Chapter 10: The Sovereign Of Stars and the Infinite Horizon
The transformation of the Kang Qiang continent was not merely a change in leadership; it was a fundamental shift in the frequency of existence. From the highest peaks of the Imperial Capital to the deepest mines where the "broken vessels" once toiled, the old world had been overwritten. The air was no longer thick with the erratic, often violent energy of raw Qi. Instead, it was filled with a rhythmic, pulsing "Source Code"—a clean and equitable energy that responded not to one's bloodline, but to one's clarity of intent.
At the center of this new world stood the "Celestial Mainframe," a spire of translucent crystal that had replaced the Hidden Dragon Mountain. Within its hollowed, glowing halls, Li Ming sat upon a throne that was not made of gold or bone, but of pure light. He was no longer just a man; he was the sentient core of a planet.
[System Status: Global Reboot Successful.]
[Population Integration: 98.4%.]
[Security Protocol: "Architect's Domain" extended to the planetary atmosphere.]
Li Ming opened his eyes. The kaleidoscopic swirls of azure and silver had settled into a steady, calm glow. Beside him stood Li Xiao, her silver robes shimmering with the data of a billion lives. She was no longer a frightened child, but the High Administrator of the New Genesis.
"Master," Li Xiao said, her voice echoing with a celestial resonance. "The Five Emperors—now the System Processes—have finished indexing the continent's resources. The era of famine and spiritual drought is over. But... the sensors are picking up something at the edge of the solar system."
Li Ming nodded. He had felt it too. The moment he formatted the continent, he had sent a "signal" into the dark vacuum of the Multiverse. Like a lighthouse in a storm, the birth of a Sovereign Architect was an event that couldn't be hidden from the predatory eyes of the Great Void.
"They are coming," Li Ming whispered. "The 'System Devourers.' Those who have spent aeons consuming faulty worlds like ours used to be."
[Warning: Interstellar Breach Detected.]
[Entity Class: Void-Reaper. Quantity: 3.]
Suddenly, the sky above the Mainframe didn't just darken—it began to rot. Three massive, organic ships, shaped like rusted harpoons and miles long, tore through the planetary shield. They were the scavengers of the cosmos, beings who fed on the "energy leakage" of poorly managed worlds.
A voice, cold and ancient, vibrated through the atmosphere, bypassing the ears and striking the soul. "A new Architect? How rare. Your world smells of fresh code, little one. But a single planet cannot stop the Hunger of the Void. Surrender your Mainframe, and we shall grant your species a quick deletion."
Li Ming stood up. He didn't look worried. In fact, a small, confident smile played on his lips. He gripped "The Nullifier," which had evolved from an obsidian spear into a staff of pure, condensed reality.
"Xiao, synchronize the Legion," Li Ming commanded. "It's time to show the Multiverse that this world is no longer an 'error' to be scavenged."
"Executing: Planetary Defense Grid!" Li Xiao shouted.
Across the continent, the twelve Coders and the millions of newly integrated citizens felt a surge of connection. They weren't just individuals; they were "nodes" in a massive, planetary computer. Li Ming didn't fight alone. He fought with the combined processing power of an entire world.
[Planetary Overclock: Activated.]
[Targeting: Void-Reapers.]
Li Ming stepped off the balcony of the Mainframe. He didn't fall; he ascended, his body turning into a beam of silver light that shot toward the stars. In seconds, he was standing in the cold vacuum of space, facing the three gargantuan ships.
"You speak of deletion," Li Ming said, his voice broadcasted across all frequencies of the universe. "But you are the ones who are out of date. Your existence is a parasite upon the cosmos."
The Void-Reapers responded with beams of "Corruption Energy"—dark, chaotic waves designed to scramble the laws of any world they hit.
Li Ming raised his staff. "Command: Firewall Alpha."
A shield of silver binary runes, hundreds of miles wide, manifested in front of the planet. The corruption beams hit the shield and, instead of breaking it, they were "sorted." Li Ming was literally rewriting the dark energy into harmless starlight as it hit him.
"My turn," Li Ming said. "Executing: Universal Format."
He thrust his staff forward. A wave of "Absolute Zero" energy, fueled by the entire planet's Core, swept through the vacuum. The three Void-Reaper ships didn't explode. They began to "de-pixelate." Their organic hulls, their thousands of years of stolen energy, and their dark consciousnesses were dismantled at the quantum level.
The "scavengers" didn't even have time to scream. They were converted into raw "Creation Essence"—a massive gift of energy that Li Ming funneled back into the planet's atmosphere, creating a permanent aurora of beautiful, shimmering light.
Li Ming stood alone in the silence of space, looking out at the endless sea of stars. He saw billions of other worlds, many of them flickering with the "red light" of corruption, war, and inefficiency.
[System Notification: External Threat Deleted.]
[Current Rank: Universal Architect (Candidate).]
[New Objective: The Great Update. Link the neighboring sectors to the New Genesis.]
"The work of an Architect is never finished," Li Ming mused.
He returned to the Mainframe, landing softly beside his disciples. The people of Kang Qiang looked up at the sky, seeing the beautiful new stars he had created. They no longer feared the heavens; they felt part of them.
Li Ming sat back upon his throne. He looked at Li Xiao and the others, his "Legion" of builders. "The first volume of our story is closed," he told them. "We have saved our home. But out there, in the dark, there are countless 'broken vessels' waiting for a path. We are no longer just a clan or a nation."
He gripped his staff, and a holographic map of the galaxy unfolded before him, filled with "bugs" that needed fixing and "systems" that needed a reboot.
"We are the **Supreme Dao Makers**," Li Ming declared, his voice echoing into the infinite future. "And the Multiverse...
is our next draft."
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End of Volume 1: The Sovereign Architect.