CHAPTER 23: THE CENTRAL SPIRE AND THE VIRUS OF MEANING
The Central Spire of the Void-Lords was not a structure built of matter, but a frozen eruption of 'Non-Logic'. It rose from the grey mists of the Great Beyond like a jagged needle, piercing through the layers of the unwritten reality. To look at it was to feel one's own thoughts unraveling, as the Spire emitted a constant, low-frequency hum that broadcasted the 'Law of Null'—the absolute decree that everything which was, is, or will be, is fundamentally a mistake.
Li Xiao, now evolved into a 'Void-Scholar', moved toward the Spire. He was no longer a flickering grey shadow; he had become a silhouette of absolute obsidian, a walking hole in the void that was far more 'real' than the emptiness around him. Inside his consciousness, the 'Obsidian Seed' was pulsating with the concentrated 'Essence of Was' he had harvested. To the Null-Walkers, he looked like a carrier of a lethal plague—a plague of 'Meaning'.
[ Ding! Entering the 'Sanctum of the Null-Lords'. ]
[ Environmental Hazard: Conceptual Dissolution at 15% per second. ]
[ Protection Active: The Shield of Regret (Fueled by the Souls of the Fallen Galaxy). ]
As Li Xiao crossed the threshold of the Spire, the grey fog turned into a crystalline maze of 'Static'. Thousands of Null-Squires were being processed here, their memories being stripped away by giant, rotating gears made of pure silence. The screams of these dying histories were silent, yet Li Xiao could feel them vibrating in his marrow.
"Who enters the Hall of Finality without a tether?" A voice echoed, manifesting as three towering entities with faces made of shifting white noise. These were the 'Null-Lords', the architects of the Great Erasure. "You... #909. You carry the stench of 'Existence'. You have brought the filth of 'Definition' into our sacred silence."
Li Xiao stood his ground, the obsidian wings behind him partially manifesting as jagged blades of shadow. "Your 'Sacred Silence' is nothing but a coward's retreat from the complexity of life," Li Xiao's thought-voice boomed, shattering the crystalline gears nearby. "You eat the stories of others because you are too hollow to write your own. I am here to give you the one thing you've spent eternity avoiding: A Beginning."
With a flick of his wrist, Li Xiao unleashed a wave of 'Void-Writing'. But instead of destructive energy, he projected the 'Simulation of the Alchemist King'. The Null-Lords suddenly found themselves inundated with the sensation of heat, the smell of medicinal herbs, and the overwhelming emotion of a doctor's sacrifice.
To a being of pure Null, the sensation of 'Smell' was an existential crisis. The feeling of 'Heat' was a catastrophic error. One of the Null-Lords shrieked, its form flickering violently as it tried to process the concept of 'Pain'.
"Stop it! Unwrite this! Erase the definition!" the Lords screamed, their white-noise faces distorting into masks of agony.
"You cannot unwrite what is already lived," Li Xiao replied, stepping closer. "I am the Architect of Fate. I have lived five thousand years of suffering just so I could learn how to kill beings like you. Every drop of blood I shed in the simulations was a line of code designed to overwrite your vacuum."
Li Xiao reached out and grabbed the nearest Null-Lord by its formless throat. Instead of dissolving, Li Xiao's obsidian hand began to 'Infect' the Lord. He was pumping the memories of the Blue Cloud Sect, the regret of the Empress, and the thirst of the desert into the Lord's empty core.
[ Ding! Null-Lord 'Infected' with the Karma of the Lower World. ]
[ Harvesting Null-Essence... 20%... 50%... ]
[ Evolution: Void-Scholar -> The Null-Architect (Phase 1). ]
The Null-Lord didn't die. Instead, it underwent a terrifying transformation. Its white-noise face began to develop features—eyes that wept, a mouth that gasped for air. It was being forced to 'Be'. It was being granted the 'Gift of Life', which to a Null-being, was the ultimate execution.
"The more you try to erase, the more I will make you feel," Li Xiao whispered into the Lord's ear.
The other two Null-Lords tried to flee, but the Spire was no longer their sanctuary. Li Xiao had already 'Infected' the Spire's foundations with the 'Law of Regret'. The needles of silence were now broadcasting the songs of the dead galaxy. The Squires, instead of being unmade, were starting to remember their names. The 'Great Erasure' was being reversed into a 'Great Remembrance'.
Suddenly, a massive vibration rocked the Spire. From the highest apex, a figure descended. It was 'The Prime Silence', the leader of the Null-Lords and the entity that had been gnawing at the New Origin's borders.
"You have brought 'Weight' into my Spire, Architect," the Prime Silence spoke, its voice a perfect, terrifying vacuum. "You think you can save your little multiverse by infecting us? If I cannot have silence, then I will collapse the entire Great Beyond into a single point of Nihility. I will take you, your Empress, and your stars with me into the True Dark."
Li Xiao looked up at the Prime Silence, his violet eyes glowing with a dark, triumphant brilliance. "You are too late. While you were busy fighting my 'Infection', I have already completed the 'System Integration'. This Spire is no longer yours. It is my second throne."
[ Ding! Central Spire Successfully 'Refined'. ]
[ New Domain Unlocked: The Void-Sanctuary. ]
[ The Borders of the New Origin have been 'Reinforced' with Null-Qi. ]
Li Xiao raised his hand, and the entire Spire turned from grey to obsidian. The Null-Lords were now his 'Scribes', forced to write the very stories they once tried to erase. The 'Null-Walkers' at the border were no longer eating the multiverse; they were being pulled back into the Spire to be processed as energy.
Li Xiao sat at the base of the Spire, his obsidian form pulsing with the combined power of Existence and Null. He had found the 0—the point where everything and nothing meet.
"Lin Yue... Wei..." Li Xiao's voice traveled through the dimensions, reaching his throne in the New Origin. "The border is safe. But the Great Beyond is vast. There are other Spires, and other Silence-Lords. The harvest has only just begun."
He looked at the Prime Silence, which was now kneeling before him, its form being overwritten by the Architect's laws. "You wanted silence? I will give you the silence of a library—a place where the stories of the fallen are kept forever. And you... you will be the librarian."
The Architect had turned the enemy's weapon into his own forge. The Great Beyond was no longer a threat; it was his next project. And as Li Xiao looked deeper into the void, he saw the faint outlines of even more ancient realities. The 200 chap
ters of his journey were just beginning to be written.