Qin Yu took a step forward, his sword intent still lingering. The remaining branches and shadows around him, cut away by the "Soulless Annihilation Abyss Sword," continued to collapse silently. The void seemed to have a bone ripped out, emitting a faint yet piercing cracking sound. His gaze fell upon the Logic-Extinguishing Divine Phoenix, its massive nine-winged remains slowly breaking free from the entangled deadly trap.
The Annihilation Starflame on the feathers flickered like dying embers, their light fading with each passing moment. Phoenix blood dripped along the veins of the feathers, falling into the air only to be frozen into strings of crimson-gold beads by the chill of Eternal Silence Return to the Ruins. Within these beads, the last glimmer of life in its pupils was still reflected.
Qin Yu's heart sank. He quickened his pace, his palm about to reach out to protect the crack in the Phoenix's Fate Soul essence, when suddenly, the almost extinguished chest of the Logic-Extinguishing Divine Phoenix trembled violently, as if someone had snapped the last string from within. A very short, mournful cry burst from its throat.
The wailing had no propagation, no sound waves, no echoes, and didn't even have time to take shape in the concept of "sound." Qin Yu only felt a sudden whiteness before his eyes—not light, but the blankness after all colors had been erased simultaneously. In the next instant, the edge of the Eternal Silence Return to the Ruins was torn open like a page of paper.
The so-called "Logicless Domain" exploded into a thin veil of absolute negation in its instinct before its demise. The moment the veil brushed past Qin Yu, his Fate Soul foundation was as if it had been ripped up from the very bottom by an invisible blade, along with a section of his newly stabilized causal network, which was forcibly gouged out.
The pain wasn't the pain of a wound, but the pain of "existence being denied," as if everything about himself from birth to this moment had been pressed into ashes and rewritten. Qin Yu didn't even have time to groan before he was sent flying backward by that instantaneous, absolute denial.
The void beneath his feet was shattered by his impact, leaving a trail of dark, broken patterns, like a mirror cracking into countless spiderwebs. The fragments didn't fall, but remained suspended in the air, scattering with his figure hundreds of meters away. The mouthful of blood he coughed up finally escaped his lips, only to be instantly obliterated into an invisible mist by "unreasonable" actions.
His vision was filled with nothing but a vast expanse of out-of-focus white and black, churning and swirling. There was no sound in his ears; even his own heartbeat seemed to be held still. Time seemed to be frozen in an endless block of ice.
He forcefully steadied himself, the Silent Origin Stainless Sword piercing the void. A deep, dark crack appeared where the sword tip struck, serving as a fulcrum. Qin Yu knelt on one knee, his knuckles white, the Fate Soul pattern between his brows trembling violently, like a star ring on the verge of shattering.
He gritted his teeth and forcefully pulled the scattered Fate Soul back into his body, but his consciousness was still falling, as if it would be dragged into the void of "never being established" at any moment by that mournful cry.
Just then, a chill suddenly ran through the depths of his consciousness. A very faint "clang" sound seemed to come from a great distance, yet also seemed to echo in his ear. Immediately afterward, a wisp of azure light spread out from the depths of his Fate Soul. The azure light was neither blazing nor intense, but carried an almost calm composure, like pressing a shattered star map back into place.
The moment the azure light fell, the edges of Qin Yu's Fate Soul that had been "unreasonably" shaved off stopped collapsing. Instead, it was as if the cracks were being stitched together by fine azure chains. The Azure Ring's aura flashed through his sea of consciousness, carrying a lazy and impatient chill.
The small figure merely raised a hand beside the Void Divine Tree, causing the azure light to form a thin protective barrier on Fate Soul. This barrier did not directly clash with "Unreasonableness," but instead firmly pinned the torn part of Qin Yu's "existence" back onto his own body.
To allow him to breathe again, to hear his heartbeat, and to distinguish between white and black in his vision once more.
Qin Yu slowly straightened up, his chest still heaving heavily, but he was no longer out of control. He raised his hand to wipe away the remaining bloodstains from his lips; the bloodstains vanished the moment they touched his fingertips, just as that attack had not allowed even "blood" to remain. Ahead, the remains of the Logic-Extinguishing Divine Phoenix began to disintegrate silently.
It no longer struggled, no longer roared. Its nine wings were like ashes blown away by the wind, the Annihilation Starflame extinguished bit by bit, and finally only a very faint phoenix shadow flashed in the void before being swallowed up by the coldness of Eternal Silence Return to the Ruins, leaving not even a trace of warmth.
The world regained its voice; the shadows of branches continued to writhe in the distance, like the tide remembering how it was meant to engulf everything.
Qin Yu stood still, his Silent Origin Stainless Sword pointing diagonally at the horizon-like void. His gaze was fixed on the spot where the Logic-Extinguishing Divine Phoenix had disappeared. There was no furious rage in his pupils, only a coldness that had been forced to the Ultimate.
Azure Ring's figure slowly solidified on Qin Yu's right shoulder. She was still only the size of a palm, standing barefoot on his shoulder bone, her long, dark blue hair hanging down, the translucent blue flames at the ends burning quietly in the grayness of the Eternal Silence Return to the Ruins.
She glanced down at Qin Yu's still-unsettled Fate Soul fluctuations, her light blue pupils narrowing slightly. She then raised her head, her gaze coldly sweeping over the slowly writhing world around them. Her voice wasn't loud, but it carried a chilling aura that seemed to freeze the very void itself:
"Not bad, you actually managed to fool my Little Qinzi and even dared to seriously injure him." Her ankle twitched slightly, and the extremely thin cyan chain jingled softly. The broken bell emitted a deep and long "clang—," the sound seemingly striking not the air but directly upon the very foundation of this space. "Now you can leave. Your illusion ends here."
The moment the words left her lips, Azure Ring raised her right hand, casually holding the broken sword upside down. She didn't even assume any starting stance; she simply flicked the broken sword forward with a very light touch.
At that moment, Qin Yu felt as if his vision had been pressed down from the middle and then torn apart to both sides. There was no explosion of light, no burst of light; instead, an extremely quiet collapse began to spread. The air seemed to have been peeled away, revealing the dry, grayish-white bone beneath.
The countless entangled void branches froze in mid-air, their surfaces covered with dense cracks. What flowed from the cracks was not energy, but rows of torn illusory afterimages: mountains, starlight, phoenix blood, and wailing cries. They were all like shadows painted on the water, ruffled and twisted by an invisible wind, before peeling off in pieces.
The azure flames spread from beneath Azure Ring's feet, but instead of burning any physical substance, they crawled along the "edge of perception" of space. Wherever they passed, everything that could be "seen," "heard," or "felt" simultaneously became ineffective. Qin Yu clearly saw that...
The ground beneath his feet seemed to have been turned upside down, the previous tragic and cruel scene stripped away to reveal its true nature: a desolate, starless, and windless Gray Domain, layers upon layers of void and fracture resembling a giant array of tombstones.
Spanning the horizon, the illusion was no longer "destroyed" at this moment, but was directly negated as "never having existed," leaving not even a trace behind.
As the last glimmer of illusory light and shadow dissipated, Qin Yu's breath caught in his throat.
This is true Eternal Silence Return to the Ruins.
There were no trees, no intelligible "landscapes," only a vast, chillingly gray void, in which countless broken fragments of existence floated, as if forcibly torn from some complete world.
Frozen in place, each fragment contains a different law of death, yet they do not interfere with each other, forming a strange and stable balance.
Not far in front of him, a massive shadow, so large it obscured his entire field of vision, slowly unfolded.
That was a true Divine Phoenix.
Its body stretched across the void, its outstretched wings like two curtains of the sky, burned and reborn. Each feather bore the marks of destruction and rebirth, and a dark red and ghostly gold light flowed between its veins, as if the lingering warmth of countless rebirths.
Its body seemed to be forged from star debris and ancient flames. As its chest rose and fell, space collapsed and then recovered, forming visible ripples. Its phoenix head was held high, and its crown feathers resembled a shattered royal crown, exuding an undeniable aura of power.
Its gaze is cold, ancient, and full of scrutiny.
However, it didn't actually happen to Qin Yu.
Those phoenix eyes, burning with deep, dark flames, looked past Qin Yu and locked onto his right shoulder, where a petite yet strikingly prominent figure stood— Azure Ring.
In that instant, Qin Yu clearly felt that the pressure in the air was not directed at him, but rather that two beings far beyond conventional understanding were silently engaging in their first true confrontation. The gloom of Eternal Silence Return to the Ruins seemed to deepen at this moment, as if it was voluntarily yielding the stage for the impending collision.
Qin Yu steadied himself, raised his hand to wipe away the lingering traces of the Fate Soul- shaking shock from the corner of his mouth, and his gaze, sharp as a cold blade, pierced straight at the colossal shadow that obscured the void before him. His voice was low and icy. "Hmph, Logic-Extinguishing Divine Phoenix, you are indeed insidious, actually using such layers upon layers of illusions to deceive me."
Deep within the void, the Divine Phoenix, obscuring the sky and sun, slowly lowered its head. Dark flames swirled within its phoenix eyes, and its voice was no longer the mournful cry that had previously torn apart heaven and earth.
Instead, a low, mournful echo, tinged with ancient irony, resounded directly at the level of consciousness. "You're wrong, Qin Yu. This illusion was never prepared for you; you stepped into it yourself."
It slightly spread its wings, its feathers casting shattered streaks of light in the void. "This was originally designed for the children of the Void Evolution Causality-Replenishing Marrow who were trying to escape from this place. If she steps into it, there will be no turning back. I know she is in this Eternal Silence Return to the Ruins, but I have been unable to continue tracking her. So I created this illusion to make her appear on her own, so that she will think I am in imminent danger and I can trap her there."
At that moment, Qin Yu suddenly understood.
He finally understood that those seemingly cruel scenes, the fake near-death experiences and wails, were not hunting, but imprisonment. The Void Evolution Causality-Replenishing Marrow could not be directly Annihilation; only when the Fate Soul was completely locked, and consciousness and causality were trapped within a specific logic, could it be eliminated.
Only then can she be completely stripped away. The so-called "being swallowed by Eternal Silence Return to the Ruins and desolation" of the Logic-Extinguishing Divine Phoenix is nothing but bait, a trap that is enough to lure her out. As long as she has the thought of rescuing, she will take the initiative to step into this prison whose ending has already been written.
Qin Yu's gaze suddenly turned cold.
The Azure Ring on his right shoulder swayed gently around his ankle, the thin chain and the broken bell producing a crisp, cold tinkling sound. She tilted her head, looking at the Divine Phoenix, her tone filled with undisguised contempt. "Tsk, I really didn't expect that a mere chick would actually learn to set up such a scheme."
That cry of "little chick" seemed to ignite a string that had been taut for a long time.
The Logic-Extinguishing Divine Phoenix suddenly raised its head, its wings flapping wildly. Its roar was no longer a single sound wave, but transformed into layers of visible "final rhythms." Under the influence of this roar, the void began to collapse and fracture irregularly.
As if all comprehensible structures had lost their support in that instant, its massive body began to shrink violently amidst the raging flames and dark red light. Its wings, phoenix head, and torso were forcibly compressed and reconstructed. The Annihilation Starflame no longer spread outwards but were instead completely gathered into a humanoid outline that was constantly taking shape.
The flames gradually died down.
As the last phoenix feather dissipated into shattered light, a figure stood silently in the void.
He was a tall, slender man, yet his aura was so heavy it seemed to bear the weight of the entire Return to the Ruins. His skin had a cold, almost grayish-white quality, like an ancient skeleton repeatedly tempered by starlight, yet its surface was shimmering with interwoven dark red and ghostly gold patterns.
Those light patterns were not decorations, but rather "fractal marks" left after the nine pairs of wings were compressed, extending like cracks along the spine to both sides.
Nine faint, illusory wings could be seen appearing and disappearing behind him, and with each breath, there was a subtle tremor as space was cut and then healed.
His long hair cascaded down to his waist, its color not pure black, but rather like the faint glow of a burnt-out flame, with a very faint starlight burning at the ends of each strand, neither bright nor extinguished. Between his brows, a vertical, crack-like mark slowly opened and closed.
Like a third eye that has not yet fully opened, what flows inside is not light, but the Annihilation will to "deny the existence of everything".
Those eyes lowered as they looked at Qin Yu, but then in the next instant, they looked past him and locked onto Azure Ring again, revealing genuine fear in their gaze for the first time.
His robes seemed to be woven from solidified starlight and shattered laws, with no clear boundaries beneath the hem, blending naturally into the void. Each step he took seemed to cut a new crack in what was originally a stable existence.
The Logic-Extinguishing Divine Phoenix, human form.
At this moment, the deathly silence of Eternal Silence Return to the Ruins was no longer just a backdrop, but seemed to be awakened by this form.
They began to slowly shrink and converge towards this battlefield, as if waiting for a true, head-on confrontation that could not be obscured by any illusion.