Chapter 288: The Mark

Above the ruins of the Sacrificial Sky Platform, all sounds fell silent.

Wang Zhize lowered his eyes; his gaze did not rest on the restored Imperial City beneath his feet, but pierced the material to reach a deeper, more fundamental layer.

In his newborn realm, the embryonic universe shaped by his will, its crystal-clear world barrier bore an ugly "stain".

It was neither energy nor rune.

It resembled a living thing, a conceptual cancer forged from pure malice and inverted logic.

Countless twisted symbols that defy this realm's birth‑and‑death principle writhed and shrieked within, constantly trying to seep a definition into the whole newborn realm—"This realm is the private property of Void Walkers."

This was the final revenge left by that higher‑dimensional being before its will was utterly crushed.

A coordinate.

A curse.

A… address number.

"Brother."

Wang Zhitao shuffled over, reverting to a youthful form, yet deep within his pupils swirled two slowly rotating dark star vortices, as if they could devour all light and hope.

He sniffed his nose, his Adam's apple rolled, and his gaze fixed straight on Wang Zhize, or rather on the "stain" his will was focusing on.

"That thing… smells delicious."

His intuition, that primal impulse born of the law of consumption, shouted wildly.

That thing is a great tonic!

Wang Zhize's will incarnation appeared before that conceptual cancer.

He extended his hand, but did not touch.

His fingertip merely brushed lightly, and the world force of the newborn realm, like the sharpest scalpel, precisely cut an invisible barrier around the seal.

"Eat?"

A hint of amused curiosity curved Wang Zhize's mouth.

"Of course we'll eat, but not now."

His will, like endless tide, instantly enveloped the seal.

Boom!

A chaotic, mad torrent of massive information, brimming with higher‑dimensional beings' contempt for lower‑dimensional ants, surged into Wang Zhize's consciousness.

It was a shock indescribable in words.

As if a person's brain were forced to swallow an entire universe's error code.

If any creature of this realm, even the former "Lord", touched this information, its soul would be torn, formatted, and utterly reduced to a Void Walker's puppet.

But Wang Zhize is the master of this realm.

"In my house, you must obey my rules."

His will was cold and absolute.

"I define: your 'malice' as invalid information."

"I define: your 'logic' as chaotic gibberish."

"I define: your 'contamination' as… stasis."

Words become law!

The wildly writhing seal froze instantly, like a horror film frame paused.

All twisted symbols, all shrieking malice, were locked in absolute stillness.

It still existed, but had lost the ability to actively corrode.

It turned from a bomb ready to detonate into a dangerous exhibit sealed in a museum glass case.

"Look," Wang Zhize's will transmitted to Wang Zhitao, "it's now a piece of unmoving flesh."

"Want to use it as a landmark for precise future airdrops?"

"Then you'd have to ask this 'local' whether I agree."

Wang Zhize's will incarnation opened his five fingers and made a vague grab at the still seal.

"I define: your attribute as a 'coordinate' is retained."

"But you will become a one‑way coordinate."

"Only I can locate you."

"And you can no longer leak any fraction of this realm to the Outside World!"

Buzz—!

The gray seal quivered violently, and the twisted symbols inside, frozen, seemed to emit a silent, resentful roar.

Its tenuous link to the deep Void was forcibly re‑authorized by Wang Zhize in an unreasonably crude manner!

Now it is no longer a backdoor left by Void Walkers, but a tracker Wang Zhize placed on the enemy!

After completing all this, Wang Zhize finally stripped a barely perceptible trace of the seal's aura from its core and flung it toward Wang Zhitao.

"Taste it."

Wang Zhitao's eyes lit up, and he opened his mouth to swallow that wisp of aura.

Crunch!

A crisp sound like crushing glass rang at his soul level.

Wang Zhitao's body jolted, the dark vortex in his eyes accelerating wildly; his aura became extremely unstable, strands of black, void‑tinged fissures flickering uncontrollably around his body before vanishing.

"Burp…"

He burped, his face showing a mix of pain and satisfaction.

"Brother, this flavor… is intense!"

Just this faint breath alone elevated his understanding of the Void to an entirely new level.

He felt that, if he wished, he could tear open a passage to that dead, silent void.

Although that opening could only last an instant and would drain all his strength.

Wang Zhize nodded.

Very good.

His junior now held an extra trump card, and he, through this feeding, completely deciphered how this Coordinate operated.

The initiative had already changed hands.

His consciousness returned to his body; he opened his eyes, took a step, and his figure appeared atop the Imperial City palace wall.

Li Hu and Zhang Mei sat cross‑legged on the ground, straining to assimilate the sliver of Void Law Fragment that Wang Zhize had bestowed.

When Wang Zhize appeared, the two were startled awake and rose together.

"Sir!"

Their gazes had completely changed.

If before they felt awe and worship, now they regarded him with the reverence of mortals looking up to a creator god.

Within their altered perception, the entire world displayed a different visage.

The air no longer carried spiritual energy, but strands of rules defining "Wind" and "Energy".

The sturdy city wall, in their eyes, broke down into countless bits of basic data woven from concepts such as "Matter," "Gravity," and "Structure."

They saw the world's "source code"!

Just now, they had been ordered to purge the remaining "Shadows" in the city.

A stronghold hidden beneath a deep well, shielded by sevenfold Illusion Array and threefold Seal, appeared to them like a glaring torch in the night.

Those complex Arrays, to them, were merely crude code riddled with logical flaws.

Zhang Mei simply extended her hand and tapped the empty air a few times.

"Definition: Illusion Node, logical error."

"Definition: Energy Circuit, reverse operation."

In the next instant, the secret stronghold that had existed for centuries saw all its Arrays collapse at once, even suffering a Counter-Devouring of energy; the assassins inside, before grasping what happened, were blown to ash by their own Seal.

This is the ultimate form of Law Breaking.

Erase the rules of your existence at the source!

"Very good," Wang Zhize said, his expression calm as he watched them.

"These petty tricks are merely appetizers."

He briefly explained the existence of the Void Walker and the altered Void Mark in terms they could comprehend.

Li Hu and Zhang Mei listened, their bodies chilled to the bone; they had thought the battle at the Sacrificial Altar was the end, yet it was only a beginning.

What they faced was a terrifying calamity from beyond the world, a disaster that feeds on the world itself.

"We... are willing to be the blade in your hand, cutting down all foes!" Li Hu knelt on one knee, his voice ringing.

"Sir, give the order!" Zhang Mei's eyes burned with fervent resolve.

Wang Zhize's gaze swept past them, overlooking the vast mountains and rivers of the Imperial Dynasty.

In his perception as the Lord of the World, this land was not as pristine as it seemed.

Although there was no second Void Mark as clear.

Yet he could sense, in the long river of history, hidden corners where discordant "scratches" existed.

Those were faint traces left by the Void Walker—or similar beings—when they once probed or schemed this world.

They were so concealed, like a single black grain of sand mixed into a beach, hard to detect.

But now, with Li Hu and Zhang Mei granted the Void perspective, sharp blades tasked with "detoxifying."

"Go."

Wang Zhize's voice rang in their minds.

"Make the Imperial City the center, patrol the world."

"Locate all the 'noise' that does not belong to this world and mark their positions."

"Yes!"

The two accepted the command, turning into twin streams of light that vanished into the sky.

Wang Zhize redirected his gaze toward the Void.

His perception, following the Coordinate he firmly controlled, stretched like an invisible tendril across endless dimensions, piercing a cold, dead, malicious and starving darkness.

He "saw".

At the edge of the darkness, a massive will beyond any describable form lay sleeping.

Seemingly sensing the probing gaze, the will shifted slightly.

Wang Zhize immediately severed the connection.

Yet the curve of his mouth grew colder and more dangerous.

"Found you."

"You thought installing a doorbell at my doorstep would let you visit at will."

"Little did you know, from now on."

"Hunter, has already placed a collar on its prey."