As night fell, Qin Yu rose into the air from the edge of the forest, his figure like a silent shadow sweeping across the layers of mountains.
The deeper one ventures into the Thoughtless Burial Domain, the heavier the aura of heaven and earth becomes. The air seems to be permeated with some kind of old will, corroded by time.
As he crossed a broken mountain range, his view suddenly opened up. Qin Yu stopped in mid-air and slowly looked down.
A vast palace complex stretches across a winding river. The river water is a deep blue-green, gleaming coldly in the night.
The once magnificent stone bridge spanned the water like the spine of a giant dragon, but it is now dilapidated.
The bridge arch collapsed. The stone pillars broke. The bridge surface was covered with cracks. Water rushed through the damaged areas.
On both sides of the river, trees grow haphazardly, and vines entwine the ruins.
The palace's massive central dome has now collapsed on one side.
A crack appeared in the dome, piercing the sky. Ancient, dark gold patterns still remained in the crack.
It was as if supreme laws had once been etched upon it, but now only corroded remnants remained. The stone pillars beneath the dome were as thick as ancient trees.
However, ancient reliefs can still be faintly seen on many of the tilted, cracked, and mottled walls. The reliefs depict scenes from extraordinary dynasties.
Rather, it is a palace that once overlooked the heavens, now covered with cracks and moss.
The dilapidated dome was reflected on the water's surface. The night wind blew, distorting the water's surface. The reflection, too, resembled a torn-up old dream.
Further on, the river stretches between the mountains, where waterfalls once cascaded down the cliffs.
Now only dried-up watermarks remain, and charred remains on the rocks, as if they had once been the site of a devastating bombardment.
The entire palace complex was shrouded in a thin layer of gray mist. It was not ordinary mist, but rather the sediment of "residual will".
The space here feels unusually heavy. The logic fluctuates subtly yet is complex, as if this place was once the second main palace of some era.
Now, however, he has utterly fallen. Qin Yu in mid-air, the night wind ruffling his robes.
He slowly closed his eyes to sense. In his sea of consciousness, the Primordial Hongmeng Great Luo Heavenly Chapter trembled slightly.
As if responding to these ruins in some way. "The Second Great Palace..."
He muttered to himself, "It seems this is one of the true core areas of the Thoughtless Burial Domain."
The river surged. In the distance, deep within the palace, a faint ripple of logic slowly spread out.
As if in response to his arrival, this dilapidated palace complex was not truly dead.
Qin Yu in mid-air, his robes trailing behind him, stirred by the night breeze. The deep blue river below had been calm.
But just as his divine sense swept across the water, a very subtle tremor suddenly appeared on the surface.
It wasn't the wind blowing, nor the water churning. Rather, it was some deeper ripple. In the center of the river, the water gradually darkened.
Like ink slowly spreading, the entire river suddenly reversed its flow in the next instant. The water no longer rushed downstream.
Instead, it swirls back towards the center. The river water seems to be pulled by some enormous force, forming a huge whirlpool.
The whirlpool grew larger and larger. The waves crashed against the stone bridge on both sides. The broken bridge arches made cracking sounds.
The pebbles fell into the river and were instantly swallowed up. A damp, cold, fishy smell filled the air. Qin Yu's gaze darkened.
Divine sense locked onto the depths of the vortex. That wasn't an ordinary water spirit. It was...
Something ancient is awakening. Suddenly, the center of the whirlpool explodes, and a huge black shadow bursts out from underwater.
A curtain of water shot into the sky. The river poured down like a torrential downpour. It slowly took shape.
A giant fish head burst out of the water, its body covered in golden scales, each scale appearing as if cast from gold and iron.
A dark green light peeked through the gaps in the scales. Crimson fins spread out like flames in the mist.
The two sides of the fish had huge wings spread out. These were not ordinary fish fins, but rather reddish structures like feathers.
The feathers tore through the air, creating a gale. On the fish's head, a pair of deep blue eyes slowly opened.
Pupils vertical, cold, ruthless, gaping maw revealing rows of sharp teeth.
Like a blade from the abyss, a few wisps of crimson tendrils fluttered in the mist, resembling burning blood. Its massive body continued to rise.
The water surface was squeezed into bulges like mountain peaks. Its tail swayed, and the entire river was whipped into towering waves.
A misty haze enveloped the ruined palace, casting an eerie and sinister glow upon it. This was no ordinary ferocious beast.
Instead, it was an ancient aquatic ruler that survived beneath the ruins. Its wings were spread, and its massive body hovered in mid-air.
Water droplets rolled down from between the scales, hitting the ground with a heavy thud. The river water continued to churn behind it.
Qin Yu watched coldly from high above. He showed no panic, nor did he retreat. He could sense that extremely dense remnants of laws flowed within this ferocious creature.
It seemed to have swallowed countless remains within the palace, and perhaps... it was even related to the destruction of this second palace.
The giant fish suddenly raised its head and let out a low roar that pierced through the mist.
The tremor caused slight cracks in the canyon walls. The air was heavy, and the river mist churned.
The giant fish with golden scales and red wings hung in mid-air, its enormous body pressing down on the air as heavy as iron.
Its deep blue vertical pupils were fixed on Qin Yu. The next instant, it didn't charge, it didn't bite. Instead...
A faint ripple suddenly appeared around him. The ripple was neither water nor light.
Rather, it is some kind of extremely subtle "interface," as if there is an invisible layer of scales three feet away from its body.
The Formless Scale Tribulation is a passive defense/conceptual reflection. This fish has no scales, yet it is covered by invisible "Realm Breaking scales."
Any attack, curse, supernatural power, or even causality imposed upon it will be captured by its "scales" once it comes within three feet of its body.
The scales can instantly analyze the essence of the attack's rules and determine its logical structure.
Then—this rule will shatter, and the backlash from that shattering will be returned to it.
When an attack approaches its body, it suddenly freezes, as if it has crashed into an invisible mirror.
The mirror suddenly materialized, cracking into countless fragments of light. Within each fragment, the attacker's image was reflected.
The next instant—the light burst open, transforming into billions of streams of light that swept back.
The giant fish flapped its wings, causing the air to explode. It didn't actively release energy; instead, it simply swooped forward with its massive body.
A long white trail of mist followed behind it. Qin Yu remained calm. The Silent Origin Stainless Sword hummed softly in his hand.
He didn't rush in. He probed first. A flash of sword light appeared. "The Causeless Disillusionment Sword." A pure sword beam swept out, tearing through the air.
He aimed straight at the fish's head. However, just three feet away from it, the air suddenly froze.
The sword light froze, as if nailed to the void. The next instant, a transparent mirror suddenly appeared.
The mirror shattered. Qin Yu's figure, holding a sword, was reflected in the fragments. Every streak of light gleamed coldly.
Boom! Billions of streams of light surged back. The sword intent transformed into a torrent of shattering energy. The backlash erupted like a raging flood.
The void beneath Qin Yu's feet exploded. He instantly teleported a hundred feet to the side. "Silent Origin Stainless Sword - Historyless Void Severance Sword!"
The sword light rose again, slashing at the backlash of the incoming stream of light. A deafening roar shook the air as the stream of light was cleaved in two by the sword.
However, the giant fish was already close. Its crimson wings swept across, the wind pressure like the collapse of the heavens. Qin Yu formed a hand seal with one hand. "Heavenly Cause Judgment Sequence - Six Severances Seal - Source Cause Severance."
The hand seal unfolded, attempting to cut off the conditions for its attack. But the seal's power had barely touched the three-foot boundary.
The scene freezes again. The mirror reappears, and the golden imprint is reflected in it.
The mountain cracked open. The backlash surged back, causing Qin Yu's blood and qi to churn. The rocks beneath his feet were crushed by the shockwave.
The entire riverbank collapsed. His eyes narrowed slightly. This was no simple defense. That layer of scales was "analyzing" the divine power, using rules to fight back against rules.
The giant fish opened its mouth, water swirling in its throat, and a massive column of water shot into the sky. This column was no ordinary stream of water; it contained fragments of shattered, regular water.
Qin Yu stopped engaging in direct combat. His body suddenly plummeted, skimming close to the river surface.
"Unnamed Initial Silence." A flick of the fingertip. Not to attack the giant fish, but to confirm one's own existence.
He stopped trying to break the scales and instead changed the "distance." The space shifted.
Qin Yu's figure instantly appeared behind and to the side of the giant fish. He stepped into the void, Silent Origin Stainless Sword transformed into a cold arc of light.
This time, he didn't slash directly at the fish's body, but instead struck at the air three feet away from it.
"Undefined Destruction Sword." The sword light fell, not to attack it, but to sever the "spatial interface through which the mirror was formed."
A crack appeared in the air. The three-foot boundary trembled slightly. For the first time, subtle ripples appeared on the mirror's surface. The giant fish let out a deep, angry roar.
The crimson wings trembled. The river surged skyward. Qin Yu's figure retreated once more.
He didn't launch a full-scale attack; he was merely probing. He had already confirmed his suspicions.
This "Formless Scale Tribulation" is attached to that three-foot boundary. As long as it does not directly touch its inherent rules, but rather disrupts its interface structure, it will be effective.
Then a flaw appeared. The river surface churned. The palace's afterimage twisted in the water. Under the night sky, a man and a beast faced off. Lightning flashed and water mist mingled in the air.
The river suddenly fell silent. The giant fish slowly folded its crimson wings, its massive body hovering in mid-air, and an eerie green light gradually shone between its scales.
It didn't attack immediately. Instead, it took a deep breath. It wasn't an ordinary breath. In that instant, the colors of the world suddenly faded.
The outlines of the mountain walls, the broken bridge, and the palace ruins began to turn white. The wind stopped. The water stilled. The air seemed to be drawn into thin threads.
The entire space collapsed toward its fish-mouth shape. Tree branches and leaves bent into linear afterimages.
The river was stretched into a long, transparent string. Even the stone pillars of the dilapidated palace in the distance seemed to be drawn by an invisible force. Everything converged towards that gigantic maw.
The Realm Fissure Breath, a spatial traversal / a dimensional eraser. It doesn't breathe water, but rather the shattered cracks of the world.
When inhaling, one can drain the Spiritual Qi and laws of a small world, turning it into a void of death.
When exhaling, what comes out is a chaotic dimensional turbulence, capable of tearing apart formations and shattering divine weapons.
Qin Yu's hair was pulled into a thin black line. His robes clung to his body. His Fate Soul essence rapidly drained away, and his sea of consciousness experienced a brief blank.
The giant fish exhaled in the next instant. There was no sound of wind, only a stream of ink-like air flowing from its mouth, spreading out in the air.
Like ink drops falling into water, black and white intertwine, and the space is dyed.
The edges of the rocks, blurred by the airflow, began to melt away, like a canvas being soaked in water.
The colors diffuse, then disappear. Not shattered, not exploded, but rather "wiped away," like being erased from a painting.
The stream of ink rushed straight towards Qin Yu. The heavens and earth twisted violently, and space emitted a low hum like tearing silk.
Qin Yu's pupils contracted sharply. He did not try to withstand it head-on. He had already found the weakness in "The Formless Scale Tribulation".
The three-foot interface must contain attack rules to bounce back. If the attack itself does not have a clearly defined "object condition", it cannot be detected.
The Silent Origin Stainless Sword in Qin Yu's hand hummed softly. "The Unnamed Initial Silence." With a flick of his fingertip, he not attacked, but rather—denied the premise that "I am subject to attack here."
The next instant, Qin Yu's figure suddenly faded. He was no longer "the being locked by the Realm Fissure Breath".
The inky turbulent current passed through his original location, tearing open a huge void in space.
A deep, dark line appeared on the river's surface. Qin Yu had already appeared directly above the giant fish. The Silent Origin Stainless Sword was suddenly raised high.
This time, he didn't attack the fish's body. Instead, he slashed at the point where the three-foot-wide interface and space intersected around it.
"Undefined Destruction Sword." The sword light is not a straight line, but a twisted arc.
Like a tear in a scroll, the sword intent descended, causing the three-foot-wide space to tremble violently.
A transparent mirror appears. But—it cannot capture the attack rules.
Because this sword strike didn't cut the "fish," it cut the "premise upon which the Scale Calamity exists."
Click - A crack appears on the interface for the first time. Qin Yu's reflection in the mirror becomes distorted.
The fragments shattered, but there was no backlash. Qin Yu's sword momentum did not stop.
"The Silent Origin Stainless Sword - The No-Thought Absolute Silence Sword." The second sword followed immediately. The sword light was like thunder.
It slammed into the crack in the interface. Boom—the entire three-foot boundary shattered completely. The air exploded. Invisible scales scattered like a broken mirror.
The giant fish trembled violently. For the first time, its enormous body was truly exposed. Qin Yu gave it no time to react.
"The Causeless Disillusionment Sword." The third sword strike landed. This time, it slashed directly at the fish's body. Golden scales burst open.
The crimson wings were torn apart. Blood exploded in mid-air like a scarlet rain. The river water was stained red, and the giant fish's body thrashed violently.
Its tail slammed into the ruined palace wall, causing the entire rubble to collapse. A huge gash was torn open in its belly.
Green light leaked out. Remnants of laws surged forth. It was severely injured, but the giant fish steadied itself. It did not retreat.
Her deep blue vertical pupils were fixed on Qin Yu. For the first time, a truly eerie look appeared in her eyes.
The next instant, it tilted its head back and let out a roar—not the cry of an ordinary fish.
It wasn't a beast's roar, nor a dragon's cry. Rather, it was a sound like the explosive roar of pressure Time Splitting in the deep sea.
The sound was so low it was almost inaudible, yet it caused the space itself to vibrate, like countless bubbles bursting simultaneously underwater.
The sound begins with low-frequency vibrations and gradually rises, like the friction of bones.
Like rust scraping against a stone wall, like millions of damp scales rubbing against each other in the darkness.
The sound penetrated the eardrums. It wasn't harsh; rather, it made you feel as if the moisture inside your body was trembling.
Blood swells. Heartbeat becomes disordered. River water churns with the sound. Air distorts. Cracks appear on distant mountain peaks.
The voice carried an extremely eerie emptiness, as if it came from the deepest part of the world.
It was as if it had emerged from an unformed abyss. Qin Yu's gaze was icy. He knew the true berserk phase was about to begin.