The Battle to Sever the Chains of Cause and Effect

Before the desolate winds of the Void Abyss Forbidden Domain had subsided and Qin Yu's figure had just solidified completely in the space, a white figure had already crossed through layers of restrictions and stood beside him almost at the same time as it "appeared".

Jin Hanyan.

Her footsteps were silent, her bare feet treading on the cracked void of the abyss, instantly silencing the chaotic aura of the entire forbidden area.

The moment those eyes, usually cold and aloof, saw Qin Yu, a hint of barely concealed emotion finally appeared. Almost instinctively, she raised her hand, her fingertips pausing for a moment on his chest and shoulder before abruptly stopping, her tone softening.

Are you hurt anywhere?

She looked into his eyes, her voice low and soft, "How was it...? Did you complete the trial?"

Qin Yu smiled slightly, a smile that was neither sharp nor arrogant, but rather carried the gentleness and certainty that came after experiencing the Ultimate. He reached out and gently grasped her wrist, telling her not to check anymore, his tone so gentle that it seemed almost out of place in this forbidden area.

"It's alright, Yan'er."

He said softly, "I only passed the seventh level. And within the unknown barrier of the seventh level, I obtained the Primordial Stillness Sequence Origin Map, which is... a map about a divine key."

Jin Hanyan didn't ask where the map pointed, nor did she inquire about the danger the "Divine Key" represented.

She simply looked at him, her gaze lingering for a moment between his brows, as if she could see through the Annihilation Devil Pupil and the Final Spirit Core, and see the silent starlight that had already merged with his Fate Soul. Then she nodded gently.

"Mmm." Her voice was soft, yet extremely steady. "As long as you do well."

Before the words were finished, a very low spatial tremor suddenly came from the depths of the Void Abyss Forbidden Domain. It was neither a pressure nor a summons, but more like some kind of pre-written "continuation" unfolding on its own.

The Emptiness cracked open, and the barrier of the eighth trial slowly appeared—this time, there was no sound of judgment, no announcement of rules; the barrier simply stood there quietly, deep and dark, as if it had known all along that Qin Yu would come.

Silent Origin Caihuang's voice did not ring out.

Qin Yu didn't even glance at the barrier twice before he understood what was going on. He turned around, looked at Jin Hanyan, his expression calm, yet carrying an unwavering resolve.

"Yan'er," he said, "I should continue. There are only two more levels left."

Jin Hanyan's hand tightened unconsciously for a moment, then slowly relaxed. She didn't stop him, but looked up at him, her eyes filled with undisguised reluctance for the first time, yet still restrained and firm.

"Yes," she replied softly, "You must be careful."

Qin Yu nodded without saying anything more. He took a step forward, his figure already overlapping with the barrier of the eighth trial. Space parted in front of him like water, then quietly closed behind him.

The next instant, his figure completely disappeared into the barrier.

The Void Abyss Forbidden Domain returned to silence. Jin Hanyan stood there, her white robes swaying slightly in the windless void, her gaze fixed on the direction he had left, never wavering for a long time.

The moment Qin Yu stepped into the eighth level, there was no ground beneath his feet, no sky above his head, only billions of luminous threads intertwining in the darkness, like an infinitely magnified spiderweb of a galaxy. Within these threads flowed fragments of solidified causal images: some were swallowed by the flames of tribulation in a sea of lightning, some clutched old belongings and wept uncontrollably, and some turned their backs on all living beings and walked towards the desolate end.

Every single wire was vibrating slightly, the vibrations silent, yet they made Qin Yu's heartbeat feel as if it had been gripped by an invisible hand for a moment. Then, tiny specks of light, as fine as dust, were drawn into his chest.

Those "dusts of destiny" exploded in his throat, forming a cold image: three most likely ways to die simultaneously superimposed before his eyes: first, he was already covered in cracks before the heavenly lightning struck, as if he had been written to die in advance;

The second scenario is that he stands at the highest point and looks back, only to find that everyone has forgotten him; the third scenario is that his hand holding the sword suddenly loosens its grip a moment before victory, as if the sword had never belonged to him.

Qin Yu neither retreated nor forced his way through. He let the three images flow past his eyes like cold rain, his breathing becoming heavier and more steady, until the nest forged from frozen time in the center of the spiderweb slowly rotated, time folding layer by layer like crystallized tree rings, and a figure emerged from within those rings.

Her upper body was that of a stunningly beautiful female immortal, her face simultaneously displaying the states of childhood, youth, and old age; a single glance from her was like a needle piercing one's destiny. Her lower body, however, was that of a dark gold, eight-legged spider, each leg tipped with a rhombus-shaped diamond, each diamond holding within it a segment of time, hooked and bound. Her smile was as gentle as if caressing a piece of fate.

Her words were chillingly cold. "Qin Yu, do you think you got here by willpower? No, it was the spiderweb that allowed you to get here." She raised a slender finger, and her eight legs simultaneously tapped the air. Billions of causal threads tightened in unison, and the spiderweb cave, like a living cage, began to shrink.

The light surrounding Qin Yu suddenly thinned, and seven hair-thin threads pierced through the void, bypassing his flesh and directly embedding themselves in his "fate." The seven original sins—arrogance, jealousy, rage, greed, fear, hesitation, and resentment—were instantly ignited, surging like seven invisible fires within his chest.

The next instant, his aura plummeted, as if his cultivation had been forcibly pulled back to his most vulnerable years. His consciousness remained, but his power seemed to be sealed within an invisible shell. At the same time, seven demonic entities materialized from the spiderweb-like mist, each bearing an outline similar to his own.

But with that most familiar voice, she plunged the knife into his old wound: "Would things have been better if you hadn't taken that step back then?" "Who can you protect? You might not even be able to protect yourself."

The Spider Mother wasn't in a hurry; she was waiting for Qin Yu to be dragged into the mire of cause and effect by his emotions, waiting for him to admit that "the past is a chain." A trace of blood welled up in Qin Yu's throat, but his knuckles gripped the sword hilt firmly. He suddenly looked up, his eyes showing neither anger nor explanation, but simply suppressing the surging emotions deep within him.

He raised his right hand, his palm swirling, and a key's shadow suddenly appeared between his fingers. The cold radiance of the Silent Origin Heart-Annihilating Key exploded silently like a drop of moonlight falling into the deep sea, illuminating the deepest recesses of his mind. The voices of those inner demons experienced a brief "gap" in the light, not because they were forcibly suppressed.

Rather, the "gaps in their mental cultivation" upon which they depended for growth were directly sealed off by a key; the inner demons continued to hiss, but it was as if they were separated by thick glass, unable to penetrate his sea of consciousness. The Spider Mother's eyes narrowed, and with a sudden flick of her precious toe, the seven causal lines deepened abruptly.

Qin Yu's body experienced a slight reversal. His sleeve first tore open, and blood droplets floated up first. Then, the invisible needle reached his chest. Cause and effect were reversed here. The wound appeared first, and the attack came later, making it difficult for him to even think of "defense". Qin Yu felt a tightness in his chest and staggered half a step.

The pain wasn't severe, but it felt strangely like fate had written a line: "You must be injured." He didn't try to resist the absurdity; instead, he used the inverted force to bring his energy back to the present moment. His brow furrowed slightly, and the light deep within his Fate Soul seemed to be lit up by his own hand.

He uttered four words in a low voice, as if making a vow to himself. "I am here at this moment." Then he flicked his fingertips, and a very faint imprint appeared on his palm Three Forms of Fate Construction of Cause and Effect Deconstruction. This form is not a bombardment, but rather dismantling the "cause line" as a structure. Qin Yu's will is like an invisible carving knife.

Cutting back along the lines of the seven sins, not the lines themselves, but the "entanglement" between them and him, light suddenly appeared in discontinuous gaps on his chest. The seven fires of original sin were still burning, but for the first time, they loosened their connection with the "Spider Mother's Hook".

The demon's physical form slowed, as if it had lost some of its traction. The Spider Mother's lips curved slightly, but her voice grew even colder. "Deconstruction? You can dismantle a piece, but can you dismantle your entire life?" Her eight legs trembled simultaneously, and three thick fruit threads were forcibly pulled from the depths of the spiderweb, like three long whips of judgment spanning heaven and earth. The images of the demon's tribulation, the heavenly lightning tribulation, and the Annihilation tribulation overlapped and pressed down, before the lightning even struck...

Qin Yu's eardrums felt as if they were being pounded by a thousand drumbeats; before the inner demons even touched him, his breath was already being forced into a series of tremors; the Annihilation was just a gray shadow in the distance, yet its outline began to blur, as if it would be wiped off the spider web in the next instant.

Qin Yu could not possibly fight against the three tribulations at the same time with a single Cause and Effect Deconstruction. He knew that the ruthlessness of this trial was not "fighting", but "forcing you to split, forcing you to lose control, and forcing you to choose a way to die from the three possible endings". Instead, he suppressed all distracting thoughts, flipped his left hand, and drew his sword. The sword light was neither blazing nor fierce, but it was as clean as if it had wiped a line across the world. The Silent Origin Stainless Sword - The Causeless Disillusionment Sword.

There was no boom as the sword fell, only the subtle tremor of a spiderweb being sliced open. The sword light passed through the most viscous intersection of the three overlapping shadows, as if pulling the "cause" from the "effect." A hole was carved out of the lightning, the image of the inner demon tribulation was shaved white, and the Annihilation gray shadow was briefly pushed back.

But a price came with it: a crack appeared on Qin Yu's shoulder, not blood, but wisps of life force being drawn away, as if he had severed the cause and effect of the outside world with his sword, but the backlash had also severed a bit of his own "life mark." He gritted his teeth and steadied himself, his right hand shifting its sword stance, taking advantage of the half-breath of time when the three tribulations were separated...

Suddenly, the Star Wancai Key was pressed into the void. The key light exploded like a myriad of colored stardust, pointing directly at the nest palace where time had been frozen. Fine cracks appeared in the "time crystal" of the nest palace within the key light. The light of the Spider Mother's eight-legged jewel was also weakened for a moment, as if her "destiny hook" was no longer perfectly smooth and had become frayed.

In that instant, the Spider Mother finally unleashed her killing move. She suddenly opened her mouth and spat out a thin thread. The thread didn't wrap around Qin Yu's limbs, but instead wrapped around his three most important causes and effects: the cause with Jin Hanyan, the cause with his Dao Path, and the "cause of his true self" that had led him to this point. As the thread tightened, Qin Yu's heart felt as if it had been squeezed, and a "cocoon wall" immediately appeared before his eyes.

Time accelerated wildly within the cocoon, passing a thousandfold in a single breath. All the possibilities of the three causes and effects rained down like a storm. In one branch, Jin Hanyan died in his arms; in another, she turned away coldly and became a stranger; in yet another, he severed his affections for the sake of his Dao Path; and in yet another, he survived to the end, only to find himself alone.

The Spider Mother's voice softly echoed from outside the cocoon, like a judge thrusting questions into your throat: "First question, if you wish to be invincible on your Dao Path, can you sever her?" "Second question, if you wish for her Anran, can you destroy your Dao Path?" "Third question, if you wish to have both, can you admit that you are deceiving yourself?"

With each word that surfaced on the cocoon's surface, Qin Yu's presence tightened further. A wrong answer meant the connection was severed, and the severed connection meant oblivion. In reality, she would forget him, leaving not even a trace of their past companionship. Qin Yu's breathing became shallow within the cocoon, the life-threatening crack on his chest deepened, and the pain finally spread like a real, flesh-and-blood wound. Yet, he suddenly smiled, a very faint smile.

Yet he possessed an almost cruel clarity; he did not pursue the "correct answer," because Spider Mother truly wanted to devour was the "linear view of destiny," which made you treat fate as a path that could only move forward, and made you believe that you had to make choices.

Qin Yu raised his hand, his fingertips slowly tracing the surface of the cocoon, as if erasing an old piece of writing. His voice was gentle yet extremely steady. "You asked the wrong question." The next instant, the imprint on his palm suddenly brightened— Fate Principle Reflection Severance, Form One: Sever Fate and Observe the Wheel.

This move is not about cutting the line, but about cutting the "view," cutting the way of viewing fate as a linear cycle; the three questions on the cocoon wall seem to be cut by an invisible blade, but what is cut is not the words, but the meaning of "must choose" behind the words, and the pressure of the three questions suddenly eases by an inch.

For the first time, a crack appeared in the Spider Mother's eyes. She said coldly, "Do you think you can break free of the cocoon just by cutting through the eyes?" Qin Yu did not argue with her. He then continued to expand that inch of loosening, and flipped his palm again to reveal the second form of the Fate Principle Reflection Severance and Severing Technique: Returning Causes Attribution Total Erasure.

It's not the result that's being peeled away, but rather the deepest "cause" behind the three questions, layer by layer: peeling away the cause that "the Dao Path must come at the cost of severing ties," peeling away the cause that "keeping her must come at the cost of self-destruction," peeling away the cause that "a win-win situation must be deception"; the cocoon wall is slowly pried open from the inside by an invisible hand, and dark silver causal dust overflows from the cracks.

Cold sweat beaded on Qin Yu's forehead, and blood seeped from the crack in his chest—this time it was real blood. He was sacrificing himself to absorb the backlash, hoping to create an opportunity for the cocoon to be torn open. Just as the crack widened to a size that could accommodate him, the Spider Mother suddenly activated "Causal Contamination - Projection of All Heavens."

Several figures crashed down from the depths of the spiderweb: the demonic version of Qin Yu arrived amidst black flames, Qin Yu mortal version trembled and clutched its head, the fallen Qin Yu casting a chilling shadow. They simultaneously looked up, their gazes locking onto the "main body."

It was as if three knives were trying to peel the "qualification to replace" off him. The Spider Mother chuckled softly outside the cocoon, "You won't choose? Then they'll choose for you." Qin Yu stepped out of the crack, and the main causal thread beneath his feet suddenly lit up, like a long river of destiny spanning the spider web, supporting him. He didn't kill the three projections.

Because killing "himself" would still fall into the linear trap, he instead raised his fingertip, pointing to the three projected images between his eyebrows, his voice as calm as if declaring something already decided. "You are not enemies, you are possibilities."

Then, with a flick of his fingertip, a faint yet chilling beam of Annihilation light silently shot forth from the Unnamed Initial Silence. This finger did not obliterate the physical body, but rather pierced through the three projections with the obsession of "replacing the main body's qualification." The projections' eyes momentarily glazed over, the demonic version of the black flames froze, and the mortal version of the trembling stopped.

The shadow of the fallen version seemed to be scattered by the wind; Qin Yu took advantage of this moment, raised his sword again, the sword light was so clean that it was as if he had cut a door in the Silent Origin Stainless Sword · Historyless Void Severance Sword.

This sword strike didn't sever their existence, but rather the "alternative connection" between them and the Spider Mother's web. With the connection broken, the three projections, like kites with broken strings, lost their grip and returned to the countless possible afterimages deep within the web, no longer able to attach themselves to the main body under the guise of "replacement." The three tenses on the Spider Mother's face simultaneously turned cold, and eighty-one possible afterimages suddenly appeared in the air.

The "All-Heavens Self Grand Formation" is formed at the core of the array, which is the possibility that Qin Yu regrets the most for not choosing. The shadow of "If only I had..." stands in the brightest spot, looking at him without speaking, but it is more piercing than any words.

The Spider Mother whispered, "You must Annihilation it." Qin Yu looked at the shadow, his chest wound still bleeding, and his breath noticeably weaker, but he did not back down. He stepped onto the main line of cause and effect, as if surrendering himself to the flow of a long river, and whispered to the shadow, "I acknowledge you." The shadow was stunned.

Qin Yu continued, "You were the answer I once sought, but you are not the path I'm on now." As he finished speaking, a faint "book pattern" suddenly appeared in his palm, as if an invisible pen had written a very short Order Adjudication in the air.

He didn't exaggerate or elaborate; he simply placed a seal at the most crucial point. "Heavenly Cause Judgment Sequence, Six Severances Seal, Master Book Seal Severance, Naming Reconstruction." In that instant, all the "if" names in the spiderweb cave began to tremble. The six characters "the most regrettable possibility" seemed to have old ink wiped away and new ink written on them; they still existed, but were reconstructed into "the shadow I once walked through."

With the name changed, the array's core no longer possessed the authority to "force you to turn back," and the linkage of the eighty-one afterimages began to disintegrate. Finally, the Spider Mother let out a very faint hiss, like the trembling sound of a silk thread being forcibly snapped.

She abruptly closed the net, activating "Temporal Sequence Turbulence" one last time, causing Qin Yu's movements to completely malfunction: the sword intent arrived first, then his arm rose; his protective will shattered first, then his defense took shape; the wound tore open first, then the attack landed, forcing him to believe which reality he was in an instant.

Qin Yu's eyes darkened. He stopped struggling with "right and wrong" and instead used himself as an anchor to forcefully fixate on the "present moment." He gripped the Silent Origin Stainless Sword tightly in his right hand. The sword seemed to absorb all the surrounding mixed light, becoming exceptionally calm. He slowly raised the sword in the misaligned sequence of time, the movement clearly delayed.

Yet, it seemed to have arrived at the Spider Mother's destiny from an even deeper source— the Silent Origin Stainless Sword, the Undefined Destruction Sword. This sword had no outward sharpness; only a nearly transparent line of Annihilation pierced through the junction of the Spider Mother's three faces and eight-legged body, severing her definition of "weaving linear destiny" from its root. The time rings of the nest behind the Spider Mother instantly shattered into countless fragments.

The countless causal threads seemed to be released from their restraints with a silent cracking sound, and the spiderweb began to collapse entirely. The Spider Mother gazed at Qin Yu, a genuine look of bewilderment on her face for the first time. She murmured softly, "So... destiny has no order of precedence."

As the voice faded, her figure transformed into countless causal stars, sucked back into the endless darkness by the spiderweb. The barrier began to dissipate, but Qin Yu's legs buckled in that instant, and he knelt on one knee, blood still seeping from the crack in his life-scar.

There was also a thin wound on his shoulder, torn open by the reversal of time. The injury was not serious, but it was enough to prove that he had not easily overcome this obstacle. He looked up, slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, and his eyes were still clear, like someone who had walked out of billions of lines and finally saw the star map beyond the lines.