Above the ruins, a gray-white storm churned, and the myriad leaf patterns of the Leaf Vein Hall Sealing flickered wildly on the branches of the Age Devourer tree. The mouth of Devourer of Time, which came from the end of time, was slowly opening, and the reversed causal lines were taut in the void, like a string about to be torn apart at any moment.
On the other side, Xiao Yue suppressed the devouring urge with Sever Thought and Extinguish Consciousness, the crescent-shaped silver ornament on her forehead already faintly burning. She gritted her teeth, but suddenly sneered, "No wonder... this Leaf Guardian's remnant soul is only at the Realm Breaking Realm level. It turns out that the Age Devourer is the biggest obstacle."
Her words seemed to reveal something.
The figure of the Leaf Guardian, hidden beneath his black robe, suddenly froze. He neither retreated nor used the leaf veins to distract Qin Yu. He slowly raised his longsword, and the invisible darkness deep within his hood rippled slightly, as if some deeper consciousness was awakening. He closed his eyes.
The colors of the entire ruins spread out like ink wash painting in that instant.
The Ultimate divine power – the Heart Sword.
Break through the boundary between reality and illusion. Sever the barrier between reality and spirit. This sword cuts both the body and the soul; it exists in reality and manifests within the heart.
When the remnant soul of the Leaf Guardian opened its eyes again, the world had changed. The sky had turned into flowing ink, and the ancient tree branches and leaves seemed to be soaked in rice paper. Qin Yu's figure left a faint afterimage in that ink, while the remnant soul of the Leaf Guardian simply waved forward lightly.
That sword strike had no light.
However, it exploded simultaneously in Qin Yu's chest and in his sea of consciousness.
In reality, the Silent Origin Stainless Sword clashed with that ancient longsword, the sound of their blades striking each other seeming to come from underwater, slow and heavy; in the spiritual realm, a pitch-black sword shadow pierced straight into the deepest part of Qin Yu's heart. That sword did not pierce flesh, but rather pierced "obsession." In an instant, countless past scenes flashed before Qin Yu's eyes.
Past failures, those he failed to protect, the momentary hesitation during a near-death battle—those shadows that had been suppressed deep within his consciousness were forcibly pulled out, manifesting as tangible inner demons that surrounded him, whispering in his ear.
Illusions begin to erode reality.
Suddenly, the branches and leaves of the ancient tree transformed into countless black shadows and a pack of wolves that pounced on him. The ruins and stone pillars collapsed into a deep abyss, and even Xiao Yue's figure became blurred in the distance, as if it was about to be erased.
The voice of the remnant soul of the Leaf Guardian echoed through the inky black world, "Sever your heart, sever your roots."
Qin Yu slowly raised his head amidst the overwhelming inner demons.
He neither denied the fear, nor banished the past.
The Silent Origin Stainless Sword emitted a very faint hum in his palm.
"The difference between reality and illusion is but a thought." The sword suddenly dipped.
The fourth form of the Silent Origin Stainless Sword – the Soulless Annihilation Abyss Sword.
The sword intent wasn't aimed at the inner demons or illusions, but rather sank directly into the abyss of "self-awareness." A clear line was torn open in the inky world by the silvery sword light; the whispers of the inner demons abruptly broke, and the boundary between reality and spirit was suppressed in reverse. The moment the Heart Sword pierced his sea of consciousness, it was backlashed by the intent of the Soulless Annihilation Abyss; the spiritual projection of the remnant soul of the Leaf Guardian trembled violently, and the inky world rapidly faded as if a bucket of water had been poured over it.
The remnant soul of the Leaf Guardian did not stop; its longsword rose again.
The Ultimate technique – Beginning and End One Sword.
Break through the "Ultimate Boundary". Sever the opposition between "beginning" and "end". This sword strike is both the starting stance and the finishing stance; it is both birth and end; it is both destruction and rebirth.
This sword strike was devoid of any fancy moves.
The aura of the remnant soul of the Leaf Guardian suddenly became ordinary, as if returning to its original simplicity, and the longsword was just a simple straight thrust.
But the moment the sword tip was thrust forward, the world suddenly turned pure white.
The light was like the dawn at the beginning of time, and also like the afterglow at the end of all things. Qin Yu saw himself standing here before time had even begun, saw the sword thrusting from the source of time, and saw it finally fall at the end of eternity. It wasn't a matter of speed, but rather that "beginning and end" were compressed into the same instant.
This sword strike was unavoidable. Qin Yu's eyes grew even calmer. He suddenly sheathed his sword. Not to retreat, but to return.
The fifth form of the Silent Origin Stainless Sword – the Undefined Destruction Sword.
The sword no longer adheres to any boundaries, no longer dwells on beginning and end, but directly negates "definition". The silvery sword light did not spread across the sky, but was just an extremely thin ray of light extending from the tip of Qin Yu's sword, gently touching the blade of that sword that Beginning and End One Sword.
There was no explosion. There was no roar. Suddenly, cracks appeared in the sword intent of the remnant soul of the Leaf Guardian.
The premise that beginning and end are defined as "opposition" is erased at this moment by the intention of No Definition.
The beginning is no longer the beginning, and the end is no longer the end. The logical foundation of that sword strike has collapsed.
The remnant soul flame pattern on the chest of the Leaf Guardian suddenly exploded, the black robe turned into gray mist and dissipated in the air, the longsword broke in half, and the entire remnant soul disintegrated little by little in the silvery light, turning into countless ashes that fell into the roots of the withered tree.
The remnant soul of the Leaf Guardian Annihilation. Yet, in the next instant, the Age Devourer's Bite of Retroactive Erasure truly descended.
That mouth, seemingly born from the end of time, suddenly closed.
The river of time emitted a silent cracking sound.
Xiao Yue's figure swayed violently in the gray-white wind. She desperately suppressed the countercurrent with her Sever Thought and Extinguish Consciousness, only to find that her star-blue radiance was being swallowed up little by little. The ends of her hair began to blur, and the fragments of memories about her around her faded in the air.
"Little Qinzi... hurry!" Her voice was broken.
Qin Yu barely hesitated. The Silent Origin Stainless Sword transformed into a streak of light, and he traversed the ruins, slashing down with his sword before the gaping maw of the Age Devourer.
A silver-white sword light pierced through the gray-white vortex. This sword strike did not sever time, nor did it sever cause and effect; it only severed the instinct to "devour."
The Bite of Retroactive Erasure and the Stainless Sword collided in the center of the void. The ruins trembled, and ancient branches and leaves fell like rain.
True light began to emerge from the core of the main hall's seal. And for the first time, cracks appeared in the swirling eyes of the Age Devourer.
The pale, gray silhouette of the Age Devourer stretched across the shattered dimensions, its pair of pupil-less vortexes slowly rotating like two deep wells draining away history. Xiao Yue was forced back half a step, star-blue light surging around her like waves.
She gritted her teeth and said, "Little Qinzi, this thing is really tough to deal with. We have to go all out. All of Azure Ring's supernatural abilities are almost ineffective against it. I've only awakened the second form so far, and its effect on it is negligible. Only by finding its weakness can we completely kill it."
Qin Yu's gaze was calm as ice. The Silent Origin Stainless Sword was held horizontally in front of him, its sword intent still present but already stable. He slowly spoke, "Xiao Yue, you are responsible for finding its weakness. I will use the Primordial Hongmeng Great Luo Heavenly Chapter. We will definitely kill it completely."
As soon as he finished speaking, he flipped his palm, and a Wordless Heavenly Book slowly unfolded behind him. As the pages turned, there were no words, but the aura of time, space, life and death, cause and effect, the five elements, and yin and yang flowed within it, as if the fundamental principles of heaven and earth had been turned to a crucial page, just waiting for the pen to be written.
Xiao Yue had already suppressed all her outward brilliance. Instead of directly confronting Age Devourer, she unleashed all of Azure Ring's divine abilities.
The Realm Abyss Reverse Evolution into a dark blue light array beneath her feet, tracing the "result" of each fluctuation of Age Devourer's aura back to its "beginning"; Spirit Filth Annihilates Heaven spread in the air like fine dust, attempting to erode the foundation of the rules beneath her gray-white hair; the Silent Origin Wheel Prison appeared and disappeared behind her, its ten layers of soul wheels slowly rotating, attempting to lock the fulcrum of Age Devourer's existence.
But the Age Devourer is no ordinary creature; it is not built on rules, nor on cause and effect.
It's more like a projection of an end to instinct.
Xiao Yue's logical scan continued to unfold. Blue Ring Second Form - Logic Chain Severance transformed into countless thin chains in her pupils, probing inch by inch along Age Devourer's hair, eyes, steps, and aura. She discovered that Age Devourer's existence structure was not a complete "chain," but rather like a compressed "terminal fluctuation," with almost no obvious fulcrum.
Just then, the Age Devourer sensed her intention. It did not roar or gather its strength; it simply opened its mouth slightly.
Ultimate Divine Power – Bite of Retroactive Erasure. At this moment, there were no sound or light effects. The world suddenly became "reasonable".
It was as if Qin Yu and Xiao Yue had never stood on these ruins since the beginning of time. The Bite of Retroactive Erasure began to lock on.
The moment Qin Yu and Xiao Yue were born at the root level was traced back against the current.
Their connection with this ancient city began to break down due to causal factors.
The lingering images in the ruins of the memory layer gradually disappeared, as if their footprints had never existed.
The footprints on the ground of the trace layer disappeared, and the cracks left by the Sword Qi became smooth.
The pages of the Primordial Hongmeng: Great Luo Heavenly Chapter in the conceptual layer began to turn white, like words about to be erased.
There was no upheaval, no destruction. Only an increasingly "clean" blank space expanded across the canvas of heaven and earth.
Xiao Yue's hair began to become transparent, and her figure became thinner in the air. The illusory image of the Heavenly Book behind Qin Yu also became blurred.
But in this Ultimate silence, Xiao Yue suddenly noticed a very subtle anomaly. Her Blue Ring chain had not completely disappeared.
Deep within the hair of the Age Devourer, at the trembling, gray-white roots, she caught a highly discordant fluctuation.
That is not the passage of time. It is not the end. It is a trace of being "summoned". The Age Devourer does not truly come from the end of time.
It is a projection forcibly pulled into this world by the remnant soul of the Leaf Guardian using the power of the Leaf Vein Hall Sealing.
And between it and this world, there is an extremely thin "connecting thread".
That thread was extremely faint, yet it was the only anchor point through which the Bite of Retroactive Erasure could be established in this realm.
Xiao Yue's eyes suddenly lit up. The Blue Ring - Logic Chain Severance scanned the connection again. She finally found it--
That's not the weakness of the Age Devourer's physical form, but rather the logical weakness of the "summoning being established." As long as that thread is severed, the Age Devourer's "legitimacy" in this world will collapse.
The scroll of heaven and earth is being swallowed by the silent blank space. The Bite of Retroactive Erasure has already flowed upstream along the cause and effect, approaching the very moment when Qin Yu and Xiao Yue first existed. The feeling is not that they have disappeared, but rather that they were never acknowledged by heaven and earth.
The starlight began to peel away from Xiao Yue's body, her outline faded inch by inch, and her dark blue hair turned into specks of light and scattered. However, the Blue Ring patterns in her pupils became clearer and clearer, like two eyes of law burning in the void.
"Little Qinzi —now!" That cry was almost drowned out by the surging tide, yet it still pierced firmly into the depths of Qin Yu's consciousness.
Qin Yu did not hesitate.
The Primordial Hongmeng Great Luo Heavenly Chapter unfolded behind him with a thunderous roar, the sound of pages turning like the echo of a collapsing giant star deep within the universe. The blank pages, devoid of text, stood out starkly against the gray and white background, as if the very essence of the universe itself refused to be denied.
The Bite of Retroactive Erasure continues its advance, tracing back to the source, severing cause and effect, denying memories, and erasing traces.
But just as the "conceptual layer" was about to be torn apart— Qin Yu put pen to paper. Not with ink, but with existence itself as the brushstroke.
The first stroke – time and pages.
The pages flipped abruptly, and the timeline that had been traced by the reverse flow of annihilation suddenly stopped, as if held down by an invisible hand. The Bite of Retroactive Erasure, following the trajectory of the reverse flow of cause and effect, appeared as a gray-white crack on the page. That crack was no longer invisible, but "written" out.
The second stroke – space and text.
Qin Yu lightly traced a line with his fingertip, and the extremely thin summoning thread between Age Devourer and this world transformed into a trembling line on the page. In reality, that thread suddenly became clearly visible, like a transparent filament of light traversing the void.
Xiao Yue understood instantly.
The Blue Ring of Logic Chain Severance erupted between her brows, and the star-blue chain pierced through the void, precisely binding the connecting thread. She didn't sever it directly, but rather locked onto its "premise of validity."
For the first time, the grayish-white body of the Age Devourer showed signs of movement. It sensed danger, Bite of Retroactive Erasure suddenly accelerated.
That "Instinct to End" no longer targeted the two of them, but instead attempted to backfire on the Great Luo Heavenly Chapter itself, trying to deny the fact that the pages of this book had ever unfolded.
The third stroke – cause and effect, punctuation. Qin Yu's gaze was like a knife.
He wrote a "severance" on the top of the page. Not severing life, but severing the Karmic Punctuation of "being summoned to be established".
In that instant, the heavens and earth trembled. In reality, the transparent thread suddenly shattered.
There was no explosion. There was no sound. Only the grayish-white body of the Age Devourer suddenly twisted.
It is no longer stable.
The Bite of Retroactive Erasure suddenly lost its support, and the reverse flow of cause and effect, like a flood without a riverbed, scattered and surged in all directions. Cracks began to appear in the space that had been devouring the blank spaces.
The Age Devourer emitted a silent tremor. It "manifested" for the first time.
Its gray fur fell off, revealing its true form—not a beast's body, but a compressed, primordial energy wave, like a constantly collapsing gray-white star core.
It is not life. It is a summoned "final fragment." Qin Yu turned to the general outline page.
The Ultimate stroke—the narrative outline. He did not write about "death by the Age Devourer."
Because death presupposes existence.
He wrote, "The Age Devourer —Never Before It Descended Upon This World." The pages suddenly glowed.
It wasn't a blazing white light, but rather the pure, primordial radiance of the universe—the original glow of a world just beginning to unfold.
Reality began to reconstruct. The gray-white star core trembled violently. It tried to continue its annihilation, trying to deny these words.
However, the Blue Ring Logic Chain Severance has locked its founding logic, and the blue light of the Xiao Yue Star has transformed into millions of fine chains, pinning each of its final fluctuations to the void.
"You are not the end itself," she whispered. "You are merely the summoned fragment of the end."
Qin Yu finished his final stroke. The pages closed. The world trembled violently. The gray-white star core suddenly collapsed—not in an explosion, but in a process of "dissolution."
That final wave was rewritten as history "never came," its grayish-white hue fading away little by little, like a nebula collapsing in reverse playback.
Its vortex eye turned into faint specks of light, and eventually even those specks of light Does Not Exist.
The ruins were restored to their original state. Footprints reappeared. Sword marks were re-etched onto the stone pillars.
Xiao Yue's figure solidified again, her long, star-blue hair fluttering in the wind.
There were no corpses, no remains, no ashes. The Age Devourer had never existed in this realm since the beginning of time.
The Primordial Hongmeng Great Luo Heavenly Chapter slowly closed.
Qin Yu stood in the center of the ruins, the Silent Origin Stainless Sword hanging low, his breathing steady.
The starlight slowly faded, Xiao Yue landed on his shoulder, her face slightly pale, but she revealed a smile.
"Phew, finally done. Little Qinzi, this old guy is probably at the peak of the Mystic Void Realm · Supreme."
Above the ancient city ruins in the distance, the last wisp of grayish-white aura dissipated. The oppressive feeling of the Thirty-Six-Layer Thought Realm completely vanished.
The wind blows again through this ancient city that once buried Ji Nian. Heaven and earth fall silent.