267: Shadow of God

Li Dong did not hesitate in the slightest.

The moment his consciousness probe touched that rift, he made his decision.

Not to step in.

But to crash in!

Using his body as a vessel and his soul as a sail, he, along with the 【ancient stone slab】 that carried all his Laws and memories, violently charged into that absolute "blind spot" which represented the ultimate malady of the Universe.

Hum—

There was no earth-shattering roar, no dazzling light of colliding Laws.

In an instant, the world lost all sound, color, and meaning.

Li Dong's consciousness was suddenly dragged in, torn apart, and then thrown into a bizarre dimension by an irresistible force.

Here, there was no up, down, left, or right, no past or future.

Before his eyes were countless fragmented images.

A star was cooling and extinguishing at a speed visible to the naked eye; the concepts of its "heat" and "light" were being crudely erased as if by an eraser.

A rushing river of time snapped abruptly at a certain node; the cause of the first half would never wait for the effect of the second half.

Phantoms of countless civilizations rising and falling floated chaotically like shredded frames of film, without logic or order.

This was a graveyard of concepts.

It was the ruins of the logic of the Universe.

【Warning! Warning! Unknown... conc... erosion detected! Data... stream... loss...】

【Logic... broken... chain...】

The Observer's intent came through intermittently, like an old radio soaked in water, filled with sharp static and the panic of being on the verge of collapse.

Its proud archiving and analysis capabilities were completely ineffective here.

Because everything here denied the very existence of "information."

Li Dong did not respond.

He was enduring an unprecedented impact.

A cold, viscous, and pervasive "something" was seeping in from all directions.

It was not energy, not a Law, and not even a form of intent.

It was... "dissolving" him.

Li Dong felt his left hand becoming foreign; he could "see" it, but he was losing the cognition of the concept of "hand."

What was it? A limb? A tool? Or a meaningless aggregate?

Immediately after, it was his memories.

Those images of Earth, the voices and faces of his parents, and all the battles and choices he had experienced along the way were fading.

Like a photograph being washed repeatedly, the details were vanishing, and the outlines were blurring.

The 【ancient stone slab】 erupted with unprecedented light, like a stubborn reef, desperately guarding Li Dong's core cognition of "self."

On the slab, those Law runes representing 【Attunement】 and 【Anti-Devour】 were flickering at an unprecedented speed, resisting that silent erosion.

Just then, an image unfolded before Li Dong without warning.

It was a perfect Universe.

No strife, no death; all things coexisted in harmony, and every life was bathed in eternal happiness.

Order was tidy, and the equilibrium was perfect.

A gentle voice rang out in the depths of his heart: "Stop, this is the ultimate 'Attunement' you seek. Stay, and you shall become the Dominator of this eternal harmony."

Immediately after, the image shifted.

It was that azure planet deep in his memories, where his parents were smiling and waving at him.

No apocalypse, no crisis.

Home was right before his eyes.

"Come back, child; there have been enough battles."

Any existence with even the slightest wavering will would sink in an instant.

Because these illusions were not false.

They were possibilities "truly" constructed based on Li Dong's own concepts.

As long as he nodded, he would be forever "defined" in that most beautiful moment, thereby giving up moving forward, abandoning the essence of the "Variable," and becoming a part of this silence.

In the depths of Li Dong's Divine Soul, the musical note representing the 【Attunement】 Law suddenly sounded.

It was not a harmonious movement.

But a rhapsody filled with dissonance and change!

"My 'Attunement' is to let life have infinite possibilities, not to become a stagnant pool!"

"My home needs me to protect it, not to rot in false comfort!"

Boom!

All the illusions before him, like a mirror smashed by a great force, disintegrated with a roar.

Li Dong's will, like a red-hot blade, pierced through this gentle trap.

His gaze penetrated the layers of conceptual fog and looked deeper.

There, he saw another group of "intruders."

They were the judges of the Hand of Order.

Their bodies were composed of the purest and most rigid Laws of order, emitting a cold radiance, attempting to "format" this chaotic area.

However, the moment they stepped into this area.

A bizarre scene occurred.

A judge raised its arm, preparing to release the "Judgment" Law.

But its arm, along with the "Judgment" concept it represented, just disappeared... silently.

Not destroyed, not decomposed.

Just vanished into thin air.

As if the words "arm" and "judgment" had been deleted from the dictionary of the Universe.

The judge froze; its logic core could not process this situation.

The next second, its entire body, like a weathered sand sculpture, turned into the most primitive conceptual fragments amidst a silent fluctuation and drifted away in this void.

It couldn't even emit a wail.

Li Dong's heart chilled.

He understood.

The Hand of Order, this Universe's "antivirus program," was utterly vulnerable before the true "virus."

Because it was itself a set of solidified programs; when encountering a virus that could directly tamper with the underlying code, it couldn't even run.

Only he, the "Variable" that did not play by the rules, could... survive in this environment.

He continued forward.

【Law Scalpel】 under the control of his intent, silently sliced open the conceptual fog ahead.

He was not destroying, but "dissecting."

He wanted to see clearly the operational mechanism of this "True Lord" Law.

Soon, in these conceptual ruins, he discovered some things that did not belong to this era.

They were wrecks of unimaginable size.

Some looked like an ark forged from star rivers, now only a twisted keel remained, covered with incomprehensible symbols; those symbols themselves seemed to be crying silently.

Some looked like a giant tower reaching from heaven to earth, its body pierced by a Law of "absolute stillness," forever remaining at the moment before its collapse.

Relics of the old era.

They were the tragic tombstones left behind by those great civilizations that had also reached the apex in the previous, or the one before that, cosmic era, while fighting against the "True Lord."

They had also been glorious, and they had also tried to resist.

But in the end, along with the meaning of their existence, they were all erased.

Li Dong's heart felt no fear; instead, a more intense flame burned within it.

He had to win.

Not only for himself, but also for these precursors who had not even left their names behind.

Passing through this vast graveyard of ruins, the scene ahead suddenly opened up.

Li Dong stopped his steps.

His Divine Soul felt the deepest pain of the Origin of the Universe.

Because he "saw" a scene... an "opera" currently being performed.

A scene, an opera titled "Overture of Fragmentation."

No stage, no audience.

Only an area most deeply eroded by the "True Lord" concept.

There, a newborn star had just ignited its light.

Then, the concept of its "light" was extracted.

It became a star that only existed in darkness.

Immediately after, the concept of its "heat" was extracted.

It became a cold stone.

Then, "mass," "gravity," "existence"...

One by one, the fundamental concepts that constituted why it was what it was were elegantly and cruelly removed, one after another.

In the end, this star did not explode, did not annihilate.

It just... returned to "Nothingness."

Not void, but a more thorough, ultimate silence where even the concept of "Nothingness" itself did not exist.

Li Dong saw countless such "overtures" being performed simultaneously in every corner of this area.

Life, Laws, emotions, memories...

All the beautiful things in the Universe filled with "Variables" were here, being dismantled step by step, methodically, elegantly...

Dismantled into the purest "meaninglessness."

This was the core of the "True Lord."

It was not an entity, not a will.

It was the ultimate manifestation of "Absolute Equilibrium."

It viewed all "Variables" in the Universe as "noise" that must be corrected.

Its goal was to let the entire Universe return to that most primitive, most perfect, most balanced...

Eternal silence.

And Li Dong, the greatest "Variable" of this Universe, was undoubtedly... the most jarring noise in its eyes.