At the moment the thick, gray fog surged, Qin Yu stepped into the Abyss of Myriad Orders and Bone Erosion.
There was no sense of "boundaries being crossed," nor even the tangible feeling of landing. It was just that in a moment that could neither be defined as before nor after, the faint gray light of the first barrier, which had not yet dissipated, was suddenly crushed. It was as if the world was being gripped tightly by an invisible hand, kneaded into a slowly rotating mass of deathly silence.
A thick gray fog rolled in.
It didn't just obstruct vision; it completely overwhelmed perception itself. Qin Yu's gaze could only reach within three steps; beyond that, it was as if it were erased, leaving only a thick, impenetrable grayness.
Within the gray fog, semi-transparent "Silent Shadow" appeared and disappeared—some people's gestures of raising their hands were not yet complete, and the light of someone's Dao Fruit bursting out was frozen halfway. All actions stopped at the moment "about to happen," and then were crushed inch by inch by the gray fog, turning into even smaller starlight.
Qin Yu glanced at it only once before immediately averting his gaze.
It wasn't caution, but an instinctive alertness—he clearly sensed that in that instant of "gazing," a corner of an execution sequence related to "observation" in his own sea of consciousness had been gently scraped away.
The next instant, excruciating pain descended.
The gray mist was no longer an adhering substance, but rather like countless invisible blades, simultaneously cutting into the gaps between bones, flesh, and the very essence of things.
It wasn't severing, but peeling away— Qin Yu could clearly sense that his physical body wasn't injured, yet it was losing the reason why it could still remain intact. Every inch of his bones and blood was being questioned: What is the basis of your existence?
He did not attempt to invoke the source.
He didn't even attempt to use any supernatural powers. The lesson from the first trial remained clear—to be proactive is to offer sacrifice.
He simply moved forward.
It wasn't walking, but rather allowing himself to be "pushed to exist." The "Quicksand of Order" beneath his feet materialized in the gray fog, like a formless sense of sinking that was dragging him along.
With each tiny shift, a section of the body at the ankle was thinned, and Qin Yu could feel the connection between his lower body and "himself" becoming loose.
At that moment, the entanglement of Ji Nian suddenly erupted.
It wasn't sound, nor image, but a massive, almost overwhelming weight of despair that threatened to crush consciousness.
The emotional remnants left behind by countless Annihilation supreme beings, like an out-of-control torrent, poured directly into his primal consciousness.
Resentment, anger, emptiness, collapse.
These weren't "persuading" him to give up, but rather directly interfering with the very foundation of his thought process. Just Qin Yu was about to form a complete idea, it was as if someone had broken it in half, turning it into a collection of unrecoverable fragments.
Amidst this chaos, Primal Stillness Order Slaughter Exalt appeared. There was no process of him revealing himself.
The dense, silent gray fog collapsed naturally in front, and all the Silent Shadow, starlight, and gray fog vortexes converged towards the center, condensing into a slowly rotating Starlight Annihilation Core.
It wasn't large, but it instantly raised the oppressive atmosphere of the entire Slaughtering Realm to a whole new level, as if the concept of "Annihilation" had finally found a focal point to rest upon.
Qin Yu did not see the "enemy".
What he saw was the realm of slaughter itself, and he decided to begin reaping the rewards.
There were no warning signs whatsoever.
There was no build-up of power, no killing intent, and no direction.
The moment "One Stillness Turns Myriad Things to Nothing" was activated, Qin Yu didn't even sense the "attack coming," but suddenly realized that he was being completely wiped out.
It's not a single part, not a single ability, but all the connections that make me able to continue to exist, that are being simultaneously liquidated.
At this critical moment, Qin Yu took his first initiative in the Middle Realm.
He slowly raised his right hand.
It wasn't about mobilizing one's own essence or unleashing supernatural powers, but rather about grasping the hilt of the Silent Origin Stainless Sword.
The sword was not drawn.
But in that instant, Qin Yu's state of being underwent a very subtle change—not becoming stronger, but becoming more "pure." The aura of the Silent Origin Stainless Sword did not spread outward, but rather, like an invisible mirror, temporarily confined and compressed Qin Yu's own "order of existence."
When the Annihilation power of "One Stillness Turns Myriad Things to Nothing" collided with this convergence, it did not erupt.
Instead, it has become misaligned.
The Annihilation, in its attempt to sever the execution logic, discovered that Qin Yu's current existence was in a state of "unexecuted, unexpanded, and undefined." That momentary delay...
This gave Qin Yu the only window of opportunity to break the deadlock.
He did not attack; instead, he sealed himself off.
The Silent Origin Stainless Sword trembled slightly in his palm, and fine dark patterns appeared on the surface of its scabbard, all belonging to Qin Yu.
The flow of the primordial energy, the operation of the Dao fruit, and the connection of supernatural powers were all personally suppressed back to the deepest part of his body at this moment—not hidden, but deliberately brought to a standstill.
Then, he took that step.
One step, directly stepping into the Nine-Layer Stillness Order Slaughter Barrier.
The silence surged forth like a living thing, countless assimilated remnants of Dao Fruits and fragments of consciousness attempting to invade his existence, but lost their target the moment they touched Qin Yu —because at this moment, he no longer existed in the form of a "strongman," "cultivator," or "challenger."
At that very moment, Qin Yu finally unleashed his only truly significant divine power in this realm.
Boundless Return to the Abyss, Annihilation Other Shore
There was no grand spread of light and shadow, no earth-shattering roar.
There was only an extremely quiet sense of "falling".
Qin Yu's own existence was actively thrown into an inward-collapsed "Return to the Abyss Point". The power of Annihilation no longer resisted outward, but was drawn back, layered and compressed, transforming into a straight line of annihilation leading to the Starlight Annihilation Core.
The first "change" occurred in the Primal Stillness Order Slaughter Exalt.
The rotation rhythm of the Starlight Annihilation Core became disordered, and one of the Nine-Layer Stillness Order Slaughter Barrier lost its support in an instant—not that it was shattered, but that it lost its reason for continuing to exist. That layer of barrier was formed from "an existence whose obsession remained but was forcibly erased".
At this moment, Qin Yu was no longer attached to it.
A silent line runs through it.
The Starlight Annihilation Core suddenly collapsed without exploding. It simply dimmed and shrank as if it had been wiped from the world, eventually turning into a barely perceptible gray dot. It was then gently shaken by the aura of the Silent Origin Stainless Sword and completely dissipated.
The gray fog stagnated. The quicksand of the prelude solidified.
For the first time Abyss of Myriad Orders and Bone Erosion, lost its target for further "grinding."
Qin Yu stood still, his figure slightly fainter than when he entered the intermediate stage, yet more stable than ever before. The lingering despair that had previously entangled his consciousness slowly dissipated, like dust that had lost its anchor.
He passed through the middle realm, not because he was stronger.
It's not because he abandoned "being strong" more thoroughly than any other being throughout history, in the very place where he should have.
Deep within the vacuum of dark silver starlight, Qin Yu's figure appeared exceptionally frail amidst the Stillness Core True Ruins. Just as his existence was collapsing and his consciousness was nearly obliterated...
"Buzz--"
It is not sound, but a tremor that acts directly on the very foundation of existence.
The Starlight Annihilation Core, suspended at the center of the True Ruins, suddenly changed. The dark gold runes that were originally still and fully lit all froze in an instant, as if forcibly held down by some irresistible force.
Immediately afterwards, a barely perceptible crack slowly appeared on the surface of the Annihilation Core. No light leaked out, nor did any energy spill out; the crack itself caused the entire True Ruins to experience an extremely brief "lag."
The nine dark silver pillars trembled simultaneously.
The silent figures within the pillar, their eyes wide open, suddenly froze, as if forcibly detached from some kind of absolutely shared resonance.
The Primal Stillness Origin Qi that had originally covered the True Ruins began to swirl very slightly at this moment—not dissipating, but for the first time no longer actively assimilating into Qin Yu.
In this brief, almost imperceptible "gap," a scene that did not belong to Annihilation appeared deep within Qin Yu's vision.
That was neither an image nor a hallucination.
Rather, it is a "presentation" that is directly projected onto the core of existence.
He saw a road.
The road Does Not Exist in space, but is suspended in the "gap between existence and non-existence", composed of countless broken yet interconnected traces of order.
Each sequence mark is incomplete, like a logical cross-section that has been completely severed, yet when they come close together, they produce an extremely eerie sense of completeness.
At the end of the road, there was no end, only a slowly rotating dark silver starlight mark—the outline of that mark was exactly the same as a core structure deep within the core of Annihilation.
At the same time, a will, devoid of any emotion yet so clear as to be impossible to ignore, unfolded directly within Qin Yu's true self.
No words were spoken. No explanation was given.
There was only one fact that was forcibly "informed" --
This is the final hurdle.
It's not a battle. It's not a confrontation. It's not about victory or defeat. It's about a choice.
Before the complete assimilation of the Stillness Core True Ruins is achieved, will it still be possible to retain that sliver of self-awareness that "I still exist" and embark on that path pieced together from countless fragmented sequences?
The nine pillars of silence stabilized again, the cracks in the Annihilation core slowly closed, and the Primal Stillness Origin Qi began to spread outward once more.
There is no distinction between long and short time for Qin Yu. Because here—time itself has become invalid.
The moment Qin Yu stepped into the final stage, the trial passage behind him vanished silently, neither closing nor collapsing, as if it had never existed at all.
What lies before me is neither heaven and earth, nor emptiness. Here, even the concept of "nothingness" itself has been stripped away.
The entire space was a boundless vacuum of dark silver starlight. It was neither light nor color, but a kind of "residual glow of existence" compressed to the Ultimate, like the last reflection left by countless stars that had been completely extinguished. There was no up, down, left, right, no distance, no depth; everything within sight was on the same plane, at the same distance, as if "direction" had never been defined here.
There was no wind, no movement, and no perceptible change.
Only silence remains.
In the very center of this dark silver vacuum, a core about ten feet in size floats— the Starlight Annihilation Core.
It was neither a physical entity nor a condensation of energy; it was more like the endpoint after all "possibilities of existence" had been completely compressed.
The core is dark gold in color, and its surface is covered with countless ancient and unfamiliar silent runes. These silent runes no longer flow, breathe, or evolve as before, but are all lit up.
The moment it lit up, the entire True Ruins seemed to be covered by an invisible spider web.
The silent text spreads, intertwines, and merges along unseen paths. Wherever it goes, it does not tear space apart or devour matter, but directly causes the "existence order of space" itself to collapse—not to shatter, but to actively abandon the reason to maintain itself.
What's even more suffocating is that the Nine-Layer Stillness Order Slaughter Barrier that originally surrounded the Annihilation Core are no longer a defense.
They transformed into nine dark silver pillars.
Each pillar of silence extends from the core of Annihilation, piercing through the True Ruins and plunging straight into the four directions where Does Not Exist boundaries. Within the pillars, countless blurry figures are sealed—those eternally powerful beings who once stepped into this place are no longer afterimages, but completely "frozen" silent images.
The instant Qin Yu's gaze fell upon them--
Within the nine pillars, several silent figures slowly "opened their eyes".
There were no pupils, no emotions, no fluctuations in consciousness, only the primordial power of annihilation, completely identical to the core of Annihilation, overflowing out. The nine pillars echoed each other, and the dark silver light intertwined in the True Ruins, forming an array. In an instant, time, space, cause and effect, direction... all concepts that could once be called "coordinates" were simultaneously locked.
Here, there is no past. There is no future. There is not even a "present".
Qin Yu stood there, but immediately realized a chilling truth—
His body did not experience any pain.
There was no cold, no burning, no tearing, and no oppression.
But his existence is changing at a visible pace.
Within the fabric of the body, the most fundamental structural patterns that should have supported its functions were fading inch by inch; deep within the core of the Dao, the patterns that should have been constantly in motion were spreading and dissipating silently, like ink soaked in water; even consciousness itself seemed to be placed in a gentle yet absolute torrent, being gradually "diluted."
This is not an attack. This is assimilation.
The Primal Stillness Origin Qi envelops everything, neither coercing, eroding, nor destroying, but simply making existence itself realize that maintaining "existence" is superfluous here.
Qin Yu tried raising his hand.
Consciousness has arrived, thoughts are complete, but the body does not respond at all. It is not that it is bound, but that the execution sequence of the action itself has already collapsed on its own in the spread of the silent text.
He wanted to think.
The thought had barely taken shape when it was soothed by a silent and Formless stillness, like a wave swallowed by the sea before it could even surge.
There was no fear. There was no resistance. There wasn't even the urge to "resist".
Hearing has long lost its meaning. Does Not Exist sound here, Does Not Exist a contrast of "silence".
Even the faint echoes that should have existed deep within his own consciousness were completely blocked.
Instead, a pure and calm will was imprinted directly on the deepest part of the soul.
That was not an order. That was not a judgment.
It wasn't even hostility. It was just—silence.
An Ultimate state that tells everything "there is no need for it to exist".
Within this Stillness Core True Ruins, the Primal Stillness Order Slaughter Exalt does not need to intervene. Its very essence is the answer that allows all powerful beings to Annihilation themselves.
Qin Yu stood there, his existence collapsing continuously, his consciousness gradually fading into nothingness.
If this continues, he will eventually become a speck of dust in this dark silver vacuum, becoming the next silent image among the nine pillars.
All of this was quiet, gentle, and irreversible. It was as if the ending had been written from the very beginning.