The lingering effects of the collapsing blood dragon had not yet completely dissipated, and the void was still healing inch by inch, with shattered blood-red scales slowly falling like snowflakes.
Jin Hanyan didn't look at the gradually dimming battlefield; her gaze was already fixed on the gray-black crack that the Thought Severance Devouring Emperor had torn open when he left.
Although the crack had closed, her divine sense detected an extremely faint trace of Thought Severance.
The aura was unlike ordinary energy fluctuations; it was more like a "vacuum left after something was erased." It was as if a piece of existence had been scooped out of the world somewhere, and the gap had not yet been completely healed.
Jin Hanyan raised her hand. " In the Chaos Undivided, Heaven and Earth Judged..."
The gray-white path spread from her palm, dissecting space layer by layer as if peeling away flesh, revealing the cracks and traces hidden beneath reality inch by inch.
The trajectory of that Thought Severance was like an extremely thin gray line, winding its way into the depths of the void.
Without the slightest hesitation, she lightly tapped her jade-like finger, and the void suddenly shattered.
A chaotic rift opened before her, with violent spatial turbulence surging like a raging tide, but she had already stepped into it.
Her clothes fluttered, and her long hair billowed in the wind from the crack. "Whatever the reason, we must not let him succeed."
She whispered. The next instant, the crack closed. Silence returned to the world.
Meanwhile, deep within the ruins of Silent Thought Ruins, a silent wave spread from the void.
It's not spiritual power, nor is it aura. It's a kind of emptiness—the emptiness that comes after all thoughts have been completely severed.
Qin Yu took the final step. The traces of failure Annihilation completely, and the threshold of Absolute Thoughtlessness silently opened deep within his sea of consciousness.
When he opened his eyes, the sky above the Silent Thought Ruins suddenly collapsed.
A streak of light pierced through the gray-white sky, causing the Thought River to flow backward, statues to crumble, and the entire ruins to disintegrate as if a dream were shattering.
Qin Yu in the center of the void. He did not release any aura, yet the entire Silent Thought Ruins bowed to him.
The Severed Thought Realm. Thoughts and intentions cease, and Thought Has No Root. It is not suppression, but Does Not Exist.
He took a step. In an instant, his figure appeared above the main hall of the Chaos First Palace.
There was no roar that tore through space, no explosive pressure upon arrival.
The air in the entire Void Obliteration Domain suddenly became quiet for a moment.
All the cultivators who were talking, practicing, or setting up formations simultaneously experienced a blank in their minds.
As if some higher-level being had quietly descended, Yun Qiusheng suddenly looked up inside the main hall of the Chaos First Palace.
The next moment, Qin Yu stood before the hall, utterly calm and composed.
Yet it made people instinctively afraid to look directly at it. Yun Qiusheng's gaze sharpened, and then he could not hide his shock.
"Tsk tsk tsk... Severed Thought Realm?!"
"My God, Qin Yu, it's only been a few days! You've already broken through to the Severed Thought Realm · Initial Stage?!"
Qin Yu clasped his hands in a slight fist salute.
"Ancestor Yun, you flatter me. This junior was fortunate enough to break through thanks to the blessing of the Star-Net Immortal Hall Master."
Yun Qiusheng laughed heartily. "Good! Good! Good!"
"Three 'good's' in exchange for a powerful expert at the Severed Thought Realm. My Void Obliteration Domain has gained another world-suppressing blade!"
The atmosphere in the hall was exhilarating. But Qin Yu's expression quickly turned somber. "Ancestor, Hanyan and the others returned?"
Yun Qiusheng paused for a moment. "Oh... I was just about to tell you about what happened a few days ago."
"Miss Hanyan led my disciples and elders to the Rotting Spirit Cavern to search for the Thought Severance Devouring Emperor. However, there was no trace of him there, and all the sects have already withdrawn."
"Only Miss Hanyan... has not returned yet." The air froze instantly.
A barely perceptible glint of cold light flashed deep within Qin Yu's pupils. "Not returned?"
Yun Qiusheng said in a deep voice, "Don't worry. Miss Hanyan has Stainless Realm · Supreme Profound Understanding abilities. She still has the strength to deal with the Thought Severance Devouring Emperor."
"It's very likely she'll continue tracking." "She'll be back."
Qin Yu remained silent for a moment. His mind, Severed Thought Realm should have been calm and undisturbed, was still clearly moved by a subtle, almost imperceptible tug.
It wasn't anxiety, but a chilling intuition. He looked up. "Ancestor, I'd better go find her."
Yun Qiusheng's gaze was solemn. "Hmm, that's fine too."
"The actions of the Thought Severance Devouring Emperor and the Source-Suppressing Stillnessless Venerable are currently suspicious. If you discover anything, immediately send me a telepathic message."
"I can mobilize the entire Void Obliteration Domain to provide support." "Yes, Ancestor."
As soon as he finished speaking, Qin Yu turned around, and in the next instant, his figure had disappeared in front of the hall.
In the direction of the Rotting Spirit Cavern, beneath the southwest rift, a barely perceptible spatial fold trembled slightly.
Qin Yu appeared silently. He stood in mid-air, his gaze looking down at the rift valley below.
The divine sense of the Severed Thought Realm spread like an invisible sea, no longer a search.
Instead, it allows all "things with thoughts" to manifest themselves.
Deep within the shadows of the Rotting Spirit Cavern, faint traces of the tear still remain in a certain space.
He saw it. It was the mark left after the clash Chaos Dao Principles and the power of Thought Severance.
And a faint wisp of blood dragon's remnant breath. A cold glint flashed in Qin Yu's eyes.
He took a step forward, his entire being merging into the depths of the rift.
The deepest part of the Rotting Spirit Cavern has completely collapsed.
The once crisscrossing rock walls were forcibly torn apart by some terrifying force, the cracks resembling countless black wounds piercing the heavens and earth.
The magma had long since cooled into a grayish-white hard shell, and crimson mist surged between the rifts, like a lingering killing intent.
Qin Yu in mid-air. He saw it. The dragon corpse.
Its massive body stretched across the depths of the cave, its scales shattered into pieces of blood-red glass, its horns broken, and its wings hung stiffly, half-open.
The enormous dragon tail crashed deep into the earth, and the rock layers it ripped out are still slowly collapsing to this day.
The most horrifying part was his chest. It had been forcibly torn open. His keel was exposed, his flesh was charred black, and in the center was a hole tens of feet in diameter, as if the entire body had been hollowed out.
The heart and dragon core are also gone.
The surrounding rock walls still bore traces of undried dragon blood, which flowed slowly along the cracks like dark red streams, exuding a heavy and violent aura in the darkness.
The dragon's might hadn't dissipated, yet all was already deathly still. Qin Yu landed slowly, without sorrow or anger; his mind, like a still, deep sea, Severed Thought Realm.
He raised his hand, his palm gently brushing through the air, silently parting the spatial textures.
He did not unleash any extraordinary powers, nor did he conduct a violent search.
Simply let cause and effect manifest themselves. "Three Forms of Fate Construction Cause and Effect Deconstruction."
There was no light, no ripples. Yet, in that instant, the entire cavern became transparent.
The remaining causal threads, like billions of gray-white rays of light, rise from the ground, intertwining and weaving together to form a vast three-dimensional causal network.
The cause of the Blood Dragon. The cause of the Thought Severance Devouring Emperor. The cause of Hanyan. The cause of the beings from the five otherworldly realms.
Every intersection Pre-Nonbeing him.
Qin Yu's gaze sharpened. "Time Reversal." Time did not flow backward.
But he peeled it back, like turning the pages of a still-wet painting. The next moment—
An afterimage appeared. The moment the blood dragon awoke, a ten-thousand-foot-tall blood shadow burst forth from the membrane, the dragon's roar shattered space, and blood flames surged like ocean waves.
He saw Jin Hanyan standing in the center of the storm. The Nameless Finger of Return to Silence pierced through the void.
The world was instantly obliterated. Five beings from another world joined forces to launch a siege.
The Chaos Dao Principles churned. The blood dragon retaliated wildly. The Thought Severance Devouring Emperor watched coldly. Then the blood dragon went berserk.
Indiscriminate attack. Three beings were engulfed by blood flames. Jin Hanyan forcibly tore open a spatial rift in the storm.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Thought Severance Devouring Emperor pressed his hands into the Blood Dragon's chest. The black power of Thought Severance coiled around the dragon's heart like chains.
His heart was forcibly ripped out. The world shattered in that instant, and he was severely injured by the recoil.
The scene flashed. The Thought Severance Devouring Emperor coldly looked at Hanyan. "Consider yourself lucky today."
Tearing through the void, the last vestige of Jin Hanyan didn't hesitate. She stepped into the rift.
He followed the trail. The scene shattered. The underground cave returned to silence. Qin Yu slowly closed his eyes.
There was no anger, no anxiety, only a deeper level of calm. The mind, in the Severed Thought Realm tranquility, had transcended the fluctuations of "emotions."
But something hasn't disappeared. It's not obsession, but direction.
He raised his hand, his fingertips lightly touching the air. "Cause and Effect Deconstruction and Effect: Tracing the Origins."
The three lines—the Blood Dragon's Lingering Breath, the Hanyan's Chaos Dao Principles, and the Mark of Thought Severance —were reassembled in the void.
Ultimately, they converged into an extremely subtle trajectory. This trajectory extended into the depths of the void, not into the Void Obliteration Domain.
Rather, it's further down, as if it were some kind of deliberately buried spatial layer.
Qin Yu opened his eyes. Without any hesitation, he took a step forward and disappeared into the depths of the underground cave.
The space of the Rotting Spirit Cavern closed again, as if nothing had ever happened.
The southernmost part of the Void Obliteration Domain Realm looked as if it had been cleaved in two by a single stroke.
Beneath the Black Sea, beyond the Shattered Luminary Wasteland Belt, in a deeper and more distant place, space begins to collapse inward, as if an unseen behemoth has opened its massive jaws.
That place is the Nine Nether Prison Abyss.
From afar, it doesn't appear as an abyss, but rather as a colossal black nail plunged upside down into the heavens and earth. Above it, the sky is torn into swirling clouds.
The lightning swirled like silver snakes in the vortex, yet it never seemed to fall, as if even the heavenly tribulation feared the presence below.
First layer
Crimson magma surged, blood-red flames soared into the sky, and countless ancient evil spirits, suppressed by the flames, struggled in the fire, emitting silent roars. These were no ordinary flames, but karmic fires that burned away "existence," and the space touched by the flames would turn into charred cracks.
Second floor
The icy blue extreme cold realm. The cold air is not just cold, but a cold that "freezes time." Light falling into it will solidify in mid-air, forming eternally immovable icicles.
Third layer
Soul-Shattering Storm. Hundreds of millions of gray wind blades spun in the air, each carrying the lingering echo of Fate Soul being erased, the wind sounding like a thousand cries.
Fourth floor
The silent black lake. Its surface is like a mirror, but what it reflects is not reality, but the future that those who fall fear most.
Fifth floor
The Broken Boundary Wasteland. The land is like a piece of porcelain that has been repeatedly broken and pieced back together; every step you take will trigger a spatial collapse.
Sixth floor
Lightning Prison. Crimson-black lightning bolts struck simultaneously from above and below, leaving no safe place between heaven and earth.
Seventh floor
The Decaying Star Abyss. Countless remnants of fallen stars float in the air, their cores decaying into black hole-like voids.
Eighth floor
Thought Severance Wind Valley. Here there is no sound, no breath, only a pressure that can erase thoughts; thoughts will automatically dissipate here.
Ninth floor
At the very bottom, there is no fire, no ice, no thunder, no wind. Only absolute blackness. So black that even the concept of "black" becomes superfluous.
The figure of the Thought Severance Devouring Emperor stepped out from the void rift.
His breathing was extremely disordered at the moment, and there were still cracks on his chest left by the backlash of the blood dragon, but his eyes were burning with a mad rage.
He held two things in his hands: a blood dragon's heart, which was still beating.
With each leap, crimson ripples spread through the surrounding space. Another dragon core.
Like a dark red star compressed to its Ultimate. The intertwined energy of the two spun in his palm, forming a constantly twisting, blood-red vortex.
Deep within the ninth level, a figure slowly emerged from the darkness: Source-Suppressing Stillnessless Venerable.
He stood there, as if he had always existed in this primordial darkness. He exuded no imposing presence, nor was he illuminated by any light.
However, this caused tiny cracks to appear in the entire ninth-level space.
Boundary Collapse. Dimensions shattered. The surrounding darkness was not the environment, but a "void" compressed by his existence.
He slowly opened his eyes. In an instant, the ninth level of space felt as if it were being pressed down by a pair of invisible giant hands.
"Got it." The voice was deep and steady. Thought Severance Devouring Emperor knelt on one knee.
"Master, the dragon's heart and core are both intact. Although I was severely injured, I have not failed you."
Source-Suppressing Stillnessless Venerable raised his hand. The Blood Dragon's heart and core detached from Thought Severance Devouring Emperor's palm and floated into the air.
The blood-red light illuminated the darkness, but not his face. "Very good."
His tone was calm, but the entire ninth floor trembled.
At the same time, the spatial rift outside the Nine Nether Prison Abyss trembled slightly.
Jin Hanyan stepped out of the void. She saw the enormous abyss structure in the distance, and her eyes darkened slightly.
"Nine Nether Prison Abyss..." She had never been there in person, but she had long heard of its name.
This place is the oldest sealed Void Obliteration Domain. Nine layers of purgatory, each layer suppressing the other.
Why would the Thought Severance Devouring Emperor come here? She did not enter rashly.
Instead, he raised his hand. Formless and shapeless, the Annihilation Other Shore.
Her figure began to fade in space. Not that she became invisible, but rather that she withdrew her own "concept of existence".
The aura, the fluctuations of Fate Soul, and the trajectory of cause and effect were all compressed into an extremely thin shell of Annihilation.
The next moment, she transformed into an almost imperceptible gray shadow.
She slowly descended into the first level. The flames swept past her, but could not touch her.
The ice froze the space, but it couldn't freeze her. Thunder roared, and her figure swept through the pillars of lightning.
The eighth level, the Thought Severance Wind Valley. Thoughts are weakened.
She forcefully maintained the stability of the Chaos Dao Principles until—she saw the ninth level.
In the darkness, the figures of Source-Suppressing Stillnessless Venerable and Thought Severance Devouring Emperor visible.
And the blood dragon's heart, spinning in mid-air.
Jin Hanyan's gaze darkened. She knew this wasn't a simple sacrifice; it was more like a key to unlocking some ancient existence.