The plaza hummed with the resonance of a trillion calculations. The figures in starlight robes surrounded Han Luo, their faces masked by veils of shifting light.
"I am Jian Feng, Senior Overseer of the Boundary Guard," the leader announced. He took a step forward, his aura manifesting as a crushing weight of golden geometry. "You have materialized out of thin air, trailing a signature of 'Absolute Erasure.' Do you have any idea what you've done?"
Han Luo felt the gravity increase. "I am just a traveller," he replied, his hand resting on the Shining Rock.
Jian Feng scoffed, a sound like grinding tectonic plates. "A traveller? You reek of a corruption that hasn't been seen since the Great Mainline collapsed. That 'Crimson Light' of yours isn't Qi. It's an infectious code. Everywhere you go, the laws of physics unravel. You are a biological malware, and my duty—my foundation—is to debug this sector."
The motivation was clear: Jian Feng didn't want to bully him; he was an exterminator. To the Boundary Guard, Han Luo was a walking glitch that threatened to delete the very reality of this universe. If they didn't isolate and purge him, the "Crimson Correction" would spread, potentially causing a sector-wide collapse.
"You don't understand the pattern," Han Luo said, his eyes narrowing. "It's not corruption. It's an update."
"I don't care about your philosophy," Jian Feng snapped. "I care about stability. Eradicating you is the only logical path."
Jian Feng raised his hand, and the plaza's atmosphere ignited. The energy was too dense, too powerful for Han Luo to match. He knew that in this "Bigger Universe," his 4th Stage foundation was a flickering candle against a sun. If he fought here, on the enemy's turf, he would be erased in seconds.
"Let's change the venue," Han Luo rasped.
He smashed the Shining Rock against his own palm.
A flash of violet-white light consumed the plaza. The stone floor, the starlit sky, and the silent, judging figures dissolved into streaks of binary code.
They were pulled out of the Greater Cosmos and thrust into the Virtual Plane—a construct born from the logic of the Shining Rock. Here, the laws of physics were merely suggestions. The crushing weight of the Boundary Guard's gravity vanished, replaced by the sterile, infinite potential of the construct.
Jian Feng stumbled, his golden aura flickering as he realized his connection to the universe's laws had been severed. "A pocket dimension? A desperate attempt to survive," he snarled, recovering his balance. "You think hiding in a data-ghost will save you?"
He lunged, his body moving with the speed of thought, his palm glowing with the force of a tectonic plate. It was a Foundation Establishment strike—clean, absolute, and terminal.
Han Luo didn't retreat. He stood his ground, his eyes burning with the Crimson Light. He didn't block; he edited.
Delete trajectory. Overwrite mass.
The space around Jian Feng's fist shuddered. The kinetic energy of his strike was redirected into the void, and the Foundation cultivator stumbled, his momentum suddenly losing its logical consistency.
"You base your power on the Foundation of the world," Han Luo said, his voice echoing through the digital void. "I base mine on the Erasure of it."
He reached out, his hand glowing with the arterial red radiance. He aimed not at Jian Feng's body, but at the code supporting the golden tower of his Foundation.
Format drive.
The Crimson Light bit into the manifestation of Jian Feng's power. The golden tower groaned, its internal logic failing as the Crimson Light treated it as a corruption of reality.
Jian Feng's eyes widened in horror. "My Foundation... it's... rusting?"
"Nothing is permanent," Han Luo said, stepping forward, his eyes bleeding crimson. "Everything can be deleted."
He unleashed a burst of Crimson Light, a torrent of red erasure that slammed into Jian Feng's chest. The Foundation cultivator screamed, his protective aura failing, his internal structure dissolving into raw, unrefined data.
The Virtual Plane groaned, the geometry around them cracking under the stress. They were fighting on a level that defied the Greater Cosmos—a clash between a monument of order and the architect of the void.
Jian Feng fell to his knees, his power leaking out into the virtual floor like static. He looked at Han Luo, not with arrogance, but with a terrifying, dawning realization.
"You aren't a cultivator," Jian Feng whispered, his voice trembling as his very existence began to fragment. "You are an infection."
Han Luo raised his hand, the Crimson Light pulsing, ready to strike the final, terminating command. "I am the update."