168: Divine Backlash

"Fusion."

This command was simple and brutal, devoid of any emotion, yet it struck like a thunderclap that could split the heavens, exploding directly within Li Dong's chaotic Soul.

What the hell? Fuse with whom? How do I fuse?

Before the ten thousand question marks in Li Dong's mind could even emerge, his "semi-finished garment"—the [Perfect Dao Body]—which was torn to the point of being almost useless, seemed to suddenly understand this celestial decree.

It no longer passively held its ground, but instead actively moved toward that three-foot "Void Realm force field"!

"No—!"

The Divine Envoy let out a shriek that sounded inhuman; he felt that what he was holding in his hand was no longer a precious sacrifice, but a chain leading to the abyss.

Upon making contact with the [Perfect Dao Body], that eerie Void Realm force field suddenly expanded!

A massive, pitch-black vortex roared into existence with Li Dong at its center; the insane suction force was no longer the minor skirmish it had been before.

"My power! My Lord's Divine Power!" The Divine Envoy watched in horror as the torrent of black-gold divinity, which maintained the operation of the entire sacrificial Formation and poured down endlessly from an unknown dimension, was abruptly severed by the vortex and then... devoured like a whale!

The core of the entire Formation, those complex and profound runic arrays, flickered violently like a machine unplugged from its power source, on the verge of extinguishing.

But it wasn't over yet.

The vortex seemed to have indigestion from this energy, or perhaps, it simply disdained to digest it.

"Hum—"

The massive Divine Power that had been sucked in was churned into the purest particles within the vortex, and then, through some incomprehensible "reversal" and "filtration," it was violently fed back into the earth below!

The target was none other than the Jing City Dragon Vein, which was groaning in agony and on the verge of death beneath the sacrificial Formation!

"Roar..."

A faint Dragon roar from deep within the earth echoed, no longer a mournful cry or wail, but filled with the relief of sweet rain after a long drought. The originally completely withered Dragon Vein, nourished by this "purified" energy, actually regained a trace of weak vitality.

"You... how dare you steal Divine Power to nourish this filthy mortal Dragon Vein?!" The Divine Envoy's worldview completely collapsed.

This is blasphemy! This is the most vicious desecration of the Divine Lord!

However, what made his Soul tremble even more was yet to come.

Having lost its stable energy supply and with the energy flow forcefully reversed by that eerie vortex, the entire sacrificial Formation... lost control!

The runic arrays spread throughout the underground of Jing City, after flickering uncertainly to their limit, suddenly lit up in reverse!

The Formation, which was originally meant to extract and sacrifice energy outward, had now become a powder keg violently repelling everything from the inside out! And the primary target was none other than himself, the central hub of the Formation and the connector to the Divine Power!

"Pfft!"

The Divine Envoy violently spat out a mouthful of blood containing black-gold hues, and his once solid body began to become illusory. He felt that his spiritual link to the great Lord in the distant Divine Realm was being crazily eroded and weakened by this backlash force!

"No... my Lord..."

Before he could finish his sentence, the energy conduit in the sky directly above the Formation, which served as the beacon for the Divine Lord's descent, also triggered a chain reaction due to this drastic change.

Crack!

A crisp sound, like glass shattering, resounded across the sky. On the previously stable conduit, a massive spatial rift appeared out of thin air!

Deep within the rift, a terrifying phantom of indescribable majesty could be vaguely seen; it seemed to be about to reach out its arm to force a descent.

But that pitch-black spatial rift was like the sharpest guillotine, slicing through without mercy.

"Agh—!"

An angry roar that transcended dimensions erupted from the rift, shaking the heavens and earth. That giant hand, just materialized and composed of pure divinity, along with half its arm, was silently ground into specks of light by the spatial rift.

The Divine Lord's descent... was forcefully interrupted!

"Opportunity!"

Outside the Formation, the Royal Ancestor, who had been holding his heart in his throat, saw his eyes erupt with unprecedented brilliance.

"Evil creature, pay with your life!"

He held nothing back; the light and shadow of the azure Dragon converged into a beam of killing light condensed to the extreme, tearing through the sky and smashing fiercely against the Formation barrier, which had dimmed due to the backlash!

"Wei Zheng, take the order! Focus fire on the Divine Envoy!"

"Qingxuan! Follow me and attack his left flank!"

Wei Zheng and Li Qingxuan were just as quick to react; the surviving elites of the Demon Suppression Division threw all their trump card talismans and Magic Treasures at once, aiming directly at the crumbling Divine Envoy.

For a moment, the sounds of explosions and battle cries shook the heavens and earth.

Meanwhile, Li Dong, at the center of the storm, felt incredibly strange at this moment.

The agonizing pain that tore at his Soul had disappeared, replaced by an unprecedented sense of control.

As the [Perfect Dao Body] "fused" with the Void Vortex, he discovered that he could actually "understand" the Divine Power that had been sucked in.

They were no longer untouchable high-dimensional energy, but had turned into lines of "code" that could be read and even modified.

"So... this is what they call Divine Law?"

Just as this thought arose, the Divine Envoy, who was scrambling to fend off the attacks from Wei Zheng and the others, suddenly launched a lethal strike; an invisible blade that distorted space pierced directly toward Li Dong's brow.

If this had been before, Li Dong would have surely died.

But now...

He raised his hand almost subconsciously.

There was no spiritual energy fluctuation, no manifestation of Law.

He simply "wrote" back a Law he had just "comprehended."

—[Stagnation].

Hum!

The spatial blade, capable of slicing through mountains, abruptly paused three feet from Li Dong, as if it had fallen into thick mud, its speed slowed by more than tenfold.

Although it was only for an instant, it was enough.

Li Dong easily dodged to the side, and looking at the Divine Envoy's face, which was plastered with "How is this possible," he suddenly felt like laughing.

Using your own net to break your own net?

The Divine Envoy was going crazy; he discovered that his pride-and-joy Divine Arts were starting to become disobedient in front of this "key." The opponent was like a more skilled programmer, tampering with the underlying code he relied on to survive!

Just then, Li Dong's attention was drawn back to the depths of his Sea of Consciousness.

That ancient stone slab, which had been silent all this time, was now shining brightly.

As the Void Vortex devoured more and more Divine Power, the surface of the stone slab, in addition to the vague markings from before, began to reveal more, clearer, and more complex brand-new runes.

These runes combined together no longer seemed to be simple descriptions, but rather... a star map?

No, it was more complex and grander than a star map.

It looked like a vast, strictly ranked distribution map of "Divine Realm" forces, or perhaps... a map of a "hunting ground" spread across the endless Void Realm.

And the Divine Lord who had almost descended just now seemed to occupy only an insignificant little dot on this magnificent map.