Within the desolate, five-dimensional interlayer of the Cinder-Bone Desolate Marsh, there was no wind, only a silence like the settling of ashes slowly flowing between the folds of space. The surrounding void was folded by Qin Yu's supernatural powers into layers of "visible blackness."
Like countless layers of Ultimate thin night sky stacked together, isolating the outside world's clamor and prying eyes from the Void Obliteration Domain, Zhou Wanning's inky gold Void Evolution Causality-Replenishing Marrow hovered in front of her palm. Silver-white Void Evolution Causality Threads, like tiny galaxies, entwined its surface, while the crystal itself resembled a still, black sun.
The warmth was abnormal. Zhou Yujin stood to the side, his fingers unconsciously clenching, his knuckles turning white. He even deliberately suppressed his breathing, as if taking an extra breath would disturb the fragile, spiderweb-like connection between the crystal core and his sister's Fate Soul.
Qin Yu looked up at Zhou Wanning, his voice extremely steady, "Wanning, from now on, don't resist it, nor actively guide it. It will instinctively retaliate. You just need to guard your mind and remember who you are."
Zhou Wanning nodded gently, his eyes filled with tension, but even more so with determination. Zhou Yujin opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end only uttered a few words, "Hold on, little sister." At that very moment, Azure Ring silently appeared between Qin Yu's brows, her petite figure landing on his right shoulder. Her long, dark blue hair reached her ankles, and the translucent blue flames at the ends of her hair floated on their own in the still air.
The thin chain around her ankle caused the cracked, broken bell to sway gently, making a "clang" like a nail being driven into the darkness, causing Zhou Yujin's heart to skip a beat. Azure Ring, however, just smiled and glanced at the crystal core. "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. Little Qinzi will do it. You just need to watch."
As she finished speaking, the Azure Ring rings under her eyes slowly rotated, like circles of Annihilation Pattern " around her into a silent depths. Qin Yu flipped his palm, and the Three Forms of Fate Construction of Cause and Effect Deconstruction quietly unfolded between his fingers. At first, there was no light, only strands of extremely fine dark silver lines overflowing from his fingertips, as if he had forcibly peeled causal fibers from the void.
As soon as those fibers appeared, the entire interlayer seemed to be twisted by an invisible hand. Zhou Yujin even saw countless faint, almost invisible "lines" suddenly appear between her chest and Zhou Wanning, between Zhou Wanning and the Void Evolution Causality-Replenishing Marrow, and between the crystal core and this world.
They were neither light nor air, but a form of "connection itself," which Qin Yu slowly picked out, separated, and dismantled with his fingertips, like unraveling a giant net spanning millennia. Qin Yu's gaze was almost icy calm. With a gentle tug, the first principal causal bundle was straightened, emitting a barely audible cracking sound, as if someone had snapped a fragile bone at a great distance.
Immediately afterward Void Evolution Causality-Replenishing Marrow suddenly trembled slightly, and the silvery-white causal threads on the crystal surface abruptly expanded, transforming into countless fine lines that pierced outwards, as if trying to hook back onto the edge of the world. Zhou Wanning's face instantly turned pale, and fine sweat beaded on her forehead. It felt as if she had been struck by a heavy hammer deep within her sea of consciousness; the shadow of her old ailment and the scorching heat of the crystal core surged simultaneously.
Zhou Yujin stepped forward, almost reaching out to support her, but was stopped by a very slight look from Qin Yu. "Don't move." Qin Yu's fingers were terrifyingly steady. He dismantled the second causal bundle with even greater force. The dark silver patterns condensed into a tiny vortex in the air. As the vortex closed, the thickest connecting thread between Zhou Wanning and Source of Epochless's main sequence structure seemed to have been peeled away.
The "Fate Soul pattern" pulsating within was revealed. For a moment, Zhou Wanning's pupils went slightly out of focus, as if she had briefly lost her coordinates in the world's "acknowledgment." The space beneath her feet rippled silently like the surface of water, and even her shadow was stretched long and blurred.
At that moment, Azure Ring stretched out her small hand, and with a flick of her fingertip, ten layers of dark blue soul wheels suddenly lit up inside her skirt, unfolding like extremely fine dark blue glass rings, instantly pressing the "belonging" around the Void Evolution Causality-Replenishing Marrow into a deeper cavity, a cavity without direction or distance.
Only a section of the Annihilation chapter that she forcibly wrote was taking shape. Zhou Yujin felt his scalp tingle as he looked at it. He could clearly feel that it was not a protective shield, but a more terrifying "judgment": a judgment that the host record of this crystal core no longer belonged to this world.
Taking advantage of the situation, Qin Yu struck with his finger for the third time. The patterns of Cause and Effect Deconstruction suddenly intensified, like countless tiny blades simultaneously sharpening in the void. A faint dark gold light suddenly appeared behind Zhou Wanning, as if all the cracks in her Fate Soul that had been oppressed by fate, the dark corners eroded by disease, and the fear of being hunted down were forcibly projected at this moment. Then, the crystal core suddenly shattered, releasing millions of golden threads. The golden threads did not radiate outwards, but rather curled back inwards.
As if to completely lock Zhou Wanning's Fate Soul into a vessel, Zhou Wanning gritted her teeth, her fingertips trembling slightly but she did not back down. She breathed heavily, using almost all her willpower to stabilize herself from being swallowed up by that "recognition of mastery." Zhou Yujin finally couldn't help but call out in a trembling voice, "Sister—" As soon as the voice fell, irregular interference suddenly appeared in the causal layer. The darkness in the interlayer seemed to be swept by some unseen giant eye, and strange gray-white patterns suddenly seeped out from the folds of the distant void.
The patterns resembled chaotic runes or fragments of a broken narrative, exhibiting a "desire to pursue" that did not belong to this place. They attempted to climb back along the Void Evolution Causality Threads of the crystal core, like countless tiny hands trying to grasp the name of the "target".
Zhou Yujin felt a chill run down his spine. Almost instantly, he realized that something was searching for them through layers of space. Qin Yu's expression remained unchanged, though his gaze grew colder. Azure Ring, however, snorted first, flicking her small hand. The cracked, broken bell, attached to the thin chain around her ankle, swayed gently, exploding with a "clang" within the interlayer into a circle of dark blue ripples.
Those grayish-white tracking patterns seemed to have their very bones shattered by the sound of a bell. They paused for a moment, then crumbled into pieces, turning into a cloud of meaningless dust that was swept into the bottom layer by the Soul Wheel. Before they could even struggle, Azure Ring lazily sat back on Qin Yu's right shoulder, a smirk playing on her lips. "You dare to reach for such trivial matters?"
In the instant she neutralized the interference, Qin Yu completed the final dismantling. The dark silver ring at his fingertips suddenly contracted into a single point, transforming into the severed point of "existence recognition," which he then completely uprooted with a final pull of Cause and Effect Deconstruction. The dark gold light and shadow behind Zhou Wanning abruptly collapsed, and the millions of golden threads shattered from the Void Evolution Causality-Replenishing Marrow paused in mid-air for a moment, as if the heavens and earth held their breath.
The millions of golden threads did not continue to bind Zhou Wanning. Instead, they were absorbed and rewritten layer by layer by Azure Ring's tenfold soul wheel. Within the soul wheel, the golden threads transformed into finer, darker, and more Nameless patterns, eventually returning to the crystal core. The crystal core closed again, the size of a lotus seed, its inky gold color unchanged, but in the instant it closed, it lost the sharpness that had been "recorded by the world."
It still floated near Zhou Wanning's Fate Soul, like a word whose title had been erased from a book—it existed, but could no longer be identified. Zhou Wanning gasped for breath, as if struggling to escape from drowning; her chest heaved violently, cold sweat trickling down her face. She raised her hand to her chest, her eyes reddening, but she didn't collapse. Zhou Yujin rushed over to support her.
Her voice was hoarse and trembling, "Wanning, how... how are you feeling?" Zhou Wanning shook her head, panting, her voice soft but firm, "I'm fine... it... is still there, but I can't feel that coldness of being chased anymore."
Qin Yu withdrew his hand, the dark silver patterns on his fingertips disappearing into his palm. It was as if dismantling the causal web of an entire world was merely a fleeting breath to him. He looked at the crystal core, his gaze calm. "From this moment on, its host record no longer belongs to the main sequence of the Source of Epochless. It Entering Stillness Realm. If the Thought Severance Devouring Emperor tries to trace it, it will only find a blank page."
Azure Ring swung her little feet on his shoulder, laughing triumphantly, "Little Qinzi, all done! Wanning's got a tough life, she can handle it." Zhou Yujin felt as if a huge burden had been lifted off his shoulders, almost collapsing as he sat down, his hand still trembling slightly as he supported his sister. He looked up at Qin Yu.
His eyes were filled with the excitement and awe of surviving a calamity. "Brother Qin... thank you... thank you so much..." Qin Yu simply nodded, but his gaze never wavered, as if he could already hear the echo of some shadow churning in the deep sea of cause and effect in the distance.
But at least for now, the Void Evolution Causality-Replenishing Marrow within Zhou Wanning's body has been completely hidden in an untraceable depth. Her Fate Soul still exists, her vitality still exists, but the trail of pursuit has been severed so that there is nowhere left to fall.
The Cinder-Bone Desolate Marsh Transcendent Five-Dimensional Space gradually regained its serene, ashen rhythm. After the Void Evolution Causality-Replenishing Marrow returned to the "untraceable" bottom line deep within Zhou Wanning's sea of consciousness, the entire interlayer seemed to shed a heavy layer of oppression.
Zhou Wanning raised her head, her gaze towards Qin Yu no longer merely filled with gratitude, but with an almost reverent trust and tenderness. She slowly bowed, her voice soft yet firm. "Wanning thanks Young Master Qin again, Young Master Qin. Wanning great kindness."
As she spoke, her gaze involuntarily fell on the petite woman in Qingyi standing to Qin Yu's right shoulder. The woman was no more than sixteen centimeters tall; her pale, almost translucent skin gleamed faintly with a bluish glow in the dim light of the void. Her long, dark blue hair reached her ankles, the ends of which transformed into semi-transparent blue flames that hovered suspended, and her pupils had no pupils.
Only slowly rotating pale Azure Ring rings emanated from her. She stood barefoot on Qin Yu's shoulder, a thin chain around her ankle dragging a cracked, broken bell, hanging silently. A sudden, indescribable awe rose in Zhou Wanning's heart. It wasn't the oppressive aura of a powerful presence, but an instinctive intuition that she was "unbearable to look at," as if looking at her with ordinary eyes would touch some kind of Annihilation origin.
Azure Ring didn't seem to care at all. She stretched, rubbed her eyes, and said in a light tone as if she had just finished a trivial task, "Alright, Little Qinzi, things are perfectly settled. I'm going back to sleep now."
Qin Yu nodded slightly, but sent a telepathic message to Qinghuan: "Azure Ring, why have you been so sleepy lately?"
Azure Ring tilted her head, smiling mischievously, "Silly girl, can't you feel it? I'm getting closer and closer to awakening my Blue Ring. When that happens... you'll be able to track Yan Yue's Fate Soul aura."
The moment those words fell, Qin Yu felt as if he had been struck by an invisible bolt of lightning. Time seemed to stretch out in his mind. (Yan Yue)
That name seemed to slowly walk towards him from the farthest reaches of time and space. She was not Ruishan's gentleness, nor Qingwan's obsession, nor Hanyan's sharpness. She was the only one who truly stood shoulder to shoulder with him through life and death, and embraced him in the face of death in desperate situations.
The shattered scene of the Heavenly Emanation Treasure Realm surged deep within his mind. He and Yan Yue were besieged by nine beings at the Supreme Annihilation Dawn Realm. In the end, the mysterious powerhouse Void Threshold Empress Huayan, who called herself the "Fate Soul's Righteous Wife," tore through space, completely binding the nine beings' Fate Soul to the Annihilation Abyss Epoch, ensuring their eternal protection. Finally, she took the severely injured Yan Yue away.
Moreover, before leaving, he left behind the last words, "When Blue Ring awakens, she will naturally know where she is." Those words were like an anchor that sank into the deep sea, weighing on his heart for many years.
Now, Azure Ring has personally told him that Blue Ring is about to awaken.
A long-lost warmth welled up in his eyes, and he barely noticed that his eyes were already slightly moist. It wasn't weakness, but the breaking of hope after being suppressed for too long.
Azure Ring looked at him with a grin, then transformed into a streak of azure light and entered his mind's eye. The broken bell rang softly once, then fell silent.
Zhou Wanning and Zhou Yujin exchanged a glance and noticed that Qin Yu had suddenly lost his focus, his expression showing an emotional fluctuation they had never seen before.
"Young Master Qin?" "Brother Qin?" The soft calls seemed to pull him back from the depths of the sea.
Qin Yu snapped out of his daze, let out a soft breath, and regained his composure. "Oh, it's nothing, it's nothing."
He looked at the brother and sister, his gaze clear and firm once more. "Next, I will take you both back to the Chaos First Palace to stay."
"The Chaos First Palace?" Zhou Wanning and Zhou Yujin were both shocked.
One of the five great temples of the Void Obliteration Domain, ranking fourth among the top temples, it is a sacred place that countless cultivators cannot reach even after a lifetime of effort.
Moreover, if one can enter and become an outer disciple, one is already among the best of the hundreds of millions of cultivators in the entire Void Obliteration Domain.
Qin Yu smiled faintly, "Oh, I forgot to tell you two, I am the only guest elder of the Chaos First Palace. So there will be no obstacles in taking you back to the temple."
The air fell silent for a moment. Zhou Yujin opened her mouth, but couldn't utter a word for a long time.
Zhou Wanning was even more shocked. She had thought Qin Yu was just a genius, but she never expected him to have reached such a height.
The only guest advisor. She knew all too well what that meant.
Not an outer disciple, not an inner disciple, not a core disciple.
Rather, they were beings who could speak on equal footing with the temple and its master. The two were deeply shocked, yet unsure how to express it.
Qin Yu simply raised his hand, and space folded slightly at his fingertips. A silent void rift unfolded in front of him like a black body of water, Void Obliteration Domain faintly echoed on the other side of the rift.
He turned to look at the brother and sister, his tone calm yet powerful. "Let's go."
The next moment, three figures disappeared into the depths of space, heading towards the location of the Chaos First Palace.