CHAPTER 17: THE TEARING OF THE CELESTIAL VEIL AND THE CONSUMPTION OF LAW
The ascent of Li Xiao was not a flight; it was a violent piercing of the world's upper boundaries. As he charged toward the colossal golden eye of Heaven's Will, the atmosphere behind him shattered like brittle glass, leaving behind a trail of absolute nothingness. The four Void Apostles—Lin Yue, Wei, Han Xue, and Yan Feng—followed him as streaks of obsidian light, their mortal forms having been completely overwritten by the Architect's abyssal essence. They were no longer human, nor were they gods; they had become the "Hunger" that trailed in the wake of the Devourer.
As they crossed the threshold of the sky, the reality around them shifted. They were no longer in the physical world of soil and stone. They had entered the "Sea of Laws," a dimension where time and space existed as literal golden threads, weaving together to form the destiny of the continent. At the center of this sea stood the core of Heaven's Will—a crystalline heart of pure, blinding light that pulsed with the rhythm of every heartbeat in the world below.
[ Warning: Entering the Absolute Forbidden Zone of the Heavens. ]
[ Divine Law 'Gravity' - Detected. ]
[ Divine Law 'Time' - Detected. ]
[ Divine Law 'Cause and Effect' - Detected. ]
"Look at this," Li Xiao's voice boomed, now possessing a resonant frequency that could unmake souls. He looked at the golden threads of 'Cause and Effect'—the very threads that had forced him into the five thousand years of simulated sacrifice. "This is the loom upon which they wove my prison. They thought that by making me a 'Hero' in their stories, they could tame the void within me. They forgot that even a story needs a page to be written on, and I... I am the darkness that existed before the page."
The Golden Eye of Heaven pulsed with a frantic, blinding brilliance. Suddenly, thousands of "Celestial Guardians"—entities made of solidified light and ancient runes—materialized from the Sea of Laws. They were the antibodies of the universe, and they lunged toward Li Xiao with weapons forged from the literal concept of 'Order'.
"Lin Yue, show them the sword that no law can govern," Li Xiao commanded.
Lin Yue stepped forward. Her black sword, which had absorbed the essence of her five hundred years of regret, was no longer just a weapon; it was a rift. As she swung it, she didn't just cut the guardians; she erased the 'Law of Existence' that allowed them to be. Where her blade passed, the golden threads of the Sea of Laws turned black and disintegrated. She was the "Regret of the Heavens" personified.
General Wei roared, his obsidian armor expanding into a massive wall that blocked the divine lightning strikes of the Heavens. Han Xue summoned the "Abyssal Sea of Betrayal," drowning the celestial guardians in a tide of dark water that dissolved their golden runes. Yan Feng, the Alchemist, raised his crimson-glowing arm and began to "reverse-refine" the very air of the divine realm, turning the sacred Qi of the Heavens into a toxic, necrotic gas.
Li Xiao, however, ignored the battle. He walked directly toward the Heart of Heaven's Will.
"The Five Simulations were your greatest weapon against me," Li Xiao whispered, his hand reaching out toward the crystalline core. "But they were also your greatest mistake. By forcing me to live through the peak of human emotion—love, sacrifice, brotherhood, and betrayal—you gave me the one thing a Devourer never had: A motive."
He grabbed the Heart of Heaven. The scream that erupted from the Heavens was not audible; it was a psychic shockwave that caused every living being on the continent below to bleed from their eyes. The sun turned pitch black, and the stars began to fall from the sky like dying embers.
[ Ding! Consumption of Divine Law 'Cause and Effect' - Initiated. ]
[ Harvesting the Origin of the World. ]
[ Host's True Form: 75% Awakened. ]
As Li Xiao began to consume the Heart, the memories of the five thousand years of simulations began to manifest physically around him. He saw the Nameless Guardian, the Alchemist King, the Fisherman, and the Desert Brother. But they were no longer sacrifices. They were being absorbed into his obsidian wings, their "Heroic Karma" being inverted into "Void Authority."
"You wanted me to be a savior?" Li Xiao laughed, the violet light in his eyes consuming the golden radiance of the Heart. "Then I shall save this world from the tyranny of your 'Order'. I shall save it by returning it to the silence it came from."
The golden threads of the universe began to snap, one by one. On the continent below, the Great Sects were vanishing. The palaces were crumbling into dust. The very concept of 'Cultivation' was being erased. The people who had worshipped the 'Righteous Alliance' now saw the truth: their gods were being eaten by the very man they had called 'trash'.
[ Evolution: Universal Architect - Phase 1. ]
[ You have transcended the limits of the 'System'. ]
[ The 'System' is now being integrated into your Divine Essence. ]
Li Xiao's body underwent a final, terrifying mutation. His skin became a star-less void, and his obsidian wings grew to span the entire Sea of Laws. He was no longer a man with a system; he was the System. He was the Law. He was the End.
He looked at his four Apostles, who were now standing amidst the wreckage of the Heavens. They were the only ones left who still had a 'self'.
"The harvest of this world is complete," Li Xiao spoke, his voice the final decree of a dead universe. "But the Void is vast, and there are countless other heavens, countless other simulations waiting to be dismantled. Lin Yue, Wei, Han Xue, Yan Feng... do you wish to see the end of all things?"
Lin Yue knelt in the empty space where the sky used to be. "Where you go, I follow, my Lord. Even if it is into the mouth of the eternal night."
Li Xiao turned his gaze toward the infinite darkness beyond the shattered Heavens. The five simulations had been his cage, but now, they were his map. He reached out and tore a hole in the fabric of the multiverse, stepping into the unknown.
The Mysterious Heaven Continent was gone. The Blue Cloud Sect was a memory. The Empress's empire was dust. But the Architect had only just begun his work. In a thousand other worlds, a thousand other 'Heroes' were about to feel a sudden, inexplicable tremor of regret... and the shado
w of an obsidian wing beginning to cover their sun.