Chapter 2: Gossip News App

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After the revival of spiritual energy and the integration of cultivation with technological civilization, a new type of spiritual-powered smartphone emerged. Unsurprisingly, all these phones came with built-in small spirit-gathering formations and protective arrays. The small spirit-gathering formation was a special type of array that could directly absorb and extract spiritual energy from the world to power electronic devices. In theory, as long as there was spiritual energy in the surroundings, these phones could function.

However, due to the high population density in cities, where almost everyone owned a phone and needed to meditate daily for cultivation, spiritual energy became scarce. Because of this, over twenty years ago, the Huaxia region underwent a major upgrade for spiritual-powered smartphones. The updated phones required an internal array to communicate with specialized spiritual energy conversion devices installed throughout the city to recharge. Of course, users could also use spirit stones to charge their phones.

But outside the city, where there were no spiritual energy conversion mechanisms, the phones would automatically switch to absorbing spiritual energy directly from nature. This switch was automatic and could not be manually controlled.

As a result, cultivators had to pay spiritual energy fees when using their phones in the city or even when meditating. It was precisely because cultivation required constant expenses that Luo Cheng simply gave up on continuing his practice.

Of course, if someone had the ability to go to the wilderness to recharge their phone with natural energy-or even meditate in nature-they wouldn't have to pay anything. Initially, this policy faced strong resistance from the public. 

But as the city's spiritual energy network was gradually upgraded and all appliances adopted this system, people eventually got used to it. After all, cultivating nowadays already required finding safe zones outside the city or living in completely untouched natural areas. Spending a bit of spiritual energy to use a phone wasn't a big deal anymore.

Luo Cheng's phone, however, was still an old model. In fact, it was older than he was. His parents had always been out exploring, so as long as their phone could make calls, browse the internet when needed, and record videos, they didn't bother returning to the city just to replace it with a newer model that required spiritual energy fees.

Because of this, his phone could automatically recharge without needing an external power source. However, in places where spiritual energy was scarce, its self-charging efficiency would decrease.

The phone's contents were simple. Besides the built-in basic apps and software related to the Cultivator Alliance, it also had social media apps like Weixin and TT. Luo Cheng didn't know the passwords for these apps, so he didn't bother with them. Instead, he carefully searched through the phone's stored data.

As expected, the photo album was completely empty. The chat apps had no saved conversations. Even the contacts list was blank. Seeing this, Luo Cheng muttered to himself. This phone had clearly been searched through by many people before it reached him. If there had been any messages left by his parents, they likely wouldn't have remained on the device.

After checking everything, he fell into deep thought. This phone had indeed shown something unusual that midnight. Even though the phone didn't show any special behavior when he woke up last night, there must be a reason for that dream.

In this world where spiritual energy had fully revived and bizarre events occurred daily, illusions and hallucinations were nearly impossible-especially in matters of life and death.

Luo Cheng had never possessed the ability to predict the future before, nor had he ever experienced such a clear and vivid prophetic dream. It was even less likely that he had suddenly developed this power.

Luo Cheng was certain that this phone had something special about it, but with his current knowledge, he couldn't figure it out. Right now, his home had been crushed by that big fat bird, and even if his old phone was still intact, it was buried under the rubble, making it impossible to find for the time being.

After thinking for a moment, he decided to download a news app to check how the internet was reporting the incident that happened in his neighborhood last night. And then he figure out a way to contact his workplace later to request leave.

With that in mind, he opened the browser on this completely empty phone (空空如也 is an idiom that emphasizes total emptiness, often used for things like an empty house, an empty mind, or an empty stomach.) that didn't even have an app store and searched for the words "news app." However, he suddenly realized that he couldn't control the phone anymore??

Feeling puzzled, he was debating between two possibilities: was the phone was too old and lagging, or someone had tampered with it and installed something strange, allowing it to be remotely controlled? But just as he was thinking, the first link in the search results, which was clearly an ad, actually opened on its own! Then, that very suspicious-looking news app started installing itself, no matter how much Luo Cheng tried to hit "back" or even shut the phone down…

"…Is this the price I have to pay (The joke is that 代價 which translates as "price to pay" is used in epic or tragic contexts, but here, it's just about getting a junk app.) for surviving?"

Luo Cheng's mouth twitched. His grandma always believed in karma, saying, "For every gain, there must be a loss." But surviving a life-and-death crisis only to get spicy chicken app (辣雞 = spicy chicken, 軟件, generally means software but translated as app when talking about mobile applications. The funny thing is "Spicy chicken software/app" is a slang for "trash software" because 辣雞 (là jī—spicy chicken) and 垃圾 (lā jī—garbage) sounds the same.) on his phone… what kind of trade-off was that? That's not even fair!

That said, if a deadly crisis could be resolved by simply having a bunch of junk apps installed, Luo Cheng felt it wouldn't be such a bad deal-even if his entire phone got filled with them. He could just delete them later, anyway.

As these thoughts ran through his mind, the app finished installing. Luo Cheng's eyes stung at the sight of its bright red icon, which had two large golden characters, "

八卦

" written in it. He hesitated for three seconds before deciding to delete it, just in case it was a virus or some kind of spyware installed by a hacker.
 

 

However, after several attempts, he was shocked to find that he couldn't delete it at all! Not only did long-pressing fail to bring up the delete option, but even dragging it wouldn't move it! Even accessing the system's app management settings didn't work. It was as if the app was permanently fixed in place.

Luo Cheng stared at the app for a long time, deep in thought, before finally tapping on it lightly. Since he couldn't delete it, he figured there might be something unusual about it. Perhaps the phone installing it automatically wasn't just a coincidence.

—Shocking! The Kingdom of Women (女兒國 "Kingdom of Women" is from Journey to the West, a famous setting where men can become pregnant after drinking the river's water.) might be real! A male cultivator mistakenly drank river water, experienced intense abdominal pain, and hours later, his belly swelled up like a ball. Is it pregnancy?!

Luo Cheng: …What ghost??? (什麼鬼 Literally means "what ghost", but it's a common slang expression in modern Chinese that conveys surprise, confusion, or frustration. In ancient times, mentioning ghosts was considered inauspicious, but in modern slang, it's just a casual expression like "What the hell?")

This all-too-familiar headline style and the bizarre title instantly caught Luo Cheng's eye, making his eyelid twitch hard. After thinking it over, he hesitated but still clicked on it, telling himself, "What if it's not what it seems?" Normally, he would never tap on such a headline, even if it popped up in his phone's notifications. And then...

The strong gossip vibe, the wordy, roundabout writing typical of marketing accounts trying to pad their word count, and finally, the big "just as expected" reveal-it turned out to be nothing more than a male cultivator who got an upset stomach from drinking unclean water in the wild.

Luo Cheng felt both disappointed and relieved.

Luo Cheng realized that his earlier thoughts had been an illusion. This really was just a useless gossip news app. What made him complain the most was its name-"Gossip News Network". At least it was self-aware.

Since that was the case, there was no need to pay attention to this app anymore. The only thing that annoyed Luo Cheng a little was that, for some reason, he couldn't delete it from his phone. But that didn't stop him from installing other useful apps-he just hoped the same thing wouldn't happen again, automatically installing more useless junk.

Thinking of this, Luo Cheng searched for "Hongbo",(宏博 can be translated as "Grand Knowledge" or "Vast Wisdom"), an app that had supposedly been popular for hundreds of years and was widely used by both ordinary people and cultivators. Surely, a high-quality app like that wouldn't be pushed to the back by a trashy one, right?

He opened the browser again and searched. This time, the same issue didn't happen. Luo Cheng entered the official website and clicked Download. Just as he was about to wait for the installation, he was shocked to find-nothing happened when he clicked the link!

He tried again, switching to another app.

After trying again and switching to another app, Luo Cheng was once again dumbfounded-other than the gossip app that had installed itself, he couldn't install anything else at all??

No matter how many times he tested it, the result was the same. Feeling a bit frustrated, he stared at the phone in his hand. Right now, the only things on this phone were the default factory apps and the gossip news app that had forced itself onto his device. He rubbed his temples, feeling a slight headache. 

Apps like Weixin and Cultivator Alliance required a linked phone number to log in. Since his original phone was either destroyed or buried under rubble, and he hadn't replaced his SIM card yet, he had no way to access his accounts. If he wanted to check the news, he either had to use the browser or settle for whatever nonsense was on the gossip app.

He rubbed his forehead again, just as he was about to open the browser and search for news related to his city. But for some reason, his eyes drifted toward the Gossip News Network app. He hesitated. Since this app was already stuck on his phone like some stubborn leech, he might as well see what kind of ridiculous fake news it had.

He tapped the app again, and the interface, which looked deceptively fresh and clean, appeared. The first thing that caught his eye was still that shocking news headline. Instinctively, his gaze shifted to the timestamp at the bottom right-May 28, Year 531.

Luo Cheng froze. He quickly swiped down to check his phone's system time-it was currently May 17, Year 531. But then… why did this news article have a date from the future??

Luo Cheng was utterly shocked in his heart. He quickly scrolled up and let out a sigh of relief when he saw news from the 16th and 15th. But wait. Why was there an article from the 17th, today, sandwiched between reports from May 8th and 9th?

And the headline of that news looked incredibly familiar to him.

Shocking! Zhiluo City No. 7 was attacked by demonic beasts at 4 AM on May 17th, and the city's defensive barrier was breached.

According to reports, two fierce demonic beasts launched a night raid on Zhiluo City No. 7 in the early hours of the morning. Half the city was reduced to ruins, with countless casualties.

Sources revealed that the two flying demonic beasts had likely been planning this attack for some time. Some city residents had previously reported frequently seeing birds flying overhead, suspected to be scouts sent by a powerful demon beast to survey the city's layout.

On the day of the incident, the beasts attacked the formation's weak point in the dead of night, instantly breaking through. They then rampaged through the city, destroying buildings and slaughtering innocent civilians.

Experts later speculated that this attack was likely an act of revenge. It is suspected that someone had provoked the two flying demon beasts in the wild and, believing themselves safe, took refuge in the city, only to draw the beasts' wrath upon it.

A reporter from this agency conducted an undercover investigation among the locals. A man named Zhao Bagua (八卦 refers to the "Eight Trigrams" in Taoist philosophy. It is pronounced as "bā guà". But in modern slang, it has come to mean gossip or sensational news, especially in entertainment and social circles. It's probably a wordplay by the author that basically says Zhao "Gossiper" in relation to the app), who wished to remain anonymous, stated that he had seen a demonic beast egg being auctioned at a local black market. At the time, the black market claimed that the egg had been stolen from the nest of two powerful flying demon beasts. Looking back now, it is highly likely that this was the cause of the city's attack.

The editor would like to remind all readers once again. Although flying demonic beast eggs can be hatched, the beasts that emerge will never form a spiritual bond with their keeper. All cultivators traveling outside and purchasing from auction houses must not take risks out of greed. Otherwise, you may bring disaster upon both yourself and others.

Luo Cheng stared at the screen. Although the article looked fine on the surface, something about it felt off. Wait a minute. Wasn't this from that gossip news app? Could 30% of the content here worth believing?

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