56: Chapter 56: Morning Grumpiness in the World, and the "Immune Response" in the Cultivation World

"Awake?"

Li Mo stood on the terrace of the Scripture Pavilion.

He looked up at the sky.

What should have been a cloudless azure was now stained with an eerie flush.

It wasn't the glow of the setting sun, nor was it fire clouds.

It was a dark red with a biological texture, as if blood were rushing under the skin of a giant's body due to high fever.

"Senior Brother, this... what's happening to the sky?"

Su Qianqian's voice carried an uncontrollable tremble. The Confucian Vast Righteous Qi within her flickered like a candle in the wind under this unspeakable pressure, on the verge of being extinguished.

This was absolute suppression originating from the highest level of life, an instinctive shudder of cells facing their Creator.

Li Mo didn't answer immediately.

He reached out, as if touching the air.

His fingertips could clearly feel the surrounding temperature rising sharply at an abnormal rate.

At the same time, from deep within the earth beneath his feet, came a dull thud—extremely slow, yet heavy enough to make the Soul resonate.

Thump—

The earth pulsed once, like a heartbeat.

Thump—

The distant mountains rose and fell with it.

That wasn't an earthquake.

That was a heartbeat.

"To put it simply," Li Mo pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses transformed from "Thick Black Theory" on the bridge of his nose, the lenses reflecting the eerie red light of the sky, "our landlord has woken up."

He paused, his tone as flat as if he were stating a physical examination report.

"And, he has a fever."

...

Almost at the same time, at the Heavenly River Sword Sect plaza.

All the Cultivators undergoing "reform through labor" felt this terrifying anomaly coming from the roots of the world.

"Hot! My solar panels are going to explode!"

Canying, the Vice Branch Master of the Shadow Sect, was wiping a huge spirit-energy collection mirror with a rag. The mirror's temperature suddenly soared, instantly igniting the special rag in his hand and emitting black smoke.

He looked in horror at his burned palm; the temperature was definitely over two hundred degrees!

"It's not heat!"

Kong Mengchang, the Great Scholar of the Jixia Academy who was conducting pre-job training for the Security Department, suddenly threw away the scroll in his hand and pointed into the distance.

"Look at the mountains! The mountains are moving!"

Everyone looked in horror.

The undulating Cloud Break Mountain Range, which resembled the spine of a giant Dragon, actually seemed to have come alive!

The mountains were no longer dead rock, but were slowly writhing and contracting, like a giant tendon suddenly twitching in its sleep.

Mountain rocks cracked like skin flakes, ten-thousand-year-old trees collapsed in swathes, and the entire earth was like a piece of scratch paper being crumpled by an invisible giant hand!

"Alarm! Maximum-level existential threat alarm!"

Sima Xing, the Legalist successor serving as the Director of the Discipline Inspection Committee, looked at the Magical Artifact transformed from the "Law on Penalties for Administration of Public Security" in his hand. The pages spontaneously ignited, and the handwriting distorted and dissipated.

He was drenched in sweat, his voice changing pitch.

"The underlying logic of the world is collapsing! Physical constants are in disorder! All... all rules are failing!"

"Newton's coffin lid can't be held down anymore!"

A Demonic Path giant, who had just been pinned to the ground by the Law of gravity, found to his horror that he was floating up lightly.

At a nearby waterfall, the water flowed backward, gathering in the air into huge, irregularly swaying spheres of water.

"Roar—!!!"

The abyss monsters imprisoned in special cages let out the most piercing wails of their lives.

They understood the meaning of this aura better than the Cultivators.

That was the aura of a "Cleaner."

It was the body's immune System launching a general offensive against "viruses"!

Boom—!!!

The dark red "skin" of the sky suddenly split open with huge gashes.

There was no Lightning Tribulation, no heavenly punishment.

Descending from the gashes were huge spheres emitting a soft white light.

They had no facial features, no limbs, pure and flawless, like White Blood Cells magnified billions of times.

They floated down lightly, their movements gentle, even carrying a kind of divine mercy.

A white light sphere slowly drifted in front of a mountain that had just been writhing.

It simply "pressed" against it gently.

Shua.

The mountain was gone.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, no rocks flying through the air.

That mountain, thousands of feet high and engraved with countless defensive arrays, was like a line erased from a drawing by an eraser, vanishing instantly without a trace.

In its place, only a smooth, level void remained that made one's heart race.

"What... what is that thing..."

Lei Wanjun, the new Deputy Director of the Security Department, had his upper and lower teeth chattering violently, "The Mountain Protection Grand Array on that mountain didn't even... didn't even let out a fart before..."

"The world's immune System."

Li Mo's voice, through the amplification array, clearly spread to every corner of the Sect, carrying the calmness of a lead surgeon on an operating table.

"You can simply understand them as 'White Blood Cells'."

"In the subconscious of the Ancient God, we Cultivators, the monsters of the abyss, and even everything in this world that doesn't belong to its 'original body'..."

"Are all 'germs'."

"Now, it feels uncomfortable, a bit itchy, so it sent out White Blood Cells, preparing to 'scratch' itself."

Before his voice had even faded.

Hundreds of huge white light spheres seemed to sense the "high-concentration germ area" of the Heavenly River Sword Sect (tens of thousands of Cultivators + abyss monsters).

They collectively turned around and slowly floated toward the plaza.

They looked harmless, even a bit cute.

But everyone knew clearly that as long as they were "scratched" by that thing, they would be completely "formatted" from this world.

"Run!!"

Someone let out a desperate roar, and the crowd instantly collapsed.

Facing this kind of incomprehensible, irresistible dimensional reduction strike, what scientific cultivation, what logical Dao—all became a pale joke in the face of the absolute concept of "clearing."

"Silence."

Li Mo's voice rang out again, cold and majestic, instantly suppressing all the chaos.

"Run?"

"Where can you run? Run out of this body?"

"As long as you are still in this world, even if you run to the ends of the earth, your identity is still 'germs'."

"Then... then what do we do?!" Gu Canghai's face was ashen, his voice full of despair, "Wait for death?!"

"Who says germs must die?"

On the terrace of the second floor of the Scripture Pavilion, Li Mo slowly took off the long robe that symbolized the mastermind behind the scenes.

In its place was a spotless white lab coat transformed from the "Introduction to Basic Medicine."

In his hand appeared a giant syringe with a cold metallic glint, transformed from the "Veterinary Guide (Giant Creatures Edition)."

There was no fear in his eyes, only the raging fire of rationality, a mixed light belonging to both Genius and madman.

"Since the landlord is sick."

"Then as tenants, it's only right that we help him get better."

His voice suddenly rose, his command spreading in all directions!

"Everyone, hear my command!"

"The First Affiliated Hospital of Tianhe Sword Sect is now open for business!"

"Security Department! Your duty is to hold down the 'patient' and, at all costs, restrain those White Blood Cells for me!"

"Logistics Department! Immediately convert all Spirit Stones and Spiritual Veins into 'Source Energy Potions' and prepare for injection!"

"Education Department! All Confucian Cultivators, hear my command: you are responsible for soothing the patient's emotions and conducting 'psychological counseling'!"

Li Mo held up the giant syringe, which was taller than a person, pointing the needle straight at the sky.

"Today, we are going to give the Heavens..."

"A shot of sedative!"