The sky surrounding the Nine Nether Prison Abyss resembled an inverted, massive iron bowl, with lightning patterns slowly meandering across its surface, and layers of dark flames rising from the fissures in the earth's veins.
The entrance to the first level resembles an open but not closed abyss, with black mist swirling around it, and a towering staircase can be vaguely seen plunging down, as if leading directly to the deepest pain point of all the heavens.
Qin Yu at the edge of the crevice.
The aura of the Severed Thought Realm · Initial Stage circulated within his body, and invisible ripples spread outwards, forcing the Yin Flames of the Nine Nether Prison Abyss back three zhang, and the air crackled like compressed glass.
His gaze pierced through the first layer of black mist, locking onto the source of the violent fluctuations deep within. His heart tightened instantly; it was not the aura of an ordinary clash, but the aftershock of the Great Dao being forcibly torn apart.
Without the slightest hesitation, he took a step forward.
The void folded beneath his feet, and a straight crack was torn open in the black mist at the entrance to the first level. His figure transformed into a silver-gray stream of light and plummeted down. Layers of purgatory illusions exploded and collapsed beside him, yet they could not touch even an inch of his body.
Meanwhile, on the ninth floor.
At this moment, Jin Hanyan knew that there was no hope of fighting again. The aura of Source-Suppressing Stillnessless Venerable was like an endless abyss pressing down on her. If she hesitated for even half a breath, her retreat would be completely blocked.
She didn't turn around. Without any hesitation.
With a light touch of his bare feet, his figure transformed into a pure white streak of light, soaring straight above the Nine Nether. His figure leaped continuously between the layers of purgatory space, each step like shattering a world yet to take shape.
And just as she crossed the boundary between the first and third levels...
Source-Suppressing Stillnessless Venerable finally moved. He didn't chase after him, but simply raised his hand and slowly closed his five fingers.
At that moment, the nine layers of the Nine Nether Prison Abyss simultaneously emitted a deafening tearing sound, as if countless worlds were being ripped apart from the timeline in reverse at the same instant.
The abyss dome suddenly darkened to its Ultimate, all the flames were compressed into thin, dark red rays of light, and then abruptly flowed back to their source.
"Reverse Tracing Back - Indeterminate Shattered Ruins."
The sound was deep and thunderous. The space began to collapse. Not outwards, but towards the "origin".
The void beneath Jin Hanyan's feet suddenly lost its definition of "undifferentiated," and the primordial chaos she stood upon was shattered in reverse.
What was originally a safe zone that could return everything to the Heaven and Earth Undetermined is now like an empty shell that has been stripped of its outer layer, exposing the most vulnerable core of the fixed phase.
A large area of space behind her collapsed into gray fragments. These fragments had no edges, no shapes; they were projections of an "indeterminate state," neither existing nor non-existent, but rather empty spaces stripped of even the concept of "individuality."
An invisible, immense force surged up from the bottom of the abyss.
The nine layers of space trembled simultaneously, the earth veins cracked, and the infernal sea of fire was compressed into a line before suddenly exploding. The flames rotated in reverse, forming a black and red vortex that pierced through the nine layers. Countless shattered fragments of primordial light surged from the center of the vortex, which were the fixed forms of the Great Dao that had been forcibly shattered.
The aura of Silent Void surrounding Jin Hanyan, as if "Heaven and Earth Undetermined," suddenly trembled. Her Dao foundation was being analyzed in reverse.
Her essence was forced out of the safe zone of "undifferentiated". It was as if an invisible wedge had been driven into the depths of her Fate Soul, forcibly prying it open.
Boom--
Just as Jin Han was about to rush to the entrance of the second floor, she suddenly stopped.
An irresistible force of reverse tearing blasted from behind her, as if she had been struck by the origin of ten thousand paths at once. Her white clothes exploded in mid-air, creating bloody ripples, and she fell uncontrollably.
She was violently thrown out of the second level of space and crashed heavily into the first level of rock wall, which shattered into a rain of stones. She was then blasted down to the entrance of the first level.
With a deafening roar, the ground shattered, creating a crater hundreds of feet deep. Jin Hanyan fell backward to the ground, her clothes instantly stained crimson with blood and torn. Blood gushed from the corner of her lips.
Her Fate Soul was violently trembling within her body, and countless cracks appeared in her sea of origin, from which grayish-white fragments seeped out. These were the "Indeterminate Shattered Ruins" eroding her Dao root.
She struggled to open her eyes. The world was already blurry. Just then—"Yan'er!!!!!!"
A thunderous roar pierced through the first level of the Nine Nether. Qin Yu's figure instantly appeared beside her.
Space seemed to be forcibly folded, and his figure directly crossed the level boundary. The moment he landed, the first level of the ground collapsed another three zhang.
He knelt beside her and lifted her up. Jin Hanyan's eyelashes trembled slightly, her breath was extremely weak, and there was blood on her lips. "Yu... come... come..."
Before he could finish speaking, his eyes completely lost their light, and he fell into a coma.
Qin Yu's divine sense instantly swept into her body. Her Fate Soul was disintegrating, and the cracks in her origin were spreading extremely rapidly.
A few more breaths and her very existence would be in a state of flux. Qin Yu's eyes flashed with a chilling light.
Without the slightest hesitation, a flash of light appeared in his sleeve, and a peerless divine pill appeared in his palm. The pill was filled with seven-colored light, and it seemed as if there was a galaxy rotating inside.
He crushed the pill directly and fed the medicinal power into her lips.
The instant the elixir entered her body, it transformed into countless tiny rays of light that traveled along her meridians, temporarily suppressing the uncertain shattering.
At the same time, Qin Yu closed his eyes. The Origin of the Severed Thought Realm suddenly activated. A stream of extremely pure divine power slowly flowed from his palm into the depths of her Fate Soul.
It wasn't a forced repair, but rather the use of the power of the Severed Thought Realm's ordering to temporarily erect a "framework of order" for her fundamental cracks.
The speed of the shattered Fate Soul slowed down significantly, but it couldn't be completely stopped. Veins bulged on Qin Yu's forehead, but he still forced himself to remain calm.
He picked up Jin Hanyan, intending to head towards the Chaos First Palace. However—"Trying to leave? Stay here, all of you..." A cold voice echoed from the depths of the Nine Nether.
Space froze instantly. A terrifying divine sense descended from the ninth level, like ten thousand chains traversing the nine levels of space, locking Qin Yu in place.
The air seemed to be compressed into a solid. Qin Yu paused, his eyes turning cold. He immediately used his divine sense to send Jin Hanyan deep into his sea of consciousness.
In the center of the sea of consciousness, the radiance of the Void Divine Tree flowed, its ancient branches and leaves drooping with endless silver light.
Jin Hanyan's body was placed under the sacred tree, and the tree's branches gently brushed against the cracks in her Fate Soul, temporarily stabilizing that last glimmer of life.
His sea of consciousness was sealed. Qin Yu slowly raised his head. Above the first level of the Nine Nether.
The darkness split open once more. The aura of Source-Suppressing Stillnessless Venerable pressed down like the sky collapsing.
Qin Yu's aura of the Severed Thought Realm was also fully unleashed at this moment. The two powerful pressures collided head-on in the first level of the Nine Nether.
Visible cracks began to appear in space. A great battle was about to break out.
The black flames on the first level of the Nine Nether Prison Abyss were pressed down to the ground by the two auras. The air was like frozen molten iron, and even the finest dust particles were suspended in mid-air, unable to fall.
Qin Yu stood at the edge of the deep, cracked pit, his black hair pressed against his shoulders by an invisible pressure. The aura of the Severed Thought Realm flowed around him, forming a faint gray-silver halo.
The halo contained no flames, no thunder, only an extreme stillness of severance. It was as if no thought could take shape around it.
He slowly raised his head. The first layer of the dome of the Nine Nether cracked open, and a figure slowly stepped out from the depths of the crack.
Source-Suppressing Stillnessless Venerable.
His entire body was covered in ancient armor interwoven with dark gold and deep black. The armor patterns were not engraved, but rather flowed from within his body. The patterns moved slowly across the surface of the armor like living things, and each pattern faintly shimmered with the reflections of countless shattered worlds.
His eyes shone with a cold, eerie blue light, and in the center of his pupils was a deep, black hole, as if all light would be completely swallowed up within it.
A deep blue crystal core hung on his forehead, within which fragmented pieces of time flowed, as if countless eras were being compressed and replayed. His long hair surged behind him; the strands were not flesh and blood, but formed from a black void vortex, circling his shoulders and neck in rings, like an endless black star ring.
He raised both hands.
His left palm held a ball of pitch-black energy. The energy did not emit light, but it devoured the surrounding light, and even the space itself slightly dented within that darkness.
His right palm held a golden sphere of light, which seemed to contain countless unborn world embryos. The light was gentle, yet contained an oppressive force capable of destroying everything.
Black and gold. Existence and destruction. A terrifying balance is achieved between his palms.
He stood there, with countless translucent geometric crystal facets emerging behind him, each facet reflecting him from a different timeline.
Some are World Extinguisher, some are watching indifferently, and some are standing with their eyes closed in the void.
The first level of the Nine Nether trembled beneath his feet. Source-Suppressing Stillnessless Venerable looked down at Qin Yu.
His voice was deep, carrying an overwhelming indifference. "Hmph, a mere human at the Severed Thought Realm."
With a slight flick of his fingertips, a black star ring slowly rotated around him.
"My plans for today have been ruined by that woman."
His blue pupils suddenly contracted. "No one will escape. The entire Void Obliteration Domain will pay for this," he said, as darkness and golden light merged in his palm.
"And today, I will first offer you as a sacrifice."
As soon as he finished speaking, without warning, Source-Suppressing Stillnessless Venerable Zun gently pressed down with one hand.
The entire space of the first level of the Nine Nether instantly collapsed inward. It wasn't an explosion, it wasn't a rupture.
Instead, all space is pressed towards the same central point by an indescribable primordial weight.
The ground beneath Qin Yu's feet shattered instantly, the rock layers were crushed into powder, and the air was compressed into transparent crystal walls. It was as if an invisible giant hand was pressing down on his head, as if the sky and the ground were being pressed together.
The Severed Thought Realm · Initial Stage is vastly different from the Realm Breaking Realm · Supreme.
But Qin Yu did not retreat. He closed his eyes, and the next moment, he opened them, and the aura of the Severed Thought Realm spread out with a roar.
There was no fire, no thunder. Only—the thought was extinguished, the will severed.
The instant the collapsing pressure descended, Qin Yu's Severed Thought Realm origin suddenly erupted, and a ring of invisible gray-white ripples spread out from beneath his feet.
All spatial compression forces that entered the area of that ripple were "intercepted".
It's not that they cancel each other out, but rather that they cannot be formed.
It was as if the compressed thought was "rejected" before it entered his domain. The oppressive aura of Source-Suppressing Stillnessless Venerable clashed head-on with Qin Yu's Severed Thought Domain.
Boom! The first level of the Nine Nether exploded completely.
Spiderweb-like cracks appeared in the space, from which black and red flames spewed forth, and the rock layers were hurled thousands of feet into the air before instantly turning into dust.
The suppressive power of Source-Suppressing Stillnessless Venerable piled up like a tsunami, causing Qin Yu's feet to sink three inches into the ground.
The ground was cracked in a radial pattern. A trickle of blood escaped from the corner of his mouth.
But his gaze remained calm. "The Severed Thought Realm..." Source-Suppressing Stillnessless Venerable's pupils contracted slightly. "Interesting."
He tightened his grip again. This time, the black and gold energy completely intertwined in his palm, forming a sphere with jet-black and gold patterns.
The instant the sphere rotated, all remaining spatial laws of the first level of the Nine Nether were extracted.
The entire world was reduced to nothing but collapse. The sphere plummeted towards Qin Yu. It had no speed.
Yet, in the instant of its fall, it engulfed the entire world. Qin Yu's pupils suddenly contracted, and he fully activated the Origin of the Severed Thought Realm.
He raised his hand. A grayish-white interface appeared in the void; the interface had no form, it was just a blank space.
He uttered two words in a low voice. "Sever Thought."
The moment the black-gold sphere touched the gray-white interface, its internal workings abruptly stopped.
A hint of coldness flashed in Source-Suppressing Stillnessless Venerable's eyes for the first time. The next instant...
A deafening explosion occurred. The first level of the Nine Nether completely collapsed, and space shattered into countless fragments.
Darkness and golden light intertwined to form a storm pillar that pierced the heavens and the earth, causing the ground to sink hundreds of feet, magma to surge, and lightning to sweep across.
As the dust settled, Qin Yu knelt on one knee in the center of the ruins.
His robes were torn, and his chest was stained with blood. But he was still there.
Although the aura of the Severed Thought Realm was chaotic, it remained as resilient as iron. Source-Suppressing Stillnessless Venerable slowly withdrew his hand.
His gaze was icy. "Let's see what right you have to take another blow from me."