The entrance to the thirteenth floor is not "open," but rather retreated.
When the core of judgment on the twelfth floor was completely Annihilation, the entire Ancient Logic God-Cultivation Tower lost its reason to "continue the judgment" in an instant. The space no longer rose or expanded, but was gently smoothed out as if by an invisible hand. All light and shadow, structure, cause and effect, and steps returned to blankness at the same time, as if the world itself had been reset to the initial state of "not yet determined to exist".
Qin Yu took a step forward. There were no steps or empty space beneath his feet. He was standing on an unnamed balance, not stable, but he would not fall. There was no Zhou Wu or night, no up or down, left or right. Even the concept of "distance" was invalid here. Near and far were only stretching and contracting at the level of consciousness, as if he were standing on a world draft that had not yet been written with any characters.
"This place..." Qin Yu murmured, but his voice didn't amplify; instead, it was absorbed into the space itself the instant he exited. "It doesn't seem like a test."
Wan He slowly walked to his side. Her clothes did not flutter, because Does Not Exist concept of wind here. However, for the first time, her gaze revealed a clear solemnity. It was not a wariness of hostility, but an instinctive awe of the difference in their social status.
"Young master," she said softly, "This is the blank layer after the cut, no longer judging 'right or wrong,' nor measuring 'value of existence'... it retains only one thing."
She slightly raised her eyes, looking at the boundless white expanse, "Is it permissible to continue existing?"
The moment she finished speaking, the [Judgment Residue World Seal] deep within Qin Yu's sea of consciousness suddenly trembled.
It was not an explosion of power, but an extremely subtle yet undeniable echo—like a mark sealed deep within an era, suddenly sensing its approach to the "origin" once more. The patterns on the surface of the boundary mark moved on their own, and lines of cause and effect briefly appeared around it before quickly extinguishing. This time, however, its vibrations did not stop within the tower.
Deep within the Void Obliteration Domain, several long-dormant causal nodes simultaneously shifted;
In the area where the Chaos First Palace was located, a very faint ripple of primordial chaos flashed across the sky;
Even in the more distant, unknown dimensions, old logic was briefly pulled back, as if gently tapped by some "unnamed entity".
"The Judgment Residue World Seal resonates here." Qin Yu's gaze sharpened slightly. "It's not resonance, it's... confirmation."
Just then, at the end of the blank layer, weight appeared.
It wasn't an aura, nor was it oppressive force; rather, it was a sense of presence that made the space itself "bear" it. The originally Formless white realm slowly began to distort, as if a colossal creature had stepped into the water, causing ripples to spread outwards, yet without making a sound.
The next instant, a super divine beast at the Chaos Realm · Supreme manifested from the void.
Its body is as if cast from undifferentiated primordial rock, thick and primitive, with dark red and blazing gold flowing between its textures, like the primordial embers that had not yet cooled when the world was first created. Huge horns extend from both sides of its head, asymmetrical in shape, yet visually forming an absolutely stable structure, like the natural balance before the separation of yin and yang.
Its wings are not feathers, but are composed of layers of chaotic patterns. Each time they unfold, space briefly loses its distinction between "front" and "back". In the center of its chest, a chaotic crack running through its body slowly flickers. It is not a wound, but a primordial crack left when the world had not yet healed.
What's most unsettling is its eyes.
That was not a gaze, but an observation.
When those eyes, burning with primordial dark flames, fell upon Qin Yu and Wan He, they clearly sensed that this divine beast was not assessing their strength, nor judging victory or defeat; it was simply confirming whether they still belonged to the "Allowed Existence List."
" In the Chaos's First Birth, before the separation of Yin and Yang, there was no fixed order..." Wan He murmured the ancient inscription of judgment, her tone more solemn than ever before, "Indeed, the guardian of the thirteenth level is not the Judge, but..."
"The Guardian of Source," Qin Yu continued, picking up where she left off.
The super divine beast slowly raised its forepaw, and for the first time, "marks" appeared on the blank layer beneath its feet. Primordial patterns, like the initial draft of the creation of heaven and earth, unfolded beneath its feet. There was no roar, no declaration, but the entire thirteenth level had already provided the answer—
To continue upward, you must prove that your existence is worthy of being permitted by the Source itself.
The thirteenth level was finally no longer a "blank" the moment that Chaos Realm · Supreme divine beast raised its forepaw.
It's not about the appearance of colors, but a return to the concept.
The previously Nameless balance beneath my feet began to crack, but it did not shatter. Instead, it was as if the universe had been forcibly torn apart, revealing the rudiments of "up and down," "inside and outside," and "before and after." What surged from the cracks was neither light nor darkness, but a primordial flow that could not be categorized. It resembled both burning lava and an unsolidified sea of stars, within which space was constantly generated and then instantly negated.
The Source-Guarding Divine Beast finally settled down. Boom!
It has no sound, but it has weight.
The entire thirteenth floor was forcibly imbued with the concept of "bearing" under this step. Qin Yu felt his soul sink, and his sea of consciousness was as if it were being pressed down by a giant hand from the source of an era, forcing even the speed of his thinking to slow down.
The mythical beast slowly raised its head and spread its wings. At that moment, the boundaries of the world disappeared.
Its first move was the primordial divine power—the manifestation of primordial chaos before existence or non-existence.
There was no initiation of any technique, no process of gathering power; it simply existed, and this very "existence" began to spread outwards. The scene before Qin Yu's eyes suddenly tore apart into countless layers of images:
In some scenes, the world has not yet taken shape; there is only a churning, chaotic torrent.
In some scenes, the stars have already been born, but in the next instant they are erased back to their Unborn state;
In several scenes, Qin Yu clearly saw that "he" had not yet embarked on the path of cultivation, and had not even been defined as an "individual".
These images are not illusions, but possible historical events that were allowed to exist.
The primordial torrent transformed into an invisible wave, sweeping in from beneath the wings of the divine beast. Wherever it passed, it neither destroyed nor annihilated, but did only one thing—cancel the judgment.
Does an attack exist? Is the defense valid?
Even the state of being "attacked" itself has become uncertain in the torrent of events.
Qin Yu groaned, his internal energy of Void Evolution surging wildly, but for the first time he felt a sluggishness.
It's not that he lacks power, but rather—his very existence is being directly scrutinized.
Just then, [the Judgment Residue World Seal] suddenly erupted.
Deep within the imprint, the residual logic of the realm that had been severed, abandoned, and denied yet still survived lit up simultaneously. Traces of cause and effect unfolded behind Qin Yu, like a broken yet tenacious draft of the world. They did not form a shield, but they caused ripples to appear in the primordial torrent for the first time.
The Source-Guarding Divine Beast's gaze flickered slightly. It wasn't surprise, but confirmation.
It is confirming one thing—this presence is not that of an unauthorized intruder.
However, in the next instant, the primordial torrent suddenly accelerated, directly crossing the boundary between defense and countermeasure, and crashing down on Qin Yu's core cognition.
"Do you have to exist?"
This problem wasn't a sound, but rather something directly imprinted on the very depths of his soul. Qin Yu's consciousness was forcibly pulled into a realm of absolute silence, where there were no enemies, no battles, only countless "most rational futures."
He is not in those futures.
The world runs more smoothly, cause and effect are simpler, and logic is more elegant.
He was simply a redundant element that was naturally optimized away.
Standing before those futures, Qin Yu faced for the first time the very rationale for being replaced.
Just as the chaotic torrent was about to completely engulf his coordinates, a completely different aura slashed in.
Wan He made her move.
She did not rely on judgment, nor did she invoke the established powers of the Void Authority World-Annihilating. Instead, she stepped forward and actively severed her connection with the "judgment result." Her figure became extremely clear and extremely unstable in that instant, as if she were standing at the intersection of "undefined" and "irreversible."
What she unfolded was a source-level stance—a non-judgmental judgment, a source-level declaration.
There was no burst of light, no spread of oppressive force.
But the moment she raised her hand, the primordial torrent paused for the first time.
"Existence does not necessarily mean optimality."
Her voice was gentle, yet at that moment it became the rule.
Behind her, an extremely ancient, ethereal afterimage appeared. It was not the form of a divine sword, but an unnamed "permission mark," symbolizing the first permission granted to existence itself.
Wan He stared directly at the Source-Guarding Divine Beast, her gaze calm and resolute.
"If everything is only about finding the optimal solution, then the source itself has long ceased to exist."
Boom--
The primordial torrent reversed the instant she finished speaking. For the first time, the indistinguishable forces were forcibly "acknowledged as different," and the primordial waves that should have covered everything were forcibly torn open in front of her position.
Qin Yu suddenly snapped back to his senses, and the power of the Void Evolution surged back up along the gap, firmly anchoring the coordinates of the "non-optimal self".
At this moment, the thirteenth floor truly entered a state of full-scale battle.
The Source-Guarding Divine Beast moved forward in a low voice, the weight of the nascent world pressing down once more. Qin Yu and Wan He stood side by side, one responding to the scrutiny with his very existence, the other denying the optimal from the perspective of a source-level being.
This is not a battle to win or lose. This is a direct confrontation—a confrontation to deliver answers to the source.
The second attack by the Chaos Source-Guarding Divine Beast finally made Qin Yu pay the price.
That wasn't a head-on collision, but a "squeeze of existence" at the source level. In the instant the primordial torrent contracted again, Qin Yu's chest felt as if it had been pierced by an invisible primordial law. Before the power of Void Evolution could be fully transformed, it was directly forced back into his body, and blood spilled from the corner of his lips, slowly dripping down his chin.
That was the first real injury he had sustained since entering the thirteenth floor.
The Judgment Residue World Seal trembled violently at this moment, and countless fragments of the Remaining Boundary Logic, though severed, lit up simultaneously, like a shield pieced together from a shattered world, forcefully blocking the subsequent impact of the Primordial Chaos Squeezing. Otherwise, this attack would have been enough to cause his coordinates of existence to collapse on the spot.
Qin Yu steadied himself, but his breathing became noticeably heavier.
He looked up at the Source-Guarding Divine Beast, his gaze more solemn than ever before.
At that very moment, the aura of the Chaos Source-Guarding Divine Beast suddenly changed.
Its wings were no longer spread out, but disintegrated. The wings transformed into countless unformed primordial structures, hovering around its body, neither connected nor separate, but in a state of "not yet deciding how to exist." Its body then became blurred, as if it simultaneously occupied multiple spatial origins.
The second primordial form officially unfolds. Origin-level divine power descends accordingly—Original Denial: The Unpermitted Existence.
At this moment, the entire thirteenth floor lost the concept of a "battlefield".
There is no longer any attack or defense, no longer any front or back or up or down, and even the act of "confrontation" itself has begun to be taken back.
Qin Yu clearly sensed that some kind of will from the source of chaos was issuing a primal interrogation to him:
--Are you allowed to continue existing?
It's not about strength or weakness, nor about significance, but simply asking: do you deserve to be retained?
His consciousness was forcibly pushed into the deepest recesses of the power of Void Evolution, and all past battles, obsessions, and goals became irrelevant at this moment. Only one question remained—
If there were no reason at all, would you still choose to exist?
Amidst this primordial negation that seemed to reduce everything to nothing, Qin Yu finally responded.
It wasn't words, nor supernatural powers. He deliberately unleashed the full potential of the power of Void Evolution.
That wasn't an attack, but a self-affirmation.
The power of Void Evolution no longer revolved around his body, but instead reversed course, inward, and began to reconstruct his own logic of existence. Countless possibilities unfolded within him simultaneously, only to be negated by his own hands in the next instant, leaving behind only an imperfect, yet unyielding, "Present self."
In that instant, the Void Emanation Realm underwent a qualitative change.
For the first time, Qin Yu's existence was no longer dependent on any external logic, but rather closed by himself.
However, a price was also paid at the same time.
The power of the Void Evolution expanded wildly after being freed from its restraints, like a source point about to go out of control, and began to backfire on his body. Fine cracks appeared on Qin Yu's body, with light and darkness intertwining within them. He clearly sensed that if this continued, he would not be erased by the enemy, but would be directly burned away by the confirmation of his own existence.
In that instant, Wan He took a step forward.
Her expression was no longer gentle, but solemn like never before.
Without hesitation or attempt to communicate, she directly unleashed her Ultimate divine power—the Ultimate Void Power: Bugui Protective Domain.
At that moment, her figure completely transcended the categories of "weapon" and "container," transforming into a source-level force field covering Qin Yu. It wasn't a barrier, but a declaration—
This existence has been accepted by me.
The power of the illusory authority unfolded around Qin Yu like countless overlapping layers of Ultimate judgment membranes, but it did not judge any external objects. Instead, it locked onto his core existence, bearing all the unfinished denials and repossessions for him.
The Origin Negation of the Chaos Source-Guarding Divine Beast was forcibly deflected for the first time.
The pressure of zeroing, originally directed at Qin Yu, was borne by Wan He alone. Her body trembled violently, and the ancient, fragmented image of the Void Authority World-Annihilating collapsed and reformed behind her, but she did not retreat an inch.
"Existence is not isolation."
Her voice was crystal clear amidst the chaos.
"If you want to take him back, you must take me back first."
With her protection, Qin Yu regained his balance, his Void Evolution power receded, and the cracks in his existence rapidly healed. The moment he looked up, he saw Wan He's back standing in front of him, and for the first time truly realized that she was not an appendage, but a Source-level being standing shoulder to shoulder with him.
The battle on the thirteenth floor has entered a fierce and intense phase.
The Chaos Source-Guarding Divine Beast roared, and the aura of the Heaven and Earth Undetermined surged once more, but Qin Yu's gaze was clearer than ever before.
His existence has been confirmed. And now, all that remains is the final battle to directly confront the source.