144: Severe pain in the sea of ​​consciousness

Deep underground, Li Dong's Sea of Consciousness was experiencing an unprecedented catastrophe.

That will, which called itself the "God Lord," was no longer the tentative tentacles from before; it had transformed into a giant hammer, intangible and formless, yet heavy enough to crush a Divine Soul.

Boom!

Another heavy strike.

Li Dong felt his entire consciousness being smashed into a flat iron pancake; his thoughts nearly stalled, and stars danced before his eyes.

This was not simple pain, but a crushing force from a higher dimension, a domineering power attempting to fundamentally erase the very concept of "Li Dong."

His face was pale as paper, and beads of cold sweat rolled down his temples, instantly soaking his collar.

Yet his spine, held straight as a spear piercing the firmament, did not bend in the slightest.

"Come again!"

He roared silently in his heart.

Just as the God Lord's third strike was about to descend, the moment that would shatter him into nothingness.

Li Dong's Perfect Dao Body seemed to sense its host's monstrous Battle Intent and unyielding spirit, and was finally fully activated!

Hum—

A halo of pure gold, pure to the extreme, bloomed from every inch of his flesh and every bone in his body, both gentle and resilient.

This power surged instantly into his precarious Sea of Consciousness.

Inside the Sea of Consciousness, the Spiritual Domain, which had been fighting on its own, seemed to find its backbone, quickly intertwining and merging with the golden light.

A circular mental barrier, seemingly weak but radiating an aura of eternal immortality, condensed out of thin air at the core of his Sea of Consciousness!

Dong!!!

The God Lord's giant hammer of will smashed solidly against this brand-new barrier.

Li Dong's body shuddered violently, and he couldn't stop a mouthful of blood from spraying out, but the light in his eyes became startlingly bright at this moment.

Blocked!

However, something even more shocking happened.

On that golden circular barrier, as the God Lord's will continued to strike, mysterious runes—ancient, obscure, and complex in stroke—began to emerge on their own.

These runes were not any language he had ever learned, yet they seemed innate, the most essential manifestation of his Perfect Dao Body.

They flickered with a faint light, like a group of tireless craftsmen; under the impact of the God Lord's will, not only did they not shatter, but they began to capture, disassemble, and analyze the sporadic information contained within that domineering will in an unimaginable way!

[Ability Pivot]!

This barrier was not just for defense!

It was also a... furnace for analyzing the God Lord's power!

Fragments of scenes, broken, chaotic, yet containing heaven-shaking secrets, began to flood into Li Dong's perception.

He "saw" a boundless starry sky, a colossal existence that defied description, casting its "gaze" toward this world.

He "heard" countless living beings chanting hymns in unison under an absolute, cold order, their eyes fanatical yet hollow.

"So... the descent is not what I thought it was..."

Li Dong endured the excruciating pain of his Divine Soul being torn apart, greedily absorbing these precious fragments of information.

The God Lord's descent was not a complete entity traveling through space.

It was more like a... Fusion of "Divine Projection" and "Mortal Shell"!

It required a sufficiently powerful "Mortal Shell" as a container to bear a will so vast it could burst this world.

At the same time, it needed a specific "anchor point" to stabilize the connection between the projection and the shell.

And that chosen "Mortal Shell" was none other than... himself, possessing the Perfect Dao Body!

That "anchor point" was likely the "heart" beating frantically deep beneath the West Mountain!

Following that, a more grandiose and terrifying blueprint unfolded in his mind.

It was a so-called "Theocratic Empire"!

Once the God Lord's descent succeeded, the entire Great Xia, and even the whole world, the wills of all living beings would be assimilated and enslaved, becoming an extension of its power, becoming the humblest bricks in the territory of its Divine Kingdom.

No resistance, no thought, only eternal, cold, suffocating worship and obedience.

...

The capital city, atop the city walls.

Wei Zheng and Seventh Princess Li Qingxuan stood side by side, their faces as heavy as water.

The biting cold wind, carrying the tide of evil energy surging from the direction of the West Mountain, scraped against people's faces like knives.

They could clearly feel a terrifying sense of oppression coming from deep underground, growing stronger with each wave, accompanying that "thump-thump" heartbeat.

"Li Dong..." Li Qingxuan's knuckles turned white from the force, her voice carrying a trace of imperceptible trembling, "He is enduring all of this alone."

Wei Zheng did not speak, simply gripping the hilt of his blade tightly.

He knew that deep underground at this moment, the young man was engaged in a battle of the Divine Soul that they could neither imagine nor intervene in.

Just then, an aged figure appeared silently behind them.

It was that Old Ancestor of the royal family who had been in seclusion for many years!

His beard and hair were all white, his face ancient and simple, but in those eyes that had seen through the ways of the world, there was unprecedented gravity.

"The wailing of the Dragon... has intensified."

The Old Ancestor's voice was hoarse and dry, as if squeezed out of withered wood.

"This old man has guarded the Dragon for three hundred years, and I have slain countless evil spirits, but I have never felt such... such pure and such grand malice."

He looked toward the West Mountain, his gaze seeming to pierce through layers of obstacles.

"This is no longer any evil god or Devil Head within our understanding; this is a... higher-level existence, attempting to meddle in the mortal realm."

His words caused the hearts of Wei Zheng and Li Qingxuan to sink to the bottom.

Meanwhile, within the capital, a sudden change occurred.

Some commoners who were fleeing or shivering in their homes, and even Cultivators with low cultivation, suddenly stopped moving.

Their eyes began to become hollow and vacant.

Following that, they began to mutter in a monotone, inflectionless tone.

"The God Lord is supreme..."

"Order is eternal..."

"Offer up my body, merge into the Divine Kingdom..."

Their voices were not loud, yet they spread rapidly through the crowd like a plague.

That eerie scene was more hair-raising than a siege by Yao Beasts.

Underground.

Li Dong had no time to attend to the changes in the outside world.

He had a more horrifying discovery.

[Cognitive Subversion]!

As the analysis deepened, he finally touched the very core essence of the God Lord's will.

It was not chaos, not disorder, not a pure desire for destruction.

Quite the opposite!

It was a cold, precise "sense of order," as meticulous as the movement of the stars in the Universe!

In the face of this order, human emotions and desires, all the joys and sorrows of the world, were like "program errors" that needed to be cleared.

It did not want destruction, but "formatting"!

This cold will, which transcended all good and evil and viewed all things as data, was far more chilling to the depths of the Soul than hysterical evil.

The agony in the Sea of Consciousness continued, as if endless.

But Li Dong's eyes were clearer than ever before.

He knew what the enemy was.

He knew what the enemy wanted to do.

He also knew how the enemy intended to do it!

[Resource Appreciation]!

In this Divine Soul confrontation that had nearly crushed him, the intelligence he had gained was far more precious than any Sharp Weapon or Spirit Pill.

This was the... key to the counterattack!

The agony was the price for obtaining this key.

He could afford it!