266: Chapter 201: Outsmarting a Powerful Enemy, Masters' Sophistry Secures Victory

Divine Power leaked away like sand through fingers, each second accompanied by the mournful cries of the Divine Kingdom's barriers and the shrinking of its territory. 65 square kilometers...63...61... The numbers ticked down coldly and ruthlessly, like a death knell counting down for the Hundred Schools Divine Kingdom. Xuanyuan Hong's War machine continued to operate with stable and terrifying efficiency, his dark red Divine Kingdom pressing forward like a black hole devouring all, slow yet unstoppable. The vast chasm between their Divine Power reserves and recovery capabilities lay before Lin Zhou like an unbridgeable abyss, rendering any conventional counterattack utterly futile.

"Lin Zhou! The stability of the core area's rules is falling below the safety threshold!" Li Mo's data monitoring sounded like a final alarm. "At the current rate, in eight minutes at most, the core rule framework will begin to disintegrate due to excessive compression and Divine Power exhaustion!"

Eight minutes.

Lin Zhou's Divine Power reserve had dwindled to only 12,000 points and was hemorrhaging at a rate of nearly 1,300 points per second. Waves of tearing pain echoed from the depths of his consciousness, a sign that his Divine Spark was operating long-term under extreme overload and nearing its limit. The light of the river of civilization was at least thirty percent dimmer than before. Though it still stubbornly resisted the erosion of the War rules, anyone could see it was a spent force.

In the mental link, his teammates' voices carried unconcealable exhaustion and a trace of despair. Wang Meng's Behemoth had practically become pure 'ballast,' using its battered body to withstand the shockwaves; Zhao Hao's Dragon was struggling even to maintain flight; Qin Qing's Judgment Angel had drastically shrunk the range of its Holy Light; even Li Mo's scout swarms were suffering heavy losses due to the chaotic environmental energy.

A head-on confrontation held no chance of victory. An attritional, roundabout approach would be even more suicidal. It seemed that from any angle, defeat was already a foregone conclusion.

Yet, in this suffocating, hopeless situation, Lin Zhou's gaze remained locked onto the battlefield map—on the unstable spatial fissures scattered across the shattered plain like scars, and... on Xuanyuan Hong's own vast, condensed, seemingly impregnable Divine Kingdom.

"No, there's still a chance... one last, and most dangerous, chance..." An unprecedented, mad idea, like a ghostly blue flame igniting in the darkness, grew wildly in his nearly depleted consciousness.

This idea stemmed from his observation of Xuanyuan Hong's power, his contemplation on the essence of the 'War' divine office, and his ultimate comprehension of the most elusive, unpredictable, and adept branch of the Hundred Schools of Thought for prying open 'impossibility' in desperate situations—the School of Names.

"Xuanyuan Hong's power is rooted in his pure, extreme, unquestioning faith in the concept of 'War,'" Lin Zhou's mind analyzed at an unprecedented speed. "'War is destruction,' 'War is conquest,' 'War is the ultimate embodiment of power and discipline'... This is his Dao, the core of his divine office, the source of all his power, and the most solid cornerstone of his rule System."

"But, precisely because of this purity and extremity, his rule System might... lack reflection and defense against 'definition' itself!" A flicker of near-fanatical sharpness flashed in Lin Zhou's eyes. "He views 'War' as a self-evident, unquestionable ultimate truth. Then, what if... I can challenge, distort, even redefine the concept of 'War' in his mind in a way he cannot simply crush with power?"

He recalled the School of Names' famous propositions that seemed absurd yet pointed directly to the Foundations of logic and cognition: "A White Horse is Not a Horse," "Separating Hardness and Whiteness," "Conjoining Differences"... The core of these ideas lies in deconstructing the relationship between an object's 'name' and its 'reality,' revealing the ambiguity, relativity, and manipulability inherent in concepts and definitions themselves.

In peacetime, this might merely be a game of intellectual debate among scholars. But on the battlefield of divine rules, in this moment of direct collision between divine offices and beliefs, it might become a conceptual blade thrust straight at the enemy's Dao Heart!

"A White Horse is Not a Horse... A White Horse is Not a Horse..." Lin Zhou repeatedly chewed on the essence of this proposition in his heart. It wasn't mere sophistry; it pointed out that 'horse' (the general concept) and 'white horse' (specific attribute + general concept) were not entirely equivalent—there existed a gap between the scope of a concept and its specific referent.

"Then, what about 'War'?" Lin Zhou's consciousness, like the most precise probe, scanned the War rules permeating the opponent's Domain. "Xuanyuan Hong's 'War' specifically refers to 'violent acts of destruction and conquest.' But what if I forcibly replace, expand, distort the concept of 'War' into... 'the necessary intense form of civilization dissemination and exchange,' or even 'the grand process of different thoughts colliding and merging'?"

This idea was so bold it bordered on madness! It meant he would use his remaining power to launch a rule-level 'sophistry' attack targeting the opponent's core divine office concept! Not using power to oppose power, but using thought to pollute thought, using definition to confuse definition!

If successful, even for just an instant, Xuanyuan Hong's highly unified War divine office System, which relied on clear belief, would likely experience intense internal conflict and rule chaos due to the sudden 'drift' or 'split' of its core concept! Like a precision instrument receiving completely contradictory operating instructions, the result could be... a crash, even self-destruction!

But this required unimaginable Divine Power, extreme comprehension of the School of Names' thought, and precise timing. Moreover, failure would not only hasten his own demise but might also invite terrifying backlash.

"There's no choice..." Lin Zhou watched as his Divine Power reserve fell below the 10,000-point mark and his Divine Kingdom's area was compressed to 58 square kilometers. The last trace of hesitation in his eyes was replaced by resolve.

"Li Mo! Qin Qing! Zhao Hao! Wang Meng!" Lin Zhou's voice in the team link was hoarse yet carried a strange calmness. "Next, I will launch a gambit-style attack. The target is not the enemy's Divine Kingdom barrier, nor the War Soul legions, but... Xuanyuan Hong's divine office core!"

"What?!" All four were shocked. Attack a divine office core? That was practically the most forbidden and hardest-to-execute tactic in divine warfare!

"No time to explain! Follow my Orders!" Lin Zhou rapidly deployed. "When I launch the attack, my Divine Kingdom's defenses will drop to their minimum, maybe even actively contract. Qin Qing, have your Judgment Angel gather all its power and prepare [Chains of Order]—not to bind the enemy, but to lock down the last line of rule defense for our Divine Kingdom's core! Zhao Hao, have your Dragon abandon all harassment, return to defense, and use its Dragon Breath and body to construct the final physical barrier! Wang Meng, have the Behemoth ready, and if an opportunity appears... execute the final command! Li Mo, use all your means to interfere with any potential rule-level 'decompilation' or 'tracing' the enemy might attempt!"

The commands were terse, almost brutal, but no one questioned them. This was the only torch in the hopeless darkness.

Lin Zhou took a deep breath, ignoring the rapidly falling Divine Power numbers, and sank almost all his remaining focus and power into the deepest reaches of the river of civilization. He no longer invoked the thoughts of Confucianism, the School of Military, Legalism, or Daoism. Instead, he fully communicated with and awakened the most profound and active tributary within that flowing river—the river of the School of Names' sophistry!

He seemed to see the phantom figures of ancient masters like Gongsun Long and Hui Shi appear within the river, engaged in fierce debate, concepts being born and dying, logic flipping with their words. Lin Zhou poured his own will, his insight into the current battle, and his conception of 'alienating' the concept of 'War' into it all.

"With civilization as the Foundation, logic as the blade, and desperation as the catalyst... the School of Names' ultimate Profound Truth—A White Horse Is Not a Horse: Conceptual Substitution!"

Lin Zhou roared silently in his heart while simultaneously burning and channeling his remaining nearly 8,000 points of Divine Power without reservation in an instant!

*Hum—!!!*

The river of civilization churned violently! A strange wave, utterly different from the previous Vast Righteous Qi, the School of Military's killing intent, or Legalism's sternness, surged from the core of Lin Zhou's Divine Kingdom! This wave was formless and intangible, yet carried a strong aura of logical distortion and conceptual tampering! It wasn't a direct attack. Instead, like the most precise virus, it followed the 'information exchange channel' of the intense rule conflict between the two sides. In a manner transcending conventional energy transfer, it silently yet swiftly 'infected' its way toward the core of Xuanyuan Hong's Divine Kingdom, toward the foundational belief of his divine office—'War is destruction'!

This move consumed no Divine Power to maintain barriers, expended no strength in direct confrontation, and instead converted nearly all its 'energy' into 'information' and 'conceptual definitions.' It was Lin Zhou's true, all-or-nothing gambit!

Almost at the exact same moment Lin Zhou launched his attack, Xuanyuan Hong's cold Divine Thought reached out again, this time carrying a distinct trace of anger and bewilderment: 'A futile death throes, nothing but a laugh... Hmm?!'

His voice cut off abruptly!

Because that bizarre ripple of School of Names thought had already successfully 'infiltrated' deep into his highly unified network of War rules. Like a virus, it began frantically replicating and spreading a meticulously tampered 'new definition':

'War is not destruction; War is the intense form of Civilization's propagation!'

'Slaughter is not the goal; Conquest is the inevitable process of ideological collision!'

'Your 'War' is, in truth, the 'Sword of Civilizational Exchange'! Your 'Conquest' is, in truth, the 'Journey of the Great Dao's Dissemination'!'

These twisted concepts, leveraging the sophistry of 'A White Horse is Not a Horse,' forcibly and briefly linked with the relatively 'positive' or 'neutral' rule fragments within Xuanyuan Hong's divine office concerning 'power,' 'will,' 'Order,' and 'conquest.' They created a fleeting, absurd resonance, attempting to forge a fatal logical paradox and conceptual schism at the very core of his opponent's fundamental cognition!

'Ab...surd!' Xuanyuan Hong's Divine Thought, a mix of shock and fury, exploded like thunder. He immediately mobilized his vast War rules to 'quarantine' and 'purge.' But this 'virus' attacked in an utterly bizarre way; it didn't confront directly but instead induced the rules into 'self-doubt' and 'erroneous linking'! It was like forcing someone who firmly believes '1+1=2' to suddenly accept the chaotic thought that '1+1 might equal 3, if one '1' represents an apple and the other '1' represents an idea.'

Although Xuanyuan Hong's power level far surpassed Lin Zhou's, and his rule mastery was superior, this sudden 'conceptual contamination' targeting the core of his belief still caused his highly unified divine office of War to experience an extremely brief moment of stagnation and disorder!

Externally, this manifested as the tangible, dark-red War rules hovering above his Divine Kingdom suddenly flickering abnormally and becoming mottled in color (mixed with an extremely faint trace of pale gold). The forward momentum of his Divine Kingdom suffered a visible hitch! More importantly, inside the Divine Kingdom, some of the Spartan War Souls—those purely born for battle, especially those near the core rule area—suddenly moved uncoordinatedly, their eyes flashing with a momentary confusion amidst the battle-fire.

And then, the most shocking scene unfolded:

In the core region of Xuanyuan Hong's Divine Kingdom, a manifested projection symbolizing the authority of the [War] divine office—a hundred-meter-tall, dark-red flame-wreathed War Angel's Holy Sword phantom, condensed from pure War will—actually emitted a soft *sizzle*. A small cluster of pale-golden flame spontaneously ignited on its blade!

That was... the Fire of Civilization!

Though weak, though extinguished in an instant by the more berserk dark-red battle-flames, it had truly appeared! It signified that Lin Zhou had forcibly injected the 'alien information' of 'Civilization' into his opponent's purest concept of War.

[School of Names Sophistry · Conceptual Contamination (Active)]

Target: Xuanyuan Hong's core concept of the [War] divine office.

Contamination Content: Forcibly distort/expand the definition of 'War,' establishing absurd links with concepts like 'Civilization propagation' and 'ideological collision.'

Duration: Approximately 1.5 seconds (due to the immense disparity in strength, the effect is extremely brief).

Effects Caused:

divine office Brief Conflict: Within Xuanyuan Hong's [War] divine office, the core of 'Destruction/Conquest' clashed violently with the forcibly injected 'Civilization Propagation' heterodoxy, causing chaotic rule output.

Divine Power Operation Disorder: The Divine Power conversion and mobilization System, dependent on stable divine office belief, experienced brief 'lag' and 'contradictory commands,' trending towards Divine Power rampage.

Rule Domain Instability: The War rule Domain projected by the Divine Kingdom fluctuated, its range contracted, and its strength became uneven.

Retinue Will Disturbance: Some War Souls experienced brief confusion and uncoordinated movement (approx. 3% probability).

Side Effects/Backlash: Lin Zhou's Divine Power is nearly depleted (remaining ~500 points). His Divine Spark has developed fine cracks (virtual) from exceeding limits to activate a forbidden-level thought manifestation, leaving him in an extremely weakened state. The river of civilization has dimmed temporarily due to overexertion.

1.5 seconds!

For Mortals, it's but a single breath. But for this top-tier Divine War, for the Hundred Schools Squad struggling on the brink of death, these 1.5 seconds are the only window to reverse heaven and earth!

'Now!' Lin Zhou roared with his last ounce of strength!

Qin Qing, already prepared, saw the Holy Light in her eyes erupt! The [Chains of Order] no longer extended outward but contracted inward, transforming into countless solid rule shackles that firmly locked onto the Hundred Schools Divine Kingdom's most core and fragile rule framework. She forcefully stabilized the last vestige of its Foundation at the very edge of the kingdom's impending collapse!

Zhao Hao's four Dragons let out desperate roars, no longer sparing any power. Dragon Breath, Dragon Might, even their Dragon bodies, layered around the periphery of the core area, forming a burning, albeit brief, flesh-and-blood defensive line!

And Wang Meng received Lin Zhou's final, and only, attack Order: 'Wang Meng! Giant Rock! Target—the Spatial Rift nearest to us that was exposed due to the opponent's rule disorder! Use all your strength, grab and push the largest fragment of Divine Kingdom debris (our own, shattered from the collision) you can, and smash it inside!!!'

This wasn't an attack on Xuanyuan Hong's Divine Kingdom itself, but... leveraging the environment!

Though Wang Meng didn't fully grasp the deeper meaning, he executed the command without hesitation! The critically wounded Giant Rock erupted with his final strength. Together with the other six Behemoths, they desperately hoisted a massive rule/material composite fragment—over a hundred meters in diameter, sheared off from their own Divine Kingdom in the earlier collision—and hurled it with all their might towards a nearby, medium-sized Spatial Rift that had become even more unstable and violently contorted from the intense friction of both sides' rules!

The fragment traced an arc. In the brief moment of Xuanyuan Hong's Divine Power disorder and rule Domain contraction, it perilously slipped through the weakened edge of the War Domain and plunged headlong into that crazily flickering Spatial Rift!

BOOM——!!!

It was like pouring a ladle of ice water into boiling oil! The already extremely unstable Spatial Rift, after being injected with such a massive 'foreign object' containing rules (albeit shattered), instantly triggered a terrifying chain reaction of catastrophic explosion!

A violent Spatial Storm erupted from the rift's center! berserk Spatial Turbulence, like countless invisible razors, crazyly sliced and tore at everything around it! And the location of this rift happened to be on the Side and rear of Xuanyuan Hong's Divine Kingdom's advancing front line, less than a kilometer from the edge of his kingdom!

Spatial Turbulence made no distinction between friend or foe, but at this moment, the first to bear the brunt was precisely the edge of Xuanyuan Hong's Divine Kingdom, whose defenses had momentarily faltered due to the brief disorder in his Divine Power and rules!

SCREEEECH——!!!

Amidst the ear-grating sound of spatial Tear, the incredibly sturdy dark-red barrier of Xuanyuan Hong's Divine Kingdom was brutally torn open by the sudden Spatial Storm, leaving a massive wound several kilometers long and of varying depth! Internal rule structures were exposed, with some areas even experiencing small-scale rule leakage and material disintegration! More troublesome was that the Spatial Turbulence disrupted the War rule field in that entire area, rendering it extremely unstable!

This sudden, Severe damage from the 'environment,' not directly caused by Lin Zhou's power, completely exceeded Xuanyuan Hong's expectations! He was busy pacifying the divine office conflict and Divine Power disorder, never imagining the opponent would use such a 'self-damaging, enemy-harming,' Almost a rogue tactic, leveraging the map mechanics to launch a counterattack!

Divine Kingdom wounded, rule field disordered, plus the brief conflict in his core divine office not yet fully calm... Under this Multiple blows, Xuanyuan Hong's flawless War machine finally exhibited a clear, overall stagnation!

As for Lin Zhou, after issuing his final command, his consciousness sank into boundless darkness and weak. But the corner of his mouth seemed to curl into an extremely faint, relieved arc.

Outwitting a powerful foe through the School of Names' sophistry, he had finally laid the Foundation for victory.