Before the aftershocks of the first trial's collapse had completely dissipated, the void beneath Qin Yu's feet had already lost its meaning.
There was no falling process, no concept of direction; he was simply "thrown" away from his original location. Before his consciousness had fully recovered, the world was torn apart and turned upside down in an instant—
One moment, ancient glaciers stretched across the heavens and earth, a pale, frigid plain extending to the horizon. Beneath the ice lay the remains of countless eras, the chill not of low temperature, but a concept of "cessation of flow." The next moment, flames raged, a crimson sea of fire pouring down from the sky, carrying within it fragments of time yet to take shape. What burned was not matter, but "possibilities yet to occur."
This is not a change, but rather something that exists simultaneously.
Time no longer flows linearly here, but is like a torn river, broken into countless overlapping fragments. Qin Yu saw that before his own foot had even landed, another footprint from the "future" had already appeared in the void, and that footprint was then covered and erased by the dust of the "past" in the next instant.
Space itself has also lost its stability.
When he looked up, he saw an ancient battlefield in the distance, with broken starships stuck diagonally in the earth, and solidified blood mist still spraying out. But when he blinked again, the ground beneath his feet had become a future ruin, with huge structural remains suspended in mid-air, and the remnants of civilization transformed into countless broken runes, drifting silently.
And what runs through all of this is cause and effect.
Countless silver threads were clearly visible in the turbulent currents. They were not illusory, but real as metal, shimmering with a cold luster. These causal threads intertwined and tangled, some connecting to bygone eras, others extending into unborn futures. They swayed slowly in the turbulent currents, like hungry tentacles.
Qin Yu witnessed a causal thread gently brush past a floating pebble.
The rubble vanished the moment it made contact—not shattered, but dragged into some unknown fragment of time and space. In that instant, Qin Yu even saw the rubble reappear in another scene, becoming a sacrificial offering in some ancient ritual, only to turn into dust in future ruins the next moment.
This is a place without cause and effect, without before and after.
But right at the heart of this chaos, the turbulent currents suddenly began to subtly converge.
It was not still, but rather as if drawn by some kind of will. The causal lines began to slowly converge in the same direction, and the originally disordered silver torrent outlined a blurry shape in the void.
The outline gradually took shape.
It resembles a human, yet cannot be truly defined as one. Its form is constantly changing, sometimes towering like a deity, sometimes twisting into multiple shadows; its face is always blurred, as if covered by the shadows of countless eras. What is most unsettling is the causal threads that entwine its body—dense and numerous, moving like living things across its "body," each movement stirring up the surrounding temporal and spatial turbulence, triggering new and overturned scenes.
It strode in.
It doesn't walk; rather, each "appearance" is accompanied by a forced convergence of time and space. With each step it takes, the remnants of ancient battlefields are dragged into the ruins of the future; with each wave of its hand, flames and glaciers collapse simultaneously, annihilating each other in mid-air.
A silent sense of oppression enveloped the entire turbulent flow.
Qin Yu's sea of consciousness trembled slightly at this moment. He clearly sensed that it was not a simple pressure, but a causal weight of being watched—as if his past, present, and future were all being "seen" simultaneously by those Does Not Exist eyes.
This is the guardian of the second trial, the Spacetime Karma Remnant Soul.
It was once a powerful being from ancient times who stepped halfway into the Entering Stillness and Profoundness, attempting to control the flow of time and space with his own will, and trying to turn the "Key of Silent Profundity" into a controllable object. But it was this obsession that caused him to be devoured the moment he touched the Realm of Silent Profundity and Profoundness—time and space were no longer at his disposal, and cause and effect became his prison.
In the end, only a wisp of a soul remained, trapped in this chaotic flow of time and space.
It needs no words.
As the outline of the remnant soul solidified completely, the turbulent currents suddenly accelerated, and silver causal lines poured down like a torrential rain, causing the entire space to begin rotating around it. Images of the past and future were forcibly superimposed, forming a distorted ring-like domain, as if to drag the intruder into an endless vortex of time.
At this moment, Qin Yu clearly realized—
The first trial tests the "attachment to reality and illusion," while the second trial directly targets the cultivator's deepest desire for cause and effect, the past and the future, and control.
Anyone who remains fixated on "why I came here" and "where I am going" will be torn apart by this turbulent current.
Qin Yu stood amidst the chaotic and turbulent spacetime, his gaze calm. The aura of the Silent Origin Stainless Sword flowed slowly within his body, yet he did not unsheathe it. He did not rush to attack, but simply watched the remnant soul entangled by cause and effect.
After a moment, he spoke in a low voice, which was unusually clear despite the turbulent flow:
"So that's how it is... This second trial isn't about eliminating the enemy, but rather—the obsession with cause and effect itself."
The step taken by the Spacetime Karma Remnant Soul did not land on any "ground".
The turbulent currents folded themselves beneath its feet, and the past and future, like two curtains forcibly joined together, suddenly closed in on Qin Yu. The silvery-white threads of cause and effect surged in the void, originally just floating lines, but now like billions of sharp blades, trembling simultaneously and emitting a buzzing sound that was not a sound, but directly pierced the soul.
In an instant, the deadly trap was formed.
Qin Yu felt a sudden loss of weight in time around him—one moment he was standing between flames and glaciers, the next he was thrown into an unfamiliar "past."
He saw himself before he even stepped into the Silent Profundity Floating Ruins, his consciousness not yet fully settled. And at the same moment this scene appeared, in the void on the other side, his future self was already pierced through the chest by the thread of cause and effect, blood splattering in the time before it even happened.
This is not an illusion, but rather a simultaneous occurrence of cause and effect.
The Spacetime Karma Remnant Soul raised its arm, which was wrapped in threads of cause and effect. The silver threads suddenly tightened, as if a life string had been plucked, and the entire turbulent current trembled. Glaciers shattered, flames surged backward, and ancient battlefields and future ruins were forcibly superimposed into a wildly churning vortex.
All directions pointed to Qin Yu simultaneously—the very "possibility" of escape had been erased.
The remnant soul's will, like a chilling declaration, pressed directly into Qin Yu's sea of consciousness:
Cause and effect cannot be overstepped. The order of events cannot be reversed. It was at this moment that the deadly trap truly began.
The causal lines in front of Qin Yu suddenly reversed, and the attack trajectory that was originally pointing at the remnant soul was forcibly reversed. Before he could make a move, he felt a sudden tremor deep in his chest—as if the power he had not yet released had already backfired into his body.
Before the Silent Origin Stainless Sword was even drawn, its sword intent surged through his meridians, causing his blood and qi to churn, and even his soul to momentarily become disoriented.
This is precisely the remnant soul's first supernatural power—"Karma Reversal."
Those who strike first reap the consequences. Those whose fate is sealed will suffer the loss themselves. Qin Yu made his move.
Without roaring or forcibly clashing, he instead slowly closed his eyes amidst the chaotic currents. He forcefully suppressed the aura of the Silent Origin Stainless Sword back into his body, and all the attacking intentions that were about to take shape were completely extinguished in an instant.
The next instant, the aura surrounding him suddenly collapsed.
It wasn't a defense, but a contraction akin to self-destruction. Qin Yu's presence began to fade rapidly, as if he had been stripped of his qualification to be "marked by cause and effect" from this spacetime. He neither entered a virtual state nor transformed into a real state, but instead actively severed all causal premises of "I will take action" and "I am fighting against".
He used his existing supernatural powers to forcibly step into the Karma-Free State.
The Silent Origin Stainless Sword remained, but it no longer served as the "starting point of the attack"; the divine soul remained, but it no longer carried the concept of "sequence". Qin Yu's figure became blurred in the turbulent currents, but it did not disappear; rather, it seemed to have been temporarily "removed" from the river of cause and effect.
The power to Karma Reversal lost its grip at this moment.
The shock that should have backfired prematurely vanished, like a punch thrown into nothingness. For the first time Spacetime Karma Remnant Soul showed a slight pause, and the silver threads wrapped around it briefly became disordered. Several causal threads even lost their direction in mid-air, broke off on their own, and dissipated into light dust.
Qin Yu opened his eyes.
He didn't attack immediately, but instead took a step. This step had no direction or landing point, yet at the moment it was taken, it caused the surrounding turbulence to momentarily "freeze." The flames froze before they burned, the glaciers stopped at the moment of collapse, and the scenes of the ancient and the future were forcibly frozen in the same frame.
Then, he made his move.
The instant the Silent Origin Stainless Sword was drawn, there was no earth-shattering sword light, only an extremely thin and dark sword mark, as if it had gently grazed across reality. That sword was not aimed at the remnant soul's body, but at the densest bundle of causal threads around it.
It is neither "cause" nor "effect," but rather the connection itself that establishes cause and effect.
As the sword wound fell, the silver causal lines emitted a piercing tearing sound, as if some rule had been forcibly broken. The remnant soul's body trembled violently, and the surrounding spacetime churned uncontrollably, with scenes of the future and the past falling in disorder.
The Spacetime Karma Remnant Soul, retreated for the first time.
It wasn't because it was injured, but because—its supernatural powers had been truly countered.
It slowly raised its head, and for the first time, a wave of scrutiny appeared on its perpetually blurred face. Turbulent currents gathered behind it once more; clearly, an even more terrifying causal trap was brewing.
Qin Yu in the center of the turbulent current, his breathing steady, but his eyes were even calmer than before.
He had already confirmed one thing—as long as he remained within the causal framework of "striking and hitting," defeat was inevitable.
To win this battle, we must completely transcend cause and effect itself.
In the instant of its retreat, the Spacetime Karma Remnant Soul finally tore off the "gatekeeper" shell completely.
The silver causal threads wrapped around its body were no longer just floating and pulling, but simultaneously tightening, breaking, and regenerating, as if countless life strings forcibly stretched to their Limit exploded at the same moment.
The entire spacetime turbulence went berserk, and the concepts of front and back, inside and outside, up and down were simultaneously erased. The ancient glacier was no longer the "past," and the raging flames were no longer the "future." All time periods were forcibly compressed into a chaotic vortex that kept churning and devouring each other.
Cause and effect no longer flow, but are woven together.
The remnant soul spread its arms, and the threads of cause and effect suddenly intertwined and overlapped, transforming into a "cave of cause and effect" covering the endless void. Each thread simultaneously pointed to countless outcomes—life, death, injury, defeat, existence, annihilation—and switched constantly in an instant. Any thought that tried to judge "what will happen next" would be locked in the opposite direction by this cave.
In turbulent times, cause and effect precede will.
Qin Yu felt as if his existence was being pulled by countless "possibilities" at the same time, as if he would die in any of the myriad possible endings in the next instant. Deep within his soul, he even had a misconception—it wasn't his remnant soul attacking him, but rather the entire spacetime "choosing" how he should end.
The remnant soul's will, like a cold judgment, crushed directly into the void:
Those who cling to cause will inevitably be trapped by effect. Those who overstep boundaries will inevitably fall into disorder.
This is no longer a single supernatural power, but a deeper weaving of cause and effect, using its remaining Dao foundation as an anchor to transform the entire trial space into a living cage of cause and effect.
The moment the cage closed completely, Qin Yu neither struggled nor retaliated.
On the contrary, at the moment when all the causal lines were locked, he voluntarily gave up his position as "the target".
Within Qin Yu's sea of consciousness, the sword intent of the Silent Origin Stainless Sword was completely sealed. He did not mobilize any offensive power, but instead slowly activated his most fundamental existence structure—a low-level operation originating from the depths of the Limitless Yuan Absorption Art, which he had never used in combat.
It's not about absorbing or transforming; it's about resetting to zero.
Qin Yu's aura began to collapse inch by inch, not from injury, but from actively stripping away the premise that "I am bearing the consequences."
He no longer responds to any causal entanglement, no longer accepts any expected outcome, and even the concept of "being attacked" has lost its footing within him.
The Karma-Free State truly takes shape at this moment.
The causal threads in the turbulent current vibrated wildly, but the moment they approached Qin Yu, they seemed to touch an unweavable void. Those lifelines that should have been entwined, pulled, and pierced through him lost all meaning, as if they had been forcibly sent into a void "without beginning or end, without direction".
Qin Yu raised his hand. This raising was not an attack.
The Silent Origin Stainless Sword was not drawn, but a silent "existence cross-section" unfolded in front of his palm. He did not slash at the remnant soul, but instead slowly spread his Karma-Free State outward, like a continuously expanding void, inversely eroding the causal curtain that covered the heavens and the earth.
This was the only, and only, correct, means he could use at that moment.
Without cause and effect, the root of cause and effect is eroded. Cracks begin to appear in the woven curtain.
It wasn't broken, but rather "ineffective." The originally tightly intertwined lines of cause and effect, upon contacting a region Karma-Free State, began to lose their ability to distinguish between "cause" and "effect." The silver light rapidly dimmed, and the lines fell on their own, turning into meaningless fragments.
The Spacetime Karma Remnant Soul emitted a sound that was not one of anger, but rather a shock and doubt for the first time.
It discovered an unacceptable fact— Qin Yu was not resisting cause and effect.
Instead, it prevents cause and effect from finding him.
The remnant soul suddenly took a step forward, forcibly pressing its remaining causal core into the depths of the turbulent current, attempting to reshape order with a higher intensity of spacetime disturbance. But at that moment, the entire trial space suddenly resonated with a deep and solemn sound.
That was not a prelude to an attack, but rather—the arrival of judgment. The turbulent currents suddenly split in two.
On one side, the threads of cause and effect continued to surge wildly; on the other side, however, appeared a completely still void fault.
All fragments of time, afterimages of space, and unfinished causal paths simultaneously came to a standstill before that fault line.
An ancient and indifferent will slowly emerged from the deepest part of the Silent Profundity Floating Ruins.
There was no sound, yet both Qin Yu and the remnant soul simultaneously "knew".
The true life-or-death judgment of the second trial has been triggered.
No more testing of skills, no more allowing for trial and error. Now, only one question remains—who deserves to continue existing outside of cause and effect?