155: Venus descends to earth! With a single finger, he shatters the machinery of the state.

"Sword is not a sword, Qi is not Qi—Above the nine heavens, Venus returns to his seat!"

As the final syllable fell, silence claimed the world.

It was not a simple lack of sound, but the descent of a grander existence that instantly displaced all physical vibrations.

The industrial smog, exhaust, and the suffocating 'Great Depression' gray filter that originally permeated the sky over Mirror Washington D.C. were forcibly torn apart at this moment by a pure, near-transparent white radiance.

There was no earth-shattering explosion.

Yet, under the gaze of billions of eyes worldwide, the figure in green robes sitting cross-legged in mid-air changed.

His form began to blur, as if he no longer belonged to this three-dimensional space.

His originally wild green robes now transformed into a flowing brocade of nebulas.

Behind him, the dim sky looked as if an invisible hand had wiped away a stain, revealing the deepest and most vast cosmic background.

A star so brilliant one dared not look directly at it hung above his head.

Venus.

It is Chang'geng, presiding over slaughter; it is also Qiming, presiding over rebirth.

EX-rank Anti-World Noble Phantasm—True Name Liberation: [Venus · Chang'geng Descends].

In the center of the battlefield.

Roosevelt did not stop because of the change in his opponent's aura.

As a leader who had once guided a superpower out of the mire, his will was as hard as steel.

"Whether you are god or ghost, as long as you step onto this land, you must obey my laws!"

Roosevelt roared, pressing both arms down violently.

Rumble—!

That hundred-zhang tall [National Machine], cast from gold and steel, carrying the weight of an era and the collective will of hundreds of millions, swung its sky-covering golden hand down toward the tiny speck of light without any hesitation.

Even before the blow landed, the terrifying wind pressure ground the asphalt on the street into powder.

However.

Facing this strike capable of crushing mountains and suppressing national destiny, Li Bai, at the center of the starlight, did not even lift an eyelid.

He did not draw his sword.

He did not even stand up.

In the instant that the massive golden palm was only three feet from his head, about to crush him like a fly.

Ding.

A crisp, melodious sound, like jade striking jade, rang out.

The giant hand carrying endless might and the weight of 'Absolute Law' came to a halt.

What blocked it was neither a solid shield nor sharp sword qi.

But a thin layer of starlight barrier, appearing as fragile as a soap bubble.

"How is this possible?!"

His Noble Phantasm was the ultimate collective of four concepts—'Legislation,' 'Order,' 'Economy,' and 'Military'—and held absolute priority within the Innate Domain. How could it be blocked by something so seemingly fragile?

In the next second, a scene Roosevelt would never forget occurred.

Sizzle—

The golden giant hand in contact with the starlight barrier was not repelled.

It was disappearing.

The gold, the steel, and even every 'Legislation' rune inscribed upon the [National Machine] were silently decomposing and reverting the moment they touched that starlight.

Matter returned to atoms; concepts returned to nothingness.

"The laws of mortals may govern all living things, but they cannot govern the stars in the sky."

Li Bai finally spoke.

His voice was no longer tipsy or wild, but had become ethereal and distant, without a hint of mundane air.

"Your nation is built upon the earth, relying on exploitation and order to function."

"But my Dao is beyond the nine heavens."

Li Bai slowly opened his eyes.

There was no longer black and white in those eyes, only two swirling golden nebulas.

He looked at the crumbling golden giant as if looking at a toy—precise, yet destined to decay.

"In this dimension, your 'laws' are invalid."

The moment he finished speaking.

Crack—!!!

A loud sound like glass shattering echoed through the entirety of Mirror Washington.

It was not a physical break, but the collapse of the 'world' itself.

Roosevelt's proud Innate Domain, [The World as I Wish]—that sky symbolizing the glory and suffering of 1930s America—began to show dense cracks.

The cracks spread rapidly, tearing the gray sky, the rows of buildings, and the smoking factories into pieces.

Li Bai slowly raised his right hand and lightly tapped toward the struggling giant [National Machine] that was trying to reconstruct itself.

"Break."

His words became law.

Whoosh—!

A golden starlight, no thicker than a thumb, shot from his fingertip.

It had no imposing momentum, no dazzling explosion.

It was simply fast.

Fast enough to transcend thought, fast enough to ignore space.

The starlight instantly pierced the hundred-zhang giant's chest, leaving a transparent hole through it.

After a brief silence.

The golden giant, representing America's highest military deterrence, froze.

Then, countless fine cracks spread from that hole, instantly covering its entire body.

Crash—

No screams, no roaring.

This peerless behemoth completely disintegrated under that one finger into billions of golden specks of light, dissipating into the collapsing domain like fireflies on a summer night.

With the Noble Phantasm destroyed, the backlash followed.

Standing atop Capitol Hill, Roosevelt's body shuddered violently.

The massive mana filling his body was instantly drained; his prime body constructed by mana began to fade like old film.

His straight spine bent again, and his full muscles quickly withered.

In the blink of an eye, he reverted to the elderly, disabled man in a wheelchair.

Only this time, his wheelchair was broken.

Without support, Roosevelt did not fall to the ground.

With incredible willpower, he leaned against the remaining section of a broken wall, forcing himself to stay upright.

Even in defeat, he was still the lion that never bowed its head.

The surroundings changed rapidly.

The Innate Domain shattered completely, revealing the dead, dilapidated ruins of Washington in the Mirror World.

In the sky, the starlight slowly receded.

The divinity on Li Bai faded, and he returned to the poet in green robes carrying a sword.

He drifted down from the air, standing ten meters away from Roosevelt.

"Is this... the power of a god?"

Roosevelt looked at his hands, which were becoming transparent; there was no anger or resentment of defeat on his face.

Only a deep sense of loneliness.

"I once thought that by gathering everyone's will, caging power, and establishing perfect order, humanity could overcome everything, even fate."

Roosevelt looked up, his deep blue eyes looking at Li Bai one last time, then at the fake yet real sky above.

"It turns out, above the world of men, there really is a heaven..."

He lost.

He lost to a higher-dimensional power, to that unreasonable transcendence.

For someone who believed in 'man's triumph over nature' and 'the omnipotence of systems' all his life, this was perhaps the cruelest blow, but also... a release.

"Your nation is strong."

Li Bai untied the wine gourd from his waist, took a swig, then turned the gourd over, pouring the remaining wine onto the scorched earth.

This was a tribute to a strong opponent.

"In a war between mortals, you might have been invincible. Unfortunately..." Li Bai shook his head, a free-spirited smile playing on his lips, "The Dao I practice was never a worldly law."

Roosevelt was stunned for a moment, then smiled with realization.

"Indeed."

"If there's a chance, I'd really like to see the immortal mountains of your East, to see if there... really is Freedom from Want."

After saying this.

Roosevelt's figure completely turned into countless golden particles and scattered with the wind.