166: Dragon Vein Sorrow

Like the charred smell and burning pain left behind after a red-hot iron is pulled from flesh, it reminded everyone that the nightmare was far from over.

"Pfft—" Li Dong could no longer hold on and collapsed, but fortunately, Wei Zheng and Li Qingxuan arrived in time to catch him on either side.

"You brat! Are you trying to get yourself killed!" Wei Zheng's voice trembled with lingering fear. As he placed his palm on Li Dong's back, he felt a hollow weakness, as if there was nothing left inside.

"Li Dong, are you alright?" Li Qingxuan's face was pale, her eyes red-rimmed, and her voice was filled with anxiety.

"I'm not dying..." Li Dong grimaced, trying to smile, but it aggravated his internal injuries, causing him to gasp in pain. "It's just... a bit full."

He wasn't lying. The two ancestors in his Sea of Consciousness, having eaten and drunk their fill, were now quiet, as if they had entered a period of post-coital clarity. However, his Meridians felt as though they had been trampled by ten thousand rhinoceroses—sore, swollen, and in ruins.

The brief joy of victory did not last long.

"Hum..." The entire capital—no, the very earth beneath the capital—let out a dull, long, mournful cry.

This was not a sound, but a sorrow that reached straight to the Soul. It was the Dragon Vein.

It was dying.

With this mournful cry, the core of the sacrificial Formation, which had only been weakened, began to glow faintly once more. Although its speed was slower, it was still firmly carrying out its mission.

Wisps of grey-black mist stubbornly seeped out from the cracks in the stones of every street, from the ruins of every collapsed palace, and from every dried pool of blood.

These "sources of divine pollution" seemed to have a life of their own. They spread along the ground, and wherever they passed, eerie black patterns appeared on the bluestone slabs, and the remaining vegetation withered and turned to ash at a speed visible to the naked eye. The air became thick and smelled of blood and sweetness; inhaling a single breath felt like having a sliver of one's life force drained away.

"Damn it!" The Royal Ancestor landed not far away, his expression grave to the extreme. "The core of the Formation hasn't been broken; it's still extracting the last of the Dragon Vein's power!"

From the direction of the city walls, shrill screams rose one after another, but they did not come from the defending troops.

"Report!" A blood-soaked scout stumbled over, his face full of despair and madness. "Lord Wei! The fanatics outside the city... they... they are performing sacrifices! They are capturing nearby refugees and using their flesh, blood, and Soul to accelerate the operation of the Formation!"

This news was like a basin of ice water, extinguishing the small spark of hope that had just ignited in everyone's hearts.

Although the Divine Envoy had been repelled, he had left behind a meat grinder that could operate on its own.

Wei Zheng clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles turned white. Watching the grey-black Death Qi spreading throughout the city and listening to the inhuman wails from outside, a profound sense of powerlessness welled up in his heart. They had beaten back the enemy's strongest combatant, yet they could not stop this city from being slowly devoured and digested.

"What... what can we do?" Li Qingxuan murmured. This usually resolute princess now had nothing but confusion in her eyes.

Indeed, what could they do? Rush out and fight those lunatics to the death? But what about the Formation inside the city?

Just watch as the Dragon Vein is drained dry and the entire capital turns into a demonic land?

"Something's not right..." Just as everyone was falling into despair, Li Dong, who was still being supported, suddenly spoke, his voice hoarse but exceptionally calm.

"What's not right?" Wei Zheng immediately asked.

"These things..." Li Dong did not answer. His eyes slightly unfocused, his Spiritual Domain had already quietly expanded. This time, he did not focus on the massive Formation, but instead concentrated all his perception on those seemingly inconspicuous grey-black mists.

In his vision of Spirituality, these were not "sources of pollution" at all, nor were they simple energy entities.

Every tiny particle of mist was a twisted rune, miniaturized to the extreme.

Like viruses, they carried "rules" from another world, arrogantly rewriting the Law of this land. Under their erosion, hard stones became soft, flowing air became sluggish, and even the flow of time experienced extremely subtle disturbances.

Even more terrifyingly, when a Mortal was enveloped by this mist and their life force was drained, Li Dong "saw" it.

That fleeting life force did not dissipate into thin air; instead, under the influence of the mist's runes, it was "processed" into a purer, more refined energy. Bearing a strong spiritual imprint, it was then transmitted to an unknown dimension via the Formation, which acted as a "base station."

"Damn... this isn't killing; it's processing 'canned goods'..." Li Dong couldn't help but curse in his heart.

What the God Lord needed was not death, but "faith energy" converted from life! The capital, and even the entire Great Xia, was just its food processing plant.

"Li Dong? What are you looking at?" Li Qingxuan noticed his unusual behavior.

"Watching a show," Li Dong replied, though his gaze was cast towards a ruined garden in the distance.

He suddenly discovered an extremely bizarre phenomenon.

Under the perception of his Spiritual Domain, he saw an old locust tree that should have withered and died; instead of turning to ash, it was undergoing a grotesque mutation.

Its bark had become as hard as black iron, covered in the same eerie patterns as those on the ground. Its withered branches twisted into the shape of tentacles, greedily sucking the surrounding grey-black mist into its body. With every wisp of mist it absorbed, a fist-sized pustule would swell on its trunk; after the pustule ruptured, a new, thicker tentacle would grow.

It was... devouring the source of pollution!

The tree looked ugly and evil, and the aura it radiated was even more chaotic than the pollution source itself, but it was indeed resisting the God Lord's erosion in its own way.

No, not just this tree! Li Dong extended his perception further.

In the corners, neglected weeds and vines grew wildly, becoming like thorny iron wires, tightly wrapping around the ground to stop the mist from spreading. On some broken walls, moss began to squirm eerily, emitting a weak, corrosive acid that dissolved the mist it touched.

When this world was invaded by the power of a higher dimension, it did not just sit and wait for death.

These native life forms, even the most insignificant flowers, plants, and trees, were using the most primitive, savage, and perhaps even ugly methods to carry out an instinctive resistance and... evolution!

They were adapting, changing, and attempting to turn the invaders into a part of themselves!

"Haha... hahahaha!" Li Dong suddenly laughed in a low voice, then louder and louder, until he was shaking all over, which aggravated his wounds and caused him to cough violently.

"Are... are you crazy?" Wei Zheng felt a chill down his spine from his laughter.

"Crazy? No, I'm perfectly fine!" Li Dong raised his head, his eyes shining with a near-manic brightness. "Lord Wei, Your Highness, what do you think the God Lord is doing?"

Both were stunned by the question.

"He is... sacrificing the capital?" Li Qingxuan answered uncertainly.

"No, that's thinking too small." Li Dong shook his head and said, enunciating every word, "He is trying to transform this world into what he wants it to be. But he seems to have forgotten to ask... whether this world is willing."

Li Dong pointed to the deformed locust tree that was frantically devouring the source of pollution. "Look at that, what is it?"

Wei Zheng and Li Qingxuan looked in the direction he was pointing, but only saw a twisted, nauseating black shadow, completely unable to understand what Li Dong meant.

"The God Lord thinks he's inviting guests to dinner, wanting to swallow the entire capital." Li Dong's voice carried a strange magic that dispelled the despair in everyone's hearts, replacing it with a wilder emotion.

"But now it seems like a dish on the table has come alive and wants to taste what the other dishes are like."

He grinned, revealing a mouthful of white teeth, his smile bright and dangerous. "Since no one wants to eat properly, why not... flip the table, let all the dishes fight it out, and see who ends up eating whom!"