Qin Yu's gaze swept over the ten statues one by one. The "flames" they held in their hands were initially just faint wisps of light, like the last breath frozen in time. He narrowed his eyes, slowly raised his right hand, and his fingertips silently traced an extremely thin arc. It was not ordinary spiritual power, but the purest line of logic that he had extracted from the Silent Origin Stainless Sword and the Book of Fate Law. Strands of light coiled around his fingertips, faintly revealing two tiny ancient seal marks, "cause" and "effect," as if constructing an invisible track of judgment in the void.
He didn't directly touch any of the statues, but instead gently cast out the "thread of cause and effect." The light traced a near-perfect parabolic trajectory in the hall, first landing on the first statue on the left, its head bowed and wings folded. The next instant, before the light even touched the stone wings, a very faint ripple spread from the depths of the hollow in the statue's chest, as if an invisible hand was pushing the ripple outward from within. The "thread of cause and effect" was gently blocked by that invisible resistance, leaving no trace, as if it had been directly rejected by some higher-level "predetermined answer."
A cold glint flashed in Qin Yu's eyes. His wrist trembled slightly, and the causal threads split into more than a dozen strands, like fine needles of light, weaving and crisscrossing in the air, probing different parts of the ten statues—some piercing the flames in their hands, some landing on the halos on their foreheads, and some pointing directly to the edge of the hollows in their chests. Each strand of light, upon approaching, would trigger a subtle, almost invisible tremor. This tremor did not originate from the stone itself, but rather seemed to overflow from a "pre-written" result, forcibly pushing his probes back to their origin.
Just as he was about to further utilize [Cause and Effect Deconstruction] to completely dismantle this "result-first" blockade, the light inside the hall suddenly shifted dramatically—not a simple change in brightness, but as if a giant hand had seized the "definition of light source" of the entire temple and yanked it towards the center. The flames that had been motionless in the hands of the ten statues trembled simultaneously, then, as if awakened by some invisible decree, burst forth with countless Ultimate fine filaments of light. These filaments, initially as small as dust, expanded wildly at a visible speed as they flew out, each trailing a long tail of light, like countless burning, fallen spears pouring from the palms of the statues, carrying an indescribable ancient aura, and whistling as they converged towards the very center of the hall.
At that moment, the entire temple seemed to transform into an altar simultaneously ablaze. Ten directions of flames roared across the walls, illuminating every inch of the dome's stone texture as if it were filled with molten gold. The silhouettes of the winged statues were abruptly elongated under the onslaught of fire, their shadows dragged to the ground by the raging flames, weaving a vast net of black and gray wings on both sides of the passageway. It was as if ten ancient, fallen judges bowed their heads at the same instant, hurling all their remaining "core embers" towards the center of the temple. The point where the flames converged was initially insignificant, like a firefly floating in the air, but in an instant, it erupted with an impact comparable to the birth of a star—countless tiny filaments of light overlapped, intertwined, and compressed at the center of the temple, forming a continuously collapsing sphere of light. The edges of the sphere rotated at extremely high speeds, dragging out rings of light, as if ten burning halos had been forcibly superimposed, forming a self-igniting black hole of light.
The patterns on the walls of the main hall rose to the surface under the pressure of the light, like golden paper torn from the wall, peeling off layer by layer, curling, and then being drawn towards the center by the light. The colors of the entire space were swallowed by the sphere of light, leaving only the purest gold and white colliding with deep gray, like a cosmic explosion compressed into a single moment. The roar was abruptly suppressed "before it happened," leaving only a silent impact that shook the very bones and surged in every inch of air. Qin Yu stood in the passageway, the Silent Origin Stainless Sword beside him without wind. The Stainless Light Pattern on the sword was affected by the sudden flame, and circles of pale golden Silent Origin Sword slowly appeared on the Emptiness ground beneath his feet, but did not spread out for a long time—because he knew very well that if he made the slightest move at this moment, he might directly trigger the true "Ultimate response" of these ten divine statues.
He looked up, his gaze piercing through the collapsing sphere of light, and vaguely saw, at its very core, an aura of the same origin as the nine-headed calamity beast, yet far more ancient and serene, slowly opening its eyes from the deepest part of the flames. This was not a simple convergence of energy, but rather more like—ten long-erased "judgmental authorities" being forcibly extracted from the stone remains and reassembled into a complete "primordial ruler" truly belonging to this temple.
This top-level world finally began to seriously respond to his visit.
The moment the sphere of light, having collapsed to its Ultimate, came to a standstill in the center of the hall, the entire space seemed to have been emptied of sound and color. Even the breath Qin Yu exhaled was abruptly cut off in his throat. Before his eyes, only a nearly transparent embryo of light remained, slowly folding from the inside out under the restraint of countless rings of light. At first, the embryo of light resembled a star shrunk to the size of a fist, its surface rippled with fine golden-white cracks. Within these cracks, fleeting afterimages of wings, stone statues, flames, and ruins could be vaguely seen, as if all the scenes of judgment that had once graced this top-level world were compressed within it, being smoothed, crushed, and rearranged layer by layer with each collapse.
Then, "edges" began to appear on the surface of the light embryo—the originally flowing, arc-shaped bands of light suddenly stopped at a certain moment, as if they had been cut in half by an invisible carving knife, and then folded back into straight lines. At the same instant, the light from all directions emitted a silent roar, flowing back wildly along those lines, forcibly folding the entire light cluster into a shape so regular that it was instinctively unsettling. Ring after ring of light rapidly closed from the outside in, as if ten layers of celestial curtains were being drawn together at the same time. The light at the center of the palace suddenly gathered into a small object floating in mid-air—a palm-sized "treasure box," but it was not made of metal, jade, or spirit wood, but seemed to be formed by "light itself" being forcibly cooled and solidified.
The box is a near-perfect cuboid, with each side having an Ultimate smooth, mirror-like surface, yet it is not a pure mirror: the outermost layer of the box is a thin, pale golden shell, as if cast by sunlight, with tiny specks of light slowly flowing across it, converging into complex and enigmatic ancient patterns. These patterns are not simple runes, but rather "sentence frameworks" that can be used to write the world; as long as even a single stroke is made, it can form a complete proposition of existence on the box's surface.
The innermost layer was a deep, almost colorless, cold radiance, like a mirror that had been wiped clean of all reflections. Though the light was intense, it reflected nothing. Only in the instant Qin Yu stared at it did countless slightly different figures of him briefly appear—some with blood still wet on their shoulders, some with Nameless light marks between their brows, some with the ruins of the Void Obliteration Domain beneath their feet, and some with the remains of nine calamity beasts hanging behind them. Each "he" looked back at this moment from a very, very distant time and space, but in the next instant, he was erased along with his background, leaving only a blank surface that was so smooth it was almost cruel.
Ten miniature halos were inlaid at the corners of the treasure box, corresponding precisely to the judgment halos above the heads of the ten deities. Now, they were all gathered together, each halos intricately engraved with almost invisible wing patterns and serpentine scales, subtly revealing a "world-constructing authority" of the same origin as the nine-headed calamity beast, but on a higher level. The ten halos slowly rotated at the corners of the box, making it appear as if the entire treasure box could unfold again at any moment, transforming into a vast mirror capable of covering the entire temple. One side of the box had no clasp; instead, there was an almost invisible vertical crack, a crack that neither emitted light nor glowed.
Yet it gave one a strange intuition—that with just a little force, prying it open wouldn't be "opening a treasure box," but rather splitting the entire world above in two along the crack from top to bottom. Qin Yu stood quietly before the treasure box, clearly sensing that it wasn't just a simple object, but rather a solidified shell of some kind of "illusionary authority." It didn't actively manifest any scenes, but silently invited him—as long as he reached out and touched it, gently pushing the crack, all the possibilities of "mirror," "reflection," "derivation," and "Wuji" would unfold completely before him in an unpredictable way.
The treasure box floated silently in front of Qin Yu. The barely perceptible crack on the box, illuminated by the light of the hall, resembled a wound suppressed by the world itself. Without hesitation, Qin Yu raised his hand, his fingertips not imbued with any additional power, but simply pressed gently against the crack in their purest and most stable state.
There was no explosion, no vibration.
The rift opened on its own the instant of contact, as if it had finally found the one and only correct trigger. The two sides of the treasure box separated silently, the layers of folded light shell collapsed inward, and all the symbols, light patterns, and authority structures simultaneously lost their meaning, actively dissolved by a higher-level "evolutionary logic".
Inside the box, there was no solid object, only a slowly swirling stream of silver mist.
The mist was unstable, as if it could disperse at any moment, only to reassemble in the next instant. Its form was somewhere between a mirror and air, resembling both a mirror that had not yet fully solidified and a void abyss that was breathing. Occasionally, blurry outlines would flash across the center of the silver mist—not others, but countless possible forms of Qin Yu himself, some sharp and piercing, some silent and still, and some already standing at the edge of a higher world, overlooking everything.
At that very moment, a cyan flame gently rippled across Qin Yu's right shoulder.
Azure Ring has appeared.
She floated on Qin Yu's shoulder, her feet dangling in the air, tilting her head to look at the silver mist, her tone carrying a rare hint of interest and teasing.
"Yo yo yo--" "Isn't this the Illusion Evolution Limitless Mirror?"
Qin Yu's gaze remained fixed on the cloud of silver mist, his expression calm, yet he did not conceal the vigilance in his heart.
What kind of treasure is the Illusion Evolution Limitless Mirror?
Azure Ring extended a finger and gently tapped it in the air. The silver mist rippled with mirror-like waves, and the light and shadow in the entire hall instantly shifted, stretching the outlines of the ten statues into countless overlapping phantoms.
"This mirror is not a physical object."
"It is formed by the condensation of countless layers of 'Membrane of Void Evolution'."
Her voice echoed in the hall, her speech slow but clear.
"It appears as a flowing silver mist, but once reflected in the light, it distorts the viewer's face, allowing them to see countless 'possible selves.' It symbolizes not reflection, but 'infinite evolution' itself."
The silver mist churned gently, and Qin Yu's shadow split, overlapped, and split again on the ground, as if the world was rehearsing the consequences of a certain choice.
"It can transform the 'uncertainty' of the Void Emanation Realm into targeted power." "Specifically countering the 'erasure structure' of the Stainless Realm."
Azure Ring's tone turned serious for a moment. "Its core energy is called— Illusory Abyss Evolution Breath."
As the name appeared, a deep, dark light suddenly shone from the depths of the silver mist, like surging currents in a bottomless abyss.
"A void energy that can be infinitely replicated and infinitely mutated. It does not confront 'nothingness' head-on, but rather uses 'infinite existence' to overwhelm 'nothingness,' causing purity, erasure, and zeroing to lose their way in the torrent of evolution."
Qin Yu narrowed his eyes slightly. "What's their background?"
Azure Ring smiled, the azure flames behind her slowly rotating. "It originates from the 'Primordial Evolution Realm'."
"In the Creation the universe, Time Splitting, an infinite number of mirror fragments were born."
With a wave of her hand, afterimages of gods, world wars, and void storms briefly appeared in the silver mist.
"It was originally a tool used by the gods for prophecy. Later, during the interdimensional war, it was imbued with the flow of energy by the ancestors of the Void Emanation Realm and fully awakened into a treasure."
"The mirror will choose its own holder, appearing only in the form of a 'dream image'—only those who touch the 'neither existence nor non-existence' can truly grasp it."
Azure Ring paused, then looked at Qin Yu. "It's a coincidence, you fit the description perfectly."
At this moment, the silver mist moved closer to Qin Yu, but did not cling to him. Instead, it maintained a subtle distance, as if to confirm something.
However, it didn't come without a price.
Azure Ring's tone turned serious. "The first time you use it, you will create 'phantom clones'; the more you use it, the thinner your true self will become."
"Further on, there is a multi-layered, chaotic self, and finally... you will be completely mirrored, becoming a living mirror."
She reached out and pointed to the deepest part of the silver mist. "Forever trapped in endless evolution, unable to return. So this thing only needs to be used once for now. After your cultivation reaches the Chaos Realm · High Stage, you can completely refine it and directly Annihilation Stainless Realm experts, but it only works against the Stainless Realm experts."
The hall was deathly silent. The silver mist floated quietly, as if awaiting Qin Yu's choice.