Chapter 9: The Pentarchy of the Old Dao and the Final Update
The sky above Hidden Dragon Mountain did not just change color; it ceased to be a sky. The atmosphere was replaced by a swirling nebula of five distinct colors: Golden, Crimson, Azure, White, and Black. The air grew so heavy that even the ground began to compress, turning stone into diamond under the sheer spiritual pressure. The Five Emperors—the absolute sovereigns of the Old Dao—had arrived.
They did not descend in ships. They manifested as pillars of pure law, each several hundred feet tall, surrounding the mountain in a perfect pentagon.
"Li Ming," the Emperor of the Eternal Flame spoke, his voice a roar that set the clouds ablaze. "You have played with the threads of existence for too long. You have treated the sacred Dao as a toy, calling it 'code' and 'data.' Today, the world is purged of your heresy."
From the peak, Li Ming stood alone. His twelve Coders were already kneeling, not in submission, but to maintain the "Domain Core" under this impossible pressure. Li Ming looked up at the five titanic figures. His silver hair whipped in the chaotic winds, and his eyes were now terrifyingly calm—voids that swallowed the emperors' light.
[System Warning: Overload Imminent.]
[Target Analysis: Five Entity Class - Sovereigns. Combined Power Level: 99.9% of Sector Capacity.]
[Status: Host body cannot withstand a direct clash. Suggestion: Final Update.]
"Purge?" Li Ming's voice was soft, yet it cut through the emperors' roar like a razor. "You talk about purging as if you are the masters of this world. But you are just programs that have run for too long. You are bloated, inefficient, and full of errors."
"Enough!" the Empress of the Frost Moon shrieked.
The Five Emperors moved in unison. It was the "Pentarchy Execution"—a move that had ended the Age of Dragons. Five streams of ultimate Law—Fire, Water, Earth, Metal, and Wood—converged into a single point of absolute destruction aimed at Li Ming's heart.
"Xiao! Disconnect the mountain from the world!" Li Ming commanded.
Li Xiao, her face pale and sweat-beaded, slammed her hands into the silver grid. "Executing: Offline Mode!"
The Hidden Dragon Mountain vanished from the physical map. For a millisecond, the Emperors' attack hit nothing but a hole in space. But the Emperors were not so easily fooled. They reached into the void, their divine senses tracking the "packet" of reality that was the mountain.
"You cannot hide in the sub-space, glitch!" the Emperor of the Golden Peak roared, his hand reaching through the dimensions to crush the mountain's dome.
Li Ming felt his "Architect's Domain" shattering. The silver lines were turning red. His disciples were coughing blood as their internal systems reached the breaking point.
"Master, we can't hold the firewall!" Li Xiao cried out.
Li Ming looked at his spear, The Nullifier. He knew there was only one way. He didn't need to fight the Emperors; he needed to replace the very system they existed within.
"Blueprint... initiate 'The Final Update: Genesis 2.0'."
[Warning: This will format the entire continent.]
[Warning: Host's individual ego may be lost in the Mainframe.]
[Do you wish to proceed?]
"If I am to be the Architect," Li Ming whispered, "then I must become the House."
He plunged The Nullifier into his own chest.
Instead of blood, a torrent of pure, blinding white light—the "Source Code"—erupted from his body. Li Ming's physical form began to deconstruct, turning into trillions of glowing silver particles. He was no longer a human; he was becoming a "Universal Kernel."
The Five Emperors froze. They felt the world beneath their feet changing. The grass was no longer green; it was a string of emerald text. The sun was no longer a ball of fire; it was a sphere of radiant logic.
"What... what is he doing?" the Emperor of the Azure Sea stammered. "The Dao... it's not responding!"
[System Notification: Formatting in Progress... 10%... 30%...]
Li Ming's voice, now a billion-voice chorus, echoed from every atom of the continent. "I am not killing you, Emperors. I am simply... upgrading your environment. The Old Dao is being retired. Welcome to the New Genesis."
The Five Emperors unleashed their full power, but their attacks simply passed through the white light. You cannot hit a world that is still being written. One by one, their giant forms began to "pixelate." Their divine power was being dismantled and reabsorbed into the new system.
"No! I have ruled for ten thousand years!" the Flame Emperor screamed as his body turned into a cloud of red data.
"Time," Li Ming's voice replied, "is just a variable. And your time has reached its limit."
The white light expanded, covering the mountain, the Li Clan, the Imperial Capital, and finally, the entire continent of Kang Qiang. For one heartbeat, there was nothing but a profound, digital silence.
[Format Complete.]
[System Rebooting...]
[New World Order: Online.]
When the light faded, the Hidden Dragon Mountain was gone. In its place stood a pillar of infinite height made of crystal and light—the "Mainframe of the World."
The continent was the same, yet fundamentally different. People woke up to find that their Qi Seas were gone, replaced by "Core Interfaces." The Five Emperors were no longer sovereigns; they were now "System Processes," bound to serve the laws of the new Architect.
High within the Mainframe, a figure began to coalesce. Li Ming stepped out of the light. He looked the same, but his eyes held the blueprints of the stars. He was no longer a cultivator. He was the **Supreme Dao Maker**.
He looked down at the world he had rewritten. There would be no more "broken vessels." There would be no more "trash." Everyone had a path, and he was the one who wrote it.
"Master?" a voice called out.
Li Xiao and the twelve coders appeared beside him, their bodies now made of pure, refined essence. They were the new "Administrators" of the world.
Li Ming smiled, a look of peace finally settling on his face. "The update was successful. But a system always needs maintenance."
He looked toward the dark space beyond the planet, where other "faulty systems" and "corrupted gods" were already noticing the new light in the sector.
"The war for the continent is over," Li Ming said, gripping a newly reformed
Nullifier. "The war for the Multiverse... has just begun."
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End of Chapter 9.