Without the slightest hesitation, Qin Yu concealed all his aura and fled at top speed along the remaining causal quiet zone before the ruins of Soul Reflection Core City and the aftershocks of the void had completely subsided.
He avoided all paths that could be perceived, traced back, or marked, until he traversed several broken mountain ranges and stopped in a deep, secluded area shrouded by fault lines and mist. It was a naturally formed cave, narrow at the entrance and deep inside, its rock walls covered with ancient cracks that had long since lost their spirit.
Like a scar left at the beginning of creation, it Does Not Exist value that can be "used". Qin Yu set up the most basic but most difficult to detect concealment Order Adjudication at the entrance of the cave, severing all logical connections between himself and the outside world before stepping into the cave.
The cave was so quiet it was almost frozen. Qin Yu raised his hand, and the Annihilation Devil Pupil - Final Spirit Core vibrated slightly in his palm. With a thought, the spirit core activated, and a gentle yet profound stream of light poured out, carefully revealing the figures of Jin Hanyan and Tangyi.
He laid the two of them flat on a relatively level rock in the cave. Jin Hanyan was pale but still breathing; her Fate Soul, though chaotic, remained structurally intact. Tangyi, however, was completely different. Her body was excessively still, as if all life force had been compressed into its deepest depths.
Even breathing was barely perceptible; the causal light patterns on the outer layer of the Fate Soul were broken into pieces, as if they had been forcibly torn apart and then barely pieced back together.
Qin Yu's heart sank. Without uttering a single unnecessary word, he called out directly, "Azure Ring."
The next moment, a very soft "clang" echoed in the cave. Azure Ring appeared on his right shoulder, her figure petite and pale, her long dark blue hair like translucent blue flames falling to her ankles, the slender lock on her ankles swaying slightly, causing the cracked bell to vibrate slightly.
Her light Azure Ring eyes slowly rotated. She didn't speak immediately, but instead lightly leaped off Qin Yu's shoulder, landing barefoot on the rock surface without leaving any trace.
Azure Ring slowly circled Jin Hanyan and Tangyi. Her gaze wasn't fixed on their physical bodies, but rather pierced through the surface, directly reaching the depths of their Fate Soul and life structures. As she walked, the light inside the cave seemed to dim, obscuring the lingering aftershocks of the battle within Jin Hanyan's body.
The paradoxical traces left by the Gate of Finality, and the backlash of the forced end, were all reflected in Azure Ring's eyes, and were quickly analyzed, categorized, and labeled; when she walked to Tangyi's side, her steps clearly paused, the ends of her blue flame-like hair trembled slightly, and the ten layers of dark blue soul wheels vaguely appeared in the hem of her skirt, emitting a low and uneasy resonance.
A moment later, Azure Ring stopped and turned to look at Qin Yu. Her voice was still cool, but with a hint of her usual indifference. "Jin Hanyan is alright. Her Fate Soul structure is intact; it's just that the backlash from the ultimate-level power has caused a temporary disruption in her life order. I can restore her Fate Soul quickly."
She paused, her gaze returning to Tangyi. "Tangyi is too badly injured. Her cause and effect were directly pierced by multiple high-level logics, damaging her concepts, foundation, and past causes simultaneously. If it weren't for the Origin Ruins Ash Dragon's powerful origin, she would have already fallen into an irreversible state of Annihilation."
Qin Yu's voice sounded strained in the cave, "What should we do then?"
"I'll first completely repair Jin Hanyan's Fate Soul," Azure Ring without hesitation. "As for Tangyi, I can only stabilize her Fate Soul and prevent it from collapsing further. True recovery will take time, and you'll need to replenish the erased causal foundation for her later. And..."
As soon as she finished speaking, Azure Ring acted. She walked to Jin Hanyan's side, gently raised her hand, and without touching her body, slowly unfolded it in mid-air. Light blue ring patterns flowed from her fingertips, like extremely fine lines engraved on her Fate Soul, silently disappearing into Jin Hanyan's brow.
At that moment, the chaotic flow of Fate Soul essence within Jin Hanyan's body suddenly stopped, then was drawn by a more ancient and calmer order. The broken life sequence began to automatically revert, align, and reconstruct. The paradoxical remnants from the Gate of Finality were peeled off and sealed away one by one, and the overburned Fate Soul nodes were cooled down and re-embedded into their proper positions.
Inside the cave, there was no intense light or astonishing noise, only a gentle yet irresistible process of repair underway. Jin Hanyan's tightly furrowed brows gradually relaxed, her breathing became steady and long, and the luster deep within her Fate Soul changed from dim to clear, like a river that had been washed by a torrential rain, finding its way back to its course.
Qin Yu stood to the side, watching without moving, until Azure Ring withdrew her fingers and all the light blue ring patterns disappeared. Only then did he slowly exhale. On the other side, Azure Ring had separated a wisp of even heavier soul power, which transformed into a phantom of ten soul wheels, hovering outside Tangyi's Fate Soul, forcibly locking her slipping causal structure and temporarily keeping the outcome of "collapse" out.
Silence returned to the cave, leaving only the faint yet real presence of the three people, intertwined in the darkness.
Under Azure Ring's Fate Soul- restoring caresses, the previously chaotic and oppressive atmosphere within the cave gradually eased. Jin Hanyan's eyelashes trembled slightly, and the rise and fall of her chest became clear and steady.
She seemed to be pulled back to reality from an extremely long and heavy dream, and slowly opened her eyes. Her vision was still a little blurry at first, with the dim cave walls and faint spiritual light overlapping and swaying in front of her, until her gaze gradually focused and she saw Qin Yu who was close at hand, and also saw Azure Ring standing to the side, her aura calm and restrained.
"Qin Yu... where... where is this?" Her voice was slightly weak, but no longer disordered; the resonance of her Fate Soul was stable and clear.
Qin Yu leaned down slightly, his tone unconsciously softening, carrying a suppressed gentleness. "Hanyan, this is a hidden cave, already outside the core of the battlefield. That demonic beast... has been completely Annihilation. You forced the Limit Nothingness - Gate of Finality to save me, and your Fate Soul logic was backfired, causing you to fall unconscious. Azure Ring has already repaired you, so don't worry."
Jin Hanyan paused slightly, seemingly only now truly recalling everything before she lost consciousness. She didn't press for details of the battle, but instinctively turned her head to look at Tangyi lying on the other side. That figure was almost unrealistically still, as if temporarily forgotten by the world. Her expression turned serious. "Then how is this young lady...?"
Qin Yu was silent for a moment, then slowly shook his head, a hint of weariness and helplessness flashing in his eyes. "Tangyi's injuries are the most serious right now. Her Fate Soul has suffered extremely deep damage; it's not just a simple injury to energy or laws, but a break at the source level."
His gaze shifted to Azure Ring. Azure Ring's expression was noticeably more serious than usual. Her light blue ringed pupils slowly rotated, as if repeatedly verifying an extremely dangerous conclusion, before she spoke, her voice low and clear. "To completely cure Tangyi, the key lies in repairing the Primordial Origin Dragon Marrow Crystal within her body. But this matter... is extremely troublesome. Most importantly, we must find one thing—a primordial artifact born billions of years ago, the 'Primordial Origin Dragon Essence Annihilation Ganoderma'."
Qin Yu and Jin Hanyan spoke almost simultaneously, "Primordial Origin Dragon Essence Annihilation Ganoderma... what is that?"
Azure Ring didn't answer immediately. She raised her hand, her slender fingertips tracing a line in the air, and the light inside the cave suddenly changed. The rough and dark rock walls seemed to be covered by an ancient and profound curtain of light. In the next instant, a scene that did not belong to this world or any existing era slowly unfolded before Qin Yu and Jin Hanyan.
That was a scene of origin even more ancient than the heavens. Heaven and earth had not yet been truly separated, chaos had not yet dissipated, and the primordial Sea of Qi surged and flowed like an endless primordial abyss. An Innate Primordial Dragon lay horizontally in the void before the heavens were opened, its body broken, yet its majesty remained.
In its most ancient sacrifice, it condensed its core essence into the Primordial Origin Dragon Marrow Crystal, suppressing the unstable foundations of the heavens. At the very moment the Marrow Crystal sank to the bottom of the Abyss of Annihilation, a wisp of the Dragon Dao's original spirit, which had not yet completely dissipated, merged with the primordial energy at the core of the Primordial Sea of Qi and the residual warmth of the Law of Annihilation at the bottom of the Abyss of Annihilation, and was conceived in the slumber of countless eras.
The scene progresses through the long flow of time, trillions of years passing in an instant. Finally, deep within the inaccessible abyss of stone veins, a Ganoderma lucidum quietly takes shape.
The Ganoderma lucidum plant was nine inches tall, seemingly conforming to the fundamental numerology of the "Nine-Five Supreme" in the Dragon Dao. Its overall shape resembled a coiled young dragon lying on a stone vein. The stem was dark gold, shaped like dragon bones, and harder than Primordial Origin Divine Iron. Its surface was wrapped with pale gold Origin Dragon Source patterns.
It shares the same origin as the three core textures of the Primordial Origin Dragon Marrow Crystal. Even from a distance, one can feel the deep and powerful pulse of the dragon path. The body of the mushroom has three leaves, which stand separately but resonate with each other at their origin. Each leaf corresponds to the Ultimate law of the core of the marrow crystal.
The first leaf is dark gold, with deep veins, as if bearing the Ultimate Annihilation of the primordial chaos, corresponding to the pattern of Primordial Annihilation; the second leaf is silver-gray, sharp and calm, as if capable of Concept Splitting, corresponding to the pattern of Concept Splitting.
The third leaf is jet black, as deep as the end of cause and effect, with hidden reverse power within its veins, corresponding to the Causality Reversal. An extremely faint glimmer of Annihilation appears at the edge of the three leaves, but no energy leaks out; only the true origin of the dragon path can activate their radiance.
At the center where the three leaves converge, there is a bead the size of a dragon's eye, dark gold and translucent, like a sleeping dragon's heart. That is the Primordial Origin Dragon Heart Pearl, containing the lingering warmth of the Dao heart and the original source of the true self that the Innate Primordial Dragon has not completely dissipated. It is the absolute core for repairing the marrow crystal 'Annihilation the heart tribulation and reforging the uniqueness of the origin.
The scene changed, and Azure Ring's voice echoed softly in the cave, overlapping with the ancient image. "This Ganoderma lucidum was born at the same time as the Primordial Origin Dragon Marrow Crystal when the heavens were not yet opened. It is the last 'original contingency plan' left by the Innate Primordial Dragon for its own marrow crystal."
It shares the same Primordial Dragon Dao Origin Imprint as the Marrow Crystal, and there is only one of its kind in the world. When the Marrow Crystal is intact, it hides in the void stone vein, leaving no trace; only when the laws of the Marrow Crystal collapse and its patterns disappear will it appear, emitting a dark golden dragon light of the same origin as the Marrow Crystal.
In the scene, the Ganoderma lucidum, when placed at the bottom of the abyss, appears lifeless and devoid of vitality. However, when a broken marrow crystal remnant approaches, the Ganoderma lucidum instantly awakens, its three leaves glow simultaneously, the Dragon Heart Pearl pulsates, and the Origin Dragon Source Pattern on the Ganoderma lucidum stem automatically resonates with the pattern on the remnant core, releasing a Primordial Dragon Might powerful enough to freeze fragments of laws.
Azure Ring's tone grew increasingly serious. "This mushroom possesses unique origin and can only repair the Primordial Origin Dragon Marrow Crystal. It has no effect on any other existence. Any non-innate true dragon that touches it will be directly annihilated by the Annihilation Dragon Power within the mushroom, leaving no trace of its soul or origin."
Only the one true dragon that has fused with the marrow crystal can activate the Ganoderma body with its own dragon origin. If its heart is impure or its understanding of the dragon path is biased, the Ganoderma Heart Pearl will shatter on the spot, the Ganoderma body will disintegrate into the Dao, the repair will completely fail, and it may even backfire on the remaining marrow crystal core.
The scene slowly faded, and the cave returned to its original darkness. Qin Yu and Jin Hanyan fell into a brief silence. They both knew that this was not simply "finding a spiritual object," but a path leading to the oldest and most dangerous source of all the heavens.