Chapter 8: The Siege of Logic and the Coder's First Strike
The horizon was no longer blue. It had been replaced by a shimmering wall of gold and crimson—the standard of the "Heavenly Correction Army." Led by the Imperial General Zhao, a man whose skin was fused with divine bronze, five thousand elite soldiers marched toward the Hidden Dragon Mountain. They were accompanied by a fleet of a hundred war-galleons, each inscribed with "Anti-Demon" runes designed to stabilize the Dao and crush any "glitches."
General Zhao stood on the deck of his flagship, his eyes fixed on the mountain that was now encased in a flickering, crystalline dome. "So, this is the 'Error' that humbled Envoy Chen," he sneered, drawing his broadsword. "Soldiers of the Emperor! Today we do not fight a man. We erase a stain upon reality! Fire the Law-Stabilizing Cannons!"
The galleons roared. Instead of physical shells, they fired beams of pure, white "Order Energy." These beams were designed to force the world back into its traditional laws, to strip away any domain or special ability.
High on the mountain slopes, Li Ming stood with his twelve "Coders." They looked tiny against the approaching armada, but their eyes were calm, reflecting the silver data-streams of the domain.
"Li Xiao," Li Ming said, his voice a low hum. "The primary server is under attack. Execute the 'Firewall' sub-routine."
The twelve-year-old girl, now the Lead Admin of the mountain, stepped forward. She didn't draw a sword. She raised both hands and made a gesture as if she were spreading a curtain. "Accessing Domain Core... Establishing Firewall... Filter: Order Energy."
The white beams struck the mountain's dome. In any other war, the mountain would have been leveled. But as the beams hit Li Xiao's silver grid, they didn't explode. They were "parsed." The energy was broken down into its basic components and redirected. The white light turned into a harmless rain of glowing petals that fell softly upon the trees.
"What?!" General Zhao's jaw dropped. "The Law-Stabilizing beams were... neutralized? Impossible! Charge! All units, full assault!"
The five thousand soldiers lunged forward, their Qi combined into a massive tidal wave of golden light. They intended to crush the mountain by sheer weight of numbers.
"The enemy is attempting a brute-force attack," Li Ming noted, his spear, The Nullifier, glowing with a sinister violet. "Legion! Initiate: 'Packet Loss'."
The twelve disciples moved in perfect unison. They didn't engage the soldiers in hand-to-hand combat. They sat down in a circle and began to "weave" the air.
Suddenly, the imperial soldiers felt the world stutter. To their perspective, for every ten steps they took, they were teleported back nine. The space around them was being "dropped" like lost data packets. They were running at full speed, yet they were moving in slow motion.
"My sword! It's vanishing and reappearing!" a soldier cried out in panic.
"I can't see the person next to me! The world is lagging!"
General Zhao, realizing his army was being dismantled without a single blow, roared in fury. He leapt from his ship, his bronze body glowing like a sun. "Enough of these tricks! I am a Core Formation Master! Your illusions mean nothing to me!"
He swung his broadsword, unleashing a "Heaven-Cleaving Slash." The golden blade of energy was a kilometer long, aiming to split the mountain in two.
Li Ming finally moved. He didn't use a shield. He stepped forward and pointed The Nullifier at the massive blade.
"Command: Delete Item," Li Ming whispered.
The tip of the spear met the golden energy. A ripple of grey static spread across the blade. The "Heaven-Cleaving Slash" didn't break—it "glitched." For a second, it turned into a series of jagged, glowing cubes, and then it simply vanished.
"Your 'Heaven' is just a line of code I've already read," Li Ming said, appearing instantly in front of Zhao.
The General gasped, swinging his physical sword. Li Ming caught the blade with his bare hand. His skin didn't bleed; instead, the grey circuits on his palm began to glow.
[Executing: Hardware Deconstruction.]
The legendary bronze sword, a treasure of the Empire, began to turn into fine, grey dust from the point of contact. Zhao watched in horror as his weapon disintegrated in his hands.
"You... what kind of monster are you?" Zhao wheezed, his Qi Sea being suppressed by the sheer weight of Li Ming's presence.
"I am the one who updates the world," Li Ming replied. He tapped Zhao's chest with his spear. "And you... are an outdated version."
A pulse of "Zero-Energy" entered Zhao. The General didn't die, but his connection to the Imperial Dao was severed. He fell to the ground, his bronze skin turning back to pale, weak flesh. He was no longer a master; he was just a man.
Seeing their General defeated so easily, the five thousand soldiers broke. They turned and fled, but the "Architect's Domain" didn't let them go so easily.
"Legion," Li Ming commanded. "Collect the data. Strip their weapons and convert them into Creation Essence."
The twelve coders raised their hands. Thousands of grey threads shot out from the mountain, latching onto the fleeing ships and discarded weapons. One by one, the war-galleons were deconstructed in mid-air, their high-grade spirit stones and rare metals turning into a river of energy that flowed back into the mountain's core.
[System Notification: Massive Resource Acquisition!]
[Creation Essence: +50,000 Units.]
[Evolution Progress: 92%.]
[Warning: The Five Emperors have detected the failure. They are no longer sending armies. They are coming themselves.]
Li Ming stood amongst the debris of the imperial armada. His twelve disciples stood behind him, their silver robes glowing with a new power. They were no longer the outcasts of the Li Clan; they were the harbingers of a new era.
"Master," Li Xiao said, her voice echoing with the resonance of the domain. "The energy we collected... it's enough to reach the next stage."
Li Ming looked up at the sky. He could see five distant stars growing brighter—the avatars of the Five Emperors. They were moving at the speed of thought, bypassing the physical world to strike at the heart of the "glitch."
"Then we must prepare the final update," Li Ming said, his spear pulsing with a light that threatened to blind the sun. "The world is about to be formatted. Let's make sure we have a backup."
He sat down at the peak of the mountain, his mind expanding beyond the planet, touching the very fabric of the cosmos. The battle of the mountain was o
ver. The war for the Universe was about to begin.
---
End of Chapter 8.