304: Village of Despair

That strand of a distress signal, mixed with fear and unwillingness, was like a red-hot steel needle, piercing the curtain of this dead, silent world.

Li Dong followed it, walking deeper into the black mist.

Despair Mountains.

The air here, when inhaled into the lungs, felt like swallowing a handful of damp rust; every speck of dust carried the weight of decay.

The spiritual plants along the way had long since lost the luster of life.

A blood-colored exotic flower that should have been in full bloom was frozen at the very moment before it could open; its petals presented a strange, semi-transparent crystalline texture, its vitality eternally locked away.

This was "Stasis".

It was not death, but a punishment crueler than death—an eternal, inescapable cycle.

Passing through a graveyard of jagged beast bones, the outline of a dilapidated village loomed in the thick fog.

In the wind, there was no wailing, only a deathly silence that seeped into the marrow, a silence of ultimate despair.

On the crooked stone tablet at the village entrance, two ancient, long-blurred characters were carved, now smeared beyond recognition by dried, blackened blood.

On the ground lay scattered fragments of Magical Artifacts and human remains that had turned into dry bones.

A child's arm bone still tightly clutched a worn-out rattle-drum.

Li Dong's footsteps halted.

He sensed the aura of life.

Weak, yet real.

They were like rats hiding in a damp burrow, huddled in a concealed cellar in the center of the village, enveloped in immense fear, trembling.

Just then, the sound of heavy, rhythmic armor clanking broke the village's deathly silence.

A squad of soldiers.

They wore jet-black standard-issue armor engraved with complex Demon Suppression seals, but the edges of the armor were covered in scratches and damage, as if they had endured countless brutal battles.

The Demon Suppression Army.

They were the world's defensive line against demons, the guardians of order.

However, their subsequent actions had nothing to do with the word "guardian".

The eyes beneath the captain's visor scanned the ruins, devoid of any pity, filled only with programmatic coldness.

"Search."

One word, as cold as iron.

The soldiers immediately dispersed, using their long halberds to roughly overturn collapsed roof beams and kick aside the bones on the ground.

Soon, the cellar hiding the survivors was discovered.

"Captain, there are survivors here, seven of them, one is a child."

The cellar's wooden cover was violently ripped open, and a few beams of bleak daylight shone in, illuminating several terrified and desperate faces.

The source of that distress signal was one of the children, about five or six years old.

His body was tainted with faint Devilish Qi, an inevitable result of long-term exposure to the environment of the Despair Mountains.

The captain walked over and glanced down.

His gaze lingered on the child for a moment.

"Source of infection."

He spat out the three words as if reading a report that had nothing to do with him.

"Purify... all of them."

The order was given.

A soldier expressionlessly raised his long halberd, the sharp tip aimed at the child in the cellar who was tightly clutching his mother's thigh, trembling with fear.

No trial.

No screening.

Only cold, absolute "cleansing".

This was the "Absolute Order" of the Demon Suppression Division.

To prevent the spread of Devilish Qi, any potential "contaminated body" had to be completely erased on a physical level.

They used one kind of rigid "Stasis" to counter another "Stasis".

Using a rusty lock to lock another lock.

Pathetic.

The long halberd whistled through the air as it thrust down violently!

In the cellar, the woman's scream was choked in her throat by fear, and she could only watch helplessly as death descended.

However, the halberd tip stopped.

It stopped less than an inch from the child's forehead, as if it had struck an invisible wall, unable to advance even a fraction further.

Time was stretched at this moment.

Everyone's gaze subconsciously turned toward the village entrance.

Unknowingly, someone had appeared there.

Li Dong.

He just stood there quietly, not even looking at the soldier who was committing the act.

He looked at the child, raised his hand, and gently pointed at the Void Realm.

【Attunement】.

A power that could not be understood or observed descended instantly.

On that child's body, strands of visible Devilish Qi, resembling black snakes, were forcefully stripped from his flesh!

They let out silent shrieks, trying to struggle, but were tightly pinned down by a higher-level Law.

Hiss—

In mid-air, the black gas was decomposed and transformed, ultimately becoming the purest life energy, emitting a faint, glowing light, which fell back onto the child like a gentle rain of light.

The gray markings on the child's face caused by the erosion of Devilish Qi faded at a speed visible to the naked eye.

His pale little face regained its color.

He took a sharp breath of fresh air, free from any hint of rust, and then began to cough violently, coughing out the filth that had accumulated in his lungs for days.

The entire process took less than a breath.

Dead silence.

The scene fell into an eerie silence.

The soldiers of the Demon Suppression Army, including the captain, all froze.

They looked at the child who had recovered his health, then at the mysterious man standing at the village entrance, their brains feeling as if they had been filled with lead, unable to function.

What kind of method is this?

Stripping away Devilish Qi? And converting it into vitality?

This... this violates the ironclad rules of the Demon Suppression Realm for millions of years!

"Who are you!"

The captain of the Demon Suppression Army was the first to react; he violently drew his standard-issue long blade from his waist, pointing the tip toward Li Dong from afar, and demanded sternly.

"How dare you interfere with the Demon Suppression Division's execution of the 'Purification' iron Law!"

"This is shaking the Foundation of my Demon Suppression Realm!"

His voice was filled with rage at having the rules broken.

Li Dong finally moved his gaze away from the child and landed on the captain's face.

His eyes were calm and waveless.

"Your order is wrong."

A casual sentence, yet it was like a thunderclap from the Nine Heavens, exploding in the minds of all the Demon Suppression Army soldiers.

"Arrogant!"

The captain laughed in extreme anger.

"Take down this heretic who blasphemes against order!"

With the order given, over a dozen Demon Suppression Army soldiers sprang into action simultaneously.

Their movements were like lightning, their coordination seamless, as they formed a battle formation from all directions, sealing off all of Li Dong's escape routes.

Blade light and halberd shadows intertwined into a net of death.

Their attacks were precise, efficient, and filled with a mechanical beauty.

However, when this net neared within three feet of Li Dong's body, an incredibly absurd scene occurred.

A soldier's long blade, aimed at Li Dong's heart, weirdly veered off course halfway, and with a squelch, it stabbed into the back of his companion's heart.

Another energy slash aimed at Li Dong's head traced a beautiful arc in the air, precisely turned back, and cut the wielder in half at the waist.

Chaos.

Utter chaos.

The soldiers seemed to have become blind; their attacks perfectly avoided Li Dong, but landed on their own people from the most devious angles.

Screams, the clash of weapons, and the sound of bones shattering rose and fell.

In just a few breaths, more than half of the dozen well-trained Demon Suppression Army soldiers had fallen, and the rest were all wounded, looking at each other in terror, completely unable to understand what had happened.

Li Dong, from beginning to end, had not moved a single step.

【Dynamic Equilibrium】.

When order becomes rigid to the extreme, any slight Variable can cause it to collapse on itself.

The captain watched with eyes splitting from anger, his whole body turning cold.

He finally realized that what he was facing was not an existence that could be understood at all.

Fear overcame his anger.

He turned and wanted to flee.

But a blade, silently and soundlessly, was already resting against his neck.

【Blade of Judgment】.

The blade was jet-black and non-reflective, yet sharper than any divine weapon in the world, because what it severed were concepts.

The captain stiffened all over; he could feel that his energy link to the world's "withered order" had been... severed by this blade.

The spiritual power within him was rapidly dissipating!

"You... what exactly are you..." His voice trembled, his teeth chattering.

Li Dong did not answer.

He simply channeled a thought, following the edge of the 【Blade of Judgment】, and forcibly poured it into the captain's mind.

【Return to Zero】.

In an instant, the captain experienced true nothingness.

His name, his memories, his sense of existence, everything of him, was being erased bit by bit by an invisible eraser.

He was about to no longer be himself; even the concept of having "once existed" would be deleted.

"Aaaaahhh—!"

Extreme fear caused his mind to completely collapse.

His legs went weak, he fell to his knees, his crotch became wet and warm, and a pungent, foul odor spread.

"Heretic... Variable... don't... don't erase me!"

Li Dong withdrew the Blade of Judgment.

He didn't even look at the captain who had been ruined, but turned and walked toward the cellar.

A gentle force, like a spring breeze, swept over.

【Source of Dynamic Equilibrium】.

The Devilish Qi of the entire village was instantly purified.

The villagers in the cellar felt a long-lost warmth that reached deep into their Souls.

Their physical pain and inner despair were slowly soothed by this power.

They cautiously climbed out of the cellar, looking at the god-like figure outside, and the captain of the Demon Suppression Army who was kneeling not far behind him, scared out of his wits.

Hope.

In their long-dead eyes, a tiny flame was reignited.

The remaining Demon Suppression Army soldiers, already terrified by the scene that transcended their cognition, scrambled and fled the village that had caused their worldview to collapse.

They had to bring this news back.

In the Despair Mountains, an incomprehensible "Variable" had appeared.

An existence... capable of defining "order".

Li Dong heard the cold and playful sigh of The Chess Player coming from afar.

He knew that this storm, which would sweep across the entire Xuanhuan world, had only just begun.

His first step was not to slay demons.

But to correct the "order" that this world had long since distorted.