After the seventh level of the Paradox Arena came to a complete standstill, space seemed to be gently folded by an invisible hand. The shattered remnants of the laws gathered layer by layer and sank into nothingness, eventually turning into a near-"clean" darkness. At the end of this darkness, two barriers silently appeared.
The first barrier was extremely "normal." It resembled a straight, dark gray passage with a steadily rotating talisman hanging at its end. Within the talisman, one could vaguely discern higher-level rules, heavy, rigorous, and indifferent, as if clearly telling the intruder that it was the eighth level, a predetermined, orthodox path with no attempt to conceal its danger.
The second barrier, however, caused Qin Yu to pause slightly upon first glance.
It wasn't a "door," nor even a complete spatial entrance. It floated in the void, without boundaries or a clear shape, more like a "gap" forgotten by the world.
The interior of the gap was not dark, but rather a highly unstable, layered scene—as if countless different world remnants had been forcibly compressed into the same place: in some remnants, stars hung upside down; in others, the earth was slowly melting; and in still others, there was only emptiness, making even the concept of "nothingness" seem superfluous.
The scenes were not continuous, but flashed, overlapped, and broke in a way that was almost like frame-by-frame, as if the "existential logic" corresponding to them would be completely replaced with each blink.
Even more strangely, this unknown barrier did not emit any oppressive force.
There was no oppression, no temptation, no summons, not even an aura of "danger." It simply hung there quietly, yet it made one instinctively realize that once one stepped into it, one would not be protected by any existing rules of the trial, nor explained by any existing logic of the trial.
It's not "prepared for challengers," but rather a kind of rift that has existed for a long time but has never been truly used.
Qin Yu stood between the two barriers, the Silent Origin Stainless Sword hanging at his side. When the strange notch was reflected on the sword's blade, even the originally stable gray-white blade shadow became slightly blurred for a moment, as if even the "definition of the sword" hesitated whether to record this scene.
But Qin Yu did not hesitate.
His gaze lingered only for a moment on the "right path" leading to the eighth level before turning without hesitation to the unknown barrier.
His mind was unusually calm at this moment, without the hesitation and deliberation he had when he first stepped into the sixth unknown barrier.
The battle against the seventh level of the law made him understand one thing more clearly than ever before: what truly changes the course of fate is never the preordained path, but rather those seemingly "unnecessary" side paths.
The image of the sixth level flashed through his mind: it was because of that Realm of Delusionless, that Hanyan's two treasures completed the impossible fusion, and that the Nameless Final Box - Immeasurable Blade Key truly descended into the world.
"Since that's the case..."
Qin Yu murmured to himself, without any excitement or grand pronouncements, only a certainty born of repeated verification, "That proves that these unknowns were not superfluous after all."
He knew very well that, according to common sense, entering the eighth level directly at this moment would be the safest and most logical choice in the trial; but he also knew that the so-called "safety" had never been the way he had gotten to where he was today.
Since such a branching occurred after the sixth and seventh levels, it means that this was not accidental, but rather something that was always observing him and testing his choice tendencies.
Perhaps it's a legacy, perhaps it's some kind of test older than the trial itself, or maybe it's just a simple elimination. But whatever it is, as long as it's hidden in the "unknown," it's worth taking the first step.
Qin Yu stopped thinking about it.
He took a step forward, without accelerating, adopting a defensive stance, or even deliberately using any supernatural powers. He simply walked towards the gap in the barrier that seemed ready to dissipate at any moment, in his most natural state.
The moment he stepped in, the layered afterimages within the gap suddenly receded, as if some force had confirmed the existence of the "entrant." Then the entire barrier closed silently, and even the previously flickering, distorted images completely disappeared, as if they had never appeared in the void.
The barrier leading to the eighth level still hangs there quietly, like a path of destiny that has been temporarily shelved.
The void returned to silence. Qin Yu's figure had vanished into that unknown trial, whose destination was unknown to anyone.
The moment Qin Yu stepped in, he didn't "see" the world. To be precise, the world lost the right to be "seen".
There is no sky, no earth, no depth or layers of void, and even the most basic opposition of "darkness" and "light" Does Not Exist.
What entered my consciousness was only an endless expanse of Annihilation gray light—it was not fog, not air, nor any form that could be named, but rather the most basic residue left after all forms, concepts, and structures had been crushed.
Amidst the gray light, tiny, Ultimate starlight drifted about, like dust or sand, yet lighter than dust and heavier than nothingness, hovering silently and drifting slowly, without direction or destination.
At that moment, Qin Yu's first reaction was not pressure, but helplessness.
It wasn't fear, nor the alertness of an impending crisis, but rather a profoundly unfamiliar emptiness—as if he had been thrown into a realm "forbidden to understand."
There are no visual anchors that conventional nature can provide here; the concepts of front, back, left, and right simultaneously become invalid. A hundred miles in front and a foot in front of you are indistinguishable in your consciousness; walking and stopping, advancing and retreating, all lose their identifiable meaning.
Just as he was trying to stabilize his senses, the power of the realm quietly descended.
It's not bombardment, not intimidation, but coverage.
The chaotic Annihilation was like an invisible film, enveloping his existence from the outside in. Qin Yu clearly sensed that his senses were being "distorted"—not obscured, but rewritten.
Vision becomes flat and monotonous, losing its three-dimensionality and sense of distance; the sense of touch conveys not warmth, but a chilling feeling that pierces to the very core; consciousness remains clear, yet it seems forced to stand outside of oneself, observing as "oneself gradually loses its agency."
Subsequently, the core environment of the first trial was completely formed in silence.
The Domain of No Techniques
Here, there are no rules of heaven and earth to borrow, no Spiritual Qi to draw upon, and nothing that can be called a "source of power." What permeates the entire Slaughter Realm is an extreme power far surpassing nothingness— the Primordial Stillness Myriad Sequence Qi. It does not obliterate the physical body, nor tear apart the soul, but rather severs the "execution logic of existence" directly from its root.
Qin Yu almost instinctively wanted to circulate a sliver of power within his body.
The thought had barely arisen, before it had even fully formed, when it abruptly ceased deep within my consciousness.
There was no pain of backlash, no clash of energies, only an extremely cold "failure"—as if some invisible judgment told him: this action was not allowed to happen. It wasn't that it was impossible, but that the very act of "initiating" it was directly rejected.
He tried again to summon his body's instincts, wanting to simply raise his hand.
The awareness has been reached, the order has been given.
However, that hand sluggishly moved as if it had fallen into an ancient swamp, its movements stretched and weakened infinitely. At one moment, he clearly sensed that his perception of "this hand belonging to me" was fading.
It wasn't numbness, but rather that the fundamental logic called "physical presence" had been gently stripped away by Primordial Stillness Myriad Sequence Qi.
In the gray haze, fragments of starlight drifted slowly by.
That was neither star power nor a remnant soul, but rather a fragment of a Dao Fruit left behind by an ancient supreme being who had Annihilation in this slaughtering realm. One of the fragments gently touched Qin Yu's sleeve. There was no impact, but at the moment of contact, it quietly dispersed, splashing up a wisp of even paler gray light that adhered to the edge of his meridians.
The next moment, the extremely subtle flow of his primordial energy in a certain part of his body came to an abrupt halt.
It wasn't that it was sealed off, but rather that the "allowed flow" sequence was completely severed.
Qin Yu felt a chill run down his spine.
He realized that here, recovery itself was also a kind of "execution logic". As long as he tried to heal, reconstruct, and repair, that thought itself would become the object to be crushed by the Primordial Stillness Myriad Sequence Qi. It was as if everyone in this place would be weakened layer by layer without any time to adapt, until the Dao Fruit cracked and the origin dissipated.
There's no need for attacking here. The killing begins the moment you step inside.
Time itself loses its meaning here. Qin Yu takes a step forward, and countless fragmented images seem to flash through his mind—remnants from Beginningless past, and blank spaces after the Endless future.
One step forward might lead to the graveyard of the future; the next step might plunge into the nothingness of the past. But in either case, there is no difference in the physical sensation, because the logic of "the passage of time" itself has been disrupted, dismantled, and rearranged.
Absolute silence enveloped everything.
There was no sound of wind, no sound of breathing, and even his own heartbeat was erased in an instant. The propagation logic of sound waves was completely severed, so even if he roared here, tearing the heavens and earth apart, there would be no echo. His sense of smell was also rendered ineffective; his primordial aura was tightly enveloped by the silence, unable to dissipate or perceive any external existence.
In this desolate realm, the true killing intent doesn't arrive instantly, but rather through the continuous stripping away of control.
What it wanted to do was not to immediately eliminate Qin Yu, but to gradually reduce him from a powerful figure who once held sway over the rules of heaven and earth to a prisoner who could not even fully control his own body, thoughts, or sense of existence.
Every attempt, every thought, will have a piece of the execution logic severed, layer upon layer, until the question of "what can I do" itself is completely rejected.
Qin Yu stood quietly amidst the Annihilation gray light.
He made no further attempts to circulate any power, nor did he try to forcefully resist the domain.
He knew very well that this was just the beginning—the true trial of the Domain of No Techniques had not yet been revealed.
The real test is not how to "fight," but whether he can still start from "himself" and move forward after all the means he can rely on have been taken away.
The gray light flowed silently, and stardust drifted slowly. The first trial had begun.
In the utter gray light of Annihilation, time has no beginning and no direction.
Qin Yu stood there, seemingly forgotten by the world, yet also tightly enveloped by it. The Domain of No Techniques offered him no "beginning" ceremony; it simply existed indifferently—its very existence was the execution of the intruder.
For the first few breaths, he did nothing. Not out of caution, but because he was not allowed to.
Any thought that carries even the slightest intention of "what I want to do" will be silently crushed deep within the consciousness.
It wasn't pain, but a sense of loss—the bridge "from will to action" had been forcibly erased. Qin Yu could clearly perceive this loss, like remembering a word but being unable to write it down no matter what.
The gray light flowed slowly along his body, like a weightless tide. Stardust fragments floated around him, one of which landed on his shoulder. The moment it dispersed, the presence of a small section of muscle in his left shoulder was gone—not numb, but the question of "whether this place even exists" suddenly became unanswerable.
Qin Yu's breath hitched for a moment.
It wasn't out of fear, but because he discovered that breathing itself is a kind of execution logic.
The next moment, he gave up trying to adjust his breathing, letting his body naturally stagnate in the deathly silence.
The pulsation of the lungs gradually decreased, but no feeling of suffocation appeared, because the entire cause-and-effect logic of "death due to lack of oxygen" also failed here.
He realized a cruel truth: in the Domain of No Techniques, taking initiative is tantamount to self-destruction.
Any proactive action will be regarded as "the logic of existence that needs to be executed", and the Primordial Stillness Myriad Sequence Qi exists with the mission of severing these logics.
The gray world suddenly underwent a subtle change.
It wasn't that the scenery had changed, but rather that Qin Yu's "sense of position" had begun to dissolve. He couldn't be sure if he was moving forward, or even if the "standing" was still valid.
The body seemed to have been disassembled into countless tiny units, each floating in different fragments of order.
Just then, the first real killing intent descended.
It's not an attack, but a process of deprivation and acceleration.
The starlight fragments suddenly increased, as if drawn by an invisible tide, and began to slowly rotate around Qin Yu.
Every fragment is approaching, peeling away, and dissipating, taking with it a small trace of the basic order—the bending and stretching of fingertips, the balance of ankles, the distinction between "near" and "far" in vision... These most inconspicuous, yet fundamental logics that support all actions are being gradually uncovered.
Qin Yu understood that if things continued like this, he would be dismantled into an empty shell that "still exists, but is unable to do anything," without experiencing any pain.
At that moment, he made his one and only real choice. He stopped trying to "live."
Rather, it's about allowing oneself to be deprived.
The moment this thought arose, it did not trigger a backlash from the Primordial Stillness Myriad Sequence Qi. This was not action, nor resistance, nor even surrender; it was an extremely pure acceptance: an acceptance of the rules of this place, an acceptance of one's own powerlessness, an acceptance that "I no longer claim control."
Qin Yu slowly closed his eyes. Not to introspect, but to abandon the logic of "seeing".
The disappearance of vision did not bring darkness; it simply made the gray light more uniform and flatter.
Immediately afterwards, he deliberately relaxed his awareness of his body's outline, no longer confirming the position of his limbs or whether he was whole.
At that moment, his presence suddenly diminished.
The starlight fragments beside him lost their target, and their spinning trajectories began to erratic. The originally tight envelope of Primordial Stillness Myriad Sequence Qi...
An extremely tiny gap appeared—because its "target of deprivation" was dissolving on its own.
At that moment, Qin Yu did nothing.
But for the first time, it was not further weakened.
Amidst the gray haze, a very subtle change quietly emerged.
It was something dimmer than all the starlight and fragments—as if it weren't "light," but rather some kind of "position" that hadn't yet been erased.
It floats silently in the distance, yet it cannot be measured by the concept of "distance," because distance itself does not exist here.
Qin Yu didn't walk towards it. He didn't even "want to get close".
He simply continued to maintain that state—unattached, uncontrolled, and not trying to become a "barrier-breaker."
At this moment, his existence was no longer that of a strong person trying to pass the test, but rather a remnant allowed to linger temporarily.
Time has no meaning here, but change still occurs. That gray locator begins to move closer on its own.
It wasn't a movement, but rather an "overlap." Qin Yu's presence, on a certain level, slowly merged with that speck of gray light.
The Primordial Stillness Myriad Sequence Qi flowed around them, yet it was impossible to determine "which side should be deprived," because their states of existence had already become consistent.
Until a certain moment, Qin Yu opened his eyes. There was no command, no invocation, he simply opened them.
At that very moment, he spoke softly, his voice not carrying, but resonating deep within his being. "Illusion will eventually perish, Silent Void the essence."
This is neither a declaration nor a protest. Rather, it is a revision of our way of being.
The gray locator suddenly shattered in front of him, without an explosion or a sound, simply disappearing silently as if erased.
At the same time, for the first time, the Annihilation gray light of the entire Domain of No Techniques underwent a change in layers—as if an infinitely flattened canvas was finally allowed to show a barely perceptible fold.
Qin Yu's existence was "acknowledged".
Not as a powerful being, not as a spellcaster, but as a core existence that did not dissipate even after all execution logic was lost.
The gray light began to dissipate, and starlight fragments fell like rain, but all vanished before reaching him. The Annihilation ceased its stripping away, and instead slowly parted to create a path.
The first level: the Domain of No Techniques.
Without using any supernatural powers, mobilizing any strength, or even engaging in "combat," Qin Yu walked over step by step.
It wasn't victory. Rather, it was being recognized by this killing field, born to obliterate countless ancient powerhouses, as "something that cannot be taken away any further."
The aura of the next trial is already silently waiting at the edge of the gray light.