The voice of the Ji Nian soul was calm, yet it stirred an invisible tremor in the frozen ruins before the palace.
If you had to sacrifice one person to save all the worlds—who would you sacrifice?
The moment the sound faded, the surrounding ruins began to distort, the stone pillars turned into gray mist, the statues shattered into countless specks of light, the ground beneath Qin Yu's feet vanished, and he plummeted into a pure white void.
The void had no heaven and earth, no up and down, only a suspended disc slowly rotating, on which appeared faces— Ruishan, Qingwan, Yan Yue, Jin Hanyan, Zhou Wanning, Yun Yanwan, Yun Qiusheng... and even the Fate Soul imprints of countless cultivators from the Void Obliteration Domain.
On the other side of the disc, countless shattered worlds are falling.
A cold, authoritative voice of law resounded. "Choose one person to protect all realms."
Qin Yu's Fate Soul trembled violently in that instant. He knew that this was not an illusion from the Primordial Dao Seeking Realm, but a direct interrogation of the "order of existence".
The disc slowly rotated.
Yan Yue's figure appeared, her gaze as gentle as when they parted years ago, yet carrying a faint smile, as if waiting for his choice.
Jin Hanyan stood on the other side, her long hair fluttering in the air without wind, her eyes calm and firm, as if she already knew the answer.
"Choose." The void trembled, and cracks spread throughout the world.
Qin Yu slowly closed his eyes. He didn't answer immediately. He didn't struggle with his emotions. He simply raised his hand.
Within the Fate Soul, a golden and black intertwined radiance suddenly appeared— Heavenly Cause Judgment Sequence, Six Severances Seal, Master Book Seal Severance, Naming Reconstruction.
He didn't choose anyone. He chose to rewrite the problem itself.
The Six Severances Seal slowly unfolded in the void, the causal patterns weaving like a net of countless star rivers. His gaze calmly fell upon the suspended disc:
"The question itself is a flawed cause and effect." "The myriad worlds and one person are not inherently opposing propositions."
He pointed a finger down. On the disc, the causal relationship of the proposition "choose one person to protect all worlds" was forcibly deconstructed.
It's not about avoiding choices, but about reconstructing the causal structure.
Qin Yu's voice echoed within the Primordial Dao Seeking Realm: "If all realms are built on sacrifice, then this realm is unworthy of existence."
"If I must sacrifice one person to save the world, then I will first break the logic of this world, and then save all worlds."
Boom! The entire Primordial Dao Seeking Realm trembled violently. The faces on the disc vanished abruptly, and countless cracks appeared in the void.
For the first time, the voice of the Ji Nian soul carried a barely perceptible fluctuation.
"You refuse to sort?" Qin Yu opened his eyes. "I refuse to pay the price with love."
The Primordial Dao Seeking Realm suddenly collapsed. The next instant, he stood in an even darker space.
There were no illusions here. Only in the very center of a ruined temple, a tiny speck of grayish-white dust floated.
That was the Eternal Silent Thought Dust. Its light was extremely faint, yet it was as heavy as if it weighed down by the weight of eternal Annihilation.
The voice of the Ji Nian soul echoed once more, "To touch this mortal realm, one must pay the price with a fragment of memory."
"Give me one of your most important memories." Otherwise, it is untouchable.
The dust and light slowly spun, and countless fragments of memory appeared in the void.
The scene of Yan Yue's first meeting with him. The scene of Jin Hanyan shielding him from a fatal attack for the first time.
Scenes of countless cultivators perishing in the Black Sea War. Scenes of the early days of the Mother Realm.
Fragments of memory were laid out before him, as if being peeled away. "Choose one, offer it."
Qin Yu remained silent. This time, he did not directly use the Order Adjudication Divine Power.
This is not a propositional trap; it is an equivalent exchange.
He slowly raised his hand, and an extremely ancient memory surfaced deep within his Fate Soul.
That was his initial desire for "power" when he first embarked on his cultivation journey.
That longing contained resentment, loneliness, and anger at being trampled upon.
That was one of the original reasons why he became Qin Yu today.
He looked at that memory, then calmly said, "Take it."
Memories turned into light dust, slowly absorbed by the Silent Thought Dust. In an instant, Qin Yu's Fate Soul seemed to lighten slightly.
He is still himself. But that "original obsession" has been stripped away.
Silent Thought Dust shone brightly. The gray-white dust light exploded, unleashing a storm of Annihilation.
The ruins were fully revealed. At the end of the ruins, a real temple door appeared ahead.
The voice of the Ji Nian soul rang out for the last time: "You do not use love as a price, nor do you use obsession as a root." "Passed." The dust transformed into a thin stream and merged into Qin Yu's brow.
Annihilation Hall, the gray ruins, like the skeletons of time, stand silently in the gaps between thoughts.
The palace doors were half-closed, Eternal Silent Thought Dust, silent light flowed quietly deep within the palace. Ten feet in front of the doors, a gray-white figure, sixteen feet tall, stood silently.
It remained still, yet it caused the entire space to recede into Thought Stillness.
Its face bore a striking resemblance to that ancient powerful being, yet it was hollow, as if its very existence had been hollowed out. Its eyes had no pupils, no luster.
There were only two grayish-white voids, as if they were not "looking" at Qin Yu, but rather covering him in a way that was "Does Not Exist".
He was surrounded by mist, each wisp of which was so heavy it seemed to crush the void, like fragments of a collapsed Great Dao slowly floating.
Qin Yu took his first step. Ten zhang away, it was still breathable. Nine zhang away, the air began to thicken.
Eight feet. His thoughts slowed down.
A simple "movement forward" takes an extremely long time to fully take shape in the sea of consciousness.
Seven feet. His memory began to blur. He suddenly forgot whether he had just taken a step with his left or right foot.
Six zhang. A slight chill ran through his Fate Soul. Five zhang. Tiny translucency appeared at the edges of his body. Four zhang. A thought slowly emerged in his sea of consciousness.
"I could Does Not Exist." That thought, like a cold seed, slowly took root in the void.
Qin Yu's pupils contracted slightly. He finally understood. Thought Stillness had never attacked. It simply existed. And its existence was essentially "failed Annihilation."
Anything that comes close to it will be dragged into the same logic—if you admit that you might not exist, you will truly be denied.
Three zhang. Qin Yu's fingers began to turn translucent. Two zhang. His sea of consciousness was almost blank. In that instant...
Qin Yu did not activate any divine power, nor did he swing his sword. He did not release any wavering. He slowly closed his eyes.
He allowed the power of "denial" to erode his Fate Soul. The mist of Thought Stillness slowly approached his cheek.
The void seemed to be trying to rip him away. But deep within his consciousness, Qin Yu awakened a divine ability: [Void Source - Dream Stillness].
It's not an attack, but assimilation.
The power of the Void Source silently unfolded within him. He voluntarily relinquished all resistance, allowing his existence to enter a state of "dreamless and Consciousnessless."
It wasn't a denial, but a return to zero. In an instant, his Fate Soul sank into the deepest void.
Without contention, resistance, or attachment, the gray-white mist of Thought Stillness suddenly ceased.
For the first time, its empty eyes flickered with emotion. It realized that the person before it had not rejected it.
Qin Yu did not passively dissipate; he actively Annihilation. The Void Source: Dream Stillness suppressed all his thoughts into the "Realm of the Unborn."
The essence of Thought Stillness's existence is an unresolved attachment. Qin Yu's current state, however, is one of complete freedom from attachment.
There was no "I want to live." There was no "I want to win." There wasn't even "I want to take the Eternal Silent Thought Dust."
He simply stood there, like an undefined blank space. The mist of Thought Stillness began to swirl.
Its existence is based on an "unfinished mission": to guard the temple gates and kill the dust collectors.
But at this moment, Qin Yu had no intention of "taking", no intention of "advancing", and not even the thought of "enemy".
The Silent Void. The void trembled. Qin Yu slowly opened his eyes. He did not attack.
He simply looked at Thought Stillness and said softly, "You should have Annihilation." The moment his words fell, he raised his hand.
The Silent Origin Stainless Sword, the No-Thought Absolute Silence Sword. The sword was not yet drawn, but an invisible sword intent slowly spread out in the void.
It didn't sever the physical body, nor the foundation of one's Dao. It severed the "unbroken thoughts." That sword strike had no light.
There was no wind. There was no sound. Only a very thin, grayish-white crack slowly extended from between Thought Stillness's eyebrows.
Thought Stillness's body was not split open. But the unresolved obsession within it began to crumble.
A very soft sound echoed in the void, like a long-suppressed sigh. For a fleeting moment, Thought Stillness's empty eyes seemed to "see."
That wasn't murderous intent, but a sense of liberation. Qin Yu's Fate Soul remained as stable as a mountain.
He used the Void Source · Dream Stillness to prove his "non-existence," and then used the No-Thought Absolute Silence Sword to complete its unfinished task of severing thoughts.
Thought Stillness was not defeated. It was accomplished. The gray-white mist began to dissipate.
His sixteen-foot-tall body disintegrated inch by inch. Silently, without blood, without light.
Ultimately, it turned into a wisp of extremely faint dust, drifting into the depths of the Annihilation Hall, merging with the Eternal Silent Thought Dust.
The palace doors slowly opened completely. Inside, an even more ancient and somber aura gradually awakened.
Qin Yu stood before the door, his Fate Soul trembling slightly.
Annihilation Hall, amidst the gray ruins, Thought Stillness's previously empty eyes suddenly flickered with a very subtle ripple.
It wasn't light, but a wisp of consciousness.
The void trembled slightly for a moment, as if something dormant for billions of years had been awakened. Then, an ancient, broken voice, seemingly emanating from the very end of time, resounded directly in the deepest part of Qin Yu's consciousness—
You've come... I've been waiting for you... for so long.
The voice was neither intimidating nor hostile, but it carried a weariness bordering on collapse.
Qin Yu's consciousness jolted. He made no attempt to defend or block.
The voice continued slowly, "When I Realm Breaking back then, it wasn't because I lacked the strength... but because I failed due to a single thought."
Within his sea of consciousness, the scene suddenly unfolded.
An ancient and powerful being stood in the boundless void, his dimensional -Wind of Realm Breaking sweeping across countless worlds. Dimensions collapsed, time fractured, and all things shattered.
He had reached the Limit, only one final step away—severing that last thought.
"I want to sever it." The thought arose. Then he realized that the thought itself was his final thought.
To sever ties, one must generate the will to "sever." And the will to "sever" then becomes a new obsession.
A loop. An endless loop. The screen suddenly shatters.
That great being collapsed amidst countless self-severance, self-proof, and self-denial, his physical body perishing and his Dao heart shattering.
The voice slowly faded. "I left it behind." Fine cracks began to appear on Thought Stillness's ashen body.
"I transformed my last remaining lingering thought into a gatekeeper." "Its purpose... was to be severed by me." "But I can no longer do it."
The voice grew weaker and weaker. "Now... I'm handing it over to you." The moment the words fell, the image in his mind completely collapsed.
The lingering resentment vanished. Thought Stillness's eyes shone brightly. For the first time, it truly "looked" at Qin Yu.
It is no longer an empty state of failure, but a being that is conscious yet trapped in a vicious cycle.
Its voice was hoarse: "Help me cut it off." "With... any way you want."
The void became utterly still. Qin Yu did not respond immediately. If he were to attack, it would be a battle. A battle is inherently driven by the thought, "I must win."
That will nourish it again. If he persuades, he is convincing. Convincing itself is the thought, "I want to change."
That would also lead back to the vicious cycle. Qin Yu slowly closed his eyes. He chose the first method: a silent gaze.
He opened his eyes and met Thought Stillness's gaze calmly. There was no hostility. No pity. No sense of mission.
It simply existed. Time seemed to stand still. Grayish-white mist flowed gently. Thought Stillness's eyes trembled slightly.
One breath. Ten breaths. A hundred breaths. In that silence that seemed to solidify into eternity.
A twist occurred. The lingering thought within Thought Stillness's body suddenly surged violently.
It growled in anguish, "I will sever it!" The thought surged within it.
The gray-white mist instantly turned violent, and the pressure of Annihilation was like a mountain collapsing, causing cracks to appear at the edges of Qin Yu's Fate Soul.
The vicious cycle has been reignited. If it utters the words "I will cut down" again, everything will return to the collapse of the past.
Qin Yu opened his eyes. He did not back down.
He spoke slowly, asking only one question, "Why did you sever it?"
Thought Stillness paused, startled. "Because it prevents me from Realm Breaking." "And then what?" "Realm Breaking."
"And then what?" Thought Stillness silent. The gray-white mist trembled violently. "... Continue to slash."
"How long will you keep cutting?" "Until... there's no more thought." "Then what are you clinging to now?"
Thought Stillness's eyes trembled. At that moment, for the first time, it truly "thought" about this question, "Why... why did I kill?"
The thought slowly surfaced in its mind. Then it saw the vicious cycle: "I must sever it"—the obsession.
"Severing the obsession"—a deeper obsession. It suddenly understood. It was not defeated by its own thoughts.
It was defeated by the obsession with "it must be completed." Qin Yu didn't speak again. He just stared at it.
Cracks began to appear on the gray body that was devoid of strife, desire, intention, and Thought Stillness.
But this time, it wasn't an attack; it was a loosening of control.
It murmured softly, "If I don't kill... is it also possible...?"
The fog slowly dissipated. But in the next instant, the obsession surged back. "No! I must finish!"
The pressure of Annihilation erupted once more. Qin Yu knew that simply meeting his gaze was not enough.
He raised his hand, not to attack, but to gently touch Thought Stillness's brow. (Three Forms of Fate Construction: Cause and Effect Deconstruction)
It's not about dismantling its existence, but about dismantling the causal chain and the logic of "the breakthrough must be achieved."
The power of his Fate Soul seeped in like a fine thread. He did not sever it for him.
He simply rewrote that causal logic from "the only result" to "optional".
Thought Stillness's consciousness trembled. For the first time, the thread that had bound him for billions of years began to loosen.
"Even if it doesn't end... it can still exist..." it whispered. Then, it finally let go.
It wasn't persuaded, nor was it defeated. Rather, it simply relinquished the "must."
The grayish-white mist slowly dissipated. Its sixteen-foot-tall body began to turn into fine dust. Its eyes regained their clarity, and it looked at Qin Yu one last time.
No pain. No attachment. Only liberation. Thank you. I can finally... rest.
The last glimpse of a figure vanished in absolute silence. Annihilation Hall, there were no more gatekeepers.
Deep within the palace gates, an even more ancient aura flowed quietly, as if awaiting its true inheritor.
Qin Yu stood still, his Fate Soul trembling slightly.