This is the moment he's been waiting for!
A condensed, dark point of light flicked from his withered fingertip—the core fragment of the Shura Yin Heart. It possessed no earth-shattering force, yet carried a malevolent law powerful enough to extinguish all life. Like a curse transcending cause and effect, it silently pierced the chaotic battlefield, heading straight for the figure in blue robes within the Paradox Fortress Ship — Lin Qingxia, the one who held the seed of [Hope].
This attack was insidious and vicious. It did not seek instant destruction, but rather to completely corrupt that pure life essence, turning Lin Qingxia into an immortal, eternally mortal, and hopelessly corrupting Asura puppet. It wanted to use the most cruel method to break the softest string in Xiao Han.
Fast! So fast that your mind can't keep up!
Su Linglong's Divine Kingdom was restrained by the Star Shepherd Legion, and Xiao Han's will was in full-scale confrontation with the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion Overlord. All defenses were rendered useless in the face of this death ray imbued with the power of termination.
However, just as the beam of light was about to touch Lin Qingxia's brow, a charming yet resolute phantom suddenly burst out of Xiao Han's sea of consciousness and blocked the light.
It's Mei'er!
With her illusory succubus form, she met the attack that was powerful enough to Obliteration the soul. The moment the black light touched her body, her graceful figure melted away at a visible speed, like ice and snow thrown into a raging fire.
The excruciating pain contorted her face, but the look in her eyes as she gazed at Xiao Han still carried that signature, captivating, alluring smile.
"Master, it's so boring that it's ending so soon... I haven't had enough of this 'game' yet!"
Before she finished speaking, her body completely transformed into the purest soul particles. In the final moment of the explosion, the energy barely deflected the Asura Death Ray by a fraction, grazing past Lin Qingxia's temple before disappearing into the void.
One breath.
She used her own existence to buy Xiao Han that precious moment of life.
Boom--!
Xiao Han's mind went completely blank.
The smile that Mei'er gave before she vanished was like the sharpest carving knife, branding it fiercely onto the very essence of his soul. The dam of reason was completely breached by the raging fire of rage at that moment. That immense power originating from the Will of All Beings] amplified his personal sorrow and anger a billion times over, transforming them into a pure and extreme impulse of destruction.
"Little fellow, don't let anger consume you! Use something it can't understand to defeat it!" The Skeleton Ferryman's calm warning rang out in the storm.
I can't understand...
Xiao Han's consciousness, in its extreme anger, became incomparably cold and clear.
He forged into a single furnace the raging fury that could burn down the stars, the Paradox Domain that twisted everything, the [Freedom Rune] that symbolized indomitable spirit, and his ultimate understanding of "bonds," creating an ultimate paradox that was both extremely simple and extremely deadly.
In the next instant, he transformed this paradox into a divine thought, ignoring all laws and spatial barriers, like a poisoned needle, precisely piercing the vast and boundless core logic of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion Overlord.
"A perfect system must have a 'flaw' in order to prove its 'perfection'."
There was no roaring, no venting, just a cold, factual statement.
This statement is an indisputable and unavoidable logical deadlock for the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion Overlord, who pursues absolute Order and absolute perfection.
In order to maintain "perfection," it must actively create a "flaw."
Creating "flaws" contradicts its own definition of "perfection".
Affirmation... denial... Affirmation... denial...
The vast will, large enough to cover the entire cosmic quadrant, was trapped in an eternal vicious cycle at this moment.
Buzz--
Everything in the entire Hive Universe came to an instant.
The shimmering stars froze, the flowing torrent of data was frozen, and even the emerald flames burning in the eyes of the Star Shepherds were fixed in that instant. All was silent, and time and space seemed to have lost their meaning.
Xiao Han seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
He is that "flaw"!
In the instant the system crashed, he used himself as a beacon to temporarily seize supreme control of the entire Hive Universe.
"Show your core!"
A roar echoed through the deathly silent universe.
The entire Hive Universe responded, beginning a self-reconstruction in an inconceivable way. Countless galaxies and data streams receded like a tide, layer upon layer of outer shells were peeled away, revealing the scene at the very center and deepest point of all dimensions—
It was neither a cold machine nor an energy singularity.
Instead, it is a... living human brain, immersed in a giant life support capsule, filled with countless wires and interfaces.
It beats faintly in its billions of years of solitude.
"Do you see? The origin of the story." The Skeleton Ferryman's voice drifted over, revealing the ultimate truth, "The 'Creator' of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion, in pursuit of the absolute Order in his heart, merged himself with the universe he created, ultimately becoming the first and only prisoner of his own program."
He pointed to the brain, like a theatrical narrator, posing the ultimate question to Xiao Han, "The ending of the story is in your hands, the newly born 'flaw.' Will you destroy it, plunging the universe back into chaos, and making yourself a new tyrant? Or will you liberate it, embracing a future full of unknowns and uncertainties?"
Xiao Han stared at the brain, his heart filled with mixed emotions.
However, before he could answer, the brain that had been dormant for billions of years, with its eyelids connected to countless ducts, slowly, very slowly opened.
Those eyes held no illogical coldness, no divine majesty, only endless sorrow, weariness, and a sense of relief.
An extremely weak voice resounded directly in Xiao Han's heart.
"Thank you... for finally coming to me."
However, in this moment filled with compassion and choice, in a corner overlooked by everyone, the Ferryman let out a triumphant laugh.
"Haha! Thank you! Thank you for preparing everything for me!"
He actually used the purest soul energy that dissipated when Mei'er vanished to complete a final, unknown blood sacrifice ritual!
His body instantly transformed into a blurry black shadow, ignoring the stagnant spacetime and all the rules, like a venomous snake that had been lurking for a long time, instantly rushing towards that unsuspecting, defenseless— the Creator's brain!
His true purpose was never to resurrect the old gods!
Instead, he intends to seize the body of this trapped "Creator" at this final moment of transition between the old and the new, and take over the entire Hive Universe, along with Xiao Han, the "Chosen One"!
A brand new "god," more cunning, more insane, and more unpredictable than the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion Overlord, is about to be born before Xiao Han's eyes.