The gates of the Annihilation Hall opened silently the instant that Thought Stillness completely vanished.
There was no roar, no vibration. It was as if it had never been shut down. Qin Yu slowly stepped into the hall.
The hall had no pillars, no beams, no offerings, and no carvings or decorations. It was so empty it was almost desolate. The walls seemed Does Not Exist; the space was finite.
And it was boundless. Beneath one's feet was not the ground, but a silent, sprawling gray plane, as if "silence" had been compressed into a physical form and spread out beneath one's feet.
There is no wind, no light source, yet it is not dark.
An extremely strange sense of "insensitivity" permeated the entire hall—not oppressive, but as if even the feeling of "oppression" had been erased.
Qin Yu stood in the center. A ripple gently spread across the clear, mirror-like Fate Soul of the Stainless Realm.
In the instant that ripple swept across the void, he noticed a barely perceptible "dot" three feet above the very center.
If his mind Stainless and his thoughts clear, that point would not have been perceived at all. It had no light, no temperature, no fluctuation.
Even the trace of its "existence" is extremely blurry, as if it were merely a misalignment in the void.
Eternal Silent Thought Dust. It floats in the very center of the hall, without support or anything to lift it up.
Like a speck of dust forgotten by time, it lingers in the gap between thoughts.
Qin Yu slowly closed his eyes, emptying his mind. In that instant, the clear, untainted state of mind of someone at the Stainless Realm · Initial Stage resonated with that tiny speck of dust.
His consciousness was suddenly overturned. He finally "saw" its true form.
Its form is dust. Its appearance is divided into two parts. The left half is solidified glass.
The glass was not a static substance, but rather composed of countless fragments of time stacked together. Each fragment contained a segment of the Great Dao's journey.
The Stainless · Middle Stage is as clear as a mirror; the Stainless · High Stage Kong Ling pure as a mirror; the ultimate Return to One of Stainless · Pinnacle as a mirror; and the highest level is Supreme Realm.
Light and shadow appear and disappear within it.
A blurry yet majestic figure is endlessly reenacting his cultivation within the depths of the crystal.
A single thought brings enlightenment. A single thought leads to deduction. A single thought breaks through limitations.
The epic tale of the Great Dao intertwines within the dust, silent yet awe-inspiring like the collapse of a galaxy.
The right half, however, is absolute nothingness. It is not darkness, but "nothingness." There is no time. There is no space.
There is no concept of "existence". It is like a one-way rift leading to the end of the realm of the Severed Thought Realm.
As Qin Yu's consciousness drew closer, he felt his thoughts being swallowed up and his emotions being ripped away.
Even the very edge of Fate Soul seemed to be pulled into that endless Annihilation.
That wasn't an attack. That was the end. At the boundary between the crystal and the void, there was a terrifying crack.
Like being cleaved from top to bottom by a sharp blade. Those are the marks of defeat. Twisted, struggling, and unwilling to accept defeat.
The obsession that the ancient powerful being ultimately failed to sever is condensed within this crack. It is not as brilliant as crystal.
It wasn't as cold as nothingness, but rather a torn, suspended "incompleteness." Qin Yu's consciousness touched that crack.
In that instant, he seemed to hear that unspoken sigh from millions of years ago.
Just then, the entire speck of dust suddenly trembled almost imperceptibly. In the heavens above, some extremely distant phenomenon seemed to appear.
In the sea of consciousness, half of the sky transformed into a radiant, iridescent mirror, reflecting the yearning hearts of seekers throughout the ages.
The other half of the sky collapsed into an endless abyss of nothingness, swallowing the brilliance of the sun, moon, and stars.
The strange phenomenon lasted only a moment, as if proclaiming that this path was not for ordinary people. Qin Yu opened his eyes.
He reached out his hand, his fingertips slowly touching the speck of dust. Just as he touched it...
An ancient and profound consciousness poured directly into his sea of consciousness.
"This is the Eternal Silent Thought Dust; those who inherit my path will sever my Absolute Thoughtlessness." The voice seemed to come from the end of time.
"Within this dust lies all my insights from the intermediate to the Supreme level, as well as the final thought that led to my defeat."
"If you can succeed where I fail, you'll rise to the top in one step." "If not..."
The edge of nothingness suddenly expanded. "Stay here, keep me company."
The next instant, the dust transformed into an extremely thin stream of light, without a sound or an explosion.
Yet, like a sword blade piercing through eternity, it pierced straight into the deepest part of Qin Yu's consciousness. The stream of light disappeared into it.
Crystal and nothingness unfolded simultaneously in his consciousness. The marks of defeat were slowly approaching.
The instant the dust particle entered Qin Yu's sea of consciousness, the Annihilation Hall before him seemed to be gently crushed by an invisible hand. All concepts of "palace," all boundaries of "inside and outside," collapsed into a crack so thin it was almost imperceptible. He was pulled in by that crack, as if dragged into a world confined to the tip of a needle.
The next instant, the glass half suddenly lit up, and billions of silent rays of light burst forth from within it, only to be swallowed up by the void half along the way, leaving only a "mark of failure" at the boundary. It was like a wound forcibly torn open, and inside the wound was not blood, but the echoes of countless thoughts that "wanted to be severed but failed to be severed," layer upon layer, like endless ancient echoes crashing against him in the same instant.
In that instant, Qin Yu's Fate Soul became incredibly light, so light that it seemed he would be erased from the world with just a blink. But he didn't blink. He simply focused his mind on its clearest state, allowing his Stainless intent to act like a still mirror, quietly receiving the torrent from the wound. Then he stepped in—not into space, but into the place where that ancient powerhouse had failed to break through.
In the instant of death and the dissipation of the Dao, time itself is not a line, but a folded sea of fragments. Within this sea of fragments are shattered skies, torn pages of Dao principles, and ashes of cause and effect scattered by the wind.
At the very center stood a towering figure, its back to him, its shoulders bearing the weight of an entire age of silence. Each time the figure seemed to raise its hand, it wasn't a hand that was raised, but rather the intention to "sever the last thought." Yet, the intention, once formed, would instantly transform into a new, final thought, like a snake swallowing its tail, like a mirror reflecting itself, like a cycle that forever returns to its starting point.
The shadow repeatedly collapsed and reformed in the same motion. When it collapsed, its foundation shattered into dust; when it reformed, it was forcibly pulled back into its physical body by its obsession. The physical body and the obsession intertwined to form the embryonic form of Thought Stillness. The mark of failure was the crack left after this endless cycle was forcibly solidified. It swallowed the last unwillingness of that great being, and also swallowed the "I will succeed too" of all the intruders in later generations.
Qin Yu stood in the rift, unable to hear anything, yet he could "feel" the shockwaves of each failure crashing against his Fate Soul. His consciousness felt as if countless hands were pressing down on him, forcing him to repeat the same mistake: to think, to slash, to prove he could slash. But he suddenly realized that the most dangerous thing wasn't the obsession left behind by that powerful being.
Rather, if he were to have the thought "I must defeat him" at this moment, he would have already taken the first step into Stainless clarity.
Only the most primal, simplest, and most unyielding anchor point remains—"I am here," not for victory or defeat, not for proof, not for transcendence, but simply "I am here," untouched by this defeat.
Just then, the glassy half of the dust suddenly spread out like ignited stardust. A very faint tremor came from the depths of Qin Yu's sea of consciousness. It wasn't external force infusing his body, but rather the "Dao trace projection" formed from the dust beginning to settle within him. A very thin beam of light rose from his sea of consciousness, passed through his meridians, and reached his sea of consciousness. Immediately afterward, countless imprints rushed into his senses like a revolving lantern.
The clarity of the Stainless · Middle Stage is like the first snow falling, washing away all phenomena of heaven and earth until only the original texture remains; the ethereal Kong Ling of the Stainless · High Stage is like the Emptiness, where a single thought can reveal the rise and fall and breakage of the threads of cause and effect; the Stainless · Pinnacle Return to One all rivers flowing into the sea, where all scattered insights are gathered into a single thought, becoming "unique".
The Stainless · Supreme perfection is like a flawless mirror, reflecting away any distracting thoughts. This is not for him to "learn," but for him to "revisit." Each level of understanding is like a paved road, its surface formed by the full enlightenment and fruition of that great being.
Qin Yu only needed to step onto it to reach the end of the road in the shortest instant. His Fate Soul was purified layer by layer, and every inch of his body felt as if it had been brushed away by invisible dust, removing old marks, stagnation, and chaotic echoes.
It was as if he had completed countless years of arduous cultivation in that single breath, but the closer he got to the end, the clearer the "failure Threshold" became. The mark of failure at the boundary suddenly drew closer, like a precipice blocking the end of the road, and the powerful figure on the precipice finally turned around.
The face was still indistinct; only a pair of utterly empty eyes were visible. Those eyes held no hostility, no murderous intent, only a commanding echo, "Sever the last thought." As the echo repeated, the traces of defeat seemed to come alive.
It stretched out countless tiny tentacles to grab Qin Yu's mind, attempting to sew his will into that eternal failure, making him a "second great power," accompanying that failure through the cycle of eternity.
Qin Yu's chest suddenly felt heavy, as if an entire world had been placed on his back. Fine cracks began to appear at the edge of his consciousness, his thoughts slowed, and his memories seemed to be gently brushed away by nothingness. Even the name "Qin Yu" almost faded from his mind. He realized that if he took another step forward, he would instinctively feel the urge to "sever it," and the moment that thought arose, failure would be the immediate consequence.
He would be trapped in the moment of failure, endlessly, but in that instant, he suddenly stopped moving forward and backward. He stopped directly in front of the mark of failure, letting the final obsession of that great being surge towards him like a tide. He emptied his Stainless heart to the Ultimate, so empty that even the thought of "resistance" ceased. He simply let the tide pass through him.
Like the wind passing through an empty valley, it passes through without echo or lingering sound. Then, he uses his Fate Soul to atone, pressing the sole anchor point to the deepest recesses—"One thought remains, eternal silence reigns." This is not about "severing" the thought, but about creating a silence that leaves no room for the intention to "sever." He doesn't try to seize, doesn't try to suppress, doesn't contend with failure; he simply allows failure to lose its meaning through witnessing it.
When that vicious cycle could find no mental foundation to cling to, and the tentacles of failure grasped the edge of his mind, it was as if they had grasped an empty void. The tentacles began to tremble; the trembling was not from fear, but from the loss of the "response of the one being grasped."
The more he grasped, the more empty it became, the more scattered it became, until even the echo of "I will sever" began to break. The powerful figure seemed to suddenly hear a long-lost silence, and for the first time, a very faint fluctuation appeared in his eyes.
It was as if he had finally seen it: what truly Annihilation the last thought is not a stronger will to cut it off, but rather making the intention to "cut" impossible, depriving the obsession of the soil for its self-sustaining.
But then, a sudden twist erupted. The wounds of defeat, unwilling to crumble, surged back, forcefully dragging out Qin Yu's deepest longing—the figures of Yan Yue, Ruishan, Qingwan, Hanyan flashed across the sea of fragments, as if someone had lit a fire in his heart, a fire that almost instantly transformed into the unwavering determination to "protect them."
Once an obsession takes shape, the scars of failure will find a new foothold. Qin Yu's breathing became erratic for a moment, and a ripple appeared on the surface of his Fate Soul mirror. The ripple almost turned into a wave, but before the wave could rise, he gently withdrew that attachment, neither denying nor suppressing it, but letting it fall into the mirror of his Stainless heart, becoming "warmth" rather than "thought," becoming "presence" rather than "seeking."
He still loved, still remembered, still wanted to protect, but he wouldn't let that love become a chain binding him, nor a hook for the scars of failure to cling to. The ripples subsided, the mirror returned to its clarity, and the scars of failure, as if their last bone had been removed, began to crumble inch by inch. The stardust on the glassy half-wall swirled and flowed, while the abyss of emptiness no longer swallowed.
Instead, it receded like the tide, and the entire sea of fragments came to a standstill, so still that even the great power's cycle was covered by silence. Qin Yu stood before the crumbling crack, his Fate Soul seemingly cleansed in eternal silence. He could clearly feel—the threshold of breakthrough was right beneath his feet.
The Realm of Absolute Thoughtlessness is not about greater killing power, but about the clarity of "I am here" even when all consciousness is severed. The next step, once he steps through it, will mark the beginning of a true breakthrough, and the moment when he must truly pay the "price" will also arrive.