Although the gates of the Palace of Yama were gone, the inner sanctum housing the original copy of the Book of Life and Death—the Pavilion of Heavenly Secrets—remained the absolute forbidden ground of the Underworld.

  But this divine book, reputed to "record the lifespans of all living beings in the Three Realms," was facing an unprecedented crisis.

  A "Pain Elemental" (a demon resembling a massive meatball capable of spitting out "Lost Souls") had somehow bypassed Slayer's defense line and infiltrated the Pavilion of Heavenly Secrets.

  It didn't destroy the building; instead, it lunged directly at the Book of Life and Death suspended in mid-air.

  Zzzzt...

  The Pain Elemental opened its maw full of fangs and vomited streams of black data, frantically injecting them into the Book of Life and Death.

  It was tampering with the data!

  It was attempting to reset the lifespans of all living beings to zero, or convert all the dead into demons.

  Singularity, rushing from the front hall, saw this horrifying scene at a glance.

  "Stop! That's the Original Database!" Singularity turned pale with fright. "If that gets corrupted, the causality of the entire Three Realms will collapse!"

  Singularity wanted to rush up and cast a spell to stop it, but the Pain Elemental was surrounded by a thick "Data Shield," bouncing off all his spells.

  "No! Its permission level is higher than mine!" Singularity sweated anxiously. "It's using a Backdoor in the Book of Life and Death!"

  Just then.

  BOOM!

  A large hole was smashed into the wall of the Pavilion of Heavenly Secrets.

  Slayer arrived.

  He saw the meatball demon desecrating the divine book.

  If it were Singularity, he would consider how to hack the opponent's system or cut the connection.

  But Slayer's logic was simple: Book or demon, if they're together, chop them together.

  Slayer pulled out the Crucible Blade from his back.

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  It was a giant energy sword emitting a blazing red light, its blade inscribed with ancient runes.

  At this moment, the Pain Elemental had already merged half of its body into the Book of Life and Death; the two were almost one.

  Slayer didn't hesitate. He raised the Crucible Blade and swung it down hard at the Pain Elemental—and consequently, the Book of Life and Death.

  "Don't!!!" Singularity let out a scream of despair. "That's the original! That's the only original copy! If you chop it, it's really gone!"

  Slash!

  Red sword light flashed.

  The Pain Elemental didn't even scream before it was split in two.

  Along with it, the Book of Life and Death—which had been passed down for eons, floating in the air—was also sliced neatly in half by this strike.

  BOOM—!

  Massive energy erupted. The Pain Elemental's corpse exploded into ash. The fragments of the Book of Life and Death danced in the air, then dissolved into specks of starlight.

  The world went quiet.

  Singularity knelt on the ground, staring blankly at the empty altar.

  "It's over... it's all over..." Singularity muttered. "I'm really getting fired this time. The Book of Life and Death is gone; how do we check lifespans now? How do we judge reincarnation? The Underworld is bankrupt..."

  Slayer sheathed the light sword. He glanced at Singularity, who was questioning his life choices, and didn't seem to think it was a big deal. In his view, the threat was neutralized, and that was victory.

  However.

  Just as Singularity was preparing to write his resignation letter.

  The Heavenly Dao Tablet in his hand suddenly lit up.

  Beep!

  [Data Migration Complete.]

  [Source File: Book of Life and Death (Physical Version)]

  [Target Path: Heavenly Dao Cloud Server (Singularity Personal Backup)]

  [Integrity: 100%]

  Singularity jumped up.

  "Wait... when did I back it up?"

  He suddenly remembered.

  In the instant Slayer swung his sword—precisely 0.0001 seconds before impact—Singularity, out of extreme panic, had subconsciously unleashed his life's worth of mana to activate a new skill he had just developed: [Data Hot Migration].

  The moment the blade touched the book, he had uploaded all the data inside the Book of Life and Death to his tablet at light speed.

  In other words.

  What Slayer chopped was merely the Hardware Carrier (the book itself).

  The Soul (Data) of the Book of Life and Death had been perfectly salvaged by Singularity.

  "Hahahaha! Genius! I'm a genius!" Singularity kissed his tablet wildly. "This is 'Separation of Storage and Computation'!"

  Slayer tilted his head, looking at the suddenly crazy Daoist.

  Singularity crawled up, holding the tablet towards Slayer, and shouted:

  "Big Hero! Good chop! Excellent chop!"

  "That raggedy book was failing anyway! Slow page turning, no search function, didn't even have Ctrl+F! Now it's great, the physical copy is gone, we'll use the digital version from now on!"

  "What 'Book of Life and Death'? Too old-fashioned!"

  Singularity's fingers flew across the screen, renaming the icon on the tablet:

  [Underworld Big Data Management System v2.0]

  "From today on, checking lifespans doesn't require flipping through a book; just search on the Cloud! This is Modern Office Work!"

  Slayer didn't care about the Cloud or whatever. He only cared about one thing: Are all the demons here dead?

  Confirming there were no other threats in the Pavilion of Heavenly Secrets, he turned to leave, seeking the next battlefield.

  Singularity stayed behind, looking at the brand-new icon on the tablet, ambition flashing in his eyes.

  "Theory of Carrier."

  "As long as the data exists, hardware... we can build as much as we want."

  "Next chapter, time to give King Yama an iPad."