The Order of Inversion returned to the moment of suspension, but no new world unfolded.
There was no light, no darkness, no up, down, left, or right.
Even the concept of "Emptiness" itself faded rapidly in Qin Yu's perception.
The hidden layer of the third level—"Self-Dissolution: The Nameless Domain"—has quietly arrived.
There were no illusions, no enemies, and no rules to analyze. The city vanished, time and space withdrew, and everything that could be called "background" was simultaneously removed. Qin Yu discovered that he was not standing in a certain place, but had lost the definition of the act of "standing"; he was not breathing, but even the existence of "breathing" became unconfirmable.
The only thing that remains is an extremely faint yet undeniably real continuity—a feeling of "it is happening."
Then, this feeling began to weaken.
Qin Yu realized that the first thing to be dissolved was not power, but name.
It wasn't a name given to him by the outside world, but rather an inner label he used deep within his consciousness to distinguish "this is me." At that moment, he could no longer utter the words "Qin Yu" in his heart, nor could he even confirm whether he had ever had a name. As his name disappeared, his memories began to loosen—not erased, but like something losing its adhesive, they began to peel away naturally.
He saw (if "seeing" still holds true) that everything he had experienced had transformed into countless emotionless fragments: practice, battles, choices, perseverance—they no longer belonged to "me," but were merely phenomena that had occurred. Then, even the judgment of "occurred" was withdrawn, leaving only traces without belonging.
Fear is ineffective here.
Because fear requires a subject that says "I am afraid," and that subject is being dissolved little by little.
The true test of the Nameless Domain is now revealed—once all descriptions of "me" are taken away, will you still try to grasp at something to prove yourself?
Qin Yu did not struggle.
He did not try to recall his origins, nor did he call upon power, nor did he attempt to reconstruct a new self-image in nothingness. Because in the previous stage, he had already understood that any attempt to "define" himself would become the sharpest trap here.
So he gave up on "keeping it."
It's not about giving up on life, but about giving up that inertia—that urge to confirm "I'm still alive."
His consciousness neither contracted inward nor expanded outward, but allowed itself to continue dissolving. When memories disappeared, he did not chase after them; when emotions peeled away, he did not linger; when even the last foothold of "I am observing" began to blur, he did not reinforce it.
At this moment, he even put aside the thought of "passing the trial".
The Nameless Domain subsequently underwent changes.
It wasn't an anomaly, but rather an extremely subtle reversal—the dissolving stopped.
It wasn't because Qin Yu successfully resisted, but because there was nothing left to dissolve. When all the "self-components" that could be named, defined, and distinguished dissipated, what remained was only an indelible state of being—not "I," but existence itself in motion.
This is not a personality, not a structure of consciousness, and not a core of some kind of power.
It's more of a fact: something exists.
At this moment Nameless Domain lost its basis for continuing to operate. Because its essence is to test whether the trial participants still rely on a certain core obsession by dissolving the "self"; and Qin Yu has already let go of even the "subject of obsession".
The void is beginning to recede.
It wasn't that the world had reappeared, but rather that a very subtle feedback was occurring—like a silent echo in the deep sea, or like some ancient being finally confirming one thing: the trial-taker before them was not trying to occupy this path with "who I am."
As his senses gradually returned, Qin Yu regained his "knowledge" of who he was.
But this time, it wasn't through a name, nor through memory, but through an extremely stable confirmation: even if I grasp nothing, I will not disappear.
The Nameless Domain quietly closed.
The third hidden trial ended without any applause, unusual phenomena, or announcements.
Qin Yu stood in the newly revealed transitional space, his expression calm. His aura was more restrained than before he entered the trial, yet also more unfathomable. He understood that from this moment on, any test that attempted to dismantle him at the level of "self" would be meaningless.
The city did not collapse, fall, shatter, or roar.
The moment Qin Yu stepped into the fourth level, the entire "Between Being and Nonbeing -existence: The Ancient City of Eternal Stillness" seemed to be slowly lifted from the bottom of "existence" by an invisible hand, and then gently placed back into nothingness. It was not destruction, but evaporation—like the morning mist being drawn away bit by bit by the sunlight, leaving no trace even of its disappearance.
The fourth trial – the Ruins of Emptiness, Land of the Dissolution of Existence.
The first thing to crumble was the color.
Before Qin Yu could realize what was happening, the colors of the entire world began to recede. It wasn't an instantaneous fading, but rather as if repeatedly washed away by time. Red lost its warmth first, blue lost its depth, gold lost its brilliance, and finally everything returned to an indescribable gray. It wasn't a monotonous gray, but a "zero color" after all colors were evenly superimposed, a state of existence that refused to be distinguished.
The street was still beneath his feet, but it could no longer be called cobblestone; the sky was still above his head, but it no longer held the meaning of "high" and "low". Qin Yu looked down at his hands, which still had their form, but were blurred as if through a thin mist, their outlines indistinct, as if the concept of "hands" was being erased by the world.
Then, the sound disappeared.
It's not that it becomes farther away, not that it becomes lighter, but that it's shut down completely. The cries of vendors, the sounds of footsteps, the wind, the heartbeats—all vanish in the same instant. The world doesn't Entering Stillness, because silence itself requires sound as a contrast. There is no "quiet" here, only the dimension of sound being completely deleted.
Immediately afterwards, the odor dissipated.
The air was no longer flowing, nor was it stagnant. Qin Yu subconsciously tried to breathe, but found that the act of "breathing" no longer produced any feedback—his lungs were not full, his chest was not rising and falling, but he was not suffocating. It was not that his body was adapting, but rather that the concepts of "smell" and "breathing" were simultaneously stripped from his structure of existence.
The texture begins to dissolve.
There was neither solid ground beneath his feet nor any sense of weightlessness; his skin could not feel hot or cold, light or heavy, or any boundaries. Qin Yu clearly realized that he was still "present," but this "presentness" no longer depended on any bodily feedback. His physical body had not disappeared, but had been reduced to a vessel that no longer participated in confirming its existence.
The sense of taste subsequently Return to the Ruins.
The timing started to become abnormal.
It wasn't a slowing down, nor a reversal of the current, but rather the concept of "first and last" began to loosen. Qin Yu couldn't determine whether this moment was happening now, or had already happened, or even whether "happening" itself still held true. His consciousness wasn't torn apart, nor did it fall into chaos; rather, it was trapped in a "now" without measure.
Ultimately, the sense of space collapsed.
Front and back, up and down, near and far all fail simultaneously. Qin Yu is not floating in the void, because "floating" requires a spatial reference; nor is he falling, because "falling" also requires direction. Space has not disappeared, but it has lost the right to be understood.
The five senses Return to the Ruins; complete.
At this point, all methods that rely on perception to confirm "I still exist" have failed.
However, the true danger of the trial has only just begun to emerge.
The concept is beginning to dissolve.
The concept of "city" first disintegrated.
It's not that buildings have disappeared, but rather that the logic of "why buildings are called buildings" has been stripped away. City walls are no longer for defense, houses are no longer for dwelling, and streets are no longer for passage—they have degenerated into a bunch of unnameable "arrangements." Then, the description of "arrangement" also begins to fail.
The concept of "human being" thus collapsed.
The once vibrant residents of the city are no longer recognized as living beings. They are not dead, but stripped of their "individuality"—no longer "who," only vague remnants of existence remain. Then, even "remnants" cannot stand, because "residue" implies that something once existed, and here, even "once" begins to be denied.
The language is starting to fail.
It's not that I can't speak, but rather that any words lose their object of reference before they can be formed. Once a thought arises, it immediately falls into a blank, unable to be expressed.
In the process of stripping all of this away, one thing was deliberately preserved.
One "have".
It is extremely weak, yet exceptionally stubborn.
Qin Yu couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. Perhaps it was a ray of sunlight from an extremely distant past, passing through the world and landing on a long-forgotten windowsill; perhaps it was a sudden flash of clarity in his mind during a near-death experience; or perhaps it was simply the process of "I am being stripped away" itself.
This was the last thing the fourth level gave him.
It was also the final shackle.
The Ruins of Emptiness await his choice.
If he grasps it, he can continue to "exist," but he will forever remain at this level, becoming part of Emptiness —an existence possessing "the last thing"; if he abandons it, it means that even the most basic affirmation of "what I still have" will be discarded by his own hands.
There was no coercion, no threats, only absolute temptation.
Qin Yu did not hesitate.
It wasn't because he had a strong will, but because he had come to understand one thing during the previous trials—anything used as an anchor will eventually become a cage at a higher level.
He didn't "let go," because "letting go" still meant that he had once held on tightly.
He simply stopped admitting it.
That "existence" was not severed, not banished, not denied; it simply slipped away naturally, unnoticed, like a shadow that never truly belonged to him, quietly returning to Nameless.
At that very moment, the last "existence" vanished.
The world has been completely reset to zero.
But it is precisely in this absolute Emptiness that Emptiness itself reveals its texture for the first time.
That is not nothingness.
It's not blank.
Rather, it is a more primordial state than "nothingness" —Pre-Nonbeing.
Here, existence and Does Not Exist are not yet differentiated, perception and being perceived are not yet separated, and "I" and "the world" are not yet distinguished. Qin Yu felt nothing, yet he was "present" with unprecedented clarity.
Not as a human being.
Not as a cultivator.
Rather, it is part of the occurrence itself.
The Ruins of Emptiness silently cracked open.
A path, independent of space, time, and concepts, unfolded before him.
Fourth stage, passed.
Qin Yu before that path, his mind clear and his aura Return to One. He knew clearly that from this moment on, "losing everything" would no longer be a threat, but a path he had already walked.