Qin Yu turned his head, his voice low and steady, and said to the Azure Ring on his right shoulder, "Azure Ring, leave the rest to me. I can handle Severed Thought Realm · Initial Stage. Consider this a real training opportunity."
Azure Ring sat on his shoulder, swinging her bare feet. The thin blue chain around her ankle jingled softly, and the broken bell emitted a faint yet clear echo. She lazily narrowed her eyes, a dangerous smile curving her lips, "Hmm, Little Qinzi. Very well, use this little chick to sharpen your blade and utterly Annihilation it."
The moment he finished speaking, Qin Yu's aura completely calmed down.
There was no anger, no murderous intent, and even the fighting spirit was compressed to the Ultimate, like a divine sword completely sheathed.
The next moment, he slowly raised his right hand, and the Silent Origin Stainless Sword silently appeared in his palm.
The sword was not dazzling, nor did it emit blazing light or exert any earth-shattering pressure. It was merely a nearly transparent, cold-colored outline, yet the surrounding void instinctively retreated to the sides, as if unwilling to make contact with it.
Where the sword's edge pointed, the deathly silence of the Eternal Silence Return to the Ruins was forcibly cut open with a tiny, yet unhealable, crack.
Qin Yu took a step forward, the void beneath his feet collapsing slightly as if compacted ashes. He raised his eyes to stare directly at the Nine-Winged Logic-Extinguishing Divine Phoenix, which had now transformed into human form, his voice cold and devoid of any emotion. "Come on. Today, let me see just how much skill you truly possess in your so-called name of Annihilation."
The Nine-Winged Divine Phoenix opposite him slowly raised its head, its wispy wings, like cleaving blades, gently unfurling behind it. Annihilation Starflame flowed along the light patterns around its body, and its eyes no longer held any contempt.
All that remained was a chilling excitement born from being truly provoked, like an ancient, ferocious bird that had finally waited for its prey to voluntarily step into its attack range.
Deep within the Eternal Silence Return to the Ruins, countless unspeakable low murmurs began to resonate, as if playing a silent prelude to the impending battle.
Sword and flame stood facing each other. At this moment, the Return to the Ruins was still, yet it seemed as if an imminent catastrophe was about to begin.
A sudden stillness descended upon the depths of Eternal Silence Return to the Ruins.
The Logic-Extinguishing Divine Phoenix stood in the void, its wings, like blades cleaving across the world, slowly unfurling. Each feather tip flowed with cold, dim Annihilation Starflame —not fire, but the "final result" compressed to its Limit.
It made no prelude, not even a gesture of raising its hand; the moment Qin Yu's gaze met itss, the Divine Phoenix's eyes completely collapsed.
It is no longer the pupil, no longer light. It is "nothingness".
In the next instant, two gray-white straight lines split open from the "nothingness," as if the universe itself had been cleaved open by an invisible blade.
The gray beams of light neither sped nor vibrated; they simply existed, yet appeared simultaneously with...
It has already transcended all concepts of speed, distance, time, and sequence, directly reaching Qin Yu's "edge of possibility."
"Slaughter the Cause and Sever the Effect"
Where the beam of light passed, there was no explosion, no tearing, not even a fold in space.
Colors were stripped away, meaning was erased, and the connections between all things, like a spider web ignited by an invisible fire, quietly turned to ashes.
There is no longer any "what happened" there, only a blank, forgotten void.
The world in Qin Yu's eyes was sliced in two in that instant.
It's not a spatial division, but rather his "path of existence" is being directly burned.
If hit head-on, he will neither die nor disappear; he will simply be "never existed" in the first place.
It was as if he had never been created, never stepped into the Eternal Silence Return to the Ruins, never stood here, and never even become the concept of "Qin Yu".
However, just as the gray beam of light was about to touch him, Qin Yu moved.
It's not dodging. It's not retreating. It's taking a step forward.
He raised his right hand, Silent Origin Stainless Sword fully materialized in his palm. The almost transparent, cold-colored outline on the sword's blade suddenly collapsed.
It transformed into a bottomless, silent, dark sword spine. There was no sword cry, no burst of power, only a sense of "judgment" that silenced the world instinctively.
Qin Yu's voice was deep and clear, echoing in the Eternal Silence Return to the Ruins, yet it did not rely on any medium.
"Three Forms of Fate Construction: Cause and Effect Deconstruction."
At that moment, he neither tried to "block" the two beams of light nor tried to "cut" them.
The Silent Origin Stainless Sword slowly moved sideways, its blade not aimed at the gray beams of light, but instead directly piercing their unmanifested "path of origin."
The point where the sword's edge touched was not light itself, but the initial logic upon which that supernatural power depended—the "inevitable connection" that existed by default between cause and effect.
A sudden jolt ran through the entire Eternal Silence Return to the Ruins.
For the first time, an anomaly appeared on the surface of the gray beam of light. Dense cracks now appeared on what was once an absolutely smooth and blank light path.
Those cracks are not a break in space, but a shattering of the "definition of cause and effect." It's as if a pre-written sketch of fate has been torn apart from its source.
Qin Yu's gaze remained calm, his swordplay unwavering. He took another step, the blade rotating inward, and uttered the second judgment in a low voice.
"Since there is no root, what can the fruit rely on?"
On the spine of the Silent Origin Stainless Sword, darkness suddenly spread, transforming into an invisible ripple of boundary structure that directly covered the entire area of the gray beam of light.
That's not an energy counteraction, but a logical rewriting, deconstructing the premise that "causal connections can be burned" into an empty proposition that cannot stand.
The next instant, the gray beam of light silently disintegrated in front of Qin Yu.
It wasn't that it was shattered; rather, it was as if it had never been successfully released in the first place.
The Divine Phoenix's pupils suddenly contracted.
For the first time, it truly took half a step back, the Annihilation Starflame surging violently around it, its aura, which had been as stable as divine law, crumbling.
A noticeable fluctuation occurred. It emitted a low, resonant sound, a sound that shook the Return to the Ruins —not anger, but confirmation.
They confirmed that the person before them was not prey that could be "eliminated at the rule level."
Qin Yu sheathed his sword, its tip pointing diagonally into the void. The Silent Origin Stainless Sword returned to its cold silence, but the severed path of "Slaughter the Cause and Sever the Effect" remained...
But it could never be restored. He raised his eyes to look at the Nine-Winged Divine Phoenix, his gaze calm, yet as deep as an abyss.
"I understand your fighting style." "It's not attacking." "It's deleting."
The Divine Phoenix slowly raised its head, the cracked blades on its wings trembling slightly, and the backdrop of Eternal Silence Return to the Ruins began to subtly distort.
It was as if a deeper power was being awakened. It finally spoke, its voice like an echo of countless endings superimposed.
"Since that's the case—" "Then let's see how far you can go before you're 'deleted'."
The Nine-Winged Divine Phoenix stood in the Eternal Silence Return to the Ruins void, its humanoid body upright and austere, its nine illusory wings, like Realm Splitting, not manifesting as physical forms.
Instead, it transforms into nine disjointed "shadows of existence," suspended behind him on different logical levels, not overlapping, yet all pointing to the same end: annihilation.
As he slowly raised his hand, the entire Return to the Ruins seemed to be pressed into an abyss by an invisible will, and the previously stagnant silence between heaven and earth suddenly began to "burn".
It is not the flickering of flames, but the spontaneous combustion of concepts, where space, time, direction, and distance simultaneously lose their meaning.
All comprehensible structures begin to spontaneously terminate; it is a realm that unfolds without hostility or judgment, where as long as you "exist," you are already in the sequence of being erased.
The Annihilation Starflame Domain fully expanded.
The ground beneath Qin Yu's feet silently crumbled into ash, and before the ashes could fall, they were swallowed up by a deeper layer of "negation."
For the first time Eternal Silence Return to the Ruins revealed clear hostility towards him, as if this forbidden zone itself was responding to the will of the Nine-Winged Divine Phoenix.
He forcibly eliminated all unacceptable variables. Qin Yu could clearly feel his breathing, heartbeat, and even the flow of his thoughts.
Everything is being peeled away layer by layer by an invisible force. If he continues to only deal with things on the surface, he will eventually be dragged into the fate of "rational annihilation".
At that very moment, Qin Yu closed his eyes. Not in retreat, but in sinking.
His consciousness no longer remained in his physical body, nor was it maintained by his outward supernatural powers. Instead, it suddenly plunged into the core of his own existence along the boundary network that was almost untouchable deep within his Fate Soul.
There was neither light nor darkness there, only countless self-written and self-denying boundary-constructing logics slowly rotating. That was the root of all his judgments, choices, Annihilation, and reconstructions along the way.
The Silent Origin Stainless Sword floats within this core, its blade no longer taking the form of a weapon, but rather resembling an absolute axis piercing through the boundary structure—neither a physical entity nor a concept, but rather "the judgment itself."
Qin Yu's consciousness completely merged with the sword. In that instant, the Silent Origin Stainless Sword underwent its first true "upgrade".
There were no outward manifestations of unusual phenomena, nor a sudden surge in power, but in Qin Yu's perception, the sword was no longer used to cut anything, but began to possess the level of "veto power".
It no longer inquires about the enemy's strength, realm, or supernatural powers, but directly examines a more fundamental question: whether it is permissible.
The moment Qin Yu opened his eyes, the entire Annihilation Starflame Domain suddenly froze. It wasn't being suppressed, but rather being "examined."
He slowly raised the Silent Origin Stainless Sword. Where the sword's edge pointed, the starlight did not extinguish, but rather began to show an undeniable misalignment and discontinuity.
It was as if this realm was being forced to accept a new standard of judgment. Qin Yu's voice was not loud, but it echoed clearly within the realm, carrying a calmness and stability that did not belong to the Stainless Realm.
"You rule by annihilation." "And I, I decide whether such a law is even necessary."
The sword fell.
There was no slashing trajectory, no burst of energy; only an extremely brief "blank judgment" emanated from the sword's edge. Wherever that blankness passed, the Annihilation Starflame was not dispersed, but it lost the legitimacy to continue expanding, like a narrative forcibly abruptly halted.
Frozen in the moment before it was completed, the Eternal Silence Return to the Ruins trembled once more. This time, it wasn't because of the power of the Divine Phoenix, but because a being at the Stainless Realm · Initial Stage was directly intervening and rewriting the combat logic of the Severed Thought Realm.
The Nine-Winged Divine Phoenix's pupils contracted sharply. For the first time, it truly scrutinized Qin Yu.
It's not about seeing through cultivation level, but about seeing through its essence—a way of being that can confront cause and effect, examine and judge, and, when necessary, overturn established conclusions.
The Nine-Winged Divine Phoenix slowly withdrew its hand, and the Annihilation Starflame re-condensed around it, but it was no longer as absolute as before. For the first time, clear and complex emotions appeared in its eyes.
Unbelievable.
A human at the Stainless Realm · Initial Stage actually achieved a truly equal and balanced confrontation with this being at the Severed Thought Realm · Initial Stage.
Even at the level of adjudication, they have subtly gained the upper hand.
"So that's how it is... No wonder you were able to Annihilation the Three Nether Yin Puppets beside Lord Silent Annihilation..." The Nine-Winged Divine Phoenix spoke in a low voice, its tone no longer solely cold, "So you weren't using your Source Power to fight me."
His gaze was fixed on the Silent Origin Stainless Sword in Qin Yu's hand. "You are fighting against cause and effect itself."