The third layer descended without warning. One moment Qin Yu was standing in the silence left by the Light of Stainlessness, the next moment the entire light seemed to be gently lifted by an invisible hand, transforming into countless layers of transparent veils so thin they were almost Does Not Exist, slowly descending from all directions.
The gauze curtain, silent and still, rendered the "depth" of space meaningless, as if the world had been flattened into a boundless sheet of white paper.
In the very center of that blank sheet of paper, a point appeared. It wasn't starlight, nor a crack, nor anything that could be called anything. It was more like the "tip of a concept," occupying only the tiny tip of a needle, yet causing the entire weight of the space to tilt towards it.
Qin Yu's pupils contracted slightly for a moment. He clearly felt that it wasn't him looking at it, but rather it "looking" at him. That gaze didn't fall on the physical body, the soul, or the qi, but went straight to the very core of what made him who he was.
--The definition of existence, like a calm yet cruel finger gently pressing on the invisible mark behind his brow, preparing to erase the mark along with everything it represents, the moment the Return-to-Silence Point first actively gazes upon it.
The surrounding Light of Stainlessness trembled subtly, like dust particles attracted by a magnet, slowly converging towards that point along an invisible path. The light grew denser and denser, and the heavens and earth became thinner and thinner.
Extremely fine "transparent cracks" began to appear on Qin Yu's body. It wasn't that his skin and flesh were cracking, but rather that his Fate Soul was being silently squeezed from the inside, causing spiderweb-like cracks to appear. The edges of his robes first became light and fluttering, and then his whole body seemed to be illuminated by an extremely bright but cold light, fading out of reality. Even the shadow under his feet was erased, as if it had never been cast there.
Then, the true chill of "The Primal Silence Return-to-Zero Tribulation Returns to Zero" descended—not destruction, but erasure, complete and utter erasure, erasing until every causal thread in the world could find no trace of "Qin Yu," erasing until no memory, record, or echo could recall his existence.
He'll delete until he forgets why he struggled in the last moment; that's not death, but a blankness from a time when he was never born.
Qin Yu's heart didn't race; instead, it grew Ultimate cold under that gaze. He suddenly understood the most bizarre cycle of this formation: an "existence" that has been reduced to zero leaves no residue, but rather the faintest wisp of "dust."
Like the inopportune moment of darkness before ink falls into clear water, it becomes the nourishment to maintain this purity. It uses impurities to nourish purity; the clearer the purity, the smoother the absorption, the more stable the cycle, and the sharper the Return-to-Silence Point.
Just as he was being obliterated to the point where even breathing seemed meaningless, the surrounding Light of Stainlessness underwent an even deeper transformation—the light was no longer just light; it suddenly rose up, like countless boundless, transparent mirrors "growing" from the void.
The mirror had no frame or support, floating around him, densely surrounding him like a silent mirror prison. What was reflected in the mirror was not his face or his figure, but his past understanding of "Stainless", the definitions he had subconsciously given, and even the thought that had just arisen in his mind, "I want to break the formation", all of which seemed to be captured by the mirror immediately.
It instantly materialized into a weapon that backfired on him. With a flash of light, a black, sticky substance, like a bottomless pit of mud, emerged from the mirror, attempting to entangle his soul. The mirror flashed again, and silhouettes of "birth and death" appeared, trying to shred his existence into pieces. When the mirror flashed a third time...
A cold, white "Dao Sword" slowly emerged from the mirror. The tip of the sword was not pointed at his body, but at the thinnest connection between him and his own Dao, ready to sever it with a single stroke, turning him into water without a source and a tree without roots.
In that instant, Qin Yu finally saw clearly—the third layer was not the first, but three layers overlapping. The Return-to-Silence Point was responsible for erasing existence, the Primal Silence Return-to-Zero Tribulation was responsible for severing all cause and effect, and the Ultimate "Filth-Born Myriad Tribulations Formation" deep within was just waiting for him to "cognize" it before it would devour him immediately. The more he understood, the more he judged, and the more he wanted to name it, the sharper the Mirror Prison became, and the more ferocious the reincarnation became. In the end, it would even nail him to the eternal stain on the origin of the Stainless Realm, becoming a trap for those who came after.
At that very moment, he heard a faint, almost inaudible, muffled echo from the far distance of the Gloomy Mist Soul-Entangling Swamp, as if it were holding its breath, as if it were watching to see if he would be forced to utter the word "Stainless"—as long as he said it, as long as he took it as a certainty in his heart, this Ultimate formation would swell like wildfire in the wind.
Qin Yu didn't give it any more wind. He didn't try to understand it with "understanding," but instead used a colder method to temporarily make himself "Nameless." He raised his left hand, his fingertips drawing an extremely thin arc in mid-air with incredibly slow and steady movements. That arc wasn't a rune; it was more like a drop of ink falling onto water and freezing in that instant without spreading. The next moment, the most stubborn, most instinctive, and most easily emerging mark of "I am who I am" within him...
He personally severed a corner of it first—"Fate Principle Reflection Severance: Fourth Form - Erase the Name to Ashes"—which was activated silently. It wasn't an act of external slaughter, but rather a self-inflicted annihilation; he didn't try to "guard his name."
He directly shaved his name from the level of his Fate Soul into a mass of grayish-white, No Definition fragments. These fragments did not scatter; instead, they seemed to be sucked in by an extremely cold vacuum, clinging to every inch of the edges of his skin and robes, forming an almost invisible layer of "Nameless frost."
As soon as the frost formed, the sword in the Mirror Prison hesitated for a moment—it couldn't find "who it was meant to sever," and its sword intent slightly veered off course in the air, as if its landing point had been removed.
Almost simultaneously, the gaze of the Return-to-Silence Point intensified, as if sensing his escape from definition. Its power was like drawing an extremely thin white thread from the depths of the void, aiming to pull him directly from reality into a blank slate. Qin Yu, however, took the opportunity to advance further.
He neither "proved existence" nor "denied existence." He allowed himself to fall into a deeper silence before the white line tightened, pushing "the Unnamed Initial Silence" to its Limit in that instant. It wasn't a dazzling, externalized supernatural power.
As if severing all echoes from his entire consciousness with a single stroke, the light in his pupils quickly went out, the whites of his eyes seemed to be covered by a very faint gray, the rise and fall of his breathing seemed to be paused, and even the process of his robes being blurred by the Light of Stainlessness paused briefly around him.
It was as if he had turned himself into a "blank canvas without thoughts," and the formation was best at seizing thoughts, definitions, and cognitions to devour them. Once cognition was silenced, it was like a beast that had lost its sense of smell. The backlash sludge, the silhouette of reincarnation, and the trajectory of the Dao sword in the mirror, which he had "understood Stainless," all lost their nourishment to continue growing at the same moment. The mirror prison emitted a very slight tremor, like "glass going numb," and fine cracks appeared on the transparent mirror surface, but it did not break, because the power of the Return-to-Silence Point was still there, still trying to return him to zero.
Thus, Qin Yu took his third step—the most crucial one. He didn't compete with the Return-to-Silence Point for "strength," he only dismantled its "cause." He gripped his sword in his right hand, and the Silent Origin Stainless Sword silently shone. The sword light wasn't a blazing fire, but a cold light that was almost a reversal of black and white.
Like a silver thread suddenly emerging from the deep sea, he didn't need to manifest all five forms of the sword technique. He only needed to use his sword intent to directly sever the causal hook between himself and the Return-to-Silence Point —the hook of "being watched-defined-reset."
"The Three Forms of Fate Construction: Cause and Effect Deconstruction" unfolds silently with the sword's momentum. Where the sword tip passes, there are no cracks or explosions, only an extremely thin "cut blank line." That line is like a piece of film cut off on an editing table. The previous frame is the lock-on gaze of the Return-to-Silence Point, but the connection is suddenly lost in the next frame. The white line of the point of Return-to-Silence Point suddenly empties, as if it has pulled up the air, and the momentum of the entire Light of Stainlessness gathering suddenly reverses.
This creates a chilling visual illusion: thousands of Stainless light threads, seemingly flowing towards the Return-to-Silence Point, simultaneously lose their sense of "destination" in the next second, like a waterfall suddenly stripped of its gravity, leaving all the light threads suspended in mid-air.
Then, like a malfunctioning projection, it went out piece by piece. The Mirror Prison shattered completely in that instant. The transparent mirror did not break into glass shards, but rather faded rapidly from the cracks as if it had been erased, finally turning into meaningless transparent dust particles that drifted away. The dust particles disappeared in the air before they even hit the ground, disappearing without a sound.
The Return-to-Silence Point experienced its first sense of "hesitation"—it was still there, still cold, but when its gaze fell upon Qin Yu, there was no longer a "name" for it to hold onto, no "cognition" for it to seize, and no more of that most fatal "causal hook." It wanted to erase a person, but only touched a piece of Nameless frost and blank emptiness that he had carved with his own hands. It wanted to return him to zero, but found that "returning to zero" required a definition that could be returned to zero.
He had already deleted that definition and severed the connection. Just as it attempted to forcibly rebuild the lock, Qin Yu made the final suffocation—he didn't say "Stainless," didn't think about "breaking the formation," and didn't even offer an explanation for this third level; he simply held the Silent Origin Stainless Sword horizontally in front of him.
The sword light was like a silent dividing line, separating him from the Return-to-Silence Point. Then, with an extremely light and steady step, he stepped out. When that step landed, the cage structure, which was originally heading towards the same Return-to-Silence Point with every step, was forcibly deviated from its original state.
Like a maze wall suddenly shifted, the "center" where the Return-to-Silence Point was located deviated from the path beneath his feet for the first time. The Light of Stainlessness no longer pushed him toward the same destination, but rather, like water encountering an invisible reef, it naturally split, giving him a path without name or form.
There was no clinging to any empty space. The third layer silently closed behind him, the Return-to-Silence Point still hanging there, like the eye of a needle, cold to the Ultimate, staring at the emptiness, yet no longer able to truly "press down" on him.
Only after Qin Yu stepped out of the oppressive light did the grayness in his eyes slowly fade. His name didn't immediately return to its original place; a thin layer of Nameless frost still clung to his skin and the edges of his robes, like a permanent, cold scar reminding him of what he had just experienced. He raised his eyes to gaze deeper into the Gloomy Mist Soul-Entangling Swamp, his chest not filled with the relief of surviving a catastrophe, but with a deeper, more profound clarity—
This is not a simple restriction; someone is using the purity of the Stainless Realm as a shell and "Primordial Impurity" as a heart, treating everyone in the Void Obliteration Domain who tries to approach "Stainless" as flammable firewood. He just barely managed to pass through the edge of the blade.
Qin Yu stood in the desolate and gray mist-filled airspace deep within the Gloomy Mist Soul-Entangling Swamp, his breath almost synchronized with the surrounding mist. He clearly sensed that the last thread of the Filth-Born Myriad Tribulations Formation had been completely severed. The oppressive feeling that had been hanging in the depths of his consciousness, ready to be reignited at any moment, finally disappeared, as if an invisible hand had released the back of his neck. And in this brief moment of clarity...
His gaze slowly rose, falling upon the deeper void, which was not a single "Return-to-Silence Point," but a series of extremely fine "needle holes" arranged like the pinholes of the starry sky, appearing and disappearing between the Light of Stainlessness and the ghostly mist.
They are distributed at near-perfect equidistant intervals, and all directions converge on the same deliberately hidden location—a core guidance that can be intuitively confirmed without deduction.
As if these needle holes were not for killing, but for "marking the altar," Qin Yu's gaze slowly advanced along that invisible direction. The mist automatically parted before his eyes, as if temporarily allowed to peek by some higher-level will. Finally, in the core area where nothingness and Stainless overlapped, a phantom emerged. It was not a physical entity, yet it possessed an overwhelming weight of existence. The figure stood motionless.
Yet, the mist flowing through the Gloomy Mist Soul-Entangling Swamp exhibited an extremely regular swirling trajectory around it, as if in silent worship. The moment Qin Yu truly saw the outline of the illusory figure, a barely perceptible chill flashed deep within his pupils.
That was a Stainless Realm · Supreme Master Soul Dominion. Even though it was just a projection, its aura still made the space itself seem too "clean," so clean that it instinctively repelled people. Qin Yu muttered to himself, his tone calm to the point of being almost icy, "No wonder these three restrictive formations are so powerful."
He didn't approach rashly, but instead compressed his presence to a state almost in sync with the ghostly mist, continuing to creep deeper into the Gloomy Mist Soul-Entangling Swamp. The journey that followed was extremely strange; no new formations appeared, and no killing intent erupted.
Even the ghostly mist that usually actively erodes the soul has become sluggish and compliant, as if the entire forbidden zone has completed its "screening," leaving only a tacitly permitted path. Qin Yu did not relax; on the contrary, he became even more vigilant, because this silence itself meant that the true core was already close at hand. When he advanced to a certain Threshold point, his steps suddenly stopped.
It wasn't because there were obstacles ahead, but because he had already "seen" it—deep in the swamp a hundred miles ahead, the mist was forcibly suppressed by a tremendous, unnatural force, revealing a vast area resembling an altar.
Dozens of Logic Remnants Lord were neatly distributed in different locations. Their cultivation levels were all at the Chaos Realm · Initial Stage, but they formed a strange resonance field through the linkage of their positions. The bodies of each Logic Remnants Lord were half-melted into the ghostly mist.
Its form oscillated between solid and abstract, and at its center, the Stainless Realm · Supreme Master Soul Dominion had fully manifested, no longer a phantom. It hovered in mid-air, its body devoid of any exaggerated flames.
Only an almost pathological sense of purity emanated outwards, as if it were drawing away the last remaining "impurities" from this area. What made Qin Yu's gaze darken even more was the ongoing ritual— the Logic Remnants Lord did not release any attacks, nor did they chant any incantations. They were simply peeling away their own Fate Soul logic piece by piece in an extremely uniform rhythm.
Transforming into a stream of grayish-white symbols, it continuously flowed along a predetermined trajectory into the structure slowly taking shape beneath the Master Soul Dominion's feet. This structure resembled less of a formation and more of an unfinished "template of existence," its outline faintly visible in the Light of Stainlessness.
As if something entirely new and more dangerous was being conceived, a deep, drawn-out echo resounded for the first time from the depths of the Gloomy Mist Soul-Entangling Swamp, like the earth's suppressed gasps. Qin Yu stood a hundred miles away, silently observing all of this.
His eyes were cold and devoid of any extra emotion; he already understood that he had discovered the even greater conspiracy of the Thought Severance Devouring Emperor.