284: Balanced Tower

Mo Chen led Li Dong through twists and turns into an alley forgotten by the twilight.

At the end of the alley stood a stone door, almost fused with the wall, covered in withered vines that looked like solidified blood vessels.

"This is it." Mo Chen's voice was low, carrying a pilgrim-like tension, "Before the 'Great Silence,' all the history and wisdom of our world were hidden in here."

He pushed open the stone door with great effort, and a cloud of dust, thick enough to choke a person, rushed towards them.

This was an archive of ancient books, but it had long since lost its literary scent, leaving only decay and deathly silence.

The bookshelves were crooked, most had collapsed, and countless books were scattered on the ground, covered in dust, turning into rigid "stone slabs."

Mo Chen carefully stepped around the "book skeletons" on the floor, his eyes full of pity. "Law Enforcers don't like history because history is full of 'Variables'."

Li Dong didn't speak, just walked in. He didn't flip through the fragile paper; his Divine Thought poured out like spilled mercury, silently infiltrating every grain of dust and every piece of scrap page.

The information suppressed by the "equilibrium" Law, which had almost dissipated, reassembled into fragmented images and text before him.

In the world that once was, the sky was blue, the grass was green, people would laugh out loud and weep bitterly. Artists depicted their imagination with the most unrestrained colors, and scholars argued endlessly over different viewpoints. The whole world was full of vitality, and also full of... chaos.

Then, the "Lord of Equilibrium" descended.

The records in the ancient books began to reveal a bone-chilling fear at this point. It was not a destroyer, but came in the name of "Correction" and "Protection," claiming that "Variables" were the root of pain and destruction, and only "Absolute Equilibrium" was the eternal salvation.

Thus, colors were stripped away, emotions were smoothed out, and creativity was regarded as a taboo.

The world was locked into a grayish-yellow glass jar, becoming a specimen that never changed and never lived.

"Outsider..." Li Dong muttered to himself.

He thought of the "True Lord" he had reduced to zero, and also of the Void Mother Nest. These guys from outside the Universe always had such bizarre logic.

"One likes to delete files and start over, formatting everything."

"One likes to parasitize and devour, treating the Universe like a buffet."

"Now here comes another one who likes to turn living worlds into specimens and lock them in a gallery for self-appreciation... The hobbies really are strange."

Mo Chen beside him didn't hear his muttering, but pointed to a relatively intact piece of parchment, his voice trembling: "Here... it records that the power core of the 'Lord of Equilibrium' is in that tower in the center of the city."

He looked out the window; although it couldn't be seen from here, the shadow of that tower was branded into the heart of every citizen.

"'equilibrium Tower'... All the power of the Law Enforcers originates from there. It is the throne of the 'Lord of Equilibrium' and also the... tombstone of our world." Mo Chen's fists clenched unconsciously, "No one dares to approach it. It is said that any 'Variable' that gets close to it will be instantly 'corrected,' without leaving even a trace."

Li Dong "looked" in the direction of his gaze, his Divine Thought piercing through layers of buildings, locking onto the gray giant tower piercing the clouds. It was like a huge nail, firmly pinning the entire world into this eternal twilight.

"Then let's go take a look." Li Dong withdrew his gaze, his tone as flat as if he were saying "going for a walk."

"Huh?" Mo Chen was stunned.

"Go see how this 'heart' beats."

Mo Chen opened his mouth, but eventually swallowed all the words of dissuasion. From Li Dong, he saw a kind of self-confidence he couldn't understand; this self-confidence itself was the biggest "Variable" in this world.

As soon as the two walked out of the archive, the surrounding air instantly solidified.

It wasn't a metaphor; it was true solidification.

The dust floating in the air stopped. The slight swaying of the shop signs in the distance, blown by the wind, stopped. The half-step Mo Chen had just taken also froze in mid-air, and even the expression of shock on his face became an eternal sculpture.

Time had been pressed on the pause button.

Four figures appeared silently at the four corners of the street. They were taller than ordinary Law Enforcers, their uniforms were a deep ink-gray, and the blurry mist on their faces had almost materialized. They were the elite of the Law Enforcers, the "Suppressors."

They had no eyes, but four invisible "gazes" had already locked onto Li Dong, the only one still able to move.

"High-risk Variable detected... Executing 'Absolute Stasis'."

The cold intention echoed in the solidified time and space.

Li Dong, however, acted as if nothing had happened, even having the leisure to inspect the "frozen" Mo Chen.

"This move is not bad, it has more artistic sense than the 'formatting' of those judges from the Hand of Order."

He raised his hand, pressed his index and middle fingers together, and gently slashed at the Void Realm.

[Law Scalpel].

There was no light, no sound.

But for those four Suppressors, the world had undergone an earth-shattering change at this moment. The invisible Law link between them and the "equilibrium Tower," that "umbilical cord" that supplied them with endless power, was severed in one stroke!

Hum!

Time resumed its flow.

The ink-gray uniforms on the four Suppressors instantly faded back to ordinary gray-white, the blurry mist on their faces dissipated, revealing four blank and hollow faces. The "equilibrium" Law within them lost its source and began to clash and conflict wildly.

Thump, thump...

The four "elite Law Enforcers" fell to the ground one after another like puppets with cut strings, completely losing all signs of life.

"I... I just..." Mo Chen gasped for air. He only felt his heart skip a beat, and then he saw those four terrifying Suppressors fall.

"It's fine, their internet connection was cut," Li Dong explained casually.

Before Mo Chen could digest the meaning of this sentence, Li Dong urged: "Let's go, the main person should have already discovered us."

Sure enough, the closer they got to the city center, the more terrifying the surrounding pressure became.

The air became as viscous as mercury, and every step felt like carrying a mountain. The suppression at the Law level was everywhere, as if the entire world was rejecting them, trying to crush these two "foreign objects" into powder.

Li Dong's [Attunement] Law was also greatly affected here, becoming extremely obscure to operate.

"This is suppressing all 'Variables' directly from the root of the concept... Interesting."

He could feel that this power was not just simple energy pressure, but a higher-level "Rule Pollution." It was telling all the Laws within Li Dong: "You shouldn't move, you shouldn't exist, stasis is the only correct state."

Mo Chen could no longer hold on. His legs went soft, his face turned pale, and it was only because of a wisp of power shared by Li Dong that he wasn't crushed to the ground.

Hum—

The [ancient stone slab] deep within Li Dong's Divine Soul vibrated slightly.

A primitive, desolate aura that seemed to transcend time and space permeated from Li Dong. Those "equilibrium" Laws entwined around him retreated like snakes encountering a natural enemy.

That terrifying pressure, capable of crushing stars into thin pancakes, was as docile as a kitten in front of the aura of the [ancient stone slab].

The two finally arrived at the foot of the equilibrium Tower.

The tower had no door. It was entirely composed of an unknown gray metal, its surface smooth as a mirror, yet exuding a deathly silence that swallowed all light.

"How do we get in?" Mo Chen looked up at the giant tower that had no visible top, feeling a smallness that came from the depths of his Soul.

"Doors are for guests," Li Dong said, reaching out to press directly against the cold tower body, "We are here to tear the house down, no need to be so polite."

[Anti-Devour]!

Where his palm touched, the indestructible tower body began to become transparent and ethereal at a speed visible to the naked eye, finally turning into the purest stream of Law information, which was absorbed by Li Dong.

A "hole" large enough for one person to pass through appeared out of thin air.

The two stepped into the tower, and the hole behind them instantly returned to its original state.

Inside the tower was a huge space, empty enough to be unsettling. Countless silver-white beams of light, like living creatures, crossed and patrolled in the space, weaving a net.

"Careful! That is the 'Eye of equilibrium'!" Mo Chen's voice was trembling, "If it shines on you, your entire person will be 'erased' from this world! It's not death, it's 'non-existence'!"

Before he could finish speaking, the "Eye of equilibrium" closest to them had already discovered these two "Impurities," instantly turning its direction and shooting over at a speed surpassing thought!

Mo Chen closed his eyes subconsciously.

However, the annihilation he expected did not happen.

He peeked through a slit in his eyes and saw a scene he would never forget in his life.

Li Dong just stood there, reached out, and grabbed the silver-white beam of light!

That beam, capable of erasing all concepts, struggled and twisted wildly in his palm, like a silver snake whose vital point was pinched, but it couldn't break free no matter what.

"Good stuff." Li Dong weighed the "light snake" in his hand, and the [Anti-Devour] Law was activated at full power, forcibly parsing and absorbing it.

Countless information flooded into his mind.

"So that's how it is... Using the Origin power of this world, mixed with imprisoned Souls, to make an 'eraser' to erase all the 'words' that don't listen."

Li Dong's tone carried a trace of coldness.

"This is no longer making specimens; this is slowly... eating this world." He finally understood the true purpose of the "Lord of Equilibrium."

The so-called "equilibrium" was just a pretext. Its essence was to build a huge energy conversion factory, slowly and firmly devouring the Origin of this world to strengthen itself. This was a more covert and insidious way of "parasitism" than the Void Mother Nest.

"Let's go, let's go see its power core."

Li Dong pulled Mo Chen, who was still dazed, and his figure flashed several times, avoiding all the patrol routes of the "Eyes of equilibrium," appearing directly at the bottom level of the tower.

Here was the energy hub of the entire tower.

However, what came into view was not some complex mechanical structure, but a huge, indescribable "soul furnace" formed by countless points of light.

Tens of thousands, or even hundreds of millions of Souls were imprisoned in this huge ball of light. They had no faces, no voices, only the purest consciousness remained, like fuel, being slowly burned to provide the Law power called "equilibrium" for the entire equilibrium Tower and all the Law Enforcers outside.

They couldn't scream, couldn't resist, and could only feel their existence being ground away bit by bit in the silent eternity.

Mo Chen knelt on the ground with a "thump." He felt familiar auras from those points of light. There were his neighbors, the teacher who once taught him to paint, and even his long-deceased relatives...

They hadn't died, but were imprisoned here, becoming the bricks and mortar of this world's huge cage.

On Li Dong's consistently flat face, an undisguised fury appeared for the first time.

That was not murderous intent, but a deeper, cold anger. He could accept the strength of an opponent, could accept the confrontation of Laws, but he could not accept this ultimate desecration of life.

He slowly raised his head, his gaze seeming to pierce through the layers of the tower, seeing the figure sitting on the throne at the top of the tower.

"I originally just wanted to play a game of chess with you and see your moves."

His voice wasn't loud, but it clearly echoed in the entire space at the bottom of the tower, and even followed the veins of the Law, reaching the top of the tower.

"Now it seems, I have to flip the table directly."