The Nine-Winged Divine Phoenix did not linger; it lightly swept across the edge of the super-five-dimensional realm, as if completing some kind of confirmation process. In that instant, all the abnormal vibrations remaining above the Corruption Soul-Suppressing Forest were simultaneously suppressed, even the concept of "aftershocks" was erased. The Annihilation Starflame converged into a thin, imperceptible trajectory, then completely detached itself from this domain, flying towards a deeper, farther direction where even coordinates no longer held true, as if it had never belonged here in the first place.
After losing its suppressing source, the tension in the Transcendent Five-Dimensional Space suddenly relaxed. Qin Yu raised his hand and pressed it against the edge of the void rift, using his own causal authority to pull back the anchor point of reality. The Azure Ring flashed on his shoulder, transforming into a stable regression line. The next moment, space closed up like a slowly folded sheet of paper, and the two stepped out at the same time, standing back on the real layer at the outer edge of the Corruption Soul-Suppressing Forest.
The air became "breathable" again, and the rules relearned how to exist.
Jin Hanyan staggered slightly upon landing, but quickly regained her balance. She glanced sideways into the depths of the forest; the forbidden zone, which had been devouring itself just moments before, was eerily quiet, as if nothing had happened. She withdrew her gaze, her voice low and restrained. "It's gone. Not forced back, but having completed its planned action."
Qin Yu did not respond immediately. He closed his eyes, and the causal lines between his brows silently unfolded. The timeline and movement of the entire Void Obliteration Domain were compressed into a layered trajectory map in his perception. He was not tracking the Divine Phoenix, but deducing in reverse—tracing back the intention from the result.
A moment later, he opened his eyes, his tone certain. "Its flight wasn't random, nor was it a patrol. If nothing unexpected happens, its direction is the Black Sea."
Azure Ring tapped his shoulder softly, the broken bell vibrating slightly in agreement. Qin Yu continued, "The failed products of the Corruption Soul-Suppressing Forest, the overflowing executors of the Soul-Suppressing Judgment, and all the incomplete self-consistent calamity logics within this region—all fall within its scope. It doesn't care who's strong or weak, only whether they're 'qualified.' Those that aren't qualified are eliminated; those that are temporarily useful are allowed to pass."
Jin Hanyan's gaze turned unusually calm at this moment. She slowly raised her hand, her fingertips tracing an almost invisible rune in the air. It wasn't an array, but an ancient naming fragment she had forcibly dragged from the depths of her memory. "The 'mother type' you just asked about," she said, "Is not a single existence. The Nine-Headed Calamity is not nine independent entities; they share a single source sequence."
She paused for a moment, as if weighing whether she should go into more detail.
"In the oldest forbidden records of the Silent Nothingness Divine Hall, it is called—'The Unruled Nest Source.' It is not the mother entity, but the nest that incubates the rules themselves. The Nine-Headed Calamity is merely its execution port deployed to various realms to test, erode, and rewrite the world's carrying capacity threshold."
Qin Yu's eyes narrowed.
"The Logic-Extinguishing Divine Phoenix," Jin Hanyan continued, "Is not a member of the Calamity. It is the adjudicator. If the Nine-Headed Calamity is responsible for creating chaos and collapse, then the Divine Phoenix is responsible for recycling, archiving, and... terminating unqualified samples." Her voice lowered, "In other words, the Nine-Headed Calamity is very likely carrying out its orders, or at least, following the same superior adjudication logic."
A wind blew through the forest, carrying the chill of decay forcibly suppressed. Qin Yu looked up in the direction the Divine Phoenix had departed, as if watching a line that had vanished but continued to extend. "If it's a clearing operation," he said, "Then what it will clear next won't just be the forbidden zone."
Azure Ring added softly, her tone unusually serious. "Little Qinzi, any place it remembers will be in trouble. It's only a matter of time."
The three fell silent for a moment. The Corruption Soul-Suppressing Forest closed behind them again, like a beast feigning slumber, while the real storm had left the forest and was heading towards a wider stage.
The night was torn apart rapidly.
The wind outside the Corruption Soul-Suppressing Forest had not yet subsided when Wan He's figure materialized from the void. Her landing caused no ripples, yet the aura of the Void Returning-to-Ruin Divine Sword instantly suppressed the breathing of all surrounding rules. She bowed slightly to Qin Yu, her tone respectful and restrained. "Young Master, I have already informed the Palace Master of the Chaos First Palace. Yun Yanwan is gathering forces, joining forces with the Silent Nothingness Divine Hall and the Lotus Immortal Hall, their target is the Black Sea, preparing to annihilate the Abyssal Wheel Beast Crown."
Qin Yu's pupils suddenly contracted at that moment.
The trajectory he had just deduced in his mind was like a warning bell struck by a heavy hammer; all the causal lines collapsed and overlapped at the same time towards a single coordinate— the Black Sea.
"Damn it." Qin Yu said in a low voice, his tone losing its composure for the first time, "According to my reverse deduction, the direction the Logic-Extinguishing Divine Phoenix left from... is the Black Sea."
Jin Hanyan's expression instantly turned cold, a fleeting aura of primordial Silent Void emanating from her. Without asking any further questions, she decisively stated, "Then there's no time to wait for them to realize it themselves. If they collide head-on with the Divine Phoenix, this team will be directly deemed an 'unqualified sample,' without even the right to retreat."
Qin Yu nodded, his gaze sharp as a scissor's stroke. "Go. We must stop them before they step onto the Divine Phoenix's clearing path."
Before the words were even finished, the figures of the three people blurred simultaneously. Cause and effect were folded, space was compressed, and the hyperdimensional displacement was completed silently.
Meanwhile, in the Black Sea direction.
The dark sky hung low, and the sea was like a block of dark iron that had not yet cooled. What rolled was not waves, but heavy, almost solidified remnants of rules. Thousands of figures were arranged in neat rows in the air, with the Chaos First Palace array in the center, and the Silent Nothingness Divine Hall and Lotus Immortal Hall on the two sides. The auras of the elders crisscrossed, pressing down on the entire airspace and causing it to collapse layer by layer.
"Everyone, remain vigilant," an elder of the Chaos First Palace said in a deep voice, his words resonating through layers of Spiritual Sense. "The core area of the Black Sea is less than a hundred miles ahead. If any demonic beasts appear, show no mercy; Annihilation instantly."
Thousands of disciples responded simultaneously, their voices converging into a deep, resonant torrent. "Yes, we obey the elder's command!"
The team continued its advance, and its speed increased rather than decreased.
When they were less than ten miles from the Black Sea—
The space suddenly trembled slightly.
That wasn't an attack, nor was it the expansion of a domain; it was more like someone tapping the skeleton of the world with their fingertips from behind reality.
The next instant, a disciple in the middle of the group suddenly froze. Before he could react, the causal connection beneath his feet was precisely severed, and he was dragged out by an invisible yet absolute logical force, as if forcibly removed from the established narrative.
The line instantly fell into disarray.
The formation had not yet collapsed, but all the elders simultaneously looked up, their gazes sharp as knives, and turned to face backward.
There, the void slowly cracked open.
Qin Yu stepped forward first, his robes billowing slightly in the still air. Though there was no overwhelming pressure emanating from him, everyone instinctively felt an unease, as if their judgment had been preempted. Jin Hanyan stood beside him, her white robes spotless, her bare feet dangling in the air; her very presence was like a rift yet to be fully acknowledged by the world. Wan He manifested last, the aura of the Void Returning-to-Ruin Divine Sword ever-present, as if it could reassess the "legitimacy" of the entire team at any moment.
The disciple who had been pulled out hovered in mid-air, his face deathly pale, still not understanding what had happened.
The entire airspace was deathly silent. All eyes were fixed on the three figures that had suddenly appeared.
The three formations of the Chaos First Palace, Lotus Immortal Hall, and Silent Nothingness Divine Hall simultaneously froze in mid-air, their auras thick and intense. All eyes instantly converged on Qin Yu, Jin Hanyan, and Wan He. At the forefront of the Chaos First Palace, a cool yet familiar aura shifted slightly forward. Elder Ling Liangyan of the Bright Zither Hall spoke first, her gaze lingering briefly on Qin Yu, her tone filled with obvious surprise and gravity. "Young Master Qin? What brings you here?"
Almost simultaneously, from the direction of the Silent Nothingness Divine Hall, a white-robed elder's gaze sharpened, landing on Jin Hanyan. His voice was low and suppressed. "Hanyan... why are you here too?"
The air seemed to be held still by an invisible hand. Before anyone could ask any further questions, Qin Yu stepped forward. He offered no explanation or pleasantries; his voice was direct and urgent, carrying an undeniable air of authority. "Elders, immediately lead all disciples to conceal yourselves. Time is running out. Any later, and the entire team will be wiped out. I will explain the reasons later."
The moment those words fell, Ling Liangyan's heart sank. She knew Qin Yu's style all too well—he would never issue an order in such a tone in public unless it truly involved a matter of life and death. Without hesitation, she immediately turned to the three leading elders and said in a deep voice, "Elders, Guest Elder Qin's urgency must mean he has sensed a fatal variable that we haven't yet noticed. Do as he says. All disciples, conceal yourselves immediately!"
Jin Hanyan spoke at the same time, her voice not loud, but carrying a sense of oppression originating from the "Domain of the Unjudged": "Quick. Not defense, not engagement, but concealment. Otherwise, you won't even have a chance to escape."
The three leading elders exchanged glances, each seeing an unusual level of caution and vigilance in the other's eyes. Without further hesitation, they issued their orders almost simultaneously.
"All disciples—perform the Causal Avoidance Ring!"
"Elder's entourage, deploy the Causal Logic Avoidance Ring Concealment Formation to cover the entire team!"
In the next instant, thousands of auras converged simultaneously. Cause and effect were folded, existence was blurred, and layers of logical loops, like an invisible cocoon, rapidly pulled the entire team away from "perceptible reality." The originally dense fluctuations of cultivation between heaven and earth completely subsided within a few breaths, as if no life had ever gathered here.
Just three breaths after the concealment was completed --
The sky suddenly trembled.
It wasn't thunder, nor was it a spatial rupture; rather, it was a higher-level "echo of negation." It was as if some being had swept across the entire sky from a narrative perspective, causing the clouds to collapse silently and the rules to lose their consistency in an instant.
The next instant, a dark shadow that blotted out the sky swept over everyone's heads.
Even though they were already concealed, the souls of all the elders and disciples still trembled instinctively. It was the outline of a Nine-Winged Divine Phoenix, its wings like blades that could cleave through worlds, its body covered in Annihilation Starflame, leaving no trace in its wake—not because it was too fast, but because its very existence had been skipped. Its mournful cry was silent, yet it exploded deep within all their consciousness, causing the edges of their souls to shatter inch by inch.
The Logic-Extinguishing Divine Phoenix - The Absolute Law Heaven Collapse.
It neither bowed its head nor lingered, but coldly swept across the hidden area as if nothing Does Not Exist there, heading straight for the depths of the Black Sea. The sky slowly closed behind it, the rules laboriously piecing themselves back together, leaving behind cracks that could not be healed.
Within the concealed formation, all was deathly silent.
Everyone knew that if they hadn't hidden themselves beforehand, they would no longer be in this world.