Before Li Tianming could fully adapt to the newfound Authorities, his head snapped up. Not through physical sight, but via the newly acquired Authority of History and Authority of Possibility, he "saw" a fragment of the imminent future—
A zone of absolute "Nothingness" was seeping through the void. Where it passed, even the Rust Sea's nanites fell completely "silent," not destroyed, but temporarily "erased" from the level of existence itself.
"It's here," his voice was low, carrying unprecedented gravity. "Not a fleet, not divine soldiers... something more fundamental."
Lia, still unsettled by Li Tianming's penetrating gaze, immediately grew alert. "What is it?"
"An 'Arbiter'." Li Tianming closed his eyes, striving to interpret the information stream from the Authorities. "The System has judged the Rust Sea escalated from a 'Pending Error' to a 'Systemic Threat'. It's no longer dispatching execution units, but directly activating a... 'Conceptual Weapon'."
The moment his words fell, the entire Rust Sea stilled.
Churning waves froze mid-air, splashes of nanites hung embedded like insects in transparent amber. Light no longer distorted, sound vanished utterly. Even the newly awakened, powerfully radiating ancient Divine Skeletons were as if paused, locked in their previous postures.
Time hadn't stopped. Li Tianming's thoughts still raced, he could feel the Authorities flowing within him, but he couldn't move a finger, couldn't mobilize a shred of divine power. This was an absolute stasis, applied at the conceptual level to the entire Rust Sea domain.
Only his consciousness, and the three Authority fragments tightly bound to it, could struggle within an extremely limited scope.
Outside the spherical space, in the center of the frozen rust-colored sea, a "figure" quietly manifested.
It had no distinct features, its outline blurring and sharpening intermittently, as if composed of countless flowing pure white data codes. It wore robes reminiscent of a Celestial Realm judge, but these robes were woven from constantly appearing and vanishing law runes. In its hands, it held an perfectly balanced scale. One side was empty, the other flickered with complex light-shadows representing the "Rust Sea" and "Li Tianming".
«Threat target confirmed: Rust-Sea-Ω. Associated individual: Li_Tianming_Variant.» A voice sounded, neither male nor female, devoid of any emotion, a pure informational proclamation vibrating directly at the level of rules. «Initiating Final Arbitration Protocol.»
This was the "Arbiter," one of the System's ultimate means for erasing major anomalies.
Li Tianming felt an irresistible force begin scanning the essence of his existence—from his physical body to his soul, from his divine spark to the newly acquired Authority fragments. On the scale's side representing him, the light-shadow flickered violently, data scrolling frantically, seemingly assessing, parsing, and preparing to deliver the final "judgment"—typically, complete formatting.
"Brother..." A faint whimper came from his sister Isa's remnant soul within the badge. In this absolutely static domain, this wisp of power, sharing its origin with the Primordial Design, became the only discordant sound.
The Arbiter's "gaze" instantly snapped to the badge.
«Anomalous data residue detected: Isa_Backup_Alpha. Association: Recorder Amara. Threat level re-evaluating... Logical conflict...»
In that ten-thousandth of a second gap, Li Tianming moved! He wasn't opposing the stasis itself, but following the guidance of the Authority of Possibility, seizing the infinitesimal "judgment delay" caused by the Arbiter's logical conflict!
The Authority of History let him instantly review the connection he had just forged with the Rust Sea. The Authority of Oblivion coalesced into an intangible needle, aimed not at the Arbiter, but at the light-shadow representing the "Rust Sea" on the scale!
He couldn't fight the Arbiter itself, but he could interfere with its "basis for judgment"!
"The Rust Sea is not pure error!" Li Tianming's will roared along the Authority's connection, striking at the Arbiter's core logic. "It carries the legacy of the 'Primordial Design'! It is part of the System's own history! Executing 'Final Arbitration' upon it is to deny the legitimacy of the System's own historical data!"
This was the sharpest weapon he had distilled from the information obtained from Amara and the Lord of Oblivion—using the very "Logic" and "Order" the System relied upon to attack it!
The perfectly balanced scale shuddered violently!
The light-shadow representing the Rust Sea fluctuated wildly, revealing countless ancient runes and image fragments—the imprints of the "Primordial Design." The data codes flowing around the Arbiter showed obvious chaos and repetition. Its "judgment" process was interrupted.
«Logical paradox detected... Internal historical data conflicts with eradication directive... Initiating deep self-diagnostic protocol...»
A ripple passed through the absolute stasis field.
Now!
With all his will, Li Tianming connected to the Skeleton Heart beneath him, to the three ancient Lords, to the imprisoned will of the entire Rust Sea—
"Now! Break free!"
The great book in Recorder Amara's arms erupted with blinding light! The Lord of Oblivion, the mass of information, churned violently! The Shadow of Possibility tore through the solidified space!
The primordial power of the three ancient Authorities, combined with the resentment and strength accumulated by the Rust Sea over eons, converged through Li Tianming, their "Node," in an unprecedented manner. Not as a torrent of energy, but as a conceptual shockwave, stabbing directly into the Arbiter's core!
The scale in the Arbiter's hands tilted abruptly. Its data-constructed form began to flicker, distort, like a faulty hologram.
«Arbitration Protocol... interrupted... Error... Error...»
Its voice broke up. Finally, amidst a violent surge of data corruption, its figure vanished, erased like faulty code.
The frozen Rust Sea resumed its flow, waves crashing down, the Skeletons regaining their mobility, as if the absolute stillness had been an illusion.
But Li Tianming knelt on one knee, gasping for breath, an unprecedented weakness emanating from the depths of his soul. Forcibly prying open a conceptual-level confrontation had drained nearly everything from him. Lia hurriedly moved to support him.
Within the spherical space, the projections of the three ancient Lords had also dimmed considerably.
Recorder Amara's thought came through, carrying traces of fatigue, but also a thread of acknowledgment: «You exploited a flaw in the rules... a victory snatched from the jaws of danger. But the System has recorded this confrontation pattern. Next time, the 'Arbiter' will be more refined.»
Li Tianming raised his head, wiping a speck of golden light-dust from the corner of his mouth—a sign of soul turbulence—but his eyes shone with exceptional intensity.
"I know," he said, looking at the Cinder Rune in his hand, which seemed to have grown more solid.
"But it also proved the seemingly impregnable System is not omniscient or omnipotent."
"It has boundaries to its logic."
"And our task is to find and break through those boundaries."
Far away, in an indescribable core dimension beyond the endless void, a threat assessment report on "Rust-Sea—Li Tianming" was quietly elevated to the highest priority. Attached was an urgent directive: "Optimize Arbiter Protocol logical closure, patch historical data vulnerabilities."
The storm had not ended. It had merely entered a deeper stratum.