Jin Hanyan was holding up her chopsticks
The swirling steam above the jade cup was still slowly rising, and that wisp of aroma, somewhere between fragrance and "tastelessness," had just touched her lips and teeth—
In that instant, the "sky" of the Shadow Void Capital darkened.
It wasn't a sunset. It wasn't cloud cover. It wasn't even the natural ebb and flow of chaotic tides.
Rather, it is a dimness forcibly covered up.
It was as if some being, from the higher dimension to which the Shadow Void Capital resided, extended an invisible hand and pressed it onto the "sky" of this main city.
The light was turned off.
In an instant, the chaotic radiance of the entire Shadow Void Capital began to diminish rapidly. The black, white, and gray chaotic energy that had been flowing on the surface of the city walls seemed to have been sucked out of its "breath," its colors quickly becoming distorted and stagnating into a near-dead, dark gray.
Beneath the Chaos Sea Abyss, the waves stopped. Not calm, but frozen.
The surging, ancient, chaotic tide was forcibly suppressed into a state of "not happening" at this moment. The crests of the waves had not yet fallen, and the troughs had not yet risen. The entire abyss seemed to be frozen in a frame before the end of the world.
Then, the sound began to fade away.
The low, continuous conversations on the street, the subtle resonance of the chaotic runes, the humming of the folding space of the distant palace... all sounds were quickly swallowed up by an invisible "dark membrane".
It's not shrinking, it's being flattened. It's as if the city is being dragged into a "silent vacuum."
The next moment, cracks began to appear in the previously invisible and indescribable "chaotic sky curtain" above the heavens.
It's not a spatial rift, but a deeper kind of crack—a crack in existence.
Within the cracks, there was neither light nor darkness, only a "blank" that instinctively made one uneasy. It was not nothingness, but a state that existed even earlier than nothingness, like something that had not yet been allowed to exist, forcibly peering into this world.
On the street, the cultivators finally noticed something was wrong.
The experts at the Silent Mystery Realm · Supreme were the first to look up, their pupils suddenly contracting as their Silent Profundity Origin subconsciously began to seal itself off; the cultivators at the Chaos Realm, on the other hand, had a slight change in expression, as they could clearly sense that this was not a natural disaster.
This is a harbinger of the arrival of will.
On the Chaos Essence Crystal City Wall, ancient defensive patterns began to light up on their own, only to dim again in the next instant, as if forcibly suppressed by some "higher priority" entity. The Formless waters in the moat suddenly surged violently, reflecting...
No longer the Chaos Origin within the cultivator's heart, but rather elongated and distorted "shadows"—as if something were trying to look back at all the spirits in the city through the water's surface.
For the first time, the entire Shadow Void Capital revealed a kind of...
The feeling of being watched wasn't just being surrounded, but being "observed." Jin Hanyan's movements stopped.
She did not rise, nor did she release her aura. She simply sat there quietly, her fingertips still holding the jade chopsticks, but her gaze slowly rose from the delicacies on the table, across the palace dome, and toward the darkening sky.
Her eyes were calm, almost cold. Because she knew better than anyone else—
This level of anomaly does not belong to the chaotic tides, nor to the imbalance of the main city's defenses, nor to any known forces in the Void Obliteration Domain.
This is the sound of an outsider's footsteps. The sense of impending doom does not come from destruction itself.
Rather, it stems from a more brutal realization: if that being truly descends, this Shadow Void Capital might not even qualify to become a battlefield.
Deep within the Chaos Sea Abyss, an extremely subtle yet multi-layered "echo" quietly reverberated.
Like a name. Or like a will that has long been erased, confirming its coordinates.
Jin Hanyan gently put down her jade chopsticks. For the first time, slight ripples appeared in the murky liquid in the cup.
She knew very well that the tranquility of the gathering had come to an end, and the true storm of the Void Obliteration Domain was finally about to be unleashed.
In that instant, the Shadow Void Capital truly awoke.
It didn't "operate" like a city, but rather like an ancient behemoth lurking above Chaos Sea Abyss, suddenly opening its eyes as if pierced by the aura of death.
Defense measures were fully activated. The city walls were the first to be altered.
The Chaos Essence Crystal, which had been flowing like the tides, solidified and reshaped simultaneously. Countless layers of chaotic runes appeared on the surface of the thousand-foot-high city wall. These runes were not carved, but were directly "extracted" from the Chaos Origin. Black, white, and gray colors rotated, broke, and merged again on the wall.
It's as if countless unfinished worlds are born and die on the surface of the city wall.
The Formless waters in the moat surged violently, their surface no longer reflecting the inner self, but instead revealing broken timelines and distorted causal trajectories, as if foreshadowing impending destruction.
From the direction of the Primordial Hall, streams of energy rose up.
That wasn't just a simple pressure; it was a sign that the existence of Chaos Realm · Supreme expert was "recognized."
In the void, an old man clad in a gray-white chaotic robe stepped out. There was no space beneath his feet, yet each step caused a subtle shift in the flow of time throughout the main city. On the other side, a woman stood silently in mid-air, surrounded by shadowy figures, within which floated illusory images of the birth and death of worlds. Further away, a seated figure slowly opened his eyes, and with just a glance, the previously turbulent chaotic tide froze once more.
One, two, more than ten... Chaos Realm · Supreme appeared one after another.
On the street, the cultivators who had been whispering fell completely silent. Those at the Silent Mystery Realm · Supreme subconsciously restrained their auras, even their breathing becoming cautious. Everyone was looking at the sky—
It wasn't out of fear. It was because they all knew that anything that could force the Shadow Void Capital to activate its highest level of defense was never a "small matter."
Whispers rose in the low air like an undercurrent. "This isn't a chaotic tide... a tide won't cause the city walls to automatically seal off the causal layer."
"It's not interdimensional drift; the coordinates haven't been disrupted." "Then there's only one possibility left..."
No one said that name aloud.
Because in the Shadow Void Capital, uttering that name itself can become a kind of "calling".
At that very moment—the sky crashed down.
It wasn't a collapse, but rather it was forcibly lowered by an irresistible weight.
The chaotic sky was like a curtain being stretched taut by an invisible hand, emitting a low and continuous rumbling sound. The sound was not harsh, but it made the very essence of all cultivators tremble instinctively.
The next instant, the center of the sky cracked open. Within the crack, there was no light.
Only one being is "emerging." It is a colossal beast.
Its body is as massive as a mountain, yet it does not occupy a fixed space, as if its location itself is constantly being "rewritten". Its entire body is covered with fur as black as the void, and each hair is like an unfinished line of logic, shimmering with Stainless and cold blue light.
Its head was almost human-shaped, but it had no expression.
It was a face devoid of joy, anger, hatred, or even murderous intent—as if killing was simply a part of what "happened naturally" to it.
His eyes were hollow, like two ancient mirrors reflecting nothingness. Wherever his gaze fell, the chaotic energy automatically dissipated, and the chain of cause and effect silently broke.
Its four legs are tiger claws. When it steps out of the void, the space is torn apart like paper and then heals itself wherever its claws touch. Its mouth is filled with fangs, and its pig-like fangs interlock and bite together. With a gentle snap, several causal relationships are crushed directly, and even the traces of "what happened before" are erased.
The tail, several meters long, swayed slowly behind him, its tip like a whip. Wherever it passed, countless obsessions, vows, and wills were directly extracted and turned into chaotic dust.
The Netherworld Taowu, but it is not a ferocious beast recorded in any ancient texts.
This is -- the Stainless Tao Devil Beast. Stainless Realm: Supreme.
A being that has reached the point of "complete elimination of obsession." It is free from hatred, anger, greed, and madness.
It merely reflects nothingness, and then—annihilates all forms.
It stands above the sky, yet it seems to be looking down on the city from "beyond the sky." Its enormous figure appears and disappears in the chaotic clouds, constantly switching between reality and illusion, perfectly interpreting the "neither existent nor dead" essence of the Stainless Realm.
Behind it, a black tide surged.
Thousands upon thousands of figures surged forth from the rift, each with a chaotic aura, yet carrying the afterimage of the Chaos Origin—
The Logic Remnants Lord of the Chaos Realm · Initial Stage.
They lack a complete self, yet retain their fighting instincts and destructive impulses, like abandoned "chaotic answers," forcibly awakened and driven by the presence of the Stainless Tao Devil Beast.
At that moment, the defensive array of the Shadow Void Capital simultaneously lit up to its Limit.
The Chaos Essence Crystal City Wall resonated with a deep, resonant sound, and the vortex within the Primordial Hall suddenly accelerated, as if the entire city was gathering power for the impending collision.
Jin Hanyan stood in the palace. She did not get up.
He simply lowered his head slowly and glanced at the cup in his hand.
Then—give it a gentle squeeze.
The cup turned to dust between her fingers, and the chaotic liquid, before it could even spill, was evaporated into nothingness by the aura emanating from her.
She raised her head, her gaze cold and calm, looking at the colossal beast in the sky. Her voice was not loud, but it clearly reached the senses of the surrounding cultivators:
"It's like a persistent ghost."
Her fingertips slowly tightened, and a chaotic shadow flashed and disappeared in her palm.
"They've actually started attacking the main city of Shadow Void Capital City--"
She paused, her tone turning completely cold. "You just wait, you Thought Severance Devouring Emperor."
At this moment, the Shadow Void Capital was completely transformed into a battlefield.
This was not a drill, not a test, but a capital battle worthy of being recorded in the annals of the Void Obliteration Domain.
The instant the Taowu Formless Devil Beast, raised its forelimbs and the void collapsed, all the cultivators in the city moved simultaneously.
It wasn't an order. It was instinct. It was the intuitive response of a Chaos Realm cultivator to a "city-destroying threat."
Above the thousands of palaces in the city, countless figures soared into the sky, so densely packed that they almost obscured the originally churning chaotic sea of clouds. For the first time, the sky above the Shadow Void Capital was filled with "people".
The lowest level is the Silent Mystery Realm · Initial Stage.
These beings, placed in any territory of the Void Obliteration Domain, could be called the lords of a region or the foundation of a sect, but at this moment, they are merely the outermost layer of the battle formation.
Higher up, Chaos Realm expert stood suspended in mid-air.
Their auras were no longer flamboyant, but rather like chaotic star cores compressed to their Ultimate, forming an invisible resonance among themselves and constructing a chaotic defense line covering the entire main city. Chaotic shadows, Primordial remnants, and Formless laws intertwined and overlapped in the void, resembling a sky woven from "existence itself."
On the top floor, three figures stood motionless.
The Stainless Realm.
It wasn't an imposing aura, but rather an absolute sense that "the world tacitly acknowledges its existence." Jin Hanyan stood within it.
She rose into the air, her long hair not flying in the chaotic storm, but falling naturally, as if the wind itself was avoiding her. Her gaze swept across the surroundings, and she saw those familiar yet unfamiliar faces—some were once her enemies, some she had only met briefly, but at this moment, everyone stood on the same side.
The Shadow Void Capital we cannot afford to lose. It is this very moment.
High above the sky, the Taowu Formless Devil Beast, slowly raised its forelimbs.
It wasn't a roar. It wasn't a build-up of power. It simply—pointed.
That finger gesture had no light, no energy fluctuations, and not even a clear "trajectory"; it seemed to be just a natural pointing gesture in the void.
But behind it—the Black Tide—exploded.
Tens of thousands of Logic Remnants Lords from the Chaos Realm · Initial Stage were simultaneously "awakened".
They varied in form; some still retained a vague human shape, while others had completely disintegrated into a distorted collection of logic, with limbs like misplaced lines of cause and effect and torsos pieced together from incomplete laws. Each Remnants Lord exuded the unique "disorderless" aura of the Chaos Realm, yet also carried the madness of being abandoned.
The next moment, they moved. Not charging, but falling.
Like a chaotic meteor shower pouring down from the heavens, carrying the logic of destruction, it crashed madly down on the defenses of the Shadow Void Capital.
"Form ranks!" Someone's divine thought exploded across the battlefield.
Tens of thousands of cultivators at the Silent Mystery Realm simultaneously took a step forward, and chaotic runes lit up beneath their feet. At this moment, streets, city walls, and palaces were no longer "buildings," but were forcibly requisitioned as array bases. Countless arrays overlapped, nested, and resonated, and the defense unfolded layer by layer, resembling a three-dimensional maze composed of arrays.
The first batch of Logic Remnants Lord crashed into the defenses.
Boom! No blood or flesh flew everywhere.
Only the blinding light of Causal Severance.
When chaos collides head-on with chaos, what is produced is not an explosion, but a "collapse of meaning". Dozens of cultivators in the Silent Mystery Realm were thrown away by the shockwave, but they managed to stabilize themselves in mid-air, formed hand seals again, and forcibly repaired the collapsed array patterns.
Chaos Realm expert has made a move.
Someone slammed down with a palm, unleashing a Formless Domain that swallowed hundreds of Remnants Lord directly into it. The moment the domain closed, it obliterated them into chaotic dust. Someone else summoned their natal weapon, a seemingly incomplete spear that pierced through the void. Wherever the spear's shadow passed, the Logic Remnants Lord were "deleted," their very existence erased.
The sky was torn apart, reformed, and torn apart again.
The aftermath of the battle caused the day-night cycle of the Shadow Void Capital to switch wildly, with daytime palaces and nighttime ruins overlapping in the same instant, as if reality itself was being overloaded.
At an even higher vantage point, Jin Hanyan finally moved.
She took a step forward, and the void beneath her feet instantly became "undefined." There were no dazzling supernatural powers, no overwhelming energy; she simply raised her hand and pointed forward.
Returning to Silence - Nameless Finger.
The instant the finger fell, all the actions of the Logic Remnants Lord in the area in front of them simultaneously froze.
It's not that they're imprisoned; rather, they've lost their "reason for continued existence."
The next instant, that area was completely cleared, even the chaotic fluctuations were smoothed out, as if nothing had ever passed through it.
A brief vacuum appeared on the battlefield at that moment.
But above the heavens, the Taowu Formless Devil Beast still hovered silently.
Its empty eyes slowly turned towards Jin Hanyan.
There was no anger. No hostility. Only one thing—confirmation. As if confirming: here, finally, there is something "worthy of its attention."