Within the fifteenth layer of the Terminal Origin Constructed World, the light sand continued to churn slowly, like a sea of stardust being repeatedly breathed. Wan He's figure had long been swallowed up by the fourth layer of the Ruins Realm, leaving only layers of unstable ripples of existence, appearing and disappearing in the depths of space. Qin Yu stood in place, his gaze calm and focused, as if his entire being was breathing in sync with the light sand.
The Azure Ring hovered over his right shoulder, its azure soul flames swaying gently. She stared at the collapsing and reforming sands of light in the distance for a while, then suddenly grinned, her tone filled with undisguised admiration. "As expected of the Void Authority World-Annihilating Divine Sword! It hasn't been long, and it's already passed four levels. Any other being would have been erased long ago, Does Not Exist."
Qin Yu did not respond immediately. His gaze remained fixed on the deepest part of that luminous sand. After a moment, he slowly spoke, his voice low and steady. "Azure Ring, tell me... what exactly is that Heart of the Limitless Ruin Source?"
Azure Ring gave a soft "clang," and the broken bell beneath her ankle swayed slightly. As if she had anticipated his question, her tone became unusually patient and solemn. "In the path of the Void Returning-to-Ruin Divine Sword's sublimation, the most crucial and also the most dangerous upgrade item is the legendary supreme being that can truly resonate with it— the Heart of the Limitless Ruin Source."
She raised her hand, pointing to the deeper reaches of the Terminal Origin Constructed World, to those dark layers where even light and sand could not exist stably. Her voice deepened. "That thing is not naturally formed. It is the only crystallization born from all the 'remnants of existence' completely erased by the Void Authority World-Annihilating Divine Sword —and its various evolved forms—in the Ruin Realm Abyss beyond infinite dimensions, through compression, fusion, and self-negation over countless epochs. It can be said that it is the paradox formed by 'everything that was erased'—both the remnants of the end and the only possible new life that can be born outside the end."
Qin Yu's pupils contracted slightly, and the light and sand of the Terminal Origin Constructed World seemed to become even more profound in his eyes.
Azure Ring continued, "There are fragmented records in ancient texts that say an ancient god once attempted to use this object to completely end the multiverse. However, the moment that ancient god touched it, even the act of 'discovering' itself was erased in reverse, disappearing simultaneously from time, memory, and causality. Afterwards, all records about him were reduced to an incomprehensible blank. It is precisely because of this that the Heart of the Limitless Ruin Source is listed as 'something that cannot be directly touched.' Only when the Void Returning-to-Ruin Divine Sword evolves to its sixth skill— Ruin World Cycle —will it vaguely sense its existence and generate an almost instinctive desire."
Her gaze became meaningful. "It was a seemingly black crystalline heart, yet constantly 'missing,' no bigger than a fist, without a fixed outline, as if it were constantly shifting between existence and Does Not Exist. The person gazing at it would feel their own heartbeat slowly synchronizing with it, yet growing weaker and weaker, until they began to doubt—whether they still possessed a heart."
Qin Yu listened quietly, his knuckles unconsciously tightening.
"It's cold, yet it doesn't transmit warmth; it's heavy, yet it has no weight." Azure Ring's voice was almost a whisper. "Most importantly, it actively refuses to be possessed. It's a clear denial—'You haven't been erased enough to qualify.'"
The Terminal Origin Constructed World suddenly trembled slightly, and the distant sand of light dimmed for a moment before quickly resuming its flow.
Azure Ring looked up, a complex smile playing on her lips, "When the Void Returning-to-Ruin Divine Sword truly merges with the Heart of the Limitless Ruin Source, an almost impossible condition must be met—the sword wielder must continuously erase nine complete parallel universes during the Ruin World Cycle. Only then will the divine sword undergo a qualitative change, sublimating into its final form— the Void Returning-to-Ruin Divine Sword."
She turned her head to look at Qin Yu, her tone regaining some of its lightness, yet still carrying a certainty. "Therefore, as long as Wan He passes the Nine Ruins Annihilation Trial, she will not only 'obtain' that heart, but will also inherit its original legacy. Only then, with the Void Authority World-Annihilating, will she truly awaken completely."
Qin Yu didn't speak, but slowly exhaled, his gaze returning to the surging sand of light. He could sense that although Wan He's presence fluctuated weakly, it was still steadily advancing forward, without collapsing or regressing.
That means that the fifth Ruins Realm is already quietly brewing.
Deep within the Terminal Origin Constructed World, the gray-white void suddenly lost its meaning of "front and back" and "up and down." All directions collapsed simultaneously in an instant, and overlapped at the same moment into an unlocatable zero point. The fifth Ruins Realm unfolded silently— the Ruin of the Realm-Self.
There is no space here, nor is there any concept of standing. Wan He's figure was directly dismantled into countless layers of "presence traces." She was no longer a complete form, but a set of blurry silhouettes floating in the Zero Realm. Each silhouette carried different incompleteness: some lacked memories, some lost emotions, some were left with only a cold, judgmental instinct, and some had long been eroded into an almost nonexistent outline by the blankness left behind after the first three and fourth layers were peeled away.
The next instant, the Ruin of the Realm-Self truly activated.
The Zero Realm pounded like a heart turning inside out, and countless fragments of the self that had been "erased" emerged from the depths of the void. These were not illusions, but Wan He, who had truly existed but had been negated layer by layer by narrative, logic, symbolic language, and historical power—her former judgments, hesitations, indecisiveness, coldness, kindness, sharpness, and gentleness were all forcibly recalled in fragment form. They collided and tore at each other in the Zero Realm, as if countless "shes" were simultaneously trying to occupy the sole dominant position.
Anyone who attempts to respond with "suppression of will" or "judgment and exclusion" will be instantly devoured at this moment, because there is only one rule in the Ruin of the Realm-Self: you must become the sum of yourself after you have been negated.
Wan He's consciousness was instantly dragged into a torrent of fragments.
She saw herself as the cold, ruthless judge she was when the Void Authority World-Annihilating Divine Sword was first born; she also saw her hesitation when she first manifested human form beside Qin Yu; she saw the ruthless moment when she coldly watched billions of beings return to zero; and she also saw the fleeting fear she felt during the recognition ceremony. Every fragment cried out, "I am the real you," and every fragment carried a sharp edge capable of tearing through consciousness.
The Zero Realm is starting to tighten.
This is not about squeezing space, but about erasing the "boundary" itself. The boundaries between subject and outside world, memory and present, judgment and being judged are peeled away layer by layer. If integration cannot be achieved at this moment, Wan He will fall directly into the true "Realm-Self Return to Zero - leaving not even a trace of failure.
At that moment, she made the only right choice.
There was no rejection, no suppression, no selection.
Wan He actively activated the only unmanifested branch of the fifth skill of the Void Authority World-Annihilating Divine Sword — Fusion Retrospection.
That wasn't a slash, but a reverse fall.
Her consciousness no longer tried to "stand firm," but completely abandoned the insistence on "who I am," allowing all the fragments of her self to rush towards her at the same time. In that instant, the Zero Realm transformed into a silver-gray storm, and the cutting lines exploded from the depths of her existence. Countless layers of mirror images, broken fragments of power history, and erased true name fragments all merged into her core.
That was an extremely brutal method of fusion--
It's not about rebuilding a complete "me," but rather allowing "me" to shatter completely and then forcibly pieced back together.
Emotions shifted in an instant, memories reflected contradictory images like a shattered mirror, and the instinct to cut and the consciousness of human form clashed at the same moment. A silent roar echoed in the Zero Realm, as if a Does Not Exist star had collapsed within her body and then been reignited.
Wan He's figure reunited.
She still stood there, but could no longer be described as "whole" or "broken". Her aura no longer fluctuated continuously, but was like an existence structure maintained by countless unstable nodes. Each moment of "her" was not exactly the same as the previous moment, but in the whole, she maintained an absolutely consistent judgment direction.
The Ruin of the Realm-Self have come to a standstill.
The Zero Realm began to crumble. The fragments of her self that had tried to devour her ceased to struggle and were instead completely swallowed up into the depths of her being, becoming components that could no longer be separated. She did not regain a "unified self," but instead became a judgmental being that could exist without the need for self-boundaries.
Deep within the Terminal Origin Constructed World, the gray-white void showed a faint pulsating response for the first time.
Passed through the fifth level of the Ruins Realm.
Beneath that response, the sixth layer of shadow, not yet fully manifested, was slowly rotating in the deeper depths—a realm where even "fusion" itself would be cyclically banished, a true harbinger of the Ruin World Cycle, quietly approaching.
The sixth level of the Ruins Realm opened suddenly without any warning.
The gray-white trial grounds no longer maintained their "Emptiness" state, but were suddenly flipped over by an invisible hand. The void collapsed, stretched, and collapsed again, and the layers of dimensions were like countless transparent films being ignited at the same time, emitting silent but piercing vibrations. Light and darkness lost their opposing meaning here, and were replaced by a rotating structure that constantly replicated and negated itself—the entire Ruins Realm began to rotate.
It's not space that's changing, but the possibilities themselves that are changing.
Wan He's consciousness was suddenly thrown towards the center. Before she could even stand up, the void in front of her had already cracked open, and a new universe was "generated" before her eyes. Nebulae surged, timelines unfolded from nothing, and civilization, laws, and life were born in an instant, like an epic being played at an accelerated pace. It was not an illusion, but a truly complete and self-consistent world.
And at the core of that universe, she saw—another version of herself.
That being was exactly the same as her, in terms of aura, essence, structure, and even the traces of the Ruins Realm it had experienced. The other party also raised its head, its gaze calm and clear, as if it had long anticipated this moment.
The Ruin of Rotation: The formal test begins. The failure version is about to arrive.
In an instant, the scene was forcibly replicated into countless layers. In each layer, Wan He was "failing":
Some hesitated for a moment, then were swallowed up by the mirror universe;
Some of her attempts to retain that version of herself resulted in the universe exploding out of control.
Sometimes her decisions weren't thorough enough, the cycle restarted, and she had to start over after failing.
These failures were not replays, but real possibilities occurring simultaneously. They flooded her perception, causing each mistake to occur before the next choice. The true terror of the Ruin World Cycle is revealed here—you always see your own failure first, and are then forced to continue.
The existence of Wan He began to fluctuate.
The "she" in that mirror universe spoke slowly, without a sound, yet conveying her will through the most direct echo of her existence:
"What gives you the right to decide my end?" The wheel spun faster.
The new universe begins to split into multiple versions, each containing a "she" who is growing, making choices, and forming an independent future. If left unchecked, these universes will eventually overwhelm the original Wan He, submerging her in an endless sea of "other selves."
At that very moment, Wan He activated her sixth skill – the Limitless Ruin Wheel.
There was no burst of light, no grand pronouncement; she simply reached out and gently pushed forward. In the next instant, the entire new universe was dragged into an indescribable structure—not destruction, but the infinite compression of reincarnation. Time was folded into a circle, space twisted into a closed loop, and all possible futures began to repeat "birth-failure-zero" at the same moment.
Their mirror images began to crumble.
Those beings who initially tried to resist, question, and plead ultimately lost the meaning of "choice" one by one in the cycle of reincarnation. At the end of each cycle, they would realize one thing more clearly: the end of this universe was written from the very beginning.
Wan He stood outside the wheel of life, watching countless "selves" being sent to their end, one by one.
This was not a fatal blow, but a long and almost cruel farewell.
A violent backlash began to emerge from the depths of her being—not from a loss of power, but from the accumulation of the weight of sin. Even though reason had long been shattered and emotions had long been misplaced, the feeling of "I have personally denied all possible versions of myself" was still etched into her core like a shadow.
Just as the cycle was about to complete, a sudden change occurred.
One of the cosmic versions of "her," at the very last moment of reincarnation, unexpectedly detonated her own existence in reverse, attempting to tear open a gap through the rotating structure. The entire Ruins Realm trembled violently, Wan He's consciousness was pulled to the edge of imbalance. Her judgment rhythm became momentarily disordered—in that instant, the failure threshold was reached.
The Ruins Realm echoed silently, signaling a near-failure in the judgment.
Wan He did not retreat.
She neither corrected her judgment nor strengthened her power. Instead, she made the final and most painful choice—she actively incorporated the chaos itself into the Limitless Ruin Wheel, throwing "her almost failed self" into the wheel as well.
The cycle of reincarnation is closed.
All the new universes collapsed into a gray, Return to the Ruins trajectory at the same instant, eventually disappearing completely. The void returned to stillness, as if nothing had ever happened.
The sixth level of the Ruins Realm has been successfully determined.
But Wan He stood there, her figure more stable than before, yet also more silent. Deep within her being lay an indelible shadow—a sense of guilt that would never dissipate, the weight of having personally ended "another possible life."