215: Sequence 996: Paradox Blade

Cold, darkness, dead silence.

The Civilization ark drifted silently through the boundless high-dimensional Void Realm, like an abandoned coffin.

The cracks on the hull were hideous and terrifying, the internal energy System was nearly exhausted, and the basic life-support aura flickered unsteadily; only the occasional, feeble buzzing of the alarm System proved that this steel behemoth had not yet completely died.

On the deck, Han Li (Mo Yuan) lay between pools of dried blood and cold metal, his consciousness drifting in endless exhaustion and excruciating pain.

The disintegration of the time weaver not only took away his last shred of control over the timeline but also backlashed against his Divine Soul, leaving behind Dao wounds that were difficult to heal.

The remnant of the all-knowing eye turned to ash, the [eternal calamity protocol] froze completely, and his final connection to the past and to those potentially surviving fragments was severed entirely.

True... desolation.

Outside the porthole lay the eternal, twisted, and chaotic data streams and dimensional storms; there was no light of hope to be seen.

Although that silver-gray metallic giant hand had not pursued him, its cold indifference and absolute power were already branded deep within his Soul, bringing a sense of oppression more despairing than death.

Flee? But where could he flee to?

This endless high-dimensional Void Realm was perhaps, in itself, just another larger cage.

Surrender? Descend into some unknown low-dimensional world?

And then what? Wait for the "World Engine" to cast its gaze down once again one day?

Languish until the ark's energy was completely depleted, becoming yet another floating corpse in this nothingness?

No.

A cold will, amidst that despairing ash, stubbornly reignited a spark.

He could not give up now.

Mo Yun, Mo Yu, the Tomb Keeper, the countless annihilated civilizations... their sacrifices could not be meaningless.

The truth revealed by Han Li's legacy must be passed on.

As long as he existed for one more moment, he must... resist!

But how to resist?

Having lost the time weaver, lost his connection to the myriad worlds, and lost most of his power, with what could he oppose the god-like "World Engine"?

His consciousness scanned the interior of the ark with difficulty: the broken hull, the panicked and despairing survivors, the nearly exhausted energy... and those fragments of the timeline that remained around the hull, not yet fully dissipated due to the snapping of the time weaver's threads.

These fragments were the byproducts left behind when the time weaver previously wove networks and stabilized navigation routes; they were the remains of those forcibly "snapped" time fibers, drifting like ghosts, containing chaotic space-time information and weak powers of Law.

An extremely dangerous, near-suicidal thought slithered into his mind like a viper.

Since he could not oppose it on an energy level, and since the operation of the "World Engine" was based on absolute logic and Karma...

Then, he would attack it from the level of logic!

He would use the "wounds" (the snapped timelines) it had created itself to forge a poisonous blade to stab it!

Goal: Forge a conceptual weapon capable of severing Karma and creating logical paradoxes!

Core materials: the floating timeline fragments nearby (containing severed Karma), his own damaged Divine Soul and Dao wounds (pain and chaos), and his knowledge of the "World Engine's" operating logic (Han Li's legacy)!

Forging method: use the remaining energy of the little green bottle as the furnace fire, the residual energy of the ark's core reactor as the power, and his own consciousness as the anvil to carry out conceptual-level forging!

Name: [sequence 996: Blade of Paradox]!

Ultimate command: "Sever the logical chain of Karma"!

"With time as the scrap iron, with pain as the furnace fire, with knowledge as the hammer and anvil... forge the Blade of Paradox, sever the chain of logic!"

Once the thought was formed, action resumed!

He struggled to sit cross-legged, his hands with difficulty forming a strange incantation gesture, drawing upon the last sliver of energy from the little green bottle almost extinguished in his chest, while simultaneously forcibly communicating with the ark's core energy System, which was on the verge of collapse!

"Draw in the fragments!"

Hum!

A weak suction force radiated from him as the center; the floating, chaotic, and disordered timeline fragments outside the hull, as if attracted, successively passed through the hull (physical barriers meant little to them), surged into this main control room, and swirled crazily around him, emitting a dizzying sense of disoriented space-time.

"Burn the Dao wounds!"

He slammed his chest violently, and what he spat out was no longer blood, but specks of dark golden Divine Soul debris containing emotions of pain, chaos, and despair!

These debris merged into the surrounding time fragments, as if injecting them with a crazy "Soul"!

"Forge the blade shape!"

The final light of the little green bottle and the residual energy of the ark's core were forcibly converged by him, turning into a twisting, indeterminate flame that seemed to contain countless contradictory concepts, wrapping those timeline fragments that had fused with his Divine Soul debris inside!

Sizzle—!!!

As if cold water had dripped into boiling oil, a violent reaction erupted instantly!

The chaotic Karma within the time fragments clashed violently with his painful Divine Soul, and then, under the scorching of that strange energy, they were forcibly fused!

Countless shattered images, disordered sounds, and contradictory Laws emerged and vanished within it!

The light and shadows within the main control room twisted crazily, and the spatial structure became extremely unstable, as if it could collapse into a logical black hole at any moment!

Han Li's (Mo Yuan) body withered at a speed visible to the naked eye, his hair turned gray, and his life force drained away rapidly.

He was using everything he was as fuel to conduct this crazy forging!

The process was extremely dangerous; any slight mistake could cause him to be torn apart by that chaotic Karma, or be backlashed by the paradox he was forging!

But the madness and coldness in his eyes grew even more intense!

Finally, at the moment when that twisting flame was about to be exhausted and he himself was nearly at the end of his rope—

All the light and shadows, all the sounds, all the chaos... suddenly contracted inward!

Condensing into a single point.

An extremely tiny "singularity," one that flickered crazily between "existence" and "non-existence," and could not be defined by any color.

This singularity floated silently, and the light, space, and even human thought logic around it began to undergo eerie distortions and paradoxes.

It slowly drifted down, landing in Han Li's (Mo Yuan) nearly withered palm.

The sensation... there was no sensation.

It seemed not to exist, yet it was truly affecting everything around it.

[sequence 996: Blade of Paradox]! Formed!

It had no fixed form; it was more like a condensation of a "concept," a living "logical bomb" that constantly negated itself!

Holding this invisible "blade," Han Li (Mo Yuan) raised his clouded eyes, looking out the porthole at the endless, logically orderly high-dimensional Void Realm.

The corner of his mouth hooked into a weary yet crazy arc.

shepherd, your fence is very sturdy.

But what if I... directly negated the logic of the "fence's" own existence?

Where should the first strike be aimed?

His gaze seemed to pierce through the endless Void Realm, casting itself toward a certain starting point of fate.

A most primitive, most fundamental, and also most dangerous... Karma point.

Patricide Paradox.

Target: Mo Juren.