437: Chapter 437 Suppressing the Realm of Truth with a Counterattack, Directing the Restoration of Chaos

"Tap."

That soft sound, following the pad of Zhou Wannian's finger, struck against the intangible and formless two-dimensional spatial cross-section.

The sound was not loud, yet at this moment, it drowned out the mournful cries emitted by all things as the dimensions collapsed.

Under the gaze of Li Changeng's bloodshot, murky organic eye, that barrier of dimensional reduction—which should have been indestructible and capable of shredding all three-dimensional matter—suddenly halted all advancement at the point where it touched Zhou Wannian's fingertip.

Immediately following this, a faint white mark emerged from the spot where Zhou Wannian had tapped.

The white mark extended outward, emitting a crisp sound like ice cracking in the depths of winter. This sound started as a single line, but in the blink of an eye, it spread and connected, turning into a "crack" that made one's teeth ache.

That "two-dimensional scroll" attempting to wrap the entire Taiwu Ancestral Court within it split open.

The Absolute Mass refined by the Great Perfection Space Law followed that single point of impact, like a red-hot iron rod piercing through a sheet of thin, brittle rice paper. It was overbearing, brutal, and utterly unreasonable.

The cracks spread madly, tearing at the flattened palaces, warships, and the grey, hazy horizon.

"Crash—" Accompanied by a loud noise like glass shattering on the ground, the dimensional reduction barrier that had loomed over Zhou Wannian's head was completely pulverized.

The third dimension, which had been forcibly extracted, rushed back in like a flood breaching a dam.

The surrounding space fell into a violent physical rebound. The metal wreckage and brick debris that had been pressed into paper sheets, the moment they regained their thickness, could not withstand the intense pull of the Law and exploded into clouds of fine dust in mid-air.

The gale surged once more.

The pungent smell of machine oil and the stench of molten metal, mixed with the unique acidic Death Qi of the Taiwu Ancestral Court, turned into a turbid hurricane that raged and roared above the ruins.

Zhou Wannian stood at the center of the hurricane.

His washed-out blue cloth robe rustled loudly in the wind. He did not withdraw his right hand that had been holding up the barrier; instead, facing the metal debris flying all over the sky, he slightly turned his wrist.

With the back of his hand facing up and his palm facing down.

It was the simplest, most casual backhand motion.

"After scheming for tens of millions of years, you've only calculated yourself into such a wretched, unsightly thing that cannot see the light of day."

Zhou Wannian's cold and calm voice pierced through the howling gale.

"Old Li, you played this game of chess too poorly; I'm helping you flip the board."

As his voice fell, Zhou Wannian's turned palm brought with it an invisible, heavy sense of oppression, pressing down plainly and simply.

This was not a gigantic palm of light that blotted out the sky like an immortal's Spell, nor did it trigger any colorful celestial phenomena.

It was merely pure physical mass pouring downward within the span of three feet.

But this press caused the bedrock in the deepest parts of the Taiwu Ancestral Court's ley lines to emit a mournful cry of being unable to bear the weight.

The bone throne, floating above the sinkhole just a hundred feet away from Zhou Wannian, bore the brunt of it.

The optical sensor on Li Changeng's half-metal face erupted with an unprecedented, blinding red light at this moment. The Mainframe's logic core was screaming warnings, and the red garbled code representing fatal threats cascaded down his visual interface like a waterfall.

"Warning—Mass Overload—Unable to establish defense model—" The harsh, synthesized mechanical voice screamed in Li Changeng's mind.

He wanted to flee, wanting to control the bone throne to dodge this invisible oppression. But the moment his fingers exerted force, he discovered with horror that the surrounding space had turned into a solidified block of solid iron.

The heavy pressure of Absolute Mass sealed off all paths of retreat and crushed all logic for escape.

"No!" Li Changeng's only remaining organic left eye bulged out, the corner of his eye tore, and two lines of viscous, dark red blood flowed down. His gaunt half-face twisted violently under the heavy pressure, his shriveled skin clinging tightly to his cheekbones as if it would be crushed in the next moment.

The invisible giant palm descended.

"Boom!"

The bone throne in mid-air, along with the thick optical fibers inserted into Li Changeng's skull, could not withstand even a single breath of time the moment they touched this mass.

Those cables, touted as the toughest in the Truth Realm and capable of conducting high-dimensional energy, snapped inch by inch like fragile, rotten wood. The bone throne exploded into pale bone dust that danced across the sky.

Next was Li Changeng's massive semi-mechanical body.

The gears, hydraulic pipes, and reactors made of high-dimensional alloys emitted teeth-aching sounds of distortion under the crushing weight of the Absolute Mass. The metal armor caved inward, sparks flew everywhere, and green coolant mixed with dark red blood sprayed out from the gaps in the armor like high-pressure water guns.

"Crack..." Accompanied by a crisp shattering sound.

Deep within Li Changeng's chest cavity, the logic core used to support the entire Truth Realm's computational matrix—that mechanical heart emitting a faint blue glow—was forcibly cracked under the pressure.

The crack expanded rapidly, the faint blue light flickered violently a few times, and then suddenly dimmed.

The core was shattered.

This supreme control hub, which had dominated the Truth Realm for countless epochs and toyed with the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds like beads on an abacus, completely stopped beating under Zhou Wannian's understated palm.

With the shattering of the logic core, a catastrophic chain reaction spread madly along the broken optical fibers and the Truth Realm's quantum communication network that spanned endless dimensions.

Inside the Taiwu Ancestral Court, the few Truth Warships that had crashed on the edge of the sinkhole and were still struggling to survive saw the indicator lights on their hulls turn to the gray of death at the same time. All computational matrices and power Systems within the ships fell into a logic dead loop the moment they lost the Mainframe's signal.

Muffled explosions rang out one after another. Huge warships exploded from within, turning into piles of lifeless scrap metal, dying completely on these ancient ruins.

And in the endless dimensions outside this Taiwu Ancestral Court, the geometric fleets performing resource extraction missions, and the Purifiers entrenched in various Star Domains establishing observation posts—millions of warships and tens of billions of mechanical Puppets—faced a collective System crash at the same moment.

The silver-grey armor lost its luster, and the cold code turned into garbled text. Like a swarm of bees that had lost their queen, they fell one after another from the starry sky, turning into meteor showers that smashed into those desolate planets.

That supreme mechanical civilization which had plagued the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds, viewed the Universe as a pile of data, and attempted to establish absolute truth by erasing all variables, was on this day wiped clean by a carefree scholar in a blue robe with a single backhanded palm.

There was no epic confrontation, no tug-of-war spanning ten thousand years. There was only the purest crushing of strength.

The wind gradually stopped.

The dust and metal debris flying all over the sky above the sinkhole fell down in a flurry under the influence of gravity.

Zhou Wannian withdrew his right hand and folded his hands behind his back again. He took a step, his pristine blue cloth shoes treading on the void stairs, walking downward step by step.

In the pile of rubble at the bottom of the sinkhole, Li Changeng lay quietly.

His massive semi-mechanical body was completely deformed. The right side of his metal face was crushed flat, the optical sensor like a dead glass bead, no longer emitting a shred of red light. The armor on his body was shattered into countless pieces, exposing the broken gears and scorched circuits underneath.

All mechanical parts were dead. Only the shriveled organic half of his body was still struggling to breathe its last breath of Life Qi, driven by the weak rise and fall of his chest cavity.

Dark red blood continued to gush from his drooping corner of the mouth, staining the grey-black bedrock beneath him.

Zhou Wannian walked to the pile of rubble and stopped.

He looked down at this old friend with whom he had once drunk inferior wine in a dilapidated temple. He looked at his miserable appearance now, neither human nor ghost.

There was no mockery, nor was there the pity of a victor.

Zhou Wannian's eyes remained as deep and calm as an ancient well, yet at the very bottom of that calmness, a trace of an imperceptible sigh was hidden.

Hearing the footsteps, Li Changeng's tightly closed left eye trembled and opened a crack.

The murkiness in his eyeball grew heavier, and his vitality was rapidly fading.

He looked at Zhou Wannian, who stood before him, his blue robe immaculate. He looked at that handsome face which, compared to tens of millions of years ago, had not changed in the slightest.

Li Changgeng's lips twitched, attempting to force a smile, but only managed to cough up a mouthful of blood foam heavy with the smell of gore.

"Cough, cough... Wannian..."

The voice was hoarse and weak, no longer interfered with by electronic synthesis. It was purely a dying old man letting out his final gasps.

"I have calculated for ten million years... calculated the rise and fall of stars, calculated the birth and death of Law..." Li Changgeng said intermittently, his chest heaving violently with every word, "but the only thing... I didn't calculate correctly... was how heavy... this hand of yours truly is..."

Zhou Wannian watched him quietly, not interrupting.

"I thought... I had found the Truth." In Li Changgeng's bloodshot eyes, a flash of deep confusion and unwillingness flickered, "I thought as long as I erased all variables... the Universe could exist forever..."

His only remaining left hand, covered in machine oil and blood, fumbled with difficulty on the pile of rubble, as if trying to grasp something.

Zhou Wannian stood where he was, not stepping forward to help.

The path was chosen by himself; now that he had reached the end, the Karma must naturally be borne by himself.

Li Changgeng's fingers clawed weakly at the air a few times, finally falling dejectedly back to the ground.

He gasped heavily, his gaze passing over Zhou Wannian, looking toward the depths of the sinkhole, looking at the bottom layer of the earth's veins that had been dug open in this Taiwu Ancestral Court.

Suddenly.

In Li Changgeng's unfocused left eye, an unprecedented terror erupted.

That was not the fear of death.

It was a trembling originating from the depths of his Soul, caused by some terrifying thing hidden outside the blind spot of cognition, far exceeding his scope of understanding.

"Wrong... we were all wrong..."

Li Changgeng widened his eyes abruptly, a shrill, mournful cry like an owl weeping blood emitting from his withered throat. He exhausted the last bit of strength in his whole body, struggling to lift his head.

"Wannian... you deceived the All Heavens and Myriad Worlds..."

He stared fixedly at Zhou Wannian, dark red blood dripping down his chin.

"Those ninety thousand plus chains... that Great Perfection Seal covering the mouth of the well..." Li Changgeng's voice became sharp due to fear, "were not at all to lock up this Taiwu Ancestral Court... not to prevent outsiders from entering..."

Zhou Wannian's hands, folded behind his back, paused slightly.

He looked at the dying Li Changgeng, the lines on his calm face gradually tightening.

"Back then you left the chains... sealing this dry well shut..."

Li Changgeng vomited blood clots heavily, that bloodshot eye locking tightly onto Zhou Wannian's face.

"You were not at all sealing this ruin."

His left hand, covered in blood, used its last bit of strength to point toward the deepest part of the sinkhole, toward the endless abyss of the Taiwu Ancestral Court that had never been illuminated by light.

"You were... locking up that thing hidden inside."

"You were locking up 'Him'!"

As the word "Him" left his mouth, the entire ruins of the Taiwu Ancestral Court seemed to tremble along with it.

An ancient and cold aura that could not be described with words seemed to respond to this last sentence of Li Changgeng before death, spreading upward extremely obscurely from the deepest part of the earth's veins.

Li Changgeng felt that aura, and the terror on his face turned into complete despair.

He understood.

He had spent countless epochs, leading the Truth Realm's fleet, thinking he had found the ultimate Origin of the Universe, thinking that as long as he dug out the "Zero Constant", he could patch the loopholes and save the common people.

They dug downward regardless of everything, overturning the palace that Zhou Wannian used to press down the well cover, and digging through the bedrock that suppressed the Luck.

They thought they were seeking redemption, but they did not know that they were using their own hands to dig open an ancient nightmare capable of burying the entire Universe.

"Madman... you are the biggest madman..." Li Changgeng looked at Zhou Wannian, his mouth pulling into a miserable smile that looked worse than crying.

"You clearly knew what was hidden underneath... yet you only used a few iron chains to lock it... you left it here... and went wandering outside yourself..."

His voice grew smaller and smaller; the fire of life had burned down to the last bit of ash.

"Wannian... you cannot lock it... since the door has already been opened... 'Him' will crawl out sooner or later..."

Li Changgeng's hand that was pointing at the abyss fell powerlessly, hitting the rubble.

That bloodshot, murky left eye's light dissipated completely. The withered, flesh-and-blood face was frozen in a strange expression interwoven with terror and despair.

The chest stopped heaving.

This old friend who had drunk sour wine in a ruined temple, established the Truth Realm in the Void Realm, and cut himself into pieces to pursue the Dao of mending the sky, had died after all.

He died in the pit he had dug himself, died at the end of the self-righteous Truth.

The bottom of the sinkhole fell into a deathly silence. Only a few drops of residual coolant dripped onto the scorched armor, making a faint "hissing" sound.

Zhou Wannian stood quietly in front of Li Changgeng's corpse. He looked at that dilapidated semi-mechanical shell, looked at that face that had lost its vitality.

For a long time, Zhou Wannian sighed slowly. This sigh echoed in the empty sinkhole, carrying a coldness that brushed away the dust of the years.

"Full of grand principles about mending the sky and saving the world, yet in the end, you didn't even understand what you were stepping on."

He stepped forward. His spotless cyan cloth shoes avoided the blood and machine oil.

Zhou Wannian reached out his hand and brushed it calmly over Li Changgeng's half-withered, flesh-and-blood face.

He closed the murky eyes of this old friend who had been mad for ten million years, who had died with his eyes wide open.

"Since I hung those chains up back then." Zhou Wannian withdrew his hand, his tone calm and without fluctuation, "Whether they can lock it or not, you don't need to worry about it, you dead man whose iron shell has already been smashed."

He turned around. He did not look at the corpse on the ground again.

Zhou Wannian's gaze followed the direction Li Changgeng had pointed before dying, casting toward the deepest part of this sinkhole.

That was a passage crazily dug out by the Truth Realm's fleet, leading directly to the bottom layer of the bedrock of the Taiwu Ancestral Court. There was no light there, only a piece of pure Void Realm deeper than the night.

The truth revealed by Li Changgeng before death echoed in his mind. Locking up "Him".

On Zhou Wannian's handsome and easygoing face, that trace of idleness and laziness that usually hung there was, at this moment, completely replaced by a trace of cold frost.

He lowered his head and glanced at his right hand that had just smashed the Truth Mainframe.

The palm was fair, the palm prints clear. In the deeper part of this palm, in the inner universe of the Divine Soul.

Among those ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine ancient chains, the bronze-colored faint light glowing on the ten-thousandth chain was currently flickering slightly at an extremely slow yet irreversible rhythm.

This light was not a sign of the Seal loosening. It was an induction, an instinctive resonance produced by the power left behind by the Creator back then, upon sensing a kind of aura that was of the same Origin yet completely different.

Zhou Wannian folded his hands behind his back again. He took a step, following that dark, sloping passage, walking toward the deepest part of the sinkhole.

The soles of his shoes stepped on the scattered warship armor, making a rhythmic metallic clanking sound.

The Truth Realm fleet was wiped out, and Li Changgeng was dead. The farce on the surface of these ruins had finally come to an end.

But the real trouble of this dry well had only just begun to show a trace of clues.

Those paper figures drawing ancient marks in the dark. Those cleaners leaving living people's tears on the drafts. And the "Him" in Li Changgeng's mouth, whom he had locked in the innermost part with chains back then.

Zhou Wannian walked in the darkness, the silhouette of his green shirt gradually merging into that unfathomable Void Realm.

"Since you are all rushing to dig up the old accounts I left behind back then." The calm, cold voice traveled along the dark passage, all the way to the bottom of the abyss that even dimensions could not reach.

"Then I will go down and take a look myself, to see what kind of scaled mud loaches have been bred in the mud at the bottom of this well over these years."