Chapter 1199 - 547: For His Majesty—Kill! (Part 2)

When they heard words like "a new Cleaner Fish has been released" and "thirty Star Days," the surging battle intent that had just risen because of Xu Ran’s breakthrough was instantly doused to the bone by a bucket of ice water.

A single Cleaner Fish was already so terrifying that it required My Lord to first create a supreme Dao to suppress and slay it. Then that Executioner, personally dispatched by the "Main Sequence" and specifically designed to "correct" this "variable" that is My Lord—how unimaginably powerful must it be?

Thirty days!

This Star Domain, this prison, had only granted them thirty days of lingering survival!

Despair, like maggots gnawing the bone, once more tried to crawl up into everyone’s hearts.

"Thirty days is enough." Xu Ran’s voice was firm and decisive, as though infused with a certain Magic Power, instantly dispelling that chill of Despair. "But on the premise that, from this moment on, every one of us, every shred of Power, must be pushed to its utmost!"

His gaze finally fell upon Cang Shi, whose hair and beard were all white, yet whose eyes still shone with a startling brilliance.

"Cang Shi."

"At your command!" Cang Shi bowed.

"For the Dao-解 Amplification Array, I want you to completely finish it within twenty days." Xu Ran’s tone allowed no refusal. "Using the Pioneer as the Array core, using Chaos Immortal Gold as the hub, you are to draw upon the ’Dao’ and ’Law’ of this entire Metal Tomb and make them mine to command!"

"Twenty days..." Cang Shi’s brows knit tightly. This was not a technical problem, but a problem of sheer workload. "My Lord, with our current manpower and resources, even going all out, the fastest would still be more than forty days. And that is assuming the Energy supply is sufficient."

"Energy is not the problem." A deep light flashed in Xu Ran’s eyes as he pointed toward the boundless metal graveyard outside the window. "This Metal Tomb entombs a fleet from the age of the Divine Court. The Divine Power cores within their hulls have long since fallen into Silence, but the residual Law Imprints they left behind are themselves a higher-order form of ’Energy’."

He paused, then said word by word, "The Dao-解 Array is not only to analyze, but also to... devour! What I want you to lay down is not an observation platform, but a Taotie’s giant maw! I will use it to swallow everything in this graveyard! To swallow the Divine Court’s order, to swallow the unwillingness of the defeated, and even to swallow the ’erasure’ scars left behind by the Celestial Order!"

"With ten thousand Dao as fuel, ignite my true flame!"

Cang Shi’s entire body trembled. He jerked his head up, and unprecedented brilliance erupted in his eyes.

He understood! My Lord intended to perform a heaven-defying act: to turn the remnants of an era, the dirge of an entire civilization, all into nourishment for his own ascent! What a vast audacity, what domineering will!

"I understand!" Cang Shi no longer harbored any doubt. Within his aged body, it was as if a blazing fire had ignited. "Rest assured, My Lord! Twenty days—no, eighteen days! Within eighteen days, even if I must burn this old life away, I will make this ’Ten-thousand-Dao Furnace’ ignite for you!"

"Good!" Xu Ran nodded heavily. "Zhen Shan!"

"At your service!"

"You will lead all Warriors as the Array Guardians, and at the same time, you will be the first batch to benefit. When the Array operates, I will peel away the purest battle intent and Guardian Laws of the Divine Court and pour them into your bodies. How much you can comprehend, how much you can improve, will depend on your own fortune."

"Thank you, My Lord!" Zhen Shan and the others dropped to one knee in unison, their voices shaking the heavens.

Once the orders were given, the Pioneer—this battered divine ark that had lain in Deathly Silence for who knew how many ages—suddenly stirred once more, like a primordial giant beast awakening with a thunderous roar.

Under Cang Shi’s command, countless autonomous machines flew out of the cabins like worker bees, beginning to inscribe incomparably complex Array Runes upon the colossal hull of the Pioneer. Every single Rune seemed to contain the ultimate principles of the Cosmos, profound and unfathomable.

Zhen Shan, meanwhile, led the Kings and Generals, taking slabs of special alloy dismantled from the warship wreckage—metal that still flickered with Immortal divinity—and, according to Cang Shi’s schematics, laid them across the metal earth, forming enormous Energy conduits that connected back to the Pioneer.

The entire Metal Tomb became a part of this unprecedented "Ten-thousand-Dao Furnace."

As for Xu Ran, he went alone to the deepest part of the Pioneer—also the power furnace chamber that was soon to become the core of the Array.

It was vast and silent here, with only that fist-sized piece of Chaos Immortal Gold hovering in midair, emanating a dense and ancient aura.

Xu Ran sat cross-legged, his eyes closed, while his Heart Spirit extended infinitely outward, merging with the entire Grand Array that was being constructed.

His Eyes of Gui Xu were no longer gazing outward, but turning inward for examination.

Examining the "Reincarnation Dao" he had just created.

The Divine Court as the beginning, Gui Xu as the end.

With a single thought, all things arise—this is the Dao of "Existence."

With a single thought, all things fall into Nirvana—this is the Dao of "Termination."

"No... it’s still not enough..." Xu Ran murmured in his heart.

His Reincarnation Dao, though it had successfully unraveled the Cleaner Fish’s "erasure" Law, did so only by using the opposing nature of Laws—just like water extinguishes fire and light dispels darkness. This was a kind of mutually generative and mutually restraining "Art," not a true "Dao" that stands above them.

True Reincarnation is not the simple superposition of "beginning" and "end," but that endlessly recurring, eternally circulating process from "beginning" to "end," and then from "end" back to "beginning."

That process is the true meaning of "Reincarnation"!

"The Celestial Order defines ’truth’ and erases ’falsehood.’ Its Dao is static, absolute, a straight line without an end."

"But my Dao must be flowing, ever-changing, a circle without beginning or end!"

Xu Ran’s Heart Spirit sank into a deep level of enlightenment. His aura at times resembled the Heavenly Emperor of the Divine Court—majestic and boundless, establishing countless orders; at other times it resembled the Master of Gui Xu—Deathly Silence deep and vast, guiding all things to their final demise.

The two utterly opposite temperaments alternated upon him, faster and faster, increasingly harmonious.

Time slipped by, day after day, amid this tense yet orderly preparation for war.

On the first day, the foundational Array Runes were completed.

On the third day, the Energy conduits were fully laid.

On the seventh day, the Chaos Immortal Gold was successfully embedded into the core node of the power furnace, and the framework of the entire Grand Array was erected.

On the thirteenth day, with bloodshot eyes from sleepless toil, Cang Shi finally completed the calibration of the final core Array pattern.

On the morning of the eighteenth day.

When the first strand of grayish-white light—from who knew where—shone upon this Metal Tomb, Cang Shi’s voice, laden with boundless exhaustion yet brimming with excitement, resounded through the internal comms of the Pioneer.

"Reporting to My Lord! The Ten-thousand-Dao Furnace... has lived up to your expectations—it is complete!"

Xu Ran, seated in meditation within the core furnace chamber, suddenly opened his eyes.

In his left eye, brilliant golden divine script shimmered in cycles of birth and death, like a Cosmos in the midst of creation.

In his right eye, a Deathly Silent gray vortex spun, like a black hole collapsing in upon itself.

"Activate... the Furnace!"

Xu Ran’s voice traveled through the Array to every corner.

Boom—!!!

At his command, the metal earth for tens of thousands of miles around, with the Pioneer at its center, suddenly shuddered!

Immediately after, those gigantic Array patterns laid down by Cang Shi lit up one after another, shining with dazzling radiance. The light extended from the ground like billions of giant dragons, converging into the hull of the Pioneer and ultimately surging toward the Chaos Immortal Gold at the core!

Weng weng weng!

The Chaos Immortal Gold began to tremble violently, as though it had become a bottomless black hole, madly tugging and siphoning the "things" that had settled here over endless ages.

It was not matter, not Energy, but something on a higher plane... the lingering echoes of "Dao"!

In an instant, wind and cloud changed color; ghosts wailed and gods roared!

The entire Metal Tomb seemed to come alive.

Upon the countless shattered warship wrecks, one after another blurry, unwilling phantom surfaced. These were the soldiers of the Divine Court who had fallen here in ages past. The last shred of obsession from their dispersed Divine Souls was forcibly dragged out from the long river of history by the Array!

"The Divine Court is eternal, order shall not perish!"

"Whoever offends our heavenly might, no matter how far, shall be slain!"

"For His Majesty! Kill!"