255: New Order

"Crack..."

A sound of shattering, so faint it was almost non-existent, rang out in this absolute space, which had been completely sealed by the power of Law, yet it sounded incredibly jarring.

On the flawless body of the "Judge," which was composed of pure Law of Order, a crack appeared—a crack that could not be accommodated by logic.

This crack did not stem from the crushing force of power, but from a conceptual negation.

Li Dong, with his own existence, negated the "rationality" of this Judge's existence.

"I am my own Order."

As his voice fell, the phantom of the Judge collapsed with a roar, transforming into billions of Law runes flickering with cold light, dissipating into the Void Realm like a sand painting blown away by the wind.

However, these runes did not completely disappear.

With a thought from Li Dong, an invisible vortex quietly emerged beside him—[Eternal Prison].

Those scattered Law of Order runes, like tired birds having found their home, rushed into the vortex.

A torrent of information, cold, vast, and precise to an outrageous degree, instantly washed over Li Dong's Divine Soul.

That was the most Origin interpretation of "Order," one of the bottom-most codes of the machine that is the Universe.

"Good grief, this is truly... a great supplement."

Li Dong smacked his lips, feeling as if he had swallowed a whole PhD thesis on astrophysics, the kind that even included the derivation process of universal constants.

Each rune represented an absolute Law, cold, rigorous, and allowing no Variable.

He could even feel his own thinking being assimilated by this power, possessing an urge to quantify, categorize, and neatly arrange everything in the world.

"Stop."

Li Dong's Divine Thought shuddered, forcibly extinguishing this urge.

He "savored" the new insights digested and absorbed by [Eternal Prison] with keen interest, much like a gourmet analyzing the recipe of a dish.

"The structure is good, the logic is tight, but the taste is too bland; there's no surprise at all."

He raised his head, looked at the remaining few Judge phantoms that were clearly "experiencing program lag," and grinned.

"Now, who else wants to try 'debugging' me?"

The remaining Judges did not respond; they simply hovered quietly, their perfect halos of Law appearing to have a trace of imperceptible disorder.

The "Hand of Order" behind them fell into silence.

Li Dong knew that the other party was "thinking."

An ultimate programmer who viewed the Universe as code had encountered a "BUG" that could not be defined.

It couldn't be deleted, couldn't be killed, and would even turn around and absorb your "antivirus program" to upgrade itself.

This was no longer a BUG; this was a virus, and the kind with autonomous learning capabilities at that.

"What? Did your CPU burn out?"

Li Dong continued to provoke the Void Realm with his words, "Do you want me to help you optimize your algorithm? For the sake of us both being 'Universe maintenance personnel,' I'll give you a 20% discount."

The silence remained.

But the next moment, those few lagging Judge phantoms did not launch another attack as Li Dong had expected, nor were they replaced by a more powerful force.

They... just started to self-dissolve like that.

The process was extremely smooth, without collapse or explosion, just like a program that had finished running, shutting down all processes in an orderly manner and then being cleared from memory.

They transformed into the purest glimmer of Law, slowly retreating back into the deeper parts of the Void Realm.

Coming abruptly, retreating decisively.

[...]

A thought resonated once more, but this time, it was no longer a warning, nor was it anger; it was more like a meaningless echo signifying "acknowledged."

That suffocating will of judgment that had shrouded the entire galaxy receded like the tide.

"Is that it?"

Li Dong raised an eyebrow, "Not fighting anymore? I thought you would at least drop a harsh line, like 'I'll be back' or something."

He spread his hands toward the empty Void Realm, "How boring, you have absolutely no professionalism as a villain."

Although he said this, Li Dong knew very well in his heart that this was not the end, but a brand new beginning.

With his actions, he had forcibly chiseled an irregular hole into that perfect chessboard named "Order."

The "Hand of Order" did not choose to fill it immediately, but chose to take a step back and re-examine the structure of the entire chessboard.

Was it convinced by him? No, impossible.

It only discovered that, using the original methods, it could no longer handle this "Variable."

Li Dong no longer paid attention to the will that had already departed, turning his focus instead to the galaxy beneath his feet that had just undergone a massive cleanup.

With the purification of the Negative Core and the retreat of the "Hand of Order," the violent Law that had shrouded this place for countless years was rapidly dissipating.

The blood-colored mist permeating the stardust gradually faded, revealing the true colors of the stars.

Some stars even began to radiate warmth instead of manic light once more.

The "Universe Arena" he had established also lost its function, dissipating into points of light.

Countless living beings within the galaxy were freed from the endless fighting, looking at their own hands in a daze, looking at their former enemies, the madness in their eyes fading, replaced by long-lasting confusion and the exhaustion of having survived a catastrophe.

Streams of newborn thoughts gathered, filled with gratitude and hope.

Li Dong did not appear to accept this gratitude.

He was not a savior; he was just a passing "renovation worker" who had casually fixed a "sewage System" that had been designed extremely poorly.

"Hmm, this looks much more pleasing to the eye now."

He nodded with satisfaction, "Dynamic Equilibrium, life and death, chaos and rebirth—this is what a healthy Universe ecosystem is."

He left a protective mark for this reborn galaxy, counting as "after-sales service."

This mark could not withstand an existence of the "Hand of Order" level, but it was enough to ensure that this weak world would not be disturbed by petty villains during its recovery period.

After doing all this, he prepared to set off for the next location.

However, the moment he was about to tear through space and leave, he paused.

It came again.

That gaze.

Unlike the cold, emotionless, scanner-like surveillance of the "Hand of Order," this gaze... was very special.

If the "Hand of Order's" prying was System monitoring from the "backend management," then this gaze was more like a guy sitting in the first row of the audience, watching everything happening on stage with keen interest.

Before, the feeling this gaze gave him was pure "observation."

But this time, Li Dong tasted a hint of something new in it.

It was "approval," and even a little bit of... "curiosity"?

Just like a top-tier Chess Player, seeing another player make a stunning, world-shocking move, and letting out a sigh of admiration.

"Hey, you watching the show."

Li Dong did not turn back; he simply sent a message with his Divine Thought toward a certain direction in the Void Realm.

"Did you pay for your ticket?"

That gaze fluctuated slightly, offering no response, but the "curiosity" became even more intense.

Li Dong smiled and said no more.

He understood now; with the curtain falling on the "True Lord," the table of the Universe, which had been silent for too long, finally had new players sitting down.

The "Hand of Order" was one, and this mysterious "Observer" was another.

In the future, there might be more.

That was fine; a stagnant pool of water was ultimately boring.

He once again sank his mind into the [ancient stone slab] within his body.

The warm energy of the stone slab flowed through his entire body, resonating faintly with the pulse of the entire Universe.

In his perception, deep within the Universe, points of light, some bright and some dim, emerged.

Those were not stars, but "anomaly zones."

Some were eroded by the residual power of the Old Ones, like rotting wounds;

Some had overly concentrated newborn cosmic energy, like malformed tumors;

And others, like the galaxy just now, were twisted by some paranoid Law, caught in a dead loop.

These were all lesions waiting for him to "Attunement."

Everything he was doing now was no longer just fixing BUGs.

He was demonstrating a brand new possibility to the entire Universe, especially to those awakening ancient existences.

The future of the Universe should not only have the options of "Order" and "Chaos."

"Time to go."

Li Dong muttered to himself, took a step out, and his figure transformed into a stream of light, instantly disappearing at the edge of the galaxy.

Ahead of him lay the endless sea of stars and unknown challenges.

The game with the "Hand of Order" had just begun, the stance of that mysterious "Observer" was unclear, and in the deeper, darker side of the Universe, who knew how many sleeping monsters were slowly opening their eyes.

But Li Dong's figure showed not a hint of hesitation.

His back, like a beam of light cutting through the curtain of the old era, heralded the arrival of a brand new era full of infinite possibilities.