Inside the secret chamber, the old man stood before the suspended circular platform, his withered yet steady hand slowly rising. As he moved, the void seemed to be drawn by some "inescapable cause and effect," and a supreme treasure that had never left a trace in the official history of the Star-Net Immortal Hall quietly appeared.
It wasn't a "treasure" in the conventional sense. It was more like a core of destiny that had been folded countless times.
When it first appeared, it was merely a dim, grayish-white starlight, seemingly about to vanish at any moment. But when it was fully revealed, Su Xingrou's breath caught in her throat—it was a structure intertwined with countless "broken lifelines," "unfinished causes and effects," and "erased futures."
The spherical structure, formed by layers of interlocking, has no fixed pattern on its surface. All the lines are constantly arising, intersecting, and rearranging themselves, as if billions of destinies are simultaneously trying to find a single solution.
The interior of the sphere is not Emptiness, but a starry sea that constantly collapses and is reborn. Each collapse is accompanied by the end of a certain world; each rebirth carries the possibility of something that has never happened. It does not emit light, but renders all the light around it meaningless, as if the concept of "being illuminated" is superfluous in its presence.
The old man's voice truly rang out for the first time in the secret chamber, deep and ancient. "Xingrou, this is the divine artifact of this temple— the Star-Net Fate-Returning Core."
The moment she finished speaking, she gently pressed her staff against the edge of the groove in the center of the circular platform. It wasn't touching the treasure, but rather using the remnants of her own Fate Soul as a catalyst.
The next instant, the entire secret room seemed to be "pulled" out of reality.
The crystal wall was no longer a crystal wall, but transformed into layers of transparent yet thick destiny dome. On the dome, the birth and death of countless worlds flashed by rapidly in the form of reflections;
The truncated cone began to rotate slowly, but without any sense of direction, as if it were not rotating in space, but turning a page in the sequence of fate itself. The air was compressed to almost solidify, yet there was no oppressive force, only a sense of "the end is near" that instinctively made people hold their breath.
The Star-Net Fate-Returning Core was fully activated. It suddenly cracked open, not shattered, but unfolded.
Billions of lifelines cascaded out like a waterfall, but instead of falling anywhere, Endless Beginningless of deduction. At the end of each lifeline was a possible ending; and each ending, in the instant it was deduced, negated itself and transformed into a new branch.
This is a true global inference.
It's not about finding answers, but about making all the "questions that can be asked" appear simultaneously, and then verifying, refuting, and reconstructing them one by one.
Su Xingrou stood to the side, her eyes wide with shock. She could clearly sense that the divination tools she usually used...
Before this Star-Net Fate-Returning Core, she hadn't even reached the "entry level." All she could touch were the ripples on the surface of destiny; while this supreme treasure was directly flipping through the original manuscript of fate.
Time loses its meaning here.
Ten breaths.
Twenty breaths.
Thirty breaths.
Within the secret chamber, lifelines surged, star seas collapsed, and the future was reconstructed—a scene so magnificent it could shatter the mind of any cultivator. Yet, beneath this near-omniscient deduction...
Before the two of them, there was still only a blank space.
There was no image, no indication, not even a trace of interpretable fate patterns.
The Star-Net Fate-Returning Core continued to operate, but it seemed to have encountered a void that Does Not Exist in the system of destiny analysis at all. All the deduction lines would break and dissipate on their own when they touched that area, and even the feedback of "failure" could not be formed.
For the first time, Su Xingrou's expression truly changed. It wasn't one of surprise, but rather a profound gravity that left her almost speechless.
She slowly looked at the old man, her voice extremely soft, yet carrying an undeniable tremor.
"Ancestor... even the Star-Net Fate-Returning Core... we can't see anything at all?"
The old man's gaze remained fixed on the blank space. After a long while, he slowly spoke, his tone calm, yet as if stating a fact that had long been confirmed.
"It's not that we can't see it." "It's him; he's simply not within the scope of what can be 'inferred'."
Inside the secret room, Su Xingrou's voice lost its usual composure for the first time; she almost instinctively took a step forward.
His gaze was fixed on the slowly rotating Star-Net Fate-Returning Core, his eyes filled with incomprehensible shock.
"Ancestor... how could this happen?"
Her voice trembled slightly, a rarity, "Just now in the main hall, I personally deduced that he was involved in the future battle of the Void Obliteration Domain, and indeed, he personally ended the Thought Severance Devouring Emperor and the Source-Suppressing Stillnessless Venerable. If that's the case, why did he become a blank before the Fate-Returning Core?"
The old man did not answer immediately.
He simply stood there quietly, as if listening to some kind of echo that existed only in the depths of destiny. After a long while, he slowly spoke, his voice low and steady, yet each word fell like a heavy hammer.
"Xing Rou." "What you're deducing is the ending of the Void Obliteration Domain," not—himself.
These words, like a silent thunderclap, exploded in Su Xingrou's mind.
She was stunned. The ending of the Void Obliteration Domain... wasn't him?
Her eyes widened little by little, as if she had finally grasped that fault line that had been ignored all along.
"In other words..." she murmured, "The survival of the Void Obliteration Domain can be predicted; the outcome of the great battle can be written; but he himself is not within this trajectory of destiny?"
The old man nodded slightly. "That's exactly right."
Su Xingrou's breathing quickened noticeably. She shook her head instinctively, her speech accelerating involuntarily. "But that's impossible. Since the founding of the Star-Net Immortal Hall, there has never been a 'person who cannot be deduced.' Whether they are chosen ones, those who defy fate, or even those abandoned by the era, as long as they exist within the Source of Epochless, their destiny will inevitably leave a trace. Not to mention the Star-Net Fate-Returning Core! Deduction..."
She looked up, her gaze carrying an almost accusatory tone for the first time. "Ancestor, then who exactly is he?"
The old man did not respond to the question.
He simply raised the divine staff in his hand slowly, and the ancient star-patterned core at the tip of the staff once again shone with an extremely dim light. This time, it was no longer a simple activation, but a gesture that was almost a forced interrogation of the origin of destiny.
The Star-Net Fate-Returning Core suddenly trembled. It didn't rotate, but collapsed.
It was as if some originally stable astrological structure had been forcibly pried open with a crack that shouldn't have existed. In that instant, all the existing star charts, life lines, and world reflections in the secret room lost their form, falling into nothingness as if erased.
Then, an unprecedented scene slowly unfolded before them. It was not a "world," nor could it even be called "space."
There is no heaven and earth, no before and after time, no cause and effect. All structures that attempt to be "understood" are...
It disintegrated the moment it appeared, as if the realm itself refused to be contained by any form of cognition.
Concepts lose their weight in it.
Logic cannot stand in this situation.
Cause and effect are like lingering shadows before they even begin to form, extinguished before they can even sprout.
That was a realm beyond description.
It is neither chaos nor nothingness. Chaos can still evolve, and nothingness can still be referred to, but here, even the opposition between "existence" and "Does Not Exist" is completely erased.
In the depths of that fractured field of vision, some unnamed "constructional remnants" occasionally emerge. They are neither life, nor energy, nor will, but a strange state between "intention" and "destruction." They repel each other, yet cannot truly separate, like mutually exclusive projections of all universes at the Ultimate level.
Every slight change in the structure causes a violent disruption to the known world's astrological framework, only to return to its original state in the next instant, as if the disruption had never occurred.
Su Xingrou glanced at it only once before instinctively looking away. It wasn't fear, but a deeper, unbearable feeling.
She discovered that whenever she tried to "understand" that scene, a subtle yet uncontrollable sense of rupture would surface deep within her Fate Soul.
It was as if if she continued to gaze, her own "logic of existence" would be negated by that realm.
The old man's voice rang out again at this moment. "This is where Source of Epochless will go after he leaves."
"It does not belong to any known era, does not accept any narrative framework, and is not allowed to be conceived, named, or recorded."
We will never know what it really is.
As the old man finished speaking, the Star-Net Fate-Returning Core did not extinguish as before. Quite the opposite.
The Ultimate divination treasure, suspended in the center of the secret chamber, exhibited an anomaly for the first time that contradicted all the records of the Star-Net Immortal Hall.
There was no burst of light, no unfolding of star trails, and no cycle of destiny; instead, the "presence" of the entire secret chamber was forcibly suppressed in an instant.
It was as if something was refusing to be further deduced.
The patterns on the surface of the Star-Net Fate-Returning Core began to dim one by one. Those destiny markings that once pierced through the upper and lower layers of the Source of Epochless were as if they were being gently stroked by some invisible hand, losing their meaning inch by inch. They were not being erased, but rather determined to be no longer applicable.
Before Su Xingrou could even speak, a scene finally appeared deep within the core of the Fate-Returning Core.
In the scene, there is no heaven or earth, no flow of time, and no boundaries of space.
That was a region that could not be called a "world," a place where all concepts existing in the Source of Epochless existed: cause and effect, fate, logic, reincarnation, nothingness, existence and Does Not Exist.
They all seem to have been disassembled and then rearranged, existing in a state where they have not yet been rearranged.
In the very center of that area, there was only one person: Qin Yu.
He stood there silently, without any fighting stance or releasing any power. His figure was so clear it was almost blinding.
Yet he is completely detached from everything around him, as if he is not "standing in it," but rather the entire scene has to revolve around him to be presented.
There was no ground beneath his feet, yet he remained as steady as a rock.
He has no past behind him, nor can he see the future.
At this moment, the Star-Net Fate-Returning Core could not mark any destiny lines for him, could not define any realm level for him, and even the question of "where he is" lost its basis.
Su Xingrou's breath hitched.
She clearly sensed that this was not the "final battle of the Void Obliteration Domain" she had previously deduced, nor was it any scene about victory, defeat, survival, or death.
This is a perspective outside of the Source of Epochless.
It is a fragment that the Fate-Returning Core glimpses after being forced to push beyond its own Limit, a fragment belonging only to "that person".
Just then, the scene began to change for the second time. Qin Yu slowly raised his head.
That wasn't an action of "looking at something," but rather a silent response to the entire deduction process itself.
There was no eye contact. There was no outward display of power.
But at that very moment, the core of the Star-Net Fate-Returning Core trembled violently, as if it were bearing unbearable reverse pressure.
A subtle sense of dislocation began to appear in the entire secret room, as if reality was being recalibrated by some higher-level entity.
For the first time, the old man's expression truly changed.
It wasn't shock, but a solemn acceptance, almost like confirmation.
"Xingrou," he said softly, "Do you understand now?"
Su Xingrou nodded with difficulty, her voice trembling slightly, yet exceptionally clear:
"Ancestor... that's not the future." "That's his current level."
The moment the words were spoken, the screen abruptly collapsed. Not shattered, but forcibly terminated.
All the luster of the Star-Net Fate-Returning Core vanished in an instant, transforming back into a silent, ancient core.
It was as if everything that had just happened had never existed.
The secret room returned to silence.
After a long while, Su Xingrou finally spoke, her tone devoid of any hesitation:
"Ancestor, what we've been deducing from beginning to end has only been the Source of Epochless." "And Qin Yu— "
She paused for a moment, as if to confirm whether the conclusion itself could still be conveyed by language.
He is no longer within the scope of 'deduction'.
The old man sighed softly, his staff pausing slightly.
"Yes." So all we can see is him there.
"But we will never know how, when, or where he will be."
Outside the secret chamber, the Milky Way above the Star-Net Immortal Hall continued to flow, as if nothing had ever changed.
Su Xingrou's lips turned slightly pale. She finally understood.
It's not that the Star-Net Fate-Returning Core has failed. Rather, it's that Qin Yu's fate will eventually reach a level that even the Source of Epochless cannot cover.
His future is no longer a "node in the world line," but the beginning of the world line itself being forced to give way.