Star Domain suddenly found that their plummeting cultivation began to "recover" in another form—not as spiritual power, but as credit limits.

A Foundation Establishment stage cultivator who had originally lost all his cultivation now obtained "Foundation Establishment-level commercial credit," allowing him to borrow one hundred thousand spirit stones from the exchange without collateral.

An alchemist's pill fire was extinguished, but he obtained "pill patent licensing revenue," earning fifty thousand a month by selling pill formulas.

The cultivation civilization did not perish.

It was reborn in a different form.

And all of this was recorded by the tree of heavenly dao's monitoring system.

The tree's logic core began to scramble:

"Detected that the cultivation concept has not completely collapsed... but is instead transforming..."

"Transformation direction: Commercialization..."

"Commercialization... belongs to the concepts that need to be erased..."

"But erasure will interrupt the transformation, leading to a complete collapse of the concept..."

"Collapse will lower the star field's civilization preservation rate..."

"Lowering the preservation rate violates the fundamental rules of the Kindling Project..."

The tree got stuck.

It fell into a logical infinite loop.

The countdown was still ticking, but the spore release program began to question itself.

Seizing this opportunity, Lin Chen executed the final step:

He hacked into the Heavenly Tree's root system and found the core instruction set for "Ultimate Purification."

He didn't delete it.

Instead, he modified its trigger conditions.

Original instruction: [When the concentration of commercial concepts within the star field exceeds threshold X, initiate purification]

Modified instruction: [When the concentration of 'illegal commercial activities' within the star field exceeds threshold X, initiate purification; legal commercial activities shall be protected]

Then, he defined "legal commercial activities":

"All activities registered and filed with the 'Lin Chen Business Administration Bureau,' that pay taxes according to the law and comply with the 'Inter-Star Field Commercial Code,' are legal."

In other words—only the commerce he approved was commerce.

Modification complete.

When the countdown reached [00:00:01], the spores began to release.

Grayish-white nanoparticles drifted out from the tree roots and dispersed with the wind.

But as they flew past the exchange, they bypassed it.

As they flew past the contracted shops, they bypassed them.

As they flew past all the commercial entities registered and filed with the "Lin Chen Business Administration Bureau," they bypassed them all.

They only lunged at those... unlicensed black market traders.

A stall owner secretly selling counterfeit magical treasures was enveloped by spores and instantly forgot all commercial knowledge; his stall collapsed.

An underground bank lending money at usurious rates was submerged by spores, and its ledgers turned into scrap paper.

The Heavenly Tree was "purifying."

But everything it purified was the commercial vermin Lin Chen wanted to clean up.

"Now," Lin Chen looked at the monitor, "it has become my 'Commercial Compliance Administration Bureau'."

The double crisis was temporarily resolved.

But just as he breathed a sigh of relief—

Golden Abacus's emergency communication cut in again.

This time, his voice carried a rare solemnity:

"Lin Chen, I just found out from the bank's top-secret database... the Purity Alliance has more than one 'seed of the heavenly dao'."

"The one held by Qingyunzi was the 'Cultivation Version'."

"There are also 'Magic Version', 'Technology Version', 'Supernatural Version'... thirteen in total."

"And according to the records..."

"Morgana has a 'Magic Version' in her hands."

"Alpha has a 'Technology Version' in its hands."

"They haven't activated them because they were waiting for... the optimal moment."

The screen switched.

The Kindling Project's monitoring backend showed:

Deep within Morgana's Icebound Star Domain, an ice-blue seed was slowly awakening.

At the core of Alpha's Data Star Domain, a silver-white seed began to flicker.

"Now," Golden Abacus said, "they've seen you use commercial means to control the Cultivation Version seed..."

"Do you think they'll still wait?"

Just as he finished speaking.

The surveillance screens simultaneously erupted with alarms:

[Magic Version seed of the heavenly dao activated! Target: Icebound Star Domain]

[Technology Version seed of the heavenly dao activated! Target: Data Star Domain]

And this time.

The seed's instruction was not "erase commercial concepts."

It was—

[Erase the concept of 'competition']