After that brief pause, the Chaos Icefield did not return to calm. Instead, it seemed as if something invisible had plucked a string anew, and layers of "undefined chill" surged up from the depths of nothingness. The ice plains were no longer ice, but solidified "nothingness," with unnamed fragments of time flowing through every crack. The Luoyu floated above it, its enormous figure not approaching, yet it made the "qualification" of the entire Nameless Eternal Land begin to teeter on the brink of collapse. It did not open its mouth, but a deep and distant echo surged directly from the bottom of chaos. It was not words, but chaotic fluctuations forcibly compressed into a "comprehensible form."
The first action of the Luoyu was not to make a sound, but to slowly unfold its wings. The Wings of Formless did not obscure the sky and earth at the moment of unfolding, but folded inward. What folded was not space, but the concept of "being defined" itself. Qin Yu felt as if the world in front of him had been stripped of its annotations. Mountains were no longer mountains, land was no longer land, and even "front, back, Luoyu's forehead lit up slightly, but no light overflowed. Instead, it released an extremely slow ripple. The residual power of the Return to Nothingness Horn had not yet been fully revealed, but it had already put everything into a state of "preparing to be erased".
Just then, the Mandarin Duck Sound - The True Sound of Annihilation descended once more.
This time, it was no longer an overwhelming sweep, but rather a "logical sound beam" deliberately constricted by the Luoyu, piercing directly through the Chaos Icefield and locking onto Qin Yu's location. The sound no longer attempted to break him, but precisely cut into the deepest core of his consciousness, like knocking on a door, one knock after another, the rhythm slow and resolute. Each echo brought him closer to an unavoidable juncture. Qin Yu clearly felt that his existence was being forced to the edge of a "must-respond" situation.
As the sound beam continued, chaos began to evolve on its own.
In Qin Yu's perception, countless unformed worlds flashed by. He saw history that "should have existed but never appeared," a future that "could have been born but was erased," a life he would have lived quietly if he had never embarked on the path of cultivation, and an ending where, even if he fought his way to the top, he would not be allowed to leave his name behind. These were not illusions, but "possibility samples" forcibly extracted by the Mandarin Duck Sound. They revolved around him, fell, and reassembled, ultimately pointing to the same core—how do you define "you"?
The whispers truly appeared at that moment.
The voice wasn't loud, yet it superimposed itself on the chaotic vibrations. Each syllable seemed to be squeezed out from a rift "before the Heaven and Earth Undetermined," carrying an inescapable weight. The Luoyu didn't fully pose the taboo question, but rather released the "precursor" of the problem in a cruel way. Its whisper wasn't a sentence, but a logical framework in the making. All the chaotic fluctuations were paving the way for that inquiry that hadn't yet been fully uttered.
Qin Yu's mind was gripped tightly.
He understood that once that complete question was uttered, the answer would be forced to be generated, whether he spoke or not. Once generated, it meant "confirmation," which meant categorization, and categorization meant being incorporated into the rules of the Luoyu, becoming part of the chaotic membrane beneath its scales.
At this moment, he only had two paths.
Answer.
By giving that taboo question an "acceptable explanation" based on one's own thoughts, even if it is only a momentary self-consistency, it is enough for Luoyu to acknowledge for the first time a "non-chaotic responder." But the price is to expose one's existence directly to the other party's Ultimate judgment. Once the answer is not allowed, even the failure itself will be erased.
Negative.
Refusing to answer, refusing to participate in this definition, forcibly tearing apart the logical chain of the problem before it has taken shape with willpower, and confronting chaos itself by "not acknowledging the existence of the problem," but that also means a direct conflict with Luoyu, which is equivalent to declaring war on the "undefined origin of chaos." The consequence may be that even Zhou Yujin's No Moment, No Bounds can no longer cover him.
The Mandarin Duck Sound continued to draw near, their outlines now so clear they were just one syllable away. The Chaos Icefield began to collapse towards their center. The Black Sun Pupils of the Luoyu shifted slightly, truly "gazing" at Qin Yu for the first time, as if waiting, or perhaps declaring—the choice had arrived.
At that moment, the Chaos Icefield completely lost the concept of "stillness." The wings of the Luoyu were no longer merely spread out, but rather like two shadowy curtains that folded the heavens and earth back to their origin, slowly closing. The aftershocks of the Mandarin Duck Sound still echoed deep within the ice plains, each echo seeming to force the world to answer the forbidden question that had not yet fully settled. Zhou Yujin's figure suddenly solidified behind Qin Yu, his aura sharper than ever before. The "No Moment, No Bounds" power of the Silent Mystery Realm spread out around him, forcibly smoothing out the sense of time and space, rendering distance meaningless. He spoke in a low and urgent voice, yet his tone was surprisingly steady, "Brother Linxuan, we can't delay any longer. If we let it finish uttering that question, neither of us will even have the right to be Annihilation."
Qin Yu didn't turn around; his gaze remained fixed on those two black sun-like eyes. In that instant when their eyes met, he clearly sensed that Luoyu was "waiting"—not for an answer, but for the world to acknowledge that the question itself was valid. At that moment, the depths of his consciousness fell completely still. The core of Void Source · Dream Stillness wasn't fully activated, yet the outlines of three domains were faintly visible at the edge of his will. The deconstructive power of the Void Source Domain, the aftershocks of the denial of the Realm of the Unborn, and the terminating echo of the Domain of Annihilation overlapped, but he firmly suppressed them at the Threshold point of "not yet unfolding."
Denial, response, intervention—he illuminated all three paths in a single instant.
He didn't choose one over the other, but rather let them coexist in the same thought.
Qin Yu's voice rang out for the first time in the chaos, but not to Luoyu, but to "the question itself": "You ask 'What am I?' The premise is that 'I' and 'things' can both be defined." This sentence was not an answer, but a denial of the very foundation of the forbidden question. The moment the words fell, the invisible patterns of the Void Source Domain suddenly lit up, and all the "defined things that have been written down" in the world simultaneously showed fine cracks. The half of Luoyu's whisper that had not yet taken shape was forcibly stuck in the middle of "logic not yet established."
Immediately afterward, Qin Yu's second thought descended. This time, however, it was no longer a denial, but an answer. He did not name Luoyu, but instead established a temporary anchor point for "chaos" itself. "Chaos is neither you nor me; it simply has not yet chosen." This thought was like a stone thrown into an abyss, and the fluctuations of the Realm of the Unborn suddenly spread. Countless possibilities were temporarily fixed in the state of "being able to choose." For the first time, Luoyu's Black Sun Pupils showed a barely perceptible hesitation. It was not an injury, but rather the first time that chaos was forced to accept the fact that it was "not necessarily the only one."
In that instant, Zhou Yujin moved.
He didn't attack Luoyu's body, but instead stepped into the "logical void" forcibly created by Qin Yu. The No Moment, No Bounds Silent Profundity unfolded, and he seemed to be erased from the timeline, yet simultaneously appearing in every possible location. His voice no longer came from his mouth, but echoed directly within the area where "the past and future simultaneously Does Not Exist," "This question is invalid." With these words, time and space were completely severed. Luoyu's forbidden question, about to be fully uttered, lost its final supporting structure, like a chapter torn apart before it could even be written.
The Luoyu finally let out its first real roar of fury.
The Primordial Breath suddenly erupted, its breath no longer a cycle of reincarnation, but an attempt to drag everything back into the closed loop of "chaos → creation → chaos". The ice field collapsed, nothingness poured in, and the entire Nameless Eternal Land began to collapse inward. Return to Nothingness Horn pointed slightly forward, and that point of "nothingness" was about to truly fall.
At this moment, Qin Yu no longer suppressed his emotions.
The Silent Origin Stainless Sword appeared in his hand. The sword was not dazzling, but in the instant it appeared in the world, all colors faded and returned at the same time. He did not use the first move, nor the second move, but directly invoked a deeper sword intent. He raised the sword tip slightly, and the complete form of the Soulless Annihilation Abyss Sword unfolded behind him. It was not a sword light, but an abyss curtain that was devouring the "definition of the soul". Anything that still tried to maintain itself in the "form of existence" would lose its anchor point in front of this curtain.
At the same time, he used the Void Source · Dream Stillness skill in actual combat for the first time.
The Triple Absolute Domain was not fully unfolded, but compressed into an extremely small "Existence Zero Point." That zero point hung before the sword's edge, so small as to be almost unobservable, yet it caused a brief stillness in the entire Chaos Icefield. At this moment, the Wings of Formless of the Luoyu lost their qualification to cover everything, because the concept of "being covered" itself was being deleted.
Zhou Yujin made a move from the flank at the same time. He did not attack, but No Moment, No Bounds of "Infinite Boundaries" to completely erase the "distance" between the zero point and the Luoyu, allowing the result to occur before the process.
The next instant, the Soulless Annihilation Abyss Sword fell.
There was no light, no sound, not even the process of "slashing". The enormous true form of the Luoyu seemed to have been stripped of its support from the conceptual level. The chaotic membrane formed by its scales lost its qualification of "having existed as scales" piece by piece. Its wings turned back and Unborn. The point of "nothingness" of its unicorn had not yet touched anything before it was completely swallowed up by the Existence Zero Point. Even the description of "returning to zero" did not have time to be established.
The Chaos Icefield neither exploded nor collapsed; it simply suddenly "lost a piece," the very spot where the Luoyu had once occupied. It was as if, from the very beginning, such a creature should never have existed there.
As the aftershocks subsided, the world slowly returned to a state of "being perceptible." Qin Yu sheathed his sword, his breathing pausing almost imperceptibly for a moment before returning to normal. Zhou Yujin's figure solidified again. He looked at the blank space before him, exhaled a long breath, and chuckled softly, "Brother Linxuan... your approach is truly driving Chaos mad."