307: wanted

The Despair Mountains have come alive.

All things are recovering.

Monsters are also awakening.

The monsters, originally suppressed by the Law of "Stasis" and only knowing how to follow their instinct to kill, have begun to grow more violent and even more... cunning under the stimulation of the rich vitality.

A turmoil sweeping across the world has already begun.

"Newborn Town".

The Cultivators have also arrived.

...

Central Province.

Demon Suppression Headquarters.

Inside a black divine temple suspended above the firmament, there was not a sliver of light, only absolute silence and coldness.

Inside the hall, several figures as towering as mountains sat upon thrones; their faces were obscured by twisted Order runes, making them impossible to see clearly—they were the highest authorities of the Demon Suppression Division, the Order Celestial Sovereign.

Jade Slips recording anomalies from various regions flew into the hall like snowflakes, eventually hovering in the center.

"The Spiritual Veins of the Despair Mountains are recovering, and the withered Order is being covered by a... unknown 'Life Order'."

"Thirty-seven abandoned spiritual mines in the Eastern Region have regained their spiritual energy."

"The scale of the demon tide is expanding, and intelligent monster commanders have appeared."

Cold thoughts intertwined within the hall.

"Variable."

"A highly active Variable that cannot be contained by 'Absolute Equilibrium'."

Finally, a thought fell upon the intelligence regarding "Newborn Town" and Li Dong.

"It is him."

"He did this."

"Who exactly is this person? An ancient Devil Head? Or an evil demon from another world?"

"His power contradicts 'Stasis' and contradicts the root of 'Demon', yet it is fostering even greater 'chaos'."

The hall fell into a long silence.

They are the guardians of order, the executors of "Absolute Equilibrium".

Their lifelong pursuit is to bring everything in this world onto a set track and eliminate all "accidents".

And Li Dong is that greatest "accident".

Finally, the figure sitting at the very head, whose aura was the deepest and most terrifying, slowly opened its eyes.

They were not a pair of eyes, but two slowly rotating gray vortices composed of pure Law.

Order Celestial Sovereign.

He only spat out four words, yet it was as if he had issued a final verdict to the entire world.

"Locate, lock on, erase."

The next moment, a top-level wanted notice covering the entire Demon Suppression Realm was issued from the black divine temple, turning into billions of streams of runic light, shooting toward every branch of the Demon Suppression Division in the Nine Provinces of the world.

[Demon Suppression Wanted Notice · Sequence One]

[Wanted Target: Li Dong (Codename: Source of Variables)]

[Crime: Subverting world order, polluting the Law of Withering, releasing forbidden Spiritual Veins.]

[Verdict: Kill on sight.]

[Reward: One Heaven Rank Magic Treasure, ten Enlightenment Pills, and qualification to enter the Demon Suppression Divine Temple.]

Once the wanted notice was issued, the world was shaken.

Newborn Town.

Li Dong was standing on a ridge in the field, watching A Mu and the villagers happily harvesting the second season of golden wheat, a faint smile on his face.

Suddenly, he raised his head and looked toward the horizon.

His gaze seemed to penetrate thousands of miles of clouds, seeing the net of heaven and earth woven from Law that covered the entire world.

At the center of the net, a name was heavily marked by blood-red runes.

Li Dong.

A cold, emotionless sense of being locked on came from every corner of the world, like countless invisible poisonous needles, wanting to pierce into his Divine Soul.

"True trouble has arrived."

He whispered to himself.

A few days later.

The clear sky of Newborn Town was covered by a huge shadow.

A huge flying boat, cast entirely from black mysterious iron and engraved with grim runes, broke through the clouds like a mobile steel fortress, hovering above Newborn Town.

On the flying boat, over a hundred Demon Suppression Guards wearing standard silver armor, their auras cold and uniform, held Magical Artifacts and looked down expressionlessly.

At the lead was a Late Stage Nascent Soul captain; there were no emotions of a living person in his eyes, only a coldness like a program.

"Who is the person in charge of Newborn Town below?"

The voice diffused through magic power, like thunder, exploding above the small town.

"The Demon Suppression Division is on official business; bystanders, disperse!"

The powerful pressure made countless Mortals in the town tremble, and some Cultivators with lower cultivation also turned pale.

However, no one retreated.

Those once numb villagers now gripped the farm tools in their hands; although afraid, they still stubbornly stood in front of their homes.

Those Cultivators who had come to seek refuge also successively brought out their Magical Artifacts, their eyes solemn.

This was a place of hope they had found with such difficulty.

Li Dong stepped out, and his figure appeared in mid-air, facing the huge flying boat from a distance.

The gaze of the Demon Suppression Guard captain locked onto him instantly.

"You are Li Dong?"

"It is me."

"According to the iron Laws of the Demon Suppression Division, you have committed the grave crime of subverting the world and have been listed as the number one wanted criminal. Now, give up resistance, surrender, and follow us back to the Headquarters to stand trial!"

The captain's voice was indisputable, as if declaring an unalterable truth.

Li Dong smiled.

"Trial me? By you?"

"Presumptuous!"

A cold light flashed in the captain's eyes. "Stubborn and unyielding! Do you know that opposing the Demon Suppression Division is opposing the order of the entire world! You are seeking your own death!"

"Order?" Li Dong shook his head. "What you have is not called order, it's called dead silence. You are not protecting the world, you are strangling the world."

"Nonsense!"

The captain completely lost his patience.

"Form the array! Execute 'Order Lockdown'! Stasis this villain along with this polluted land!"

"Yes!"

Over a hundred Demon Suppression Guards responded in unison, their movements uniform and without the slightest deviation.

The runes on their bodies lit up simultaneously, covering Li Dong and the Newborn Town below!

Wherever the light net passed, the air solidified, light twisted, and sound disappeared.

A terrifying concept that wanted to return all things to their original form and return to absolute stillness descended.

This was the most conventional and overbearing method of the Demon Suppression Division.

They do not debate scriptures with you, nor do they duel with you; they directly modify the "rules" of your area, forcibly clearing all "Variables" to zero.

Watching that light net slowly pressing down, Li Dong did not even move.

He just gently raised a finger.

[Attunement].

An invisible fluctuation swept across those murderous Demon Suppression Guards.

The Demon Suppression Guards who were fully driving the magic array suddenly stiffened.

A moment of bewilderment appeared in their cold eyes.

A Demon Suppression Guard holding a long blade suddenly had images of chasing butterflies in a wheat field in his childhood flash through his mind.

Another Demon Suppression Guard manipulating a Flying Sword seemed to smell the fragrance of locust flowers from his hometown on the tip of his nose.

The Spirituality belonging to "humans" in their hearts, which had been suppressed by "Absolute Order" for countless years, was gently plucked by the melody of the [Song of Creation].

Just like that.

That originally flawless "Order light net" developed a trace of imperceptible disorder.

"Hmm?"

The captain frowned, sensing something was wrong.

"Steady your minds! Eliminate distracting thoughts! Order is supreme!" he shouted sternly.

However, it was too late.

Li Dong flicked his finger.

[Multivariate Variable].

That huge light net did not shatter, but instead... came alive.

The silver Law lines constituting the light net seemed to be endowed with life, starting to twist, deform, and grow wildly!

The originally straight lines twisted into the shape of vines.

The originally rigid nodes bloomed into flower buds made of energy.

That net of death aimed at "Stasis", under the pollution of Li Dong's "Variable" concept, inversely turned into a "net of creation" full of infinite possibilities!

"This... what is this?!"

The captain was shocked.

The next instant, countless silver energy vines burst out from the light net, not attacking Li Dong, but instead whipping back at their masters!

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The Demon Suppression Guards were knocked over by the power they had unleashed, and their joint array, which they were proud of, collapsed instantly.

What made them even more afraid was that countless finer energy tentacles branched out from these energy vines, drilling into their armor; not to hurt them, but to crazily "optimize" their rigid Cultivation Techniques, deriving thousands of changes within their stiff sword moves!

"Ah! My sword technique!"

"No! My heart of order is in chaos!"

A group of well-trained killing machines instantly turned into a mess.

The captain was shocked and angry; he finally realized that the man in front of him was simply not an existence he could deal with.

He forcibly suppressed the Law riot in his body and turned to drive the flying boat away.

But as soon as he turned around, an illusory Blade of Judgment, seemingly made of starlight, was already silently resting on his neck.

An absolute concept of "severing all links" made his whole body stiff, not daring to move even a thought.

Li Dong's indifferent voice rang in his ear.

"Go back and tell your master."

"If you continue to use 'Stasis' to protect the world, then what you are protecting is merely a huge tomb."

"And I will personally toll its funeral bell."