The moment Qin Yu's fingertips touched that blank space, the entire Abyss of Memory seemed to have its concept of "echo" silently stripped away.
The moonlight, clear and pure, transformed into snowflake-like fragments that swirled back from all directions. The fragments of light faded away one by one, even washing away the mist he had just stepped over too cleanly, like a sheet of obsidian paper with its writing erased.
Immediately afterwards, the guardian's voice echoed from the depths of the Void Abyss Forbidden Domain, deep and calm, like the sound of stones falling from the deathly star shower in the dome, piercing through countless layers of Space Silence: "The third level, open."
As soon as he finished speaking, the pale mist, half a palm's width high, beneath Qin Yu's feet suddenly rose in reverse, like a tide pouring up to his knees. The dim starlight within the mist was no longer fleeting.
Instead, they were drawn together by some invisible order, rapidly arranging themselves into intricate rings, interlocking to form a downward-facing "bottomless well."
The wellhead had no solid edge, yet ethereal scratches, like cracks in glass, continuously spread, seeping from the cracks a deeper silence, as if even "vision" itself had been thinned out.
Qin Yu's breath trembled slightly in his chest, surrounded by the conceptual debris of inverted mountain fragments and endlessly extending phantom staircases—
Everything went out of focus, as if someone had pulled him away from afar, and the only thing left in the world was the gravitational pull of that well opening that was dragging his existence.
He glanced back at Jin Hanyan. Jin Hanyan stood at the edge of the dark blue halo, her robes fluttering gently in the silent wind. Her eyes held no hesitation, only an unwavering certainty Ultimate serene.
It was as if she had already written "waiting for his return" into the very essence of her Fate Soul. Qin Yu didn't say much, he just nodded. In that instant, he pressed all his attachments into the most steadfast imprint of his heart, and then turned and stepped into the well.
The moment he stepped in, the space did not collapse, but rather it was as if a giant screen suddenly flipped over. The "ground" beneath his feet disappeared, but there was no feeling of falling. Instead, he felt a floating sensation, as if he were being held up by "memory" and then released by "forgetting".
First, there was complete silence, so quiet that even my heartbeat seemed to be suppressed in the distance. The next moment, a very fine rustling sound rose from all directions, like millions of dust particles rubbing against each other in the darkness.
Qin Yu's vision was compressed into a narrow slit, with a faint light at the end of the slit. Fragments of images floated in the light: a sentence, a back view, a splash of blood, a sword light, a hand reaching out—they were not illusions, but fragments of his own past, forcibly stripped away and suspended in the void, waiting for him to touch them.
The next moment, the rift in light suddenly tore open, and Qin Yu's feet landed firmly again, but instead of earth and rocks, he found himself in an endless sea of sand.
The sand grains are grayish-white, as fine as ground moonlight. Each grain contains a small reflection of a memory, and as the sand surface undulates, thousands of fragments flicker simultaneously, like countless eyes blinking silently.
In the distance, the wind rises, and the sand dunes surge, stirring up not mud and dust, but scenes that he thought were long gone.
Like something unearthed by time and laid out before us again—this is the entrance to the third trial, the threshold of the Memory Wasteland, and deeper still...
That Stainless aura, sharpened by oblivion, slowly pressed in from the edge of the desert, heralding the imminent formation of the first realm, the "Abyss of Memory."
Qin Yu stepped into the first realm, but the space of the Void Abyss Forbidden Domain neither collapsed nor transformed. It simply suddenly became "empty".
Qin Yu took a step forward, and beneath his feet, there was no longer ground, but an endless, gray-white abyss. Within the abyss, there was no fog, no wind, only layers of slowly churning "remnants of memory."
--It is not an illusion, but a fragment of his own existence that has been forcibly extracted and suspended in the Abyss.
The blood he vomited when he failed his first attempt at cultivation.
The temperature of the sword hilt when you actually kill someone for the first time.
On the battlefield of the Void Obliteration Domain, Jin Hanyan's back stood in front of him.
Every memory is so vivid it's heart-stopping.
At that very moment, in the center of the abyss, a faint, pure light slowly condensed.
There was no oppressive aura, no fluctuation of energy.
However, the moment it appeared, Qin Yu's sea of consciousness sank an inch.
It was as if the entire concept of "self-awareness" was being pushed into an abyss by an invisible hand.
The Dust-Forgetful Stainless Lord, manifest. It has no form, no face, only a blank core that seems to contain "nothing." Wherever the clear light reaches, the remnants of memories begin to peel away, fade, and dissipate naturally, as if they had never existed.
Qin Yu immediately realized one thing—it wasn't attacking.
It makes "existence itself unnecessary".
The next instant, the first Blade of Forgetting appeared.
There was no trajectory, no sense of direction.
Qin Yu felt a sharp pain in his sea of consciousness, and a core memory about "why he cultivated" began to show signs of breaking.
His reaction was extremely fast; the Silent Origin Stainless Sword manifested almost instinctively, slashing out horizontally.
This sword strike did not cut into anything substantial.
But the moment the sword struck, that eroded memory was forcibly fixed in place, no longer fading away. Qin Yu's pupils contracted slightly.
"It's not about severing memories..."
"That's the reason why I care about this memory."
Before he could fully process what was happening, the second blow arrived.
The pure light around the Dust-Forgetful Stainless Lord suddenly spread, and the Shadow Dissolution and Thought Erosion was activated.
Within a hundred feet, Qin Yu's physical outline began to blur, the sword shadow of the Silent Origin Stainless Sword was thinned, and he clearly felt—
The awareness that "this body is mine" is being slowly stripped away.
This time, the sword was useless. Qin Yu was forced to take a step back.
In that instant of taking that step back, he suddenly realized something extremely dangerous:
He wasn't forced to back down. Rather, he "felt it was more reasonable to take a step back." This is an attack more terrifying than being forgotten.
Qin Yu acted decisively, biting his tongue so hard that blood flowed down his throat. His Fate Soul trembled violently as he used the most brutal method to re-anchor his "self-existence."
The next moment, Dust-Forgetful Stainless Lord made his first real move.
The Stainless, immaculate light suddenly condensed, forming a Blade of Forgetting as thin as a cicada's wing, which slashed directly at Qin Yu's core consciousness.
If this strike lands, it will at least erase one of his core abilities, or even make him forget "how to fight".
Qin Yu did not retreat.
This was the first time he had taken the initiative in this trial.
It's not supernatural power.
Instead, it is an extremely rare case— the Fate Soul is anchored in the opposite direction.
He forcefully locked away one of his unwavering convictions. "I cannot lose here."
Once an obsession takes hold, the sharpness of the Blade of Forgetting increases dramatically.
This should be wrong.
But just as the blade was about to strike, Qin Yu pointed his left hand together and whispered a shout:
The Unnamed Initial Silence was not against an enemy, but rather...
The obsession that I had just forcibly solidified.
He personally eradicated that obsession with "I can't lose".
The Blade of Forgetting cleaved through the air. For the first time, the entire Abyss of Memory experienced a noticeable tremor.
The edge of the pure light emanating from the Dust-Forgetful Stainless Lord fluctuated violently, and a large number of fragments of forgotten memories floating around it fell and vanished into nothingness.
Qin Yu stood there, but his expression was not good.
Because the cost was already apparent—he clearly realized that he had just permanently weakened a portion of his self-motivation.
It's not an injury. It's a structural defect.
The Dust-Forgetful Stainless Lord did not retreat.
It directly unfolds the prelude to the profound mystery.
All the lingering memories surrounding the Abyss vanished, and the perception of time and space disappeared simultaneously.
A suffocating sense of emptiness descends.
The Memoryless Ruin Domain is taking shape.
This is a realm that doesn't need to be defeated. You just need to "forget you exist."
For the first time Qin Yu truly felt the pressure. If this continued, he wouldn't even have time to make a move before he naturally "disappeared." Just as the Void Domain was about to completely close, Qin Yu suddenly stopped all resistance.
He sheathed his sword, closed his eyes, and let his memories be stripped away.
But in the final moment, he only kept one thing in mind—
It's not a name. It's not cultivation level. It's not power.
It is a very simple judgment:
"I am being tested."
This judgment is not based on obsession or emotion, but on fact.
For the first time, the Memoryless Ruin Domain exhibited a "blind spot" that it could not devour.
The core essence of the Dust-Forgetful Stainless Lord is now fully revealed through the use of blank space.
Qin Yu opened his eyes, took a step forward, and without any fancy moves, simply slashed at the blank space with the Silent Origin Stainless Sword Immaculate Sword.
There was no explosion. There was no confrontation.
The pure light of the Dust-Forgetful Stainless Lord slowly dispersed, transforming into countless fragments of Stainless light that merged into the Abyss of Memory.
The abyss returned to its gray-white state, but it ceased its erosion.
A voice echoed through the Void Abyss Forbidden Domain:
"Third Trial, First Realm - Abyss of Memory, passed."
As the Stainless light of the Dust-Forgetful Stainless Lord completely dissipated into the Abyss Domain, Qin Yu's feet sank into the void.
It wasn't a fall. Rather—the ground suddenly "began to remember him."
A gray-white wasteland stretched out beneath his feet; the grains of sand were not sand, but fragments of broken memories.
Each grain vibrated at a low frequency, as if being repeatedly replayed and rubbed by something. As soon as Qin Yu steadied himself, a clear image appeared beneath his feet—
That was the first time he had ever failed. Not in battle, but in misjudging the situation.
That moment of hesitation, misalignment, and miscalculation was completely replicated.
He instinctively tried to pull away, but the sand beneath his feet suddenly sank.
The Quicksand of Consciousness is activated. In the distance of the wasteland, two figures appear simultaneously.
There was no aura, no oppressive force, yet Qin Yu instinctively tensed up.
To his left was a dark figure that looked exactly like him.
To the right was a white figure with clearer contours and a colder aura.
The Twin-Bodied Memory Spirits manifests.
The man in black spoke first, his voice identical to Qin Yu's, but tinged with a hint of mockery:
"Do you remember? You made a mistake on this step back then."
It raised its hand, and the sands of the wasteland churned, simultaneously flashing back to scenes of failure—
The chain reaction caused by hesitation; the backlash caused by overconfidence.
The price of knowingly facing danger but choosing to endure it.
Every scene actually happened.
At the same time, Bai Shen spoke, his tone calm to the point of being almost cold:
"You saw it too."
"If you continue down this path, you will die here during the third choice."
Behind the white-clad figure, a vision of the future unfolds.
Not a certain future, but a high-probability projection.
The angle at which Qin Yu made his move.
The enemy's countermeasures. The location where the Fate Soul was pierced.
There is no emotional embellishment, only a cold, hard line of cause and effect.
At this moment, Qin Yu felt his thoughts being torn apart for the first time.
The figure in black was pulling him back to recall his failure.
His humble beginnings are forcing him to revise his future.
Both paths are "correct".
What's truly fatal is that they both happen simultaneously.
The Quicksand of Consciousness began to accelerate.
With each thought Qin Yu had, his foot sank an inch deeper.
He did not retaliate immediately.
He knew very well that attacking the Twin-Bodied Memory Spirits would only make them more "like him".
He tried to back away, only to find that there was no "back" in the wasteland.
He tried to move forward, and the future vision immediately locked onto the probability of death with each step he took.
This is not a battle.
This forces you to break down due to self-doubt and self-fear.
The figure in black took a step closer and whispered:
"Haven't you always relied on luck?"
The unarmed men stepped forward in unison.
You have no room for error now.
Within Qin Yu's sea of consciousness, his judgment began to become disordered.
Just then, he suddenly realized an extremely subtle yet fatal anomaly—
The black-clad and the white-clad figures look at the same memory from different times.
Blackout displays only failed "already happened" scenarios.
The unsung hero only shows the future "not yet happened".
They never allowed him to confront a complete memory at the same time.
Qin Yu stopped.
It's not about stopping action, but about stopping comparison.
He slowly raised his head, looked at the two Memory Spirit, and spoke for the first time:
"What you're showing is all real."
Hei Shen was taken aback.
Bai Shen slightly narrowed his eyes.
Qin Yu continued:
"But you're all missing something."
He raised his hand and pointed to the quicksand beneath his feet.
In that instant, an extremely ordinary memory surfaced.
It's not failure. It's not the future.
It was an extremely insignificant decision:
He chose a path that wasn't the best, but which still allowed him to survive.
That was neither a success nor a failure.
Just existing.
Qin Yu looked at the man in black. "You're not showing it because it's not tragic enough."
He then looked at Bai Shen: "You don't show it because it's unpredictable."
Both Memory Spirit trembled simultaneously.
The Quicksand of Consciousness suddenly surged, and the wasteland began to become unstable.
Qin Yu did not take the opportunity to attack.
He did something even more dangerous.
He raised his hand and split that memory in two.
The full version – including hesitation, miscalculation, compromise, and the outcome of survival.
The missing version only retains "I made a choice".
Then, he simultaneously projected these two memories onto both the black-body and the white-body.
Hei Shen received the complete memory, but hesitated for the first time.
The unsuspecting individual catches the missing memories, causing the deduction to instantly fail.
They both fall into logical conflict.
The critic can no longer be blamed, because the result was not a failure.
The unpredictable nature of the situation is no longer possible because the underlying assumptions have been deliberately erased.
The Twin-Bodied Memory Spirits, began to question each other.
The wasteland trembled, and the Quicksand of Consciousness abruptly ceased.
The next instant, the two Memory Spirit forms shattered simultaneously, turning into countless fragments of memory light that were swallowed up by the wasteland.
The sand beneath Qin Yu's feet solidified again.
A voice echoed from the depths of the Void Abyss Forbidden Domain:
"Third Trial, Second Stage – Quicksand of Consciousness, passed."
Qin Yu stood there, without joy.
Because he knew very well that the price of passing this test was that he had personally admitted that the future might not be better, and failure should not be denied.
This understanding will continue to develop in all subsequent choices.