167: Decisive Battle Sacrifice

“Flip the table!”

Li Dong's hoarse roar echoed over the ruins; it was less a statement to Wei Zheng and Li Qingxuan, and more an attempt to convince himself.

Without waiting for the two of them to react, he moved.

There were no impassioned declarations, no lingering farewells.

In that instant, Li Dong completely ignited the remnant spiritual power within him, the sliver that had just been fed back to him by the crystal.

He was like a meteor stained in blood, carrying an unyielding determination as he dove headfirst into the core of the sacrificial Formation—that swirling vortex of black-gold energy currently devouring the capital!

“Li Dong!” Li Qingxuan's startled cry was torn apart by the gale.

Wei Zheng's eyes were splitting with rage, but he only had time to roar one word: “Hold!”

The Royal Ancestor appeared high in the sky, his aged face full of solemnity. He watched that resolute, blood-colored streak of light and ultimately let out a sigh.

...

“Hahahaha... You've finally come!”

At the core of the Formation, the figure of the Divine Envoy had long been waiting.

He was no longer the vague energy construct from before; he had become incomparably solid, as if he were a deity carved from darkness.

He spread his arms, not to attack, but as if welcoming a long-awaited treasure.

“My Lord has been waiting for you, ‘key’! You are more interesting than I imagined.”

The laughter transformed into a tangible mental storm, echoing within the Formation.

As his voice fell, the operating speed of the entire sacrificial Formation suddenly increased tenfold!

On the ground, those twisted runes shone with blinding intensity. A divine power, far purer and more terrifying than before, poured down from an unknown dimension, with only one target—Li Dong.

“Come, become the stepping stone for my Lord's descent. This is your supreme honor!”

Hum!

Several chains formed from pure divinity appeared out of thin air. They were neither metal nor energy, but the manifestation of “Law” from a higher dimension.

They ignored Li Dong's protective spiritual power and ignored the distance of space, branding themselves directly and unreasonably onto his limbs and torso.

“Ughhh—!”

Li Dong let out an uncontrollable roar of pain.

This feeling... it wasn't being bound, it was being “defined.”

The moment the chains coiled around him, he felt his existence forcibly branded with the attribute of “sacrifice.”

The spiritual power within his body no longer belonged to him, the thoughts in his Sea of Consciousness were no longer under his control, and even the flow of his blood and the rhythm of his heartbeat seemed to be taken over by an external force.

Something even more terrifying was yet to come.

The Divine Envoy made a grasping motion in the void and yanked outward violently!

“Your [Perfect Dao Body], my Lord... accepts it!”

Rip—

A sharp pain, as if his Soul and flesh were being ripped apart alive, instantly turned Li Dong's consciousness into a blank slate.

He “saw” that on the surface of his body, a layer of nearly transparent “membrane” emitting a faint halo was being forcibly pulled out from his flesh and blood by those divine chains!

That was his [Perfect Dao Body]! It was his greatest reliance, the darling of the Laws of this world!

At this moment, this “Dao Body” was emitting a silent wail, with spiderweb-like cracks appearing on its surface. For every inch it was pulled out, Li Dong felt his life's Origin being drained away.

His body was being torn apart, and his spiritual power was leaking out frantically, like a floodgate being opened.

“Damn it... this is like skinning me alive...”

In the gaps between the intense pain, an absurd thought flashed through Li Dong's chaotic mind.

He was going to die.

He knew clearly that once the [Perfect Dao Body] was completely stripped away, he would truly just be meat waiting to be slaughtered. He wouldn't even have the qualifications to become a “can,” and would be instantly sacrificed into the purest energy to open the gate for that unknown Divine Lord to descend.

“Beast! Stop it!”

Outside the Formation, the Royal Ancestor's roar shook the heavens and the earth.

His beard and hair stood on end. His hands formed an ancient and complex seal, and a shimmering Dragon image, condensing his lifelong cultivation, roared as it crashed into the energy barrier of the Formation.

“All members of the Demon Suppression Division, listen! At any cost, attack the node in the due south position!” Wei Zheng's voice was hoarse, his eyes bloodshot as he commanded the remaining defenders to launch a final attack.

The longsword in Li Qingxuan's hand had long since spun out thousands of sword blossoms, each ray of sword light landing precisely on the same spot, attempting to shake this seemingly impregnable defense.

Their attacks did indeed have an effect.

Ripples spread across the outer energy barrier of the Formation, its light flickering uncertainly, clearly under immense pressure.

But this... was not enough!

The Divine Envoy didn't even look back. All his attention was focused on Li Dong, his face wearing a sick, fanatical expression.

“Struggle! Wail! Your despair will only make the sacrifice more delicious!”

The power on the divine chains increased once more. The speed at which Li Dong's [Perfect Dao Body] was being stripped away accelerated, and more than half of it had already left his body.

His consciousness began to blur, and his vision plunged into a sea of blood-red.

It was over.

Just at this final second, on the verge of total desperation.

A sudden, strange change occurred!

The black crystal and the ancient stone slab, which had been silent in the depths of his Sea of Consciousness, did not release power to passively resist as they had in the past.

They... moved.

It was not an attack, nor was it a defense.

It was a “resonance.”

Hum—

A wondrous tremor, impossible to describe in words, sounded from the deepest part of Li Dong's Soul.

The black crystal and the ancient stone slab simultaneously erupted with an aura of Chaos—neither black nor white, neither light nor dark.

This aura did not attack the divine chains; instead, it instantly coiled around the [Perfect Dao Body] that was being stripped away.

The next moment, a “Void Realm force field” with a radius of three feet, centered on Li Dong, quietly formed.

Within this force field, there was no sound, no light, and no Law.

Everything seemed to have had the delete key pressed, turning into the most primitive “nothingness.”

Those arrogant divine chains, the moment they touched the edge of the force field, were like metal dropped into strong acid, dissolving a small section without a sound!

And that [Perfect Dao Body], which was about to be completely taken away, was “fixed” in place by this eerie force field.

It was like being caught between two immensely powerful forces—half connected to Li Dong's flesh, half being pulled by the Divine Envoy—forming a stalemate, an incomparably strange balance.

The Divine Envoy could not strip away even a fraction more!

“This... what is this?!”

The fanatical smile on the Divine Envoy's face instantly froze, replaced by unprecedented terror and disbelief.

He could feel that his connection to the Divine Lord's true body had been forcibly severed in that small “Void Realm” area!

What made his Soul tremble even more was that the Void Realm force field was not only resisting, but also... absorbing!

It was like a true black hole, beginning to pull back on the divine chains, greedily devouring the pure power contained within them that came from the Divine Lord!

“No! Impossible!”

The Divine Envoy discovered in horror that the energy sustaining the operation of the entire sacrificial Formation was being frantically drained through those few chains toward that eerie force field!

The rune array at the core of the Formation began to flicker violently, and the flow of energy became chaotic and out of control as never before.

The Formation was about to collapse!

He never dreamed that inside this lamb waiting to be slaughtered, there was actually hidden a prehistoric beast capable of turning around and devouring a god!

“Pfft...”

Li Dong spat out a mouthful of blood, but his consciousness regained a sliver of clarity amidst this inconceivable turn of events.

He could no longer feel the Soul-tearing pain; it was replaced by a sense of weakness from being drained.

He could “see” his own [Perfect Dao Body] like a translucent garment, half still worn on his body, half floating outside, being tugged by that Void Realm force field and the divine chains.

What is this situation? Fighting for ownership in real-time?

Just as Li Dong's mind was reeling, the “Void Realm intent” in the deepest part of his Sea of Consciousness, which had always been just a vague concept, became clearer than ever at this moment.

It was not a sentence, nor was it a voice.

It was an incomparably pure, incomparably domineering command, branding itself directly onto the Origin of his Soul, like an enlightenment from above.

—Fusion.