241: Storm of Creation

Li Dong stepped out, as if crossing an invisible threshold.

Outside the threshold was absolute silence, the "stability point" he had just created with his own hands.

Inside the threshold, the entire Universe was roaring.

A violent flow of energy surged forward instantly, carrying the immense power to tear galaxies into dust.

But as it approached within three feet of Li Dong, this energy seemed to collide with an invisible wall, emitting piercing screeches, yet unable to advance even an inch.

It was as if he formed a world unto himself, remaining completely unmoved regardless of the storm raging outside.

"This commotion is much louder than when the 'True Lord' went mad," Li Dong remarked, looking around in wonder.

The scenery here could not be explained by any known Laws of physics.

On his left, a brand-new star was being born at billions of times the normal speed; its light and heat had just erupted before being swallowed in the next instant by a black hole that appeared out of thin air, leaving no time even for a sound.

On his right, a magnificent galaxy was taking shape; before its spiral arms could even be fully outlined, all the Laws that constituted it suddenly collapsed, turning into the most chaotic stream of particles and annihilating with another newly born concept of "death."

Countless bizarre and fantastical life forms flashed and vanished within the storm.

Li Dong saw with his own eyes a giant whale with crystal wings swim out from nothingness; its song was a brand-new Law capable of constructing stable space.

But before it could finish a single syllable, its body was invaded by another completely contradictory Law of "distortion," instantly turning into a meaningless lump of flesh before dissipating.

Life and death, creation and destruction, were compressed into the same instant here.

"Even a kaleidoscope isn't this colorful," he muttered, feeling that his imagination appeared somewhat barren in such a place.

Just then, several streaks of light rushed out from the depths of the storm.

These were several humanoid creatures condensed from pure energy; they had no facial features, no fixed form, and their bodies constantly flowed and shifted like boiling magma.

They were the "native inhabitants" of this storm, the manifestation of chaotic Laws.

As soon as they appeared, they instinctively locked onto Li Dong as an "alien object."

There was no roaring, no Killing Intent; they simply raised their arms.

The next moment, an invisible impact acted directly upon Li Dong's Divine Soul.

This was not an energy attack, nor was it a mental assault, but something more primitive and domineering—a collision of Laws.

It was like someone playing a hundred discordant instruments in your ear, simultaneously sounding a hundred chaotic melodies, trying to forcibly destroy the original melody in your mind.

If an ordinary Mahayana Cultivator were standing here, their Dao Heart would be crushed in an instant by this torrent of chaotic information, and their Divine Soul would disintegrate.

But Li Dong merely raised an eyebrow.

"You're disturbing the peace with that noise, everyone."

He didn't even lift a finger; the Law shield surrounding him vibrated slightly, smoothing and straightening out all the chaotic Laws acting upon his Divine Soul, ultimately turning them into the purest stream of information that he absorbed.

Not only did it fail to hurt him, but it actually gave him a better understanding of the environment here.

The humanoid energy creatures seemed to pause, as if unable to understand why their attacks were like throwing a clay ox into the sea.

They possessed no intelligence, only instinct.

Instinct told them to eliminate this alien presence.

Thus, they converged, forming an even larger energy spear, and charged at Li Dong again.

"Are you never going to stop?"

This time, Li Dong did not defend passively.

He extended his right hand, pressed his index and middle fingers together, and made a light sweeping motion toward the energy spear.

An invisible edge flashed by.

[Law Scalpel].

The imposing energy spear, while still a hundred zhang away from Li Dong, was abruptly and silently severed down the middle.

The cut was impossibly smooth, as if it had been composed of two halves from the start.

Then, the countless chaotic Laws that constituted it, as if having lost their backbone, collapsed and dispersed, merging back into the surrounding storm.

"Hmm... as expected." Li Dong stroked his chin.

With that strike just now, he hadn't merely severed it; he had analyzed the internal composition of these energy creatures at the moment of contact.

"A tangled mess, but they all have a single thread connecting them in the middle."

He discovered that although the internal Laws of these energy creatures were a chaotic mess, they all had a thread of Laws at their core—extremely faint but incredibly tough—that connected directly to the Origin of the entire Universe.

They were "energy sparks" sputtered out when the Origin of the Universe was self-repairing.

"In other words, theoretically... it's possible to reason with them?"

A thought surfaced in his mind.

Li Dong looked at another newly born, jellyfish-shaped energy creature not far away.

He decided to try a different approach.

He did not use the "cut" power of the [Law Scalpel] again, but instead carefully extended his own Origin power as a Tuner, gently touching the energy creature like a soft tuning fork.

His power was the Laws of the Universe, integrated, sorted, and brought to perfect harmony.

When this power was infused into the jellyfish-like creature, a marvelous change occurred.

The Laws that had originally been violently conflicting within the jellyfish creature, as if encountering their "sovereign," instantly became docile.

Its originally constantly shifting form began to stabilize, its body became crystal clear, and the light it emitted was no longer chaotic and blinding, but soft, tranquil, and full of the beauty of new birth.

It even gently swayed its tentacles toward Li Dong, as if expressing affection.

"Hey, it works." Li Dong's lips were just about to curl up.

But the next second, the more violent storm energy from the surroundings surged back in, like a giant wave shattering a small spray of water.

The jellyfish that had just been Attuned couldn't even hold on for half a second before being shattered by the massive chaotic energy, turning back into the most primitive particles.

The smile on Li Dong's lips froze.

"Fine, I take back what I just said," he sighed. "It was naive of me to try and reason with a Universe that's throwing a tantrum."

Treating the symptoms but not the root cause.

Trying to soothe these energy creatures one by one was as meaningless as trying to bail out an entire ocean with a ladle.

He looked up toward the deepest part of the storm.

That was where the "Genesis Engine" was located, the source of this chaos.

The heart of the Universe was beating wildly and uncontrollably there; he had to go and perform a "heart rate regulation" on it.

He stopped lingering, took a step, and walked toward the core of the storm.

The further in he went, the more terrifying the pressure became.

The concepts of time and space had almost completely failed here; every step Li Dong took felt like crossing a world that was in the midst of birth and destruction.

Just then, the [ancient stone slab] in his Sea of Consciousness, which had completely fused with the Origin of the Universe, suddenly emitted a faint resonance.

It was not a warning, nor was it a coordinate pointing the way.

It was a feeling, like suddenly hearing a note that, while faint, was exceptionally harmonious amidst countless noises.

"Hmm?"

Li Dong stopped and looked in the direction of that resonance.

Through his [Void Eye], the entire storm was filled with countless entangled, colliding, and broken Law lines.

But within that chaotic "tangle of threads," he keenly captured a thread that was different from the rest.

That thread was very thin, yet exceptionally tough.

It did not participate in any collisions, but instead traced a path that seemed tortuous yet was actually perfect amidst the birth and destruction of countless Laws, like a fish swimming upstream against a rushing waterfall.

"Is this... the 'rhythm' of the storm?" Li Dong mused.

Any chaos, even Universe-level chaos, must have its inherent Laws.

This "Genesis Storm" might seem devoid of rules, but it was, after all, a part of the Universe's Origin, and its core must follow some sort of fundamental logic.

This "harmonious" Law vein might be the key to reaching the core.

"At least I don't have to brute-force my way in anymore."

Just as he was about to move forward along this vein, the entire Genesis Storm seemed to be enraged.

An unprecedentedly powerful tide of energy erupted suddenly from the core of the storm!

All the energy and all the Law fragments within the storm converged madly toward a single point, like soldiers receiving an order.

Countless energy creatures that had just been attacking and annihilating each other were now merging into one.

A massive phantom, so huge it could not be measured by sight, slowly took shape within the storm.

It had no fixed form, just a mass of deeper darkness, as if the will of the entire storm had condensed upon it.

A pure, vast, and emotionless instinct for destruction came crushing toward Li Dong like a landslide and tsunami.

Li Dong stopped and looked up at the behemoth.

"Oh? Has the storm's immune System activated? Treating me like an invading virus?"

Far from being nervous, he smiled instead.

"That's fine, it saves me from having to find them one by one."

He knew this was the storm's self-defense reaction, and also the ultimate test for him as a Tuner.

If he wanted to perform surgery on the heart of the Universe, he had to get past this pericardial membrane first.

Li Dong gently stretched his muscles and bones, emitting a few faint cracking sounds.

"Come on, let me see just how much commotion this newborn power of the Universe can make."