When Jin Hanyan finally regained her footing in the void, she was already standing at the southern edge of the Void Obliteration Domain. There were no clear boundary markers or array patterns here, only a chill seeping from the depths of her bones silently reminding her—ahead lay a forbidden zone that the entire Void Obliteration Domain tacitly avoided: the Corruption Soul-Suppressing Forest. Her white robes fluttered in the void wind pressure, her long silver hair cascading down like an undifferentiated stream of chaos. The void beneath her feet had begun to show decaying, dark brown cracks, as if the concept of "space" had been eroded here for so long that it had long lost its complete meaning. She glanced down at the still-lingering, Stainless radiance at her fingertips, clearly sensing that the residual judgment marks left by that strange treasure were still tracking her existence. If she hesitated even for a moment longer, the locks of the seven Chaos Realm · Extremity would close again. So, without any hesitation, without even turning back to check if the pursuers were approaching, she moved and stepped directly into the forest domain swallowed by darkness and starlight.
The moment one enters the "Corruption Soul-Suppressing Forest," the world seems to be forcibly flipped by an invisible hand. What should have been the "sky" has become a churning mass of deep purple and dark blue nebulae. The clouds do not float, but slowly undulate like rotting organs. Within them, faint starlight is constantly stretched, torn apart, and extinguished, like stars forcibly dragged into memories of death. The earth presents an unsettling layered structure. The withered ancient trees do not grow upwards, but intertwine with each other at twisted angles. The surface of the trunks is covered with dark patterns that resemble divine runes or lividity. Each pattern pulsates slowly, as if repeatedly whispering long-forgotten names. There is no wind in the air, but there is a constant, extremely faint "whispering"—not sound, but a resonance that directly affects consciousness, attempting to dismantle the intruder's memories into suppressable fragments.
Jin Hanyan's first step into the forest didn't touch the ground, but rather landed on a layer of "illusory reality" woven from resentment, remnant souls, and the causal bonds of corruption. Wherever her bare feet passed, Light of Stainlessness naturally spread, repelling the gray-black soul shadows that tried to cling to her. These soul shadows didn't scream; they merely revealed an empty, almost liberated expression as they were dispersed before merging back into the forest. Her gaze was calm and indifferent, as if all of this was within her expectations. The "Corruption Soul-Suppressing Forest" wasn't simply a killing domain; it was more like a massive suppression structure built from the materials of "losers." Anyone who stepped into it would be constantly asked one question—could you still bear the weight of "not having your self acknowledged"?
Deep within the forest, an ancient path, naturally extending from broken stone steps, slowly emerged. The steps were incomplete; some were swallowed by starlight, while others were broken and suspended in mid-air. Traces left by powerful figures from different eras remained on them. Some sword marks still emitted a faint light, while others, imprints of laws, had long since decayed into unrecognizable voids. Jin Hanyan walked along this ancient path, each step feeling like traversing countless failed attempts. She could clearly sense a faintly awakening will deep within the forest watching her, yet it did not immediately launch any attack, as if waiting—waiting for her to venture deeper, to lure her pursuers into this forbidden zone where "even death requires repeated judgment."
As her figure completely disappeared into the layers of withered forest and starlight, the void outside the forest suddenly trembled violently. Seven chaotic auras tore through the spatial boundary, carrying undisguised killing intent and hesitation, and stopped at the outer edge of the "Corruption Soul-Suppressing Forest". No one stepped in immediately, because everyone knew that once they entered, the roles of hunter and prey would likely be completely reversed.
Seven chaotic auras arrived at the outer edge of the Corruption Soul-Suppressing Forest almost simultaneously. The space beneath their feet collapsed layer by layer, only to be forcibly stabilized, as if this forbidden zone didn't even bother to grant the right to "welcome Stainless Realm · Supreme expert, even an old monster at the Severed Thought Realm would have to consider whether they could escape unscathed before going in."
Another person instinctively took a half-step back, their gaze darting through the withered trees, as if they could already see something watching them through the shadows. "Continuing to chase them in will be too disadvantageous for us. This place isn't for fighting; it's for—to rot people away, bit by bit." The group fell silent, chaotic energy surging around them, yet none of them dared to cross that invisible boundary. It was as if that step wasn't a spatial distance, but an irreversible dividing line of fate. Finally, the second disciple of the Asura Immortal Hall clenched his fists tightly, his knuckles cracking under the pressure. His gaze was fixed on the ancient path deep within the forest, long since swallowed by starlight, and he gritted his teeth, spitting out a single sentence, "Damn bitch... Sigh..."
He then let out a long sigh, as if suppressing his resentment and killing intent back into his body. "So be it. Since she dared to go in, she was already prepared not to come out. There's no point in us staying here any longer. Let's go back to the temple. We still need to be wary of the calamity beast's movements." As soon as he finished speaking, the seven figures disappeared one after another. None of them looked back at that forest area again, as if even a second glance would leave them with the "corrupt" aura.
At the very moment they retreated, the real changes within the "Corruption Soul-Suppressing Forest" had just begun. The decaying aura that had been slowly creeping through the forest suddenly took on a rhythm, and large patches of bark began to peel off the dead trees, revealing dark annual rings inside that seemed to have been repeatedly dissolved and solidified. These were not wood, but "corrupted entities" compressed from countless remnant souls, failed wills, and Shatter Cause. The low murmurs in the air were no longer chaotic overlapping sounds.
Instead, they gradually converged into a resonant frequency that could not be described in words, as if the entire forest was breathing in sync. Each "inhale" would cause a slight slowing of the intruder's life force, and each "exhale" would gradually corrode the order that did not belong here into crushable fragments. Jin Hanyan walked among them, she could clearly sense that the ground beneath her feet was changing. The places she stepped on were not being destroyed, but were rapidly "aging," as if time had been forcibly dragged to its end, only to continue to decay there, with even the "end" itself not allowed to remain intact.
Just as she crossed a completely withered forest that was still constantly oozing gray-black mist, the entire "Corruption Soul-Suppressing Forest" suddenly trembled. All the decaying patterns lit up with a dark luster at the same time. Deep in the forest, a "core echo" that could not be defined by form slowly awakened. It was not an attack, nor the expansion of a domain, but a more ancient and indifferent form of judgment— Existence Interrogation.
No sound fell directly, but a question was forcibly projected into the depths of Jin Hanyan's consciousness: When your name, your cultivation technique, your realm, your victories and defeats, are all completely eroded by corruption, do you still acknowledge that you "once existed"? This was not to ask her to give an answer, but to ask her to use her "uncorrupted part" to bear this judgment amidst the continuous invasion of corruption. The corruption in the forest began to actively approach her Light of Stainlessness, not to tear it apart, but to try to cover it up, assimilate it, and return everything to the primitive state of "being suppressed, forgotten, and decayed to the point that even failure loses its meaning."
Jin Hanyan stood at the core edge of the "Corruption Soul-Suppressing Forest." The surrounding trees had long lost their meaning as "trees," their branches resembling skeletons repeatedly written on and erased, piercing the sky from the ground. Their surfaces constantly peeled away, dissolved, and regenerated, while a gray-black, corrupt mist swirled through the forest like slow but irreversible chains of cause and effect, silently coiling around her very existence. At that moment, the "Existence Interrogation" truly descended, without sound or form, yet it seemed as if the entire forest was simultaneously watching her, trying to find any part of her that could be corrupted, named, or suppressed.
Jin Hanyan slowly raised her eyes. Deep within her icy blue pupils, the faintest point of darkness seemed to take a step forward. She didn't answer any questions, simply letting her aura dissipate naturally. The [Silent Void · Dao of Chaos] didn't erupt at this moment, but rather regressed. Her existence no longer proclaimed "Who am I?" but retreated inward, returning to the primordial state before chaos was divided, Heaven and Earth Undetermined, and even the concept of "I" hadn't yet taken shape. The moment the corrupting mist touched her, it was as if it had grasped a shapeless shadow. The corrosion lost its target, and the logic of soul suppression lost its anchor.
The corrupting lines that should have eroded everything collapsed on their own around her, turning into meaningless rings of remnants. Her truly uncorrupted core was revealed here—not power, not realm, but "unnamed." In that instant, she raised her hand and took out a divine pill. The pill was as clear as freshly frozen snow, yet no medicinal fragrance emanated from it. She swallowed it. When the medicinal power dissolved, there was no booming sound of healing injuries, only an extremely subtle sense of return, as if her existence had been pulled back to a state where she could still sustain herself.
She didn't linger, her gaze sweeping across the depths of the corrupt forest, her mind as clear as ice water. "They most likely won't chase after me, but in my current state, I absolutely cannot linger here. Corruption isn't killing me; it's waiting for me to become 'killable.'" Jin Hanyan's figure flickered, transforming into an almost Does Not Exist shadow, swiftly moving along the not-yet-completely-collapsed spatial folds in the forest. She needed a cave, a cavity that could temporarily isolate her from the backflow of corrupt logic; otherwise, even with her Stainless body, she would eventually be worn down by this forest into a "result" that could be suppressed.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the Void Obliteration Domain, seven figures were soaring through the air. Below them stretched an endless, deep sea, its surface as black as a mirror, unable to reflect even starlight. It was as if this body of water itself was devouring any possibility of being observed. Their auras had not yet been fully concealed, and the aftershocks of chaos left long trails in the void. Just as they were about to cross the center of this sea...
Suddenly, without warning, the sea surface collapsed inward. There were no waves, no explosions, only a force that could not be sensed in advance that suddenly erupted, as if the entire deep sea had raised its "gaze" at the same moment. A low, almost Does Not Exist tremor swept through the void, and the seven people were struck as if by an invisible giant hand. Their protective divine powers did not even have time to react, and their bodies were violently shaken away. Their chaotic aura exploded out of control in mid-air.