Hidden in the Annihilation Void · Hanyan Questions the Realm

The deep void of the Void Obliteration Domain slowly churned beneath Jin Hanyan and her group's feet, like a dark sea repeatedly smoothed and then crumpled by an invisible hand. They had left the first Causal Void Zone far behind, but the chill of being "deliberately forgotten by the world" did not dissipate. Instead, it became clearer as they explored deeper, like an invisible thread guiding their judgment.

The moment the second anomaly came into her senses, Jin Hanyan stopped in her tracks once again.

This place is located in an old boundary rift zone at the southern border of the Void Obliteration Domain. It should be the area with the most chaotic cause and effect and the heaviest historical accumulation. However, what is presented to them now is a strange Space Silence that is almost "neat". The shape of the space is completely different from that of the Shattered Balance Plain, but in a deeper logical structure, it presents an almost perfect symmetry - as if someone used an invisible center as an axis to "hollow out" both areas at the same time, and then smoothed out the traces with the same method.

Jin Hanyan raised her hand, and the Stainless Radiance at her fingertips unfolded once more. This time, she did not attempt to force a return to the past, but instead allowed the light to flow naturally along the texture of the void. In an instant, the remnants of the two Causal Void Zone overlapped and spun in her mind, like two deliberately placed mirrors, reflecting each other but both avoiding the true core.

At that moment, her heart sank.

This is not random concealment, but rather a deliberate act. All the erased causes and effects, the cleared history, are not scattered aimlessly, but rather use the "absence" itself to outline a larger contour. If we regard these empty areas as pieces on a chessboard, then the true heart of the game is pointed to by them all, yet it is tightly wrapped within the boundaries of "inferiority".

"A shared approach," an elder murmured, his voice unusually restrained in the void. "The narrative cross-sections of the two empty areas are completely identical; the only difference lies in their spatial scale."

"And it's not in its final state," another elder added, his gaze narrowing slightly, "As if leaving room for future changes."

Before the words were finished, the causal sea deep within the Void Obliteration Domain suddenly trembled slightly.

That wasn't an explosion, nor a tearing apart, but a more dangerous change—a Causal Void Zone had broken down.

Jin Hanyan turned around abruptly, her senses stretching to their Limit in an instant. Deep within her consciousness, an area that had been stably maintaining a "blank state" suddenly experienced an extremely brief logical backflow, as if someone had loosened their grip on her fingers. The erased cause and effect were not fully restored, but in the instant of failure, they generated intense friction with the still existing world around them.

The scene unfolded dramatically before everyone's eyes—

The afterimage of time poured in, forcibly straightening the boundaries of space, only to distort them in the next instant. Fragments of history, which were originally "forbidden to be narrated," fell from nothingness like shattered glass. No complete events appeared; only intermittent emotions, wills, and a kind of extremely cold "sense of correction" flashed by in the void.

"Thought Severance Devouring Emperor..." Jin Hanyan's voice was so low it was almost inaudible, yet it carried a firm resolve.

This was a proactive adjustment. It wasn't a mistake on the part of the opponent; rather, after confirming that certain arrangements had been detected, they decisively abandoned a piece, using its "disintegration" to remeasure the reaction of the entire Void Obliteration Domain. The failure of the Causal Void Zone was like a pebble thrown into water, and the ripples it created were rapidly spreading along unseen veins.

In just a few breaths, the stability of other airspaces also underwent subtle changes, as if a taut net was being stretched and reshaped.

Jin Hanyan concealed her brilliance, her gaze calm, yet she had already made a swift judgment. She led the ten elders southward, soon arriving at a high-level patrol node in the southern part of the Void Obliteration Domain. Although far from the center of the earlier anomaly, the aftershocks of that chain reaction could be clearly sensed here.

She turned to the accompanying elders, her tone calm yet carrying an undeniable resolve. "Elders, I wish to make a trip to the Shattered Luminary Wasteland Belt."

An elder paused slightly, then asked, "What's wrong, Hanyan? What are you doing there?"

Jin Hanyan gazed northward, as if piercing through countless realms to see the now- Emptiness battlefield. "The Glazed Dao-Extinguishing Zheng vanished into thin air in the Shattered Luminary Wasteland Belt. But according to the logical chain of cause and effect, to 'disappear instantly,' it's almost impossible to leave no trace. I have a feeling that it didn't leave, but rather... was hidden in place."

Another elder nodded slowly, a look of agreement flashing in his eyes. "Your judgment makes some sense. Such a large-scale concealment is itself the biggest flaw. In that case, let's investigate."

Jin Hanyan gently shook her head, her voice calm and firm. "Elder, I can go alone this time. You continue to search the Causal Void Zone in other areas according to the established plan, to avoid letting the other side determine our true focus. I will only go to the Shattered Luminary Wasteland Belt to verify the situation, and after confirming it, I will immediately rejoin you."

After a brief silence, the eldest elder gave her a deep look and finally nodded. "Alright. Be careful."

Jin Hanyan said no more, turned around and took a step forward, her white robes transforming into a Silent Void stream of light in the void. The next moment, her figure had already crossed layers of boundaries, rushing towards the north of the Shattered Luminary Wasteland Belt, leaving behind only a trace of cause and effect that was quickly smoothed over by the world.

The sky north of the Shattered Luminary Wasteland Belt lost its original color the moment Jin Hanyan stepped in.

This place is no longer a desolate remnant of war, but rather like a painting that has been repeatedly wiped clean—the mountains and rivers remain, the space remains, but all traces of what "happened" have been erased completely. The wind sweeps across the scorched earth, yet it cannot stir up a single speck of dust; the broken rock ridges retain their fractured state, but there is not a trace of the cause and effect of being torn apart by force, as if this area was defined from the very beginning as "never having experienced war."

Jin Hanyan stood in the void, her white robes flowing down her back, her bare feet not touching the ground. Her gaze slowly swept across the vast territory below, and deep within her pupils, Stainless radiance flowed like still water.

The next moment, she raised her hand.

It wasn't about using supernatural powers, but rather suppressing one's perception to the lowest level, allowing consciousness to slowly sink along the most primal, fundamental lines of cause and effect. It was a state akin to "listening"—not questioning what happened, but rather feeling why it was so quiet here.

At that very moment, she noticed something amiss.

It's not a complete causal chain, but a trace that has been forcibly folded, compressed, and nailed to the "present moment." The trace is extremely faint, yet it carries an extremely familiar aura—pure and Stainless, yet cold to the point of being almost cruel, like a giant hand pressing down on the head of some being, forcibly stuffing it into the definition of "this place is the end."

"As expected..." Jin Hanyan said softly.

The cause and effect of Glazed Dao-Extinguishing Zheng has not left.

It's right here in front of us.

It does not exist in a physical form, but is completely hidden in its original place—time has not moved forward, space has not shifted, and cause and effect have been forcibly frozen into a "constant" that cannot be further described. If she had not personally come here and looked down upon the structure of existence with the Stainless Realm · Supreme, no matter how many cultivators searched repeatedly, they would only think that this place was already Emptiness.

However, the instant she confirmed this fact—

The sky Shattered Luminary Wasteland Belt suddenly trembled slightly.

It wasn't the roar of a collapsing space, but a deeper anomaly. At the edge of Jin Hanyan's vision, all the scenes suddenly appeared as a very brief double image—the mountains seemed to extend in two directions simultaneously, the sky flashed through several different hues in an instant, and the void beneath her feet seemed to have its narrative sequence out of order, as if someone had roughly turned the pages of a book.

Her actions began to diverge from her intentions.

She stood still, yet in her perception, she saw herself take a step forward; before she even raised her hand, she saw the radiance of Stainless already blooming on another narrative thread. Logic and causality were forcibly separated and then arbitrarily reassembled, as if someone were directly altering the "narrative rules" of her position in an extreme and unconventional way.

The next instant, a deep and indifferent will, across countless levels, slowly poured into this area.

It's not an arrival, but an engulfment.

It was a divine power that did not rely on a physical form or require a medium— the Thought Severance Devouring Emperor, by being "absent," directly embedded an unnameable narrative fragment into the underlying structure of the Shattered Luminary Wasteland Belt. In an instant, Jin Hanyan clearly felt that her existence was divided into countless "possible versions," and simultaneously thrown into different logical directions.

She sees herself continuing forward, only to be defined in the next scene as having "already reached the end";

She saw herself preparing to cast a spell, but was judged on a causal level as having "never had the intention to cast a spell."

Even her position as an "observer" is being forcibly pulled into the narrative, becoming an object that can be manipulated.

This is an unconventional form of erosion targeting the Stainless Realm.

Instead of direct confrontation or clashing forces, the target is allowed to become disorganized in the quagmire of narrative and logic, ultimately rendering even the judgment "I am being attacked" incomplete.

The Shattered Luminary Wasteland Belt has begun to collapse.

It wasn't an explosion, but rather like a palace whose load-bearing capacity had been emptied out. The pillars of time broke first, followed by the foundation of cause and effect, and the walls of space. Spiderweb-like cracks appeared in the sky, but instead of spreading outwards, they collapsed inwards, as if to drag Jin Hanyan and this area into some abyss that "never happened."

At this very moment— Jin Hanyan's expression remained calm.

She finally raised her hand.

Without any magical seals or signs of light, she simply took a step forward, but the instant she landed, her entire outline suddenly blurred. Her white clothes, hair, skin, aura, and even the fact that she was "standing here" all lost their anchor at the same time.

Formless and shapeless, the Annihilation Other Shore.

She did not resist the injected narrative force, but instead allowed herself to directly revert to "that Silent Void before chaos". In an instant, all the logic that bound her fell apart - cause and effect could not find a place to be carried, the narrative lost its subject, and the connection between action and result was completely erased.

The scene suddenly reversed at that moment.

The unconventional divine power injected by the Thought Severance Devouring Emperor was like a hand reaching for its target, only to discover upon contact that the target had never existed at a level that could be touched. The forcibly inserted narrative began to lose its foundation, instead being enveloped and traced back by the power of Silent Void.

The collapse of the Shattered Luminary Wasteland Belt came to an abrupt halt.

All the misaligned timelines were forcibly pushed back into place, the double images disappeared, and the cracks in the sky were smoothed out as if by an invisible hand. That indifferent will emitted an extremely subtle vibration in the Silent Void, as if for the first time truly confirming that its intervention had been seen through.

Jin Hanyan's figure reappeared in the void.

She remained standing in the same spot, as if she had never moved an inch. Yet, beneath her feet, the causal core that had been "hidden in place" was now revealing a fluctuation that could no longer be completely concealed.

She slowly raised her eyes, her gaze piercing through layers of boundaries, as if she were staring at something far above the Black Sea.

"I am aware of your methods." Her voice wasn't loud, yet it echoed clearly throughout every inch of the Shattered Luminary Wasteland Belt. "Next time, it won't just be a matter of neutralizing it."

The void returned to deathly silence. But beneath this seemingly peaceful battlefield, an even larger game had been officially ignited.