After the light faded, the world fell into a moment of deathly silence. And in that silence, deep within the earth beneath Qin Yu's feet, the dark ruins of the pre-Sainthood era began to slowly awaken, like a giant beast awakened from a long drought.
He stepped into that ancient land where the bones of civilization were buried.
The space gradually lit up with ancient patterns, and every broken wall, inscription, and artifact carried the silence of an abyss spanning countless eras. The deeper Qin Yu went, the more he could feel the vastness of this ancient world—as if the entire world had been folded and collapsed here, and then rewritten in time and space.
And just as he walked past the remains of those unknown remnants frozen in "erased time"—
An extremely unusual, tingling sensation slid up my spine.
Qin Yu's brow twitched slightly.
He didn't need to look back; his intuition from the Annihilation Dawn Realm had already told him:
Those seemingly lifeless remains, dating back hundreds of thousands of epochs, were "watching" him.
He slowly turned around.
The bodies remained motionless, without movement, without breathing, without any fluctuation of time. They were like stone statues frozen outside of cause and effect.
But as Qin Yu moved forward again... all the remains of the remnants behind him, the dark light deep in their eyes trembled slightly, and they all stared at him.
That look wasn't life itself, but rather like "a rekindling of lingering information." It was as if some ancient, forbidden mechanism was awakening, and all beings whose destinies had been erased were "remembering the moments they once lived" because of Qin Yu's footsteps.
Qin Yu didn't turn around; he simply continued forward.
The Annihilation Dawn currents surged around him, shutting out the remnants of information, but the oppressive feeling of "countless dead people silently watching you from behind" still pierced the skin of the world like needles.
The further he went, the more he could sense the subtle changes in the spatial structure.
Then—a faint spot of light appeared from the deep darkness ahead.
At first, the light was only the size of a star, like a firefly fallen to the bottom of the sea. But it spread little by little, as if a part of the Milky Way had been gently parted, and starlight flowed out through the gap.
Qin Yu approached. Boom!
The desolate Dark Realm was suddenly illuminated by countless lights!
Those lights were not stars, but floating "Anomalous Spirit."
Their shapes...
Some of them exhibit a blue, star-like body resembling a deep-sea jewel, with tentacles cascading like shimmering threads of light, each carrying the faint audio of an ancient civilization.
Some of them appear to be spherical hearts woven from millions of pink and purple energy lines, and when the light pulses, they ripple out subtle spacetime patterns around them.
Some resemble round, crystalline life forms, with starlight flowing inside and patterns resembling a cyclical structure of the nascent universe.
They floated silently in the darkness, as if the entire Milky Way were hanging upside down in front of Qin Yu.
The most shocking thing was that there was no road ahead.
There was no ground, no steps, no structure whatsoever.
Qin Yu stood at the edge of the world; beyond that lay a vast expanse folded into the earth—
Star River Sea.
The annihilated universe stretched out beneath his feet, stardust fell like a tide, and countless Anomalous Spirit floated slowly and swam freely in this galaxy, like eternal spirits in the deep sea.
The faint light they emitted flickered on and off, making the entire void seem to breathe.
Qin Yu's gaze darkened slightly.
These "Anomalous Spirit" are not living beings.
It is not an energy body.
It's not a fragment of the Soul Domain.
Rather... a world-class information life form in the pre-sainthood era.
They are remnants of civilization's own memory.
They are particles of the "Soul of the World." Each Anomalous Spirit may have once been a "world."
And now—they float silently, like lost dreams submerged in the abyss of the Milky Way.
When Qin Yu stepped onto the edge of the Milky Way--
The light of all the Anomalous Spirit seemed to be awakened by some force... and they lit up faintly and synchronously for a moment.
It felt like both a welcome and an expulsion.
The true nature of the entire "Second Hidden World" was finally fully revealed to Qin Yu.
Qin Yu looked up and saw the vast Milky Way flowing slowly through the eternal Silent Void, with blue-gold dust drifting like countless slumbering eras in the sea of stars. And in the deepest part of this endless flow of light, the outline of a mysterious castle, faintly visible, slowly emerged.
It was not a castle forged in the mortal realm, but rather something formed from stars, or perhaps the Ultimate ruins formed by the superimposed shadows of countless civilizations. It stood quietly at the end of the Milky Way, faintly exuding an ancient aura of "having existed for countless epochs and been forgotten countless times," where light and shadow intertwined, like the edge of a dream.
Qin Yu's heart trembled slightly. "That is... the true ruins at the end?"
He lightly touched the ground with his toes, preparing to take flight, but was instantly pulled back by invisible chains—
It was not power, but logic and causality itself that bound him.
The space vibrated silently.
His body froze on the spot, and even with the power of the Annihilation Dawn Realm surging within him, he couldn't fly forward even an inch.
It was as if it were telling him, "Flying is prohibited here."
Qin Yu gazed ahead and could only see a completely dark abyss beneath his feet, with no bottom in sight and no real ground. Countless Anomalous Spirit, shining like starlight, roamed freely between the abyss and the Milky Way, coming and going, gentle yet dangerous, as if they were the last group of ancient spirits in this world that had not completely disappeared.
The flowing light of the Milky Way cast a cold glow on Qin Yu's face. A sense of helplessness and tension rose in his heart.
"Does this mean... I have to walk over there?"
"But if I miss this step... I'll fall straight into this Endless Abyss, and nobody will be there to pull me out."
He stared at the edge where darkness and starlight intertwined, his brow twitching slightly.
"But... we've come this far, there's no turning back."
He took a deep breath. "Fine... I'll take a gamble."
In the silence, Qin Yu slowly raised his left foot.
A gentle breeze swept by, and wisps of light from Anomalous Spirit slid past him, transforming into boundless unknowns in his eyes.
His left foot dangled in mid-air, with no target, no ground, no path.
Qin Yu closed his eyes briefly, swallowing his unease. Then--
Slowly, slowly, press forward.
Time, as fleeting as a fingertip, seemed to freeze.
The soles of my feet descended... descended... but in the end—they did not fall.
There was nothing beneath his feet, yet it felt as if he were walking on an invisible path that was completely transparent and perfectly supportive, holding him firmly without the slightest sway.
At that moment, he felt a sudden jolt in his heart. "... Did I really step on it?"
He tried to lower his center of gravity—and remained stable.
The Milky Way abyss was silent, but Qin Yu's breathing was so clear it seemed to hit his chest.
He finally let out a slow breath.
"So this is the walking logic of the pre-Sainthood Era... stepping on the air is the path, and the mind is the ground."
The next moment, Qin Yu composed himself and took the second step.
His figure seemed to float lightly above a pathless abyss, each step he took illuminating a barely visible flower of light between the starry sea and the void.
He officially stepped onto the suspended Milky Way—slowly making his way towards that mysterious castle.
The moment Qin Yu truly stepped onto the Milky Way, the Anomalous Spirit floating in the boundless sea of light seemed to be summoned by some ancient call, raising their luminous bodies and gracefully and slowly approaching him.
Their forms resemble jellyfish formed from starlight, or fragments of memories from civilizations millions of years ago, sealed within the dust of light. Each Anomalous Spirit radiates a different frequency of light, some blue, some purple, some hazy like moonlight; wisps of light trail through the void, like gentle streams of radiance.
As they approached Qin Yu, the surrounding Milky Way began to glow faintly, as if these Anomalous Spirit were the true source of light in this realm.
Just as the tide of light gently patted Qin Yu's feet, he suddenly realized—
The darkness beneath his feet... was illuminated.
The previously unfathomable void, devoid of any foothold, began to faintly reveal itself under the light—
An extremely narrow, transparent path.
Qin Yu was stunned.
The ground beneath his feet was as clear as glass, yet as thin as a layer of water; it seemed as if it could shatter at any moment, yet it held him firmly.
He instinctively turned around--
Behind him, the spot where the first step was taken was now clearly visible in the light:
That was the edge of that transparent path.
The road is no more than five palms wide.
If he deviates another ten centimeters, he will step into the true void.
Qin Yu took a deep breath, his heart skipping a beat.
"That was close... It turns out there was only this one extremely narrow, transparent path. If my foot had slipped even a fraction, I probably would have fallen straight into the abyss."
He looked to his left and right.
It was still an endless darkness, with no road, no bottom, and no end.
This is the only path... this one and only path is the sole chance of survival left for the traveler.
At that very moment, the Anomalous Spirit surrounding him—
It began to drift slowly.
They made no sound, yet it was as if they were breathing;
Without language, it seemed to convey a will.
The blue Anomalous Spirit floated to his left, its rays hanging in the pathless air, as if telling him, "You cannot step here."
The purple Anomalous Spirit floated forward, its light flickering slightly, as if indicating its next direction;
The nebulous, otherworldly Anomalous Spirit surrounding them made the Path of Transparency clearly visible in the darkness.
They are like guides.
Like the remnants of a civilization that once traversed this world,
Like the souls of the dead from the pre-Holy Era, still doing their final act of protection.
Like waiting for billions of years, finally the "sole traveler" is found to embark on this path.
The Milky Way winds swirl in the void, Anomalous Spirit sway gently in the light.
Qin Yu stepped forward, the transparent light path beneath his feet illuminated in rhythm with the flickering of the Anomalous Spirit.
It felt like--
The entire road awakened because of him. And the Anomalous Spirit...
Like a lamp, it accompanied him, illuminating his lonely path.
Qin Yu walked forward step by step along the narrow, almost suffocating, transparent path of light. With each step he took, the Milky Way would gently light up with the light of the Anomalous Spirit, as if the whole world was waiting for his arrival.
He could see the massive silhouette of that ancient castle ahead, embedded at the edge of the galaxy, like a page being turned in an epic tale of countless worlds.
The Anomalous Spirit floated and flickered around him, like stars guarding the night. He had thought they would accompany him to the end.
But—just as he reached the center of the entire transparent path of light.
The group of Anomalous Spirit suddenly became restless.
The light began to flicker erratically, and streams of light of various frequencies suddenly began to twist and twitch as if tearing through the void.
The next moment.
Those originally gentle, ethereal, and tranquil Anomalous Spirit seemed to have heard some kind of ancient fear that they could not resist.
They all fled in a frenzy.
The blue light transformed into specks and suddenly disappeared into the void;
The purple one plunged into the depths of the Milky Way as if being hunted;
The pink, nebula-like Anomalous Spirit emitted a silent shriek, its body twisting into thin threads as it vanished.
The light path dimmed instantly.
Qin Yu stopped abruptly, his brow furrowing. What were they fleeing from? -- Or... what were they hiding from?
In the very next instant he was pondering this—deep within the Milky Way...something began to move.
Boom----!
A dazzling yet chilling "river" seems to have been forcibly extracted from the unfinished stage of the universe, meandering out of the void.
It is no ordinary river. It is a river for which time has not yet occurred.
It's not the future, it's not the past, it's—"the future before the future is created."
The river water shimmered with an eerie silver and deep blue hue, and within each ripple, every drop of flowing "water"...
They all seem to be struggling within a story that was never written down.
What truly made Qin Yu's pupils shrink was—
Countless corpses floated in the river. But these corpses were not dead.
Their physical bodies have not yet been born, the life logic that constitutes them has not yet taken shape, and even their destinies have not yet been recorded by the world.
They are "potential life forms," future dead who have not yet gained the right to exist.
However, they all had their eyes open.
Semi-transparent corpses floated in the River of the Future, their eyes empty, yet they moved in a bizarre and illogical way—
Passing through endless time, looking directly at the present. Looking directly at Qin Yu.
That look wasn't one of hatred or longing, but rather a kind of "pain before being forced into birth."
The way they looked at Qin Yu seemed to say: --You've come. --So we must die.
The Milky Way trembled beneath his feet.
The transparent light path was forced to tremble fragilely by the fluctuations of the river of time, as if it might break at any moment.
Qin Yu's heart sank. This... is not an ordinary galaxy. This is... a trap left behind by the previous era.
He will have to cross this river, which is composed of "time that has not yet happened" and is filled with countless "future dead".